“You can’t tell someone what kind of music to enjoy, why would you presume to tell them what to eat?”
Diets. During the year we will become familiar with over 100 different diet theories. So many classes of vegetarians. Who knew? Rather than look at a diet, how about asking the following question, “What makes this precious body of mine feel good?” Trust yourself. A nice rule of thumb is to eat really well 90% of the time and the other 10% just don’t worry about it. Just relax, there is no place in heaven where people who ate strictly 100% of the time go to.
The best part of the whole week was learning about the key to happiness. The key to happiness is self-knowledge. We had a wonderful lecture by Gretchen Rubin who spent time discussing how different people react to expectations. She suggests that there are four basic types. People who wake up in the morning and say what’s on my to do list for today, or those who wake up and say what needs to be done today, or those who wake up and say what do I want to do today or those who wake up and say what do I have to do today? I found myself identifying with the What’s on my to do list for today style. How do you respond to an expectation? There is a survey on Gretchen’s site that you might find interesting.
My additional study choice for this week was Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Metabolic Syndrome through a lecture by Artemis Simopoulos, MD who is President of The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health in Washington DC. One fact that intrigued me was the idea that waist circumference can be an indicator of Metabolic Syndrome. It is a waist greater than 88 cm in women or 102 cm in men. This is a better indication than weight. Of course, I immediately measured my waist and my sweetheart’s waist much to his chagrin.
Also learned about Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Omega 6 Fatty Acids. My head is now spinning. Omega 6 Fatty Acids are found in corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil and soybean oil. The better choice is a mixture of olive oil and canola oil which are lower in Omega 6 Fatty Acids and higher in Omega 3 Fatty Acids. The goal is to get them in balance. Omega 6 Fatty Acids are “pro-inflammatory”, Omega 3 Fatty Acids are “anti-inflammatory. The science behind this is amazing.
Back to Happiness! I have laughed a lot this week and I have two funny stories to share. I frequently mention to my honey that integrative nutrition focuses on bio-individuality. One man’s food is another man’s poison. Well, I was dishing out blueberries for breakfast one morning and I gave my honey about a 1/2 cup. He sighed and said I don’t want that many blueberries they cool my oatmeal. I said they were good for him and his response was classic, “You are not respecting my bio-individuality.” I couldn’t stop laughing.
The second story has to do with a broken water pipe and high fiber bread. We discovered a broken pipe in our front yard and called a plumber who came very quickly. He found the break and tried to fix it and when they turned on the water a geyser erupted in the yard. The next step was to try and stop the water from coming back into where they were working so he asked for some bread to pack the pipe. Well, of course, all I have in the house is multi-seed, high fiber bread so I give it to him. He packs the pipe, fixes the pipe and turns on the water and nothing comes out of the tap. I said, maybe too much fiber in the bread? A discussion of water pressure ensued and eventually a trickle of water came out of the tap and then finally after what seemed like quite a bit of time, the water came out of the pipe with better than average force. Plumber acknowledged that we had better than average water pressure – must have been the high-fiber bread, it cleaned out the pipes! I have been laughing all week over that one.
At the beginning of the week I had an unpleasant situation to deal with and I found myself looking on the bright side and staying very calm though most of it. By the end of the week after many laughs and some time with good friends I am feeling that all is right in my world again. Had time to go to the UPenn site and take the Authentic Happiness survey. Takes some time but it is interesting.
I love what I am doing and am excited to learn more each and every day. The good thing is that I am also taking some time to play and to have fun. This may be the first time in my life that I have given myself permission to do that and have not said that I couldn’t because I 
needed to study or do some chore or finish a project or whatever. Here’s a photo of where I sat in the sun this afternoon. It was glorious but no dolphins today.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend and week ahead. Here’s a link to our new fav soup recipe: Bermuda Fish Chowder – we used frozen fish and we left out the clams. Luckily we have Outerbridge’s Sherry Sauce on hand!!!!
L