Loss Shapes Our Lives

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My Dear Uncle Harvey passed away Saturday after living gracefully with Leukemia for 10 years. He will be missed by many. This follows the death of my sister who was only 47 and had two children under 10 years old.

Early in my life, I was sheltered from death. I lost my two grandfathers relatively early, and a couple of uncles, but I did not have close relationships to them, nor did I get a full glimpse of the process and the people involved. As a result, I believe I did not take death seriously, and of course I had no sense of my own mortality.

Now of course, everything is different. My life is more than half over, and I feel the losses personally, as well as am involved closely with others who are mourning. I feel as though a part of me has died, yet I also feel a great sense of gratefulness to still be here, and to have a chance to serve my wife, my children, and my two parents, who by the grace of God, are still living and healthy.

Today I begin living the rest of my life with a renewed commitment to my health, and a sense of devotion to family, friends, and the world in which I live.

 

Fear or Freedom?

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I keep hearing people say we are falling behind the rest of the world in terms of education. While that may be true, there are many other truths as well. Among them:

  • We are falling behind other nations in health
  • We are falling behind other nations in happiness
  • We are falling behind other nations in social responsibility

From the 50s to the 80s, we were fearful of falling behind the Russians. While we may have won the cold war, we have created an socioeconomic system that is quite broken.

I propose we explore true freedom, and let the wealthy and the corporations pay for it. Lower the drinking age, legalize marijuana, and turn some colleges into charter primary schools, with open enrollment so students can come when they want to come, and learn what they want to learn.

I would also add two courses to the curriculum: Nature Preservation, and Caring For and Feeding Humans

The Smell Of Cinnamon Toast

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We are only human. How can we pass up things that are so enticing, so delicious, so addictive, when they surround us, perhaps at a moment of weakness?

Here are some of my food vices:

  • Cinnamon Toast
  • Guacamole
  • Swiss Cake Rolls
  • Bagels w/ Lox Cream Cheese
  • Good Red Wine
Many people eat chocolate when it’s available. Others cannot say no to potato chips (ooh, those could be on my list too). Some people appreciate rich foods in very small amounts but generally don’t have problems. Kudos to those people!

What are your vices? Do you have ways of avoiding giving in to the dark pleasure? Are you doing a great job balancing yin and yang?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic elixir to avoid getting sucked in. But I do understand how it happens to me, and the energetics of the foods I eat.

Soon, I will offer a course to explain some of this, and we can explore together how to make progress in keeping ourselves and our loved ones in a healthier place.

Does that sound good?

 

Your Face Tells Me Your Health

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I met a friend today for coffee, and we caught each other up on life. It was nice.

My friend, like many others, is battling a weight problem. Not insurmountable, but it’s starting to show on his face. Remarkable technology. It’s called facial diagnosis. Something related to yin and yang and the fact that we are all folded up in the womb a certain way.

I can see that his liver is challenged, because he has several stys on his eyelid, and he has a dark spot under his right eye. Also, he has prominent horizontal lines on his forehead.

I wonder what symptoms he is also having. I’m guessing he has some constipation, maybe a sore or stiff neck or shoulder, and maybe some join pain in his knee or ankle. He might also be getting headaches, and have fungus growing on his toenails.

Any of this sound familiar? I will tell you what I told him:

One month of improved diet and lifestyle habits can make a HUGE difference. I will send you the same list of suggestions FREE at your request, either by commenting here, or by emailing me at david@kagan.co

Enjoy!

Five Changes To A Much Better Country

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The upcoming election does not interest me, and here’s why. I don’t believe that either side understands the importance of healing our people. Seems to me, we are sick, depressed, angry, obsessive, confused and tired, and we need something, fast.

Here are my Five Changes To A Much Better Country…

  1. Outlaw High Fructose Corn Syrup and NaCl in all foods, and ban all foods with more than 250 mg sodium and 25mg sugar per serving. Not ingredients (such as sweeteners) mind you, nor condiments (such as ketchup), but packaged goods such as potato chips, soup, desserts and fast food items. This will immediately prompt food producers to reduce serving sizes, adjust to healthier sweeteners such as agave nectar, maple syrup and rice syrup, and to healthier salt sources such as sea salt, shoyu and sea weeds, which have been shown to have a higher mineral content for better health.
  2. Require daily Physical Education or Yoga/Meditation/Nature Walk Studies in all schools P-12. This will reduce stress and tantrums, give teachers a break, improve digestion and mood, and make learning easier. It will also reduce obesity and diabetes.
  3. Stop subsidies to meat and dairy producers. The organic grains and vegetables are being ignored by more than half of the population. These are the people that are obese, special needs, and jobless.
  4. Ban GMO Foods such as Corn and Soy. These cause allergies, and possibly much greater problems, and set a bad precedent. We are playing with fire here, and people are dying.
  5. Make it mandatory for HMOs etc. to pay for Naturopathy, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Reiki, Shiatsu, Reflexology, Craniosacral Therapy, and Marriage Counseling. This would save countless millions on wasted medical tests and procedures, medications, and sick days. It would also save lives and marriages, and improve productivity.
Can you imagine the world after four years of this?

How To Heal With Love

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How much love do you have in your life? Is it keeping you healthy?

Love comes from within, and many of us have skeletons in our closet or bad habits that prevent us from fulling loviing ourselves, and that lets illness creep in, particularly when we add poor lifestyle choices such as the Standard American Diet, too little time outside, and not enough exercise or rest.

Are you interested in more health? Here’s what I recommend:

  1. Take one half hour per day to think deeply (meditate) about you. Consider that you are a child who needs love, and that you are unique and giving and wise and worthwhile. Give yourself a hug and tell yourself you deserve to have all the love, support, strength and health that is available.
  2. Take another half hour per day to work on your health: Buy and cook organic foods, do a body rub, take a nature walk, or get a massage. Something to make you feel better. Medical tests and medicines do not count.
  3. Make a commitment to do something big for your health this year. Take a course, go to a spa, or book a few appointments with the chiropractor or acupuncturist, or join  a Meetup on health. You deserve it.
  4. Let the goodness in. Negativity is out. You are healthy and happy, and you love to give to people because it comes back to you!

Enjoy!!

Transition Is For Real

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Folks, species are now dying at an unprecedented rate, and as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers skyrocket, humans are next on the menu. What can be done? Possibly, nothing. But if anything can save us, it’s the Transition Movement.

What is Transition? The idea is to get off oil, gas, coal and nuclear power, by rethinking our international policy, food policy, and economic chaos. This will take time, but it will actually lead to a more vibrant economy, and less insanity.

I’m finding it a more positive, more compelling, and vastly more productive than the Occupy Movement.

Something needs to be done. Not by government, and certainly not by big business, but by each and every one of our citizens. What will you do?

If you are vegetarian, or eat organic, or recycle, or compost, or bike, or have a hybrid car, or enjoy clean air, or marine life, this movement is for you.

Join us at http://www.transitionframingham.org

Snacking Better

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100% Natural brings GMO soy and corn, too much salt and sugar, and toxins, such as honey, and bacteria-laden milk.

If you don’t bring a healthy lunch to work, then you might have to eat out.

Most restaurants and takeout joints pack their food with tons of salt, sugar, chemicals and animal products, which not only weaken your immunity and promote obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc., but also cause cravings throughout the rest of your day.

What can you do? For one thing, identify healthy snacking foods and bring them to work. These include:

  • Carrot sticks, celery, scallions, radishes, etc. (blanch in fall/winter)
  • Larabars vs. other snack bars (sodium >100, sugar >6)
  • Sweet Vegetable Drink, or hot carrot or apple juice
  • Green or bancha twig (kukicha) tea
  • Sourdough bread (yeast promotes cancer and cravings)
  • Natural pickles or umeboshi plums
For more ideas, please get our Placemat, iPhone App, eBook elsewhere on this site, or send an email to david@kagan.co. 
For a Ride To Health, or a Health Consult, call David at 508-333-4153. Starts at $30 and can change your life.

Peak Oil, Global Warming, Transition

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Have you heard of peak oil?

You will. The idea is that we now need more energy every year as a planet, and we are able to find less and less, at higher production costs, which will lead to more economic and environmental upheaval, as we are already seeing. The same will apply to water and other precious resources. The bottom line is that we cannot continue to live as we have over the past few decades. Big changes are coming.

116 official U.S. organizations are behind an effort to begin the movement towards local and sustainable agriculture and economy, from permaculture to local jobs to renewable energy sources. As we transition the way we live, it will become easier to handle or avoid the shocks that seem to be on the horizon.

 

Is your company ready for what’s coming? Is your family ready? My neighbor and friend Alex Volfson, a WPI graduate, is a renaissance man in his 20s, working hard to learn, organize, recruit, and execute ideas in support of Transition Framingham, because he sees the future coming fast.

What’s cool about Alex is that he wants not just to “preach to the choir,” but to make them sing, and to make it fun. Having watched him at two events recently, I see that is true. He now has me and my wife involved, and I think you will want to become involved as well.

With upcoming movies and trainings, there are many different ways to apply your talents and prepare for the shift. Learn more today at http://www.transitionframingham.org/

Protein Truths

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Proteins are amino acid chains  that our bodies create and use as enzymes, hormones and structural tissues.

The myth that animal protein is superior to plant protein comes from the fact that animal foods have all eight amino acids, vs. plant proteins which combine to provide them.

However, it is now well established that too much animal protein (generally over 15% of our diet), can do substantial harm, leading to a host of diseases, from obesity, to diabetes, to heart disease, to Alzheimers to cancer.

High protein, low carb diets do not work in the long run because in addition to too much protein, we get the by-products which include bacteria, pesticides and salt (preservatives), and we get too little carbohydrates, which is where the body likes to get its energy. It’s an unsustainable diet that also dries out the body.

Virtually no person in the U.S. is suffering from too little protein, whereas perhaps 100 million of us are getting too much (animal) protein, leading to many problems and a healthcare crisis.

Here are some sources of information where you can go to study this topic:

What should you eat?

1. Boiled grains, every day:

  • Brown Rice
  • Millet
  • Barley
  • Oats
  • Quinoa
  • Corn
  • Spelt
  • Amaranth
  • Teff
2. Organic produce, well cooked, several times per day:
  • Onions, carrots, cabbage, squash, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, etc.
  • Not nightshades: eggplant, pepper, tomato, potato, and spinach
  • Wash carefully, and avoid tropical fruits unless you live there
3. Beans and bean products
4. Sea vegetables, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, etc.

Want a great meal tonight? Go to Masao’s Kitchen, Moody Street, Waltham