Getting Excited About Your Health : You Might Even Enjoy It!

The other day, I overheard a conversation a friend of mine was having with some of her girlfriends. She was telling them excitedly that when she gets her summer vacation time, she wants to go to a few different doctors for them to do tests on her because she feels that something may be dreadfully wrong with her health. She was telling her friends about how her heart would pound sometimes, and she was having some stomach pains. Her legs were aching alot and her feet were swollen, and she felt tired all the time. After her friends left, I sat down for a moment with her and we got to talking. She also mentioned to me that she was feeling pretty worn out, and had pains in her legs. We talked about her health for awhile and I told her that it wouldn't be a bad idea for her to get a checkup from her family doctor. I also suggested to her that it might benefit her if she could invest a little bit of her energy directly into improving her health.

She asked me what I meant, and I was ready to answer her. I told her that I would like to ask her a few questions, and she agreed. Here is what I asked, and these were roughly her answers.

webcure : How is your diet? Do you eat well?

friend : No, I don't eat much. I usually eat something in the middle of the day, but after that I just drink instant coffee with milk and sugar. I don't eat when I finish work usually, I just drink coffee.

webcure : Do you eat many fresh fruits and vegetables?

friend : No, not much. I try to eat salads on the weekends.

webcure : Do you get any aerobic exercise, or do you walk, run or work out?

friend : No, usually when I get home from work, I am so tired and my legs hurt so much that I just don't have the energy to do it.

webcure : Do you smoke?

friend : Yes, I smoke about a pack of cigarettes a day. Not too much at work, but before and after work, and in the evening.

webcure : How much do you sleep at night? Do you get enough rest?

friend : No, not too much. I watch TV in the evening and usually get about 6 or 7 hours of sleep at night.

This woman is a good friend of mine and I wanted to try and help steer her in a new direction. I am sure that after reading this interview you may be able to recognize that some of the symptoms and pains that my friend was feeling might have been brought on by her regard, or possible diregard of her health. I didn't preach to her, and tell her that she should mend her ways. At least not all at once. ;)

I suggested to her that if she was able to get a little exercise, even 25 minutes a day walking briskly or running on a tread mill to increase her heart rate and stimulate her circulation, she would notice the difference. I mentioned that at the beginning, it would be difficult, but that after a week or so, her body would start to adjust to the new routine and it would give her more energy and probably help the pains in her legs.

I reminded her that the rules on nutritious eating that she learned as a kid in school was something she had been ignoring. She knew that she wasn't eating well, but it was her way of keeping her weight down. I suggested to her to start taking some fresh vegetables to work and snacking on them or eating them with her meal. I also told her if she ate something small at home, even crackers and low fat cheese or fruit, that it might give her a little more energy in the evening.

I mentioned that her smoking wasn't doing her any good and that if she didn't want to quit, she might try cutting down on the cigarettes she smoked on the way to and from work. Something small to feel that she didn't need to be walking around constantly with a cigarette in her mouth.

I told her that if she got into bed in the evening and used an (e=mc2) hour of her TV time and turn it into her sleep time, that she would probably feel a little more rested in the morning.

My friend looked at me and said honestly : You're probably right.

No time like the present people...

and remember, keep up the good veggies!

Be Healthy,

webcure

Sleeping For Your Health

I got a call last night about 11pm from a dear friend of mine who was in such bad shoulder pain that he just couldn't sleep. He asked me if I could come over to massage his arm and shoulder a little to help him relax and I told him that I would be right over. Now I am not a professional masseuse, but I do have strong hands and a touch for giving a good massage. My friend lives right around the corner from me, and when I got there he was sitting on the living room couch, looking worn out from pain and unable to sleep. I had him sit on the edge of the sofa and worked some lotion into his shoulders, arms, neck and back as I massaged him, slowly at first and then more vigorously as his muscles started warming up. I helped him rotate his neck slowly while I helped to support his head, and then I did the same thing with his shoulder as I held his arm up in the air and also in front of him. As I continued guiding him through the movements with my left hand, I used my right hand and fingers to simultaneously work out the kinks in his shoulders, neck and back. After about 25 minutes of massage and limb rotation exercises, he was feeling much more relaxed and looked like some of the relief was starting to make him a little sleepy. As I was heading home, I kept pondering his problem and wondered what was REALLY causing his condition. He is almost 70 years old, but is in good healthy condition. He walks alot but is often carrying hand held shopping bags that put a strain on his arms and shoulders. These types of activities can be physically tiring but I didn't think that they should be causing the type of pain that he was suffering from. If you are asking yourselves readers if he is seeing a Doctor, the answer is yes- a physical therapist and a MD. He's been through X-rays and tests, been offered pain shots and other pain pills, but recently his therapist showed him some effective exercises which my friend is trying to stick to.

In my opinion, one of his biggest problems is that he can't sleep on his back or in other healthy sleeping positions. He constantly sleeps on his shoulder. I have tried to tell him that it may be causing him alot of his problems because after a full day of activity, he isn't able to rejuvenate his body through proper rest and sleep because he isn't doing it correctly. ***Here come the questions - "What do you mean NOT DOING it properly? Is there a RIGHT WAY to sleep?"

Actually, from a health perspective , there is! There are definitely certain techniques that can help a person get more benefits from their sleep. Look, if you have pain in your back, neck, arms. or shoulders and you sleep scrunched up all night on the bed in some crazy position, night after night, it will take its toll. Better to learn some techniques to help you refresh your body during your hours of sleep in order to get the most out of a good night of healthy sleeping.

Be Healthy,

webcure

Hungry? Hmm, Let's See What's In The Kitchen...

Have you ever heard the expression that is isn't a good idea to go to the supermarket hungry? Well take it from someone that has gone shopping on a growling stomach only to come out with a grocery cart so loaded down with food that it takes 20 minutes just to unpack it in the kitchen at home - it can cost you. As I sit here writing this blog, my mouth is still drooling from the recipe I just saw for a gourmet vegetarian pizza. I am a vegetarian so when I see interesting simple recipes for delicious vegetarian dishes I send off the page to the printer and pull it out of my bag when I get a chance to to do a little cooking.

I would like to say that as a vegetarian, I am the last person to tell you that you have to stop eating meat. For me, it is the best way to go. You won't find any healthy cooking recipes from webcure including meat not because I am telling you not to eat it. The reason that I won't recommend any healthy cooking ideas for fish, chicken or other types of meat is simply that I don't know anything about it. Sorry. However if you would like to find a few new ideas for making some tasty healthy food for the summer, I have a few things under my hat.

Before I get into food I would like to blog on for a moment about eating. The reason that we want to build healthy eating habits for ourselves and our families is that it creates an environment where we can enjoy food that is good for our bodies. How often have we gazed at the vegetable drawer after someone suggested a salad and said "Na, I don't feel like one tonight. Let's throw something in the micro..." just because you didn't feel like cutting up the vegetables?

Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment please. Let's say that a nice selection of raw carrots, red and yellow peppers, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and onions had been previously cut and stored in your refrigerator in a plastic box without salt or oil and all you had to do was take them out of your refrigerator and put them on the table and take off the lid. Don't you think that you and your family would find yourselves munching away on much more raw vegetables? Make sure they are the first thing on the table and the last thing to leave. A good piece of carrot can be a great snack after a meal and it will clean out your mouth as well.

In short, upgrade and install. Allow instant accessability to the good foods and make sure that you prepare them in advance. Don't be waiting for the moment when you are on your back in front of the TV before you hear the call "What's do we have in the fridge that is good?" to take out your kitchen knife and start cutting away. Get the stuff ready in advance people!

Wanna do something spontaneous? Take a dish of low fat sour cream, mix it with a little dried onion spice and a dash of salt and hot pepper, make sure you've got big pieces of vegetable cut so they are fun to dip, and spring a surprise health snack on your family that can come become a family tradition. You will get lots of requests asking for more of the vegetables to dip, so prepare ALOT in advance and DO NOT tell them that it is healthy. No reason to make anyone skeptical now, is there? Get ready for a great summer!

Be Healthy,

webcure

Paris is Going to Jail : One More Round Before I Go Johnny

Hey out there, are you getting ready for the weekend? I wanted to sit down and blog to you all about a couple of things that I have been thinking about before I hit the TGIF button on my computer. First of all, I want to say thank you to a few of the webcure fans that have been nice enough to wrote me some great notes about my health tips on webcure. It is really helpful to get your comments, and I would like to encourage you (" where be dem commenz affa de blog boss? where be dem commentz?") to leave your thoughts on the comments section of the blog so that everyone can get a chance to enjoy them.

I wanted to say a few things about laughing. Laughing is great. I like to laugh. A lot of the people I know laugh. There is nothing more pleasant sometimes than sitting down at the TV and letting a comedy or funny comedian make you break up laughing. Laughing is good for the soul, and it turns out that it is very good for the body as well. I had the pleasure once of meeting Patch Adams, a very gifted man who believes in the power of laughing. His work as a 'humanitarian clown' for children and adults in the field of health care is revolutionary, and his understanding of the power of laughter is contagious. I had the opportunity to watch him in action with his team of clowns at a children's wing in a hospital. I was there as a video cameraman and he simply refused to let me film him, UNLESS I became one of the clowns for at least 30 minutes. He explained that his work was based on a connection that might be ruined if I was seen as an "outsider". He let me become one of the clowns, complete with a big red clown nose, and I worked at getting people to laugh at me before I started to film. I got the point. The man is very serious about his laughing.

Now let me talk about another kind of laugh. Sometimes we laugh at other people. I do it occasionally. It is no big deal unless someone feels that you are mocking them. That isn't my style, so I don't go there. It happens from time to time that we laugh at celebrities. Maybe they have said something funny, or more likely they have done something stupid, so we laugh. Celebrities can do stupid things sometimes, they get filmed doing it, we see it- and we laugh. That is natural. Once in a while, people laugh at others misfortune. "OOOOHH! Look what you stepped in!" It can be funny, and both sides laugh as one side cleans their shoe. Where am I going with this? To Paris, of course. Paris Hilton gives us all ample opportunity to laugh. She says silly things some times, and she has done a few crazy stunts-so we laugh at her. We think, maybe, that it's ok to laugh-she has money, she'll be fine. Paris pumps the situation up even more as much as the press tease her. That's Hollywood.

Now, Paris is going to jail it seems. I guess it isn't funny to me. I know, I know. First of all, I personally hate irresponsible drivers, and she is very possibly in that group. Second of all, I don't think that celebrities are above the law. Crime doesn't pay- for anyone. My problem is that it seems like the penalty that she was given, seems very strict and overdone. I don't think that anyone benefits from going to jail at that age over a crime like that. Not the system, not the citizens, and not Paris. Some of you may disagree. If one of my family members faced something similar I wouldn't be laughing. Let's seperate between things. It is ok to laugh when funny things happen. It is not ok to laugh at a person in their time of despair. Have some compassion people.

Be Healthy,

webcure

A Little Bit of Extra Love

This morning, I woke up feeling good. I was a little bit groggy ala 'The Workaholics' , but I thought that it might be time to inject a little bit of that love into my blog and send it out to all of my readers so that we can all feel just a little bit better. I guess I am talking about love. Real love, the kind you can feel. I think that if we can have a little bit of extra love in our hearts, today might just be a whole lot better. Ahhhh... it's ok, flow with me. We'll have a nice time.
Lights, action, (turn the sound on -NOW), roll em' ..................................................................


That's not so bad is it? Like Jimi Hendrix once said, "I would like to throw my arms around you all and give you a big kiss, but man I just can't DO that.."

The next thing that I would like to do to put you in the mood for love is show you a very sweet list of 10 of the sweetest love quotes that you have ever heard. Allow me to upquote my favorite.

"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

Nothing gets you feelin love more than sweet words. Anyway, that Love is all you Need stuff was kinda fun, so maybe we should just celebrate alittle. Let me tell you just a little bit more about love from one of the masters.


Everyone knows that a person who knows love, and knows how to love themselves a little as well, is a happy person. Happy people make for healthy people.


After all of that love, I can imagine some of you may be starting to heat up a little. Maybe you might want to think of doing a little bit of you know what... Maybe you could go shopping for something sexy perhaps?

Be Healthy,

webcure

Workaholic Burnout

Have you been feeling a little burnt out lately? Worn out or apathetic? Maybe you have been feeling the creeping fingers of stress and tension working their black magic on you. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the rough and tumble of day to day life that we forget to ask ourselves how we are feeling. It becomes necessary to take a time out now and again and just listen to how we are really doing or feeling deep inside.


Oh I know what you are going to say. I am not a workaholic, I just devote alot of time to my job. No, I am not going to berate you, some of my best friends are devoted to their jobs. Let's see what Wikipedia says about being a workaholic.


"A workaholic is a person who is addicted to work. Although the term "workaholic" usually has a negative connotation, it is sometimes used by people wishing to express their devotion to one's career in positive terms. The "work" in question is usually associated with a paying job, but it may also refer to independent pursuits such as sports, music, art, or blogging."


Do you recognize yourself in that description? Again, I am not judging you, but it is important to see yourself clearly. If you are in the growing number of workaholics, it would be wise to know some of the ways that it may affect you, so that you can identify problem areas and be on the watch for workaholic related symptoms.


The secret to finding a solution to'workaholic tendencies' is to find a way to step back from life in order to see it in a clear perspective. In order to live a happy, healthy life, it is important to find a harmonious balance between work and other aspects of life as well. It is important to find time for family relationships as well as for personal hobbies and... yes, even relaxation!

When we are able to find the correct balance in our lives that maintains a sensitivity towards our family members and our friends as well as ourselves, we will find that we are also able to do our jobs a whole lot better as well.


Be Healthy,

webcure

Reclaim your good health and thank your healthy mind

The concept of using the mind to change or alter one's health is an idea that not everyone can understand immediately, and I decided to write just a little bit more on the subject to see if I could shed a little more light on the subject. One of the important things to understand is that like any kind of technique, it takes some trial and error before you start making progress. I remember the first time someone took me to a driving range at a golf course to teach me how to swing a golf club. The initial attempts I made at trying to hit that ball outta' the park were a little bit embarrassing as I watched golf ball after golf ball swerve off of the green after about 30 yards. One of the local golf pros who was there to assist beginners like me, showed me the proper way to swing a club, and explained the principle of letting the golf club do the work. After about 20 minutes of working on my form, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to hit a few balls about 300 yards down the green.

I recently ran across an article called Every Day Mind Magic that discusses the subject a little more in depth and I wanted to share it with you.

"Everyone is well aware that positive thoughts are healthy, that they will produce a happy positive result but do we give quite so much thought to those small everyday negative thoughts we send out?"


This reminds me of the story of the man who ate 3 large sandwiches and then asked for a glass of diet cola because he was trying to watch his weight. You are closing the door but leaving the window open. Good health needs to be balanced health. A good diet or exercise routine is one that must start out slowly and develop as your body becomes accustomed to the change. Little by little, step by step you can begin to reclaim your good health and thank your healthy mind.

Be Healthy,
webcure

Subconscious Health Messages - Visualization

In my last post I mentioned that the mind was one of the primary tools for helping us build healthy lives. I was basically refering to the conscious mind that helps us regulate our impulses and gives us some flexibility when we need to try to change aspects of our life that are causing us grief, suffering, or pain. Today I would like to talk about the effect that the subconscious mind has on our health. Here I am speaking about all of those subliminal messages (as well as others not so subliminal) that are constantly flooding our brain, creating perceptions and developing impressions that flash through our subconscious minds while we sleep or daydream. In order to impress upon our brains the kind of information that will penetrate our subconscious, we must learn techniques for developing a control over our willpower and thoughts.

The simplest way to understand any idea is to visualize it. Like the old saying goes, 'A picture is worth a thousand words', because something that can be seen, can also be understood and experienced more vividly in the mind's eye. What is important to understand- and here is where the curing powers of the mind lie- is that the pictures that form in your imagination are real and can come to pass if you are faithful to that mental picture. Much like a building contractor envisions the type of building that he wants to build, designs it, and develops it throughout construction, this mental imagery is first transferred to paper and later through vision and action into a creation from the mind's eye.

If we can learn to build a mental picture of our body and health (and anything else for that matter) into something very tangible within our mind, so that we can actually see ourselves the way we want to be, we are on the first step to developing healthy subconscious messages that can influence our bodies.
There are many types of practical techniques for mental healing and alot of good books and articles on this subject. I would recommend the book "The Power of the Subconscious Mind" by Dr. Joseph Murphy Ph.D. to anyone that is looking for a place to start on the road to developing a deeper understanding of the ways we can teach our brains to influence our bodies.

One of the keys in harnessing this power is the well kept secret that if we can build inside of ourselves a burning desire, one that we believe in and are truly passionate about, we hold within ourselves the key to establish real connections between our minds and bodies.

Be Healthy,
webcure

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

One of the first things that I found really hard to understand when I started learning about alternative medicine was that not everyone wants to be healed. I know that this sounds kind of crazy, but it's true. Have you ever told a smoker with a bothersome cough that it would be better to cut down on smoking? Your suggestion puts a dent in his day...Now you can you imagine how a doctor feels when he finds out that his triple bypass heart surgery patient has started to smoke again. I personally try to live a healthy life but I also try not to be extreme. Even I will enjoy a cigarette now and then but I know that it affects my health and I would be deluding myself if I thought otherwise. In the past, I have had bad back pains that really were painful, but after a year of swimming followed by a new understanding of how my back works, I've been fine. When people ask me about treatments for their back pain, I nearly always recommend swimming. I have talked to people who have been nearly doubled up with back pain that respond to my suggestion with a shrug of the shoulders. I tell them that they don't even have to know how to swim, they can do wonders with a paddle board and a little bit of light exercise in the pool. The problem is that people are used to finding their solutions in the pharmacy and are not about to start even a light exercise routine even if it might help them tremendously. I have talked to people that suffer horribly from allergies who have asked me if I have any suggestions for them. I tell them that the food they eat may not contribute to their condition, and I mention foods that are recommended to allergy sufferers and warn against foods that are best to stay away from. The problem is that even though these changes may offer assistance , people are often stubborn when it comes down to changing their ways. They are used to doing what they are used to doing. My three year old son was recently sick with a bad cold and he coughed nonstop and had difficulty breathing. We had wanted to take him to see the doctor in the morning but we needed something to help him feel better that night. A friend suggested to me to go pick some Eucalyptus leaves off of a tree down the street and boil them in a large pot of water for about 15 minutes. We added this liquid to my son's bath and let him continue to play with his toys in the water for about 30 minutes. Afterwards, my friend took 1 shot of brandy and mixed it with a tablespoon of soy cooking oil, heating it to a warm temperature in the mictrowave. This combination was rubbed into his chest and back for about 10 minutes until most of the liquid was gone, then we wrapped him in a dry towel and let him go to sleep that way. In the morning, he had improved so much that it was hard to believe that something so simple could work so well. Maybe that is one of the problems. Simple cures can often go a long way in healing the body, but many times people think that because the solution is easy, it lacks potency. I believe that the most important thing that we can do for our bodies is to keep our minds open, and realize that healthy bodies can be cared for without daily trips to the drug store. Just like the song says-
"Free your mind, and the rest will follow".


Be Healthy,
webcure