The Health and Life Mixing Bowl

Outsmarting the Status Quo: Strategy #3- Immerse Yourself in New Experiences

26 b Street, originally uploaded by ez2axs.

Strategy #3 for outsmarting the status quo is to immerse yourself in new experiences. There are many fun ways to keep scaring yourself.  I'll share my ideas in the context of person, place or thing  (my daughter's favorite mind game).

People.  Surround yourself with wildly successful people who are doing things and not just talking about them.  More than likely, these people are excited about life and its possibilities.  They are thinking about new ways to make an impact. They are forward thinkers, visionaries.  They don't sell themselves short. They desire to live full out, want to experience their full range of resources, aren't afraid to fail, and believe in living abundantly. Go find someone who fits this description and take them out to lunch!  Write the words "status quo" on a napkin and watch them cringe. 

Places.  Immerse yourself in a new environment that forces you to learn another language, understand a different currency or read a map to get around. (By the way, can you guess where the above street sign is?)  Go to a swanky restaurant that specializes in a cuisine that is new to you.  Visit a museum to learn about a unfamiliar culture.  Oh, the places you can go! 

Things.  Start reading books, magazines or take classes on topics about which you know very little. Engage in lateral thinking puzzles (I love these), suduko, or crossword puzzles. Substitute these things for other downtime activities such as watching television or surfing the Internet.   These are big time wasters that worship the status quo.

The whole idea is to immerse yourself in new, different, and stimulating experiences and work outward from there. Here’s the thing: The status quo is about being stuck. Think about an area in your life where you are stuck. Still stuck? Thought so. By taking your mind off the stuck area, and shifting your energy toward a new and stimulating thing, you create space for a whole new set of tools and a new way of thinking.  And this works with just about everything from a weight management regimen that has lost its zeal to deciding on your next exciting career move. Try it and let me know what happened!  See you next week for strategy #4!

I Hope You Dance

I woke up this morning to NPR and heard a beautiful poem written by Alice N. Peters. The poem comes from her new book Don't Be a Stranger.  Visit America Public Media's Writer's Almanac to read or listen to it.  It will make you want to dance all day long!

Three Seashells and The Fight Against Childhood Obesity

Seashell, originally uploaded by RyanMT.

I was appalled by the latest news regarding childhood obesity.  It's projected that today's children are likely to be the first generation to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents. Is this the gift we are leaving our children?  We can protect our children from weight-related problems, elevated blood pressure, premature heart disease and adult-onset diabetes, but the battle begins with us.       

On my recent trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, I engaged in a self-renewing ritual of throwing three seashells into the ocean, each representing something I wanted to give up. This year, as I threw each shell toward the water, a toddler playing nearby miraculously picked up the third shell. I sat there in amazement. With thousands of seashells to pick from, I couldn't believe she had managed to grab this one!  As I watched the child put the shell in her little pink bucket, a metaphor began to crystallize.  I had deliberately thrown the shell toward the sea, but I still felt as if I was holding on to something.  The seashell represented one of my strongholds, an area in my life I have been working on for a while. Then a message rang loud and clear:  What ever we hold on to, a stronghold, a disempowering belief, a life-limiting perspective, we ultimately pass down to our children.  For me, the little girl picking up the seashell represented this reality. 

With respect to giving our children a healthy, full and robust life.....

What is it to live in sync with what we want for them?

What would we have to give up?

What do we need more of? 

How can wellness be a pure expression of our core values? 

Our being will have the biggest impact on inspiring our children to live healthy lives. Here are a few extras we can pass on once we are physically and mentally vested:

Go to the park

Fly a kite

Take a day hike

Go museum hopping

Prepare meals with your children

Teach your kids how to read food labels

Show them correct portions of food

Have older kids pack healthy lunches

Go for an exploratory bike ride

Turn off the television

Talk to them about being healthy

Trade in the Nintendo DS for a Wii

Our children deserve to live long healthy lives.  Let's start today to create a healthier future for them!

Spreading Love

Each Monday The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will start off the week with an inspirational "click".  Found something you would like to share?  Email me!

These guys raise the bar for spreading unconditional love.  This is what abundant living is all about.  Make it a great week!

Nutrition with a Twist: Late Nights and Couscous

couscous, originally uploaded by Juan I. Cubilla.

Have the basic rules for eating healthier got you stuck in a rut? Each week, The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will serve up some good stuff to expand your nutritional options and perhaps ignite a genuine interest in eating better.  Read more about these posts here.

I was introduced to couscous while attending graduate school at The American University in Washington, DC.   I worked during the day and took classes at night.  Back then, cooking dinner after a 16-hour day was tantamount to sleeping on a bed of nails.  Luckily, I found a great little restaurant on Capitol Hill that had a wonderful selection of healthy take-home meals.   After a late night class, I would stop by the restaurant to grab their curried couscous thus beginning my love affair with this teeny-weeny pasta.  Seventeen years later, my family's taste buds are more accustomed to couscous than rice.  Couscous is also the main ingredient in several of my favorite one dish meals. Couscous is very easy to prepare (five minutes in the microwave), is extremely versatile and is an atheistically pleasing way to infuse a little Mediterranean flavor into an otherwise boring dish.  I use whole wheat couscous every chance I get.  More fiber!

Here is an easy couscous dish I found on the Fantastic World Foods website. You can find a few more twists for couscous there.

Couscous with Almonds

Ingredients:
2 cups Organic Whole Wheat Couscous (100% Organic)
1 1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 red or gold bell pepper, diced
2 1/4 cups water or broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ounces arugala, mache or baby spinach
3/4 cup roasted almonds, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fig vinegar
1/4 cup honey

Yield: 6

Directions: Heat the oil in a wide bottomed pan and saute the onion and bell pepper for about five or six minutes. Add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Stir in the cous cous, mix well, remove from the heat and cover the pan. Let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the lid, stir in an additional 1/2 cup cold water and turn the cous cous out into a big bowl. Fluff with a fork and let sit.
While the cous cous is cooking, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar and honey.

You can serve the cous cous warm or at room temperature. When ready to serve, toss the cous cous with the arugala, or other greens, and the vinaigrette. Mound the mixture on a platter and garnish with the chopped almonds and serve.

Enjoy!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Outsmarting the Status Quo: Strategy #2 - Get Rid of Life Clutter

As I coach more and more, I am amazed by how many people are bogged down by what I like to call "life clutter".   Their minds, schedules and environments are so full of distractions, it is nearly impossible to think clearly about anything, yet alone a life- enhancing goal.  Life clutter kills any chances of outsmarting the status quo.  Enough with it!  Getting rid of life clutter is strategy #2! 

There is a great resource from New American Dream ( I absolutely love what they are doing in the world) called More Fun Less Stuff.  It is packed with great tips on simplifying your life, freeing up time, money, personal energy and protecting the environment.  This life coach gives this resource "two thumbs up" on the "outsmarting the status quo" scale.  Waste no time-go buy this resource!   

See you next week for strategy #3!

Becoming the Giant

Each Monday The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will start off the week with an inspirational "click".  Found something you would like to share?  Email me!

I was on the edge of my seat while watching this.  Thanks, John Campbell, for sharing.  Be sure to visit John's site at family-life.eu.  Great resources!  Make it a great week!

Nutrition with a Twist: Stretching out Spaghetti

Have the basic rules for eating healthier got you stuck in a rut?  Each week, The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will serve up some good stuff  to expand your nutritional options.  I hope these posts spice things up a bit, and perhaps, ignite a genuine interest in eating better.  Be sure to read the real message behind these posts.

Here's a real easy one:

Boil two boxes of spaghetti.  Take 1/2 or 1/3 of the noodles, add 1/2 cup pesto sauce and 1 cup cooked shrimp.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve! 

What to do with the rest of the noodles? 

• Mix with a light vinaigrette and throw in some fresh vegetables for night two. 
• Add your favorite marinara sauce and slices of turkey sausage for night three. 
• Pour in a little ginger sesame dressing and toss in some grilled chicken for night four. 

You still might have enough noodles left to mix with butter to appease the kids.   

When purchasing your ingredients, look for Garden Time Organics spaghetti.  They donate 10% of profits to groups that support environmental preservation, sustainable agricultural practices, hunger prevention and community based health initiatives.   Enjoy! 

Outsmarting the Status Quo: Strategy #1- Living Passionately

There should be no room for complacency or mediocrity if one reads and lives passionately. -Lucie MacDougall

Living a life full of passion is the first step to outsmarting the status quo.  How do you know if your life lacks fervor, enthusiasm and zeal?  This question should lead to an obvious answer, but as life becomes more complicated, it is easy to lose touch of what is really fueling your engine.  Here are five signs that passion might be taking a backseat:

• You fail to act on what you know.  It has once been said that mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge.  Perhaps it's skepticism, negativism or just plain fear, but failing to act on both internal and external sources of knowledge can keep you stuck in a rut.      
• You possess an innate strength that rarely shows up.  Life tends to strip away our true selves.  Think about a strength or skill that showed up in your early years but disappeared with age.  Did you leave behind a great sense of humor?  Have your leadership skills been overshadowed by a prominent life role?  What risks did you take that seem unfeasible today?   
• You increasingly see how your actions could add more value.  Exercising regularly is not just about becoming healthier; it is also about being an inspiration to your children.  Striking a balance between work and home isn't just about feeling less stressed; it is also a way to strengthen your family unit.  You increasingly see your added value, but you fail to take real action.   
• You fall prey to life"pushers" and ignore your life"pullers".  Life "pushers" create a life on auto pilot.  Life "pullers" create a life full of passion.  Take weight loss for example.  Are you being pulled through the process by willpower or being drawn to the journey with great joy?  A life full of "pushers" usually lacks passion.       
• You've disconnected with a once trusted source of strength.  Your life gets busy, complicated and chaotic.  You abandon an emotional, social or spiritual connection to make time for what you think is more important.

Outsmarting the status quo and moving away from mediocrity begins with:

• Acting on and trusting your internal and external knowledge
• Reintroducing a strength that served you well in the past
• Setting goals that are centered around adding more value
• Discovering your life "pullers" while weeding out your life "pushers"
• Reconnecting with a trusted source of strength

Make no room for the status quo.  Live life passionately!    

See you next week for strategy #2!

Leading Out Loud

Each Monday The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will start off the week with an inspirational "click".  Found something you would like to share?  Email me!

Whether it's losing weight permanently, striking a balance between home/work, or strengthening relationships, on a deeper level, we are all called to lead.  Think of one of your big life goals.  How would leading make a greater impact?  This click is a little more than four minutes-a little long for some of my busy readers-but worth the time.  Depending on your browser, you may not be able to see entire right side of this clip.  You can also view it here.  Make it a great week!

The Real Threat to Americans

This makes you think...

The Real Threat to Americans

A Little Goes A Long Way

The beautiful impatients that sit on my front porch symbolize more than summer.  In years past, I will embarrassingly admit, I have killed these plants.  Yes, that's right.  I'm guilty.  My excuse?  Being too busy.  Okay I know, not good enough...perhaps I was just plain tired.  Anyway, I let them die and that's just not right.  But this year, I put an end to this toleration and decided to place a water can next to the plants.  How brilliant!  The plants actually got watered!  Who would have thought of that!  But being oblivious to the obvious is not the point.  Amazingly, the plants didn't need as much water as I thought.  Just a little more water than years past kept these plants alive. 

What in our lives, if given a little bit more attention, would flourish beyond our expectation? 

Take our health, for example.  A little really does go a long way.  Taking the stairs instead of the elevator.  Drinking a little less soda and a bit more water.  Taking a yoga class once or twice per week.  Little things...   

How did we get caught up in thinking only BIG means results?

View many more small steps you can take toward health improvement at smallstep.gov.

      

Let Your Life Speak

Each Monday The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will start off the week with an inspirational "click".  Found something you would like to share?  Email me!

I love this commercial.  The way we live our life ultimately impacts the world. 

How do you want your life to speak? 

Outsmarting the Status Quo

Ahhh....the competitive game of chess.  A perfect metaphor for this post!  It will all come together in a minute, so let's begin with a quick question: 

Think about your health, career, finances, spiritual health, leisure time, personal growth and personal relationships.  On a scale from 1-10 how do rate these areas of your life? 

1 =  yuck

2-4 = struggling

5 =  just okay, better than some

6-7 = good enough, comfortable and satisfied

8-9 = very good but there's still more waiting...

10 = whoopee!!!!!!! I Rock!!!

Hovering around a 5,6,7?   You might be letting the status quo call the shots.  That's right, I said it!  Get angry.  Get very angry!   

What do you forfeit by embracing mediocrity and settling for "good enough"? 

What if mind boggling success were possible? 

What's stopping you from creating an extraordinary life?

Join us next week as The Health and Life Mixing Bowl takes a stand against mediocrity by launching a series of posts entitled Outsmarting the Status Quo.  It's a sneaky little thing, isn't it?  Come join us and be ready to learn strategies for reaching your "10"!  Don't forget your anger (you can euphemistically refer to it as "fiery passion"--passion is a good thing) and please bring a lot of curiosity and the willingness to look within.  I am looking forward to a thought-provoking discussion.   

 

Nutrition with a Twist: Oprah Plus Acai Equals Love

Have the basic rules for eating healthier got you stuck in a rut?  Each week, The Health and Life Mixing Bowl will serve up some good stuff  to expand your nutritional options.  I hope these posts spice things up a bit, and perhaps, ignite a genuine interest in eating better.  Be sure to read the real message behind these posts.

Not too long ago I blogged about how we should all be clamoring for spinach, but there's another major player on the superfood scene that is gaining global attention as fast as you can say "Popeye":  The Acai berry is growing in popularity and it's even been crowned as the #1 superfood by Oprah. 

Touted as one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world, Açaí (ah-sigh-ee), is actually a combination of a fruit and a fat.  A staple in native Amazon cuisine, acai tastes like a combination of  cocoa, blueberry and red wine.  The berries are loaded with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, amino acids and healthy omega fats.  They are also well known for their potent anti-aging properties and their ability to lower cholesterol and act as a natural Viagra.

You might have some luck finding Acai at an upscale gourmet market.  The powerhouse berry has yet to go mainstream, although Coca-Cola and Anheuser Busch are entering the marketplace with Acai products.  If you can manage to get your hands on a few acai berries, add them to your favorite smoothie recipe.  You'll instantly triple the smoothie's nutritional value.  Enjoy! 

The Creek...Metaphorically Speaking

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and enjoy the dance."

- Alan W. Watts

Three kids and a life coach went tubing last week in the Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, MD.  The kids had a wonderful day full of fun, friendship and food.  Being the life coach that I am, I finished the day with much more to marinade in. 

Tubing was not as easy as I thought. The creek was full of twists and turns.  The ebbs and flows were unpredictable.  I got stuck on rocks, more than a few times.  I narrowly escaped the dangerous edges filled with snakes and spiders.  There were long stretches of time when I didn't move at all despite my desperate attempt to keep up with the crowd.  My daughter fell out of her tube-twice.  And it rained.  It rained really hard.  At times, there was nothing to do but sit back and surrender to the awesome force of nature.

I desperately wanted to share the deeper meaning of the creek with the little ones.   

But not today.  I let them play....

So my life continues down the creek, going with the flow, moving with it, surrendering to it, and enjoying the dance.