So much has changed for so many, we need to make some corresponding changes in our eating and taking care of ourselves. With more time spent with family, we are told that this should make us happier. The family is all. When it is not so, that causes ill feelings. The time with others presents new problems that won’t go away often causing stress. These children, ours, or the spouse have mannerisms, ways that are bothering, or noise that can not be avoided. That is them. Stress abounds. Before we know it the stress is eating at us. To change our minds and think differently requires real grit. It is not easy.
Most of us need to have a sugar fix almost every day. Or our refrigerators are packed with energy drinks, sports drinks, caffeinated drinks. In addition, coffee is handy and our bodies need so much fluid. We see lots of advertisements for gymnasiums and diet systems. Suddenly the day is done and the exercise has been forgotten. We have tried most of the diets and found they did not work for us.
Helen Lee Schifter knows that It is hard to change habits. Doing without favorite foods is almost impossible. But, change is called for now. It is difficult to cut down on the serving of cake or ice cream. Try changing slowly. A little less at a time. Change one food and try one exercise. Let the mind and body feel the benefits of the change, and feeling better, then it is not so impossible to increase the good foods, to add some exercises. Maybe meditation can begin. The mind, when well and peaceful, makes us healthy.
It is important to stay well. That is easily said, but how does the body become well when we feel so miserable? Now is the time to meditate, let the mind rest, learn to turn away the negative and accept the positive. Helen Lee Schifter, who is a former arbitrage trader on Wall Street, talks of meditation and the tea ceremony to ease the mind, omit stress, and gain peace. She also talks of eating more vegetables and fruits.
Most raw and natural foods have sugars but our bodies utilize them more easily than processed sugar. Sugar actually takes more energy out of our bodies than is put in. The loss of energy causes the desire for more sugar to gain the energy back. The chemical structure of processed sugars is not good for our bodies.
A good cookbook for healthy foods, including healthy desserts, is an old Alaskan book titled, Cooking. Alaskan published by Alaska Magazine. It has a bunch of fruit desserts that are good and most of them are low on sugar, using the sugar in the fruits. There is an entire section for blueberry desserts, like Blueberry Delight and Blueberry Pie. Any fruit recipe is better, generally healthy and the sugar can be cut down or a sugar replacement can be used. Yogurt is better than ice cream and tastes as good.