Saturday, September 28, 2013

3 Ways Trees Are Related To Your Health

To live well you need oxygen, water and nutrient dense foods.

Trees are our breathing buddies. We are mutually benefited by the others actions. Trees remove the carbon out of the air from our exhales and from pollutants in the air. Trees need carbon in the photosynthesis process. Trees then release oxygen into the air through this process.

Trees drink up large amounts of water and help keep a balance of moisture and dryness in your lawn, and land in general when there is not an access of rain. On the flip side when there is not enough water the lands become too dry and can not be farmed or the soil blows away. They help keep some of the water in the ground with their shade keeping the hot sun from directly scorching the earth.

When the temperatures outside are very high trees shade us, animals and insects and provide cooling relief from the high, sometimes scorching temperatures. This puts less of a strain on air conditioning your interior spaces and the power grid.

Trees are their own ecosystems for moss and lichen, insects and animals. Where you and I allow fear of large storms or being pushed by insurances companies to cut them down or else, you loose a very important part of the balance in your life and community. The air quality goes down. When DOT cuts trees down along highways it's harder to breathe from all of the exhaust filled with carbon and more, compared to a drive in the country with numerous trees. This goes for your neighborhood and community too. Trees with interior rot are one thing. Healthy trees are not. They can be trimmed, anchored down and saved. When planted as young trees this needs consideration so they are not too close to a building and are trimmed continuously and kept healthy.  Of  late, too many trees are being chopped down due to fear. It's a little over the top in my opinion. Safety is important. It's just over used with a big dose of fear. What do you think?

So let's take care of our trees too. They will take care of us, our lands, our waters and our air, which is healthier, and makes for a healthier, happier you.

How to Prevent and Heal Diabetes. Todays Food Supply and How Far It's Come to Promote Illness And Death

Food is best when it's delicious AND Nutritious. Any food you eat and its quality starts with the soil it's grown in or the health of the waters it’s taken from.

Meat from cows that graze on grass and clover only, instead of being fed  pellets of corn and soy, are healthier. They have more vitamins, minerals and omegas.   Why? Because the chlorophyll in the greens is abundant with omegas and magnesium, has basically the same cell structure as our hemoglobin, builds blood which carries the oxygen and  helps to eliminate toxins through the skin to name a few. What you eat is what your body gets; either benefits or issues.  Fish and seafood no longer come from the pristine waters of the past but polluted waters.

Animals that are subjected to CAFO and pellets for food are fed antibiotics, growth hormones and GMO corn and soy pellets, not what their digestive systems were designed for. They are stressed from overly cramped quarters, cruelly treated , abused,  live in gestation cribs not allowed to move, pigs boiled alive to remove their skin, grown too fast and fattened unnaturally fast to get them to market in unusually cruel circumstances, chicken beaks are cut off without novacaine and their cages are so small they can't move.  This affects the meat.

How does this relate to Diabetes, Cancer and inconvenient ailments? Modifying away from what
is natural for what the animals eat, the vegetables we eat, especially the GMO vegetables, and continuously and heavily sprayed fruits and vegetables enter your body.   These pesticides are not acceptable to the body and are treated like intruders. They cause inflammation. CAFO cows in feed lots stand in large amounts mud and feces up to a foot high. Bacteria heaven! This does not make a healthy environment.  What can enter the animal can then enter you by eating the meat.

Small amounts of aggravators add up over time and cause imbalances in your body. Growth hormones and antibiotics also enter your body through meat. You can see the affects of both in your children and yourself for both. If you were a cell or two in your body you'd feel choked, punched, pulled, stretched, burned, ...unable to function. Grouped together you feel like these descriptors, which doesn’t feel good to you.. You get the idea.  You can see the effects on children. Their bodies are maturing at a much faster rate than 20 - 30 years ago. This messes up the balance of their hormones which can upset their natural individual time and processes when they mature as teens. If your kids are diabetic and have other ailments adding these to the mix exacerbates their issues as the body sees the antibiotics and growth hormones as intruders, which agitates, aggravates and inflames.

Other issues pertain to dairy and farm subsidies.  Dairy is touted for all of the calcium and that you must have 3 good servings of dairy per day.  Well that's advertising.  You don't. Dark leafy greens have more calcium and without the fate, bacteria and pus.  Plus, too much calcium actually creates more fractures. The CDC even has data that with the increase of calcium in middle aged to the elderly as the consumption of calcium has gone up, so have hip fractures. You need the correct balance of calcium and collagen, as collagen keeps joints and bones flexible, keeps them from breaking, not calcium. As you age and eat incorrectly your body loses calcium you do need to replace it with calcium rich foods. Calcium and Vitamin D deficiencies are important factors if you are diabetic. Balance of one element is key to stay healthy as it is for all of the elements and processes in your body.
Did you know there is an allowable limit for pus in milk? And bacteria? Do you really want to ingest these into your body? "Ok, I'll have a cup pus and bacteria please." No amount should enter your body knowingly. It is doubtful these are healthy and can keep your immune system in overdrive keeping the agitation and stress a constant chronic condition, deep within your body. Stress is the number one killer.

Food subsidies create the situation of "oh my" what do we do with all the surplus milk, soy and corn we grow after CAFO cows are fed.  Push them on to an unassuming population through processed foods, and advertise them heavily.  The farm soil, unless organic through healthier practices, blows away over time creating dust bowls and barren land because it becomes nutrient devoid, as mentioned earlier, the ecosystem in the soil is chemically burnt out.

Organic farms and foods need to be subsidized if anything is to be. Organic makes for healthier animals, but what about the farmer, his family an the farm workers who work in heavily and continuously sprayed fields? Organic farms are healthier to live on and work on which equates to less stress and agitation on their bodies which means less inflammation and less lifestyle diseases or pregnancy issues.

I wrote this article to relate how the mass Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations for meat, fruits and vegetables is not healthy and how it impacts your life, especially when you have to deal with a degenerative disease like Diabetes or Cancer.  The more you eat from this less healthy "deadly" food system, the less healthy you become and the more ill you are. It may feed more people but at what cost? Cost to your health, cost to the environment, cost to our waterways from industrial and farm runoffs, cost to the farmers and farm workers.  Every dollar you spend in it, except for organic or farms that practice sustainable practices, affects your health negatively, aggravates your current diseases and aliments requiring you to manage your disease, not live your life. Food subsidies had their place in the Great Depression. They were supposed to end after it. Politics kept them going to this day pushed onto the American people by big agriculture lobbies currently, and by biased and incorrect marketing.

Even though organic is initially more costly because it is not subsidized, there are ways to find
inexpensive organic produce. Let your local representatives and Congress know that if any food is subsidized it should be healthy organic foods.  Processed foods are stripped of most if not all of their nutrients and then maybe 6 or so may be added back into the final product along with HFCS, sugars, chemical and alot of bad fats. They are then labeled fortified. Why remove the nutrients in the first place?

Think clean, eat more green and a rainbow of colors, eat organic or the cleanest foods on the EWG clean and dirty lists at EWG.org.  Think more fresh air, fresh clean water, findaspring.com, say no to pesticides, herbicides or extremely limit their use, artificial food, food dyes, MSG, chemicals, hidden sugars and bad fats, antibiotics (if a must, eat or drink a food that supplies you with healthy bacteria to keep the flora in your stomach in balance) and growth hormones especially kids, to popping a pill for every ailment, and GMO foods.  Rethink highly processed foods, transition to whole foods, fruits, grass fed meats and safe seafood. Think calm and adding movement to your life, connect with nature, take walks, dance, pick up a hoola hoop, shoot hoops, jump rope, work out, move about, mow the lawn with a manual or electric push mower, and whatever you like. Just get off your butt and move.

Oh, and smile. And make sure to have some fun

Health topics come from so many angles. What's important is that you have optimal health, are feeling great, are full of energy and don't manage your life, but live it!.  

Head on over to  www.BarbaraGreenhouse.com/contact to schedule a free health strategy consultation to chat, demystify healthy nutritious eating and discover your journey away from disease to health.
 
I would love to hear your thoughts about how you perceive food as healing. Please connect with us in the comments below.

www.BarbaraGreenhouse.com
refreshyourlifenow@gmail.com
Connect with me on:
Facebook.com/refreshyourlifenow
@bgsuperfoods

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Do You Have the Right?

Do you have the right to harm your body?  Absolutely.  Should you?  Of course not.
We humans, you and I, tend to think of our body from the brain mind perspective only, which repeats patterns of how we do things unless we change them with intentions.   Plus the body is thought of as You in total mostly, which is good to a point because all of the pieces do integrate to create the whole that is You and this understanding is important to heal.  We also need to think of the body as a  number of functioning systems and processes that do miraculous actions which are made up of and relying on the actions of billions of cells to be healthy.


On a more conscious and deeper level when we know or are open to learning what is actually best for us on this deeper level do we, again you and I, do we change to be truly healthy?  Sadly there are more no's here.  The results are pain, fatigue, low energy, less strength, weight gain or loss, and dis-ease.

Currently many of you medicate, cut, burn, live in toxic environments, and eat foods that do not support you on the deepest level.  This  is quite harmful to the different systems created to keep you  humming smoothly and to provide what each of the billion of cells needs to be able to achieve a healthy environment in your body so you can function optimally.

The topic of this post came to me one night.  I asked myself do I have the right to fry my cells with radiation or chemo?  Do I have the right to cut through my skin layers? Is there another option?  Our skin has it's own immune system and  has many important tasks to perform.  Do I have the right to disrupt them?  Do I have the right to starve my cells of the fuel they need?  Do I have the right to deplete my supply of insulin by constantly overeating high glycemic foods, and excessive amounts of "bad" fats and sugars?  Do I have the right to overwork my immune  system with all the inflammation caused by chronic stress, toxins, over indulging in nutrient devoid foods? Do I have the right to ALL  information to make the best decisions for my health?

Dis-ease is caused by the natural defense mechanism inflammation designed to come to the rescue, for example on a more simple level a cut, to provide more blood and white cells to heal the cut.  We have all seen this miracle in action.  The problem lies in when inflammation is a constant companion caused by too much and constant stress in response to some of the factors listed above and from some of the factors  in your life causing disease.


Viewing your body as a whole is important.  Seeing your body as an intricate network of systems designed to keep you healthy and alive is also very important.  Remembering that each of your billions of cells has intricate specialized chemical elements and parts with specific intricate tasks to support your systems and body as a whole is something to be more conscious about.  Are you in to ponder your rights and health on a deeper conscious level?

The following solidified simply for me that there really are only two choices for health and wellness. I heard Dr. Gabriel Cousens MD say it and I also read it in his book, "There is a Cure for Diabetes", do you want to live the "Culture of Death" or the "Culture of Life?"  This is such a powerful and thought provoking question.

This article is food for thought.  I am the last person in the world to want to remove or to suggest removing your rights.  My hope here is that you will take your rights/thoughts down to the deepest level of you for your health and happiness.  Try to remove the peer pressure, family pressure and marketing hype and triggers so prevalent in media.  Step up a rung on your Conscious Ladder remembering you are Sacred in body, mind and spirit.  You have the right to be totally healthy. After your birth, no one gives this to you but you.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments area below.  If you would like to discuss how this article fits in with your health, lifestyle or goals please contact me at www.BarbaraGreenhouse.com/contact

Friday, July 5, 2013

Toxins 101

With longer sunny days and warmer weather you probably feel better. You are more active outdoors on the trail, beach or boat or on vacation.In other words, you are out in the "fresh" air more. Or are you?As temperatures rise and stay hot, pollutants in the air hang in the moisture in the air longer. This is most noticeable to us all on humid days.




Summertime is a great time to remember while you may be on vacation or staycation, pollutants are hard at work attacking your body.  Environmental pollution comes in many forms. Chlorine is one to steer clear of yet it is found in your everyday cleaning products, laundry products, paper towels, toilet tissue, industrial pollution, the chlorination of drinking water and bath water. Next are and all of the toxic chemicals that make up your many health and beauty products that are used on your skin, hair/scalp and all of the names on pesticides used on flower gardens, vegetable farming sprayed in the air and into the soil, and paint products. You get the idea.  All of the product ingredient names that are difficult to pronounce.



Toxins aggravate and irritate you body, it's systems and cells. They sap your energy, add stress to your body and cause inflammation.  Toxins create brain fog and memory loss.  They can literally make you ill.  Do you struggle with any of these?



If you have a degenerative disease such as diabetes, cancer, altzheimers and coronary heart disease, toxins only exacerbate the symptoms and affects of your disease more.

Please enjoy your summer. I am not trying to ruin it for you. It's important to me that you are informed and stay healthy. Is it for you?

One last thought stay hydrated.  Whether you are exerting yourself alot or not drink a minimum of 8, 8 ounce glasses of spring water, findaspring.com, or pure coconut water.

To the lazy hazy days of summer.

Reach out and share some of the affects toxins have played  in your life. Are you putting up with them or leading the charge and winning?

Talk soon,
Barbara

Barbara Greenhouse
Certified Health Coach

I help ill Moms overcome degenerative diseases.


Tuesday, March 5, 2013


Say Yes!

No is so powerful and used or thought so often.  Yes, is so much more powerful to think and use.  Please consider it more.

Consider yes especially in the areas of disease and health.  Most are willing to die rather than say yes to be open to the possibility that another protocol, practice or natural way exists. Isn’t it funny how this way is called the alternative way when in reality the over medication, burn and cut is so much newer, in essence is the real alternative medicine? 


Mother Nature's Gifts
Following the rhythms of nature and the bounty of herbs and practices handed down for millennium have had and still have astounding results.  They were created to do so, as were our bodies to heal themselves. Those who have presented science to prove with data, that many more healing and healthful ways do exist; have been exonerated and called quacks.

The tide is starting to turn, a shift is happening towards a new openness as we see our health spending escalate dramatically yet our nation is one of the nations of the world at the bottom rather than at the top of the list regarding good health.  Functional medicine and solid nutrition geared to an individual not the masses are becoming more readily available.

As an individual like you and a health coach, I want all of the information, not only the propaganda or profits first cures, to make my daily decisions.

The healthcare industry makes tons of money, has received oodles of money over the last 40 – 50 years as donations from people and yet they are still chasing cures.  Did you ever wonder why there is still no cure?  Research is looking for the band aid.  Not the cause, where scientific data does exist.

Well my friends there are cures available right now.  I believe in unbiased, proven methods that allow us, our friends and families to live long happy lives.  Key words here are long, live and happy.  Live versus manage, long versus being cut short and happy versus pain ridden, fearful, depressed and more. 

I could go on here for hours. But that is far from the point of my writing this article today.  Life is too precious to lose it too early because you or your beliefs keep saying no. We have all lost many friends and loved ones who would be here today had it not been for a no or two on a deep level, and they said no.  They didn’t stretch towards the possibility of a new possibility.

My tip to you is to be open.  Sit and be still, to quiet your mind, or go for a walk, listen to your favorite music, your favorite way to be still and ask yourself if you think you are worthy of being happy, healthy and to live a long life.  If your answer is yes, and you have a debilitating, degenerative disease like Cancer, Diabetes, CHD, Crohn’s Dis-ease, MS, Autoimmune diseases no matter what the stage of the disease is, explore the web, Google alternative or holistic practices and healing, read books (do some research) and if you have any questions please connect with me. 

I offer free 50 minute discovery and breakthrough sessions where you talk, I ask a couple of questions and listen.  And please know that there are many success stories of folks who have been told, "I can’t help you anymore. You have 2 weeks, months (whatever the number is) to live."  And after 10, 20 years they are still alive because they said no to a life sentence and yes to life.


In health and joy,
Barbara

Barbara S. Greenhouse
Certified Health Coach
Member, International Association for Health Coaches
Member, American Association of Drugless Practitioners

Refresh Your Life Now
Bethel, CT 06801,
 203 216 6889

Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, Ahimsa, the Nutrition and Health Connection, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She guides her clients through their journey to live their deepest dreams, simply and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods, fruits and vegetables.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®  -  © copyright Refresh Your Life Now - 2013 Connecticut, USA

Why Manage Life? Live It! ®  Refresh to the Good Life! ®

Friday, February 15, 2013


Chocolate Greetings!


Deep, Dark, Chocolate.  According to David Wolfe, engineer, living-food nutrition expert, superfoods expert and longevity expert, cacao, aka chocolate, has the highest amount of antioxidants in any other source on the planet. 

Chocolate with pistachios, CAHHC party 2012 
Chocolate grows on trees, the Cacao tree.  Minimally processed raw cacao is produced from the cacao seeds often referred to as cacao beans.  Chocolate comes to us from the Mayans who used the nuts for drinks and as currency.  Cacao trees grew wild in the Amazon basin and South American rain forests.  They were discovered by the Spanish Conquistador Don Hernán Cortés who brought cacao beans to Europe.  The love affair with chocolate continues to this day.

Cacao trees today are the #1 cash crop of the rain forests which greatly benefits the numerous indigenous people of the rain forests with employment.  This benefits the rain forests greatly themselves.

Forms of cacao are the seeds/nuts/ beans, pulp, as a powder like cocoa, cacao butter and cacao nibs. Cacao nuts have 15x the antioxidants of wild blue berries and they are the most eaten nut on the planet more popular than almonds. The beans in the cacao nuts are used to produce chocolate oil.  Minimally processed and non-heated cacao is raw chocolate and these oils and their healthy benefits remain intact. Chocolates with percentages of cacao above 70% are the best, health wise, where 55% is acceptable.  If  you can get your hands on raw cacao nuts even better.  

The chocolates with the least amount of sugar products are also best as certain degenerative dis-eases feed on sugar.   Plus, the amount of sugar most Americans eat per year is way too high, 150 - 180 pounds per year.  Yikes!  Added fruits, nuts, coconut, or essential oils add sweetness, flavor and texture. Chocolate products are best without dairy as well, as many of you are sensitive to it and don't necessarily know it. Plus, dairy causes mucous build up throughout the body and inflammation, a precursor to dis-ease.  Most chocolate that is found in stores is not healthy at all. Over processed, laden with sugar and milk products, artificial flavors and colors, do your body no good.

Do you have muscles that cramp up often? Low magnesium levels are the culprit many times. Personally, this has been an issue for me. Thank goodness I love healthy raw chocolate products.   Cacao is the highest source of magnesium. Magnesium has kept the painful charlie horse cramps at bay in my legs.  When I slip in eating healthy chocolate my legs cramp up again. Research has shown that magnesium is required for healthy muscles.  Remember, your heart is a muscle, so have your magnesium level checked with a number of vitamins and minerals at least once a year by your doctor, Naturopath or health practitioner.
Some benefits of Dark Chocolate are:
  • Contains the highest amount of antioxidants in the world.  Research has shown that fruit has less antioxidant activity and flavanoids than dark chocolate and dark chocolate products. A chart online specifically lists all the fruits antioxidant levels and chocolate’s level.
  • Contains theobromine which is good for your nervous system
  • Contains phenylethylamine found in the nervous system.  It has a mood boosting effect due to it releasing the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain.
  • Contributes to cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure and increasing blood flow
  • Raw chocolates have the added benefits of retaining the original nutrients and minerals the body requires
  • Chocolate is the #1 anti-aging food in the world. It contains polypehols and resveratrol
  • Chocolate is the #1 food for magnesium in the world, highest source of iron, manganese and chromium of any other major food in the world, and is necessary for blood building , stabilization of blood sugar(chromium) and stress reduction– David Wolfe
  • Chocolate is the #1 raw food  
  • Very rich in phosphorus for healthy bones and great for your teeth and zinc and copper.  – David Wolfe
David has been interviewed numerous times about cacao/chocolate. His videos are a Google search away, “David Wolfe Benefits of Chocolate” and on Youtube.  The TED talk February 2012 and a few interviews with Supreme Master Television are packed with information. 

There are many decadent raw chocolates and raw snack bars on the market to choose from.  So just maybe this year and moving forward, you will think of chocolate in a new light, I mean dark, dark chocolate that is.
So ladies, to chocolate! Indulge. Valentine’s Day, and every day.


Do you have a favorite chocolate dessert or recipe you'd love to share?  Simply put your fingers to the keyboard, give them some exercise, and let us know.  

In health and joy,
Barbara


Barbara Greenhouse
Certified Health Coach
Member, International Association for Health Coaches
Member, American Association of Drugless Practioners

Refresh Your Life Now
Bethel, CT 06801, 
203 216 6889

Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, Ahimsa, the Nutrition and Health Connection, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She guides her clients through their journey to live their deepest dreams, simply and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods, fruits and vegetables.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®  -  © copyright Refresh Your Life Now - 2013 Connecticut, USA

Why Manage Life? Live It! ®  Refresh to the Good Life! ®