Sunday, March 16, 2008

Hole in the Bucket

Benefits of Tea

I was surprised to read all these benefits to drinking tea today in a great
little marketing pamphlet from octavia tea (octaviatea.com) -- so I thought
I'd share in case it was useful to others. The brochure claims,

"According to Scientific Studies, a daily cup of tea:

- Reduces physical signs of aging (time magazine)
- Slow age-related decline in brain function (american journal of clinical
nutrition)
- reduces abdominal fat deposits (nutrition and cancer)
- lowers risk of cancer and kills cancer cells (consumer reports)
- combats arthritis & imrpves bone density (health magazine)
- lowers bad LDL cholesterol by up to 11% (us dept. of agriculture/msnbc)
- aids weight-loss & burns fat (american journal of clinical nutrition)
- improves immune system functioning (prevention)
- reduces the risk of heart attack by 44% (harvard study)
- fights bad breath and allergies (web md)

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

You are an Island...

A dear friend who is also on a weight loss journey wrote this to me today: "I feel very supported hearing my experiences and feelings echoed. Makes me feel like I'm not an island."

I wrote this in response... I rather enjoyed it and thought it might be inspirational for everyone on their journey of growth.

I was sharing to help you see that while you are an island -- it is your journey and yours alone -- it is more like we're a string of islands really close together rather than with an ocean between us and just a stones throw away rather than a 6 hour plane ride. I can't walk your walk for you... I can't choose your path for you... but I can send up fire works as I understand things to arise that hopefully will lighten the load and brighten your day.

(Change, any change, and in this context especially...) Weight loss isn't about overnight change, but about lifelong change. So it is about how you deal with it through time, not in any one moment. If you graphed your feelings of control v. out of control through time, how did you do overall?

Keep focus on the trend, not any one point in the graph -- any high can be just as disillusioning as any low. They are just moments to be cherished and learned from rather than clung to like a life preserver.

Your committment and certainty will have you return to the path every time you wander off, even if you it take more than a minute, or hour, or day, or week or even month.

You know what you want. Hold fast to that and all else will follow. Of this i am certain.

You have great power within you... and i know you know this. I merely hold up the glass in the moments when you're too tired to pick it up for yourself. ;)