Extra weight....your body is your friend

I love this piece and it fits in well with the previous post of planning for health for the year ahead. Treat yourself and your body as you would those you love and respect, better than you would treat your best friend, because it is the only one you have in this lifetime and it is the only constant in your life. Without it you would not be able to enjoy life here on earth in physical form. Extra Weight

BY MADISYN TAYLOR Our bodies are not our enemies, treat your body with care and give it the support it deserves. Our bodies are like living temples, and deserve all the love and care we can give them. Amazingly flexible and strong, they allow us to experience the world. If we notice that we're not feeling our best, that we've put on extra weight, or that our favorite clothes don't fit, we can make the choice to be good to ourselves in a new way today. There are times we become conscious of a deeper hunger that will not be satisfied physically. We can make a new, healthier choice for ourselves in any moment, regardless of the hour, day, week or month. And when we make the choice lovingly, we work from a creative place of improving our lives and nurturing the best within us, so there is no need to punish ourselves. From this place, we can be gently honest with ourselves about the reasons we want to eat certain foods. We can reach out to doctors to help us determine if our bodies are out of balance at a level that requires something other than basic nutrients. We can also reach out to our friends for support and to share the journey of health, which is just another part of our adventure on the physical plane. When we treat ourselves and our bodies as we would a trusted and loyal companion, we keep our energy free from negative thoughts that would complicate our journey. Our bodies are not our enemies, and we are not fighting a battle. Instead, we are investing our love and attention into the care and support of a beautiful creation--our selves.

Create the life you desire...

Many have heard the term 'Energy flows where attention goes', but how many have really absorbed this information?

Everything we place our attention on causes energy to flow in that direction. This energy amplifies when it meets the same energy and thus amplified energy is flowing back to us.
Simply put, if you are focusing your thoughts on negativity,  more negative energy is flowing back to you. If you focus on pain and suffering, more pain and suffering flows back to you.
Your thoughts and emotions are all energy and create more thoughts and emotions of similar frequency and situations where you experience more of the same emotions and thoughts.
This energy sent out into the Universe then draws more of said energy back to you. I am mentioning all of this to allow you to absorb how you create your reality or the circumstances in your life.

What is it you wish to create this day, this week and this year? Start with what you would like to create this year. Is it better health? If so, then what does better health entail for you...more exercise, healthier food choices and healthier habits?
Now, you have a few things to look at and start planning...how are you going to implement them into your life? And make sure you are focusing on better health and NOT on what you do not wish to do or on the foods you are missing out on.

Today you may just focus on breathing, as deep breathing calms you and oxygenates your cells, creating better health (baby steps) Day two,  focus on consuming more water etc. etc.
If you start with a goal for the week at the beginning of the week, you can then decide what you can do daily to help achieve the weekly goal and the monthly goals and ultimately the yearly goal.

This applies to who you wish to be too. Do you wish to be calmer and happier? What would that entail and what do you need to shift and change and or heal within yourself to achieve this?
Again, you now have something to work with and you can start planning for the new you that emerges daily.

I have a daily ritual that allows me to focus my mind on the present and check in to see how I am progressing with my goals and where my attention lies. Every night before I go to sleep I check in to see how my day progressed and if I succeeded in my journey towards my weekly goals and the energy I desire in my life, and did I achieve what I wanted to in my day?

Every day I get to chose and decide where my focus and energy is going to go.  I am trying to be aware on a continual basis of where my attention/focus is at, as my goal is to be present and create from moment to moment.  What am I attracting and creating in my reality?
PAY ATTENTION. You are the master and creator of your reality.

The top 5 reasons to take a multivitamin.

Not Taking a Multivitamin? Here Are the Top 5 Reasons You Should Be

You try to eat well to feel good and stay healthy. While it’s optimal to get your nutritional needs from the foods you eat, it’s not always possible. There is conflicting information out there on the benefits of supplements, but the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-20201 say that supplements may be useful for providing the nutrients you may be lacking from diet alone.

Still on the fence? Consider these top five reasons to add a multivitamin to your daily regimen.

1. Healthy aging. As we get older, our bodies have a harder time absorbing nutrients from food. The National Institute on Aging notes that starting around age 50, people begin to require increased amounts of certain vitamins and minerals.1 In fact, according to a study published in the June 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that taking a daily multivitamin & mineral supplement may help improve micronutrient deficiencies associated with aging.3†
2. Making up for eliminated food groups. While some people have to cut certain foods like nuts or gluten out of their diets due to allergies, many eliminate particular foods or food groups from their diet voluntarily. This can cause vitamin deficiencies that would be helped with a multivitamin.
   Trying a paleo diet? You might risk a shortage of calcium or vitamin D by eliminating dairy or grains. Cutting back on red meat? A multivitamin will replace the iron and B12 you would normally get from diet.†
3. Getting the RDAs you’re not getting from food.You’ve probably heard that the typical Western diet doesn’t include nearly enough daily fruits and vegetables. As part of that, you don’t always get the vitamins those natural foods supply. Supplementing with a multivitamin containing phytonutrients from fruit- and vegetable-derived ingredients may help. In addition, it’s important to keep in mind that RDA levels are set to prevent nutrient deficiencies. But there’s a wide range between taking enough vitamin C to avoid scurvy and the optimal amount you can benefit from.†
4. Getting that extra energy to get through the day. In today’s “go-go-go” society, one of the top complaints is a general lack of energy. Instead of reaching for that third cup of coffee, remember that your cells require certain vitamins and minerals to power your busy life; especially if you’re not getting a full eight hours of sleep or eating a balanced diet, a multivitamin can help provide the nutrients you need to feel energetic throughout the day.4
5. Managing stress. Daily life stressing you out? You’re not alone. But vitamins and micronutrients play a significant biochemical role in improving your brain’s cognitive processes, and studies have shown that a daily multivitamin—particularly one with high doses of B vitamins—can help to reduce stress and support a healthy mood.5†

References:

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 8th Edition. December 2015. Available at http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/.
2. National Institute on Aging, Dietary Supplements. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication/dietary-supplements#should
3. Qun X, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2009; 89:1857–63. Multivitamin use and telomere length in women.
4. Bailey RL; et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2013; 173(5):355-361. Why US Adults Use Dietary Supplements.
5. Stough et al. Nutrition Journal 2014, 13:122. Reducing occupational stress with a B-vitamin focussed intervention: a randomized clinical trial: study protocol.

Relationships are experienced in our thoughts.

Your thoughts are the source of virtually everything in your life. Every relationship that you’re in is something that you carry around with you. If your relationship is lousy, it’s because you think of it that way. The person you’re in a relationship with isn’t with you in this moment, or when you’re at work, or when you’re in the bathroom, but your thoughts about that person are always with you. The only way you can experience another person is in your thoughts. You can’t get behind their eyeballs and be them. You can only process them with your thoughts. If you look for what’s wrong about them and store that negative image in your mind, then that’s where your relationship exists. If you change your thoughts to what you love rather than to what you label as wrong, you’ve just changed your entire relationship. It went from lousy to great by your changing your mind! Try to always remember that you carry every relationship around with you in your head. Robert Frost reminded us, “We love the things we love for what they are.” When you forget this and process other people on the basis of what you think they should be, or what they used to be, or how they compare to what you are, then you’ve sent love away, and in your mind, the relationship has soured. You experience every thing and every one in your thoughts. Change your thoughts, and you change what you carry around in your head as problems. The world is just the way it is. The economy is just as it should be. The people who are behaving “badly” in the world are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. You can process it in any way that you choose. If you’re filled with anger about all of those “problems,” you are one more person who contributes to the pollution of anger. Your desire to do something about the lowest energies will motivate you to be more loving, more feeling, and more peaceful. And in so doing, you may influence those who are the farthest removed from God to return to their source. This new agreement with yourself to always stay connected to Spirit even when it seems to be the most difficult thing to do will allow whatever degree of perfect harmony that your body was designed for to proliferate. Turn “diseases” over to God, and treat your body to regular exercise, healthy food, large amounts of pure water, and plenty of rest to allow it to function as a container for Spirit to flow through. Your new agreement with reality in which you’ve blended your physical self and your personality with your spiritual God-connected self will begin to radiate a higher energy of love and light. Wherever you go, others will experience the glow of your God consciousness, and disharmony and disorder and all manner of problems simply will not flourish in your presence. Become “an instrument of thy peace,” as St. Francis desires in the first line of his famous prayer. Move up the ladder of human awareness from the lowest to the highest. Become a mystical being by simply changing your mind from one that created and experienced problems, to one that resolves them.

Excerpt taken from 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace

Vital Information about vitamin K and the differences in K2, K3 and K1

Vitamin K2 goes beyond blood clotting.....

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin most well known for the important role it plays in blood clotting. However, many do not realize that there are different kinds of vitamin K, and they are completely different.

The health benefits of vitamin K2 go far beyond blood clotting, which is done by vitamin K1, and vitamin K2 also works synergistically with a number of other nutrients, including calcium and vitamin D.

The reason for the addition of specifically vitamin K2 to our (Metagenics D3 with K2)  D3 formula is that vitamin K2 is necessary to activate the body's K2-dependent proteins which are responsible for "shuttling" the calcium where it needs to be, and removing it from the places where it shouldn’t.

NOTE: It should also be noted that there is no toxicity / overdosing worry with vitamin K2... "The reason why K2 doesn't have potential toxic effect is that all vitamin K2 does is activate K2 proteins. It will activate all the K2 proteins it finds. And if they're all activated and you take extra K2, it simply won't do that."...  

There are three types of vitamin K:

1. Vitamin K1, or phylloquinone, is found naturally in plants, especially green vegetables; K1 goes directly to your liver and (primarily) helps you maintain healthy blood clotting

2. Vitamin K2, also called menaquinone, is made by the bacteria that line your gastrointestinal tract; K2 goes straight to your blood vessel walls, bones, and tissues other than your liver

3. Vitamin K3, or menadione, is a synthetic form, not recommended; it's important to note that toxicity has occurred in infants injected with this synthetic vitamin K3

Heartburn drugs tied to increased risk of early death.

Heartburn drugs tied to increased risk of early death, study says 

(CNN) At prescription strength, proton-pump inhibitors are associated with a potential 25% increased risk of early death from any cause, suggests new research published Monday in the British Medical Journal Open. 

This study did not examine over-the-counter proton-pump inhibitors or particular brands of prescription-strength drugs. 

The drugs, known as PPIs, suppress excess acid in the stomach. Generally, prescription formulas are taken by patients with severe conditions for long periods, while lower-dose over-the-counter formulas are approved for only short-term use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The researchers note that their study does not prove cause and effect.

Head-to-head comparison

Previous research has linked proton-pump inhibitors to an increased risk of poor health, according to senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of the Washington University School of Medicine. "A number of studies reported that use (of these drugs) is associated with a number of adverse events including kidney disease, fractures, pneumonia, dementia, C. diff infections and cardiovascular disease," he said.

Popular heartburn medications linked to higher risk of strokehttps://www.cnn.com/2016/11/15/health/heartburn-medication-stroke-risk/index.html

Al-Aly and his co-authors "asked the simple question: Does that translate to increased risk of death?" To answer it, they looked at national US Department of Veterans Affairs data on about 3.5 million people. 

"The VA has the largest integrated electronic medical record system in the world," Al-Aly said. "This enabled us to look at a large number of patients and follow them up for about six years to examine our research questions." 

The team compared people who took proton-pump inhibitors with those who took another type of drug that reduces stomach acid: histamine H2 receptor antagonists, known as H2 blockers. They also made other comparisons, including people who used proton-pump inhibitors versus people who did not take either H2 blockers or PPIs. 

People who used proton-pump inhibitors experienced a 25% heightened risk of death from all causes compared with people taking H2 blockers, the researchers estimated.

Popular medications linked to higher risk of kidney failurehttps://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/health/proton-pump-inhibitors-kidney-failure/index.html

If about 500 patients took proton-pump inhibitors for a year, there would be one death that may be related to the drug use, explained Al-Aly. The longer patients used PPIs, the higher their risk of early death, he added.

When comparing users of proton-pump inhibitors with non-users of PPIs or H2 blockers, the same 25% higher risk level was seen, the analysis indicates. 

"In our studies, however we looked at the data, there was always a consistent relationship between (proton-pump inhibitor) use and the risk of death," Al-Aly said. 

Al-Aly and his co-authors say the biological reason for a link between PPIs and increased risk of early death is not clear. Evidence suggests that these drugs change how genes express themselves, increasing some DNA activities while decreasing others. It is these genetic differences that may contribute to earlier deaths.

Chest pain? It might be one of these 7 thingshttps://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/health/chest-pain-causes-partner/index.html

The growing body of scientific evidence "showing a host of adverse events" associated with use of these drugs is "compelling," concluded Al-Aly and his co-authors. They say that limiting a patient's use of these drugs "to instances and durations where it is medically indicated may be warranted."

AstraZeneca, a global drug company, makes two popular products, both of which come in over-the-counter and prescription-strength formulations. 

"We are confident in the safety and efficacy of Nexium and Prilosec when used in accordance with the FDA approved label, which has been established through numerous clinical trials," said Alexandra Engel, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, which was not involved in the new study.

The study "did not look at OTC products, rather, it only involved prescription (proton-pump inhibitors) which are typically used at higher doses and for longer durations," said Anita Brikman, senior vice president at Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade organization representing over-the-counter drug manufacturers. The association was also not involved in the research.

"This is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn," Brikman added. 

Questions for future research

This type of study, which retroactively looked at the medical records of older veterans, cannot prove that proton-pump inhibitors increase the risk of death, according to the Science Media Centre, a United Kingdom nonprofit that provides commentary on scientific studies. The center's volunteer statisticians noted that up to 10% of people taking proton-pump inhibitors died within one year, which suggests that the deaths may be linked to their' other conditions.

Dr. Ihab Hajjar, an associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, said the new findings are "concerning." https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/02/health/mini-meals-food-drayer/index.html

"However, it is important to note that (proton-pump inhibitor) users in general, including those included in their study, are older and have more diseases," Hajjar wrote in an email. "Nevertheless, it is important for patients to regularly review all current medications with the prescribing providers." Once reviewed, any drug deemed unnecessary by a doctor should no longer be used by a patient.

This month, Hajjar and his colleagues published their own study of proton-pump inhibitors. 

They focused on cognitive impairments, comparing people who have used the drugs with people who did not. Hajjar and his team did not look at other diseases or overall mortality.

In his study, a team of experienced doctors at academic medical centers made a "more detailed assessment of cognitive function" than the previous research, he said. Perhaps for this reason, Hajjar and his team arrived at different conclusions than other researchers. 

"We did not demonstrate an increased risk of having a cognitive impairment with the use" of proton-pump inhibitors, Hajjar wrote. 

By contrast, Al-Aly and his co-authors believe a "growing body of evidence" indicates that use of these drugs is associated with a "host of adverse events." They say that limited use only when medically necessary is best.

What are you afraid to discover?

I hear many excuses when it comes to meditation or some sort of mindful practice, like the lack of time or not knowing how to meditate etc.

Mindful practices are designed to assist us in discovering our true nature and also opens the door to discovering our deepest thoughts and desires. It could point to all the aspects of our life that we may be blind to and this may be why some of us avoid it or make up excuses as to why it is not do-able.

The following excerpt sheds some possible light on the matter....

"It might be useful to ask yourself why you would put off something so beneficial to your peace of mind and general well-being. There may be fear that if you were to stop your frantic pace, your world might fall apart, and then you would have to face the undeniable reality of who you really are and the results of the choices you have made. You might be afraid that you will be forced to make huge changes in order to align yourself with the universe and harness your true potential. Sometimes the frustrations of the known world seem less scary than the possibilities of the unknown. But the truth is that when we cooperate with the universe by creating our lives from the truth of our being, life becomes less of a struggle and more of a process of living blissfully on purpose." 

(excerpt from Madison Taylors Afraid to meditate)

Think about this and why you are making the choices you are currently making. Are they empowering you and helping you life a life of purpose or not?