Sunday, April 15, 2012

"What's on my plate? It looks weird. Bird food?"







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How I made my husband 
eat a healthy diet
Are you having a tough time changing the health habits of your significant other? Almost ten years ago, I met a great guy who is now my husband. When we met, we had the love of the outdoors in common, so our dating process was filled with kayaking, hiking, mountain biking and camping in beautiful British Columbia. 


So we had the outdoors and traveling in common, which was fantastic, but when we decided to move in together, it wasn't an easy ride at first.

Because I enjoyed cooking, I was in charge of grocery shopping and meals preparation. And because he had an office job that required him to dress up, he was in charge of laundry and ironing (yes ladies: it's true, I don't do laundry!).



When we first dated, I was shocked at his fridge supplies: orange juice, milk and ketchup: that was it! He ate out every day, fast foods, hitting the Food Court at work, and a quick coffee in the morning: yikes! No fruits, no veggies! He also was allergic to dust, animal dander and every spring, had hay fever. He was covered in rashes on his legs and had one bowel movement every week (Oh my!). 

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So when we moved in, I decided to turn his health around. It was tough and I had to make small changes weekly because let me tell you, I came across a lot of resistance.
He used to say to his friends: "There is no food in our house", while our fridge was full. Because no junk food meant no fun to him. He used to say: "What is that? Bird food? It looks funny" at every meals the first year.






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I took it slow and Each week I changed only one thing:
  1. Introduction to meatless dinners
  2. Fresh Fruits salads for snacks 
  3. Almonds and dark chocolate for hiking 
  4. Tasty salads with goat cheese, walnuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
  5. Plain yogurt with stevia and organic strawberries
  6. Broccoli with shaved Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil 
  7. Quinoa with coconut milk, seeds, and cinnamon for breakfast
  8. Grilled fish, asparagus and mushrooms with rosemary and seas salt
  9. Sweet potatoes bakes with chili pepper and paprika
  10. Summer smoothies after a sweaty tennis game

I never bought junk and made his lunches and breakfasts: he saved money (which he was very happy about) and in spite of the resistance, he ate it all, admittedly with some complaint at first, but soon realized his health was improving. I also added supplements and acupuncture to his regimen. 

Today, he has no allergies, his skin is rash free, and has a daily bowel movement. He probably will be embarrassed I'm mentioning his daily bathroom ritual (Dr. oz opened a whole new world to us since he talked about poop). He's never sick with the flu and hasn't miss a day of work in years.
He loves healthy foods and actually will request my brown rice stir fry dishes, grilled asparagus, salads and smoothies. Of course bad habits die hard. He still likes fast foods and will enjoy it once in a while, but at least not every day and keeps telling me, he owes me his health. So it's all worth it!

When you find it difficult to keep your kids or partner on a healthy path, remember that in the long run, they will thank you and appreciate the effort you made on their behalf. Just do it slowly, incrementally and with love, the reward is so worth it.

And for the record, I brought health to my hubby but he opened up a new world to me,  and now I really enjoy reading the news and watching science fiction movies with him. In the past ten years, we have grown from each other and our relationship is stronger each year because of it.

Here's to health, family life, and constant growth.

Healing Cedar wellness 

Friday, April 13, 2012

Red wine is good for me, is cheese also?


Have you heard? French people have very low occurrence of Cardiovascular diseases and less heart attacks than North Americans. Of course, you've heard.

PictureBooks, television, and articles basically have been telling us that even though the french diet is heavy in fat, cream and butter, their hearts are in great shape. And all because of red wine. Are you kidding me?

I was born and raised in France and I can tell you, it's true! They don't die of heart attacks. Oh no, they all get liver failure and lung cancer, instead!So much better. The instance of Lung, and throat cancer in France is enormous: my mom smoked 2 packs/day for 60 years (that's an average there). Liver cirrhosis and Liver failure is also very common: I have been around enough drunk people to see the effect of alcohol has on them. Not pretty.

So drink red wine, eat cheese, and butter your white bread, apparently you'll be just fine.So my point here is when reading about research, take it with a grain of salt. Because it's all relative. When studies come out about acupuncture with percentage of success or failure, I smile.

PictureTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complex modality and very thorough, but unfortunately it is very difficult to measure its results. Here's why.
TCM looks at the root cause of the problem, not the outcome. Each patient is unique with their own constitution, lifestyleand living environment. If a study looks at the effect of acupuncture or Chinese herbal remedies on insomnia, it would be difficult to get an accurate result, as the study conducted would treat all participants the same way. But everyone is so different how could it work evenly?


Let's look at 2 patients (Sue & Mark) coming for the same reason: Insomnia.
Solution A: sleeping pills for Sue & Mark. Not my kind of temporary solution, but what the heck, if that's your cup of tea.
Solution B: natural treatments: herbal teas, melatonin. Temporary natural solution. Helpful.
Solution C: TCM treatments. Long term results. The practitioner needs to do a full consultation (sometimes lasting over 1 hour to be totally thorough) and establish a treatment plan suitable for each patient. It may take a while for the issue to be resolved depending on how long it's been going on, but it will result in a longer lasting effect.

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2 patients, 2 different symptoms, 2 different people:
Sue: takes 2 to 4 hours to fall asleep each night. She says, she has a million thoughts running through her mind at night, she starts worrying and cannot shut her brain off (Did you recognize yourself there?). She eventually falls asleep but in the morning, she has to drag herself out of bed. She's fatigue all day long. She gets anxious often and worries constantly. 
Mark: goes to bed at 11 pm and falls asleep easily. He wakes up though every night between 2 am and 3 am and he just lays there, feeling restless. He's never tired. He is jumpy, feels stressed due to his job and gets irritable and short tempered with his family.
Those are 2 different types of insomnia. And that just the sleeping part, we need to figure out what else is out of balance in the body, and look for the root cause (In the 2 cases, emotions and stress). So we'll ask about each and every system in your body, from your digestion to your memory. If we treated those 2 patients the same way, it would not work well. Sue looks weak and deficient, so we may strengthen her, and calm her overactive mind. Mark seems strong but too hyper, so we may relax and soothe him in order to calm his mind. Different treatment principles. 
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TCM is a complex medicine that treats the patient first, not the disease, and looks at the root of the problem for prevention of re-occurrence. I have been practicing for many years and still get amazed by the great outcome of Acupuncture & TCM treatments. it challenges me every day and I love how specific a practitioner has to be in order to help patients feel their best and reach optimum health.