Lifestyle Choices

Many parents hold to the foolish idea that money is the important thing in life. As a result they neglect their children and fail to spend sufficient time in their training. This is a serious mistake. Money is always useful, but material wealth alone will never guarantee a happy home. In fact, it might have the opposite effect.

Although a good bank account might be a fine asset to any well-trained young person, it could be a menace to one who has never had adequate training. When such a person inherits a large fortune, he may quickly lose it on useless investments. Or as it sometimes happens, he may try to dominate those around him by giving or withholding money. In the end no one is happy. (more…)

Who Starts the Quarrels?

How do most family quarrels start? This, of course, is hard to say, for usually there is no single cause. Often there is some underlying discontent, particularly on the part of the wife. Marriage has changed her lot completely, while her husband may be carrying on the same work that has occupied his time for years. He may prefer to continue his routine uninterrupted, while she will want plenty of variety. She may then assume that he does not love her. This may be true in some instances, but not in most. In any case she may begin to feel rather neglected. She wants more attention. A brisk family contention may seem a rather rough way to bring this about, but it usually attracts the attention she craves—sometimes much more! Most men will take just so much, then there may be trouble, perhaps even physical violence. The sensible thing to do is prevent such episodes before they reach the place where there seems to be no turning back. (more…)

A great many of my patients do not really know what stress actually is. They think that it’s an outside force causing them to feel tense. But that’s not stress — that’s a stressor. Stress is a person’s negative reaction to a stressor.

For the most part, people have a negative reaction to stressors when they feel that their stressors are greater than their ability to deal with them. When they feel like this, they see their stressors as threats. On the other hand, if they think they can handle their stressors, they usually see them as challenges and generally enjoy grappling with them.

If you now feel as if your life is full of threats, instead of challenges, you are experiencing stress. If your degree of stress is severe, it’s going to be quite difficult for you to live a balanced, healthy lifestyle free from compulsion, including the compulsion to overeat. (more…)

Most people who are plump are jolly and good natured. They are pleasant and easy going and not at all hard to get along with—until perhaps they take it into their heads to begin to reduce! Most of them are full of alibis and reasons for their extra weight. Except in rare cases there is only one reason why any of them are plump and well padded. They just love to eat!

“What’s the use?” they wail. “Everything I eat turns to fat. I just can’t lose weight.” This is probably true, partly because of the way they are going about it.

Going on a reducing diet is no new experience for most of these people. Usually they have tried all kinds of diets, liberal and otherwise. For a time they succeed, but in the end they often find themselves back at the same old level, far above the average for their height and age. Sometimes they are the butt of unfortunate jokes among their friends. In desperation they determine once and for all to lose weight. They are invariably in a hurry to do this. Some abandon food altogether for a time, only to return to their former eating habits with a vengeance and perhaps add a few more pounds. This is not a sensible way to lose weight. (more…)

Why do you want to reduce? Probably for two reasons. You are not happy over what you see when you look into the mirror, and you don’t like what your friends are saying. But do not be in too much of a hurry to get those pounds off. This is where you might have failed before. It is usually better to reduce more slowly. It is not a temporary low calorie diet that you need, but rather an entirely new pattern of living.

Most likely you will not need to make any drastic changes in your diet. Just be sure it is well balanced. Begin by taking smaller amounts of foods you usually eat. Don’t cut out any single item except, perhaps, those rich desserts that you don’t really need. But remember, some foods high in calories may also be necessary to maintain good health.

Potatoes and whole-grain cereals are excellent foods. They should remain in your diet. Just be careful about the amount of food that you take. Omit those that are especially high in fats and carbohydrates. It is so easy to take more than you actually want. Watch this carefully. (more…)

Many of us never worry about our health until we are in danger of losing it. Then we are willing to pay any price, pouring out the savings of a lifetime in a vain attempt to try to win it back again. Our health is our greatest possession. Why should we throw it away through ignorance? There is no substitute for good health. We must take care of it while we have it. Our whole future depends upon our maintaining a sound mind in a healthy body.

Hospitals all over the world are filled with people who have disregarded the laws of health. Some may not have realized their danger. Others knew but did not care. They evidently thought that they could dodge the consequences. Perhaps they did for a while. But eventually even the strongest constitution will break if we continue to disregard the laws of health.

Many a chronic invalid might have enjoyed good health all through his life if he had only known how to keep well. Instead of living a happy life, free from sickness, he has become a burden to himself and perhaps to the community as well. Prevention is always far better than cure. Knowing how to live will keep us out of trouble. It will enable us to live out our years in peace and contentment, free from unnecessary pain and illness. (more…)

Stop Killing Yourself, Dad!

Men, let’s stop putting off that all-important medical checkup. Why not make an appointment right now? Better still, let your wife make it for you. She has even more to lose than you have in this. It is time to see your doctor.

Stop driving yourself so hard. You need more rest. Don’t try to whip up those jaded nerves and flagging muscles by using stimulants. These only cover up the problem. They never solve it. Alcohol, especially when taken to excess, is definitely harmful. The man who is wise will leave it alone.

For the same reason it is better not to smoke, particularly if you are looking forward to enjoying a long life free from disease. It is no secret that cancer of the lung is becoming more common every day. Men seem to be particularly susceptible to this disease. Those who get it are almost always heavy smokers. Primary cancer of the lung hardly exists among those who do not smoke. (more…)

It is easy to adapt all of the recipes and meal plans. Here are some simple suggestions for making the recipes vegetarian:

• Replace the meat or fish in a recipe with Portobello mushrooms or aubergine, but remember that this will raise the carbohydrate levels in the recipe. You will also need to take extra whey-protein drinks and maybe increase your intake of nuts and high protein snacks to keep your protein levels high enough.

• Cook with tofu instead of the meat or fish. However, tofu has a quarter as much protein per gram as meat and a third as much as most fish. This means that not only should you replace the meat or fish in a recipe with a higher amount of tofu, but you should also add whey-protein powder to the recipe or supplement your meal with a whey-protein shake.

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A tycoon millionairess once told me that she found a business easier to run than a home. I’m sure she’s right. I’ve never yet been able to make the housekeeping show a profit, but my system is to run it in the same way as I run an office, with a planned budget, purchasing and filing department (all me). This is not nearly as clever or complicated as it sounds. Any sane woman in a perfect world wouldn’t bother, but if like me you’ve lost two vacuum cleaners and £140 worth of laundry in one year you’ll know it’s worthwhile.

The equipment: All you need to get organized is a writing surface, a chair, a kitchen drawer, a large cardboard box or a bit of shelf space on which to store two wire office trays or a couple of shopping bags (IN and OUT), eight double-sided envelope files with which to start a filing system, a duplicate book, two notebooks, envelopes and writing paper, a handbag diary and notebook, an address book — and some pretty postcards. (more…)

Women hate being efficient in the home. Lists and routines simply do not fit into the pink-check-gingham.. and-lace mental picture of the soap opera mother, which so many of us were brought up to be. When you become a working mother with any luck you will get twice as much out of life, but you can’t run your house as if you weren’t working. A working mother has to work faster and more efficiently in the home. She has to be twice as reliable outside it because people expect her not to be.

I have evolved my own system, which I slowly slip away from, but it pulls me back to reality at regular intervals, and heaven knows what I would be like without it. (more…)

There are two sorts of crisis: there is the personal one, such as the loss of a job or of a loved one by death or divorce, or the communal one, such as a motorway threat to a village, or a war. But there always seems to be some sort of crisis.

When personal disaster strikes, you probably need sympathy and practical help; but there is a distinct possibility (especially if everyone else is also swimming for the lifeboats) that the only person who is always interested in you, and able to provide you with sustained help is … YOURSELF.

Don’t think ’somebody ought to do something about it’ or `the government should see to it’. Start thinking in terms of self-reliance. What you can do and what you can’t do — that may be all you can count on. Whatever your crisis, force yourself to look cheerful. Shakespeare said: ‘ There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’, and Napoleon added that `the moral is to material as three to one’. I would also say that the quickest face lift is a smile. Go on — try it, just for today SMILE and try to find something good instead of something bad in every new situation. (more…)

First, take a good look at yourself (body, soul and inside skull). Decide what areas could stand a little pleasant improvement. Decide what your life lacks. New friends? Less weight? More fun? Once you’ve decided what you want, stand up, take a deep breath, and S TART.

What you can do inside your home

Make yourself more beautiful: This is basically taking better care of yourself, encouraging healthy narcissism, learning to love and take care of your body, condition your skin and hair. Learn to relax. Take care of yourclothes. (more…)

When, despite all your precautions of good diet, lots of rest, and proper exercise, you do find yourself with a cold or flu, don’t fight it! Listen to Mom and the family doctor, take your medicine, stay in bed, and try to get well. Remember, with a little bed rest and proper treatment, you should be back on your feet again soon.

The best cold-fighting diet is fruits, fruit juices, lots of tea with lemon and honey, and light meals like soups, plain chicken, or fish. Avoid rich foods such as milk, cream, and chocolate, which will only thicken the phlegm in your throat, making you feel worse. (more…)

Unlike an outbreak of ordinary pimples, acne is a severe skin disorder common to adolescents that can be both painful and embarrassing. Many teens who suffer from acne also suffer from real confusion about its causes and proper treatment. According to noted acne expert Dr. James E. Fulton Jr., the disease can be treated effectively. The following is some of his helpful information on what really causes the trouble and on what you can do to fight it.

Acne starts with the pores, well below the skin’s surface and out of reach of both dirt and the drying soaps, tough scrubs, and cleansers commonly used to treat it. Breakouts are triggered by a hormone that stimulates the sebaceous glands so that they produce excess oil. The excess oil then prompts the pores to shed the cells in their lining more rapidly than usual. (more…)

So in personal terms, for the sake of mental and physical health and beauty it is important that every woman develop an awareness of her own personal relationship to stress and come to terms with it. This is all part of what is known as “stress management.” There are many different methods of going about it. If you are familiar with them you can choose which ones work best for you and you will be able to live with your own stress, an inevitable part of every human life, and enjoy it instead of allowing it to turn to distress and make you miserable, ill, and old before your time. (more…)

It is now common knowledge that uncontrolled stress can trigger a great many diseases and disorders—insomnia, gastric ulcers, high blood pressure, asthma, and migraine, to mention just a few. But for a long time these ailments were treated like something over which we had no control. It was assumed that one could only treat their symptoms with drugs, treat the stress that triggered them off with more drugs, and hope for the best. Now, thanks to research into altered states of consciousness and work done with biofeedback, studies have shown that every human being can exercise a high level of conscious control over his nervous system. (more…)

Every woman has two kinds of energy, male and female. Male energy is like the sun—invigorating, stimulating, creative, and powerful. The male postures in yoga call forth this dynamic energy and release it.

Female energy is recuperative, calming, nurturing, and gentle. The female postures are restoring to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga attempts to release male and female energies and ultimately to fuse them in union—to integrate the person.

The first four postures are male. They are done standing and they revitalize you. The last four are female and calming. In order to achieve the best balance and effect, it is best to do them in the order in which Geoffrey recommends them. (more…)

The Body’s Clearing System

While the act of breathing is supplying your cells with the oxygen they need, it is also removing carbon dioxide and wastes from your system. Carbon dioxide is a by-product of oxidation and energy release. If it were allowed to build up it would poison the cells and eventually kill them. So tiny blood vessels carry the waste back to the lungs, where it is eliminated when you breathe out and exchanged for new oxygen when you breathe in. At least that is how it should work.

In most women, however, this vital process of taking in necessary oxygen and eliminating poisonous wastes is neither as efficient nor as complete as it should be. This can be due to many things, from tissue anoxia as a result of a diet too high in fats, from insufficient iron, B12, folic acid, or vitamin E resulting in anemia. (more…)

The first REM period of dreaming usually happens after you’ve been asleep for ninety minutes and lasts for about ten minutes. After that they occur regularly throughout the night, culminating in the longest period (usually about half an hour) just before you wake up.

Although the exact purpose of REM sleep remains somewhat a mystery, researchers know that it is essential for maintaining one’s mental and emotional equilibrium. The need for paradoxical sleep also varies from one person to another. (more…)

Where behaviorist techniques can help change the outer things that affect your appetite and eating patterns, creative imagery can help your inner attitudes. And attitudes are important. For how you see yourself, how you think of yourself, and how you think of food, day after day, has a great deal to say about what you become—fat or thin, in control or out of control, truly responsible for yourself or at the mercy of others and circumstances.

In recent years, many useful techniques of meditation, often coupled with guided fantasy or creative imagery, have been developed. They can be helpful to the dieter in three ways. First, all of them demand the use of some form of deep relaxation practiced twice a day. (more…)