HEALTH: Resonating with what we want instead

We’re all drawn to certain things – particular colours, certain kinds of music, special friends. We sometimes say we feel like we 'resonate' with them – and we’re quite right, we do: we are on the same wavelength.

The trouble is, we not only resonate with things that are good for us (things, ideas, places and people that bring us greater health and energy), but also with things that are bad for us (they make us unwell, off balance, disoriented).

HEALTH: Exercise ...even a few minutes

There’s a great story about Mahatma Gandhi being asked by a mother, “Please tell my son to stop eating sugar.” He told the two of them to come back the following week. When they came before him again, he said gently: “My child, try to eat less sugar.” The mother asked why he had not said that the previous week, and Gandhi explained: "At that time, I was still eating sugar myself."

HEALTH: Sunlight

I've never forgotten reading about someone with multiple sclerosis who spent hours outside every day, sitting or lying in dappled sunlight or shade ~ and credited the sunlight with their recouperation from MS.

HEALTH: Food ~ high fats and low carbs or...?

The meat and dairy industry has bombarded us for decades on the health benefits of eating foods that are high in protein (meat, fish, cheese, eggs) and high in calcium (milk, cheese, yogurt) every day, preferably several times a day. But anywhere in the world where people eat the Standard American Diet (SAD), you’ll find obesity and ill health. Visit Japan (by internet if not in person) and you’ll see American-sized overweight teenagers. Closer to home, ask any of your overweight friends or relatives how often they eat any of these high-protein or high-calcium foods: Once a month? Or once or more a day?

HEALTH: Diets ~ which one?

There are hundreds of products and programs out there for losing weight and gaining weight, but it's questionable whether they contribute anything to our overall health. How do we know what is healthy and what isn’t?

HEALTH: Five variables

I didn’t get how dangerous weight can be until I read about sleep apnea.

It's one thing to know that when you are overweight you are more at risk for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and certain types of cancer: those are things everybody may face down the road sometime, if ever. But obstructive apnea is right here and now: a risk of dying anytime you go to sleep… Wow, that really hit home.