It’s called “The Art And Science Of Low Carbohydrate Living”  by Jeff S. Volek PhD, RD &  Stephen D. Phinney, MD, PhD

I’ve ordered a copy and thought you may appreciate getting a heads up too.

Below you will find  a YouTube clip I found with a 30 minute interview with Stephen that explains the essential parts of the book and their recommendations on how to master the art and science of low carbohydrate living for the long term.

He clearly explains why it’s a moderate protein intake not a high protein intake that we need and why the bulk of our calories need to come from primarily monounsaturated fats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkdFkPxxDG8

Main Applicable Points:  (the why you’ll need to get by listening to the above)

1.  Low carbs – 5% of calorie intake.  A variety of low carbohydrate vegetables and berries.  So we can keep in nutritional ketosis.

2.  Moderate protein – 15-20% of calorie intake.

3.  High fat – 70-80% of calorie intake.

Pretty much inline with everything I’ve talked about: http://daragrennie.com/evolving-food-pyramids

But now we have a lot more research to back it up so we can counter those gremlin doubts in the mind and those cast by the continuing barrage of high carbohydrate propaganda from agencies that should know better.

Probably one of my main takeaways from the video is that 1 day off the diet takes 2-4 weeks to get your body back to the ketoadapted state!

One of the most interesting things for me here is the image of 9 cups of veggies and fruits a day that Terry  portrays to help us get an easy handle on how much veggies to eat.  3 cups is a dinner plate, heaped high.

3 cups of greens – kale, parsley, cooked greens, smoothies and greens, dehydrator kale chips (I’ll have to try those sometime:)!)

3 cups of sulphur rich vegetables – cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, rutabagas, radishes, collards and kale, onions, garlic, shallots, mushrooms and asparagus

3 cups of 3 different colours everyday – vegetables – beets, carrots, peppers, red cabbage, berries and brightly coloured fruits like peaches and oranges.

She also recommends wild fish/grass fed beef daily and organ meats once a week.  Plus seaweed.

Pretty much what I suggest in Evolving Food Pyramids

I loved the part when she talked about realizing that she should probably get her long list of vital nutrients from foods rather than supplements and that if she did that she’d “probably get hundreds maybe thousands of other compounds that science had yet to name and identify but would be helpful to my brain and my mitochondria”.

You know I have to wonder if so much is recommended simply because our soils and therefore our veggies don’t have the nutrients in them that they used to have.   It has been said that it you have to eat 9 times the amount of spinach now to get the same amount of nutrients as a single measure gave to our grandparents.  Which is one reason why, along with as Terry said for all the things we don’t even know are in food yet, that I recommend everyone tries Body Balance.

If you haven’t got back into a healthy eating pattern for the new year may this help inspire you to make this year a good one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc

p.s.  As Terry said looking after yourself will cost more than not looking after yourself.  The choice as she says is whether we pay now to eat well or we pay later in medical fees etc.  The problem is many do not have the budget to cater for that or the possibility of increasing their income, so they can.  If this is you and you’d like some help with that, this may not be for you but it’s well worth looking at.

If it is, read on.  There’s a link below to a free course that can deepen and enhance the way you look at yourself and the world.  But first let me explain how I found it or at least re-found it.

Click here to view

The brain indeed is more plastic than has been thought. There is lot’s of interesting research showing pathways in the brain are changing all the time rather than being fixed in concrete.  Which is good news for everyone:)!

The basic breathing meditation shown in the newsclip is great to use. Try it for yourself. Get comfortable cross legged or in a chair. Sit upright, use a lumbar support if needed, and get your head in a weightless position. I find it easier to do that if I tip my head slowly forward and backward and feel the point where it becomes weightless. That’s the place you want it to be. Then focus on your breath.

Breathing to a count of 8.
Inhale: A hundred and 1, a hundred and 2, a hundred and 3
Exhale: A hundred and 4, a hundred and 5, a hundred and 6 a hundred and 7, a hundred and 8.

Full body breathing, slightly faster on the inhale. Focus on enjoying the experience. Don’t try to make something happen. And when your mind wanders bring it back to your breath.

Do that for 5-15mins and ‘see’ what happens.

On top of that here are my two favourite meditation tools:

Abraham’s Guided Meditations: http://www.abraham-hickslawofattraction.com/lawofattractionstore/product/GM-1.html

See what Abraham says about it. Parts of this are poignantly hilarious.  You’ll see it through the “Getting Into The Vortex: The Big One” link on this page: http://www.lawofattractioninteraction.com/meditation-cd-long.php#

And Project Meditation’s brain syncing soundtracks have been proven to sync the right and left hemispheres.  It’s an amazing sensation to feel that happening and I just love the ‘connected feeling’ I get when I use it

Touching, poignant story, perfect song choice and wonderful audience and panel response.

Enjoy:)!

Because I’m more visual than auditory I’ve transcribed it below.

“It is not possible to give up on a good dream.  You have no choice but to line up with it.  You’ve got to go with your desire in order to feel good.  You have to give in to it.

Why would you give up on something that matters so much?

Your desire will not torture you or misbehave.  It is real, it’s in the vortex, you can have it. Line up with it and then revel in the evidence of your alignment.

You will never be able to breathe a full breath or be who you are unless you line up with it.  Give in to the success of your dream and watch the resources of the universe back you up.

You want to line up with the dream enough that the inspiration to act is called through you.  It really doesn’t take as much as you think to line up with the dream.  If you want it you can have it but you’ve got to find some way of believing that you can have it.

Let your dream live a little bit…  Then you get an impulse to work on some part of it.  Because it will come in little pieces of insight and you just want to capture that.  So as you are capturing them, it’s not like you need to capture them in order to not forget them, it’s that in the capturing of them you keep them active within you for a little bit longer.  Remember what you want is already done over here vibrationally, all of these processes are just to keep yourself happily in the vibrational vicinity of them.

Many of you through your life experience have come to these principled determinations that is not serving you well at all.  When you get involved in the actual details of how it’s going to come about, you shoot yourself in the foot and you mess it all up.  The specifics will reveal themselves to you at the precise moment that you are ready for them.  You just don’t have to figure all that stuff out yet.

What you do have to figure out is that you have a dream and it’s a dream that you can’t stop dreaming.  It’s been too long in motion and you’re going to line up with it.  And as your dream became reactivated within you, your relationship to it, which has already come to full vibrational fruition, is closer.  So what’s going to happen is, things will begin to manifest.  The first manifestations will be ideas that will begin to flow to you that you will begin writing down but within a day or two or three at the most you’re going to start getting feedback from other people.  People you haven’t talked to in a while are going to show up and ask you how are you doing about this.  Now you’re going to say, it’s rejuvenating, it’s reviving, I’m feeling more alive as a result of it and we want you to watch more closely to what manifestations are.  Manifestations of an idea of your mind.  The first time some person comes to you and mentions this project that they’re aware of who hasn’t been talking to you about it in a while you’re going to feel thrill bumps all over your body and you’re going to say this is a manifestation of my reactivation of my desire.  Then just a steady stream of impulses and ideas will flow to you.  You have not yet conceived of the wholeness of it, there are new venues and new avenues and new insights and new ideas…  this is a whole new project today, more alive, more beautiful than it was last time you addressed it fully.  The fun of this unfolding is what’s going to take place between you and your vortex.

Before the manifestations begin to kick in really big time there’s so much foundation that you are in the process of and the reviving of the dream is not just the first step, it’s the biggest and most important step.  It’s huge you see.  You’ve lined up with your vision, you’ve lined up with your dream.  And the resources that create worlds are now flowing in the direction of you.  From complacent to feeling better to specific… and why do we want you to focus in this specific way?  What’s our objective in getting you to be specific about your dream?  Are we trying to teach you how to get your creation in the marketplace?  What do you think we want for you?

Because a dream that is alive is LIFE:)!

Anything that anybody wants, whether it’s a a creation of a production or a pile of money or a new house or a relationship , everything that everybody wants is because they think they will feel better in the having of it.  You’ve just shown yourself that you can feel better in the having of the dream of it and once you really know that, then the manifestation will follow.  We want you to come into vibrational alignment, we want you to finally be one of the co-operative components to this thing that has been brewing for so long that when it starts rampaging through your mind it’s going to blow your mind how much in there percolating.  You haven’t even begun to tap into the creativity that is there.  It’s just going to be thrilling to you to watch.

You said earlier that you are good at this.  You have no idea of how good at this you are.  You know what happens when you line up with this, do you know how many people are looking for something that they can add their dollars to, that are out there just trolling around vibrationally for things?  There’s all kinds of money just moving around in there and you said where is it, I can’t see it, that’s because you didn’t keep your dream alive for a while.  Once you let yourself yield to the creative juice that are flowing, the next logical step is somebody is going to show up and say ‘I’ve been looking for you, I’ve been waiting for someone who had a dream I could invest in’.  Nobody wants to invest in a dead dream but when you are alive with it, it attracts those who want to play with you and there are so many that want to play in that way.  There are more opportunities for you to do what you do in a very lucrative and productive and passionate way than ever before.

This is the time for your dream to come into fruition but before it does, you just gotta line up with it.”

There you go.  Abraham was obviously speaking to someone in the ‘hot seat’ here but the conversation as it often is, is so universally applicable.

How does that fit with you and where you find yourself with your ‘good dreams’?  Feel welcome to comment below.

And in the meantime, three cheers to your ‘GOOD DREAMS:)!!!’…

I like to look at our various emotions as stepping stones across the current river we are facing, from the side of fear, despair and hopelessness to the other side of hope, empowerment, love and joy.  And I imagine the stepping stones being just far enough apart that you have to step on each one to get to the next.  What that means is – to the degree you have trouble with any of the stepping stones, to that degree it is difficult to get across the river to where you want to be.

In this analogy the idea also is to use the stepping stones to get across the river, not to stay stuck on a particular stepping stone for life.

Having a healthy relationship with each emotion is like creating a path between the stepping stones.   Where there is an easy ebb and flow of emotion as you go into them, through them and learn from them as they support you in your process to get to the other side.

Two emotional ‘stepping stones’ that I know I’ve had trouble with are shame and pride and I’m learning to develop a healthy relationship with them rather than an unhealthy one.

To me shame and pride seem like they are on opposite ends of a scale or a continuum.  Shame being on -10 and pride being on +10.  My tendency is to get stuck on shame.  One of the repetitive lines I remember as I was growing up was “You should be ashamed of yourself!”  And I’ve tended to avoid pride.  As the saying goes, “Pride goes before a fall” so avoid pride at all costs!!!  Just kidding:)!

I’m about to share some of my thoughts on how to get on to and over those stepping stones on life’s journey but before I do why don’t you take a moment to reflect on your own relationship with shame and pride?  Do you avoid them at all cost?  Is there one that you favour?  How do you experience them?   If you want to get more mileage from this, write your thoughts down.

What I find helps is to get some perspective from a higher vantage point.  Some people call this the ‘witnessing’ state but whatever the name, it’s simply the place where you reside inside yourself and can ‘see’ what’s going on with you from a non-judgemental sense.

You can imagine it on paper/screen like this.  From that ‘higher’ vantage point inside yourself you can see where you along the shame-pride continuum.

O

Shame -10 —————————–+10 Pride

A point of note: the aim is not to reside at a point halfway between them called neutral or ’0′ but to honestly feel where you are in each instance, as only from knowing where you are, can you decide where you want to go and effectively move ahead.

The way to be able to step on each of these ‘stepping stones’, so you can get across the river you are facing, is to:

1. Appreciate each for what they are.
2. Appreciate yourself for feeling them.
3. Learn the lesson they hold for you, in the moment you are feeling them, so you can move forward with your life.

I loved how Gary explained the bad science behind the ‘fat is bad for you’ lie and the good science that continues to be swept under the carpet of incredibly ignorant and blinkered public policy that puts the blame where it truly needs to be – with carbohydrates.

If you haven’t read it yet, I’d highly recommend it.

The one thing that was noticeably missing from the book was some real recommendations on  what exactly you needed to do get rid of unwanted body fat along with diabetes, heart disease, many cancers and a host of other things that have been exploding since the recommendations to eat a carbohydrate rich diet has taken a hold of the public mind.

So I was delighted to read his thoughts on that in his latest book ‘Why We Get Fat & What To Do About It’.

It’s shorter, simpler, easier to understand for the lay person but also enough meat (pardon the pun) in it to satisfy any professional.

Basically he’s got the same recommendations as I have.  Below 60 gms of carbohydrate a day for maintenance.  He’s a little more ruthless on fat reduction recommending a maximum of 20gms a day for that compared with ‘Protein Power’s’ 30gms a day max.

And if you are on medication for blood pressure or diabetes make sure you do this in conjunction with your doctor as dropping blood pressure or blood sugar too low has it’s own complications.  Most doctors are still in the low fat high carbohydrate mindset and if they are to effectively help you with this they need to be on board and supportive to what you are trying to do.   He suggests giving them a copy of it which sounds like a good idea to me.

Apart from recommending the books I’ve been wondering how to share some of this information with you.   I wasn’t clear on how to do that best until I came across this interview between Gary Taubes and Dr Mercola.  Enjoy!

You can also read more on Gary’s own site:   www.garytaubes.com or search for his name on You Tube and you’ll see plenty more.

Of course if you like reading, the books are great too.

Good Calories Bad Calories – NZ  http://www.ziwi.co.nz/good-calories-calories-p-355750.html

Amazon –  Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage)

Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It – NZ – Ziwi don’t have it yet but I will recommend they do.

Amazon  -  Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It

The ‘bad’ guy turned out to be Aldara, a lotion that I have used myself for skin spots with my doctor’s recommendation.  I’m certainly glad I didn’t have the experience that others did that are shown in this documentary.

And it was incredibly heartening to hear of an alternative that has worked for others for a broad range of both external and internal cancers.

The well known Australian actor, Tony Barry, fronts this documentary in his inimitable style.

To hear more about it and access the DVD: www.oneanswertocancermovie.com

Hear the testimonies of his cancer survivors and the 20+ year battle that has been going on to shut him down and keep you from hearing about it.

The free to view date has been extended till June 20!   Don’t miss it: http://www.burzynskimovie.com/

It certainly made my blood boil and also gave me hope.  The fact this information is coming to light in such a public way shows me that we are ready to face some ugly truths.  And if we can face these it may mean that we can face some others too.