Hello and an update

My posting has been somewhat erratic and for that I apologize. Sometimes life throws us curve balls that need to be honored. In this case...the curve ball was Norm.

I met Norm through my volunteer work in the cattery at the Arizona Animal Welfare League. All spring I've been seeing cats we've rescued from homes abandoned due to foreclosure. Every single one of these cases has been horribly sad...but I wasn't sure what simple me could do about it. Then I met Norm. Norm was left in a home here in Phoenix on June 1--no air conditioning, no food, only toilet water. Someone finally found him in that home on June 26, about as close to death as any living being can get and still breathe. He was so weak, he could not even stand on his own. He's needed two surgeries because his dehydration was so bad his intestines started to stick to each other and cause blockages that prevented him from keeping food down.

I was so upset when I learned of this case I couldn't sleep. I looked online and learned that in my county alone, there are currently over 30,000 foreclosed homes. All I could think about was how many other animals were out there in need of rescue? I didn't care about the overwhelming number. I just cared that someone try to do something.

Then, out of the blue, I found a small link online about a group of real estate professionals who had started a 501(c)(3) organization designed to rescue animals in just these kinds of situations. Long story short, I am now on the board and we're completely focused on lining up foster homes and donations so we can start to do the difficult work of rounding up animals who need us.

If you're interested in helping or donating, our website is soon to go live. You'll find it if you go to Lost Our Home Pet Foundation. In the meantime, you can send donations to 8105 E. Rita Drive, Scottsdale, AZ, or call Jodi Polanski at 480-688-7899 if you have a home to open as a foster.

And Norm? Well, he's been with us for about 3 weeks now, and the clinic staff say when he's completely renourished he's going to weigh about 10 pounds. Right now, after food and IV for 3 weeks, he's only just over 5 pounds. That gives you an idea of just how sick he was when he came into our lives. The main issue right now is that Norm is so playful he's not sitting still the way he ideally would in order to gain all that weight back. But the important thing is, his spirit is back, alive and well, and he's inspired a whole lot of people to step up and work together to prevent such future tragedies.

Now I can get back to the work of posting more information on this blog!

Food of the week: Tabouli

Last night I was cruising the aisles of Whole Foods looking for ideas to talk about in inCYST class. And it jumped out at me. Tabouli! I love tabouli! I love it during the summer because I don't have to heat up my kitchen in order to have a really nice meal. And it's so pretty, with all the vegetables in it. How in the world could I have gotten this far into the summer without remembering to make tabouli?

Tabouli is made with bulgur wheat, which you can buy in most bulk food sections of grocery stores. If you are a tabouli virgin, you can always find the boxed tabouli mix in the rice/grain section of your local grocery store, and the recipe for making it is almost always right on the side of the box.

Nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than tabouli salad in a whole wheat pita with some melon slices on the side.

Here's a recipe if you're ready to try it!
http://www.greatpartyrecipes.com/tabouli-recipe.html

Who succeeds on our program?

I've been busy with individual clients, and it's been very exciting to see how a few simple changes can make significant differences in how they feel, not to mention how their bodies function.

Two recent success stories include a client whose major complaint was constantly feeling tired, so tired she couldn't exercise even when she wanted to. She's sleeping soundly and she's back to walking daily with her neighbor. Another client miscarried awhile back and had not menstruated since. Within a few days, she too was sleeping more soundly, and within 3 weeks had a menstrual cycle.

I have to tell you, this work humbles me. Every single time I walk out of a consultation I take a moment to say a prayer. I know that all I can do is share the information. I cannot do it for anyone, I have to trust that they are going to use the information wisely. My part in this is minor, I just provide information and support. Their part is significant--it is their behaviors that affect their bodies. It's very humbling.

My clients all get the same information and support, but there's definitely a difference between those who succeed and those who don't. The ones who succeed--follow the program. Not for a day or two, not just on days when they feel good, not just when it's convenient, but every day. It is the most important determinant of success. There is not a quantity of knowledge I can impart that can ever overcome or undo what not using that knowledge has the power to do.

We can give you menus, we can give you calculations, we can tell you which stores to shop in. But if you choose not to eat the food...we can't help you to succeed.

It's not so much about giving US a chance to help you...it's about giving yourself a chance to help yourself.

You can do it. One choice, one step, one day at a time. And you can succeed.

Food of the week: Tilapia

I wanted to share some thoughts about tilapia since a study just came out suggesting that it may not be a "healthy" fish, because its ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids was too high.

A few years ago I was looking for information on the fatty acid content of tilapia. It was nearly impossible to find. I did manage to find a tilapia researcher, Kevin Fitzsimmons, who makes a living helping countries develop tilapia farms for economic development.

He told me that the fatty acid content of tilapia varies from farm to farm and it is dependent on the market the tilapia are being sold to. For example, tilapia grown to be sold in China is actually very lean, because the Chinese like to make soups with their fish. Tilapia sold in the United States is very fat...because like everything else, Americans have to have fat, juicy, oversized portions of it.

So if an American researcher took a sample of American tilapia from just one farm, that had been fattened up to make the American consumer happy...OF COURSE this is what she would find if she analyzed the tissue!!!

We do the same thing to livestock. We fatten them with omega-6 predominant grains, then we complain that they're not good for us. I find it interesting that we mess with nature like this, then point the finger at nature when the food supposedly becomes a problem.

It's probably hard to do, and maybe that should be one of my projects, to find out what kinds of feed are given to tilapia at which farms. Maybe there are better ones out there who just didn't know they needed to promote their superior feed.

I would not interpret this finding in a completely negative fashion. Tilapia is a non-fishy tasting fish that has much potential for getting people who don't eat fish to even try it...once in awhile, a tilapia filet is fine. And in the meantime, maybe tilapia farmers can work to improve the quality of the food they feed their fish, so it contains the fatty acid balance that makes it a perfectly fine food choice.

Are you a woman in south-central Wisconsin with PCOS? Then you're needed for a study!

The University of Wisconsin is seeking non pregnant, non lactating, women with and without PCOS, age 18-38 years for a research study about metabolism. To be eligible for this study you must:


· Not have diabetes or a significant change in weight in the past month

· Not be currently taking medications for diabetes, depression, weight loss or hormonal birth control

· Be willing to participate in a hospital stay lasting approximately 26 hours.

Office visits and medical evaluations will be provided at no cost. Participants will receive compensation for their time.

For more information about this study please call:

(608) 262-9745

An interesting way to improve your chances of successful fertilization--and it has to do with sleep!

You all are must be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired of hearing me talk about the benefits of sleep. But I work with a sleepless population and it takes a few times to present my case before I make my point. I figure if I hammer at this from as many different angles as I can, and present as many examples of how poor sleep quality can interfere with your health, at least one of my examples will hit home and inspire you to consider your sleep habits and choices.

This doesn't bode well for Jay Leno and David Letterman...unless they team up with TiVo for advertising!

Women whose eggs had been examined and found to be of poor quality had those eggs examined by researchers. It was found that levels of chemicals indicative of oxidative stress were higher in those eggs than they were in the eggs of women whose eggs had been determined to be of good quality.

Taking this one step further, 18 women with low quality eggs were divided into one of three groups and given one of the following 3 regimens: (1) 3 mg melatonin per day, (2) 600 mg vitamin E per day, or (3) 3 mg melatonin AND 600 mg vitamin E per day. Oxidative stress markers were reduced in all three scenarios.

And THEN...in the final phase, 115 women who had not become pregnant with in vitro fertilization (IVF) were divided into two groups. The first group received 3 mg melatonin per day and the second group received no supplement. Melatonin significantly improved the rate of fertilization.

The researchers concluded that oxidative stress (which is what happens when you stress all day and don't sleep well all night), damages the quality of eggs. They also concluded that melatonin supplements can help improve fertilization rate.

Just a note--take melatonin if you want, but don't lose sight of the big picture. If you backed yourself into a corner because you weren't managing your stress and sleep, a pill may not be the complete solution to the entire problem.

Tamura H, Takasaki A, Miwa I, Taniguchi K, Maekawa R, Asada H, Taketani T, Matsuoka A, Yamagata Y, Shimamura K, Morioka H, Ishikawa H, Reiter RJ, Sugino N. Oxidative stress impairs oocyte quality and melatonin protects oocytes from free radical damage and improves fertilization rate. J Pineal Res. 2008 Apr;44(3):280-7.

Eat patriotically!

I'm not at all a fan of the Food Guide Pyramid or the new My Pyramid. I know too much about the politics of how each food got its position in the diagram. And I know that the concept is promoted by the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Health and Human Services. So it's really about marketing commodities at least as much, if not more than, promoting healthy eating.

Last year at this time it occurred to me that eating patriotically (if you are a citizen of the United States, France, Chile, Czechoslovakia, and the United Kingdom, to name a few), is a fun way to think about what constitutes a healthy choice.

So I went to Google to see if there was anything under the term, "food flag". I found this:








Sausage and pasta were not really what I had in mind, so I scrolled further, and found this:









Absolutely not what I wanted to communicate!

So....I had a little fun and I made my own. I hope you like it!















I posted a bigger version on my website, feel free to use it as long as you keep the copyright notice intact in the lower righthand corner. You can find it at www.afterthediet.com/foodflag.htm.