Keep the body moving!!!

People suffering from addiction often suffer from real and phantom pain.  After periods of substance abuse, they have likely neglected to stay physically active.  As a result, they are out of shape and reluctant to get moving.  An important axiom to remember is the following:

"For the body to remain healthy, it must keep moving."
"For the mind to remain healthy, it must be kept at peace."

For people who have arthritis or physical pain, they should be sure to keep exercising and that their exercise routine has these goals in mind:

1. A better range of motion (improved joint mobility and flexibility). To increase one's range of motion, one should move a joint as far as it can go and then try to push a little farther. These exercises can be done any time, even when the joints are painful or swollen, as long as you do them gently.
2. Stronger muscles (through resistance training). Fancy equipment isn't needed.  A person can use his or her own body weight as resistance to build muscles. For example, the simple exercise described below can help ease the strain on knees by strengthening your thigh muscles. Sit in a chair. Now lean forward and stand by pushing up with the thigh muscles (use your arms for balance only). Stand a moment, then sit back down, using the thigh muscles only.
3. Better endurance. Aerobic exercise — such as walking, swimming, and bicycling — strengthens the heart and lungs and thereby increases endurance and overall health. Stick to activities that don't jar your joints, and avoid high impact activities such as jogging. If you're having a flare-up of symptoms, wait until it subsides before doing endurance exercise.
4. Better balance. There are simple ways to work on balance. For example, one should stand with weight on both feet. Then try lifting one foot while you balance on the other foot for 5 seconds. Repeat on the other side. Over time, work your way up to 30 seconds. Yoga and tai chi are also good for balance.

These exercises create a sense of well being emotionally as well as physically.

Martin Luther King Day

Natural Remedies for High Bad Cholesterol

Cholesterol! It’s the evil substance plugging arteries everywhere, and statins are the drug industry’s Drano. Even orange juice is jumping on the bandwagon! What did Americans do before the advent of plant oils, margarine, cholesterol-free soy protein, fat-free dairy, and statins? Back when they lived on beef and lard and salt pork and butter and cream and there was no 1% milk to be found, how did they manage their cholesterol? Whatever did they do?
Oddly enough, one thing they didn’t do was die of heart disease.
Cholesterol, and saturated fat, are not necessarily unhealthy. People who eliminate trans fat and carbohydrates from grains (soda, pasta, bread, desserts) see major drops in bad cholesterol and triglycerides despite continuing to eat cholesterol-rich foods like red meat, eggs, cream, and butter. In fact, there’s good reason to question the reigning “lipid hypothesis“, which posits that dietary cholesterol clogs the arteries and leads to heart disease. LDL (bad) cholesterol builds up in the arteries not from how many omelets you eat, but in response to inflammation. This is triggered by a diet high in trans fat and processed carbohydrates, not saturated fat.
If you want to lower your cholesterol, what you’re really talking about is improving your health and reducing your risk of heart disease, right? Right. So be sure that along with lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol you boost good (HDL) cholesterol and control inflammation.

These foods will help you do just that!

1. The grain issue.
Most cholesterol-lowering guides will recommend that you switch refined carbohydrates to whole-grain carbohydrates (such as whole-wheat pasta and whole-grain bread). If you’ve been living on a diet of starchy carbohydrates, this switch will help lower your cholesterol. But to really lower your cholesterol – and reduce inflammation, which is just as significant to heart health and more significant for overall health – eliminate grains entirely. Yes – you read that correctly. Here’s why you need to banish even complex grain carbohydrates from your diet.
2. Eat fruit instead of guzzling juice.
If you are going to eat something sweet, first make sure it’s fruit instead of desserts and candies. But choose fruit, not fruit juice. The benefit of fruit comes from the fiber, so if you drink juice, you’re losing that wonderful benefit and essentially drinking sugar water.
3. Eat at least 5 servings of vegetables daily, and work up to 9.
Good ones are colorful bell peppers, chili peppers, and broccoli.
4. Raise your good cholesterol!
We tend to focus on the negative, but it’s equally important to raise your good cholesterol. Do this with a daily serving of essential fatty acids from avocados, nuts, olive oil, nut oils, and nut butters.
5. Take advantage of every opportunity for Omega-3′s.
Switch from regular eggs to DHA-enhanced eggs. They’re all over the place and relatively inexpensive.
6. Fish: the multi-tasker.
Eat wild, fatty, cold-water fish and consider a fish oil supplement. (Best bets: wild, Alaskan salmon, wild mackerel, Nordic sardines.) Fish is the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acids, so aim for two or three portions a week. Make sure you choose wild, cold-water fish to reduce exposure to chemicals like mercury.
7. Garlic.
Garlic is wonderful for your cardiovascular system and as part of the allium family of plants it’s a natural anti-inflammatory. Other great foods that reduce inflammation: ginger, curry, and chili peppers.
8. Onions ‘n things.
Whether it’s scallions, leeks, chives, white onions, red onions, or shallots, these flavorful bulbs are terrific for quelling inflammation and healing your arteries. Onions also contain high levels of quercetin, an important flavonoid that reduces cholesterol. Try to eat some every day.

In general, focus on eating only fresh, whole, unprocessed foods: meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, legumes, fruits, and nuts.

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cholesterol-fighting-foods/#ixzz2qbCeboHH

Remember - God Will Provide

I think FEAR is the greatest evil in life. It holds us back from joy and deprives us of opportunity and adventure.  The greatest fear for many alcoholics or addicts is that 1) I will either lose what I have, or 2) never get what I want.

My sponsor will ask "Have you asked God to help you? Have you prayed for God to help you?" Relying on God for the guidance to deal with our problems seems way too simple and maybe an easy out.  Yet, for many of us, we spend years looking to alcohol, or drugs, or food, or relationships for the solution to the ache that never left.  It never occurred to us that God might be willing to provide help, support, strength, guidance and courage, if only we earnestly ask for help.  I finally did ask God for help to take away my obsession to drink and it happened.  I have asked God for many opportunities and guidance and understanding - and my prayers were answered.  Yet, still I often forget to ask God for help.   It has never been in our nature to keep our lives simple.  But in recovery, we practice keeping it simple.

We need to choose, daily, to believe that God can, will, and does provide for our needs.  Most of us have not had a spiritual experience that may be supremely profound.  However, we must decide to trust and allow the proof of our faith to present itself.  By looking to God on a daily basis to guide us and protect us, we can see the tangible proof of this.  A moment of quiet and a prayer is that that is required to start.  In my darkest, loneliest days, I now remember that God is never more than a word and prayer away.  

HELP ME TO REMEMBER THAT GOD CAN PROVIDE, GOD WILL PROVIDE, AND GOD DOES PROVIDE.

Who are you?

Treatment is really about self-discovery. Recovery takes place after one decides to become sober or free of his or her addiction.  Self-discovery is part of the recovery process. In recovery, we find out who we really are.  Here is a start:
                                                  

1.                   If you could do any other work than the work that you do, what would it be?

2.                   If you could live in another country other than the United States, where would you want to live?

3.                   If you could have one super-power, what would it be?

4.                   What do you fear most in your life?

5.                   What is the most courageous thing you have every done?

6.                   What do you think you need to change in your life to live sober?

7.                   Describe your higher power in a few words?

8.                   What do you like most about yourself?

9.                   To whom do you owe the greatest amends and why?

10.               Have you ever experienced a miracle?

11.               If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

12.               What are you must grateful for in your life?