Finish what is on your plate, children in _______ are starving
In truth, this is not bad advice. Finish what is on our plate. Finish it, then stop.
Put a moderate portion on the plate, and eat until done. Finish what is on the plate. End of meal.
Like any rare and precious item, a non-brimming plate of food encourages us to slow down and savor.
Yes, finish what is on the plate. And enjoy the process!
The mythic mom in the back of our heads nods her matronly approval.
And when we can fill up on gratitude for our daily portion and skip the bloating of overindulgence, our bodies respond with a feeling of lightness.
Am I talking about dieting? No. This is a discussion of lifestyle.
There are moments were the world is suddenly and completely different.
The first moment you noticed her hair falls like a kiss around her shoulders.
The space between breaths, when as a child, you first found balance on a bicycle.
The illumination and heart expanding feeling of getting a vision that launched your desire to quit a job, go back to school, or start a business. To get married, or divorced, or take the long way home.
.
There are moments, pivotable moments, where the world changes in a small, yet deeply profound way. Nothing is really different, yet, you can’t go back to the way things were a moment before.
According to the “Classic of Difficulties”, a Han Dynasty book on acupuncture, the QI is moved instantly when the right acupuncture point is hit. The pulse will immediately change. The body’s organs and energy remember an optimal balance. A few needles and the world is different.
Quietly, but unmistakably different. Like first noticing that you hold your body in a different posture, and then comes the awareness that there is no back pain.
Acupuncture encourages moments like this.
I love watching those Olympic athletes bump through a mogul field, float a corkscrewed flip, land like cat and continue to scream like a banshee down the slope. The way those skaters pull off a triple backward spin and land on a thin edge of steel is truly miraculous. Watching world-class athletes is indeed amazing.
Equally amazing for me were the commercials. Especially the ones for prescription medication that combine the image of a smile-happy patient bouncing through life against the background rapid-fire litany of side effects and cautions.
This product may cause:
Insomnia
Headaches
Diarrhea
Hallucinations
Brest enlargement in men
Anxiety
Suicidal thoughts
Back pain
Blurred vision
Nausea
Constipation
Decrease in sexual ability
Birth defects
Liver damage
Joint aches
Problems if handled by pregnant women
Nose bleeds
Hair loss
Skin rashes
Dizziness
Coughing
Urinary tract infections
Heartburn
Panic attacks
Ask you doctor if this drug is right for you.
Perhaps it is best that we should be ask ourselves if these drugs are right for US.
Are Chinese herbs dangerous? Depends on what you are comparing them to. There were some cases about 12 years ago of a number of patients suffering kidney failure after taking a diet pill that was a compound of various herbs and pharmaceuticals. Indeed there was a Chinese herb involved in the mix that was a known nephrotoxin. It was also an herb that any trained Chinese herbalist would avoid or use with extreme caution as we are aware of its potential dangers.
Are Chinese herbs dangerous? They can have powerful effects, and generally speaking when prescribed by a qualified and skilled practitioner they are quite safe, and effective.
That being said, as with anything posted on the Internet as a miracle cure-all or a medication guaranteed to treat XYZ condition, one should exercise caution in its purchase and use.
At Yong Kang Clinic we use only products that have been tested for contaminates, heavy metals, and are proven to be free adulterates. There are products from mainland China that you should be wary of; you will not find those at Yong Kang.
Have a question about Chinese herbs?Email us! We would be happy to help you enjoy the benefit of 2000+ years of Chinese medical science.
It is one of the most common questions, along with can I take 10 years off my looks, lose the gray hair and increase my my income by 20%. “Can acupuncture help me to lose weight?”
In a word, yes.
And I want to emphasis that acupuncture can help you to lose weight, but it will not magically evaporate body fat. Like in most of life’s endeavors, we are required to show up. Acupuncture regulates the metabolism and improves digestion, both of which are essential to weight loss. Acupuncture helps to diminish cravings and improves awareness of when we are full. In fact, we use acupuncture to help people walk way from the habits of heroin and tobacco. Still, to successfully lose weight, some changes in habit are necessary.
Notice your feeling
The first involves noticing what you do when you begin to feel full. Most of us start to get that “I’m starting to feel full feeling,” and then look at our plate and see if we can stuff in those last 4 or 5 bites. Actually, that “getting full feeling” is a signal that we are about 80% full. Cultures, like those of found in Okinawa of Japan and certain Mediterranean villages where people commonly live into their 90’s or 100’s and tend to be slim and vital have a saying
“eat till you are 80% full.”
When you get that “I’m getting full” feeling it means you are already at 80%. It means that you just took you last bite of that meal. This goes against everything we learned as children, and it goes against the inertia of decades of habit. But, habits can be changed, and acupuncture is helpful for that as well.
What else?
First, get high fructose corn syrup out of your diet. This is easier said than done, as this stuff has seeped its way into a huge amount of prepared foods and drinks. It is worth avoiding as it does not send the “I’m full” signal until you have already eaten over your limit. How bad is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)? Bad enough that the industry has recently launched a HFCS is good for you campaign in response to the increasing studies and observations that this stuff has a significant link to obesity.
. Food products.
Sadly, much of what is offered to us at the supermarket is not food. It is a food product. More the creation of laboratory, than kitchen science. Rule of thumb:if your grandmother would not recognize it as food, it’s not.
Veggies are good for you.
We know this. Our mother’s told us. We tell our children too. But, rarely do we eat enough plants. Modern day solution? Take one of the many “green” powders as a supplement. There are a number of products that you can mix into juice or water and easily drink down a number of servings of fruits and veggies. Yes, it looks like a glass full of pond scum, but your intestines and digestion will love it.
Eat more fiber.
More grandmotherly type of advice. We need a certain amount of dietary fiber for good bowel function, additionally it helps us to have that satisfied full belly feeling without adding calories. The Full Plate Diet site has some useful advice on making small changes that over time lead to significant results. The basic premise is that with some simple substitutions we can both increase our dietary fiber intake and enjoy tasty meals. It simply requires knowing what our options are and then choosing the healthy ones. The great thing about this site is that the authors are not asking us to make huge changes, or start eating less, or eat strange foods that we can not pronounce. The average American, eating an average diet will find help here in widening their fiber rich food choices.
Finally, as I’ve heard a few rather smart people comment; “don’t buy your food where you buy your gas.” There is nothing of true nutritional value to be found at any gas station/convenience store. But, you already knew that, right?
In a future post we will take a look at taking the inertia out of habit
Today is featured a guest post by
Mary Jo Blackwood, RN, MPH.
I spoke with her recently about how acupuncture is useful in treating neck and shoulder pain, and our conversation quickly spilled into a discussion of the responsibility that is ultimately ours having the final say on our health care; that doctors make great consultants, but we usually know much more about your bodies and conditions. And it is incumbent on us take a leadership role
in our health and wellbeing.
****************************************
For years, I have taught a community class called “Getting Healthwise,” how to maximize your health and handle many common health problems as they arise. My audiences range from seniors, to factory workers, parents, and even health care professionals. One of the points we spend time discussing is how to work with your physician as an equal partner. Often, I hear: “But he (or she) is a doctor, and I’m just an ordinary person. How could I possibly question treatment decisions?” To that, I reply:
“Half of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class—and one of them had to be last! But of course your doctor was first in his/her class and has kept up with all the latest developments in that field. Despite all that, you are the expert on your body and how it reacts, what things you have tried in the past and the outcome. If you and your physician do not pool that knowledge and work together, you don’t get the best care, and in fact, it could be downright dangerous.”
When one class participant asked me what she should do if her doctor did not want a partner and preferred to call the shots, my response was to get another doctor. Thankfully, that situation is becoming less and less common, but if you don’t feel your participation is valued and that you are not listened to, my advice still stands.
Of course being a partner doesn’t just give you clout. It comes with certain responsibilities. Once you and your doctor decide on a course of treatment, you have an obligation to follow it and communicate on any progress or lack of progress.
You are also responsible for making sure you fully understand what the doctor is trying to accomplish with this approach, how medications work, and when side effects require follow-up. Just deciding not to follow a particular regimen or to stop taking a medication because you don’t like it isn’t a very smart thing for a partner to do. Work out a regimen you can live with, and that meets your mutual goals. That regimen may include lifestyle changes, medication, and complementary therapies such as offered at the Yong Kang Chinese Medicine Clinic. And make sure every practitioner knows any therapies, medications, or supplements you are taking. That way, your partners are all in the loop!
We all have one. Some of us more so, but everyone has one. An itch. One something that invades our dreams, hijacks our focus as we trudge through the day, or shows up as a constant annoying reminder. We all have something that calls. It could be a score of music, a Texas sized raft of garbage in the ocean, a business that is begging to be created or a lifestyle that provides education to children. It could be a cure for disease, salve for pain, or recipe that nourishes body and soul. We all have an itch, a crack in our view of the world that gives us a constant glimpse of a possibility not yet manifest. We all have something in this world that is our unique gift and path. We all have a sword that can be pulled from a stone; the one that belongs to us.
I suspect it is never given whole and complete. Life provides us with a jigsaw puzzle of inspiration and discontent. It is up to us to piece together that which not yet is, but could be. Could be, if we scratch our itch. Follow the glimpse of our calling. The pied piper dog whistle tune that only we can hear that inspires us to inhabit what others mistake as fantasy. To fall and fail; to relentlessly rise up and continue to hone that desire and calling that is ours, and ours alone.
Courage is not an overwhelming momentary flash of selflessness; courage is the willingness to continue to follow the path in the direction that is uniquely ours. Sail out beyond the map of the world that others have drawn and we believed. There indeed are dragons, and much more as well.
That there is a decision made to break the lizard brained pattern of habituality; it could be something as simple as acquiring a new habit of eating, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, stretching in the morning instead of coffee and e-mail. It could be a larger journey of writing a book or learning to speak in public, changing a career, painting a masterpiece, learning a language or following the heart-dream we put on hold in service of obtaining the illusion of approval.
Ever notice how as we move into something new and exciting vibrant we smash headlong into a wall of resistance? Even as feel a creative burn wells up in our chest, almost immediately following comes a constant chatter of doubt and fear. We commonly make the mistake of thinking that doubt is our smarter self, guiding us away from the disaster of the fall of working without a net.
We can think that, but we would be wrong. Every light casts a shadow, and the light of creativity and growth always calls forth resistance. As Newton postulated in his third law of motion, “for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction”; so too will resistance accompany ANY effort we make at pushing ourselves out of the orbit of accumulated habit. Resistance is not some kind of proof we are incapable, it is the yin/yang nature of the universe letting us know that we have slipped ourselves into gear and are getting some traction. It explains why is it that as soon as there is a trace of movement, our wheels seem hit ice and begin to spin.
Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stick-up man. Resistance has no conscience. It understands nothing but power. Resistance cannot be negotiated with. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.
You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you!
The trick it seems is to not take it personally, and not listen to the reptile brain’s loop-tape of doubt and fear. Whatever the goal, whatever the change we want to inhabit, what is required is the constant putting of one foot in front the other. This is not a Hollywood-like sprint of spirit and success. We are talking effort here. Inertia is a brutal force, and only overcome by constantly coming back, again and again to the task at hand. As a successful artist friend of mine once remarked, “I was an overnight success….after 12 years of hard work.”
Find your guiding star, and watch a thousand excuses suddenly bloom in your mind. Then you know you are on the right track.
A fortune teller I know in Taiwan once reminded me:
Great goals call forth great obstacles
Perhaps the difficulties we face are not indications of the being on the wrong path, but of being on the right one. What is called for is: resolve. Resolve to continue, one foot in front of the other in the direction we have chosen. We need resolutions much less than a guiding vision. A compass more than instructions.
As they like to say in Taiwan; 慢慢來, slowly slowly arrive.
The gray falls wet out of the sky, as the dark of the year slips quietly toward light. It is familiar, the relentless wet; the water that spills, flows, trickles and runs. I’ve spent too many winters bathed in the moist embrace of the Pacific Northwest to not love low gray clouds and mosaics of puddles. I had mistakenly thought I would not miss winter’s long slow rainstorm. Oddly enough, it is like a lingering childhood memory; one that both defines one’s being and stakes a claim on the soul.
.
Rain. It is Nature’s soft piano music. It lacks the jiggle and bell of crisp dry cold.
Soft and relentlessly pitter-patter still. It is a comforting familiar soundtrack to accompany the turning of the year.
Fluency is not a list of words that slide off the tongue in the proper order. It is not simply a matter of dictionaries and definitions. Words are like a signal propagated through a carrier be it radio, wire or light; in life we call that carrier culture. It at times renders words utterly unintelligible.
Anyone who has spend even a just a few days in China knows that when it comes to buying and selling there is no standard of conduct other than make the sale. The seller’s job is to charm as much money as possible from the buyer’s pocket; the buyer’s job is to not let that happen. To me it is a curiosity that I get treated with the same blatant lies and sleazy bullshit that a fresh off the plane westerner would get. My Chinese is not great, but it is passable. Passable Chinese means you probably have been lied to, ripped off, and cheated enough times to learn a lesson or two about buying and selling in the middle kingdom.
That is what I would think; what I think happens to be completely wrong.
Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, every business transaction is the repeat of a conversation that has long long ago lost its freshness. I know the dance by heart, but that does not excuse me from having to tippity-tap my way through every buying transaction as if it was my very first day in Beijing. One would think I’d have surrendered long ago to the inevitable. I’m like Charlie Brown thinking that at last I am going to kick that football; optimism can be a sad, sad disease.
The trick is to translate meaning, not words.
Vegetarians have a terrible time in China, and we had some in our group these past two weeks. No one here really understands that a human being could possibly voluntarily not eat meat. Perhaps some odd Buddhist monk or nun, but they are strange ghosts in a country purged of any kind of spiritual impulse. So the words “I want a vegetarian dish” gets translated as “I want a dish with vegetables.” The phrase “we have people here at our table who don’t eat meat” apparently evaporates before it can whisper up against the eardrum of the waitstaff.” The phrase “we want this dish to be ENTIRELY without meat” does not include the little shrimp or bits of pork that are “spices, ” of course they must be added or the dish would not be delicious.
There is a phrase in Chinese “mei ban fa.” There is nothing you can do about it.
There is nothing you can do about being lied to about the quality, or lack there of, in the purchase you are about to make. There is nothing you can do about being quoted prices 4 to 5 times higher than you should pay. There is nothing you can do about, being butted in front of as the concept of lines does not exist in mainland Chinese thought. There is nothing that can be done to avoid questions of “how do you like China?” Innocent questions that remind me that while I have experience in the middle kingdom, the middle kingdom still does not have that much experience with outsiders.
Deng Xiaoping may have thrown open the doors to the dragon empire 30 years ago, but there there are still invisible barriers of culture and habit that protect China against the foreign invasion.
I may have some grasp of Mandarin, but my “Chinese” still needs some work.
