Patience...patience. Working on my patience of this weather, of Spring arriving. I continue to be aware of the challenge that still exists many days to get up, especially as the Daylight Savings darkness has delayed the morning sun. I’m noticing the lethargy and desire for more energy, the wish to shed the extra layers of clothes and body mass. My eyes search for the slightest hints of Spring, gazing at the bright blue sky, recalling the same view in the warmth of summer. For a moment my body warms. Lovely.
     Along with patience is trust...trust that Spring WILL arrive, that crocus and daffodils will sprout and be among the first to appear, that the trees will soon be a haze of color as buds pop seemingly overnight on tree limbs. I trust that energy in my body and vibrancy in my mind will once again rise me from bed at 5:00 AM, desirous to greet the day with a glowing smile. Chatty birds will accompany me as I sip my coffee on the back porch in the morning, singing Alleluia to the sun!
     In the meantime, I stay with my breath, some days activating diligence and digging deep to “keep on keepin’ on", and careful not to let March Madness follow me into April. April is the month of showers and with that come flowers. Let the blossoms bloom!!
     How have you been fairing this long winter? What exciting or steady things have you done to care for yourself and enjoy what is here? I'd love to hear more so please share here.

Peace and Many Blessings!
Shanti

Shanti Douglas
Mindfulness & Stress Management Coach
Shanti@8limbsHolisticHealth.com
603.228.9007

     I was talking to a group of folks about healthy eating recently and took a quick poll of the crowd - how many eat meat on a regular or daily basis? To my surprise, the majority not only ate meat every day but also took it as a challenge to be meatless even once per week.
     While I’m not here to change anyone’s mind about eating meat, I thought to share some considerations to switch a bit in your diet, even if you only eat meat a few times per week. Meatless Monday has been an awareness movement for quite a while so perhaps this will inspire you to join. There are lots of personal, animal, and global health reasons to lessen our meat consumption so let’s take a look.
     Some RESOURCE considerations:

• According to the United Nations, raising animals for food (including land used for growing feed crops) consumes 30% of Earth’s land mass.
• It takes roughly 12 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of meat.
• 11 times the amount of fossil fuels are required to create the same amount of protein from plants.
• 2,400 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound meat (although some estimates are as high as 5,200 gallons). Wheat takes 25 gallons per pound.
• Livestock consume 16 times more grain than they produce as meat. This means that about 70% of all the grain we produce go to feeding livestock for meat. Seems like a food factory in reverse!
• Energy is a huge consumer even after the meat is grown. Refrigeration, including during transport and in stores, is necessary for meat (but not for grains and beans).

     Consider as well HEALTH. Investigating the life of livestock, the living conditions (“living” being only a term, not an accurate descriptive state) are horrendous. CAFOs, concentrated animal feeding operations, are the housing units in which most commercial meat is grown. (The word “concentrated” reminds me of the Nazi concentration camps.) Packed into restricted areas with no room to roam, the substandard living conditions create fear and stress for the animals. As we know when we are pressured, a variety of stress hormones and energy restrictions create internal chaos and dis-ease. This is no less part of these animals’ lives... and ours when we consume them. Stress is an immuno-suppressant.
     Each year, 30 million pounds of antibiotics are fed to feed animals in order to boost their decreased immune system and to make them bigger faster. For chicken, Prozac may also be part of the medication protocol. A 2012 study at Johns Hopkins University found traces of antidepressants, painkillers, banned antibiotics, and allergy medication. And even with all of these antibiotics, meat continues to be loaded with bacteria including salmonella and E-coli, in turn killing roughly 23,000 innocent consumers yearly.
     Another thing to consider is GMOs / GEs (Genetically Modified Organisms / Genetically Engineered). While you may try to stay clear of them in the fruits, vegetables, and even chips that you eat, know that livestock are fed corn (almost 90% of which is genetically modified) and grain. They are what they eat. We are what we eat. When they eat GMO food, they produce GMO-concentrated meat. Added to that, as both corn and grain are unnatural to their biological diets, their bodies become inflamed and sick, requiring more antibiotics and medications.
     Net result? When we eat most commercially grown meat, we are ingesting more than we bargained for. Also on our plate are GMOs, antibiotics, stress hormones, and fear. With data slowly being reported on the health impacts (we are the longer-term experiment), why wait to make better sense of your eating and health habits?
     Consider instead some HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES and at least once per week go meatless. Monday is a great day to start! Try some of these:

• Buy grass-fed and organic meats. The organic seal ensures that animals were raised without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones.
• Research local farms and shops that sell humanely grown meat. Click HERE for some in your local area. 
• Eat more beans and veggies! These are a fantastic, healthy, cost effective, and creative alternatives to meat with more than enough protein to satisfy our health requirements. With lots of variety and pennies per serving, you can’t go wrong. More HERE for facts on protein sources and HERE for super healthy non-meat protein sources.
  

     Want to learn more on how to take back your health? Click HERE for the list of upcoming education and workshop events. Many are free. Want to change the system? Consumers are a powerful bunch. Big industry changes when their pocketbooks are impacted. Each and every dollar you spend sends a message so spend wisely!

May health be yours! Peace and Many Blessings!
Shanti

Shanti Douglas
Mindfulness & Stress Management Coach
Shanti@8limbsHolisticHealth.com
603.228.9007

     Food is our body's fuel. If we put the wrong things in, it's only a matter of time before systems break down and malfunction.
     GMOs/ GEs are not natural fuel for our body. A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a laboratory process which takes genes from one species and inserts them into another in an attempt to obtain a desired trait or characteristic. This process may also be called Genetic Engineering (GE).
     For instance, inserting arctic fish genes into tomato and strawberry plant genes gives them tolerance to frost. While frost-tolerance may sound reasonable, the actual result of this genetic modification is not. Our body sees these organisms as foreign and begins to attack. As these organisms are in the food we eat, we end up attacking ourselves, resulting in numerous health issues including gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, allergies, unresolved inflammation, and infertility.
     It's estimated that more than 75 percent of the food in supermarkets is genetically engineered or contains GE ingredients. How is that possible? Seven main ingredients consume the majority of genetically modified foods; soy (94%), cotton (90%), canola (90%), sugar beets (95%), corn (88%), Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%), zucchini and yellow squash (over 24,000 acres). Products derived from the above, including oils from all four, soy protein, soy lecithin, cornstarch, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup among others. Read labels - it's everywhere.
     I'm not bringing this to your attention to scare you but to help educate about what's been happening to our food supply, our health system, and our ability to take care of ourselves. The food we eat now is not the food of even 30 years ago. We must know what is happening so we can make healthy choices for ourselves and our families.
     To help educate and also empower, we've begun a movie / information / conversation series. The schedule starts in April and can be found HERE. Looking at this issue with awareness, togetherness, and focus on love and positive change, we can make a difference in the purity of how we live. Please become a part and involved. Our health and safety are at stake.

May health be yours! Peace and Many Blessings!
Shanti

Shanti Douglas
Mindfulness & Stress Management Coach
Shanti@8limbsHolisticHealth.com
603.228.9007