"Fit, Fun and Faith"

This is a 40 minute presentation by Dr. Amen. It is well worth the time! In this presentation, Dr. Amen discusses how important it is to take care of our brains, how to take care of our brains, and what problems an unhealthy brains will create. Topics covered are weight loss/obesity, anxiety, depression, personality issues, Alzheimers, sleep apnea, addictions, and so forth.  His lecture is very practical and easy to understand. Enjoy!

Tailored Treatment for Weight Loss and a Healthier Body

This video clip is from Rachael Ray's show! It involves a brain scan of a woman in the audience who is trying to lose weight. Dr. Amen is able to give her tailored advice for weight loss based on her scan. Finally, a way  to lose weight that makes sense and doesn't involve unnatural pills! I love how Dr. Amen works in that he is one doctor who actually gets to the root of issues instead of throwing meds at the symptoms. Awesome!

To see what type of over-eater you are, visit http://www.theamensolution.com/home_new/. Do a quick sign-up and begin your test. I took the test just now. The results gave me tailored information for how to get those out-of-balance areas of my brain back to optimal function. The test also told me what specific kind of eater I was.

Like I said in my last post, Dr. Amen's book, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" was definitely life-changing for me. I have heard a lot of good things about his other books, specifically "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" which is featured in this interview with Rachel Ray.

Now for the interview, part 1 and 2:

Our Brain Determines Who We Are, What We Struggle With

In this 6 minute video clip, Dr. Amen first gives an example of a married couple who have been seeking marriage counseling for three years, to no avail. Dr. Amen scans their brains and finds that the cause of their problems has much of its roots in the damage done to the husband's brain by the chemicals he's exposed to at his work. In the rest of the video, Dr. Amen takes a step back and looks at how our brains determine our personalities, the struggles we deal with, the strengths we have and so forth. Dr. Amen is a physician, psychologist, medical director of Amen Clinics, Inc. and "a pioneer in brain imaging research and is the author of over thirty professional papers and twenty-two books, including the New York Times bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, as well as Healing ADD, Healing Anxiety and Depression...and the latest book, Sex on the Brain." (1)

I highly recommend his writings. He is gifted at making complex information extremely easy to understand. Yet more than that, his writings (particularly through his book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life) have had a major influence in helping me overcome many of my issues and also in helping me have more compassion for myself by realizing that not everything is a spiritual issue. I have also used much of the information I've learned from him, to counsel the mothers of students I tutor who are struggling in school. Dr. Amen is particularly focused on healing ADD/ADHD. The great thing about Dr, Amen, is that he gives information on how to treat things naturally, which he always recommends to do first. Then he proceeds to give information on the correct medications to use should the natural route fail. Out of all the books I've ever read, I believe that Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, is a resource that should be in every person's home library. Yes it's that good!

1. Henslin, Earl. This is Your Brain on Joy

Yummy Blended Drinks!

Hey guys! I know this is celebrate your uniqueness weak, but I got a little side-tracked! Being reminded that my waist size is now significantly over 32" (which is what it should be for my height), I am now more motivated to eat healthier and exercise--also my New Year's Resolution. But it's been so hard to get going. I've been so exhausted! Ok enough excuses.

Anyway, I'll get to the point. For those of us women who work, there is nothing worse then coming home to then continue standing on our feet and cooking! Try looking for more one-pot meals and simply your life. Better yet, make your own raw veggie/fruit drinks in the morning and skip the veggie side for the evening. If you are like me and hate chopping up vegetables, preparing them and then cooking them (which makes meal prep longer, makes more dishes to wash, and reduces the amount of benefit from the veggies); then consider blended drinks. I have been doing that lately. On the days when I do it, I have instant energy. And oh man, for someone that gets quite overwhelmed with cooking and making sure I get enough water or fruits and veggies throughout the day, blended drinks free me of so much mind space! This is one of those major time and mind-space savers that I've ever come across. I make smoothies and a drink my family likes to call "fiber drink." Many friends of the family have tried this drink including several picky eaters. At first it was weird to most people, but almost all of them have slowly come around to enjoying it. My husband and entire family loves it. Fruit and veggie drinks are the quickest, easiest, hassle free way to get large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables into my body. So I want to share the recipes with you:

Smoothies: Whatever fruit you have available (I use frozen)
                   Yogurt
                   Whey Protein (if you are allergic to milk, try soy protein) optional
                   A little water (to get your blender going)

                   Crushed Ice (unless you are using frozen fruit which will make your drink cold and icy anyway)

Fiber Drink: 1 banana
                     Handful of Pineapple
                     Handful of baby carrots or 1 carrot
                     1 Stalk Celery (we omit)
                     A little water
                     Crushed Ice (The secret to a great fiber drink is lots of ice!)

*We got this recipe from a holistic doctor our family frequented. He specially formulated this concoction, claiming that they all work together to remove the body of toxins. Actually he says 1/2 an apple but we use 1. Anyway, the pineapple breaks up our muscles to allow toxins to move through and that's all I remember of what each fruit/veggie does :)

I am going to try Dr. Oz's Green Drink as well or I may just play around with adding spinach or parsley to the fiber drink. Once you get going on these drinks, you can save less time with dinner by skipping on veggie prep and baking. You can then proceed to enjoy your evening! The girl in the link below has already tried Dr. Oz's drink and made a few modifications based on what she had. This is what she has to say about it:

Trying Dr. Oz's Green Drink 

Here's Dr. Oz talking about his blended drink and what to eat before and after exercising. It was an informative clip for me.


Dr. Oz's Green Drink

If you end up trying any of these, do let me know how utterly fabulous it is to save time and worry with these simple healthy drinks! Also, other yummy blended drink recipes appreciated!

Picture 1:  http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1366&bih=646&tbm=isch&tbnid=MxF5nNWYbQDzFM:&imgrefurl=http://momsgoinggreenblog.com/%3Fp%3D1118&docid=K4M-zGGi_2uKhM&imgurl=http://momsgoinggreenblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Dr-Oz-Green-Drink-Recipe.jpg&w=301&h=274&ei=VawHT-T4JcPi0QG35cGxAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=767&vpy=149&dur=413&hovh=138&hovw=159&tx=98&ty=115&sig=106167271823105827035&page=1&tbnh=138&tbnw=159&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

Picture 2: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5262203493301676232