In this edition:

1. Personal update:
2. Monthly Maxim: Whole and raw – yum yum
3. Feature article: A new beginning for your health in 2008 - The one motivation to get it right this year
4. Recipes: Lunchbox ideas
5. Business Bite:
6. Healthy Talk Calendar

1. Personal update:

Now we are ready for a new year and a new beginning, with an emphasis on building rich healthy relationships. Starting from our family as a core and working outward.

Benjamin is back at playschool, proud to carry his own bag with lunch box and bottle. Daniel is also going every day for the first time. This leaves time to dream and think big. To improve my business and continue to bring you the best in practical tips and inspirational bits.

Let's create a community of healthy feeders and eaters and support one another in making informed responsible choices.

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2. Monthly Maxim: Whole and raw – yum yum

Read about all 12 Principles here

This month the maxim is: Eat the least refined product, as close to whole and raw as possible. Refining and processing removes much of the goodness mother nature puts into the food.

Examples:

• Essential oils in grains are removed to prolong shelf life,
• Fruit & veg loose important vitamins when peeled, cooked or frozen,
• Fat and oil turn carcinogenic when heated.

Also, the more processed the food, the more likely it is to contain harmful additives.

Here is some ideas for implementing this maxim:

• Eat brown sugar, rather than white, Of course raw honey is even better.
• Choose whole-wheat rather than white bread.
• Try coarse mealie meal rather than fine (Except very young children whose digestion cannot stand too much fibre, but please avoid sugar altogether).
• Eat fresh fruit rather than stewed/dried.
• Enjoy raw veggies like carrot sticks/green beans rather than cooked. Of course eating cooked fruit or veggies is better than eating none at all.
• Buy fresh organic chicken rather than chicken sausages, but sausages rather than viennas/poloni. In fact, studies have conclusively tied processed meat of all kinds to cancer particularly childhood leukemia, so please avoid altogether.
• Drink cold pressed fruit juice, rather than regular. Get a juicer and juice it yourself for maximum benefit and flavour.
• If you have to consume processed foods, take them in the form of whole food supplements like the GNLD range.

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3. Feature article: A new beginning for your health in 2008 - The one motivation to get it right this year

I learnt this very important principle last year this time as I was trying to finish my PhD. I had submitted my thesis for evaluation the year before and it had come back with a list of 50 books they wanted me to consult and cite. They also wanted me to adjust a big part of the work to line up with the extra research. This is not a unique outcome for PhD evaluations and nor would it be a total train smash for an ordinary post grad student.

However, I had 3 complicating factors: 1. I am partially sighted and I can not read book print, so all had to be scanned into computer and read to me by the computer voice. Both these processes are timeconsuming and time was the one thing I did not have, 2. I was running out of money and had to start working on my own business to take over from bursaries which had funded me up to that point, 3. I was 6 months pregnant with my second baby, and I had my first born, then 2 and a half already running around.

But I was not without plan and without hope. I had already scanned all the reading, appointed an assistant to help me, placed my zippy tot in a playschool for a half day and was taking all the right supplements to keep me and my baby happy and healthy.

But, I had no motivation, absolutely none.

Then a dear friend asked me the crucial question: "Why do you want this PhD? Why not just let it go?"

It was my answer to this question that brought me to understand that one needs only one reason to do something and that one reason needs to be of a particular sort. I will tell you in due course what it was. Suffice it to say it was strong enough to help me finish the thesis before my baby was born and receive my degree with a roaring report from the examiners. Today I want to help you begin to find the one reason, the one motivation that is strong enough to get you to where you want to go.

It is not about wanting, but about being

How many of you had ever made a resolution, started out well and then lost momentum and motivation along the way? Doesn’t that make you want to quit trying? I am here to tell you how to make resolutions and stick to them. But let’s hear some of the things you have set as goals for yourself this year...Share with me some of your resolutions...what do you want to achieve?

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Do you want to lose those 15 kilograms that have been creeping up on you over the last few years? Is it the preggy tummy flab you want to shake? Do you want to cut out dairy to see if it helps you to have more energy?

First of all, if you say "I want to..." What you will achieve is to keep wanting it. If you say "I will try to..." You will achieve trying.

Change the wording to "I am", or "I will" e.g. I am losing 7 kilograms this year and tightening up my mummy tummy". By the way, this is my goal. But even the right wording will not take you all the way.

The trick is the answer to the question: why?

Why are you going to do this? Why do you want to lose 15 kilograms? Let me hear some of your reasons.

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Here are some reasons people have mentioned to me: I want to minimse the risk of heart disease; I want to have more energy; I want to feel better about myself. All of these are excellent reasons, but none of them will be strong enough. They are not of the right kind.

The problem with these 'good reasons' is that they can all be contradicted with good excuses.

I made a list of all the reasons why I wanted to finish my PhD: Because it would open doors; it would give me credibility; it would make my family proud; it is a once in a life time opportunity and I had come too far to stop...yak yak yak.

None of these reasons, good ones though they are, was strong enough. I could come up with counter arguments for each one: many people are successful without any schooling; credibility is not in your stripes, but in your experience; my family will be proud of me either way if I do the right thing etc. In fact, we can come up with counters for all the reasons we have for health goals too e.g. one of my reasons for losing 7 kilograms is that I want to feel good and happy about myself. A good excuse that undermines this reason is that I ought to feel good and happy with myself wheather or not I am fat or thin.

Let me give you other examples: I want to minimize the risk of disease. Contradiction: I should not be motivated by fear, or be worried about something that might never happen. Look at grandpa, he lived a ripe old age and still enjoys his coffee and cigar.

What about: I want to have more energy. Contradiction: It might not work and then I have deprived myself for nothing, or I have tried before and it didn't work why would it be any different now?, or I am so busy and my life is so full that perhaps I should do it when I can give it proper focus. Blah...blah....blah.

It really is irrelevant what the excuses are, the point is that as long as the debate continues in your mind, there will be no positive action. As long as your mind cannot make itself up and pick a side, you will be continuing on the path you are already on and perhaps even be going downhill.

In ancient times there was an execution method, I believe it was invented by the Persians, that worked as follows: The condemmed would be hung between two ropes one on either side of the noose. If the person could save themselves by holding on to these ropes, they would be set free. Only one out of a hundred people saved themselves.

I would like you to be one of those should you ever be in this position, literally or figuratively. How did they do it?

Read the rest of this article online on my website here.

Or, wait till next month's bumper issue of the Feed and Eat Digest when I will have turned this talk into a free ebook that you can read anytime, or pass on to anybody that's interested.

4. Recipes: Lunchbox Ideas

If I pack only a snack to last till lunchtime, I use a box with 2 compartments and pick items from each of the two lists below. One compartment is filled with whole raw fruit or veg and the other with a handfull of dried fruit and nuts or rice cakes with honey. If he has to stay at play school until after lunch, I pick two from each and use a box with four compartments and fill two of them with whole fresh items (usually one fruit and one veg) and the other with items from the second list making sure one is substancial and filling.

I have organized the lists with the items we most often use at the top, the second most popular in the middle and the scarcer ones at the bottom. Popularity is decided by how much Benjamin likes the item, how readily available it is and how economic it is.

1. Raw and whole:

• Apple, whole or quartered depending on size
• Banana
• Cucumber chunks
• Green pepper pieces
• Tomatoes, whole or quartered depending on size
• Carrot sticks
• Peach, whole or halved depending on size
• Pear, whole or quartered depending on size
• Grapes
• Orange wedges
• Naartjie
• Whole green beans
• Pineapple pieces
• Litchis (Benjamin will eat Litchis anytime but they are expensive and the season is short)
• Red and yellow pepper pieces

Note: I may cut these items to fit into the box and occasionally remove pips or stones, but I never ever peel except for pineapple. Benjamin knows fruit and veg come with peels and that the goodness sits close to if not inside the peel.

Eating an orange wedge out of the peel, or shelling your own litchi makes the experience so much more deliciouys (albeit messy, so be sure to pack wet wipes). Sometimes he spits out the peel, but that does not stop me from giving it to him. He just has to learn to deal with it.

2. Other

• Raisins
• Prunes
• Dates
• Banana chips
• Pecan nuts
• Macadamia nuts
• Sunflower seeds
• Other dried fruit that has no sulphar dipoxid (peaches, pears, apples, mangoes, pineapple)
• Date Balls
• Fruit Squares
• Rice cakes with spread (see below for spread ideas)
• Wheatfree muffin (recipe in next month's bumper issue)
• Rye bread sandwitch (see below for spreak ideas)
• Whole wheat or seedloaf sandwich (see below for spread ideas)
• Home popped popcorn
• Left overs from supper

Note: I usually have at least two types of dried fruit and always some nuts or seads for protein to sustain energy levels).

To drink: Water, sometimes flavoured with fresh mint or lemon

Note: If for some reason I could not pack a proper lunch, or I am scared he won't eat what I gave him, I give him a flask of nutrishake (a fantastic protein shake containing all 22 amino acids for sustained energy, alertness and oomph).

Mail me if you are interested to know more about this product, or order it with a family pack or on its own.

Try a GNLD Family Starter Pack

I just added a new section to my website. I am starting a collection of favourite family recipes and you can add your own favourite too.

Do you have your own favourite and healthy family recipe? The one recipe you cannot do without? I would like to hear about your recipe. Share your recipe with me and if I like it I will add it to my site. I wil try your recipe out of course and add my own comments on what I like.

Share your recipe with the form here

5. Business Bite:

Free ebook

It's called the 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing and it basically exposes all the myths and bad practices that cause the majority of mlmers to fail in their business.

It completely goes against the grain of anything you've ever been told about network marketing before, but it all makes perfect sense.

6. Healthy Talks Calender

1. Reading food labels: How? What? Why?

Dr. David Body will bring a basket full of groceries and tell us what to look for on labels, what to put in your trolley and what to leave on the shelf. His wit will charm and his knowledge entertain so don't miss this fun and informative hour!

Wed 23 January, 19:30 at the Hilton Hotel. Entry for guests are free.

2. Celebrate what's right with the world (a National Geographic film by DeWitt Jones)

Leon Grove - local psychologist and networking guru - says it's simply the best film he has ever seen and will be sharing it with us on this eve. It focuses on a world of infinite possibilities and boundless opportunties; of cooperation and limitlessness vs aggravation and scarcity. It's a reminder we can all do with, no matter who we are!

Mon 28 January, 19:30 at the Wesley Methodist church hall, Hayfields. Entry for guests are free.

Come and enjoy the company of like minded folk and let's create a community of health and prosperity thinkers!

Greetings,

Petro Janse van Vuuren

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Feed and Eat Digest is published by FeedandEat.com Copyright © 2008

Petro Janse van Vuuren
Feed and Eat
94 Birkett Road, Scottsville
3201, South Africa