Living a healthy lifestyle is all in your head

A new book has been published that shows people how to successfully gain self-motivation to stick with healthy eating and regular exercise as a way of living that feels too good to stop.

"People know it takes a healthy lifestyle to be in control of their weight, health and fitness, but they just can't seem to do what they know they should," says author and America's Healthy Lifestyle Coach Alice Greene. "The answer isn't greater willpower, incentives or penalties as most assume, but instead changing the way people think and feel about food and exercise so they easily and naturally want to make healthy and fit choices because it feels good physically, mentally and emotionally."

As a woman who has maintained a healthy lifestyle for nine years after overcoming chronic health issues while losing six dress sizes in two years (from size 16 to size 4), Greene knows firsthand what works to successfully and continually stay motivated to stick with healthy eating and regular exercise as a way of life. She has also coached hundreds of others to do the same, including the sixty clients whose stories are in this book.

Specifically, her book Inspired to Feel Good identifies and explains why only twenty-six percent of U.S. adults engage in regular exercise (Centers for Disease Control) or why ninety-five percent of dieters will fail and regain their weight loss (National Eating Disorders Association), despite the wide availability of fitness, nutritional and medical information, experts and programs.

"There is a reason the majority of the population hasn't benefited from this vast array of resources ," says Greene. "These programs don't target the real problem and, in many cases, worsen the situation. Most people strive to succeed and struggle to understand when they don't stick with a healthy diet and regular exercise, and they aren't getting the help they need to identify what is sabotaging their behaviors and goals."

What has been missed by physicians, nutritionists, personal trainers and other experts is the hidden subconscious emotional and mental mindset that drives a person's behavior, which can result in overeating, emotional eating, cravings, binge eating, exercise resistance, self-criticism, ambivalence or denial, as well as yo-yo dieting, yo-yo exercising and yo-yo weight loss.

Inspired to Feel Good (www.feelyourpersonalbest.com/inspired-to-feel-good.asp) teaches people how to create a positive relationship with food and exercise, overcome sabotaging behaviors, and be inspired and motivated to easily make healthier choices. The book provides a step-by-step behavior modification coaching program that is individualized. Anyone, even those who have given up, can finally succeed at maintaining weight loss, healthy eating and regular exercise that is realistic, enjoyable and easily incorporated into real life. The healthy lifestyle coaching techniques used in the program build self-awareness, self-motivation, self-insight, self-confidence and self-esteem. Instead of feeling out of control, readers will finally feel in charge of their choices, delight in their successes and naturally gravitate to more healthy choices because they love how it makes them feel.

In addition to benefiting individual consumers, the book is ideal for healthcare providers, companies or organizations promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors to the public or employees.

Reducing Teen Pregnancy and STDs Through Education

With 24 health centers throughout Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is working to raise awareness about the need for Congress to fully fund medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education for all teens during a week of action (Sept. 28 - Oct. 2) called Sex Education: Protecting Our Future.

Amid the news that the United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy of the most developed countries in the world and that at least one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease, Planned Parenthood affiliates and PPRM's Advocates for Choice (A4C) campus chapters are sponsoring grassroots events and contacting elected officials to urge them to fully fund sex education to address these public health issues.

"An estimated 729,000 teenagers are expected to become pregnant this year, and nearly four million will contract a STD," said PPRM President and CEO Vicki Cowart. "To reduce these alarmingly high numbers, teens in Colorado should have access to comprehensive, age-appropriate information and education, giving them resources to make responsible decisions about their health and their lives."

PPRM is a recognized regional leader in advancing and providing comprehensive, medically accurate and age-appropriate sex education. PPRM offers short and long-term programs, which target individuals of all ages. In 2008, PPRM educators reached 17,869 people in Colorado alone through 1,960 education sessions, working with 200 diverse collaborators including school districts and religious organizations. PPRM is also a member of the Healthy Colorado Youth Alliance, a statewide coalition recently formed to increase access to comprehensive sex education.

In the last decade, more than $1.5 billion federal and state dollars were wasted on what was proven to be dangerous abstinence-only programs that deny teenagers lifesaving information. The Obama administration has ended funding for ineffective abstinence-only programs.

Recently, a study by the Guttmacher Institute found that most federally funded abstinence-only programs do not help delay teens' sexually activity. In contrast, the study reports comprehensive sex education programs had a positive impact and should be more widely used.

A nationwide study conducted by the University of Washington found that teens who had comprehensive sex education were less likely to become teen parents than teens who had no sex education or who were in abstinence-only programs.

At the federal level, President Obama and a majority in the U.S. Congress are supporting medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education, which helps reduce teen pregnancy, by including it in their budget appropriations bills.

As a health care provider, Planned Parenthood knows firsthand the power of education to help teens make responsible decisions about their health. Every year, PPRM provides more than 127,000 women, men, and teens with the health care and information they need to prevent unintended pregnancy and protect their health. For more information visit http://www.pprm.org

Stress Can Be Deadly

Up to 90 percent of ALL health problems are related to stress, according to a report released recently by the American Holistic Medical Association.

How can stress be controlled?

Stress is the "wear and tear" on the mind and body in response to everyday tensions and hassles. When left unchecked, it can be quite detrimental to health and well-being. Stress affects people physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. According to the American Institute of Stress, up to 90 percent of all health problems are related to stress. It is, however, not the stressful events themselves that do the harm; it's how people perceive and respond to them. Chronic health conditions often evolve from persistent stress or, in other cases, are exacerbated by stress, which can impede recovery.

Research is continuing to show the important, bidirectional pathways by which stress, negative emotions, social and psycho-spiritual factors affect physiological events and processes, thus serving as important co-determinants of health and performance.

Increasingly, emotional self-regulation is being recognized as a key factor to balance health, recover from illness and improve performance. More than ever before, health professionals are aware of this reality - that the nature of almost all illness is best addressed both in mind and in body. The public is also increasingly aware of this and are seeking out health care options that are more congruent with this value. Educators also recognize the critical role of emotions to the learning process.

Emotions and feelings have a powerful impact on the human body. Negative emotional reactions mediate undesirable physiologic changes that can create or exacerbate a variety of health problems including heart disease, hypertension, headaches, stroke, depression and sleep disorders. Positive emotions on the other hand, such as appreciation, care, love and compassion, not only feel good, they are good for one's health.

A growing body of research is beginning to provide objective evidence that positive emotions may indeed be the key to optimal functioning, enhancing nearly all spheres of human experience. Positive emotions have been demonstrated to improve health, increase longevity, increase cognitive flexibility and creativity, facilitate broad-minded coping, innovative problem-solving, and promote helpfulness, generosity and effective cooperation.

This means the average person can control his or her own stress, as long as they have the proper tools and guidance.

Protecting Elders From Financial Abuse

With experts calling elder financial abuse (www.firstbanks.com) the ''crime of the 21st century,'' seniors need to protect themselves from financial exploitation and abuse. To help seniors protect themselves, First Bank offers these tips:

- Don't be threatened or intimidated. Never let yourself get rushed into a deal

- Plan ahead to protect your assets and to ensure that your wishes are followed

- Check references and credentials of anyone who wants to work in your home

- Do not allow people working for you to have access to or information about your finances

- Never give personal information to anyone who phones you

- Consult with a financial advisor or attorney before signing any document you do not understand

- Never pay a fee or taxes to collect "winnings"

- Feel free to say "no." After all, it is your money

Can Music Alter Time and Space?

Richard Rudis is launching two new CDs that he says may "alter space, mind and time."

Tibetan healing sound instruments are mysterious and singular. Rudis, a student of Buddhism for over a quarter century, has been teaching sacred sound workshops for more than a decade. He invites listeners "to sip at the elixir of Dharmakaya (unwavering truth) and bathe your self in its soothing harmonies." He said that listening effectively stops the mind's internal dialogue, and awakens and stimulates cellular memory into a "natural blissful state" of dynamic trance meditation and a vibrational dance of harmonics.

Pilgrim's Prayer; A Sojourn into Sacred Sound Healing by Richard Rudis is articulated using the uniquely expressive voices of a 38" Paiste planetary earth gong, an ancient Tibetan singing bowl, tingsha's, overtone voices and field recordings from the Tibetan plateau.

Track 1 of Pilgrim's Prayer explores the reconstructive healing waves of harmonic sound. Its "choir" of energy will awaken, dismantle and recreate within its metamorphic overtones. Track 2, entitled "Coherence," is a tantric journey into the ancient sacred geometry of the "Sri Yantra." Its complex structures of overtones and harmonics induce natural healing to balance the mind, body and spirit. The final track, "Three Jewels," offers refuge in the natural collaborative energies of spiritual potential, the Dharma and the Bodhisattvas. It promises fundamental shifts in phenomenon space, clarity, vigor, joy and the sense of peace.

Terma-Yana: A Glorious Sound Mandala, another CD offering by Rudis, also features the multi-tonal voice and soothing harmonies of a large earth gong. The Tibetan word "Terma" means hidden treasure, and the word "Yana" means a path, way, or vehicle. This CD may prove to be your pathway to hidden treasure.

Gong Baths

For more than a decade, Richard Rudis has offered group sound experiences known as "Gong Baths" and has taught sacred sound workshops with the Himalayan sacred sound instruments in select locations across the US. While he is considered most knowledgeable in this esoteric field and has thousands of followers, much of the population has absolutely no idea what a Gong Bath is or what it can offer them.

Upon entering a large, nearly empty room, gong bathers' eyes are drawn to the 38-inch gong hanging suspended from a frame in the center. This is the planetary earth gong, tuned to the vibrational signature of the Earth as it transits around the sun. For thousands of years, in the Vedic tradition, this has widely been known as the sound of the "Void," "Still Point," or "Aum."

Participants lay out their cushions and blankets in circular patterns on the floor, with head pointed toward the gong. Soon the gentle sounds of sacred singing bowls begin the sound journey, followed by the first, unmistakable sounds of the Earth Gong, as Rudis shepherds participants through an hour-long sound journey like none other. Few can believe an hour has passed as they are bathed in the ancient and sacred sounds.

Afterwards gong bathers share their range of individual experiences, from simply feeling refreshed, experiencing relief of a physical ailment, or even reports of altered consciousness, mind travel and out-of-body experiences.

"We have experienced many of Richard's Gong Baths, and recommend the experience without equivocation," remarked Susan Stuth, co-founder of Satiama, LLC. "It is a marvelous event that simply defies description." In fact, gong bath enthusiasts will often attend a series of gong baths spanning weeks, as allowed by Rudis' workshop schedule.

Non-Traditional 'Marriage'

Rudis is now experimenting with a whole new sort of non-traditional marriage -- of sacred sound healing and sacred geometry. "Sacred geometry? Like inThe DaVinci Code?" Well, yes!

Consider Rudis' background. An American practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism, Rudis has studied Eastern philosophy and Buddhism for more than a quarter of a century. He is a long-time pilgrim and guide to sacred sites in Asia. While in Tibet in 1996, Rudis was granted refuge in the Buddha from His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa. At that time he was given the Tibetan name Sonam Dorje (Meritorious Thunderbolt).

Rudis holds degrees in Fine Arts and English from U.S. universities, and has also studied engineering and architecture. He is a recognized photographic artist, having studied with such notables as Paul Capreonegro, William Parker and Ansel Adams. He has taught "Zen of Photography" at the university level, and has been a guest lecturer at various schools across New England.

In between Gong Bath appearances, Rudis spoke about the marriage of sound healing and sacred geometry. "Everything is energy and has a sound or vibrational signature," Rudis said. "Within the energetic aspects of our universe, we find light, ultrasound, infrared, etc., separated between degrees of frequency."

Rudis is experimenting with creating a "circular, fully coherent experience" that will touch on the coherent qualities of our own, human vibrational nature. He expects to do this by creating sound of a coherent nature and light of a coherent nature coupled within a sacred space.

For those who cannot attend a gong bath in person, Rudis, under his Buddhist name of Sonam Dorje, has produced several CDs, including Terma Yana and Pilgrim's Prayer, and a Gong Bath DVD of the Gong Bath experience at the third International Sound Healing Conference in Santa Fe, available through www.satiama.com. Rudis' gong bath schedule, as well as ancient Buddhist singing bowls and artifacts, can be found at www.buddhistartifacts.com

A Million American Kids May Have Undiagnosed Hearing Problems

As schools across America open their doors for the start of the new academic year, the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) is urging teachers and educators to stay alert to the needs of children with unaddressed hearing loss. This call to action comes in response to the findings of a national study--Are 1 Million Dependents with Hearing Loss in America Being Left Behind?--in which BHI found that America's children are paying a high price for the pitfalls in how parents, educators, the healthcare community, and policymakers are addressing hearing loss in our youth.

"Too many children with hearing loss aren't getting adequate help and are being put at risk for learning, social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties," warns Dr. Sergei Kochkin, executive director of BHI, and co-author of the study. "Children need to be able to hear, not just in the classroom, but also because hearing affects language competence, cognitive development, social and emotional well-being, and academic achievement. Children who cannot hear well--that is, children whose hearing loss is untreated or under-treated--could face a life of underperformance and broken dreams."

"Based on our findings, I am concerned that a sizeable population of young people in America is being left behind because they do not fit existing paradigms of hearing disability," said otolaryngologist Dr. William Luxford of the House Ear Clinic, a BHI Board member and co-author of the study. "We need a fundamental re-examination of the current hearing health protocols influencing America's children with hearing loss."

The scientific literature is clear that untreated hearing loss affects nearly all dimensions of the human experience. And the pediatric literature demonstrates that even children with "minimal" hearing loss are at risk academically compared to their normal hearing peers.

According to Kochkin, the findings indicate that too many educators, parents, pediatricians, and other healthcare providers underestimate the impact of mild or unilateral (affecting one ear) hearing loss. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children are left vulnerable to a wide range of social, emotional, behavioral, and academic problems.

Hearing loss of any type or degree in a child can present a barrier to incidental learning--and it's believed that 90% of a young child's knowledge is attributed to incidental reception of conversations around him or her. Research confirms that, on any given day, one third of all children, kindergarten through third grade, have impaired hearing and listening. Hearing loss poses a barrier to the child's ability to overhear and to learn from the environment. It causes the child to miss a significant portion of classroom instruction. And it frequently causes a child to miss social cues. Not surprisingly, many of the symptoms of unaddressed hearing loss in children overlap those of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD).

A large part of the problem is that many parents today either don't recognize their child's hearing problem, minimize it, or have been given misinformation regarding the ability to treat the child's hearing loss. In fact, at least 50 percent of parents don't go back for detailed testing when their infant fails an initial hearing screening.

But according to Eileen Rall, Au.D., CCC-A, an audiologist from the The Center for Childhood Communication of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia , there are things that teachers can do in the classroom to help children with undiagnosed hearing loss: "First and foremost, teachers can pay attention to the listening environment of the classroom and how the students are functioning in it. There are many low cost, creative ways to improve the acoustics of a classroom including something as simple as teaching children to create good listening environments - make eye contact, reduce distance, taking turns speaking and reducing the noise the students are making themselves. Some schools install sound field systems in their classrooms. Sound field systems amplify the teacher's voice and deliver his/her voice through speakers placed strategically in the classroom. Most importantly, teachers who suspect that a child is having difficulty hearing should bring it to the attention of the child's parents and school administrators so the child can undergo a thorough hearing assessment by an audiologist."

Some basic steps that most teachers can take on their own to help a child with a confirmed or suspected hearing loss include the following:

• Arrange the child's seating away from the heating and cooling system, hallways, playground, and other sources of noise. If the child's hearing loss affects only one ear, or if it's greater in one ear, seat the child in front of the room with his better ear toward the teacher.

• Allow the child to move around in the classroom in order to clearly see the speaker.

• Assign a helper, or notetaker, for the child.

• Try to speak clearly and not too fast.

• While you are speaking, don't turn away to write on the board or cover your mouth.

• Write key words or visual aids for the lesson on the board.

• Write assignments on the board so the child can copy them down into a specific notebook used for this purpose.

• If the child does not understand something, rephrase what you have said rather than repeat the same words again and again.

According to Kochkin, some of the most alarming findings from the study include the following:

• Only 12 percent of children under the age of 18 with hearing loss use hearing aids; yet an estimated 1.5 million youth (including adult dependents) under the age of 21 have hearing loss that may be improved with amplification.

• The study found no evidence of the use of any form of hearing assistance in the classroom (e.g. FM systems, hearing aids, speakers), other than front-row seating.

• Hearing loss leaves children vulnerable to other problems, according to three out of four parents of children with hearing loss. Common problem areas include:

o Social skills (52%)

o Speech and language development (51%)

o Grades in school (50%)

o Emotional health (42%)

o Relationships with peers (38%)

o Self-esteem (37%)

o Relationships with family (36%)

• Three in ten parents (32%) cite embarrassment or other social stigma issues as a reason their child does not use a hearing aid.

• One out of five (22%) parents says they are unable to afford hearing devices.

• Four in ten parents were told that their child did not need amplification because they had hearing loss in only one ear.

• Two in ten parents were mistakenly told that their child could not be helped because they had high frequency hearing loss. Another 20 percent were told they could not be helped because they had a low frequency hearing loss.

Key educational and public policy questions raised by the study include the following:

• Do educators, medical doctors, and hearing healthcare professionals underestimate the impact of mild and unilateral hearing loss on children?

• Are pediatricians sufficiently trained to measure hearing loss and advise parents of treatment options?

• Is the prevalence of treatable hearing loss among children under-represented in the United States when subjective methodology (e.g., parental awareness) is used to assess hearing loss?

• Do parents have viable options for paying for hearing aids for their children if they can't personally afford them?

• Why are only a minority of children in America with hearing loss recipients of amplification, and what can be done in the medical and hearing health profession to make sure that all children receive adequate help for their hearing loss?

• Are too many young people in America being left behind because they don't fit existing models of hearing disability?

Are 1 Million Dependents with Hearing Loss in America Being Left Behind was conducted by BHI among a national sample of parents of 225 youth from infancy to age 21-all of whom were reported by their parents to have hearing loss and not use hearing aids. The authors of this study also included Dr. Jerry Northern (Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado School of Medicine), Pam Mason (Director of Audiology professional practices at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) and Dr. Anne Marie Tharpe (Professor of Audiology at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine).

Founded in 1973, The Better Hearing Institute (BHI) conducts research and engages in hearing health education with the goal of helping people with hearing loss to benefit from proper treatment.

To download a copy of the study, "Are 1 Million Dependents in America with Hearing Loss Being Left Behind?" or to download a copy of "A Guide to Your Child's Hearing" visit the BHI website at www.betterhearing.org.

Teen Sexting And How To Prevent It

With children getting ready to go back to school the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) says a troubling teen trend is on the rise. It is called sexting and it means the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between cell phones and other mobile devices.

NCPC says parents need to pay attention to the "electronic fingerprints" their kids are making. NCPC has developed new reproducible brochures for both parents and teens that provide informative tips on what to do about it and how to prevent sexting.

Roughly, 20 percent of teens admit to sexting, according to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. NCPC's director of Children and Youth, Joselle Shea, says that "online relationships should be based on respect and not just sharing sexual images of each other."

NCPC believes it is important to teach young people to protect themselves proactively when they are online or using mobile communication devices. NCPC's new reproducible brochures on sexting can be found at the organization's website at www.ncpc.org.

The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) is a private, nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to be the nation's leader in helping people keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe from crime. NCPC manages public service advertising under the National Citizens' Crime Prevention Campaign -- symbolized by McGruff the Crime Dog® and his "Take A Bite Out Of Crime®" slogan -- and acts as secretariat for the Crime Prevention Coalition of America, more than 400 national, federal, state, and local organizations representing thousands of constituents who are committed to preventing crime. NCPC is funded through a variety of government agencies, corporate and private foundations, and donations from private individuals. For more information on crime prevention issues, visit www.ncpc.org.