If you would like to be the best at whatever you do, ask me to check your brain organization profile.
This month, I became certified to teach Brain Organization, the third of five courses required for those who want to become Brain Gym consultants like me.
Just as we all have a dominant hand, each of us also has a unique profile of the way we use our brain, eyes, ears, and feet.
There are 54 possible profiles. Many people who have thought they were just plain stupid, uncoordinated or crazy have used these methods to access their full potential.
Right Brain People tend to see the big picture and follow their intuition easily. Their challenge is to learn how to follow logical sequences. Under stress, they tend to become depressed.
Left Brain People love logic, language and math. In fact, they are so detail oriented that their challenge is to comprehend the big picture. Stress makes them anxious.
Kinesthetic Types learn by doing.
Visual Types remember what they see.
Auditory Types are good listeners.
On a good day, most of us only use 10 percent of what God gave us. When you learn Brain Gym, you begin to understand that labels like “attention deficit disorder” or “manic depressive” or “learning disabled” are just negative ways of describing what happens to many of us on any given day.
Under stress, the non-dominant hemisphere tends to shut down. When that happens, it may become difficult for us to see, move or hear. All learning becomes challenging, and our brains stop making our own, natural antidepressants. Recently, when I gave a seminar on my book, Healing Depression, a student said, “It’s like when I’m depressed I’m only using half my brain!” Discover your gifts, and find how your life can be happier and easier.
Reality Check:
To Lose Weight, Move More, Count Calories
With all the talk about low-carb diets these days, one simple fact keeps being overlooked: research is bearing out that people who lose weight exercise more often than the 30 minutes a day the U.S. Surgeon General recommends. At my alma mater, Brown University, researchers have found that people who lose weight and keep it off consistently work out more often and longer than previously thought: one hour every day. Meanwhile, the Journal of the American Medical Association says that 40 percent of women and 35 percent of men trying to lose weight are not counting calories. Even 42 percent of men and 37 percent of women who are combining exercise with calorie restriction are NOT exercising even 150 minutes each week.
Beat The Trend: Become a Slim Atlanta Resident
A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Georgia led the nation in one unfortunate category: a 101.8 percent increase in obesity. Nationwide, those who exceeded 30 percent of their ideal weight soared from one out of eight in 1991 to nearly one in five.
Interestingly, in 1991, before the boom-boom 90’s really kicked off, Atlanta had one of the lowest obesity rates in the country.
Dr. William Dietz, one of the study’s coauthors, told the Associated Press that the design of the modern suburbs was partly to blame. Urban sprawl keeps us trapped in our cars for hours, rather than at home playing with our children outdoors, and encourages us to reach for fast food. Pam Wilson, a dietitian with Georgia’s division of health, said another problem is the lack of sidewalks in many Atlanta neighborhoods.
Solution? Call the Chattahoochee River NRA and get a parking decal. For only $20 a year, when traffic gets bad you can leave your car and go for a walk along the Chattahoochee instead of wasting your time in rush hour traffic. Call 770-399-8074, ext. 236, or write Eastern National, 1978-B Island Ford Parkway, Atlanta, 30350-3400.
Good Carbs: They Actually Exist
With all the controversy about low-carbhohydrate, high protein diets, one fact is still true: your body still needs some carbohydrates to function properly. In addition to the glycemic index, a measure of how quickly a carbohydrate is metabolized, you can turn to www.edits.com for a list of the top 100 diet foods.
A Few of the Top Carbohydrate Sources:
Mori-Nu, Silken or Extra-Firm Tofu
Mott’s or Musselman’s Natural Applesauce
Health Valley Health Tarts
Whitewave Dairyless Yogurt
Wonderslim Fat and Egg Substitute
Ener-G Wheat-Free Breads
Rice Dream Original Milk Substitute
Health Valley Wheat-Free Cereals
Eden Foods Wheat-Free Pastas
Garden of Eatin’ Blue and Sesame Chips
Wasa Crispbread
Good Fats: Include The Essential Ones
Research is now backing up what many of us have known for a long time: Good fat is essential to your diet and crucial for your overall health. In my book, Healing Depression, I talk about the well-documented connection between suicidal tendencies and low-fat diets. In addition to your brain, which needs good fats to make the sheaths to cover your neurons, your body needs good fats to make your hormones and also to regulate your appetite.
Avoid: Saturated fat found in dairy and meat products, including milk, cheese, beef and pork as well as coconut and palm oils. Worst of all: Trans fat, which is formed when vegetable oils are hardened into solids. Examples include stick margarine and shortening, deep-fried foods such as french fries as well as pastries, cookies, doughnuts and crackers.
Best: Monounsaturated fat found in olive, canola and peanut ois, or polyunsaturated fat, found in soybean, corn, safflower and sunflower oils.