Broccoli Salad With Avocado

The contrasting textures of crunchy broccoli and creamy, soft avocado make this quick salad interesting and delicious. It is rich in monounsaturated fat and full of protective phyto chemicals and fiber. Don't forget to use the broccoli stems, which, if properly trimmed, are as good to eat as the florets. Cut a slice off the butt end of each large stalk and peel the stalks just below the outer fibrous layer to expose the tender, lighter-colored flesh within.

        1 pound broccoli
        1 ripe avocado
        2 T extra virgin olive oi
        2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
        1 T grainy prepared mustard

1. Trim and wash the broccoli and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Steam or boil the broccoli in a large pot until it is just crunchy-tender and bright green, then drain it well, and cool with a quick dip into cold water.

2. Peel and pit the avocado, then cut it into small cubes. Fold the avocado into the broccoli.

3. Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard together in a small bowl, until well mixed, and toss with the broccoli and avocado.

MY FAVORITE SNACKS

 

One of the "joys" of becoming a senior is managing the ever-present challenge of an expanding waistline. I have always loved snacking, and I have had to devise creative yet healthy snacks that don’t add to my waistline. I have learned that healthy snacks need not be tasteless, nor wreak havoc with your food plan. If you share that concern with me, try these.

 

Toasted whole wheat pita and mock “hummus” – Cut whole wheat pita into small wedges. Separate the wedges into two pieces, spray very lightly with oil and toast about 5 minutes in hot oven. Watch them carefully since they toast very rapidly. To make “mock hummus” place one can drained garbanzo beans or cannelloni beans into blender or food processor. Add just enough water as you process to make a paste. Add a little olive oil and lemon juice to taste. This keeps well in your refrigerator for snack attacks.

 

Whole grain crackers with a small piece of low-fat cheese – Add a small piece of smoked turkey breast for variety.

 

A hard-boiled egg – I make “deviled” eggs using a small amount of yogurt, mustard, and finely minced sweet onion. Sprinkle with smoked Hungarian paprika.

 

Fresh veggies served with a yogurt dip – Make a dip using a high-quality Greek yogurt seasoned with fresh herbs and/or seasonings of your choice.

 

10-12 almonds – toasted or raw – These are the easiest for those snack attacks when you are out of prepared items.

 

   The Power of Belief and Commitment

As in everything in life, there are both positive and negative aspects to the power of your belief.  Someone much smarter than me first said, "If you believe you can, you can; and if you believe you can't you are also right." And I assure you that without an "I will until" commitment we cannot succeed.

I am such an "I CAN" believer than I tend to forget the opposite side of belief, and that we are often defeated by our lack of belief and commitment.  If you are not achieving your goals, be they health, relationships, abundance, career, or whatever, if you will take a good look at your belief and commitment, you will most likely find the answer to your lack of success. 

I had an e-mail exchange with someone the other day, in which she was responding to my summary of how I defeated MS.  She was new to my website, although not new to MS.  She had first written asking me how I had defeated MS.  It always amazes me that rather than study the plethora of information at my website, people seem to think if they write to me that I can give them some "magic" easy-to-do formula to reverse their MS.

When I wrote back and did my usual summary – healthy diet, daily meditation, exercise (QiGong and/or yoga), mega doses of Vitamin D and Omega 3 oils containing EPA/DHA – she wrote back and said she had done all that and it didn't work for her.  To summarize our exchanges, it became evident that first and foremost she did not believe her body had self-healing ability, and she had no commitment to the process, and she never stayed with any activity long enough for it to succeed.

I wish there was a magic formula I could share with you, but there is no such thing.  But I do know for sure that once you increase your belief and commitment level, everything in your life will change. 

  Change Your Life for the Better by Gary Prichard           

I have a small percentage of subscribers who have serious disability.  Some have progressed to walkers and wheelchairs.  Since I have never experienced that degree of disability, I rarely attempt to address the special needs of those people. Gary Prichard is one of those people, and he has contributed an article to help people like himself.  For those of you who need this kind of direction, I am pleased to share what Gary has written.

A few months ago I received the following note from Gary:

Betty,    

    Your July Newsletter was excellent!  It set me off writing.  The resultant article is below.  I'm currently struggling with these issues, which has considerably delayed the article's completion.  I developed the method advocated years ago, the last time I was disabled.  It is excessively conservative for many, but perfect for the "less capable" among us (I include myself in this group).  It shows that everybody can improve his/her life, and that this can be (SHOULD be) easy!  This method is also ideal for those that think they don't have the time free or the circumstances to do something to improve themselves.

     

    MS changes some of the rules, and the consequences of MS change many more, but people who have MS can change their lives for the better.  Making small changes, one at a time, works even for people with very little physical capability.  Most importantly, doing better is practical!  You add just one thing to your life.  (Months) later add another.  Just keep doing this.  Easy!  And you will quite literally transform your life.

 

    Being smart about MS and careful about yourself is your best defense against the declining effects of MS.  Two years ago I stopped doing a meditation practice, not realizing how physically beneficial it actually was for me.  I recently realized that stopping that meditation practice is what brought about my "decline" over the last two years.  I have begun my own journey back by reestablishing meditation; I'm building consistency in my practice now. 

I do not have enough space here to tell you all of Gary's story, but here is a slightly edited version of his article..

Everybody wants to change their life for the better.  Many (most?) fail.  So, how do you succeed and actually accomplish changing your life for the better?  First, if you can, figure out what you have been doing that is destructive to you, and stop doing that.  This first step is not strictly necessary, though it can be very helpful.  Changing your life for the better is so simple that it's (literally) deceptively elemental.  You ask yourself three questions.  The second is, was there something that you stopped doing that had been helping you?  Conclusions are even easier; whatever it was, begin that again.  

Sometimes we drop practices and it turns out that they were far more beneficial than we realized.  This is a particularly important possibility when considering the beginning of a protracted "decline."  After you reestablish that good practice it is likely to take longer than your time in decline to gain back what you have lost.  If you are working without such an inspiration, gaining back what you have lost may take longer yet.  Ignore the time!  Focus on getting the results, and this does not mean to try harder or do more.  Always remember, the results are what's important - elementary again.

The most important question to ask yourself is what you need to do to help you improve.  This is likely a multiple answer question, but change only one thing at a time.  Generally, stop bad practices first, then resume activities that you think had helped in the past, and then start new activities that you think will help you.  Always do the one thing that's the easiest first!  Keep a note on your calendar, say three months in the future, about some of the other changes you want to make.  A couple (or three, depending on how you are doing) of months later, using the extra strength and/or capacity you've built, begin the next-easiest one.

Always do things "easy."  Your body accepts change easily up to a certain rate which increases over time as your physical capability improves.  More change than this is both more difficult for you and harder on you to cope with.  Ignore any "advice" advocating trying harder. The further you enter into this too-much-change-to-easily-deal-with territory, the more likely you are to fail, so avoid that trap. 

Take exercise as an example.  You exercise, you feel better.  You need to exercise to improve your physical functionality.  Why do people fail with exercise when it's normal and desirable to move about and do things?  The problem is that too much of anything causes breakdown and loss of capacity.  Too much exercise, too much of "other activities," too much exercise and "other activities" combined, or even too much rest or inactivity!  

Any change you do needs to be beneficial for you, and easy for you to do.  For instance the change you decide to implement might be to begin a meditation practice.  If you have little physical capacity, the physical effort involved might be to sit very upright with no back support.  You may need to begin with a little and increase your time as you go, or accommodate your seating position.  Or you might decide to add exercise.  Perhaps start with a short walk, beginning with just a couple of minutes.  Or perhaps eating better. With eating better the physical effort involved is mostly in the preparation.  Also note that eating better is not necessarily just eating more protein or vegetables, but it could also be something such as eating more organic food, changing to a non-dairy diet, or eliminating gluten.

For a few of you, some of the example changes noted above might need to be done later in your building process.  For many progressing through these steps can be a faster process, with larger steps as you adjust and find your correct level. What is a good activity for you depends on your physical condition.  You need the right amount of activity at the right intensity and support for this change, and recovery that is better than "nearly complete."  Begin by keeping change limited to small additions of activity. You may not be able to start by doing your one extra activity every day, but do something extra and do it consistently.   If it takes you a day to recover, you did too much.

Do your activity regularly, and increase only after it is a well established, routine, habitual, and easy.  First increase by reducing any days that are idle between your sessions.  Increase your frequency until you are doing your activity five days out of seven.  This allows you to give yourself a couple of days of rest from your activity on the weekend when your family life may be more demanding.  

Once you are doing your activity five days a week you can then increase by adding another item to your current activity, by adding to the duration of your current activity, or by increasing the intensity of your current activity.  Continue doing your now modified activity until it (again) seems like an integrated, well established part of your life, and that it is (again) routine, habitual, easy.  Then add another item (or add to the duration - or increase the intensity).  Keep that pattern: Easy change, do it until it's integrated into your life, well established, routine, habitual and easy; Then add another one (or add duration, or increase intensity).  

One caution.  As you progress, you will naturally feel like doing more.  Restrict yourself to doing your usual activity plus only one extra activity.  Be rigid on this point.  In the beginning there is little margin for error.  This restriction is very counter-intuitive.  You feel like doing more, and you feel like you can finally actually accomplish that.  However, at this point you may not have the recovery capacity, or the physical reserves to handle any more extra activity without overextending yourself, as you are using your reserve physical capacity to do your current physical capacity building.  As you continue to build yourself up, you will again develop extra physical capacity reserve.  In the meantime, if necessary you'll need to let friends and perhaps family think you unreasonable for refusing to do extra activities.  This limitation is temporary.  What they are asking may look like no real exertion to them (or you!), but it may push you into overload territory.

Improving your life is likely to need extra time, better nutrition, and more, but your resulting improved efficiency will at the least offset most of the extra time needed.  And you will just plain feel better!  Be careful not to do too much too soon because you do feel better.  This may actually be the most difficult part of feeling better.  You must hold your activity level back until after you have again built physical reserves.  Given some time you'll build up to where normal rules begin to apply to you, but for now take it easy as you discover the correct level to build your stamina.       

Changing your life for the better is a simple building process, done in obviously small steps. It is as easy as 1, 2, 3.  To summarize:

1)  Change only one thing at a time.
2)  Allow yourself full, but not excessive, recovery time.
3)  Get the support you need.  

As I read Gary's article, I kept thinking CRAWL BEFORE YOU CAN WALK, AND WALK BEFORE YOU CAN RUN. That summarizes all of healing I believe. Unfortunately too often we stop at the crawling or walking stages, which leads to losing our focus.   Many people give up just before the prize.  It is so easy to lose focus and forget that it took a long time for our body to create a dis-eased state, and it takes time and commitment to turn that around to a state of wellness.  For me it was a years' long process.

Thank you Gary for your determination to get yourself back on track, and for sharing your process.

  CCSVI UPDATE

I continue to be intrigued by the CCSVI story.  I am also incredibly angry, although not surprised, at how the "official" world of MS continues to ignore CCSVI and its potential.  For years I have said that the primary function of the NMSS, as well as neurologists who "specialize" in MS and owe their souls to the Society and pharmaceutical companies, is to perpetuate themselves.  Now, almost every day, they seem to be proving me right.  I keep receiving publications from the National MS Society, as well as the state MS Society in the state where I live, and they usually don't even mention CCSVI. 

Here is a link to a very simple, easy to understand CCSVI basic information sheet that you may cut and paste and then print out as many copies as you wish.  This was put together by a reader who has had the corrective procedure done and is doing very well.  She wanted something she could share with people who asked her what CCSVI is and how one can proceed to be tested and treated, and she asked me to make it available to all of you.  So with minor editing I have placed it at my website.  Check it out here for very basic CCSVI questions.  Please note that this report will print out on an 8-1/2" x 11" page and would make a great handout for support groups.

Here is a link to a Southern California medical group where one may be tested and treated, http://www.pacificinterventional.com/. 

A great place to donate funds is to a medical group doing great CCSVI work, Capital Region Medical Research Foundation, attention Kim Kurtzner, 711 Troy Schenectady Road, Suite 201, Latham, NY  12110.   Dr. Gary Siskin, who has done so much to help people looking for CCSVI treatment, is a member of this group.  If you would like to donate to this study, please be sure to make your check to "CRMRF MS Study."

Denise Manley, who has done so much to publicize the CCSVI - MS connection, sent me the following note:

 Hi Betty:  There is an upcoming annual meeting in March with The Society of Interventional Radiology. They are going to be looking more into CCSVI in MS as well as doing training sessions for treatment to the veins in question.  Here's the link:  http://www.sirmeeting.org/

Thank you, Denise.  I have been fighting the MS wars for about 16 years now, and I know how challenging it can be.  My first few years on the Internet I used to be bombarded by naysayers.  When I wrote From MS to Wellness in 1997, I attempted to "give" thousands of copies to the MS Society in California where I live.  I was told that it had to be first submitted to the NMSS headquarters for approval.  Their response?  I gave people false hope and therefore they rejected my gift.

I have believed for years - and still do - that MS is merely a demonstration of "something" going wrong in the body that causes a demonstration of the neurological syndrome doctors identify as MS.  That is why I have maintained since my Betty's House . . . Life After MS website first went up that MS is not a disease in the way we traditionally define a disease.  It now seems apparent that CCSVI is one of those "somethings."  What is the most amazing to me is that there has been so much evidence of the CCSVI/circulatory involvement all along and yet it was overlooked by researchers for so many years. 

As I have watched the political unrest in countries like Egypt and Libya, where the people have demanded the overthrow of dictators, I cannot but think that is exactly what is happening in the world of MS.  People who live with the MS debilitating symptoms are sick and tired of the millions of misdirected research dollars that have been virtually wasted to support drug interventions based on the faulty auto-immune theory.  Hooray for people like Denise Manley, and those people who started www.CCSVI.org, who are fighting so hard to change the system. 

And a special shoutout to those pioneering physicians who have taken on the system in an effort to help their patients overcome MS. I salute everyone who is keeping the spotlight on CCSVI.  You are all AWESOME.

My very special thanks to Karen (who chooses to remain anonymous), who continues to send me information that I can pass along to all of you.  You are one very special lady!

BE SURE TO READ . . . The Wheelchair Kamikaze's blog post, Seeing Red, at http://www.wheelchairkamikaze.com/.   Marc lays out the rationale for needed research into the cause(s) of MS in a very logical, well-thought-out and beautifully written column.  For the third year in a row Marc's blog was recently voted Best Medical Weblog.

 

   FROM MY MAILBOX

  Hello Betty.  Thank you so much for all I have learned from you over the years.  I have now been watching the Health and Weight Loss video for several weeks, and it is amazing.  My reduced mobility in recent years has created a weight control problem for me, and I just wanted you to know that without really trying, just watching the video every morning and evening, I am down 5 pounds in three weeks!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  /S/ Grace T.

Thank you for writing Grace.  Confession time.  I made my first video for my own use to help me lose a few pounds.  By the time I had learned how to make that first video, I had watched and repeated those affirmations so many times that I also had lost five pounds.  I also learned that I could increase the "emotional" factor by saying the affirmations aloud as I watched.  This video is not really about weight loss.  But rather it is about health, and "normalizing" weight is just one aspect of being healthy. 

I keep thinking of new video subjects, and have two more currently in various stages - one on creating health, and one on exercise.

 Betty, I thought I should take a few minutes to give you a heads up on another illness that can be misdiagnosed as MS. There is a rare form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma known as Waldenstrom's Lymphoma that can cause weakness, fatigue, neuropathy, dizziness, cognitive impairment, and according to a couple of websites is thought to cause demyelization as well.  Virtually all of the symptoms that are generally associated with MS can also be caused by this very slowly progressing form of Lymphoma.  Discovery is often an accident and some patients have no symptoms at all when diagnosed.  Elevated IgM and hyperviscosity of the blood are a couple of the significant markers for the disease and may be caught when testing for other illnesses.  There are only between 1000 and 1500 cases a year in the US, so this is pretty rare.

While I know that many people who are recently diagnosed with MS tend to be in denial and I don't want to encourage that tendency I do think that perhaps our MS community should be aware of this possibility.  Eleven years after being diagnosed with MS and always doubting the validity of that diagnoses I now find that I have a treatable although not curable form of cancer.  I find myself wondering if I have MS at all.  My case has never been in any way typical for MS, for example I thrive on heat and my hot tub is my best friend.

I would suggest that people with MS symptoms might want to ask their doctors to check for Waldenstrom's in addition to ruling out Lyme's.  Although in the past I have resisted my primary physician's annual requests to see a neurologist this year I have felt so tired and defeated I yielded and saw a neuro I had seen eleven years ago.  He was very thorough in his workup, and did run a Western Blot for Lyme's at my insistence as well as other blood tests.  He was concerned about the elevated IgM and referred me to an oncologist who repeated the blood tests along with some additional tests.  Yesterday the oncologist shared the results with me and although we are going to do a bone marrow biopsy this Thursday for more data he is pretty sure of his diagnosis.

As I said, this is treatable, not curable.  But treatment can be very effective and it would be a shame to have anyone taking immuno-modulating therapy for MS if this indolent form of Lymphoma is actually responsible for their symptoms.

And I want to take this opportunity to thank you again for your website.  The most important thing you have given me was empowerment.  The uninvited guest in my life has never ruled, in fact eleven years after diagnosis I am off work on disability for the first time - recognizing my right to put myself and my health ahead of all other concerns.  Until now I have not had to take any time off, other than perhaps leaving an hour early now and then.  Your positive approach to the challenges in your life is inspiring and you have my admiration.  Thank you so much for all you do!   /S/ Julie T.

Hello Julie, 

Thanks for writing.  Your letter is very interesting indeed.  It reminds me of about 15 years ago when we first learned that lots of people who had Lyme disease (very treatable) had been misdiagnosed with MS.  It certainly is true that some of your symptoms have not mirrored those of classic MS.  Please keep me informed of your progress. 

   BREATH WORK AND MEDITATION

I know I write a lot about breath work and meditation, but they are such powerful healing tools I will continue to bombard readers with related information.  Why?  Because they really, really work . . . the effects are awesome!  And they take very little time, cost no money, don't require intervention by a doctor, and perhaps best of all they have no negative side effects.  SUCH A DEAL!!!

Using various breath techniques we can and do literally change our physical, mental and spiritual state, either consciously or unconsciously.

 

The first level of meditation is physical:  On the physical level, we can reduce stress and thereby improve circulation, thus aiding our body's natural healing ability.  The flight or fight syndrome, when applied to our present-day lifestyles, is very damaging to our body.  If reducing that stress load was the only benefit from meditation, it would be well worth doing.

 

The second level of meditation is mental:  On the mental level, learning to meditate effectively - and it is a learned skill - teaches us to become acutely aware of the fact that we are physical, mental and spiritual beings.  We can learn to "talk" to our mind and tell it to stop wandering.  I had been meditating for years before I learned from Paul Scheele the power of talking to my mind.  It is a tremendous skill and so very simple to learn.  It is through talking to your mind that we can talk to our body.  I think of the mind as the control center of our body.

 

The deepest level of meditation is spiritual:  On the spiritual level, through seasoned meditation we can connect with our higher self.  The longer we seriously practice meditation, the more the spiritual aspect becomes apparent to us.  I can never talk or write about the spiritual part of our being without being sure to emphasize that spiritual and religious are two very different things.  One can be both, but many, many people are very religious without being spiritual. 

 

What is religion?  Religion is based in dogma, rules and a particular belief system. 

 

What is spirit?  Science has proven today through physics that we are all connected.  And it is the spirit, the energy that powers all aspects of our body, which is the connecting link.  Religionists call that our soul.  I think of it as our life force.  It is found in everything, and indwells every living, breathing human being.  It first demonstrates its existence at birth with our first breath, and it departs our body with our last breath at the point of our death.

 

Therefore meditation and our breath are inextricably intertwined.  Simple breathing exercises are powerful healing tools because they work at the physical level.  This physical level healing also applies to exercise.  I believe a primary reason exercise is such a powerful healing tool is to a great degree because it increases respiration and circulation.

 

But we greatly enhance our body's natural self-healing ability when we learn to add the mental and spiritual levels of meditation.  Learning to become a seasoned meditator is truly a life-changing practice.

 

   Featured Books, DVD Exercise Programs and Videos

Please, everyone, do not sit around and wait for testing and treatment if warranted for CCSVI. Even if that becomes the standard MS treatment down the road, you need to get moving and improve your quality of life NOW.  Even those who have the corrective procedure done still have to work to recover their quality of life. 

How do you do that? I suspect that you already know. Start a simple daily meditation ritual, and move your body with healthy exercise.

Oh you say you can't exercise? Excuse me, but that is rubbish. There is no such thing as a person who can't exercise. You can do a very effective exercise program sitting in a wheelchair, or even lying in bed. My good friend Max (in Canada) with whom I got acquainted on the Internet when it was in its infancy, used to say that if you don't do anything else but flay your arms about, you will gain strength and begin to get better. He took himself from beginning to consider some kind of assisted living to being a fully functioning human being with nothing but exercise. Max had been wheelchair bound for years, so he spoke from personal experience.  He is still in a wheelchair, but he very significantly improved the quality of his life with exercise.  And you can do it too! You just start with some simple breathing exercises and very simple seated movement. EVERYBODY CAN IMPROVE HIS/HER BODY WITH A COMMITMENT TO EXERCISE.

If you don't have them, order Yoga for MS (for strength) and/or Tai Chi/Qi Gong for Seniors (for healing) Gentle Fitness (for overall fitness) and get moving. PLEASE DON'T WAIT!  Then pick two or three things from one or two of these programs and get started. Soon you won't believe what a tremendous improvement you will experience. The only thing hindering you is your own lack of enthusiasm and passion. There is no person who cannot improve the quality of his or her life with exercise.  Just get moving!

I absolutely know that one of the reasons I live a normal, healthy life today is because of these exercise programs.  Come on. Get started today! 

CHECK OUT THE DETAILS OF THESE VIDEOS AND FEATURED BOOKS HERE