Habit Forming - Forming Habits

image by Ron Leishman: http://www.toonclipart.com/

I have always found replacing “bad” habits to be much more feasible than quitting anything. Quitting just leaves a void. Want, need, longing, fury, agitation, frustration - just to name a few - were my new companions in the void. Why not just find something I enjoy to replace the thing I enjoyed but found to be detrimental in some way.  It isn’t so much a question of will power as of energy.  Energy constantly transforms, but it doesn’t go away.  A habit is a pattern of energy.  It is constructive to work with it, creating change and transformation.

During the holidays I found myself inundated with ambivalence about all the sweets and treats I was confronted with constantly at that time of year. What should I do? I was tortured by the ice cream, chocolates, and egg nog. They made me suffer! - I want! I shouldn’t! I mustn’t! I want I want!

Ice cream was always one of my greatest addictions. Great in quality and size and challenge. Recently I have found a substitution which I find full-filling and delightful, leaving me without cravings. I make a shake. Not a milk shake! Young coconut banana shake. Delectable.

1 young coconut - water and meat
1 banana
6 pieces of ice
Blend all ingredients in a blender or vitamix

For instructions on how to open a young coconut, you can search youtube.com or google.com. If you are a beginner, just be very careful!
The consistency of the shake will vary depending on the youth of the coconut - but I find all variations to be yummy.

Good luck and please post questions!

I’m Cuckoo for Coconuts

I adore young coconuts.  There is nothing in the world so refreshing to me as young coconut water - the light, almost clear water that forms inside (not to be confused with coconut milk).

Coconuts have health benefits far greater than most of us are aware of, so I have included below the highlights from an article at:
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/coconutwater.html

‘Here is some information about Coconut Water:

“It’s a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It’s the fluid of life, so to speak.” In fact, during the Pacific War of 1941-45, both sides in the conflict regularly used coconut water - siphoned directly from the nut - to give emergency plasma trasfusions to wounded soldiers.

Most coconut water is still consumed fresh in tropical coastal areas - once exposed to air, the liquid rapidly loses most of its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics, and begins to ferment.

• Coconut Water is More Nutritious than whole milk - Less fat and NO cholesterol!
• Coconut Water is More Healthy than Orange Juice - Much lower calories
• Coconut Water is Better than processed baby milk- It contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother’s milk
• Coconut water is naturally sterile — Water permeates though the filtering husk!
• Coconut water is a universal donor– Its identical to human blook plasma
• Coconut Water is a Natural Isotonic Beverage - The same level we have in our blood.
• Coconut water has saved lives in 3rd world countries thru Coconut IV.

“Coconut water is the very stuff of Nature, biologically Pure, full of Natural Sugars, Salts, and Vitamins to ward off fatigue… and is the next wave of energy drinks BUT natural!”, according to Mortin Satin, Chielf of the United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organization.

Coconut water contains more potassium (at about 294 mg) than most sports drinks (117 mg) and most energy drinks.

Coconut water has less sodium (25mg) where sports drinks have around 41mg and energy drinks have about 200 mg!

Coconut water has 5mg of Natural Sugars where sports and energy drinks range from 10-25mg of Altered Sugars.

Coconut water is very high in Chloride at 118mg, compared to sports drinks at about 39mg.’

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

The word of the day is that chocolate has anti-oxidants and good for you stuff. We also know it has some not so good for you stuff.
After doing extensive reading on the subject, I concluded that if you use your raw chocolate in moderation, it should be fine. This seems to me to be common sense:
For instance after eating one candy bar (not that I recommend it, due to the presence of sugars, processing, and possibly trans-fat) most people feel that pleasant chocolate happy feeling. After eating 10 candy bars, most people feel pretty bad.

Here is a web page with a lot of easy to read information about chocolate:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/choco.html

You can grind your own raw cacao beans or raw cacao chocolate nibs in a spice grinder or coffee grinder, or you can purchase the finely ground powder (widely available on raw food online stores and health food stores).

Add raw chocolate to breakfast shakes, almond milk banana smoothies. I like pouring out a handful of cacao nibs onto a small plate with some raw cashew pieces or raw almonds and nibbling while I catch up on emails, check out cool videos on youtube, drink tea, read the news, etc. The bitter nibs mix well with the natural sweetness of the nuts.
If you don’t have a health food store handy, you can order from any number of online sources. Two I have used to buy raw food products are:
http://www.livingtreecommunity.com
http://www.alissacohen.com