Compassion Fatigue Solutions

During my travels last week, I met some lovely people and enjoyed several great chats over lunch and during breaks during the training sessions. One of these conversations was about green smoothies (as in smoothies made with greens) - yes, you heard me right. Let me explain what this is all about.

Several months ago, I came across an article on the health benefits of eating raw foods. I had heard about raw foodism in the past and was always rather sceptical about this approach to nutrition. In a nutshell, raw foodism advocates eating foods in their least processed and most natural forms. The argument is that cooking food destroys important enzymes and make foods less nutritious and less digestible. I have no idea about the science behind this, but I do know that eating mostly plant-based foods in their least processed forms can't be a bad thing and that most of us eat far too much salt, fat and preservatives.

I decided to try introducing more raw foods in my diet in October and within two weeks, I noticed significant changes in my overall health. After a lifetime of low blood sugar crashes, for once in my life I started feeling actually satiated between meals. I no longer got that shaky headachy feeling if I didn't get lunch right on time. I also noticed a whole host of other improvements to my overall health and energy. Eating more raw food is not about dieting or depriving yourself. Rather, it's a way of introducing more plant-based foods in your life.

Anyhow, if you want to know more about raw food, you can read all about it at the sites I mention below, all I really wanted to tell you about today was green smoothies.

I don't think that many people will argue with the concept that eating more greens is good for all of us. Raw Divas recommend a very painless way to do this: drink a green smoothie once a day. For starters, they suggest making this very simple green smoothie: (you need a blender for this): 2 ripe or frozen bananas, a handful of spinach, a cup of water and a few ice cubes if your bananas were not frozen. Start with a little bit of spinach and add more after you are used to the taste. Try having a green smoothie at breakfast, as a midafternoon snack or in the evening instead of your usual cookies and milk. Tera Warner of Raw Divas also has a very tasty banana ice cream recipe on her website. Here is a cute video of her and her son making the ice cream.

I have no affiliation with these raw food sites but thought I would list a few that I like to visit once in a while for inspiration:

The raw divas website mentioned above has lots of recipes on the site if you navigate around a bit.
www.rawmazing.com (she has the best recipes, I find)
www.kristensraw.com (she is hard core raw vegan but offers a lot of recipes on her blog)
Choosing raw has very nice lunch ideas and other recipes worth trying

Whether or not you decide to go the raw food way, try a green smoothie and let me know what you think.

Photo by Nillerdk @ wikicommons

I recently asked an audience of about 100 people how many of them practiced or had ever tried relaxation training and/or meditation. Approximately 10 people raised their hands.

This is not an anomaly, it's the usual response I get. It's similar to the response I get when I ask groups how many of them would say that they:

1) Get enough sleep on a regular basis
2) Eat 3 healthy meals per day, with lots of fruit and vegetables, reducing caffeine, saturated fats and salt.
3) Exercise 3-4 times a week
4) Take breaks during the day to refuel and just chill out

Last time I asked this question, one person out of 150 said yes.

hmmm.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you know that I feel very strongly about the importance of eating healthily for many reasons (cancer prevention, keeping diabetes at bay, increasing our immunity, weight control, the list goes on) but I am also very aware of the many obstacles we face: time crunch, financial constraints, food dislikes to name a few.

The exercise piece is tricky. A lot of people say to me "I'm not in good enough shape to go to the gym, I feel very self-conscious" and I totally respect that. A friend of mine (who went on to lose a significant amount of weight and run a marathon) could not walk around the block with me without having to stop to catch her breath. But she persevered, walked a bit faster each week, then started alternating running with walking (10 minutes of running, one minute of walking), an approach to running that is highly recommended by coaches at running clinics. It took a long time and a lot of hard work, but she started out small and eventually the results were life-changing.

Isn't that always the best way? To take small, realistic steps?

I invite you to reflect on the four categories above and see whether there is an area that you can celebrate. Is there something you are feeling particularly pleased with, in terms of self care? These can be very small steps (increasing my vegetable intake by one serving, taking 5 minutes off each day for the past week, etc.).

What would you commit to working on that is realistic and achievable for the week to come?

As I wrote in a prior post on preventive medicine, Dr Béliveau has carried out a great deal of reseach on the link between cancer and the foods we eat.

Dr Béliveau is a biochemist who works as a research scientist at two Montreal Universities. He is an expert in cancer prevention and is also a gifted communicator who aims to bring his lab findings to our dinner tables. He has written three books on cancer prevention and nutrition: Foods to Fight Cancer, Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer and his most recently released Eating Well, Living Well: Everyday Preventive Medicine which will be available in English in the Fall of 2009.

He was interviewed by Yannick Villedieu on Radio Canada in February 2009. I had the opportunity to hear it rebroadcast last Sunday. If you speak French, I recommend you follow the links to hear this highly informative interview.

If you don't speak French and you missed my original post, I invite you to return to read it. You will find the same take-home message in the post.