- This event has passed.
Show Notes
December 22, 2021
Impossible Question
Click here for the Impossible Question.
The Good, the Bad, and the Not Worth It: Navigating the Holiday Dessert Table
Dr. Julie Gatza National Spokesperson for Natures Sources, LLC, manufacturers of plant-based AbsorbAid digestive enzymes. Discount Code: Radio
Health and Wellness Educator Dr. Julie Gatza shares some tips to enjoy the holidays while eating less sugar.
For health-conscious people with a sweet tooth, the holidays can be hard. Work break rooms are cookie-filled minefields, family parties have entire rooms devoted to desserts, and every corner coffee shop is filled with sugar-laden caramel-frappa-peppermint-mocha concoctions.
Sweets are everywhere you turn, and if you’re not careful, the occasional indulgence can turn into a daily sugar-bomb habit.
Instead of fearing the holiday-party dessert table, learn to navigate them mindfully. Yes, it is possible for the holidays to be a time to enjoy your favorite treats without feeling totally out of control.
Try these simple mindset shifts to shake the healthy diet-busting anxiety and instead intentionally enjoy the holidays’ festive flavors.
Lose the all-or-nothing approach to sweets. If you find that having one gingerbread cookie leads to eating the entire plate, it may be wise to explore your all-or-nothing approach to sweets. Complete avoidance of holiday desserts is not only challenging, it can be a harmful mindset that will set you up for overeating if (or, more like when) you do succumb to cravings. Instead, try hard to remember that each cookie, piece of pie, and a mug of hot cocoa is not the last time you will ever eat a sweet again. Realizing that you have ample opportunities to enjoy treats in the future can help to keep your cravings in check when you’re hovering over a plate of Aunt Barb’s pudding pie.
Be prepared for holiday health-bombs. If you know your holiday work dinner will involve indulgent drinks and desserts, plan for healthier meals in the days leading up to and after the event. Planning ahead to stay on track with your health habits is key during the holiday season and can also allow you wiggle room to delight in desserts without feeling like you’ve gone off track.
Decide what’s worth it — and what’s not. Not all sweets are created equal, and it’s important to know which are worth the holiday indulgence, and which you can have at any time, or just leave if they don’t do it for you! Consider which will be more satisfying: that chocolate croissant you can also order in July or the pecan pie your beloved grandmother only makes once a year. And get real with yourself about whether you’re eating something you don’t even really like just because it’s there — yes, fruitcake, we’re looking at you.
Savor the flavors with all of your senses. When you do indulge, take the time to enjoy the treat without distractions. Enjoy the appearance, smell, taste, and texture of that piece of pie, and do so slowly. You will likely find that you need a smaller piece to satisfy your craving than if you scarfed it down in two seconds in your car or at your desk.
Pay attention to how you feel after eating a sweet treat. One small piece of pie or a cookie is unlikely to affect you, but how do you feel after eating an entire box of chocolates? Not so great, right? Remembering those feelings in all their unpleasant detail can help keep your dessert choices in check.
Curb sugar-hungry Candida with yeast-fighting herbs:
Candida albicans is a type of yeast that is naturally present in everyone’s digestive tract, and because it is yeast it needs sugar in order to grow. Intense craving for sugar is a warning sign that Candida levels in your digestive tract have become excessive and need to be brought under control. Dr. Gatza says one of the most effective and efficient ways to curb yeast growth is a natural anti-yeast/anti-fungal herbal extract from New Zealand’s horopito plant — available to U.S. consumers as Kolorex. The extract attacks and kills yeast colonies and allows beneficial intestinal bacteria to flourish — drastically reducing cravings for sugar and refined carbs.
COVID
Why are we (the USA) not the leader when it comes to COVID – Opportunity Missed
COVID Stats in Colorado
Cases – Dropping Nov 22 – 6090 daily average – 1700 now
Deaths – Dropping Average was a high of 80 now 35
Comments here.
Happy RamaHanuKwanzMas
Listen here.
Polis considering Aguilera-Mederos Clemency Application
https://kdvr.com/news/local/rogel-aguilera-mederos-polis-clemency/
https://kdvr.com/news/rogel-aguilera-mederos-victim-speaks/
Comments here.
As We Celebrate the Holidays, We Must be Mindful of Those Hurting
Comments from Richard, “My first loss during the holidays was my great-grandmother passing on Christmas day when I was 9. I remember driving up to my grandmother’s house, looking into a window from the car, and knowing she had passed before we entered the house.
My divorce, heart procedures, cancer, surviving an apartment fire where my neighbor died, rebounding from financial devastation, and the crushing blow of my only son’s passing didn’t occur during the holiday season. They did compel me to face heartbreak multiple times and learn methods to endure and persevere. I detailed many of these experiences in Unwelcome Opportunity: Overcoming Life’s Greatest Challenges and Surviving Grief by God’s Grace.
Until I suffered loss, I was oblivious to its existence in life and magnification during the holidays. Not only was I joyous, but it appeared everyone else was also because suffering people often mask their pain.
Holidays bring an increase in alcohol and drug use, abusive relationships, financial stress, and suicide. In addition to death and broken relationships, loneliness is a significant contributor to depression and its negative manifestations.
So, the two important lessons for all of us are how we face challenges magnified by the holidays and providing support for others who are enduring.”
Responding to those in pain
- It is common to say nothing because you don’t know what to say. Being there for people is the most essential comfort.
- Often listening is better than offering consolation. Sincerity, compassion, and sensitivity are paramount.
- Let them know you are sorry for their pain and or loss and that you are there for them.
- Don’t wait to be asked for help. Call and offer specific support you know the individual needs but probably won’t ask anyone.
- Don’t try to make people feel better comparing your loss to theirs. If the person knows you, they know your loss, which increases your credibility.
- Don’t compare losing a pet to losing a family member.
Facing personal pain and suffering
- Asking “why me” isn’t essential and will trap us in the past.
- Pain will also trap you into a never-moving present. The quicker you can begin thinking about the future, the faster you’ll rebound.
- I’ve found when I’m thinking about my pain; I hurt more. When I think about how I can encourage and help others, I hurt less. Find someone to help.
- Material solutions rarely solve spiritual suffering. Deliberately get closer to your faith, family, and friends. They can console you, and you can benefit them.
So, while we celebrate, and observe others doing so this year, let’s keep on the lookout for others we can assist.
And if you’re hurting this season, I hope these ideas will deliver comfort to you to endure until better times arrive. And again, helping others is a beautiful medicine during challenging times.
Helping Parents in the Digital Age
Sean Clifford, founder of Canopy
As Christmas quickly approaches, millions of kids will receive their first digital device. With it comes new dangers like sexual exploitation, online predators, and explicit content, to name a few.
New York Times: “What’s One of the Most Dangerous Toys for Kids? The Internet.” Article here.
Parents need to prepare for this, but threats over the internet are complex, nuanced, rapidly evolving, and increasingly challenging to safeguard against.
Parenting apps are the strongest defense. Through functions like giving devices a “bedtime,” these services give parents a degree of control in how their child experiences the internet and, crucially, how vulnerable they are to it.
The Holiday Blues
Dr. Carole Liberman
“From Chanukah to Christmas, Kwanzaa to New Year’s Eve, we are supposed to be celebrating and hugging and feeling positive about the future. We usually cheer ourselves up and get into the holiday spirit. But, last year and especially this year, it has gotten harder and harder, says Carole Lieberman, M.D., M.P.H., known as America’s Psychiatrist. “Each holiday season, some people suffer from ‘Holiday Blues’, which is due to our feeling nostalgic for holidays gone by, when we were little kids receiving armloads of presents, or when we were in a heady romantic relationship, or when we were in some other situation that our memory tells us was better. But, this year, some people will go deeper into depression and even contemplate suicide.”
5 REASONS WHY MORE PEOPLE WILL FEEL SUICIDAL THIS YEAR
1-BURNOUT - We have been hanging in there, desperately looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, and getting our hopes dashed from one Covid variant to the next. Some will give up hope of ever getting their life back.
2-RISE IN ALCOHOL, DRUGS & OTHER SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIORS - During lockdowns many people have resorted to drinking or eating too much, using drugs, or doing other harmful things out of boredom or anger at the world and take it out on themselves.
3-ISOLATION & LONELINESS - Many of us have become inadvertent hermits. We were forced into isolation and now cling to it out of familiarity. Pajamas have become more comfortable than socializing at a time when socializing used to make the holidays bright.
4-FINANCIAL DISTRESS - Whether they lost a job or business, or because of inflation, many families aren’t able to give the gifts they would like or go on the usual holiday vacations they took. Some are even in more dire straits, wondering if they’ll be able to afford food or rent.
5-LOSS OF LOVED ONES - Whether our loved ones died of Covid or some health problem that couldn’t get treated because of lack of medical care, there is an increase in deaths of family and friends. This grief can be overwhelming, especially at the holidays.
5 WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF & YOUR LOVED ONES
1-Be alert for signs of depression: overwhelming fatigue, loss of interest in life, sleeping too much or too little, eating too much or too little, sadness, irritability, feelings of wanting to give up, thoughts of suicide.
2-Watch at least 1 hour of comedy a day. Laughter still is the best medicine.
3-Plan something to look forward to every day, such as: calling a friend, taking a walk in the sun, visiting someplace new.
4-Volunteer for some charity that would make you happy and keep you within your Covid comfort zone: such as: calling for donations, donating food yourself, delivering food baskets, reading to kids or the elderly in person or over the phone.
5-Keep these telephone numbers handy: your family physician, the closest hospital emergency room, your local suicide hotline, and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255 (273-TALK).
Find Dr. Carol’s Websites HERE & HERE:
.@RepDean: “Mr. Manchin is at a low moment in his career. He mislead the president, he misled his Senate colleagues, he misled us in the House when he promised to work and move forward on the [BBB] framework that was agreed to.” https://t.co/vscI2iYMKf pic.twitter.com/NxpKdVj0VK
— The Hill (@thehill) December 21, 2021
The Markets
Scott Garliss – Stansberry Research
The European Central Bank
Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP)
Interest Rates
Joe Manchin and the current budget proposal
