For all you caffeine addicts, here's a great article that debunks all the myths that claim coffee and caffeine are evil.  Enjoy! 

At some point in everyone’s life, physical pain becomes our constant or frequent companion.

Arthritis, migraines, back pain, et al, these are curves in our life’s path.

And what’s the remedy?   EXERCISE!  

“Physical activity is actually a natural pain reliever for most people suffering from arthritis," concludes another study published in the  Arthritis Care and Research  journal in April. "Even minor lifestyle changes like taking a 10-minute walk three times a day can reduce the impact of arthritis on a person's daily activities and help to prevent developing more painful arthritis," said Dr. Patience White, chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation. "Physical activity can actually reduce pain naturally and decrease dependence on pain medications."

When clients tell me they’re suffering from migraines, and that they can’t possibly participate in the day's program, I let them skip the morning classes, but I always insist that they at least set out on the daily hike with the promise that we’ll pick them up at any point if they feel they can’t make it.

I’ve never had a migraine sufferer call for a pick-up -- every one of them has returned from the hike marveling about the efficacy of hiking to cure their pain.

For more information on pain management with exercise, read this article from Livescience.com.

As the dogs and I were returning from our walk this morning, cresting the steep hill on which the village is perched, we encountered an elderly man sitting on the small stone wall that keeps people and cars from tumbling over the edge.

The man motioned for the dogs to approach, and since they were leashed, I walked over with them. He greeted me and petted the dogs. The dogs settled down at his feet so I sat down on the wall next to the man.

He told me that he now lived in the retirement home down the street and went out to walk every day. He said he had to get out of the retirement home as often as he could because most of the people just sat around. He told me he didn’t understand how people could sit around all day. It drove him crazy. He needed to move.

He used to be a farmer. He told me that he had a dog and it was always by his side when he worked the land. He missed that, he said.

He told me that he was resting on the wall before heading down the hill. Then he’d rest again and walk back up. He was going to walk back up a hill that many of our young clients refuse to walk up because it is so vertical.

But to this man, being able to walk up this hill signified something very important. It meant that he was alive and healthy – healthier, both physically and mentally than the people in the retirement home who no longer had any desire to get out of their chairs and move.

Walk for your health and sanity. Walk every day you can.

I’m in Montana, visiting my family. I’ve attended my niece’s 8th grade graduation. I’ve visited my hundred-year-old, great-aunt in the nursing home. I went to the senior graduation of my high school and then to a party afterwards where I happily mingled for hours with my former classmates. I’m spending time with my mother who isn’t in good health; and with my father who is seventy-eight and in excellent health – yesterday he walked four miles across the muddy prairie because his truck broke down in the pasture when he was checking his cows.

I’ve had a fascinating week observing the parade of life pass at warp speed. One minute I was with my young nieces, who spent most of their day giggling and texting their friends or boyfriends – the next minute I was with my Aunt May who spends ninety-five percent of her days sleeping in her nursing home bed.

At the party, I spoke with former classmates who represented every stop on life’s wheel of fortune: happily married, thrice-divorced, never married, unhappily married, aging well, really wrinkled, in fantastic shape, obese, stricken with MS, promoted to CEO of a publicly traded company, living on disability, happily ranching, unhappily ranching, tragedy-stricken, abundantly blessed.

When I graduated from high-school thirty-two years ago, I could have never predicted how my life would unfold. I look back with regretful amusement at my youthful conviction that I could control the journey: extremely regretful that I unnecessarily stressed myself out with vain attempts to control the uncontrollable.

Talking with my old classmates, I realized that when it came to our personalities, our characters, our intrinsic beings, we were all fundamentally the same as we were when we graduated so many decades ago. Those who were shy were still shy. Those who were the life of the party were still the center of attention. It was apparent that a mountain of self-help books would have been of no avail in trying to rewire any of us.

Every one of us has a fundamental core that is unalterable.

Yes, the decades had mellowed us, but none of us had broken out of the molds in which we were cast. And I found peace in comprehending this for the first time – that the only thing one needs to learn to live happily in the world is to accept and love oneself. Acceptance. That’s where we’ll find the calm at the center of life’s storms.

The universe is perfect exactly as it is now.
You are perfect exactly as you are now.

Breathe in acceptance. Breathe out acceptance.

Here's an interesting and light-hearted article from the Billings Gazette, Montana, USA about a competition that was held to see which is the faster form of transportation in Billings during lunch-hour traffic -- walking, driving a car, or biking. 

The bikers always came in first; and I was thrilled to see that the walkers usually came in second!

Muscles beat out fossil fuel consistently in this test.

When my husband and I lived in San Francisco, our car was stolen twice in six months.  We decided to see how long we could go without a car.  Amazingly, we went for nine years -- never buying a car until we moved to France. 

When we gave up the car, our life became less complicated, less stressful:  no washing the car, no insurance to buy, no stolen cars!, no repairs, and no wasted hours searching for parking.  We walked everywhere or took a cab if we were in a big hurry.  If we needed to go out of town we rented the exact car we needed for the beach, or Napa, or the mountains. 

Try this healthy lifestyle idea:  Forego motorized transportation for one day each week.  Make it your Health Sabbath. 

"Take a look at your natural river.  What are you?  Stop playing games with yourself.  Where's your river going?  Are you riding with it or are you rowing against it?  Don't you see -- that there is no effort if you are riding with your river?

Frederick Frieseke

"The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom . . . for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough." 

William Blake

Our village of Lauzerte just finished with three wild nights of bands, dancing, and partying.  From the conversations I overheard from my bedroom window at four this morning, I'm sure there are a lot of hangovers today.

I remember when I was a kid, that my father's argument for not legalizing drugs was that they didn't give you a hangover like alcohol did.  According to my father's reasoning, you had to put up a fight to become an alcoholic; whereas a descent into drug addiction was effortless.

I don't know if Dad's analysis is sound; but what I do know is that our bodies are constantly giving us feedback as to what is healthy behavior and what is not:

• feeling sluggish . . . then you need more exercise
• teeth hurt . . . then you need to lay off the sugar
• fat around your midriff . . . then you need to cut back on calories and exercise more
• indigestion .  . . you ate too much at dinner
• hangover . . .  cut back on the booze

Our body tries to lead us along the healthy path in life.  Too often we ignore it until we wake up one morning from the real or metaphorical car wreck that we have created by ignoring our body's warnings about excessive consumption. 

Metabolic Syndrome is the medical term for the ills that besiege us as a result of our over-consumptive and sedentary lifestyles.  Besides being overweight, the first dangerous warning sign of the syndrome is a diagnosis of high blood pressure. 

High blood pressure can be managed with a regimen of healthy eating, regular exercise, and drugs; but more often than not, patients opt for the "drugs only" regimen.  This choice will not solve the problem . . . it will only slow the disease's progress.

If lifestyle changes are not made when a person finds out they have high blood pressure then more serious health trouble will eventually follow in the form of diabetes or congestive heart failure:  the full compliment of Metabolic Syndrome ailments.

Overindulging is fine now and then -- nothing wrong with feeling absolutely stuffed, and on the verge of vomiting after a huge Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.  Nothing wrong with the village going wild for three nights and nursing hangovers this morning.  But there is something wrong in overdoing it every day with food and alcohol; and problems are compounded if you don't have lots of exercise in your life. 

If you want balance in your life, listen to your body.  Be kind to it and take it for a walk every day . . . it will live longer.

You are perfect exactly as you are now.

This was the sight this morning as we walked down the hill into Albas and the Lot River Valley.  The fog was lifting to reveal a beautiful, sunny, warm spring day

This dog followed our hiking group for four kilometers -- leading them to a small village, always stopping and looking back to make sure they were following.  When the group arrived in the village, the dog left them, went into a bakery, and returned with this croissant in her mouth.  Our group surmised that she probably goes into the village every day to get a croissant . . . and look how svelte she is!

Every morning at Camp Biche, we do an intensive abdomen workout.  This morning, our clients did over 500 ab reps!  And loved it.  All of them are seeing their abdomens shrink this week . . . and one woman is raving about the definition that she's starting to see in her abdomen muscles.

People think they'll get in shape by dieting, but that's the hardest, most difficult route.  The quickest and easiest way to manifest changes to your body is to exercise . . . daily.

Here's yet another study confirming that exercise is the best medicine -- it can actually keep you from developing dementia when you're older:

Middle-aged people with excess visceral fat - usually apparent in the thick waist or pot belly of an apple-shaped body - are nearly three times more likely to suffer from dementia in their 70s and 80s than people with little to no belly fat, according to a study of Kaiser Permanente patients.

Here's a healthy, low-cal recipe for a satisfying soup.  Serve it in a big bowl with a 1/4 cup of brown rice for a hearty meal -- or serve it by itself in a small bowl and sprinkle with minced basil for an appetizer.  Makes 4 large bowls.  Don't tell your guests about its calorie content -- let them think they're eating a creme-laden soup -- but it's only about 150 calories per serving.

Ingredients

• two large red bell peppers
• six tomatoes
• 1/4 cup of dry white wine
• 3-5 cloves of minced garlic
• 1-2 minced shallots
• three cups of chicken broth or bouillon
• 1/2 cup non-fat milk

Preparation

• Core peppers.  Slice in narrow strips.  Toss in a bowl with a teaspoon of olive oil.  Spread on a cookie sheet and roast in a 400 degree oven until the tips of the peppers are black.
• Bring a saucepan of water to a boil.  Score bottom of tomatoes with a small cross.  Boil tomatoes just until the skin starts to peel away.  Rinse with cold water.  Peel and discard skins and core of tomatoes. 
• Put tomatoes and roasted peppers in a large saucepan with a teaspoon of oil.  Cook, stirring occassionally, over medium heat for five minutes.
• Add wine, cooking until it heats up.
• Add garlic and shallots, cooking, and stirring just until you can smell the garlic . . . about two minutes.
• Add the chicken broth and bring to a low boil.
• Just before you're ready to serve, mix all ingredients in a blender until creamy.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Add milk until you achieve the desired consistency.

From the Harvard School of Public Health, comes another study that found that watching lots of television is a predictor for obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

. . . we have demonstrated that increasing TV watching is strongly associated with obesity and weight gain, independent of diet and exercise. Also, prolonged TV watching is associated with a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Seems the French stop eating when they feel full.  What a revolutionary idea!

Americans tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over, Wansink said.

More evidence that watching television makes you fat! 

The article also briefly alluded to what we practice here at Camp Biche:  that notoriously "fattening" foods are fine to eat, as long as you eat them in small portions.

The French may not get as fat as Americans despite cheese, pate and pastries, because they use internal cues to stop eating, a U.S. and French study found.  

This is the publicity, on the side of the building that houses the French Ministry of Health, that's promoting breast cancer screening.

I'm going to make a prediction that in the very near future, there will be a study published that states that the only effort required to be healthy is EXERCISE.  Last week, a report came out that said eating lots of vegetables and fruit was NOT a cancer deterrent!  Doctors and scientists keep coming back to the same place with study after study:  exercise is the only consistent way to prevent, cure, or ameliorate virtually every health issue.

Daily Exercise Dramatically Lowers Men's Death Rates

Sedentary Lifestyles Associated With Accelerated Aging Process

Physical Activity Associated With Lower Risk of Work-related Repetitive Strain Injury

High Levels Of Leisure-time Physical Activity Cut Stroke Risk

Physical Activity Linked To Protection From Parkinson's Disease

Eva Longoria

How idiotic civilization is!  Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?

  ~Katherine Mansfield, Bliss and Other Stories

Last night I had the pleasure of eating with a lovely French family.  Their two beautiful, svelte, teen-age daughters joined us.

For the aperitif, I picked up the bowl of crevettes chips (the "hot" new junk food craze that's sweeping the area . . . accomplished chefs are even garnishing their dishes with them) and offered the bowl to each of our guests.  The adults each took ONE chip.

When I offered the bowl of chips to the two jeunes femmes, they declined.  I was impressed with their will-power.

But after a moment pondering this incredible feat of self-denial I thought, hmmmm, maybe they have an eating disorder for who on earth could pass up a crevette chip?

Dinner was served.

The cream of broccoli soup made its appearance.  The two girls each ate all of their soup, together with a piece of bread.

The pork tenderloin wrapped in smoked bacon was served, accompanied by haricots verts topped with a Parmesan cream sauce -- real heavy cream.  The young women ate the pork, the bacon, and the green beans, along with another piece of bread.

The salad tossed in a mustard-honey-balsamic vinaigrette was served with Roquefort cheese rolled in port-soaked raisins and chopped walnuts.  The girls ate their salads, the cheese, and a third piece of bread.

The Normandy apple tart was served, and the girls cleaned their plates.

The eating behavior of these trim French girls (and their thin mother, who DID eat a crevette chip) perfectly illustrates what we preach at Camp Biche.  Food is not your enemy.

We were designed to enjoy food and thrive off of it.  Just don't eat constantly -- eat three good meals a day that you truly enjoy -- and pack plenty of fun exercise into each day.

Oh, and another thing:  DON'T BE AFRAID OF BREAD!

Create love whenever, wherever you can. 

Click here to watch this short video of a lion in love.

Click here to read a sweet story about a couple finding love on the hospital night shift.