A Note from
Gregory Anne

Having Joy Now!

Food That Fuels You

Books that Cook

What's Happening

I love food and love to eat. What could be better than summertime foods like fresh sweet corn, tomatoes, melons, berries, local fish, (if you live out east), and beans, and well, you get the picture. It's the time of year when it's easy to eat healthfully and boost our intake of fruits and veggies because they are in season.

Of course summer wouldn't be summer without grilling and dining al fresco. Wouldn't you agree? I had my first grilled dinner of the seacon on the deck the other night and I'm going to share my very easy recipe with you. Grilling is both a healthy way to cook and oh so flavorful. There are a couple of things to do to ensure that your grilling doesn't go from healthy to harmful and I've covered them in Foods That Fuel You below.

I also encourage you to take advantage of summer's longer days. If you're a gym rat or a studio yogini now's the time to get outside. Changing your routine is not only good body conditioning but your brain will benefit too. Feel the warm air on your skin and enjoy it while you can. Did you know that getting just fifteen minutes of sunlight a day synthesizes all the Vitamin D you need? Why do you need D? By promoting calcium absorption, vitamin D helps to form and maintain strong bones.

Eat your way healthy and move outside for the sheer pleasure of it if no other reason.

To your Health, Power, and Joy.

Gregory Anne

If there is a subject you'd like me to address, an issue you are dealing with that you'd like some support on, or simply an idea, book, or product you'd like to share, send it to: info@livebettercoach.com

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Strange But True:

When doctors went on strike in Los Angeles, Saskatchewan, and Israel, death rates dropped 17 – 50 percent. Within 5 days after the strikes ended, rates returned to normal.

Having Joy Now!

Are you a person who judges yourself today by what you did or didn't do in the past? Or by what others did to you in the past?

Are you “waiting” for something to happen before you can feel joy, live a better life, move on from something non-supportive?

Do any of these sound familiar?

• “As soon as I find a better job I'm going to leave this creep”
• “Once I'm out of debt I'm going to start saving for my future”
• “When the kids leave home then I'll start taking care of myself”

One may be past focused and the other looking to the future but these different ways of thinking have one thing in common. They both take you out of the present and make it almost impossible to have health, power, and joy now.

How is living in the past dangerous to our present possibility? It's not unless you get stuck there or if you are convinced that then was better than now. If you negatively compare you to a “better” you in the past—or worse to a “better” someone else—you are reinforcing a negative and false sense of yourself. That “better” person is you. Maybe you acted then in ways that gave you more of the results you crave in your life today. Then use those images to inspire you. Know this though , you are today all that you ever were; beautiful, whole and complete, But with a little voice that works overtime to keep you in a perpetual state of “What if and if only.”

To understand how slippery the concept of memory is here's a brief bit of how memory works from a research paper done by the CIA on Intelligence and Memory. ( www.cia.gov and go to Intelligence Research)

“ There are at least three, and very likely more, distinct memory processes. The most important from the standpoint of this discussion and best documented by scientific research are sensory information storage (SIS), short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM).

Now a quick explanation on the difference between SIS and STM.

“Whereas SIS holds the complete image, STM stores only the interpretation of the image. If a sentence is spoken, SIS retains the sounds, while STM holds the words formed by these sounds. Like SIS, short-term memory holds information temporarily, pending further processing. This processing includes judgments concerning meaning, relevance, and significance …”

Ah, judgments concerning meaning huh? So possibly I remember something the way I think it happened it but not necessarily the way it was?

The researchers go on to point out, “People can never take their mind back to what was actually there in sensory information storage or short-term memory. They can only retrieve their interpretation of what they thought was there as stored in LTM.”

Voila! That last sentence proves the point I'm about to make. If your habit is to negatively judge yourself it's likely you will “remember” events, conversations, and reasons why something happened to support your negative view of you.

How is this serving you? Of course memory can be helpful. Knowing the fact that Prada has a sample sale every year in October can save you money on that pair of holiday stilettos . Remembering that you had a bad time in a relationship with someone who was a workaholic will serve you to steer clear of the one you met in a bar last night.

But like that guy from the bar, “remembering” that “I was always the stupid one so how will I ever succeed now?” is not a memory you want to spend time with.

Now let's turn the spotlight on lovers of the waiting game. If you are playing a waiting game such as I mentioned above you are missing out on your life. Why?

Because your life is happening now.

If you are waiting for that big break you are essentially saying you are not satisfied with your life now; that you don't want what you've got. You'll miss what you have. That means you will be living in a muddle of dissatisfaction and the stress it breeds. That can't feel good or be good for our health. Further you are saying that your present reality will never be good enough. Would you choose that? If you knew that shrimp made you sick would you eat them? That's how simple it is to shift, I promise.

As a coach do I encourage people to create a life they love, set goals and create immense visions? Absolutely, but what they are creating are visions of different experiences, things, and circumstances. You cannot create a better life because life is pure energy, your life is whole and complete, your essence is spirit.

Try on being content with this moment. Are you not all you need right now? “Yes but the bills, but the man I married, but the promotion,” the little voice tells you to ask. Those things are all circumstances. They are “what is.” They do not have to rule this moment so that you miss out on enjoying now.

If your mind is lives in a constant barrage of discontent, negativity, or longing for something else there is no room for creating that something else.

“Negativity is never the optimum way of dealing
with any situation”,

says Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now .

He goes on to say,

“Furthermore, any negative inner state is contagious:
Unhappiness spreads more easily than a physical disease.”

Powerful ideas and I wager to say he created his book in a place of presence. He did not sit down to write and think, “Oh my gawd what if it doesn't sell?, What if they think I'm crazy?” Negativity keeps us stuck. Tolle, the guru of now, wrote and published his book.

So I'm heralding a shift towards Joy of being in the present moment. How do I let go of all the negative stuff, Greg? One bit at a time. And how I get out of a funk is by making a quick list of 5 things I have to be thankful for. Not 5 things I've done in the past or 5 things I think I'm on track to have in the future but things that I am and have right now.

Here's my list in this moment:

• My house
• The beautiful yard all in bloom
• That I have ample water so I can water my plants freely
• My eyesight to see it all
• My brain that allows me to create thoughts to share with you

How easy is that?

My challenge to you for this month is to send the little voice on vacation.

Plan for the future, nod towards all of the people and experiences from the past who helped to shape you into the powerful person you are today, and see if you can find some of “ what is” to be thankful for. Create your dreams from there and see what Joy awaits you.

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Food That Fuels You

Grill This!

It's not news that grilling is a tasty, healthy, and easy way to prepare everything from fish and meat to vegetables and fruits. And summer is grill season. So this month we feature the do's and don'ts to keep it healthy as well as some ideas for flavoring you may not have tried.

Here's the bad news. When food comes in contact with a very high heat such as is used to grill and fry, certain chemicals are produced that may pose an increased cancer risk. All high heat cooking produces some potentially harmful substances but grilling can create a chemical double whammy. Scientists at the American Institute of Cancer Research have found that cooking red meat at high temperatures creates compounds called heterocyclic amines, found to be powerful cancer-causing agents in animals.

In addition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons develop when the fat from the meat drips on a flame or hot coals and produces smoke. That's the one-two punch. Studies show a strong association between cancer and meat, but not with poultry. Poultry and fish also can form cancerous compounds if crisply grilled, but have less fat content so the risk is lower.

What to do?

• Serve less red meat or cuts with a lower fat content. The less fat that drips into an open flame the less chance there is of carcinogenic smoke wafting up to coat your food.
• Sear the meat on the hot grill on both sides but finish cooking it in the oven
• Start chicken in the oven-cook about half way through. Not only will you need less of the smoke and chemicals to cook it through and give it flavor but clean up will be much easier as the chicken won't stick to the grill.
• Grill fish and chicken with the skin on. Remove it and enjoy the smoky flavored food below.
• Be sure to cook lots of vegetables and fish which require less cooking time

Don't fear the reaper. Unless you are eating charred meats at every meal you are not going to buy the farm in mid steak. The tips above are to ensure that you can enjoy grilling all summer, or all year for that matter, and lower your risk factors for preventable diseases. That's my job you know, to keep my readers around for a long time right?

Ok here's this month's recipe. It's a favorite of mine, it's super easy, and don't forget ingredients are S______________. Good answer, so if my Suggestions are not in your fish market go big and try something else. Maybe ask the retail fish sales associate for something that is similar to Mahi Mahi. PS, I marinate almost everything before cooking and I often do so overnight at least. Caveat: If you add an acid or a salty ingredient don't leave it on marinade for longer than an hour or two. These two things will “cook” the food and possibly dry them out.

Mahi Mahi with Spicy Pineapple Salsa
4 servings

For the fish marinade:

4 mahi filets, 5 – 6 oz. each, 1” thick or so, skin off
1/8 cup of Olive Oil
2 springs of fresh cilantro, rough chopped,
1 tablespoon of garlic clove, sliced, (about 2 cloves)

For the Salsa:

½ cup small diced red onion, (1 small onion)
½ cup, tiny diced Red Bell pepper, (about 1/2 medium pepper)
1 ½ cups small diced fresh pineapple, (About ½ of one whole pineapple)
½ cup small diced Jicama* (about ¼ of one medium jicama)
Juice of one large lime
¼ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
½ one medium jalapeno, tiny diced
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Up to one day, but at least 4 hours, in advance of your party, marinate the fish in a non- reactive container.
2. For the salsa:
   Put this together at least a few hours in advance of eating. Combine all of the salsa ingredients in a bowl, toss gently but thoroughly. Taste for seasoning. Taste it again right before serving it. *Jicama is a root vegetable sold in many large supermarkets these days. It is similar to potato but sweeter and very crunchy. High in Magnesium. You might substitute cucumber or water chestnut.

To cook fish:

10 minutes before you are ready to serve the entrée, clean and preheat the grill:

1. Remove the fish from the marinade and brush off any chunks of garlic and herbs.
2. Season filets with salt and pepper, spray the grill with oil and lay the fish on it. Let them cook for at least 2 minutes and rotate them clockwise to create cross marks on the fish if you want them.
3. After another 2 minutes flip the fish and finish cooking for 4 minutes or longer depending on how thick your filets are.
4. Right before the fish is done, spoon some rice or other starch on to one side of the plate, use a spatula and place one piece of fish on each of the plates overlapping some of the rice. Spoon a ribbon of the sauce diagonally over the fish and serve.

If you are serving as a part of an entrée salad just put the dressed greens on the plate and put the fish in the center, salsa across the filet.

Dessert? How about grilled pineapple. Never tried it? Cut off the outside, slice pina into ½” slices and marinate with vanilla and a sprinkle of sugar in the raw for about an hour. With the grill on low cook the slices. Plate, top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and voila.

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Q&A Be sure to send your questions to Greg so she can answer them here in future issues of The You Revolution. Send her an

Q: A reader who liked the sound of last month's protein shake wrote to ask the following. “I use Slim Fast shakes to replace one or two meals per day. Is this healthy and is it as good as the recipe you provided nutrition-wise? I know they have vitamins.” --Ann in Quogue , NY

A: Slim Fast drinks are not as healthy a choice  as a shake you make with fresh ingredients but they are ok now and again as a snack or meal substitute. What's missing is the combination of phyto-nutrients found only in fresh fruit plus the many benefits of flax, not the least of which are heart healthy Omega-3s. Most canned meal replacements have only have 180-230 calories and as such are a bit light  as a substitute for a whole meal unless you eat 5 - 6 smaller meals per day.

Note this: Although the label on the Slim Fast can says no trans fats the website lists hydrogenated soy bean oil as one of the ways the new Optima Shakes help control hunger. You may not recognize it but this is a trans fat.  As my Smart Women learned in the last Lifestyle Tune-Up,  according to the American Medical Association, the only safe level of trans fats in ones diet is a big, fat 0 %/zip/none/nadda!

So use them sparingly and especially if going hungry is the alternative. I'd like to think you know you can find the time to throw a shake together a couple of times per week for a nutrition and taste blast. Nothing satisfies like real food.

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You: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger

by Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Here's a book I have a lot of respect for even if I don't agree with every point. So why recommend it? First of all my difference of opinion on one point is not reason enough for me not to take the great information in any book and run with it. Nor should it be for you.

Mainly though it's for the many ways I believe it can help you and me understand our bodies. “Why would I want to do that?” you ask. “Haven't I been doing fine all these years living in the dark?”

You might have but it's now time to step into the light and set your course for a high quality of life even as the body will let you know that it's not a given as we age.

Here are some reasons as quoted from the authors. “Why? Because what goes on inside of your body is what gives you the ability to see, run, smell, have wild sex on the beach, feed babies, create dinosaurs out of Legos, surf, solve algebra problems, tie shoelaces, hum 'Margaritaville,' and do the thousands of different things you do every day. Your body gives you life. Your body is life.”

Understanding it, they reason, will make it easier for you to understand “how to make it healthier, stronger, and younger.”

Here are some points I strongly agree with:

• You control your health destiny
• Small changes can have a big impact on health and well-being
• Knowledge is power

In addition, (and this is my point), awareness of what's going on and a toolbox full of tools to choose from, are going to make it easier to prevent disease before it starts. These two things can also help us reverse an unhealthy trend. As this book shows, the body is miraculous in its ability to heal and regenerate.

The authors use a lot of humor. At times they are silly but I think it's guy humor which is not bad humor just more roll-my-eyes and appreciate it than laugh at it type humor.

The many illustrations by Gary Hallgren are excellent at depicting the book's ideas and these make me laugh out loud at times while I'm learning the science behind a body part. Sprites and elfin-looking creatures climb around and in the organs chapter by chapter.

The book starts with a 50-question self test. The goal is to show you how body smart you are with a view towards change or sticking with what works. The questions deal with lifestyle choices such as eating, smoking, stress, exercise. One of the book's two authors, Dr. Roizen, developed something called The Real Age computer system. It is designed to determine the biological age of your body vs. your chronological age. This quiz reflects that information and science.

The book's chapters are organized around body systems such as

• Heart and Arteries
• Brain and Nervous System
• Digestive
• Sexual
• Immune etc.

These are tied together with a house as metaphor. “Your bones are the two-by-fours that support and protect the inner structure of your home; your eyes are the windows, your lungs are the ventilation ducts; your brain the fuse box” and so on. There are twelve chapters in all and each one has a myth buster, factoids, “Myth or Fact?” mini-quizzes, an action plan, and a “Crib Sheet” if you don't want to read about why something is encouraged--you just want to do it.

The final chapter is The Owner's Manual Diet. I like what they have to say. “TOM Diet shouldn't be measured in pounds lost, but in the years younger you live and in the increased energy that you feel. TOM diet is designed so that you never feel hungry—and so that you have the right balance of nutrients for your long-term health." They teach you how to figure out the right amount of calories to take in for one pound per month of weight loss-if that's a goal.

Supplements are covered and there is an entire chapter on Cancer. Did you know that no cancers have a 100% mortality rate? This chapter gives you the latest in research to support that statement. Once again the illustrations are perfect to help teach about this disease process and hilarious to boot. There is a lot of hope in this chapter as well.

Where the book and I disagree is here: In the introduction, and throughout the book, these two very bright, incredibly well respected, successful docs, say things like this; “Remember too, that after you're finished with our book, you have ready tutors: your doctors. You should use your doctors for more than just signing prescriptions. Use them as teacher, after all, that's what the word doctor means in Latin. Most want to be used this way—it is their fun, let them have it. Ask them questions. Use their knowledge to learn more about how your body works.”

Before anyone accuses me of being anti-western medicine or thinking that I do not have respect for doctors, hear me out. The people who take on the challenge of learning the many complexities of the human body with the intention to help us heal it are many and to be honored. I do honor them and I value the allopathic professionals who work at restoring my health when needed. I just don't think finding a doctor like they describe is a simple as they make it sound.

The system of medicine in this country, in my humble opinion, makes it near impossible for many of those individuals to talk to us about our bodies and share their knowledge. They either don't have time or  they choose to practice medicine from the point of view that they know best so do this and take that; “next.” I would like to add this to what Drs. Roizen and Oz say. Be your own doctor, take responsibility for knowing as much as possible about your body and what might be going on if you are not well. Search out doctors who will support you, talk to you, and refer you to people like them if you need or want a second opinion. And continue to consider books like this one. Your knowledge will help you make lifestyle choices that support you for the long, healthy  haul.

Oz and Roizen have put together a second book which speaks to this and which I will review at a later date called, You: The Smart Patient.

These are the kind of docs I'd like to have in my corner.

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What's Happening

Our next Smart Woman's Life Style Tune-Up begins in September, just in time to get tuned up for the Holiday season. The Tune-Up runs for 4 consecutive weeks. Please click here for more information on these programs.

Also coming this fall is The Heart of a Woman with information on how it works, why it stops working, and how to keep it healthy. My last Smart Woman's Life Style Tune-Up women convinced me this needs to have its very own seminar. Watch for more information about this exciting series.

Also, I am putting together a special report called Think Outside The Book, (But have a few good ones on the shelf ). It is a book review of the best books out there for supporting you in total body health and wellness. If you have a book you would like to see included, a work that you got results with, please drop me an email and let me know the title and how it helped you.

For more information on 1 on 1 Coaching visit here.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Have a great month and I'll be back on July 24th with Issue 3.

Best Regards,

Gregory Anne

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Thank you for reading. I know your time is valuable and that there is a mountain of information out there demanding your attention. My highest hope is that I've provided something of value for you. If you know someone who might benefit from any of the content please forward this.