Age is a point of view

We started celebrating Chuck's birthday early (according to Chuck), from the Tribute to Prince at Gordon Biersch this past Wednesday, last night at Alan Wong's for his actual birthday (May 29), and have plans all the way up to June 5th when Becky gets back from her trip. He looked ruefully at a couple of Pete's shirts I had wrapped as his gift and told him it would go great with his hair color, and he said, "Woaw... I'm old. I just hit the big 7-0." I quickly replied, "Age is a point of view."

Though I didn't elaborate, here's what I think about age. You're only as old as you allow yourself to "get old." You've heard the saying; "Act your age," right? It always seemed to be a negative thing to me. I never understood it as I was growing up, but let's see if I do now. Since I'm at the age that is considered OLD, what does acting old mean? If I were to act my age, perhaps I wouldn't be as passionate about things as I am.

When my sister and I went to Amsterdam, we had to immediately go shopping for clothes because her one large suitcase didn't arrive from Hawaii. Delta had dropped the ball in transferring it to the Dutch airline, KLM. She was told she would be "reasonably" reimbursed for clothing, so she looked all around for HM shops since she had found great winter clothing at a reasonable price in Honolulu. But, when we went door-to-door to all the HM shops (had plenty), the stores carried clothes for spring. I tried helping her find a beanie, scarves, dress, etcetera, but no sense. She only laughed at my selections. She mainly wears black and deviates to grey and brown out of convenience. 

On the way to the next HM, I saw my kind of clothes displayed in a shop called Desigual. I bought a black sweater, yes, but the front had a huge red heart with some green teardrop beads sewn inside the heart in a heart shape, multiple small hot pink hearts surrounding the large heart with a pink sequin in each, golden flowers on one sleeve, and the words, "learn how to love" written in script with 3 exclamation points. Whose gonna wear that??? Me. I also purchased a dressy "Peter Max" type designed top. Ahem. Are you old enough to know who Peter Max was? Anyway it was colored with orange and green, some blue flowers, and small white and some green polka dots near the shoulder of the sleeves on black chiffon. I'm still a flower child. I just googled, Desigual to see if you could see what kind of stuff they carry, and low and behold, there's a shop at Ala Moana, or should I call it Ala Moan-ah like my Khmer workers used to (i.e., from Cambodian) as that could mean trouble. 

When I was a freshman at the University of Hawaii, I majored in Art, with a History minor, ending up with an Ethnic Studies "activist-student teacher" degree. My first semester, I took a painting class, from an anti-war professor, and loved abstract painting because I just loved combining colors. Pete and I both have had very colorful wardrobes. In fact there are a few of his shirts I'll wear some day as a dress. But that's not the whole package of my passion. I love exercise-the sun, running, and weights though lately I've combined "weights" with run-walking in the sun, by doing isometrics. I heard that Vitamin D from the sun also keeps your hormones young. Of course the raw vegan food I make and eat keeps every cell in my body young too. I don't go for plaque inducing foods. And I try not to whine my day away, and found wine and jazz (shared with friends like Chuck) to be a big help in that department. So far, wine, exercise, song, colorful clothes and a passion for healthy tasty whole, plant-based food help me to not act my age. You'll never grow old if you live your passion.

  

THIS IS HUGE!!!

 This could be the beginning of Whole Plant-Based Diet becoming Mainstream!

A Nutritional Update for Physicians was published in the official journal of Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States. It told physicians that healthy eating may best be achieved with a plant-based diet, defined as a regimen that "encourages whole, plant-based foods and discourages meats, dairy and eggs as well as all refined and processed junk."

The Update  notes :

"too often, physicians ignore the potential benefits of good nutrition and quickly prescribe medications instead of giving patients a chance to correct their disease through healthy eating and active living. Physicians should therefore consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity."

The major downside described is that it may work a little too well. If people are on medications, their blood pressure or blood sugar could actually drop too low, so physicians may need to adjust medications or eliminate them altogether.

The report continues that "despite the strong body of evidence favoring plant-based diets, many physicians are not stressing the importance of plant-based diets as a first-line treatment for chronic illnesses. This could be because of a lack of physician awareness or a lack of patient education resources." So Kaiser sought to change that. "Want to lose weight, feel better, improve, stabilize, or even reverse chronic disease, and get off some of your medications?" a Kaiser Permanente leaflet (which you can see in my video, What Diet Should Physicians Recommend?) asks. "If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, then a plant-based eating plan may be for you." Side-effects include: lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar; reversal or prevention of heart disease, our number one killer; a longer life; a healthier weight; lower risk of diabetes; improvement of inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis; and a slowed progression of certain types of cancer.

 

Kaiser offers tips to get started, such as meal plan ideas, and a list of online resources (including NutritionFacts.org). The paper ends with a familiar refrain: "further research is needed." In this case, though, further research is necessary, they explained, to "find ways to make plant-based diets the new normal for our patients and employees.

 

So exciting to see lifestyle medicine supported.

Spreading our Roots

I visited these this past week with samples in hand:

*Sun Yoga in the Aina Haina Shopping Center

*Hot Yoga 8 in Kaimuki above 12th Avenue Grill

*Triple Hospital's Pain Control Clinic

So appreciate the support from friends and customers.    

They will order from our website  greensAndvines.com with their credit cards, and we will have a button on our website to have their meals delivered at either Sun Yoga or Hot Yoga 8, or picked-up at our restaurant. If it is your first time ordering our Meal Plans you can call in your order for the introductory price of $80/individual.

at the Hot Yoga 8 Studio

Fill & Send In the Ilima Awards Ballot

by June 15, 2016 in the Star-Advertiser

Please vote for Greens & Vines for Best Casual Restaurant.  The Ballot is in the Star-Advertiser newspaper.  After winning this award in 2011, Pete agreed to open a restaurant, Greens & Vines, in 2012.