http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Ask any man, and he’ll tell you “man flu” is real — insert eye roll here. But is it simply a term used to poke fun at men suspected of exaggerating symptoms associated with minor colds or illness, or is it the real deal? One researcher says yes, man flu is real. And he believes […]
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Life is hard enough when you are homeless. Not having a roof over your head means you are exposed to the elements and vulnerable to being victimized by criminals. Now, there is a new kind of threat that drifters and the dispossessed face. In San Francisco, robots are being deployed to deter homeless people from […]
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
In investing, getting in early on an opportunity can bring big returns. Apple shares before the launch of the iPod — that’s one example, so too Amazon, Netflix and Starbucks at the right time. Books have been written on how to spot trends in the marketplace to find the next winner before it shoots up, […]
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Smartphones put the world at your fingertips, but could this phenomenally popular technology be undermining your mental health? People often talk loosely about how addictive their iPhones are, but now there is new evidence that the excessive use of smartphones may adversely impact your neurochemistry. Are you a smartphone junkie? In a moment, I’ll share […]
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
The future of healthcare is looking grim. Sadly, this is the first generation of kids who might not outlive their parents.
In fact, we’ve got some pretty unfavorable statistics to confront.
Here’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has to say:
– Chronic diseases cause 7 in 10 deaths in the United States (heart disease and cancer accounting for 46% of lives lost).
– 1 in 2 Americans is battling a chronic disease.
– 1 in 4 Americans has multiple chronic diseases.
I could keep going, but I think I’ll set you free to check out more CDC stats here.
Now, what’s even more telling is that, according to a 2016 review published in PLoS One, 85% of chronic disease can be attributed to influences other than genetics. This stat may not be too surprising to Mark’s Daily Apple readers, but…what are we, as health enthusiasts, going to do about it?
The only way to thwart chronic disease is to change our behaviors. Easier said than done, as anyone who has ever dieted in the traditional sense of the word can attest.
Behavior change is both our greatest ally in the battle against chronic disease—and our most difficult weapon to master. As of 2013, the CDC reported that only 6.3% of Americans engage in the top 5 behaviors for preventing chronic disease: not smoking, engaging in regular physical activity, abstaining from or consuming moderate amounts of alcohol, maintaining normal body weight, and getting enough sleep every evening.
Why are so many getting stuck in unhealthy behavior habits that they just can’t seem to break? Well, for one, because evolution has wired us for it. As humans were evolving food was scarce, so we sought out calorie-dense sources to tide us over from meal to meal, which could be feast or famine in those days. We’re still hardwired to crave this sort of fulfillment from food. These days, however, it’s easy to gorge every few hours on a fast-food, supersized meal for $5 or less, so this evolutionary mechanism presents a serious drawback in modern society.
A 6.3% behavior success rate signals a huge gap between knowledge and application. It’s not as though people don’t know what to do to stay healthy. There’s plenty of information and resources out there for sure. The stopgap is that they don’t know how to apply that information to their lives and actually change their behavior.
I strongly believe that health coaching is the key to facilitating behavior change in the 93.7% of people who are having difficulty maintaining healthy habits. It’s not a question of knowledge—as much as support.
The conventional model of healthcare was designed to treat acute infectious diseases, such as pneumonia. And in these instances, it works exceptionally well. But when it comes to preventing and reversing chronic disease, the conventional model falls short.
Physicians spend, on average, just 10 to 12 minutes with each patient. That time is typically spent evaluating the patient’s symptoms, lab results, and current medications; making diagnoses; and prescribing new medications and treatment plans if deemed necessary. It is unlikely that physicians are reviewing the patient’s lifestyle, diet, or exercise habits and offering sustainable suggestions for improvement. And, even if they are, the patient is sent away with no real idea of how to implement these recommendations into their lives over the long term.
What’s more, we’re looking at a shortage of 52,000 primary care physicians by 2025 according to the most recent estimates, limiting one-on-one patient-physician interaction even further.
Unlike physicians, health coaches have the time to provide the one-on-one behavior change guidance patients need to make primary prevention habits a part of their lives. Health coaches are behavior change specialists who can help instill confidence, foster self-awareness, and inspire patients with positive psychology, actionable goal setting, accountability, and active listening.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Health coaches are in no way a replacement for doctors. Health coaches function as part of an allied team of healthcare professionals, working with physicians, dietitians, and functional medicine practitioners to support patients in making lasting dietary, lifestyle, and behavior changes.
What’s especially exciting to me is that health coaching is a field fit for inspirers of all kinds, not just the scientifically inclined. You can pursue a career in wellness without having to go back to grad school and accrue debt. It helps those suffering from chronic disease, and provides a prosperous living to those wanting more from a career.
Of all my professional endeavors, the Primal Health Coach program keeps me directly tapped into my global mission to transform the health of millions. I’m truly passionate about the work we’re doing. As the program continues to develop and grow, I’m getting an even clearer picture of how important health coaches are to the future of healthcare. I’d like to share this progress with you, my community of Primal enthusiasts—because it’s important information to have for personal edification and for those of you interested in sharing the Primal way of life with others. I think you’ll really appreciate how far we’ve come!
Let’s go back to the very beginning—2014. We’d made incredible strides in the ancestral health movement, but we were still on the outskirts and reaching only those who dared venture outside mainstream lines. We’ve woven a vast network of Primal devotees through Mark’s Daily Apple, changed hundreds of thousands of lives, but I didn’t want to plateau there. I wanted to help even more people take control of their health and well-being, especially in the face of a broken healthcare system and a cesspool of misinformation too readily available to the masses. Why not start a health coaching program centered on the Primal philosophy? And so I did.
The Primal Health Coach program kills several birds with one stone. By training a network of health coaches, I’m reaching far more people than I could alone, and I’m also helping others build the careers of their dreams. The growth of the network since 2014 has been amazing. Thousands of folks who are passionate about health and wellness have joined the program, and are embarking on careers that make a real difference in the world.
Our health coaches are going deep into the belly of the Primal Blueprint, learning the guts of evolutionary biology. It has been so incredibly rewarding to watch them take all they have learned and help others regain control of their health, circumventing the broken healthcare system and getting tremendous results.
Like Carolyn Coffin, physical therapist turned health coach:
The Primal Health Coach program is exactly what I needed to take my health coaching business to the next level. For the past 5 years, I’ve been health coaching without even realizing it’s a “thing,” but simply because I’ve felt a calling to do so. I’ve gone from feeling like an imposter to feeling like I belong in this amazing community of like-minded people who are on a similar mission. But most of all, I’m far more confident in my ability to create lasting change for my clients and finally enjoy a fulfilling and profitable career doing exactly what I love.
And Dana Leigh Lyons, Doctor of Oriental Medicine:
The Primal Health Coach program expanded my access to and credibility with people who embrace primal principles but who may not have considered holistic medicine, enhancing my practice and extending my professional reach. The modules offer a wealth of knowledge…plus expert guidance for turning that knowledge into a livelihood.
Then there are aspiring health professionals like Jeff Dougherty, who are launching into an entirely new field!
I started this adventure to simply further my education on this way of life. As a result I have become extremely passionate about helping people in their wellness journey. There is a massive amount of information online, and being able to help clients filter through the noise and focus on relevant steps toward achieving optimal wellness has been rewarding. This is not a fad! I am not a trainer, degreed nutritionist or gym manager. I am just a guy who loves helping people and this course has allowed me to pursue that dream.
We’re keeping close tabs on all our graduates. You can check out some of their success stories here.
While the course is self-paced and online, we’ve been very focused on community building and outreach, encouraging connections between students and graduates through our lively private Facebook groups and special events.
This year we took Primal Health Coach to Paleo f(x) and the CrossFit Games, co-hosted a Los Angeles Meetup, and held our Inaugural Masterclass, where a small select group of students and graduates joined me and Christine Hassler for a weekend retreat. We met at my house in Malibu and brainstormed the most effective ways to break down barriers and confidently move forward to the career of their dreams. I love being able to meet our students and grads in person. We had a blast, and I can’t wait to do it again in 2018.
Speaking of 2018, we have big plans for next year, so if you’ve been thinking of exploring a career in health coaching, I recommend getting in now before the year’s end to lock in the existing rate.
I can’t unveil what’s coming in 2018 (yet) but I can tell you we’ve made significant investments to the program throughout 2017. We implemented a brand new learning center platform to improve the overall learning experience. We updated and expanded coaching coursework, so our grads not only have all the Primal knowledge they need, but also have the coaching expertise to communicate effectively with clients and inspire lasting transformation.
We also developed a brand new Business Resource Center to give our coaches all the tools required to build a successful business upon graduation.
Health Professional Michael Kaye summed his experience with the program up nicely:
The Primal Health Coaching program has been extremely helpful to me, my family and to my patients. The PHC program is an excellent gateway to those who want to begin their path in the health coaching field and the program is also a wonderful adjunct for the professional who would like to enhance their education as Mark provides excellent resource material and references to support his recommendations and concepts. I am currently enjoying their new business coaching module(s) as they provide you with forms, recommendations and guidance to building your coaching business. Since people have different learning styles (auditory, visual, etc.) Mark provides you with the ability to learn through recordings, video, and/or reading text material. Most importantly, I enjoy their Facebook community as everyone is willing to share their knowledge and experience. I look forward to growing my relationship with the Primal Health Coaching community and I am sure they will continue to provide additional guidance and new products to help not only ourselves but our clients as well.
Yes, Michael…we most certainly will! There’s a lot more on the horizon.
In the meantime, check out my webinar with Christine Hassler that’s all about how to make a lucrative living as a health coach. Just click here to sign up. If you think it’s a good fit, give us a ring at 844-307-7662 (or 310-579-6596) and join our community.
And if you need a coach of your own, don’t hesitate to contact one of ours. You can find the best of the best here to support you with your personal health and wellness goals—whatever they are. As always, thanks so much for your support and for a terrific year, everybody!
Best,
Mark
The post The Future of Healthcare Is Health Coaching appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/
Women are constantly questioned about our reproductive choices: How many kids are you going to have, and when? Are you going to breastfeed? Do you use birth control or support reproductive rights? Are you, as a pregnant woman, really going to eat that food or lift that weight?
It’s impossible to answer these questions in a way that doesn’t provoke judgment from at least some people, but little provokes as much judgment as a woman who chooses not to be a mother at all.
Eva* knew from an early age that she did not want to have children. But people told her that she’d eventually change her mind, so she expected “baby fever” to hit against her will. “Almost like having your first period, as if it were something unavoidable that just happens and changes your body,” she said. So she waited.
But it never happened.
Eva, who describes herself as Puerto Rican and bisexual, is now 30 and in a long term relationship with a cisgender man. And she feels just as certain about not having children as she ever did. “I do not have the ‘baby fever’ that loved ones as well as strangers argued I would have by now,” she says.
Nearly half of women between the ages 15 and 44 are forgoing motherhood altogether — the highest rate ever tracked [1]. The number of women who never have children is increasing, though most data doesn’t distinguish between the voluntarily childfree and those who wanted to but could not have children. In 1976, only 10 percent of women hadn’t had children by their 40s. By 2006, that figure had doubled [2].
Because language always matters, let’s define some terms. Childless means the condition of being without children, but it also implies that the person being described would like to have them. Many people who don’t want to have children prefer the term childfree, as it doesn’t imply a sense of longing, but rather contentment.
Being childfree comes with a social price, however: womanhood and motherhood are treated as synonymous in our culture, and women are often defined by our reproductive desires and potential.
Having children is society’s default plan, and not doing so is still viewed as deviant or a failure at being a woman by many.
“Society communicates to girls at an early age that being a mother and having children is a defining and mandatory role,” says Iris,* a Cuban American straight married woman in her early 40s. “We grow up believing that women who don’t want to take on that role are somehow wrong, broken, bad, selfish, rebellious, not woman enough, and not worthy of being considered seriously by a partner.”
Despite those messages, Iris also knew from a young age that she didn’t want children. She describes feeling “absolutely no desire or instinctual drive to be a mother,” and “uncomfortable and awkward in situations where other people feel comfortable and natural around kids.”
Iris’ sentiments are shared by many childfree people. Cierra,* a black queer single woman in her 40s, “was never moved by the notion…even as a kid, I never played ‘mommy,’ and didn’t have names picked for future kids.” Sandra,* a 44-year-old mixed race (Vietnamese and white) straight married woman says “I don’t recall ever wanting children. According to my mom, I never played with dolls, or played house. I never saw myself as a mom in any way.”
This isn’t the experience of all childfree women. Amy Blackstone conducts extensive research on the childfree and has found that people come to identify as voluntarily childfree from different pathways [3]. Some people wanted children, and then life circumstances did not allow or they waited so long that having biological children wasn’t an option [2].
Tina,* a 37-year-old white straight married woman, is one such person. “Through the majority of my 30s, I have been intentionally pregnant on more than six occasions,” she says. “Some of those pregnancies survived into the second trimester, but none were healthy enough to be carried to term.” After her last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at 10 ½ weeks, she and her husband “took parenting off the table completely for both of our sakes.” Ultimately, she is content and certain they made the right decision.
Blackstone’s 2016 research says that childfree people do not enter lightly into the decision not to parent [3]. Other researchers agree, finding that the childfree put a lot of thought into what it means to be a parent, and also into what it means to be childfree [4].
Leigh,* 41-year-old biracial (Asian and white) queer woman who is partnered with a cisgender man, said she came to the decision gradually. She works with children, loves them, and thinks she’d probably make a good mom. She thought often about what kind of parent she would be when she was younger, but changed her mind through the years based on many factors.
Research shows that women’s reasons for not having children vary widely and are well thought out [4]. Other than a strong lack of desire for motherhood, other reasons include:
Environmental and social concerns
Eva worries about overpopulation and “all the children without homes already.”
Fear over the current state of the world
Iris says, “The world is so, so, so scary, and I am terrified of raising a child to be a good human in it, and keeping them safe.”
A level of responsibility and commitment they do not want
Blair,* a 27-year-old white straight woman in a long term partnership, says “ Children are a huge commitment. It’s not a commitment I want.” Many also mentioned the mounting expense of childrearing.
Fears they would replicate harmful behaviors from their own parents
Melanie,* a 30-year-old white straight woman says she is too afraid to pass on her “genes and mental illness” or be an “abusive, harmful, neglectful parent like my mother was.”
Their own health issues
Andrea,* a 38-year-old white queer woman married to a transgender partner, says that her “chronic health and mental health issues” make the idea of having children feel “absolutely daunting” both “from a physical and emotional standpoint.” Leigh feels motherhood isn’t right for her because she is facing the same health condition that caused her to lose her own mother at a young age.
Having already done significant caretaking
As the oldest of five children, Andrea has already spent a lot of her life caretaking others. Aduwa,* a black woman in her early 40s in a long term queer relationship, says “One of the biggest hindrances to my desire to bear children in my 30s was the amount of elder care that I did. It was extremely emotionally demanding as well as demanding of my time.”
Career goals
Some women unapologetically make their careers a large focus of their time and energy. Several women mentioned that their careers were hard fought, or they are self-employed and would have a difficult time balancing that with parenthood.
A path to motherhood that feels too complicated
Women in queer relationships may have to rely on reproductive technology or adoption. Several mentioned that for them, the extra leg work to produce children was a hindrance that tipped their decision to no. Aduwa says, “I am in a relationship with a person who does not produce sperm…none of the choices I have in front of me for conceiving my own child are appealing.” Andrea adds, “The cost and complications of conceiving with a partner who does not produce sperm added a lot of headaches that we both felt really didn’t fit with our lives.”
Many people consider the decision not to parent as not only abnormal and surprising, but also morally wrong. A recent study found that people report anger, disgust, and disapproval toward the voluntarily childfree. “Through parents and peers, people learn that parenthood is both typical and expected” wrote study author Dr. Leslie Ashburn-Nardo. “People who violate social role expectations based on widely shared cultural stereotypes are subject to perceivers’ backlash.” [5]
Blair is keenly aware of this. “I think people often take my personal choice as a judgement on or challenge to their choice to have children.” She says that parenting “is so deeply connected to lots of people’s identities… and it’s so often linked to morality that it can feel like a tangled mess to talk about.”
Race also plays a role in perceptions of childfree women. Whereas perceptions of white women vary less based on parental status, African American women are viewed less favorably when they’re childfree [6].
“You’ll change your mind.”
“You’re missing out on the best part of life.”
“It’s selfish not to have children.”
“Don’t you want to give me grandchildren?”
“Who will take care of you when you’re old?”
Because childfree women are still disconcerting to many, most have heard a few, if not more, of these sentiments. Sandra has received “mostly ugly feedback.” She shares, “Random strangers have many, many opinions about the occupancy status of my uterus, especially at cocktail and dinner parties…The worst is at work. Because I work in a school… I’ve had parents tell me that they don’t trust me working with kids as a non-parent. The funny thing is, I’ve probably logged more hours with kids than many parents.”
Feedback for those who are childfree because they could not have children is different, though often still quite painful and tone deaf. After Tina’s fertility troubles, folks were eager to offer obvious or financially unattainable suggestions, such as surrogacy and adoption — suggestions she did not ask for.
“I think I could write a novella at least on how not to act towards the childless,” Tina says. “Especially because you do not know what their path to that choice was.”
If you’re childfree, you might be used to handling unkind and inappropriate comments. Here are some ideas for responding to the aforementioned feedback.
“You’ll change your mind.” Well, I haven’t so far.
“You’re missing out on the best part of life.” I think we should all decide what makes our own lives feel fulfilling!
“It’s selfish not to have children.” It would be very selfish and unkind of me to have children that I didn’t really want.
“Don’t you want to give me grandchildren?” With all due respect, you got to make your own life decisions, and now I get to make mine.
“Who will take care of you when you’re old?” I have other people in my life who care about me, and I think this is a selfish and inappropriate reason to have children.
Since society views having children as the default future for most women, what do we do if that’s not the future for us?
Anything and everything else.
The women I spoke to are excited about the many life plans they have. Some of these include pursuing and continuing their rewarding careers, caring for multiple rescue animals, volunteering for causes that they believe in, traveling, and loving the people in their lives. And while they’re aware that these things can be done while parenting, they are choosing these things instead of parenting.
Blair, Aduwa, and Andrea all say that they’ve had significant role models in their own lives who were fulfilled, childfree women, and that contributes to their confidence that this is the path for them.
Not all of the women I spoke to are against the idea of parenting all together. Eva is very excited about the possibility of adoption, and several mentioned that fostering is not out of the question.
Aduwa says, “I will still be caring for and about the other people in my family, biological and chosen. I will continue to work full time in a caring profession, with children.”
Many of the women are in caring professions with young people as the focus. Many have nieces and nephews that are an important part of their lives. Tina already feels fulfilled by the children in her life, including a niece, nephew and friends’ children. These alternatives to parenting still allow for the nurturing of young people, though it’s OK if women don’t feel inclined to do that at all.
The women I spoke to are also unapologetic about the benefits to being childfree and enjoying their leisure time.
Sandra shares, “I’ve had such a flexible and interesting life! My husband and I have lived in five different cities. I’ve been able to make unusual career choices. We travel, shop, and eat out with reckless abandon. I’ve been able to devote tons of time to activism and politics. And I get to nap whenever I want!”
Aduwa adds, “So many of my adult years have been consumed with a level of responsibility for other people in my family that I didn’t anticipate. I would like for my middle age life to be less responsible for others. And to be able to use that energy to please myself and invest in myself and my own interests.”
The childfree women I spoke to are incredibly thoughtful about their conversations with women who may not be childfree by choice, or who consider themselves childless.
Leigh says, “It’s harder with friends who…are struggling with infertility or multiple miscarriages, some of whom know that I have actively chosen not to be pregnant and not to have children. Some conversations just feel too emotionally fraught to have, and it seems kinder to just not talk about it.”
“I find myself sometimes holding back talking about this subject because I am aware, especially when meeting other childfree women around my age these days (40s), that some are not childfree by choice,” says Iris. “They’ve had difficulty getting or staying pregnant, or they don’t want to do it alone and are waiting and hoping to meet someone they want to have a child with. I don’t want to be insensitive or inconsiderate, so I don’t tend to talk about it unless asked.”
She points out that one of the most popular “ice breaker” question she gets from women of any age is “And do you have kids?”, “How many kids do you have?” or “How old are your kids?” She notes that she has the privilege of glossing over these questions easily, but they may be “gut wrenching” for some women.
Even if we truly can’t understand someone’s decision to parent or not, that doesn’t mean it’s invalid. Childfree folks and parents aren’t in competition for who made the better, more moral choice.
It’s a perfectly valid and healthy choice not to have children, and whether another woman has or wants children or not is not anyone else’s business. Parenting is an option, not an obligation.
There are many different ways to be a woman, and we don’t get to decide another’s path to true happiness. We don’t need to criticize or punish women who don’t conform to gender stereotypes, including the stereotype that a woman must always be a mother.
Sandra stresses the connection between a childfree life and being her truest self. “To have children would, to me, feel like the least authentic thing I could do.”
Iris says, “It is really hard to navigate these very deeply ingrained messages that are part of everyday life from such an early age, and be able to hear your own voice and honor what you truly want for yourself and the way you want to live your life.”
“For every woman who feels that a childfree life is for her, but is second guessing what her own voice and her own body are telling her, I hope our stories help her stay true to what she wants for herself.”
* Names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Complete Without Kids blog from Psychology Today
Childfree Reflections by author and advocate Martha Drut-Davis
Book: Complete Without Kids: An Insider’s Guide to Childfree Living by Choice or by Chance
Book: No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood
Book: Confessions of a Childfree Woman: A Life Spent Swimming Against the Mainstream
The post Why Not Having Children is a Valid and Healthy Choice appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
A new study claims that people who eat yeast-based spreads, like Marmite, report lower stress levels, and the reason might just surprise you. Why does Marmite lower stress levels? In the study, researchers credit vitamin B12 in the yeast as the main ingredient to help combat stress and anxiety. The study was conducted by researchers at […]
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Recently something incredible entered our solar system, and it’s been baffling scientists ever since. The object is traveling at 60,000 m.p.h. and may have been around for hundreds of millions of years. But what’s really puzzling is that it doesn’t look like anything we’ve ever seen before in our solar system. Could this be the first […]
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Aging gracefully is something most people hope for. That means holding on to dignity, remaining vibrant, being connected and also respected within our communities. Increasingly, however, it seems as if the golden years have lost their luster in our modern society. Too often, the elderly are warehoused in nursing homes, sedated with pharmaceuticals and preyed on […]
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