Find Priority In Your Change & Change Will Find You!

Today I’m going to put things into perspective a little. Not only for myself but to share with everyone that change is possible.

I’ve decided to share a little bit about my background and how I got into looking for a better answer when it came to nutrition and how I now OWN every health choice I make!

I follow a 2 part philosophy that someone won’t do better, unless they know better. Part two follows that. Find priority in your change and change will find you.
People often don’t understand or know any better. How can they then be expected to do better? The reverse is also common. People often know what is better for them but have not surrounded it with enough priority or enthusiasm to prompt change. So in order for change to take place, a person would need to first understand a better way, then make it their priority to change.

Sometimes, a person is forced into change i.e. health related illness, emotional energy either expressed by themselves or by an external force like a wife or a child to change their habits and ways, for example. Sometimes change comes from looking at other people, wishing that you yourself had what they had. You might look at these people and say “wow, it’s really working for them! Maybe if I change I can also have it work for me.” (Just to clarify “it” can be anything. It’s your change!)


Now I guess the reason I changed was a little of column A and a little of column B. (emotional and health) I had some pretty restricting health problems and I had seen some things in some people that made me think change needed to be done. It was just that the things I had seen were not very inspiring.

My parents at the time represented a bunch of things that I did not want for my life. They seemed to be un-happy; they were angry, bitter, negative, victims of the world and stressed. This was obvious to anyone who knew them. So instead of me looking at someone I wanted to become, I was seeing and living with people who I knew I didn’t want to become.

Mum, dad if you’re reading this, please know that you gave me the values I now have and am EXTREMELY happy for these gifts. Without you two, I would have not started on my amazing life journey. I might have taken life for granted for a lot longer and missed the multitude of opportunities I have taken already. This is in no way, shape or form an insult to you! You were good parents but you had a very different lifestyle to the one I wanted for myself.

I feel that if you have seen a life that is not right for you, not only seen it, but lived it for a considerable amount of time then it will motivate you to push towards the things you DO want in life, eventually.

Change is not hard, unless that is what you make it. I used fear as a motivator. Fear is a powerful emotion. It pushes us to our best. It can sometimes however devour us in irrational thinking, negative thinking and worst of all, procrastination. The fear of doing NOTHING with my life scares me the most and makes the idea of change an easy one.

Do you have fear in your life? If so, what are you doing to use it as a way to get what you want out of life? After all, life is about growing and achieving the things in your mind that make you happy. It can be anything!

Blame is useless and I don’t blame my poor nutritional habits on my parents. Sure they were older, had more experience, and had the income and the resources to give a better nutritional up bringing. But did they know better? How could they DO better unless they KNEW better? Did they know that through my younger years how important OPTIMAL nutrition was? That because of the foods I was eating it was adding to the chance of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, a bunch of autoimmune disease and hormonal suppression?


There’s no way any parent would do that deliberately. Did they realise that not only was it important for my growth and development of my body but how important it was to my mind and metal ability? My ability to handle my own emotions, my own thoughts?

All too often do we put the responsibility for our well-being in the hands of other people and then blame them when things go wrong. This is a waste of time and energy! The first step towards change is ownership.

Eventually I had the information. I had grown up, I was now in charge of the things I did, the food that I ate and the way I lived. I took advantage of this. Now I was the only person who was going to help me! I owned my decision to change. This is very liberating.

Over the next 7 – 8 years after moving out of home, I studied the human body, the effects of foods, the different types of ways of eating and came to one conclusion - I needed to own my own health decisions. I could not listen to others about what was good for me. I needed to teach myself, listen to my body and do what it needed. Sure, I could see how some of the mainstream health recommendations might be beneficial but ultimately it would always seem to lead to an ulterior motive for this advice (like product sales). One place you can see this in full force is our food pyramid or product pyramid as I like to call it (an article on this soon).


The best advice I have ever received was to look at the source of the information. Is there a reason that this information is being presented in a particular way? Do they have something to gain from you doing this and the best question of all. What if they’re wrong? These question help me filter through the useless crap I find on the internet and help me side up to things I like and see merit in. Thus enabling change!

In conclusion, if a once negative, nutritionally void individual can see a clearer brighter future in changing my ways one step at a time until I’m where I want to be and can implement small things in to my life in order to help, so can you, so can anyone.

We all have the same TIME each day. It’s just what we each do with our time that makes us different. What will you do today to bring you closer to happiness and your much wanted goals?



As always, keep smiling and stay awesome!
Also, if there is anything or any story you would like to add. Please do not hesitate to add it to the comments section. If you share your thoughts then people can get a broader perspective. Plus I like reading comments! haha


Health & Chi
Shane Richards

Sunday Dinner Update! :)

Well well well!
Once again I was massively impressed by the amazing dishes everyone cooked up on Sunday! As I mentioned briefly on Sunday, it is so awesome for Myself, Steve and Pete to see every single person who is coming along developing their culinary skills.

Everyone is researching their foods, sourcing ingredients from local areas (even their own back yards). This is EXACTLY why we decided to start up Sunday Dinners. We are hitting our goal of cultivating health and creating a strong community that is educated and supportive of good QUALITY food!

We also would like to welcome Tash and her friend Shani (I hope i got that right) to the Sunday Dinners. They came along and it was great having them there! Can't wait to see the dish that you create at the next event!

Enough of me chit chatting. I'll post up some photos from the last 4 Sunday Dinners we have had! :)

But first, if you are reading this and have not yet come and joined in on this AWESOME event, then your next chance to come along is the 7th Of November.

1. Eliza (Grass finished steak and vegetables)



2. Michael & Justine - Scotch Eggs (Free range eggs, grass finished mince)















3. Justine and My - Slow Baked Apples With Cinnamon and Strawberries



4. Justine Ward - Pumpkin Muffins



















To anyone who has made a dish people have said that they would LOVE to make (you know who you are) for themselves, could you please add to comments the method and recipe

Thanks everyone!


Health & Chi

Shane Richards

SharkWater

I just finished watching a documentary called “Shark Water”. A friend of mine told me that this was something I needed to watch, as it would be an eye opener to the horrible practice of Shark Finning happening all around the world.

Little did I know how deeply it would affect me! Not only how it would affect me, but after looking into this subject a little deeper, eventually it will effect us all, whether or not we know about it or not.

First off, let me fill you in on what Shark Finning is and why it’s such a problem.
Shark Finning is the process in which sharks are taken from their habitat and have their fins cut off. This is not done in a humane way. Once the fins have been removed the sharks are then dumped back in to the ocean to die slowly. Most sharks will take days to completely die. It’s a slow, cruel and painful death for these sharks. Because they are left without their fins, they cannot get water to run through their gills which enables them to breathe. If they don’t die by suffocation, they are either eaten or bleed to death.

Why are people killing sharks for their fins??
Some people believe that sharks are a cure for traditional diseases and that because sharks have a tendency to have strong immunities against most diseases that humans suffer from and sharks are resilient against some parasites then they are some magical creature that can help to prevent people from contracting deadly diseases if we consume their fins (silly right?).

There is NO scientific proof that eating shark fin will have ANY positive impact on a persons susceptibility to things like cancer or arthritis. Shark fin soup is also a very popular delicacy in a lot of Asian countries particularly China. A bowl of shark fin soup can typically cost over $200. One pound of dried shark fin can cost upwards of $300. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. You can see why so many people keep it quiet.

Now for the shocking news:
It’s estimated that sharks are being wiped out at an alarming rate – up to 90% of sharks. It’s also estimated that 100 MILLION sharks are killed for their fins annually. At this rate we will have almost no sharks left within a decade.
This is a scary thought. Sharks are one of the top predators in their ecosystem. Without a top predator controlling an eco system you get a big shift within that ecosystem. It will have an effect on all below it. Seeing as though the majority of our oxygen comes from the ocean. Maybe we should stop to think about what might happen to us by disturbing this ecosystem?

Like many cases of animal cruelty and exploitation, it its incumbent on us to act on behalf of these magnificent creatures. It comes as no surprise to see victims of shark attack recently appeal to the Australian Government to act on the world stage to stop this cruel and needless practice. These animals cannot ask for our help, they cannot walk in to a cop shop or a court room and tell someone what is happening to them on a MASSIVE scale. They cannot protest, they cannot beg for mercy, they cannot create awareness to help SAVE themselves.That’s our job.


Questions:

What do we want future generations to think of us after we have wiped out certain species, burnt all the fossil fuels, desecrated the oceans, destroyed ecosystem, polluted the air, the soil and the water, all the while knowing what we’re doing?
What will happen to humans if we keep on fishing for sharks?
What can we do to help stop this type of thing from happening?
Ways to help:

• Contact with Wild Aid, the Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace and other groups
• Petition and contact politicians and Government agencies
• Create awareness where ever you can.

Talk to friends and family members about this. Ask what they would do, how can they help?

Interesting Shark Facts:

• Sharks have been around for more than 400 million years
• There are 375 shark species
• Sharks are intelligent and can be trained
• 100 million sharks are killed each year for their fins
• The largest shark is the Whale shark, averaging 9 metres (30 feet) in length—the size of a large bus
• Whale sharks are not aggressive. They eat zooplankton, small fish and squid.
• When a shark loses a tooth, a new one grows in its place
• Mako and Blue sharks are the fastest swimming sharks
• Sharks can take hours or even days to die after being finned
• Sharks are a critical part of marine ecosystems

I’ll lave you with an extract from the movie. Said by “Captain Paul Watson” He sums it up like this:

"I think the problem is, that we don't understand what we are. In essence we're, uh, you know, just a conceited naked ape, but in our minds we're some sort of divine legend and we see ourselves as some sort of god, that we can just walk around the Earth deciding who will live and who will die, and what will be destroyed and what will be saved. But the fact is, we're just a bunch of primates out of control.

We're now in the midst of a Third World War, but this time the enemy is ourselves and the objective is to save the planet from ourselves. There is no hope for the masses of humanity to do anything. They never have, they never will. All social change comes from the passionate intervention of individuals or small groups of individuals.

Slavery wasn't ended by any government or any institution. Women got the right to vote not because of any government. The civil-rights movement, the same thing- India with Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa with Nelson Mandela. Again, it's always individuals. You need those individuals with the passion and the energy to get involved. In fact, I don't know of any governments or institutions that are doing anything to solve any of these problems. All over the world, though, I am seeing individuals and non-government organizations that are passionately involved in protecting ecosystems and species, and that's where I see some optimism that's where results are happening."

Food for thought!

I feel that ignorance is BLISS and knowledge is POWER.
I can choose to be ignorant of my food choices, my connection with others, the earth and things around me. I can be ignorant to pretty much anything I want and still live my life.

What happens when you change that perspective? When you start to wonder about these things. Understanding how you operate at your core is VERY liberating and helps us become more stable in all areas of our lives!

I am constantly asking myself questions to help better understand myself, my life, my morals and to help inspire some growth from within.

I feel that when you ask the questions below it can give you a greater understanding of what you want from this life. It helps you achieve happiness and can give you some purpose. Without purpose does life have meaning?

Clearly, there are more questions to this article then answers. This is simply because these answers are always entirely up to you!

Perception of self:
What do you want to look like & Feel like

Your lifestyle:

What is your perfect Day, Month, Yr, Life?

What to you want emotionally?

What type of relationships do you want?
With yourself?
With your partner?
With family?
With friends?
In business?

What do you want Mentally?

What do you want to learn from you life experiences?
What do you want to offer and teach to those around you?

What type of connection do you want?

What gives you a sense of Purpose?
When do you have the greatest sense of connection?
When do you feel the most energy running through you with tingling up your spine and tears of inspiration in your eyes.

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