Thursday, April 30, 2009

Willie Nelson- Happy 76th Birthday From Abbott, Texas











The "Red Headed Stranger" Celebrates His 76th!

We celebrate our 21st!!


Abbott, Texas- Birth place of Willie Nelson. If you blink, you'll pass right through the center of town and probably forget you even passed that way like I did today. XM satellite Radio was playing Willie tunes on his station and I just happened to be in my car between Dallas and Waco. The Abbott exit to my right, I instinctively pulled off the I 35 South Exit and into the magical world of Abbott. Willie's birthplace.

I'm not a Willie groupie, but I really admire the man's humanitarian work, his music, and his good heart. He's a very modest and shy person. You would not know it by the throngs of people who seek him out.

Willie is a true American hero. Farm Aid, Nobelity Project (w/ Turk Pipkin), NORML, Hurricane AID, and any kind of fund raiser you can think of....Willie has done.

Graciously.

He's going to do something for the Peace Project Foundation, we hear.

Happy Birthday Willie!

Many, many happy returns!

AHO

Richard

PS- My wife Linda and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary today. Twenty one years of bliss.....

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Swine Flu Scare

When it comes to infectious diseases like the swine flu that has caused media-induced mass hysteria, I leave the commentary and counsel to the true experts like Dr. Joseph Mercola, Russell Blaylock and other informed, integrative medicine physicians/ healers.

This is a link to Dr. Mercola's ten page bulletin on the swine flu:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

Some of his handy tips that are at the end of his bulletin make a lot of sense to me:

> Eat whole foods, avoid sugar to boost your immune system
> Take vitamin D-3 and get plenty of sunshine
> Get rest and avoid stress
> Wash your hands regularly
> Exercise
> Avoid hospitals
> Eat plenty of garlic

Since I am doing all of these already, I should be fine. How about you?

See the whole article. It may put to rest some of your worst fears about this flu:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

AHO

Richard

PS- In addition to these measures I personally take a little nano silver under the tongue. Check with your doctor.

PS PS- Turn off the TV set. You will start feeling better immediately!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Eeyore's Birthday- Austin Texas 4.25.09]








My daughter Emily and I dropped in to witness the Eeyore's Birthday Party after our Saturday shopping in downtown Austin. In 6 years of living here, I have never been to this event, which has been an Austin tradition for 20+ years. Our visit lasted 15 minutes......we had to get home to take care of some chores. I wanted to stay longer. There was great people watching and a beer tent with all the local, micro breweries set up including Live Oak, Independence, and Real Ale from Blanco, Texas.

This scene in Austin reminded me of the "Be-ins" and Earth Day that used to be organized on Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park in my home town of Philadelphia when I was in College. They were light hearted, fun gatherings of hippies and all manner of free spirits just hanging out having a good time and enjoying each others company. Always very amusing. Especially some of the characters that would parade themselves around the venue. A circus without the tent or admission fees.

My 9 year-old daughter found the scene amusing and somewhat silly. Although she did not have much to say while we were walking around the park, she gave a very detailed report to her mother later in the day about all the unusual people she saw. It was not her "cup of tea", but another experience with Dad for her journal.

Eeyore's birthday brought back some memories of my mis-spent College days......for about 15 minutes. Probably a good thing....

This kind of event is what keeps Austin a unique, bohemian, and free-spirited city. In a culture at risk of vanilla uniformity and conformity, these off- beat gatherings of free thinkers are a breath of fresh air.

Happy Birthday Eeyore! Many happy returns to Austin.

AHO

Richard

PS- The drum circle was just getting started when we arrived. This is a fun event. Sorry we could only check in for a few minutes.

How I Tackled My Allergies Naturally- Part 2

A Simple Way to Identify the Sources of Allergies

There is a process I call “base lining” that I used to find out the relative severity of my reactions to specific foods and the allergic response they cause in me. Base lining calls for abstaining from all food for 24 – 48 hours and drinking nothing but pure filtered water and if you like, fresh lemon juice. This gets you to a baseline of relative body “purity”. If you can fast longer, you will have better results.

I did this base line fasting after consulting with my nutritionist and naturopath. Any fast requires a healing coach or doctor’s consent and these programs are not recommended for diabetics or people suffering from chronic health conditions. Check with your doctor before you try anything. This is my story, not medical advice so check with your physician.

Once I completed the short cleansing/ fasting period, I very gradually introduce different foods with an understanding that junk foods should always be avoided. This isn’t easy for our society that is immersed in fast food, but it is a source of a lot of our allergies. The fried, fatty, processed foods need to be minimized straight away. The other food groups like dairy, flours, peanuts, corn-based products, and red meat are reintroduced gradually back into so your diet so you can pinpoint the ones your body has an immune response to.

If you immediately cut way back on junk food, you will gain 50% of the benefits of this process. Let’s not kid ourselves’ junk foods are the root cause of most of our illnesses and diseases in America. Don’t even bother base lining these food groups, just get rid of them.

Sadly for me, a childhood staple, ice cream, is the worst offender. It is cold (cold foods are generally to be avoided), it has dairy, sugar, additives, and it is highly processed. Even the organic varieties have sugar and dairy which can cause health problems. It’s the worst. I grew up on it and used to eat pints of ice cream in a single sitting. Not anymore. It is a “mega” allergy catalyst in my body. Bye- bye ice cream!

For me, the biggest three allergy culprits are dairy, wheat and corn products, which are in just about everything. They cannot be avoided, but they can be minimized.
In my experimentation with base lining, I had immediate bad immune system reactions to processed cheese, wheat flours, and corn flour products. There are certain types of beer and wine that also caused a reaction in me because in the case of beer they have high wheat content, and in wine they contain sulphites as a preservative. After consuming these, wheezing, runny nose, and sneezing resulted. I knew immediately that these foods needed to be avoided or substantially reduce. It’s tough to do and you will never eliminate them completely, but you can significantly reduce their effects on your health by minimizing their consumption and by reading labels. By reducing these offending foods, you are giving your immune system a rest and reserves to fight off your body’s real enemies- pathogens and environmental toxins.
When I ate green vegetables and fresh fruits after base lining, there was no allergic reaction what so ever. Your body knows when you are being kind to it. Nutritious, healthy foods make you feel great. There is rarely an allergic reaction to healthy, fresh “live” foods unless you have a unique situation.

Grass-fed chicken, beef, and certain species of fish also rendered no allergic reaction either. Shell fish did cause some reaction.
Gradually I introduced all types of foods into my diet in quantities proportionate to the reactions that I was experiencing from my baseline experiment.
You’ve got to understand that I went through this process because I was suffering big time. I was miserable.

I went from running 5 miles at a time to barely running 100 yards before asthma would l kick in and begin to suffocate me. The allergies were causing major disruptions to my active life and I was committed to defeating them. I tell the whole story and more in my book: Rich Remedies, Volume 1, My Amazing Natural Self Healing Discoveries.
You can’t stop living and enjoying satisfying comfort foods, no matter what they contain. However, you can judiciously scale back their consumption and significantly reduce your allergy symptoms and lose excess weight in the bargain. Foods are the number one source of allergies so anything that you can do to consciously consume them will result in less allergy suffering.

In part 3 of this article I will discuss my final step in my process for eliminating allergies- 100%.
Good heath!

AHO

Richard

PS- You can buy my book at www.richremedies.com

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

How I tackled My Allergies Naturally- Part 1

Do you suffer from nagging, uncomfortable allergies that are brining you down?

I once suffered from massive allergies that I tackled with the assistance of a nutritionist, a naturopathic practitioner, and my own personal initiative. You can too.
You can overcome your allergies with some fairly simple steps, self discipline, and a little sacrifice, especially as it applies to the foods that you eat. I am not a huge fan of denial, as I enjoy and appreciate all of the finer things in life, all kinds of food at the top of the list. But when you get as sick as I did, you’ll do almost anything to find a cure.
So how did I figure this out? Desperation was the mother of invention.

Are you ready?

Here’s the short story.

Allergies are your body’s immune systems response to foreign substances like pollens, molds, insect venom, and most commonly, the foods we consume. Our bodies are in a constant battle to protect itself from outside forces or threats; both real and imagined. The body will fight off a food lectin the same way it fights a virus. Your immune system is in a constant battle.
I have had mild allergies since I was a child. The “mother of all allergies” hit me shortly after I moved to Austin, Texas seven years ago. The sources initially were cedar/ oak pollen and mold in the air.

The allergies caused all of your typical symptoms and more: running nose, teary -swollen eyes, sneezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and eventually an upper respiratory infection. Everything is BIG in Texas including the allergies!
The upper respiratory infection caused flu-like symptoms and asthma. Antibiotics, steroids, and an inhaler were prescribed for treatment. The drugs I was given were as bad as the allergies. I got real sick.

What did I do?
Once I realized that I was getting worse and not better, I did all the research I could on allergies and decided to go the alternative medicine route since the mainstream treatments were making me sicker, not better.
The first one I tried was acupuncture and Chinese medicinal herbs. This works for allot of people. It only worked marginally well for me. Everyone is different.
The next step, the one that did work, was the prescription I got from a certified nutritionist. She gave me three (3) vitamins/ minerals: Vitamin C, Fish Oil (Omega 3 fatty acids), and Magnesium. All very good anti-inflamatories and immune system boosters.

The biggest thing she (my nutritionist) did was get me on s restricted diet, eliminating some of my favorite foods, but also some of the worst allergy producers in most people.

Here is the “hit parade” of the most common food allergens in order of the worst offenders for me:
Ice Cream, Milk, Processed Cheeses, Refined Wheat, Refined Sugar, Whole Wheat, Floured Grains, Corn and all Corn-based products, Potatoes (especially French fries), Red meat, Pork, Grain-fed meats, Ketchup, Highly processed foods, Soda pop, and a whole host of lesser offenders.

These foods create an allergic response in the body that consumes all of the body’s energy. When the other allergens like pollen and mold come along, the body’s defenses are shot and you’re overcome by immune system overload.
The best illustration I have heard is that your immune system is like a glass container with water in it. You fill it up with allergy-producing foods (water) and then add on top of that, pollen/ mold (more water), it overflows. Running nose, sneezing, headaches, swelling, and other overload factors.


Back off the offending foods, and you give the body extra capacity to fight off the allergies. No symptoms, because your body has ample reserves (space in the glass) to fight anything that comes its way. To read a more detailed explanation, read my book: Rich Remedies, Volume 1, My Amazing Natural self Healing Discoveries.
Here is the short list of what I did to beat the dreaded chronic allergies and asthma that accompanied them:

 Organic vegetables, Organic grass-fed meats, and 8 glasses of purified, filtered water.
 Omega 3 fish oils, magnesium, and vitamin C according to a nutritionists’ prescription.
 No junk food
Within 30 short days my symptoms were completely gone!
This regimen eliminated 80% of my allergies. In Part 2 of this article I will tackle the other 20%.
Richard
www.richremedies.com

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Most Amazing Story I've Ever Heard



Photo of Joe Vitale holding a recent edition of "Austin Fit Magazine" where he was featured on the cover.


Zero Limits- The Most Amazing Story I’ve Ever Heard
If you are looking for clarity around the Law of Attraction, check out Dr. Joe Vitale’s vast body of work on the subject. I’ve been a rabid consumer of these concepts since I purchased my first copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic, “Think and Grow Rich” 25 years ago. Dr. Vitale is the easiest to read and understand of all the authors I’ve come across. He is a living example of using the Law of Attraction to bring about positive change in your life. My personal favorites of Joe’s books are: Zero Limits(the subject of this blog) and The Attractor Factor.
At the Unity Church Expo and Concert on April 4th Joe Viitale marveled at how 25 years ago he was penniless and homeless in the City of Dallas after being scammed out of all of his savings by a phony oil field job- recruiting firm who took his money based on the promise of a high-paying job. After losing all his money and hope for employment, Joe slept in churches and restrooms. After making some major mental and spiritual repairs, Joe went from abject poverty and hopelessness to being an Internet Marketing Guru, star of three movies, bestselling author, motivational speaker, and multimillionaire.
He went “from the outhouse to the White House” as my Daddy used to say.
The speech Joe gave for the Peace Project Conference was based on his book Zero Limits and the riveting story of how one psychologist, Ihaleakala Hew Len, PhD was able to bring peace to a maximum security prison for the criminally insane in Hawaii using a technique known as Self I-Dentity Through Ho’Oponopono. Get the book to read the whole fascinating story.
The short version of the Zero Limits story goes like this:
Dr. Hew Len was recruited to work in the Hawaiian psychiatric prison hospital by an administration desperate for employees. The conditions were awful. The worst of the worst. The inmates were not only violent but out of their minds, insane. Worse than your standard maximum security prison population- if you can imagine this.
When he started out, Dr Hew Len made a highly unusual request of the prison administration. One that they could not understand, but were willing to agree to because they were so desperate for help. He wanted access to all of the inmates’ personal records but he did not want any direct, personal interaction with them. How would a therapist treat patients without seeing them, being with them they thought?
As time passed, there was a gradual decline in violence in the prison. Violent prisoners who had to be physically restrained were being released into the general population. Inmate releases began to increase. Staff morale increased while the attrition rate decreased. The over-all complexion of the facility changed dramatically for the better over time. Peace and tranquility replaced violence and despair.
The prison officials were delighted and perplexed. How on Earth were these changes coming about with no obvious, external changes in therapy, procedures, or other factors?
The prison officials went to Dr. Hew Len to see if he had an explanation for this miraculous turn of events in this once dismal, violent institution.
He had an answer that shocked them. He was using a derivative of the ancient Hawaiian spiritual tradition of Ho’Oponopono. (Easy for you to say) The Self I-Dentity method was created by Morrnah, a great kahuna who evolved the process from the traditional method that she had practiced since childhood.
The tenants of Ho’ Oponopono in a nutshell are that we as individuals create our reality and everything we see and experience in it. The good, the bad and the ugly are all based on what we think. We are responsible for everything, no exceptions.
So to “fix” our external conditions, we must fix the internal thoughts and emotions that we are having that created our external reality.
You see violence, poverty, crime, injustice, pain, sickness, or any other negative condition on Earth; you clear yourself to clear these aberrant conditions that you created.. “What’s in you is out there”.
The clearing method Hew Len used to bring peace to the prison is amazingly simple.
He would sit in his office alone and look at the patient’s records a repeat the following:
“I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” That’s it!
He would repeat this over and over and over again all day long. These intentions were healing the patients!
This technique worked so well, they emptied the hospital of inmates and closed the hospital. I know, this sounds farfetched but Joe Vitale investigated documented all of this.
Here’s how it works according to Joe:
By saying “I’m sorry” you are telling the Divine that you want forgiveness inside yourself for whatever brought it to you.
“Please forgive me.” You’re asking the Divine to help you forgive yourself for whatever bad things you or your ancestors have done now or in the past.
“Thank you.” This is an expression of gratitude for resolving your issues.
“I Love You.” Transmutes stuck energy to flowing. It reconnects you to the Divine. The Zero State is one of pure love, with no Limits.
Get it?
Thanks Joe!
AHO
Richard
PS- This is hard to believe, isn’t it? Get the book, Zero Limits and read the story for yourself.
PS PS- Buy Rich Remedies , Volume 1 while you’re at it for “radiant health” 

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Snowed in Denver








Denver Airport as I am attempting to get back home to Austin, Texas.

I prefer flying in sunny weather.

How about you?

AHO

Richard

Lamborghini on Ice




I saw this Lamborghini Gallardo, MSRP $198,000 in a snowy parking lot in Denver last Friday. Double take- a Lamborghini in the snow?

I think it's great that the owner of this super exotic uses the all wheel drive capability this V-10 automobile has to offer......but in the snow? The car has about six inches of ground clearance. The ride home that night must have been as adventurous as mine. My flight was held up at the gate due to snow. Then the airline official told me there was a 10 % chance my flight would leave Denver.

Called 8 hotels before I found one with a room available.

Snowed in in Denver.

AHO

Richard

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Big Rose, Small Rose






We have some "mondo" roses blossoming this year.

Thank YOU!

AHO

Rich

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Answer to Prayers- Life Extending Beer- "Bio Beer"




Researchers at Rice University (here in Texas) have created beer that could extend your life.

BioBeer, as it's called, has three genes spliced into special brewer's yeast that produce resveratrol, the compound I mentioned in my previous blogs that is in red wine. It is thought to be an anti aging agent and protects against diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's and other age-related diseases.

Don't look for it in your beer distributor's cooler any time soon. For now, you'll have to make your own bio-beer the old fashioned way- one teaspoon of Vivix into a frosted mug of beer.

Vivix can be purchased at www.richremedies.com from my Shaklee website.

Cheers!

AHO

Rich