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Step One: How to Decide What to Put In Your Body

 

 Step One Simple Explanation

  1. Visit a farmers market or other reliable source of organic vegetables and fruits.
  2. Purchase the vegetable and fruits that “call out to you” to be eaten.
  3. Apply one and only rule: More colors are better.
  4. Let your own inner judgment and guidance steer you for the best decisions.
  5. Once you are home, either make a smoothie each day with what you have purchased using a mixer that combines all ingredients, cook the veggies in a crock pot or make a soup.
  6. Repeat the above 5 steps after 3 or 4 days.
  7. Continue the process throughout the following 7 weeks of Giant Leap for Recovery (and beyond as you recognize and acknowledge how much better you feel).

 

Step Fourteen: Embrace Your Passions

Make Recovery Happen Now

We have all finally arrived at the final step of recovery – Step Fourteen. Your journey down the road to recovery has been successfully launched. Healing is a lifetime process for everyone.

Interested in connecting with others who are also journeying down the road to recovery?  Subscribe to become a Parkinsons Recovery member. The cost is minimal – only $10 a month. We connect with one another on the last Monday of each month. Many other support resources for recovery are updated daily on the 12 Parkinsons Recovery member websites. To learn more visit:

https://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/parkinsons-recovery-membership

As you reflect back on the steps covered in Giant Leap for Recovery ask yourself …

Did the steps cover therapies that are focused on …

  • Suppressing tremors?
  • Improving gait?
  • Enhancing ease of mobility?
  • Preventing falls?
  • Or … ?

Of course the answer to all of these questions is no.

Sufficient to say, we discussed some of these topics as they came up in discussions or questions, but the steps do not focus the illness. They focus on how to maintain wellness.

Of course I have addressed and discussed how to quiet symptoms in my books, radio shows, blog and newsletters. These are the type of questions I am asked. So, I answer them. The methods I have identified are undoubtedly very useful and appreciated by many people across the globe.

But, they are all temporary. Medicines only last several hours for most. Surgeries often have to be repeated. Supplements have to be taken every day. What is wrong with finding therapies that help you feel better temporarily?

Obviously – nothing.  But in the end, what really makes a difference for a successful recovery program to sustain itself in the long run? The answer has to do with a shift in focus.

Focus on the illness and you “feed” the illness. This depletes your energy and life force.

Focus on health and wellness, and you “feed” health and wellness. This focus energizes and supports your life force. This focus is what helps your body heal from the inside out – little by little, day in and day out.

Long term success does not depend on finding ways to suppress symptoms but rather on supporting your body’s own intrinsic ability to heal itself.

  • The natural state of the body is to be in balance and healthy.
  • The unnatural state is to be out of balance and ill.

So …

What is the bottom line to recovery?

What is the secret to making it happen?

Most people hold near and dear to their heart the beliefs that recovery has to  …

  • Take years to unfold
  • Requires medications and supplements
  • Happens for only a select few
  • Involves expensive therapies
  • Happens only when you find the right therapist, health care practitioner or doctor who has the “secret” answer to recovery
  • Calls for outside interventions of one form or another

I too once believed all of this was true, but not now. I hold a much different belief that recovery is possible for

  • Anyone
  • Anywhere
  • Anytime

Anytime Means Now
Anytime means you notice improvements in how you are feeling every day

Why do I embrace this seemingly outrageous belief?

Many people who experience symptoms of Parkinson’s have told me about unexpected blocks of time (a few minutes, hours, days) when their symptoms disappeared completely.

You have heard people in this class report the same experiences!

Such reports surprisingly involve situations which cannot be explained by taking (or not taking) medications or supplements or turning on or off a DBS battery connection

Is this a familiar circumstance for you? Have you celebrated the quieting of symptoms unexpectedly?

If it has ever happened once for you, why I ask you cannot this happen for you all the time?

What usually happens in such situations?  The secret to recovery is …

  • Embrace Your Soul’s Longing
  • Devote your energy, time and money doing what you have always loved to do since you were a child.
  • Follow your “bliss”

And this my friends is Step Fourteen in a nutshell.

Meditation on Finding Your Pathway to Recovery

What gave you the most joy when you were a child?

How did you love to spend your days?

Recall a happy memory when you were a child.  What were you doing that day? Were you with other people when you were the most happy or were you alone?

What did you do in secret because you were afraid you would get in trouble?

As a child did you love to …

  • Cook
  • Sew
  • Do crafts and art work
  • Play sports
  • Help other people
  • Invent
  • Create
  • Experiment
  • Ask questions
  • Find answers
  • Perform well on tests
  • Give your parents grief
  • Play with you friends
  • Make up new games to play

Do what you are supposed to be doing with your life and symptoms become inconsequential.

 

Step Ten: Fasting

The Big Picture

Research shows that the people who live longer, healthier lives eat less. Why is this?

Partly, they fast at least 12-18 hours a day. Fasting encourages the liver to make ketones (approximately 150 grams a day).

Ketones are a “natural” brain food. It requires less energy for the body to produce.

The brain also functions on glucose. The body converts carbs and proteins into sugar/glucose which the brain uses to function.  There is a marvelous way to understand what happens when we eat carbs, proteins and fat using an analogy to the materials that can be used to build a fire (kindling, wood and charcoal).

  1. Carbs are like burning kindling – they burn up quickly.
  2. Protein is like burning sticks and small logs – they take longer to burn.
  3. Fat is like burning charcoal – ketones derived from the fat burn much longer than kindling or logs.

There is an on/off switch at play here. Either the body is using sugar to fuel the brain (from the carbs and proteins) or it is extracting ketones from stores of fat. When sugar is the primary fuel, the body is working on overtime and not getting paid for it! When ketones are the primary fuel, demands on the body are significantly less (which is why life is extended). In short –

  • Ketones are easy for the body to process
  • Sugar is not.

This is why eating sweets (that have raw sugar) is not a smart idea for persons with neurological challenges.

The Simple Way for Your Body to Make Ketones is  … Fasting.

Fasting is one sure fire way to encourage your body to produce ketones. The easiest way to fast is to eat the last meal of the day in the early evening and then do not eat anything for 12-14 hours until the following morning.

This is why the paleo diet stipulates you eat only 2 meals a day, not three.  This allows for the opportunity for your body to manufacture ketones naturally. This reduces the strain and effort that must be exerted by the body to keep your brain functioning at peak capacity.

  • Ketones are energy efficient.
  • Glucose is energy inefficient.

Step Nine Summary:

Fast for 12-14 hours at least every other day if not every day.

Step Eight: Stop Watching the News


Step Eight

Do not watch the news this week. Why? Seeing the images and hearing the stories re-traumatizes you.

Why might this little step reduce stress?

Answer: Much of the news is plastered with scenes and stories of mayhem, torture, murder and negativity. You not only learn about what horrible events have happened.

  1. You see them.
  2. You hear them.
  3. You are assaulted with world- wide suffering.
  4. You take on the suffering and pain (unconsciously) and there is nothing you can do about it. There is nothing to be gained and everything to lose.

The stimuli from the news alone sustains ongoing stress.

Taking Step Eight seriously does not mean you become uninformed! The idea here is to reduce ongoing stress.

Recall – the most important secret to recovery is to be in control of your recovery. When you watch the news on TV – guess what …

  • You are not in control.
  • You are being manipulated by subliminal messages.

Check out the research. Do a search on subliminal messages in the media. Broadcasters use a tried and true technology called NLP to manipulate your reactions to what they are communicating.

OK – you are now thinking …

BUT … I have always watched the news every night. It is my habit and routine.

I say to you – change the habit.

Instead – during the time you waste watching the news – listen to one of my 240 interviews on Parkinsons Recovery Radio. Replays are free to access.

This is a divine way to get marvelous suggestions from the experts – people who have a solid idea of what helps facilitate recovery.

The choice is thus between:

  1. Watch the nightly news. Get stressed and depressed
  2. Listen to interviews on Parkinsons Recovery Radio. Get inspired, energized and motivated to take the actions needed to help your body heal.

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/parkinsons-recovery

OR – Instead of watching the news, listen to some of the fascinating interviews on National Public Radio like Fresh Air:

https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/archive

Step Four: Write a Restorative Statement

Negative thoughts drag us down into the depths of the sewer. Once we have wriggled our way in we see no sunshine and no exit.

Restorative statements open up a window that allows sunshine to enter and a stairway to exit from the bubbling sewer of our negative thoughts.

Adopting someone else’s affirmations offers little value. What lifts you out of the sewer gutter is a clear statement of intention that restores your life force – not someone else’s. The restorative statement becomes yours and yours alone. It will speak to you in ways you never imagined.

How to Write a Restorative Statement

The process is actually simple. You have now written (or recorded) in Step 2 a list of thoughts that are clearly not in your best and highest good. Retrieve this list now. It will be the source of information needed to craft a restorative statement.

  1. Mark a line down the middle of a clean sheet of paper.
  2. Title the left column – “Negative Words from My List”
  3. Title the right column – “antonyms” (or a word which is the opposite of what is listed in the first column).

You can find suggestions for opposites by visiting:
http://www.antonymswords.com/

Some Examples (life draining versus life giving): 

apathy versus passion
anxiety versus peace
weakness versus wholeness
failure versus success
empty versus creative
Sad versus joyful
unstable versus balance
freezing versus fiery
And so forth and so on.

You will begin to identify repetitions and patterns in the statements.

Some power phrases that can be used in restorative statements:

Owning my power
Knowing my truth
Allowing myself to be loved
Loving myself

Now – construct your personalized restorative statement using the following template:

“I thank [the universe or God or the divine – whatever term calls out to you] for (insert your first name here e.g. Robert’s) knowing and experiencing …

Make the statement short – only 2 to 4 sentences.

An example is below. This example  offers a snapshot of what a final restorative statement looks like. It is simple. Brief. Short. Best of all it will support, sustain and energize your recovery when you read it out loud every day.

“I thank the universe for Robert’s knowing and experiencing his divine ability to embrace life to the fullest. His body is in perfect working order with all systems in balance. He always speaks his truth, fully receives the love of others and is nurtured by  exciting, joyful and fascinating encounters with a community of remarkable people.”.

Step Nine: Detox the Natural Way

Your may have been asking:

Do I have toxins in my body?

The answer is yes.

How do you know? You are not a medical doctor. You have not run any diagnostic tests.

The answer is: I know because everyone in a body
has toxins.

Do I Really Need to Detox?

The answer is yes. Everyone needs to adopt a detox protocol they embrace for the rest of their life. But you are currently experiencing symptoms research indicates may be caused by an overload of toxins. It is particularly important for you to find ways to detox all toxins whether they take the form of bad bacteria, heavy metals or …

But there are so many methods out there to detox. I have done searches.
Which one do I use?

Yes indeed. The options overwhelm everyone. Some detoxes are designed to specifically address certain toxins. It can be a true nightmare
to determine the best to use now.

Do I have to pay for medical diagnostics and help?

This can certainly be a smart move, but there is always the cost to be paid of money, energy and added stress.

Well – so what do you suggest here?

I suggest a natural detox you can do every day which requires the purchase of baking soda, epsum salts, availability of a bath tub, and soaking your body in warm bath water for 15 minutes.

No prescriptions are needed.
No doctor visits required.

Instructions:

Plan on doing bath detoxes in the evening. You will likely feel
exhausted afterward. (Note: this is a subtle clue that this
natural detox method really is not only simple but highly effective.)

1. fill your bath tub with warm water.
2. Drink a class of water.
3. Put 1/3 cup of baking soda in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Put 1/3 cup of epsom salts.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Soak for about 15 minutes (and why not do the
stress release meditation when you soak).
6. Drink another class of water.

Done.

Do this natural detox every day this week. Make it part of
your lifestyle habit.

Step Twelve: Brain Cleansing

Do These Two 30 Second Activities Every Day to Cleanse Your Brain

First Activity:

Do you have access to water that is reliable and free of bacteria? We draw water from a well, so I am confident that the water is pure. If you have confidence in the quality of your tap water … Rinse your nose while
taking a shower. How?

  1. Tilt your head up.
  2. Close your left nostril with your left hand fingers
  3. Sniff in a little water into your right nostril.
  4. Then ex-hail.
  5. Then – close your right nostril with your right hand fingers.
  6. Sniff in a little water into your left nostril.
  7. Then ex-hail.

How do all of these noxious bacterial infections and viruses leak into the brain? Answer: through our nose. Do this simple cleansing every time you take a shower and the passageway used by nasty critters to contaminate your brain is closed down.

You may well rebel at this suggestion. You have sniffed into your nose before and it feels terrible! Yes – it will feel uncomfortable at first. But trust me on this. Do it every day and the discomfort will dissolve.

Better yet – your brain will thank you.

Second Activity

Lift Brain Fog by Doing the Brain Gym

Below is a video of me demonstrating how to do the brain gym which was taken at one of our Summits.

Steps are:

  1. Hold right ear lobe with your left hand.
  2. Hold your left ear lobe with your right hand
  3. Bend your legs and stoop down 7 times.

Why not do both of these every day?

Maybe you do not have enough time? Really? They take one minute out of your day.

They cost too much. Really? They are free to do.

Many people think free means it will not work. In this case – free means just the opposite.

Robert

Step Seven: Stop Eating All Dairy Products

Step Seven Class Notes

Warning:

Some of you are not going to like hearing about Step Seven. I have only one question for you to meditate on:

How serious are you about reversing whatever symptoms you may currently be experiencing?

If on a scale of 10 (where 1 is not really serious and 10 is profoundly serious) you score yourself a 10 – I urge you to take the Step 7 seriously.

What does it take to make Step 7 happen?

Do I have to purchase anything?

Heavens no!

None of the Giant Leap for Recovery steps involves buying any products or doing any expensive therapies.

Some people suspect that the underlying motivation to offer my Giant Leap course at such a small tuition is to sell your something.

That is not what this course is about. It is all about helping you heal.  Healing from the inside out entails taking full charge of your recovery program.

Step Seven involves NOT DOING something you may have been doing your entire life.

Stop Eating All Dairy Products

I know some of you are probably thinking – this is stupid. These steps are stupid.

I love eating dairy.

Hey. So do I!

Why do I ask you to take this step seriously?

The research on what predicts Parkinson’s symptoms is unequivocal. Abstracts of recent studies are included at the bottom of this class handout.

Research shows people who eat dairy products are significantly more like to experience symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The studies use huge samples and are all well designed.

 Are you serious about healing?

Take this step seriously.                                    

My personal experience with dairy

  1. At a young age

Serious ear aches due to allergic reaction to dairy.

  1. And now.

Muscle testing recently reveals I should stop eating all cheese. Duh. I knew this but was in denial. 

  • I have interviewed a number of people who stopped eating dairy and experienced a welcome relief of symptoms.
  • It usually takes time to experience results.

Abstracts of recent studies are included in the class notes which you will receive as an attachment to the next email from me. This will give you confirmation that my suggestion has merit. 

What about butter?

Why not muscle test this one?

You may be thinking …

I have tried to stop eating dairy. I feel so empty and unsatisfied. 

Yes – this is precisely the feeling you will have …

For 4-6 weeks. Why does it lift?

Listen to my interview with

Warren Kramer:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/parkinsons-recovery/2017/10/25/the-macrobiotic-approach-to-health-and-wellness

Our body craves (and becomes “addicted”) to the food we eat. When we start eating fresh, live food – we will no longer crave dairy products.

Go cold turkey on eating dairy for 2 weeks. Then – pleasure yourself with gulping down the dairy products you have always loved to eat:  

  • Ice cream.
  • Cheese .

And see if you feel worse. That should be an additional motivation to get serious about Step 7. 

Abstracts of Two Recent Studies

Eur J Epidemiol. 2014 Sep;29(9):613-9. doi: 10.1007/s10654-014-9921-4. Epub 2014 Jun 4.

Dairy foods intake and risk of Parkinson’s disease: a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Jiang W1Ju CJiang HZhang D.

Dairy foods have been linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD), and a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies on dairy foods intake and PD risk was conducted. Eligible studies were identified in a literature search of EMBASE and PubMed up to April 2014. Seven results from prospective studies were included, including 1,083 PD cases among 304,193 subjects. The combined risk of PD for highest vs. lowest level of dairy foods intake was 1.40 (1.20-1.63) overall, 1.66 (1.29-2.14) for men and 1.15 (0.85-1.56) for women. For highest vs. lowest level, the PD risk was 1.45 (1.23-1.73) for milk, 1.26 (0.99-1.60) for cheese, 0.95 (0.76-1.20) for yogurt and 0.76 (0.51-1.13) for butter. The linear dose-response relationship showed that PD risk increased by 17% [1.17 (1.06-1.30)] for every 200 g/day increment in milk intake (Pfor non-linearity = 0.22), and 13% [1.13 (0.91-1.40)] for every 10 g/day increment in cheese intake (Pfor non-linearity = 0.39). The absolute risk differences were estimated to be 2-4 PD cases per 100,000 person-years for every 200 g/day increment in milk intake, and 1-3 PD cases per 100,000 person-years for every 10 g/day increment in cheese intake. Dairy foods (milk, cheese) might be positively associated with increased risk of PD, especially for men.

 

Neurology. 2017 Jul 4;89(1):46-52. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000004057. Epub 2017 Jun 8.

Intake of dairy foods and risk of Parkinson disease.

Hughes KC1Gao X2Kim IY2Wang M2Weisskopf MG2Schwarzschild MA2Ascherio A2.

Author information

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To prospectively examine the association between commonly consumed dairy products and the risk of Parkinson disease (PD) in women and men.

METHODS:

Analyses were based on data from 2 large prospective cohort studies, the Nurses’ Health Study (n = 80,736) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (n = 48,610), with a total of 26 and 24 years of follow-up, respectively. Both US-based studies were conducted via mailed biennial questionnaires. Dietary intake was assessed with food frequency questionnaires administered repeatedly over the follow-up period. Incident cases of PD (n = 1,036) were identified via questionnaires and subsequently confirmed by reviewing medical records. We also conducted a meta-analysis to combine our study with 3 previously published prospective studies on total milk intake and PD risk and 1 study on total dairy intake and PD risk.

RESULTS:

While total dairy intake was not significantly associated with PD risk in our cohorts, intake of low-fat dairy foods was associated with PD risk. The pooled, multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) comparing people who consumed at least 3 servings of low-fat dairy per day to those who consumed none was 1.34 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.79, p trend = 0.04). This association appeared to be driven by an increased risk of PD associated with skim and low-fat milk (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.12-1.73, p trend <0.01). Results were similar in women and men (p for heterogeneity >0.05). In the meta-analysis, the pooled relative risk comparing extreme categories of total milk intake was 1.56 (95% CI 1.30-1.88), and the association between total dairy and PD became significant (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.04-1.55).

CONCLUSIONS:

Frequent consumption of dairy products appears to be associated with a modest increased risk of PD in women and men.