Your Family Clinic Blog

12/24/2022

New Youtube Video. We completed a review of The Full Cup Podcast. It is a podcast about good mental health. We hope you enjoy the review and the podcast. The link to the youtube video is

This is a podcast review . The Full Cup is a podcast by Greig Berthold and was completed a few years ago. The podcast offers great...

12/24/2022

New review of The Full Cup Podcast. We have created a new Youtube Video that is a review of The Full Cup Podcast. We hope you enjoy the review, but we encourage you to view the Podcast. They have close to 40 episodes and it does a nice job of explaining good mental health. Some of our clients and friends report that the pod cast is live changing. Please send us your comments about the Pod Cast or the review. The link to the review is

This is a podcast review . The Full Cup is a podcast by Greig Berthold and was completed a few years ago. The podcast offers great...

09/13/2021

Self Monitoring: A technique to get home work done.

Now is a good time to use self monitoring. School is now in session for most students. Self monitoring is a behavioral technique that teaches children to stay focused enough to complete their work. At first the technique involves having the child listen to a recording that asks every 45 seconds, “Am I on task?” If the participant is on task, an affirmative box is check. If the student was not on task, the participants checks no. It usually takes a few months of using this form before the participant is ready to advance.

The next stage of self monitoring is moving the child from relying on the yes and no form to relying on a clock. The participant gages where he/she should be on the assignment with time. The student estimates how long it will take to complete the home work, marks down on a paper where he/she should be when quarter of the time has expired, half the time has expired and three quarters of the time has expired. The student monitors a clock to see how well he/she is doing. Self monitoring trains the participant to be able to monitor their own behavior in completing school work. It allows them to be independent of other’s encouragement to complete work.

Now, school is in session and homework has started. Self monitoring is a technique to help participants complete their school work and home work. It works great with children diagnosed with an Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It works with children who spend too much time completing their homework because of low motivation, daydreaming, or being inattentive.

It is not a good technique to use if the participant does not have the skills to complete the work. Make sure the participant can do the work before using a self monitoring program.

A low cost self monitoring kit made especially for children (also appropriate for adults) can be found at: https://www.yourfamilyclinic.com/adhd/monitor.php. The kit has everything needed to get started with self monitoring and continue to the advance stages.

When children first start school, some will often get behind. It is sometimes a hard transition from not having to study to having to studying again. Their focus on electronics and other activities can override their desire to do school work. Self monitoring can be used until the participant has enough self motivation to delay electronic use until after their homework has been completed.

Some children have ADHD so bad that they can not even complete assignments given them by their teacher during regular school time. We had a five-year-old child who could only complete his school work if he was doing self monitoring in the classroom. The teacher provided this student with a set of headphones, access to a MP3 player and the record chart. The teacher instructed the child how to complete the record chart and the child responded well. Classroom assignment could be completed.

Another advantage of self monitoring is that it works well for children on medication. Many stimulant medications are designed to wear off in the evening. This can make it difficult for the student to complete home work assignments. Self monitoring can be used at home to help the student complete the homework even though the medication has ebbed in effectiveness.

School can be difficult for some students, especially students with an Attention Deficit Disorder. Self monitoring can become one of your tool in your arsenal. Completing school work and home work is a huge factor in the success of a student.

We are grateful for the photograph by Soundtrap on Unsplash

08/16/2021

Using Smoothies as a Gateway to a More Nutritious Lifestyle.

The Standard American Diet or SAD diet provides less than optimal nutrition. When compared with other countries, the overall health of United States of America citizens is not very good. We are on the lower end of the spectrum. We have more chronic diseases than most other countries, more obesity and we do not live as long. A large majority of the cause of our poor health status comes from the food we choose to eat. This is really SAD considering the abundance of food and the wide variety of choices that people in the United States have. We can insure our families have a more abundant life by choosing a healthier life style, especially at meal time. We can become more healthy and feel better in general through our choices of nourishment.

Most choose the SAD diet because of expense and convenience. You can eat at fast food restaurants often cheaper than you can fix a home cooked meal. Fast food restaurants are conveniently located near places you work and/or take your family. The problem is that while you are saving time and money, you are often sacrificing nutrition. Some fast food restaurants offer healthier choices but children rarely chose a healthy alternative to the kid’s meal that contain much processed food with little nutritious value.

Many children of today are picky eaters. They really like the SAD diet. They rarely will venture far from their chosen staples. Often the chosen staples are processed and often lacking in nutrition. These children are very resistive to alternative choices.

The good news is that few children will turn down a good tasting smoothie. Smoothies can be made specifically for the tastes of the child. They can start off sweet with added sugar, then gradually be transformed into smoothies with processed sugar substitutes such as maple syrup, honey, agave nectar or stevia. Then the sugar can be reduced to the point that all the sugar comes from the natural ingredients of the smoothie (e.g., fruit).

In addition, over time more vegetables, healthy fats, or proteins can be added depending on the specific needs of the consumer.

Smoothies make a nice gateway into a healthy lifestyle. As taste buds change over time, more and more nutritious food can be added to the smoothie and thus to the diet. With a planned outcome in mind, it could take six months to a year to completely change the palate of the participants. Eating more nutritious food should translate over time to better functioning in moods, coping skills, concentration, reduced impulsivity and a general sense of well being. The old saying of “Let food be your medicine” can actually apply to you and your family. Smoothies can be a big part of the process of going from the SAD diet to a healthy lifestyle with an abundance of choices in healthy foods. There are even ways to save money in the process.

Start with a smoothie that your family will enjoy.

There are thousands of smoothie recipes available. Here is one of our favorite smoothie recipe:

½ cup of dark sweet frozen organic cherries
½ cup of frozen organic blueberries
½ cup of fresh banana
sweetened or non sweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

Put in all the frozen cherries and blueberries in your smoothie maker or blender. Fill to the top of the frozen fruit with Almond Milk. Then add the fresh banana. Let the mixture sit for about five minutes to thaw the frozen fruit so that they will mix well. Blend in the smoothie maker or blender and then serve.

The beautiful part about making a smoothie is that you can add almost anything to it. Some parents even put their children’s medicine in the smoothie. With the right combination of fruits and/or vegetable and or spices, you can hide most unpleasant tastes. It may take some experimentation. When you are adding ingredient make sure you add healthy ingredients. Over time, it will defeat the purpose if you add ingredients that are not healthy (e.g., strawberries that are not organic).

An important consideration of quality of ingredients includes the effects of pesticides used to grow the fruit or vegetable. Below is a list of fruits and vegetables that contain the most amount of pesticides, beginning with the one considered to have the most problems with pesticide and ending with the one that is least on the list. They are strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, cherries, peaches and pears. We recommend that you use only organic versions of these fruits and vegetables in your smoothies. Some people have a method to wash these fruits and vegetables to get rid of the pesticides. That may be a way to save money.

Another way to save money is to know the fruits and vegetables that are considered to be safe in the amount of pesticides. The list includes: avocados, pineapples, papayas, kiwi, honeydew melon, and cantaloupe. Smoothies made with these ingredients are considered to be safe without having to buy organic.

Below is a list of ingredients that you can add to your smoothie to get some medicinal properties. We recommend that you do your own research on what foods and spices may be of benefit to you and your family.

Healthful seeds:

chia seeds, flax seeds

Healthful spices:

cinnamon, ginger, sage, turmeric, thyme, rosemary, saffron, basil

Healthful nuts:

walnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans

Sometimes you have to spend money to save money. Buying organic fruits and vegetables does add more expense to your food. If it saves on costly medical expenses in the future, it is money well spent. Relatively speaking, a smoothie can be an inexpensive meal. Adding additional protein to the smoothie can provide enough energy and sustenance to make it to the next meal. Changing the sugar content of the smoothie over time and the composition of the smoothie to include healthier ingredients over time, can change the tastes of you and your family members and lead to an easier transition towards a healthier life style. A life style that goes away from fast foods, processed foods, sugary drinks and towards a life style where foods become your medicine. Instead of living to eat, you can eat to live.

A detailed version of this post with references and links can be found at www.yourfamilyclinic.com/wellness/food/smoothie.html

08/09/2021

An inexpensive yet healthy breakfast.

What we put into our body makes a big difference for our health and well being. Eating well usually means paying more for your food. It does not always have to be that way. Breakfast can now be inexpensive, very tasty and very healthy.

If you are used to drinking sodas and eating at McDonald’s, then the following breakfast is not likely to be appealing. We recommend that you make a breakfast fruit smoothie as a starting point to get your taste buds to change towards a healthier life style. However, if you are ready, the following recipe will be sure to satisfy.

I obtained this recipe from the owner of The New Yokel Health Food Store in a city in Mississippi that is not known for having very many health conscious citizens. It has proven to be a great staple for many years and my son uses this recipe as well. It is so simple:

In a measuring cup, pour

- up to 1/4 cup of red lentils (not too much because you do not want too much of a lentil or bean taste and red lentils do not have a strong flavor compared to their cousins),
- 3/4 cup or slightly over of red quinoa. We only use organic lentils and quinoa.
- optional: about a table spoon of chia seeds (if you use chia seeds, cut back on the red lentils or the quinoa so that you have a full cup of all of the ingredients when combined).

Pour the mixture into two cups of boiling water, reduce the heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes. You may need to watch it at first so that it does not boil over. That’s it! It should feed the whole family (depending on the size of your family of course). If you are cooking only for one, put the unused portion in a container to be used as cold cereal through out the week.

When the mixture is hot, I sprinkled cinnamon on top. The flagrance from the cinnamon comes alive. Sometimes I will add sunflower seeds and/or some extra raw chia seeds. There is enough protein in this breakfast to last all the way to lunch with no need for snacking.

The left over mixture can be placed in the refrigerator. It will keep for a week or longer. During the week, I will take some out and put it into a bowl. Then I will add my favorite nuts, dried fruit, raw chia seeds, fennel seeds and cinnamon to make a delicious cold breakfast that is very filling. I will then add unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Adding such things increases the cost, but these things do not have to be added if expenses are to be kept at a minimum. This cold cereal can stand on it’s own with milk or a milk substitute.

The mixture has been one of my favorite breakfast foods. It is easily prepared and the exact flavor changes depending on what is added. Adding a variety of toppings can feel like you have an extensive variety of breakfast choices. As an additional bonus it is also vegan. We hope you like it. Bon appetite!

For more details about this inexpensive breakfast idea, please visit www.yourfamilyclinic/wellness/food/breakfast.html

08/02/2021

An affordable way to keep hands clean without harmful toxic chemicals.

One thing that most of us have done during the extra long pandemic is wash our hands. A nice luxury in washing hands has been foaming hand soap. It is convenient and saves a step or two compared to bar soap. It is also less messy in the bathroom. However, is it safe? Is it non-toxic? Most inexpensive foaming hand soap contain many toxins. These toxins may build up in our body over time.

While it is difficult to escape toxins in this world today, we should make every attempt to do so. Often we are absorbing toxins through our skin without realizing it: often in the soap we use. We can even absorb toxins by breathing the chemicals from the cleaning products we use. When toxins get absorbed into our bodies they increase our toxic load making us more susceptible to diseases, viruses and other pathogens. Some believe that we even get cancer when our toxic load is higher than what our immune system can handle. Are we washing our hands with toxic soap that may be increasing our toxic load?

One soap that is considered to be non toxic is Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap. It is considered non toxic by a variety of sources. However it is a bit expensive when compared to soap you can get at Wal-Mart or other sources. However there is a way to wash your hands with non-toxic foaming soap and save money over the chemical foaming soaps that are readily available.

Here are the steps to use Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap as foaming hand soap that is less expensive than the foaming soaps at discount outlets.

1. Buy a container of foaming soap at a discount outlet. A common one is Dial.

2. Do what ever you want to with the foaming soap in the container and rinse out the foaming soap container.

3. Put back in 60% water. Any water will work (including tap water). Put in 40% of Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap.

4. When the soap is all used up, keep the container and refill with 60 % water and 40% soap.

When using products purchased at Amazon, the $2.09 Dial Soap (7.5 oz.) becomes $1.50 when refilled with Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap (from a 32 oz. container of peppermint soap) and water. That means a savings of 59 cents per container and you take up less space in land fills because you are reusing the container. This is an additional bonus to our environment. A 32 oz. container of Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Peppermint Soap will last up to 10 refills.

The largest advantage is that your and your family’s hands are free of bacteria and viruses without the toxic chemicals often found in foaming soaps. Over the years, your family’s health will appreciate your efforts. Your own body will too. Even your pocket book will appreciate it. You will have the luxury of using a pleasant smelling non-toxic foaming hand soap to keep clean.

For even more details on the advantages of this approach, please visit: www.yourfamilyclinic.com/wellness/cleanhands.html

08/02/2021

An affordable way to keep hands clean without harmful toxic chemicals.

One thing that most of us have done during the extra long pandemic is wash our hands. A nice luxury in washing hands has been foaming hand soap. It is convenient and saves a step or two compared to bar soap. It is also less messy in the bathroom. However, is it safe? Is it non-toxic? Most inexpensive foaming hand soap contain many toxins. These toxins may build up in our body over time.

While it is difficult to escape toxins in this world today, we should make every attempt to do so. Often we are absorbing toxins through our skin without realizing it: often in the soap we use. We can even absorb toxins by breathing the chemicals from the cleaning products we use. When toxins get absorbed into our bodies they increase our toxic load making us more susceptible to diseases, viruses and other pathogens. Some believe that we even get cancer when our toxic load is higher than what our immune system can handle. Are we washing our hands with toxic soap that may be increasing our toxic load?

One soap that is considered to be non toxic is Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap. It is considered non toxic by a variety of sources. However it is a bit expensive when compared to soap you can get at Wal-Mart or other sources. However there is a way to wash your hands with non-toxic foaming soap and save money over the chemical foaming soaps that are readily available.

Here are the steps to use Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap as foaming hand soap that is less expensive than the foaming soaps at discount outlets.

1. Buy a container of foaming soap at a discount outlet. A common one is Dial.

2. Do what ever you want to with the foaming soap in the container and rinse out the foaming soap container.

3. Put back in 60% water. Any water will work (including tap water). Put in 40% of Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap.

4. When the soap is all used up, keep the container and refill with 60 % water and 40% soap.

When using products purchased at Amazon, the $2.09 Dial Soap (7.5 oz) becomes $1.50 when refilled with Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap (from a 32 oz container of peppermint soap) and water. That means a savings of 59 cents per container and you take up less space in land fills because you are reusing the container. This is an additional bonus to our environment. A 32 oz container of Dr. Bonner’s Pure Castile Liquid Peppermint Soap will last up to 10 refills.

The largest advantage is that your and your family’s hands are free of bacteria and viruses without the toxic chemicals often found in foaming soaps. Over the years, your family’s health will appreciate your efforts. Your own body will too. Even your pocket book will appreciate it. You will have the luxury of using a pleasant smelling non-toxic foaming hand soap to keep clean.

For even more details on the advantages of this approach, please visit: www.yourfamilyclinic.com/wellness/cleanhands.html

07/26/2021

Let’s Change Towards the Positive!

Change is a necessary part of life. We are changing constantly from before the time we are born to the time we die. We can not escape change. The question becomes: Are we changing for the better or are we changing for the worse?

We live in a world that makes it easy for us to change for the worse. From the minute we are born there are dangers that threaten our well being in the long run. One of the first threats may be an inadequate diet. Inadequate diet includes toxins in our food (e.g., trans-fats, high fructose corn syrup, glyphosate), the Standard American Diet or SAD diet, and too many processed foods. We really need to eat highly dense nutritious food to give our bodies the fuel it needs to make healthy changes as we grow.

Constant entertainment is another way the world helps us change for the worse. Almost gone are the days when people worried or had true concern about their neighbor. Rare is the occasion that someone invites another family over for dinner. Thinking of and serving others brings fulfilment, joy and comfort. Constant entertainment is self centered and often deprives us of healthy relationships. Some people change into narcissistic entitled brats which change process is constantly being reinforced though social media and other influences (e.g., some school curriculum, popular movies, video games). Life is a delicate balance of taking care of ourselves and helping others. We can love ourselves and love others.

Families are experiencing the brunt of societal negative changes with more people being born into u***d situations rather than within the traditional family unit. It is becoming increasingly more rare to have a child raised to adulthood by a loving mother and a loving father who have remained together long enough to have grandchildren and great grandchildren. Could all of these factors be a contributor to the increase in anxiety and depression so common in individuals today? Could they also be contributing factors into increase cancer rates, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, early onset dementia, etc.?

We do not have to be victims of our environments. Fortunately we have the capacity to change. We can always start right now and get on a path that will lead us towards positive change. We can dramatically change our own lifestyle. We can even prevent Alzheimer’s disease even if we have the genetic predisposition towards an increase risk of Alzheimer’s disease. We do not have to be over weight, unable to focus, unable to succeed in college, or other negative aspects of our lives. We can choose to be different.

Change will happen. Let’s change for the better! The following are some tips on how to make positive change a reality for you. These tips are not written in stone nor are they all inclusive. You may wish to add some of your own tips that make positive change a reality for you.

1. Know what you want. You may need to analyze several things about you and your current life style and figure out exactly what you want your life to be like. It is rarely too late to change. Will your current life style take you to where you want to be? Do you want to be better educated, have a career, be financially independent, have a healthy body, and/or succeed in a relationship. Figure out what you want and write it down. Make it a written goal or a written list of goals.

2. Use meditation to help you achieve these goals. With meditation, you do not need to know how to accomplish a goal, all you need is to know what you want. Exactly what you want. A good book that explains meditation and how it can change your life is: Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One by Joseph Dizpensa. It is an awesome book and we highly recommend it. Some people include prayer with their meditation.

3. Follow a plan. There is a saying that says when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Meditation will lead you to the teacher. The teacher will lead you to a specific plan. When you have the teacher, follow their advice. It does not have to be difficult, just do it. Include in your plan, specific objectives that are tied to dates. The plan should take you from where you are now and take you to where you want to be. For instance, if your goal is to lose weight then a plan would include how much weight is to be lost, the method you will use to lose the weight (e.g., keto diet, weight watchers, vegan) and realistic dates tied to those objectives (e.g., lose 20 pounds in the first 30 days). You may wish to include other objectives that will help you achieve your goal (e.g., increase exercise) as part of your plan. One you have the plan, follow it. When you deviate from it or get distracted, get back on the plan.

4. Never give up. The only time you give up is when you have arrived at your goal. Then you can focus on something else. In the mean time, there will be challenges, negative people in your life that will attempt to dissuade you and their will be failure. Never give up. You can re-analyze your position, you can learn from your mistakes, you can find a better teacher, you and redesign your plan, but the worse thing to do is to give up. Keep pressing ahead forward. Keep at it until your goal has been reached.

5. Make your efforts a daily commitment. For example, if you are losing weight, weigh yourself every day. Even after you have lost your desired weight, keep weighing yourself daily. When a certain weight is reached (e.g., 10 pounds over), get back on your plan. Keep meditating for a minimum of 20 minutes a day on your goal. Let others (e.g., positive people) know of your goal and progress. Keep them informed of your progress, your failure and discouragements. Let them also know of your victories, the things you have learned and your successes.

6. Associate yourself with the winners. Find people that have already accomplished the goal or goals that you have set for yourself. They will provide you with motivation to continue during the tough times. You may wish to include your higher power in this process.

7. Have an attitude of gratitude and be positive. Change will happen. An attitude of gratitude will make it easier. Positivity will help you deal with the negative factors trying to hold you back. You can even learn to enjoy the journey.

We hope these guidelines are helpful. Yourfamilyclinic.com is dedicated to help you in the changes you want to make. Whether it is increased health through adequate sleep, nutrition, exercise, or water consumption or improve functioning if you are on the Autism Spectrum, experience an Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, depression or anxiety; we are here to offer assistance. Since we all are going to change, let’s change towards the positive!

01/21/2021

The power of exercise....

One of the healthiest life choices you can make is to exercise. It is good for the body because it gets rid of toxins, boosts the lymphatic system, helps the digestive system, assists in weight management, and is usually good for joints, muscles and bones. Exercise is also great for mental health. It helps you feel good. Some people believe that many people would not have depression or anxiety if they would exercise regularly throughout the week.

Too many people live a sedentary life style. Too many people work at the office and sit behind a desk without exercising. Exercise can help turn that poor life style into a good to great healthy lifestyle.

When I was a child and growing up, exercise gyms were not very common. Now they are wide spread with multiple choices. People are taking advantage of them and for good reason. It is healthy to exercise on a regular basis.

But, what if you are new to exercise? What are some helpful guidelines? The following are some guidelines.

To be effective, exercise should be consistent and often. About three or four times a week is usually adequate. Twenty to thirty minutes is usually a good time period. Exercise can take many forms. Running is one of my favorites. Playing basketball is another one of my favorites.

When I started running, I was unable to run very far. I took Zig Zigler’s advice and started off not going far at all. At first I ran to the mailbox and walked back. A few days later I could run to the mail box and then run all the way back. Over time I went further and further. Now my goal is to run two miles two or three times a week. Often I get to run nearly every day. I am in much better shape now than I ever was. Some people run 8 miles when they run. That is fine. Every person is different. Find a way to exercise and work your way up to at least 20 minutes at a time and for at least three times a week. If you miss a day here and there, it will not matter that much. So the tip is to start off with reasonable obtainable goals and work your way up over time. You will change your body and even your brain chemistry over time.

There are myths about exercise so overcome the myths by obtaining facts. For example, some people feel that running is bad on joints. It would be true that if your joints do not have the nutrition necessary to rebuild and you run, your likely to cause problems. However, if you give the body the nutrition that it needs, then running is not likely to cause joint problems, but do the opposite, which is to make them stronger. For the most part, research suggests that running is not harmful to joints: https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/the-truth-about-running-and-joint-stress

https://runnersconnect.net/is-running-bad-for-your-knees/

Another tip is to never overdo your exercise. While it is important to push your body to the next level, it is not recommended that you do so at great pain and suffering. Push your body yes, but in moderation so that you do not do damage to your body. If injury is done, then rest from exercise on that part of the body, give the body the nutrition that it needs to heal itself. Finding a body detox program may also aid in healing from an injury.

With life in generally and when you exercise, it is important to monitor inflammation. Inflammation can be viewed simply as water molecules surrounding a protein that the body does not feel should be there. As stated in a previous blog, inflammation is usually the cause of most chronic illnesses including arthritis. Exercise is often good for inflammation. It is important to insure that the food you are eating is not causing inflammation and as needed you can eat foods that are anti-inflammatory (e.g., berries, fatty fish, turmeric, broccoli, avocado).

There could be many more tips, but the most important one is that you find a way to exercise that you enjoy. Our website has an article on exercise at: https://www.yourfamilyclinic.com/wellness/exercise/iexercise.html

There are thousands of ways to do exercise. Yoga and Ti Chi are also great ways to exercise. It may be a while until you settle on the one exercise that you really are willing to stick with over time. It is also perfectly fine to switch things up a bit and find a new way to exercise. It will be a healthy choice that will lead to more control over your physical and emotional well being. It can be part of your plan that can lead to better health and prosperity.

Information on the importance of exercise to your mental health. Exercise from a Holistic Psychology perspective.