Dear LEC Reader,

Are you sticking with your New Year resolution? About half of all people make resolutions for the New Year, and most of these involve changing something about their health. If you have kept up with the new behavior, you are probably in the clear - it takes 21 days to establish a new habit. So either you have succeeded (congratulations!), or you are back to the way things were ...

Which is not so bad: you have the opportunity to try something even better. Remember this: today is the beginning of the rest of your life!

Martin Pytela

Essential Fatty acids are important to your health. Really important. Most every process in your body requires some. In a living cell you need to have a good mix of omega-3, -6, and -9 fatty acids to keep things running right. They are like the bricks, doors, and mortar of your cellular structures. EFAs put out the internal inflammation caused by metabolic fires. If you want to look younger, feel younger, and loose some weight, eat more essential fatty acids. They are fragile, and cause oils to rancidize - that's why they are removed from most oils you find in a grocery store.

The graph above illustrates that the best choices for the much needed omega-3s are flax and hemp seeds. Hemp is an excellent source of amino acids, too. We bring you hemp seed and protein powder, hemp oil, and raw hemp seeds. We have done direct testing, and can confirm that these products are excellent.

I have been making a smoothie every morning with this protein powder, some fruits, hemp oil, a spoonful of Exsula greens, a teaspoon of Himalayan salt brine, blended in Volixer for 3 minutes. This drink provides enough energy to last a whole day! It is very refreshing and nourishing - I am looking forward to it every morning, and miss it on days when I have to be away from my kitchen...

This one is not as much humor as it is Food for thought. It made me stop and wonder about our priorities.

You have choice!

Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant. Why? Because Jerry was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him: "I don't get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.

I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life."
"But it's not always that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said.
"Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk every situation is a choice.
You choose how you react to situations.
You choose how people will affect your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.
It's your choice how you live your life."

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business. He left the back door of his restaurant open.
And then ???

In the morning, he was robbed by three armed men. While Jerry trying to open the safe box, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.

Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Want to see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied.
"Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared" I asked?
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'He's a dead man.'I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything."
'Yes,' I replied.
The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.
I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!'
Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'.
"Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it. The only thing that is truly yours -- that no one can control or take from you -- is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.