Obscenely Obvious Health Advice:
If you have gained too much weight it means you eat too much of the wrong foods. If you eat Kale, okra, beets, green beans, berries, and snack on carrots, celery, and walk, while avoiding sugar, flour, fried donuts, and food trucks; avoiding all the kinky the processed foods, which need bright packages announcing the “CRUNCH,” which bypasses your sense of taste and never… allows you a moment of true nutritional satisfaction; if you are starving then canned and factory foods taste good to you. When you are accustomed to eating well, nothing but the freshest food will do. Eat fresh organic food and soon you will feel more energy with which to… stay active… and before you know it you will be zipping around town, the planet… looking like you love life and life loves you. Peace.
Facing the Day
4 September 2013
Playa del Rey, Los Angeles, California.
It is true that it ain't easy even when you have it ALL to get through a single day in paradise. Just take a gander in the direction of the latest celebrity disaster and YOU will see photographic proof of marriage(s) in flames, substance abuse, and other FALIURES!
Yes, it is true that I used a strong word. Faliure is a word, WE adults don't like, yet at the end of everyday, you either did a good job or--- guess what---YOU did not. NOW FACE IT!
Until YOU stop trying to play the blame game for your quality of life YOU will live in HELL. IF your world does not work, the only way to change it is to LOOK within yourself at your choices and deal with the facts of your reality as authored by YOU. Yes, YOU.
I know. I know. YOU, haven't chosen to GET CANCER, GET FIRED, DOWNSIZED, or maybe even divorced. It just happened. Right. Wrong.
YOU are at the center of the mess you make, just as whatever works in your life is yours to take credit for, to celebrate, to promote, to ENJOY! I invest a lot of time and energy in celebrating my successes, sharing my joys. Yet, I don’t pretend that my life is perfect, because it is not. I have no desire to be anything other than full of love and healed. Rich, in my book, is the ability to feel love and caring for those that live in love and light and those that do not, too.
Amen,
Frau K.
Delight in Retreat
Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Taking time for yourself is key IF you'd like to unlock the secrets of your wellbeing. For many people rushing from one urgent activity, one news story, speeding to click away from this blog and onto the NEXT one is simply their version of living! Forever chasing an elusive MORE IMPORTANT moment that is always on the edge outside of NOW, NOT in the present tense. EVER!
RUSHING, relentlessly, rarely leads to BLISS. Don't DO IT! Take a BREATHER!
The most ancient of Sages can be imagined saying that, "It isn't the destination but rather how one arrives which really matters." I am convinced that you can't enjoy the ride without taking time to smell the rosemary, the eucalyptus, and the organic lavender. Roses are powerful, too. When was the last time you really looked at their spiraling grace and winding intricacies of their natural splendor, perfect geometry? So… make time for beauty, self care, silence, meditation, reflection, and sheer introspection.
Bathing, for example, can be more than mere hygiene routine. Add ritual and silence… light a candle or two, let the voice of the sublime penetrate your soul as you soak in a tub of warm, hot, ice-cold, salted, oiled, and/or fragrant water. Ah!
And... IF you are lucky you come from a SPA culture. You know about bathing with others or being scrubbed like a fish on a market table by a lady in black underwear and rubber slippers.
This is true BLISS! To be tossed around by the rthymic waves of rushing water and wrapped in seaweed, draped in mud, rolled in sugar, sprayed with honey, doused with cucumber sprizt.
Ah!
The JOYS of the the JADE STEAM ROOM!
Over the years, I've been to many SPAS in Los Angeles, especially, but in other cities too. Once, we even visited a bathhouse in Japan. Another time I frolicked with boys and girls in a delightfully hot and stinky bubbling sulfur pool outside of Florence, Italy. Which was lovely, but so long ago… I barely remember. Yet, we wore swimsuits… I was dreaming it was nude… but, that wouldn’t be the case... of course and others shared water space with you, which is a sacred form of communication from one soul to another.
I'm grateful that there exist places where one can go and bath with others and that bathing, grooming, and living are not pleasures entirely confined to the privacy of the home. Specifically, I'm glad that I live in LA where the Korean Baths rule my world. Especially the Olympic Spa on Norton. They nail idea that it must be predominately S I L E N T in a SPA in order to help activate the mind/body connection and put one in the right state of mind for facing the noise, making more noise, and getting back to healing Q U I E T!
Peace OUT,
Frau Kolb
On Celebrating LOVE with FOOD!
Los Angeles California,
Sunday, 11 August, 2013
Photo of watercolor painting done in Marsberg, Germany, last week by Frau Kolb © 2013, all rights reserved, of course!
I'm glad to say I've never had a problem having FUN! Difficulties in LIFE come and GO, yet I manage to stay afloat in LIFE and LOVE by following the simple maxim, coined by my sweet husband when I got the dreaded advance life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis, a few years ago, (by the way, I'm totally STRONG LIKE BULL now, feeling younger and more dynamic, daily) "When we get BAD news: WE CELEBRATE! When we get GOOD news: WE celebrate."
Thus, our marriage is a happy one. Our home is full of JOY! Proof: our children spontaneously sing, dance, and simply soar above expectations of "NORMAL," children with their glorious super-talent for self expression and honest good spirits. Despite the fact that during their lives they've faced a lot of DEATH. Not only was I very ill and undergoing intensive medical interventions for several years, but recently the children lost their beloved grandmother, Frau Christine Kolb or Marsberg, Germany. The grandparents have one after another faded and died in hospitals and at home. WE miss them, yet… we continue to celebrate being here now and our LOVE for each other.
Now, If someone YOU love is having a birthday it is imperative that YOU go OUT-OF-YOUR-COMFORT-ZONE to demonstrate LOVE! If the person has undergone tremendous stress and loss, it is doubly significant that YOU demonstrate LOVE for the beloved. NOTHING is over the top in my book.
Thus, I changed my Facebook profile image, to a picture of US, together. I wrote him the cheesiest public Birthday message, IF (you wanna read THAT, you must dig around the site, under Zoom in with Frau Kolb). He LOVES that, because it is more proof that I love him, you see. Today, like every other day, Daddy was KING at home. I served him and his friends like ROYALTY. Yes, we are talking FAST and elegant service, made complete by little bows and many courtesies to our guests. THEY loved THAT!
I cooked, of course. Cooking is a major way in which I demonstrate LOVE. Yep, the old maxim of shortest route to another's heart works for ME. I made a FEAST for my Love and his friends. Having just arrived from Munich, Germany. I'm so glad they stopped here for some American hospitality. The first course: was delicious tart lemony Fish Ceviche. YUM! Then we had organic salad with cucumbers vine-ripe tomatoes, red beets, and greens ALL from the Farmer's market. We had BBQ. We drank various wines, as appropriate. Not, too much, mind you… For desert, we had flour-less chocolate cake, which I did not bake but I paid good money for it at Bristol Farms, because they have the best local bakery.
Thank goodness, that ass a younger woman I worked in New York city restaurants, in Soho, I was long ago the world's most negligent waitress, flirting with the affluent and super cool clientele of rust-funded artists and bankers was more my bag, nevertheless, I learned to carry trays of food with aplomb. Before that I cooked for about 3 years in high end Manhattan health-clubs and I had a little catering business on the side. Thus, I will gladly roast a turkey, make boat loads of side dishes, serve lunch for a hundred, set a king-size table, and uncork the right wine(s), wine pairings being a forte for me, clean up, and seem NOT BUSY while doing it, which is KEY.
Now, I'm happy because my loving husband is HAPPY and no thing means more to me.
Now you know. I hope that this inspires YOU to taking LOVING action and demonstrate undying affection for those that float your boat. And… IF you don't have a special someone in your life it might be because YOU don't cook.
Peace from California,
Frau Kolb
Death in The Family
Los Angeles, California
29 July 2013
The fact is we all deal with ONE reality. No matter how you slice it people you love will stop breathing while YOU must continue. Why?
Well… for countless reasons of course. Last but not least… IF everyone lived forever, where would you put all those people? People are bulky things, animals. Whenever anybody dies there is always a body to deal with. Unavoidable. Even in crime-shows: THE BODY is always a key narrative element in a story of death. It must always be examined after death and then prepared for burial…
Burial.
So final. "The last resting place…" Yikes. That phrase really sounds… TERMINAL.
Metaphors abound. Words flow. Tears tickle. Feelings swell.
WE ride the bus of emotions UP and DOWN when LOVE passes through town.
WHEN someone we LOVE reaches the "Final Destination."
The place where we leave our bodies behind.
The End.
Is not the end for everybody else. WE must carry on and continue to fulfill our duties with all the dignity and grace one can muster. WE MUST. There is no choice in that regard; as long as we LIVE we are here to LIVE, LOVE, LEARN and get on with the business of LIFE.
Basta!
El Fin.
End of story… No. The SOUL… that tiny wisp of cosmos… lives on.
How? What? YOU ask. I won't answer. You won't believe me. I don't mind. I just don't expect anybody who doesn't believe to start believing just because I do.
Now, that THAT threshold moment in our lives is NOW… we pray and thank goodness we had the chance to LOVE the living ANGEL while she simply enjoying LIFE in her increasingly delapidated body. Really, she is better off now, I think. Free, of that combersome shell and part of everything that makes the world stick together and keeps oxygen free.
Amen.
Sincerely,
Frau Kolb
(This is a private photograph taken long ago in Germany, please do not steal or alter or use this image in anyway, IF YOU do… beware the Kolb curse.)
No More Diets! Eat Cake. NOW!
Chilled Champagne is an essential ingredient in any diet I undertake. So WHEREVER you are, pour yourself a tall skinny glass of bubbly and let's toast to the prospect of a new you! (Or not, I’ve since recently, reconsidered my position on this critical issue: to drink or not to drink… that was the question. I think I’m over alcohol, but I’ll keep you posted…)
Now, I'm going to tell YOU. I am NOT a nutritionist. I am not a fashion model. I am a woman that LOVES FOOD and eats a lot. I'm not particularly young and Yet, I've lost weight as needed after gaining weight ass needed for pregnancy and post wrestle with life-threatening bout of evil breast cancer (cause: a genetic mutation).
Since November, when my beautiful doctor, a man, older than me… I calculate he must be older than me, he went to medical school and became a luminary in his field… told me, "It is time we talk about your weight." I was twenty five pounds heavier than I am today. I just shrugged my shoulders. I thought: "Hey, I'm older now, I had cancer, I'm busy, I have kids, blah, blah, blah." In other words, I thought: I have to be FAT. Everybody is FAT after a "certain age..." Yet, sitting before me was a really good looking super-skinny and well coifed presumably older-than-me MAN. I was a little beaten down, having surrendered to the idea well, frankly that to be NOT beautiful, to become attractive, or lacking in sex appeal in my immediate and future future was an unavoidable destiny FACT. (OUCH!) I had surrendered to the idea of being older and overweight ass unavoidable TRUTH. Because I believed I was old and… well… I had no choice butt accept my big bottom as a reality knot to be untied.
Anyway, I made a lame attempt at defending myself, I told him, "I go to the gym," and I said, "I eat healthy." My doctor LAUGHED at me. He did.
"EVERYBODY always says that they work out or don't eat so much but the fact is that gaining weight is a simple mathematical equation: too many calories and not enough movement to burn off the calorie count." He said.
NOW, he had my attention. "Are you calling ME a cliche?" I asked, outraged for an instant, wanting to get offended so I wouldn't have to listen. "YES!" he laughed. Skinny, tall, and blond, my beautiful doctor said, I was indeed a, "Cliche." This made me angry, because ONE thing I pride myself on is on be myself, unique. So… I said, "Do tell."
Well, my doctor gave me two guide lines:
1. Cut every meal you get (in a restaurant ESPECIALLY) in half and eat only half, every time.
(Note: In my case, I eat the protein and avoid the starch.) This shrinks your stomach, which is essential.)
2. Excursive at least one hour everyday. YOU must do enough to sweat, then rinse it off. This Rinse off, may seem obvious, but it is essential to your health that you remove the toxins from your skin that your body excretes through exercise, daily.
Starting in November, I applied those two guidelines. I started by walking, then running or… sometimes… dancing. Biking is also really important to me. Now, I'm SKINNY ME: weighing less than I did a decade ago. BRAVO!
I also changed the following:
I no longer drive everyday. At least one day per week, I walk or bike EVERYWHERE. (This is ALSO good for the environment.) This works especially well when going grocery shopping… carrying food home on a bikes, keeps it real what YOU buy. Best of all NO frozen food. I've never been a big fan of canned or frozen prepared, highly processed, foods. I've always preferred ORGANIC fare and I know that this fact alone makes me healthier and more resilient than most. NOW, I'm a little stricter about what I eat… but I eat real food: organic animal proteins, salads, fruits, veggies, dairy, and FOR ME: NO GLUTEN. NONE.
Fast Food, has always been completely out-of-the question for me. Butt, IF you are a driver-through bandit, you like your McD's on the GO, or TACO Terror, or worse you eat any food that involves a person taking your order via a microphone and throwing a bunch of chemical sculptures of food into a box for you then you better STOP IT! Because, just like smoking, some habits have no upswing and can only slow you down and make you ugly.
I cook. More and more, my families meals are delicious and less expensive than eating at the Ritz, for kicks. Anyway… IF you would like to discuss, this topic further… ask me a question either here, on the comments or on the Frau Kolb/Talkinggrid Facebook FAN PAGE! Yeah… In the mean time: GET OUT there and MOVE. EAT LESS. EAT FRESH! Enjoy LIFE! Embrace FUN, laughter, good times are your pals when facing any challenge. Don't forget simple corny and gut wrenching JOY ass a remedy! Cheers and BOTTOMS UP!
Love,
Frau
Frau Kolb Applauds Angelina Jolie's Choice to Have Preventive Surgery at Pink Lotus Breast Center in Beverly Hills
Watercolor on paper © by Frau Kolb, 2011
How dare I compare myself with Angelina Jolie? She is a Hollywood goddess, right? Who the hell do I think I am to mention that Breast C A N C E R connects more women than one can imagine? We sisters that have faced the HORROR the Horror of fear and decided to take action in preservation and honor of our health can move forward in life to embrace all the joys of being here NOW!
Angelina Jolie is one such woman, stepping up to the world and announcing that one has choices, options, and that making decisions is NOT easy but that one can create a worthy life through making active health choices rather than avoiding preventative measures. The concept that one can avoid facing the death threat of cancer by having the surgery before the cancer is NEWS to me! I wish I had known that I had this option. After nursing my two children I'd have certainly considered taking the same bold step as Jolie. Since I have the same genetic mutation of the Brca1 and Brca2, which made my cancer POP out of no-where and grow---super aggressive and fast---to stage three, which has a 50/50 prognosis, I'd have done nearly anything to avoid the harsh and frightening realities of chemotherapy and radiation. The point really is in being aware that one has options, choices to make, tests to take. I wish I'd known about the gene. I did not. Yet…
Breast cancer and its horrific treatment with chemotherapy was… well only bearable because of some basic life choices I had in place, which made it so that during treatment I had the strength to write a list of 100 things I loved about MY CANCER. The un-published book, "Cancer with Style," is the journal of embracing LIFE, LOVE, ART and Adventure as a strategy for life in which I chronicled the ups and downs of embracing life as a means of addressing the breast cancer crisis.
The first solid choice: a great husband. It looks like Angelina and I share this decisive factor at the center of our lives. ONE needs friends, family, and warm fuzzy feelings about living in order to hang on. The next key: great doctors, shop around. Jolie and Frau Kolb both opted for the Pink Lotus Breast Center of Beverly Hills. Kristi Funk is a great doctor and really treated me with the respect and caring one expects in the doctor of one's choice.
Artist, Terri Amig, posted a mention, a reminder, to me that NOT all women are so fortunate. This is true. However, health concerns are testing grounds for rich and poor, alike. Yet, without health insurance… I think one's options would be limited. Yet, I'm aware of at least one single (yes she's gorgeous) woman that made smart choices regarding her health and had a lot of fun despite dealing with breast cancer without health insurance. She rallied her friends, family, and committed herself to a medical treatment, which worked for her. I commend her and all other women to be proactive about their health, their lives. Get check-ups. Get tested for the gene. Make decisions. These steps might be impossible to implement with the same level of panache and glamour associated with Jolie. Yet, IF you are determined to take care of yourself, you can and will make sound choices. By asking questions, visiting public libraries, and doing internet research you are very likely to be able to amass a fortunate of viable options available to all that seek out their own well being.
We all have options. But the willingness to step forward, be brave, and take charge is the height of mastery and I must say I admire Jolie. I always have and as the years pass she only more wins my admiration for her bold decisive nature and continual commitment to being an example of forward thinking open minded savvy which is now legendary. Yet, it is vital to remember that we are all the STARS of our own lives and must find the strength to LIVE, to accept responsibility of our quality of life and to embrace being able to make, even difficult, choices.
So ENJOY your power to make choices, get informed, and be as bold and powerful as any celebrity in your own estimation and proclamation!
Much Love,
Frau Kolb