Healthy Work at Home Tips For Homeschooling Families

This is part  four of a multi-part series on nutrition. If you missed the other parts, click back through the archives and read them. There are some really useful tips from a credentialed nutritionist and some lines to keep you laughing, as well.

The question for today is one that has come up in agriculture and organic food publications. Are we getting the same amount of nutrients from our food that we used to get?  I recently heard a story that  a study was done comparing the nutrients in a peach from 1955 (have they been saving it since then?) to a grocery store peach from 2007. The study indicated that you’d have to eat 50, 2007 peaches to equal the nutrient value in 1 1955 peach.

So is that story true? Who knows?  But what is known is that the big business of agriculture has moved far away from the ancient and well-proven system of rotating crops and allowing soil to regenerate. Instead, today’s conventional soil is almost dead and our crops grow in a mixture of petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides. It’s hard to imagine that our peach or our corn grown in that manner has the nutrients of a peach or an ear of corn grown in rich non-depleted soil.

The question that naturally follows this line of thinking is, “so how do we get the nutrients we need?”  As Jen Laemmel mentioned in the previous post, choosing organic food it a first good step. Growing your own vegies as much as possible is another great option. There is a growing movement of local farmers and people supporting them with a goal of trying to eat food that is grown as close to home as possible. An apple picked two days ago is far superior to one grown in Chile and picked four weeks ago, in terms of taste and nutritional value. If you attempt to eat foods that are in season, you are more likely to find locally grown foods. When you buy from local farmers, even those who do not grow organically, you are still eating foods that are better for you than those grown on huge agri-industrial farms.

There is a place for supplements in todays diet, yet most of the pills that we wash down end up exiting our bodies in our urine. When looking at supplements, vitamins, minerals and herbs; look for liquids and those made from whole foods rather than synthetics. Companies like Shaklee have been delivering whole food vitamins for over 30 years. Then there are the new wave of scientifically formulated nutritional beverages. You have to do your research, as many are full of sugar. Yet there are some that are absolutely wonderful. They have true scientific backing and are not just a fancied up version of sweet fruit juice. I mentioned one of my favorites in the second nutrition post.  It’s called Monavie. There is a link to more information in the sidebar.

There is also a brand new product that is based on an ancient Ayurvedic formulation. Ayurveda is a type of medical healing that has been practiced in India for thousands of years. This product is endorsed by the Chopra Center for Well-Being, which is an internationally renowned alternative health facility in Californial. The combination of the amalaki berry and 6 other rejuvenating and detoxifying herbs, make Zrii a very unique product in the health beverage market. If you’d like to learn more, click here to be redirected to an informative alternative wellness website.  Since the benefits complement each other, I have personally begun drinking Zrii regularly in addition to my Monavie, which I’ve drank for almost a year now. This has been my healthiest year by far, in over a decade.

It does not matter if it’s in the kitchen or the office; there appears to be a difference in the way that men and women handle multiple tasks. No offense to all you dads out there reading my blog, but I believe that most women feel that we do it better. (Please dads keep reading…I have good things to say about you as well).

Recent psychological studies have looked at this perceived difference.

A study by Dr. Glenn Wilson (2005) was performed for Hewlett Packard to explore the productivity of multitasking. What he discovered is astonishing. The average worker’s functioning IQ, a temporary qualitative state, drops 10 points when multitasking. That is more than double the four point drop that occurs when someone smokes marijuana.

Interestingly, the functioning IQ drop was more significant in men participating in the multitasking study by Wilson. This brings us to the controversial debate over if there are differences between genders in their abilities to multitask.

Below are some excerpts from a study performed at Missouri Western State University in 2006. The results are summarized in the abstract and the brief discussion below. They make for some interesting thoughts which I will share with you.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MULTITASKING
BRANDY R. CRISS
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Missouri Western State University

So what does this mean? In my life as a mom with a home business and a child that I’m homeschooling, I find that I am more likely to multi-task than my husband. I often play with my daughter, make lunch and answer the phone all at the same time. My husband finds that he has trouble focusing on making dinner unless our daughter is occupying herself. Most moms I know can get the whole family out the door to go skiing and arrive at the destination on time with everyone’s ski gear, warm clothes plus assorted snacks. Most of the dads I know would choose to live in Florida if they had to do that.

Moms tend to multi-task because they have to. Since they don’t often have the opportunity to do just one thing at a time, they have learned how to do many. The downside is that men seem to be more able to screen out other needs and distractions and truly focus on a task. As the research stated, their productivity is just a good as women’s. I think in some ways men might ultimately be more efficient since their focus is more directed. Then again, women might have the capacity for the same level of efficiency (or even greater?!) when they have the opportunity to focus uninterrupted.

When you work home, whether you are male of female, it is important to clear space when you can concentrate on your tasks for the day without distractions. Especially when you need to make business phone calls, or do any kind of writing or analysis, having clarity of thought allows you to be more professional and proficient.

In terms of overall brain functioning, there are a number of herbs and fruits which appear to help. Ginko Bilboa is one. Another is a relatively unknown (in the western world) Chinese fruit called schizandra, which is stated to be a superior “brain tonic”; and mental function enhancer.

Schizandra develops the primary energies of life, and generates vitality and radiant beauty when used regularly for some time. If used for 100 days successively, Schizandra is said to purify the blood, sharpen the mind, improve memory, rejuvenate the Kidney energy (especially the sexual functions in both men and women), and cause the skin to become radiantly beautiful.

Schizandra can be found in the new liquid Ayurvedic formulation called Zrii. You can read more about this Ayurvedic drink and it’s nutritional benefits by clicking here.

Whether you are multi-tasking or singularly focused working at home with the addition of homeschooling takes its toll on the best of brains. Remember to take time for self-care. That means good nutrition, exercise, sleep and fun.