Sharon and I just got back from another seminar in la belle province - Quebec. This time we travelled by VIA Rail.
Union Station before we boarded the train to Dorval
We left Friday morning after dropping our two black labs, Samson and Delilah, off at their Daycare/Boarding Doggie Hotel. I want to call it a Boarding Kennel but it is nothing like a boarding kennel. Petopia, as it is called, is an amazing place and kind of like a Doggie spa. Samson and Delilah got to play with all sorts of other dogs, matched for size and temperament, all day long. At night they got to sleep in bedrooms that are about 10'x12' with a big picture window looking out over a tree filled ravine. The rooms have two human beds that the dogs can jump up on for sleeping and each room has a flat screen TV on the wall that plays doggie flicks all night long to keep them company. I'm telling you, if I was a dog, that's the place I'd like to go if my owners went away on a trip.
Pretty little town enroute to la belle province
I haven't traveled by train since I was a young boy but I have to say that we were both very impressed with the excursion. We caught the TTC at Coxwell Subway Station and traveled down to Union Station. We boarded our train without a hitch and left for Montreal on time. The train was surprisingly fast and very comfortable. I studied and reviewed most of the way there, occasionally catching a glimpse of cars and trucks on the 401 that were moving slower than we were - which was a surprise to me; because somehow I assumed that the train would move more slowly.
One of us studying, one of us playing with her phone camera enroute
This seminar was part 2 of a 4 part series and was held in the same Dorval Airport Marriot Hotel as part 1. At Dorval Train Station we took a very prompt 5 minute shuttle bus to the hotel and viola - we were there for the weekend. It was an exceedingly pleasant and relaxing trip and we will definitely use VIA Rail again for the next seminar.
Dinner at the Aeroport De Montreal Marriott Hotel was delicious and very healthy too!
The focus for this group of seminars is on the research and issues related to a Preventative Wellness Lifestyle. In other words, these seminars give doctors a review of the latest information and materials required to help their patients move towards health and prevent illness.
Sunrise in Dorval from our hotel room
The research coming out of the Universities these days again and again and again points a finger at BAD lifestyle choices (bad foods, bad exercise patterns and emotional stress) as being the number 1 cause of illness and disease - NOT the medical model of bad luck, bad germs or bad genes. The evidence is overwhelming - if you want to be healthy you have to do a lot more than take a pill.
The hotel had a beautiful lobby in front of the lecture halls
As the weekend advanced and more research was reviewed you could tell that some of the doctors were beginning to feel weighed down - information overload! The speaker put up a picture of a sugar donut and a picture of an apple and proceeded to discuss the critical importance of people beginning to reduce their intakes of grain products and sugars in order to begin moving towards health. At that point, one of the doctors put up her hand and said "There is no way that my patients will make the changes necessary to start moving towards health. They will say 'It's too hard to do that in the real world'."
Into information overload at this point of the presentatiion
The speaker responded and said "You have to be completely honest with them and tell them the truth - that giving up a sugar donut and replacing it with an apple isn't hard. Reducing your grains and junk foods and eating a salad instead isn't hard. What's hard is being a senior citizen and trying to push your wheel chair through a door that isn't set up to accommodate wheel chairs because you've had a stroke from a lifetime of overstressing your body. That's hard! What's hard is not being able to see your grandkids because you've been blinded by diabetes from a lifetime of eating too much sugar. That's hard! What's hard is lying on the operating table having your damaged intestines removed because you tried to live on anti-inflammatory and pain relieving drugs in order to try and mask the symptoms of degenerative joint disease and arthritis because you never took the time to exercise properly. That's hard! Giving up that donut and eating an apple instead - that's not hard!"
Big Engines pulling into Dorval Station for our trip home
Next time you're in for an adjustment ask us what you can do to start moving yourself towards health - it really isn't hard.