Naturally Simple Ways to Weigh LESS...
Naturally Simple Ways to Weigh Less
and Live More Every Day of your life!
This is all about re-balancing your body, mind, and spirit to create a vibrantly healthy you... inside and out. So much more than the number on the "scales!"
- Feed your soul with primary food. Friends and family, physical activity, spirituality and a satisfying career feed us. Lack of primary food creates over-reliance on secondary, edible food.
- Drink water. Most people are chronically dehydrated. We often mistake thirst for hunger. If you feel hungry between meals, drink a glass of water before giving into cravings. Limit liquid calories from soda, juice, sports drinks and “enhanced” waters. Stick with nature made!
- Eat a plant-rich diet. Plant foods are typically lower in calories and higher in fiber than meat, dairy and processed foods, while providing loads of essential nutrients. Purchase your animal products from farmers who raise the food in a natural manner; healthy and naturally balanced foods make for a healthy, naturally balanced human. Make certain you do get enough fat and protein in your daily diet to satisfy hunger, appetite, and nutritional needs for YOU. Each of our needs is different!
- Chew your food well. Digestion begins in the mouth. By thoroughly chewing your food, your body will better assimilate nutrients; you will also slow down your eating. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that it is full. By slowing your eating, you’ll feel full, satisfied, and better nourished on less food. More nutrients in each cell mean a healthier body!
- Eat real food; avoid processed, packaged foods. Avoid products with high-fructose corn syrup or a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. (Reduce or eliminate refined sugars from your diet; glucose, fructose, any “oses”.) Packaged and convenience foods tend to be highly processed, lacking the nutrients your body needs, and are often loaded with empty calories. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Avoid refined sweeteners, even stevia products.
If you have attended my workshops or been supported by me as a client: Remember the cellular health information from the Whole Food slide show? Feed your cells well! Need to experience this workshop? Join me and the Local Living Venture on Thursday, September 25th for the start of the Whole Health and Healing Academy!
A few more tips for balancing mind, body, and soul weight.
- Eat raw foods: raw fruits & veggies, raw nuts and seeds, raw nut & seed butters. Raw foods are rich in nutrients that are not altered by the heat of cooking and provide natural enzymes needed in the body for many processes including digestion.
- Eating enough healthy fats and protein to satisfy your appetite and your body’s nutritional needs: choose naturally raised animal products for protein and fat and the omega 3's found in naturally raised meat, eggs and dairy products, wild salmon, avocados, walnuts, raw nuts and seeds.
- Eat breakfast. Skipping meals causes your blood sugar levels to peak and dip, affecting your energy and moods. It can also cause overeating later on because you’re so hungry. With this said, listen to your own body and what you know works for you. Some people do much better without breakfast and have no problems with the rebound overeating later in the day. Be conscious of you and your needs. I can personally admit I am not a breakfast eater. I get hungry by 11 AM or so. I listen and follow my body's requests for food.
- Eat mindfully. Turn off the TV. Get away from the computer. Sit down and savor the food you are eating with no distractions. Eat from a space of unconditional self-love!
- Get moving. Do any type of physical activity every day. Find movement or exercise you enjoy.
- Get outside. Your body needs fresh air and natural light. You will create life long health benefits!
- Sleep, rest and relax. Breath work creates relaxation, slow down & breathe deeply. Ask me for my educational handout on breath work. When you are sleep-deprived or stressed, your body will crave energy, causing cravings for sugary snacks and caffeine as an energy boost.
- Schedule fun time. Boredom and stress can lead to overeating. Make sure to take time to laugh, play and participate in activities that bring you joy.
- Find a mindfulness practice and use it every day. (Yoga, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Meditation, Prayer...)
PS Just a reminder about the Whole Health & Healing Academy that starts Thursday, September 25th. Join us to create vibrant health in your life!
Arthritis: Cooling the Inflammation Naturally
Dietary Changes:
1. Ok, here I go.... whole foods.
If you replace everything you put in your mouth that is not 100% whole food with real food, whole food, your body will heal. It is really that simple.
I could give much more information but making changes, one simple thing at a time, is easiest for most people. Changing the diet from processed, packaged, food "products" to 100% whole food is a huge change for most people. Seriously think about what you eat for each meal and snacks, if you snack: How many food items are manufactured in a factory? How many were created by nature and nature alone (no human meddling)?
Support to move into a whole food eating & healing lifestyle.
Dietary Changes:
1. Ok, here I go.... whole foods.
If you replace everything you put in your mouth that is not 100% whole food with real food, whole food, your body will heal. It is really that simple.
I could give much more information but making changes, one simple thing at a time, is easiest for most people. Changing the diet from processed, packaged, food "products" to 100% whole food is a huge change for most people. Seriously think about what you eat for each meal and snacks, if you snack: How many food items are manufactured in a factory? How many were created by nature and nature alone (no human meddling)?
2. While switching to whole foods, remove wheat and gluten from the diet.
By removing all these packaged foods from your life, you will be removing many laboratory made ingredients that are derived from wheat. Many food additives are made from wheat and therefore contain gluten. You will not read "wheat" on the label but the ingredients with weird, chemical sounding names, more than likely are wheat derived and contain gluten. Eat un-packaged food!
I know many people have complete relief of symptoms by getting gluten out of their diets. This is not as hard as people "groan and moan" it is going to be. People need to educate themselves around gluten and with this new found knowledge, avoiding gluten is not so difficult. Where it gets difficult is we have become a culture dependent on food products and eating away from home (which most food in restaurants is cheap, crap food; use the cheapest ingredients to make the most profit possible). Food products and food prepared out of home is often times full of wheat derivatives. For help: Gluten-Free Cooking & Living Class
3. Another key step in whole food, gluten-free eating is to avoid gluten-free products.
Most are full of filler crap ingredients that are debilitating to health. You will be, in essence, trading one debilitating food for another. Read labels on all foods, gluten-free included, for 100% whole food ingredients. All gluten free foods need to be 100% whole food: no white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, etc. These are refined ingredients and hard on your body's health.
OK, so why remove gluten? Because it is very inflammatory in most people's bodies. Modern day wheat is extremely high in gluten compared to heritage wheat of days gone by, the wheat that existed before human manipulation. The high concentrations of gluten in modern wheat disturb metabolism and cellular health, some people notice it more than others. How gluten affects each person is different. What is known is that gluten is a huge culprit in arthritis and many people are relieved of arthritis symptoms simply by getting rid of gluten. Eat completely gluten-free for 2 weeks, see how you feel. If any doubts about it helping or not, try this: after 2 weeks of gluten-free eating, eat plenty of wheat at every meal for a whole day. Pile on the whole wheat bread, pasta, crackers, and cereal. Now pay attention to how your body feels!
Bread was traditionally made from sprouted whole grains and then fermented for 3 full days with sour dough cultures. The amount of gluten left after sprouting and culturing was very minimal. Today's bread is mass produced in a matter of a couple of hours. There was good reasons for traditional food preparation.
Gluten is naturally found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats*. Any variety of wheat will contain gluten: spelt, kamut, einkorn... anything that says heritage wheat variety. Yes, they have less gluten but at this point, with an auto immune disease, any amount of gluten will just exacerbate the internal inflammation.
Think lung disease: how many daily cigarettes would you recommend to someone with lung disease?
Think liver disease: how many shots of liquor would you recommend to someone trying to heal liver disease?
Think diabetes: how much sugar would you recommend to someone trying to heal the beta cells in their pancreas and ultimately heal their type II diabetes?
Would you tell these people to do the 80/20 plan with their cigarette, alcohol, or sugar consumption?
Eliminating the "culprits," (the cause or causes of the health symptoms) and introducing nourishing healers (food, lifestyle, herbs, etc.) is what will heal your beautiful body, right down to each and every beautiful cell!
*Avoid oats unless certified gluten-free and organic. Oats do not naturally contain gluten. If whole oats, oat flakes, Irish oats, or oat flour are CERTIFIED gluten-free, then they are fine. Gluten-free certification is essential with oats. Otherwise, you are consuming oats that have been contaminated with gluten in the grain harvesting and handling process. Oats are processed on the same equipment that wheat is processed on. This industry practice contaminates oats with gluten from the wheat.
All grains should be organic to avoid pesticides and agricultural chemicals that will, most likely, exacerbate your symptoms. Glyphosate (broad spectrum herbicide brought to you by Monsanto) is hard on the gut lining's health, disrupts gut microbial populations, and creates inflammation in the body.
4. Get rid of sugar:
A whole food diet will take care of that problem immediately. Perhaps some educational handouts around the ill effects of sugar would help out here? Email me and ask for my sugar handouts: pyoumell@gmail.com
5. Dairy:
Often people have much relief from arthritis symptoms when they completely avoid dairy. Some people do well to re-introduce dairy after weeks of eliminating it IF the dairy is raw and from grass fed animals. This means no pasteurization or homogenization. Others do well to re-introduce only raw, grass fed goat milk and goat milk products (cheese, yogurt).
6. Alkalize the body:
The human body likes to function in a slightly alkaline state. When the body struggles to balance from acidic eating and lifestyle habits our health suffers: mineral loss causing tooth decay and bone de-mineralization and deterioration of body organs, body cells.
Below is a chart on acid and alkaline foods. Eating in a balanced way, to keep the body alkaline, helps to heal, including arthritis. Example: Eat veggies with meat to balance the acid-alkaline effects. This is only a quick explanation of acid-alkaline balancing. I encourage you to explore and learn more.
A youtube video with a good, basic explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk1ru_CJt2k (Forgive the couple of misspelled words, the content is what counts here.)
7. Movement Magic:
Movement is essential. Move it or lose it. Try something called dynamic movement which helps to heal the adhesions that settle in from moving body parts in one direction only. Can I recommend Yoga?
Lisa Huck: I cannot recommend this woman enough: her exercises will restore youthful movement in just minutes a day by lubricating (listen to her awesome words in the video). I stumbled upon her (thanks to Dr. Mercola) and her dynamic movements have ended my sciatica and low back issues (which were not low back issues at all, but movement issues!). She is the Goddess of Movement, my Goddess of movement!
http://thrivefnlblog.com/2012/04/16/dynamic-core-routine/
8. Herbal Healing:
Herbs are fabulous whole foods for healing the body. I would add these in AFTER you have had gluten out of your diet for at least 2 weeks. This way, you can see the effects getting gluten out has on getting healing into your body! You do want to know what is having the healing effects!
My favorite herb: Stinging nettles, I love this green healer. Her work is truly magic in the human body. Nettles adds nutrients to every body cell. This is what you want for your body!
Nettles: planted right next to my porch so I always know I have a supply!
9. More herbs to add for nourishing the body cells, easing symptoms of inflammation, and healing:
ginger, turmeric, cinnamon*, cayenne, and Devil's claw. (*Please use real Ceylon cinnamon, not the grocery store variety of cinnamon.)
Turmeric Ginger Anti-inflammatory syrup recipe
Turmeric butter, anti-inflammatory butter recipe
10. Burdock root and dandelion root:
Nourishing the liver and adding essential fatty acids to the diet heals the body. Both of these roots can be eaten in soups, stir fries, stews, and grated (raw) into a slaw salad or grated to put on top of a green salad. Making an infusion and drinking 3 to 4 cups daily is healing as well. An infusion is a medicinal strength herbal tea. Need help on how to brew an infusion?
11. Nature's Path:
Find that place outside and get fresh air and sunshine (even on cloudy days) every day. Visualize a potted plant, shoved in the bottom of a closet, no fresh air or sunshine. What do you think will be the outcome for that plant? Put this common sense in action in your life. All living beings need fresh air and sunshine, period, bottom line! Embrace it, love it, find time every single day. I promise, you will not regret it.
Putting your body in direct contact with the Earth is called Grounding. Think bare feet walking on a sunny day, cloudy day, even a rainy day. Try removing as much clothes as possible and lie right down on the ground getting as much Earth contact as possible.
Below zero and snow you say? There are Grounding mats you can buy. I will not profess any knowledge or experience around these things as I have never used them. I have clients who swear by them for relief of body aches and pains.
12. Acupuncture:
I would be horribly remiss if I did not tell you about the healing powers of acupuncture to reduce inflammation and move healing energy in the body. I recommend Shelby Connelly, Licensed Acupuncturist in Colton, NY: http://fiveelementsliving.com/
Not in the Northern NY State area? Find an acupuncturist from Tai Sophia, Maryland University of Integrative Health.
13. Yoga:
Does amazing things for healing! Find a yoga instructor knowledgeable in arthritis health and healing. Here in the Northern part of NY State, St. Lawrence County... I recommend Rebecca Rivers, Ellie Beeler, and Sarah Harris. Try the Yoga Loft & Trillium!
14. Reiki Energy Healing:
Find a Reiki practitioner to help bring calming relief to your body, mind, and spirit. I often recommend people take Reiki 1 training to learn to do Reiki healing on themselves.
Bottom Line:
1. Whole foods
2. Gluten-free eating, maybe grain free
3. Sugar free eating & drinking
6. Herbs
7. Acupuncture and energy healing
8. Yoga
9. Reiki
May this post inspire you to move forward in your life, to take self-responsibility for healing your own body. You know your body best and what it needs to heal.
Be well, relax, learn to heal your beautiful body through nature! If I can help you with your healing plan, you know where to find me. Contact Paula
PS Need some words of love & encouragement from happy clients & students?
Free Natural Health-Lifestyle Medicine Information to further encourage your Self Healing Skills:
- Principles of Whole Food Eating (Whole foods are the foundation for your healing plan.)
- Movement Magic
- Whole Health Lifestyle Choices
- Making Herbal Infusions
- Bone Health
- Making any recipe a Whole Food Recipe
- Microwave ILLS
- Gut Health
- Keeping blood sugar healthy
- Cook like a kitchen artist!
- Clean 15, Dirty Dozen list from Environmental Working Group
- Recipes
Why I Love Yoga and Other Thoughts on Whole Food, Whole Health Healing
Why I Love Yoga…and other thoughts on local, whole foods!
And you are now thinking, what does yoga have to do with the food? My answer is quite simple. When we create mindfulness through a regular yoga practice (or any other form of body awareness exercises: Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Tae Kwon Do), we consciously make healthier choices in all areas of our lives. This means healthier food choices.
Back to yoga. Why I love yoga… because it works! It works on many levels, see my above comment around food choices. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj and means to yoke or bind. Yoga is often interpreted as a method of discipline that brings union (yoking or binding) to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga is the study of the Self. Yoga gives us tools to improve our lives by stripping away the illusions that block us from connecting with our true self, with others, and with life itself.
Yoga is a whole food that nourishes body, mind, and soul. Food is sacred to the body; it nourishes and sustains us. Love is sacred to the mind and heart; nourishing the very part of us, our spirits, that gives to others and back to ourselves. Yoga is the breath of the soul; keeping our life force strong and our 3 parts (body, mind, soul) in harmony and union.
Getting down to the brass tack: I am an exercise enthusiast. Those who know me, know this well. As long as I am not sitting still, I am happy. The list of activities I have engaged in goes on and on and blurs together over the years and decades of my life. I love and have loved them all.
Frost, my Siamese Mutt Cat, doing her version of Downward Facing Cat Pose. She IS a natural at Yoga!Why I Love Yoga…and other thoughts on local, whole foods!
And you are now thinking, what does yoga have to do with the food? My answer is quite simple. When we create mindfulness through a regular yoga practice (or any other form of body awareness exercises: Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Tae Kwon Do), we consciously make healthier choices in all areas of our lives. This means healthier food choices.
Back to yoga. Why I love yoga… because it works! It works on many levels, see my above comment around food choices. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj and means to yoke or bind. Yoga is often interpreted as a method of discipline that brings union (yoking or binding) to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga is the study of the Self. Yoga gives us tools to improve our lives by stripping away the illusions that block us from connecting with our true self, with others, and with life itself.
Yoga is a whole food that nourishes body, mind, and soul. Food is sacred to the body; it nourishes and sustains us. Love is sacred to the mind and heart; nourishing the very part of us, our spirits, that gives to others and back to ourselves. Yoga is the breath of the soul; keeping our life force strong and our 3 parts (body, mind, soul) in harmony and union.
Getting down to the brass tack: I am an exercise enthusiast. Those who know me, know this well. As long as I am not sitting still, I am happy. The list of activities I have engaged in goes on and on and blurs together over the years and decades of my life. I love and have loved them all.
For many years I was into serious weight training and I felt that I was very strong. When I started to do yoga, I was humbled. I could not push up into a back bend. My arms would just not do it. After a few weeks I had the back bend thing down. Years later, I now do reverse push ups. Push ups from the back bend pose! The strength I have gained is through my whole body (mind and soul!).
Over the years I realized my yoga strength ran deeper than that. My choices around food and other lifestyle habits became more conscious in a health promoting way. I paid attention to eating with awareness, chewing food well, eating only what I needed, and stopping before I was stuffed. These habits around food and food choices slipped in the back door; all part of the study of self (ha ha, yoga!). All those years of doing yoga transformed the way I interacted with myself and the world around me and I did not even perceive it happening.
Positive things I noticed around food: not needing to fill my plate to the brim or returning to the potluck table for another round of food, being satisfied with enough, passing on the desserts as sweet foods no longer dominated my taste buds, feeling abundance and satisfaction with light meals, and reveling in the flavors / colors / textures / and gift that each meal brings.
When we stop the constant chatter inside our heads and still our minds through mindfulness activities (yoga and other body awareness exercises), we tend to make choices that are in alignment with what is best for our health without feeling deprived. This is because we have learned to live in the present moment and are aligned in body, mind, and spirit. That is the awareness that Yoga brings to our being.
A cluttered "chattery" mind and a body that is not aligned in mind, body, and spirit tends to make decisions based upon impulse and cravings without regard to what is best for long term health.
When we quiet our minds, we use our emotions to our advantage. When our minds are busy, our emotions use us.
Change is defined as the process of becoming different, substituting one thing for another, biological metamorphosis, personal development especially if seen as personally "life-changing". Consciousness is awareness of one's own existence and behaviors, inwardly attentive and mindful. Conscious change involves will and deliberateness, altering self in an intentionally conceived manner.
When we discover that something we are doing in our lives no longer serves our higher purpose as a human, conscious change is how we evolve. When we discover that the lifestyle and food choices we have made, consciously or not, are not reflections of our higher selves, we move to make change. We realize our bodies are not vibrating at our highest level of health and we seek out ways to change this: to heal current symptoms and weight issues and prevent lifelong degenerative diseases from interfering with our vibrant quality of life.
Remember that life is always for us! Life force energy is always moving towards the positive, health and healing. It is humans who tend to go against the grain of nature and turn this flow of energy against ourselves. If you allow yourself to be in this flow, positive things will just happen.
Yoga, or any body awareness type exercise, aligns our bodies, our minds and our spirits so we make life giving choices. Yoga helps us to become normalized in our eating, to reach a pattern of habits that are normal and healthy for us. Yoga (or any body awareness exercise) help us to walk into the Potsdam Food Coop, Nature's Storehouse, our local farm stands or supermarkets, and we can make choices that feed and nourish every cell of our being. We walk out with life giving, whole foods to nourish ourselves and our families.
Update 3/2/2020: over the 8 years since I originally wrote this article, I have learned much info about how science has proven “how” Yoga works. Here is one article that is simple and to the point on Vagus Nerve Toning and Health. The words, in the image below, exemplify how toning the Vagus Nerve improves our wellbeing.
Simply put into words by Donna Farhi, world renowned Yoga Teacher: (image compliments of Trillium Center for Yoga & Health, Potsdam, NY)
A book to inspire you to create conscious living in your life.
This means you no longer make choices based upon emotional triggers. You instead make choices based upon inner wisdom and peacefulness.
Namaste
PS
Update 7/31/2019 I created and teach my Sacred Circle Yoga Mentorship because I see what a daily Yoga practice does for one’s health. This Whole Food / Functional Medicine Health Coaching Mentorship encourages you to add Yoga (any kind of poses and deep breathing habits) to your daily Lifestyle Medicine to retrain your body-mind-spirit to a place of peaceful calm. When we walk the Earth in peace & calm… we are capable of making the best decisions for our purpose on this planet. See the Donna Farhi image above.
Update 4/23/2018 Happy Earth Day! This post has been used and published in several newsletters and journals in the 5 years since I wrote it. My wish is that the gift of Yoga, mindfulness, reaches out to help many heal emotional issues around food, food choices, and eating habits. I have since created The School of Self Healing home study courses on weight loss, sugar addiction, and whole food eating that embody the mindful / yoga habits to support your feeling whole and happy in the healing choices you make. Much Love to All.
More Why I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Yoga Blog Posts, Yup, click on the "blue" back there. Enjoy reading as much as I enjoy sharing my Love of Yoga.
Update on 4/29/16 Great quotes from the book "The Little Red Book Of YOGA WISDOM" Thank you Shelby of Five Elements Living Retreat Center for always keeping my heart and soul open to inspiration.
Yoga is the martial art of the soul and the opponent is the strongest you have ever faced: Your Ego. - Unknown
Spiritual practices help us move from identifying with the ego to identifying with the soul. -Ram Dass
Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked (connected). -Desikashar
Preventing Hair Loss, Restoring Hair Growth
Amazing herbs for health, hair, skin.... Stinging Nettles, Yarrow, and Rosemary (in the order they appear above).
Recently, it seems, that many people have been asking me in my workshops:
"What can I do about hair loss, thinning hair as I age?" This is a topic that hits home with me as I have always had very fine and thin hair. More thinning with age? What will I have left?
So I decided to do an experiment with me as the guinea pig. This is all natural, no abuse to the guinea pig's (ME!) skin or eyes as happens in commercial body care product testing.
Keep in mind this is about hair growth. It takes time and a long term commitment (uh-oh!)
1. I have added the following herbal essential oils to my shampoo: Rosemary, oregano, peppermint, and yarrow. I add about 8 drops per ounce of shampoo and I recommend using an all natural shampoo. Chemicals in our hair care products clog the pores of the scalp and contribute to unhealthy hair, scalp, and hair loss. Aubrey Organics products are a nice choice, available at Nature's Storehouse in Canton. Read ingredients for "whole" ingredients, just as you would on a food product label and you can find other natural brands as well. Read the ingredients, not just the "all natural" hype label on the front of the product.
2. I make a tea and pour it over my scalp, making certain to soak my hair, well, through to the scalp, all over my head. It is made with the whole herbs yarrow, nettles, and rosemary. See pictures above. For information on making herbal teas, email me.
I make a quart every 4 days and use 1 cup per day after shampooing. Shampoo less often, the tea lasts longer. Keep it refrigerated and always label your quart jar. It is fine to drink, so no panic if someone should indulge in a 'lil of your herbal, scalp tea.
3. I then massage my scalp in two different ways. One is the general "rub my fingers and knead the scalp" method. The other is placing my fingers in a stationary place on the scalp and shifting the whole scalp back and forth and side to side underneath my fingers. This helps tremendously with scalp circulation and relaxing the scalp muscles around the actual hair shaft. Do this massaging when washing your hair, when applying the above scalp tea, and when spraying on the below concoction of herbs.
4. A scalp spray made up of about 1/3 cup of the above scalp tea which I then add the rosemary, peppermint, and oregano essential oils to it. I am thinking about adding drops of the tinctures of yarrow, nettles, and horsetail as well. This is made to spray onto the scalp, before bedtime, and massage the scalp as per above.
5. Oh, and I am taking a saw palmetto and horsetail herbal tincture (easy to make with the herbs, good vodka, and a month's time to let the herbs "steep" into the vodka. Horsetail is good for hair and skin health and saw palmetto is an herb for hair loss prevention / restoration.
Did I not say I was being a guinea pig?!
Today, as I write, it is November 9th. I have been playing this hair restoration game for about 1 month now. I imagine it will take at least 6 months before I can see any major changes (yes, my hair grows slowly!).
See what I mean about this being a long-term commitment... let's just see if I can stick to this hair restoration challenge and then report back my fabulous results. Then, I will patent my formulas and become the rich, modern day Lady Godiva (Yes, I will also need to make some more of that face cream and take care of aging on the face as well) riding the streets of Potsdam!
Horse or Harley? Horse called Harley?
If all else fails, I still have this gorgeous Doo-Rag (from my Harley riding days), graciously modeled by my Thanksgiving pie pumpkin! I will plop it onto my head and tie into place, forget about making any more scalp tea, and then, I will buy another Harley. Or maybe a horse and I will name her Harley!
Update March 2019: It is 5 1/2 years later, where the hell does the time go?
Time & commitment to the process is absolutely required. I cannot say I have been consistent with above stuff.
What I do now, 5 1/2 years later:
whole foods 100% (well, 98.435%) of the time.
take Synergy multi-vites for women (I only take 2 daily, not the 4)
take Synergy’s whole food vitamin c, magnesium daily, extra vitamin D 2-3 X weekly, and use wild yam herb capsules for general feminine health
rub this oily herb infused goop on my scalp 2-3 times weekly on the nights I am going to wash my hair the next day. Less is more and this bottle lasts for months.
herbal medicinal infusion “teas” for bone, skin, hair. Sometimes this is simple a stinging nettle only infusion. I make 2-4 quarts at a time so I have enough for a couple days to a week.
whole health living AND yoga every day. Well, seriously, yoga (links to many blog posts I have written about Yoga’s amazing benefits for health, weight loss, healing, inner peace…) in every moment but that’s because Yoga is not about the poses.
Local Food Abounds, Health Benefits Innumerable
What's in the bowls, you ask?
Fresh, raw grape-apple sauce made from local concord grapes (across the road from me) and local apples (Thank you, Anna Campbell!).
I have been making this fresh, every morning, by chopping apples with their skins intact and putting them into the blender. Pull grapes from their vines, seeds and skins intact, and toss into the blender.
Blend on high speed until a well blended sauce, pour into bowls and enjoy!
BENEFITS: The benefits of local foods is that the nutrition is intact. The food is fresher as it has not been transported thousands of miles. Apples and grapes are an amazing cleansing AM food for the liver and colon.
The skins are loaded with phyto-nutrients. The grape seeds, well, they are too. People pay good money for grape seed extract and yet spit the seeds out of the grapes they are eating. What? Grind them up, glean the benefits of the seeds!
The nutrition in both fruits is low sugar and feeds the body cells with an amazing array of nutrients (most of which we know nothing about nor have a name / label for them!). It is a fall food to enjoy until they are gone, knowing that next season they will be back to enjoy again.
Concord Grape Jam: easy & low sugar
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