Common Sense Vegucation

• Grow, Buy, & Eat Organic Veggies

• Non-GMO is a must. Look into heritage varieties. GMO foods are hard on the precious and very important gut lining & gut microbiome. Protect yours.

• Gently cook your veggies so vibrant color and a crisp texture remains for your eating pleasure and cell nourishment. Yes, gone are the days of mushy, washed out colored veggies.

• Grow your own? Keep your soil organically, bio-dynamically healthy. Skip the Miracle Gro® and other non-whole food gardening additives. Yes, your soil needs to be lovingly cared for with a whole food mentality. Whole foods & whole food vitamins feed your body’s “soil” best. Only feed the Earth’s soil with whole fertilizers, compost, etc.

• Pull a carrot. Wipe the obvious dirt off. Eat without water washing & scrubbing if your soil is chemical free / toxin free. Soil microbes (think probiotics) are in the soil. If your soil is not chemical free, see suggestion directly above. ^^

• Vibrant Soil = Vibrant Food = Vibrant Body Cells = Vibrant Whole Health

• Prep veggies just before you are going to eat them or cook them. This preserves nutrients. When we cut into veggies, it creates open surface area that will begin oxidation and loss of water soluble vitamins. You want the most vibrant, nutrient dense food going into your body to make those cells squeal with delight.

• If you are steaming or light simmering veggies (remember, NO mush)? Use as little water as possible to retain nutrients in the food. Drain the cooking / steaming water into a mug, let coking water cool, & then drink. No more pouring nutrients down the drain. Don’t want to drink it? Save it for your house plant watering. Their soil needs nutrition too.

Suggestions for Adding Veggies to Your Life In Ways You Can Love Them

1.  Be adventurous, try new vegetables you have never cooked or tasted before.  There are so many more than the tried and true potatoes, carrots, lettuce, and broccoli. Remember: cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes are really fruit.

2.  Find local farm stands, farm markets, and farmers who grow food sustainably.  The food will be far more nutritious and you will be eating local, seasonal produce; not food shipped from thousands of miles away.  Produce loses its nutritional value and vitality the longer it takes to travel to your plate.

3.  Grow your own, even a small raised box or potted vegetables, to enjoy food fresh from the plant.  Plant some berry bushes or maybe a fruit tree or two.

4.  Make the commitment to eat at least 2 to 3 servings per meal and snack on vegetables and fruit when you need a between meal lift.

5.  Make your plate mostly vegetables with high-quality, locally raised, grass-fed protein as the smaller portion on your plate.  Add beans instead of the animal protein for another plant and fiber boost to your diet.

6.  Add shredded carrots, beets, parsnips to your whole food baked goodies.  A beet cake is a fun alternative to the well-loved carrot cake. 

7.  Add beets, carrots, squash, and parsnips to pancakes and waffle batter.  I even add spinach, kale, collards, etc. to my kids’ pancakes.  They used to call these “green” breakfast pancakes Shrek pancakes. 

8. Make scrambled, poached, or fried eggs, beans and greens for breakfast.  Get your eggs locally from a farmer who lets the chickens feed naturally.

9.  Make omelets with lots of vegetables, different than the typical ones put in omelets.  Be creative and adventurous.  Add fresh herbs just before you fold it and shut off the heat. This prevents overcooking delicate herbs.

10.  Make a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, from naturally raised chickens, and/or refried beans.  Add plenty of vegetables and herbs and roll into a sprouted grain tortilla or a 100% whole grain tortilla. Buy organic so you can avoid genetically modified organisms, GMO’s*.  Also, try rolling the burrito fillings into large leaves of kale, collard, or Swiss chard and really up the veggie intake.

11.  Make vegetable curries for dinner and use the leftovers for lunch or breakfast.  Curried vegetables and beans, eggs, or meat are yummy for any meal.  Think past the typical refined grain breakfasts that most Americans eat: processed cereals and milk, doughnuts and coffee, or toast and juice.  Start putting real food and vegetables into every meal.

12.  Add hardy greens to soups, stews, stir fries: kale, collards, Swiss chard, dandelion greens, beet greens, spinach, arugula, mustard greens, endive, and escarole.  Cut them into small, fine strips to make them more palatable if you are new to eating greens.

13. Make fruit smoothies for breakfast or snacks.  If you avoid dairy, see my recipe on how to make fresh nut and seed milk.  Making your own nut and seed milk avoids the packaged, processed, non-dairy milk.  Remember to “chew” your smoothies.

14.  Buy large carrots and make your own carrot sticks.  Avoid packaged baby carrots.  Most commercially packaged baby carrots are actually large carrots that were less than desirable (rotting), carved into baby carrot shapes and soaked in chemicals to kill microorganisms.  This is not a healthy option

15.  Make “sticks” out of any root veggie that appeals to you, eat them plain, dip into hummus or other whole food spread or dip.  Root vegetables: parsnips, celeriac, turnips, daikon radish, rutabaga, carrots and beets. 

16.  Snack on red pepper halves filled with hummus, yummy!  Or fill them with fresh herbed cottage cheese or herbed egg salad.  Use your imagination.

17.  Make fruit salads with local, seasonal fruits.

18.  Add new vegetables to your raw, green salads that you have never tried in a raw salad.  Try anything.

19.  Skip desserts and eat fresh, local, seasonal fruit.  Off season?  Try local fruit you froze or canned. Try organic frozen fruits.

20.  Make homemade pizza with whole grain crust and load it up with vegetables.  Eat with a salad greens and veggie salad or a shredded root veggie and cabbage salad.  Have that fruit salad for dessert.

21.  In the fall and winter, bake quantities of squash, sweet potatoes, or yams and keep the extra for quick meals and snacks. 

22.  Add extra squash and sweet potatoes to pancake and waffle batter.

23.  Extra squash is also yummy added to “egg nog” smoothies.  I even add cooked beets to get vegetables into my kids.  

24.  Avoid ready-to-eat packaged vegetables and fruits.  Sure they are convenient but once produce is cut up it loses nutrients and starts to decompose faster.  Most pre-cut fruits and vegetables are wet. Wet sealed bags are an easy place for mold to grow.

25.  Skip the “greens” in a salad and make a salad out of all kinds of raw chopped vegetables, grated root vegetables, and shredded cabbages.  Mix it up and use simple oil and vinegar dressing.

26.  Grill veggie chunks on kebabs. Add pineapple chunks for extra flavor.

27.  Roast vegetables in the oven for fall and winter warming dishes.  Try tourlou, a Greek roasted veggie delight.

28.  Make big pots of soups and stews and eat all week.  Think lots of vegetables.

29.  At restaurants: skip the bread (it is refined flour anyhow) and ask for extra vegetables in your salad and as a side dish.  Order pasta dishes without the pasta and have the chef put the pasta sauce on a pile of steamed vegetables instead.  You avoid the refined flour pasta and get the benefits of vegetables.  Skip any flour- based food when you are out and about (crackers, noodles, pasta, bread, desserts, white rice) and opt for extra vegetables instead.

30.  Skip the factory-farmed meat at fast food restaurants (skip the fast food altogether, but if you find yourself with no other option…) eat a salad and baked potato with beans and salsa.  Hopefully there is a salad bar with beans to add some digestive “staying” power to the vegetables.  Protein and fat, balance out the meal, creating greater and longer satisfaction between meals.

31. Use whole grain quinoa, millet, amaranth, teff, or brown rice to make a “pasta” salad.  You will be skipping the actual packaged pasta and using the whole grains instead.  Then add far more vegetables to your whole grains than most people do to the average summertime pasta salads.

32. Grate up all kinds of veggies and use instead of pasta. Quick stir fry grated zucchini or yellow squash and use as pasta. Use an actual spaghetti squash instead of pasta.

Final thoughts:

• Fruits are generally easy for people to add into their diet, vegetables are where people can get stuck.  Avoid Shopper’s Rut (using the ame produce week in & week out).

• Fruits and vegetables make for good cell replication - healthy cell biology.   

• Every step towards healthy, whole food eating creates positive changes in the health of your cells and your whole body. 

* GMOs are genetically modified organisms, in this case genetically modified foods.  These are foods that have had their genetics manipulated in laboratories; they have had extra genes spliced into their genetic material.  Examples are tomatoes with salmon genes spliced into them, supposedly to make the tomato more cold hardy.  While this may make sense on some level to some people; did nature intend for tomatoes to have salmon genes?  I think not.  I will go with nature’s plan.  She seems to know what she is doing.

Sink into the Rhythms of Nature with Sacred Circle Yoga™ Mentorship

Sacred Circle Yoga™ Mentorship

My Best Gluten Free - Grain Free Bread Yet!

UPDATED 9/28/22

Why was this particular loaf so much better? I have made several varieties of the gluten free, 100% whole food flour, bread from various websites. One was too eggy. It had 6 eggs per one loaf of bread. It was more like eating some sort of weird loaf of quiche. Others were too moist and dense. This one I remedied by cutting the eggs to 4, adding lots of extra butter, and using milk.

The top is nice and brown crispy. And it is not doughy in texture. I had a slice warm from the oven and literally slathered in slices of butter. Delicious!

Ingredients  

• 2/3 cup organic buckwheat flour

• 2/3 cup organic quinoa flour

• 2/3 cup organic millet flour

• 2 Tbsp coconut flour

• 1 rounded teaspoon baking soda

• 1 rounded tsp baking powder

• 1/3 cup + a little extra organic Pasture Butter, I am very generous with the butter, and I gently melt it before adding to the batter

• 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar

• 2 TBSP local maple syrup

• 4 local & organic eggs

• 3/4 cup local, organic Goat’s milk

• ½ teaspoon unrefined pink Himalayan salt

Vinegar, Milk, Salt, & Eggs

1. Melt the butter

2. Beat the eggs

3. Mix in melted butter, milk, & maple syrup

4. Mix dry ingredients together

5. Add dry to wet & mix well

6. You will have more of a thick bread batter than a traditional yeasted bread dough

7. Pour into a well buttered bread pan ( I use 8 1/2 L X 4 3/4 W X 2 3/4 D )

8. Bake at 350F for 55 minutes or so until top is crispy brown & loaf pulls away from the bread pan sides

Let cool for 10 minutes and then remove to a plate. Allow to finish cooling.

Slice & use for your favorite sandwiches, toast for a buttery delight, add jam, melt cheese on, spread with hummus / peanut butter / Nuttzo butter… whatever pleases you! Bologna from well raised pigs?? I no longer have a source for such childhood comfort foods. Bummer.

Goat’s Milk Butter

I have one frozen package of Piggery Bologna left… the business has been closed for over a year. I will miss this pasture raised pork bologna when I finally decide to break it out of the freezer and indulge.

Grounding Yourself for Emotional Healing

1.    Remind yourself that you are in complete control of you.

2.   Start your day with an AM grounding experience. I do a blended visualization / meditation that takes 5-7 minutes and grounds me for the day.  I sit on the stone steps in my back yard with my feet in contact with the ground. (Urban dwellers, sit and visualize your feet in the grass, connected to Mother Earth!) I close my eyes and visualize white light coming from the ground, up through my Chakras and Nadis, then turns around at the crown Chakra and goes back into the earth taking all negative (dark light) energy back into the earth to be absorbed. I visualize white light coming from above, through my crown Chakra, and circling back up at my root Chakra taking negative energy back into the atmosphere. I do both of these twice.  Next I visualize white light coming from the earth again, up through my root Chakra.  When It turns the corner at my crown, this time it goes back into the earth and creates a root system from my tailbone down into the earth. Now visualize white light from the crown Chakra, turns at the root Chakra and turns again at the crown Chakra to go back into the earth.  Again, visualize the roots coming from your tailbone deep into the earth to ground you for the day’s challenges. Finally, I swirl white light energy around my body, from feet to head, like a twister moving up my body. This is to protect me from negative energy and other’s stress.

3.   Create peace in your life with a regular yoga practice. The benefits of Yoga are profound.  You will intuitively move towards healthier choices in your life. Your mind will become calm. Your body will respond physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually to the beauty of yoga.  Your body will be in the flow of life. This is true mind -body -spirit healing.

4.   Nourish your body with 100% whole foods. To get started on whole food eating, pick up a copy of my book, Hands On Health: Take Your Vibrant, Whole Health Back Into Your Healing Hands. Read the Free info on my website: Principles of Whole Food Eating,  Whole Health Lifestyle Choices, & more Free Health Info

5.   Get to bed and be asleep before 10 PM.  When your body is asleep before 10 PM, the level of stress hormones in your body drops. When you stay up late, burning the midnight oil, your body pays through higher levels of cortisol hormones. This is stress.  Sleep, sweet dream sleep, before 10 PM and your body’s glandular system works for you in a balanced manner, making happy feel-good hormones!

6.   Get outside every day, preferably moving your body. Yes, I mean exercise. Call it movement magic that heals the divine you!  Something as simple as a brisk paced walk in the fresh air and natural light can do much to reduce stress, create feel good hormones, help you sleep better at night, and ease the challenges of daily life so you can think clearly and make healing choices around food and your health habits. Get outside in sun/wind/rain/snow/fog, walk barefoot, sit on ground, hug a tree, rest your spine against an old growth tree… just breathe in the world around you. Your body, mind, and soul will thank you for this grounding, earthy experience.

Positive, holistically-minded, lifestyle choices make for healthier, happier living.  For a full list of lifestyle choices I recommend to my holistic health coaching clients, click here.     More Free Health & Self Healing Info, click here.

7.    Create a grounding habit you can return to, in a moment's notice, for immediate calming energy. Here is how...

• Find a body motion (hands in Namaste or prayer position or a Yoga Mudra that calls to you),
• a "saying" or mantra* (Amen, Namaste, Blessed Be, Mitakuye Oyasin, Om mani padme hum), and
• a visualization of a space in nature that is sacred to you.

When you close your eyes and do all three you will bring yourself to a place of inner calm. Proceed forth from a space of thoughtful action as opposed to emotional reacting.  The ideas in parenthesis are just that, ideas. Create a 5 second ritual that is your special way of coming into your calm. Use it daily. Use it in any moment that you need to stop and think rationally before you proceed forward in your next step or choice. This is a quick grounding experience.

Be Well; Very, Very Well, Paula   ; )

Extra posts on creating calm, grounding, and healing eating/health habits: 

• Create Constant Calm
• Why I Love Yoga and Other Thoughts on Whole Food, Whole Health Healing

To find more related posts do a search on my blog for: yoga, weight loss, &/or mindfulness.

*Saying or Mantra meanings, they are all Blessings

• Amen: So be it, the well wishing of your prayers & meditation being sealed for integration and to come to fruition in the world
• Namaste: Sanskrit, the Divine in me honors the Divine in you
• Blessed Be: Wish good and positive things upon self & others
• Mitakuye Oyasin: Lakota, we are all related, interconnectedness of everything, we are all brothers & sisters (all beings on Earth, not just humans)
• Om mani padme hum: Buddhist, No literal English translations, jewel in the lotus, invokes compassion

Stinging Nettle Cake

I can't proclaim the brilliant idea for this cake came from me. I confess, I eat nettles in every way possible, even blending up raw in a morning green drink (yes, all green plants come from my lawn). When Debbie Miller of Earth Rythm Wellness in Ogdensburg, NY shared the recipe with me... I think the whole North Country knows I am a Nettle Queen, I thought "Why Not?"  We make carrot cakes, beet cakes, zucchini cakes and breads; nettle cake sounds like a splendid idea to me.

The original recipe came from Kate Hackworthy, a freelance food writer, magazine columnist and blogger who admits to being unashamedly obsessed with vegetables. I don't know her but I like her already! Kate lives in the UK and writes about her veggie obssessions on her blog Veggie Desserts.

The raw nettles about to get blended into a non-stinging cake patter puree, see #7 below.

Here is what I did differently. Come on, don't act shocked. If you know me, you know every recipe gets the Paula Whole Food Makeover.

1. I added pasture raised goat's milk (nope, I don't have goats but I love my farmer and farm family who care for my goats.)
2. I used 4 eggs, yup, from the same loved farmer. Eggs bind things better and I use gluten free flours. No gluten in the flour and things tend to get crumbly, cakes can fall apart. But, the frosting always glues things back together nicely!   ; )
3. I stuck with the 3/4 cup sugar. Surprised? Are you saying: "What? Paula always decreases the sugar?"  Yes, I do but most cake recipes call for 2 cups of sugar that I immediately decrease to 2/3 or 3/4 a cup. Kate, the veggie loving gal from the UK, did this for me!
4. At least 1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) of real, organic vanilla. Recipe called for 2 teaspoons. I am heavy handed with vanilla and pour right from the bottle into the batter despite what my high school home ec teacher tried to teach me. Sorry Jane.
5. I used 1  1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of gluten free flour not refined, white, wheat flour. This is why my cake will not be so luminous green from the nettles but more of an earthy brown tinted green. I used a blend of oat, quinoa, millet, and amaranth flour that I ground fresh. All organic and the oats are certified gluten free as well.
6. I used a very full, very rounded tablespoon of baking powder not the 2 teaspoons the recipe called for. Gluten free flour is, well gluten free, and can use a 'lil kick in the bran and germ butt to get fluffed up. Do not be mistaken: this cake will not be the light fluffy cakes you are expecting from baking with refined white flour. Will it be yummy: yes it will!
7. Nettles: I easily over did the 2 packed cups. I did not boil them. The nettles are being pureed in the blender and baked in the oven. If the sting can withstand that well then sting away baby! Seriously, just blending the raw nettles into the batter gets rid of the sting. I make pesto with raw nettles all of the time and never have I been stung.
8. I added 1/2 to 3/4 a tsp. of baking soda. Not sure why, just a habit and seems fitting with gluten free flour. (No, I do not used refined gluten free flour mixes of tapioca, potato, and/or white rice flour. Most gluten free flours and products are crap food sources that do not feed cellular health.)
9. For the frosting: I made my customary heavy cream & neufchatel cheese frosting to which I added in the 1/2 lemon's worth of zest and 1/2 lemon's worth of juice (1 tablespoon). I did use a fresh organic lemon for the zest but I saved the juice part for my liver flush am drink and used bottled organic lemon juice. I figured the juice was getting baked at 350 F and would destroy the vitamin C so why not use the fresh lemon juice right now in its raw state? Yes, this is how my mind works all of the time.
10. I used Sucanat unrefined organic sugar not refined white table sugar. 
11. I poured the batter into one 9" round cake pan instead of the two 7" pans. I like to slice cakes in half and toy with the gluten free flours ability to hold up to my kitchen play. The then raw cut surface of the cake soaks up the yummy frosting better. This took 50 minutes of baking at 350 F. I then cracked the oven door about 3-4 inches, shut off the gas, and let it sit there in the warm oven to cool.

The cake batter in a 9" pan looking a bit olive drab green not the bright green of Kate from the UK's cake,                       See # 5  &  # 11 above explaining pan size difference and cake color difference.

OK, Ok, I will quit finger babbling and give you the ingredients and directions.

Into the VitaMix Blender I put:

• 1 cup goat's milk
• 4 eggs
• 2+ packed cups of raw nettle leaves, stems not removed 'cuz I am a nettle rebel
• 3/4 cup sucanat unrefined, organic sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup soft butter  (extra for lubing up the cake pan really well)
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp. organic lemon juice
• 1  3/4 cups gluten free flour: oat, amaranth, quinoa, millet (no refined crap please, see #8 above)
• 1 tbsp. baking powder, aluminum free please, your brain will thank you
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. unrefined sea salt of the pink Himilayan variety

1. Preheat 350 F oven. 
2. Blend into a greenish brown frenzy.
3. Stop 2-3 times to scrape the sides down.
4. Rub that luscious butter all over the insides of the 9" cake pan.
5. Pour cake batter into butter loved pan.
6. Slip into that hot 'ole oven and bake for 50 minutes. 
7. After 50 minutes, slip a knife into the cake to see if it is done, finished, baked to perfection.
8. If so, keep oven cracked 3-4 inches and leave cake on the rack.
9. When cool, frost your 'lil stinging nettle cake with the frosting I use for everything...

Frosting:

• Organic heavy cream, one or two 8 oz containers
• Organic Neufchatel Cheese, one 8 oz package
• 2 - 4 tbsp. dark maple syrup
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice, basically juice from 1/2 lemon

1. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and use an electric hand mixer to whip into frosting consistency.
2. You can slice the cake open for 2 layers, if you wish. I suggest proceeding with caution as gluten free cakes can be tricksters.
3. Frost.
4. Let sit for a bit to settle into the flavor melding.
5. Serve with the Blackberries that Kate of the UK suggests, or not.
6. Enjoy. Nettles are amazing nourishing food. Adding them to cake makes sense! 

Voilà: The finished cake!  

Because of the whole grain flours and unrefined sugar (very brown and not white like refined baking ingredients), the cake does not have the luminous green of Kate's of the UK. It was delicous. As with all whole food baked goods I like to tell people to get used to the heavier texture. Unrefined foods mean you have the density of fiber, minerals, vitamins, complex carbohydates, proteins, and fats... not light, fluffy refined and empty calories (cellular health degenerating). Dense food is real food feeding your cellular health. 

Happy Memorial Day!

Be Grateful to All who have given to make your life better.

Need support around finding your personal space of gratitude in this world?  Jenny Morill & I share our new book about creating mindfulness & healing.  We hold sacred space for you.

Active Vs. Passive Medicine

                     Active                    Vs.                       Passive

Healing oneself takes an individual's active participation in the process. This participation can be physical (body), emotional (mind), or spirit work.  Often times, all three woven together into a beautiful Self-Healing tapestry is your healing magic in action.

We live is a culture that generally works from a space of passive health care.

One western medicine scenario:

1. Visit your practitioner.
2. Explain your symptoms, issues, challenges.
3. Have a prescription handed to you.
4. Go home and take your pills.

Rarely does a western medical practitoner ask you to participate in the process of regaining your health. Drugs and surgery do not get at what is causing your health crisis. Drugs cover up the symptoms. Surgery removes the damaged organs but never opens up space to determine why this organ is in a state of dis-ease and how can I change my habits to reverse the damage that has been done?  What is actually causing the symptoms usually continues in a person's life because no one asks us to take a hard look at what made us arrive at this space of ill health. When we do take this hard look, unravel the causes that led to the problem, we can then start working in reverse to remove the problems and recover health.

Examples of the "You don't have to do anything active about your health problems" scenarios:

• High blood pressure: just take this pill and it will bring your blood pressure down. 
• Type 2 Diabetes: again, take this pill and continue doing what you have been doing. Until, of course, your diabetes get worse and now you need to... inject yourself with insulin at least once daily.
• Joint problems: take this pill, come on in for a replacement... keep eating and drinking all you have been because like the problems above... these problems are not your fault. You know, it's just bad genes. Take this pill and call it a day.

I could go on & on... PMS, menstrual irregularities, infertility, arthritis, auto-immune disorders, cancer... Nothing you eat, drink, or do in your life has anything to do with the presence of this health problem in your life.

Or so we are led to believe by mainstream media, mainstream medicine, and mainstream agriculture.

Active Participation in your health and healing means taking ownership of your lifestyle habits; true Lifestyle Medicine. Lifestyle Medicine is Active Medicine. You are asked and required to take a participatory role in your health and healing. You are invited to make changes towards whole health eating and whole health living that will ultimately repair your body cells.

1. How has the food I have been eating over the course of my life impacted my body's cellular health?  (Unhealthy cells mean an unhealthy body.)
2. How are my daily lifestyle habits impacting my health, my display of symptoms?
3. How is my body weight affecting my heart, blood pressure, diabetes, joints, back problems, and overall health?

It is time for your health care providers to invite you and inspire you (that is right, health care professionals who activley participate in their own well being and are good role models of real health). Your health cae providers need to be asking you questions:

"Stand up people. Take a hard look. Where can you change habits that have contributed to this crisis in your health? What can you do to actively return your body to vibrant, vital health?"

Trust me, return to health is a reality.  You just need to get active about the process. Invite healing support into your life:

• Lifestyle medicine professionals (think Functional Medicine, Functional Nutrition, Naturopathic Medicine, Holistic Health Coach)
• Acupuncture
• Massage
• Reiki
• Shamanic Care
• Chiropractic Care
• Spiritual Counselor
• Osteopath who practices lifestyle medicine

So where does preventative health care fit into this?

There is a difference between mainstream medicine's view of preventative health care and "holistic - whole health care - lifestyle medicine's" idea of preventative health care.

Mainstream's Idea of Prevention  -  Whole Health Care's Prevention                                                            (Lifestyle Medicine)

• mammogram                                                                          whole foods
• colonoscopy                                                                            deep, restful sleep
• cholesterol screening                                                              maintain healthy weight
• prostate exam                                                                         yoga, meditation mindfulness
• bone scan                                                                               moving the body daily
• vaccines                                                                                  immune building lifestyle habits
• diabetes screening                                                                  good posture
• blood pressure screenings                                                      hydration with pure water (no chlorine and fluoride)

Natural health habits are preventative health care; TRUE preventative health care.

The "get your annual mammogram, colonoscopy, cholesterol screening type of prevention" (which often leads to your lifetime pharmaceutical prescriptions)  does not actually prevent anything but instead is an early detection tool so your symptoms of dis-ease can be treated, managed, for the rest of your life. This is management of disease through management of disease symptoms.

Healing, active medicine, needs to be part of this equation.

Active Health Care is about real preventative health care... choosing lifestyle habits that build amazing cellular health & vitality so you truly prevent dis-ease from ever darkening your doorstep and actually knocking on your door. 

If disease symptoms are already part of your life, Active Health Care invites you to heal your symptoms of disease. 

I invite you to become an active part of your own healing team AND I will do my best to educate you and inspire you (be a healthy role model) towards whole health choices and self healing! 

Join me at 5 Elements Living for

Creating Inner Wisdom: Your Personal Health Journey

Register Today

3 Class overview
• March 27th: Eating for Cellular Health
• April 3rd: Natural Food Know How
• April 10th: Wise Woman Nurse "Movement Magic"
for Digestive Health & Herbs for Gut Health

Monday Evenings 6-8 PM

More info? Click here.

Ready to join us? Register here.

Not All Vitamin Supplements Are Created Equally

Nature Made? Hmmm, name sounds safe enough. It is Nature made, correct?

People grabs these cleverly named supplements off the shelves of drug stores, grocery stores, and discount department stores feeling confident in something that was nature made.

Cheaper department store vitamins are enticing. Who doesn't like to save a few bucks when and where they can. Money is the currency of our life force energy and we only have so much (life force energy) to burn up in our time on this planet. Is saving a few bucks on cheaper vitamins worth it? Am I supporting or harming my cellular health? This is one of those instances where you get what you pay for and it is best to invest in high quality. Your health is worth it and cheaper versions can be harmful in the long run (your body has to process out, detox through the GI tract and liver, the synthetic vitamins that are not readily or not at all usable by your body).

Reading the nutrient list and ingredients weaves a completely different tale; a tale of deception around these cleverly brand named products.

Reading vitamin labels to avoid synthetic forms of nutrients is as important as reading food package labels to avoid synthetic ingredients.

One of my biggest pieces of advice around packaged food is to read every ingredient in the product with major scrutiny:

• What is/are the ingredient(s)?

• Is/are all ingredients 100% whole food?

• Where was it sourced from? US or foreign?

• Organic?

• Naturally raised, naturally fed (as in cows being grass vs. grain fed)?

Ahhh, the beauty, simplicity, and purity of nature (you are nature!)

Even when you get used to the safeness of a particular product... read the ingredient list every time you buy this product. Companies change hands, ingredients are swapped out for cheaper options... always put your health as #1 priority:

So, let's move on to vitamin/mineral supplements.

Reading labels for the "form" of certain vitamins or minerals in the nutrients line-up can give you a quick idea if the product is quality ingredients or made with cheap versions of the vitamins/ minerals. (The habit by many manufacturing companies is to use the cheapest form of a substance, vitamin or mineral, and charge the customer as much as possible. This ensures the company has the largest profit margin.)

Look for these indications of high quality supplements; it is the natural vs. synthetic form of the nutrients. If the nutrient form is natural, the product just may be of a higher quality. If the nutrient form is synthetic, throw your red flag up to full mast and investigate the entire list with a scrutinizing eye and mind.

This is just 3 easy nutrients to scutinize the label for and start painting a picture in your mind of the quality of the product in your hand (or on your laptop screen if cyber-shopping for vitamins).

Natural Form                 Vs.           Synthetic Form

 Folate (Vitamin B9)                                                         Folic Acid

 Methylcobalamin (B12)                                                  Cyanocobalamin

 d-alpha tocopherol (Vitamin E)                                    dl-alpha tocopherol

You can use the above information to quickly scan the list of nutrients in a vitamin /mineral formula. If any of the above are in their synthetic form, I would seriously scrutinize the rest of the product. The "red flag" to me would be... Cheap, synthetic forms of these nutrients. Most likely the rest of the product was not formulated with high quality, bioavailable ingredients. Lay-person's terms: synthetic is not used well by your body. Nutrients need to be in a form that is usable by your body: meaning the nutrient can be

• digested by your GI tract,

• absorbed into your bloodstream,

• circulated well in your blood, and

• taken in by your cells (pass freely through your cell membranes) to be used in metabloic processes.

Buying quality supplements means getting a product that can actually be used by and benefit your body cells. Body cells are the building block of your body. Vibrantly healthy body cells are the building blocks of wildly happy and healthy bodies.

Vitamins I recommend to clients/students/family/friends/people I pass on the streets:    ; )

• Pure Synergy: I always recommend 2 daily with a whole food eating lifestyle. The bottle says 4 daily. The bottle will last 2 months at 2 per day and will supplement a healthy, whole food diet. Pure Synergy also has great herb supplements such as Turmeric, etc.

• Garden of Life

• Superfood Plus (HerbDoc.com)

• New Chapter

• Mega Food

Some of these are available at Nature's Storehouse in Canton, NY

How about those herbal supplements Paula?

Again, cheaper brands are not always quality products. If you are going to put your money into herbal supplements (or homeopathy, or essential oils, etc) you do want to get what you are paying for. Opt for companies that are high end, high quality, have a known reputation for efficacy of their products. After all, you do want them to work for you.

Companies whose herbal products I have used and trust:

• Herbs Etc.

• Herbdoc.com

• Oregon Wild Harvest

• Wise Woman Herbals

• Nature's Sunshine

• Dr. Christopher's Original formulas

• Living Earth Wild Yam

• Nature's Secret

I am sure there are more but these are the companies I rely on for quality products.

Bottom Line:

Be wise.

Read labels on everything you put into or onto your body.

Know what is natural and supposed to be part of your cellular health.

Avoid synthetics that are counter-productive to cellular health.