Paula Youmell, RN 9/3/14 Paula Youmell, RN 9/3/14

Back To School Stress Free!

Creating Back to School Flow

The return to school, fall schedules, can bring on a bit of stress. Summer has its go with the flow, easy kind of existence. Easing back in to fall can be made simple and stress free by taking a few mindfulness steps.

1. Remind yourself that fall, and the return to school, means a return to an organized, set schedule. Knowing where you need to be, 5 days a week, can bring a level of comfort after the chaos of spontaneous, summer living. Revel in this return to harmony.

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, soul 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.

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. 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.

Be well; very well, Paula ; )

Paula Youmell, RN 8/26/14 Paula Youmell, RN 8/26/14

Cook Book...

To write or not to write,

That IS the ???

So I have hit the 100th person to ask me: Are you going to write a cook book?" or "When are you going to write a cook book?" I am celebrating this milestone (like celebrating the 100th person to cross the threshold of a new store or business) by chatting about it here.

Cook book or not?

I have to say, "nah, not in my plans." I thought about it for a bit and here are my issues... issues, we always have issues!

1. I am a "just throw it in a bowl" kind of gal. For example, foods like cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and pancakes all have the same basic ingredients. Some have more liquid, i.e. pancakes, while others have more flour, i.e. cookies. What I throw in the bowl depends on the consistency of the batter or dough I am trying to make.

So, to make a chocolate cake I do something like this (and hope for the best!):

2-3 eggs whipped up and add 1/2 to 3/4 cup melted butter (these two ingredient amounts depend on whether I am making a one or two layer cake)
1/2 cup sugar, unrefined, of course (I may use 3/4 if making 2 layers and it is not for my kids, most people like sweeter cakes.)
1 tbsp. vanilla
1/2 to 1 cup milk, again depending on the layers
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 to 3 tbsp. baking powder depending on the flour (oat flour and I use less b. powder, if it is millet / quinoa / teff / amaranth flours I use more b. powder)
3-6 tbsp. cocoa powder depending on # of layers and how chocolate flavored I want the cake
Enough flour to create a cake batter consistency, which is thicker than pancakes but more liquid than cookies

Set batter aside for 5 - 10 minutes to see how the flour soaks up the liquid. After 10 minutes, if the consistency is cake like, good to go. If it is too runny, I add flour a tiny bit at a time. Too thick? I thin with a bit of milk.

So, that is how I cook everything. A little of this and a little of that. Who wants a cook book written like this? I would get boo-ed and rotten tomatoes thrown at me! Most people want exact measurements.

2. Meal cooking is a process of looking at the local, seasonal produce on hand and having fun with it; playing with the ingredients, herbs, and spices. When you play with food for long enough, cooking and creating in the kitchen becomes second nature.

I suggest picking up a couple of good vegetarian cook books* (cook books that show case seasonal produce) and then read them like novels. Next, get cooking. After a bit of practice in the seasonal kitchen, I will say it again, cooking becomes second nature. It is an art work. Relax, breathe deeply, and let your creative nature just flow.

Add your favorite protein sources and whole grains to the yummy seasonal veggies and voila'... you have dinner (suggestion: make enough for lunch leftovers!).

If you have blood sugar control challenges (diabetes) eat whole grains in serious moderation, not at every meal, and up the intake of veggies instead.

3. I visited the SLU book store and checked out the cook book section. It was scary! There were 5 shelving sections of cook books with 7 shelves in each section. 35 shelves of cook books and only 2 of the cook books on the shelves had more than one copy. One was the original Moosewood Cook Book the other was a smoothie "recipe book", I believe. All of those 35 shelves were loaded with single copies of cook books on every topic and health promoting diet imaginable! That was a huge wow for me!

The 5 rows of cook books at the SLU Book Store:

3. I am all about making food an art form. The kitchen is your studio, food is your medium, and the kitchen utensils are your artist's tools!

Watch for my follow up post: How to Cook Like an Artist

Be well, have fun in the kitchen! Paula

*Cook Books you might find useful:

Home Gardener's Month By Month Cookbook, Marjorie Page Blanchard
From Asparagus to Zucchini
Recipes from the Root Cellar, Andrea Chesman (She also wrote Serving Up the Harvest)

If the cook book uses refined ingredients (refined, all-purpose flour, bleached or not)... use your whole food kitchen skills and swap out the refined ingredients and add in 100% whole food ingredients. Need help with this? Give me a shout, read that section in my book (Hands On Health: Take Your Vibrant, Whole Health Back Into Your Healing Hands), or zap me an email and I will send you my educational handout.

If you do not like the high fat ingredients in the Home Gardener's Cookbook, swap out for ingredients with fat contents you are comfortable with. Myself, hey, bring on the butter! (From Pasture Raised Cows, Please!)

Get cooking like the seasonal kitchen artist you can be!

PS My second book, a book of inspirational words to help you put the action steps in my first book, well... into action, was picked up by a publisher yesterday! Stay tuned as I keep you informed of the publishing process!

I call this book of words my "yoga poses" for the body, mind, and spirit book. No, that is not the book's title... that secret will be released at a later date!

Today, to celebrate, I am off to climb a high peak in those amazing ADK Mountains!

**White Face from last summer's hiking ... today I am going up Dial!**

Paula Youmell, RN 8/20/14 Paula Youmell, RN 8/20/14

Eat Several Small Meals A Day... or not?

Are you a grazer like this sweet "lil goat? Aradia is quite sweet as well!

I do not agree with this current health trend, health advice.

Now I will tell you, as always... figure out what works for you, in your life, so you feel your very best, vibrant self every day.

So back to the several small meals a day advice... that I do not agree with, my diet myth buster:

Why?

1. If a person struggles with over eating, this only gives license to over eat more times in a day.

2. If one eats well balanced meals: fruits and veggies (fruit in am, veggies with lunch & dinner), quality protein, and quality fat... you will be well satiated for a good 4 to 5 hours. No need to snack or eat several small meals in a day.

3. Eating several small meals trains your blood sugar to want to be "up." When we get used to meals that sustain us comfortably, without overeating, our bodies get used to feeling gently full and then feeling empty, gently empty. Empty is good. Revel in this feeling as you innately know you are not going to starve if you feel hungry for a while. We live in a culture with ample food. Pick 100% whole foods to fill yourself at meals.

4. Eating constantly will leave you feeling hungry all the time. It is the blood sugar is "up" constantly issue. Once your blood sugar goes down, even just a little, this triggers the "Oh my, I am hungry" feeling again. Feeling empty is ok.

5. If you constantly are giving your body fuel, calories, when will it have a chance to go into fat burning and use up your stored fat calories?

6. Do you really want to spend all your time preparing food and doing dishes?

7. The digestive tract needs rest. If you eat every 2-3 hours, it never gets a rest. Your digestive tract will always be working to digest and eliminate food. Would you want to be working your skeletal muscles constantly, no rest, no sleep?

This is my thoughts, using common sense and wisdom gained from years around food and as an eater myself! Use this in any way that works for you and makes your life a better place to be!

Cheers & Blessings! Paula

Paula Youmell, RN 8/16/14 Paula Youmell, RN 8/16/14

Change is Empowering

Change can be easy, change can be difficult. It is all in the way you approach change.

New Year's resolutions are not something I recommend. They are usually "plans" made in desperation or out of guilt. Not exactly the energy needed to be behind real life empowering change.

Real change is powerful. It has to come from the heart, mind, and soul.

I can suggest everything you need to do to change your life, lose weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and teach you habits that will invoke the self healing of your body.

Change will happen only when you want it to happen and you make it happen.

Instead of making resolutions at the eve or dawn of a new year, well because, you know something has got to give... how about finding what fires your passion and allow yourself to metamorphosis into the healing being you already are.

Make lifetime lifestyle resolutions. Create the change you want to see happen in you. Be the change, the healing energy, you innately are.

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. Hippocrates

Paula Youmell, RN 8/12/14 Paula Youmell, RN 8/12/14

The Final Tip: Divine Weight Loss

This is it... the final weight loss tip coming to you with LOVE.

Truly, I could write many more. I want to inspire you and not overwhelm.

Final Divine Weight Loss Tip:

Gratitude: An attitude of gratitude for everything in your life and all you are as a divine human being does wonders in the quest to make healthy choices. When you see yourself, truly for the divine spirit you are, the natural tendency is for TLC towards self.

Practice gratitude for you.

Every AM, wake up and make your first thought about what you are grateful for today. Make something up if you have to and stick with it. Every PM, as you are shutting your eyes for the day, visualize one thing that happened today that you are grateful for. Anything counts, even that you made it through the day. Heart centered thanks to self for that fact. Each day, finding 1 thing to be grateful as the sun comes up and again, as the moon shows her face, will get easier & easier. It is a practice.

Remember: There is no perfection and yet you are perfection.

If this sounds counter-intuitive to you, try practicing honoring your divine being every day in everything you do. Let me know how this changes your attitude about you and your actions towards yourself. I love to hear people's amazing stories about their health and healing.

I often have people say to me things like: "I can't be as perfect as you, Paula, around food choices and exercise." Trust me... I am not perfect. But, I do make choices from this space:

Is this natural for my body?
Will it feed my cellular health?
Will this choice inspire my highest good on this planet so I can best serve myself and others?
I move on from this space and make my choices. This attitude, coming from my mind,heart, and soul, makes it easy for me to choose healthy lifestyle options. Then I slather my choice with gratitude! Much as I slather my life with butter. But that’s another story.

Strive for Purr-Fection: Ever notice how cats are Purr-Fectly content in just about any situation? Approach life from a cat mentality and make the situation Purr-Fect in the moment!

I wish you calm and peace as you heal mind, body, and spirit and re-balance your weight and health.

Cats being Purr-Fect:

Dogs are Purr-Fect too but in a totally different way. ; )

Divine Weight Loss Tips 1- 7&8&9&10

5 Shocking Ways Yoga Causes You To Lose Weight

Paula Youmell, RN 8/10/14 Paula Youmell, RN 8/10/14

Divine Weight Loss Tip #7, #8, #9, #10

Jake, my oldest son, practicing Tree Pose in a tree!  Teaching lifestyle habits for a lifetime of wellness! — **Jake, my oldest son, practicing Tree Pose in a tree! Teaching lifestyle habits for a lifetime of wellness!**

Wait, what?! Tips #7 through #10 in one fell swoop?

My answer is yes. These are basic lifestyle habits that make your body soar with feel good energy, happiness, and balance your body weight. When you feel good... you want to feel better. Health begets health; wellness begets wellness. It is an addictive thing!

Now that I have brought up the issue of addictions... Have you labeled yourself as an addictive personality type? "I can't give up sugar (or soda, or chips, or whatever), I am so addicted."

Why do addictions always seem to be for "bad" things, unhealthy choices? If we can get addicted, why not get addicted to:

healthy choices,
fitness,
fruits and veggies,
choosing to be happy despite what is going on around you,
real food grown by real farmers,
yoga,
walking in the woods,
gratitude,
taking your health into your own hands?

Go ahead; ponder over what being addicted to healthy things could be like in your life. Sit. Be quiet. Breathe. Visualize healthy living coming from your core being. What does that look like? Feel Like? How can you put it into action, reality, in your life?

Eli, my youngest son, doing what he does when frustrated, angry, or overwhelmed with energy: quiet, breathe, visualize being calm. Seeing 2 of Eli? Can you guess why? Leave a comment with your guess. — **Eli, my youngest son, doing what he does when frustrated, angry, or overwhelmed with energy: quiet, breathe, visualize being calm.**
**Seeing 2 of Eli? Can you guess why? Leave a comment with your guess.**

OK, now for Tip #7 through Tip #10

#7 Get plenty of sleep! Skimping on sleep to “get things done” is not a whole health habit! Getting to sleep before 10 PM maximizes production of melatonin and works with the earth's circadian rhythms for great sleep and health.

Going to sleep, before 10 PM, reduces cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone that helps the body put on and keep on abdominal weight. Sleep peacefully to reduce your cortisol levels.

Stay away from bright lights and screens (computers, etc.) for 3 hours before sleep. Bright lights make your body think it is daytime and impair the sleep cycles. Get all lights out of the sleep area; even LED lights disturb good sleep hormone production.

The moon and stars are fine!

#8 Daily physical activity. Start now and continue for life. Your body is a beautiful creation meant for movement, poetry in motion. Your bones, muscles, and joints are singing out to be put into this motion. Listen; hear your body begging to be moved!

Hint: Get outside and move. Fresh air and natural light are imperative to good health, endorphin, hormone, and neurotransmitter production. See below.

#9 Daily exposure to natural sun light and fresh air. Exercise, work, play, read, and relax outside! And for an extra bonus... get to sleep (before 10 PM) outside! Seriously, sleeping outside is a health enhancing habit!

The natural light exposure, again, enhances the body's circadian rhythms. Fresh air and the sounds of nature calm and soothe body, mind, and spirit.

When our bodies function, with the rhythms of the earth, we are so much more balanced as human beings. This inner balance makes it easier to choose healthy lifestyle habits.

#10 Increase your intake of water; clean, pure water! Water is crucial to healthy cell function. Just as your body cells need to be nourished with whole foods, so too they need water to carry on the processes of metabolism. Keep your cells happy, feed them water.

Use clean, pure water to make herbal teas. Herbal teas are high in minerals and nutrients that add to body cell nourishment.

Your gorgeous body cell. You want all of them to be healthy! There are trillions. One thing I find amazing about this is that every thing we eat has an impact on trillions of life forms (all a part of you!).

If your water supply is chlorinated, filter it. Use a chlorine shower filter so you are not absorbing and breathing in chlorine as you shower.

Divine Weight Loss Tips 1-6 & final Tip: