Feelin' Stronger Everyday

I love these words as they state such a humble truth. Our physical body is always moving towards health and healing despite the unhealthy and unkind things we do to it. Then one day...

It (meaning health) just all seems to fall apart, crumble at your feet, come cascading down from one ill symptom to the next. Does this sound familiar?

I hear these words often: "When I was 20 I ate whatever I wanted and nothing bothered my stomach or digestive tract. I drank like crazy, did drugs, ate junk food, and was still healthy as a horse." (I am not exactly certain how the horse got involved here!) I take such good care of me now... Why is this happening to me? 

My reply always resembles something like this: When you are young your body cells are in tip top shape. Our habits, good and bad, either build our body cells for better health or wear them down into degenerative cells. This is a slow and insidious process which is exactly why we do not consciously connect it to the "stuff" we did to ourselves in our younger years.  

I wrote about this in: 

• Garbage Disposal Syndrome
• Healing Begins At Home
• and so many other blog posts. I hope I am encouraging you and not sounding like a broken record!   : )

Back to the body knows what to do and the mind getting in the way thing. This is just one issue in the struggle to maintain healthy habits. Our body knows how to heal, knows how to ask for what it needs (fresh, real food), and functions at optimal levels when we care for it. The struggle comes with the mind:

1. wanting what we see advertised by food manufacturers because it is so enticing and the ads mesmerize us;
2. not wanting to work hard to avoid that which we know is not cell enhancing food or lifestyle habits;
3. having addictions to refined sugar, refined sodium, and flavor enhancing chemicals that tantalize our taste buds, release endorphins, and various other interruptions in normal physiological processes; and
4. being disconnected from our mind and spirit. This here my friends is a great space to start working on to get passed the 3 issues above.

I am inviting you to incorporate some mind-body-spirit activities into your life. This will help you bridge the disconnect we have as a culture and bring harmony back to mind, body, and spirit. You will function as a peaceful, whole human being that no longer struggles to avoid the things that you know are not best for your whole body health. Instead, you will feel at ease, comfy, in your own skin making the choices that create vibrant health. All without feeling deprived. (I promise!)

1. Deep breathe (deep belly breathe not that shallow chest stuff most people do),
2. Yoga,
3. Tae Kwon Do,
4. Tai Chi,
5. Qigong,
6. Meditate,
7. Pray,
8. Walk in the woods,
9. Laugh,
10. Have great sex,
11. Nurture your ties with beloved family & friends,
12. Ground yourself everyday,  (grounding exercise at the link back there),
13. AND then you will be....www.Feelin' Stronger Everyday.com, Chicago!

Whole Body Health BEGINS In Your Gut (your digestive tract, gastro-intestinaI Tract)

Discover how to heal your gut health and restore vibrant vitality to your whole being...

How you ask?

By delving into digestive tract health: Healing Your Gut For Lifetime Vitality online eCourse.

1. Click the link: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/healyourgutecourse/,
2. Check out how this course will help you create vibrant health & vitality,
3. Invest in healing your gut health (your whole body health),
4. Watch the videos, read the PDF, do the gut healing work that I will lay out for you in simple terms and steps, and feel better than you have in years!

AND, you have lifetime access to this information!

Traditional Foods, Traditional Movement

Eating whole foods, real foods, the foods that are traditional to one's area of living and thriving on this planet is one key to healing personal (and global) health. I praise the cell enhancing and body healing benefits of a 100% whole food diet all the time.

I now want to introduce you to traditional movement, the act of simply moving your body in flexing and strengthening ways, the time honored ways people on this planet have always moved their bodies. This is moving the body in the simple acts of daily living tasks that involve using the body not auto door openers and mechanized, labor saving devices. 

The farmers of Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY going about their daily tasks: moving, flexing, and strengthening their bodies all while creating something tangible... whole foods! Explore Birdsfoot Farm's website to see what they are up to and what they have to offer towards your healing plan!

We are a culture that simply needs to move more. Movement creates all sorts of healing effects in the body and creates an upward spiraling ripple effect to entice us to make other healing changes in our lives. When we move and then feel better... we naturally want to make even more changes to feel even "More Better!" (My kids used to use this grammatically incorrect more better making the term very endearing to me.)

We are told by the media, scientific sources, and all sorts of exercise specialists that we need to get our butts in gear, dramatically increase our heart rates for at least 20 minutes daily, lift weights to keep our muscles and bones strong, etc., etc., etc. I am not going to tell you to not engage in such activities if you are so inclined to do so. What I am going to tell you (if you are not one inclined towards hard core, butt hauling, sweat inducing, heart pumping, serious shit at the gym exercise...) is that simply getting up and moving your body, several times daily, has huge benefits for your whole body, and yes for your each and every beloved body cell!

As I grow older, I like to think common sense and wisdom is growing with me. I am one who has run miles daily (getting those miles in at 6 1/2 minutes or less was imperative), rode my bike for long and hard miles, lifted my body weight in all sorts of ways (bench presses, squats, lunges, etc.), and swam laps across rivers and lakes... I think you get the picture. In comes the wisdom (I am glad I did those things as I have always had too much energy that I needed to burn but my wisdom also tells me that some of it wore hard on my body parts)... all 4 of my grandparents lived to be just months shy of 89 years old. Not one of them ever did hard core, sweat inducing running, biking, weight lifting, swimming, etc. They simply worked hard in their tasks of daily living, moving their bodies constantly throughout the day to take care of farm animals, gardens, orchards, wood for winter fires, hay for winter feed, etc. Their exercise and weight lifting was part of life and survival from year to year. 

Lifestyle Hints: walk away from the computers (Yup, me too) go for walks, even short ones, several times daily. Walk up the stairs to use your upstairs bathroom every time you need to go (Or do laps about the house, even outside, if you only have a down stairs bathroom). Drop and do some push-ups before peeing, drop and do some crunches or V-seats (boat pose) when you are finished on the pot. Stack wood (I have 4 more cords needing stacking if anyone is interested in assisting with some free movement, no gym membership fee required and I might even make you lunch!) Walk more, do work by hand instead of using machinery, i.e.: push that lawn mower instead of sitting on it (do push-ups and pull-ups before and after mowing), split wood by hand, hoe-rake-shovel-weed, do everything you need to by hand using those glorious muscles and save the drive, and membership fee, to the gym.

I am off now to do some muscle flexing-strengthening-balancing yoga, push-ups, and a walk in the woods with my dog. I will contemplate the wood stacking and lawn mowing!

Create some Movement Magic in your own life!

Sean Corn, Yoga Teacher. Image from Yoga Journal August 2015, page 23, Rainbow Light Nutritional Supplements ad.

This chilly, wet weather on June 28th has me looking for something to do in my oven. With a hankering for yummy granola and my local yogurt, the timing seems perfect to whip up a batch of...

Gratifying Granola

Please feel free to assume that all ingredients are whole (unrefined), organic, non-GMO, pasture raised animal products, and as local as I can get.

• 2 1/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup spelt or amaranth flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup water or milk of choice
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of unrefined sea salt
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 250 F.
2. Blend dry ingredients together in large mixing bowl.
3. Beat eggs in a separate bowl.
4. Add other wet ingredients to beaten eggs and mix well. If batter is seemingly too "wet" add tiny amounts of flour and meal to create a damp batter.
5. Drizzle wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to blend well.
6. Spread granola batter in a thin even layer in baking pan(s).
7. Bake for 2 hours at 250 F. Set a timer for every 20 to 30 minutes and stir granola well and redistribute into a thin layer on the pan(s).
8. When granola seems crunchy and well baked (not burned) remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan.
9. Transfer cooled granola to air tight containers. I prefer wide mouth quart canning jars with the 2 piece metal lids.
10. Enjoy in any and every way you enjoy granola!

Get Mesmerized by the Marvels of Your Body

I am inviting you to embrace the miracle of your body. 

I am always looking for ways to inspire and motivate clients and students in my classes to want to make healing changes in their lives, healing changes that will last a lifetime. I want you to realize that you can change any lifestyle habit into a powerful healthy and healing choice if you truly desire to do so.

I love explaining to people the impact food and lifestyle habits have on cellular health. When we realize the intrinsic effects we have on our own health we often are more inclined to do things differently, more healthful choices.

The miracle of the human body has always fascinated me. I remember watching my first birth as a nursing student. I was awestruck and in love with everything about it. 32 years later I still feel that way about the creative power of living beings. We have an egg that gets fertilized by a sperm creating a 1 cell being. This one cell goes on to split and divide millions and millions of times to create:

• every cell, tissue, organ, and organ system in this new human life,

• the placenta,

• the amniotic sac and fluid, and

• the umbilical cord!

Sometimes that one cell does a completely crazy thing and splits in half in the early process and creates 2 human beings and all of the above extras (yes, identical twins!). This can happen, in very rare instances, to create identical quadruplets and more!

This whole process is amazing, miraculous, a true breath taking and awe inspiring feat of biology. Relax and close your eyes. I want you to immerse yourself in the magnificence of this. Now I want you to think about all the other processes your marvelous body does every day:

• digestion and elimination

• immune responses 24-7

• sensory input and  neuro- analyzation so you can feel, smell, hear, see, and taste

• detoxification of everything that comes into your body

• movement of nutrients, innate chemicals, lymph fluid, oxygen and gasses throughout your body

• filtering the blood to create urinary waste

• manufacturing and delivering feel good hormones to the brain

• movement of your body about your life

• manufacturing and delivering hundreds and hundreds of enzymes, hormones, and other biological chemicals to every cell of your body (when and where needed)

Truly, this list could go on forever. What I want to impress upon you is the amazingness, awesomeness, the marvel of your entire being.

Circulatory System

Digestive Tract, Gut!

Skeletal System

The Heart

When we are truly mesmerized at the extraordinary  being we humans are (all beings on this planet are extraordinary but I want to focus on humans to turn you onto caring for you!) we are more inclined to want to better care for ourselves and make the commitment to lifestyle changes that will prevent and heal disease.

Knowing what a miracle each and every bodily process is... don't you just want to take whole food and whole health care of you? Your body will shape shift into this healthy, vibrant being... I promise!

Mind, Body, Spirit

Please share your thoughts and feelings on the Marvel of the Human Body, the Marvel of You and how this inspires you to take better care... the best care of you!

Natural Skin Care for Prevention and Healing Sun Damage

Last week I wrote some quick tips for caring for your skin within a whole food - whole health lifestyle: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2015/5/17/holistic-skin-care   (yes, go back and read it if you missed it. Skin care begins on the inside my friends!)

This week: Natural Sun Screen & After Sun Skin Repair Recipe

I avoid commercial sunscreens as they are loaded with chemicals; the chemicals in the base lotion as well as the chemicals used for the sun screen affects. Any chemical put onto the skin that can alter cellular function in a way to stop sun burning... hmm, sounds like a chemical I do not want on my skin changing the way my skin cells function.

Natural sunscreens with zinc and titanium dioxide you ask? Nah, I will pass on them as well. First of all the base lotions, again, are loaded with chemicals I do not want on my skin. The zinc and titanium are sticky and white filmy on the skin. Yes, they make nano particle zinc and titanium sunscreens but I will pass on them as well.  Read on for my sun protective recipe.

My Natural Sunscreen Recipe

To make a natural sunscreen I start with an *organic, unscented lotion (no chemicals in this base lotion) and fill a 4 oz glass cosmetic jar almost to top... leaving room for:

1/2 - 1 tsp. organic instant coffee powder and 1/2 - 1 tsp. organic cocoa powder. Mix both into lotion very well. 
And essential oils, see below.

*Check massage supply websites for organic, unscented base lotions. You can buy them in 8, 16, 32, and 64 oz sizes. Read labels carefully to make certain you are comfortable with the ingredients going on your skin and therefore into your body.

And...

1 tsp. Wild Pansy extract powder and 2 droppers of wild pansy extract tincture. Again, mix in well. 

I use this sun protective lotion on my face, neck, and hands. I am very aware that I can not slather this on, head to toe, and think for a second that I can spend all day in the sun and not burn my skin. Life and sun exposure just does not work that way. This is my preventative for any more sun damage to my face and neck. I figure my teen years, living in the sun all day, have done enough damage. Now I do damage control.

I also try to do these things most of the time:

1. limit my sun exposure during the high, hot time of the sun 11 AM to 2-3 PM

2. Wear a wide brim hat when I am out in the sun

3. slather my face with my aging and sun damaged skin lotions.

Aging & Sun Damaged Skin Lotion

Summer Base: Aubrey Organic Aloe gel

Winter Base: Aloe plus 1-2 tsp. organic, unrefined, extra virgin olive oil (if you can make a comfrey infused olive oil... even better)

Using a 4 oz. glass cosmetic jar, fill it up leaving head space for olive oil in winter and drops of essential oils.

Anti-aging essential oils to add 6-8 drops of each (as per the Male Herbal by James Green)

• Lavender

• Frankincense

• Carrot Seed

• Immortelle (Helichrysum italicum)

I also add a Rosemary essential oil, 6 drops

The Anti-Aging Team of essential oils

Use on your face and neck after washing with water only in AM & PM. Apply a little extra around eye area to crows feet.

The aging skin remedy can also be made by adding the drops of essential oils to 4 oz. of the above mentioned unscented, organic lotion.

I sometimes add essential oils of rosemary or oregano as they all increase circulation to the skin. Increased circulation means more oxygen and nutrients to skin cells and better removal of cellular wastes.
Peppermint, in very small amounts, also aids circulation. Peppermint does cause / exacerbate reflux and it will bother reflux in your face lotion. If reflux is an issue, skip using peppermint.

The finished sunscreen and sun repair remedy.

You Are NOT What You Eat

 

Ok, so the story, as we have been told, is that You Are What You Eat. 

I truly love this statement as it says so much. If you stop and think consciously about this statement, you just might think hard and long about your food choices.

At the same time that this statement says so much... it does not say enough. Hence my title:

You Are NOT What You Eat.

Let me explain myself.

1. You ARE what your body digests.

• real food is required

• chew well: food must be masticated very well so your body can easily break it down (digest it) otherwise you will just be pooping out undigested chucks of food. Pity, seems like such a waste of good food! 

• strong stomach acid is required to break down food so you are able to use all of the nutrients in that real food you spend good money on. You want to encourage stomach acid not repress it with acid suppressing drugs.

• good microbial colonization of your intestinal tract is needed for certain biological activities; microorganisms perform a host of useful functions such as fermenting unused energy substrates, training the immune system, preventing growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria, regulating the development of the gut, producing vitamins for the host, such as biotin and vitamin K, and producing hormones to direct your body to store fats (and so many more good gut bug jobs). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_flora

Let's move on with this You Are NOT What You Eat concept...

2. You ARE what your body can absorb.

• in order for nutrients to be absorbed, they have to be able to be digested. I will refer you back to #1 above.

• your small intestine must be healthy in order to absorb the nutrients from the digested food. Processed, packaged, factory made foods (and all the synthetic ingredients in them) damage the villi and micro villi that line your small intestine. Damaged villi do not absorb nutrients well. Ask your body's cells how they feel about this lack of nutrients coming at them? What destroys these precious little villi and micro villi you ask?

1. packaged food's synthetic ingredients
2. sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup
3. hydrogenated oils and partially hydrogenated oils
4. GMO food crops
5. gluten in people with celiac disease or gluten intolernaces
6. poor chewing... see above.

3. You ARE What Your Heart Can Circulate Around Your Body and Deliver To Your Body Cells.

• moving your body daily creates a strong heart, strong blood vessels, and strong muscles that all help to pump blood around your body. I could go on and on and write a whole book on the benefits of daily movement to your body's tissue strength and how this movement supports the movement of fluids, oxygen, and nutrients throughout your body. I will spare you the long story. Trust me, just get up and move. Dance and your body cells dance with you!

4. You ARE What Can Pass Across Your Body Cell Membranes. 

The nutrients in your real food that you have chewed well, were digested well, and absorbed into your villi and micro villi are only useful IF they can pass across the cell membrane and actually nourish your body cells. Complicated, eh?

• your cell membranes need healthy fat from real food to keep it strong and intact allowing nutrients into the cell and cellular waste products out of the cell.

• also, a daily dose of healthy protein keeps the cell membranes happy.

• avoid processed, packaged, factory made foods as they contain unhealthy fats (hydrogenated & partially hydrogenated oils, cheap vegetable oils high in omega 6 fatty acids), denatured proteins, and synthetic ingredients that confuse your body and interfere with this whole digestion - absorption - circulation - and transport across the cell membrane process (for more information head back up to #1).

You are SO much more than just what you eat. You ARE what you:

• digest

• absorb

• circulate

• pass into your each and every tiny cell

Deeper Dive Homework: look at your food and your bodily processes in a different light.  Feed your body whole foods.  Support all your bodily processes so you, in turn, feed your body cells well.

PS  Dandelions are a great digestive aid!

Comments and questions are always welcome! 

80/20 Deception

I compare this 80/20 eating plan to a license to kill.  I know, I am harsh, but let's look at the reality of this bold eating statement:

Essentially what this 80/20 statement is saying is:

• eat good food - real food - whole food 80% of the time AND
• 20% of the time just let it all hang out and eat anything you want (food products, fast food, and junk food that are not even real food, yikes!). 

This equation, in most people's hand, seems like it could be dangerous. Let me explain.

Questions:

1. Do you want to heal and thrive or just survive 80% of the time?
2. Do you want health professional who hold you accountable to good cellular health or health professionals who say, "Hey, go ahead, poison your body cells 20% of the time?"  (I warned you I am harsh. Achieving health is not something to sugar coat. This reminds me of My Holistic Momma's Dilemma post.)

If you were diagnosed with lung cancer would you want to be told?:

"Hey, 80% of the time... give up those cigarettes but 20% of the time, well just go for it. Smoke whatever you want."

Liver disease...

"80% of the time avoid alcohol but 20% of the time enjoy all of the drinks you want."

Car Care: Would you put gasoline in your car's gas tank 80% of the time and corn syrup the other 20% of the time? (This is just for perspective on this 80/20% thought line.)

Hang on good people, stick with me on this one... here comes the positive, loving, there may be some interim usefulness to this 80/20 thing.

Now do not get me wrong, if a person was on "the reverse 80/20 eating plan" and consumed 80% processed, packaged, and junk food... swapping out the eating habits to an 80% whole food and 20% not so whole food eating plan would be a huge improvement. This person would notice major shifts in their energy, sleep, colon health, mental alertness, digestive ease, moods and happiness... their 80/20 eating plan's healthy side effects would on and on.

For example: I have clients who give up eating any & all sugar for just 3 days. This means reading each label carefully for every conceivable form of sugar that food manufacturers use to hide the real sugar content of food. Truthfully, most clients will just go on a 100% "no packaged food" for 3 days to rid sugar from their lives.

100% of the time I get emails or phone calls with this general message: 

     "I cannot believe how much better I feel just from this one change in my eating habits. (Now remember, in getting sugar out of the diet they have also removed all packaged foods. Bonus healing effects happen with this double shift in eating.) I have better energy, fall asleep with ease, wake up feeling more refreshed, have no sugar cravings; the mid afternoon slump and moodiness has eneded, I just feel so much better."

Natural foods start the cellular healing process immediately! This is a 100% win win.

80% Junk vs. 20% Real Food?

Shifting to 80% Whole Food & 20% not so whole foods might be the shift that pushes one over the edge to get even healthier. Feeling good begets wanting to feel great!

Quite frankly, I know I am not saying anything that most people do not already innately know: Your body needs real food to thrive. This is nature's plan. Being reminded of these cold, hard facts is a story that not everyone wants to hear. Learning, relearning what we innately know, means something has to change. A shift in lifestyle has to be made. This creates discomfort.

Try this fun field trip to take on a cold, cloudy, North Country day: 

1. slowly wander through your local grocery store and take 1 item per food category off the shelves in each section of the store,
2. read all ingredients carefully, and
3. decide if any or all ingredients seem like anything nature intended to be in your body contributing to (or detracting from) your body's cellular health.

What are your thoughts on the 80/20 Eating Plan?