Which End of the Battery Are You?

Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, Dis - Ease of the body... How do they all fit together in some sort of sensible way?  And, what does the battery have to do with it all?

Reasonable questions, hang with me on this one and I will explain.

I work with people, daily, on their health & well being through my online classes and 1 on 1 consultations. These people, my clients and students, are motivated to change their lives, relief ill health symptoms, and live in a dis - ease free body.

The steps to getting to this space of ease in the body (lack of dis - ease) are similar for all problems:

• tease out the root causes of the problems
• remove the causes of the problem
• heal the digestive tract of inflammation of the gut lining, lack of balance in the gut microbes, remove food sensitivities...
• calm the immune system
• nourish the liver
• balance nutritional intake, balance blood sugar , & balance body weight
• add in healthy lifestyle habits (daily movement, botanicals-herbs, etc.), including whole food eating, that will nourish the body cells and whole body back to a state of ease
• understand this is a lifestyle and commit to living these changes... well, for life.

Each of these steps are personalized for each individual's specific needs based on their body's bio-chemistry and their own personality needs.

Let's get to that battery!

I have two teen boys. Teens can be snarly, negative word spouting fountains from time to time. We were having a dinner time discussion on the role of mind set in creating disease and healing the body. 

Spread Love Where Ever You Go.      Let No One Ever Come To You               Without Leaving Happier.                                    Mother Teresa.

Basically, which end of the battery are you? Positive or negative? What do you surround yourself with:

• negative or positive people?
• negative or positive words, thoughts, and actions?
• negative or positive media, screen time?

When we work to change our lives for healing, we must remember the power of the ends of our personal batteries.

Negative words, conversations, thoughts, actions, people, news, social media crap, etc. are just as toxic to our body cells as:

• heavy metals toxins
• agricultural chemicals, pesticides and the like,
• synthetic ingredients in factory made food
• factory made food itself
• chlorine
• etc. etc. etc.

Every negative experience, no matter how brief, creates negative vibrational frequencies in our miraculous & beautiful body cells. Just like other toxic impacts, these negative frequencies cause inflammation that lead to ill health, dis - ease in the body. Negativity contributes to a weaker immune system and the impacts of a weakened immune system: ill health in all areas (acute issues such as colds and flu to chronic inflammatory issues of lifestyle diseases, auto-immune responses, and cancer.

Your Everyday Positivity Prescription:

1. Every AM think of 1 kind thing you can do for someone else. Even tiny little acts of kindness have a huge positive ripple in your world and the world at large.
2. A positive act of kindness for self (10 minutes of yoga anyone?).
3. Be aware of negative thoughts creeping into your mind & stop them dead in their tracks. Replace them immediately with positive thoughts. Generating positive thoughts will become a habit quickly.
4. Negative people... move away. Surround yourself with positive people.
5. Negative conversations? Find a way to subvert to positive or excuse yourself from the conversation to go do a random act of kindness.
6. Everyday remind yourself of 1 thing you are grateful for.
7. Every night as you lie down to sleep: remind yourself of that thing you are grateful for and something good that happened that day. 
8. Remind yourself of the grateful thing every AM.

Gratitude is the attitude of happy folk!

The power of thought is the magic of the mind!  Lord Byron

Much love and gratitude for you being here & reading this! Paula

The sign on my front door:

Anti-Inflammatory Butter Recipe

To my delight, the Potsdam Food Co-op recently had a basket full of wild turmeric root*. Before I could discover it, I received several messages from personal clients and Co-op members... "Hey Paula, guess what I found at the Co-op?  AND, what do I do with it now that I have it?"

Suggestions:

• grate into soups, stews, and stir fries
• add to grated root veggie slaws
• grate into butter and nut butters
• grind into smoothies** if you are a smoothie person (See eBook information below)
• add to yummy chai tea

Keep in mind that turmeric is absorbed and used more efficiently (healing & nutritionally speaking) when it is eaten with fat. Some plant constituents (the natural chemicals in plants) are better broken down, absorbed, and assimilated into your cells when fat is part of the equation. Healthy fat is also a great help in weight loss, healing body cells, and creating vibrant health.

So... I decided to make Wild Turmeric Butter!  No, this is not local butter but I was out of Kriemhild Butter and I get tired of stock piling the plastic containers it comes in. Time for me to special order some of the 1 lb. rolls that are wrapped in paper. Hmm, they do sell a 50 pound block!    :) 

Wild Turmeric Butter Recipe

Into the vita-mix I threw: 

• 1/4 pound (1/2 cup) of cow's milk butter, see image above
• 1/3 cup raw, local honey
• 2-3 tbsp. of organic, extra virgin olive oil (always make sure it comes from a virgin!)
• 1/3 cup organic, raw, unrefined coconut oil
• 1/3 cup raw coconut butter (this contains all edible parts of the coconut not just the oil)
• 6-7 small pieces of wild turmeric root
• 2 tsp. Ceylon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp. dry ginger root powder (next time I will use a piece of fresh, organic ginger root)

Then I blended it thoroughly. This took using the vita mix plunger to keep pushing the mix of ingredients into the blades. I also shut off the blender twice to scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula until all was well blended.

The next time I make this decadent and scrumptious butter I will use only cow's milk butter with the honey, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. I was down to my last 1/2 pound block of butter. Being without butter in my home is a tragedy!

Looking into the vita mix

Turmeric butter on toast with a fried duck egg from Nature's Storehouse in Canton.

Finished Turmeric Butter in it's jar

*Curcumin, turmeric's most active ingredient, reduces the formation of fat tissue. Turmeric suppresses the blood vessels needed to form new fat tissue (it is an anti-inflammatory herb and excess fat formation is an inflammatory response) and therefore may help prevent fat build-up. Curcumin use, from turmeric, results in improvements in insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and other inflammatory symptoms associated with obesity, metabolic disorders, and even cancer.

**Smoothies:

Courtesy of: BeHealthyToday

No Quick Fixes

Almost daily I receive emails and/or FB messages asking me for quick fixes for all sorts of health symptoms and ills including weight loss products... "Will this really work for me and make me lose the weight?" I have stopped sending answers with suggestions. Truly, for me to even consider responding to these messages is unethical on my part as it does not serve the person's best interests.

Quick fixes do not exist for problems that have settled into our body cells over a lifetime of eating and other less than optimal lifestyle habits. Truly it takes motivation to change and commitment to the process for the "fix" to be had. And... the fix is a lifetime process, a lifetime commitment. When we reach the goal, be it weight loss or the end of some cluster of ill health symptoms, our wellness walk is not over. The walk is a walk of life and for life: a commitment to self to make the best choices every day for cellular health and overall vital wellness.

Now I will tell you this: sometimes there are quick relief strategies for problems and symptoms. What I mean is I can suggest a little tweak here and a little tweak there to give quick relief for some issues while we work to get at the underlying reason these problems exist. Then we can work on changing what needs to be changed to get rid of the problem symptoms forever.

Examples of some quick relief strategies (keep in mind these are not long term solutions but rather a "get me over the hump until we can figure better solutions":

• muscle spasms and cramps (especially at night making you shoot up out of bed in crazed agony): take magnesium 400 mg at bedtime and drink more pure water throughout your day.

• constipation: again, magnesium (of the citrate variety) will assist here as well as more fruits and veggies, more pure water, move your body daily, and maybe use some herbs for a bit of relief until we can correct the underlying issues.

• sleep issues (keep in mind sleep issues can vary from trouble falling asleep, to staying asleep, to experiencing quality sleep): magnesium can help here as well, get off the caffeine and sugar, get outside and move...

Divine Weight Loss eCourse

Last night I was told the story of a local man who has transformed himself (over 2 years... it is about the long haul and commitment to self). He went from a 340 pound ill health human with serious cardiac issues; severe back, hip, knee, and ankle/feet issues; diabetes; depression with 3 medications; and high cholesterol to a 180 man with no health issues, no medications, and a healthy, fit body free from disease and depression.

What did he do? Changed the way he ate, what he ate, and got his butt to the gym and out for walks every single day. Sunshine. Fresh air. Movement. Real food, nothing processed. No sugar. Inner Conscious Connection work: how he thinks about himself and the world.

Why? Because his body was falling apart from the way he had ill treated it. It was a conscious decision on his part: stay grossly obese and sick or choose health.

He is a happy man for his endeavors and I wish he was my poster child! He did this on his own - Woo Hoo for him!

Lifestyle choices are up to you. I am offering you the opportunity and support to make health and healing choices in your life.

Blessing of good health and happiness on your personal path, Paula

E-Courses To Walk Your Health Path

Your Best Medicine

As an herbalist student of Rosemary Gladstar, I have great respect for her healing ways. This quote could not be nearer or dearer to my heart. Truly, the way we live our lives, every day, IS the best medicine we can give ourselves.

We have a powerful choice, every day, in the food we feed our body, mind, and soul with. 

Whole foods feed our bodies; feed our cells for vibrant health and healing.

Whole, positive thoughts (our own and those we invite into our lives) feed our minds for happy living.

Whole, deep spirited energy feed our souls for compassionate living and loving from our hearts.

I hope 2016 is your best medicine year yet! 

I am creating learn at home eCourses to better support you with my health & healing work. Learn from home and invite your best medicine into 2016 and your life!

E-Courses To Walk Your Health Path

Join me and bring powerful medicine into your life. We both will be glad you did!  

Healthy people make the best communities to live in.  Join my quest to support your health and healing and make our communities vibrate and glow with amazing health!

My Healthy New Years Gift to the next 5 people who enroll in:  Food As Your Healing Tool: using foods for your healing advantage & decrease disease causing inflammation.  

25% discount off the $60 tuition: $45 for the first five "get healthy in 2016" students!

Class release dates on January 6th & 13th, 2016

Disease... genetics or lifestyle? Am I doomed?

Words I more often hear than not in regards to a person's individual health around:

• heart disease
• cancer
• diabetes
• obesity
• kidney disease
• auto-immune diseases
• basically all dis - ease that can interfere with individual human health...

The words I am speaking of:

"Oh, there is nothing I can do about it. My mother (father, grandparents, etc.) had this disease. It is in my family. 2 of my 4 siblings already have it. It is just a matter of time and I will have it as well..."

Can I please tell you that nothing could be further form the truth? Your body is unique. Sure, you may have inherited genetic tendencies towards certain dis - ease states BUT those genes are not set up to play out. Your lifestyle choices have a huge impact in how your body's genetic code plays out over your life time. 

Choosing Healthy Living is the Path to Disease Prevention and a Lifetime of Wellness.

Let's look at cancer as one dis - ease of the body.

• All cancers are the result of multiple gene mutations. The risk of cancer is estimated to be based only 5-10% on inherited genes and 90-95% on lifestyle (unhealthy lifestyle choices can create further gene mutations and also affects the activation of genes - or not). Across all cancers, the risk of the same active cancer dis - ease between all twins was found to be about 10%. Between identical twins and breast cancer the risk was only 20%. Your lifestyle has a huge impact on how your genetic code plays out in your life time.  (Genetic cancer risk information from the New England Journal Of Medicine.)

The environmental factors Dr. Craig Venter speaks of are our day in and day out lifestyle choices. You are in control of whether your body becomes diseased or not.

My work in this world (for 3 plus decades now) has been to teach, support, and role model healthy living choices that promote long-term wellness and prevent disease. 

To make my life's work more accessible to all I have created online courses to:

• bring easily understandable information to you,
• in the comfort of your home,
• on your time, course work can be listened to and learned whenever & wherever is convenient for you (although I do not recommend late nights, burning the candle at both ends, to view course materials... plenty of sleep, every night, is one of your body's best healing mechanisms, and
• at affordable tuition.

Each mini-course gives you a deep look into the root causes for health problems and the specific lifestyle choices and strategies you can invite into your own life to prevent disease and heal your body from any current ill health challenge, dis - ease.

My eCourses I offer to you and your vibrant health are listed here:

http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/online-classes-1/

My wish for you, and why I do my work in this world, is for health that shines from your each & every body cell! Cheers, Paula

Wanting The Work

I confess. I am an observer of people. I think it is part of the path I walk on this earth. I observe to try and find solutions for people as they struggle with life's challenges. In my previous blog post I spoke of Working With What We Already Have. On this note, I want to remind you that each and every one of us, has inside of ourselves, ALL that we need to heal; to reach every goal we have for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.  We just need to work with what we have, call up our strengths (and we have far more than we think or give ourselves credit for having), and put into action the steps we personally need to create a healthier lifestyle.

OK, so first... my floor, back to working with what I had and my promised update. Here are finished pictures of the floor. Not bad for 100+ year old floors that the pro floor guy told me my best option was to bag them and start over!

Perfect? No.

Shabby chic? Yes.

I am happy!

Working in health care (true health care and not just disease symptom management) for 30 years and most recently for 20+ years in personal health education,  I have made discoveries. We often have amazing goals for ourselves. We know where we want to be with our health, our body weight, and our physical wellness (emotional & spiritual wellness as well). Our end goals are very clear to us and we do truly want to attain these goals. Most of us have pretty good ideas about what we need to do to get to our goals.

Here's where things get sticky: wanting the work that leads us to these goals of health, weight loss, healing, physical fitness, emotional and spiritual happiness, etc.

In order to be successful at reaching our goals, we have to want to do the work to get there. This means changing the way we eat, what we eat, and our lifestyle habits little by little, step by step (or making sweeping changes if that is how you best function) and sticking with our changes to reach our goals and beyond. Maintaining health means living these newly incorporated eating and lifestyle habits for life, changing them up a bit as the seasons of the years and our lives evolve and need something different. (An example would be slowing down to embrace aging gracefully: giving you body more recovery time between fitness routines and allowing for more sleep at night than when you were 20!)

Reaching and maintaining our goals, for life, is a true "on top of the world" feeling!

The work comes in when we have to suffer a little to meet the challenge of change. I will give an example here in weight loss. In order to lose weight we have to change the way we eat, get rid of the garbage factory made food, and learn to eat less. With this comes the struggle to get through the feeling hungry challenges. If you are used to eating large meals, the challenge will be to leave the table feeling less than full and relaxing, breathing, and moving through this feeling knowing you will be ok, you will survive without feeling stuffed and full all of the time. Going hungry is the work of losing weight for some people. Wanting this work makes reaching the goal of weight loss easier and more acceptable for you to accept the challenges that lay before you.

This is true of many forms of lifestyle change to improve (yes, even heal) lifestyle diseases. To reach the goal of saying goodbye to diabetic, cholesterol, or hypertension medication and ill health symptoms, we must want the work that lies between the present dis - ease in the body and achieving the goal: major eating and lifestyle changes, living completely without sweeteners, and being OK with this and the impacting consequences of our changes.

My job as a natural health educator RN is to give you tools to support you through the WORK of making change and achieving goals.  I have raved about the power of yoga to heal on numerous occasions. I am throwing it out to you again because that is just the kind of gal I am... repeat, repeat, repeat until someone actually listens to me!  (I keep thinking this will someday work with my kids!)

Yoga IS Snake Oil

Why I Love Yoga And Other Thoughts On Whole Food, Whole Health Healing

5 Shocking Ways Yoga Causes You To Lose Weight

The above three blog posts are inspiring posts on the benefits of yoga. I encourage you to explore what makes your mind, heart, and soul sing so that the path of the work comes more easily to and for you every day. Maybe for you it is meditation, prayer, martial arts, Qi gong, walks in the woods, etc. Find your personal soul medicine and practice it daily. Wanting the work will become second nature.

Much love, Paula

PS Upcoming Fall Online Class: 

Herbs For Enhancing Your Natural Health

PPS Beloved Beet Recipe!

Substance part of the beet dish:

6 small to medium local & organic beets, gently steamed (save and drink the steam water)
2/3 can organic chickpeas
1 handful each of organic walnuts and pecans
1/2 handful organic pine nuts

Dressing:

2/3 to 3/4 cup full fat yogurt, from pasture raised cows / goats / sheep, etc.
2 tsp. local maple syrup
Fresh herbs of your liking: Basil, Oregano, Mint, Spearmint, Thyme, Tarragon, Chives , Garlic chives, Rosemary (I used all of these from my herb/weed garden out in front of my home)

Serve on a bed of local, organic, baby greens & sprinkle or slather with chunks of soft goat cheese