Are You an Upper or a Downer?
The infectious smile of happy kids, definitely an upper!
On your walk through this world, do you lift people up or drag them down?
The way you carry and express your life force energy can be a healing tonic to yourself or a noose about everyone's neck.
Stop yourself in the moments of your day and quickly assess your:
- body posture
- facial expression
- tone of voice
- words and thoughts
Are you inviting yourself and others to relax, smile, and love life?
This is your daily "Yoga" call to action. When we lift each other up the whole world vibrates at a higher level of energy and color. Smile and make a rainbow today!
My lift up for the next four days:
I have been asked questions about "scholarships" to take the ♀ Moon Cycle Wisdom course; young woman showing interest but wanted an affordable option for their younger year's income. As an uplift to the world I am offering scholarships, because you see these are my thoughts... the more females who engage with their own female energy around their menstrual cycles and life on this planet, the more:
- positive energy for all. Life and energy IS a balance and when we are in the flow of balanced female-male energy peacefulness will be a side effect. (all energy balances out: hot-cold, light-dark, birth-death, etc.)
- more happy females taking this course will in turn encourage other females to take this course and the results will be: see #1 above, and
- It all becomes a vibrant cycle (no vicious cycles here!) of paying forward female healing energy.
here are My "Be An Upper" Scholarship Plans:
4 Hours for 4 Days Scholarships to the ♀ Moon Cycle Wisdom Course
- April 12th, noon to 4 PM $85
- April 13th, Noon to 4 PM $100
- April 14th, noon to 4 PM $115
- April 15th, Noon to 4 PM $130
(All dates linked directly to the "scholarship of the Day" Order Page, click and join the Female Fun!)
The sooner you enroll to heal your energy around your female moon cycle, the bigger your scholarship and savings!
Check Back on April 16th. It is a special day!
My End Note:
Be an Upper!
Longing for the Wild Ones: Nature's Medicine!
Every year I find myself in this same space: longing for the wild foods of spring. Above I am digging leeks on 4/16/13 and the field of leeks and box of leeks pictures are from 2014. I am anxiously waiting for the leeks to pop their 'lil green heads up again this year.
The return of the leeks means many things to me:
- spring IS here,
- summer will follow sooner than the wait from winter to spring (so grateful for this!),
- more wild foods and flowers will be popping out of the ground daily, and
- my body is in sync with nature!
Wild leeks are nature's medicine. (Who am I kidding? All wild plants are nature's medicine!) They have similar healing qualities of garlic: immune boosting, good for blood pressure, a blood and spring tonic, cold and flu remedy, and the leaf and bulb juice is good for ear aches and infections.
Wild foods are the gifts that our bodies need after a long cold winter. They provide green food, vitamin C (and so many more vitamins and minerals), stimulation of the liver to open and cleanse the heaviness of winter out of our digestive tract and ultimately our body cells, and vital life force energy to up our internal level of vibrancy.
Soon to look for:
Violet leaves and flowers
Violets are rich in vitamin C, a much needed vitamin after a long winter. Vitamin C helps in the spring detox and the upward movement of life force energy. Violets are rich in enzymes, chlorophyll, vitamin A, carotenes, rutin (helps maintain blood vessel strength and integrity), and many more nutrients.
Young Nettles
Nettles are, by far, my favorite plant (and I love all the plants!). It is one herb I would add to every herbal healing blend for its nutritive properties. Nettles nourishes each and every body cell, helps to build strong bones, nourishes the glandular system, aid the reproductive tract (pms, migraines, prostate, libido builder), great for allergies and asthma, and just about any and every ailment I can think of. This is because of nettles high nutritional value; when the body is nourished the body heals!
Young Dandelion
Um, Um Yum... dandelion greens and think liver. Dandelion is a bitter tonic for the liver helping with digestion and helping with the spring cleanse out of winter heaviness in our cells and life force energy. Dandelion is very high in nutrients (again, good for cellular health and build bones), is a mild laxative, and is good for skin conditions to name but a few of dandelion's virtues. Spring brings us this flower and the leaves to eat at just the time our body needs it. Nature is so wise!
Sorrels: Sheep and Wood sorrels
Sorrels are from the genus Oxalis. Oxalis means "sour" and is named due to its high oxalic acid content. Oxalic acid is considered "toxic" when consumed in large quantities because oxalic inhibits the absorption of calcium. Oxalic acid is not considered a problem when consumed moderately and with a varied diet. Many domesticated vegetables, including spinach and broccoli, also contain oxalic. People who are challenged by gout, rheumatism, and gallbladder and kidney stones should avoid it.
Sorrel is rich in vitamin C (the sour and vitamin C again contributes to the spring cleanse of winter's stagnation in the body). Traditionally it has been used to treat scurvy, fevers, urinary infections, mouth sores, nausea, and sore throats.
If you have never been one to grass your front lawn or the fields and woods near your home... I encourage you to find a good guide book with pictures, descriptions, and healing information and get foraging.
Remember the forager's ethical principle: take only what you need and make certain to leave plenty of plants so they can reproduce and repopulate the area you are wild harvesting from. If you take all the plants you are creating a micro-extinction in that area.
Garbage Disposal Syndrome
My last post, The Diets I Have Tried, was written in good humor as well as to provide healing information around the "games" we play with our eating habits and styles to promote cellular health.
Recently I heard a blurb on the radio about crazy things people stuff into their sink's garbage disposal unit clearly not thinking logically about the consequences of what they are doing. It made me laugh as I was thinking that is how many people stuff food into their mouths: without thinking with logic and common sense about what they are eating and the consequences to their long-term health. I say this with MUCH love, heartfelt humor (the garbage disposal stories were very funny!), and as a wakeup call to people to start thinking, start using logic and common sense around their food choices.
Over the years of working in Nursing, Health Education, Holistic Healing, and "coaching" people back to vibrant health I have heard this statement many times, in different incarnations:
"I want to lose weight, lower my high blood pressure or cholesterol,
heal my diabetes, etc., but I do not want to change anything I eat.
Can you recommend an herb or supplement that will fix my problem?"
I have so often, very lovingly, told dear people that I wish I had a magic wand I could bop them over their head with and make everything better OR a true magic bullet treatment that would take away all their troubles and struggles.
The healing principle is always in the living system itself (your own body - my words). All living organisms are self-constructing, self-defending, and self-repairing. Teach men and women to prevent disease by avoiding its causes rather than attempt to cure it by administering the causes of other diseases [drugs] - then health and happiness will abound everywhere. We are convinced that mankind can be educated in correct principles and trained in right practices so that sickness will cease to trouble us. These statements on Natural Hygiene by Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, Naturopath, 1895-1985
Questions to ask oneself before you pop that food substance in your mouth:
- Is this a whole food?
- Will this food contribute to my vibrant cellular health OR will it degenerate my cellular health and lead to degenerative diseases?
- Are there artificial ingredients of any kind in this food substance?
- Did nature make this food or was it made in a factory?
- Would people 250 years ago have been able to eat this? And then the all time Paula favorite to share with clients:
- Is this best for my wellness?
The way you live your life and the way you feed your body are not separate from the way you feel and the health or ill-health (dis- ease) you experience.
Remember your digestive tract is not a garbage disposal system. Your digestive tract is your seat to cellular health; your whole body's health.
Feed yourself and feed your kitchen's garbage disposal well!
Stayed tuned for a blog post on "Eating Hygiene" coming soon!
The "Diets" I Have Tried
First, let me define diet as simply the food one eats. Your diet is what you eat at a meal, over the course of a day, and more so over the course of your lifetime. Diets change with the seasons (especially if you eat local food) and with our moods.
Now I realize that most people quickly think "weight loss" when they hear the word diet. If I mean weight loss, I will specifically term this a weight loss diet. Many of us have tried different eating styles in the quest for better health, vibrant energy, balanced body weight, etc.: raw food, vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, carnivore (I am thinking a serious Dr. Atkin's diet here!), local, seasonal, gluten free, wheat free, juice fast, herbal tea fast, and on and on the quest goes to get it right. I am feeling a frisky need to share the things I have tried, how they worked, why I changed the "diet" yet again, and all the funny tales that accompany my food adventures. I have to laugh as it is all a learning journey, a trek through the food of my neighborhood and the world!
I offer up this information with humor and love. I think I am suffering from Cabin Fever and a serious desire to move into the Spring Fever mode!
Spring Fever Crocus flowers, 2014 at the Potsdam Food Coop... they want out of their winter "cabin" too!
Framed photos compliments of Jayne at the Potsdam Food Coop.
Vegetarian-Vegan:
I first veered from the diet I ate growing up after reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins when I was 26, maybe 27 years old. I then decided eating vegetarian was the life for me. This vegetarian eating quickly evolved into vegan eating; if I wasn't going to eat the actual animal because of the horrid way they are factory farm raised, I could not see me continuing to eat their products (milk, dairy products, and eggs) as being any different. This plant based diet of mine went on for 7 or so years. I had fun learning about all kinds of "new" veggies and beans that I had not been exposed to as a kid. You know, in walks the kale and collards and the broccoli not slathered in cheese sauce. Who Knew! Broccoli comes without cheese sauce? This diet is the how, when, what, where, and why of my learning to cook and eat seasonal veggies in amazing ways. Along this part of my diet trek I tried macrobiotic, Ayurvedic, and various other ethnic, plant based diets. What a fantastic way to learn spices, herbs, and food combinations that I was not exposed to in the meat, potato, and side salad and/or cooked veggie diet of my youth (Now trust me, I am not knocking my diet of childhood and young adulthood. Read on and you will see why.).
I was 33 when I experienced my first pregnancy. Along with pregnancy came dreams... dreams of Mom's roast beef dinners (yup, the meat and potato thing was back with me!), chicken and dumplings, venison stew, and various other omnivorous - carnivorous things my Mom whipped up in splendor. I wanted meat. My Dad, being the wise man he is said this: "Obviously your body is telling you something, get down here for dinner, your Mom is making you venison stew." So I did! The road from Hannawa Falls to Brasher Falls is not a long one when Mom's venison stew is at the journey's end! I continued to eat meat here and there throughout this pregnancy and mostly squelched my body's cry for protein with lots of free-range eggs and organic cheeses. Keep in mind; I ate a very healthy, whole food and plenty of protein foods vegetarian diet. No junk, no refined, no packaged vegetarian fake food products... just lots of veggies and beans and whole grains (pre-soaked and cooked in a thermos, I did it up right!). My only question from these vegan years: How did I survive without butter?
Lessons Learned:
If I was going to eat a vegetarian only diet again; and believe me, I eat plenty of vegetarian and vegan meals, I would do some things differently to prevent weight gain (more about this later). I would eat my beans coupled with lots of yummy, raw nuts and seeds, skip the grains most of the time, pile on the veggies, and enjoy fruits in moderation.
Veggies, veggies, and more veggies.
Many ways to whip up veggies and enjoy without cook books or recipes: how to spice them, how to blend them with other foods, how to enjoy then in ways never before!
Balanced diet for me: I tend to be better satiated with a leaning towards protein and fat and I maintain my healthy weight this way.
Omnivore (again):
Pregnancy, post pregnancy, and breast-feeding found me searching out local sources of grass fed meat / dairy and pasture raised eggs. I was an omnivore again! To my delight, the 15 to 20 pounds I had gained eating a mostly vegan diet literally melted off my body without any effort. I say mostly vegan diet as on occasion I would eat pizza with cheese: whole grain crust pizza loaded with yummy veggies and organic cheese!
Lessons Learned:
Mom's cooking rocks!
See vegetarian lessons above.
Weight Loss: herbal tea and juice fasts
Over the years of vegetarian and vegan eating... let me tell you the fun and funny diets I tried to lose this gained weight. Yup, now I am venturing into the "weight loss" diet realm. Now keep in mind, this was all pre-motherhood and I had plenty of time to mess around in the kitchen and the health food store learning and trying new things, prepping food, and making fresh juices and herbal teas. Post-kids... I just have to have food ready to eat!
I was always mystified as to why I was gaining weight on a vegetarian diet. It made no sense to me; I was eating a healthy, whole food, and animal fat free diet. Why was I getting fat when I was leaving the animals to keep their own fat alive and intact on their body frames? In retrospect, it was all in the grains, too many grains for my body. This is where the knowledge that not one diet is healthy for every human on the planet comes into play. We must consider our physiological make up, where we live, the climate, etc.
In come the herbal tea and juice fasts. I figured I could wash that fat right out of my flesh, re-set the metabolism, clean things up a bit, and get a fresh start on life and eating. I would eat raw foods for a day, drink nothing but fresh juices and herbal teas for 3 to 7 days or so, another day of raw foods, and then back to my vegan diet. My weight loss on these fun food frolics away from solid food? Big fat zero. Never worked! But I did these juicy, herbal fasts over and over. Now I confess it was fun and easy. The food prep was minimal and the clean up a snap. No prepping, chopping, and cooking food. Just a simple zip the veggies down the juicer tube and voila'... my meal was ready! I loved carrot, celery, and beet juice. Yummy!
Lessons Learned:
The best combinations of fruits and veggies in juice blends.
Juices are easy "to go" meals.
The body feels so good when it is emptied of food for a few days.
Beer Fast (or Beer & J.D. Fast):
Warning: While this form of liquid detox diet was fun in the moment (much fun), I have to warn you that its cellular enhancing properties are not recommended over the long haul of one's life. : ) And, for your information, the J. D. is not a juice related thing!
If you are wondering: "What? Paula on a beer diet?" Yes, in my 30 plus years of studying and living holistic health and healing... I have not been perfect. There, I confessed my food and beer style sins.
So, the beer fast, It goes like this:
Grab a mug,
Grab your sister (or any tight friend will do),
Bring a tent and sleeping bag,
Head for a weekend party that consists of kegs of beer,
No, no! Food is not required in the packing plan. I told you this was a beer fast! (The JD part, Jack Daniels, is optional based upon your strength of constitution.)
Lessons Learned:
One can survive several days on beer.
The colon is completely cleansed out after a weekend of beer fasting.
This type of fasting works more efficiently and pleasantly at younger ages.
My "taste" in beer has grown up a bit.
I miss my sisterly fun!
Macrobiotic:
Eating macrobiotic is recommended to heal the body of cancer and many other health concerns. Obviously I needed to look into this healing diet! (I was probably 28, maybe 29.) I read up on it, attended a couple of classes, and joined a weekly dinner group. Both the classes and dinner were through a group in Syracuse, NY called Wellspring.
The foods I was introduced to were amazing: pickled stuff, fermented this and that, sea weeds (on a more palatable note, sea vegetables), spices I had never heard of, many rice varieties, and on and on.
Lessons Learned
This was the start of my "local" food mentality. Pure macrobiotic, when you get to the heart of the teachings, is truly about eating the local foods, what is available locally and seasonally close to your home.
This made so much more sense than me, a basically French decent person, eating foods local to the country of Japan. Seemed silly transporting Japanese foods to my plate in Northern NY State.
Ayruvedic
Ayurvedic healing is a system where your specific healing and eating plan is based upon your constitution, your body type. What you eat is based upon the needs of your body: hot, dry, cold, wet, etc. and the 6 tastes in food to balance your specific body's needs, appetite, satiation, and taste buds. I am giving a very over simplified definition of this healing lifestyle.
As per one practitioner: The most important principle in the Ayurvedic Diet is that your food is fresh (without pesticides, additives, and other chemicals), seasonal, and as often as possible local. Fresh doesn't, however, mean raw. The best Ayruvedic meals are freshly cooked, whole meals.
Are you seeing a pattern in my learning through diet, dieting (not weight loss but simply eating plan) through learning?
Lessons Learned:
Again, it is the local and seasonal thing coming at me. All these ethnic cuisines I played around with just drove home the point that our food needs to be as fresh as possible which means local and seasonal food... not food shipped in from hundreds and thousands of miles away!
Gluten Free:
Well, except for beer, of course (It is that beer thing again. But no more all weekend beer fasts for me. I am not certain a 50 year old body can handle that lifestyle!).
I do buy wheat free beer (so I avoid the biggest issue around gluten, modern wheat), organic, and brewed in Europe. I figure European beer has a better chance of being free of GMOs and other unhealthy stuff.
Why I chose to go gluten free:
psoriasis on elbows, knees, shins, and eyelids,
joint pain,
digestive woes,
wheat that has been horribly altered from the original heritage grains people ate from time beginning that contains *Super-Gluten now, and Ta-Da...
GMO pesticides.
Lessons Learned:
My psoriasis, digestive woes, and joint pains disappear when I leave wheat alone.
I have learned so many other wonderful grains exist and can be used to make anything wheat was used to make. The consistency and end product is quite different from the regular wheat stuff we are used to. (2019 update: 99.75% of the time I am totally grain free and feel better. Seriously, Thai food without steamed rice noodles would be criminal!)
Gluten Free beer is nasty. I assume that European brewed, Belgian style ales are made with non-GMO barley and hops. The gluten in barley is a totally different thing than the gluten in modern wheat.
Belgian style ale is yummy. Have I mentioned this before?
I am certain I could tell many more tales, if I thought on it long and hard enough, about all the fun food diets I have tried, the foods and spices, and the cooking methods. Life is a journey; food is a journey... just make sure to have some good quality beer and butter (from grass-fed cows) along for the trek!
SHARE: Tell us your healing diet stories in the comments below.
*Super-Gluten: I use this term as a blanket word for wheat that has had the percentage of gluten in it changed horribly and in the cross breeding of wheat to arrive at modern wheat, we have created gluten proteins that have never existed before in heritage wheat.
The UN-Local Food Radical
I need a raise of hands here: If there was a patch of green grass in your front yard... how many people would be out there grazing?
I have cabin fever, local food fever, warm sun fever...
Here in Northern NY the winter has been brutal; longs weeks of very cold weather. It has been years since I have lived through week after week of below zero temperatures. Snow, we have had plenty of snow this year to boot.
By the end of March I am always eager for the green foods of Spring: (Spring IS capitalized here because right now, Spring is very important to me!)
- wild leeks
- dandelion greens
- spring nettles
- violet leaves
- wild sorrel
- spring sorrel
To have some green nettles to chomp on, what a pleasure that would be.
It is but February 28th and I am crawling out of my skin for fresh food, food I can pluck off the vine or cut from the ground, food that is alive and vibrant with life force energy. I know it is a good two months before I am digging wild leeks. What is a girl to do when the root veggies, squash, and cabbage are no longer appealing to her? (Believe me; I am very grateful to my local farmers who work hard all season to keep me well stocked with these wonderful, winter storage veggies. I just need a break from winter; a bowl of freshness served up with sunshine.)
My radical plan to circumvent local food
I am off to the Potsdam Food Coop this AM to buy organic produce
- big, juicy navel oranges from Florida,
- sweet, furry little kiwis from California,
- luscious red peppers from wherever they were grown and harvested, and
- any other delicious, juicy looking fruit or veggie that comes from someplace that is sunny and warm.
I will bring them home, park my butt in a sunny spot (it is gorgeous and sunny today, by 2 PM my front porch will have warmed to at least 50 degrees... this is like a tropical paradise to me!), and indulge in food grown far from my home. My thoughts will go to the people responsible for caring for the orange grove and the kiwi orchards (Do you call a Kiwi farm an orchard?) with love and gratitude for the work they do to grow, harvest, and pack these sun filled wonders to be delivered to my hands. Gratitude to the many hands the crates pass through and the people driving up the East Coast and across this big continent, through the nights, to bring these delectable non-local foods to my hands and belly. This infusion of packaged sunshine, vitamin C, and so many other amazing nutrients may just keep me humming along until my feet are bare with the green grass under them again.
Enjoy the sun today, wherever you are and remember the words of my youngest son when he was an 8 year old boy:
"If you lift the corner of the clouds the sun is always shining." Eli
This is a warning to you dandelions... I will be eating you!
Please share your secrets for surviving cabin fever, the need for non-local food, and the need for grass under your bare feet.
Serve Up More Veggies to Your "Valentine" Kids
Beet Infused LOVE Pancakes!
Photo Courtesy Of Christina Smith, Parishville.
I am asked this question quite often:
"How do I get my kids to eat more vegetables and less junk?" (This topic pertains to anyone in need of more veggies, not just kids!)
The easy answer is this: "Serve them vegetables and do not bring junk into the home. They can only eat what is available to eat."
So I know you Moms are chuckling and maybe thinking... easy for you to say Paula, you don't live with my kids.
My kids ate every fruit or vegetable I gave them (Well, maybe not broccoli, but remember that cruciferous veggie taste is a strong one!) until a certain age. It was like veggie eating (not so much the fruits) almost stopped on a dime. It left me wondering what had happened to my happy to eat veggie kids. The funny phenomenon is this: when my oldest boy decided veggies did not tantalize his palate anymore, it was a license for my younger son to bag eating veggies too. "No way Mom, Jake doesn't touch them and I am not either."
What IS a Mom to do?
I say: Sneak feed your kids more nasty (their word) vegetables!
Photo Courtesy Of Christina & Brycen Smith, Parishville.
- Puree cooked beets in the blender with the milk, eggs, and butter for the pancake batter. Pour into mixing bowl and finish making your pancake batter.
- Use cooked squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. in the same manner. I do confess... broccoli in pancakes is not a winning combination with kids! Remember to add spices to these beautifully colored pancakes: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, star anise... perhaps a dash or two of vanilla!
- I used to add spinach to pancakes and called them "Shrek" pancakes. They loved it and gobbled them up. At the time, they loved the Shrek movies. When they finally figured out my scam... I was not popular in the kitchen for a bit of time. It did work for a couple of years so I was grateful for the added veggies.
- Chocolate milk for my kids was this: raw goat's milk, cocoa powder, 1/2 ripe banana, vanilla extract, and cooked squash. Use enough squash to add sweetness but not so much that the end product is thick like a milk shake... unless, of course, you want to pass it off as a milk shake. For years my kids had no clue a milk shake actually contained ice cream!
- Add cooked beet to a berry smoothie, not so much that it overwhelms the berry taste. Beets are very earthy in taste.
- For more information on beet's blessing to your kid's and your body's health, click here and scroll down to read beet information: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2013/01/26/the-beet-goes-on
- Puree a bit of cooked squash into pasta sauce.
- Chicken or other bone broth? Puree veggies into the broth. Use just enough veggies to add vegetables to the broth and your meal but not enough to turn the broth into stew. Bone broth video added below.
Fun shapes always amused my kids into eating veggie infused pancakes.
Photo Courtesy Of Christina Smith, Parishville.
For more fun ideas of how to add veggies to your life, click here.