Tag Archives: food

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Protect, Cleanse, Detoxify

I can’t believe it’s been over a week since my last post. Life has just been busy here and the energy shifts have not helped. Up, down, shake-up, toss and pull yourself up by your bootstraps kinda energy. lol

For example, I was so dead tired Saturday that I was beginning to think I was getting sick only to wake up today feeling normal again. And throughout the week my sleep has been odd. I either sleep so deeply I can’t recall my dreams or I wake up too early and have really strange dreams (like helping hatch a baby quail whose parents are as big as a person).

The veil seems to be really, really thin right now, too. My guess is it might have to do with it being Samhain (November 1st), when it is said that Spirit and the Gods are made more visible to mankind. I also sense that those Spirits trapped here on Earth (unconscious earthbounds/ghosts) are “waking up” and seeking the Light in droves, like a “clearing” out of the lower astral realms and those previously unable to recognize their own death. It feels like a flushing out of the shadowy depths of the unknown and unseen. Most wouldn’t even notice, but I do. I feel them. One made me smell and taste onion the other day and another was praying in Spanish as I awoke a couple of mornings ago.

I’ve been in major protection mode lately as a result. I don’t need any hitchhikers nor do I want any invasive thoughts that do not belong to me. I’ve had enough of that and I prefer the quiet of my mind to the paranoia and panic that ensues when I let my guard down. Violet Flame and white light of protection, smudging and incense, Light Language, candles and crystals – I’m using them all right now!

I’ve determined it is especially important to take care of myself right now, not only spiritually but emotionally and physically as well. I’ve recently done a ton of research into two topics specifically: Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) and Ayurveda for the purpose of cleansing and balancing the body and hormones.

HSP’s

If you are an empath then you are an HSP. They are one in the same. If you are a perfectionist you are probably an HSP as well, though the two are not mutually exclusive. If you happen to be a perfectionist and an HSP, then I feel for you as it is really tough.

The root issue for HSP’s who are perfectionists is they never feel good enough. They work hard to be the best but never seem to feel good enough. It is all because they make their work about them which perpetuates the self-worth wound. If your self-talk is “you” focused such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m nothing”, then you are you-focused in your work and life. Being “other” focused will shift it all and pull you out of the cycle.

You have to shift the paradigm of worthiness and the only way to do that is to take the focus off of yourself.

Maybe that is why I always feel so much happier when I am working a job that puts me in service of others – teacher, counselor, psychic, medium?

There is also the fear of the spotlight and of succeeding. Ouch! The only way out of that is to step into that fear, put yourself out there and succeed despite yourself.

Tools for managing your highly sensitive nature:

  1. Identify and understand YOUR needs. What brings your soul comfort? DO IT! What things calm you down, bring you joy, give you a sense of peace? Find them, do them frequently or whenever you feel overwhelmed, anxious, scattered, or ungrounded.
  2. Regularly have bodywork sessions – massage, acupuncture, sauna, physical activity (running, walking). HSPs tend to try and escape their body. HSPs tend toward being ungrounded, so anything that brings you back into your body – DO IT!
  3. Take care of your spiritual body – crystals, Reiki, meditation, qui-gong, yoga. Black crystals are best for grounding and protection such as smokey quartz, obsidian and onyx.

Ayurveda 

I have been drawn to Ayurveda for a while, specifically to help with fluctuating hormones and adrenal fatigue.

Notes from a recent online class I took:

Vata and Pitta are the areas to focus on when it comes to symptoms of peri-menopause and menopause.

For Hot Flashes – 1tsp Ghee and 1tsp Cardamon in hot water every morning. Drink coconut water throughout the day (cooling). Cut out sugar, alcohol, white flours, fried and processed foods. Take Omega-3 and Omega-6 (Evening Primrose Oil) supplement. Sugar is directly linked to hot flashes!! The higher the sugar intake, the more frequent and severe the hot flashes.

Routine is important – wake and sleep at the same time, eat the same foods, do the same practices (yoga, exercise, meditation, etc). Don’t change just because it is the weekend.

For anxiety – vata/pitta imbalance, do small detox sessions. Detox of mung soup and veggies all day for 1 full day. No sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no refined oils. Completely vegetarian, lots of water with ginger, and teas. Cook your veggies (nothing fried). You can make a smoothie in the morning with fresh greens and fruit.

Liver is very important in estrogen dominance!

If you wake between 1-3am with or without hot flashes this is sign that your liver needs to be detoxed (it’s the liver meridian).

Estrogen dominance symptoms – Hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, heavy periods, cramping, changes in PMS, fibroids, cysts, fibrous breasts all caused by zeno estrogens.

Toxic estrogens, or zeno estrogens come from chemicals or toxins in the environment such as parabens, phthalates, and plastics or synthetic hormones (birth control). These build up if the liver is not at 100%. Liver cleanse will help get liver to 100%.

Ways to cleans liver naturally:

  • Movement, keep the blood moving, exercise every day 15 minutes or more at moderate intensity
  • Eat avocado, asparagus, onions, garlic
  • Work on improving gut health – no sugar, refined foods, take probiotics, eat fermented foods.
  • Eat lots of cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts (4 servings a day)
  • Supplements – black pepper, broccoli seed extract, calcium, DIM, methalated B-vitamins and folic acid, glutathione
  • Dandelion root tea or greens, any bitter greens, radishes, increase fiber intake

For 1 week liver cleanse:

Eat: Fruits, veggies (mung soup), flax seed, drink teas with dandelion root. Juicing your veggies is okay but cooked veggies are preferred.
Take 4-5 charcoal capsules during the day and then take magnesium supplement at night. Visit a sauna daily or take Epsom salt baths daily. If you are really symptomatic you can do coffee enema.

For adrenal fatigue: Eat adaptogens such as – rhodiola, licorice root (not if you have high BP), Siberian Gensing, Ashwaganda, holy basil. Eat frequently, stress lowers blood sugar! Slow down and calm down as often as you can. Meditate. Magnesium supplement in tea every night.

For low progesterone – take borage oil, evening primrose oil, and black current seed oil. Take Vitex/Chasteberry supplement or use progesterone creams (plant based). No synthetic progesterones (birth control).

The Ayurvedic one-day cleanse (can be done more than one day):

Don’t eat: • All sources of gluten such as wheat, spelt, rye, kamut, couscous, bulgur • Refined sugar (avoid pastries, fast food, soft drinks, fruit juice) • Red meat, poultry, fish and sausages • Animal byproducts such as dairy and eggs • Fried foods high in saturated fats • Tomatoes • Refined oils • Preservatives

Do eat: • Fresh, organic foods (ideally prepared at home). • Mostly vegetables (go for green) • Fruit • Foods rich in antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, fibre • Lots of Mung beans in any form – they do balance and detox and work miracles on your hormones

EAT LOTS OF: Zucchini Broccoli Spinach Witloof Kale Cabbage/ Chinese cabbage Chard Fennel Artichokes Radish bok choi Asparagus Celery Brussel sprouts Bell peppers

Magical mung soup recipe for harmonizing and detoxing body and mind.

Soak one cup of green organic mung beans and soak them overnight. The next day wash the mung beans and then put them with 4 cups of water and some Himalayan salt in a pressure cooker until the beans are soft. It takes around 25 minutes until the beans are soft. If you don’t have a pressure cooker it will take 40-45 minutes until they are cooked.

Take another vessel and add 1 tablespoon of Ghee, 1/2 tsp of turmeric 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds 1 tsp of cumin powder 1 tsp of coriander powder 2 tsp of fresh ginger, chopped Garlic if desired 1-2 pinches of Asafoetida ( Hing) Salt per taste Heat the Ghee and put first the mustard seeds in the hot ghee and wait until they pop, then add the remaining herbs and allow them to get brown.

Then add the mung beans and mix it all together and allow the beans to cook for another 5 minutes. Finally add some fresh chopped coriander leaves and some ghee on top and ENJOY!

Source: Theheartswisdom.com

 

 

 

 

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GAPS – Day 3

Just a quick look at yesterday. I will likely not post much more on the diet from now on since my family is settling into it pretty well now.

My daughter had her first tantrum over what she could eat. She came home from school and wanted Raisin Bran as a snack. My mother-in-law told her no and she commenced to her yelling, kicking, and “dying” routine. So mother-in-law called my husband who gave her permission to eat it (boo on him!). I came home just after, oblivious to the drama and saw her sitting with her new bowl of cereal. I immediately told her no and then I got the tantrum. I stuck firm and we went for a walk. Cereal forgotten and replaced with mother-daughter time. Score!

My son is doing much better. He still hates his probiotic and the cod liver oil (who could blame him?) but he is eating better and much happier. My mother-in-law watched him yesterday and all I got from her is, “I hate this diet. There are no snacks for the children”. When I explained there were snacks just not the kind they were use to and that they would get over it, she said, “Well get rid of all of it then so they can’t see it”. I explained that not all of it would be forever excluded from our diet. Why waste good food? We didn’t eat bad before. Mainly I just need to toss the Goldfish, sweets and cereal bars. I told her I would.

I made Fish Soup last night – a first ever for me. I thought “Nasty” when I heard the name but all the websites online said it is a big winner for families with kids. So I made it. This was the recipe I used:

Fish Soup – total time to prepare and cook was approximately 40 minutes

  • 6 cups chicken stock (homemade)
  • Several baby carrots cut up
  • Two stalks of celery, chopped
  • Three sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 white onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 small bok choy, chopped
  • 1 cluster of broccoli florets
  • 2 Swai filets, thawed
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Lemon if desired

Put all ingredients except the broccoli and Swai in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and allow to simmer until carrots are tender. Add broccoli. Allow broccoli to cook until bright green (maybe 2 minutes). Add Swai whole to the pot. When the fish turns opaque and flakes then it is done (approximate 2-3 minutes).

Serve with lemon and more parsley if this suits your tastes.

This recipe was a huge hit. My husband said it was his favorite meal of the week (wow). My daughter didn’t like it much but she had a tummy ache during dinner.

Positive Change

As a family we have eaten a much greater variety of meats and veggies than is normal for the week and the week isn’t even done! In four days we have eaten – chicken, ground beef, ground lamb, bone broth, and fish. The fruits and veggies we have eaten is triple what we normally eat. We have eaten a dozen apples, 8 bananas, 4 pears, blue berries, bok choy, broccoli, kale, onion, garlic, parsley, carrots, celery, spinach, cucumber, beets, lemon, and ginger. I still have brussel sprouts and peppers I have not used yet.

If you are thinking of trying this diet, I will say that you will need to grocery shop more than is your norm. I have already taken two trips to the grocery store and am considering a third (fruit is low again). Also, if you think you are making enough for your family, double it. I made an entire crockpot of chicken soup and it lasted two days. I made an entire crockpot of meatball soup and it lasted ONE day. The night I made boiled meat patties there was one patty out of 10 that survived for leftovers. The fish soup was gone after one meal with only a tiny portion left which my husband took for lunch today. I never thought I would have to cook so much! Ha!

It can be done, though, and is not too bad since most of the meals are pretty easy to prepare. I have three small kids and was able to do it and I work part-time. I know I could do this if I worked full-time, though the grocery shopping would have been harder.

Overall I think this diet is a great way to get your eating habits in order. It has been a great learning experience for my entire family and my children did not die from lack of carbohydrates and sugar.

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GAPS

Day two of the GAPS diet. My husband came down with a chest cold yesterday, day 1, and my two sons both have it, too. The first day I took the probiotic (I am on day 3 of that) I got horrible stomach cramps which passed after about ten minutes. Thankfully I have not gotten the chest cold as it sounds horrible.

Physically I felt very achy the second half of the day yesterday. Even though I had not done much physical activity, I felt as if I had been walking all day. My lower back ached as did my left leg and leg joints. I got a headache around 8pm and it haunted me all night. Every time I would wake up, which I did about five times total, the headache would be intense, especially at the base of my skull and the top of my forehead. Even as I type this my headache still remains.

My daughter has been really into the diet, which is surprising. She is very good about taking her supplements and probiotics and drinking her broth with her meals. She was so excited that one of the first things she said when she got home was that she had to go poop as soon as she got to school yesterday. Gotta laugh at that one. lol

My middle son is not so excited. The first morning he took his supplements without incident but all day he was very picky about what he ate. My mother-in-law said he did not go poop all day. Sigh. This morning he has been an irritable mess, refusing to take his supplements and throwing a fit about drinking the broth. He did eat some breakfast, but only because I went ahead and made some coconut flour waffles to entice him. We really were not suppose to eat that until later but my whole family love eggs and since the eggs are added in the next stage I just went ahead and moved us to that stage rather than fight my children (and my stomach).

My baby is teething like crazy and also has the chest cold so he has been irritable as well. I have not really done anything with his diet, he is really so young that nothing much has changed. He does like the broth quite a bit, though.

GAPS Day 1 Menu

To give you an idea of what we are eating, here is what we ate yesterday:

Breakfast:

Everyone has 1 8oz glass of room temperature water or mineral water with 1tsp apple cider vinegar in it before eating anything. We take our multivitamin, cod liver oil, and probiotic with this water.

  • Me: coffee with honey no cream, chicken broth, chicken soup, one drink kefir (yuck!)
  • Husband: tea, pear, kefir, chicken broth
  • Kids: apple sauce, kefir, pear, chicken broth (middle son refused his)

Lunch (including snacks):

  • Me: chicken soup, chicken broth, celery with organic peanut butter, pistachios, lemon water, kefir (yuck!)
  • Husband: chicken soup, chicken broth, apple, peanut butter
  • Kids: chicken soup, chicken broth, apple, yogurt with honey, apple sauce, almond butter and honey

Dinner:

  • Boiled lamb/beef patties (these are yummy!) with zucchini squash, sour cream, beef broth

None of the kids resisted this meal and we all had seconds except for my son. The patties had fresh spinach, onion and garlic in them and tasted like mini-meatloaves. I let the kids have ketchup on them (bad mommy) but my husband and I had lactose-free sour cream on ours.

Dessert:

  • Coconut flour waffles with honey
  • Freshly juiced carrot/apple/ginger juice

What Do I Think of GAPS?

Honestly, I am not liking the diet. Even though we already ate very well, we were not a gluten-free family and do not intend to be after this is over. Also, Kefir is my nemesis. I think it tastes like eating rotten socks. Thankfully, yogurt is not out of the picture and I love yogurt. Store bought milk is a no-no so we bought raw goat milk, which I also hate but the rest of my family likes.  I do not like breakfast right now and cannot wait to include more normal breakfast foods. I also do not like boiling everything I eat. It just isn’t as good to me as pan frying or roasting. Thankfully that will not last long either.

In order to have what is on the list of acceptable foods I am going to have to cook in advance quite a bit. Today I am going to spend most of my day making muffins, pancakes, fritters and cauliflower meatball soup so that we have food for the rest of the week. I will have to go to the grocery store because I underestimated how much meat my family would eat. We ate 2lbs of ground lamb and beef last night alone! We also have eaten 8 apples and four bananas in two days. Ahhh!

I also don’t know if the diet is helping me or not. I know I need to give it more time, it has only been a couple of days, but I thought I would feel at least some change. Honestly, though, I mostly want my children to get use to not having refined sugars and I know this diet will do the trick.

Spiritually

Kinda off topic for this post but I wanted to update what is going on with me spiritually. Nothing! Well, not really, as there is always something going on it is just not always noticeable. I am sleeping lighter than I was but still very deeply. I wake frequently and my dreams are a little more memorable but nothing interesting enough to talk about. Yesterday I was in high spirits on the way to work despite the tummy troubles I had from the mineral water and probiotic I took. I had Reiki and healing on my mind all day and thought that I should visit a nursing home and give healing to the elderly people there. So I researched the possibility and found complications that made me second-guess my initial idea. I think the idea came from me wondering what to do during this spiritual lull and so that popped into my head.

In my research I found that certification was key to working at any health institution. Reiki was rarely the only healing modality one was certified in. Usually the individual was also a certified massage therapist or naturopath or something else. So I looked up some of the certifications these people had. Holistic Healer Certification (HHC) was the most common behind massage therapist and naturopath. What I realized from my internet search is that there are many schools out there offering certification in this or that spiritual healing modality but very few are accredited and I did not find any recognized by the federal government. Some charge hundreds of dollars for degrees and/or certifications while others charge thousands. Some have in-depth study while others do not. How is anyone to be taken seriously in holistic health without a common curriculum and nation-wide accreditation?

It is clear to me that in order for holistic healthcare to be taken seriously these issues must be resolved.