Divine Weight Loss Tip #2

Eat Fat and Other Divine Weight Loss Tips

Ok, first I need to take a step backwards from weight loss tip #1. I am so quick to let the words flow from my fingertips onto the keyboard. Then, I have more thoughts... it's a wonderful cycle (no viscousness here).

Weight loss is the process of re-balancing body weight, returning the percentage of adipose tissue (fat) to lean body tissue (muscles, bones, organs) back to a healthy ratio.

Weight loss is truly a mind, body, spirit exercise. When one approaches it just from the space of physical, "Oh, I need to lose weight from my physical body" and neglects to address the needs of the psyche and soul... weight loss is rarely successful over the long haul.

My intention, in offering up these tidbits of wisdom from my life, is to support you in your quest to balance body weight.

So... here comes tip # 2.

Tip #2:  

Stop deprivation. Invite pleasure into your life.

Reminder: Fat IS pleasure.

Fat is pleasure to your taste buds, to your body's satiation* signals, to your cellular health...

Learn more about healthy fat and learn to eat it.

Me... I love butter, obscene amounts of butter from grass fed animals!

*When your body feels satiated by being nourished with adequate fat and protein (from healthy, whole food choices, of course!) you avoid the "snacking on carbs between meals syndrome." Fat helps you give up your refined carb and sugar habits.

Eat well: nourish mind, body, and spirit with wholeness*.  Love, Paula

PS Feel free to leave comments around your wisdom with weight loss, body weight re-balancing.  When we band together, for the greater good, we all benefit. Your stories can help others in ways you cannot even imagine.

And remember, the *words and thoughts you take into your being are foods for the mind and soul. Feed yourself well with whole, positive thoughts and words FAT with Love!

Divine Weight Loss Tip #1

Want To Lose Weight?

Choose Wellness

and

Other Divine Weight Loss Tips

A White Pine Wellness Romp at Debar Pond, NY

Tip #1

Choose Wellness NOT Weight Loss. 

Wellness Romp, with Nancy and Basil, at Debar Pond.

So, I have heard this many times... "What would you know about weight loss, you don't have any weight to lose?'

I confess, this was not always the case. After growing up as a rail-thin child and teen, I flourished into my adult years thinking I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.  This had always been my eating plan... why should I change?

By age 30, I weighed 20 pounds more than I do right now. (My sisters called me "Nanny with the Fanny") Now this is not such a horrible thing but how did I get here and how was I to not get any further on this weight gain path? Losing 20 pounds was tough, very tough for me. Remember, I grew up super skinny no matter what I ate. It's a tough deal, 30 years later, to need to learn how to lose weight. 

My concern: That 20 pounds had literally ambushed me. I never saw it coming.  I ate healthy (or so I thought I was eating healthy... a vegetarian, high complex carb eating plan) and I was concerned that if 20 pounds could overtake me in 4 years... where would I be in 20 years? 50 to 100 pounds overweight? Yikes!

I knew I needed to make some big changes in my life.  If not, where would I be today? 

Bottom line:

• I changed my eating habits. I gave up vegetarian eating. My first pregnancy helped out here. Pregnancy had me dreaming, literally, of roast beef, chicken and dumplings, and pulled pork dinners.

• My big breakthrough was choosing wellness over weight loss. Yes, click this blue link and remind yourself what this wellness choice means for you and your mind, body, spirit health.

• When I stopped trying to lose weight, stopped focusing on my weight, and instead made lifestyle choices based upon what was best for my wellness... well, the weight loss was no longer an issue.

• This is a self-responsibility choice. When we take responsibility for our health and healing, in all areas, our weight drops and our health soars, healing happens.

Stay tuned for more Divine Weight Loss Tips.  I have several more in store for you.

Be happy, be healthy, chose wellness!  Love, Paula

PS I have about 12 more tips and will post more frequently until I have polished off my list of wisdom around weight loss. Remember, it is my wisdom. Use your experiences and create your own wisdom around health, weight balancing, and healing.

Future Wellness Romp: Kayak down Debar Pond to Debar Mountain (You can see Debar Mt. at end of pond), bushwhack to Debar Mt, and climb to the top. Guess I will have to bushwhack back to my kayak and re-paddle the pond! This is a true wellness choice that will entail burning a few calories and building muscle and vitality. 12/30/2018: no, I still have not accomplished this BUT I have climbed many, many ADK High Peaks in the 4+ years.

Salad Dressing Made Easy!

Summer abounds with lush, juicy, crunchy, yummy produce.  A simple salad dressing, lite and tasty so as not to overwhelm the taste of the amazing fruits and veggies, is essential in the kitchen.

Commercial salad dressings are full of garbage, fake ingredients, that do not nourish your beautiful body cells.

Making a salad dressing, from scratch, is terribly simple AND you will know every ingredient that goes into making it (and into your body!). You can create a cell nourishing, heavenly tasting salad dressing in less than 30 minutes. (This includes picking the fresh herbs and rinsing them off!)

Have a quart size, wide mouth canning jar, on hand for the finished product.

1. Pour 2 cups raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (ACV) into your blender.

1. Skip outside for some fresh herbs. Yes, it is important to skip. When we create food from a happy, loving space, our energy infuses the food and nourishes all who eat it.  Go ahead, skip.

1. At home I skip to pick: basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley, cilantro, mint, and dill. Today, I am writing from my family's camp in the ADK Mts. I have to go with what is on hand: my rogue oregano and thyme plants all over in the lawn, wild mint, dandelion greens, and raspberry and strawberry leaves. Shh, don't tell my kids about the wild stuff, they might freak out.

My Friend Basil, my Hornbeck Canoe, and an ADK lake... does it get better?

1. Pick big handfuls of herbs and remove all bugs. Despite the bugs lending a 'lil extra protein to the dressing; the bugs prefer to be left outside with their lives intact. Rinse the herbs and put into the blender with the vinegar. (By the way, at home I use local ACV from Martin's Farm Stand. I love how there is always a big gob of the "mother" on the bottom of the gallon jug of ACV.  This can be used to ferment another batch of AVC.  I tried feeding it to my kids on a spoon. Seriously, it is like sauerkraut or yogurt... good for the gut.  I got it past their mouths once.  I was threatened, by both my sons, if I ever tried that slimy trick again, well it was not a pretty threat!  I just eat it myself and figure some day they will come around to Mom's holistic way of eating!)
2. Put cover on the blender.  This is a very important step. If left undone, it can be a catastrophe in the kitchen... green liquid dripping off the ceiling in a circle above your head.  Trust me, I know this to be true!
3. Blend into a green, foaming puree.
4. Pour into quart canning jar.
5. Stir with a spoon to calm the foaming green stuff.  It will seem like it has swollen to fill the whole jar but it will calm down.
6. Add a good squeeze of organic, yellow mustard. I would say about 1 tbsp. More mustard will not be an issue.
7. Pour in some organic, extra virgin olive oil to fill jar. No, the olive oil featured below is not organic. It is from Italy where Monsanto has not created their death grip on food!  I do not put the olive oil into the blender because it makes the blender an oily mess to clean.  I simply rinse the green, herbed vinegar stuff out of the blender and drink. No soap or hot water required for clean up.
8. Voila'!  Dressing fit for fresh, local produce nourishing your cells!

Optional ingredients: unrefined sea salt by the pinch or two and either local, raw honey or local, maple syrup.  Maybe a tbsp. of the sweetener.  Maple syrup will blend in at any time in the making process.  If using honey, add honey to the vinegar herb puree when blending, as it mixes together better.

To use: Use a hefty, long handled soup or serving spoon.  Remove jar cover and stir well.  Remove a big spoonful as you are stirring.  This keeps a better blend of oil to vinegar, otherwise the oil rises to the top quickly when you stop stirring.  This is fine, you want this effect.  Commercial dressings stay blended because they have chemical binder ingredients.

Storage: I leave my jar on the storage shelf under my kitchen table, no refrigeration required. AND it will last until you use it all up. Vinegar preserves!

My Healing Yard, Take 2

Come along, time for another healing walk through the back yard.

A couple of weeks ago, the boys were mowing the lawn.  Suddenly the lawn mower quit. I immediately wonder: lawn mower ill or kids quitting when the job is not half finished? Jake yells to me:  "Mom, come over here, please."  I go over to see this nice sized patch of purple flowers he has neatly mowed around.  I was not sure what they were but glad he left them intact, knowing that next year the patch will be bigger!

So, my sister googled the image, a few days later, when I find some in my Mom's yard.  This purple beauty is Self-Heal (Heal All), a powerhouse healing plant from the Mint family!  Good for: sore throats and mouth sores, fevers, diarrhea, skin wounds and sores, a diuretic for kidney ills, and conjunctivitis.

This humble plant contains antibiotic, hypotensive (lowers blood pressure), and anti-mutagenic (think cancer) properties. Traditional Chinese Medicine considers it a cooling plant and uses it to treat the liver (inflammation) and aid circulation.

Thanks Jake for seeing these 'lil flowers in the lawn and knowing to protect them from the hungry lawn mower!

Self-Heal growing next to a friend, White Clover.

White Clover:  Colds, coughs, fever, and vaginal infections. Flower tea is used for arthritis and gout, health conditions in the same family.

White Clover

Wild Strawberry leaves were once used as a nerve tonic, for bladder and kidney ailments, jaundice, scurvy, diarrhea, stomachaches, and gout. Fresh leaf tea was used for sore throats. Berries are eaten for scurvy and gout... something tells me to eat them just because they are yummy! Root tea was used to treat gonorrhea, stomach and lung ailments, irregular menses, and as a diuretic. What a humble little plant!

My yard is carpeted with Wild Strawberry plants. I have caught the cat's eating them on many occasions, bet they were self medicating their bellies!

Rhubarb root is delightful for constipation as it stimulates the liver to release bile which promotes colon cleansing. The root helps lower cholesterol, is an antiseptic, relieves spasms, has anti-tumor effects, is a diuretic, and a general tonic for good health. 

Rhubarb stalks are a good source of calcium, anti-oxidants, are a laxative, and a purgative.  Rhubarb is high in dietary fiber, protein, vitamin C, vitamin K, B complex vitamins, potassium, manganese, and magnesium. Rhubarb is a rich source of polyphenolic flavonoids like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.  Hey, rhubarb is a "superfood" that does not have to be imported thousands of miles!

Caution: Do not eat the rhubarb leaves... TOXIC ALERT!  The triangular leaves are extremely high in oxalic acid, which can cause severe illness in people, resulting in the common belief that rhubarb is poisonous. If the plant is subject to extreme cold, the dangerous acid can migrate into the stalk, so be sure to store rhubarb in a warm or temperate space, just like the climate it normally grows in.

My Rhubarb patch, looking a little ill this time of year!

Bee balm: My patch is a mix of wild and cultivated.  I planted it to feed the hummingbirds and have found it attracts bees, dragon flies, butterflies, and various other flying insects!  It is Wild Bergamot! The leaf tea is used for colic, to expel flatulence (gas) and parasites, colds, fever, stomachaches, nosebleeds, insomnia, and heart troubles. It was used with measles to induce sweating and "fever" the virus out of the body.

Bee Balm

Plantain: Here is a plant for your skin!  Got some pesky bug bites?  Chew up plantain leaves and put the chewed up "poultice" onto the bites.  Let them sit for a bit and soothe the bug bites.  This is back yard first aid!  Plantain is used to heal all sorts of skin issues, sores, and ulcers as it stimulates the healing process.

This plant is another healing powerhouse, used as a prominent folk cancer remedy - healing plant in South America. My yard is a cancer healing center!

Plantain is a confirmed antimicrobial.  This is what we should be making hand sanitizers out of, not toxic chemicals and over used and abused antibiotics.

Plantain's seeds (the seed stalks are an easy way to identify this plant) are mucilagenous and used to reduce cholesterol.

Plantain

Wild Geranium: This fun little plant grows atop my septic tank.  I am not sure I would ever want to harvest it from this spot...

Wild Geranium's root is used for stopping bleeding, diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhoid relief (seems to me it would be healing to varicose veins as well), for gum disease, kidney and stomach ills, and as a diuretic. The powdered root is used to heal canker sores, apply topically. Externally it is used as a cancer remedy.

Wild Geranium

Motherwort

Motherwort: This plant, hanging here on my front porch (above picture) was an awesome gift from Martha Pickard's farm, (Nourished Roots Certified Nutrition Specialist).  I am going to tincture it as Motherwort is a wonderful healing plant for the female reproductive tract: promotes and regulates menstruation, as an aid in childbirth, as a uterine tonic, and for menstrual cramps.  I would mix it with Red Raspberry leaf and Stinging Nettle leaf for an amazing uterine tonic and female reproductive tract healing remedy.

Motherwort is also used for asthma, as a sleep aid, for heart palpitations, for sciatica, fevers, spasm, nerve pain, and stomachaches.

Motherwort is equally awesome for the heart, nourishing and strengthening the heart muscle and its blood vessels. It is a remedy for most heart diseases and rapid heart rate (tachycardia).  I would blend it with Hawthorne Berry for heart-loving nourishment!

Below is the pint of Motherwort tincture I have brewing.  The Motherwort demands respect when handling, like Stinging Nettles.  It has sweet, little, biting blossoms whorling about the stem.  Handle carefully, lest you get picked!

Thank you Jane for always keeping a supply of organic vodka at Village Wine & Liquors, Potsdam.  Keeps my tincture "squeaky clean!"

I would be horribly remiss if I did not mention my best herb friend here... Stinging Nettles. Yes, that is a gallon jug of Nettle, Red Clover flower, and Strawberry leaf tea.  Thank you John Casserly for the big bag of dried Nettles.  What a gift!

Herbs ARE very healing to body, mind, and soul.  The herbs nourish the physical body with vitamins, minerals, and healing chemical constituents that we really do not need to know their every name... just know that they work.  Herbs heal the mind because of the thinking you do to learn about their healing properties. Learning about herbs is a mind soothing activity. You are taking self-responsibility for your own health and acknowledging, at a very deep level, that you are not at the "hands" of fate and genetics.  You can do something, everyday, to make yourself feel and function from a vibrant space.  Herbs heal the soul because... well, look at my friendly connections just in this post.  My sister, Ginny, googling Self-Heal and teaching me a new plant, Martha gifting me with Motherwort, John gifting me with Nettles, and Jane gifting me with always having organic vodka available. Every time I use these healing gifts, I will think of my dear friends.  Self-Heal will always flash my sister into my mind. Herbs keep me connected with the best people and that is very soul soothing!

Creeping Wood Sorrel: This is that fun plant kids pick to eat because it is sour tasting. I ate plenty as a kid! Perhaps it is a wise, intuitive, healing action for kids who need the vitamin C after a long winter in Northern NY!  

Traditionally, the leaves were chewed to relief mouth sores, sore throats, and nausea.  Fresh leaves are poulticed and used on skin sores and ulcers, as well as cancers. Leaf tea is used for scurvy, urinary tract infections, and fevers. Caution:  Large doses may cause oxalate poisoning (much like the rhubarb leaves above).

Creeping Wood Sorrel, notice the tiny yellow flowers.  When in full bloom, flowers will be all over them.  Maybe flowers are another characteristic that attracts kids.

I hope I have helped you to look at the plants in your yard from a different perspective, a healing point of view.  I always feel so sad for the lawn that people try to mold and shape into nothing but pure grass by cutting down and digging up plants and applying toxic chemicals.  When we leave nature as it is, bio-diversified, we have a healing oasis right out our back door (front door too!).

If you sit on the lawn, so you are close to the ground, and look at just a 2 square foot space, you will be amazed at the biodiversity of plant life in just that small space.  Even more fun, try moving about your yard, sitting in different spots along your journey.  By the end of your adventure, I bet you can find 50 to 100 different species of plants!

Go ahead, take a walk and look into your grass. Sit down and really look.  I bet you can find many, tiny plants interwoven with the grass blades, struggling to come to life. That is your healing garden!

Blessings, Paula

Self-Heal... another pretty picture!  I see Wild Strawberry leaves, plantain, white clover, and wood sorrel intertwined in here!

Like Almond Butter? A Nut Butter from Heaven!

So I buy the above Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter.  Who could resist the melding of such flavors?

Taste Test:  It is VERY yummy, in fact incredibly yummy!

So, I took a huge spoonful, as I always do with nut butters.  It was probably 2 tablespoons or so... I tend to err, about my estimates, on the conservative side!

This stuff is loaded with espresso!  Eating it made me feel like I think I would feel had I been smoking crack.  I have never smoked crack, but I am certain I would not feel good.  It's that extreme jittery and agitated feeling.  I do not do well in this mode.

So, today I tried a much smaller spoonful.  I am thinking perhaps 2 teaspoons.  Still, not so good in my system. (Keep in mind, I can not drink a normal cup of regular, caffeinated coffee and not feel this jittery agitated energy.)

One thing I know about me: I do not tolerate caffeine.

Who would of thought a nut butter could be like a drug!  Well, to my body and mind it is.

Seriously, try it, it is extremely delicious.  

Caution:  If you are caffeine sensitive, like me, it is probably not for you!

Butter is Back & Better Than Ever

Now that butter is on the cover of Time Magazine... it must be true!  Butter is a superfood! 

Not that my butter eating habits are much of a secret anymore.  I used to hide my butter habit to avoid the "you are going to clog your heart" advice and lectures.  Not that I didn't pass out a few of the very same lectures in my days*, see below!

A couple of years ago I wrote an article: "Unwrapping Butter's Bad Rap" for the Potsdam Food Co-op's newsletter, it became a blog post on Whole Food Healer, and was later revised and included in my first book.  Butter is a head liner!

I confess, I have always loved butter.  I only refrained from butter when I was *eating a vegan diet (for a few years, back then, sometime in my past life!).  That is over and butter was put back in my diet quite quickly. Mashed potatoes without butter?  What is the point? I ate them, for years, at the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table. Not anymore, mashed potatoes with butter for me, please!

Butter is awesome, yummy, the best!  Now a butter - nettle pesto, hmmm... I might be on to something here! Two of my favorite things fused together with love.  Heading to the kitchen now...

30 minutes later after picking some nettle tops:

Ok, it did work!  Butter, nettles, and garlic scapes.  Chives would be fine as well.  Have patience with the food processor as olive oil blends with the herbs more easily.  Try making the pesto with a 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil mix for easy blending!

So back to butter. My favorite way to eat it is off a spoon, fork, or knife.  Mom taught me this was not ok. I do it anyhow. Sorry Mom!     : )

Local to me, NY State butter!

This is my new favorite butter, thanks to Jessica Prosper of Prosper's Farmstead Creamery.  She turned me on to this butter because the cows graze on grass and the butter is made just about 3 1/2 hours from my home. Now, if I had a farmer close by making butter with grazing cows cream, that would be even better!

I buy in 2 pound tubs, a few tubs at a time.  I do not like running out of butter.  Makes me feel like an addict without my drug!  Seriously, I am not that bad. But, humor is always good!

Butter recently has had a big popularity boost with the Bullet Proof Coffee craze.  I tried it, why not?  I will try anything once!

What I learned, butter is best eaten from the spoon, knife, or fork! Why ruin good butter or good coffee? Want fat in your coffee?  Find a source of pasture-raised, whole cream or 1/2 and 1/2 and dose up your coffee in style. Coffe tastes better this way AND saves the mess in the kitchen making the bullet proof stuff. If you try bullet proof coffee and like it, go for it.

I prefer my coffee with butter like this:

on a piece of buckwheat toast.  Organic buckwheat grown close to me, just over the border in Canada, and baked at Little Stream Bakery. 

Now the amount of butter on this 2 inch by 3 1/2 inch piece of toast was triple, what you see above, by the time I finished eating it.  Maybe 2 1/2 to 3 Tbsp. of butter.  Butter is definitely better on toast than in my coffee!

Eat butter, it won't kill you!  Paula

PS  Maybe Gardenshare has an more local source of NY State butter from grass fed cows? Aviva, any thoughts?  

I know Birdsfoot Farm has some very, deep-yellow cream from their grazing cow!  

I want local butter that is that deep yellow!

Cheers!