Morning Goodness

October 16th, 2009

Photo by Torkil Stavdal

Photo by Torkil Stavdal

Imagine this. You wake in the morning, feeling relaxed and rested. As your mind awakes you start feeling excited and curious for the day to start and what it might bring. But it is not quite starting yet. You still have a little time to simmer and practice some selfcare while getting yourself ready for it.
You might scribble in your journal; dreams or some morning thoughts, meditate, do some morning yoga or stretching exercises. Have a cup of tea with the morning paper (in hardcopy or on-line:) or check your email. And of course…get a good healthy sit-down breakfast. Yes, please be seated. The body is so designed that it needs the angle of the seated position to digest best. Spend a little time to chew and focus on the fact that you are eating. This way you can feel the fullness as it starts happening rather than afterwards, when you ate too much and feel stuffed or as if your breakfast is just a big lump in your stomach. Which it is. Un-chewed food does not get digested very well. Your saliva is needed to help you break-down your food so you can absorb it. It is also important to eat slowly to avoid acid reflux.
Why is breakfast so important?
Breakfast means breaking the fast of 12 hours since the last meal, that means your dinner. By morning, have you given your body the time it needs to detox, regenerate, and rejuvenate overnight? Of course this does not mean for you to skip breakfast, it means to eat dinner earlier. Dinner is not the important meal for your body. Breakfast is.
So yes – It is true what they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It starts you off on the right foot so to speak. It gets your bloodsugar balanced and your energy charged. Depending on what you choose to eat of course. The sugary danish or donut will not help you out. Quite the opposite actually. If you eat something that kicks you into a sugar-high right away in the morning, then that is what your day will look and feel like. Highs and lows. The bagel and creme cheese will probably just get you feeling heavy, tired and bloated and you can spend the rest of your day trying to get yourself moving. (Imagine the bagel and creme cheese in a glass of water and see what happens to it, then compare to how your stomach feels:)
So – a good start to the day means get yourself a good grain.
There are several choices. Muesli, if you like the cereal approach, oatmeal, kasha, or a good mix of chewy grain. Brown rice, barley, groats, or some other grain of your liking can be mixed together or eaten by itself as a grainy chewy morning porridge. I like to mix in the black forbidden rice or the Japonica rice from Lundberg with my brown rice. Another yummy option is millet, it is a nice sweeter lighter morning grain.
This way you have a good start on your day. A meal that gives you stable energy, a balanced bloodsugar and a steady mind.
Apart from the fact that you feel good from the food and that you did not rush out the door half dressed, should help you realize that the 1/2 hour or so of awaking earlier helps you make the difference between the daily grind and the daily flow. That will also help you gain that 1/2 hour back later on in the day because of having more energy, better mood, and higher productivity.
Morning Grain Recipe:
You can cook the grain the evening before – I tend to cook a big pot of grain and keep if in the fridge for a couple of morning breakfast bowls. Up to 3 days is fine.
Wash the grain well.
Use 1 cup grain to 2 – 2 1/2 cups of water.
I like mine a bit softer so I add that extra 1/4-1/2 cup per cup of grain.
Pinch of salt (which is important to make the grain “open up”, taste better and sweeter, and make it more digestible)
Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer and leave it alone for 45 min.
Check in on the grain but don’t stir. When done it should still be a bit wet looking.
Leave it in the pot unstirred and undisturbed. After 15 min the rest of the water is absorbed. The grain is ready- or you can keep it like that for the next morning.
When serving:
Add cinnamon to help balance your bloodsugar – and it tastes good too.
Add nuts and seeds. I like sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds,
maybe some pecans or walnuts or almonds.
If you like it sweeter, use agave.
It is a much lower glycemic index than sugar, honey, or maple syrup.
Brown rice syrup is however also an option.
If you like it more like a cereal as the left picture above, use rice-, almond-, or hempmilk. Soy milk is also an option.
Sit down, enjoy and chew very very well :)
For some more grainy information, see the newsletter achieves below.
The Grain Issue, October 2007

Imagine this. You wake in the morning, feeling relaxed and rested. As your mind awakes you start feeling excited and curious for the day to start and what it might bring. But it is not quite starting yet. You still have a little time to simmer and practice some selfcare while getting yourself ready for it.

You might scribble in your journal; dreams or some morning thoughts, meditate, do some morning yoga or stretching exercises. Have a cup of tea with the morning paper (in hardcopy or on-line:) or check your email. And of course…get a good healthy sit-down breakfast. Yes, please be seated. The body is so designed that it needs the angle of the seated position to digest best. Spend a little time to chew and focus on the fact that you are eating. This way you can feel the fullness as it starts happening rather than afterwards, when you ate too much and feel stuffed or as if your breakfast is just a big lump in your stomach. Which it is. Un-chewed food does not get digested very well. Your saliva is needed to help you break-down your food so you can absorb it. It is also important to eat slowly to avoid acid reflux.

Why is breakfast so important?

Breakfast means breaking the fast of 12 hours since the last meal, that means your dinner. By morning, have you given your body the time it needs to detox, regenerate, and rejuvenate overnight? Of course this does not mean for you to skip breakfast, it means to eat dinner earlier. Dinner is not the important meal for your body. Breakfast is.

So yes – It is true what they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It starts you off on the right foot so to speak. It gets your bloodsugar balanced and your energy charged. Depending on what you choose to eat of course. The sugary danish or donut will not help you out. Quite the opposite actually. If you eat something that kicks you into a sugar-high right away in the morning, then that is what your day will look and feel like. Highs and lows. The bagel and creme cheese will probably just get you feeling heavy, tired and bloated and you can spend the rest of your day trying to get yourself moving. (Imagine the bagel and creme cheese in a glass of water and see what happens to it, then compare to how your stomach feels:)

So – a good start to the day means get yourself a good grain.

Sit down, enjoy and chew very very well :)

For some more grainy information, see the Path for Life Health Notes : The Better Morning - how to change the morning Grind for the morning Grain.

Get ready for a new way of life :)

jeanette

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Food is the New Fashion

August 14th, 2009

tomato

Photo by Torkil Stavdal

In times like this we still want to feel our best. The times when there is enough money around we tend to somehow show it through our fashionable – and expensive- choices.

We shop when feeling down and dress up when going out. We are socially active and represent ourselves as having it together.

What then happens when it all falls apart and we cannot afford the anti-depressants of shopping and the self-esteem lifting of socializing?

We go inward. For some, this means to retreat to the couch and watch TV with chips and chocolate. However, this does not do the trick of countering depression or boosting the self-esteem. Quite the opposite. The fats and sugars wear us down and out and cause a downward spiral which only gets harder and harder to break every day. The staying in and being inactive causes a deepening of the feelings of being incapable and with that an even greater barrier to being social.

If any of this sounds familiar you are not alone. That might not help you much though. But what will help you is getting a new perspective.

Food is the new coping skill of the people in the know.
Food will help you feel better sure. I probably don’t have to tell you that. But what you might not think of is that food is also becoming the new fashion. It is becoming the new way of you expressing who you are and what you believe in. It is becoming how you can mingle and be social without shopping for the latest fashion and still be fashionable.

How about that. Taking better care of yourself and gain in your well-being. That is a new level of self-esteem that is far more lasting than the latest fashion you can buy in a store.

Restaurants are certainly becoming more and more food fashionable too. It used to be the scene that was hip, cool, and notable. Now it is about the food. Food is sustainably grown and harvested. Vegetarian and vegan food, and even raw food, is gaining attention from a broader audience of eaters.  Chefs are looking to make a difference and are shopping at the farmers markets to serve the freshest and most local. The decor is no longer as important as the quality of the food. The presentation and the taste of what is on the plate is gaining the attention, not the chair that is chosen by the designer. The designer is the chef. More small restaurants are emerging again where the chef himself is the owner – and sometimes even your server too.

My point is. Eating well is no longer for the privileged few it is for all of us. We all need to see our food as our daily basis for living well, being well, feeling well – it is simply a well choice.

So my suggestion is – Enjoy your food, find the best you can, buy local and sustainable, eat organic as much as possible. Now that is a fashion you can use to make you feel better.

Eat well, Be well,

ex-fashionista gone foodista, Jeanette

Note: The appetizer dish above is from local heirloom tomatoes, layered with homemade guacamole with some smoked salmon in it, roasted baby artichoke hearts and a few sprouts to accessories. We served it for our guests at a recent dinner and they seemed to love it.

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The Scale of Health

June 21st, 2009

baby on scales

The scale on the bathroom floor or the internal one by which we measure our health are two very different ways of weighing in on what is going on with your health and your body. Many struggle with the numbers on the scale and many clients come to me expecting one in my office. There isn’t one. I believe we each need our individual relationship to our scale as an instrument of information. I certainly do not want to be using it to measure the progress of my clients since that number is but a number. How we use the information is very important to how we see ourselves. A scale is a measure of relativity.

See I got up this morning and I gained 2 llb overnight. Wow. Wait a minute. I just spent one month losing 4! What is wrong with this picture? The scale is! And this morning I actually felt really good -and slender. So those 2 llb must be someone else’s!

See the scale gives me a number that I fortunately don’t trust much. Sure it tells me my weight in a given moment. But it does not tell me my size since muscles weigh more that fat. Nor does it tell me how I feel physically or gives me my measure of well-being.

I do use my scale though, even if I’m not sure it is actually correct because it is probably about as old as me. Which means 46 for those who might wonder. So yes I am supposed to be in the age where it is harder to manage my weight. And I am sure it is for a lot of people. But for me – the scale helps me do that. It gives me the relativity that I need to stay within a range that I have decided works for me. But that range is easily 4 llb more or less.

The scale holds such power for so many though. It also holds the mood of the day, the level of self-esteem, and a judgement that we will never win. It is a bit like the stock market. It can go up and down a lot in one day, but over time it gives but a tool to keep in range with ones goal for weight management. If we put too much value on the number on the scale we can end up feeling horrible about our weight and with that comes emotional eating, which tends to squeeze that number on the scale in the wrong direction.

I do get on my scale more or less every day, but I pretty much forget what the number said within the second I get off. I use it more as a tool for seeing how well my body is doing. That means. Is it holding on to too much of yesterdays foods or processing it well.

Reality is unfortunately that it is so much easier to gain weight than to lose. 1 llb per week is a good average weight-loss, but many have heard of these miracle cures where you drop a lot of weight in a few weeks. We are not talking about the same matter of weight though. Water weight and false fat certainly holds pounds and size but the weight that creeps up on you over time is the fat and that is also what takes more effort to get rid of. This is often why someone hits that bump in the road of weight-loss. Once the initial easy false fat comes off, it is time to get into the nitty gritty and by then most lose the motivation because there is not as much progress and it takes more effort.

One must for long-term weight-loss is consistency. But the scale will not be. It will swing. It measures everything. How much water you drank. The amout of food that is in your stomach. And what is in the process of travelling through your body’s system. Which by the way can take a few days depending on what you ate.

So the true scale is the one by which you measure your progress of making healthy choices. With more and more consistency. And then the true size is the one you feel best at. That does not have a number. It has a sound. Ahhhhhh. I feel goooodddd.

Now go put a smiley face on your scale where the numbers used to be or write “I Love Me” in big bold letters. :)

Enjoy balancing your scale,

Yours in health and joy

Jeanette

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Keeping up your immunity.

May 28th, 2009

Swine flu pig with maskThe news are stating that underlying factors play in to the risk of swine-flu. Of course – the underlying factors is another way of saying – how healthy are you? I think we have to realize that it is a flu which means, we are somehow all at risk and it is our immune system and our bodies ability to be stronger than the strain that determines our risk. Is it not the same with any disease that is caused by a bacteria or a virus? We are at risk when our immune system is down so that is what we have to deal with. Another risk factor that lowers immune system is stress and fear. What is the anti-dote to fear? Action!

The action to take, when strains of a flu is floating around, is boosting your immune system. And yes, removing yourself from situations that are increasing your risk are of course a good idea. It is the same with any cold, wash your hands and don’t be up close with someone with a cold or you might get it too. 

So far we have seen a few cases relative to the amount of cases of other diseases that we see everyday. However, we have become so used to accepting that someone is diagnosed with a disease that eventually too could cost them their life since it might take years before it is critical, so we don’t get caught up in it. And we also don’t pay as much attention. I’m not sure I like that idea.  Why are we not as alarmed and concerned when someone is diagnosed with diabetes, cancer, heart disease. That we don’t see our own ability to act and rely on medication. Or do we not realize that we should be as concerned that those conditions are as lethal as the swine-flu? 

It comes back to the same thing over and over again. Take better care of yourself! CARE, everyday, how you treat yourself and your body. Health is accumulative so it is an everyday daily effort. Sorry. No other way. 

It is a commitment to make as so many others you make every day. Yourself and your self-care is really the most important commitment you can ever make. And your self-nourishment is beyond food. It is how you live and how you think, how you practice care every day and how you feel about yourself and others. 

Does that boost your immune system – it does indeed. Because it entails all that you do for you. Eating better and choosing better foods. Omitting and avoiding foods that hurt your immune system.

A few simple guidelines:

Stay hydrated, get your sleep, avoid coffee or limit it a lot, avoid dairy or limit it a lot, avoid refined foods like sugar, flour products, and junk food. 

Add a lot of green vegetables, white ones too like onion, garlic and add ginger and turmeric for anti-inflammatory and tasty boosters. Make sure you eat complex carbs instead of refined ones – that means cooked wholegrain (brown rice, quinoa, millet)  instead of pasta and bread. Have lots of omega 3 fatty acid rich foods, like nuts, seeds, fish, avocado and flax-seeds. 

Drink herbal teas that boost the immune-system like pau d’arco, burdock, elderberry, and echinacea. These also come as herbal tinctures. There are also many supplements that boost the immune system. Oil of oregano is a potent fighter for the immune system and is both anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Medicinal mushrooms like reishi and the likes are great for this too. There are supplements on the market that concentrate these. New Chapter for example has one called Host Defense.

And move. Don’t get stuck in-doors on the couch. Get out there and do something to keep your body and your circulation going. Just don’t strain yourself to the point of exhaustion and don’t catch a chill after a run.

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The Life of Food

May 11th, 2009

art_cancer_foodI just saw the film – The Future of Food. I encourage you to see it to gain more awareness about how the quality and origin of your food affects you. 

We have to realize that our food is what every day and every moment affects us. It becomes our blood, it becomes our thoughts, our emotions. I know that sounds a bit surprising and it might not directly seem obvious, but food becomes your blood and therefore your hormones, hence affects the quality of the whole of you so to speak. 

The Future of Food speaks of GMO foods from Monsanto. It is quite obvious from the film that we need to understand how eating such foods affects our health and our future. Our immune system is at stake and so is our basic quality of life. Not to mention the future of the individual farmer and with that our global economy and health are both at stake. 

Our food is information for our system. Every cell in our body “communicates” and picks up both the nutrients from our food but also the information that comes with or as the food. So -when food is genetically modified it is communicating differently with our entire system. Not only does genetically modified food affect our DNA, it directly causes havoc because of the mis-information from the altered food. 

We can ask ourselves how can human beings can be behind the development of such food, that directly cause us harm? I have to wonder too, why profits are more important than our health. The decline of the world-health in the name of profits! Not to mention my frustration, that when science knows so much about saving the crop from bugs, how can they not also take into consideration that human beings need to be saved too and that eating this altered food does not help us survive.

This alone is enough to make me want to shop organic foods and farmer’s markets. No matter the price because the cost of my health is not negotiable.

Eat well, choose local, love yourself more, and eat whole foods that are not genetically modified!
Please say NO TO GMO!

jeanette

To see the full movie : The Future of Food

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All the Lonely People

May 3rd, 2009

art_connective1Was that a song? I think so. But it is also who I meet everyday. It seems we would not be since we are so busy connecting all the time. With so many people that we daily see, meet and talk to, link up to over facebook, and email and….I can go on. But are we then lonely? Yes. We are. And I am not saying this holds true for everyone, but see for yourself.

So many people I know, meet or counsel are wonderfully active, accomplished, and radiant human beings, and lonely. We live without community and yet – community is all around us, but it does not exist on its own. We have to create it. We have to participate. I also believe that when we are so busy communicating from our intellect, we forget, or rather avoid, communicating from our heart. And with that we become lonely. We are missing the connection that the heart-to-heart brings us. Maybe that is why they call it a heart-to-heart when someone has to have a “real talk”. We have to sit down with each other and be honest, truthful about our emotions, and share our troubles, pains, and joys. Why don’t we always do that? 

Sure I get that we cannot walk around being all heart all the time, but we can certainly come from a heart centered place. So many have lost the connection to even their own heart. Heartbreak after heartbreak. Disappointment after disappointment. Hurt after hurt. And it adds up to a closed off heart. The fear of the pain becomes the pain of living in a closed off heart space that no one can access, barely ourself. We end up living in stress and emotional struggle. We get ill and we fight for our life. This is when many start learning to love themselves. Often that is why severe illness can be the cure…of a life that is not fulfilled. 

How about some radical self- love to start a new way of living. Remember how curious you are when you meet someone new? How you are wondering about who they are and you want to get to know more about them. Try that with yourself. Surprise yourself. Stop the same old thought patterns that only talk down to yourself. Become your own best friend. Talk some sense into yourself as you would your best friend when he or she is “down”.

When you can connect to your own heart you can fearlessly connect to others. And we can finally live heart-to-heart.

with love and all heart

jeanette

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Healing the Self

April 27th, 2009

art_emotionsOne time long ago someone said to me “how long are you going to grieve”? This mind you was about 3 days after my father’s death. Which by the way was only a bit more than a year after my mothers. Something about that question reallllllly set me off. I got so upset that I started screaming at him as loud as I possible could. I felt utterly ignored for my feelings and for my need to be with myself to process what had just happened in my life. Not to mention that 2 years of being a caretaker was over and I could start focusing on myself again.

And that is then what I started doing. Needless to say that boyfriend did not get to share my new path. My new way of being with me which then also become my new way of being in the world and which has lead me here today.

My journey has been one of coming into my own and healing my emotional self. As I move through it I uncover more. Strange how I can keep realizing old emotions that are still keeping me in a thinking and therefore behavior pattern. The journey is not one of getting rid of them as that boyfriend wanted me to do. When he said get over it he basically said ignore it. When I was much younger I had to ignore many things that I felt because I did not know how to cope with it. Today I can let my heart speak and my emotions be felt and heard. Especially by me. The more we can be aware of how we feel, be honest in our acceptance of how we feel, the more we can heal. So let this be your inspiration to dare feel your feelings. Allow your emotions to speak their truth. Be in your heart so you can love yourself for it. And with that you will get through it all even if it is never over.

-with compassion and love

jeanette

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Health Matters

April 27th, 2009

Golden PathIt does it does. It really does. On weekends I give myself off. Every Sunday is a day off. A day off from working with clients, a day off from avoid certain foods, a day off from having to having to feel my very best. Why would I do that you might ask? Because we all need a day off and we cannot be good alllllll the time. And actually. This matters. Is it about being good or is it about taking care of myself? Take a guess? What do you tell yourself?

For me it is about taking care of myself and I know that one day off is not going to change my direction. It might slow me down a bit but it will not get me off my Path. Health is continuous! Health is accumulative. Do be super hard on yourself and think that one day off is going to “kill” all the days you have been “good”. AND – I don’t call it being good!!

I call it “my health matters to me”. And it matters a lot. It matters for how I feel within 30 minutes after eating – because yes that is all it takes for food to make it “impression” on you. On your expression of it. Every bite will become part of your blood which then becomes part of your brain, your body, your hormones, your emotions, your energy. Did I say enough or shall I keep going?

This means I control how I feel at 30 minute intervals by what I eat! Of course you feel it more with stimulating foods and it is far more subtle when you eat a meal. Unless of course the food hang-over and the bloating is enough sign for you that the meal you just ate did not work for you. You are actually supposed to feel energized and really good after a meal. For years I had digestive issues that caused me to have severe stomach aches and cramps after meals. I did not feel good that is for sure. I finally figured out my food intolerances and as much as that can be a real pain to observe at every meal, it is nothing compared to the pain I had to live with before.

So I choose to take care of myself everyday now. So I can feel my best both now and in the future. Health is accumulative. And for now all I can say is it works. At 46 I feel 36. And rumor has it I more or less look it too. I also don’t have to battle with my weight as many women my age do. So even if health is all that matters to me, the added benefit I welcome too.

Have a great and healthy day.

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Your Health, Your Path

April 12th, 2009

treeheartSeriously! Do you ever wonder if you know? How do you feel – is that the same as being healthy? Many times my clients ask me if they need blood test before coming to see me so that I can tell what might be wrong with them. Sure, that is helpful. But tell me how you feel! That is telling me how healthy you are. We need to learn how to start trusting our bodies again. How to talk to ourselves and understand the body’s messages. Symptoms are just that – messages about what is out of balance.

In modern western medicine, we diagnose symptoms as illness and disease. We add them all up and give them a name. That way we know what is wrong with us. Do we? Does that make us understand what to do about how we feel? Not really. This is what I love about what I do. The Sherlock Holmes of health. I back-track. I look at the footprints and the little signs along the way and figure out how to get back to where the “crime” happened. Well, I call it the trauma. Somewhere along the way our system no longer can handle what we do to it everyday, and it starts miscommunicating. It can no longer balance out and create the self-healing that it is actually designed to do. That is how the healing process can start again. Going back through the signs and symptoms and get to the root cause of the imbalance. And then we start again.

Get in touch with your health! Learn to listen. Get involved with your own body, health, and lifestyle. Grow your life by understanding your emotional patterns. It is allllll good. A Path for Life indeed.

Best wishes for health and healing,

Always
Jeanette

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