Divine Weight Loss Tip #3

First of all... use these weight loss tips to heal any health issue that challenges you and your beautiful body!  

Healing your body, mind, and soul is an amazing process; make it fun... start today!

It is me, in my summer (2014) yoga studio working towards wellness goals and nourishing the intrinsic motivation I have created in my 23 years of practicing yoga (now, in 2020, its been 29 years. Wow). What you do not see here is my 4 cats, lounging about the deck, engaging in their own form of yoga and wellness promotion. My camera man, Eli, missed the cats!

So, here we go...

Tip #3

Self-Responsibility: If you want to lose weight AND keep it off for life, you HAVE to take self-responsibility for your own health and healing... self-responsibility for your life.

You are responsible for choices you make regarding your health. 

Health is about self-responsibility. The ability to heal lies within us.  The responsibility to care for our bodies to ensure lifelong health, prevent disease, and heal lies within us. 

By making natural choices in one’s eating and lifestyle choices, the symptoms of disease heal and an individual can and will return to whole, vibrant health. 

Whole Health Healing is not about what you are giving up, it is not about deprivation.  It IS about what you are inviting into your life: the choices, changes, and additions that will open doors to healing, health, body weight re-balancing, and happiness in ways you may have never imagined or experienced.

Gathering support:  I do encourage you to surround yourself with like-minded people, people interested in pursuing their health and healing and re-balancing their body weight. However and but… is there not always a however or a but?, ultimately the responsibility to change your life lies with you and within you.

Intrinsic motivation is absolutely needed to create wellness goals and intentions, work towards your goals and intentions, and turn them into permanent lifestyle changes.

Support is a beautiful thing (here is the but) but you have to be your best support, your best cheer leader and coach.

Let’s say you rely on a support buddy to get you through a decision. What happens when you text or FB message your support buddy and get no reply?  “Help, I am about to order and eat an entire banana split” or “Help, I cannot seem to get my shoes on and get out the door to go for my daily wellness walk.”

Now what? Who do you rely on right now? You, of course! You are your best wellness coach because you do want to choose what is best for your long-term health, body weight re-balancing, and healing.

I am, in the link here and above, referring you back to Divine Weight Loss Tip #1.

Have much fun creating your intrinsic motivation, your personal self-responsibility for you! Paula

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!

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 "New" Favorite Song

So, you may be asking: What does a song have to do with health and healing? 

Everything I say, everything!

Musicians weave soul magic with their words and the musical notes.  Human healing begins at the soul's level.  Remember me writing about how healing the physical body begins with healing the emotional and spiritual body? What better catalyst than music!

An earlier post, about another favorite song, urges using forgiveness as a self-healing tool.

My new favorite song and how it fits into this whole story...

As you know, from a previous post on blasting belly fat, I recently ventured down into the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Grand Canyon. After I posted this adventure story, a dear friend sent me the link to a song I had not heard in years:  In the House of Stone and Light by Martin Page.

Listening to the hauntingly beautiful music and soulfully insightful words of this song returns me to the same peace, deep inside my heart and soul, that I felt down in the Havasupai's canyon world.

(See pictures below.)

The House of Stone and Light as we walked into the Havasupai village.

Meandering through this House of Stone and Light!

Little Navajo Falls In The House of Stone and Light.  Yes, we swam there!  In fact, I am on that beach!

The sunrises and sunsets on the canyon walls were completely mesmerizing. The light, on the sandstone walls, absolutely glows. (I live in a sandstone home, I recognize my stone home's beauty and, yet, this canyon home is an intense sandstone home space!)  American Indians speak of sacred places where there are high levels of spiritual energy.  It was obvious to me that this oasis, in the Grand Canyon, is one of these sacred places, a vortex of energy.

The sunrise, hiking out of The House Of Stone and Light.

I would love to take my healing energy back to Havasupai.  Maybe I could offer my nutrition and whole health healing to the Havasupia people. I could support their health around the high incidence of diabetes and diabetes related health problems.  I could be giving back to the people who opened their canyon home to me and my family!

For now, I listen to my new favorite song, over and over again.  My kids tell me I am obsessed with this song about the canyon home.  I tell them the hike down into this beautiful home of the Havasupai was a deeply moving and soul cleansing experience.  

If they hand me my backpack and tattered Teva hiking sandals, I will know they are sending me packing back into the canyon!  I will go, willingly!

My dirty feet and tattered Teva sandals after a day of canyon hiking!

Your Take Away Health Information:  Find music that soothes and excites your soul.  

Sing, dance, let the music flow through you like the healing energy it is.  Much Love, Paula

PS  The lyrics of the song are deep, meaningful, soul searching!  Tell me this is not a healing experience...

O Mount Kailas uncover me
Come my restoration
Wash my body clean

I've been walking
Along a crooked path
Where the walls have fallen
Broken me in half

I'm telling you
I will not rest till I lay down my head
I'm gonna go
In the house of stone and light

I shall not cry
For the blind man I leave behind
When I go
In the house of stone and light, yeah
In the house of stone and light

Holy lady
Show me my soul
Tell me of the place
Where I must surely go

Old man waiting
At the gates for me
Give me the wisdom
Give me the key

I'm telling you
I will not rest till I lay down my head
In the house of stone and light

I make my way
Oh, gonna be such a beautiful day
In the house of stone and light
In the house of stone and light

Let me in beneath my skin
In the house of stone and light

It's been too long
My spirit's been at war
Havasupai Shaman
Let me be reborn

And I will embrace
The sun upon my face
Come the day
I awake the child inside
In the house of stone and light

And when I go
I will op', op', open my eyes
In the house of stone and light
I will see you
In the house of stone and light

Looking in beneath my skin
In the house of stone and light

Going inside
In the house of stone and light
(Stone and light)
Looking for the child
In the house of stone and light
(See myself got such a good shelter)
In the house of stone and light

In the house of stone and light
(I'm gonna let this child come washing of water)
In the house of stone and light
(He's speakin' softly to me)
(I must go there, to find my soul, yeah)

In the house of stone and light
(I can see so clearly now)
(I will go there, to find my soul, yeah)
In the house of stone and light
(Well keep on knocking on my door)
(I must go there, to find my soul, yeah)

In the house of stone and light
(I will go there, to find my soul, yeah)
In the house of stone and light
(I must go there, to find my soul, yeah)

Songwriter:

Martin Page

His albums are awesome. Check them out for some soul soothing, healing music!

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!