Divine Weight Loss Tip #4

In Divine Weight Loss Tip #3, I suggested you take self-responsibility for your health, healing, and body weight re-balancing. I am certain some of you, maybe many of you, thought it was a great idea but (here I go with the but again!) you may be asking... "How do I get here, Paula, to this space of self-responsibility and intrinsic motivation around my own health?"

Tip #4

Yoga... I know I have said this before and I am saying it again, yoga helps you return yourself to you. It is that intrinsic motivation thing.

Yoga is an activity of mind, body, and spirit merging, reuniting. Yoga brings you back to yourself. When you work from a space of inner calmness, you will make choices based upon what is best for your health.

A friend of mine from the world of yoga, Charlotte Bradley, wrote an article on her Yoga Flavored Life blog where she stated:    "I believe that my yoga practice can help me become the best person that I can be."  She asked her readers to share with her: "What is your why for practicing yoga?" To which I replied on her blog:

"I LOVE yoga because it makes me feel good, inside and out. Truly a mind, body, soul healer that brings a calmness to everything I do in life (even my melt downs have a calmness, serenity, about them!) Can’t beat that!"

Now I will confess, you can get to this space of inner wholeness, intrinsic motivation, in other ways. There are many mind, body, spirit (M, B, S) activities that work to heal you from the inside out. This is just a partial list from off the top of my head:

• Tai Chi
• Qi Gong
• Tae Kwon Do (If you are in the Potsdam-Canton area of NY State, I recommend Andrea Malik. She teaches classes for both kids and adults and is truly an awesome human being!)
• Meditation
• Prayer
• Breath work
• Walking meditation

Practicing a mind, body, spirit activity (exercise) helps you to explore your potential and invite the real you to emerge. When you come home to yourself, you will move towards loving yourself. Loving yourself includes the inner, intrinsic desire to take better care of you. You will consciously choose to eat better and make positive lifestyle choices to improve your health. As you feel better, from your healthy lifestyle choices, you will want to feel even better. Healthy choices beget healthy choices. You will create a crazy, fun, snowball effect of health, healing, and the desire to treat yourself in a whole health way.

Will you trust me and give yoga or another M, B, S activity a try? 

Namaste, Paula

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!

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.

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!

My Healing Yard

If you have ever wandered up my driveway to socialize, have dinner, perhaps a healing session or a holistic class, or maybe an evening campfire, you know my yard's wildness!  The first 2/3's, moving up my driveway, is wild and free.  My backyard is overrun with wild plants.

When my Dad visits he always asks: "Do you want me to come over with my lawn tractor and help you mow this place?" He loves to taunt me about my weeds.   (Shhh, never call them weeds to their "blossom." Such rudeness hurts their feelings!)

My yard, a disaster to my Dad, is a healing oasis to me.  I nurture wild plants that will heal asthma to zits, cancer to psoriasis, provide birth control options, heal your body's inflammation, and everything in between. Annoying weeds they may be to most, to me they are my humble, healing friends that I protect with the gentle fierceness of a mother. And, they graciously feed butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and so many more wild creatures!

(All of the healing hints I will give, below, for my beloved weeds are but the tip of the iceberg for what each magical plant can be used for. Every plant has so many healing uses!)

Here we have Mullein (It is the tall plant with the yellow flower stalk), an amazing healing plant for asthma and your body's glands.  Mullein oil can be rubbed over the thyroid, the ovaries, the testicles, or any gland and you can take mullein tincture to nourish all your glands from the inside of your body.  

Yeah, I have a few cats about the home who like to get into the photo ops!  The Milk Weed, hanging out here with my friend Mullein, is also good for asthma, constipation, and is reputed to be anti-fertility by the Mohawks.  Milk Weed makes a fun, pink jelly for smearing on winter toast... don't forget the butter! 

Got zits?  Try Dandelion leaf and root tea.  Add some Burdock Root and Red Clover flowers to this mix and you have a gentle liver and skin nourishing blend.  

Of course, I would add my best friend Stinging Nettles to the above and every healing herb recipe. It just makes good nourishing sense to add nettles!

Red Clover Blossoms!

Dandelion's useful parts: leaf, flower, root.  Burdock Root.. you have to dig it OR buy some from The Kent Family Growers or Birdsfoot Farm!

Dandelion leaves... and underneath the leaves, for fall harvesting, are the roots.

Cancer?  The above blend does wonders to cleanse/nourish the liver and blood so your immune system can do its job in healing and removing cancer from the body.  Add some peppermint (below) as its healing oils and chemical constituents are amazing healing energy for digestive tract issues!

Thank you, Robin, for this wonderful mint variety.  Seems the deer like it too!  Smart animals.

Want to increase fertility and your ability to conceive?  Try a tea (medicinal strength infusion) of Red Raspberry leaf (below), Red Clover Blossoms (picture above), and Stinging Nettles (below). The link above has a "recipe" for a liver detox infusion.  Follow the same principles when making your "Fertili-Tea."  No simmering of the infusion is needed as you are using all leaves and flowers. Just steep the infusion overnight.

Red Raspberry Leaf, while you are collecting leaves for making tea... eat the berries!

Stinging Nettles, nestled up against my home.

Want to decrease fertility? Chicory Root tea (below) decreases sperm count.  Milkweed (see above) decreases female fertility.  Queen Anne's Lace, Wild Carrot (below), decreases female fertility and prevents pregnancy.

Red Raspberry Leaf (above) nourishes the uterus and reproductive tract throughout a female's life cycle.  My plant intuition says it has to be nourishing for males as well.

There are many herbs to control fertility, enhance pregnancy and birthing, and nourish the reproductive tract. That is a whole book waiting to be written OR grab a copy of Susun Weed's Childbearing Years.  This is a great place to start in learning female reproductive herbs.

Chicory:  the root is used as a medicinal infusion to decrease sperm count.

Queen Anne's Lace flower head: the seeds are used to prevent pregnancy.

The below Black Eyed Susan patch adorns the yard behind my house and garage (and you are only seeing about 1/5 of this flower patch!).  I leave it wild purely to heal my heart and soul (and my cat's as well... all 4 cats seem to love their wild flower jungle!).

Native Americans used the plant for internal parasites, skin wounds, earaches, snake bites, and the common cold.

Wild plants are wonderful.  Befriend one today!  Paula

PS  Stay tuned for Healing Backyard Plants, Pt 2

AND

The Healing Powers of the Great White Pine