Tapping Into Possibilities

NOURISH

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2015 is the year of the Goat, the Sheep, the number 8, the Putin Dictatorship, an alien UFO invasion, modification of the human DNA for immortality or the International Year of Light (more on that later) depending on what you read or believe.

For me, 2015 is the year of Nourishment.

Nourish: provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health and good condition or to cause (something) to develop or grow stronger.

 If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.Hippocrates

Am I nourishing my body, my mind, my emotions, my family, my work with this choice, this action, this word?

  To nourish someone is to feed them deeply something that’s very good for them. Alice Waters, American author & chef

Forget the resolutions, if I can only choose nourishment in all my decisions, it is all I need for a joyous, productive and happy new year.

 

Welcome to Inlightened Wellness

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To my old friends thank you for sharing my four year journey with Intentional Health News. I am excited to launch this new site. The path has shifted but not the journey. 

Intention – a course of action that one intends to follow, an aim that guides action, an objective.

One of my very first posts four years ago read as follows:

We are all limited by our own personal experience so as I write here I’m looking at things from my perspective, maybe yours too, maybe not. I once had business cards that said Watch Me Now as my work as it was evolving at that time was focusing on new things and not staying in a rut but then I found out it was a porn site (do not go there!). Then I thought Changing Health Perspectives was a good description of where I was going but the name was a mouthful and too many didn’t have a clue what it meant. So after setting lots of intentions over the years about what I wanted, especially a great one for getting a good night sleep (email me if you want to know what it is), I realized that good health and wellness are as much about intention, your intention to be well, as it is about what pill you take or what exotic fruit you drink. So Intentional Health it is.

Enlightened – to have or show a rational, modern and well informed outlook, to not be narrow in thinking, to be spiritually aware.

Lots of fun, growth, experience and 114 posts later, a book called Light: The Future of Medicine (Liberman, 1991) and products from In Light Wellness Systems™ shifted my path this past year. Shall we say they “inlightened” me?

   A journey of a thousand steps begins with a single step. Lao Tzu (c 604bc – 531bc)

To All: Lights On! The journey begins.

 

Machine or Fiesta?

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For years I have used the analogy of a car, a computer or a machine to help people relate to and understand the intricacies of their bodies. I have referred to our bodies and health in terms of hardware, software, viruses and worms and virus protection – language that, we obsessed with technology people, can relate to.

Recently I came across this “poem” in Eduardo Galeano’s book Walking Words that made me re-think how I think of my own body.

The Church says: the body is a sin.                                                                            Science says: the body is a machine.                                                                   Advertising says: the body is a business.                                                                        The body says: I am a fiesta.                                                                                                        From Walking Words by Eduardo Galeano, 20th c Uruguayan writer,                                        journalist and “poet laureate” of the anti-globalization movement.

What if, instead of thinking of our body like a machine, a car or a computer that can be replaced, we treated our body (and I mean the whole thing, inside and out) as our most prized and valuable possession, as a precious, irreplaceable gem?

The body is a sacred garment. Martha Graham

The machine analogy may help us to understand the body  – there are many moving parts to putting on a good party as we all know, but treating the body like a fiesta, like a really good party, not just a sum of its parts, it certainly a lot more fun.

Take a moment to be still, to listen, to observe. Feel the pulse, hear the breath.

J. Ruth Gendler, writes in Notes for the Need for Beauty, the body is “like a Mayan festival with many different musicians playing throughout the village, the rhythms weave in and out of each other creating a music of many layers and depths.”

C is for Cacao

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The Theobroma cacao tree is an evergreen indigenous to Mexico and South America. It’s “fruit” are large pods containing 1” seeds. These seeds are where all forms of chocolate and, dare I say, cocoa come from.

Basically, Americans misspelled cacao a long time ago and now some say cacao is the raw form and cocoa is the processed form but they really are all the same thing (and if you want to debate cacao vs cocoa or raw, processed, hand shelled, etc. this is not the place).

Who do you have to blame for all those sweet, decadent chocolates that originated in Europe? The Spanish conquistador, Cortes.

For 100’s of years the Mayans (dating back to 400 AD) and the Aztecs (1400 AD) recognized the value of cacao. Not only was it a healthful drink called “chicolati” (beaten drink) or xocolati (bitter drink) but the seeds were a form of currency.

The Divine drink which builds up resistance and fights disease. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk a whole day without food. Hernando Cortes, 1519

After Cortes conquered the Aztecs and won Mexico for the crown of Spain in 1520, he returned to Spain in 1528 with a cargo of cacao beans and chicolati making equipment.

Chocolate is a divine celestial drink, the sweat of the stars, the vital seed, divine nectar, the drink of the gods, panacea and universal medicine. Geronimo Piperni, quoted by Antonio Lavedan, Spanish army surgeon, 1796.

The beans eventually found their way to France in 1615 and to London in the 1650’s and was eventually sweetened and lightened and sweetened and lightened some more with sugar and milk becoming “a shadow of it’s former self”.

Note: Not all chocolate is created equal

Gluten- Free in a Bag

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Gluten Free is currently a marketing gold mine so you have lots and lots of products to try. But, while it is great to have some gluten free-alternatives and substitutes for your pasta, crackers, cookies and breads, it is still processed and most gluten-free products have more carbs, sugar and calorie than their gluten equivalents.

But if you just can’t bear the thought of no snacks or pasta here are some of our favorites to help get you started and make the transition.

Kame Original Rice Crackers (forget the other brands they leave a yucky taste). We’ve bought this brand since long before the gluten-free “fad”.

Le Veneziane  Penne Rigate Corn Pasta (in our house no child or guest has ever noticed the difference). Personally, most of the other brands/types on the market except for Bionatuare make me gag.

Glutino Pretzels. I’m not a fan of most of their products but these are delicious. In fact, in a taste test with popular regular brands, they won.

Trader Joe’s GF Chocolate Chip Cookies (the ginger snaps will do but have a funny texture and the meringues are great but you can easily make your own) are crunchy not chewy and really, really good.

The French Laundry Cup4Cup “Flour” – the best substitute I’ve found with no gritty after taste. King Arthur Gluten Free Baking Mix is a close second.

Mama’s Pancake Mix  – King Arthur Pancake Mix is also great and if you don’t tell, no one will notice.

Gillians Bread Crumbs  – Perfect substitute for chicken or eggplant parmesan

Canyon Bakehouse Breads – Until I found Canyon Bakehouse, I considered Udi’s GF breads, when toasted, acceptable but “gluten free bread” is really an oxymoron (a combination of contradictory or incongruous words). Breads are definitely the hardest thing to give up and to find an acceptable substitute; that is, until Canyon Bakehouse.

Processed food, whether gluten- free or not, is not real food.

As Michael Pollan’s Rule #39 in Food Rules states, Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

 

 

GLUTEN IS NOT YOUR FRIEND & GLUTEN FREE IS NOT A FAD

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Gluten is what gives kneaded dough its elasticity. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and some oats due to contamination during transportation and processing.

An estimated 3 million Americans have celiac disease, a genetic disorder and an estimated 20 million Americans have non-celiac sensitivity or allergy.

If you have Celiac disease, any gluten is a problem and there is a wealth of information at www.celiac.com  and other sources online.

The winter wheat used for American bread flour has a higher gluten content in order to make our soft, fluffy breads and huge bagels. American wheat is also hybridized i.e. selectively bred to have a higher gluten content unlike European wheat.  The difference between heavy, dense loaves of bread and fluffy light bread is the gluten content.

Gluten is also hidden in many products as a thickening agent. Think Cream of Chicken soup. There are many surprising products and foods that contain gluten including lipsticks, play doh,  “natural” flavors and malt. I was very unhappy when I had to give up my favorite movie theater candy, Malted Milk Balls!

Many doctors who specialize in auto immune disorders (lupus, MS, RA, thyroid disorders) suggest their patients eliminate gluten. “Gluten often causes the body to flood with inflammatory chemicals called cytokines which send an already wound up immune system in to hyperdrive, attacking tissue”, says Naturopathic physician Brooke Kalanick, N.D..

What you need to know: A gluten sensitivity isn’t just a gut problem. The New England Journal of Medicine reports 55 diseases that can be linked to gluten ranging from osteoporosis to depression, to migraines to fatigue, to balance problems.  Dr. Mark Hyman, founder of The Ultra Wellness Center in MA and author of one of my favorite books, The UltraMind Solution, considers gluten sensitivity an auto immune disease because it causes inflammation through the body. He recommends treating the cause (gluten) rather than the disease first.

So how do you treat the cause? Simply, but not always easily, eliminate gluten from your diet for 2-4 weeks and see how you feel. No expensive blood tests needed.

Is it worth trying? You bet. Many parents report that learning and behavioral problems, even symptoms of autism are reduced or disappear with a gluten free diet.

What do I eat? If you suspect you might have a “gluten intolerance”  (officially know at Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) whose symptoms range from moodiness, ADD, digestive problems to fatigue) and want to experiment start with Real Food and eliminate anything and everything out of a box or a plastic bag.

But if you just can’t bear the thought of no snacks or pasta here are some of our favorites to help get you started and make the transition.

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

B is for Breath

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Life begins with your first breathe and ends with your last.

Just watch a baby breathe. Breathing is an involuntary action. Or is it?

While breathing is mostly involuntary, your breathing is nothing to take for granted. Breath is the fuel of life. Your breath carries oxygen to every cell, all 70 trillion of them. Breathing eliminates toxins and stressors.

Breath helps us to communicate, to calm, to center, to circulate (not just oxygen, but thoughts and insights).

 For breath is life and if you breathe well,                                                  you will live long on  earth. Sanskrit Proverb

Many mystics and ancient cultures have believed for centuries that breath is evidence of spirit and that working with breath is a spiritual practice. In many languages, including Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Hebrew, breath and spirit are the same word.

Today, science is proving the importance of “breathing well” and its ability to heal. How you breathe affects you physically but also your state of mind and how you feel. Different breathing techniques are powerful tools.

                             We need to learn how to breathe “more slowly, more quietly,                              more deeply, and regularly”, says Dr. Andrew Weil.

How you breathe can be invigorating; it can be calming; it can bring clarity and done improperly (shallow chest breathing) can be a health hazard. We thrust our chin and neck forward especially while on the computer; we hold our breath; we stiffen our spine; we shrug our shoulders.

Healthy breathing strengthens and improves the function of your diaphragm, which will keep your spine flexible and your core strong.

Your most important tool for well being and reducing stress is your breath. You may not be able to see it but it is an invisible force.

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.                                                                             Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist Monk

And the good news is you don’t have to be in a yoga class or have a dedicated meditation practice (though it’s a good idea), to begin breathing well.

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

Farewell to Bean, a Mighty Fine Cat Indeed

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When our dear kitty, Bean, was hit by a car in front of our house on Saturday, I thought about the things she had taught me and how grateful I am for the three years she was part of our family.

One of my favorite books is The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925) by Florence Scovel Shin.  She refers to an old saying, “No man is your friend; no man is your enemy; all men are your teachers.”                            

Even though Bean was a cat, she was definitely my teacher.

What did Bean teach me?

Be persistent; don’t give up as in I won’t stop scratching the door until you let me out. Know what you want and go for it.

Don’t be afraid even if you get lost and take five days to find your way home. Life is an adventure with so much to see and to do.

Change is good. You become fat and lazy like your sister if you stay within your comfort zone, in that cozy little box of a world you’ve created for yourself.

Make sure the people you love, know they are loved. From the moment you stirred in the morning she was by your side purring and she always greeted you when you walked in the door. Although she refused to obey the rules such as wearing a collar – we went through more than a dozen, or staying off the counters or leaving you in peace in the bathroom, she never made you mad.

Earlier today I came across a copy of T.S.Eliot’s book of cat poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939), this inspiration for the musical CATS. (Sidebar: The most famous song from the musical, Memory is not inspired from Eliot’s cat poems but from two others, Preludes and Rhapsody on a Windy Night.)

Which  cat was Bean? A little bit Rum Tum Tugger, a little bit Mr. Mistoffelees, a little bit Rumpleteazer.

Curiosity may have killed this cat but she didn’t want to miss a thing.

A vet once told me that an indoor cat may live a long life but an outdoor cat will live a happy life.Our beautiful cross-eyed Bean was a happy cat indeed.

bean

S is for Stress

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Some stress is good. Exercise, for instance, is a form of stress but it can help brain cells grow.

It’s the chronic stress, that’s not so good. Stress can come from many different sources. Work, relationship and financial problems and physical trauma are not the only causes.

Perhaps the more insidious causes of stress are the not so obvious, or at least the ones not talked about so much, such as toxicity, pathogens, allergies and nutritional deficiencies as a result of poor quality food, water and air. All can cause imbalances in the body.

When the body becomes ill, the body’s first signal that all is not well is through vibrational or electromagnetic waves. Our body is a network of bio-photons, which acts like an extremely fast super computer. Every thought and action is accompanied by an electrical activity in the nervous system and by bio-photon communication between cells.

Our cells network together to keep our body in balance (remember homeostasis from high school biology?). When any kind of stress enters the body, it produces erratic vibrations which lead to imbalances which leads to disease.

Stress worsens and/or increases the risk of many diseases including diabetes, Alzheimers, depression, GI issues, obesity and heart disease and of course, it accelerates aging.

Don’t assume stress is a way of life, something you have to live with. You can learn to change much of what is happening inside you without drugs or invasive procedures.

Natural Forces within us are the true healers of disease  Hippocrates, 4thc BC

What’s the first step? Stillness.

Whether you want to call it meditation, mindfulness, breathe work, prayer or just quiet time without any distractions, that’s the place to start.

Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. Pico Iyer

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

A is for Asheville & Art

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Now,  you might be wondering what in the world Asheville, North Carolina and maybe even Art have to do with Health & Wellness. Well, think again.

Western North Carolina is breathtakingly beautiful. The air is clean; the food is spectacular and the art and music communities are bustling.

Asheville is the largest city in western North Carolina. It was founded in 1784 and prospered until the Depression. The city and its amazing Art Deco architecture remained virtually unchanged from 1930-1980.

When most people think of Asheville NC, they think of another era and the Biltmore Estate and it’s opulence and materialism and, yes, beauty built by a single visionary named George Washington Vanderbilt II.

But the Asheville of 2013 is a town full of many creative visionaries.

“A visionary sees what is and sees through what is to what could be”

Eric Weiner in his 2008 The Geography of Bliss wrote, “it is big enough to have a thriving art scene and choice of restaurants, yet not so big it is burdened with big city problems.” Some think it’s the happiest city in the U.S.

It has a Sustainability Master Plan with a focus on a “green” economy and becoming self sufficient food wise. There are dozens of farm markets and “farm to table” restaurants. They even have a “Five Day Weekend Movement” (less stress, more fun) and support the Strive Not to Drive movement.  Add 4,000 artisans and craftsmen, many of whom are multigenerational, and the River Arts District along the French Broad River. Add gorgeous natural surroundings and a relatively mild climate (think not too hot, not too cold, just right, as well as little snow though very close to a number of ski resorts).

Someone described it as a city of southern civility & spiritual tolerance; to some that may sound like an oxymoron, but it really is a happy and peaceful place.

The takeaway message here, even if you can’t live in Asheville, NC, is that we can all find ways to soothe our souls, to manage our stress and live a happier life by surrounding ourselves with beauty, good food , creativity and art.