Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and through her, God. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Sunday in the forest
Tag Archives: wellness
Island Adventures & Sweet Potato Fries
There is nothing more soothing to my soul than a long weekend trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island to explore the ruggedly beautiful beaches.
After a fun day exploring the PNW, sweet potato “fries” hit the spot.
Method
- Wash and slice two large sweet potatoes
- Arrange on baking tray
- Drizzle with olive oil, nutritional yeast and freshly ground pepper
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes
Enjoy
SOS Free Eating Plan
the new year off right.
There are a lot of studies that show most North Americans eat two or three times the healthy upper limit of salt consumption every day. What does this mean for our bodies? An increased risk of heart disease and kidney issues, and excess salt also ages you by slightly dehydrating the body.
Next on the avoid list is oil. Most of us have been taught that oil is healthy for us but nothing could actually be further from the truth. Oil is a very manufactured product that often includes chemically separating the oil from the whole food and it is also very susceptible to oxidation. So much better to get your fats from whole foods such as hemp hearts, avocado etc.
And sugar, I feel that we all know about the evils of sugar but, in case you don’t, I’ll dedicate an entire future post to what is wrong with refined sugar.
Eating SOS has also opened up a whole new world of delicious recipes.
Here is one: a turmeric and nutritional yeast covered roast potato dish with a cilantro, parsley walnut dipping sauce.
So healthy, so good.
Method – Potatoes
Wash 10 small, red potatoes and slice into quarters lengthwise. Dip in nutritional yeast, turmeric and freshly ground pepper mix.
Place on baking sheet and roast for 35 minutes.
Method – Walnut Dip
· 1 cup walnuts (soaked overnight)
· 4 Cloves Garlic Whole
· 1/2 Bunch Cilantro
· 1/4 bunch parsley
· 3/4 cup filtered water (add more if you prefer a thinner consistency)
· 1 tablespoon Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Enjoy.
Making Quarantine Work for You
Everywhere I turn, on social media or in real life, I hear people lamenting about how much weight they’ve gained, how much junk food they are eating, how much they are drinking, how slothlike they’ve become and how bored they are. Or, on the flip side, how stressed they are from pushing themselves so hard to keep busy and learn new skills at this time.
Here’s an idea: Make quarantine work for you!
Make this the time that you eat clean, get fit and do the things that you might usually think you don’t have time to do, including practicing self-love, self-acceptance and the fine art of doing nothing.
A few suggestions I have are:
reading that great book you never seem to have time for, going for a solitary walk or run in nature, having a meditation session of just “being” at the beach or another favourite place in nature, learning how to cook new dishes, teaching your pet a new trick, creating structure in your day by taking a number of 15 minute yoga breaks, pampering yourself with a homespa experience, nourishing your body with delicious, nutrient-filled food, reaching out to friends regularly, either online or socially distancing in person, stopping to smell that beautiful spring flower and really seeing that sunset.
Intermittent Fasting Sleep Benefits
It’s my first week of intermittent fasting and I’ve noticed a few amazing things already. I am sleeping like a baby. Yes, a baby. I used to be a late night snacker. I loved being a late night snacker and most nights would have a peanut butter toast, a big handful of cashews, yogurt or potato chips, depending on my cravings, but then I almost always would have a restless sleep and then awake the next day exhausted. Have you ever eaten right before bed? It’s actually a very uncomfortable feeling. And I all of the work your system is putting into digesting food at night actually gives you an anxious sleep where you might not even go into REM, the restorative stage.
So, my number one exiting benefit of IF this week is sleep. I’m starting to wake up feeling pretty rested for the first time in a long time and it feels amazing.
The second benefit this week is that I’m actually paying more attention to my body and my digestion. It’s a bit shocking how little attention we pay to our bodies on a day to day basis. Especially during times like this were most of us have a baseline of higher anxiety and are prone to a little too much comfier eating.
Intermittent Fasting helps you really tune into your body and your digestion and allows you to nourish your self with our over eating or inducing I’m mindless comfort overeating. Personally, I really like the structure of feeding myself from 11am to 7pm and then just giving my body a break. IF is helping me stay healthy in unsettling times.
Staying Healthy during a Pandemic
Panic surrounding the covid-19 virus is spreading every day with the world slowly but surely shutting down, one service at a time. Panic buying of toilet paper, fights in wine stores and general hysteria seem to be prevailing.
In reality though, there are a lot of things you can do to stay safe and healthy and none of them involve stock piling TP in your home.
Staying calm, well rested, connected to friends and family, and nourishing our bodies should be priorities right now. Here are a few more tips to keep you healthy during this anxious time:
- Eat lots of fresh fruit, veggies and take your vitamins to keep your immune system healthy
- Don’t panic. Panic and anxiety are huge immune suppressors. Stay calm.
- Meditate. Do yoga.
- Wash your hands often and thoroughly.
- Walk in nature. Nature heals.
- Don’t completely isolate. Being part of a community strengthens our immune system and uplifts our mood.
- Do something nice for and elderly person or immune compromised person. They are the ones who are truly at risk.
- Refuse to live your life in fear and greed.
This too shall pass. Be balanced, care about others, wash your hands, do the elbow bump, and we will survive this beautifully.
I’m ending this post with a few photos from my morning nature walk. Nature will always calm, heal and rebalance.
Intermittent Fasting
If you know me you know that I LOVE checking out new health fads and crazes. I recently tried food combing and my verdict was that it’s good for short term digestion issues or weight loss but almost impossible to keep up long term. Then I went totally sugar free. That was tough and didn’t make me feel as healthy as I had hoped so I’m back to using honey and maple syrup as well as treating myself to the odd dark chocolate bar.
Now I’ve decided to see what intermittent fasting is all about. I’ve been doing this few a few days and I swear I feel the effects already.
I’m doing 8/16 or 9/15 depending on the day, meaning that my window of eating every day is 8 or 9 hours and fasting is 15 or 16 hours. During the eating phase of the day you should have 3 balanced meals and try not to binge on unhealthy foods or you’re pretty much shooting yourself in the foot.
Eating this way leaves 16 hours for your body to take a break from digesting and focus on regeneration and healing. Doesn’t that sound like a good idea? Think of our hunter/gatherer ancestors ~ they weren’t bogged down with digestion all day long. They ate, went out to hunt and forage again and, if they were lucky, had another meal. If they weren’t lucky, they were naturally intermittent fasting. This way of eating is so natural for the human body and has a ton of health and anti~aging benefits that I’ll discuss in an upcoming post.
One word of caution though. If you’re active, only schedule activities during eating hours or you’ll be depleting yourself and breaking down muscle as well as fat, doing your body more harm than good.
I truly believe though that in our modern world where we are inundated with unhealthy food choices 24/7, intermittent fasting may be the path back to balance and health.
Happy Fasting.
Photos of a hike to Dog Mountain on Mount Seymour.
Golden Glow Smoothie
There is nothing better than a walk through the pumpkin patch at the end of October.
This smoothie is one of my fall faves. It’s sugar free and full of skin beautifying antioxidants, turmeric and collagen.
Here’s the recipe:
Golden Glow Smoothie
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cashew milk
- 1/2 cup fresh pumpkin
- 1 banana
- 1 tsp lakanto monk fruit sweetener
- 1 scoop unsweetened whey protein powder
- 1 scoop vital proteins collagen
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Blend all ingredients together and enjoy this sweet smoothie that will make your skin glow.
Sugar Detox Challenges
I’m on sugar free day 7, feeling amazing and power walking around Vancouver’s beautiful seawall.
The first few days were rough, feeling low energy, foggy thinking and wanting to go home to sleep for most of the day. It truly felt like a typical detox from an addictive substance. Day 4 was better. And now I’m feeling really good and really energized. I’m also spending my spare time researching the effects of sugar on the human body. Did you know that the average North American eats 20 tsp of added sugar per day? 20 teaspoons!! Think about how much that is for a moment. And that’s not fruit sugar.
That’s cane sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other refined, processed sugars. 20 teaspoons of sugar is not going to do your body good. That amount will mess with your blood sugar, your hormones and your mood. How can people be eating so much? Try checking the labels of pretty much any packaged food and you’ll find sugar lurking there in some form. Soups, salad dressing, condiments, drinks. There it is. So, before you know it, you’re consuming several teaspoons without even knowing it. I’ve definitely been scrutinizing labels the last week and it’s been an eye~opener.
Step one on a sugar~free journey: Read Labels
Life Lessons from a Terrier Mix
Earlier this afternoon my little Terrier, who had been running wild around a sandy beach at low tide with me, decided to chase after three huge Canadian geese.
Each goose was probably at least 10 pounds heavier than him so it was pretty funny to see him chasing after the large birds. My friend who was watching the shenanigans with me commented “I’m surprised the geese haven’t gone after him. He has no idea how small he is, does he?”
He made a good point since there were more of them, they were heavier than him and Canadian geese have been known to be fierce, hissing at and even chasing people who venture too close to them.
But I knew exactly why the geese ran from my little dog. My dog fully, unwaveringly, 100% believes he is an 80 pound pit bull. And, because of this, he has a huge, confident energy.
I’ve seen him go after large, powerful dog breeds and he never gets hurt. I think he believes so strongly in his power that other beings end up believing he is powerful too.
Imagine if we all had that kind of confidence; if we all believed that we had the power to influence our lives as much as my little pup believes. We would be unstoppable. We wouldn’t stay in less than loving relationships, we wouldn’t let our work be anything other than our passion and we would believe that we are deserving of all good things.
We would be courageous in standing up for others and ourselves and our confidence would shine. Imagine how much happier our existence would be. Add a little empathy and compassion to the mix and imagine how much happier and successful this world would be.
This thought brought to you be a stubborn, confident Terrier mix.
Mind Body Soul 