I Remember Fried Eggs Or How I Demonstrated the Mind-Body Connection

I can’t say that the last few days of being down with a sprained ankle and a head cold have been exactly unproductive, though it often felt that way.  In my skewed way of looking at the world I had to work really hard at letting my body rest and be happy about it.  You see I am one of those people whose Things To Do List is yards long.  Most of what is on the list are things I want to do as compared to the things I have to do like sleep and eat, but sitting on the couch with my leg elevated has never been one of those listed items.  There was one thing that helped me get through this inactivity besides my new laptop and that was the weather. It has been cold, dark and rainy and for a few days I got to enjoy watching the snow falling.

 This forced inactivity has given me the time to sit and pull a description of my massage therapy practice together and to learn the hard way that Facebook Pages is not operating correctly.  It seems like FB could disable that part of the program if it isn’t going to work as I have now created 2 pages for my massage practice, one that I cannot find or edit and another that I cannot invite anyone to look at.  Yesterday it seemed like all of this was a giant waste of time, which is something I detest, until I remembered that it did enable me to help my husband promote his new book and poetry readings from “Dog Whistle Politics” which is for sale at www.lummoxpress.com  (Shameless Plug!).

Now that I am past the Facebook frustration I am actually glad that it happened.  I really like the Facebook Event I ended up with much better than the first one that was lost in cyber-space.  It’s just one more time I get to learn the lesson of patience and giving up control.  Living as a Recovering Control Freak can be so exhausting at times.  If you have ever watched the sitcom “Friends” and have laughed at the character of Monica then you could be laughing at me as well.  I didn’t end up in Fat Camp as a child, like Monica, but I was only 5lbs away from being the skinniest girl in my class, even though I ate like a horse and I would wear a t-shirt with a couple of fried eggs printed on the front so we could all laugh about my flat chest. 

Yesterday my leg really felt good, in fact it felt so good that I was glad that some bruising showed up as I was afraid that my husband might think I had been faking the whole thing.  But by taking fast action and following RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) and Reiki (a life-force energy process) I turned what could have been a 2-week recovery process into just a matter of days.  And by using Arnica sublingually in a homeopathic form and topically as a cream I was able to further reduce the swelling and bruising that normally happens with an ankle sprain. 

In fact it felt so good that I was willing to do some light grocery shopping with my husband as driver.  But this is where the story changes.  After the third time of circumventing a large grocery store I started thinking and feeling like I didn’t want to do this anymore.  My ankle was starting to hurt and I was frustrated at how I had to go back to the Jelly aisle.  I was looking for the Organic Peanut butter which was on sale and not to be found in the Natural Foods aisle, only to discover after going to the Jelly aisle that the Organic Peanut butter that was advertised as being on sale was actually Peanut Butter SPREAD and contained sugar and palm oil as well as some nuts.  So now we had to go back to the Natural Food aisle, as we needed the nut butter to make the snack we were taking to our celebratory final Mind-Body class on Tuesday.

So I am starting to grumble, fuss and fume about all of this when I remember the newest acronym I’ve learned, SBRC (Stop, Breathe, Reflect, Choose) and I put a halt to my negative thinking.  “Good,” I thought, “my ankle hardly hurts now!” and we continued on with the Peanut Butter mission.  A great example of mind over matter and pushing through the pain, I reflected yesterday.  And then today comes and I find that by not really listening to my body which was telling me that it had just about had enough and concentrating only on my ego control freakiness, my ankle once again hurts and all I want to do now is sit with my leg up!

So in closing I say to any that will listen, the Mind-Body Connection is not a one-way, top-down conversation, but an active listening dialog.  And whether there is empirical data or not many of us out here know that it is a two-way street that takes us towards wellness and not what the pill-pusher doctors or the cut-it-out surgeons purport to be for our own good.  I say, let My body decide!

Ultra-Mind Solution Week #4

We have now completed the fourth week of the Ultra-Mind Solution. The diet portion is working really well. Michael and I are satisfied most days and he has lost 10 pounds. He is living proof what I have thought many times, that if we were to give up eating white things (bread, sugar, potatoes, rice) many of us could eat what we wanted without being overweight. I know that is an over-simplification but it is a good way to start at least looking at what you eat if for no other reason than to be able to decrease the size of your wardrobe by not needing multiple sizes.

One of the keys I have found over the last two weeks in particular is to have sufficient portable foods. I worked outside of our home for twenty hours for each of the last two weeks for the first time in over a year. In fact it was a year ago February that Michael had his colon removal surgery. Additionally it takes at least thirty minutes to drive to the nearest big city, if you can call Placerville or Auburn a big city, so grocery shopping can turn into a three hour excursion which means that at least one of us is going to get hungry and it’s usually me.

Although I fudged on the ‘mindful’ eating aspects of the program by drinking a home-made protein shake on the drive to work it did keep me away from my once familiar daily fast-food drive thru’s (can you say high fat and refined carbs). I now have this canvas bag that I carry with me whenever I leave the house. I check it before I leave and make sure that it has sufficient snacks and water. Lately I take things like: roasted nuts, raw seed and nut mixes, dried fruit, kale chips, apples, pears, and Michaels new favorite: Ultra-Mind Nut Bars or energy squares. You can make a meal out of this stuff and even though we make our own kale chips and Nut Bars you can buy them at the natural food stores. If you are really pressed for time and always need to grab something as you run out the door, try keeping a box of nut bars on your shelf. Not granola bars which are mostly sugar and carbs, think nuts and seeds for protein. I like Kind Bars and Trio Bars the best but because we are sugar free right now, even those won’t work for us.

Here are a couple of pictures of what we have been eating.

Coconut Curried Yellow Dal.

Raw Cashew Garlic Pesto Cheez on Flax Crackers. 

Now this recipe is not from the Ultra-Mind Solution but came to me by way of Joy Houston.  If you have ever been curious about a raw foods diet she has an awesome way to get you started.  She has a 14-day diet plan including shopping lists and full directions. Check it out at www.RockingBodyRawFood.com.

Tofu marinated with herbs and balsamic, sautéed chard with shallots, with

 butternut squash and pomegranate risotto.  

The risotto isn't from the Ultra-Mind Program either but a recipe I found and used at Thanksgiving and it is one of my new favorites.

I am so thankful for all the new recipes I have found this last year.  I love to eat and learning to eat gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, and food-sensitivity-free has been a real challenge.  The search was worth it as I can now say I no longer cringe when thinking about what I am going to eat at my next meal.  Now it is like, "Oh Boy! Is it time for lunch yet?"

Help! My kitchen looks like a freaking pharmacy.

Help My kitchen looks like a freaking pharmacy.

This entry is more of a picture essay on the current state of affairs with Michael and I and our third week of the Ultra Mind Solution program from Mark Hyman, M.D.  Michael keeps saying how this program is not for the poor or those that are busy. I continue to say that it is not for the faint of heart. Some may ask “Why are you going to all of this trouble and posting it all on a blog?” My thoughts have always been that we should share what we know with others, freely. I see no reason why others must always learn everything the “hard” way. If I can help someone out from what I have already learned, I think I have a moral imperative to pass on that information. There are others that don’t share this viewpoint and keep most things close to their vest, but honestly, I don’t understand them at all. This is not some sort of contest, living here on earth, and only the winners move on. I believe that we are here to learn from each other and uplift each new generation with the knowledge we have gathered so that they can build upon that and reach even higher.

For those of you that have seen my latest kitchen you can attest to the fact that my counters never look to be in this much disarray. But the shear volume of supplements is amazing.  Add to that the 6 times a day when they are taken and you can see the complexity of this undertaking. Needless to say the coffee pot is just sitting idle these days. I wonder what else it can be used for?

Here is a shot of just three days of supplementation that my husband Michael is currently taking. And this does not count the bottles and jars that are in the refrigerator or the three types of fiber that he adds to juice or the B-12 injections. We have only started him on 3 of the 7 protocols that his body appears to need help with for the time being. After all there is just so much you can swallow and purchase at one time. I actually built an excel spreadsheet so we could keep track of all of this. Every third day I use muscle testing along with Angelic guidance to determine what Michael and I should be taking. The first two times were pretty exhausting.

And to think I was the kid who wouldn't eat vegetables! This is our first ever Ratatoullie and it was absolutely delicious. I am not real fond of leftovers in general but I think I ate 4 of the 6 servings this recipe made. I never knew that you could cook vegis in a way that actually made them taste sweet. Amazing, is all I can say.

Besides being a moral imperative to share with others, why am I doing all of this?

1.  Looks like I am going to live a long time so I want to be healthy and happy along the way.
2.  My depression has improved with making these changes and I have been off of prescription drugs for over a year now.
3. I can't stand seeing anyone, much less my family members, suffering from ailments that I know can be cured just by changing our diets.
4. When people are concerned about the cost of eating organic I want to be able to document how prevention is still cheaper than trying to fix the mess you make of your body later.

 

Healing the planet one fork at a time.

Have you ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to turn on your water faucet and have it be dry? What if you had to spend hours each day to walk and carry water? What if the water you collected was contaminated and actually made you sick? Did you know that nearly one billion people – about one in eight – lack access to clean water and more than twice that many, 2.5 billion people, don’t have access to a toilet?

Have you ever wondered how you could make a difference in the world just by eating food that is healthy for you? What would it be like to eat fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables that are full of flavor and life-force energy? Did you know that the majority of our supermarket food is transported hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles? Did you realize that many of the fruits and vegetables in your grocery store are picked before they are ripe and full of flavor? Do you know how much fossil fuel is utilized and the carbon imprint that is generated from the transportation of the food you eat?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to do business with people who you could trust? What if that group of people organized into a company that is socially responsible, environmentally friendly and financially transparent? What if this company cared about your health and the health of our planet? What if this company promoted clean water for all and the sharing and teaching of healthy living and eating?

I have a dream.

I dream that all peoples on this planet have sufficient clean water to drink.

I dream that we put an end to children dying due to water-related disease.

I dream that we reduce our carbon footprint by eating locally grown foods.

I dream that we are returned to health by eating whole fresh foods that are free from pesticides, genetically modified products (GMO), artificial flavors, artificial colors and artificial sweeteners.

I dream that I am a part of a team that shares these dreams, is socially responsible, environmentally friendly and financially transparent.

South Fork Naturals, Inc. a C.S.A.

Healing the planet one fork at a time.

My intention is to gather together such a group of people and establish a Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) organization where at least 10% of the profits are donated to Water.org. In this way we can put an end to children dying due to water-related disease while improving our health and the health of the planet by buying fresh local produce. By establishing a small farm in the foothills of the South Fork of the American River valley in Northern California where we use natural, pesticide free growing practices, we will join with other groups in the area to promote though education how living clean and green improves our health, the health of our planet and reduces the suffering of those who go without clean water.

A call to action.

Won’t you join me in promoting this vision of a future free from water-related disease? There are many ways you can help and here is a list of just some of them:

• ·      Volunteer as a member of the Board of Directors
• ·      Sign up to purchase a share of this years harvest
• ·      Come play in the dirt with us as we build raised beds, amend the soil, plant seeds and seedlings, pick weeds and bring in the harvest.
• ·      Be a drop off point for weekly produce boxes or volunteer to pick up the boxes for your area one day per month.
• ·      Donate your time and talents

o   Webmasters needed to design and maintain website

o   CPA’s and Attorneys needed for financial and legal advisory

o   Kid friendly people to design educational programs

o   CMT’s needed for those of us providing manual labor

• ·      Help to supply things we need by donating

o   Drip irrigation supplies

o   Wood for raised planting beds

o   Compost

o   Leather gloves

o   Ergonomic garden hand tools

o   Metal Drum Composter

Drop me a line at claudia.licht@sbcglobal.net and lets see what we can build together.