BodySong Wellness Newsletter - June 2012
BodySong Wellness Newsletter
June 2012
Blog
Follow the BodySong Wellness Blog here: BodySong Wellness Blog
You can also check out my other wordpress blogs at:
www.waltzingwithwellness.wordpress.com - recipes, suggestions and thoughts on living a healthy life
and
www.mybodyspeaks.wordpress.com - exploration of what it means to get to know and tune into the body's special language.
Hungry For Change - the documentary
I was recently introduced to a new documentary called Hungry For Change. Please visit this link to watch the video and then feel free to leave comments or questions on this blog post. The film brings up a lot of interesting issues, and makes some good suggestions for living a healthier lifestyle. The one thing that makes me feel a little skeptical is that they seem to be saying that a plant-based, low animal product diet is healthier for everyone. I have not currently found this to be the case for me, but I recognize that for some, it is the healthiest option, especially if it is used to balance a former diet based on processed and refined foods.
I am curious to know what way of eating makes you feel the best?
Why do you eat the way you eat?
Would you be interested in a free initial health consultation with me to talk about your health? Please feel free to use the contact page to be in touch.
Here is the link for the film:
www.HungryForChange.tv/online-premiere
You will need to scroll down and enter your name and email address when you reach the page.
Soup Season!
Autumn is SOUP SEASON!
In the last week or two, I have found myself chopping and sauteeing and stewing and pureeing more days than not, and have been whipping up some delicious and nutritious, not to mention satisfying and filling simple meais. If you are new to making soup, but would like to experiment without a recipe, here is a simple and quick formula to try. Start with a thick bottomed pot and a heat-stable fat such as butter, ghee or coconut oil. Sautee chopped onion, carrot and celery to make, "mire poix", the tasty base for many dishes. Add other veggies such as potato, pepper, eggplant, leafy greens, garlic, parsnip, squash, celeraic, corn or mushrooms and sautée until veggies start to get tender. Then add homemade stock and fresh herbs (I like thyme) and salt and peper to taste. For chicken soup, add chicken meat and simmer for awhile. For a seafood chowder, add leftover baked haddock and use seafood stock instead. For a beef stew, brown the pieces of stew meat beforehand in butter with salt and pepper, and then remove and sautee the veggies in the same pan. Return the beef to the pan with stock and simmer on low until meat is nice and tender. One of the keys to making tasty soup, I think, is to make sure that you have enough salt (unrefined sea salt is best), some good fat (I like butter!) and a little bit of acid; try lemon juice for chicken soup, or red wine for beef stew. Enjoy!
My food story, Part 2
(continued from previous post)
The last year that I sailed full time, my digestion had gotten so poor, I was feeling pretty desperate for something that would make me feel better. My boyfriend at the time was in to raw food, so I tried that for awhile. We would spend part of our measly wages on kale and avocados and young coconuts at whole foods, even though there were three meals a day provided by the ship, and that accounted for part of our compensation. My digestion continued to give me trouble. I was very stressed out that season as well; I lost weight and my period got light and irregular. My mom suggested that maybe I should add more cooked food back into my diet since that was often easier to digest, but I had been wooed by the “sunfood” diet, and believed that the enzymes in the raw veggies should be digesting the food for me. Slowly, though, I added back in more cooked food and my digestion settled down again. Around the same time I started getting regular yeast infections, and came down with a chronic stuffy nose that was visibly worse when I ate sugar. I continued to read about food, and followed this and that diet, but still struggled with weight and hypoglycemia and digestion and yeast symptoms.
(to be continued)
My food story, Part 1
I was raised as a vegetarian, and when I was in elementary school, other children used to ask me if I would eat meat if that was all there was and I was starving in the woods – if my life depended on it… I always told them that I didn’t know – that I wasn’t in that situation and wouldn’t know until I got there.
Well, it turns out I would. Eat meat, that is. I started working as a sailor on tall ships when I was 18, and I survived ok as a sailing vegetarian for awhile. Then, couple years into my sailing career, I was headed south to spend a few months sailing in the caribbean and I realized that there was not going to be tofu and tempeh available in the islands. I needed to make some changes. I already knew myself well enough to know that, as a blood type O, I needed a regular supply of protein every day to feel good. So in preparation for that trip, for the first time in my life, I started eating eggs. And I loved them. LOVED them. That was back when we still believed that the cholesterol in eggs was what gave people heart disease, but I didn’t pay that any mind. Eggs made me feel good and strong – even the gray, dry, cold eggs that we often ended up eating at sea. I had always had a feeling that I loved eggs, even though I couldn't really remember eating them, and I was right.