The "Leftovers" of the Christmas Season

Ok, here we are. January 2009; feasting is behind us…….and so on our behinds are the leftovers! Pants may be a little more snug…maybe your rings are a little tighter. Maybe you're even feeling fatigued or having skin breakouts. Don't panic! There is a way out!

Not only do we see extra weight around our mid-sections, our livers are taxed with the remnants of rich, fatty foods, our skin is working overtime to help clear metabolic toxins out and the energy requirement is leaving us sapped. Most people I hear from have a great desire to snuggle up to the salad bar or graze in the produce sections of their local supermarket after the holidays are over. That, dear friends, is our bodies' way of letting us know it's time for some housecleaning. So what now? Listen to our bodies and learn what we can do for our health's sake.

This is where the term "internal cleanse" comes in. There are several boxed detoxification programs available on the market that are effective. They vary greatly in cost and time commitment. The packaged programs I recommend are Nature's Sunshine's Liquid Cleanse or Tiao He Cleanse, along with whatever herbs are specific for targeting a certain area or toxin needing elimination. Boxed programs are convenient and the instructions are laid out plainly. Their ultimate effectiveness really depends on your dietary habits during the therapy.

Designing your own internal cleanse program is in my opinion, a better option that, while being more time intensive to prepare, can yield better results in less time all around and be more  cost-effective. This program generally involves a fast specially tailored to your body's physiology. An organized fast often times can be the best method for over-coming many physical ailments.

Here are some pointers for effective fasts:

Spend as much time coming off the fast as the fast itself. If you've fasted for three days, spend three more days working up to your regular diet. Consume easily digestible foods like meat and vegetable broths, watery grains, soups, then slowly add steam vegetable, then lastly, add animal proteins.

People who are new to fasting or have trouble with fasting can fast with meat or fish broths.

If you experience excess stomach acids during your fast, they can be neutralized with this fasting tea of violet flowers (gotu kola or chickweed are good substitutes), chicory or dandelion and ¼ parts each black peppercorns, anise seed and rose petals. Steep thsese in hot milk, strain and add honey to taste.

People who are experienceing arthritic, rheumatic pains or gout do well fasting on only fruit or vegetable juices of apple or cherry for arthritic / rheumatic complaints or carrot, beet, celery and parsley for gout.

Thin or malnourished people generally should not fast, but build their bodies with solid nutrition. A "Kicharee Fast" is most effective for fasting without depleting your body.

Kicharee

Soak 1 cup rice and 1/3 c. mung beans, separately, in water (meat stock is beneficial for vegetarians and those with O blood) for 7 hours or overnight. Cook them separately. Brown 1 tsp. turmeric powder, 1 tsp. cumin seed and ½ tsp. coriander powder in 2 TBL. clarified butter or sesame oil. Mix everything together, adding water if a soupier food is desired.

Kicharee is a balancing, detoxifying food that is suitable fasting food for all body types. It can be eaten as a meal anytime.

Sample four-day fast:

First three days – Drink three 8 oz. glasses of fresh squeezed apple or vegetable juice mixed with 1 tsp. agar seaweed flakes (mineral support and binding of toxins). Drink 1 TBL olive oil with ½ - 1 tsp cayenne powder three times per day. Take 2 Triphala tablets three times per day (digestive regulation). On day four, continue with olive oil, cayenne and Triphala, but eat light vegetable broths. One days 5 and 6 , eat steamed vegetable and a light soup or rice porridge. Return to your regular diet on the seventh day.

So while we pack it on, we can also shed it back off. But don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that we should eat like Corinthians all year and fast in the first few weeks of the new year.  Why not make it a New Year's plan (because resolutions are doomed to fail) to take a few small steps to improve your health through dietary improvements. Several small steps make big leaps!

 

 

Karen is a long time lover of natural solutions for health and a student of medical herbalism; she has been using and learning about natural foods and therapies since 1980. She offers custom-blended medicinal herbal teas and tinctures, nutritional supplements, dietary & lifestyle consultations and hands-on instruction. 

My case study this week is that of a woman who has been suffering for many years with allergies reactions, a runny nose, wheezing, and having to get up several times during the night to pee. She doesn't like cold food and loves to stand in the hot shower. I won't go into the tongue and pulse diagnosis part of it in this segment.

 

After looking at her symtpoms from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Differential Diagnosis method, I found her to be afflicted with the following pathologies:

Cold phlegm obstructing the lungs

which causes the following patterns:

Deficient Lung Qi and Yin

Deficient Kidney Qi and Yang

Deficient Spleen Qi

 

Treatment would be to disperse cold and drain phlegm, tonify lung and kidney qi and tone kidney yang.

 

I've chosen not to disclose the herbal and lifestyle recommendations, but am willing to discuss them privately.

 

Everything God created is good and useful.

So do you think you have the right to do what you please? Pornogaphy, prostitution, abortion, child & spousal abuse, drugs & alcohol use, gay marriage. Would you think something like, "Ahh, now this is freedom......." Would you like for the ACLU to pave the way for you to practice these activities without risk of prosecution and persecution?

I believe there are some things that are certainly do-able, but are deemed illegal in order to protect people from themselves, or to protect the public from the moral, physical, spiritual and financial fallout of those activities.

Immoral activities such as pornography and abortion that a lot of peole want to be free to choose, while looking shiny, sparkly and attractive on the outside, when all is said and done - robs you of freedom rather than extending it.

My lousy choices have bound me with nasty baggage that causes me nightmares and sometimes serious distractions throughout my day. Can I really ever be 100% "there", where I need to be at any given time, I wonder? It was the series of "socially acceptable choices", really, simply, clever deceptions that robbed me of the right to be completely free.

You can believe the liberal thinkers of the day that spoon feeds you through Hollywood and the media their freedom through civil liberties chants - but if you do, consider yourselves deceived. In the end, when you get to the other side of the choices, you can look over your shoulder to count the new 1000 lb. boulders in your journey's pack.

After you've made your immoral choice for freedom's sake, you'll never know what it would be like to be "free". What you grip so tightly will sift through your clenched fist in fine dust.

 

It happens on occasion that my daughter will ask me for some kind of junky treat. Like yesterday for example. We were coming home from school and she said, "I hate health food. How come you always feed me healthy stuff? Why don't you ever give me pizza pockets in my lunch. " and "Normal kids get pizza pockets". She was loud, angry and obnoxious about this perceived violation of her personal rights!

 All I could do is realize just how sad and true her statement was. I had to acknowledge her frustration by offering her a little sympathy. No, it doesn't feel good to be different. I offered to wrap her food in dollar bills. I offered to put a fine wine glass into her lunchbox from which she could drink her organic strawberry-flavored milk. No deals, though. Couldn't sell her on the ideas I presented.

Unfortunately, she has a close friend at school who is willing to bring her candy bars and pizza pockets! I'll need to have a talk with the lunch lady.

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Here's an article you may find interesting. Whether or not your have children, you can apply this wisdom to your own life. You'll be pleasantly surprised bt the outcome!

 

Progressive Health
Summer 2003
www.capha.org

The Secret to Better Grades: Upgrade the School Lunch

Wisconsin School Project Proves
a Healthy Diet Works Wonders

Walk down the hallways of the Appleton, Wisconsin, Central Alternative High School and you will see students interacting successfully with each other and with their teachers. Notice the calmness and purposefulness that sets these teens apart.

The hallways aren't lined with soft drink and junk food machines. There is no smell of grease in the cafeteria. Burgers, fries and burritos have been replaced with salads, meats prepared with old fashioned recipes and whole grain breads. Fresh fruits and vegetables are offered and the students drink water.

Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching. What's going on in Appleton, Wisconsin? A five-year project to bring healthy food into area schools, initiated in 1997 by Natural Ovens of Manitowoc, WI. Its goal: to show that fresh, nutritious food can make a real difference in student's behavior, learning and health.

The results are astounding. Since the start of the program, no students have dropped out, been expelled, been found using drugs, carrying weapons, or have committed suicide, states Principal LuAnn Coenen, who files annual reports with the state of Wisconsin.

Mary Bruyette, a teacher, reports that the students are now calm and well behaved. "If you've been guzzling Mountain Dew and eating chips and you're flying all over the place, I don't think you're going to pick up a whole lot in class. I don't have to deal with the daily discipline issues; that just isn't an issue here. Our biggest problems now at the school are parking in the parking lot and student tardiness. I don't have the disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior that I experienced before we started the food program."

One student says, "Now that I concentrate, I think it is easier to get along with people 'cause now I'm paying attention to what they have to say."

Dr. Thomas Scullen, Superintendent of the Appleton Area School District, had expected that the healthy diet would improve behavior, but he was pleasantly surprised that it has had such an impact on academic performance.

Followers of the Feingold Program would not have been so surprised. Since 1976, the Feingold Association (www.feingold.org) has worked to "generate public awareness of the potent role of foods and synthetic additives in behavior, learning, and health problems. {The Feingold} program is based on a diet eliminating synthetic colors, synthetic flavors, and the preservatives BHA, BHT, and TBHQ."

Once children on the Feingold Program have made the connection between food, behavior and learning, they tend to prefer to enjoy the benefits. As one Appleton student remarked, "I really like the food. It tastes good, it's hot, it's fresh."

Many of the changes are being phased into Appleton's middle and elementary schools. Fred Ginnochio, a middle school principal, reports not having one incident all year involving shoving, a fight, aggressive behavior. Dennis Abrahm, who has taught science for almost 30 years, finds the students calmer and more rational. "I had thought about retiring this year and basically I've decided to teach another year -- I'm having too much fun!" Candy machines are gone and pop machines are being replaced with juice machines or water coolers. There is a district-wide commitment to healthier eating and lifestyle in general.

Dr. Scullen sees an eventual switch over in all of Appleton's schools. "It can take several years to make the transition. The program will sell itself on its own merits, given the time. I think that instead of looking at the food program as a "break-even," we have to take a look at what we have to put in to make it really good for the kids."

Natural Ovens underwrote the cost for their five-year study that will eventually impact 200 Wisconsin schools. The price is around $20,000 a year, notes Natural Oven President, Dr. Barbara Reed Stitt, who adds, "One child arrested would cost the schools more."

Dr. Scullen concurs, "If it results in a happier kid, improved learning, and ultimately a better community, then it's a cost we cannot avoid. It's something we must do."

 

 

 

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I spent a lovely weekend at Suttle Lake, in the heart of Oregon's Cascade mountain range. I'll admit that the facilities were a bit too crowded for my taste - I'm an intorvert and want privacy. But, all in all, it was nice. I was able to gather a worthy selection of photograghs - some of plants that one doesn't normally notice, like Pipsissewa. I did not include photos of more commonly found plants , like Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Western Hemlock. The Douglas Fir, however, deserves an honorable mention, because Marshall broke his toe on the trip and the Doug Fir is a healing ally for this injury. He refused the treatment, though. Funny, I wanted to harvest Pipsissewa, but I found all of two plants during two days and thought it would be ecologically irresponsible to exfoliate 50%!

I'm getting in the habit of documenting the remedies I make with herbs, so this week I want to report that I'm still harvesting the Lemon Balm (melissa officinalis). I'm drying a batch and began more tincture w/ alcohol as a menstruum. I'm ready to strain and bottle a batch that I made fourteen days ago. The Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is ready to harvest and I can't decide if I will dry it or freeze it..or tincture it. I started a Black Haw (Viburnum prunifolium) vinegar extraction today -  I'm very interested in creating recovery-friendly remedies. The Peppermint (mentha piperita) is ready to harvest and I will end up drying that. What I really want to concentrate on this week is getting the local produce harvest into my coffers, not herbs. But time waits for no one, so I'll just be super busy for awhile.

How I used herbal remedies in the past week: Comfrey poultice to increase rate of cell proliferation in Mashall's toe. Black Haw decoction and Cramp Bark (Viburnum opulus) tincture to relieve muscle spasm in my low back  - I rode the boat donut (pull-behind-the-boat water toy) and am paying for it now! Kelp to help with sodium balance (kid yin def).

Well, the new set of Mormon Missionary boys came to my door! I just love it when the new ones come knocking. It's nice that they don't put a big, black 'X' on my doorpost like the Jehovah Witnesses do.

The first thing I think is, "One of you will leave Mormonism after your mission, which one will it be?" I always like to put small wagers on the one I think will denounce the Mormon Church....and then I want to let him know that he is always welcome here.

When I meet with them this time, I'm going to bring up the point that the men of the Book of Mormon always seem to be exalting themselves. I did this great thing. Look at the great deeds I do. I'm really wise......etc. The Bible isn't like that at all. The great  leaders that were not of God had that kind of ego - attitude, but the men of God humbly gave all glory and honor to God, not themselves. Not even Moses, when miraculous signs came to Egypt through him, claimed greatness for himself. Actually, he did that once; however, it cost him entrance into the promise land. He brought water from the rocks his way, thereby bringing glory to himself, instead of the method which God had instructed him to use. He thought his program was better than God's. NOT!

That's kind of how the Book of Mormon reads to me - The men relying on their own understanding and not in unity with God.

So anyway, I'm supposed to meet with them tomorrow, but will need to postpone for a week. Marsh and I are going on a beach trip to see Deej!

I thought it would be best to put some closure on the Mormon Boy visits.

I think Mormons are really nice, generally honest people with whom I can appreciate friendships with. They make great business partners and managers, too. One woman I really enjoyed meeting with and would've liked to be friends with moved away, kind of a bummer. We just won't talk of the deeper things of life.

I called the boys and told them that I didn't want to continue our meetings anymore. After a lot of research, purchases of Deseret publications, and conversations with Mormons, I found that Mormonism is science fiction and to be perfectly honest, a dangerous cult, The Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) teach a form of heresy that is waaaayyyy more believable than anything the Mormons have to offer their ranks. It makes no sense.

 

My homework is done for this meeting - 2. I have read the "Ensign" article, looked up the references, read some McConkie and considered all I had learned.

I've chosen to engage them in a quest to answer this crucial question: "Who is Jesus?" It should take several weeks to get through.

These two topics will be explored in this session: 1. What is meant by the often used phrase "A MarvelousWork and a Wonder"? 2. Mormons claim that Jesus and Satan are brothers - the first sons of God (Elohim).

I don't have the time at the moment to recount this session, but wanted to get the topics down before I had to think too hard to recall. The session did happen and was very good. I will be writing about it at a more convenient time.

They were on time and brought and old guy with them.

I totally expected them to begin with the "first lesson", but they didn't. They wanted to show me a video clip on a thumbdrive. It was a speech from the latest conference; the main goal of it was to show their conviction that Mormons are Christians, too.
I'm fairly convinced that it was a political move to help Mitt Romney win more American hearts.

Anyway, I watched the video; in fact, copied it to my harddrive so I could watch it again. They insisted that I take the "Ensign" magazine which had verbatim copies of all of the conference speeches, so I would have the footnotes for the video for a more in-depth study. I took it just to make them happy and when I began reading it later, I happily realized that I had a perfect springboard to months of discussions.

So we all offer each other genuine smiles, have a round of firm handshaking and say "goodbye" until next week.

Note to self: I learn more about Mormonism by what their publications/video productions leave out, than want they put in. Read speech before next week's meeting, research footnotes and choose two questions for discussion.

END

Next meeting: 2

OK....the latest couple of Mormon Missionary boys. (I'm wondering why I've never had young women missionaries come around???)

We set up a set day and time for their visits - a time when my younger children would not be home.

Visits are to last about an hour, but I like to leave a little extra time to finish up important discussions if needed. My rule: The appointments are never to last more than and hour and a half.

I like to make the visits around lunch time. Generally, people are more relaxed and candid when meeting around some sort of snack and drink - I know I am.  Jesus actually taught me this; he spent a lot of time with people during meals. I think there is some sort of spiritual significance to this.

Next: The first meeting......