To everything there is a season... Ways to support your health as summer transitions to fall.

Yes, yes, I know, I know, we are going to talk about fall and it is August 20th?!!! You may think I am crazy, but just stay with me here. In my last post I talked about listening to your body, listening to its rhythms and its signals. This post will expand on that- I am going to talk about listening to the earth and its rhythms, and how these clues can help us stay happy and healthy in each season. Yes it is only August 20th, we are a full month away from the autumn equinox- but many ancient health modalities (Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda) consider this time in the year to be transitional. You can just feel a hint of change in the air. Here in Santa Cruz the last few days have been a little blustery, a little bit cooler, and we even had a little rain! It's not cold by any means, but you can feel it, that charge, the beginning of change. This is THE time to transition your body, as the seasons transition, to keep yourself well and your immune system healthy and ready for all that fall and winter have to offer (i.e: flu, being stuck indoors, colds, etc). Transition happens slowly for the seasons, and it should happen slowly for you too, as you adjust your eating habits and lifestyle habits to mirror what is going on externally in the climate around you. In Ayurveda, it is the transitional time between Pitta and Vata season (I am not going to introduce you to Ayurveda, it is a huge subject and so fascinating, and if you are interested I suggest a google search and a Dosha quiz). Pitta season (summer time) is dominated by heat (this is extremely simplistic, it is much more complex but because I don't want to write a book length blog post I am going to keep it very simple) and Vata season (fall/winter) is primarily dominated by air (i.e: dryness, wind). It makes sense if you think about it- hot and humid summer season, fall and winter season that requires a scarf and sweater. Now is the time to transition from raw food, salads, and cooling drinks, to warmer cooked foods, soups, and warm drinks. Doing this will support your immune system and your overall health as the days get cooler. So, as you wellness warriors now have your ears perked up to what the earth is telling you, and you can sense the cool wind creeping in during the evenings, here are some suggestions to help transition your body and mind during the transition to fall:

-Herbal teas like Dandelion and Burdock root tea in the evenings help gently cleanse the body, and support healthy immune function. These herbs help the liver and kidney to function at their best, and that in turn means better sleep, better skin, better digestion, better hormonal function... In Ayurveda, herbs that are considered liver tonifiers (such as Dandelion) help cleanse excess Pitta (heat) out of the system. Tulsi tea is a great herbal tea that calms vata in the body, and is a good tonic for this time of year.

-Slowly transition to warm, cooked foods. Not all at once, but start thinking about cooked breakfasts and cooked dinners, instead of focusing on raw salad, raw fruit, smoothies, juices, etc. When I talk about cold foods, I mean temperature cold as well as the nature of the food itself- in TCM and Ayurveda, fruit juice even at room temperature is considered cold in the body. Green tea is considered cooling to the body. I know this seems like a strange concept to anyone who doesn't have experience with either of these practices, but it really is true. For example, take green tea. You (most likely) drink it hot. So temperature wise it is hot. But the nature of the herb (in TCM/Ayurveda green tea is a herb, but all foods are looked at this way) is cooling and astringent- that is why sometimes green tea makes peoples throat feel dry! This is a case where you need to listen to your body and see how you are affected by a certain food or beverage. Another example is coffee- coffee is considered HOT HOT HOT regardless of the temperature it is when you consume it. It can cause heartburn, acid stomach, and shakiness, which are all symptoms of the "hot" quality of coffee itself. Long story short, start to transition your eating habits to more cooked, warming foods (cooked foods, foods spiced with warming spices, ginger tea). Broth is an excellent thing to start making and consuming now as the seasons change, it will warm you and really helps keep that immune system up. It is also a good time to stop drinking cold water, and sip warmed lemon water throughout your day to keep you hydrated and just a bit warmer. Also, a slight side note: eating cooked, warming foods (no cold juice or dairy, no raw cold veggies) is super important for children in this time of year. Children's immune systems are (in general) not as strong as adults, and this will help them greatly to resist the many bugs they come into contact with- especially if you have a child that gets sick a lot, warm foods with lots of broth, minimal cold dairy and cold raw fruits and veggies seriously supports their immune system.

-Up your healthy oil game: I hope you oil pull (see my old post about it if you don't), and if you do, now is a good time to transition from coconut oil to sesame oil (ALWAYS ORGANIC!!). Sesame oil specifically warms the sinuses and helps keeps your sinus cavities healthy and happy. And just as some extra protection against the dryness of the season (Vata), dab a little bit of sesame oil in your nostrils and your ears after you use your neti pot and oil pull in the morning- it protects the ears from bacteria, and a little oil in the nostrils after the morning neti pot to clean the nose/sinuses helps to prevent bacteria and viruses from sticking to the mucous membranes in your nose. Now is also a good time to make sure you are getting your daily healthy oils/fats (I take a tablespoon of ghee daily, but you can use olive oil or sesame oil). Taking oil daily helps with internal and external oleation- it will help keep you regular and help keep your skin nice and moist (Vata imbalances can manifest as constipation, dry skin, etc).

-Cover that neck! We all know that you can't actually get a cold from being cold (because, well... SCIENCE!)... buuutttt... it is widely recommended in Ayurveda and TCM that when it is windy, you cover the back of your neck. This is where "wind" gets into the body, and can cause immune weakness. I am sure you are thinking "okay Steph, that's a bit out there"- and honestly, I thought so too when my acupuncturist insisted that I always have a scarf. But trust me, it works. I am sometimes the crazy girl with a tank top and scarf on, because it is warm and windy- I want to make sure I protect my neck and keep my immune system humming. And I do have to say, since I have been doing it for the last year I haven't gotten sick (knock on wood!)- I have also become the girl with all the pretty scarves!

So here we are, at the end of summer, when the light takes on that beautiful orange color, and the wind very gently starts to rustle in the trees, when everything is still warm and summery, but touched with a hint of fall... this is the time to listen and watch the seasonal change, and listen and watch as that is reflected in your body. If you gently and nourishingly transition your lifestyle habits to support this change in season, you will notice that the start of flu season might pass you by without a hiccup. It's all about understanding that our bodies are part of the earth, and honoring that. Now go out and enjoy this last bit of warmth and sun before it's really time for fireplaces and sweaters!

From Functional to Flourishing: the first step is just to listen...

I have so many things I want to talk about for this series "From Functional to Flourishing",  and they are all bouncing around in my head- my notebook is getting quite full of ideas, but I think before we delve into the things we need to do to "get well", first we have to acknowledge where we are right now. REALLY where we are. Not "I'm fine" or "everything's okay". We need to listen to ourselves. Okay, I know that sounds cheesy, but it doesn't make it untrue. Maybe you get headaches. When? Is there a time of day it happens? Why? Is there a food, or an emotion, or something that is triggering the headaches that you aren't noticing? Maybe your skin breaks out. Where on your face does it break out? Forehead? Chin? Does it happen after you eat something in particular? Is it during a specific time in the month? Maybe your neck hurts. When does it hurt? does it hurt after physical activity, or does it hurt when you are emotionally stressed? We have all had stuff in our lives, where we know what the physical issue is, but we don't really understand why it is happening. I had crazy migraines, and it took me years to figure out that gluten triggered them. My neck and shoulders were always sore and painful, and it took me years (and the help of a great therapist) to understand that it wasn't just because of certain physical movements, it was because of specific emotional stressors. You are probably thinking right now "okay Steph, listen to your body, blah blah blah we get it". But if you feel unwell, tired, crappy, you may know some of the reasons why, but I would be willing to bet you don't know all of the reasons. So here is the first step- Listen. Really listen. Have a cup of coffee, and afterward pay close attention to how you feel. Does your throat feel dry? Does your stomach feel a little acidic? Does it make you feel jittery? This step is not about eliminating anything, it is about really taking a look at ourselves to see how things are really affecting us- even so called "little things".  Do you eat rice and feel bloated and gassy? Do you eat cheese and have a stuffy nose? Do you speak to a specific person and then have a headache come on? It is easy enough to say "I get headaches". Sometimes it is not as easy to acknowledge "I get headaches after I eat ____". You may just not notice what the triggers are, and now is the time to figure it out. Once you can put the " _____ causes _____ " puzzle together, taking the steps to get well is so much easier.

So, take a week. Don't change your life at all, don't change your diet or your routine, just listen. Write it down. Write down everything so you remember! Everything you put in your mouth, the things you do in the day (good or bad), write it down and then observe how you feel and write that down too. Went for a hike? Feel great? Write it down. Had a pizza? feel bloated? have a zit or two pop up the next day? write it down! Take a week and chronicle your life (come on, it's one week, you can do it) -you would be surprised at all the things you eat and do that you don't even think about. At the end of the week, take a look at what you observed- When you eat tomatoes, you get heartburn later on. When you eat a cold beverage or smoothie, your throat gets sore. When you eat dairy, your eyes are goopy the next morning (my acupuncturist calls this "ice cream eyes!"). I would be willing to bet you don't pay this close of attention to your body, and trust me you need to. These are all subtle signs that things are slightly amiss. Now, heartburn here or there may not be a big deal to you now, but these are signs that the body is unhappy with something, and not amending it can lead to long term affects that are more serious.

The path to feeling well begins with listening. Listen to your heart and your gut (literally and figuratively), and all the other organs that are trying to tell you something. Understanding our triggers is the first step to understanding what it takes to be well, and to know your triggers you must first take the time to really listen to your body- listen to all the little things it tells you that you'd rather just ignore. You'll find after a little bit that your body tells you loud and clear what it does want and does not want, and by listening you honor the place inside you that strives to be well, to feel better, to vibrate on a higher plane.

Please give the week of listening and documenting a try, and please let me know in the comments or on Facebook if you do this and what you find- I would love to hear from you! Be well.

moving back to happy...

Hi everyone! Apologies for the two month hiatus, it has been a doozy of a few months. I said goodbye to my dear sweet Cosmo on June 1st, and was so grateful to be able to be with her, safe and warm and at home when she moved out of our world. It has been rough adjusting to her being gone- I didn't realize how much energy one tiny little cat contributed to our household until she was gone. I still catch glimpses of her out of the corner of my eye in our house sometimes, and I find comfort in knowing she had a great life. We buried her right out in the garden, with a big pink dahlia on top of her grave.

I have also been dealing with some health issues, and since this is a health related blog and I strive to be open with my life and struggles, I will explain what has been going on. I have been dealing with pelvic pain and benign ovarian cysts for a while now, and have been using acupuncture to help treat these issues. In late May, I had an ovulation that was excruciatingly painful, and was able to see the doctor the first week of June for an ultrasound. I was fearing that my cyst had returned- but not so. My right ovary had hemorrhaged during ovulation (hence the pain) and the blood was not moving out of my ovary. My doctor (who is wonderful) explained that there is no western diagnosis or treatment for such a thing, but that clearly something was/is going on with my ovarian health- he seemed to think that after being on birth control pills for so long (12 years), my body is still learning how to make hormones, ovulate properly, etc. (When you take hormonal contraception, your body doesn't have to do things like make hormones because the pill supplies them already, so when taken for a long time to body stops making hormones, which facilitate things such as proper ovulation, and it can take a long time for the body to relearn how to do all this when you remove the artificial hormone source from you system). My doctor suggested acupuncture to treat this, which I was glad to hear because I currently use acupuncture to treat the other issues (cysts, etc). I have a fabulous acupuncturist who specializes in women's health and fertility, and we set up a plan to remove stagnation from my reproductive organs and clean out all the old stuff that is preventing my body from functioning properly. It has been interesting treatment, and I have made a lot of progress in the short amount of time we have been addressing the hemorrhage. It was painful recovery and I felt like I was a water balloon ready to pop at any moment (major bloating) for the entire month of June, but I am starting to feel better and I can see positive changes in my health recently. I am hopeful that a healthy lifestyle (good food, good rest, good mental health practices) plus targeted acupuncture and herbs will get me on track and hopefully pregnant by the end of this year!

It was my 33rd birthday yesterday, and my husband has been off work all last week and this week as well. We have been doing lots of celebrating- we hiked to the top of Fremont Peak and stood on 300 million (!!!!) year old marble looking out over the entire Salinas Valley, Monterey Bay and even back towards Gilroy... we had a decadent dinner at La Posta in Santa Cruz...we spent an afternoon wine tasting at Alfaro winery in Corralitos, and this week we are planning a day in Big Sur. This time has been wonderful to just get some joy back, to lift a bit of the sadness of Cosmo passing and the frustration of my health issues, and I am feeling well. I haven't felt like blogging much, but I feel my mojo coming back, and writing is feeling good again.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying our beautiful summer (whilst conserving water!). I am going to take the rest of this vacation off from writing and will be back next week with a fresh new post to get myself back in the blogging game. Happy Summer!

Life's sunsets...

Just a quick update today- people have asked about the next blog installment, and I wanted to let you know what is going on and why I haven't posted this week. Our beloved cat, Cosmo, is making her exit from this world right now. She is 15 years old, and has kidney failure and a lung tumor that is restricting her ability to breathe. We have known that she had not a lot of time left for awhile, but in the last few years she has bounced back incredibly from multiple health issues, so we weren't sure if this downturn was the final downturn... now we are sure. She seems to be free of pain, and we are just trying to keep her warm and cozy until she decides to make her exit. I will update the blog next week after she moves on and we have had some time to say goodbye to our beloved little girl who has been with us for so long. Thanks for all of the well wishes some of you have already given me. Death is part of life, and I am trying to honor it and her as best as I know how.

From Functional to Flourishing: Part One- the first steps

Hello Loves! Here we are today, ready to jump into the new series I will be writing, "From Functional to Flourishing". As I said in my last post, I have gotten many requests lately from friends and internet readers who are feeling crappy and don't know where/how to start feeling better. I SO UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FEEL! Two years ago, I was sick, stressed, frustrated and exhausted with no idea how to change my life in order to not be those things! It can be so overwhelming to change anything about your life when you are feeling crappy, and you may defeat yourself by trying too much at once and failing and thinking that you can't get it together so you just don't try. Now I understand that little changes can facilitate big changes, so I encourage everyone to start small- you probably don't have the energy for big! I am going to break this series up into a bunch of posts on different things, but today I am just going to start with 2 easy things for you to incorporate into your life right now- baby steps, right?

(I have to put this out there- I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you feel unwell, see a doctor. I encourage you to see a Naturopath rather then a conventional doctor, but do not rely on the internet to solve your issues. Everything I say here is only based on my personal experience, and may not work for you.)

I am a firm believer that food can heal you or harm you, so that is the first place I am going to focus on. Many people have asked about cleanses- do I do them, how do I do them, what do I think of them...? In my mind, there are two different ideas floating around about what a "cleanse" is. Some people think it's a juice fast or the Master Cleanse. Others think it is a pure whole foods based plan (like Whole 30 or the 21 Day Sugar Detox). I believe a fast is different then a cleanse. A fast (consuming only juice or liquids for a set amount of time) sets most people up for failure. We need whole food. Period. In my opinion, you only screw with your metabolism when you fast to "cleanse", and if you go right back to eating pizza and beer after you juice cleanse, you really haven't helped yourself at all. A whole foods cleanse where you can set yourself up for a new way of eating/a new mindset about food permanently is going to be much better for your health, because it sets up a healthier lifestyle rather then restricting for a few days and then going right back to where you were. I of course think fresh pressed veggie juice is a part of a healthy diet, but it shouldn't be your whole diet. This brings me to my first baby step to thriving:

DITCH THE PROCESSED FOODS! In my next post I am going to talk about elimination diets and what you can do to feel better via specific foods, but today I just want to start slow with all this... If it comes in a bag or box and it has more then 2 ingredients (I am not talking about dried pasta or beans or flour and things like that) DO NOT EAT IT. No processed salad dressing (oil and vinegar is a winning homemade combo that is super quick and lacks all that extra sugar and chemicals and processed crap that store bought salad dressing has), no cheese puffs, no crackers, etc. Shop around the outside of the grocery store (dairy, fruits and veggies, meat, bulk bins for beans, nuts, etc) and stay away from the inside isles that are full of junk (even at health food stores, organic packaged food is still processed!). You can have easy, lovely meals with beans and spices and veggies thrown into a crock pot in the morning for dinner that evening that taste better then the packaged equivalent and it will be so much better for your body. Just walk away from shelf stable foods. It will take a little bit more time to cook rice and veggies and meat, or crock pot a stew, or chop veggies for a fresh salad then it would to microwave a dinner, but you are going to have to start somewhere and this is it! Invest in a crock pot, it is by far the easiest way to get fresh food when you have no energy to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen- and make extra so you can freeze it and have a ready meal when you need it!

Second baby step to thriving:
Drink a cup of warm water with lemon in it right when you get up in the morning. I drink 16 ounces of warm water with a half a lemon squeezed into it every morning, and this goes a long way to helping you feel well. Even if you are a coffee drinker, I am not telling you (right now at least) to stop drinking coffee- just start with a cup of warm lemon water first. The warm water hydrates and activates your digestion, and the lemon is very cleansing to the liver (and helps your skin glow). After sleeping all night, your body is dehydrated, so putting warm water into it straight away will do you good. I find that it helps my bowels to move properly, and actually gives me energy because it hydrates my body quickly.

So that is it for today: no more processed food, and warm lemon water in the morning. Start there, and please let me know how it goes and how you are feeling! Next week I am going to talk about elimination diets and removing inflammatory foods to foster wellness. Until then, have a fabulous packaged food free weekend!

Wellness series: Radiate

Hello Blog readers! Happy May! The month of April has flown by, and mine was filled with lots of awesome stuff- visits from beloved friends with their new babies (the best kind of visits!), a re-commitment to a way of eating that helps me thrive (back to the Paleo template and feeling great), a new acupuncturist who specializes in and is treating us for Fertility (which has been super interesting and we have seen lots of positive changes already), and a huge new addition to our garden project (even more yummy food growing this year!). In the last week or so, I have gotten 4 requests from friends and blog readers who are trying to start down the path to wellness, and are looking for some "where to start" guidance. It seems more then a coincidence that I have been asked about this repeatedly recently, and I started mulling over the idea of doing a sort of "where to start when you feel like crap" series to highlight what worked for me and give some easy recommendations for starting your journey back to feeling well. I am going to try and focus on basics that will work for everyone- it is so overwhelming when you feel like crap and know you need to eat better/heal your gut/deal with your life/get more energy, etc etc etc- feeling terrible and trying to do so much at once to change is unmanageable and will just make most people throw in the towel right away. It's all about little steps that then add up to big changes. Nothing is going to change overnight, but you can and will get to a place where you think to yourself "hey, I haven't had a headache in a few days... and I didn't even notice" (or something similar, that was just my first experience with starting to feel better). I will break it up into categories, such as food, hormones, sleep/stress, supplements/herbs, and mind/emotional work... something along those lines - this is a fluid process, so I don't have it all totally mapped out now. Food will be the first topic, as that I feel food is the most important part of any healing journey. Food has the capacity to help us to thrive or help us to die, and I firmly support letting food be thy medicine... So my next post will focus on that. Today I just want to suggest something a little "woo woo" (that's the phase we use when I talk about something hippie-dippie around these parts), but something that I used as a tool when I began my healing journey (so bear with me, we are about to get flowery and mystical up in here!). I am a reader and a writer by nature, so words and images are very powerful to me. I love the sounds of certain words, and the colors and images that they invoke. Even just thinking about a word or an image can change your mindset (think mantra or power phrases) and focus your brain. When I started trying to get better, I sat down one day and thought "what do I want? in one word, what do I want to feel?" and I started writing down all these words that were inspiring to me in terms of wellness... such as "heal", "thrive", "nourish", etc. I picked my favorite of those words, and wrote it in colored markers on a piece of paper in my journal (you could just do this on a piece of paper too) and doodled pretty things around it, and it became my mantra- when I felt like shit or felt like eating something that I knew would make me feel sick or when I felt like I couldn't get a handle on my emotions, I envisioned my word. It helped center me, helped to remind me why I was trying to motivate to cook dinner instead of grabbing packaged food. I know you are probably all smiling a little smile and thinking "Oh Steph, you're so cute you are such a hippie", and while that is true, it really did change something for me. And it might work for you. It is really easy to get overwhelmed by the bad stuff when you are feeling unwell ("I always feel crappy and I won't ever feel better so I am just going to resign myself to feeling like this because cancer is unavoidable and the world is horrible" etc etc etc)- it is good to have a little mental gong of sorts, to bang on and remind yourself that you can get better and you will get better. If that sounds crazy to you, no worries, I get it, but it worked for me and I still use my word frequently to motivate me to keep moving towards thriving.

So we begin the wellness series with a word. I will share mine with you, feel free to use it or to come up with your own. When I asked myself what I wanted, when I was feeling completely sick and bogged down and in a big mud puddle of unwell, I decided I wanted to radiate. Bright beautiful light, radiating on everything and making everything warm and sunny and nourished. So I leave you with that today, go out into the world and RADIATE! Even if all you can muster up today is a smile at a stranger, or a compliment to a friend who is exhausted too, do it and radiate and feel a little glimmer of a glow. And feel free to chuckle at my hippie dippie-ness while you think it :)

A skin clearing "latte" that tastes almost as good as the real thing...

The humble dandelion. Who knew such a cute little weed could help our skin look beautiful and clear? Dandelion is a wonderful herb for helping the liver function better, clearing the skin (because a happy liver = happy skin) and building blood in the body. Come springtime, we see Dandelion pop up in all sorts of cleanses, juices, etc, and for good reason. Who doesn't want clearer skin and a happy liver?

My body has a hard time with cold foods/drinks. I love my juicer, but I can only make fresh veggie juices in the summer, when it is very warm out and my body temperature won't get too cold when I consume a cold food. Raw salad, cold beverages, sushi- they are all very cold foods per Traditional Chinese Medicine, and when I started going to my acupuncturist she advised me to stay away from cold foods since I have a tendency towards a low body temp. I notice if I drink/eat something cold, I will get a little headache and a stomach ache, a sure sign that my body is unhappy. So I look for ways to use cleansing foods and herbs in warm ways, such as warm veggie soups and warm teas.

Dandelion tea is a great way to incorporate the highly cleansing plant into your life. I buy the Traditional Medicinals brand, I trust them and they make some great teas. Dandelion tea is a good substitute for coffee or black tea, if you are tying to limit your caffeine intake. My husband and I have been completely caffeine free for about a month now, and I tell ya, it is liberating! I stopped drinking caffeinated coffee about 2 years ago, after being a 3-5 cup a day-er in my past life as a grad student. Coffee makes me crazy jittery and sweaty, and I needed to get off of the "needing it to function" train. My real love is black tea- for me, there is nothing quite like a strong cup of good black tea with a splash of cream in it. But, alas, even my black tea was affecting me, albeit less then coffee, but I was still noticing some side effects. Since we are trying to get pregnant, and I knew I wanted to be caffeine free once we get a baby cookin' in there, I figured why not get a jump on it now and get through the groggy mornings post quitting caffeine before I was knocked up. Enter Dandelion tea. Roasted Dandelion tea has a great bitter roasted flavor, not unlike black coffee or black tea. Now, I'm not saying it's the same, IT'S NOT. But it's close enough for me to enjoy it for now instead of black tea, and the added health benefits of drinking it are worthwhile too!

Here is a simple Dandelion tea "latte" recipe:
Brew a strong cup of Dandelion tea (make sure it is organic!)
Add about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of coconut milk to it.
Drink and enjoy.

The coconut milk adds good fats to the drink, and lends a hint of sweetness to cut the bitterness of the Dandelion tea. I make my coconut milk at home, to avoid canned coconut milk which always contains emulsifiers and other weird ingredients, as well as to avoid BPA. It is super easy to make:

Put 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut into a blender. Add 2 cups boiling water. Blend until well shredded, to a nice creamy consistency. Let it cool. Poor it through a very small gauge sieve or cheese cloth to separate the coconut meal from the liquid. The liquid is your "cream" and you can use the leftover coconut meal for any number of baking projects... it can be used to make some super yummy macaroons! This makes about a cup to a cup and a half of coconut milk.

I hope you give the humble Dandelion a try this spring, and let me know if you try the Dandelion latte. Cheers!