Bookending My Day With Essential Oils

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my-diffuser

Early this morning I mixed rose and bergamot oils in one of my diffusers to help focus me. The smell is divine!

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Me…the one who’d make jokes about power crystals, meditation and all the rest of that “hippie” science. Well I’m not laughing anymore. Essential oils are now a big part of fighting my wacky hormones.

If I wake up feeling a little down then I add a few drops of lavender, chamomile, bergamot and ylang ylang into my diffuser. Soon I’m feeling pretty awesome.

No energy to plow through my to do list?  Then I load up my diffuser with a few drops of grapefruit or sweet orange and voila! I’m a bundle of focused energy moving from task to task.

In the evenings, about an hour before bed I load up my bedside diffuser with lavender. While that lovely scent is filling my cool, darkened bedroom, I’m relaxing in the tub with some lavender infused bath salts. When I follow this ritual I’m out like a light when my head hits the pillow. If not, I’m in for an evening of tossing and turning.

Science Be Damned. This Works For Me.
The science on essential oils is very light to say the least. I know that humans have a long history of using plants for healing. But I’m also aware of the power of suggestion. Read More

Post Holiday Purge Begins

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storage

Time for my annual After Christmas Purge of all things unhealthy or furry in my pantry and fridge.

After a festive Christmas it’s a blur of activity in my kitchen. No I’m not cooking. It’s my annual After Christmas Purge. Between my 2 pantries and refrigerator I’m discovering lots of strange items – some green and furry, some smelly and squishy. Others decidedly not low carb.

Two full trash bags later my kitchen is back to normal (other than all the food storage containers in the sink). And I’m starting to feel that way too. The mindfulness is helping with my stress levels. That doesn’t mean the rage monkey doesn’t escape the cage. Nor are those depressing thoughts fully at bay. But I’m working on both.

On January 1 I start a different type of purge — my 7-day fast begins. I can’t wait. After the rollercoaster of the last 6 months I can’t think of a better way to kick off 2017.

Merry Christmas From My Family To Yours

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Merry Christmas and a very happy 2017! Two cool videos for you and yours.

If you like tunes, here is one of my favorites:

Or if you ponder the REAL meaning of it all, this is the best explanation of what it’s all about!

Here’s to seeing less of (but a very healthy) you in 2017!

Healing My Body With A Week Long Fast

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empty-plate

I’m kicking off the new year with a 7-Day Fasting Challenge as a way to heal my body. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and phasinphoto.

I’m ringing in the New Year with a week-long fast. Crazy? Not really. I’m a believer in fasting and it’s many benefits like: lipolysis, boosting mental capacity, reducing insulin resistance, and resetting your set weight point.

Intermittent fasting helped me rediscover what it feels like to be satiated by stablizing the hormone leptin (the hormone signals the brain that you’re full).

However, the big driver behind this 7-day fast is autophagy – the cellular cleansing process. According to Dr. Jason Fung, autophagy is the “body’s mechanism of getting rid of all the broken down old cell machinery (organelles, proteins and cell membranes).”

Now all cells in our body are programmed to die after a certain number of divisions. That’s apoptosis. Autophagy takes place at the sub-cellular level. Basically only parts of a cell need to be purged and replaced. Dr. Fung compares this to replacing car parts rather than the whole care.

Fasting not only stimulates autophagy (clearing out the bad), but it increases growth hormone so our body can produce new cell parts. Double bonus! Read More

Rebalancing My Hormones Via Diet

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raw-meat

With a focus on improving my micronutrients, I’m making the switch from grain fed to grass-fed meats and pasture raised poultry. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and KEKO64.

Well I’m biting the bullet and making the move to pasture-raised and grass-fed meat free of hormones and antibiotics. I’ve resisted this move for a long time, mostly due to costs. When going low carb it made sense to focus on how to eat healthy and not sweat about breaking the bank.

Cost is still an issue, I realized we can afford the jump in our food bill if we cut back on going out to eat. A pretty good trade-off if you ask me.

Why the change?

I’m just starting to take a look at the micronutrients in my diet. Since I started eating low carb, I’ve focused on the macronutrients – fat, protein and carbs. But now that I’m in menopause, I’m starting to realize that vitamins and minerals play a part in rebalancing my hormones.

Grass-fed meats are more nutritious (higher levels of micronutrients and omega-3) than what I typically buy.

This is the first step towards resetting my hormones. I’m considering a few more dietary changes come 2017 – giving up alcohol and caffeine, limiting cream and cheese and possibly adding a little more fruit. 

I know I’ll never go back to my hormone levels before the surgery. That’s not what I’m aiming for. I’m looking for what works for me at this point in my life.

Dear News Media: Saturated Fats Are Healthy, Fatty Fast Food Isn’t

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nypost

Why do the press equate healthy fats with fast food? Most news reporters and editors are intellectually lazy. That’s why you should always question any health “news” you read.

This is one of those subtle things that the news media does that really annoy me.  The New York Post published a short news story about a study out of Norway showing that saturated fats are healthy.

Awesome! However, the opening paragraph of that story is wrong. “Fatty foods” are not necessarily good for you. After a bit of eye rolling on my part, I continued reading and was pleasantly surprised. The rest of the story seems spot on about healthy saturated fats.

What really caught my attention was the photo the editor chose to use.  A greasy, triple stack cheeseburger. Really? 

It completely undermines the news in the story.

Anyone reading that story who buys into calories in/calories out is going to think either: 1. The story is “fake news” or 2. I can eat a big ass cheeseburger and lose weight.

Why choose a photo that conjures up unhealthy fast food in one’s mind? The only thing potentially healthy with that burger might be the meat (and only if it is 100% pure beef). Everything else in that burger is highly processed and should be tossed.

The photo is so misleading.  The story doesn’t say eat fast food burgers all you want. Healthy fats like butter, cream and healthy oils are specifically mentioned.

Here’s a novel concept, why not depict the actual healthy fats mentioned in the story you are publishing? It’s not that hard to find in Shutterstock.

If your job is to provide news to the public, why half-ass it?

 

 

A Little Downward Dog To Reduce Stress

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meditate

Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Stuart Mills.

Exercise is a big key to lowering my stress and anxiety (and cortisol) levels. From everything I’ve read, yoga is the magic bullet. I tried yoga about 4 years ago and really enjoyed it. However, our bank account wasn’t a big fan. Yoga studios are insanely expensive in Northern Virginia.

My first (and last) yoga studio charged me around $600 for 3 months. Why would I pay that?

After a series of injuries from trying to walk every day (pulled hamstring, IT band and Achilles tendon), my doctor told me to stop walking, lose 50 pounds (I weighed over 300 pounds), and then only do yoga.

Once I was cleared for walking, I said goodbye to the expensive studio. Instead, I did yoga by DVD for 3 times a week. That ended once started my 5k training.

I picked up yoga again via my old gym. After an hour of spin class, a little downward dog was very much welcomed.

But now I’m gym-less. I just don’t want to shell out $45 a month where I have to wait to get on the free weights.

What about going back to DVDs? I’d love to, but that can’t happen until next year. That’s when we start turning my office/exercise space (which is now storage/kitty space) into an exercise/craft room, complete with a TV and exercise DVDs.

So the search for a good, but not too expensive, yoga studio begins anew. Practically all the new studios near are big into Bikram — a.k.a, “hot yoga.” I did that once and will NEVER do it again.

Thankfully, my physical therapist gave me a couple of good leads on studios to check out. Ideally, I’d like to pay as I go. Just easier on the pocketbook.

What am I looking for in a studio? I guess I’ll know when I see it. A class geared toward stress/meditation is important. Friendly instructors would be nice. I guess if my little Grinch heart starts feeling warm and fuzzy after a class then I’ll know I’ve struck fried gold.

 

Coping With My Anxiety-Ridden & Rage-Filled Days

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meditate

My stress levels are astronomical thanks to my raging hormones.  I’m giving mindfulness a shot.
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Stuart Mills.

Over the last few weeks I’ve experienced some serious daily meltdowns. My hormones are raging. I’m stressing over every little thing. Emotionally I’m a mess. And I don’t have a clue what to do about it.

I’ve read about mood swings a woman experiences during menopause. But reading about what to expect is far different from reality.

My oncologist said there was a shot that my symptoms could become debilitating. But I brushed that off. Summer and early fall I experienced mild heat flashes. My mood was upbeat. I thought menopause was a snap.

That all changed in November. Read More