I have gone back to Zumba! I used to really enjoy it, and now that the snow has (mostly) tapered off, it’s time to get out and sweat!
I have been listening to a podcast where they often talk about somatic therapy, which is focused on how emotions appear in the body.
I am often in my head, thinking, mulling, etc. And I know that when I play a video game or crochet, I can sort of “turn my brain off” for a while because I’ve directed it at something. I’ve focused it and can go into Flow State.
Dancing goes beyond that to shift the brain activity to being focused on movement. Watching the instructor, mirroring her movements, singing, dancing, counting in Español…. The parts of the brain that I constantly overwork just seem to turn off.
I’m realizing how much I need to shift into physical mode…
Just found out about this website and wanted to share. Mytavin.com is a research tool and website where you can identify the nutritional impacts of drugs you may take.
For example, I typed in the drug named omeprazole, which my husband took for years for heartburn and acid reflux. Actually, I didn’t have to type it because it is such a widely-used drug, there’s a built-in button for it…
Then click “Find Deficiencies,” and the following nutrients are shown:
Iron
Magnesium
Vitamin B12
Zinc
Depletion or poor absorption of any of these nutrients will cause other health issues – some quite serious!
This website is valuable because it could change your trajectory.
A patient or their doctor COULD use this info to supplement the depleted nutrients and fix a situation.
They could also use it to understand side effects, and realize what is causing them …and fix the nutritional deficit rather than prescribing another medication which would of course have other side effects, and cause other nutritional deficiencies.
Ideally, a person would change their diet to avoid the reflux and stop taking the meds, like my hubby did. ❤️
There are many “read more” opportunities on the site, and research is linked. Check it out!
I made ice cream this weekend from coconut milk, and it was AMAZING! It’s already gone and we’re clamoring for more.
Here’s the recipe:
1 small can of coconut cream (5.5 ounces)
1 and a half cans of coconut milk (18 to 19 ounces)
2/3 cup maple syrup (~5.3 ounces)
2 teaspoons mint extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
I used the Cuisinart ice cream churn, which requires that the bowl be frozen for 24 hours before churning.
I assembled and turned it on, poured in the mixture, and then chopped about 1/3 cup of bittersweet chocolate morsels into smaller bits. I added those as the churn turned.
It takes about 20 minutes to get to the right consistency.
I stored it in a glass casserole dish with a tight fitting lid. When serving, pull it from the freezer and let it warm up for a few minutes, as it gets very hard and hard to serve.
I used organic products shown below, and some maple syrup a friend harvested and shared.
Max is our 15-year-old Chihuahua. We want him to live long and healthy, so a few years ago, we started feeding him “Fresh Pet” dogfood, which is sold in a refrigerator case at the grocery store. It’s kind of expensive.
My husband is a chef, and one day, he decided to try and recreate the recipe. It worked great! Now, we create a big batch every 6 weeks or so and freeze it in sandwich-size baggies. It saves money and guarantees that Max is getting the best food possible.
I thought it might be nice to share this, just in case you’d like to do this for your dog, too. Here’s how:
In a small pot, cook 2 cups of rice. I’m using organic “Field Day” basmati.
In a large pot, brown 3 pounds of ground turkey. Add a sprinkling of turmeric and a tiny dash of salt. You could also use ground chicken, beef, lamb, pork… or mix them. Don’t drain the fat.
Cut 3 or 4 carrots into small bites OR drain and add 1 can of cooked carrots.
Add a can of pumpkin (stock up in the fall) OR 3 to 4 peeled, diced sweet potatoes.
Add a can of green peas.
Add diced butternut squash.
Chop broccoli into tiny bites and add that, too. (Unless your dog is much larger than Max and has all his teeth!)
Simmer all of these together until the carrots are soft.
Add rice until it looks like a good mix. I ended up adding about 3/4ths of the rice I had cooked to this amount.
After I combined all the elements, we were concerned that the carrots were still too hard, so I added 3 cups of water and let it simmer for a while, maybe an hour.
After most of the water evaporated out, we move the dogfood to baking trays so that it can cool.
Once cooled, we bag it and seal up the bags, stacking them like bricks in the freezer.
Max loves helping with the clean up. 🩷🐕
The bags are easy to thaw … just pull one out and set it in the sink for a couple of hours. I usually put a little warm water over it when I feed him so that it warms up and makes a little “gravy.”
As a person who has worked in an online/virtual format for many years, I long ago recognized the need to balance it out with real, tangible work – work that yields real product you can touch.
Years ago, I read about how grieving women tend to find relief in repetitive tasks such as knitting, crocheting, gardening, saying the rosary, etc. Little movements, over and over, with beautiful and useful results. This repetition helps us process grief and life’s upheavals.
The person doing it is awake, aware, engaged… but the mind can wander too.
It’s a form of meditation.
The mind enters a sort of “dream” state, and in it, ideas and thoughts can pop up. Some good, some bad. The right brainwave environment for a person to sort out their feelings and get comfortable with uncomfortable stuff.
I learned how to sew as a kid but didn’t do it too often. But in 2020, suddenly everyone needed a mask. I pulled out the old Kenmore and went to work.
Some of the early ones were sewn really poorly, but to my amazement, people kept asking for them and even paying for them! And I started to see them “out in the wild.” And then my awesome friend Megan sent me a ton of fabric from her studio in Washington. And I kept going.
I gave myself permission to practice and get better. And I also started learning how to crochet, using YouTube as my school.
So anyway, along the way, I made a little patchwork denim bag, and my daughter’s friends went crazy! They each wanted one… and then I got the opportunity to put my bags at Melo Coffee Kitchen as artwork! Whaaaatttt???
I think I read that on a Valentine’s Day card… probably in grade school.
Anyway, friends, I wanted to share this awesome organic lettuce we’ve been buying from Aldi.
The box is crammed with organic lettuce varieties like red and green leaf lettuce, red and green oak, red and green chard, Lolla Rosa, tango, spinach, arugula, beet greens, frisee, radicchio, mizuna, kale, red mustard greens, tatsoi, and collards. I’ve never even heard of some of these.
It’s prewashed, and its a full pound.
It’s a good deal, though I can’t tell you the exact price I paid. #worthit
This is the most charming love story ❤️. Imagine falling in love with someone who is suffering (and I mean that in the true sense of the word “suffering”) from bipolar disorder and bouts of psychosis, doing research on your own to find a possible solution, experimenting and then finding a durable cure. Imagine that!
And it all comes down to poo 💩.
It is truly fascinating, and I urge you to watch for yourself:
The Cancer Canary 