Seasonal Cleansing, Get The Spring Back into your step.

images-1Kapha season is late winter and early spring, time for seasonal cleansing.

At that time of year our Kapha energy is more likely to go out of balance. Kapha is immobile and stable and strong. During the late winter Kapha tends to accumulate, we become less active and many times we crave comfort foods which tend to be Kapha-genic. This is usually a time that suggests it’s time for seasonal cleansing.

With spring comes a shift in the weather and it becomes time to rid our bodies of excess Kapha. In order to do that we plan some seasonal cleansing (ridding ourself of excess Earth and water elements in order to avoid imbalance).

Ayurveda provides a nourishing and effective approach to seasonal cleansing of the body that seeks to balance and restore harmony to the system.

Ayurvedic Suggestions for Seasonal Cleansing:

Drink lots of water and shift your diet to lighter fare. What we eat has the greatest overall impact on our health and Most Americans get less than half the required amount of fiber-needed daily.

Ayurveda suggests a diet that support the bodies natural purification systems. Including complete servings of fiber and protein in order to stave off hunger between meals. Herbs and spices are used to help detoxify and cleanse the body as well as make the foods tastier.

What are some signs that you need Seasonal Cleansing?

  •  Crave Junk food and sugar but have a poor appetite
  • You notice it takes longer to feel hungry after a meal
  • You find yourself eating  large portions
  • Feeling heavy, congested or constipated
  • Bloating and gas cause discomfort
  • Feeling tired with little energy
  • Mind feels a little foggy and “spaced out”
  • Lack of motivation.

What is the first thing you need to do when preparing for a seasonal cleanse?

The first thing is to remove the foods that create sludge or Ama in the system such as foods with preservatives and additives, junk food, sugar, cheese, deep fried foods, carbonated drinks and left overs. These may be things that you normally do not consume but you may have found that some of them have snuck into your diet.

Do not eat raw foods, they are harder to digest and we are trying to cleanse the system. Foods that are cooked are partially digested since digestion is our systems way of cooking. Eat plenty of cooked vegetables and eat fresh fruits (ripened fruit is not considered raw as the ripening process is the plants way of “cooking” the fruit until it is done).

Eat foods that are whole, fresh and organic as much as possible and make sure you are eating according to your dosha. When we eat according to our dosha it makes the food easier to digest for each of us individually.  Make sure and eat your cooked food warm and drink only warm or hot water.

Tea is a great way to help detoxify your body. Boil equal parts of coriander, cumin, fennel and ajwain, take it from the heat and let it set for about 20 minutes to seep. Drink the tea throughout the day, make fresh tea every day.

For seasonal cleansing the best vegetables are cabbage, celery and cilantro, and fresh ginger, and lemon are excellent herbs to assist the system your detox.

Get plenty of rest because a rested body will digest and assimilate the foods more effectively. Exercise is very important as it will increase your metabolic levels, help sweat out toxins and increase energy levels.

Using healthy oils on your skin and in your diet will help to loosen toxins embedded deep in the layers of the bodily tissues. Generally coconut oil for Pitta and Sesame oil for Kapha and Pitta.

Regular elimination is also important when seasonal cleansing, including lots of vegetables and fresh fruits in your diet will help such as cooked apples and pears, prunes, pomegranates and pineapple.

Within a week you will feel the fog lift and you will feel more energetic, as you continue you will feel lighter and release weight. When you began you may have been craving your old lifestyle, after a while you will wonder why you would ever want to go back to unhealthy eating again.

 

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What’s For Dinner?

images-3In our fast paced world with all of the conveniences at our fingertips it’s hard to imagine having enough time to actually cook a nutritious meal that doesn’t have some ingredient that is processed. Many recipe’s today include opening a can of this or a box of that. I may be a cooking snob but when I see these things I usually discard the recipe unless I can make the ingredient fresh.

The media helps us in this thinking that we need nothing but convenience when it comes to our meals. I love the Olympics so I dusted off the TV and turned it on and really enjoyed the stories of the athletes and their competitions. What I didn’t enjoy is the bombardment of the media and their convenience foods. The Mom talking about how “toasted” she is at the end of the day so she stops by KFC and gets her family a meal.

I was thinking now she isn’t only toasted she’s fried too!!

With a little bit of planning it is not difficult to cook healthy meals with nutritious single ingredient simple foods. The best place to start is on the weekend, this is a great time to plan the weeks meals and strategize about how to make it more simple and convenient. Planning ahead will guarantee you will have all ingredients at hand and any prepping can be done ahead of time.

Todays meal is Cajun Chicken Gumbo so I planned ahead.
This take about 7 hours to cook in a slow cooker so the best part about it is that you put everything together and leave it. When you get home, dinner is cooked.

Last night because we had a planned out meal it was simple to chop up the onions, peppers, celery and garlic and seal it up in the fridge. Then this morning I took 15 minutes to make my roux and cook my sausage at the same time and drain. A small amount of Italian sausage is the only processed item in this recipe, Gumbo just isn’t the same without it. When it is pre-cooked and drained it is much healthier than cooking it in the gumbo like most recipe’s call for.

Another thing that I do for convenience is that I can organic chicken breast meat in jars. It is amazing for quick meals where chicken is called for. I only use it if time is an issue or there is no chicken on hand, it is an amazing time saver. I will go through the steps for you so you can learn how to can your own chicken in an upcoming blog but for now lets stick to the gumbo.

Shelli’s Cajun Chicken Sausage Gumbo:

1/3 cup Flour
1/3 cup Canola oil/ cooking oil
3 cup Water
12 OZ Cooked Italian Sausage
1 1/2 cup Cooked Shredded Chicken
1 cup Onion chopped
3/4 cup Sweet Green Pepper chopped
1/2 cup Celery chopped
6 cloves Garlic minced
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red peppers
3 cups cooked rice

Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 7 hours

DSC_0174

 

To make roux: combine oil and flour in pan, cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes stirring constantly until it is a rich dark reddish brown color like the photo, set aside and let it cool (hint: take if off the heat before it is to the finish point and it will finish as the pan cools, make sure and stir it occasionally)
Cook and drain the sausage and cook and shred the chicken (or open a jar of home canned chicken)
Chop all vegetables.DSC_0176
Add 3 cups of water to a pan, add the roux, it will look like the photo

 

Add the sausage, chicken and vegetables and let it simmer all day.
When you get home it will be done. Serve over rice. it’s delicious!

 

Because dinner was so easy tonight, you can plan for tomorrows meal and prepare anything that needs to be chopped ahead of time.

A great hint if you don’t have a timer on your crock pot is to buy one for the wall and plug the crock pot into that, set the time for 7 hours and head off to work.

There is no substitute for fresh locally grown food that is cooked freshly delicious.

Bon Appetite!

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On Taking A Handful of Vitamins and Jumping Off A Cliff

 

No Choice but To give an Interview...=D

We all are comfortable in our routines, at our homes or at work. We do certain things to keep us comfortable, healthy and happy.

But what happens when you are away from home and out of your natural routine? It can be easy to ignore all of the little things that we are used to, like for instance 8 hours of sleep. Sometimes we completely loose our routine and we find our self out of whack.

You see when you allow this to happen, not only are you heading down hill to the “outta whack” place but it also takes time to come back from that place and all of that time reduces your productivity.

It is imperative that you bring some comforts of home with you when you are away, maybe some food that you are familiar with or it could be as simple as your pillow.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a friend of mine, Wayne Allyn Root. He talks about the ways he keeps him self in top notch condition and about his “healthy addictions” and how they work positively in his life.

The key here is that he refers to what he does as a habit. He has made a habit of having healthy, affirmative, positive things in his life and because it has become a habit, he doesn’t leave his habits behind when he leaves home. He continues to exercise, watch his nutrition, take his supplements, meditate and all of the other healthy habits he talks about in the video.  Make sure and check it out.

We had a wonderful day on the zip lines in Jamaica and we were all able to do that because we were all fit enough to go and we were all below the 250 pound weight limit. Not only that but we were all willing to try something new and adventurous, with terrific friends and I have to tell you there is nothing better for your health.

I really appreciate the time that Wayne took to talk about his healthy habits because as you can tell, He is a very busy person, he is generous with his time and such fun to hang out with.

Wayne is the economic advisor to Wealth Masters International and lends his name to that organization because he believes in what we are doing collectively, in addition to what he tells you on the video which is impressive all in itself.  He has written several books, his latest is Conscious of a libertarian and I suggest you pick it up and read it, it’s an eye opener.

Wayne is someone worth following so I suggest you find him on Face book and connect, he has some great things to say and he makes it his business to find out what is going on and keep all of us informed.

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