Playin’ The Edge

I was reading Ayurveda for Women and thought the bit on addictions was interesting. 

We become addicted to foods we think we need but usually they are foods that support the way we are already are, which make us more that way, bringing us out of balance.

- So Vata people love sugar which temporarily provides instant stimulation and satisfaction making them even more hyper and scattered.

- Pitta people go for meat, alcohol, salty, sour and spicy foods which make them more intensely driven.

- And Kapha people go for heavy or fatty foods which reinforce their natural slowness and complacency.

I can really relate to this, I’m Vata Kapha.  So when I’m feeling hyper-Vata, I crave chocolate, baked goods and wine.  When I’m feeling my most Kapha in early spring, I’m like a bear coming out of hibernation with one eye half open.  All I want is heavy foods and more baked goods.

Svoboda says, we use food to affect our consciousness - the problem is our minds convince us we need the kind of food that reinforce who we are.  But since we’re already that way, it’s not really what our bodies need.  We have to try to go in the other direction to keep ourselves in balance. 

So I need heavier foods to ground me when I’m feeling Vata-crazed.  I need lighter foods like tasty bitter green things in early spring to help me feel less bear-like. Tough to do when you’re feeling out-of-wack.  How do you feel strong enough to make better food decisions so that you really *can* get stronger?  I don’t know the answer, I barely understand the question.

I also don’t know alot about Ayurveda, but when I learn something, it seems to be bang-on for me.  Hey, if you’re interested in recipes and info, check out this blog I recently found - Fran’s House of Ayurveda.

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and drained lately.  Like I cannot do one more thing.  So I booked an appointment with an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant, Silver Frith.  Frith (it’s a chosen name and she says you can call her whichever) was one of my Yoga Teacher Training teachers and does this Ayurvedic stuff as well.  If she stared doing yoga in the 70’s she’s gotta be in her 50’s now but you’d never know it.  Her skin glows with dewey youthfulness.  She looks like she’s never consumed anything bad in her life, or at least since she started doing yoga. 

She asked me to first do a 5 day food diary.  

Doing a food diary is a great lesson in the power of awareness.  And accountability. There were a couple times I didn’t eat what I was about to grab because then I’d have to write it down and ‘come clean about it’. 

There was another time when I wrestled with the honesty about the second glass of wine that became a third.  Oops!  It dove into my hand!  And down my throat!  What’s a girl to do?

Anyhoo, the appointment was interesting, she said that a Kapha Vata (that’s me) is the toughest constitution to keep in balance.  She said that the overwhelmed/drained feeling is because I’m up to my eyeballs in Vata. 

She said - have you been doing any air travel? Yup, two trips in two weeks in April.  Any emotional issue stuff coming up recently?  Well, I visited my family on one of those trips, so that would be “yes”.  Eating alot of sweet food like bread and stuff?  Um, did I mention my family?  The family where your breakfast options are cinammon rolls, waffles, pancakes or muffins? Double-check.  So no wonder I’ve been feeling the way I have.  It turns out all those things are vata-city.

So she gave me a bunch of things to try like ginger tea, less caffeine and less sweet food.  Yes, sadly that includes wine which our bodies receive as sugar.  Frith threatened, or at least it sounded that way to me, that if I couldn’t improve things with these tweaks it might be time for a detox diet.  Ayurvedically speaking that means a mono-diet of Kitcheri - a rice, mung bean, veggie dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  No god please, not with bbq season starting. 

She also asked if I’ve noticed any peri-menopausal symptoms and I told her, thank god, no.  She said good, because you want to get out of the habit of forcing your energy with caffeine and sugar and learn to go with the energy you have. 

She said that abusing caffeine etc. is tough on your adrenals and adrenal fatigue often hits women right before menopause.  This is lousy timing because you need to be strong for menopause.  She said for my slow a.m. Kapha constitution I should be using active yoga and exercise to get myself moving - less Seattle’s Best Breakfast Blend. 

I was horrified at the idea of “going with my energy”, which just goes to show me that maybe I am a caffeine freak who lives on squeezing every last bit of energy out by Any Means Necessary. 

I’ll let you know how it goes.  Hopefully the energy I learn to go with will be enough to get me back to regular blog postings.

In Nova Scotia, we’re big oat cakes eaters, you can find them everywhere.  My mother-in-law gave me her ancient recipe and I’ve altered it, like removing half the butter, to make it more healthy.  I  wondered if I could mess with it again and make a Wild Rose detox version. 

Now first my disclaimers.  This ain’t the best oat cake you’ve eaten, but it is a good portable snack that you can eat while on the Wild Rose detox.  The other good thing about these oat cakes, as my Honeybunny says, is they’re not brown rice.  (A little detoxer’s inside joke there). 

Here’s how to do it: 

Turn the oven on to 350 and make sure your racks are middle to high in the oven.  Dump 1/2 cup dried plums into the food processor.  Whir it up until it’s a paste.  Add 1/2 cup slightly softened butter and 1 egg - whir it up together.  Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon and salt.  Add 4 cups oats - pulse and scrape the edges until it’s combined.  (Flour is a no-no on this detox, so go easy).  

Take handfuls of the dough and flatten each into a hamburger pattie sized oatcake.  Place them on a cookie sheet.  If you like a soft oatcake, keep them 1/2 inch thick.  If you like something crisper, go 1/4 inch thick - I used a rolling pin to flatten them right on the pan.

Bake for 8-10 minutes if they’re thin, 10-12 for the thicker version. 

Slather with butter or almond butter hot out of the oven and you won’t feel like you’re detoxing   Carry around for a snack when you’re tired of almonds.  Or anytime you need a break from brown rice.

There comes a time in the life of every detoxer, where you say - damn, I’ve worked hard! I deserve some pancakes!  So do it, here’s how:

Combine 1 1/2 c of oats and 1/2 c of cornmeal with 2 cups of plain soy milk and let stand 10 minutes.  Add 1/4 c wheat germ, 1 egg, 1 T Baking Powder, 1 T veggie oil and 1/2 tsp salt.  Blend together.

Make sure your pan is good and hot (medium high heat) and oiled if it’s not non-stick.  Drop spoons of the batter into it.  When the edges start to look cooked and you see some bubbles, flip.  Put them flat on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200 until you’ve gone through the batter.

These pancakes are fairly light and have a good texture.  I cooked up some mixed berries to put over top.  They were also good leftovers warmed up in the toaster and topped with almond butter.  Yum.

So I want to set my intention today to be good to *myself*.  I’ll skip the bucket-loads of waxy chocolates and smarmy cards.  I’ll just choose to be kind to myself.

I read a quote the other day (from a Glamour magazine while i was in the check-out line) saying that we don’t compare our intelligence to Einstein’s, why do we compare our bodies to Gisele Bundchen?  I’m not focused on Gisele as much as comparing my current weigh-scale reading to that of a certain pre-holiday timeframe.  I’m a tad freaked that the winter weight that’s clinging to to my behind will become a permanent fixture.  

But I think being kind to myself means, knowing and reminding myself continuously that it’s winter.  As much as I want to hibernate and eat - it’s natural - it’s winter.  And spring will come.  Really.

So here are my commitments, the things I will do to be kind to myself:

Not train for a marathon - it’s been pretty cold and tough to get my butt outside to run.  But I  commit to do the things that will make it easier to start up again soon.  And that includes doing enough Sun Salutations in my personal practice so when I get to a 6:30 a.m. Ashtanga class (likely when it’s light out at that time) it won’t kill me.  I know I’ll have more energy in the spring, this is not the time to fake it, it’s the time to prepare where I can.

Eat as many fruits and veggies as possible.  Sure I want to eat spag and meatballs - it’s winter.  But I’m going to at least throw in as many veggies as I can get away with.  Breakfast cereal and fruit?  Same deal.  Not as a *diet* or a *detox* (that’s for spring) but do the extra work it takes to eat boring winter veggies to support my health and immune system.

Get my liquids.  Not ice cold water - it takes 3 hours to stop shivering - but something, anything to combat the dry house and dry office.

Lose the evening eating.  May the nights that I don’t eat after dinner outnumber the nights I do.  May the nights without a glass of wine, outnumber the nights I do. 

Do the things I love.  Try to balance the hibernating thing with seeing friends and doing something fun more often.  Hibernating alone makes Jill a dull girl and makes spring fever come something fierce. 

And what will you do to be kind to yourself?  Enjoy waxy chocolate, or not, while you think about it.

I wanted to say a bit more about the self-care rituals, or niyamas from the last post.  These rituals are about regulating ourselves and our environment to keep us moving toward who we really and where we want to be. 

My father-in-law went through a period of being totally committed to some serious weight-loss goals.  As he started losing weight he found that a few chronic health issues disappeared.  He stopped being short of breath.  He could walk without pain and stiffness in his knees.  He was totally amazed that there could be real-live benefits to not eating whatever he wanted.  When he chose less freedom on one front, he gained more freedom on another front.  And the second freedom simply became more important.  It was the big-picture goals that helped him keep his perspective on a short-term urge for chocolate.

But this takes considerable self-knowledge.  What supports me?  What doesn’t?  What do I want to be nurturing in my life? 

A friend of mine is a nurse and works long hours.  When she finishes her week’s shifts she hibernates, turns-in, and works on fully recuperating before going on to do some fun things with friends before her shifts start up again.  This is non-negotiable for her.  She knows she needs that time if she’s going to be healthy.  Period. 

How many of us have the self-knowledge to create the space for ourselves that we need?  Because we all need it, somewhere.

I think of them as good habits but the hope is that they become so engrained they’re like rituals. 

Keeping up with my exercise and yoga is one for me.  It burns off the sludge so my mind and body can run smooth.  It makes life feel managable and doable.  It makes me feel clear.  When life is tough, that ritual is like a drug for me.  It can get bad, like I’m “jonesing” or “chasin’”.  And then there are other times when the connection isn’t there and it’s all I can do to get myself to the mat or outside in running shoes for whatever movement I can possibly muster.

And when it’s hard to do, it’s good because it just reminds me of what life’s like without my rituals.  They give me a sense of control when things are nutty.   And they convince me just by the sheer fact of my doing them regularly that it’s important to treat myself well.  It’s like the good kind of vicious circle - I do them to treat myself well and because I treat myself well, I gotta keep up with them.  Doing the ritual is my way of agreeing. 

I’ve concluded that I’ve got to give back to myself if I want to give to others.  If the well is empty I’m not going to be any use to anybody.  

My friend told me she’s starting taking her camera everywhere so she’s ready when the muse hits.  It struck me that our rituals and habits can be about anything we want to make more juicy in our lives.  Creative health needs support too, and it often exercising our creative muscles is the best sure-fire way of getting new inspiration to do more. For my friend, carrying her camera is like setting her intention to look at things with a fresh mindful eye.

Yesterday I listened to a workshop Dr. Robert Svoboda gave for the Yoga Spirit folks.

He calls these healthy rituals Niyamas, using the term in a more broad sense than we usually think of it.  His examples were lemon juice in warm water every a.m. if we know we tend to have an acidic body, or meditating for a few minutes every a.m.

He said that the way we look at them varies based on your dosha.  I thought this was so interesting.

Kapha types need to understand that their tendency toward inertia means that if they start heading in a particular direction it’ll give them momentum to continue.

Vata types need to understand that any positive regular habits are very good for them.

Pitta people need to understand that they won’t think they need them, but they do.  Especially rejuvinating niyamas like gentle yoga that balance their firey nature. 

Whatever your dosha or need, I hope you find a healthy ritual to perform this weekend.

This is part 2 for a previous post about reaching for a better-feeling thought and it combines a bunch of stuff including material from this book on Manifesting that I finally finished (yaye vacation!).

So to reiterate - to get the things that you want, you need to be in a good head-space, a good feeling-place or as the book says it, a high vibration.   When you’re there, you’re open to receive all the good stuff the Universe has for you.  It’s the Law of Attraction at work. So depending on where you’re at on the “I feel crummy” scale, some things will work better than others.  Try them out, here are ten to choose from: 

Smile - You’re in the car grouching about the red lights, the stoopid drivers, the lousy weather.  Try smiling.  It’s been shown to change your physiology for the better.  Try a big goofy grin.  Add a laugh (sure it’s a fake laugh but you need to start somewhere right?).  And if you feel like a dork, good.  Stop taking yourself so seriously.

Meditate - the Manifesting book says that sometimes we’re so good at having a parade of negative thoughts running through our head that the best thing to do is to try not to think.  Just doing that improves things immeasurably.  It’s funny, we talk about training our bodies, disciplining ourselves in all kinds of ways but not our minds.  Why is that when it’s usually our own thoughts that bring the most crazy into our lives?  So try sitting and breathing and letting those thoughts go.  Hard, but powerful and great practice for the times when the crazy-making starts.

Visualize - if you’re wrapped up in your own conundrums, try visualizing yourself in a better place.  Wherever you were on your last enjoyable holiday, your favorite beach or your Grandma’s kitchen.  See yourself there, take it in with all your senses.  When you get to a better feeling place, get up and move on. 

Eye Spy - This is a great one when you’re stuck in a car, doctor’s office, in a line-up and not happy about it.  Play Eye Spy with yourself and look for anything and *everything* that you appreciate or feel grateful for around you.  Traffic sucks?  Feel grateful that your car is comfortable and running great.  Feel grateful for the magazine that was issued during this calender year.  Feel appreciative of the color they chose for the wall in front of you.  Focus on the positive, all of it. 

Music - Play some music that speaks to your soul.  Feel cranky because you have nothing new?  Then try Pandora or pick a station like Classic Disco on AOL Radio and let it speak to your soul *and* your booty. 

Hug a pet - There’s been lots of research about how skin-to-skin contact lowers our blood pressure.  And how the unconditional love of pets helps our health and lowers stress. No pet?  Hug your neighbour’s.  I used to be predjudiced about that, like it needed to be furry animals, but you know, even running a finger down the scaly back of my lizard Jim makes me feel good.  He’s so mellow that it reminds me maybe I should try that more too.

Get Moving/Get Outside - There’s something about being cooped up inside and not moving that just makes us crazy.  But it’s so much a part of our culture that we don’t realize it.  It doesn’t need to be a “Work-out” or a serious “Yoga Session” although those are fabulous.  Try anything.  Get moving.  Get breathing.

Energy Clearing - Sometimes our bodies and our space get clogged up with dead energy.  So clear the clutter in your house or go get a reiki treatment for your body.  I was going through a stressful time recently and had a reiki session with Ann Perry, man, it felt like she scraped about 10 pounds of used motor oil off me. I felt great. Get the stuff cleared out so the energy in your life can move freely again.

Color - Sometimes we forget about the power of color.  Try wearing a color that makes you feel good.  Or change up the color in your house.  Or look at photos you love.  Change the wallpaper on your PC.  I usually switch to orange at this time of year.  Anything that brings a better feeling when you see it.

Find a Better Thought - Often when we have a conflict happening we turn it over and over in our minds.  We need something to snap ourselves out of our lousy mood.  If you’re mad at someone try to find anything slightly positive you can recognize about them.  Example - I can’t believe he did that, but maybe he had a reason I don’t understand.  Or maybe he was having a bad day.  Or doggonit at least he has good hair.  Anything.  Or swap out whatever nasty thing you’re repeating to yourself in your head for something better. 

It’s our jobs to feel good so that we can spread that goodness to others and make the world a better place, one interaction at a time.  Here’s hoping you’ll find something new to try for yourself next time.

Breakfast can be challenging on the detox.  I’ve been doing hot cereal in the a.m.’s and when i’m in a rush I take a container of puffed rice cereal and soy milk. 

“Porridge” has such a bad rap.  It seems like those of us were who were forced to eat it as kids remember gluey tasteless stuff and those who weren’t forced felt really lucky. 

But it can be OK.  Here are some suggestions.

Start with 3/4 c of good organic oatmeal.  If you like texture find the big flake stuff or try spelt flakes, they’re a bit more flavourful and keep their texture more than oatmeal.

Throw in some nuts.  The Wild Rose charts don’t go into detail but here’s a list of approved nuts from the Wild Rose cookbook - almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, walnuts, flaxseeds or flaxmeal.

Add some extra flavour and sweetness by chopping up 3 or 4 dried plums.  They’ll break down a bit when you cook it.  Or try chopping or grating in a small apple.

Add some spices like cinnamon or nutmeg if you like those.

Barely cover the contents with hot water and microwave it for a minute.  Then stir in some soy milk or more water until the consistency is slightly waterier than you’ll want.  Nuke for another 30-45 seconds.  Stir and then let it sit for a bit with the lid on.  Then enjoy with a big mug of coffee or herbal tea.

Post Mortem:

So I’ve finished my detox for another six months.  I haven’t been as hard-core sticking to the diet as I usually am, but it’s been a challenging time and I figure it’s a heck of alot better than how I *could* have been eating.  It’s given me the motivation to try to keep on track as well as I can as we head toward the Holiday season.  We’ll see how long it lasts.  Happy detoxing! 

Repeat after me from the Wild Rose food chart that’s probably taped to your fridge ”Fish (eat all you want even if over 20% of total diet)”.   I absolutely love salmon so that’s what I used, but these would likely work well on any fish fillets.  Here are three options to keep it interesting.

I usually schmear sweet stuff on my salmon, maple syrup or something like mirin wine if I’m doing an asian version.  The sweet stuff makes a nice glaze on baked salmon and of course it tastes great.  So what can I use while detoxing?  I found dried plums on the list, so I came up with this one and it turned out well:

Glazed

3 T olive oil

3 dried plums cut into pieces

fresh ginger (a slab the size of a quarter, peel and cut into chunks)

1 garlic clove (cut into chunks)

Throw all in blender or processor and blend until smooth.  Goo it onto the fillet.  It’ll go on thick, or cover two fillets so you have one for a friend or lunch the next day.  Bake at 425 for 15 or more minutes depending on how done you like it. 

And spices are our friend on this detox, so try this one for good flavour:

Indian style

2 T olive oil

1/4 t each of cumin, curry, chili powder, tumeric, salt

good shake of pepper

This is actually enough for 2 fillets, but i don’t have a measuring spoon smaller than 1/4 t. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes or more depending on how done you like it. 

Keep it simple but tasty with this option:

Simple Asian Style

1 T sesame oil

1 chopped up green onion

 1 garlic clove squeezed through garlic press

1 quarter size slab of ginger squeezed thru garlic press

good shake of sea salt and pepper

Mix and smear over a salmon fillet. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes or more depending on how done you like it. 

Go-withs

Baked Potatoes - Since you’ve got the oven heated, it’s a good opportunity for bake potatoes.  I started 4 potatoes in the microwave (5 minutes) and then finished them in the oven with the fish.  Bake extra when you do potatoes, they’re good leftovers.

Millet - Also let’s talk millet.  It’s an odd grain that you don’t see around very often, but if you like a good texture, try it.  It has a mild taste that goes great cooked in organic chicken stock.