Surprise Me Local!

Support local, organic farmers by ordering a surprise basket of various vegetable produce–what ever is abundant at the time of harvest. This sounds like a triple-win situation for me, the farmers, and the environment!

Cheap (cheaper than the crappy supermarkets and much, much cheaper than gourmet supermarkets)

Clean of chemical pesticides, means you don’t have to spend a long time washing your food

Larger, healthier produce; to be grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, the plants are usually grown in soil made naturally nutrient-rich through good compost techniques.   

You can often name your price too, and the farmers will select the appropriate amount for you because organic farms are mostly run by nice people who want the best for others :) 

Homemade Oven-Dried Tomato

This was so easy to make, the whole thing took under 4 hours (half hour chopping and lining up on the oven rack, and 3 and half hours waiting time that you can spend doing other things) since I used a batch of small cherry tomatoes. 

1. Set the oven to 130 Celsius with wind
2. Slice each tomato in half
3. Sprinkle with chopped garlic and salt
4. Line up neatly on an oven rack
5. Place rack into oven, and wait for 3 hours (cherry tomatoes) / 6 hours (medium tomatoes) /12 hours (large tomatoes).

This is such a handy and versatile ingredient to have in a vegetarian/pescetarian kitchen; you could add this to salads, white fish, bread, or just grind into pesto (add chili for an extra kick). 

“Overfed, But Undernourished”

The whole conversation about alternative medicine should start at defining the term. So many people around me hear “alternative medicine” and immediately refer to supplements and bizarre therapies. I beg to differ, alternative medicine is about not eating stuff that is bad for you, and allowing and assisting the body to heal the way it has been naturally programmed to. 

This comes delayed but Hungry For Change is a really good documentary explaining how and what it means to eat healthy. I took some notes, see below. 

MSG 
Standard protocol for creating obese mice for lab experimentation, is to feed it MSG. “MSG-induced obese mice”. Yet, MSG is added to 80% of processed food today hidden under many names. 

Aspartame 
The combination of this sugar substitute and caffeine produces an initial burst of excitement in the brain when ingested. Aspartame is an excito-toxin and is recognized to have neurological toxicity. Also, aspartame spurs carbohydrate cravings.

Fructose
Highly concentrated purified extractions from natural food (like cocaine from coca leaf, white sugar from sugar canes, MSG from seaweed), that are dangerous when taken in the high amounts and high concentrations that they exist in processed food. Sugar would be labeled fat-free, but is highly addictive and turns into fat once in the body. 

Chemicals 
Toxic chemicals that enter the body are treated like allergens, often wrapped in fat or mucus to protect more or less against its impact. When you burn fat, you would strip the toxins of this protective layer, which the body would not let happen because that’s more dangerous than accumulating fat. So what happens is that you don’t lose fat until you lose the influx of toxins. In plain speak, this means you have to eat clean and/or detox first and then your fat-burning exercises would yield results. 

Detoxification
Fresh Vegetables, gelatinous fibers, or water are good for detoxifying. 

Skin
The skin is the last part of your body to receive nutrients, so if your skin is healthy and looking good, it’s a reflection that the rest of the body is too. Disclaimer: I might disagree with this, just because while this is generally and theoretically true, there are so many caveats here and I personally have seen many people with nice skin that eat horrible diets consistently.  

Stress
Stress produces cortisol and epinephrine hormones in your body, which induces the body to pack on weight. The best way to metabolize stress hormones is to first, sleep, second, exercise, then laughter. 

Love
When you treat yourself with care this way, you begin to realize that your body is precious, you are precious. By loving yourself you invite more love into your life and begin to perpetuate a positive cycle of health, abundance, and benevolence. “Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life.”

Diet: A Matter of Training, Not Self-Discipline

Had this Superfood salad for dinner: quinoa, pumpkin, garlic, sunflower seeds, almonds, pine nuts, goji berries, blueberries, broccoli, baby spinach, romaine lettuce, and drizzled with a light, orange rosemary olive oil dressing. It was delicious, packed with such a variety of nutrients, gluten-free, and completely vegan. 

Two years ago I could hardly imagine myself ever sustaining such a clean diet for as long as I have, and I’m so happy to realize that what seemed to require the super human self-discipline that I don’t have, actually is less about self-discipline and more a training process. 

Two years ago I could only eat healthy 50% of the time, and used to get so frustrated and down on myself for my lack of self-discipline as I understood it. Then a year ago, I could eat healthy 70% of the time. Now I’ve been eating healthy 90% of the time like it’s my second nature and without feeling any bit deprived. My final goal is set at 95% (because 100% would just take the ecstasy out of life) and I can see myself getting there within this year because it’s truly just a matter of time and practice. 

I’m willing to see if many other difficult things work the same way. 

Pescetarian (with Fine Print)

This below is the diet plan that I have set for myself in 2013, and also a summation of what I know about nutrition for longevity, effective weight-loss, and also my own allergies/sensitivities. 

I should point out that by banning bad fats, I am eliminating red meat and essentially all animal flesh from my diet. Add to that my sensitivity to eggs and dairy, makes me a pescetarian. 

Can We? Let's Try →

William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?

Breaking Out - Finally! Resolution!

Update on November 11, 2012: 

Think I have finally found a cure to my skin troubles! And what a long and torturous experiment it’s been!

I’ve learned that it’s about maintaining an equilibrium between the yin and yang, coldness and warmness, in my body. This concept comes from traditional Chinese medicine, and I believe the Indian cuisine follows this idea as well, eg eating yogurt with curry.

Ping Ming Health offers a pretty decent guide. 

The part that I stupidly didn’t realize until recently, is that there are many factors that impact this balance of cold and warm, not just diet alone. Your natural physiology, the environment you live in, your stress level, how much sleep you’re getting, and exercise, all play a part. It’s almost impossible to keep track, so luckily there are several ways to read your body:  

•  Lips (chapped 1 ——- 5 soft and smooth)
•  Skin (blotchy and breaking out 1 ——- 5 rosy and clear)
•  Stress level (anxious and quick tempered 1 ——- 5 calm and basically non-argumentative)

Of course, these are my symptoms and they would likely be different from yours.

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Update on September 3, 2012:

Test:cutting out cooling foods, dairy, eggs, coffee, processed food, and reducing stress/adding more sleep.

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Could it be food allergies, to dairy? Coffee? Cooling foods? Gluten? Stress? Constipation? Period? 

Doubt it’s because of my period either, as the breakouts did not seem to happen cyclically.

Test: cutting out cooling foods, gluten, dairy, coffee, and reducing stress/adding more sleep.

Both times it struck I had been eating lots of milk and cereal, drinking tons of coffee, feeling moderately stressed, and had not been sleeping enough. Very possibly the three compounded—caffeine, the stress, and a lack of sleep—was what had me feeling extremely anxious. Cutting out cooling foods becuase I’m not supposed to eat cooling foods according to my traditional Chinese doctor anyway. Defecating lots always helps. 

************

Found a great article that probably helps more than anything I just said. It summarizes all of the factors I should be monitoring, and even though I essentially arrived at the same conclusions, it puts things into perspective and clarifies how they relate to one another.  

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Pulled from High on Health:

We all know that one of the main contributors to acne is overactive oil glands in your skin that produce excess sebum that then collects in your skin, blocking hair follicles and pores. This forms plugs that prevent the normal drainage of oil and also causes dead skin cells to become trapped. Bacteria in your skin then feed on the excess sebum which causes an infection which results in a pimple.

So you can understand why many doctors and dermatologists say excess sebum is the cause of acne. But really, it’s not. Excess sebum is just another symptom of a bigger problem within your body that’s causing it. Instead of getting rid of the symptom (excess sebum) by using harsh drugs and chemicals, we need to actually fix the root cause of excess sebum and acne.

Two Main Causes of Excess Sebum:

1.  Toxins
2.  Excess Hormones (androgens) [DHT]

Excess toxins that your body has to expel through the skin can be caused by:

a.  Sluggish digestion, poor kidney and liver function [defecate more]
b.  Candida [fungal] overgrowth
c.  Junk food/low quality food
d.  Chemicals in food and environment [coffee, computer screen?]
e.  Allergies and Food Intolerances [dairy, gluten, cooling foods?]

Hormonal imbalances (particularly excess androgens) also increase sebum production. Hormonal imbalances can be caused by:

a.  Emotional stress [rushing deadlines]
b.  Physical stress
c.  Environmental synthetic hormones (e.g. xenoestorgens in plastic)
d.  Hormones in animal produce/food
e.  Contraceptive pills
f.  Genetic predisposition
g.  Bad Diet, Poor Nutrition

As you can see, a lot of the root causes of hormonal imbalances are diet, lifestyle and emotional health related. These causes result in certain types hormonal imbalances that I’ve found to be common in acne sufferers:

a.  Adrenal Stress/Fatigue with elevated Cortisol levels [coffee plus deadlines?]
b.  Estrogen Dominance (Low Progesterone)
c.  Hypothyroidism
d.  Insulin Resistance
e.  Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

The most important thing you should do first is to go and get your hormones tested with a saliva test (more accurate than a blood test). [And] here are a few general things you can do to help balance your hormones overall:

1. De-stress! [Breathe, plan ahead, calm down, and refuse to be overstressed]

Please don’t underestimate the impact this has on your hormones and acne. Any time you’re stressed your adrenal glands pumps out Cortisol that contributes to increased androgens and increased acne.

2. Eat a Low GI Organic Diet [cut out coffee]

Cut out all bad food, especially stimulants and sugar. Eat low GI, healthy organic food. Cut down on fruits too (even though they’re good, don’t eat too much because the sugar can be stimulating and add stress).

[“Where carbohydrates outweigh both proteins and fats significantly (in your diet), skin problems will ensue, because the digestive system becomes toxic, and the superfluous glucose imbalances the hormonal system” said an article on PureCalma.com]

3. Eat plenty of Essential Fatty Acids [more extra virgin olive oil, healthy fish, avocados, almonds, sesame seeds]

Essential fatty can help reduce the production of androgens and balance hormones. People with acne have been shown to have deficiencies in EFAs. You can also apply topically to your body, face and hair for added benefits.

a.  Flaxseed Oil (15-60ml per day)
b.  Omega 3 Fish Oil (5ml per day) 
c.  GLA from Evening Primrose Oil (5ml per day)
d.  Sunflower Seeds
e.  Pumpkin Seeds
f.  Grape Seed Oil
g.  Extra Virgin Olive Oil
h.  Avocados
i.  Olives
j.  Nuts 
k.  Seeds
l.  Coconut Oil

4. Vitamins and Minerals [tons of vegetables and some fruits, and zinc chelate supplements]

a.  Vitamin C
b.  Vitamin B’s (especially Vitamin B6)
c.  Zinc 
d.  Magnesium
e.  Vitamin A

5. Herbs that help to balance hormones

a.  Licorice
b.  Rhodiola
c.  Schisandra
d.  Ashwagandha
e.  Holy Basil
f.  Chasteberry (Vitex Agnus-Castus)
g.  Maca
h.  Burdock
i.  Milk Thistle

6. Natural Anti-Androgrens [drinking green tea at work instead of coffee, replace milk with soy milk, eat other soy products]

a.  Green Tea Extract 
b.  Saw Palmetto
c.  Nettle
d.  Spearmint Tea
e.  Pumpkin Seed Oil
f.  Emu Oil
g.  Soy Isoflavones 
h.  Beta Sitosterols
i.  Alzelaic Acid

Thank you High on Health!

ओ३म्

Yoga, meditation, mindfulness/awareness, breathing, peace and uplifting vibrational frequencies like ‘om’ and other music. 

Green Focus

Bought the Cuisinart SBC-1000 super blender and soup maker today. It turned out to be over my budget, so I made a pact with myself to justify the purchase—must put this to good use by making vegetable soups or green smoothies at least three times every week and must lose two kilos. 

So with these green vitamin boosts I’ll be getting and the elimination of certain foods from my diet (see my Breaking Out post), I should be quite happy with myself on the diet front.

Besides the dietary upgrades, for the rest of this year I will be focusing a chunk of my extra energy on everything health-related and so I am also starting a vegetable garden—just planted mung beans. They seem to be the easiest to grow and the sprouts are delicious to eat with anything! To be honest, I am awful at keeping things alive, let alone grow vegetables to the point where I can harvest them, but I found these awesome videos—MyInspiredCreation—by a lady who most definitely has the green thumb. She makes it seem very easy. So I am feeling hopeful about the chance of a thriving vegetable garden of my very own!

Detox from Inflammation

When I think of detoxes, my experiences call up attempts at the Master Cleanse, Liquid Diet, and Raw Food Cleanse. Pretty much just painful and futile struggles to abstain from any food-like substances. Now at twenty-four years old, I have a very different understanding of detox that makes a whole lot more sense. 

Dietary detox is: 

• Not depriving your body of substances, but rather providing your body with sufficient nutrients to heal itself. 
• Ridding your body of inflammation, that means food your body is sensitive/allergic to, chemicals and toxicity.  
• The way you should be eating on a daily, long-term, sustainable basis.