Easter without Chocolate?

Over the last couple of months, I've been clearing out areas of my house and getting rid of junk, cleaning and tidying cupboards, bookshelves and rooms, and generally making the whole house look and feel more spacious. At the same time I've been re-evaluating my diet and eliminating certain foods and giving my body a good overhaul. I'm not actually sure what started first - the diet overhaul or the house cleaning frenzy, but the result is I have a cleaner house and have dropped 3.5 kg without 'trying' to lose weight.

What prompted this change were books, articles, movies, and youtube clips Jag and I discovered during our updating of the Vibrant Health Programme. While each author or speaker has their own area of expertise, there seems to be a lot of discrepancy with regards to nutrition - namely vegetarian vs omnivore, raw vs cooked, and whether grains and legumes were meant for human consumption at all. We learnt how destructive sugar and artificial sweeteners are on our metabolism, the negative effects of phytates, oxalates, lectins and how to minimize the impact of these anti-nutrient plant compounds on our health, and quality and quantity issues regarding meat, fish and poultry. After many hours of discussion and deliberation, we have implemented what we decided was the best way forward, and have both found improvements in energy levels, mental clarity and reductions in body fat. The bio-impedance measurements which measure body composition in terms of fat and muscle, as well as cellular health, fluid balance and biological age indicated that we have both improved the quality of our cellular health, and grown younger than we were even 6 months ago. We haven't been any hungrier than usual, and the food we're eating is readily available and I would say 'normal'.

So what's the secret? We are eating a very simple diet - lots of vegetables, a little fruit, moderate amounts of good quality (non-processed) meat, free range chicken and fish. Nuts, seeds and legumes soaked or sprouted, unprocessed milk, cream, eggs and cheese. What we're not eating is sugar (no cakes, biscuits, crackers, muffins, lollies, chocolate, sweet drinks etc), and minimal amounts of grains (one or at most two servings per day) in the forms of porridge, wholegrain rice and Vogel's thin sliced bread. I'm still having my one coffee per day, drinking lots of herbal teas and the occasional Kombucha tea or home-brewed beer. This may seem simple but it hasn't been easy. Why not? Because I discovered that I also had an addiction to wheat and grains - I would crave crackers or toast during certain times of the day - particularly around 4 or 5pm. While I thought I had it together and limited my intake to one piece of toast or 2 ryvita crackers, the fact remained that I was addicted (arrggg!). When I observed my behavior, and how I was feeling I discovered that first of all I wasn't actually hungry - there was an emotional driver to eating. In fact I could actually tolerate physical hunger quite easily, but the emotional urge was more difficult to tolerate. However, when I did manage to resist the urge to eat and handle the emotions I was avoiding, it wasn't so bad.  In fact, not eating those foods in the afternoon has freed up my energy to get my after-work household chores done much more easily, dinner cooked earlier and more free time in the evening. To add to this my mood is better too - not so easily irritated and a lot more patient.

What we've created is not a new diet - its an eating pattern based on all the traditional and commonsense ideas that made good nutritional and biochemical sense. It's not driven by the need for big companies to make a profit, is not based on fear-mongering, and does not feed into the addictiveness than many processed foods do.

If you're interested to learn more for yourself, read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon-Morell or visit www.westonaprice.org . Watch the movie Food Inc, http://viooz.eu/movies/2153-food-inc-2008.html and look up Robert Lustig on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

The weekend is Easter, and the thought of what people will be doing to their bodies by overeating on chocolate and hot-cross buns, knowing what I now know, makes me feel ill. I will be spending my weekend being active and sociable - tramping, dancing and gardening. Not a single easter egg nor hot cross bun will cross my lips, and I won't feel like I'm missing out on anything - except insulin spikes and energy depletion.

Coffee vs Rosemary

In my preparation for the upcoming workshop this weekend 'An Introduction to Herbal Medicine and Natural Eating' I became acutely aware of the abundance of resources I have in my own garden that I'm not using. Some of the herbs I walk past every day that have amazing healing properties are ignored except for the occasional pruning they receive when I tidy up that part of my garden. I thought I'd share some of these herbs and their remarkable properties, and how they are so easy to start using.

The first herb that comes to mind is rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis. If you have been to my place, the rosemary bush is in the garden in front of the kitchen just as you turn the corner to head to the clinic door. The reason I chose rosemary is as follows..

 I have been addicted to coffee for many years - by the time I was 12 years old I was already a self confessed coffee addict. I love the aroma, the taste and everything associated with having a coffee - having a coffee first thing in the morning before starting my day, enjoying a coffee with friends, having a coffee on my desk while working. I found plenty of researched information about all the good things about coffee to justify my addiction but the bottom line is, it was an addiction and I was well and truly hooked. What bothered me most about my addiction is the headache I would get if I missed my fix, and this was starting to interfere with my life, so I decided to cut right back to one small weak coffee in the morning.

What's this got to do with rosemary you ask? Coffee is a stimulant - it stimulates mental activity and dopamine production to make you feel awake and feel good. Coffee also stimulates liver detoxification and has antioxidant properties. Rosemary is fantastic brain tonic, nerve tonic and stimulant, antidepressant, antioxidant and protective to the liver. It is also good for treating headaches, calming a nervous stomach, improving digestion and enhancing circulation. Plus it's non-addictive, free and better for long term memory and nervous system health.

To use my herbs I take a couple of sprigs of rosemary, a few basil leaves, a sprig of lemon balm and maybe a sage leaf or two (all good nerve and brain tonic herbs), rub or crush them in my hands and put them into a china teapot. I then pour boiling water over the herbs and leave them to steep for about 10 minutes. I drink this infusion throughout the day instead of my usual coffees. I can refresh the tea by adding a bit more herb and boiling water as I go.

Try it and let me know how you get on. If you don't have any rosemary, come and pinch some of mine - I've got plenty!