Nurturing Your Feminine Side With Food

I’ve had to have a lot of va-va-voom in the last couple of years. I’ve re-trained, moved countries, started speaking a new language, started a new job and created my own business.

It hit me earlier this year that among all this drive and determination, I’d somehow left my femininity behind. I’d had to be strong, focused, determined and reliable — for all the right reasons. So much was going on; all good, but I’d lost the part of me that was playful, delicate, sassy, nurturing, soft, patient and kind. I’d lost my femininity.

Even without challenges like this, the demands modern society makes on women mean it’s all too easy for us to lose touch with the soft and gentle side of ourselves.

I’ve always loved being in the kitchen and I’ve learned, over the last six months, that we can bring our womanliness back into the world through our food. I call it nurturing the feminine. Here’s how:

Choose the Right Food
Femininity is balanced, well and happy. Our food should be the same: Hand-pick your produce to feed and nurture your body and your life. Often, with all the shrink-wrap and marketing, we forget that food comes from the ground. Take a moment to remember where it all starts and select produce that feels positive to you; its wellness will be imparted to your being. Better still, try growing something yourself; even if it’s just herbs, you’ll deepen your respect for and connection with your food.

Femininity flowers with moments spent caring for itself. Think about the food you really love and include it in your diet. Your own energy needs to be bright -– that way you’ll make a positive impact without even trying, so make sure you love what you put in your mouth!

Prepare Food with Love
Femininity is delicate and light and nothing brings that out like fresh, unprocessed food. Eating a cared-for fruit or vegetable in its natural, raw state will flood your system with a host of life-giving nutrients.

Femininity adds joy and love to the world. Think about food preparation, in particular cooking, as adding to your food, not taking away. It can add nutrient-wise -– fermenting, sprouting, natural bread making. It can add to the experience taste-wise — choose your food combinations to bring a smile. Finally, it can add with the wellness that’s imparted to the plate through the love that goes into the preparation. Enjoy preparing your foods; the sheer power of the love that you show in the process will transmit to all who partake.

Femininity likes variety, and is joyful and playful. Spend the right amount of time in the kitchen for YOU. Find a balance by varying how you prepare and eat. Don’t forget to experiment and have fun! Let your eating reflect the different sides of your womanhood: sometimes simple, fresh and natural at its best; sometimes sassy with dishes that sparkle with attitude; sometimes pleasing, with carefully crafted combinations to raise smiles all around; and sometimes soft and gentle, showing your caring nature to those you love (including yourself). Think about whether and how you want to spend time in the kitchen each day –- the love you put in through a conscious choice means whatever comes through your hands will nourish the receiver.

Eat Food with Care
Femininity is soft and patient. Take time over and be grateful for your food. Stop for a moment before you raise your hand to your mouth to think about the food’s journey to your plate. If you’re sharing a meal, enjoy the company and drink in any compliments.

Femininity is consciously delicious and sensual. Make your favorite foods a regular part of your life, and savor them. Share the joy of gorgeous food with your loved ones. Every now and then, eat with your hands. Have that treat -– conscious, celebrated luxuries will feed a part of you so well that you’ll still be revelling in the satisfaction long after!

Looking at femininity through the lens that is my kitchen has helped me feel whole again. I’m no longer in femininity rehab. I’ve claimed the power of the womanhood I’d lost by creating beautiful, loved, satisfying and life-giving food.

I feel softer, more playful, sexier and more like a woman than ever.

Enjoy nurturing your femininity and love your food!

Alison Ottaway guides people to their dream life at pathlesstrodden.com, she’s following her own dreams in Italy having lost over half her body weight, transformed her health, changed career and moved countries.

Photo credit: Sharon Terry

The Difference Between Raw Foods and Living Foods

I was introduced to the Ann Wigmore Health Institute in Aguarda, Puerto Rico, in December 2010 by a dear raw food friend. While I went kicking and screaming, having to leave my office for two weeks, it ended up being the best thing I’ve done. I loved it so much I returned there in the summer, and I just returned from another two weeks there this holiday season. The institute taught me so much about the living food lifestyle and its differences and similarities to the raw food lifestyle and how important they both are to us.

What’s the difference?

Living foods and raw foods both contain numerous enzymes; but in living foods, the enzyme content is much higher. For example, raw, unsprouted seeds and nuts contain enzymes in their “dormant” state. To activate the enzymes in seeds and nuts, they must be soaked in water for a period of time. Once the seeds and nuts begin to sprout, the enzymes become “active” and are then considered a “living food.”

Both raw and living foods are not heated . Any food heated over 115 degrees F destroys the enzymes in the food. Actually the degradation of enzymes begins at about 105 degrees F. All foods that are cooked are devoid of enzymes, and the molecular structure of the components of the food changes as well. So to sustain life and get the life-force energy of foods filled with high enzymatic and nutrients activities, one must eat raw foods in combination with living foods.

Why are enzymes important to us?

Enzymes assist in the digestion of food. There are three classes of enzymes:
· Metabolic enzymes, which run our bodies, organs and tissues
· Digestive enzymes, which digest our food
· Food enzymes, from raw food, which start food digestion

Enzymes are important because they assist in the digestion and absorption of food. They are catalysts that allow cells to metabolize carbohydrates, proteins and fats. They are also responsible for the respiration in cells and converting proteins into usable energy. If you eat food that is void of enzymes, your body will be undernourished and unable to utilize the nutrients from the food. This causes toxicity in the body.

Raw food is filled with multiple enzymes that aid digestion. In fact, the digestion of the carbohydrates, proteins and fats in raw food begins in the mouth at the moment that the plant cell walls are ruptured from mastication, thus releasing the food enzymes within.

Does cooking destroy enzymes?

Yes, yes and yes. As hard as it is to hear and accept because we have been cooking for centuries, this process devoids us of precious enzymes that help maintain our health. Disease and cooking originated simultaneously in the world. For instance, animals who only eat raw are healthy because their food intake in the jungle or wilderness is filled with enzymes. We have never heard of an elephant or a lion in the jungle getting a heart attack or suffering from arthritis. Better yet a gorilla getting breast cancer. Our domesticated animals eating processed food or the cooked food we give them are now facing the same disease as we are.

We know that heat destroys enzymes, but another amazing fact is that enzymes work harder at slightly warmer temperatures than they do at cooler ones. An experiment performed by Dr. Edward Howell involved soluble potato starch placed into two dishes with water and saliva added to each. Saliva contains an enzyme called amylase. One of the dishes was placed in an 80 degree F room, and the other was placed in the refrigerator at about 40 degrees F. The experiment showed that the starch at room temperature digested more quickly, while the one in the refrigerator was practically stagnant. If the room was at 100 degrees F, the enzymes would do the work at four times the rate than at 80 degrees F. The experiment showed this continued up to 160 degrees F, and then the enzymes wore out and could no longer do any of their duties. So keeping the temperature lower than 115 degrees F is beneficial but not so low as to stagnate its energy potential.

There is a fixed amount of enzyme potential in everyone. The enzyme bank account we are born with diminishes over time if it is not subsidized by incoming enzymes and can also diminish due to different conditions and the lifestyle of the individual. By eating foods with their enzymes intact as in raw and living foods, along with supplementing the cooked food being digested with exogenous food enzymes, we are able to eradicate abnormal and pathological aging.

What are the functions of enzymes in the body?

Life as we know it could not exist without enzymes. We must thoroughly chew our food so that the enzymes are able to fully work and break the food particles down into tiny structures capable of supplying our body with nutrients. Enzymes also aid in making new bone, nerves, muscles and glands. The enzymes work directly with the liver and all the other eliminative organs to store excess food. They are used for every function that goes on in the body. Eating raw and living foods is essential to our health, since nature provided them with an abundant supply of enzymes to get the job done. Last but not least, enzymes also breakdown toxins and waste material for elimination.

Some Important Enzymes

Amylase: Breaks down carbohydrates in the mouth from starches to simple sugars.

Hydrochloric acid (HCL): Found in the stomach and mainly responsible for the break down of solid food into a semi-solid liquid called chyme. The chyme then leaves the pylorus area of the stomach and enters the duodenum of the small intestines where more enzymes are released via the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder to further breakdown the molecules. If one drinks while they eat, they will dilute the HCL and enzyme activity, making digestion more difficult and less efficient.

Trypsin and chymotrypsin: Both from the pancreas, they work together to break down proteins into amino acids.

Lipase: Also from the pancreas, lipase is an enzyme that converts fats into fatty acids and triglycerides.

I hope this information is helpful to you and encourages you to have two thirds of your meals raw or living.

For more by this author, visit thepipercenter.com/blog/.

Photo credit: Kevin Dooley

Does Your Comfort Food Really Meet Your Needs?

Foods are strongly linked to our emotions and moods. Therefore, our day’s events can drive our eating habits. Due to our hectic lifestyles and chronic stress, many of us are turning to food to soothe, comfort and provide relief from intense feelings or low moods. We are bombarded daily by stressors, whether in our environment, workplace, family, relationships, financial or all of them. As these generally bring forth unpleasant feelings or low energy, we may reach for our comfort foods to cope. Under emotional distress, we seek out quick fixes and may not have the motivation to make ideal choices regarding our comfort foods.

Many people report sugar cravings after a stressful event, because blood sugar is low and brain chemicals are reduced. Choosing sugary foods is the first and most convenient method of quickly raising good mood chemicals and energy. However, these comfort foods provide temporary relief with negative physiological effects. The foods we crave to ease our stress generally are the ones that are worse for us in terms of weight gain and digestive and immune system issues. Most common “pick-me-up foods” are frosted donuts, cookies, soda pop, ice cream, gummy candies and chocolate bars. What is your comfort food? Is it from a vending machine? Does your comfort food contain the essential nutrients your body and mind need to function optimally? If your comfort food is heavily processed, sugar-loaded and void of nutrients, it will in the end deplete your vital systems of what they require, putting your physical and mental health at risk.

The good news is that there are many healthy emotionally-soothing or mood-enhancing foods. There are foods armed with nutrients that can provide elevated moods and satisfaction. Carbohydrates can provide the necessary relief we are seeking. Complex carbohydrates include whole-grain breads, whole-wheat pasta, brown or wild rice, bananas, barley, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Vegetables are also part of the carbohydrate family that are filled with all the vital nutrients our body requires for optimal functioning. The key is to have these foods available when we are feeling vulnerable.

Most people crave carbohydrates pre-evening and throughout the night. Bingeing on high-carb foods, such as potato chips, cookies, cereal, French fries, rice cakes and snack crackers, causes one to feel regret and remorse. To prevent carb-overloading after supper, have a half a piece of whole-grain bread dipped in olive oil 20 minutes before supper. This will raise good mood levels enough to take the edge off and prevent you from over-eating at supper. During supper, it is important to eat carbohydrates, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, or mashed turnips and squash. Be conscious of your portion sizes. In the evening, if cravings persist, try eating air-popped popcorn drizzled with olive oil and a hot cup of rooibos tea.

Food cravings can also be managed through stress-relieving strategies, such as having a warm bath, reading a book in a quiet room or taking a casual walk. Jot down some self-care activities that bring you pleasure, comfort and calmness. It is important that your stress-reducing methods be simple so they are easy to follow through. Rather than food, find comfort in a loved one, friend or pet, as they can provide long-lasting physical and emotional benefits.

Using foods to de-stress or defuse emotions and feelings may not be the ideal coping mechanism. However, many choose to do so. As rational thinking may not always be present after a stressful situation, it is important to have healthy foods accessible and available to meet your physical and emotional needs. Eating to live is more satisfying than eating to “get by.” Reassess your comfort food and determine if it is really meeting your needs.

Treena Wynes, author of “Eating Ourselves Crazy” is a Registered Social Worker, former bulimic and owner of a weight-loss counseling service. She focuses on the emotional and mental aspect of food addiction and obesity issues.

Photo credit: **tWo pInK pOSsuMs**

5 Steps to Stop Overeating

Have you ever felt compelled to keep stuffing yourself to the point of discomfort?

Maybe you’ve found yourself reaching for a packet of cookies when you’re home alone, tired and lonely? Perhaps it’s even healthy foods you’ve overeaten, such as a whole bag of raw nuts.

If so, you are one of many who have overeaten for emotional reasons.

Overeating can wreak havoc on your mental, emotional and physical health if left unaddressed, and the talking down to yourself that typically follows flushes a lot of energy and self-love down the toilet. If you are binging regularly and beating yourself up about it, you’ll also have much less time to focus on what really matters to you – your dreams, relationships, contributing, having fun.

Yet despite what your reason and intelligence tells you to do (i.e., stop overeating), you are still unable to close the bag of processed (or raw) chips.

Emotional eating can be a very challenging habit to release as usually:

• It is a deeply ingrained behavior.
• You have been doing it for a very long time both consciously and unconsciously.
• It can be frightening to consider a life where you don’t numb yourself with food, even if it is a conscious choice.
• Processed foods and junk foods are highly addictive, so even without the emotional component they can be extremely hard to stop eating.

But it can be done.

What is needed is support, compassion, kindness and a safe space without judgment where you can release your fears, and identify your emotions, triggers and real needs. Having a toolbox of strategies is essential to do this.

Here are some tools that you can start using immediately:

1. Identify what’s really going on
Do you stop long enough to see what emotion you are feeling before you stuff them down with food?

One of the most powerful things you can do is to train yourself to stop when you have the urge to eat, and ask yourself “Am I really hungry?” If the answer is no, ask yourself “What emotion am I really feeling?”

This alone can bring so much awareness that small shifts in your eating behavior will occur. You will realize that your heart and soul wants to be heard and fed, but the late-night box of candy isn’t doing it.

2. Find a safe place or person to release to
To heal your relationship with food, you need to safely express yourself and release the emotions you feel. A safe place or person will allow you to do this. There can also be a lot of shame and embarrassment around overeating, particularly binging, so a safe space to release becomes even more important.

Get into a journaling practice where you can write about whatever you are feeling with no talk back, criticism or judgment. Find a person you can speak to about your behavior and what’s really going on for you. Create or find a space where you can go to be quiet, think, cry, laugh, journal, talk, meditate. Having a space that you can always go to will give you a sense of comfort, nourishment, familiarity and a haven as you heal.

3. Create a sacred ritual
One of the best ways to nourish yourself every day is to create a sacred ritual that makes you feel centered, strong and harmonious. When you include this in your routine, you will find that over time you are better able to identify and address thoughts, feelings and stress that contribute to overeating (and other unhelpful habits).

What you include in your ritual is entirely up to you. For most people, one or a combination of the following works well:

• Meditation
• Deep breathing
• Affirmations
• Setting intentions
• Nourishing movement
• Yoga and stretching
• Journaling
• Drinking water or herbal tea
• Reading inspirational material
• Listening to music
• Speaking to a loved one
• Playing with your pets
• Having a hot bath or shower
• Resting

4. Understand and appreciate what food gives you
For many people who suffer from disordered eating patterns, food is the enemy. You stuff yourself and make yourself sick with it. You feel compelled to eat copious quantities until you feel heavy, tired, unwell and miserable. It adds the kilos to your body that you despise. It is the enemy you have to avoid at all costs to stay thin because that’s what you see as beautiful, worthy or your way of maintaining a sense of control in your life.

For many of the women I work with, an important step in their healing is helping them to understand what food really is – how it gives life, nourishment, beauty, joy, pleasure, energy, healing and comfort. Nourish yourself with real, high-quality whole foods that are not filled with chemicals, refined sugar, salts and fats, and learn how they produce beauty, health and energy. Respect is built for the role food plays within your body and a respect for your body itself also grows.

5. Unleash your creativity and do something you love every single day
You have endless creativity and passion within you. When you don’t allow yourself to express, create, be and do as you’d like to, you end up repressing yourself. Repression leads to out-of- control binges as a temporary way to numb that undirected energy.

Find a way to build in some time every day to do something you love, that gives you a creative outlet for self-expression, and that allows you to be exactly who you are or takes you a step closer to that.

Before you start using the “no time or energy” excuse, know that you only need five minutes to start doing this. If you have more, that’s great. If you are honoring your needs and desires by acting on them every day, you will be far less likely to look for the answer in cake. Self- satisfaction and happiness comes with nourishing your whole being – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually – consistently. This is your way out.

Without the drain of overeating, think about how much time, energy and health will be freed up to focus on what you really want out of your life! As someone who has a long history of emotional and disordered eating, I can tell you that you can overcome it, and the freedom and reward you will feel is truly worth the effort.

Casey Lorraine Thomas, certified detox, health and life coach, shows you how to get radiant health and energy, lose weight and heal naturally so that you can live the life you want in a body you love. Casey conducts phone consultations internationally.

Photo credit: wintersoul1

5 Simple Ways to Eat More Compassionately in the New Year

1. Eat less chicken and fewer eggs. When you reduce or eliminate chicken and egg consumption, you’re helping some of the most abused animals on the planet. Chickens raised for meat are crammed by the thousands into filthy warehouses and denied access to the outdoors, fresh air and sunlight for their entire lives. Specifically excluded from the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, chickens are carried through the slaughter process so rapidly that many are injured but not killed and are instead boiled alive when it comes time to remove their feathers. Gardein and Quorn, two brands widely available in supermarkets, make chicken alternatives that — wait for it — taste just like chicken! Minus the fear and suffering, of course.

Chickens raised for eggs don’t have it much better. They are packed so tightly in fetid cages that they can never engage in basic natural behaviors or even stretch their wings. Millions are starved for a few weeks each year to shock their bodies into another egg-laying cycle. Think about it: Is your momentary enjoyment of an omelet really worth making an already depressed and miserable animal go hungry for weeks? If that doesn’t sit right with you, opt for the high-protein, cruelty-free tofu scramble instead.

2. Replace cow’s milk with a healthy, animal-friendly, non-dairy, calcium-fortified milk made from almonds, rice, oats, coconut, soy or hemp. It’s complete hooey that people need cow’s milk for calcium. Cow’s milk is for baby calves, and there are plenty of delicious, more healthful and calcium-rich plant-based alternatives we can consume. The only way for people to consume cow’s milk is to routinely tear newborn calves from their mothers as dairy cows are trapped in an endless cycle of pregnancy and lactation. Pushed beyond their biological limits, they are worn out and sent to slaughter after just a few years “in production.” Have you had an almond milk or soy milk mocha latte? They are fantastic and truly guilt free!

3. Avoid foie gras like the plague. Foie gras, or fatty duck liver, is only produced by the systematic and abusive practice of over feeding ducks via a metal tube that is forced down their throats. Foie gras is in a class with veal in terms of the cruelty inflicted on animals, and we should shun it every bit as much.

4. Resolve to eat vegetarian one day each week. If the above seems like too big of a challenge to start, eat vegetarian at one meal a week. Before long, you’ll realize how easy and delicious it is to eat vegetarian, and it will feel effortless to increase how often you eat vegetarian meals. Using this incremental approach, you may decide to eliminate animal products from your diet all together. Simply decreasing your consumption of factory-farmed meat will prevent countless animals from living a life of pure misery. More than 95 percent of all meat sold in restaurants and supermarkets comes from animals so cruelly confined they cannot lie down comfortably, extend their limbs, or engage in any of their natural behaviors.

5. Eat more plants! From salads and pasta dishes to vegetarian meats and cheeses, there’s a new world of flavorful alternatives to enjoy as part of a kinder, healthier eating plan. If you want cheese, try the Daiya non-dairy varieties; for sausage, reach for the Field Roast chipotle or apple sage links; instead of a hamburger, try a veggie burger with pickles, tomato, onion and other fresh toppings; when the kids want chicken nuggets, they won’t even realize that Quorn brand nuggets are missing the meat.

It’s 2012 — isn’t it time we stop eating foods produced by industries that treat animals like unfeeling commodities and start eating in a way that reflects the healthy, evolved, compassionate society we aspire to be? Let this be the year you opt out of eating cruelly. You’ll be amazed at how great it feels (and tastes) to eat compassionately.

For more by Gene Baur, visit farmsanctuary.typepad.com/making_hay/

Photo credit: Beth Terry