Broccoli is one of my faves. Just made this salad, mmmmmmmm it's so good, thought I'd share...the recipe that is :-)

BROCCOLI SALAD

INGREDIENTS

4 cups small broccoli florets

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1 ½ cups grape tomatoes halved

4 sun dried tomato halves (in oil) diced

1 cup raw walnuts (preferably soaked & dehydrated)

1 cup raw pitted black olives quartered (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in large bowl and toss with Italian Dressing below. 

ITALIAN DRESSING

INGREDIENTS

1 c. olive oil
1/4 c. unpasteurized red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons grated onion

1 fresh pitted Medjool date

1 teaspoon sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on medium speed until smooth. Pour over broccoli salad. Refrigerate until chilled. A great dressing for any salad!

Coconut Ginger Macaroons...yummmmmm

While suffering a migraine, my sister gave me some crystallized ginger for the nausea (worse than the head pain). Not for the faint of heart as they are quite spicy, they really helped since I was out of my ginger tincture. They tasted so much better than my tincture though it got me to thinking, then throwing some things together and here is the result...Coconut Ginger Macaroons, spicy and sweet just like me :-D


Ingredients
3 tablespoons of fresh grated (yeah ya gotta grate it) ginger
15 pitted medjool dates
1/4 tsp vanilla flavoring
2 cups shredded dehydrated unsweetened coconut (or substitute fresh meat)

Directions:
Throw everything except the coconut in the food processor. Blend & scrape, blend & scrape until smooth with no chunks of dates. Using your hands (you know how I like playing with my food) massage the ginger/date mixture with 1 1/2 cups of the coconut until well mixed. Roll into balls and then roll in remaining coconut. 

5-HTP – A Natural Calming, Cooling, Weight Loss Accelerator « NaturalHealthSherpa.com

5-HTP – A Natural Calming, Cooling, Weight Loss Accelerator « NaturalHealthSherpa.com

Take a Deep Breath....

Our bodies are constantly on a journey toward optimal health. They are just wondering when we're going to join them. From something as simple as a sneeze to our blood pressure increasing in response to stress. All the pain we suffer from dis-ease and dis-order simply tells us that our body is responding in an attempt to heal and/or protect itself.  Our bodies automatically and amazingly react to preserve themselves. So, what can we, our consciousness, do (or not do) to facilitate our optimum health?


The list seems endless, less sugar and stress, more veggies and exercise, more vitamins, less drugs...it's soooooo confusing! How the Hell are we supposed to figure out what to do when the so called experts can't agree? I believe that we intuitively know what we need to do, but that it's buried so deep beneath all the intellectual thinking and the absorbed opinions of others that we just can't find it. So let's get back to some basics of what we need not just to survive but to thrive. 


The basics for survival are oxygen, water, food, sleep and shelter from the elements. To thrive though, in addition to survival basics, we need to connect with others and the world around us, we need to move our bodies and we need a sense of purpose, to know we make a difference. Think you're already getting everything? If you're looking for optimal health let's make sure.  We'll start with oxygen and since I'd like to go a bit into depth with each need I'll break them down into several articles over the next couple of weeks.


Most of us know we only live a few minutes without oxygen. We survive because we breathe on autopilot, so to speak. But what we may not know is that the quality of our breathing has a profound effect on our health. Every cell in our bodies needs oxygen. I watch my baby grandson breathe and he's proof positive that we instinctively know not only what to do but how to do it. When he breathes his little belly rises and falls, not his chest. It's called abdominal breathing and it allows a full expansion of the diaphragm allowing the lungs to fill with fresh oxygenated air and empty out the stale air. Deep breathing relieves anxiety, helps us relax and can even lower blood pressure and pulse rates. As a friend of my once likened it to having our own built in easy button. Here's how it's done.

1. Lie down comfortably on your back, with loose garments.
2. Be aware of your breath.
3. Put one hand on your chest and one on your stomach.
4. Slowly inhale through your nose or through pursed lips (to slow down the intake of breath).
5. As you inhale, feel your stomach expand, raising your hand.
6. Slowly exhale through your nose or pursed lips (to regulate the release of air). Exhalation should take twice as long as inhalation.
7. As you exhale feel your stomach contract, lowering with your hand.
8. Rest and repeat
9. Either stand or sit comfortably, spine straight and tall and repeat steps 1-7

A relaxing way to start and end the day, practice before you get out of bed in the morning, before you close your eyes to sleep or anytime in between. Just breathe...

Where Do You Get Your Protein?

By far the most often asked question that I've been asked when I tell people what I eat is..."Where do you get your protein?" My answer? "I get my protein from the same place your burger does...from plants. I just prefer to leave out the middle man (middle cow?) and go straight to the source." That usually prompts a discussion complete with incredulous looks and every once in awhile, to my delight an occasional "AHA!" moment.

Just for fun, I logged my whole day's food consumption, all raw (big surprise) into a website that measures the nutritional value of food. I got almost 34 grams of protein from only fruits and vegetables and that was with no nuts, no seeds. According to my last class on Plant-Based Nutrition and Dr. Campbell of The China study, we only need 5-7% of our daily calories from protein (for adults). Since protein is used by the body for growth and repair and we're not growing physically as adults, we only need enough to replace the protein in our body that has "worn out". That 34 grams was 7% of my caloric intake for the day!

Not only do we not need the amount of protein that the infamous food pyramid recommends, eating too much animal protein has been proven to be harmful. Higher levels of animal protein consumption have been directly linked to a higher incidence of "Western Diseases" such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune disorders, while eating more complex carbohydrates has been shown to not only prevent but reverse these diseases.

It was my father's suffering with heart disease and diabetes that prompted me to make the drastic lifestyle change I did over 4 years ago from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a 100% raw vegan lifestyle. I did that for over a year. Now, I average between 80-100% raw vegan. I remember proudly telling my family and friends about all of the healthy changes I was making. I also remember more than one person saying that we're all gonna die of something, so we may as well enjoy the food we eat, as if fruits and veggies aren't delicious. My dentist even joked that I was probably going to go through all that "trouble" and then get run over by a truck! He was the only one laughing.

My point is this, I eat the way I do first and foremost, to improve the quality of my life TODAY. Although I'm certain that it will extend my life too (provided I look before crossing the street), I'll be damned if I'm going to spend 12 hours a week on dialysis, have a triple bypass and end up in a wheelchair after complications from heart medicine (whew!) like my dad did before he died. The sad thing is it wasn't just him who suffered; it was also those of us who loved him.

So, as I sit here popping sweet juicy grapes in my mouth, I'm pretty sure that my father knows what an inspiration he was to me, even if it was by showing me what not to do. It is my passion however, to inspire my children and people everywhere to enjoy more organic, living foods not by suffering, but by thriving.

Now...or later?

My brother Tom once said to me "People only change when what they are doing is more painful than making the change." We had been talking about significant changes, not simply taking a different route to work or getting a new hairstyle, but changes that increase the quality of our lives. So, I'm wondering if that "gotta be in pain before you change" can be circumvented? I believe it can. Fascinated by human nature and what motivates someone to make any kind of change, I wonder why we do what we do. 

Does it all just boil down to pain or pleasure, suffering or satisfaction? Do we really do things because they feel good and try avoid the things that feel bad? It's not quite that simple. What's missing from the pain or pleasure equation is what I call the "now or later factor". We've all been in situations where we have to decide between forgoing short term satisfaction now for long term pleasure later or enjoying the short term satisfaction now and forgoing the long term benefit later.

I know a seventy something who had a quadruple bypass, is diabetic and had cancer...whew! He won't make dietary changes that have been scientifically proven to reverse all of his maladies (not yet, I'm still trying). He would rather enjoy the short term pleasure of ice cream, cake and cookies forgoing the potential long term benefit of a life free of the limitations of his illnesses. I also know a healthy twenty something who went from eating a Standard American Diet (SAD) one day to being a dehydrated nut burger eating, raw vegan the next. What motivated such an extraordinary shift in one yet not in the other? Would finding the answer to that question help us be more motivated?

At first I thought that the twenty something was a perfect example of giving up short term pleasure for the potential long term benefit of being healthy. But then I realized that he doesn't feel deprived or like he's suffering. He is motivated by the pleasure from the raw whole plant-based food he eats and has no desire to consume unhealthy foods. AHA!

We are each motivated by different things. However, if we perceive a win, win situation that could definitely be motivating! So, what lights a fire under your butt? Explore and find out what will motivate you to make healthy changes to your diet by first spending some time by yourself (yeah, I know...a luxury). Think about what goal you want to accomplish by changing what you eat. Do you want to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, have more energy? Then figure out what the benefits of that goal are and find at least one that resonates passionately within you. Initially I thought mine was alleviating my asthma. But deep down inside what really hit home was the thought of living the last years of my life like my father did...hooked up to dialysis 3 days a week from diabetes complications. At the time I had metabolic syndrome, the precursor to diabetes. So, I was literally following in his footsteps. As I watched him creep closer to death, I remember saying "I refuse to merely exist, I want to LIVE!"

As you begin your journey of better health, think also about the potential challenges awaiting you. Then figure out ahead of time how you're going to address them. One of mine was going out to eat, which I love to do. Knowledge is power so I check out restaurants that have salads so great that I couldn't care less about onion rings and burgers. In addition, I think about what I really want and whatever I choose to eat I do so fully consciously. Changing what you eat whether subtly or drastically, is not the goal or destination but instead the means by which you may achieve the benefits that resonate within you. Mine is a full, active life. What's yours?

On Your Mark, Get Set...Stop?

Where do we begin our journey of health? And indeed it is a lifelong adventure. When we think of our health in terms of a destination, that perfect ideal that we strive to reach, it can be quite counterproductive, creating stress when life kicks us in the ass. As it so often does! So, thinking of it as an occasionally detouring path asking us to modify our route in response to the inner and outer changes, prepares us for a more peaceful journey. That, in and of itself keeps us more balanced and therefore more healthy. And since you are reading this you have already begun.

There is no one way that is right for everyone. Some may have minor health annoyances from a gradual decline in their physical, mental or even spiritual health. Others may be frantically searching for answers in response to a definitive diagnosis. Whether you are committed to major life changes or interested in small modifications, this blog was designed with you in mind. Take and use what resonates within you and store the rest away (you may need it later). So then where do I begin? It's like the ago old riddle, which came first the chicken or the egg? 

Let's start by looking at your eating lifestyle. I know, I know, I can hear the moans across the Internet! And all I did was suggest taking a look at it, not changing it (yet). Your first step, even if you think you are already eating healthy is to be aware of how you nourish yourself. Most of us pretty much function on autopilot via the habits we've developed. I'm saying turn off the autopilot and take control of your health by simply paying attention to where you are right now. That's it! For the next few days just be aware of what you eat, when you eat, with whom, where and what's going on while you're eating. Don't try to change anything just notice what is. Then we'll look at what you can add to your meals (that's right add not subtract) to add to your health.