Bone Broth

I love making bone broth and have made it for years. I would freeze it and use it to make soups. However, I'm going to begin making bone broth a daily, healthy indulgence. Funny thing is that after I planned to make this an addition to my daily, healthy, new year routine and bought extra supplies and found a good source for beef bones, I ran across Dr Kellyann Petrucci's Bone Broth books! Of course, I've already read them both! I do love how a thought turns into an action and then "out-of-the-blue" gets an affirmation full of helpful information! I'm looking forward to seeing what good thing will come from this new habit!

Helpful Healthy Information

I recently created a small Facebook post with links to information I've found very helpful. Enjoy! Helpful Healthy Information Post

Regrouping

I'm pleased with all I accomplished this summer and am excited about the accomplishments planned for this Fall. I confess I have digressed in the last two weeks since the change of schedules from summer to school. This did cause me to panic a bit, but I'm not going to let it redefine me, my goals or my vision. I'll just regroup and continue forward.

When I say I digressed, I mean I stopped doing anything that supported my healthy habits except my gratitude list each morning. I didn't prepare myself for the drastic schedule change. It is interesting how unraveled things become if you're not paying attention to how important the little things are. During the summer, I started the morning with several little things (note: there are links within the list and some points have two or more different links):

•   Gratitudelist (1 minute)
•   Read a Proverb or other scripture (5 minutes)
•   Reading or listening to my Affirmations (5 minutes)
•  Headspace meditation (12 minutes)
• EFT Tapping (15 minutes)
• LemonTurmeric Tea (5 minutes)
•  2cups of room temperature water (30 seconds)
• 1 Tbs of coconut oil (1 minute)
• Sunlighttherapy and grounding (15 minutes)
• Oil pulling (10-20 minutes)
•  Work out (22-30 minutes)
• Apple Cider Vinegar (1 minute)
• Get started with the day’s obligations

Each little thing on this list has an important reason for being there. Each little thing makes a difference. But all those little things add up when there are other things to do. I've been ruminating on this...after two weeks of not doing but one of those listed activities...wondering if doing all those little things makes it worth the sacrifice of time to do them. Duh. The support they give is worth every second. Taking a deep breath I remind myself that I don't have to do them every single living morning, but I do need to make sure I do them more mornings than not. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my most hectic mornings, so missing just two mornings a week isn't bad at all.

I've made some interesting discoveries this summer! I'm almost finished "Sleep Smarter" by Shawn Stevenson through Audible. I have learned so very much and will be working on incorporating what I have learned. I have just started "The Power of When" by Dr. Michael Breus through Audible. He has a chronotype quiz that I found to be quite illuminating! You should definitely take the test and check out the book! I'm a Dolphin. The explanations of this chronotype are spot on and I'm eager to practice the recommendations for this chronotype. Yep, something else to do in my already busy week, but I'm not looking for a quick fix from a powdered mix, a miracle wrap or pill, or several prescriptions. I am looking to transform my life...to metamorphosis...to change with life as I experience it.

Believe Achieve Receive

It's been a fractured week. Emotional stumbling blocks have seemingly come out of nowhere causing me to do a double take. Kids and us parents smacked with some type of upper respiratory junk (thinking allergies but not 100% sure).I've been on auto-pilot, easy mode. Not the best of things to be. BUT I did discover in looking back that many of the auto-pilot habits are now good habits! YAY!

I sit here (with head pounding) taking stock and reconnecting with the fallen goals of this week. I've written down the things that I loved to do as a child, teen and young adult. I've jotted down who inspires me and why. I described what my core values and beliefs are, what is dear to my heart, and what my goals are. Of the words that I have scribbled down, these are the repeated ones: vibrant, strong, successful, believe, achieve, and free. Then across my mind scitters the words:

Believe Achieve Receive

 

And I think, "I can do this! Even with a few stumblings, I.can.do.this!"

Intermittent Fasting...

I’ve heard this all my life: “If you want to be at your most optimal wellness, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”  I do not like eating breakfast. I never have. I totally like breakfast foods...savory breakfast foods, but I don’t like eating in the morning. I can’t stomach it. I get a bit queasy and nauseated when I eat in the morning. I would make myself because healthy people eat a hearty, healthy breakfast. Blah. Blah. Blah. See the thing is I don’t feel like “breaking the fast” until I’ve been up for a few hours.  Funny how the body knows what the body needs. It’s got built in intelligence and we just have to pay attention to the cues it sends us.

I decided that in my renewed focus on healing and strengthening my body, I was going to pay attention to its message of no morning meal, please. Upon waking, I generally drink a lemon turmeric tea followed by 16 ounce glass of water with another glass shortly thereafter. I will drink water and herbed teas throughout the morning and sometimes into the early afternoon before I’m ready to actually eat food. I do my household chores, workout for an hour most mornings, and do this and that. I feel fine. Not deprived nor do I experience glycemic drops. I know when I’m ready for food. My body lets me know. I find in the warmer weather, I go longer before my first meal. Now, the most interesting thing about deciding to follow my body’s wisdom on this breakfast thing is finding out that over the last two to three years health advocates have been preaching about “intermittent fasting”. Say whaaaat?! Ha! Ha! Yes, folks! INTERMITTENT FASTING. Seems that my body knows what is best.

Intermittent fasting (IF) by simple definition is fasting for regular intervals. It is not a single method, but a variety of methods that you can use to fit your body’s needs. (Beyond)  I tend to naturally use the “Leangains” in which a person fasts after dinner for approximately 12 or more hours before their first meal the following day. So, dinner done 7pm and first meal no earlier than 7am the next day, preferably longer. (Dailyburn)  

“To be effective, in the case of daily intermittent fasting, the length of your fast must be at least 16 hours. This means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the day instead.

You can restrict it even further — down to six, four, or even two hours if you want, but you can still reap many of these rewards by limiting your eating to an eight-hour window each day.
This is because it takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores; after that you start to shift to burning fat. However, if you are replenishing your glycogen by eating every eight hours (or sooner), you make it far more difficult for your body to use your fat stores as fuel.” (Mercola)

Further discovered health benefits of IF are (and I am quoting this list here without quotation marks from Mercola) (NIH)

• Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance (which is what you get when your insulin sensitivity plummets) is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
• Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
• Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
• Lowering triglyceride levels
• Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

Sounds like there is something quite beneficial to this fasting thing!

There is a bit of difference of opinion among nutritionists and physicians concerning who can fast. You will need to make that decision based on your discussion with your own physician/nutritionist. Many doctors and nutritionists will say that people with adrenal fatigue and cortisol issues should not fast. Dr. Meaghan Kirschling points out that if you are constantly eating during the day, you are feeding your stress hormones. If you fast, then you “starve” your adrenals causing your body to release fewer stress hormones and focus on healing your body. Less cortisol, less visceral fat. (Kirschling) Again, as always, check with your health care practitioner before jumping into anything.

So far, I have found IF …the Leangains method… to be the perfect fit for me. It is interesting how the right and most needed information comes along at just when I am ready to receive and utilize it. Seek and you shall find…

Cited Works

Beyond http://beyondthebasicshealthacademy.com/researchbased-information-on-intermittent-fasting/

Daily burn http://dailyburn.com/life/health/intermittent-fasting-methods

Kirschling http://beyondthebasicshealthacademy.com/researchbased-information-on-intermittent-fasting/ and http://beyondthebasicshealthacademy.com/podcast-048-intermittent-fasting-what-all-about/

Mercola http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/06/28/intermittent-fasting-health-benefits.aspx  and http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/01/18/intermittent-fasting-approach.aspx  

NIH (National Institute of Health) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4352038/