February Fun and Frittatas

After this mornings frittata triumph I went for a walk around my back garden. I wandered onto the neighbors' property only to find this little gem. A rustic cottage with smoke puffing out the chimney. The scatters of clouds in the crystal blue sky made for an amazing backdrop. I love living the countryside.

Unfortunately, it's way too cold to plant anything new. I checked on my seedlings and I think I see a courgette starting to sprout. If I could get the cat to stop stepping on my seed trays things might progress a little quicker. Decided to move the seed trays to the spare room upstairs under the skylight. It's much warmer up there and away from kitty paws. That should make the little buggers happy. Realized I should have done a little more research before I planted my seeds.

Found out:

• Small seeds (ie. strawberries) shouldn't be covered by compost, only set on top and watered.
• Even adorable greenhouses you just bought still aren't warm enough for seedlings if it's unheated and only 4 degrees Celsius.
  
• Water with warm water not cold until you see sprouts.
  
• Take 8 seeds from each packet and put them on a wet paper towel for a few days to see how many sprout. If 1/2 do, that means the packet should contain at least 1/2 sprouting seeds.
• You should draw up a calendar or journal for the seeds you have to organize when you sow them either indoors or outdoors and in pots or directly into your garden soil. Keeping in mind that even though the packet says what month to do what, your own climate might not meet the criteria.

Of course I learned this all after I was too impatient to wait and most likely ruined loads of seeds in the process. But at least you can learn from my mistakes.

Frittata Recipe

4 Free Range Eggs

1/2c Leeks sliced

1 Small Tomato diced

4 Button Mushrooms diced

1/2c Shredded Mature Cheddar

1tsp Black Pepper

*2tbsp Flavored Butter

In a frying pan add flavored butter, mushrooms, and leeks. Fry up for a few minutes over medium heat until they are tender. Scramble eggs in a bowl and add shredded cheese and black pepper. Stir. Once the veggies are ready, pour the egg mix into pan at medium heat. Drop tomatoes on top to preserve moisture. Turn oven on to Broil. When the bottom of the eggs are cooked, place on top rack in the oven and cook until eggs puff up. Cut and serve. No salt was added to this recipe. It wasn't needed.

*Flavored Butter- Red pepper, white onion, and parsley into a food processor until diced. Add twice as much butter and processes until blended. Add or change any ingredients you desire.

A New Direction

So I've decided to give my blog a less invasive atmosphere. From now on you'll see my gardening, cooking, and healthful recipes instead of showing you nasty brain worms.

It's all starts with the new house we moved into at the end of October 2008. I'm fortunate enough to live in a house with a private garden. Although the garden is small, I can still raise the bed, and pot up some flowers, fruits, and veg to grow to supplement us throughout the year (hopefully).

This is my first attempt at something like this so be patient with me. I've already made mistakes and I just started. Like I started seedlings in the house and nothing happened except the cat stepped on every pot. And I buried my strawberry seeds and should have kept them on the surface. At 4.29 for 15 seeds I wont be making that mistake again. Might just go buy strawberry seedlings and get over my foolish pride.

Here are some pics of what I've done so far and my brand spankin' new greenhouse. Ain't she pretty? I can't believe how warm it gets in there.

Parasite Tumor?

Don't believe me that pork causes parasites? Watch this video as PROOF!

Warning!! Graphic Images of an actual operation.


http://media2.foxnews.com/112008/worm_tumor_700.wmv

Is Obesity Contageous?

According to a website on obesity "a new analysis from James Fowler at the University of California in San Diego and Nicholas Christakis at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts...suggests that the spread of social norms rather than just behavioral changes might explain the rise in obesity." Basically saying if you hang out with an obese person, you're doomed to spread. While eating habits are a learned behavior passed down from parent to child, it may also be true of friend to friend. Does that mean if you start eating really healthy that your friends will too? I can tell you from experience that that just doesn't happen.

Being a Natural Health Consultant and Nutritionist people watch what I eat. Probably more than I do. But that doesn't mean they eat like I do. In fact I've been called pretty names like "buzz kill" and "downer" because I've frowned upon the mass quantities of fast foods my friends eat. Junk foods like pizza, chips, soda, and kababs are all considered 'comfort foods' and people are drawn to them for how they make them feel emotionally. They don't realize the harm it's doing to them physically and will gladly disregard the pounds of weight they put on or the constant illnesses they have to fight off because of how that food makes them feel. Even when told that there is a correlation and it can easily be remedied by avoiding unhealthy foods, they still don't change.

Another website states "Obesity can be "caught" as easily as a common cold from other people's coughs, sneezes and dirty hands.." and "The condition has been linked to a highly-infectious virus which causes sniffles and sore throats..." Sniffles, sore throats, then weight gain? This has to be on Fox News. Oh wait, it is!! Yup that's right folks, you can get fat from being next to a person with the fat virus. Even though 11% of the people tested were thin and had the virus. Why weren't they gaining weight?

I'm going to give you a little lesson on the human body. When we eat something that is bad for us, ie we're allergic to it, we develop this condition called inflammation. Inflammation causes the immune system to go into overdrive attacking our own body. When that happens we can develop autoimmune diseases but more importantly, we can't fight off offending bugs like viruses and bacteria. Another symptom of food allergy inflammation is weight gain. We eat what our body can't process, we get fat. So how on God's green earth do they get that the virus itself causes weight gain, much less obesity?

Face it people, there is no excuse for gaining weight other than a stagnant lifestyle, poor eating habits and an unhealthy body. If you're body is unhealthy, change it. Read my post about the A,B,C, and D's of Health and start from the beginning. Losing weight should be a by-product of a healthy lifestyle, not the main focus.

Beating Depression-A Healthy Start to 2009!

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a fabulous holiday season. Now that we're all back to the daily grind and trying to stick to those New Year's resolutions. Losing weight is usually the most popular on the list, so why not schedule a consultation with me at my new location. If you're in Ireland, anywhere near Co. Galway, I'm running my practice out of The Elmtree Clinic in Oranmore.

My resolution was to get fit (again). To do this I've cut out the junk foods I indulged in over the holidays and went back to healthy eating. Plus I've incorporated 60 minutes of Yoga into my daily routine. In just a couple days I've already noticed a difference. My 'baggy jeans' are baggy again and I feel toned and strong. You know what they say "muscle has memory". Well mine are thrilled that I've stopped neglecting them for the couch and TV. My mood has elevated and so has my energy level. I had no idea how much my lack physical activity and healthy diet were effecting me. I was fit for so long that I just took it for granted. Taking the last year off of the intense workouts I'd been doing for years really took its toll. So I'm happy to say I'm bouncing back nicely and plan to keep up this pace forever.

Letting your physical fitness slip away is doing yourself a tremendous disservice. Your body and mind will suffer for it. Depression is a commonly misdiagnosed problem. Doctors say it's a chemical imbalance that's permanent so you need to take anti-depressants the rest of your life. Well I'm here to tell you that's FALSE! Depression usually stems from an unhealthy digestive tract. Your gut talks to your brain 2/3 of the time. What is your gut saying?

Steps to Take to Beat Depression

• Make sure you're taking in enough water and fiber to keep your bowels moving
• Take Probiotics to digest and uptake your B-Vitamins essential for the central nervous system
  
• Eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables (Source of B-Vitamins)
  
• Exercise DAILY at least 30 minutes-Yoga highly recommended
  
• Remove all fast foods from your diet-pizza is allowed on your cheat day
  
• Increase intake of Omega fatty acids through fish or seed oils-fats feed the brain
  
• Eat a combo of fats, protein, and carbs in every meal or snack. They work together.

For more great tips contact me. There are several options you can take other than popping prescription drugs. They do more harm than good and quickly damage your liver.

B.A.R.F. Bone And Raw Food Diet for your Pets

There is a lot of controversy around the BARF diet for pets. I can now say from experience that it is by far the best diet. I have seen such an improvement in my kitten from incorporating raw food into his diet. And think about it. What did they get in the wild? Byproducts, preservatives, additives, and artificial ingredients? I think not. They got raw, nutrient packed food right from the source.

When I first got my little guy, Liam, he was extremely sick as were two of his siblings. Unfortunately we lost the other two boys from what I can only assume was some kind of viral infection. It caused them to stop eating and drinking, have watery diarrhea, and eventually succumb to their illness within 24 hours of us getting them. Luckily Liam fought for his life. He ate every time I fed him. I mainly fed him raw fish and chicken, and some hard boiled egg. I also supplemented infant probiotics and a baby multivitamin/mineral liquid supplement. I gave him Colloidal Silver to kill the infection as well as Oregon Grape Root to boost his immune system.

I didn't give him loads of supplements as it can clog the kidneys. I gave them sparingly and always with food to make sure they were digested and absorbed properly. But I do have to say with the raw food diet his coat is shiny and doesn't shed much and his eyes have changed from a dull brown to a bright yellowish green. And he's as healthy as an ox and I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

I did start him on a very high quality kibble <name withheld> that I used to sell in the States. Unfortunately, through process of elimination, I found out he had a horrible reaction to it because he kept breaking out in sores on his neck. With cats, skin sores, biting or pulling out hair, or even just jumping up as if being bitten by something are all indicators of a food allergy. Always check for fleas first, but 9 times out of 10 it's the food. The kibble I sold in the States is different from the one out here. It has the same name but the two brothers that own the companies apparently don't use the same ingredients.

Once I buy my own food grinder I will be making all of his food myself. I still use a good quality kibble, that he has no reaction to, but supplement it with raw fish or chicken at every meal. In Ireland they don't sell organ meats, other than liver, at the butcher's or the supermarkets. So what I will have to do is source it from a butcher and find out what day they get their shipment and pick it up THAT day. It's illegal for them to hold it for me so I have to time it right.

Just a quick note about liver. It's extremely high in Vitamin A and giving too much can cause liver stones. So to avoid that but make sure they still get their Vitamin A, give them a small portion twice a week. This will give them enough in the meat source but don't forget you can give them the vegetable source, Beta Carotene, from carrots as well. It will also add a little sweetness to the food. My little guy ate some crushed carrots and broccoli when I drizzled some olive oil on top. They aren't herbivores and what little vegetation they do get is from the partially digested contents in their prey's stomach and intestines. Yum!

Visit one of these great websites for raw cat food recipes. If you don't want to make your own pet food there are several raw food manufacturers currently in the US. Do some research and see if there is a retailer nearby. One fabulous company I found was Primal Pet Foods. They have really high quality foods and treats. Instructions on how to feed are also on the package. You can even order online from one of their "Online Stores".

Good luck and give me testimonials on your success.

Beat the Holiday Bulge

A few quick and easy tips to stay lean at the most stressful, and sweet tooth tempting, time of year.

I don't expect anyone not to have their favorite breads, sweets, and drinks during the holiday season. This is a time to eat, drink, and be merry. But this isn't the time to over indulge and make yourself unhealthy or gain weight.

So my solution to this problem is, eat anything that you fancy, just way less than you have in the past. Think of your entire day as one dinner sized plate. Whatever you can fit on that plate, you eat. Now I don't mean fill the plate up two feet in the air. Be reasonable. And I'm also not including the big meal of the day. That's a different plate and I'll explain what I mean.

Plate #1-The Sweets Plate-Considering most cakes, pies, egg nog, dried fruit, and alcoholic beverages are loaded with sugar and calories, you can understand why I'm minimizing your servings. This plate should have 1-2 bites of everything you like. You can easily work off 1 plate of sweets for the entire day. Try to have your plate have more of the "healthier" junk foods like dried fruits, nuts, pretzels, and carob covered nuts or raisins. The more you fill your plate with these little munchies, that fill you faster, the less you'll have room for cakes, biscuits, and pie. Keep track of this plate and have it near you throughout the day. That way you wont be tempted to over snack.

Plate #2-The Dinner Plate-This plate should be broken up like a pie chart. 20% meat 20% starch and 60% vegetables. Since meats and starches are so filling, and compete for stomach acids to break down, it's best to limit them so you don't fill up so fast. Vegetables are the fiber and enzymes you need to break down the other foods so they should be eaten in the highest portion. That way you won't have that bloated gassy heavy feeling in your stomach and you might not even have to undo that top button on your trousers.

Make sure you keep moving throughout the day. If you live in nicer climates, go for a walk with your family and friends, or play a sport in the back yard. Even a friendly game of horseshoes will burn off some of those pesky calories. Laugh A LOT! It burns calories! For the people in colder snowier climates, a rowdy game of Charades or Twister will definitely get your heart pumping.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season. And remember, drink responsibly.