Updates and Grocery Lists

So a few updates with my diet/health and the project:

1) I started having yogurt with frozen blueberries, flaxmeal, and slivered almonds for breakfast some mornings instead of only cereal. I sometimes feel like it’s not as filling but I’m glad to have added the flax and blueberries (omegas and anti-oxidants) into my diet and I felt like it was really time to graduate from only cereal. The other breakfast I want to try is brown rice with hard boiled eggs. Both are things I could make in advance and would be filling.

2) I started taking one freeze-dried Nettle capsule a day (every morning). I’m not sure if I can notice a difference yet but I’m excited to see how it goes, especially since Nettle has been reported to improve energy levels too. I’m also still taking fish oil vitamins with lunch and Echinacea sometimes in the morning (Patrick too).

3) I got the Jungle Effect book! I haven’t read much of it yet, but so far I’ve been able to glean: Greece (cold spot for heart disease) = olive oil, Cameroon Africa (cold spot for colon-related illnesses= fiber rich foods (beans, cooked greens, brown rice, sweet potato), Mexico (cold spot for diabetes) = slow-release foods (squash, beans, corn) Japan (cold spot for breast and prostate cancers) = anti-oxidants (brightly colored vegetables), Iceland (cold spot for depression) = waxy potatoes (small red potatoes and yams), and lots of fish. **Jedi Kiri: if you let me know what kind of food you might be interested in or from which location, I would be better able to give you a list of recipes to choose from. I like the book but it reminds me a little of other nutrition books I’ve read where a lot of the information is stuff I already knew or I feel like maybe they are talking down to the reader a bit. BUT, I’m excited about the recipes and I really like the sections where she describes her visits to other countries.

And here is my grocery list for going to the herb store this weekend (!):

• Womanly strength and calming: Lavendar, Chamomile
• Morning tea: Ginseng, Gotu Kola, Golden Seal, Echinacea
• Nighttime tea: Valerian, Skullcap, Chamomile, Peppermint
• Pain/headaches/colds: St. John’s Wort, Willow bark, Ginger, Feverfew

Kiri – Is there anything you thing I should add?

I’m also excited because Patrick mentioned wanting an herb to help with mental stimulation, so I think he is on board to try some Gotu Kola and Ginseng in the mornings with me.

Rescuing Bad-Tasting Tea (hopefully)

Ok, so Jedi Kiri was noticing that her cohosh root tea tastes pretty awful so I decided to try and go back and find some of the tips I had read about in the Herbal Healing for Women book.

1. I noticed that often in Gladstar's book when she's dealing with blue or back cohosh, she makes Tinctures (page 66), BUT they take 6 weeks to make! I'm not sure if that would help the taste at all but I just thought I would mention it. Another preparation (much easier) for cohosh tea is discussed on page 201.

2. Things Gladstar lists as helping to improve taste of certain teas: cinnamon, orange peel, Stevia, licorice root, roasted dandelion root, and lemon balm. As a side note, I've noticed in some of my boxed teas, the ones with a sweet taste have Stevia as an ingredient.

3. Gladstar actually specifically mentions cohosh's unpleasant taste on page 200, she recommends diluting it with peppermint tea!

Also, I really resonated with Gladstar's talk of appreciating our moon cycles and reproductive organs. A few months ago I bought a few books which discuss menstruation in different cultures and historically - I really wanted to find examples of moon cycles being celebrated and empowering. I believe there is a better way to appreciate our reproductive cycles without the shame, annoyance and embarrassment that is generally associated with them in modern Western society. But, I'm still struggling with it personally.

On page 108, Gladstar talks about wombs as having a greater purpose than just childbirth - as our "centers" which give us power. I really liked that and had never thought about that part of my body as having much relevance to my life until I want to have kids. It felt eye-opening to think of this part of myself as new and powerful regardless of pregnancy status. It's a part of myself and womanhood I want to explore more...

p.s. Kiri - What are you exploring with cohosh? Just wondering :) good luck and I hope this helps!

Waiting

I'm waiting for a lot of my herbs to come in. I ordered the harder-to-find herbs online and now I'm playing the waiting game. I ordered a little too late though. I got my wonderful monthlies today and I am cramping with no herbs to try out. Grrrr.

Speaking of monthlies...I really have been trying to embrace it more. While reading Herbal Healing, Gladstar sings praises to our monthlies (I am not even at the point where I can say the p-word numerous times in one blog) telling us women to welcome it and look at it as a time of rejuvenation. She writes how this is a time to shed ourselves and come into a fresh new month. Or maybe I just made that up but that is the gist of it. I am trying very hard to have that mentality but it's not quite working right now. I agree with her point that it should not be something that is shunned by society, but I can't quite come to the point of celebration over it. I like my monthlies for one reason: it means I'm not pregnant. And eventually - I will hate it for that reason, I'm sure. But I don't know how to get around the mentality that I have that it is a good for nothing mess.


However, I must report that I absolutely love Valerian. I have some night sleepytime tea that already has Valerian in it, and I decided to add a little extra Valerian (about 1/4 teaspoon) just to see what happens. I could barely keep my eyes open past 11:00 at night - on a Friday night! It was a struggle to stay awake. I have always been affected by any kind of drowsy medication. Nyquil knocks me off into the deepest sleep and now Valerian is bringing on the drooping eyelids. In fact, when I was younger, I would sleep talk and sleep walk when I was in deep sleeps. Lo and behold, my husband told me that I was talking to him in my sleep on Friday night. So, for now, much success with Valerian and I am planning on taking some tonight, as I'm trying to stay away from advil with this experiment.


Further updates on honey mask: I did the honey mask last week again. I made sure not to have self tanner on. But what I did following the mask was a bad mistake: I applied self tanner to my face after. What was I thinking? It's essentially like pouring dirt into your open pores. My face completely broke out. When I say broke out...think embarrassing middle school years. I refuse to believe it was the honey because I had such a good result last time. I am having so much trouble balancing self tanner and the herbal remedies for my face, so I have taken a break from the self tanner for a week. But I haven't done anything else yet either because of the horrible breakout.

But, good news, my husband wants me to try to make a rinse for dry scalps and I also have another friend who is interested. This is great and I will definitely have to have them keep me posted. I'm not sure my husband will be the best guinea pig as he usually doesn't have the patience, but I will keep checking on him. It involves apple cider vinegar, that's all I really remember...but there is also the fact of rinsing your hair for 2 minutes that might lead to some impatience on his part too.

Hopefully I will have a much more detailed post later as I will have more of my herbs and essential oils to play with! This was just an impatient rambling post.

The infancy of herbal healing - the world is a big candy store

I spent a really great day off last week making a few herbal body treatments. I made the cucumber/instant milk eye mask, a ground oatmeal/instant milk face and neck mask, and a body scrub made with brown and white sugar, vanilla, coconut oil, and a variety of spices. I was most excited to have all of the ingredients in my apartment (I had gone shopping for them in previous weeks). Taking the ingredients out of my herbal box reminded me of all of the books I’ve read where women healers go into their cupboards or medicinal chests of herbs and take out various bottles/potions! It was funny because while I was first making the scrub, I found myself thinking, “All of this sugar that is sort of wasted”. And then I realized how excited I was that I was going to be using the sugar scrub over a couple months and really enjoying it! It actually felt like making a present for myself kind of. I was really proud of the scrub when I was done (I put it in a clear spaghetti jar which I had washed).

So, I put on my cucumber eye mask and oatmeal face and neck mask and laid down and listened to one of my guided meditations. It was really nice to feel like I was actually spending time doing something just for my body and mind. I also had a mini-aha-moment. The meditation talks about recognizing traits you admire in others and I had always thought I needed to work on my confidence but I realized that I actually admire conviction in a lot of my friends/family/mentors. So, it felt like a big shift acknowledging that I don’t think I give my own opinions or thoughts (mostly in terms of school/work) enough credit in my mind. I haven’t started to work on this yet much but I felt relieved just recognizing and finally identifying what it was…

And the masks and scrub were great. The oatmeal mask made my cheeks really soft (however, I have a few zits right now and I’m a bit suspicious of my oatmeal/instant milk mask…) and the sugar scrub was super oily and smelled really good (probably would only use it once a week or so since it was so moisturizing - the coconut oil is super thick and was even hard to wash off of the tools I used to mix it with). I still think I need more time to see if the cucumber eye mask has an effect, but it is refreshing.

In terms of the books, I’m sending a lot of time reading the Herbal Healing for Women book right now and I really like how she explains thoroughly how to brew different herbal teas etc (page 46).

Which brings me to where I want to go next with herbal healing. I have been writing down ingredients from my teas and looking up what different properties they have. So now I think I want to try and make my own herbal night-time and morning teas. I still have more research to do but I think I would really enjoy that. I think it will be easier to make the night-time tea because I’ve seen a lot of information about sedative/relaxing, relief from nervous tension/anxiety herbs. For the morning tea though, I would really like to find a couple mood-lifting/energizing teas if they exist. So far for the night-time tea, I think I would include Chamomile, Valerian root, Skullcap, and St. john’s wort.

To Jedi Kiri: I have not ordered the jungle effect book and I can’t believe I forgot! Ordering it right now and will absolutely keep you posted on what I learn. I read in one of the reviews that there are only about 14 recipes and I will of course scan them to you. I have high hopes to learn a lot from that book so we will see. Also, I asked my mom to send me a book on mythology (another topic – like piano – that I wish I knew more about so I’m going to read that as well). And I’m ordering a keyboard this week!

Jedi Kiri also sent me a website where you can order herbs and it felt like I had stumbled my way into an online candy store! I am so excited to order things but I also want to find a place locally. I was thinking that I would only be able to find a store in San Francisco but I did a search on Yelp and found out there is an herbal store in Berkeley with pretty good reviews! I am definitely going as soon as I feel like I have done some more research and know what I want (hopefully this weekend).

So here are my current goals: 1) Research and create my own morning and night-time teas 2) implement conviction somehow in my life (possibly through meditation or just more awareness?) 3) Read the Jungle effect book and mythology book and piano training 4) Continue with the body brushing-oil/lotion routine, eye mask once a week and sugar scrub once a week

I love honey and I'm a Pooh bear...

So I tried out a honey mask on Sunday night. The honey mask appealed to me because of its “deeply hydrating” qualities. Lord knows I need it this winter, especially with these mounds of snow that keeps getting bigger each week as another snowstorm decides to diarrhea on us. This snow needs to stop. But I digress. Cold weather in New England = dry = wrinkles on my face show up more.

The recipe is really straight forward. Honey. On face. Woo, I love recipes like this: simple and inexpensive. It wasn’t as runny on my face as the author made it out to be. At the end of 15 minutes, Troules recommends patting your face with your fingertips like you are playing the piano. I tried it and it hurts. It felt like sharp little stings. So that only prevailed for about 20 seconds before I wiped all the honey off my face. It comes off surprisingly easy for which I was grateful.

The most noticeable after effect was that all my self-tanner was completely stripped from my face. So there I am – looking at my pale white face, while my neck and shoulders are still a nice golden brown. Woops, I didn’t even think that could possibly happen. Second effect was the way the area around my eyes felt like liquid. I know that’s a weird way to explain it, but they felt so filled in.

Those were the immediate effects but I haven’t noticed any huge changes two days later. My face felt pretty smooth for all of yesterday, though. I’m hoping to continue with this for a couple of weeks and at least see where it leads. I don’t believe one try is enough for a successful analysis.

I’ve only tried this one recipe so far because I don’t have any ingredients for the other recipes. I'm on the last leg of my research, I believe…slowly working through Herbal Healing for Women. I have a lot of recipes I want to try from the other two books, but Herbal Healing has so much good info in it that I really want to take my time in reading it thoroughly. Once all the books are read, and all ingredients recorded, I will venture out into the unknown world of finding herbs.

As for my nutrition – I have started to have a cup of fruit along with yogurt as my morning snack! I am trying to be healthier, one step at a time and I think this is a good way to start. No huge bodily changes yet but we’ll see. Speaking of food, Liv – did you get the recipe book that was on your list? If so, send me some recipes via photocopying or scanning! I’d love to try some.

I would love to support local herbal stores and learn where I can buy common herbs without having to go online. But that in itself is a whole project to undertake. Thank goodness for Yelp, it has helped me to have a starting point where I can at least wander the Boston area and look at possible stores. I’m crossing my fingers that somewhere in my quest I will find one good store that I can rely on. You would think that Boston would have tons of options, but it’s really harder than I thought. I hope to start this weekend by exploring some stores, if we don’t get slammed with another snowstorm (yes, there is another one slated for this weekend grr). And perhaps (this may be getting my hopes up too much though) meeting people on the way who can help me and share a common affiliation.


Speaking of people sharing common interests: I am still debating if I want to join the 10th International Herb Symposium in June. http://www.internationalherbsymposium.com/ It’s hosted/directed by Rosemary Gladstar, who will also lead some discussions, and David Hoffman will be there speaking too. Exciting! Located in Massachusetts, I would be able to get to it within an hour and not pay full price – only pay for meals, a total of $75. Great price since I live close by, but I would also have to pay for some materials if I want to join classes that are very hands-on. I’m truly debating this. It looks like a good conference with many classes/workshops for beginners. I think I will see how this goes and if I have learned enough and invested enough by April or May, perhaps then I can join up. I hope there’s no limit on how many people can join the conference. It seems like a good place to start, but also nervous because I’m not sure I want to go by myself. So this I’m also debating as we continue this project.