Ingredient amounts per person
1-2 medium white Sweet Potato
1/4 cup diced pineapple chunks
1/4 cup chopped protein (chicken, tofu, etc)
T chopped onions and/or garlic 
1 cup chopped or bite-size vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, peas, or red peppers
Handful dark leafy vegetables such as kale or spinach
T tomato sauce (or butternut-tomato sauce blend)
Tsp whole aromatic spices such as coriander, cumin, cardamon, turmeric, cloves, and allspice, sesame seeds, etc
1/2 tsp ground aromatic spices such as coriander, cumin, cardamon, turmeric, cloves, and allspice, sesame seeds, etc
small splash of soy sauce or fish sauce
Herbs such as parsley or cilantro


1) Dice potatoes and blanch in boiling water until just barely soft.  Remove and drain.

2) Heat pan on medium with oil.  When hot, place any whole aromatic spices in the oil until they start popping, which should only take 10-30 seconds.  Immediately add onions/garlic and turn down heat and cook until just barely soft, then add blanched potatoes and vegetables.  Add a bit more oil and allow to cook, stirring only occasionally to prevent burning but to allow the potatoes to brown a bit and the vegetables to soften.  

3) Add pineapple chunks, any additional ground aromatic spices, soy sauce or fish sauce, and protein.  Heat until pineapple and protein are warm.  

4) Add tomato sauce and cook until absorbed by potatoes. 

5) Turn off heat and toss in dark leafy vegetables and any herbs.  Allow to sit for up to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so that they wilt slightly.  Serve immediately.  

Just two months ago, I came upon an article in the New York Times in my Twitter feed called The Science of Junk Food.  It was a 14 page article and there was no way I was going to read yet ANOTHER rant about the evils of our food supply.  It was old news to me.  As someone with a long and vested history in the food supply, being allergic to just about the world, I skipped it.  Just the previous week my roommate was telling me about some guy that changed the food industry by conducting an experiment to see what kind of flavors people liked best.  It had opened the door to companies such as Ragu to recreate their entire line of food to offer a plethora of options.  I thought that was kind of cool.  I loved Ragu sauce growing up!  I went on with my Twitter scan and moved on to my daily Facebook newsfeed scan.  Then, in an attempt to procrastinate, I went back to Twitter and saw that article again.  I opened up the link and thought, I'll just scan it to see if there is anything interesting.  Its a 14 page article and I got to get ready for work soon anyway but I still have some extra time.

I started reading it, and it was unlike any food article I have ever read.  It wasn't about the evil of our food supply.  No PETA pictures.  It read like a book I had read about the financial crash from the perspective of the exec's on the inside.  It was full of politics and intrigue and manipulation and injustice..... but not the abstract kind of statistics that usually get thrown out there about obesity rates and the like.  No, the politics and injustice of CEO's vying for power, manipulation of scientists and marketing campaign managers wanting to do the right thing, and whistleblowers being screwed over.  

I got through about half and I stopped. This was describing a version of our food supply that was different than I had ever heard of, and I thought I had seen and heard it all.  I started thinking about my own relationship with the food industry.

Growing up, I LOVED hotdogs, chips, cottage cheese, cereals, McDonalds, etc, etc.  When I visited my grandparents during the holidays it perplexed me why my grandmother would not keep things like hotdogs and cottage cheese in the house.  Each time I brought it up, my Grandmother would describe to me the horror of visiting a factory as a child for a school trip where they made hot dogs and cottage cheese.  I saw images of pink slime and the smell of oozing, rotting dairy just like the glasses of milk I sometimes forgot about in the basement mixed with Mr. Rogers footage .  It didn't deter me (much), but the images still stuck in my mind.  

In 10th grade chemistry class, we had a guest presenter from the local Kraft factory who was a food scientist.  My mother had worked at the Kraft factory where they made Cool-Whip long before I was born.  He showed us what he did for a living by mixing chemicals to make food last longer, taste better, and look prettier.  While part of me was horrified, for the most part I thought it was kind of ingenious that food could be made better.  Hey, I loved cool-whip on my hot chocolate!

After high school I did an exchange program in Germany where I lived out in the country.  My neighbors had an industrial cow farm and not too far away was a chicken farm.  They were small scale, so for the most part all I saw was the milking barns, the stench of chickens from down the road, and trails in the dirt where I supposed they peacefully grazed all day when I was out at school or traveling.  At night, the bright lights of the distant barn would reflect on my walls.  Neighbors warned me to stay away from the chicken farm but never really said why.  I envisioned clouds of nasty dried chicken poop and a deadly stench with the occasional PETA image of crowed coops, but this was Germany.... not the USA, so there was no need to worry.

I went to college to study the sciences and worked in the Chemistry lab one summer.  I learned all about how the chemical structure of anything was identical, no matter if I created it or nature did.  Sodium Chloride is salt, whether it comes out of the ocean, or out of my test tube.  What is "natural"?  ALL things are "natural".  In biology labs, we tested corn products to identify GMO contamination and see if they actually held up to industry labeling and then MADE genetically modified organisms.  GMO crops and animals, I learned, were saving lives.  In fact, I knew this first hand because I spent spring break among the starving Oaxacan people of central-west Mexico on medical mission where they were barely eating 2 meals a day of beans and any vegetables that could be salvaged from the semi-arid terrain.  They were running away illegally across the border to the USA to send home money to families because they couldn't afford flour or corn.  We recommended that they boil rusty nails with their beans to make sure they were getting iron in their diets.  


What has been your relationship or prior knowledge of our food supply?  Next week in Part 2, I will discuss the second half of the New York Times article "The Science of Junk Food" and the nutritional content of of our food.

I follow a lot of blogs and Facebook pages and one of my favorite pages is MindBodyGreen.  This blog post inspired me to write a similar one.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5262/5-Ways-Yoga-Helped-Me-Beat-Anorexia.html


I’ve been pretty sick most of my life.  I had a difficult childhood that left me with PTSD and the anxiety from it overwhelmed my body so much that I developed several autoimmune disorders and severe chronic pain.  I had no idea how to deal with life until a good friend of mine, who had taken a few massage courses, introduced me to Yoga, Meditation, and Massage.  For the first time, I felt like I had control in my life.  When my friend and I drifted apart in life, I decided to go back to school and learn about Massage and Holistic Health.  Massage healed me in so many ways.  Both giving and receiving massage has changed my life in a postive way.  Here are 5 ways giving and receiving massage has made me be a better person:


1) Giving massage gave me an opportunity to focus and be centered and have a calm place to be for an hour.

Part of having severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress is that my mind is in a million places at once.  I simply can’t concentrate and focus.  For me, I couldn’t focus because I was literally scared of everything and everyone, including myself.  Having an hour (or a few!) every day to just be with the person on my table and focused on them and not my issues, in a safe and relaxing, therapeutic environment was like having mini-vacations every day.  


2) Being a Massage Therapist made me feel obligated to be the best person I can be and a leader by example for my clients.

One of two of my concentrations at massage school was in Mind-Body Body Psychology and much of what I know about the body in this regard is from applying the principles of Body Psychology to my own recovery process from PTSD.  Healing myself gave me tools to help heal others.  


3) Being a Massage Therapist reminds me constantly of the things I need to do to take care of myself whenever I recommend those same things to my clients.

I have learned a lot by healing myself and its difficult to remember them all, all of the time.  When I recommend tips and tricks to my clients, its a great reminder for myself as well!


4) I now consider myself an expert in dealing with extreme stress and the conditions that stress causes.

I always laugh to myself when someone takes a bad picture of me (at least what I think is bad) and my friends say that I look like my normal Zen self.  Looking back at myself from before I began my massage journey feels like looking back at someone that I totally don’t recognize.  I no longer have PTSD or even daily pain or anxiety anymore and my autoimmune problems no longer control me.   I consider massage to be one of the major reasons why.  I use the same principles that I learned each day with my clients and many report similar experiences, which I think is just amazing!


5) I was able to let go of the past.

Anyone who has received a considerable amount of bodywork knows that massage helps you process past emotions and events.  There is a saying- “The issues are in the tissues”.  Massage Therapy has pushed me to find myself.  No matter what happens, I will always have myself and will never loose that again.  Some terrible things happened to me, but massage opened several doors for me to help me move on and reach for a better life; a life full of helping others and being the best person I can be.

There are four ways to loose weight:

1) Exercise yourself into the ground

2) Reduce your calories (and feel like you are starving)

3) Change the composition of what you are eating (ie: carbs vs proteins vs fats)

4) Maximize and optimize your metabolism


Most people who have tried to loose weight have tried the first two and usually find it very difficult.  I'll admit.... it does make good drama for TV though.  The other two are a bit easier, and make exercise and calorie reduction much easier and effective.  

First of all, carbohydrates are what turn into fat, not fat.  Your body is made of water, fat, and protein and your body uses sugars and carbs for fuel like a car uses gasoline.  Too much fuel (ie: carbs and sugar) will be converted into fat for storage to be used for fuel at a later time.  So, if you want to loose weight you have to decrease the amount of carbohydrates you are eating because you are over-fueling your body each day and your gas tank is too full.  

The best way to cut down on your carbs intake is to replace some of the carbs with protein and non-starchy vegetables (think green).  The idea is to cut down your carb intake so you have the optimal amount of fuel.  You can also force your body to break down protein for fuel too.  Since protein has the same amount of calories per gram as carbohydrates but uses more calories to digest it into smaller pieces to build and repair your body with, you feel full on the same amount of food but are actually getting less calories overall.  This can be good temporarily, but not in the long term.  You have to feed your body carbohydrates for fuel.  Not giving yourself the right fuel is like giving your car diesel when you are supposed to use regular unleaded. On the other hand, you could probably eat a whole garden of vegetables but you would still be hungry.  Increasing your protein intake and your vegetable intake will allow you to balance your fuel intake and feel satiated.  You will have the right amount of fuel and as a bonus, will also give yourself extra building blocks to make/build a better you!

Once you are getting the proper fuel and building materials to make a healthy you, it is important to make sure you are actually absorbing and using what you are eating.  Have you ever noticed when you take a multivitamin that your pee turns neon yellow?  Well.... that is because you are not absorbing all of your B vitamins and you are peeing them all out!  There are also micro-nutrients and micro-chemical substances that are not vitamins and minerals that your body needs to run.  Some of them your body can make, others you get from food and herbs (once upon a time on the savanna we ate herbs in our food everyday as extra flavor in cooked foods and as tea and as extra bulk in salad).  When your body gets all the things it needs to run right, then your body can heal itself.  Your body will gain weight as a reaction to not giving your body what it needs.  

Getting these micro-nutrients and micro-chemicals will boost your metabolism and help it run better.  Having a more efficient metabolism will burn more of your fat stores and even out your energy throughout the day.  You will also sleep better, gain muscle easier, and feel much better overall.  In fact, many digestive, skin, hair, and nail conditions are actually caused by your body not metabolizing as well as it can.

So where can you get these micro-nutrients and micro-chemicals?  Whole and unprocessed foods that are colorful, sunlight, clean water, clean air, and herbs. And we aren't talking crazy superfoods from China or herbs like ephedra.  Substances like reservatrol in your red wine or herbs like dandelions leaves and green tea will do wonders. Especially taking a good formula that contains concentrated amounts (so you don't have to be drunk everyday in the name of weight loss!) will get you jump started and help you get more for your money's worth on your multivitamins and foods.  


Interested in more?  Schedule a wellness assessment with me today! 

This past week has been a hard week for many Americans.  As some of you know, my primary interest as a Massage Therapist is to work with Post-Traumatic Stress and PTSD.  This is what led me to go to massage school and specialize in massage in Integrative Health settings and to study Body Psychology.   After the events in Boston last Monday, my first thought was to reach out to help. So, I have teamed up with Massage Without Boarders, a non-profit founded in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, to set up a program to provide massage therapy for those affected.  A lot of Massage Therapists across the country with training to work with PTSD are now stepping up to help out.  Its been amazing to see!  

It makes me feel so good to see people interested in how to help those who have experienced traumatic events.  Just two years ago I wrote a Continuing Education Course for Massage Therapists on how to work with PTSD with a website outlining much of the material.  Since Monday, my website page has gone viral!  If you want to read it too.... check it out here.... http://www.squidoo.com/massage-for-trauma-survivors-ptsd

I have a lot of stress in my life, like most people I run into.  I am also a creature of habit and I tend to sit and stand in the same position and walk in all the same places.  I even had lines in my carpet in my old apartment because I took the same exact path from the front door to the kitchen by going around the coffee table and then between the sofa and lazy boy.  When I sit in my desk chair, I slouch.  When I go for a long walk I always twist my torso a bit around the stitch in my side.  I know that I always get knots in the same place and so do my clients.  So, why does the knots always come back?


The definition of a Knot is (paraphrased from memory from my school notes):


An area of muscle fibers and nerves and connective tissue bound up together preventing oxygen and nutrients from reaching the muscle.  



As a massage therapist, I know I can work out a knot and sometimes it will go away and sometimes it comes back.  Usually, however, they come back when what is causing them in the first place hasn’t been addressed.  Muscles are a little like ropes.  If you pull on a rope too much, it will start to fray.  If you want to reinforce a rope, you have to knot it.  Hence, if you have a muscle that is being pulled too long, it will knot up.   All muscles in the body have an opposing muscle (or sometimes a few) that pull in the opposite direction.  A good example would be the biceps and triceps in your upper arms.  Chances are, if you have a knot in your back, there is a muscle in the front of your body that is too contracted and is pulling the ones in the back too long.  


Most people get knots in the back of their bodies.  If you come see me for a massage, I most likely will work on the front of your body first before working on your back.  Unfortunately, if you have poor posture, even if I get all your opposing muscles in a relaxed, normal position, once you return to your habits of slouching or whatever you do, you will get over-elongated muscles and knots.  Old knots that are no longer fighting to prevent an injury in your muscles (ie: getting pulled too long and start “fraying”) will release and won’t come back.  


Knots that are still fighting will keep coming back.  


So, that knot behind your shoulder that keeps coming back?  Its fighting.  And that is a good thing if you don’t want your shoulder muscles to get hurt.  You want it to go away?  Visit your local, friendly massage therapist!  He/she will massage it out, but I can’t guarantee it won’t go away without a little work on your part too.  

Love Thai Peanut Sauce or Pad-Thai?  Want that great taste at home but don't want more work than it takes to make pasta?  Try this recipe out.  I make it based on taste, so there are no measurements.  Just lots of tasting!

-Pasta

-Green veggies such as green peas or broccoli, frozen or fresh

-Cooked chicken strips (leftovers, pre-cooked oven roasted chickens, etc) or Tofu or Steak (cut into strips)

-Peanut butter

-Vinegar (I find brown rice vinegar the best, but any will do)

-Lime juice (I usually freshly squeeze them)

-Tamari/Soy Sacue

-Milk (Rice milk, cows milk, or coconut milk, etc... usually something more thick, like cocounts milk or coffee creamer works best)

-Sugar (I usually use agave nectar instead)

-Ginger (finely chopped) (optional)

-Chili paste (optional)

-Fish sauce (optional)

1) Boil pasta in a large pot of water.  When the pasta is almost done, toss in veggies to the pasta to cook them and also toss in the chicken to warm it up if they are leftovers.  If using tofu or steak, cook separately. Drain and set aside.

2) While the pasta is cooking, combine about 1/4 cup peanut butter per serving with 2-4 limes and a generous splash of vinegar.  Mix slowly.  The peanut butter should change in constancy and change in color if there is enough vinegar/lime juce and should taste sour.  This will be thinned out considerably, so you want it to be more sour than the final product.  IF there is too much lime/vinegar, add more peanut butter. 

3) Add a tiny(!) dash of tamari and also a tiny dash of fish sauce (this is the secret to really good peanut sauce).  

4) Add enough milk to get a thin paste.

5) Add sugar/sweetener in tiny increments until to taste.

6) Add flavor enhancers like ginger or chili paste or black pepper to taste.

7) Pour peanut sauce over pasta.  Enjoy!

*If you want to get fancy, put a fried egg on top or crispy fried onions.  Use asian rice noodles for a more authentic version.  

Getting enough veggies in your life is sometimes difficult.  This yummy and quick dip will having you eating chips and "dip" for dinner!

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 bag frozen bell pepper strips

1 large onion, chopped fine

1-5 cloves garlic, chopped fine

Olive oil

Italian seasonings

Lemon Juice

Water or broth

Salt & Pepper

1) Place tomatoes, bell pepper strips, onion, and garlic in a large bowl and toss with oil.  Spread out on a baking sheet.

2) Bake, stirring every 15-20 minutes for 45-60 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

3) Place in a blender and blend with italian seasonings, salt and pepper to taste.  Add a dash of lemon juice for flavor and to keep it from going bad right away.  Add just enough water or broth to thin it out to a thick paste, especially if it is too thick to blend.  

Serve as a dip with chips or raw veggie sticks.  Use as an alternative pasta sauce or pizza sauce, on top of potenta, over rice or other cooked grains, or cooked veggies such as broccoli or brussel sprouts.  

*Note, add blanched carrots, diced eggplant, or other flavorful/colorful veggies with the tomatoes and bell peppers.

Broccoli is full of nutrients, but many people don't like broccoli.  This is sure to make you eat more broccoli in one sitting than you normally eat in a year, and still want more!

- 2-3 large broccoli heads, with stems (the key to GOOD broccoli soup is the stems.... better to chop up the stems of a half dozen broccoli heads if you can't find broccoli with loooooong stems)

- 1/4 cup chopped onions (I usually use far less, just a tablespoon or 2)

- 32 fl oz or a quart of milk (I use one whole carton of rice milk- unsweetened and make sure there is no vanilla flavoring in it)

- Spoonful of butter or ghee (which is also known as clarified butter and doesn't have any lactose or casein in it)

-Salt and pepper

1) Chop up broccoli heads into large bite size pieces.   Peel/cut away to tough fiberous skins of the broccoli stems and cut stems into rounds.

2) Combine broccoli, onion, butter/ghee, and milk in a large pot (the milk should not cover the broccoli and only be about 2/3 of the way up) and simmer on medium-low with a lid until broccoli is cooked.   Stir occasionally to make sure the broccoli is cooked evenly.

3) Pour entire contents into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with croutons or crackers.