Today was paleo pancake day – my favorite ;-) (Well, the nut-ola day is pretty close, especially if they make the macadamia milk!) As hubby said though, these are very dense pancakes – two is actually probably “one too many.” Not sure if the recipe will be in the new Recipe Book that we will receive in .PDF form when we leave, but I hope so. As you can see, they serve it with super sweet strawberries, “smashed” blueberry sauce (blueberries whirled in the VitaMix, and then whole blueberries added), and the “food with no brakes” nut butter :-)
These are the cards that I’ve mentioned a few times. They’re from a friend, who FedEx’d them to me to be sure I got them before I left. These have been the best thing ever. I remember when my goddaughter was in a “rehab-esque” facility, I bought a ton of cards, and sent her one every day that she was there (it was like 30 cards). Wow, it makes you feel really really cared for. I admit that I did open two in a row on the day that hubby was in ER, but I am saving the last one until Monday (two days before we leave). Above is a “gallery” of the cards. Although I’m sure that they will be a little tough to read posted this way, if you can click on them to read the “small print” on each, they’re just so funny. They’re from EmilyMcDowell.com and when I get home, I’m buying all of them since these are exactly the cards to have on hand!
coffee tables for step-ups, various bands/TRX, EmPack – out the slider on the balcony is where I do the jump rope and minitramp parts of a workout
A couple of folks have sent “private messages” to me with respect to my workout regime here at Sanoviv. If you’re on Marco Polo with me, I sent you a video showing you my room “gym” including the seafoam green shag carpet for floor work – but here’s a write-up for those of you who are not. In our room, I have a mini-tramp, which I use when I’m supposed to “jog” in the program set up for me by my Crossfit box. (I also have, of course, 7 flights of stairs.) When it says to do, for example, 1 minute at “100%” then followed up with a jog, I jump rope out on the balcony, and then I jump on the mini-tramp. This photo shows you various bands, the TRX (which I’ve been using for ring rows, because pullups aren’t really possible, my hang on the wardrobe photographed a while ago notwithstanding), then the EmPack which has three bladders, each of which weighs, full, about 15 lbs. I have 2 of them filled up and 1 filled to about 5 lbs. There is also the aforementioned small area rug where I do the planks, hollow rocks, etc.
Hubby got a bluetooth speaker called a “MegaBoom” by Ultimate Ears that is by far the best bluetooth speaker we’ve ever had. We’ve had Bose, etc. and this one has a 360 degree sound, plus the base is very good. It’s even waterproof ;-) I luckily downloaded a few of my Spotify playlists to my phone before leaving, because for whatever reason, you can’t get them to download over the WiFi. (Same goes for Audible books, Kindle books, iTunes, etc. I actually did this as an afterthought when we were driving to the airport on the day we left. So thankful that I did!)
I have to say that I’m sick of working out alone ;-) The other day I did their Circuit Training class, which was pretty fun. As I’ve mentioned before, their Fitness center is really set up for folks who aren’t particularly “fit” – as it should be (this is a hospital, after all). In the Circuit Training, we did 1 minute on, 20 seconds off, 2 rounds of: (a) Minitramp jumping jacks, (b) flies with a band (the toughest band in the gym is about the strength of a blue and a red in “Crossfit/Rogue band parlance”), (c) step up on a box (I did box jumps – it was about 9″ tall so I was able to, since my max is 12″ :-) ), (d) banded rows facing the band, (e) step “over” the box” side to side (he had me do a move where I straddled the box, plyo-jumped up to the top, then back down), (f) banded tricep push, (g) squats (everyone used a big Swiss ball that they leaned against a wall and then squatted as far down as they could – I put the biggest “slam ball” they had (12 lbs) on the ground and squatted down to it), (h) banded bicep curls, then (i) plank. For the plank, I did “down-up” plank for a little while, passed a dumbbell under my body side to side, did one leg up then another, etc. I mean, it was only a minute. Then at the end I did 6 pushups before moving back to the mini-tramp. It was fun to be with people again! And, why yes, I was the certified fitness bad @ss of the class. Now that is a different feeling….!
Yesterday hubby actually did part of my printed workout with me in the room. He had to lie down in between some of the sets, and then only did a couple rounds of the last set. It was a farmer’s carry with one hand (30# EmPack) and waiter’s walk (5# EmPack bladder) with the other – supposed to be 50′ then swap hands, but we did the entire hall and back to our door (probably more like 100′) then switched hands and did the hall again. While one of us was doing that, the other did the banded hamstring curls, ring rows, Pallof presses, and then back for the walk again, 3x.
The M-WOD was a dozen each of banded pull-aparts pronated, candlestock rock to seated straddle, banded pull-aparts supinated, the rock, banded overhead pull-aparts, the rock. Hubby had thrown a rib out, but surprisingly the candlestick rock helped get it back in. (He’s seeing the chiropractor anyway today.)
There was another WOD that we traded off (“pullups,” i.e., ring rows, and dumbbell rows), then he was “through” and went to take a shower. The EmPack was awesome for this last part, which was a Tabata plank. I used it with the two 15 lb. bladders and strapped it on “as” a backpack. This was sure easier than when my Crossfit wife and I were trying out all the moves back in the gym, and we were trying to balance a sandbag on our backs!
I was glad I had downloaded a couple of “Tabata songs” I bought years ago onto my cell phone, since for whatever reason, as I said, it won’t connect to iTunes or Spotify here, only downloaded songs.
I had a “prideful moment” doing the planks. Hubby was in the shower and I wanted him to “see me” doing the weighted Tabata planks (and tell me I was a bad @ss (LOL)). So I actually did two sets, figuring that since I’d started at what I thought was almost the end of his shower, he’d be out and see me and comment as I finished.
Um, yeah, NOPE. I was already cleaned up and had put everything away by the time he was out. Shows me for looking for approval/kudos from the outside ;-) Therapy Much? :-)
Our friend Andy (photo in previous post) is originally from Texas, here on the 2 week Lyme protocol. He’s the supply logistics bigwig at Chevron Australia in Perth. I ran into him early this morning, and he looked positively gleeful. He was supposed to leave on Sunday, but told me that he’d swapped out his flight for today, so he was “getting sprung in just a few hours!” It was so funny. As I’ve mentioned before, our friend Arnold (from Paraguay) dubbed Sanoviv “Hotel Baja California,” so of course I said to Andy, “Wait hey now, you sure that you can’t just check out any time you want….?”
He’s flying out of here to SFO. He was asking us about restaurants/etc. down by the airport about a week ago. After we talked it through with him, turns out he’s going to rent a car at the airport, have dinner in San Francisco (we provided him with the latest S.F. Chronicle “100 Best Restaurants” list), then he’s going to actually stay in Marin. His sister lives in Sacramento, and so Sunday and Monday he’s going to see her up in Napa and visit his favorite wineries, have some more good food, then he fly back to Australia Monday night. By staying in Marin, he won’t have to brave the Bridge traffic, and will be basically 1/2 way to Napa (and won’t be paying city hotel rates). We, of course, told him that we hated him ;-) He just giggled. B@stard. :-)
Speaking of wine, one of the funniest Marco Polos on record was one sent to me by a friend and her husband. She was telling me what was going on, and her husband was walking back and forth behind her listening/waving/etc. – carrying a bottle of Napa Cab in one hand and a huge glass full of the wine in the other. Sipping away, walking in and out of the picture. I had a total Pavlovian response. I had to listen to the Marco twice because all I could do was follow the husband back and forth with my eyes, staring at the bottle and the glass. I sent her a Marco back about it, and she sent one this morning laughing, saying that neither of them had even noticed that he was doing this. She “promised me” that her “um…morning caffeinated beverage that shall remain unmentioned” was outside camera range. I just laughed and laughed.
I might have said this before, but hubby had said – actually last Sunday right before he had to go to the hospital! – that he felt pretty good about taking a lot of what we had learned here with respect to eating, etc. and bringing it back to our daily lives. Last night he told me that after now “three weeks going on four,” all that has gone out the window! He said that they probably make the Cancer program three weeks because that’s the perfect “balance” where you are likely to go home and still retain 80% of it in your daily life. However (a bit like Andy, I think) now he’s just planning to dive head first into a bacon blue cheese filet mignon burger on a brioche bun with fries drenched in ketchup, with a nice magnum of Napa Cab. “To start,” sez he. :-)
I have some notes from the Energy Medicine/Meditation class today (our last…) that I’ll put in a separate blog post. Energy Medicine/Meditation is Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is our last one, as we leave on Wednesday. I want to link some YouTube videos though, because I want to be able to go back and find the Energy Medicine techniques once I’m back home, and right this second YouTube is “wonky” on the WiFi. The class was super dense today – we did 4 different techniques (usually you do maybe 1-2). There were also a few great quotes that I immediately left class and wrote down. Dr. Sandra is great for memorable comments. :-)
So there you go ;-) Next post – Energy Medicine ;-)
This blog post will be a compilation of a bunch of nutrition lectures that we have had while here. I believe that the Director of Nutrition, Sue Ward, is coming out with a book that addresses “diets,” which I am sure will be fantastic!
A book that was recommended (and I already have in my Amazon ‘cart’) is Mastering Leptin by Byron J. Richards, CCN.
The Five Rules of The Leptin Diet®
1. Never eat after dinner. Finish eating dinner at least three hours before bed. Allow 10-12 hours between dinner and breakfast. Allow at least 3 hours between dinner and bed – never go to bed “on food.” Sleep is prime “fat burning” (metabolic) time. NOTE: If you have problems with Rule #1, you likely have a significant problem with blood glucose metabolism, liver function, and/or leptin resistance.
2. Eat three meals a day. Allow 5-6 hours between meals. Do not snack! The need to snack is a sign of an out-of-shape pancreas/liver/muscle system. Because each snack forces your body to make insulin, etc., snacking is like a “repetitive strain injury” on your system.
3. Do not eat large meals. Eat until you are “not hungry,” not until you are “full.” Eating slowly is important, as how “full” you feel takes 20 minutes to get to your brain, after you reached that point. If you shovel food down, your body can’t signal properly. Cutting portion sizes and “putting your fork down” will help shrink and tone your stomach.
4. Eat a high protein breakfast. Aim for 20-30 grams of protein at breakfast. Metabolism increases +/- 30% for as long as 12 hours after a high protein meal. This would be like taking a 3-4 mile jog! If you don’t “feel like breakfast,” it’s likely that your system is full of toxic waste from the night before. Have a low protein dinner, to set your system up for success overnight.
5. Reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten – especially “Food with no brakes.” Limit, don’t cut out, carbs. Without carbs, your thyroid turns off, growth hormone doesn’t get released, fat is not burned efficiently, you won’t have the “bulk” in your stomach to feel satisfied, and lots of other nasty, disregulatory things happen.
From the Sanoviv Newsletter:
Sue Ward writes the Newsletter for Sanoviv, which comes out monthly. The featured article for June was “40 Tips for Fat Loss.” (I wish I could link it, but you need to subscribe yourself.) Here are just a few of the suggestions – she asks the reader to consider just doing 4-5 of those on the list (the 5 above are on there, by the way).
Support your liver by going through your house and eliminating processed foods and environmental toxins. These include shampoos, cleaning products, deodorants and the like. Pick up a replacement one, and “just see” if it works for you. If that one doesn’t – don’t give up!
Have soup for dinner for 7 days, then wake up to a high-protein breakfast.
Consume fermented foods. Sauerkraut, (live, non-sugar) yogurt, miso, etc. This can help balance your gut bacteria. Polyphenols are in a more active state in fermented food, which is also loaded with good gut bacteria.
Eat enough fiber. This means 25-30 grams/day.
Slow down and eat mindfully. Unconscious eating = mindless eating = overeating.
Stop sitting so much. Sitting stops the circulation of lipase, the enzyme that breaks up fat in the body. Standing re-engages the fat burning enzymes. Yes, you can talk on the phone, watch TV, or the like while standing!
Try a liquid day once a week. This gives the body a digestive rest, cleanses your system, and helps restore balance. This can be soups, smoothies, teas, green juices, or water.
Control portions through smaller plates. Many of us were brought up with the “Clean Plate Club.” If you use a larger plate, you can misjudge how much is on it.
Adjust meal timing to improve fat burning. Space meals 5-6 hours apart, don’t skip meals and do NOT snack. Combine with Intermittent Fasting for a bigger boost.
Use Vitamin C to reduce cravings. Linus Pauling’s research showed that Vitamin C competes with sugar for the entrance to your cells. The more sugar in the system, the less Vitamin C can get in. One study showed that adults with Vitamin C deficiency were more resistant to losing fat, whereas those with adequate Vitamin C levels burned 30% more fat during exercise. This does NOT mean “pop a Vitamin C gummy” or drink fruit juice however! Eat FOODS high in Vitamin C. (Thyme and Parsley, anyone? They beat oranges!)
Try a veggie-only day once a week. Start with a green smoothie, a large salad for lunch, and a plate of stir-fried veggies for dinner. No grains, fruit, or meat. You can also try replacing one meal per day for a week with veggie juice, which is a great way to boost antioxidants and phytonutrients without added calories. No, this doesn’t mean V-8! Try to make your own at home if you have the “machinery,” or opt for one from an organic purveyor without added salt, etc. Remember – the longer a product has been in the “bottle,” the less “fresh” it is for your body. Moreover, if a product you purchase isn’t in a dark bottle, the antioxidants are going to be working hard – on the sunlight that’s affecting the juice!
Miscellaneous Notes
We have had a lot of Nutrition workshops and seminars here. I saved out my notes from the “Notes” blog and am putting them here instead.
Digestion begins in the brain. Just think of something super tasty for you – or even sucking on a lemon. Your brain will tell your mouth that this food is on the way, and your salivary response will start. This why somewhat easy things – like just taking a second and saying Grace over a meal (even if you’re not religious, you can thank the farmers and ranchers who brought it to you) can get your brain to send the right “signals” to the rest of your body with respect to what’s coming. Giving gratitude over a meal is also positive talk about that meal for your body, which will be more receptive. If you’re “sneaking” food, bolting food, or eating “mindlessly” you have subconsciously given your body the signal that it’s not good for it. And what does the body do with substances like that? Wraps each molecule up with fat and stores it at your waistline.
Chew more. Count your chewing “baseline” for a meal. (Yes, this counts as Mindful Eating.) Then, try to double it. The more broken down an item is before it gets to your stomach, the less hard it is for your stomach and the rest of your system to deal with it.
Leaky gut is found in the small intestine. Yes, it’s a real thing. Basically due to damages done from foods and toxins, the wall of your small intestine is permeable, which allows food particles to “leak out” into your system. So, instead of having the parts of a meal that are supposed to be in your blood (amino acids from protein, from example), you actually have a small piece of that meal in your blood. Your system doesn’t know what to do with it. This can lead to a cascade effect. (Example: Your thyroid can view a gluten molecule as the same shape as its own tissue – so “seeing” a gluten molecule can cause it to attack itself. The gluten molecule wouldn’t be there without you having leaky gut – it would have been broken down into the composite protein parts (e.g., gliadin, glutenin, proline, glutamine, secalin, hordein, etc.) Gut healing foods include aloe vera (do not buy a “blend” or one that has sugar in it! Try to get organic. It is available at Trader Joe’s and is tasteless), bone broth, healthy fats (such as ground flax seed and avocado). There are also Gut repair nutrient supplements such as GI Revive.
you should have 1-3 bowel movements per day. They should look “fluffy” and hold together. If you are not, you can take magnesium citrate (not any other kind) to help with constipation, but should up your fiber to at least 30 grams per day, plus water. You can also take 12 grams/a rounded tablespoon of ground flax seeds, psyllium, or inulin (which is also a prebiotic), but you must take enough water with these, as they will all be constipating without it. If you have an issue with “stopping up the plumbing” with your bowel movements, release 1/2, flush, release the other 1/2, flush, THEN use the paper (and flush). (TMI?)
Two cans of regular soda/Monster/etc. (24 teaspoons of sugar) decrease the efficiency of your white blood cells by 92% for 5 hours. In other words, this “crashes” your immune system and makes it completely unable to fight any “immune-response” thing going on in your body (arthritis, flu, etc.)
If you take a med such as Prilosec, it actually decreases your stomach acid – the stomach will sense this, and make more and more and more. You need instead of take a supplement that will supplement your stomach system (I’ve mentioned this in a post before, because I mentioned that the Designs for Health product has H-Cl and was recommended as better for me than the USANA product). The alkaline of a product like Prilosec just buffers the stomach acid and decreases your digestion ability by an enormous factor.
HealthyTraditions.com has lists that include where you can find glyphosate-free oats, etc. Cornucopia.org has a list about egg purveyors and also yogurts. (Spoiler Alert: Trader Joe’s “organic, free range” eggs are nothing of the sort.)
Glutens have a substance in them that are called “gluteomorphins.” What does that sound like? Yes, Morphine. They react the same way. And you wonder why you can’t stop reaching for the bread basket?
Wash all your fruits and veggies. Soaking them in 1 ounce of aluminum-free baking soda combined with 100 ounces of water for 15 minutes has been proven in a test to get pesticide residue out from under the skin of apples. As I’ve said before, go to EWG.org to get the “Clean 15” foods that you can buy conventionally and the “Dirty Dozen” foods that you need to buy organic. If you give them a small donation you will get a grocery bag tag that contains these lists.
Resistant Starch. Your probiotic/gut biome needs “prebiotics” to grow and live. The best choices are three foods that we have been told now basically to never eat: white rice, white potatoes, and pasta. What’s the catch? You have to eat them cold. By way of example, rice has 4 calories per gram when it’s hot, and 2 when it’s cold. How do you do this? Make a cold rice salad, potato salad, or pasta salad. No mayo or sugar though! Make it with vinegar (e.g., “German” potato salad). If you combine resistant starch with live culture foods (sauerkraut, live culture yogurt), you get double the benefit.
Do not take probiotics on an empty stomach. The probiotics need to make it down into your small intestine, and your stomach acid kills them. If you feel the need to take a probiotic supplement, HERE is one that is strongly recommended – and if you take a good probiotic like this with food poisoning, it will “mop up” what is causing you to get sick. Take it as soon as you feel that you “might” have eaten something bad.
Lack of sleep and insulin resistance: A study showed that if you go from 8 hours to 6 hours of sleep a night, you can build up insulin resistance in two weeks.
Type 2 Diabetics should consider eating only two meals a day. Eating at 10 and 4 will allow your body to rest between having to make insulin. If you keep snacking, you never stop making insulin, and your body will never go to your fat stores to get energy.
Mark Hyman (who has a zillion books) trained at Sanoviv about eight years ago, for his functional medicine institute. All of his books pretty much recommend the same eating plan – which is basically the Sanoviv eating plan.
The Gabriel Code. About a zillion years ago (I checked my cloud files – yep, a zillion) I subscribed to the meditations, etc. that the author of this book put out. I never finished them because – SQUIRREL!!!! But I have just saved them from my “Diet and Exercise” cloud folder to my “To Read” cloud folder. The 10,000 ft. view of this book and the system is that this guy lost like 300 pounds by changing the way he thought. He also did it very slowly, so wound up not having “hanging skin” and the rest. His book and meditations have to do with the fact that when you’re under stress, etc. that your body “hides you” under mountains and mountains of fat. Hey, “Nobody bothers the elephant in the jungle.”
The Plant Paradox. This is a book that I’ve read, that reminds me a bit of the book How Not To Die, but it is really based upon lectins and has some suboptimal things in it. One is that it recommends “quorn,” which is a highly processed, engineered food which is terrible for you (there are lawsuits involved). It also has way too many complicated supplements that are low quality, and doesn’t include any animal protein, which can lead to body complications. Many foods that are eliminated are rich in important nutrients where cooking, soaking, sprouting and fermenting them can significantly decrease their lectin content. So, if you’re super sensitive to lectins, maybe this will help you, but for the bulk of folks, cooking foods prior to eating and following a healthy, balanced diet is likely a better alternative. Though a lot of these diet plans are “compelling,” as Sue said in her lectures, all these books will convince you to throw out everything that you have and move onto whatever it is that they’re suggesting.
So, what are you going to start doing – next week – from this list to lead to a more healthful life?? Let me know in the Comments – I’m curious!
This post is – quite literally – just a compilation of all the notes I’ve written that didn’t already “wend their way” into another post! I guess I will do them as “bullets” – but there’s no rhyme or reason to what goes first, next, etc. Just notes :-)
Energy Medicine Brain Hack (Anxiety/Sleep): Parasympathic = relaxation = healing and repair. One way to address this (as well as sleep issues, worry, anxiety) is to cross your left foot over your right, then your right arm across your left. If you can do it, put your right arm across your left, grab your palms/interlace your fingers, then turn your hands “in and up” so that you are in “prayer” pose with your fingers intertwined and your wrists crossed. Relax and release your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. Breathe deeply for about a minute. (Pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but I don’t have it “crossed off” my notes, so…)
Energy Medicine Brain Hack (Anxiety): Another way to deal with panic, anxiety, and feeling “out of body” is to put your finger out in front of your face (arm straight), focus on that finger for 5 seconds, then focus on something far beyond it for 5 seconds – do this for about 1/2 dozen times. If you’re in a public situation, you can just focus on something “at about arm’s length” and then take a “long” view. You are engaging the nerve endings behind the eyes and sending a message to the brain. The eyes are very important in tracking danger, so if you’re telling your brain that you’re not “concentrating” on looking for something to attack you (long distance) or something fighting you (short distance), it works as a brain hack that there is no danger.
Breathing in enhances the Sympathetic system. This is your “fight or flight” system. Breathing out enhances the Parasympathetic system, which is “calm down, relax, it’s all okay.” In remembering my “off the charts” Sympathetic energy response vis-a-vis the Parasympathetic, my psychologist discussed breathing out for a longer time than breathing in. Concentrating on the “out.”
“Hobnob” is an app (both iPhone and Android) that helps coordinate in-person gatherings. It’s “fremium” – if you use it a lot, you’ll need to pay. It’s like Evite on steroids/text (v. email)-based. Has designed invitations, a method for planning events, video-based invites, etc. The invites are sent via text, which allows instant RSVPs without guests having to download the app. There is a “private forum” feature for event-based conversations, and they are adding a feature to pay for events. Hobnob prioritizes in-person connections and cultivates relationships – started by a Hawaiian – over 10 million invitations have been sent, it takes about 30 seconds to create an invite from one of their templates (though you can upload your own), 6+ million individual people have been invited to a “Hobnob party” so far, and it costs $0 to create 10 invitations per month.
Iodine levels test as low (might have already noted this somewhere else). As a way to deal, nori/ “sea green leafies” are a great source, be sure that they are from a clean source. Also using iodized salt (e.g., standard “Morton salt” versus the “fancier” salts) can help. Either use it in cooking, or use it on the table, one or the other. Using a sea salt or “full spectrum” salt is good for the other minerals, but I test low in iodine. Affects thyroid function, so this might be a reason that thyroid has been affected.
Cancer invades the vascular system and produces an oxidative stress. It particularly affects the lungs and liver, even if “lung cancer” and “liver cancer” aren’t tested as “being present.” As such, there is less oxygen in the body, which means that there will be less absorption of food, etc. (Body needs to “make a fire” to burn/get the energy out of food, and fire needs O2.) Cancer makes its own blood vessels to block (“catch”) antibodies that the body makes to fight it. Cancer also “eats” sugar, and then grabs insulin before cells can get to it. So this means that sugar is left out in your blood stream, which is hugely stressful on the body, because the cancer ate the insulin that was trying to attach to it (leading your body into a diabetic state of affairs). However, keto diet, which is being touted these days, is very difficult on the body and also most people don’t really get into ketogenesis using it – the stress helps empower the cancer. (More on diets/food in a separate blog post.)
The immune system is depleted by just the “idea of” fighting cancer, and also by chemo and radiation. After these happen, you need to revert your body to “Healthy” – in other words, reverse the effects the cancer has had. Concentrating on “fighting” cancer is just more stress. If possible, try to “love” the cancer, for showing you issues in your life that perhaps were not as they should have been/where you weren’t paying attention. The body can produce far more antibodies and better antibodies at that, if it doesn’t have to “worry about you” “fighting” something.
All hormones produced by the body have a protein basis; as such, you need enough quality protein to make enough hormones. Often this is not obtainable on a vegan diet. It’s hard to “feel” that you aren’t producing enough hormones until it becomes critical. By not having enough quality protein, you literally cannot build hormones – you “starve” your system of the ability to build them.
Pancreatic enzymes are needed to “eat” animal protein. By having your daily animal protein at Breakfast and Lunch but none at Dinner, this gives your body a head start for your fast between Dinner and Breakfast, and those enzymes can work on your blood, cleansing and cleaning it. Since the vegetarian diet lacks the substrate (protein building blocks) for pancreative elastase-1 as an enzyme, this will decrease secretion of this enzyme, which can lead to malabsorption of food/minerals/vitamins. New drugs deal with “pancreatic insufficiency” (of course they do . . . ) but in reality the first defense is to get your diet on track.
An alkaline-forming diet (which is terrible for cancer) is less than 25% animal protein (but contains animal protein), plus fruits and veggies.
The First Aid Stress Tool (F.A.S.T.) can be utilized as an at-home way to give extra support after an N.E.T. office visit. The NET procedure addresses the mind/body effects of stress, helping deal with the root causes. Recurring stress patterns are often because the subconscious reminds us in current situations of old traumatic events (Conditional Response). NET and FAST focus on eliminating the conditioned response. With FAST, you touch the acupuncture points for stress (located on the forehead) and some of the pulse points that represent organ meridians, thus covering many of the normal emotional responses to stress. The idea is to touch these points and think about the stressful circumstance and embody the uncomfortable situation (where do you feel it?) After a few deep breaths, the “charge” will lessen. FAST is not a replacement for NET work with a licensed psychologist, diagnosis, or treatment, it is for home support. There are homeopathic tinctures that are also compatible with supporting this work. Kids particularly can use FAST in high stress situations after being walked through it with a child psychologist that practices NET.
Forgiveness lecture: Forgiveness is taking your power back – it’s all about you. It’s about improving your mental health and healing yourself, not about the people that hurt you. It’s 100% inwardly focused. It is not about condoning unkindness, denying or minimizing the hurt, forgetting that something painful happened, giving up feelings, excusing poor behavior. Forgiveness is not the same as “reconciliation,” and it does not have to be an “otherworldly” or “religious” experience. “Forgiveness is the feeling of inner peace that emerges as you take your hurt less personally” (Dr. Fred Luskin, “Forgive for Good” and co-founder of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project – the largest scientific study on forgiveness ever). Creating a “Grievance Story” = “Renting too much space to disappointment.” Difficult situations that we are still returning to in our mind gives away our power and keeps us in the past. Blaming the offender of a past offense for how we feel about it gives away that power and “adds insult to injury.” You are insulting yourself as you continue to blame an offender for how you feel. Think about being the “Hero” not the “Victim” – better yet, get out of the “Victim Triangle” altogether. (N.B.: I did a podcast on this a long time ago.) Do you want to be “right” or do you want to be happy/at peace? Free your mind. There are 3 preconditions for forgiveness: (1) know what your feelings are about what happened (do you still feel anger? ashamed? embarrassed? What is it, specifically?). (2) be clear about the action that wronged you (what, very specifically, happened? Look at it as if it was a movie – without any emotion – just watch it. Imagine the motivations, and particularly know that the motivation of the “other party” in the situation is 99.9% not to cause the feeling that you are still carrying around with you). (3) share your experience with at least one or two trusted people that aren’t in any way involved. Don’t rush forgiveness. (Books: “Forgive for Good,” Fred Luskin, “Taming Your Gremlin,” Rick Carlson, “Loving What Is,” Byron Katie, “Man’s Search For Meaning,” Victor Frankl)
Forgiveness is releasing all hopes for a better past.
Today’s dining room decoration took the cake. I’m not quite sure how long it takes the “artiste” to carve all the little teeth, feathers and scales, but – I mean – can you even?
Here’s the one from last night. I just can’t get over these. My Nutritionist said that she’s been here for years and years, and hasn’t seen the same one twice. I think that the fish might have been “recycled” in this one, but that’s it.
To have these all in one place, I will do a wee gallery here of all the ones that I still have in my phone. Enjoy!
I did start working out again yesterday after a week off – it was tough, but glad to have done it. That said, it’s 2:15 p.m., so time to knock another one out! As promised, the “May Grey” and “June Gloom” has metamorphosized into beautiful sunny days – but the humidity is also up. We’re running through the Sanoviv-provided shirts just about as fast as they can launder them ;-)
While hubby was at the hospital, he suggested that I do the Detox protocol. This protocol is usually done in concert with one of the other protocols (Lyme, etc.) but it can be done by itself.
By way of full disclosure, the 7 day program is just under $5,000.
The program includes: Lab Tests (CBC, SMAC, C-reactive protein, stool analysis, urinalysis, blood typing); EKG; MaxPulse (HRV & Vessel health); Bioimpedance Analysis; Microscopic Blood Analysis; Ultrasound (liver/gall bladder); Colon Hydrotherapy (one wheat grass, one coffee); Bioenergetic Therapy (e.g., The Quiet Room); Medical consults (M.D., Psych, Dentist, Nutritionist, Chiropractor, etc.); Dental full 3D Xray, mercury testing, evaluation; Nutrition assessment (including fat/water/muscle percentage, building eating program to your lab work); Fitness assessment & private session; Fitness classes (Swiss ball, yoga, water fitness, stretching, tai chi); 2 Spa Treatments daily (swedish, lymphatic, reflexology, Chi bath detox, seaweed body wrap, thalassotherapy, infrared sauna, MRT, parafango); food prep/juicing classes; supplements (Designs for Health GI Revive; USANA Vita Antioxidant, Core Mineral, Hepasil, Probiotics and Digestive enzyme; Heel detox; GI MicrobX); Energy Medicine/Meditation classes; Sound Yoga/Laughing Yoga; nightly lectures.
Of course it also includes your ocean-front room (all rooms are ocean-front), and the detoxification diet, which is the Sanoviv diet as discussed before.
If your doctor prescribes any medication or supplement that is not listed above on the “supplements,” that is added to your statement at the end. By way of example, my stool sample (TMI) showed that while I chewed my food thoroughly enough, some food was still making it into my colon. As such, she said that I needed to boost my stomach digestion, and she swapped out the USANA digestive enzyme for one from Designs For Health, which has HCl in it. She said that, unlike medicines, the digestive enzymes actually help your body to produce your own, so taking it would ultimately “teach” my system to boost the stomach acid enough to dissolve the food enough that it did not make it into the colon. (I will not talk about the colon hydrotherapy and what you “see” with that – suffice it to say that it is eye opening…!)
Since hubby’s program already had me as a Companion, we took 7 x $100 off of the price. I did not have IVs indicated (my Vitamin D, C, DHEA, etc. were “perfect”), but if I had needed them, they are an additional $260 or so.
There is another program at about the same price that has more labwork (can’t quite remember what it’s called) – but when I discussed this with the Coordinator to decide which program to do, he said that if the doctor felt that I needed those tests, I could add them – however, that program didn’t have all the spa and Quiet Room treatments that the Detox program did. That’s why I chose that program.
At the end, you’re giving a binder with all of your tests, a DVD of your dental 3D Xray to bring home, etc. Because my lab work, fitness test, and the like were perfect, my doctor recommended three additional tests for me – although I already have my binder (the program ended Sunday), those results will either come in this week, or might come after we’re back home. She said that she will call and go over them with me, and send me the results. Those tests were a full hormone panel test, a thyroid test, and a test to see if I am either insulin resistant or in adrenal fatigue. Her view is that since my eating is excellent and fitness is excellent, the reason that I have put on weight and can’t rid myself of it is that something is “off” on a more microscopic level.
This post will be looooo-ong. But when I went searching for information on Sanoviv, there really weren’t any blog posts, Instagram posts, etc. that detailed everything. So, that’s what this (and the previous blog posts, actually) have been for. Folks looking for the specifics.
Before You Start…
Read what’s sent to you! You’re instructed to remove all nail polish, acrylic nails, don’t bring jewelry, don’t bring smelly things (from perfumes to essential oils), etc. Come On. Just do it.
guy on the phone, in the pool. come ON.
I’ve been here now over three weeks, and so folks have come and gone. On the “intake day,” I’ve been so surprised at how many women don’t follow these rules. Here’s the deal: If you don’t take off your nail polish, your gel polish, your acrylic nails, your false eyelashes, etc. there is no way to do it here. And some of the protocols very specifically state that you can’t do them if you have not removed these things. The idea is that all of these are not “natural to” your body – as such, in any program (particularly Detox!) you are supposed to be “as you were born” so to say. You have parts that you can’t remove? (Like, for example, metal screws in a bone?) Tell them. Then you can’t do some of the magnetic therapies, but others you’ll be just fine. But if you weren’t born with it, do not come with it. Believe me, no one cares that you have no eyelashes, that your “been under acrylic for ten years” nails are going to be like tissue paper, that without your hair weave you’re nearly bald. (Wo)man up – do what you’re supposed to do.
If you have jewelry that has some “energetic value” to you, bring it but then ask for it to be charged for you in the Quiet Room. “You” say that this jewelry is great for you. How do you know? I personally have a pair of earrings and a necklace that I wear about 99.9% of the time, but I left them at home because you are instructed not to bring any jewelry, except your wedding ring if you “have to have it.” (No, not your big rock engagement ring.) I wish I had brought them, because I would have liked to have done the charging on them in the Quiet Room, but this is a special service. I personally wore a Qalo wedding ring to really follow the rules. Hubby wore a bracelet that I got him for his treatments last year, which he has had charged and does wear. But please, please don’t be “that girl” that has her mega-rock (and false eyelashes, and acrylic nails). Anything you weren’t born with is supposed to stay at home. And you know what? Maybe at the end of all this, you might re-think putting that back on your body . . .
Day One (Monday): Admitting Day
nom nom cacao banana almond flour muffin with nut butter
My day was a little different than the “usual,” as I had gone through all this with hubby. You will get your room, your Sanoviv clothing, an orientation, and a tour. In the afternoon, you’re likely to report to Special Care (the hospital floor/floor 2) for an EKG and your admitting consult. Other than that, you do what you’ll be doing every day: 6:40 a.m. go to the Mansion to get lemon and cayenne water; 7:00 do the class (laughing yoga, meditation, energy medicine, etc.); 8:00 do the fitness class (stretching, rebounding, etc.); 8:30 go to breakfast; 9:56 get your “green drink” (wheat grass, chlorophyll); 10:56 get your snack (today it was raw cacao almond flour muffins with nut butter NOM NOM); 1:00 pm Lunch; 1:35 Quick Food Prep Class; 2:56 green juice (this isn’t a “wheat grass” it’s a juice made up of like celery, cilantro, carrots, etc.); 4:56 “healthy beverage” (this can be golden milk, hot hibiscus tea, etc.); 6:00 dinner; 7:00 lecture.
On my Day One, we had Laughing Yoga for the 7:00 a.m class. It was GREAT. HERE is a link to a number of articles on the chemistry of laughing. My psychologist (Dr. Fernando) leads this. As he said, one must always remember that Motion creates E-motion. As such, in the exercise, if you can’t actually laugh, then make a false laugh. If you can’t even do that, then smile and if that even doesn’t work, then make a fake smile. There is a scientific basis for all of this. The idea is to have fewer words and more gestures, plus to have eye contact. When we use words we are in our head and “rational,” which has been clinically proven to be that you are “out” of your body. Especially these days, we don’t take enough time to be in our body and to Honor our Bodies. That is what this class is about.
The great thing about Laughing is that it is a social phenomenon – it’s “catching.” It’s also important to realize that you don’t need something humorous (words/watching comedy) to laugh. If you look at young kids, they can just laugh and shift. By way of example, you’ll see a couple kids fighting and a second later they’ll be laughing. It is our nature to be joyful like the child. There has been a lot of work done in this area, not only with respect to Laughter itself, but with respect to Compassion and Kindness. They are all “catching.”
Laughing yoga really was fun. You start off in a circle, and you have exercises that help you to look foolish and work “up to” laughing. The first exercise, by way of example, you move throughout the circle with your finger tilting your nose up like a pig. You make a “HA-HA-HA-HAAAAA!” sound, then move on to another person. By the end, just by looking at how silly your partner looks (and imagining that you look just as silly), everyone is really laughing. There are other exercises, but at the end, everyone’s heads are in a circle, feet out. Dr. Fernando has a great laugh. He starts up, and you can’t help but start laughing. The laughter will die down for a bit, and then someone will snort, or laugh, or breathe funny, and it will all start back up again. By the end you are wiping your eyes, holding your gut, and feeling so connected with everyone. What a great practice! On the schedule right now, Laughing Yoga is every Monday.
Mondays have a quick food prep class after Lunch, and a Breath, Detox and Relaxation seminar in the evening.
Day Two (Tuesday): Labs, Doctors, Spa
Day Two you start off fasted, and go down and get your blood drawn. You will be given a collection vial for stool and urine samples, which you’ll do that day and drop off at the lab.
my bloodwork, from my binder
They take a lot of blood, but my phlebotomist (Arturo) was outstanding. I mean, I’m the worst person to get blood from. My veins roll, they are tiny, they close off, etc. He got his gallon without breaking a sweat.
The morning class on Tuesdays is Sound Meditation. I’ve discussed this before, when I did it with the hubby. Dr. Sandra from the Psych department leads it. It’s great. You will meet your doctor team on this day. Unfortunately you only get one “date” with your therapist and the Body/Mind person, and also only one with the chiropractor, on this program. (I am paying for a couple more sessions this week, while hubby is back on his cancer program, but that’s unusual.) You will see your M.D. a few times, and your Nutritionist at least two times (because they look at the results of your lab work and tailor things to you). You see the Dentist on your second day to get your Xrays, check your teeth, etc., but you will see him or her later on to get the results. All folks who see you meet every single day, to tailor your experience.
On Tuesdays, there is a Cooking Class in the Mansion, and Tai Chi in the fitness room in the afternoon. The evening class is on Digestion and Detox.
My first spa treatment was a Lymphatic Massage. Your lymph system – a separate “waste carrying system” in your body – doesn’t have a pump like your blood system does (your heart). The only way to get lymph “moving” is by moving your body. That means more than just walking – it means things like stretching, yoga, etc. The entire lymph system can only be “engaged” by moving every part of your body. A Lymphatic Massage, however (“rich man’s exercise”) engages your lymphatic system by working all the muscles with light, “petting” strokes that end at your lymph nodes (neck, under the arm, thigh) so that your lymph system can “clear out” anything that was stuck in your lymph system. You have to drink a lot of water at Sanoviv (1/2 your body weight in ounces a day), and it’s particularly important to do so after you have any sort of Detox treatment.
I had my Quiet Room intake also, using the Max Pulse. Here’s a machine that won’t work correctly if you have on nail polish, etc. It measures your sympathetic (SNS), parasympathetic (PNS), physical stress, mental stress, stress resistance, etc. levels. The photo that you see above is mine. As you can see, my body stress is okay, stress “handling” is okay, but mental stress is “off the chart” – and my “fight or flight” (sympathetic/SNS) system is also off the charts. My parasympathetic system (relaxation/PNS) is basically non-existent. Whoops…. :-) After doing the MaxPulse, I had my first Quiet Room treatment, which was on the Super Tuning machine.
The Super Tuning machine will also charge your water (it will remain charged for 24 hours), and any jewelry that you might want to charge. It is a German machine, and is called “Effective Biotriggers” in Germany.
The idea is that all living systems are supposed to have a natural “frequency” and resonance, but we deviate from it. For those of you who have been friends for a very long time, you might have read my short story after we returned from hiking the French Alps (from Mont Blanc to the Mediterranean) where we had no cell phones, etc. for the entire period. When I returned, I tried to wear my Blackberry near my body, but I had a serious reaction to it. The doctor (yes, a real M.D. at Kaiser!) told me that’s because I had been so far away from electronics, that my body had “returned” to “direct current” which is what we’re meant to be. But, since we’re nearly all water, if we have “alternating current” items near or around us, our bodies will match that “alternating” current. The doctor back then explained that this is why I couldn’t put the Blackberry near my body without feeling a headache within 15 minutes – that my body had returned to “direct” current and was fighting the ‘AC’ current of the device. He also said (which is how I ended my short story) that I should “not worry,” because “in a few days, you’ll be back in alternating current, and won’t feel it at all.” (Cue “Flowers for Algernon”)
The Copen Super Tuning System was developed from space travel research, sensory deprivation research, and biochemical work at the Max Planck Institute. It detects and balances your energetic systems, by using octave colors according to didactic simplicity, e.g., red, orange, yellow orange, yellow, yellow green, green, turquoise, blue, indigo, violet purple, deep red.
How was it? Um . . . I immediately fell asleep ;-)
Day Three (Wednesday): Rinse, Repeat
The morning class is the Kundalini Yoga, which I have discussed before. There is a Stretching class after (it said Rebounding on the schedule, but it was Stretching), a Cardio and Strength class before Lunch (I had doctors’ visits), and a Psychology lecture after dinner.
My Spa treatment today was the Body Wrap, which is 90 minutes. I would just like to say that there is nothing as sexy as the little blue paper bikini that you’re required by law to wear.
First, you are dry scrubbed with almond-based meal that smells like pumpkin pie spice or chai tea. This is then washed off with a five-headed rolling water “faucet” of hot water.
You are then taken to the deep soak “sit” tubs. One is filled for you with hot water and a bath addition that I didn’t catch the blend of (but I think she said it includes Hawaiian lava salt). After you have soaked for a while, you’re taken out of the bath, washed by a hose with cool water front and back, then (gasp) you’re required to dip yourself three times (over your head) in the plunge cold bath. IT’S COLD!
bed & “faucets”
deep sit baths
the evil sauna lair
the middle of the sauna (standing back to the windows)
the evil cold plunge
You are then led to the sauna at 145F for 10-15 minutes. This is when I was reminded that – yep – I do NOT like saunas! After you’re cooked, back out you come, cold-hosed off front and back, then (ack!) three more over-the-head plunges into the cold bath. Now you’re led dripping back to the room with the table, where you are washed all over with “Incredible Hulk green” seaweed (including your hair and face), then wrapped up a la burrito for 1/2 hour. (Don’t forget to pee first.) It makes your hair feel AMAZING, but REMEMBER TO BRING A BRUSH – otherwise when you leave you look um “special.”
Tuesdays are Water Aerobics Day – which is a lot of fun actually.
I also saw Dr. Labrada today (the chiropractor), who mainly did a lot of muscle-testing. He was the guy that did what hubby said was a “TED Talk-worthy” talk last week. Lots and LOTS of muscle testing, relating emotion to organs to muscles, etc. Head to toe. Very similar to mind/body work – muscle testing, put your hand here, make your brain talk to your body, etc. At the end, he adjusted my upper shoulder area, which has been out for 4 days and was why I wanted to be on a program in the first place ;-) (You can only see the doctors if you’re on a program – as a Companion, you can do spa treatments if there is space available, but you can’t see the doctors.)
The Fitness test was somewhat comical. I was told that I “had to do” push ups on my knees, which I refused, because it hurts. (I was told I was “prideful” :-) ) That said, and due to a few other comments that “got my dandruff up” as my mom might say (Hi Mom), I wound up doing 22 (Men’s) pushups, which blew me off the chart. (Hubby had done 13, by comparison.) I did 24 of the specific sit ups that they require – fingertips on your ears, reaching up with your shoulders (elbows need to stay even with your head). My heart rate only got to 91 doing 3 minutes of step-ups, my flexibility and torsion was Excellent, left grip Excellent, right hand Very Good. Can’t remember what else there was, but it was very much like a Presidential Physical Fitness Test.
The Dental exam showed no mercury, and I was printed out an incredibly detailed chart related to my mouth and what the doctor saw. One thing that was fascinating was that he showed me brushing issues. My top back molars were not “brushed as much as” other teeth, on their inside face. I said I’d try better. Gums tested as great. Interestingly, when I got back to the room I tried out the brushing protocol he recommended . . . and surprise! – when I got to the “inside upper back” molars, brushing there tickled the top of my mouth like crazy! So obviously I have subconsciously not been brushing those teeth as often.
My Quiet Room was a 60 minute treatment called “Ondamed.” This was really cool. It’s pulsed electromagnetic frequency therapy. You put …. hm, sort of like a diver’s weight belt on your chest, that goes from your pelvic bone up to your throat, and a thing that looks like a tuning fork on your temples. The machine delivers a series of electromagnetic frequencies as focused pulsed electromagnetic field stimulation (PEMF) within the spectrum of human physiology. This means that it uses the same frequencies that your cells use to communicate with one another. While you can’t feel these frequencies consciously, your cells respond to them. The cells tell the machine what protocol you need “the most,” first. (You get three.) Of all the possible frequencies, your body’s tissues resonate with only a handful that are favored. When the machine gets that information, it is tuned to the frequencies that it is being told the body wants “right now.” The machine is then set to those frequencies. After that’s done, another test is done, asking for the 2nd. And then the 3d. Marilu, the operator, showed me the book, which has about 300+ different frequency combinations and what studies have shown them to be tied to. She said that sometimes what comes up doesn’t make sense at that time, but that’s what the body’s asking for.
My #1 was Asthma. I told her that I do have athletic Asthma, though it doesn’t come up that often. We talked a bit about the energetics of Asthma, then she set the machine to give the body what it wanted in that respect. My #2 was (as she explained it) Biorhythms being off, “as if I were a night or swing shift worker.” Well, by this time, I’d been having a few horrible nights sleeping, since hubby had been in the hospital since Sunday. (I normally sleep like a rock.) She said that must be it (she was delighted actually), and she also said that this one hadn’t come up, so she had to figure out how to do the treatment for that one. It was more involved than my #1 and #3, which just involved the position of the “breastplate/diver’s belt” and the “tongs.” She had to get another, smaller “diver’s belt” and she had to hold it over my head, moving it each minute to a different spot, for this #2. My #3 was hormonal imbalance. This was also not a huge surprise, as that is what the Nutritionist and my MD had both said must be an issue, as I was overfat by about 25 pounds but with what I eat and the exercise I get, there had to be “something besides just stress” related to it. Marilu was very pleased that all 3 of my Ondamed treatments were something I could relate to.
Human cells operate in the range of 1 to 32,000 Hz. In other words, the highest frequency to which the body was designed to respond is approximately 32,000 waves per second. By contrast, cell phones operate in the range of 3 or 4 Gigahertz, meaning 3 or 4 billion waves per second. These waves have been clinically proven to damage DNA, and are being studied related to brain cancer. They are being tested as well for men who carry their cell phones in their front pockets/infertility. Physicists have been able to identify specific frequencies within the healthy human spectrum that help rather than harm human cells; they stimulate repair, reduce inflammation, and facilitate healing. That’s what Ondamed does.
Day 4 (Thursday): Happy Birthday America! (July 4th)
Today involved Mindful Movement Meditation (i.e., walking on the lawn) in the morning. I have to say that at one point I looked up and had to turn away so that no one could see me laughing. We looked like a flock of the living dead! Aaaarrrrrrr . . . all in our matching Sanoviv sweats, walking slowly, some with very intense looks on their faces . . .
Swedish Massage today, Thalasso pools, and two Quiet Room treatments.
My Nutrition “discharge” showed me the results of my BIA (Bioelectric Impedance Analysis). Both Sue (Nutritionist) and actually the chiropractor I saw today (H’s “miracle worker,” Dr. Raymundo) said that perhaps part of the OAB issue is that I drink enough water, but that it’s not staying in my system. Both suggested adding the electrolyte ice cubes (the recipes were back on the Recipe page – by the way, I’m updating that daily FWIW) and/or full spectrum salt every time I have water. My fat percentage is 28% – to have an optimal number (20%), I’d need to lose about 25-30 pounds, presuming that I could keep the muscle numbers where they are. My fat free mass is 72% or 133 pounds. My BMR is 1860, total body water is 49% or 69% of my lean mass. (It should be at 75%.) My intracellular water was 50%, which means I am dehydrated at a cellular level (optimal is about 55%). My phase angle is 6.7 – this is an indicator of cell membrane fluidity and integrity and can be an indicator of insulin resistance. Normal for females my age is 6.6 – 10.9, so I’m fine but on the low end. (We are doing an insulin resistance blood lab.) My capacitance, which is the electrical potential of the cell membranes (which relates to the minerals in body fluid or the total energy storage capacity of the body cell mass) was 686, where 600-800 is good for females my age. Again, this could be higher but it’s in the normal range. Finally, my body mass index was 25.1, which is over, though it’s not a particularly good measure (the others are better).
Then we were back to Hydration. I was reminded to continue to drink the lemon/cayenne water every morning, and to ensure that I have 1/2 my body weight in water daily – with this water having the electrolyte support. Water intake should be higher until about 4:00 p.m., then should taper way off, and water at meals should be limited to at most 3 ounces. This ensures that your stomach acid is optimally supported. A lot of water after 4:00 is suboptimal.
Another recommended hydration protocol was from 7 a.m. to about 4 p.m., drink 3-4 ounces of water every 30 minutes. Every OTHER drink, add the electrolytes. So it would be 7:00 a.m. 3-4 oz regular water; 7:30 a.m. 3-4 oz of electrolyte water; 8:00 a.m. 3-4 oz of regular water; etc. This is the best way to slowly rehydrate tissues and in particular intracellular areas. It allows the body to absorb the water optimally. Do not use a “commercial” electrolyte – make the one provided in Recipes, it is “real food” and your body will accept it best.
I believe that I’ve mentioned this before, but the only mineral that tested a bit low in my labs was iodine, so it was recommended that I be sure to use iodized salt; I can also eat “underwater green leafies,” or some wild-caught shellfish. Was reminded that eating “lower on the food chain is better” so eating the nori/kelp that the shellfish eat is the best option.
This is the day that hubby came home. Yay!
Day 5 (Friday): Discharge Day
Though you have a couple more days of spa treatments and Quiet Room, this is your last day with the doctors.
Every Friday starts with Meditation and Mind-Body Practice/Energy Medicine. Today we worked on the standard EFT Tapping Procedure, Connecting Heaven and Earth procedure, the Wayne Cook Posture, and a technique for anxiety, and one for anger. I’ll write more about these, perhaps, or do some links, but I’m getting tired ;-) You can find these in video form on YouTube by putting Donna Eden, Energy Medicine and then the technique you’d like to see. For example, “expelling the venom” is for frustration/anger, Wayne Cook is when you are overwhelmed, can’t stop crying, etc. and need to come back to yourself, Connecting Heaven and Earth is when you are starting to feel sick or have picked up someone else’s energy. It also brings fresh Oxygen to your cells. The doctor reminded us that if we don’t feel a reaction after doing a certain protocol, it is likely that our body just didn’t need it. But it can never do harm.
One technique that we did that is very useful and easy involves re-connecting your brain and your body. You pat your temples with both hands (on what’s called the “gamma point”) throughout. First, close your eyes, then open them and look straight ahead. Close them again, open them straight again. Now look down to the right, down to the left, circle them clockwise, circle them anticlockwise. Look straight ahead and hum a piece of a tune you know (example, “Happy Birthday”). This engages the right side of your brain. Then count loudly 1-2-3-4-5! This engages the left side of your brain. Hum the tune again, and count again. You’re done!
After this class, you move to a Stretching class (today it was done on the Swiss Ball, which was actually fun). One thing that we were reminded is that different types of exercise increases microbial diversity in your gut. So exercise is good for digestion in more ways than just making you a little hungry!
I had another lymphatic massage, and reflexology with parafango.
The tide was way out, and all the pelicans piled up on the rocks that, usually, you can’t see.
Day 6 (Saturday): Mo’Spa Mo’ Spa
Saturday is an Energy Medicine/Meditation day in the morning, and dinner has live music (wonderful old guy with a guitar, who will play whatever you like, but particularly likes to sing the old Mexican love songs). Saturday is also “movie night” but so far the movies have been the kind that we can stand for about 5 minutes, so generally it’s been a reading night for us.
Wow, have I read a lot of books while here! I brought Moneyball, How Not To Die, Killer Angels, Radical Remission, a book written by a friend of my dad’s, then I read the FBI novel the folks gave to me we met a couple weeks ago, borrowed a Michael Crichton (Prey) and a Richard Castle (yes really) out of the library, and I’m reading something else from there now.
Folks do a lot of puzzles here – hubby and I have played either backgammon, Scrabble, or Blokus every evening. We’re about evenly matched on the backgammon front (though I have better luck with doubles), I do better with Scrabble (I mean – I’d better!) and though I’m getting better, he creams me every time with Blokus. I watched TV when he was gone in Tijuana, otherwise we haven’t used the TV at all. (Though it wakes you up with Mozart at 6!)
Today I had the body wrap again, plus Matrix Regeneration Therapy (MRT) with parafango afterwards.
MRT manipulates the “matrix” (or soft connective tissue) of your body. It connects the vascular, lymph, and nervous systems with the organs, and is the infrastructure for the organ cells. If it is overloaded, care of the organs can be obstructed. The Med-Matrix machine gives the matrix/soft connective tissue the ability to be “freed from” adhesions, metabolic waste, etc. so that it can recover. It uses petechial suction and rhythmic DC current.
What does that mean?
Ahem.
You lie on your stomach. They turn on the machine, and “petechial suction” means they use the machine to suck your skin and connective tissue off your bones. They start at your neck, and “vacuum” from your spine down to your side (think ‘along a rib’). You can’t breathe, it’s so intense. They keep doing it, and you start listening intently to the machine, because when the pitch increases, that means they’re just about to “un-suck” the machine from your side in preparation to start again at your spine. The operator is very thorough – like a cleaner doing a rug or a mower doing a baseball field. Every inch is covered. You have from the moment they de-suction the sucker until they put it back at your spine to pant a little, then hold your breath again. They do this all the way down from your neck to the base of your glutes.
Once they’ve done the first side of your back, they hit you with a little wheelie thing, which is the rhythmic DC. You can’t actually see it (of course, you’re on your stomach, getting toilet-bowl face marks via the headpiece on the massage table), but basically it sends a weak direct current into your tissue via roller electrodes, which “neutralizes” the tissue, changing it from an abnormal charge (if you have it) to a healthy one. Just when you’re getting ready to relax, it’s time to start your other side with the MRT . . .
After the second rhythmic DC, the therapist goes out and gets the big parafango packs. These are huge paraffin/mud packs encased in a thin film, that suck toxins out of your body. they are about 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit. One goes on your back, the other goes across your butt. These stay on until sweat is dripping off the table in just the right amount, and then you can get up. I mean – if you can…
I had the MRT and then went directly into a Body Wrap (with Priscilla, who was fantastic) and from there into the Quiet Room. I was Detox-zausted.
Day 7 (Sunday): Last Day
Sunday is a quiet day at Sanoviv. There are no classes – just spa things and of course, meals.
Today I had a Swedish Massage followed by a Detox Chi Bath. I need to get the name of the therapist (I think it is Eunice, but I’m not 100% sure), because it was by far the best Swedish Massage I have ever had. The Detox Chi Bath is made up of:
Are you wondering why I have all those links at the ready, since I’m exhausted from typing? Because the combo of the Detox Bath and the Swedish Massage sent me into Detox Coma. As in, I got out of that bath (which also of course included the de rigeur cold hose off and three-times-over-the-head cold plunge dunk, x 2) and just about literally crawled into the elevator and into bed. Hubby, who for this week (until he got his results on Monday from the Tijuana hospital) was MY Companion, was in the room getting ready for Lunch, and I told him that I had to have him bring me the Lunch up on a tray. (Yes, really.) As I pretty much never ask for anything like this, he was off like a shot and brought it back for me.
About an hour later I was fine – and that’s when I researched the above (and sent myself an email). I made the therapist give me the packet that the bath came in, so I could research it.
As a glutton for punishment (no, you don’t get a choice – all are chosen ‘for’ you), my final spa therapy was the MRT/parafango again. Interestingly, it wasn’t 1/2 as bad this time (one day after). A few times on my sides and on my glutes I got the full-on Oh My Lord This Is Pantingly Painful feeling, but I guess that the machine “did its job” the first time, and my skin and “stuff” had been sufficiently “sucked off” of the “stuff” below it – so it didn’t feel like my skin and fascia was being vacuumed off my bones.
One thing I’d promised myself – because I could find next to nothing on Sanoviv – was that when I got here, I would really document what happened. So – that’s what this blog is about. I hope that it is helpful to something who might be considering coming here. It’s such a pretty place – though I did take a photo while waiting for the elevator today on the 7th floor of what the “surrounding area” looks like. (No, those aren’t space alien ships – those are the reflections of the lights above my head.) The white in the foreground is the wall surrounding the property, which we have taken to calling “Hotel Baja California” (for obvious reasons . . . ).
AAAAAAND, a reminder! Hubby does not know about the blog, please don’t mention it to “us” (or him) if you’d like me to keep doing it (and stay married LOL)
Hubby returned to Sanoviv on Thursday night, after being carted off via ambulance on Sunday after breakfast. Yesterday (Monday) we went back to Hospital Angeles in Tijuana to be sure that his levels are clear enough for him to be clear of this – and he tested fine. Yay!
The “marker” that he had in his blood becomes septic/unsafe at 0.5. I had understood that it was at “5” that it was bad – since his was 30 on Sunday when he was rushed in, we were told that it was basically at “organ meltdown” stage.
But I hadn’t really realized the enormity of the numerical difference until Dr. Michel went over things with me yesterday when I accompanied him back to the hospital. I’m almost glad I didn’t know how bad things were!
If you’re ever in trouble in Mexico, I have to say, Dr. Michel is ridiculously amazing. She is smart, her English is good, and she is “la jefa” of Internal Medicine and Emergency (Medicina Interna & Medicina Critica). By way of example, we were told the lab test would take three hours to culture; when we told her that, she just raised her eyebrows, got on the phone, and surprise it was ready in 20 minutes. Yes, I have a bit of hero worship going here! Her direct line is 635-1814 or 635-1900- x 5303. Her cell phone is 664.204.8429. Her email is michelemartinezfranco[at] yahoo[dot] com[dot] mx. Hospital Angeles Tijuana is located at Av. Paseo de los Heroes #10999, Zona Rio Tijuana C.P. 22010, Tijuana, Baja California.
pandas
When hubby got back, he was told that he would “have to” sleep in the hospital-hospital portion of the building (e.g., where folks on chemo, who have undergone surgery, etc. sleep). He refused, and came back to our room. We received a call at about 9:00 p.m. from the attending physician “angry” that he was up in our room. He explained in no uncertain terms that he would “be with his wife,” and that I would be “better than any nurse call button”; if they wanted him, they would need to “come up and haul him out of bed and carry him down.” Then, with a raised eyebrow, I was asked if I had “remembered to pack my nurse’s outfit…” :-)
That’s all that this post will be about. As such, I will sprinkle through it, for your entertainment, a few more of the table decorations that we have had. The guy who makes them is incredibly shy – I was able to get him to come out and take one photo with one of his creations though.
Next post, I will discuss the Detox protocol that I was on. Now that one will be a long post!
flying fish
Ohhhhhhh, and speaking of detox, um, yeah, well, the chocolate shake and latte reached out and bit us at the hospital cafe. We were overcome. ;-) At least we had them with almond milk, not dairy. ;-)
Hubby is still at the hospital. They have it narrowed down to two bacteria, but need to take him off the antibiotic IV to culture out what is really going on (as I understand it), which will happen tomorrow – oops, this – morning.
He is stark raving bored. He wanted me to stop the program that he had me start (more on that in a bit) and come bring him things that he just doesn’t have, since we left in an ambulance. Clothes, a couple books, computer, etc. The issue is that the hospital is 45 minutes away and if I catch the van that will be leaving here at 7 a.m. to go to the border/San Diego Airport and have them drop me off, they won’t be back through until about 1:00 p.m. (bringing new folks from the airport). It’s not a simple thing. It would be simpler if I had not started the program, because I’d just do it. But if I stop, then there’s no way for me to re-start really, since it’s an intensive one-week program. It’s different than the cancer program, which is a bit “looser” as it’s 3 weeks long and very personalized. This one is very “set” and so if you miss a day, the dominoes start falling. (By way of example, once he’s out of the Tijuana hospital, he could just re-start where he left off.)
We went back and forth a bit about this last night, and came to a “resolution” that I would see if I can send his backpack with clothes, his computer, a couple books, etc. (yes, and a wee love note from me of course) with the van driver to drop off when he comes back over the border tomorrow at 1:00. I can’t see him doing it on the morning “run” because if there is a delay at the border with folks trying to meet planes, I do not want that to be “our fault.” My only fear is that the driver will just drop and run, and there is a computer, etc. in there (as well as the very small amount of “regular clothes” that hubby arrived in!) I guess we’ll see when I try out this “scenario” with the Coordinator at 6:30 a.m. when he gets in.
As for the program I am on, it’s the DeTox/DeStress program. Yesterday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. I was quite literally at a doctor’s appointment, lab appointment, ultrasound, dentist (checking for mercury-containing fillings), nutritionist, mind-body session, psychotherapy session, etc. etc. every single “free” (non-meal) hour. Each day does contain a spa session (yesterday was lymphatic massage, today a 90 minute body wrap), which is great, as well as a Quiet Room session.
I had my Quiet Room “intake” and then a short session yesterday. I’d get up to get the hand-out on what the session was, but it’s 3 a.m. and I don’t feel like it (she says petulantly). It involved binaural headphone sounds, plus a blue light that intermittently went into my third eye area. If Leslie C-D-D is reading this, yes, I was thinking of Chuck the whole time!!!!!
In the “intake” I had a bio-analysis of my stress levels. Har-de-har-har. Actually body stress came in normal, ability to “combat stress” came in normal, but “Your mental stress is so high that it is falling off our charts” (soo-PRIZE, soo-PRIZE). Also my parasympathetic score was nearly zero and my sympathetic score was off the charts. I can’t remember what those mean. (Um, 3:00 a.m.)
The body-mind and psych appointments were really something. They use Narrative Exposure Therapy (“NET”). Hubby had some amazing breakthroughs using it, and it certainly got down to business with me as well.
There’s no time to do work-work, or workout-work unfortunately – at least, there wasn’t yesterday and doesn’t look like there will be today. My daughter mentioned that this is supposed to be a Detox/Destress, and so I should just put those aside for right now, which I think I will likely do. I have some trepidation about putting the workout aside in particular, but today I have a Fitness assessment, so I guess going in fairly “fresh” is not a bad thing! I think that hubby said that you have to do pushups to exhaustion, step up for 2 minutes then they see how high your pulse goes up and how long it takes to come back down, I think that situps might be in there (better Band-Aid my sticky-outy tailbone in anticipation :-) ) Sounds pretty “Presidential Physical Fitness”-y.
I get to see the chiropractor today – HALLELUJAH! The “real reason” that I went on the program is that about 3 days ago (maybe 4) I threw a rib out, and you’re not “allowed to see” a doctor unless you’re on a program. I completely understand that of course, because there are a lot of Companions here – probably 1/2 of the folks have one. As a Companion you can do any of the spa treatments, but not doctor visits. If they allowed Companions to do doctor visits, I think folks would cherry-pick their way to their own “version” of a program. So I cannot WAIT to get this rib back in!!! (She types, testing to see if it’s still out, wincing, YEE-OWCH!!! . . . WHY do we do that? It’s like when someone says “Oh, I smell skunk!” and then you breathe in deeply to smell it too – I mean, what? )
A little “hospital hot gossip”: There is a wonderful (LOVE HIM) guy in his 20s here with his Mom. He came for the Lyme protocol, but in doing the program they have found 3-4 other things that were never diagnosed (spina bifida occulta, etc.) Well, one test that they did showed that he is 100% infertile.
Um, and his newly-minted fiance is 8 months pregnant with “their” child.
!!!!!
Although I’m eating the same stuff that I was eating before, on the protocol I have been given supplements to “supplement” the food. I find out today what the (52 gallons of) blood tests, etc. show. I also did a bio-impedance test yesterday (shows your percentage of fat, muscle, water, etc.) I had done one before leaving, at my gym, but don’t have that with me so I can’t compare the results.
The one thing that I do know (as you’re weighed, blood pressure-d, pulse-d, blood-oxygen-level’d, etc. every day if you’re a patient) is that I’ve gained 4 pounds here. This is just depressing to the extreme. I – honestly – thought that what with no dairy, gluten, soy, corn, non-organic, blah-blah-name-that-tune, only veggies, small portion of chicken at lunch, no desserts, no sweets, I would have lost weight. Seems not. Harrumph. Interestingly (this being a “Detox” program, after all), I am having some skin issues – overnight I’ve had an eczema flare-up that hasn’t really happened like this since I was a kid. Since we were “re-visiting” issues from when I was a kid in the therapy sessions, I guess my skin is regressing!
While I’m up I really should get some work done. But I think that I’ll just watch some National Geographic. Haven’t had the TV on all the time we’ve been here, though I have read 4 books – How Not To Die, Moneyball, Killer Angels, Long Road to Mercy (the David Baldacci one), and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, plus I’m 1/2 way through Radical Remission. As soon as hubby hit the hospital though I’ve been hangin’ with National Geographic – harder to read when your mind isn’t all there/is partially worried about someone else.
Today, if I get a bit of time, I will probably try and go check out the sauna. It was one of the favorite parts of a friend who was here before. I tend to think that’s because she was here with women – the sauna/spa areas are segregated male/female, and so to do the sauna, I would have been separated from hubby for about 1/2 hour. That sounds pretty ridiculous, but when he was getting treatments, I was either doing work, doing this blog, or doing a workout. That took all the “free by myself” time that I had. When he wasn’t doing a treatment, we would do things together (Thalasso pools, playing a board game, etc.) I heard some gals “raving about” the sauna today, and it made me realize that (especially as I’m on a Detox program) I probably should check it out today. Heck, I’d go now, but – did I mention 3 a.m.? :-)
Selfishly, I’m glad that hubby didn’t insist that I bring the backpack. I know that he’s bored out of his mind, and I am having some serious “bad wife” feelings about staying here. But I really don’t want to stop the Protocol, because I think that it will do me some good. Part of the Therapy yesterday had to do with the whole “doing things for everyone else versus doing things for yourself” issue. However, I do know that sticking to my guns (and trying to get the backpack to hubby a different way) is likely to get me some “cat” reactions when we are back together. I do think it’s the right thing to do though, for me.
And on that note, time to go get my “lab numbers” from Kaiser online (God bless Kaiser!) to give to my doctor here today. Had no reason to download them before coming because, of course, I wasn’t going to be the patient!
Peace, out. Sorry no pictures. Oh – wait a second – I’ll go get you some photos off their website, to show you the spa. I’m sure they won’t mind. ;-)
Yesterday, we took an ambulance ride to the ER in Tijuana. Since it’s still possible that one of you will spill the beans about me blogging I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say, we did.
I rode in the front of the ambulance – and that was a situation in itself! There definitely isn’t a “class in how to get out of the way of a siren” here in Mexico – the traffic was like a band of cockroaches, trying to crawl this way and that to get out of the way! The driver didn’t speak much English, but the “twirly finger next to the temple/’loco'” sign I made made him laugh and nod. It was something!
Tijuana is about 30 minutes away back toward the border. We had made the decision to stay in Mexico, because our Sanoviv doctor knew the doctor at this hospital, and knew that she would have a direct link to what happened to hubby here, versus if we had crossed back over to San Diego for the Kaiser system. We were admitted to the Hospital Angeles Tijuana. I’m the first to admit a prejudice thinking “We’re going to a hospital in Tijuana….????” but WOW, this place was really amazing. Our doctor was like a 1950s doctor, listening, really explaining things, solicitous of me, etc. Funnily enough, the Sanoviv doctor had called her directly, and she had been at an English Language intensive workshop weekend! She came in on her day off, and I teased her that she could practice on me – as I didn’t have any Spanish :-) Hubby was ultimately stabilized, and they will be running a battery of tests and a CT today (as yesterday was Sunday).
He’s arguing about how long the Tijuana doctor wants him to be under observation (7 days) – arguing is good. ;-) I could have stayed up there, but we talked about it, and he said that I should see if I could get a ride back to Sanoviv, which I was able to. Staying in a Tijuana hotel near the hospital v. Sanoviv – kind of a no-brainer as long as hubby was okay with it. Luckily Ernie (who had picked us up at the airport) had literally just dropped off a patient when I called, and the Reception was able to “catch” him. So he went back to the border to pick me up. Such a good guy! I found out a bit more about him on our ride back – he had been a roadie from the time he was thirteen when they lived in L.A. (he’s a big powerful guy), working for bands that came up from Mexico especially, as well as any band that might need Security (Tower of Power, etc.). He laughed and said there was one Mexican singer (I forget the name) who would come up to the U.S. and women would literally try to get up on the stage to rip his clothes off (!!). So Ernie’s “job” was to “take the hit” for him of all the women. He laughed a lot at the memory.
When I got back to Sanoviv, Dr. Danielle (who had been his attending here during the crisis) said she had talked to Dr. Michell (at the Tijuana hospital) and she was hoping that I agreed that it would be better to get hubby back down here once he was classified as “stable/able to move.” I agreed wholeheartedly. She said also that no matter how clean and beautiful a big hospital is, it’s a big hospital. As the hospital here is servicing only about 60 or so patients at a time, there is just less of a chance of a “hospital-related” illness, to which I agreed. Hubby feels the same.
I was supposed to start a program here for a week (a “treat” for me from hubby) and wasn’t sure that I should, but he said he wanted me to, especially as this had happened. (It’s a de-stress program – ha!) There’s nothing like having to plunk down a “deposit” that has a lot of zeros in it (don’t worry, it was pesos, but still….) that makes you re-think doing something that’s pretty pricey just for “a treat.” But he insisted. So as I type this, I’m back at Sanoviv and he will text me as soon as he knows what is up. I am sure that they will tell me, too, because they are amazingly “communicative” (is that the word?) here – all the doctors meet about all the patients every evening, they discuss everything that is happening. Then they give that information to the patient and the “companion” (they don’t like the word “caregiver” – they are there to do that…and to “give care to” the companion, too! ;-) ). So I do know that they will let me know as soon as they know.
It was really tough that this happened on a Sunday, because it’s the day at Sanoviv that the fewest “staff” are here. The kitchen staff are off after Dinner, etc. I only say that it was tough because it was tough for me :-) This all happened before Lunch, and though the kitchen staff were able to pack me up a “picnic” to take with me (a chicken breast and some veggies), by the time that I got back, it was pretty late. The Receptionist on duty went into the kitchen though and found me an apple, some nut butter (my favorite) and some mixed nuts. I had that and two of the packets of bone broth I had brought. Then (for the first time here) turned on the TV for company and watched a very silly movie about a comet hitting the Earth, that a young(er) Robert Duvall stops.
And so – to those of you who are reading this that are also on Facebook – all I can say is … I can’t even. That’s all. You guys are amazing.
When I was at the ER, their wifi was wonky at best. I would be able to get to Facebook, but nothing else, for a bit, then it would die. Then suddenly Facebook messenger would work, but not Facebook. Things like that. (Nothing else worked, just Facebook and messenger, intermittently.) I am sort of tearing up saying this. However, of course if hubby knew that I was sending out ‘distress signals’ that way, as I believe I have said before, Mexican divorces are swift and decisive!
I felt that I had to find a way to call Kaiser to notify them, and from a “Facebook and Insta friend I have never met but love like a sister,” two old Redwood chums, an old grammar school chum, my cousin, a cycling instructor (you know who you are), I was able to get the number to call to put in a claim, plus how to get “out of Mexico to the U.S.” to do the same (again, Google, etc. not working, unable to download photos/.pdfs etc.). Thank goodness that I did do that while I was still at the Tijuana facility (hubby wanted me to wait until I was back at Sanoviv with a land line), because they let me use their phone in Reception to call out, and then the Kaiser person needed info that I didn’t have! I said to him – “Um….do you speak Spanish??” And he laughed and said “Why yes, I do, my name is Ramon, just put them on.” So he talked extensively to the “Intake” person and got all the info that he needed, got me a case number and a case manager, all of which there is just no way I could have done as easily if I had waited to get back to Sanoviv.
There is nothing quite so helpless as when you are trying to find out information that should be super quick and easy to get – and being unable to get it. (I had thought that if the Facebook “plea” didn’t work, I would find an Internet cafe somewhere near the hospital and try to get the info that way.) Then there is nothing quite so “chest constricting in love” as having about 100 people just agree to say prayers and then other folks step up and hop to getting me information, that were “outside of my purview” as it were (Craig, Tommy, Lindsey, Val, Patty, Leslie M., you guys just blew me away, I have say! I am sure I am forgetting others, and for that I am truly sorry). Folks that by and large I haven’t seen since I was a kid that just jumped in and sleuthed everything out. I think I mentioned – I’m still “wet eyed” (really) about it.
My daughter kept my family apprised of what was going on, and waited I am sure with “bated breath” to find out what was going on – though luckily as Facebook messenger worked intermittently, I was able to get little “snippets” out. (Texting didn’t work, nor did the phone itself.)
There’s other things that Facebook folks knew that I didn’t. Like that if you are AAA Premiere, there is a “travel insurance” that just comes with it. (There also is with Amex Platinum, that one we knew, but the AAA Premium has some things the Amex Platinum doesn’t.) I had folks offering up their au pairs to do translations, trying to figure out what they could do, and over all, just saying prayers.
You guys sincerely ROCK.
This morning when I got up, I got a Marco Polo from a dear friend and fellow Hoffman Process person just to check in (Marco Polo doesn’t work all the time either, even here). I did a big involved Marco back to her (and copied a few other Marco-using folks, as it was a super long update). When I was talking to her, a raven flew into the palm tree above me. Ravens are hubby’s totem. It was one of those “bizarre/just right” moments. In fact, I finished the Marco, went to get a cup of tea, came back out, and the raven was being quite vocal – so I was able to film him “bitching away” right above my head. I take that as a good sign. We have seen a ton of pelicans, finches, doves, etc. but this was the first raven. He gave me a bunch of huffy caws, ruffled his feathers, then took off.
So, that’s the update. So much for the work that I had (still have) to do, that I was ‘supposed to get done’ yesterday. It is what it is (right, Leann??)
I will be sure to post this on Facebook as well (of course) – and once again, thank you thank you thank you for putting in a good word with the Big Is about all this.
UPDATE: I got a text from hubby about 1/2 hour ago. He had the symptoms again this morning (full body shaking/muscles seizing, fever, blood pressure spiking and plunging – remember, ya’ll don’t know that) and so they are holding him “3-5 days” to try to figure out what is going on. This is when medicine is really really hard – when you don’t know what’s going on, and it keeps happening. (Where’s Dr. House when we need his grumpy *ss?)
My first laugh out loud moment of the day was from my latest opened card from my friend who sent me a dozen of them. She wrote, “I wanted to include some chocolate coins with this one, but I know that would be contraband…and sadly, with chocolate, it is not the thought that counts.” True dat!
Yesterday hubby and I did Kundalini Yoga, Stretching, and then I did the Water Aerobics. I also did my assigned workout, which involved jumping rope, carrying EmPack bladders (for the “farmer’s carry”), slow bench press (lying on the coffee table – EmPack again), weighted “dead bugs,” push ups, and a hang (from the side of the wardrobe). I’m sure there were other things – but that was plenty! 😊
I really liked the Yoga. The instructor was from a local Kundalini Yoga Center. She was Hindu, and brought a sheep skin (complete with curly/wavy hair) as her yoga mat. It is very “easy” yoga, though one of the things that we did was tough. It involved taking your right hand and putting it on the top of your head, gently pulling it over toward the right side, while you sat cross-legged and had your left hand in a “mudra” on your knee to the left. Then you had to tense the entirety of your right side, every bit of it, while relaxing the entirety of your left side. Down to clenching your jaw muscles on the right but relaxing on the left! We held this for what seemed like a very long time. About a minute past when I was ready to quit. Then we did the other side.
Oh – and – please remember that (ahem) hubby doesn’t know I
am keeping this blog. So if you write to the two of us, please don’t say that
you’re reading “The Blog.” I’m sure Mexican divorces are swift and decisive. 😊
the blue bags are IVs
Hubby had a long day yesterday and has been so pleased with the doctors. This is a guy who is very very picky. Each and every doctor he says is pretty much the best he has ever had. Chiropractor, Psychiatrist, etc. He is particularly taken with the Chiropractor – so much that he is going to pay to have me go on “a program” so that I can see him, too. (You can only see the doctors if you’re on an actual program – you can use the Spa, go to the lectures, get a facial/haircut/etc. . . . but no “doctor stuff.”) I start on Monday.
Last night the lecture about Energy was more like a TED Talk it was so good (even hubby remarked about that). It took very complicated issues and made them very accessible. The lectures are usually about 45 minutes – this one was twice as long. The speaker was not only engaging but walked around and made folks interact. This of course kept you really listening and on your toes! That isn’t that hard though, considering you’re not allowed cell phones anywhere! 😉
Today is Liquid Day again. (Every Thursday) I mentioned to hubby that we might want to incorporate this into our weekly schedule upon return, and he said “well, martinis ARE liquid….” 😊 The two breakfast smoothies were: (1) pineapple (don’t forget to use the core if your machine can take it – it has a lot of “good stuff” in it), mango, date, avocado, pecan, and then water to smooth it out and (2) strawberry, date, avocado, almonds and water. When asked, Frankie (the head guy that’s “client-facing”) said that it’s not really any particular “amount” of each thing when you’re making it at home – just put in what attracts you each time. He said to be sure though to not leave any ingredient out, because “the total is more than the sum of the parts.”
One thing that I think I haven’t mentioned are the smells here. Not only do you have the brine smell coming off the ocean, but each of the paths has some sort of scented flower. There is honeysuckle, lavender, jasmine, etc.
flock of about 60 pelicans
As for sounds, there is the ever-present sound of the ocean pounding on the cliff, as well as birds in the morning, and crickets in the evening. No “motor” sounds, as everything is done without them. Well – except for Sundays, when you can hear the Harley groups bombing by outside the gates, and the local dirt bike facility (across and down the street) buzzing away!
Yesterday hubby asked the gardener in charge of the lawns what he was up to. There are “holes” in the lawn where they are installing new grass. You can actually tell there are two types of grass when you’re doing your “earthing” – one is very very soft on your feet, one is more the standard “hard bladed” grass. Unfortunately it seems like the soft one was installed on accident and it’s harder to care for. So they are digging up and replacing it where it has gone yellow. (We never saw the yellow, only the “craters” in the lawn.) First, they put down apple cider vinegar mixed with fresh lime juice, to kill any weed seeds that are “lurking” in the ground. (It’s put into a “backpack” sprayer, just like RoundUp – that’s what attracted hubby to go ask because he was certain it wasn’t RoundUp!) Then, they spread a full spectrum salt on top and let it sit that way for a while. (It’s supposed to “bake in the sun,” but when there isn’t a lot of sun, you have to wait longer.) When that’s all done, the new grass will be rolled out on top of it, but we have a suspicion that wheat flour is somehow involved.
Why? Because there are a few tons of wheat flour sacks in the driveway! We had a little fun about this with the Nutritionist. He’s really great, and just as nerdy about nutrition as I am. He said that his wife is more the “math and engineering” type – so we are a similar pair. We asked him if they had about 30 huge sacks of wheat flour out in the driveway just to give us all a big bowl of it, “reminding” us what toxins are all about. The look on his face! Then he realized that we were kidding. 😊
A new “flock” of folks came in over the last few days –
mostly Lyme and Stem Cell. (Green badge and pinkish-red badge.) I think that
their protocol is about a week, because we “ebbed” out a big group of the same
before these folks “flowed” in.
After Lunch today there is another “Food Prep” class. I will probably just annotate the previous post that way, when I get back, I will have one place to go to find recipes. So if you’re curious about them, you might want to check back on that one. I found out in a Nutrition lecture yesterday that they’ve totally revised the cookbook, and so we will all receive the new (.PDF) copy when we leave. My friend who had been here, as I mentioned, had emailed me the cookbook, but apparently come July 1 it will be revised. Weird how slow time goes here. When the Nutritionist said that, I thought it was July already. Nope – a few days of June more 😊 (She said that we went from “Grey May” to “June Gloom” – in July it starts to heat up. I’m actually glad to be here now, it’s super pleasant.)
Speaking of slowing down, hubby happened to remark today
that he is having no trouble just sitting doing nothing. This is super uncharacteristic. This is a guy
that can’t even just “lie on the beach” in Hawaii – his brain is always going,
going, going and he always has to be doing something. He also had some profound
realizations yesterday through the psychotherapy portion of his program.
Today I’m blogging in the living room in the Mansion. Normally I’m up in the room, but I wanted to let our housecleaner gal come in and not just tip-toe around me (and the 25’ Ethernet cable!). This is where we play backgammon in between dinner and the lecture for the evening. Hubby, who is very very good with math, is already beating me most times because he can see the board in a way that I can’t. My aunt Nina was the same. My only saving grace is that I’m “luckier” with doubles than he is! (If you play backgammon, you know that this is a very good bit of “Luck” to have!)
I got the bulk of the work that I brought with me finished, but then another big project came in yesterday. It actually will be an interesting one to do, but by doing it, I will probably be losing business from one of my biggest clients. They have done a re-org and brought on more people in-house. They want me to do up a document basically walking through their license agreement and detailing how we have negotiated this in the past many years I have been their licensing counsel. Once they have this “pathway,” they won’t need me, except when we are in the circumstance of negotiating on the client’s paper. So it will be actually a bit of a fun project, going back over all the different things that we have done over all the time they’ve been my client, but it will be a bittersweet sort of fun.
I think I’ve mentioned that every day is pretty much the same – Mozart out of the TV at 6:00 a.m., “vitals” for hubby at 6:30, lemon water at 6:40, then the “church bells” go off announcing that it’s 7:00. There’s a class from 7-8 (Energy Medicine/Meditation, Kundalini Yoga/Stretching, Tai Chi, etc.), bells, breakfast from 8-9, then hubby goes up for his IVs. Wheat grass at 9:56 a.m. (bells) which I bring up to hubby on the 2nd floor – at 10:55 I also bring him the electrolyte cubes to add to his water (recipe was HERE) and the snack (or, as it’s Liquid Day, whole food smoothie) at 10:56 (bells). He’s usually done by about 1:10; lunch begins at 1:00 (bells). Today being Liquid Day, this includes a “cream soup” meaning, for example, pumpkin or beet with whirled macadamias to make the “creamy” taste, and then a “chunky” soup which is usually for example a chicken and vegetable soup, with something like dehydrated veggie “chips.” Next is a Food Prep class at 1:35, a doctor’s appointment for hubby at 2:00 (bells), “green drink” at 2:56 (bells), “Quiet Room” appointment for hubby at 3:00 (bells), a “Digestion and Protein (pea) Shake” for hubby at 3:55. Usually this is when I do the workout from my trainer – in the 2-4 period – as it takes about an hour. There is often a class at 4:00 (bells) – today is tai-chi, yesterday was the water aerobics – an hour of personal time, dinner at 6:00 (bells). Hubby gets extra protein at dinner, since his blood shows that he’s a bit low – everything else e.g. cholesterol, Vitamin D, etc. tested great. In general, lunch has an animal protein and dinner does not, because this is better for digestion. There’s a lecture at (bells) 7:00 (except Saturday which is a movie – Bruce Almighty last week – and Sunday which is “rest day”). Lights out at 9:00 (special bells 😊 ).
Ah- and at that, bells just went off, time to go get hubby his “whole food” drink – today with raw cacao, mint, coconut milk, ground flax, and vanilla – Nom Nom!
UPDATE: Today was not tai chi – it was “exercise ball” class. Hubby went – I was doing some work. He came back not happy that he had done my Crossfit/exercise routine from home with me!
The spirit is larger than the body. The body is pathetic compared to what we have inside us.
Diana Nyad, care of Claire Koch
Meditation is not about staying in the Present, but about returning to the Present.
Dr. Sandra Toledo, Sound Meditation Class, Sanoviv
The Hawaiian value of aloha: The way people understand the essence of your spirit is through what they see in your alo, or the face you put forth to the rest of the world. Ha is the breath of life – it’s who you are as an inherently good human being. A person can always breathe in and remember who they are. Put those two parts together and you have the concept of living from the inside out. When your alo is an authentic match with the spirit of your ha, that’s when the aloha spirit manifests. It’s self-love as well as the love for other people.
Rosa Say, Managing With Aloha
The Hawaiian value of ho’ohana: So many people do work because they’ve fallen into it or because of the expectations of others. Maybe their parents wanted them to be a lawyer or a doctor. Ho’o, a prefix that turns a noun into a verb, means to make something happen. Hana is the word for work. With ho’ohana, you do the work that feels good to you and to your aloha spirit. Work in a way that feels intentional, purposeful, and important because it’s an expression of who you are and what you can offer the world.
Rosa Say, Managing With Aloha
Instead of using a pH stick, you can use “Pee-H.” Purple, or red, cabbage provides one of the single best nutritional bangs for your buck, and you can even use it to perform kitchen chemistry experiments, or in this case, bathroom chemistry. Boil some purple cabbage until the water turns deep purple, or blend raw cabbage with some water and then strain out the solids. Pee into your toilet then take your purple-cabbage water and pour it into the toilet bowl. (Low-flow toilets work best, because there’s less water in the bowl.) If the liquid in the toilet bowl remains purple, or even worse, turns pink, your urine is too acidic. Blue is the target. If your pee and cabbage water turns blue, your urine is not acidic but neutral, or even basic.
Dr. Michael Greger, How Not To Die & NutritionFacts.Org
beets in the garden
Serving beets at breakfast allows you to check your bowel transit time. Anywhere from 30-40 hours is considered normal. You should take notice of when the beets have transited through your system. The longer food takes to pass through the colon, the more harmful bacterial degradation products are produced. When the transit time is shorter, the colon produces more substances that renew its inner surface, indicating a sign of a healthier intestinal wall.
Nutrition Class (after beets for breakfast), Sanoviv
Stress is not the same as “not relaxing.” In our society, we think of “relaxing” as sitting in front of the television, talking with friends, playing a game of Solitaire, or even reading a book. But these are all actually stressful, because our system sees anything but actual sleep, a nap, or similar as a stress. You need to add these into your life and get 7-8 hours of good sleep every night, and don’t con yourself into thinking that watching TV is “de-stressing” you. It’s not. The only thing that actually makes the mind relax is sleep or pseudo-sleep. It is incredibly important to get this into your day, every day. One “hallmark” is if you are yawning. If you are yawning, then you’re generally feeling in that relaxed mode.
Dr. Chong, Stress v. Relaxation Seminar, Sanoviv
I know that I am feeling ___[peace, anger]____. I know that ___[peace, anger]_____ is with me. (The idea of saying this quote to yourself is so that you re-member that you are just “feeling” these emotions, not that they are “in” you. They are “with” you – and they will subside.)
thich nhat hanh
please remember that hubby doesn’t know (and would NOT like the fact) that I am keeping this blog. So if you’re with us (or him) let’s not mention it, shall we?? I hear that Mexican divorces are swift and efficient…
Recipes…
cooking class
Flax Veggie Tortillas
In the bowl of a high-speed blender or a Cuisinart-type device, first pour in about 10 cups of chopped up yellow squash (or zucchini, or peeled pumpkin, or other vegetable like that). Add 5 cups of yellow pepper (or red pepper, it’s just yellow with the yellow squash = prettier), then 3 cups of ground flax seed, and 1 tablespoon salt. It’s important that the veggies are on the bottom/blade side. Turn the machine on a fairly low cycle until you have everything mixed into the consistency of a batter. Pour the batter onto a baker sheet and put in your dehydrator at about 105 degrees until they are dehydrated, but still “bendy.” (In theirs, about 9 hours.)
Apple, Zucchini or Sweet Potato Chips
Mandoline the fruit or veg that you’re using. For the zucchini, you can use a fairly thick setting, but for something like the sweet potato, which takes a lot longer to dry, use a thinner setting. For the veg, pour some coconut aminos into a bowl, and flavor it with what you’d like – salt, pepper, herbs, whatever. Dip the veg in, then shake it and put it on the dehydrator “shelf” (without the baker sheet), so that the air can circulate to both sides.
For the sweet potato, another choice is to dip them in lemon juice and sea salt – make them thin, and then “overlap” the slices so that you have one long “chip.”
For the apple, use the mandoline starting at the base of the apple – discard the first couple of slices – and push the seeds out of the middle slices. This will give you the most even drying slices. (Versus doing it on the side and trying to “avoid” the seeds.) Because the apple is sweet, you can dehydrate it without any other flavoring.
Flax Seed/Brazil Nut Nut-ola
(6 servings/3 cups): 1 cup whole organic flax seeds, 1 cup raw sunflower seeds, 2 cups Brazil nuts, ¼ teaspoon unrefined sea salt, ½ tablespoon cinnamon, ½ cup pitted dates (8 or so), 1-2 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of grade B maple syrup. (You can do this with whatever nuts you like, add coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, etc.) Soak the nuts and seeds in water and leave them overnight in a lightly covered glass bowl (not metal or plastic). The next day, drain and rinse. Put half of the nuts and all of the flax seeds into a food processor and blend until ground. Take the remaining nuts and crush them a bit, putting everything into a large bowl. Mix the sea salt and cinnamon together and add to the mixture, then put the dates in a blender with a cup of water and the maple syrup, and blend (this should have the consistency of syrup – if you add more water, it will be less sweet). Mix the dry mixture with the date/syrup blend, using your hands to be sure everything is evenly coated. Press handfuls of the mixture together to release any extra oil from the nuts. Spread the mixture onto dehydrator sheets and dry at 120 degrees for 24-48 hours depending on the “crunchiness” you want (longer times will make it more crunchy and dry). Store in a glass jar or bowl with a tight lid.
fresh raw garlic on the dining tables.
Sanoviv Dip
2 cups of coconut cream, or 1 can of coconut milk (use the entire can – organic); 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice; 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves; 2 cloves chopped garlic; 1/4 cup chopped almonds; 1 tablespoon organic coconut oil; pinch of salt and pinch of cumin. Put all the ingredients into a blender until a “dip” consistency is reached.
Paleo Pancakes
(Makes 4 pancakes/2 servings) 1 cup of almond flour, ¼ cup of coconut flour, 3 organic eggs, 1-2 tablespoons of raw honey, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon of raw ground (unsweetened) organic cacao powder, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon of sea salt, 2 tablespoons of ghee or coconut oil. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Mix the wet ingredients (eggs, honey, vanilla) and then gradually add to the dry ingredients until the mixture is smooth. Add 1 tablespoon of ghee or coconut oil to a skillet that has been warmed over medium heat, then pour batter onto the skillet to make two pancakes. Flip the pancakes after 2-3 minutes, cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then add the rest of the ghee or coconut oil to the pan to make the other two pancakes. Serve topped with nut butter, coconut shreds, mashed berries.
Homemade Coconut Yogurt
FWIW, H and I find this very very sour.
Ingredients: 4 cups of chopped coconut meat from young coconuts, 2 cups of raw coconut water (from the coconuts, or Harmless Harvest)*, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon of probiotic powder (example, 2 packets of USANA brand probiotic) OR diary-free yogurt starter, pinch of unrefined sea salt, 1 teaspoon raw honey. Blend all ingredients except the probiotic in a high-speed blender, adding the coconut water slowly, only until smooth and creamy. Blend in the probiotic at the slowest speed. Pour yogurt into a one-quarter Mason jar, leaving about 3 inches of space at the top. Cover with the lid, and let the yogurt ferment at about 105 degrees for 8 hours (my daughter uses her InstaPot overnight). The yogurt can also be left for up to 24 hours in your oven with the door closed and the oven light on. Once fermented, add additional raw honey if needed. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before eating. *OPTION: Use canned organic coconut milk instead of fresh coconut meat and water – use 2 cans. The recommended brand is Native Forest. To thicken it to the desired consistency, add unsweetened organic coconut shreds. Often found at Trader Joes, can also be found HERE.
Date Rolls
These are great for a little energy in the day. In a food processor, put nuts that you like that you have already chopped coursely. Add dehydrated (unsweetened) coconut, about 1 tsp of coconut oil and 1 tsp raw honey, plus 4-5 dates. Pulse until it sticks together (easier if you have chopped the dates up first). You may not need as much coconut oil, it is what helps to blend it. Roll in more of the chopped nuts. They are very dense calorically so eat slowly!
NOTE: They made another version of these that were deemed Cinnamon Nut Rolls. They were so good. Basically it was the same as the above, but they added cinnamon to the recipe, plus they added some of the dehydrated almond pulp that comes out of the nut bag when you are making nut milk (see below), plus some vanilla. NOM NOM NOM! Didn’t get the “proportions,” but that’s where the fun of cooking comes in :-)
Polyphenol Power Breakfast
Polyphenols in food change your gut microbiome within 24 hours, increasing the “good” bacteria and decreasing the bad. Aspartame kills your microbiome (like an antibiotic does). Lack of sleep does the same. Having a microbiome imbalance is called “dysbiosis.” Blueberries, dark chocolate (preferably organic cacao e.g. no sugar at all), hazelnuts, pecans, peppermint, and ground flax seeds (human body can’t process otherwise) are full of them. They can all be added to this base: 1 cup brewed green tea, 3/4 cup red leaf lettuce, 1/4 c. whole raw oats (need to be sure that they have no glycophate, i.e. RoundUp – check online the oats and all brands you’re going to use to be sure SPOILER ALERT – Bob’s Red Mill DOES), 2 scoops of a protein powder that works for you, 1/2 cup blueberries. VitaMix and enjoy!
nut milk
To make nut milk, take the raw nuts you’d like to use (macadamia, brazil, almond, hazelnut, etc.) and soak them overnight in water. The water needs to cover the nuts. Keep them out of the light while you do this. The next day, pour the water off through a sieve and wash the nuts. Add the nuts to 3x the amount of water. So if you have 1 cup of nuts, use 3 cups of water. If you would like your nut milk a little sweeter, add one date to each cup of nuts. Using a high-speed blender (e.g., VitaMix), start out slow until the nuts are pretty ground, then put it on high speed for about a minute. Turn it off, and, using a nut milk bag (you can buy these online), pour the mixture off into the nut milk bag, which is inside of a pitcher or other large bowl. Squeeze the bag until all the liquid is out. You can reserve the fiber that is now in the bag to use it as the crust for a paleo pie, or if you would like to dehydrate it (about 17 hours at about 105 degrees), this will become nut flour that you can use to bake things (for example, the Paleo Bread). The nut milk will keep in the fridge for about a week, but you will need to mix it as it will start to “settle” after a day or so. (NOTE: When I make it, I keep a “bartender spoon” in the pitcher, so that I can “twirl” it back into milk.) If you make hemp seed milk (using the same 1:3 proportion) you do NOT need the nut milk bag, as there is not enough fiber to necessitate straining. Oh – and I think it goes without saying that peanuts are not nuts – they grow underground and are legumes. So you can’t do this with peanuts.
smoothie ideas
pineapple, mango, date, avocado, pecan. Add enough coconut water (or regular water, or ice – after it’s already mixed) to make the desired consistency.
strawberry, date, avocado, almonds. Same re the water. BE SURE to use organic strawberries – they are the #2 pesticide-ridden food. Avocados, on the other hand, are the #1 not-pesticide-ridden food, so it’s not critical that they are organic. (If you give a small donation to the charity EWG.org, they will give you the “dirty dozen” and “clean thirteen” on a keychain, to attach to your grocery bag.
Chia pudding
Chia and spirulina were what the Aztec warriors used when they were in battle or on long treks. It provided enough nourishment for them to keep going, and are deemed “superfoods.” To make the pudding, take 1 cup chia seeds, 3 cups coconut yogurt (or almond/coconut milk. For a “savory” one, add lemon peel, ginger, cardamom and warmed lemongrass (needs to be softened). Put in blender, let the chia fibers “turn it into” pudding. If you want a sweet one, mix vanilla, unsweetened dried coconut, plus berries, or you can mix the vanilla, coconut and “apple pie spices” to make one that tastes like apple pie. If you need it sweeter, add a small amount of raw honey or a small amount of stevia.
Quick awesome smoothie
coconut water (for a potassium boost – they only recommend Harmless Harvest or if you get it out of the coconut itself); kale (stem removed) for iron; pineapple for Vitamin C and digestive enzymes (bromelain); full lemon (rind and seeds have good things for you); fresh coconut meat (if available – i.e. if you made your own coconut water); 1/2 c. walnuts that have been soaked overnight, water discarded (good for the brain and decreases the acid that often makes your soft palate “shred”), a couple scoops of a protein of your choice. Blend, then add the ice after to make it “thicker” or it will not mix at all.
Teas: Ginger, Basil Blossom or Rosemary
Rosemary tea offers a pine flavor and aromatic fragrance that is invigoraing and rejuvenating. It can help: (a) ease digestion, because its carnosic acid is a potent antimicrobial and helps balance the microflora and good bacteria in your gut; (b) decrease oxidative stress, because it has polyphenols and flavonoids which are both antioxidants (this is why essential oil doesn’t work as well as the whole plant – that is distilled out); and (c) increase cognitive function during aging, because cooking with just 1/2 teaspoon as been proven in medical studies to improve alertness and speed of memory during aging. Avoid rosemary if you are allergic to pine trees or aspirin.
Ginger is great for lessening nausea symptoms, digestive issues, reducing muscle pain, migraines and lowering cholesterol levels and lessening fatty-liver damage. If you can find a ginger root “shaped like a person” that is the best, per Chinese medicine.
Basil is a great: anti-inflammatory; antioxidant; pain reducer; anti-stress solution (especially after a long day); source of iron. It has Euginol oil, which is similar to ibuprofen in anti-inflammatory effect. (HOWEVER, do not take basil essential oil internally – it is too strong and toxic to the liver.)
In each case, start with 1 cup boiling water.
To make the ginger tea, break off about 1 inch of the ginger root (to yield about 1 Tablespoon when prepared). Peel it, and either slice it very thinly, or grate it to maximize the surface area. Add to the boiling water for at least 10 minutes and let steep. For stronger tea, simmer the ginger in the water for another 10 minutes (you will need a little extra water for the water that will become steam – put a lid on the pot). Add lemon or raw honey if desired.
For the rosemary tea, wash it, and peel off the “needles” by pulling backwards from the tip toward the base. The stem can be reserved for adding to soup stock/bone broth/etc. Crush the needles slightly by rolling them in your hands, then drop the needles into your cup. (Slowing holding your palms to your nose and mouth and breathing in slowly through your nose activates the rosemary in your sinuses and is very good for stress reduction while also being invigorating.) Pour the boiling water over the needles, and let steep for 5 minutes. Add lemon or raw honey if desired.
For the basil tea, use 1 tablespoon basil blossoms, or 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil leaves. Remove the stem, which can be bitter. Using the leaves renders a grassier taste while steeping the flowers develops a sweeter, slightly spicier taste.
On Basil Varieties:
African Basil has the highest level of Eugenol (the anti-inflammatory compound similar to ibuprofen); Thai Basil is associated with the reduction of stress (NOTE: This is what we used, it was great); French Basil is commonly used for aromatherapy to help lessen migraine symptoms; Holy Basil (a/k/a Tulsi) is a common tea staple in India and tends to have a sweeter taste.
Wild basil or “exotic” basil is not recommended for infusions or consumption, because of the eugenol – be sure to use a type that you know due to liver effects.
In all cases, don’t steep for more than 5 minutes. If you want more flavor, add more herbs. Take the herb out at the 5 minute mark.
NOTE: This was where the ThinkSport thermos was genius – it has a small removable strainer in the top, so that you can make the tea into it and the strainer keeps the rosemary, ginger, etc. from pouring out into your cup.
Green Pina colada smoothie
Blend all of the following until smooth, in a high-speed blender:
1 fresh young coconut, which yields about 1 cup of coconut water + 1 cup of soft young coconut meat; if you don’t have one, use 1/2 cup of canned organic unsweetened coconut milk (example, Native Forest brand); 1 cup pineapple (use the core!); 1 cup of kale (without the stem); 1/4 lemon with or without rind depending on your preference; 1/4 cup of walnuts, 1 cup of ice. Add coconut water (Harmless Harvest) to make smooth and desired consistency.
Electrolyte Beverage
I took a photo of this and inserted it in a previous post, but I will just type it in here. This is a concentrated mixture – you make it into ice cubes, then add them to melt into the water. The best natural electrolyte replacement is raw, unprocessed coconut water. If you can’t actually obtain it from young coconuts, “Harmless Harvest” is the only recommended brand. Blend the following ingredients in a high-speed blender and make ice cubes, or you can store in a Mason jar in the fridge, though the ice cubes last forever; from the fridge you need to drink it within a few days. Combine:
2 Tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice, 2 Tbs fresh squeezed lime juice, 3/4 cup of raw coconut water, 1/4 tsp raw honey, 1/4 tsp of unrefined full-spectrum salt (not table salt – so for example pink Himalayan salt, Hawaiian black salt, etc. Table salt doesn’t have the full spectrum of salts that you want in an electrolyte beverage).
Infused Water
Here are some recommended combinations for infused water. You want to infuse the water and put it into the refrigerator – put it into as big of a pitcher as you have. At the end of the day, eat what’s in the water, and make a new one tomorrow. ;-) 1. Rosemary and Watermelon; 2. Cucumber & Ginger; 3. Blueberries & Mint Leaves; 4. Mandarin Orange; 5. Grapefruit & Rosemary; 6. Grape, Strawberry & Lime; 7. Cut Apples and Cinnamon Sticks.
monks love golden milk
Golden Milk
Ingredients: ¼ cup of water, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, 1 cup of almond milk or other nut milk, 1 tablespoon of almond/coconut oil (optional), Pinch of cardamom, Pinch of black pepper, 1 small piece of ginger root (peeled and minced). Optional: ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of raw honey. Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth. Put in a saucepan and heat over medium heat (do not boil). Serve warm. Makes 2 servings.
A few more tips . . .
Provided in your bathroom: shampoo, conditioner (works!), body wash, dry brush (you can take home), toothbrushes, tongue scrapers, dental floss, toothpaste, hand soap, laundry bag (for their laundry). If you use any face cleansers, etc. you need to bring that.
Not provided in your bathroom: Lotion. It’s very dry here. You can buy it in the Shop; frustrated I didn’t bring it – of course, it would need to be one of their ‘approved ‘ ones! (a la Beautycounter)
The piano has earphones! I was in the computer room this morning and I could hear “clicking” in the sitting area/tea room and came out to investigate. Here was a gal (not the one mentioned before, because this one actually had “real music” in front of her) playing away – with headphones on! Genius!
If you need it dark when you sleep – bring a sleep mask. Each bedroom has floor to ceiling windows and two sliders looking out at the ocean, and there is a lot of ambient light. No blinds or curtains. Fine by me, but I have heard folks in the elevator grousing about it.
Bring a plastic bag for your swim suit. I might have said this already, but there is no “suit spinner” in the spa/changing area. As such, you need to have something to bring your suit back to your room.
Clothing provided: two hoodie sweat jackets, two sweat pants, two T-shirts, two tank tops, two “camisole” tank tops, two pair shorts (think “men’s cotton athletic shorts from the 80s”), two pair socks (more on those in a second), a pair of Birkenstockesque sandals (to keep), bathrobe. About the socks: The socks are of the “men’s tube sock” variety, however, they are not tube socks, they are actual socks with a heel. Why is that important? Because if your foot isn’t just the right shape and size for the socks, you can’t get them on. Hubby’s foot is slightly too big (size 10) to get his foot “around the ankle bend.” Mine is nearly the same, though I can force it (size 9 men’s/11 women’s). Everyone gets the same socks, so not quite sure what this would mean for wee feet. Suggestion: bring your own socks, but be sure that they’re white athletic socks. I actually did just this – I brought “toe” socks and I’m glad to have them. I can wear them with the sandals, or athletic shoes, and they still are basically the “uniform” that you’re provided. About the shorts: I’m doing all my working out in the room, and it’s not warm enough for shorts outside. Not so sure I’d be super happy to be seen in these – they’re grey cotton, baggy, old-school Champion shorts. They absorb sweat like a champ, so if you’re sweating, believe me, folks would know. Not quite sure how one would get around wearing these, as their clothes are your “uniform.” Just wanted to take note.
Bring two swimsuits. At least during “May Grey” and “June Gloom,” it isn’t warm enough for your suit to dry on the balcony overnight. I’ve put in a “request” for suit spinners in the spa (which was accepted as a ‘great idea’), but until then, bring two suits if you plan to be in the water often.
Costco LonoLife dehydrated organic grass-fed bone broth is great! I picked some of this up on a whim, and it is very tasty!
Today was my day off from working out, though I did the Tai Chi class this afternoon with the hubby. We also did the Thalassotherapy baths together. I’d say that the temperature is about 68F with a nice brine-y sea breeze, but not windy by any stretch of the imagination. The sun basically hid today all day under the “marine layer.” The constant sound is of the ocean hitting the shore – it works as a “white noise” machine! We leave our two sliders open at night.
Tonight we have a Digestion and Detox class, after dinner.
