by Joy Thompson | Aug 27, 2015 | Blog
I am trying to add turmeric and other natural anti-inflammatory foods to my diet. There was a turmeric tea/milk recipe which I could not like — even when telling myself it was good for my health. However, I found a Turmeric Salad Dressing recipe online last year and have fallen in love with it! I have put the recipe from the web here, but I have a tendency to add a little more pepper, turmeric, garlic, and vinegar. This recipe is from Healthy Holistic Living… 1 tsp of ground turmeric 1/2 tsp fine sea salt 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp dried dill weed 2 tsp honey 3 Tbsp vinegar 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil Put all ingredients into a glass jar or shaker bottle with tight fitting lid. Shake well. Pour and toss over your favorite salad...
by Joy Thompson | Jul 21, 2015 | Blog
Kale is good for us. We’re supposed to eat it for our health. And in the past few years I have learned that the ingredients used with kale will determine whether or not I like what I’m eating… I now add it to my coleslaw recipe. Kale chopped small and added to the cabbage not only makes a pretty dark green addition to the light green cabbage (and the shredded orange of a little carrot) but doesn’t seem to add bitterness in flavor. I use a ratio of 1:4 or 1:3 of kale to cabbage and use a oil, vinegar, dry mustard coleslaw dressing recipe. View image | gettyimages.com I also have taken to adding it to soups. Nice to learn how to incorporate extra veggies into our diets, isn’t it? I admit it. I am trying to learn to like kale raw. It has a rough texture and a bitterness that I find difficult to enjoy. Having said that, when I find a recipe that I LIKE, I want to share it with you. Perhaps you’ll like it too. Super Food Kale Salad dressing: 3/8 c sugar (or a little less) 1/2 c vinegar (or a little more) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper 1/4 c olive oil salad: 1 bunch kale(washed,chopped, stems removed) 1/2 (16oz) pkg frozen shelled edamame (soybeans) thawed 1/4 of a red onion, sliced thin 1c shredded carrot 2/3 c fresh blueberries 1/4 c sweetened dried cranberries (or a little less) 1/2 c cashew pieces 1/2 c shelled, roasted sunflower seeds Put half the dressing on the salad and let marinate at least 2 hours. Serve...
by Joy Thompson | Mar 13, 2015 | Blog
I have been challenged recently to chew each bite of my food for a minimum of 20 chews. This has been nearly impossible for me! I don’t even realize how quickly I eat and seem to chew only a few times each mouthful. Chewing is the first step in the digestive process and allowing the saliva to do its job is important for a healthful meal. A book I recently started reading (Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach) is about our guts and digestion. Two quotes from the introduction make me smile: “Yes, men and women eat meals. But they also ingest nutrients. They grind and sculpt them into a moistened bolus that is delivered, via a stadium wave of sequential contractions, into a self-kneading sack of hydrochloric acid and then dumped into a tubular leach field….Lunch is an opening act.” “The early anatomists has that curiosity in spades. They entered the human form like an unexplored continent. Parts were names like elements of geography: the isthmus of the thyroid, the isles of the pancreas, the straits and inlets of the pelvis. The digestive tract was for centuries known as the alimentary canal. How lovely to picture one’s dinner making its way down a tranquil, winding waterway, digestion and excretion no more upsetting or off-putting than a cruise along the Rhine. It’s this mood, these sentiments — the excitement of exploration and the surprises and delights of travel to foreign locales– that I hope to inspire….” It’s funny how little we think of digestion. Like many of the automatic processes we have, we don’t pay much...
by Joy Thompson | Feb 24, 2015 | Blog
http://gty.im/71141693 I am in awe of the body and what amazing miracles we are. Never more so than when I am honored to massage a pregnant woman. I tease that this is the only way I have figured out how to massage more than one person at a time on my table. Sometimes the baby will shift around and the mom’s belly will change shape or show a foot or elbow through the skin. Other times, everybody will relax and fall asleep. What makes prenatal massage different from circulatory or deep tissue? The focus of pregnancy massage is “balance.” Other modalities’ focus is “change,” as in I am trying to bring about a change in their body. For example, I will try to release a spasmed muscle. Whereas, the pregnant body is going through daily changes: a growing, moving child; varying center of gravity; day by day body changes. So the massage having an intent to balance and calm an everchanging state of being can bring a deep state of relaxation. Although there is a “recipe” I learned in school, I can vary the session to focus on what the Mom-to-be needs. About 8 years ago, a client had extremely severe sciatica with her pregnancy and only wanted low back massage with hip stretching; so that is what I did for 30 minutes every 2 weeks for her during the last few months before the baby arrived. One client had such claustrophobia that she was unable to lay down comfortably; instead, she straddled a chair, propped her body with pillows so she could relax. We had her facing a...
