This whole last year of #mondayhealthbasics, we've been touching on some keystones that are important in reducing inflammation, and are key contributors to reducing your body's toxin load. All of these posts have been aimed at supporting gut health; loving your guts has a tendency to reverberate outwards, to all other systems in the body. Today's post is one I can't believe I haven't done yet. We've touched a bit on this concept on the post aimed at J.E.R.F. But today, we're exploring why you may want to work on reducing the packaged goods in your pantry, and how to go about it.
Read morePhat Fats & a Giveaway
My dearies. I have an evening workshop on WHY FATS and WHAT FATS and PHAT FATS (I think that should be the new working title, no?). It's coming up next Tuesday evening the 22nd, so next week. I'd love to have you come to the event! (Full event details by clicking here) So...
I AM DOING A GIVEAWAY.
Because I want you to come.
SHARE this post (handy dandy 'share' button at the bottom of the blog post) and your name will go in a draw next Monday morning for a chance to attend this talk next Tuesday night. I'll be giving away TWO tickets for this event, so that you can bring a friend if you like! Because friends let friends eat the good fats.
Contest closes at noon on Monday March 21st, 2016. Share away! And then fire me word via the facebooks or email at lukasymons@gmail.com to let me know you did just in case. (And let's talk fats too, shall we?) xx
THE DEETS:
In this current era of instant-information and seemingly contradicting information on what foods are good for you, which ones we should omit, it can sometimes be overwhelming trying to 'do the right thing'. In this one-hour presentation, followed by a Q&A, Holistic Nutritionist and local foodie Luka Symons will be helping you navigate through the information on Why Fats are Good, which ones to choose, which ones to omit from your diet and recommendations on how to include the good guys in your every day meal plan.
From heart health to immune health to hormonal balance and the all-important brain health, including healthy fats is a quintessential component to supporting our bodies for the work they do every day. In traditional cultures, fat was an essential daily component of the diet, and with good reason. We will look at saturated, unsaturated, cholesterol and heat tolerance. We'll look at which fats to use where in your cooking as well. As a bonus, I will demo how to make your very own creme fraiche at home, a full fat lactose-free dairy delight, sure to tempt your palate.
Cost is $20 per person, and seating is limited. In order to reserve your spot, please contact Renewal Homeopathy and Wellness at 403.202.8507.
I look forward to seeing you there!
MONDAY BASICS: Add Nettle to Meals
Welcome to Monday. This week is St. Patrick's Day, and as I have some Irish roots, I did indeed aim to think green for this week's #mondayhealthbasics blog post. My week got off to a roaring start with a thoughtful gift from one of my sisters, a book from boreal herbalist wunderkind Beverley Gray called The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North – a Guide to Harvesting, Preserving and Preparing. Oh the joy. Oh the possibilities!
Leafing through the book last night, I zoned in on the Stinging Nettle, or Urtica dioica. Yes yes yes, the same plant that gives you the very intense zing-like needling you would experience were you to chance upon a patch without knowing it. This perennial plant runs wild in almost every nook and cranny of this planet where there are wetter areas or where the soil has been disturbed. It loves rich damp soil. And seeing as spring seems to be just around the corner, it will be one of the first wild plants that will pop up for early harvesting.
MONDAY BASICS: Batch Cook.
This week's Monday Health Basics idea is one that I have implemented in my weekly approach to making meals an easier and more attainable task, and has evolved over time. In the last six or seven years, I have slowly winnowed out packaged and prepared foods from our family's regimen and have been aiming for more and more whole foods from scratch. It all started with my few years of working in the kitchen at my daughter's school, helping to prepare the school's hot lunches. Batch cooking is really at the heart of making meals for large groups, and some of these tenets can be taken into your own kitchen, albeit on a much smaller scale. Let me save you that five years' of ruminating I did, and skip to the good part. BATCH COOKING ON THE WEEKEND. In do-able chunks.
Read moreMONDAY BASICS: Swap your table salt for sea salt
This Monday Basics series is a new thing up here on my blog, meant to be a quick read on one manageable task you can implement in order to best support optimal health. This week's topic is one that is a pretty basic change that is fairly easy to implement, but is one topic that also raises many questions and controversy. We're talking SALT.
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