When the seasons change, and the temperature is fluctuating between cool and hot, it is nice to nourish the blood with a roast of root vegetables.

Beets are a great source of iron plus other blood building minerals that nourish your blood, while onions nourish the spleen. The spleen is associated with the the earth element.  It likes to be warm and enjoys sweet flavors with regularity.  The spleen is nourished when we feel grounded and centered.

Leeks and onion stimulate and warm the fires of the digestive system. Fresh shoots or dried herbs like thyme and marjoram have antimicrobial properties and help to fight respiratory infections & inflammation, while improving digestion and nourishing the kidneys. Marjoram is great for easing depression, dizziness, migraines, and regualting the menstrual cycle.  Tarragon balances blood sugar, aids with sleep and digestion, and also helps to regulate menstruation.

By definition a "roast" is any food that is cooked by prolonged exposure to low to medium heat in an oven, or over a fire. This slow and low method of cooking locks in the most flavor and nutrients.

Here is my recipe for Slow Roasted Beets:

4 beets, plus greens if still attached - washed and chopped
1, bell pepper
1 leek
1 vidalia onion or maui onion or add 2 more leeks - cleaned and chopped
1/2 cabbage
tablespoon each of thyme & marjoram leaves
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (if you like spicy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup pine nuts

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Wash and chop your vegetables and herbs (if fresh) and place them into a large baking dish. Toss in the other seasonings, red pepper flakes, salt, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. and stir to coat thoroughly.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir the veggies and place back in the oven for another 15 minutes or until the beets are soft enough to poke a fork in easily.

On the stove top prepare cooked quinoa in a 1 cup dry to two cups wet ration until light and fluffy. I like to make mine in homemade broth, but filtered water works fine, in a pinch.

In a small frying pan on medium heat, warm pine nuts until the have a little bit of golden color. Take them off the heat.

Plate with a scoop of quinoa on the bottom, next add a scoop of your roast, then sprinkle with tasted pine nuts. Option to add cubes of chopped feta, tofu, or apple to your roast before serving - as seen in the picture above.

ENJOY!

#vegetarian #vegan #immuneboosting #glutenfree #healthy #recipe
#changeofseasons #nourishing #food #womenshealth
#IngredientsForJoyAndWellness
#BodyMindGifts

 But according to the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter, D’Adamo has his blood typing all wrong. “It’s a fallacy even to speak of ‘original’ type Os or ‘original’ type As because blood types did not originate with humans,” explains Dr Stephan Bailey, a nutritional anthropologist at Tufts University. “They came on the biologic scene long before humans did. Furthermore, there is no anthropologic evidence whatsoever that all prehistoric people with a particular blood type ate the same diet.”71

D’Adamo has come up with 16 different food groups, further divided into ‘Highly beneficial,’ ‘Neutral,’ and ‘Avoid’ foods, depending entirely on what blood type you are. Type As, for example, are told they do well on vegetarian diets, but they should avoid cabbage, potatoes, eggplant, olives, peppers, and tomatoes, among many other foods. They are, however, advised to eat snails.72

Type Os, on the other hand, are told to base their diets heavily around red meat. They are told to avoid oranges, apples, wheat, peanut butter, avocados, cabbage, and potatoes, but encouraged to eat veal, ground beef, and beef heart.

D’Adamo tells Type Bs to eat a lot of dairy products, including frozen yoghurt. He tells them to avoid sunflower seeds, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, whole wheat bread, corn, pumpkin, tofu, tempeh, and tomatoes, but encourages them to eat rabbit, lamb, and mutton.

Type ABs are told to avoid corn, peppers, olives, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and lima beans, but encouraged to eat jam, jellies, rabbit, and turkey.

Many people who have tried D’Adamo’s diet have lost weight. There is a reason, but it isn’t the one he gives. In actuality, the diets recommended for all four blood types are each extremely low in calories. Some day’s plans have only 1,000 calories, half the caloric needs of an adult woman.

Nevertheless, for D’Adamo, virtually everything in life comes down to whether you are an A, B, AB, or O blood type. According to him, “(ABO) blood type can determine so many things: how much and how often we should eat; what our optimal daily schedule should be; what our best sleep/rest patterns are; how stress affects us and how to combat it; how to maximize our health; how to overcome disease; how we deal with aging; and even our degree of emotional well-being.”73

D’Adamo believes that people who are type O and type B must eat meat daily to be healthy. When confronted with the fact that vegetarian diets have been consistently shown to produce lower rates of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, gallstones, kidney disease, obesity, and colon disease, and to enable people to live longer and more healthfully, he explains that type As do well on vegetarian diets. It is, however, mathematically impossible that the health advantages for vegetarians could be accounted for only by type As benefiting from the absence of meat. According to the Red Cross blood bank, the population of the United States is approximately 39 percent type A, 46 percent type O, 11 percent type B, and 4 percent type AB.74 There is no possible way that the consistent superiority of vegetarian diets that has been demonstrated repeatedly by world medical research could be due to vegetarian diets having health advantages only for type As, who are, after all, a minority of the population.

Similarly, D’Adamo’s explanation for the success of Dr Dean Ornish’s program of reversing heart disease, which includes putting people on a near-vegan diet with no meat, is that it has only worked for type As. It does not, he says, help type Os, type Bs, or type ABs.75

I asked Lee Lipsenthal, MD, the vice president and medical director of Dr Dean Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute, whether this might be possible. He replied,“There is no evidence in the scientific literature associating blood typology with nutrient needs. Although heart disease almost invariably gets worse, even when patients follow the American Heart Association recommendations, most of our patients have shown actual reversal of their disease, and the vast majority have shown measurable improvement in many areas – improved physical function on exercise tests, improved blood flow to the heart muscle, improved mood and sense of vitality, improved cholesterol levels, improved blood pressure, improved sleep patterns, and improved social function. We’ve had many hundreds of patients show dramatic improvements, and all this has been measured by objective tests. I don’t see any possibility that people with blood types 0 and B (who together represent nearly 60 percent of the population of the U.S.) are not being helped by the Ornish program.”76

D’Adamo believes that the risk of heart disease for type Os is reduced by eating meat.77 There is, however, no evidence in the world medical literature for this belief. The blood-type diet’s explanation for why type Os presumably need meat is that type Os do “well on animal products and protein diets – foods that require more stomach acids for proper digestion.” In fact, D’Adamo says that “type Os can efficiently digest meats because they tend to have high stomach acid content.”78

It is well known, however, that not all men and women with type O blood produce more hydrochloric (stomach) acid; some secrete normal levels and some have less than normal. Further, it is pepsin, not hydrochloric (stomach) acid, that is responsible for meat protein digestion. In people who have large amounts of hydrochloric acid, the stomach environment becomes unusually acidic. An especially acidic stomach actually make pepsin less effective at digesting protein.79

D’Adamo’s beliefs regarding the diets of early humans, likewise, seem to have no basis in fact. He writes, ‘The appearance of our Cro-Magnon ancestors in around 40,000 BC propelled the human species to the top of the food chain, making them the most dangerous predators on earth… (with) little to fear from any of their animal rivals… (and no) natural predators other than themselves. Protein – meat – was their fuel… By 20,000 BC Cro-Magnons had... decimated the vast herds of large game.”80

The foundation of D’Adamo’s blood-type theory is his belief that Cro-Magnons, who lived 40,000-20,000 years ago, were all type Os and ate mainly meat. Types A, B, and AB came along later, he says, and only they are genetically equipped for a diet that includes grains. There is no evidence anywhere in the scientific literature, however, that suggests Cro-Magnons were mainly or all type Os. Instead, there is considerable evidence that all four blood types existed in the time of the Cro-Magnons.

Were Cro-Magnons the heavy meat eaters D’Adamo portrays? Not according to paleontologist Richard Leakey, who is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost experts on the evolution of the human diet. Leakey points out, “You can’t tear flesh by hand, you can’t tear hide by hand. Our anterior teeth are not suited for tearing flesh or hide. We don’t (and Cro-Magnons didn’t) have large canine teeth, and we wouldn’t have been able to deal with food sources that required those large canines.”81

In fact, says Leakey, even if Cro-Magnons had large canine teeth, they still almost certainly would only rarely have eaten meat. Their diet would have been similar to that of the chimpanzee, our closest genetic relative.

Molecular biologists and geneticists, Leakey says, have compared proteins, DNA, and the whole spectrum of biological features and have established very convincingly that humans are closer to chimpanzees than horses are to donkeys. This is remarkable, because horses and donkeys can mate and reproduce, although their offspring, mules, are sterile. A significant difference between humans and chimpanzees, though, is that chimpanzees have large canine teeth that can tear apart their prey, and have more strength and speed than humans. Still, even with these traits, which would be advantages for a meat-eater, chimpanzees, like other primates, eat a mainly vegetarian diet. Dr Jane Goodall, whose work with chimpanzees represents the longest continuous field study of any living creature in science history, says chimpanzees often go months without eating any meat whatsoever. Indeed, she says, “The total amount of meat consumed by a chimpanzee during a given year will represent only a very small percentage of the overall diet.”82

D’Adamo’s entire theory is based on his assumptions about the blood types and diets of our prehistoric ancestors. Even though his assumptions are wholly mistaken, however, his diet has been embraced by many in the naturopathic community, and some schools of naturopathic medicine have even begun to include this theory in their curriculum. As a result, some naturopaths are now recommending that vegetarians and vegans who are blood type O or B eat meat daily

However, other naturopaths decisively disagree. The founder of naturopathy, Dr Benedict Lust, called for “the elimination of… habits such as… meat eating.” Similarly, Henry Lindlahr, MD, whose work has been widely read in naturopathic colleges, defined naturopathy as favoring a ‘strict vegetarian diet.’ After a detailed and thorough discussion of the blood-type diet’s underpinnings, contemporary naturopaths Dr Deirdre B Williams and Dr John J McMahon conclude, “The blood type theory of diet doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”83

Footnote annotations can be found in the book The Food Revolution,
How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World.

Last New Years I made a resolution to drink more water based on a formula for my weight and daily physical activities. Initially it felt like I couldn't fit in all the water calculated for my body in a 24 hour cycle.  

However, every day for the past 10 months I have done my best, and I have noticed some definable differences: I have more energy, both throughout my day and in my workouts. My mind feels clearer. I noticed that the fine lines on my face have lessened, and seasonal dry patches are minor to nonexistent now.

It makes sense since your body is 70% water and all the systems of the body depend on water to function at their highest capacity. Lots of people don't realize the true importance of drinking enough water everyday and how chronic dehydration can impact your overall health and energy levels.

We Need Water To...
+ keep a healthy level of fluid in our tissues, spinal chord, and joints
+ aid the digestive process & help your body remove waste
+ keep the endocrine & circulatory system functioning
+ energize muscles
+ help the liver and kidneys with their work of processing toxins
+ assist in getting rid of headaches

Drinking the right amount of water daily can help to speed up your metabolic rate and curb overeating when your body might be confusing hunger and thirst. But how much water is enough?

Here is How to Calculate
The first step to knowing how much water to drink is to know your weight. The amount of water a person should drink varies on their weight, which makes sense because the more someone weighs the more water they need to drink. A two hundred pound person and 100 pound person require different amounts of water every day.

Next you want to multiple your weight by 2/3 or 67% to determine how much water to drink daily. For example, if you weigh 175 pounds you would multiple that by 2/3 to know you should drink about 117 ounces of water every day.

Finally adjust that number based on how often you work out, since you expel water when you sweat. Add 12 ounces of water to your daily total for every 30 minutes you work out. For example, if you work out for 45 minutes, you would add 18 ounces of water to your daily intake.

Here is a chart with recommended amounts of water for a range of weights.

Weight  -  Ounces of Water Daily

100 pounds  -  67 ounces

110 pounds  -  74 ounces

120 pounds  -  80 ounces

130 pounds  -  87 ounces

140 pounds  -  94 ounces

150 pounds  -  100 ounces

160 pounds  -  107 ounces

170 pounds  -  114 ounces

180 pounds  -  121 ounces

190 pounds  -  127 ounces

200 pounds  -  134 ounces

210 pounds  -  141 ounces

220 pounds  -  148 ounces

230 pounds  -  154 ounces

240 pounds  - 161 ounces

250 pounds  -  168 ounces

*Remember to adjust these numbers based on your daily activity level.

Tips to Help You Drink More Water

• Morning: Wake up and drink 1-2 glasses of water
• Evening: Don't go to bed thirsty, drink a glass of water before bed
• In Between Meals: sip on water between meals, start an hour after your meal and stop 30 (ish) minutes before your next meal
• Keep Track With Your Container: Have a special container for your water, and set a goal of how many times to fill and finish the container. For example, if you buy a 16 oz container and need to drink 80 ounces of water a day, your goal would be to drink 5 of those daily.
• Infuse Your Water With Flavor: Try adding cucumber, strawberries, lemons, limes, oranges, fresh mint, or dried edible roses to create flavorful water.
• Drink While Driving: Not anything more than water! But fill your container before you get in the car, and sip it as you manage your daily commute.
• Keep a Bottle on Your Desk or the Kitchen Counter: If you work in an office this is a great trick that also works in the kitchen while meal prepping. Always have your water on hand to sip while you work.

Importance of Clean Water
Stop drinking chlorinated water. If you do not have a water purifying system for your home, buy water bottled in glass or large hard clear plastic containers that you can refill. Avoid drinking from soft translucent disposable water bottles as this type plastic degrades quite quickly and leaves tiny particles of plastic in your water that can damage your endocrine system and effect your hormones. Distilling and reverse osmosis systems for your home, are the best. And if you can not have this in your house purchase your water from a place that does this for you. You will find that most towns have a market or a water store that does this, if you do a little research.

Cheers! :)

I finished my 3rd yard sale of the year on labor day weekend. If you've ever had a yard sale you know they are incredibly rewarding, cleansing, and exhausting. I highly recommend at least an annual clearing away karmic/material build up, and if you can not have a yard sale, make a bag and bring to a local charity.

It is interesting what items find new homes, and what is left behind. I noticed a box with the word BioBand, remained in the “first aid” section of my yard sale. My Mom probably gave me this as a gift at some point. The other items that had been next to it, instant hot and cold packs, unopened bottles of tequila & triple sec, were some of the first to go at 8am on Sunday morn.

At the end of the day, exhausted, barely able to stand on my feet, I opened the BioBand box – thinking the Universe has left this here for a reason. I followed the instructions, placed the band approximately three fingers width above my wrist between the flexor tendons on the  surface on the forearm.

A small bead embedded in the adjustable band began to apply pressure on the Chinese meridian point P6 (Neiguan also Nei Kuan).

The Neiguan, P6 point: regulates the heart and calms the spirit, harmonizes the stomach and alleviates nausea.  Acupressure at this point has been scientifically proven to control nausea and vomiting.

Even though the yard sale was done, I still had to clean and get my house back in order. And after putting the BioBand on I immediately felt a sense of ease. My nerves felt soothed, and I felt supported as a sweet second wind of energy.

The manufacturer says to use for relief from nausea causing conditions like car, plain, train & boat travel, morning sickness, post surgery, chemotherapy, and amusement park rides.

1)  Don’t drive at night, unless you absolutely have to.

2)  Travel during the months closest to Summer Equinox to ensure longer light filled days.

3)  Never drive more than 7 hours a day. I prefer driving 4 or 5 hours. This gives you sufficient time to enjoy and rest at your final destination, plus time to stop and take in some of the sights along the way.

4)  Stop in college towns, they often have health food stores, farm to table restaurants, Yoga studios, art galleries, good music and other fun cultural events.

5)  Nurture your self along the way, find the local hot springs, get a good body work session, take a Yoga class, walk in nature, barefoot, swim in glacier fed lakes and rivers...

6)  Find moments of gratitude every day. Even on the difficult days, keep tilling the fertile soil of your experiences to reap life’s subtle messages and synchronicities.

7)  Keep a journal about your experiences.

When I arrived in NYC I discovered, with sadness, I forgot to pack a supply of Yoga props.

Since it was a late hour, and no Yoga studios were open, I decided to go to the neighborhood CVS to see if they carried any Yoga gear. In an effort to keep up with healthy lifestyle trends, many chain-stores are stocked with some Yoga props. I was not lucky on that front. However, as I cruised the isles, I noticed a large pen filled with balls of various shapes and sizes, and a sign that read: 50% off sale! This was a Yoga Therapeutics SCORE!!!! I purchased small balls, big balls, nubby balls, and weighted balls all for under 30 bucks.

One of the nights I was in town, some friends and I spread the balls around an empty room. We rolled on the floor and up the wall to go deep into our tension spots and to access various asanas with support. I highly recommend this as a regular morning and/or evening practice.

The next morning I went to Kula Yoga in Tribeca, which is a wonderful place to land and practice when you are in NYC. They feature a variety of classes from strong to therapeutic, and pride themselves in their community of dedicated Yogis.

I was there to share a workshop called Yoga Therapeutics for Your Sacrum & Hips. A wonderful group of Yogis came out to practice Yoga for their Yoga, and explore going deeper into postures with props, to heal and strengthen this very sensitive part of our bodies that have a working relationship with the health of our 1st two chakras.

The word sacrum is derived from the Latin word for sacred. This area is the place from which we grow strong, when the energy is clear and grounded. It also holds the magic of procreation, and is our connection to ourselves as human animals, and our literal tail.

Most of us have 5 lumbar vertebrae in our "tail.". A small percentage of humans have 6 – this is said to be linked to an older genetic lineage on the planet. Around the age of 16-18 these bones begin to fuse together, and are not done with this process until you are around 26 years old. Depending on your alignment, and the activities you were engaged in during that decade, the bones will fuse, and set a pattern for how you use that area, for the rest of your life.

While in NYC I DJ’d at a Yoga event Aarona Pichinson produces called Yoga Soundscape. As the invited sound artists I provided musical structure for Aarona to lead students on a sweaty and inspiring Yoga adventure. Aarona is a world traveling Yogi. You can experience her unique classes at festivals like Wanderlust and on retreats with Yogascapes. She is also one of the creators of The Moondeck.
 
My journey as a DJ started when I was teenager. And lead to my first career after college  as a sound designer and music supervisor for theater, dance, film, and TV. In the evenings I worked spun at NYC parties, clubs, art galleries and fashion events. My inspiration came from my mother's love of music, and her had a fantastic vinyl collection. When I was growing up she played music at high volumes on cleaning days as we danced around the house singing harmonies together.

My club name, DJ Ganesha Del Mar, was given to me when I was a regular at the original Jivamukti on 2nd Ave. Ganesha, because it sounded like Vanessa. Del Mar because it made the male deity feminine, and because of my love of la mer, the ocean. The name can also be translated as elephant of the sea, a code name for dolphins, which I adore too!
 
I enjoy the creativity of collaborating with moving bodies, hunting for music to create heart centered layers of loops that people can ritualistically move to in performance or in a private moment on their magic carpets.

I call what I create mantra new era, ambient audio acupuncture, an earful of love from my global gypsy, rock, roll, folk, and funk roots. You can check out a selection of some of the sound designs I have created here.

They now live in Maui and teach at a place called Lumeria, and you should totally participate in a class with them if ever you have the chance. Created by Gabriel Roth, a 5 Rhythms dance class provides an amazing judgement free space to become intricate with self-created healing movements, and to let off some steam! All experience levels are welcome as you are guided on a journey, by the music and gentle instructions of the teacher to sweat through old body mind patterns and release into flowing, staccato, chaos, and lyrical movements to find yourself... in stillness.

It happened to be Fashion Week, my last night in NYC. There were many events to check out as we strolled through the city after class. At one of the spots our crew landed makeup artist Laura Nadeau was set up in a corner of the showroom giving advice and quickie make overs. She encouraged women, to keep it simple, in a fun way. If you are in NYC, call her to add spice to your girls’ night out or finishing touches to you bridal party.

I leave you with two special treats for mermaids and water lovers, in the city that never sleeps, check out underwater spin classes at Aqua plus book a soak and massage next door at Ancient Aire. For the price this is the best way to go, and a nice way to finish your experience in this underground sanctuary built to resemble an ancient Roman bath.

When the seasons are changing, and the weather begins to shift, our immune system becomes a little more vulnerable. This is the time to nip things in the bud by making subtle changes to your diet and exercise regime that positively support your body and mind. In this episode of Ingredients for Joy & Wellness Vanessa Kudrat shares with you some of her simple recipes and exercises to help raise your vitality levels throughout the year.

#BodyMindGifts #IngredientsForJoyAndWellness
#tulsi #elderberry #blueberry #lemon #juice plus #Kundalini #Yoga