Winter Winter Winter

The Artic Chill has arrived with local hail, thunderstorms and snowfall in the Dandenong’s. June is shaping up to be what looks like a true winter . Today is the first day I have pulled out my three winter essentials; scarf, gloves and hat. I remember last year I barely pulled out my winter coat. The weather this year certainly seems to be on the colder side. 2011 will be the year of the forgotten summer and hopefully a great snow season. Which brings me to my question. . How do we protect our health and ourselves for the up and coming cold winter months?

Believe it or not, I like to live my life according to the seasons. For some, this may be hard to believe (Mum & Dad). My life journey has taken me down many windy roads only to discover the joys of balance. My philosophy is Health-Life-Balance. “Fit as much as you possibly can into life with a balance”. I have an image in my head of a clown juggling five balls at once. I have lost count of the countless early mornings I have spent riding, running or swimming during winter. Now, that I’m in my 30’s I have finally found some common sense. What does my exercise regime look like in winter? Yoga, Yoga, Yoga with a couple of runs thrown in (All weather dependant).

What I love about yoga is that is has taught me to go inwards and learn to just stop and be. My life has always been doing and this is all I’ve known. I thrive on the go, go, go but now I really appreciate the quiet times. This is what winter is about. Its all about the Yin aspect, surrendering, quietness, giving back to yourself, spending time with loved ones, cooking, early nights, movies, dvd’s and the big one for me is having a sleep in. I love listening to the rain outside and hugging in snuggly doona, as cheesy as it sounds, and I love the five-letter word – R.E.L.A.X. Winter is the time to really appreciate the simple things in life. This is the perfect time of year to replenish your health and conserve your energy.

Tips for Winter
• Consume lots of hearty warming foods
• If you’re feeling tired and your body needs rest- listen to your body- not your head.
• Rug Up- scarf, gloves, beanies, hats.
• Reduce your stress levels- take a trip down to the Mornington Peninsula “Hot Springs”.
• If you feel a cold coming on- eat Miso Soup with fresh spring onions. It’s winters best natural remedy.
• Reduce your coffee intake. Drink Chai tea/lattes
• Sleep in
• Stay Dry

Miso Soup with Shallots - A remedy for the common cold

Miso Soup with shallots is an ancient Chinese herbal remedy for colds. In 300 AD a famous herbalist, Ge Hong, writes about Miso Soup with Shallots in a book called, Bei ji zhou hou fang or Emergency Formulas to Keep Up One’s Sleeve.

The soup is used at the onset of a cold when a person is just beginning to feel a headache, stuffy nose, muscle aches and a slight fever.

Miso Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:

6 cups water
3-4 tablespoons Miso or red soy bean paste (usually sold in the refrigerated section)
3-5 green onions stalks, chopped
3 pieces each of thinly sliced fresh ginger & garlic

Directions:

Dissolve the miso in a little bit of hot water (about 2 tsp.)
Bring water up to boiling point in a saucepan and add the miso & shallots & ginger.
Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from heat top with green onions and serve.

Variations: you can add various other ingredients to make a more substantial soup, such as tofu, fresh mushrooms, snow pea sprouts, cooked rice noodles

So, the next time you feel a cold coming on, be sure to have your miso!

SRPING FOODS- What's good to eat this time of year

SPRING: What foods we should consume during spring.

During spring it is important you consume gentle nutritious food- full sweet flavours such as legumes and vegetables. We should also eat foods with upward energies such as young, green, sprouting above ground vegetables. Tis also the season to enjoy scallops, prawns and calamari.

FACTS
• Stress headaches are connected to the function of the liver. Drink spearmint tea or try eating celery to eliminate and reduce your headache.
• Peppermint tea can dispel wind and clear heat from the head & eyes and relieve stagnant qi. Try a cup to relieve nausea.
• Chinese Red Dates: act as a sedative and calm the mind and spirit. Make a meal of them by adding a few to rice congee. They are excellent support for the spleen during spring.
• People engage in more physical activity, which creates more internal warmth thereby enabling you to consume more raw foods such as salads etc. If you are weak or deficient, or not very active stick to warm, freshly cooked foods.
• In Spring, get rid of phlegm by eating papaya
• For a dry cough, try eating celery.
• Mung beans, green peas and green beans are colour coordinated to enliven the spirit of spring. They also remove heat, which can be very beneficial.

FOODS TO EAT
Oats, pine nuts, prawns, ginger, fennel, spring onions, basil, celery, mulberry, strawberry, peppermint, hot water with fresh lemon, prawns, scallops, calamari, leafy greens, broccoli, spring onions!!!!, grapefruit, chamomile, peas, sunflower seeds, cherries, cabbage, sweet potato, carrot, beetroot, rosemary, oregano, dill, bay leaf, Grains, legumes, seeds, mung beans, green beans, chicken, watercress, lettuce, seaweed, raw honey, apple cider vinegar, liquorice root.

FOODS TO AVOID
Hot spicy foods, greasy foods, too much tofu, slippery foods such as honey and spinach, especially if you suffer diahrrea.

GUIDELINE: an example of a typical day.

Breakfast.
Porridge/Oats with fresh berries or Whole GRAIN toast with avocado/tomatoes/pepper/mushrooms/little cheese or hummus or tahini

Snack
Nuts/sultanas/apricots/sunflower seeds/pine nuts

Lunch
Rice with shitake mushrooms, chicken/ beef (NB: Cabbage, broccoli and leafy greens promote digestion of meat)
Sushi with miso soup
Sandwich- salad on rye bread

Dinner
Pick any of the above out of foods to eat
Asparagus soup
Steamed fish with ginger/ salad/vegetables
Prawns, scallops, calamari (steamed)
Scallops with asparagus
Stir fried rice noodles with vegetables
Shitake mushroom with tofu
Vegetarian shish kebabs
Chicken and rice casserole with prawns and chestnuts etc

This gives you a base of things to pick and choose. Don’t go crazy on one particular thing- balance it out.

Putting my herbs to the Test

Well for the very first time in a long time i have come down with a wind-cold attack. Frankly speaking i have a cold. As i am in training for the Noosa triathlon and have been expending exuberant amounts of energy into work and training, finally something had to succumb, and that was my health. Struck down with a cold and going against my own advice. I know exactly when i caught this wind-cold attack and it was from not wearing enough layers of clothing on bike on my way back to work from training.

So this afternoon i had to leave the office. Bag packed with some King Tim Cough Syrup and a batch of powdered herbs. As i have a close friend down from Brisbane for the weekend, i thought to myself i really don't have anytime to be under the weather. I have work in the morning and commitments in the afternoon.

As a Chinese herbalist i decided to let my herbs speak for themselves or pardon the pun let the feet do the walking. My challenge to myself is too see by tomorrow morning, mid morning that my cold will be almost gone (completely) and i will be a functioning human being!

Tonight for dinner I've had my soup that i prescribe for my clients, desert was a dose of King Tim, my trusted herbal prescription and a multivitamin. A hot shower to follow and into my pyjamas, couch, DVD and blanket.

The Common Cold

The Common Cold and Spring

The season of spring brings not only the warmer weather but also the wind. This time of year i will often see lots of clients with common colds. Generally, the common cold is often caused by an invasion of wind and cold. The areas which are most affected are exposed necks, backs and heads. During spring i advise you to keep warm by wearing a scarf and avoid the wind if possible.
The typical symptoms of a common cold consist of: sore, tight neck, runny nose, headache, chills.

If you feel you are coming down with a cold the best home remedy for the common cold is:

Miso Soup
3 spring onions, white parts only, coarsely chopped
2 slices of ginger, 20 cent piece
2 sprigs of mint

Add spring onions and ginger to saucepan, adding 2-3 cups of water. Bring to boil then for the last couple of minutes add mint.

Strain liquid into miso soup and eat/drink.

If you get the cold just when its starting- on its first day. You will stop it in its track. I have this everytime i'm coming down with a cold! It works like a treat and suprisingly tastes good!!

Why do our stomach's make loud noises?

Yesterday i had one of my clients ask me why her stomach makes loud noises? This is an interesting question, as from time to time we all hear our stomach's talking to us. The term used to describe such noises is called “borborygmus”. The word borborygmus is known as an onomatopoeia; a word created to sound like the noise or event that it represents. The Ancient Greeks were the first to use the word in effort to describe the sound made by a hungry stomach.

Borborygmi- the growl or rumble occurs most often when we are hungry,
or just after we have eaten a meal. It originates in the stomach or upper part
of the small intestines as muscles contract to clean house, moving food and
digestive juices down the digestive tract. The intensity of sound differs
according to the intensity of the contractions and the contents of the stomach
and intestines.

Borborygmi is not an inherited trait or condition. It is possible
(whether you realize it or not) that you suffer from alactasia
(or lactose intolerance) – an inherited condition
causing the lack of the enzyme needed to digest milk sugar.
Try modifying your diet and see if you get better results.
If you eliminate milk and milk products (cheese,creams, etc.) from your diet
for a few days you may note a dramatic drop in the frequency (no pun intended)
in the noise or it may stop altogether.
Otherwise, for the time being at least if this embarrassing situation happens
to you in the library, or some other quiet setting where others can hear it,
a temporary solution that sometimes helps is to apply a bit of pressure to
your abdomen or simply slip a cracker or cookie into your mouth to “fool”
your stomach into believing that there is more to come.
Both of these solutions seem to work for most people.