Hey Obama: I'm Reforming My Own Health Care Bill, Naturally!

Dear President Obama,

I'm reforming my own healthcare bill. After careful review, I have decided that paying into private insurance companies and potentially spending a fortune on medical bills as I age, makes me feel scarily out of control. I am convinced that the best insurance policy I can invest in is my own body: keeping it healthy, strong and beautiful will keep me out of the doctor's office better than anything else. I will save money, and have the glorious health to enjoy doing fabulous things with it!

From this day forward, I am going to wake up every morning (after my 9.5 hours of sleep) and detoxify my body with a glass of citrus-infused pure water. This will help restore my body to it's neutral PH state, reducing the acidic environment where illness loves to thrive.

It's time I got to know myself a little better. I will engage in a deep-breathing exercise and gentle meditation, to start my day stress-free and in positive mindset.

For breakfast I will feast on meuseli (raw oats, nuts and seeds) with soy milk and fruits, to give my body fiber, protein and energy. I will drink green tea to increase my antioxidant intake (after my coffee though, sir. Protocol!).

I will attempt (I'll do my best here, late nights/weather pending) cardiovascular exercise, working my heart and lungs to significantly lower my risk of developing heart disease and all other illnesses.

I will dry brush my skin in circular motions, ridding myself of dead skin cells to reveal fresh, new skin.

In the shower I will perform a breast self-exam, familiarizing myself with my best parts and managing any changes. If I'm in the mood, I may enagage in a partner exam (they say love is the best preventative medicine, right?).

After, I will massage an organic, naturally based body lotion into my body, which will help increase my blood circulation to deliver oxygen to every part of my body. Using non-toxic personal care products will also limit my exposure to potentially cancer-causing chemicals, which I absorb through my skin (up to 80%!).

I will undertake my daily work, organizing my schedule so that I am able to accomplish goals and deadlines. This will satisfy my desire for success, and contribute to my positive piece of mind. If I am unable to manage my deadlines, I will not stress myself out. I will have meditated this morning, and reminding myself of this will return me to my calm, centered state. A dose of Concentration Essentials will help me, too.

I will fuel myself with 5 small meals throughout the day, to keep my blood-sugar at consistent levels. This will help keep my hormones balanced, too.

Every day, I will try to do something I have never done before. After all sir, variety is the spice of life (and everyone knows that spices are potent sources of anti-oxidants, which scavenge free-radicals that cause premature aging).

Every day I will laugh my perky (yes it is, thanks to my fitness partner Buster) butt off. Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect me against a heart attack, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

And everyday I will find a way to love myself, since without doing this I can't imagine having the capacity to love others (and as we all know, love is all we need!).

So thank you, President Obama, for giving me the opportunity to reform my own health care bill. Taking it into my own hands - and body - is the best bill I've passed so far!

Love, Sage

Photo Credit: deed.en_CA

Yammy! Food of the Month - The Yam

I am a total foodie. I love food, I love to read about it, I love to look at it. I especially love to eat it. Thanksgiving is one of my absolute favorite holidays, pretty much due to the incredible menu. Most of all, the amazing yam. I love yams so much that on a near weekly basis to date I have fried, baked, mashed, pied, and even juiced (yes, raw!) them.

In keeping with this month's rather fallish theme, I have chosen the yam for this installment of the Food of the Month Club.

It may surprise you, but contrary to popular belief yams are not the orange mash you're probably enjoying this Thanksgiving. Those possibly marshmallow or almond crusted yumminess are really orange colored sweet potatoes, named to distinguish them from their yellow-fleshed sisters. True yams have flesh in colors varying from white to ivory to purple, and skin from white pink or brownish-black. They are long and cylindrical, often having little "toes" and a rough and scaly texture - and they can grow beyond 3 feet! To taste they are super starchy - earthy, hardy and hardly sweet at all.

The yam is one of the oldest plant foods known. As one story goes, while Portuguese slave traders were watching natives in Guinea dig up the tubers, they asked what they were; the reply, "nyami", meaning something to eat. A few centuries worth of the game telephone, and we have yam.

The yam has been cultivated as far back as 10,000 BC in Africa and Asia, as well as tropical and subtropical regions of N and S America. The edible versions of the yam play a staple role in those regional diets, with the rest of the approx. 600 species being poisonous to humans. In fact, the alkaloids have been used to kill fish and to poison darts and arrows for hunting! Oh my yam, you are so yin and yang.

Speaking of yin and yang, the yam has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to affect organ function, particularly the kidney. It is also used to support the female endocrine system. Nutritionally, one cup of yam supplies us with almost 30% of our recommended daily intake of vitamin C and potassium, as well as manganese and dietary fiber. The levels of B6 found in yam have been shown in some research to help combat depression associated with PMS; it can also help reduce the risk of heart disease. The presence of manganese helps metabolise the carbohydrates, and is a cofactor in energy production and antioxidant defence. This helps to make yam a complex carb - the kind I like to eat!

During the months of October to December I stock up on this tuber. I make sure they are organic though, especially since this year the EWG Shoppers Guide to Pesticides reported conventionally grown yams to be one of the 12 foods most frequently containing pesticide residues.

Finally, here's how I love to enjoy my yummy yams this month. Try my recipe out, and enjoy!

Sage`s Yams

4 medium yams

3 (2-inch) strips orange zest

2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons peeled and finely chopped ginger root

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Peel and halve the yams crosswise. Cut each half lengthwise into 4 wedges. Place the yams in a baking dish that will hold them in a single layer. Tuck the orange zest and cinnamon sticks among the yams.

In a bowl, whisk together the orange juice, maple syrup, lemon juice, ginger, and salt. Pour the mixture over the yams. Bake for 1 1/4 hours, basting every 15 minutes, until the yams are tender and glazed and the pan juices are syrupy (use a spatula to turn the potatoes now and then.) Remove the orange zest and cinnamon sticks before serving.

Yield: 4 servings

Adapted from: The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen

Yammily, Sage

* You're all in my Food of the Month Club, so email me your pics and recipes! Prizes for the pics I post!

Photo Credit: coyotejack

The Winter Of My Skin's Discontent

I was painting my nails with my eco-fabulous Zoya polish this morning, when I noticed that my hands were very dry. My gaze drifted up my arm, where I was mildly annoyed to find a slightly scaly elbow; a trip to the bathroom to fetch my lotion meant visiting the mirror: grrr, yes, my cheeks and lips had become wintered! What does that mean? With our colder, darker weather comes dryer skin. I call this period winter of my skin's discontent.

Baby, it's cold outside. So what do we do? Turn up the heat, natch. But that only exacerbates our dry skin problems. Internal heating systems are incredibly drying (they suck up any humidity), as are upping intake of warm caffeine-fueled drinks, and encountering extreme temperature shifts (car to shop to car to shop). Add to that our obsessive hand washing (it's flu season, yo!), and our skin pays the price.

But hey, no skin off my (or your) back! There are plenty of things we can all do to stay hydrated inside and out:

- Water down: Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. This will hydrate every single cell in our bodies, including what's outside!

- Oil up: Top up your essential fatty acids. I love Udo's Oil in everything from smoothies to garlic mashed potatoes to salad dressings.

- Dish it out: Place shallow dishes of water around your home or office, or turn on a humidifier.

- Cool it: Take it easy on the hot baths and showers. Overheating can add to dryness!

- Dry brush: To remove dead skin flakes, try sloughing them off with a loofah mitt or body brush. Move the mitt or brush in small circles across your skin, along arms and up legs towards the heart. When you're done, enjoy a warm (not hot!) bath or shower, then lock in moisturizer.

- Moisturize: Skin on face, hands and body all need help protecting its moisture barrier. For winter months, switch to a heavier formula. Try leaving skin slightly damp after washing, and massaging in moisturizer on top. It will help seal in the extra moisture!

- Get raw: Raw fruits and veggies have a higher water content than their cooked cousins. Eat up!

With this info now in rough, dry hands, I hope that you all find relief like I did! Oh, and by the way all that the dry brushing, massaging and lubing is rather spa like, too. Bonus: it's the perfect way to unwind at the end of your day, and helps you get to bed (see yesterday's post!). Enjoy!

Love, Sage

Solving The World, One Z At A Time

Zzz... Oh! Hi, sorry, geezzz... I must have dozed off. I shouldn't be surprised, since today I'm writing to you from my very newly decorated bedroom. I'm underneath my new 300-thread count organic cotton sheets, with my vegan-friendly pillows and duvet tucked in all around me. I've painted my walls a calm, robins-egg blue, and I have anointed my pillow cases with lavender oil. Soft music is playing in the background. I am peaceful... serene... zzz...

Hell-ooo! Sorry about that, again. Boy do I feel sheepish. And I don't even have to count them! That's right, I have created the perfect environment conducive to sleeping. It was necessary, since, like at least 40 million Americans, I had one of a noted 70 sleep disorders.

According to the National Sleep Foundation - yes, it's enough of a problem to have this kind of a foundation - millions of us are not sleeping enough. Lack of sleep can cause all kinds of problems, from issues related to the brain, nervous, cardiovascular and immune systems. For me, that means I can't remember much, can't hold onto my personal belongings without dropping them, get tired a lot, and feel sick. Actually, I feel like a truck has hit me. And I recently noticed my fine-lines are more pronounced without enough sleep. That was my final call to action.

For many people, lack of sleep can cause insomnia (me, again), accidents (road rage!), hypertension and elevated cardiovascular risks (stroke), emotional problems (depression, bipolar disorder), and obesity. In some crazy cases, lack of sleep can even lead to alcohol and drug abuse.

Ok, it's pretty clear that most of us need way more sleep. I recently read that most humans are built to stay awake for 16 hours, which leaves 8 hours for sleeping. I need more like 9.5, and so does my mom. It's genetic (yeah folks, look that one up!), and I for sure don't get that much.

So how to get more sleep? Well for most of us, sleeplessness has nothing to do with not having enough time to sleep. It has to do with what's keeping us up: stimulation from television, computers, music, food, and of course work. Anything that stresses our nervous system will keep us alert, and we need to seriously chillout.

- First, decide on a consistent time to call it a night. Establishing a regular bedtime hour will help signal the body into gearing down.

- Next, shut the books early. Unless you're on a close deadline, working into the night will only burn you out in the long-run. That goes for physical and mental work, too. And turn off that computer! Flickering screen = googly-eyes. Yow!

- Keep stimulating activities out of the bedroom. We spend more time sleeping in bed than almost anywhere else - and that's all it should be used for! Well almost, of course. Excepting activities involving a certain bedside manner. Ahem.

- Create a sacred, silent space with your bedroom. Invest a little in the room most used in your house: paint the walls in light, gentle colors (skip the reds and blacks), choose soft materials for the bed (preferably organic), and use easy lighting. Get that tv outta there! And keep your space clean, and clutter-free. Think of your space as a reflection of your inner world: clutter on the outside contributes to a cluttered mind - and sleeplessness.

- Try some relaxation techniques: meditating, warm bathing and gentle exercise like yoga will all coax baby to bed.

- A gentle supplement can help: try Natural Sleep Essentials with jubjube and fleece flower.

- Finally, go to the spa! Crack open the essential oils (lavender and chamomile are super relaxing) and add a few drops to a bath or shower. Sip a soothing drink like tea of chamomile, which will help you to unwind. Now I did say sip to unwind - I didn't say reach for the whiskey! While some may try alcohol to relax and get drowsy, alcohol actually works to stimulate. It will wake you up mid-night, guaranteed! Skip it.

I wonder now if getting enough sleep could actually solve many of our societal issues? If so many millions of Americans are suffering from sleep depravation, maybe that's why our culture seems to be so aggressive and quick to anger. Sounds like an epidemic to me!

Hmmm... I think I'll put that one to bed and take it back out tomorrow. Good night...

Zzz, Sage

Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7

It Burns! It Burns! - Treating UTI's

As I have stated before, I am one uber-healthy lady. It is so rare for me to find myself sniffling or sneezing, rashing or otherwise. The one burning exception that rocks my status, however, is my propensity for UTI's - the dreaded urinary tract infection. For me, there is nothing worse. And in my case, it is both excruciating and debilitating - it feels like I'm under-garmented with a lit match. Yes, down there!

A UTI is a bacterial infection of the bladder and urethra. Common among women, research shows that approx. 50% of all women (vs. 12% of men - you're not immune either!) will have at least 1 in their lifetime. I think that female statistic is a little low: I have had maybe one hundred during mine so far. I digress, but only to assure you that I am an experienced sufferer. I know what I'm talking about!

Women have shorter urinary tracts than men, which make us more susceptible to bacteria that can invade and multiply. Most of these infections are not serious, though totally ridiculously uncomfortable. Common symptoms can be the need to pee a lot, pain or discomfort upon urination, bloating and cramping. In general, these are more annoying than dangerous.

Conventional medical treatments commonly use the ubiquitous antibiotics (surprised? I didn't think so). They work, yes, but of course as we've learned, antibiotics wipe out our good bacteria with the bad, making us vulnerable and defenceless to a new attack (read my article on probiotics when you're done with this one HERE).

Many UTI's can be treated naturally, and are most effective when used at the first sign of symptoms. Most important is dramatically increasing fluid intake: a flushing of the urinary system helps eliminate the bacteria.

Recently during my last bout I came across a treatment called D-Mannose. A natural occurring simple sugar, it has been found to be the active ingredient present in cranberries, apples, peaches, berries and some plants. While it is a sugar, it is absorbed by the body at a much slower rate than normal sugars, and isn't converted to glycogen or stored in the liver. What this means is that it does not alter our blood sugar levels. It is filtered quickly through our kidneys and bladder, and passes through our bodies without disrupting our natural health bacteria. Within a few hours of taking it, my typically troublesome symptoms were gone!

Naturally treating UTI's is effective, but prevention is even better. When it comes to UTI's, a few simple rules can mean the difference between a burning hell and a day in the park:

- Pee after sex!

- Wipe from front to back. This one is a no brainer for most (girls, that is), since our back-ends are the site for eliminating waste, and therefore home to many bacterium.

- Reduce or eliminate refined sugars, flours, caffeine and alcohol. These foods cause an overly-acidic state in the urine, the perfect setting for bacterial growth.

- Go! When you gotta, you gotta. With holding when you need to use the lady's (or men's) can keep bacteria trapped, and multiplying.

Please note: a UTI should never be taken lightly. Bloody urine, fever and rashes are all signs that your infection has gone deep, beyond the bladder and into the kidneys. While I always advocate a natural approach to treatment first, in this case seek medical attention immediately!

Love, Sage

Photo Credit: respres

Today, lest we forget...

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

Love, Sage and the NaturalWellbeing Family

Photo Credit: jono2k5

Post-Thanksgiving Digestion - Acid Reflux Essentials

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays - I love the sentiment, and I love the food even more! Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls and butter... Not to forget my mom's celebrated pecan pie. But last season I gobbled a bit too much gobble-gobble - and I suffered a huge case of acid reflux. If your Grandma's famous stuffing has you feeling beyond famously stuffed - bloated, crampy, burpy and possibly even experiencing chest pains - then you too may be experiencing gastroesophageal reflux.

Acid reflux takes its name from the Medieval Latin "refluxus", meaning "to flow back". The acid part comes from, you guessed it, stomach acid. Therefore if you are experiencing acid reflux, your stomach acids are literally flowing back - or rather, up - into your esophagus, causing sensations that are often referred to collectively as heartburn.

Acid reflux is common, and can have a variety of causes: stress, pregnancy, excess weight, diet, smoking, and getting all ancient Roman - eating too quickly and reclining right after. No matter what the cause, almost nothing is worth the experience.

The short term effects of acid reflux are mostly in the range of discomfort, which can vary from person to person. But for those with a chronic condition, long term inflammation of the esophagus can damage lining and cause bleeding, ulcers, and scarring: over time, the cells in the esophagus can change shape and color - sometimes even leading to cancer of the esophagus. In other words: this is a condition that should be treated and prevented, faster than you can say "can I have some more, please?"!

Acid reflux is so common (read: millions of Americans) that many conventional manufacturers have a short term solution: medicines that reduce stomach acid like Zanprol and Protium. While they may help in the short term, common side effects include: gas, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and headaches - the very conditions they are meant to treat! Not only that, this summer Fox News reported that even short term use of "popular acid-reducing heartburn drugs may raise the risk of hip fractures," . This information could be hard to stomach, if there weren't a natural solution! Which of course, there is.

For many sufferers, a few lifestyle changes effectively help to treat and prevent future occurrences. Avoid chocolate (I know, I cried too), peppermint, coffee (again, more tears), tea, refined flours and sugars, and nuts. Incorporate an herbal formula designed to help rebalance the digestive system, like Acid Reflux Essentials. And give yourself some breathing space: research has shown that people with acid reflux who practice deep breathing each day significantly reduce the uncomfortable sensation.

I can't imagine a holiday season without my mom's fabulous pie, and this year I'll be better prepared!

Love, Sage

*A note for about-to-be-moms: while you may temporarily experience heartburn during pregnancy, herbal supplements are a no-no. Heartburn is totally - annoyingly - present during pregnancy, so invest a small fortune in probiotic yogurt and reap the rewards! Translation: the fermented, healthy bacteria-laden food will help the sensation tremendously. Consider this the sagest of all my advice, past and present.