You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2012.
What if everything you’ve learned about dieting and weight loss was wrong? What if you didn’t have to starve yourself or workout like a maniac? What if you could stop agonizing about every bite that goes in your mouth? Stop The Food Fight is not a diet, there are no costly supplements to take and there are no draconian exercise regimes. (See the video on YouTube)
Stop The Food Fight is a ground breaking two-day workshop, presented by Skip Lackey and his wife and business partner Kristine, founders of Evolution Unlimited based in Boulder, Colorado (go to website).
“Stop The Food Fight tackles the problem by addressing the real issues behind our over eating, those deep-seated control issues that cause us to be reactive to food, the unconscious reasons we overeat and how to clear out addictive eating behaviours,” says Lackey, “In short, how to finally find that freedom from food bondage we’ve been searching for all our lives.”
Stop The Food Fight will be offered for the first time in Canada in Ottawa, Ontario on Feb 25 & 26 and in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on March 24 & 25.
Ziggy worked at a local greenhouse that closed down last year — unfortunately he got left behind.
He’s a good-sized, orange fellow starving for companionship in a loving home. He never really got the attention he craves.
Ziggy is very affectionate, great with adults and older children (we’re not sure how he’d be with young kids or tots as he has no experience).
He’s a real buddy cat — independent but enjoys regular company. He is loved by ladies because he’s sweet and cuddly, but guys also love him since he’s a strong, manly cat.
In the greenhouse he did rounds with the crew and kept it critter free. He went to the shop girls for a good hug then would go off to do his rounds again. He has a terrific personality and has lived most of his life at the greenhouse.
Ziggy has been neutered, had all his shots in 2011 and is litter-trained. Ideally new owners will keep him inside for the first few weeks, letting him to go out once he’s settled down in his new digs.
Time is not on Ziggy’s side — this is an urgent plea for help.
Please leave a message for Carla at 613-839-1198 or email her at carla@ecowellness.com
by Lynn Fraser, Nikken Wellness Consultant & Educational Consultant
The new KenkoLight II is now available.
Human beings weren’t meant to be indoors all the time. Sunlight is good for us — but we spend our days in our homes or offices. To enjoy the benefits of a more natural environment, there is the Nikken KenkoLight II. This is a full-spectrum lamp that produces a broad, evenly balanced range of wavelengths, including those which correspond to natural solar energy.
Why is exposure to full-spectrum light so important? Evidence suggests that it can promote a healthy, normal sleep/wake cycle. In some research, this light was found to help older adults sleep better at night. Other studies indicate that it may assist in improving sleep and learning ability in adolescents. KenkoLight also slightly increases the amount of blue light, which has been identified as a potentially positive influence on circadian rhythm.
These results can’t be duplicated with ordinary incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, because they provide light in uneven or incomplete frequency ranges. In addition, conventional lighting sources create an imperceptible flickering effect that can cause increased fatigue or eyestrain. The KenkoLight LED array is a completely different technology, designed to reduce or eliminate flicker and glare.
KenkoLight illumination is similar to natural sunlight except in one important respect. The KenkoLight emits no potentially harmful ultraviolet rays — the element of natural sunlight that has been linked to premature skin aging and skin cancer.
This form of lighting is much more energy efficient, using less electrical power and lasting up to 60 times as long as a light bulb. The KenkoLight features a clock display and timer with sunrise lighting — a wakeup setting that gradually increases in brightness to help the sleeper awaken more naturally. The dual-position support arm with diffuser allows KenkoLight to be used as a desk lamp and as a mood or nightlight. A built-in USB port adds versatility. The features and benefits of KenkoLight II can be viewed at http://video.nikken.com/watch/?v=kenkolight-2
The KenkoLight II Full Spectrum Desk Lamp costs $236
($200 for readers of Carp Ridge EcoWellness Centre newsletter)
Contact Lynn at:
613-224-9450
by David Shackleton
(You can reply below or contact David at david@integraldesign.org)
I attended last week, as part of my duties as CREWC Building Project Manager, a course by the City of Ottawa on how to plan building projects and work with the City rules and regulations. At one point in the presentation, when we were discussing how subdivisions were planned, the presenter put up a picture of a wooded area that was subsequently turned into a Kanata subdivision. She described the area as “vacant land’.
She meant, of course, that there were no people living there at the time the picture was taken. However, my immediate thought was, “That’s not vacant land, it’s inhabited by trees and animals and birds.”
The presenter’s implied definition of “vacant” is probably correct if I consult a dictionary. However, I think it’s unbalanced. If all that we see, or all that we give weight to in considering whether to “develop” land (as if what we do when we cut down trees and scrape away topsoil is “development”!) is our own species and our own interests, that seems arrogant to me.
There is no question that we have the power to destroy the homes and lives of trees, animals and birds in constructing a subdivision. We cannot abdicate or surrender that power. So the question comes down to, what does it mean to use our power responsibly? If the trees and animals cannot advocate on their own behalf, and they cannot, then we must do so for them. We must use our power consciously.
We must be aware that in building homes for a hundred more human families, we are destroying the homes of maybe a thousand animals, birds and trees. What is the right thing to do? There is no right answer in the abstract, the question must be considered in detail, in the particular circumstances that apply — this land, these trees, these animals, these birds, these people. We must find a way to weigh our own interests in balance with the interests of others who share the planet with us.
We are far from this yet. The first step is to become aware of the interests of those others, to recognize that they are there, that their lives matter. In short, that woodlands, even grasslands, aren’t “vacant,” but intensely populated, and highly developed. Nature has spent literally millions of years developing the species that share the planet with us. Let us seek ways to balance our self-interest with concern for the health of our life-partners, the other species of our natural world.
by Chad Clifford
(ed note: See Chad’s other tracking posts in our archive. Chad is hosting a outdoor tracking series at Carp Ridge during March 2012. Here’s a link to a poster.)
Identifying tracks to a certain species is much easier if you first look for certain clues.
Those clues are not usually found in the track. Only 1 in 100 tracks show clear detail (like toes or nail marks). By far, the two most useful clues to look for are (a) the track pattern of the animal and (b) the overall trail width that the pattern makes.
The diagram shown here of ‘track patterns’ highlights both. Using only these two clues, and with a little practice, you’ll know the difference between the mouse and vole, or even tracks that are weeks old and covered with snow. Of course, there are many other clues to be found, but it is with the ‘patterns’ and that we will start.
Track Patterns
Having four legs and an ability to change its speed, identifying track patterns is somewhat complicated. However, in an effort to not waste energy, there are distinct patterns that the various species use ‘most’ of the time.
Hence, it is useful to group the animals by their ‘regular’ walking pattern. There are four basic patterns a tracker should memorize. The vast majority of tracks you come across will fit into one of these patterns: 1) Slow Walking, 2) Diagonal, 3) Bound, and 4) Gallop. Let’s consider each pattern along with examples of the animals that use each. An advanced study would further consider the patterns found as the animals speed or slow their pace.
Slow walking pattern
Animals that frequent this style of walking include the wide-bodied, slow-moving types such as the: beaver, muskrat, skunk, porcupine, bear, and racoon. These animals seem to waddle along with their wide bodies shifting from side to side. Basically, the legs on one side of the animal tend to move together, followed by the slumbering of the two legs on the other side.
I strongly suggest you get down on all fours and try this type of walk for yourself — it will make more sense! To look at it, this pattern is somewhat of a scattering of track s– almost defying any pattern at all. Most animals in this category have large, soft, padded feet that are somewhat unique in themselves.
TIP: the rear feet of many animals in this category look similar to human feet. That is, elongated with a long and narrow heel.
These soft padded feet allow them to walk through the woods quietly. One summer day while quietly picking edible plants along a ridge, I heard the muffled ‘snap’ of a dry branch. My first thought was “bear”. I’m not paranoid of bears, but I was on a trail that bears commonly used in this area.
What really signalled me to the thought a bear was that it was a loud sound, indicating a large animal and the sound of the snap was muffled — reminding me of the sound of snapped twigs under my soft moccasins. A deer would not make a sound like this with its sharp hooves. I stood up immediately. A cub and I stared at each other for a moment then it turned and scrambled up a tree. What a day for nature observations. . . .
Diagonal pattern
This next group of animals include deer, cat, and dog families. For example: deer, moose, caribou, elk, and fox, wolf, coyote, bobcat, mountain lion and dog. To ‘see’ the diagonal pattern, you must stand back and see the imaginary centre line with foot tracks diagonally crossing over it to form the pattern.
Try diagonal walking yourself by getting down once more on all fours and move your front-right and your rear-left leg at the same time followed by your front-left and rear-right moving together. For the animals that use this pattern, the rear-right foot lands on top of but slightly behind where the front-right foot was a moment earlier. Take a closer look at the track patterns diagram again.
TIP: the front feet of the diagonal walkers are considerably larger than their rear feet. Now you can see and show to others, the front, rear, right and left feet of the deer tracks in your backyard. Won’t you be the envy of your friends!?
Deer have keen senses and they usually know you are coming long before you see them. Hence, they have the time to quietly stalk away undetected. One mid-summer day, on a stroll along an old bush trail I came to a clearing. I had the sudden feeling like something was close or watching me. I assumed that someone let my dog out of the house and it was now catching up to me. She hates to miss a good walk. I looked behind but nothing was there. I kept still for a moment. Then continued on into the clearing.
At the far end of a clearing I heard the distinct sound of a white tail leaping off accompanied by the warning snorts they let off. I looked back to the other end of the clearing where I felt that something was watching me. That deer would have been be able to just see me from where it was, but just barely. Deer are very curious creatures and will sometimes circle around to see what was disturbing their area. It is possible to cut them off and get another glimpse in these situations, which is what I did. I turned right, headed into the bush for 100 metres and sat down quietly. Sure enough, the deer came back, but just a little out of sight.
Bound pattern.
Bounders include the weasel family such as the: least weasel, ermine or short-tail weasel, long tail weasel, fisher, mink, and marten. These animals have long bodies and short legs. Look for five toes. When you see one moving along, they tend to look a bit like a sewing machine needle as their body hunches together and then elongates in quick successions. As they move, the front, two feet land first followed by the rear, two feet that land just behind the front. Some overlapping of the tracks may take place. Notice the unique and offset pattern all four feet make together!
TIP: Look at the imaginary centre line of the track pattern. Notice that the sets of tracks stay true to the centreline and are not diagonal across it. Believe it or not, old snow-covered tracks of a small weasel weighing well under 1/2 pounds can be confused with the track of a 150 pound deer. This is because the four feet that land together of the weasel are about the same size as one deer hove and the distance between the tracks can be similar between the two species.
Moreover, in cold weather and on certain types of terrain, deer tracks do not sink much and in softer snow conditions, the weasel can sink a fair amount. In older tracks, you don’t know conditions at the time the track was made. The trick is to look for the pattern — diagonal or bound. It will be a humbling experience to confuse the two species — just don’t tell your friends when it happens!
I find weasels are exciting creatures to track. They range in size from the least weasel that can chase mice through their own holes, to the fisher that is renowned for having porcupine as a regular part of its diet. On one occasion, I was was following a long tailed weasel track through some freshly fallen snow. The weasel was doing its typical routine of dodging around trees sniffing out the scent of rodents.
As the trail entered a marshy area, the tracks exploded in the snow as it accelerated abruptly, heading somewhere with urgent speed. The tracks which usually fall only several inches apart were now falling many feet apart from each other — quite an accomplishment for a skinny little weasel not much bigger than a chipmunk. I knew something was up. My questions were soon answered as soon after, a pile of blue and grey feathers gently blew around in the wind.
Gallop pattern.
This is an interesting group that includes small critters like mice, voles, and shrews, chipmunks, squirrels, and larger animals like rabbits and hares. This group seems to speed along the forest floor. Their track pattern shows the front feet landing closely together and the rear feet coming around the outside and pass where the front feet landed. Try this yourself and notice how much faster it is compared to the other patterns.
Somewhat unique to this group is the large size of the rear feet compared to the front feet. Just visualize the snowshoe hare’s large rear feet. Don’t forget to look at the overall pattern and the imaginary centre line. The patterns flow in a straight line like the bounders. However, the big difference is in the shape of the four feet together. There are ever so many interesting, little tips with this group that make identifying each track a treat.
TIP: if the front, two feet land almost exactly side by side you are looking at a mouse, not a vole of similar size. The mouse also shows long tail drag marks. Also, the squirrels front feet tend to land beside each other — useful for climbing trees .
A bit of animal trivia: The shrew has a poisonous bite. I’ve seen video clips of a shrew attacking a mouse. It was a short fight as the shrew quickly nipped the leg of the mouse and backed away. The mouse soon lost control of its body. About the same size as a humming bird, the shrews are a treat to track. The tracks can be so faint in the snow that unless you have proper light conditions, you may not even see the tracks when they are pointed out. They have a gallop walking pattern just like the mice, voles, chipmunks and rabbits.
by Chad Clifford (ed note: Check out Chad’s ongoing series — 1st one was posted last month, and we have another this month.)
Join us for a day or the whole series.
$25/day or $65 for all four sessions.
Youth welcome (requires adult supervision)
Four weekend in March:
Sat, 3rd ~ Sat, 10th ~ Sun, 25th ~ Sat, 31st
12:30-2:30 pm
Carp Ridge Learning Centre:
2386 Thomas Dolan Parkway, Carp
Directions: www.ecowellness.com
________________
- Slideshow, talk & then a walk
- New material every session
- Tell-tale signs of various local species
- Introductory & advanced techniques
- Learning gait patterns & tracks
- Identify weeks-old tracks covered with snow
- Animal tracking poster available (local tracks)
- Gain the tools for a lifetime of discovery!
______________
For more info contact:
chad@wildernessrhythms.com
613-259-0249
www.WildernessRhythms.com
This is a recipe from Kim Trott, who makes our tasty & healthy vittles along with Cindy Fleming at Carp Ridge.
- 2 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
- 1 chopped onion (1 large or 3 small)
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic
- 3 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegan bullion cube
- 1 pkg. brown lentils (you can use any type really: green, brown, red, etc.)
- 3 chopped carrots
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp black pepper or cayenne
- 3 spoonfuls of curry paste
- can of coconut milk
- 6 cherry tomatoes
Saute onion, carrots, garlic in oil.
Add broth or water and bullion.
Add lentils, and slowly simmer for 45 min to an hour depending on lentil type (Brown take longer than green or red. I also use whole lentils).
Then add about tomatoes and cook for another 10 min.
Blend the soup with a hand blender and add a can of coconut milk.
by Karen Secord (ed note: Karen operates Fashion this, a company empowering women to display unique style, using second-hand clothing and unencumbered by societal norms & control. Her email is at the end of her post.)
We are a people beaten into submission by beauty thinking, vise-gripped by perfect control.
Perfection. Perfection. Perfection.
The word sticks in the back of my throat; in that place where phlegm congeals, where hockey-playing and cigarette-smoking men “hork” from. It conjures up feelings of unrealistic expectations, imposed by others but willingly worshipped, to varying degrees, by myself and my entire gender.
So, like many women, I have wrestled with body image and the effects of consumer-driven fashion policing my entire life.
“I will not allow my reflection in the mirror to define me as a unique individual,” become my mantra as I grew in size. It reminds me that I am more than my body; that despite a strong urge to do otherwise, I must steadfastly refuse to surrender my outsides to the opinions of others.
To me, fashion is more about how I feel than about what others see. It is an expression of self. Of creativity worn.
I always loved the feel of a silky fabric, the drape of a perfectly cut dress, the excitement of vibrant coloured lipstick. In a way, I think I was driven to lose weight, not because I thought I would magically be transformed into a more beautiful person, but because I would have greater access to more interesting clothing. . . .
Even as a pre-teen my body was too large to fit into the off-the-rack outfits my peers were wearing. My grandmother made me jumpers. My favourites were a light turquoise pleather number that stopped just before my knee and a psychedelic cotton halter that I wore with too short shorts. Both made me walk a little taller when I wore them.
My happiest Saturday activity during those late 60’s early 70’s days was to bike to the neighbourhood plaza with my friends. I would drag them into the area’s one and only dedicated women’s clothing store and they would try on the outfits that wouldn’t fit me, just so I could see how they looked. Visually, even then, personalized style gave me a rush of adrenaline.
At size 26 I frequented high-priced places like Addition-Elle and Pennington’s in search of fashion-for-me. But the options were limited if you didn’t want to look like every other big and beautiful woman on the street. And, unfortunately, the prices reflected supply and demand.
My decreasing size threw my lifelong desire to explore fashion into a rollercoaster tailspin. It was like embracing the old inner me while exploring the new outer me. For the first time in my life a size 16 zipped up easily, and then a size 12 slipped on nicely. I wanted to buy everything that fit. When I managed to do up my first pair of size 8 jeans I sat down in the dressing room and cried.
And then, momentarily, my journey stopped. I didn’t want to be one of those women who unwittingly replaces one addiction with another, trading obesity for bankruptcy.
The reality is that I didn’t hate my body when it was big. Indeed in many ways, I was far more confident with its plump fleshiness. Large rounded breasts and hips may not have fit every style, but I managed to drape them in a way that pleased me, to highlight their own uniqueness.
Although my hips are now narrower and I have bones that can be located, it is a challenge to control the mounds of deflated rippled skin. I camouflage with a modern version of the 50’s girdle. But I often feel, especially when dating, like I am false advertising: I am not a thin person. When the clothes come off I am a deflated fat girl.
So I asked myself: Are you ready to stop colluding with a culture that has always made you feel physically inadequate?
Absolutely!
“Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others”, is the ideal jumping off point.
“This is a call to arms. A call to be gentle, to be forgiving, to be generous with yourself,” says Oprah Winfrey. “The next time you look into the mirror, try to let go of the story line that says you’re too fat or too sallow, too ashy or too old, your eyes are too small or your nose too big; just look into the mirror and see your face. When the criticism drops away, what you will see then is just you, without judgment, and that is the first step toward transforming your experience of the world.”
Clearly, the real key to contentment shouldn’t be buried in what others believe about us. It is hiding in plain sight, in what we believe about ourselves.
So here are my questions for you to ponder. Open up your journal and create a thought map using your answers as guides.
Who lives inside your skin? And what covers it up?
How do you connect the dots between your perceived look, your desired look and your actual appearance?
Once we all fully understand what we truly believe about ourselves on the inside, the way we fashion our outsides will give us more pleasure.
When you’re ready, check out my new business venture ~
__________________________________
Fashion This: your style your way
Motivational fashion talks, tours and personal styling for women.
Dress to embrace the uniqueness that is you by using only second-hand clothing.
______________________________
I can be contacted at writingyou2@gmail.com
Sunday evening I am writing by the fire while Stephen is cooking a dinner of steaks from local grass-fed beef, tempeh for me, sauteed mushrooms and onions and steamed cauliflower, carrots and squash while drinking an organic beer.
We are recovering from our two week vacation with grandson Felix on the Mexican Riviera while Felix is reuniting with his Mom in Ottawa.
The vacation was one for learning and growing: how to stay positive when expectations are not met. I failed miserably.
I was decompressing from a year that was more stressful than I cared to admit and found that my tolerance for anyone else was nil. All I wanted was some time to myself. Grumpy was an understatement, which triggered or aggravated a difficult process with Felix and nearly blew up my relationship.
Felix hated the daycare at our resort, became ill and chose this time to assert his three year old powers. We found ourselves stuck inside our hotel room on perfect sunny days with a child who was coughing, cranky and not open to any suggestions that weren’t his. Standing firm resulted in constant battles with him screaming, crying and throwing things. Our poor neighbours.
None of my remedies helped and I wasn’t in a good mindset to deal creatively and calmly, desperately needing some downtime myself. He finally had a fever and after one more day of nursing inside, allowed us to take him out.
In the second week, we moved to a resort with a kitchen in our room so I could shop and cook simple, healthy meals instead of eating resort food. There was no daycare, contrary to what we were told, and Felix required constant attention. I gave up trying to have a vacation and figured I’d get some rest when back home!
Stephen got sunburnt and we discovered that Glonoine, the homeopathic remedy for sunstroke, was able to cool his burning skin to normal in 20 minutes flat — it was absolutely remarkable! Then he developed a cough which escalated into a miserable flu requiring bed rest.
I gave him the homeopathic remedy Gelsemium and went out to dinner with Felix at a Mexican fiesta where he got to hit a pinata and sit on a burro. When we got back, Stephen was up and cheerful and after another dose, completely better. He couldn’t believe the transformation, thinking he would be recovering for a week.
Through all of this, we had constant positive encounters with the Mexican staff, lovely hard-working people who had a steady supply of patience and goodwill for their sometimes cranky guests against a backdrop of their own poverty and personal tragedies.
I left Mexico realizing how spoiled I am and profoundly aware of my privilege and the need to manage my thoughts, time and energy better so that I can give back without burning out. I’ll let you know how that goes. . .
Note: The Natural Health Clinic is hosting a Weekend Cleansing Retreat, Fri, Mar 16th, 5pm thru Sun Mar 18th, 2:30pm – click here to read more. Spaces are limited so book soon!
___________
You can use these same principles listed below to prepare for a cleanse at home. These actions will markedly help the success and quality of your cleanse and make the process a pleasure instead of a drag.
(And just in time for Lent, if you are so inclined. . . .)
It’s best to start at least a week before a retreat or cleanse. They really are a miniature cleanse in themselves and if you just do these, you are already helping yourself immensely!
- Wean off caffeine, slowly to avoid a headache. Ginger tea with cayenne pepper, lemon and honey is a great substitute.
- Wean off sugar and junk food.
- Start going to bed and getting up earlier. Stop eating earlier in the evening.
- If you are not exercising, start walking for 20 minutes a day. If you are exhausted, just stroll and breathe deeply and slowly.
- Take some time to be aware of your emotions and thoughts. Write down what limits you and how you would like to change. This is often the most important aspect of a cleanse as our bad habits are usually driven by unresolved issues. . .
- What do you consider sacred? How do you tap into it? Be open to input from this core of our lives. . .
- If you are already doing many of these things, wean off wheat, red meat and dairy. Increase your intake of veggies.
- If you are really enthused, you can add some cleansing remedies to your regime such as Alveo, milk thistle or Carduusplex.
- No matter where you are in this process, make sure your bowels are moving regularly. Consult the clinic if you need assistance.
Good luck, and we hope to see many of you at the retreat, which promises to be wonderful as always! We offer facilitators with a variety of gifts to share and support you on the path to wellness and spiritual connection.
Let us know if you have any questions, we are always glad to help!
~ katherine
