Nutricia Consulting

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Happy Thursday! xoxo

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I'm doing an autumn detox.  Those of you who've worked with me or read about my detox style know that I like to do things gently - no harsh deprivations or starvations.  So I am going about this in a slow and steady manner.  

Yesterday I took out coffee.  I was a little worried about going without my beloved bean juice, and that worry/ attachment is a big motivator for scheduling a cleanse - I don't want to be an addict!!  Happily, I don't have a headache.  

But I. am. tired.

A friend suggested I have some tea, and so in the interest of easing gently into it, I rummaged around the house and came up with some pomegranate green tea (tasty!).  It didn't help.  Finally I succumbed to a nap.  Was supposed to be 20 minutes.  Turned into 2 hours, in spite of lawn mower and barking dog next door.  

The moral of the story?  Get. more. sleep.  

I've been using coffee to prop me up - a false form of energy, when what I really need is to get a decent night's sleep on a regular basis.  Ahhhhhh, back to basics! 

Do you have any good lessons to share from coffee or other seductive foodstuffs?

And - are you interested in a cleanse or detox?  My e-book is coming soon...  xoxo

Happy Fall Equinox!  Today the day and night are equal in length: tomorrow the night is officially longer than the daylight hours, and we're coasting on toward the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice (December 21).  

Today, day and night are balanced - motivating me to ponder ways to bring balance into my life.  This is an ongoing journey, as I suppose it should be.  If we weren't constantly renegotiating our position, we'd be static, stagnant, dead.  

I'm undertaking a gentle autumn detox to bring some balance to my internal organs (liver, gut, circulation), and hopefully to increase the equilibrium between my external/ social activity and my internal/ contemplative energies.  This summer was incredibly active - and wonderful! - and now it's time to increase the stillness, as indicated by the ramping-down of the growing season and the increasing darkness.

In acroyoga class last week (acroyoga = all about balance!!), our teacher asked which aspect of yoga we most resonated with - the active or the devotional.  (I can't remember the Sanskrit names for these aspects.)  I answered that, since I tend to hurl myself into everything full-force, I am drawn immediately to the active; but my journey is to balance it with the devotional before I burn myself out and hit a metaphorical wall.  

In the Ayurvedic philosophy, this is what it means to be a Vata, the Dosha that resonates with Winter.  Vatas like to spend energy (and money).  I've got some Pitta (Summer) in me as well, but energetically, my life has been a cycle of spend-and-burn-out.  

This morning, after a very busy week, I wanted to get up early and do! do! do!  but instead my body is moving at a snail's pace.  I cannot maintain the linear energy cycle that we consider normal in this society.  I am cyclical (as are we all), and my body and mind need down time, whether I like it or not.

This morning's lethargy led me to a new way of seeing: doing versus receiving.  Output versus input.  Looking at my to-do list, i could NOT muster the focus to write or formulate herbs; instead, however, I was in a very good state to listen to a business-building audio seminar.  A receptive activity that is equally valuable to my world.  Receiving information, rather than active, creative output.  A balance of energies that was missing from the rest of my week.

Activity versus Rest.  Work versus Play.  Social versus Contemplative.  Output versus Intake.  Giving versus Receiving.  

Where do you crave more balance in your life?  

I read an online article about writer's block - not that I think my challenge is writer's block, I think my challenge is more about procrastination, as previously noted.  But i figured it might help.

And it did - ha.  One of the suggestions was (I paraphrase), "Accept that you have to write this."  

Aha.  Writing: 1, Tricia, zero.  

In a good way.  Because, for someone who claims to hate writing, I sure have manifested a LOT of writing projects.  Is this a misfired Law of Attraction?  "What you resist, persists."  

So, my new mission: to accept that I am a writer.  That a fair amount of people enjoy and appreciate my writing.  That writing is a way to communicate with the world, to share my knowledge, to help more people care for themselves more mindfully, with food and herbs and self-nurture.  

Acceptance of what IS.  Blog, newsletter, magazine articles, books.  Back to the grindstone... in a more grounded, less torturous way.  

Oh. my. goodness.  I am procrastinating.

Here's an article I just read about procrastination: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/procrastination.html

It's good.  

My looking up articles online about procrastination is, clearly, an act of procrastination.

I am supposed to be writing.  That's what's on the agenda.  

I hate writing.

Really?  

Yes, for the most part.  I'm pretty good at it - I can put together a sentence.  But the act of sitting down to complete a writing project is somewhat torturous.  Writing is not my muse.  

Ah, the irony - procrastinating large writing projects by completing small ones, such as "blog."

Why do I procrastinate writing?  A number of compelling reasons, made clear to me by this article.  

1. I am a sometimes-perfectionist.  When writing a big project, I have a pie-in-the-sky idea of what it will look like.  Birthing that vision onto actual paper (or screen, as the case may be) is never as good as the original idea, in my mind.

2. I think writing will make me over-focused, over-worked, mean and antisocial.  This is my graduate school post-traumatic stress disorder talking.  I was a mess in graduate school, couldn't organize my time to socialize, and was crazybitchy to any number of people in my life.  Would like to avoid repeat.

3. Fear of being alone.  Writing is solitary.  I'm social.  A conflict of interest. 

How will I solve this boggle, finish my book, my essay, next month's newsletter, future blog entries, magazine articles, etc?  Because, clearly, I have manifested a lot of writing projects into my life.  

One. day. at. a. time.  

Breaking it into small chunks.  

Remembering to be kind to myself.  

Sigh. 

What do you procrastinate?  How do you wrangle it?  

xoxo

It's Labor Day, the end of summer!  I loved this summer and I hope you did, too.  Here's something tasty I'm bringing to today's potluck gathering: 

Crimson Coleslaw (from Bon Appetite via Epicurious.com)

5 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tabplespoons prepared white horseradish

1 cup (packed) coarsely grated peeled raw fresh beets (2 medium)

1 cup paper-thin slices red onion

8 cups very thinly sliced red cabbage (about 1 1/4 pounds)

Whisk 4 tablespoons oil, vinegar, and horseradish in large bowl to blend.  Add beets & onion; toss to blend.  Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in heavy large skillet over medium -high heat.  Add cabbage and toss until wilted and just crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.  Stir into beet mixture.  Season to taste with salt & pepper.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving, stirring occasionally.

Happy celebrating!  

The latest Nutricia's Nusletter is hot off the press!  

Do you have thoughts to share about self-nurture?  Do it here, y'all!  xoxo

You may have heard the word on the street (a.k.a. Facebook) that I no longer have food reactions. 

It's true.

I can't wrap my mind around it.

For 21 years, I had angry red itchy swells on my body on a regular basis.  12 years ago, with the help of my acupuncturist, I began removing foods from my diet.  Whole foods cooking, cleanses, herbs, stress management, and an intense internal journey have since transpired, and as of a few weeks ago, I seem able to eat anything I want to eat.  

The summer of magic and miracles!  

A longer essay/ e-book/ account is on the way.  Stay tuned.  xoxo

I love quotations.  Well, if they make me laugh, tear up, sigh, ponder Life more deeply.

Here's one that hit me, again, today: 

"There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking and say it was good."

-- B. Andreas

 

ah, sigh.  Ain't it the truth?  

From January 2010: 

Happy New Year!  

Yes, I know it's been weeks now of 2010, but it does make me happy to revel in the new-ness of it!  No offense, 2009, but I'm not sad to see you go...

I've just sent out the latest Nusletter -- a tad late, but then Promptness wasn't one of my resolutions.  While I do have actual task- and result-oriented goals, I am in love with Christine Kane's inspiration to choose just one word. (Did you read the article?  It's linked from the newsletter.)

My word is Gratitude.  

I've been focusing on it for some months now, after subscribing to the 42-day World Gratitude wave (highly recommend!).  Returning to this simple word has never failed to lift my heart, lift my mood, bring a new perspective to whatever is happening.  

What's your word?