Within/Without

Peace. Last week I took my 1st sweat at a sweat lodge. I wanted to wait to articulate my feelings. A visit to a sweat lodge was on my hippie bucket list. I was VERY excited when the opportunity fell into my lap. And the timing was perfect. I was coming off my annual fast… Right before the Asiatic New year (solar holiday)…. During a full moon (lunar holiday). And all the elements were represented. The Fire, the Steam, the Wood and me… The Earth! All at the perfect concentric-ness. It was sublime. The sweat lodge was a dedicated lodge with a wood stove inside. The keeper kept it going and fed the stove and a fire directly outside the lodge. He also had herb infused water that he threw on the wood stove that gave off steam and threw on us. The location of the lodge was on a land trust in the middle of the city. That in itself was amazing to me. You just don’t expect that in an urban environment. Original people were the organizers of the sweat. I appreciated that. I don’t trust hi...

Peace. Y'all know I'm a "tryer". My newest thing to try is Kombucha. It's a fizzy fermented drink. It is pretty damn tasty too. Because it is fermented it is loaded with probiotics and enzymes. I have discussed how I don't trust that my stomach makes all the enzymes and has the flora to give me bountiful health so I thought this would be good for me. The 7 heard that it was powerhouse of healthy goodness. So..... I found a recipe. Now I could buy Kombucha in the store... But the price is about #3.50/20 oz bottle. No... Sorry... ain't about to fix my mouth up to fall in love or get addicted to something that costs that much. That's a pack of cigarettes for a beverage! What is Kombucha? Kombucha is a naturally carbonated fermented drink made from sweet tea. Kombucha is consumed all over the world. It has been part of many cultures for thousands of years. Kombucha popped up in China over 2,000 years ago, and has been traveling the world in vario...

Peace. I said I wasn’t going to do a bunch of blogging about this fast, because there is really not much new to talk about. I do this every year. Every year it’s the same. But… I don’t do the master cleanser every year. I have attempted it only once before and made it 5 days. The salt water flushes did me in. The SWF caused heart palpitations that lasted for 12 hours. I had the shakes too. It was too much for me. According to research maybe I was too dirty to master cleanse. Well I hardly believe that! So this season, I decided to master cleanse at the end of my fast. This way…. I’m cleaner and then I can reward myself when the fast is over. Also… I’m not doing the SWFs. That’s too much for me. I will take the laxative teas but not the SWFs. No. Not gonna do it. Even with the laxative teas… I’m amazed at what’s still inside. I haven’t eaten in over 2 weeks… I assumed everything was out! It’s not…. So far…. The regular fast was fine with the exception of all the free food being th...

Peace. 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food' ~ Hippocrates….. That quote is not bullshit. I am one of these people who likes to do the Knowledge to the different foods. Normally when I come up on a new food, I want to know not only how to prepare it, but what it’s good for. So I did a small experiment…. I wrote down all the ingredients for food (in this case juice, since I’m fasting) that I have been eating. From that list I researched the health benefits of each of the different foods ingested. It was very easy since I’m, right now, only ingesting fruits and vegetables. Do you know what I found???? I finally understand what ‘healthy’ means. Natural foods are just that… healthful. These foods reduce blood pressure, prevent diabetes, reduce bad cholesterol, anticancer prevents Alzheimer’s, provide antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and much, much more. If we ate foods in the natural unprocessed state… and by unprocessed I mean without chemical, Franken-f...

Peace. Today marks Day 8 of my annual 21 day cleanse. It’s going fast. Not fast in the terms that time is flying, but all the detoxing and fast symptoms that usual take the entire fast to kick in kicked in almost instantly. Let me lay out the parameters…. 1. The only nourishment taken in is in liquid form. 2. No dairy products 3. Sun Salutations 4. Tumeric/coriander/triphala fibroid treatment 5. Continue to exercise 6. Daily Pranayamas 7. Meditation 8. Master cleanse for a week. So far so good. The results are interesting. Normally I’m not hungry after Day 3, but I am ravenous. It might be because my cycle is due any day now. And every woman knows that her appetite sky rockets before her cycle. A friend of mine once said she was hungry enough to eat one of her children! I expect this hunger to disappear when my period does. I’m being supper orderly with the juices and supplements. The goal is to get protein, simple carbs and a bit of oil. In the morning I make a s...