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There are many things that are good for the Kindneys health which you can read here, but a simply way to boost them is by drinking Black Sesame Tea:
1. Boil the sesame seeds and dates in some water for 30 minutes
2. Add some homemade almond milk and continue to boil
3. Optional you can strain the liquid removing the sesame seeds and dates or you can whizz them all up together to make a thicker, frothy drink
4. Add honey to taste if the dates aren’t sweet enough for you
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These new guidelines are not without wisdom; sugar and processed food is killing us – literally – however, I would like to look at how we approach this new way of looking at diet. Why do we eat? We eat in order to nourish ourselves, and if you want to take it a step further, to change our vibration making us happier, more vibrant, more deeply in touch with the passing seasons and all the wisdom they hold and as an act of love for ourselves.
The emotional body and mind we bring to the table is just as important as the physical body we bring to the table and what’s actually on the table (within reason!). If we constantly look at food in terms of being ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that creates huge amount of stress within us – in Chinese Medicine how you eat; in a hurry, while anxious, in a state of stress etc, is an actual ‘cause of disease’.
Its worth pausing on that last sentence – how we eat can be a cause of disease…
Its huge… When we are deciding what to eat we have to make sure that the decision process in itself isn’t negating the amazing healing potential of the food we are eating as stress within causes our whole digestion process to shut down.
Make sure your choices really do come from a place of wanting to nourish and love yourself, be calm when you eat – and if you do decide to pick up that ‘treat’ enjoy every mouthful of it and feel it nourishing you – emotionally or/and physically.
Be calm and breath… then shine and spread the gooood vibes by just being you!
]]>I have been reading all of this from the point of view of Western Medicine and the research that has been done in this field; however, my personal interest comes from linking it to the Chinese Medical understanding of overconsumption of sugar.
The Chinese have known for a long time that the overconsumption of sweet food does, what they term as ‘injuring the Spleen’, which essentially means it damages our digestion and then goes on to cause ‘Damp’ which we can roughly translate as ‘mucous’. Mucous in the system slows everything down; our systems become bog like, sluggish and heavy. On top of this when there is a slowing down of the internal flow stagnation occurs and sometimes heat – if we imagine a part of a river that has been cut off from the flow we see the water becomes thicker, it starts to smell and is generally pretty revolting! Well that is what sugar is doing to us – on a very basic level, which is why we feel so sluggish, lethargic and apathetic when we over indulge…after a possible high – of more below.
Chinese Medicine also understandssugar to have ‘heating’ qualities. Its at this point that I have to admit that I fell off the wagon yesterday! (It was a special occasion although I know that doesn’t mitigate the fact I essentially have cheated – sorry!!) I ate a piece of cake and a little chocolate in the evening at a dinner party when my willpower was at an all time low due to tiredness, and the most fascinating thing happened. After I had eaten the cake and chocolate my face started to burn up – I went bright red and felt as if someone had just turned my internal thermostat up by 10 degrees! As well as this I felt an incredible ‘rush’ – a speeding up of everything, vague mania and a lessened ability to concentrate – which if we think of heat and fire is totally understandable.
I saw first hand what the Chinese talk about when they say that sugar causes “damp heat” – I was boiling hot and I have woken up this morning extremely sluggish, almost as if I have a hang over – the damp.
While one evening isn’t going to cause lasting damage or disease it is easy to see how continual consumption can cause Damp, Heat and Stagnation all of which stop the happy flow of our internal organs and therefore over time result in serious disease.
I am now back ‘on the wagon’ again, and am realizing just how addictive sugar – - wow we have to keep vigilant at first if we are to succeed in packing it in for good!
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A little bit of honesty here; I didn’t find last week that easy – in fact, I felt pretty revolting for much of it!
Firstly, I was caught off guard by the intensity of my emotions, for example, I had a perfectly normal conversation about skiing and the mountains when all of a sudden I burst into tears with an intense longing to be back there – I couldn’t believe what was happening! I wasn’t upset as such, just overwhelmed by how much I missed the mountains – something I have forced myself to stop thinking about while living in London.
The physical symptoms were reasonably intense as well! Nausea that came and went, a headache that lasted much of the week – constant and dull, tiredness with a background craving to pick up something in order to give me that instant lift, constant low level irritability as well as a few nights of very light sleep. Nothing I couldn’t cope with, but non-the less a little surprising if I am honest – I had myself pinned as a very healthy sugar consumer!
Monday morning and day 8 has seen me feeling calmer, fresher and with less food cravings in general – so this is a short little post to say that it does pass and with it comes many insights. My favourite phrase; “This too shall pass” is spot on – it all does pass, and then you grow, and learn, and remarkably don’t need sugar or comfort food to numb the raw emotions or as a companion to ride those waves of longing, both physical and emotional…
In the wider picture this is a small example of how if we ride out those sticky moments we do indeed reach the other side to sunnier shores where clarity lies – so don’t give up, keep going it does get easier… And with every tough wave we ride through it can be in the knowledge that the next will be that little easier!
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I have read about this and do kind of remember it happening when I stopped drinking, but doing this challenge is really bringing it up and sometimes where I would least expect it.
Why do people get so irritated by what others choose to do? Why do we feel we should control and tell others what to do and how to act? Why can’t we just let people be as they are?
Saying no to sugar in public has raised a few eyebrows (and a few heckles!) which has made me feel a little uncomfortable and I would be lying if it doesn’t make me question whether I am being ‘over the top’ and ‘obsessive’.
As if by magic while this was coming up for me an email from TheDailyLove and smiled – I couldn’t have put it better: “How to stand up to resistance without being a Jerk” says it all really! Thanks Mastin.
So take inspiration – if you are doing something from your Heart then follow it and stand up for it – any resistance tends to come from making others uncomfortable about whats going on for them and any advice they do give you is usually well meaning… But gently stand up for your own Heart in the face of any external resistance – thats what I plan on doing when lovingly baked chocolate pudding is presented to me at friends houses!
]]>So here I have my top five tips to keep motivated and I will add any more I pick up on the way into my 8 week Sugar Free Challenge!
1. What’s my WHY?
In order to keep going at something the core motivation behind it has to be strong, and I mean bullet proof strong – i.e. a decision made with your heart rather than your head.
This decision to go sugar free for me was all about looking after myself better and doing something kind to myself – so my knees and wrists (arthritis) hurt less (a strong motivation as I love running and yoga and have missed them of late), so I feel a greater clarity and ultimately to be free of this pesky addiction to sugar.
2. Side step the cravings and voices in your head – step into a different energetic frequency
3. “This too shall pass”
Cravings pass…tough moments in life pass…everything moves on regardless of it being hard or easy. The key therefore is to stick with those feelings of emotional discomfort, sit through them, to actually experience them rather than simply numb with sugar. The feeling when the discomfort has passed without trying to push it down is far more exhilarating that the taste of sugar I promise you!
4. Get excited about cooking again.
I have a wealth of amazing books from which I will be gleaning inspiration over the next 8 weeks: I Quit Sugar Cookbook, Crazy Sexy Kitchen and Honestly Healthy to start with – this will keep me inspired for the long haul…and who knows could make a ‘cook’ (a term I use loosely!) out of me yet!
5. Flowers.
Buy yourself flowers! Flowers – especially roses I find – have the power to calm you down and recalibrate. They can bring the calming spirit of nature into your home which when riding an emotional roller coaster is just what we all need.
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I read a slew of inspiring stories of how people changed their lives radically and reached pinnacles of health, and thought how wonderful it was for them, but I didn’t need all these challenges as I am an average weight, eat ‘healthily’ and didn’t want to be too ‘extreme’ and appear obsessive… So apart from not eating gluten as I was diagnosed as seriously intolerant when I was young I thought I was ok on the sugar front as I didn’t eat much of it…did I?! This is where I read the ‘I Quit Sugar’ blog by Sarah Wilson and looked at how she got into changing her life.
I feel that I am in a strange position; I work, and have worked in the health industry for 12-14 years and I am generally very healthy… however, I have been noticing of late a few things that shouldn’t really be happening at 36; achy knees and wrists – to the extent that it hurts to walk downstairs – these left me when I went on a juice cleanse this summer (go figure!) and on a hormonal level I have had serious issues since my early twenties.
As I said in a previous blog post, I was freaked out when I realized quite how much ‘healthy sugar’ I was putting away – 40g a day was a conservative estimate. This really propelled me into a renewed dedication to practicing as I preach. Its all very well knowing about the devastating effects sugar has on our health but what’s the point of that knowledge when I don’t put it into practice and effectively think that I am ‘different’ somehow just because I am not about to fall off my perch!
Time to change and start practicing what I preach – here is to Day 1 and buckets of enthusiasm!!
]]>Over the past few years I have found myself being seduced by the white stuff in the most convincing of guises…’Sugar free’ chocolate brownies…smoothies…raw honey…agave…gluten free, sugar free chocolate cookies…the list goes on. I was sucked into the most beautiful marketing heist and found myself eating nearly 40-50g of sugar a day (conservative estimate) – we are meant to be eating 25g! I salute you ad agencies, however, now I am going to react.
I picked up Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’ book and when I read that she, like me was a ‘healthy eating’ sugar addict I decided that I really had to do something about my own sugar addiction. Currently I absolutely HAVE to have something sweet after meals, I will reach for ‘healthy’ sugars the moment I feel blue, frustrated, let down, lonely, stressed etc… basically any emotion that I feel I am unable to cope with in that moment and I my mind will wander to food and always the sweet stuff.
Along with this annoying addiction that controls my mind, I have a series of health issues that really don’t need sugar messing with them further, but more of that in the blog posts to follow. So this is a commitment to doing Sarah’s 8 week Sugar Free Challenge and we will see how I get on. I need to start practicing what I preach!! Let the games begin…
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