Acupuncture, Holistic Health Coach and Camping

For a healthy person it seems that I have a lot going on in my life as far as preventive maintenance. Last week, I went to my naturopathic physician for a check-up and a seasonal acupuncture. After checking my pulses she found that the pulses were finally balanced, but a little weak. The acupuncture this time was to strengthen my spleen qi. The needles followed my lower rib cage and my lower legs. I felt really good after it was completed. Dr. Miller-Lane provided me with a tincture to strengthen my digestive tract and spleen qi. Per her direction I have also been avoiding fruit at night, gluten and processed corn while adding green tea and lemon water to my daily beverages.

This week I had my third visit with the holistic health coach. We talked about some of the changes that I have made in diet, energy levels, weight loss and exercise. One of my challenges has been eating healthy snacks at work. I continue to struggle with this and have traded the nightly bag of Fritos or brown rice chips for barbecue potato chips. I want to break this habit of eating commercial chips. One of the ideas that I had overlooked from the previous session was fresh vegetables with hummus. Instead of hummus I have brought fresh vegetables with horseradish mustard and also an Indonesian dipping sauce. Another idea that I came up with is dehydrated sweet potatoes; they are drying as I type. I continue to make dehydrated kale chips and eat them faster than I can make them! The fresh greens I chose for this week was Swiss chard; sauteing it the same way I did the collard greens last week. Very good! Lindsay provided me with a book to read, of my choosing. I chose Food Energetics by Steve Gagne'.

Another step in the "Journey to a Healthy Life" is to just get out and have fun. Last weekend, I went camping with a friend. We shared laughs, good food and a love for the outdoors. Sunday morning was a perfect Vermont day with blue skies and a cool breeze. 

We could have stayed in the woods all day, but had to pack up camp and return to reality. We had one last brownie and cup of peppermint tea It was an exceptionally good time.