Back for more free hugs and this time it's from Israel. Went to Lisa Goldman's blog where I usually migrate sometime during the week. It's a place that makes me feel 'at home'.

The song accompanying the video tells the story of a man who dreams of having someone close to hug and calm the inner pain, freeing him of those internal wounds which he likens to a hard rain that never stops.

This is copied directly from one of my blogs, Myrna's Mind.

Don't know how to add the video here and not sure it's possible so go get more hugs and goodies at the link above.

Warmest,

Myrna

guten Mittag meine Liebchens :-)

ich habe mehrfach über diesen Hohn nachgedacht, dass wir Präventionsmassnahmen selber treffen können und auch sollen; geh dann bitte mal einkaufen und bitte stinknormal einkaufen, dann hast Du aber grad nix für Deine Präventipn getan, Du kannst nochsoviel Obst und Gemüse einkaufen und zu Dir nehmen, Supplemente reinpfeiffen bis die Wände wackeln, der erste Weg ist eine anständige und etwas länger dauernde Detoxphase.... die da heisst, mindestens einen Monat um auch in die tiefsten Schichten Deiner

Matrix beizukommen und richtig auszuleiten. Ausserdem sollten wir wirklich achtsam sein mit den Produkten welche wir einkaufen, denn was nützt Dir das ganze Gemüse und Obst, wenn sie mit bis zu 680 verschiedenen Toxinen legal behandelt werden dürfen, und Du diese, ob Du willst oder nicht, mitisst!!!

Hey, Bio ist nicht bekloppt noch grün angehaucht; Bio ist heute lebenswichtig geworden, willst Du ohne Scheuklappen durch die Welt gehn!!

hi there all my dearles :-)

I just thought about the scorn when we are taught to do a certain preventive work by ourselfs;when going shopping and taking normal foods in the stores, be aware that with such purchases, you add over 680 different toxins with, if you want or not!You might get the desired amounts of veggies and fruits, but what does it mean even in adding the needed supplement, the toxins are still getting into your body!

You should add a detoxphase from about a month to get even cleared up your deepest matrix, and then please change to organic raised foods. No dearles organic isnt' that frou-frou and not even greenish

painted ((GreenPeaclers' ) but up from today on, one of your best choices you can do for your healthy future .......:-)

If you try one of my recipes, please let me know how you and your tablemates liked it (or didn’t), any problems you ran into, suggestions for improvement, etc. As I’ve already mentioned, I’m not a natural-born cook, so I muddle along by trial and error, hopefully improving the recipes as I go. Your input will be much appreciated. (Same goes if you try any of my non-recipe ideas.)

Thanks!

Winter Has Arrived!!! I guess it is inevitable as one season follows another that eventually winter would show up again. I don’t know that I have ever been happy to see snow on the ground when I wake up. Snow equals Icy Roads and Slippery Walkways! Those are two of my least favorite things.

So, why do I live in Alaska? The other six months of the year are usually quite mild and the scenery is so beautiful. This year, however, was marred by an unusually heavy amount of rain and lots of rainy and/or cloudy days with very little sunshine. Some of my garden plants did not mature well at all, either, but many did and some are in the freezer to be used throughout the winter months. In fact, I added some of our garden’s peas to dinner last night.

Tomorrow my husband and I will, nonetheless, drive to Anchorage to attend the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention and the Doyon, Limited Convention, too. It is the time of year where native peoples throughout Alaska and sometimes, Hawaii, come together to visit and renew friendships, and to work together to solve some important issues. Tomorrow all three major candidates for governor will be there in a forum, too. There are beautiful crafts and artwork to enjoy, a wonderful selection of native foods, and music from throughout the state as each region has their own specialties. It is so healthful listening or dancing to the drums.

There is salmon thawing now for dinner tonight. In addition to the salmon steaks, we will have some sautéed, fresh, organic Swiss chard in a nice skillet casserole. It is a favorite combo of two sautéed onions, and 4 cloves of chopped fresh garlic combined with the steamed chard. Once the stovetop is turned off, I sprinkle in some dulse, kelp, real salt, nutritional yeast and some Bragg’s Amino Acids into the mixture for a very healthful and great tasting green veggie. My super salad will take up about ½ of the dinner plate, too. The salad dressing I am really enjoying and adjusting the ingredients every time I make it, but basically it is flax seed oil, grapeseed oil, and olive oil with a variety of herbs and some Bragg’s Amino Acids.

My morning smoothie continues to be a good start in the day, but today it was an afternoon smoothie instead. This morning my breakfast was my salad! This afternoon I had my smoothie. Last night my nighttime snack was two eggs. Just a change in routine. Who says you can’t have a salad for breakfast, anyway, and eggs for a nighttime snack? Actually, it did seem a bit strange the first time I did eat salad for breakfast. But this salad contains such a variety of foods and is so filling that eating it in the morning doesn’t seem odd any more at all. And with all those enzymes to give me energy, eating it is a good choice any time of day or night.

Guess that this is about all for today. Enjoy life! Do the unexpected! Eat a super salad for breakfast!

Take care. Till next time……………………

Today has wound up being a beautiful, fall day quite unlike most October days in years’ past when we usually had snow and the temperatures hovered around freezing most of the time. Today’s high was at 48 degrees and, although there were high clouds, it was mostly sunny AND there was even some warmth to the sunlight! I do hope that the projected warmer winter becomes a reality and one without rain slick icy roads.

We are down to 9 hours, 42 minutes, 47 seconds between sunrise and sunset. That is a loss of 5 minutes and 29 seconds of light since yesterday. The sun rose this morning at 8:57 a.m. and will set tonight at 6:40 p.m. However, as there are is some sky showing we may be able to see the aurora that is predicted tonight. The state’s high temperature for yesterday was 56 at Annette and the low was 8 at Chalkyitsik and Mag North Pole. Our low here at the house was 33 degrees this morning.

I am continuing to enjoy that super salad as a main part of my daily diet now. But, I have made some other additions which has enhanced it nutritionally even more. I have been adding some sliced almonds and about 2 ounces of Pulse to the salad. Pulse is a product I have had around for quite a while and, although very good, I hadn’t been using it as often as I should. It is wonderful on salads, so not it is being eaten frequently. The ingredients are wonderful too: dates, oats, raisins, raspberry powder, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, millet, einkorn, barley, brown rice, flax seeds, prunes, walnuts, cashews, almonds, pecans, filberts, figs, dried strawberry fruit, beet powder, grapeseed oil, and walnut oil. Although some things in the combination are listed as avoids and part of why the cans have sat on the shelf, I decided to use them with the salad anyway because the majority of ingredients are beneficial and it sure makes the salad even more nutritional than just the almost 20 fresh veggies in the salad’s main part.

Also, I have received some response to my other post about making the salad in the trash bags and need to alert you to the fact that some trash bags have been sprayed with fungicides and storing food in them might not be very healthful. So, with that in mind, please, do as I did this week and make your salad in a large bowl. I have a 16 quart bowl that I used and, although, the ingredients didn’t mix quite as well, I alternated putting the ingredients into separate containers for the fridge, covered them and shook it up so that ultimately it was well mixed.

Another good thing that I am doing health-wise is sprouts! I am finishing one batch of salad sprouts and starting a second batch. Those will also go into the salad and other recipes. Sprouts are so easy to do, but was something that has been set aside for far too long. Now that winter is approaching, I am back to doing sprouts for high energy, live foods. Tonight I will also make up another batch of my almond/oat milk once those ingredients have softened in the water long enough.

Well, that is about all for tonight. Take care. Make up a huge salad and feast all week long.

Now I'm really on a campaign. I cut my hair short and now I can't wait till all the 'wisdom grey' comes out. I'm going to miss this brilliant stage of life if I try to not sit in it, not be with it, avoid it or cover it up. How awful that through our education many of us have been shown just how to miss the inner beauty and cover it up with stuff in a bottle(unlike "Message from a Bottle" movie), cosmetics or even go under the knife, just to have outer beauty.

What about the beautiful feelings we have when someone calls you their buddy or another says how much you help them?

Look what DOVE is doing. Check out their new campaign here. GO DOVE GO!!!!!

Until next time,

Myrna

I avoid recipes that waste food. For example, vegetable-stock recipes always tell you to chop up some carrots, celery, and onions and simmer them in a pot of water. So far, so good. I’d just stop there and call it soup. But then they want you to throw away the vegetables and keep the water.

For years, I rarely made pasta, because the standard cooking method is to boil the pasta in a whole bunch of water and then pour everything into a colander and let the water run down the drain – the mirror image of the vegetable-stock recipe. I figure the water must have picked up some water-soluble vitamins and minerals while the pasta was cooking, so it seems a shame to waste what might be called pasta broth. Besides, I really hate carrying that big pot of boiling-hot water across the kitchen to the sink.

But then Hubby experimented and found that if he cooked pasta with just the right amount of water, everything would come out even. His method is very simple: Measure out your pasta and heat a more-or-less equal measure of water in a covered pan. When the water comes to a good boil, add the pasta and stir. Reduce the heat to keep the water at a low boil. Keep the pan covered, and stir the pasta frequently. When most of the water has been absorbed and there’s only enough of it left to make the bottom of the pan shiny, turn off the heat. (If you’re using an electric stove, you may need to move the pan off the burner.) Let the pasta sit covered for ten or fifteen minutes, then stir again and serve immediately.

It’s almost like cooking rice, except that you need to stir frequently. Like rice, if pasta cooked this way sits too long after it’s done, it will clump together into one big lump. I suspect that this could be prevented by stirring in a little oil (or an oily dressing for pasta salad) as soon as the pasta is ready.

We’ve used this method for whole-wheat pasta and (since I started the Blood Type Diet) also for brown-rice pasta. We use two cups of pasta and right around two cups of water, but the amount of water varies slightly, depending on the brand of pasta and also on the type – for example, Tinkyada penne needs a little more water than Tinkyada elbows. I always test a piece when I turn the heat off, and if it’s a little too al dente, I just dump in a little more water.

One of my favorite ways to use the cooked pasta is in a casserole that I adapted from a recipe that I got from Mom. The original has ten ingredients (including several that have long ingredient lists of their own, such as canned soup, margarine, and worcestershire sauce) and calls for cooking several combinations of ingredients separately before assembling the casserole. My simplified version has only six ingredients, all of which are basic foods. This would be a good dish for a mixed-blood-type family, because all of the ingredients are at least BTD-neutral for everyone (to check the Blood Type Diet ratings for any food, click the TYPEbase button at the left side of this site’s home page). It requires pre-cooking only the pasta – and most important, we like it just as well as Mom’s original. Here’s my recipe (please note that none of the measurements need to be all that precise):

Spinach-Pasta Casserole

10-ounce (285 grams) package frozen spinach

2 cups (475 ml) rice macaroni (8 ounces or 225 grams)

2 ounces (55 grams) celery (1/2 cup or 120 ml)

15-ounce (425 gm) can of (great) northern beans (about 1-1/2 cup or 355 ml drained)

2 Tablespoons (30 ml) ghee

3/4 teaspoon (4 ml) salt

Thaw the spinach (spreading it out on a cookie sheet will speed things up). Cook the macaroni in a large saucepan.

Rinse and drain the beans. Cut the celery into thin slices. Put the beans, celery, ghee, and salt into the blender or food processor with enough water to almost cover them, and process till smooth.

Add the thawed spinach and the bean sauce to the cooked macaroni (which is why you need that large pan) and mix thoroughly. Pack into an oiled 8” x 8” (20 cm x 20 cm) baking pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 40 minutes. Let it sit for a few minutes after baking to firm up, then cut into squares and serve.

Notes:

We consider this a nice one-dish dinner for two people. If you fancy up the meal with a fruit appetizer (for example) and/or a carrot dish, the casserole will serve more people.

The original recipe called for onions, but they mess up my nerves, so I use celery (which makes a surprisingly good substitute). If you decide to add onions, you might want to saute them in the ghee, then either puree them with the beans or just stir them into the pasta with everything else.

For a prettier casserole, you could mix some bread crumbs with ghee and sprinkle them over the top before baking. (But I’ve never done this.)

This casserole holds well in a warm (not hot) oven if you can’t serve it right away, though the top layer of macaroni becomes chewier (which some people like and some people don’t).

guten Mittag Ihr Liebchens,

na siehste, da hat unser heiss verehrter Doc auch schon wieder Recht, ich liebe...liebe...liebe heiss und innigstlich Gummibärli...aber äbbe ich bin ein Royal, so bitte so wenig wie möglich Zucker...(da kann ich einfach nicht widerstehen...schlimmm....schlimm....) aber da wa doch neuliche meine holde Schwester bei mir zu Besuch, auch ein AB-chen aber sekretor....soooo gemein!!.....und brachte mir sage und schreibe 2,5 KILOS Gummibärli mit; aber bittäschein nicht vom Aldi, oder whatsoever...da gibt's doch in unserer Hometown sogenannte Bio-Fruchtgummibääääärlis ohne Zucker-keinFarbstoff, nur aus Früchtlis und Pektin gemacht,- ergo auch kein Ochesnziemer zwischen den Zähnen (auch keinen Süssen :-)

Oooo Leute- die sind saugüed...wooow...sooo lecker...und seit letzten Freitag, den 13.10. (da war mein Holdchen da)ists schon mächtig geschrumpft dieser Gummibärenberg.......aber liab wie ich bin gabs ein riesen Schälchen für diverse Nachbarn.....kann ja diese nicht mit gierigen Augen zusehen lassen, wie ich meine Bärchen reinschauffle...oder ??

Dearles :-)

good day and have an eye that our beloved Doc. was once more rrrright....I just love...love..love...with intenst love my gummibears, but as I am a Royal, not so much of sweets allowed, but here I just can't resist, hmm awful..just awful...lately my holy sister, also an AB...but secretor..what a heck..hu..came to visit me and brought 2,5 kilos of those gummibears...ooowooow ...how great..nice ...yeeehhhaaa just shuffle some into...ouch...but no worry, those gummibears arent' made with sugar or preservatives likewise from Aldi or elsewhere, they came out of a bio(organic-edge) shop and no gelatine in !

Ok since last Friday ,13.10. this mountain of gummibears shrinked enormously, but nice as I am, some of my neighbors got als their mug full of em, can't see how they lurke at me with hungy eyes for such leckerlies :-)when I am just entrain shuffeling them into my mouth...can I ??

Went to Peter's lecture at the Wilton Library. He was fabulous Peter as usual. I had a smile on my face as he spoke wondering if the audience understood 'Peter talk', what brilliance! Sometimes I'm not sure if he knows just how brilliant. I know how much I 'get' and have become accustomed to understanding from 1/2-3/4. After that, I need more explanation. So this time I brought my digital recorder and got it all. After I downloaded it on my computer, I listened to see just how effective and efficient the Olympus recorder is. It was great as the recording was clear, even at times when I could hardly hear him speak.(was sitting in the back of the room)

So I left everything in place to come back later to listen and take notes so I could blog about how great he is on my personal blog. Something went wrong becasue when I tried it again, no sound. Will call Olympus to figure this one out.

I'm reading about bio-identical hormones as Suzanne Sommers was more than raving on Larry King the other night. She thinks she's found the 'magic bullet'. Oh well, wouldn't want to disillusion her. She's only 60.

In the meantime, I'd like to leave a gift for everyone. Go here,(smiles) and turn your volume up.

Myrna(my healthy blog)

WOW!!! I am feeling unusually well and energetic tonight. Maybe the super salad I made today to be a big part of dinner has something to do with it, too. Sometimes I get really discouraged because even though I seem to be doing most of what would be considered a very well balanced diet, I find that overall I am still not quite there. So, today I made a journey to two grocery stores in the hopes of finding enough organic produce to make a super salad which should help to get closer to my goal of very healthy and healthful eating for the whole family.

So, I thought I would share with you the ingredients in my salad and maybe you will become interested enough to build one of these yourself. First off I did buy packaged salad mixes of baby lettuces, and mixed greens. Finding such a variety of greens in our produce department is highly unlikely even under the best of circumstances. That was a fairly good start, but I really wanted to make a filling salad using a variety of ingredients. Next came the organics; sliced celery, shredded zucchini, sliced radishes, grated carrots, grated homegrown kohlrabi, an onion, parsley, cucumber, broccoli florets, sweet peppers both green and red, and cabbages (again red and green). That is quite the salad. It took me almost an hour to get everything together in a 13 gallon trash bag so mixing the salad was easier.

Tonight I stopped at the second store because I was hoping to find organic spinach and some green onions to add to the salad. They didn’t have any either, but I did buy some organic kale and Swiss chard. Not sure whether I will add those to the salad or use them as sautéed vegetables this week. I may also buy some broccoli sprouts to add to it too.

After getting the salad ingredients together I was able to get them well mixed as I have found a 13 gallon trash bag to be ideal for combining large quantities of some foods. Now, half of the salad is in a nice covered bowl and the rest is still in the bag but in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator where we can easily get to it to refill the bowl as needed.

After finishing the salad, I made a nice dressing to use with it. I combined some dry mustard, dill, tarragon, thyme, chopped parsley, and celtic sea salt with some light olive oil and some flax seed oil. It made a good dressing and really spiked it just enough. Everyone ate their fill and an hour or so later commented on how much better they felt, more energized! I guess all those enzymes really did help in creating more energy.

To go with the salad I made up some salmon patties and reheated some fresh green beans and rice. The meal was very filling and very good. And with so much salad available, I think we will all be quite content when hunger hits to grab a nice bowl full of that wonderful and filling combination of fresh foods. I even think that half a can of tuna or salmon on top of a salad would make an ideal and very satisfying meal. And the, I could even add some fresh or frozen peas. Now wouldn’t that add a different taste, too.

This has been a fun day and the combinations that keep popping into my mind sound really good. We had gotten bored with the typical salad and now, we have this salad. How could anyone become bored with such variety?

guten Abend meine Liebchen

heute kein Gelaber oder Beklägmich, heute ein RP frisch aus meiner Küche:-) schaurig gsund und lecker dazu:

1-2 Blöckchen aufgetaute oder frisches Vermicellemus (Esskastanien)...darunter ein bisschen (ca.250 ml.)

Rahm, alles untereinandermischen...hi-hi-hiiiiii gell garnicht sooo leicht :-) danach in eine Bäckerspritztüte

stopfen, natürlich nicht Dich sondern das Gemisch aus geschlagenem Rahm & Kastanienmus, auf ein Tellerchen ein Häufchen spritzen...und reinschaufeln...oups...natürlich essen..... man(n) kann natürlich, wie Frau auch, hierzu ein Tüpferl Kirsch H2O dazuträufeln- aber ich mag keinen Alkohol,- ergo ohne.....:-)

guten Appetit...............

hi g'd evening all dearles,

today no laberings or rant or whatsoever...but just a little recipe outta my kitchen, called Vermicelles,

frozen or fresh chestnuts, add some 250 ml. cream, he-he-heeee not that easy to get melanged...huh..

just do it in a special fritterbag and just frit it onto a plate. Some people like to add some Kirsch or other alcoholics...don't like that...thatswhy I prefer it without.

Good appetite :-)..............

There were a bunch of questions and comments in response to my previous entry, so here goes with Part II.

First off, the conclusions that I reached last time don’t necessarily apply to anyone except me. In fact, it’s possible that my nutritionist hit a clunker this time, and they don’t even apply to me. Caveat lector.

My nutritionist was trained by the late Dr. Donald J. Lepore (pronounced “luh-PORE”). As I understand it, Dr. Lepore’s formal training was in chiropractic, but he was also a self-trained naturopath, and preferred that label. (This is one case, by the way, where a “mail-order” naturopath, although clearly different from the graduates of certified naturopathic schools, was a skilled practitioner in his own right.)

He described his various non-chiropractic techniques (insofar as they can be reduced to writing) in his book, The Ultimate Healing System. The verbal descriptions are augmented by copious illustrations (and the jovial bearded gentleman who appears a few of the drawings is Don Lepore himself). As with anything, I pick and choose from what the book offers – but I have found a good many gems there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book (originally published in 1988) is back in print, and is available at Amazon, among other places.

The woman who would later be my nutritionist was a client of Dr. Lepore’s, and was so impressed by his ability to help her where many others had failed that she signed on as his student. One very important aspect of her training was hands-on experience. She told me that she found muscle testing very difficult at first, but that she and the other students would spend literally hours per day practicing on each other until they “got it.”

As I mentioned last time, I had previously been muscle tested by a number of other practitioners, none of whom seemed to have any real grasp of the technique beyond the basic concept. I suspect that they had seen a demonstration of muscle testing, had tried it themselves and had gotten some sort of result, and assumed that was all there was to it. Because they made no effort to improve their skills, they remained at a mediocre level. My nutritionist makes the technique look so effortless that you’d think she was born with the ability – but not so!

My first appointment with her came at a time when both my family doctor and my allergist had been expressing concern over my low iron levels. Taking the iron supplements that the doctor recommended hadn’t helped much. I didn’t tell the nutritionist about that (or anything else for that matter). She went through her array of supplements, testing me on this and that while we chatted. Suddenly she stopped and exclaimed, “Wow, you must be really anemic!” I looked down at my “supplement” hand, and saw maybe six or eight nondescript capsules. She explained that they contained yellow dock, which meant nothing to me, but I started taking it.

The next time I saw my doctor, she was jubilant over the improvement in my iron levels. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing,” she said, “but keep it up.” I’ve noticed that doctors in this type of situation never ask “what have you been doing?” – implying, I suppose, that they assume the improvement must be due to some sort of fluke, rather than to anything the patient has done.

Some years later, when my career had come to an obvious crossroads, I asked my nutritionist whether she would be willing to train me, and she agreed to do so. Unfortunately, I didn’t prove to be any quicker at muscle testing than she had been, there were no other students for me to practice on, and nobody expressed a willingness to donate hours of their free time. (I suspect that I might never have acquired my nutritionist’s level of skill anyway, because my tendency to analyze things to death would have made it difficult for me to simply observe the results -- I would have been more likely to anticipate and therefore influence them.) Mercifully, Hubby was transferred to California about then, so I was able to put a quiet end to the whole affair.

OK, sorry for not blogging. I hope you didn't think I was dead.

The truth is that I got pretty busy at work. And with the Master Cleanse itself. I got through ten days of it, hoping to see that nice pink tongue and other wonderful insights into my body, much like Jim Garland experienced (though he went an entire 40 days!!).

Well, I'm still craving animal products just as much as I did before the cleanse so I'm really not sure if I'm meant to be a vegan. And I'm still experiencing a degree of lower right quadrant pain so while I'm sure the MC did some good things, it also seems like I'm missing some important piece to this puzzle.

Toward the end of the cleanse, partially because I didn't get as much sleep, I did start to feel my upper back cry in pain. I think I needed more calcium than the trace amount supplied from the lemon and maple syrup.

I don't feel that incredible burst of energy people talk about but I do feel much less sluggish. I've been able to exercise on this cleanse quite well. I've been rebounding on the trampoline and have also done many headstands first thing in the morning to help the lymph and allow the ascending colon to let go of what it's been holding.

One thing that did seem to happen was on a spiritual level, I became very aware of HUNGER. I also felt like I got rid of a lot of negative feelings. I experienced a lot of feelings of neutrality and of detachment.

I broke the fast with a glass of pineapple juice at Chino Latino where I met a medical student for "drinks". I was not about to drink alcohol on an extremely empty stomach so juice was the only option.

I also became more at peace with the fact that there are a lot of unenlightened people out there who think I'm crazy for doing this and with each day going by that I completed this cleanse, to them I say without much feeling, "I really don't care what you think." They are free to let their digestive system stay perpetually clogged. When the student is ready, the teacher will come.

I visited Intelligent Nutrients (the IN) on Thursday evening after work because it was having an INcentive double points program on everything bought in the store. Before I even got going at the deli/coffee shop to buy tea, I spotted building biologist Oram Miller (www.createhealthyhomes.com) and immediately was drawn into this presentation taking place in the next room for volunteers working at the 1st annual Bioneers conference in Minneapolis). Many phenomenal speakers will be present and I decided to sign up to volunteer with them for eight hours in order to get into the event for free! I'm incredibly excited to learn contructive ways to better both earth and humanity.

While at the IN, I had a photo taken of my aura. It is usually green and that day it was a beautiful indigo with blue coming in and white leaving. I guess I have the cleanse to thank for this aura change as well as the ear candling I had done two nights before which is said to help open the Third Eye chakra.

Speaking of the ear candling, I also had shiatsu performed on me to complement the cleanse. At one point as I was switching from facing down to facing up on the table, I felt this strange trobbing pain above my eye. It was not a migraine but instead seemed to coincide with a throbbing I felt under my right breast. Jen George, the therapist said that the point above my eye is a liver (or was it gallbladder) point. She did some things to me while lying face up and the pain subsided. It is so fascinating to me how these meridian points truly correspond with organ systems. I am in awe of Eastern Medicine and its impact it has on my health.

So far, I've had one grapefruit yesterday along with one today. It was delicious! I'm trying not to go the OJ route as I am a type A. Perhaps tonight I'll do a little juice over at the ecopolitan along with a nice infared sauna. Hmmm... we'll see. The day is still young. Much raking to do. Just when I think I have the backyard all picked up, the neighbor's trees continue to bring more leaves in. Ah, such is a fact of life in a 1942 home with 1942 trees.

It's a gorgeous day (won't have many more like this this year), so back to work!

The gal at the health-food store (a fellow A non-secretor) swears by Dr. D’Adamo’s Deflect ‘A’ supplement. (Click on "The Blood Type Store" at the left side of this site's home page to read about Deflect for your blood type.) I finally decided to give it a try. Following advice that Dr. D has given on this site, I started with just two capsules per day and gradually increased the number. There was no obvious immediate effect of any sort, so I wasn’t sure how many I actually needed to take.

Most of my supplement amounts are determined by one of two methods: trial and error, or my nutritionist’s advice. Trial and error was apparently going to take a while in this case, so I gave my nutritionist a few Deflect capsules to test me with. (I’ll describe her method in a Note below for those who are interested.)

Before she went over the other results with me, she told me that I tested for four Deflect capsules per day, and asked whether I intended to take them. It turns out that this had a very noticeable effect on my other results! I didn’t ask what all of the differences were, but as she was giving me her recommendations for other supplements, she would occasionally stop and correct herself, saying that with the Deflect I didn’t need that many. She did this enough times to give me the impression that the Deflect was decreasing my need for quite a variety of supplements (including, as I recall, both Calcium and B-12).

This has two implications, the more obvious one being that Deflect is either helping me so that I don’t need as many other supplements, and/or helping my other supplements to work more efficiently. The second implication is financial: The money that I’m spending on Deflect is saving me the money that I would otherwise have spent on buying additional Calcium capsules, B-12 tablets, etc., etc.

Bottom line: I’ll keep taking Deflect!

Note: My nutritionist uses muscle testing (more formally known as Applied Kinesiology). Some people swear by this technique, while others scoff at it. I had previously been muscle tested by a number of practitioners, none of whom had been any help whatsoever, so I was tentatively among the scoffers. Then about fifteen years ago, a friend suggested that I try her nutritionist (I should point out that my friend is chronically skeptical – so I assign a fair amount of weight to her recommendations) – and this one is utterly amazing. I have concluded that muscle testing is an art, not a science. That is to say, its accuracy (unlike that of a laboratory test) depends entirely on the skill of the practitioner. In particular, the practitioner needs to be able to observe results rather than expect them.

Here’s my nutritionist’s basic technique: The client holds one arm straight out to the side. The practitioner presses down gently on that arm, and the client has no trouble keeping it horizontal. The practitioner then places a supplement in the client’s other hand, and again presses down gently on the extended arm. If that particular supplement isn’t good for the client, he or she will be unable to keep the arm horizontal. The practitioner tries a different supplement. If the client needs this one, there will be no trouble keeping the arm horizontal. The practitioner adds more of that supplement until the client is unable to keep the arm horizontal – too much of a good thing is not good! Back off to the point where the arm tests strong again, and that’s the recommended amount.

Our golden leaves are pretty much on the ground right now. Less than half are still clinging to the branches. They are (were) so beautiful with the sun shining on them. We have had two hard freezes this week, but in spite of that my petunias are holding their own and will probably do so until the snow is upon them. They are such tough flowers.

With the temperatures dropping, I got busy and re-did my kitchen. I removed the three, white, freestanding cabinets and replaced them with two heavy-duty, black, metal shelves and one small unit with a wooden top. Now the kitchen looks so much bigger, too, and the heat from the baseboard heater should be able to circulate much better than in past winters. Plus, with the open shelving I am able to see what food I have and which needs to be restocked. I’m sure I do have at least a year’s worth of rice, pastas, and dry beans. There is quite a variety of rice and the pastas are all from alternatives to wheat. What a selection of dried beans for making soups! Those are good foods that we just don’t eat all that often. But, beans, and boy do I have a variety of those, make wonderful soups that warms the body and soul during the winter.

Yesterday I cooked up a big, beef stew with turnips and turnip greens (from our garden), onions, parsnip, carrots, and celery. I added ground cloves, cinnamon, and allspice for flavoring. It not only tasted wonderful, but the smell was terrific! There was just enough left for dinner tonight, so I added a can of organic black beans, a little miso, and some beef broth. Everybody had another wonderful and filling meal.

We have also been eating lots of salmon lately. Salmon steaks and salmon patties have found themselves on our plates several times in the past month. We are still enjoying the bounty. With all the salmon and food from our garden, we have truly been blessed!

Rain is predicted for the next three days, so it should be a bit longer before we get our first snowfall. Looking out the window, I see little patches of blue sky. Unfortunately, there is a much larger patch of heavy clouds following. The next heavy rain or windy night will bring down the rest of the leaves, too. This week I will have to have the studded tires put on the car so I’ll be ready for driving on the icy conditions that will soon be here. Thank goodness for front wheel drive and studded tires as they make winter driving so much safer.

Daylight continues to diminish and today we have a total of 11 hours, 27 minutes, and 21 seconds between sunrise at 8:10 a.m. and sunset at 7:37 tonight. We lost 5 minutes and 31 seconds of light over yesterday. The aurora forecast would be great IF the clouds were to conveniently leave as it is forecasted to be active with the northern lights tonight. Well, the clouds will get a good view anyway.

For the state’s temperature extremes for yesterday, it was a high of 56 at Cold Bay and a low of 20 at Deering. We are noticing that our daytime highs are in the mid to upper 40’s and at night, we’ve had two nights hitting 27 degrees this week. Guess that summer and, pretty much, the fall are behind us as we charge into winter.