Toni Taylor, Holistic Health Counselor

<>Greetings,

Welcome to my blog on holistic health & custom physical training. I’m an certified holistic health counselor focusing on stress reduction and overall health. In addition to health counseling and with over 25 years of experience as a professional dancer and choreographer, I’m uniquely qualified to help you design a custom exercise program that can be integrated into your health maintenance regimen, injury free. I’ll be posting a monthly newsletter & look forward to your comments on the topics under discussion.

October, 2007

<>Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded. – Goethe

Taking care of oneself with Goethe’s “steadfast fidelity” also includes your emotional & spiritual health. We see the world with our eyes and what we see is is interpreted through our spiritual & social prisms. If we’re feeling overwrought or overwhelmed because our spiritual exercise has lapsed, our interpretation of what we see can be dimmed with impatience. If we’ve allowed our good nutritional practices to slip, we might view the world with selfishness. The queasy thing about both of those interpretations is that they can easily spiral into self perpetuating cycles brought about because we’ve neglected our physical, spiritual & emotional wellbeing. Eeeek! See clearly, take care of all aspects of your body and well being.

Deconstructing Cravings

True or false (or perhaps something in between), caving into cravings is a character flaw. I vote for false. For most of us, our bodies tend to crave some combination of sugar, salt, and fat at various times. As our body’s sole purpose is to keep going, cravings could be the signal that you’re depriving it of something it needs. If it needs rest & you miss the signal, you’ll crave caffeine. If it needs sweet, it might not specifically be prompting you for refined white sugar, but perhaps that it needs its blood sugar regulated with regular helpings of fruits and veggies. If you’re dabbling with a high protein, low carbohydrate diet, you will suddenly crave carbs in any form, lots of bagels & waffles, when what might really be needed to head off the craving is a steady supply of unrefined carbs in the form of whole grains and almost all fruit and vegetable sources. Sudden cravings for alcohol might your body’s way of telling you that its stressed. What it won’t tell you is that regular stress reduction activities such as meditation, candle lit baths, being in nature, or whatever works for you done regularly could head off that sudden urge for a drink.

As our body’s sole purpose is to keep going, it also changes from moment to moment. Even if you’re diligent in your health maintenance routines, something will throw you out of balance, creating the possibilities of unhelpful cravings. These can be good things, moving to a bigger apartment or not so good, losing a job. Isn’t it funny how our response to both types of events tend to lead to too much indulgence and cravings.

There are many ways to deal with cravings. First, try to determine what triggers them and see what you can change to head them off. Some things you can address, stress, boredom, or sleep deprivation; others not so much, menstruation and outside environmental changes. Though we can control our response to the last two. The easiest way to head off a craving is to drown in by drinking a lot of water. Distracting yourself with meditation or some other peaceful, but stimulating activity will sometime do the trick. There is also a school of thought that advises to meditate and focus on the feeling of the craving as it arises, how it feels, and it recedes. All are valid, as is maintaining your health maintenance routine to fend them off as best as possible.

All of this said, the occasional indulgence (in moderation) of your craving isn’t bad. Doing so in extreme might be ill advised, but even that won’t do irreparable harm, only if indulging to that degree doesn’t initiate a cycle of bouncing between good & bad health habits. Depending upon the thing you most often crave, it might be helpful to indulge in a little bit of your favorite thing a day, to head off the need to do the whole package/pint at some point in the future. So the upshot is that cravings aren’t a character flaw, but your body’s signaling mechanism. Responding to our cravings from a point of view of being informed of the options and knowing ourselves very well are what will help us weather them well.

Food Focus: Root Vegetables

Carrots, beets, parsnips, burdok root, sweet potatoes, turnips, celery root, yucca; seems every culture has roots in its cuisine. Good thing, because many of them have great nutritional value. Like most veggies, they have high fiber content as well as vitamins A & C as well as many of the B vitamins, beta carotene, potassium, magnesium, copper, and phosphorus can also be found in roots. In addition, root vegetables, especially those deeper in color, contain health-promoting antioxidants known as phytochemicals; examples of which are beta carotene in deep-orange carrots, and anthocyanins in purple potatoes.

Root vegetables are often a good economic value as well, in that they are usually inexpensive & can last a very long time if stored properly. They keep forever in a cool dark place, yes that’s where the term “root cellar” came from, a place to store the fall’s harvest of roots through the winter.

You can do almost anything to almost all root vegetables. They can be boiled, roasted, sautéed, pureed, & grated . Many can have a sweet taste, especially if roasted, that plays well with bitter greens, such as kale, collard greens & cabbage.

In Chinese medicine, root vegetables have warming qualities that prepare us for the upcoming cold weather. If you’re trying to eat seasonally, this is the season for root vegetables..

Recipe of the Month: Steamed Root Vegetables And Cabbage With Dill
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 25-35 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1/2 of small head of cabbage cut into 1/8 inch shreads
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into fine julienne
1 pound turnips, peeled and cut into fine julienne
1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into fine julienne
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill plus dill sprigs for garnish

Directions:
In a large steamer set over boiling water arrange in order the carrots, the turnips, the parsnips, and the shredded cabbage, steam the vegetables, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are just tender. Transfer to a heated bowl to toss them with the butter, the vinegar, the minced dill, and salt and pepper to taste. Feel free to add things to the steaming liquid, such as chicken stock, white wine, bay leaves. To make for a complete, one pot meal, experiment with adding a protein, perhaps a firm tofu or tender, mild fish, such as scrod, trout, or perhaps scallops. If you don’t have an official steamer, one can be rigged with a combination of a metal colandar or some type of large strainer that fits in your biggest soup pot. Use another pot or cookie sheet for a lid.

Send This On!
I hope you have found this newsletter to be as informative and inspiring to read as it has been for me to share it with you. Please feel free to forward it to those friends, family and colleagues in your life that you think might also be interested and inspired by it. If you refer someone who signs up, it’s $100 in your pocket or a free exercise session.

Toni Taylor
Holistic Nutritional & Exercise Consultant
212-586-0681
ttatpdt@mac.com