As I get more education in Functional Medicine, I want to share my newly acquired knowledge with my patients and hopefully this way to make your life/health better. Better is not always easier. However I will be sharing with you in our monthly letters tips, to simplify the changes that can help you to feel better and to get the best You can be and feel.
Here are 3 tips on How to Survive long Winter Months:
1) Remember, after the 21st of December, days are getting longer. For all the people who are affected by short day light, there are different Blue lights, that provide you with highly needed blue spectrum waves. You just have to plug it in and spend 20-30 min every morning in front of it, while having your morning beverage or packing lunch for kids!
Typically the recommended intensity of light is 10,000 lux. Make sure that it does not produce UV light (even though some of that can be good for vit D creation, but bad for people predisposed for skin cancer).
2) Essential oils: engage all your senses to help you stay afloat this winter. Remember, a lot of the essential oils have healing properties, if you do not believe that- at least they smell good! Please, choose natural oils, rather that synthetic. When I did not know better, I acquired oils from a street shop, not realizing that they were synthetic. They did smell good, but only for the 1st 10 mins, after that they had very parfumy aftersmell that gave me headache. Now I get oils from reputable companies that are natural and preferably organic.
Here is a recipe of Thieves oil, that is a blend of Clove, Lemon, Rosemary, Cinnamon and Eucalyptus essential oils I believe helped me the last winter to ward off common cold and other viruses. The lore of Thieves oil and few different recipes you can find here:
http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/how-to-make-thieves-oil.html
My disclaimer- I do not use any of their products or promote them. Please, do your homework and choose the ones, that work for you.
3) Bone broth: winter is the best time to try it.
It has Myriad of minerals and other nutrients that help with joint, leaky gut syndrome ect.
It actually takes only few minutes of your time to prepare all the ingredients. It is easier to use slow cooker, rather than simmer it on a stove top.
You can use any kind of Bones to make the broth, as long as they do not have added hormones or antibiotics. Free range, grass fed -are the best.
Take about 4 big bone knuckles or carcass of chicken/bones from Turkey ect.
Quarter onion and carrots, add celery if you like it, squeeze juice from 1 lemon- doing that will change acidity and will help to release minerals. Some people suggest to use apple cider vinegar, bug I personally did not like the flavor.
Add water.
Bring to boil, and simmer for 24-48h, though I find it to taste better with shorter duration.
Few hours before it is done add salt, and other spices to your taste- turmeric and black pepper are my personal favorites. Not only I like their taste, but they are filled with earth’s best healing nutrients- curcumin is shown to have anti- inflammatory and anti- cancer activities. At the very end I like to add fresh herbs and Vu-a-la- nutritious and delicious broth is ready to keep you warm! You can drink it by itself or use as a base for soups or other dishes. If you have animals at home- they will appreciate the leftovers!
The study shows that drinking hot beverage half hour before meal will reduce your meal consumption. Bone broth can help you to loose weight! It is especially important over the holiday season when average American gains 8 lb! Hope, this simple recipe will help you to enjoy Bone Broth as much as I do!
Happy Holiday Season!
