Aromatherapy Room Mists: Creating a healthy in-door environment

As the end of fall nears and winter approaches, turning inward is a natural part of our cycle.  We turn inward in both our activities and for the restoration of our health.  Meals are cooked with hearty root vegetables and the garden is “put to bed” so it may rest and replenish for the following season.  Just as our routines and habits change for winter so too does our energy and body.  Even though our schedules are still jam-packed with activities and deadlines, on a deeper internal level our body is switching gears, toward a slower restorative period.  The transition from fall to winter is the time to “draw in” and create a nurturing, healing inner atmosphere both within the body and in the atmosphere surrounding us.  Time spent indoors can shift into something beautiful when attention is paid to creating a nurturing in-door environment.  One-way to create a healthy, nurturing in-door environment using aromatherapy is through the use of room mists.

Room Mists are a convenient and easy way to bring natural scenting to any space and room that will benefit your health and wellbeing. 

Evoke Aromatherapy has room mists that have been formulated to help create healthy atmospheres that bring calm, peace and restoration to any space.

Our Sweet Leolani Room Mist has the uplifting smell of grapefruit mixed with the purifying essential oil of Naiouli.  Together with a few other fresh smelling essential oils this room mist has a bright and crisp smell and as some people have exclaimed, “smells just like Hawaiian sweet ginger”.  With its refreshing scent and purifying essential oils Sweet Leolani room mist is a staple for creating a healthy, happy indoor atmosphere.

Evoke Aromatherapy’s Meditative Trance room mist is formulated with deeply calming and centering essential oils such as Frankincense and Myrrh.   This room mist was created to activate the heart chakra, encouraging our heart center to open and allow for a natural and organic shifting of energy.  Definitely useful for meditation and yoga but not limited to these activities, Meditative Trance room mist brings calm, alignment, and peace to any atmosphere.

Evoke Aromatherapy hopes that you enjoy the season change and restorative peace that can occur from flowing with this shift of season.

♥ Evoke Aromatherapy

~ may we live with love in our heart and actions

These Evoke Aromatherapy products can be found on our website

www.evokearomatherapy.com

From now until December 20, 2014 we are offering 5% off your online purchase.  Use promo code BR914F683VF4 on checkout. 

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Giving Thanks For Thanksgiving Leftovers

Source:  Rachel Ray Food Network

I was on my way to work last week listening to NPR, and I was startled to hear a mouth-opening fact.   The radio station reported that 20 percent of the waste that goes into municipal landfills is food.   Yes, food.  In fact, NPR reported, based on the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, that our landfills collected 35 million tons of discarded food in 2012.  In Massachusetts alone, food scraps generate more than 800,000 tons of the waste each year according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

It’s bad enough that the food decomposing in our landfills emits greenhouse gases into the air which contribute to global warming, but according to Harvest Public Media, 1 in 6 Americans currently struggle with hunger.  This waste of food is a travesty.

This had me thinking about all the platters of turkey, casserole dishes, bread baskets, and desserts trays containing a bounty of food (and thousands of calories) on Thanksgiving, and the colossal amount that goes into the trash because “it’s not quite enough for another family meal.” or “what can I do with all this leftover stuff?”

Last year, I blogged about making less food on Turkey Day and giving the money saved at the supermarket to a food pantry.  This is still a healthy idea and definitely a way to reduce the amount of food you will toss out.  At the same time, it helps those who are food insecure.

This year, you may want to consider also challenging yourself to recycling your leftovers and make another meal (or two), even if it is only for one person.  Here are some ways to reuse Thanksgiving Day leftovers, from the last spoonful of cranberry sauce scraped from the bottom of the bowl to the humongous turkey carcass left in the roasting pan:

• Buy plain, non-sweetened, yogurt and top it with a spoonful of leftover cranberry sauce.  The sweetened sauce will provide the perfect amount of sweetness to the tangy yogurt. Add some whole grain cereal for a crunchy breakfast topping. 

• Use the leftover fresh bread to make turkey sandwiches for lunch.

• Add a kick to leftover Thanksgiving Day turkey by making Rachel Ray’s Turkey Chili. She cleverly ladles it over the leftover mashed potatoes, which will stretch the chili recipe even further. (See above photo.)
  

• If making homemade turkey soup intimidates you, try this easy recipe.  Freeze any leftover soup in
  
  individualized, covered containers for on-demand, homemade soup for weeks to come.Toss the leftover Thanksgiving green beans and carrots to the soup pot during the last 15 minutes of the simmering.  If you don’t want to make the soup from scratch, open up a couple cans of vegetable soup and pour the contents into a large pot.  Add two cups of water and some diced leftover turkey along with the leftover vegetables.  Simmer until hot.  Presto:  Homemade (sort of) turkey vegetable soup.  

• Portion leftover desserts into bite size pieces and place them in paper cupcake liners.  Freeze these individualized desserts in plastic covered containers and defrost them in the refrigerator as needed for future holiday get-togethers. 
  
  Happy Thanksgiving!  Joan

       Twitter:  @JoanSalgeBlake

Cranberries are the Thanksgiving Dinner Superstars

Source:  USCranberries.com

Cranberries, at less than 50 calories a cup, are a colorful, nutritious superstar of the holiday season as they are not only high in fiber, vitamins E and K but also naturally low in sugar.

Cranberries are also good for your teeth and your heart.  Research suggests that compounds in cranberries can prevent the bacteria in your mouth from sticking to your teeth.  Left unchecked, this bacteria can change sugar and starches in the foods that you eat into acid.  The bacteria, acids, food remnants, and salvia can combine to form the nasty, sticky plaque that feeds into dental cavities and other dental issues.  

Other studies suggest that the phytochemicals in cranberries, such as flavanols, procyanidins,  and anthocyanins, may provide some heart-healthy benefits such lowering the “bad” LDL cholesterol in the body.  Unfortunately, these phytochemicals are also the culprits in causing the tartness in cranberries that makes you pucker should you pop a handful of these ruby gems into your mouth.  That’s why a fair amount of added sugar, to the tune of up to 2 cups, is sometimes added in traditional cranberry sauce and jelly recipes.

The key to enjoy cranberries without a heavy smack of added sugar is to pair these healthy but tart berries in dishes with other natural sweet fruits, such as apples, apple cider, figs, raisins, and dates.

Here are five cranberry recipes with less added sugar and more natural sweet nutrition:

Maple Spice Cranberry Sauce

Apple, Onion, Cranberry Stuffing







Cranberry-Nut Mini Loaves with Flaxseeds

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Happy Thanksgiving!

Be Well,

Joan

Twitter:  @JoanSalgeBlake

About Evoke Aromatherapy

Evoke Aromatherapy is a holistic aromatherapy company that provides products which are specifically formulated to address common wellness concerns in adults, children and babies.

Each Evoke product is formulated and hand crafted by a certified aromatherapist using accurate dilutions according to their intended uses. Adults, children and babies have different requirements for quantities and types of oils they can use. Evoke Aromatherapy is conscious of this and blends accordingly. Our products are supportive to the whole body and by the very nature of essential oils and their properties, encourage wellness of the whole body on both a specific and overall spectrum.

Our products for adults, children and babies are created using the highest quality independently sourced pure essential and vegetable oils available. Our products are vegan, not tested on animals, use glass recyclable bottles, are hypoallergenic, and are created with natural and organic ingredients. They are also free from synthetic fragrances, chemicals and petroleum by-products. Evoke is not affiliated with multi-level marketed companies nor do we use their oils or products.

Evoke Aromatherapy was born on Kauai, Hawaii in 2012. Evoke’s conception however happened many years before having started under the name Healing Thyme Aromatherapy. Having been born on Kauai, Hawaii, Evoke was saturated in the healing energy of the Hawaiian Islands and given the time needed to absorb this energy and beauty into its very essence. Evoke Aromatherapy is now ready to spread this Aloha experienced on Kauai.

The Evoke logo image is an albatross, which flew over the waters from where Evoke’s founder worked, symbolizing the freedom and expansiveness that is in Evoke’s essence. The crystal clear waters ebbed and flowed below her feet creating the harmony and color of the image. The trade winds blew, the ocean moved and the sounds, smells and harmony became entwined with Evoke as organically as the healing powers of essential oils are entwined with the plant. With loving-kindness these properties are extracted to serve their purpose of helping to bring wellness to adults, children and babies in a gentle, loving and nurturing way.

We love what we do and hope you feel this love with our products. You deserve the best and to live your best life.

Evoke by definition is the calling forth of what lies in the unconscious into the conscious. Together with Evoke Aromatherapy you can call forth the joy and wellness you have been creating for your life.

Evoke encourages us to “live with love in our heart and actions” ♥

Can We Really Eat Like Our Paleo Ancestors?

Source: USDA

While there are over 10,000 Paleo cookbooks, diet books, and food products such as paleo pizza crust, paleo apple crisp granola, and paleo wraps available on Amazon.com, can we really follow the Paleo diet that our Stone Age cousins were consuming? 

“Probably not,” according to Dr. David Katz, the founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, “because the plants and animals that our ancestors were consuming are now extinct.  More importantly, they definitely were not processed.” There goes the Paleo pizza crust.   The Paleo diet is based on eating only the foods presumably eaten by our hunting and gathering ancestors.

Katz spoke this week at the Whole Grains Breaking Barriers Conference sponsored by Oldways.   “The meat that our ancestors hunted for was much leaner, lower in heart unhealthy saturated, and higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids than what is available today in our supermarkets.  They were not hunting for pastrami and salami,” noted Katz.

In reality, our Stone Age ancestors gathered whole plant foods and ate them without added sugar or salt. In other words, the apples were plucked and consumed right off the tree, not sliced, tossed with sugar, and baked smothered with a buttery crisp topping.  Forget adding the à la mode part for obvious reasons.

According to Katz, our Paleolithic ancestor consumed about 100 grams of fiber daily.  Since carbohydrate-rich fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds can only provide about 2 to 6 grams of fiber per serving, this meant that they had to have consumed a lot of plant foods to rack up that much fiber every day.  A study in Spain looking at Neanderthals’ remains and soil samples of their bodily waste products has dug up evidence that their diet contained a routine amount of plants, such as berries and nuts.  In essence, the vintage Paleo diet appears to be plant-based, a tenet of what we know to be a healthy diet today.

In addition to the roughage, these plant foods also added a bushel of health-promoting antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals to this Paleolithic diet.  “While agriculture wasn’t available in the Stone Age, adding whole grains to the diet of Americans can inexpensively add fiber, healthy nutrients, compounds,” states Katz.  Currently Americans are consuming only 16 grams of dietary fiber daily, on average.  The recommendation is to consume 20 to 35 grams daily. 

The vintage Paleo diet, with tons of plant foods and the consumption of only lean meats, does contain many healthy attributes. “The problem is that most Americans don’t have time to hunt and gather their foods in the wild and are eating Paleo-like processed foods instead.  These foods were not part of history,” notes Katz.  

Be well,

Joan

Twitter:  @JoanSalgeBlake

The Dangers of Mixing Medications and Dietary Supplements

Source:  FDA

If you are one of 72 million Americans who take both dietary supplements and medications (prescribed and over-the-counter), you could be swallowing a dangerous, even-life threatening mix, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Some dietary supplements, even if they sound “natural” can increase or decrease the effectiveness of the medications.

For example, if you are taking the blood thinner, warfarin (Coumadin), you do not want to also be consuming ginkgo biloba, aspirin, or vitamin E as each of these also can thin the blood.  Taking any of these supplements with the blood thinner could increase the potential for internal bleeding or stroke, according to the FDA.  If you are taking a birth control pill, you definitely do not want to be simultaneously consuming the herbal supplement, St. John’s Wort.  This supplement can make the pill less effective.  Not exactly a good combo.  Keep in mind that the FDA does not review dietary supplements based on their effectiveness as it does for medications.

Here is a partial list of other potential interactions between dietary supplement and medications:

Click here for a more extensive list of supplements and their potential interactions with medications.

You should always check with your health care provider before consuming any dietary supplement.  Based on your medical history, supplements may not be healthful, and taken with certain medications, they can be downright harmful.

Be well, Joan

Twitter:  @JoanSalgeBlake