The Joys of Barefooting!

My new obsession requires the purchase of.. NOTHING!  I have been walking around barefoot as much of the time as I can.  I go shopping barefoot, walking to the mailbox barefoot, driving barefoot, and of course I'm always barefoot inside the house.  I've caught a few odd looks, but no one has complained, even though I also go barefoot at church.  I think I really love my ward though.  They seem to accept me in all my weirdness, and it's a wonderful thing that I know not everyone can find.

(these are not my feet. my feet are less hairy.)

Why barefoot? 

1. It's healthier!  I feel my tendons and muscles stretching and strengthening, and the soles of my feet toughening up enough to handle whatever the outside throws at me.  My lower back has loosened up considerably, just because I've been walking differently.  I expect my knees are also being given a break as my feet are no longer a source of heavy impact and shock on my joints.  I just feel better. There are numerous benefits outlined in the linked article above, and I encourage any readers to look into barefooting to help heal things like joint problems, or plantar fasciitis. It's also almost impossible to develop any kind of fungal infection or athlete's foot when your foot is not enclosed in a sweaty, germy shoe.
2. I get to connect with the Earth every day.  In my pagan paths, I'm very connected with Nature, and the spirit of Earth.  I constantly try to find more ways to feel connected to the rhythms of seasons and cycles of this wondrous place in which we live, and walking barefoot is an easy way to absorb some of that special energy that can't be replicated by humans.

3. It's cheap! I have always, always hated buying shoes.  It's so hard to find shoes that are comfortable, affordable, and attractive.  My criteria for comfortable are many: they cannot slip off my heels, my toes have to have room to wiggle and move about, they can't dig into my heels or any part of my foot, there can't be support in the wrong places (sadly, I often find myself shifting my foot around even in my Vibram FiveFingers because the left one doesn't fit quite right), and the list goes on.  It's also nigh on impossible for me to walk in high heels, and they hurt my joints (not a shocking fact).  Barefoot goes with almost everything!  While I don't see myself running about barefoot in the snow (at least not for long periods of time), pretty much every other situation is barefoot-able.  I'm working on some barefoot sandals that look something like this, so I'll have something nice to wear for church.  I may make a few more pairs because they won't annoy me and I can make them exactly to my own specifications.  Also, some people in our culture do freak out at barefoot people, and the barefoot sandals can somewhat hide the fact that I'm barefoot.

4. I want to.  I've always loved being barefoot, and it's a badge of pride for me to be just a little bit different than the status quo.  I was born that way.  So there you go.

The Deliciousness of Green Stuff

8:35 PM

Ever done a green smoothie cleanse?  Apparently you can do month-long fasts, eating only raw green and fruit smoothies.  Not really my cup of tea.  Sometimes I need a grilled -cheese sandwich (I am actually looking into the GAPS diet, but that's a whole other post). I like to do wimpy cleanses that only take a day--24 hours of raw vegan food in the form of green smoothies and some handfuls of raw nuts to make sure I'm getting enough protein and fat.  I feel lighter and cleaned out by the end of the day, and it can help knock a sugar binge out of my head.  When I'm organized enough, I have a green smoothie for breakfast, and I drink the other half with dinner.  I've made smoothies several times for my family as the vegetable with our dinner and they've been consumed with gusto, even when they're more green than fruity.  And if my two year old will eat it, you know it's family-friendly.

Here are some ideas for creating your own green smoothie (taken from various places, some of which are linked at the bottom, and some from an iPhone app called Green Smoothies that I highly, highly recommend):

1. Start slow! You won't want to keep drinking them if you have to force them down.  A good ratio to start with is 3 parts fruit to 1 part greens.  You may worry about the sugar, but you're probably getting much more nutrition from that smoothie than you would with a limp pile of steamed green beans.
2. Greens that are great: kale, spinach, swiss chard, lettuce (all kinds), beet greens, celery (not my favorite, but some people like celery), parsley (in limited amounts! Find a recipe!), and pretty much anything you would put in a salad.  Make sure to rotate your greens--if you eat spinach for a week straight your body is going to have buildup of alkaloids that can be harmful.  Read here for more information.  Also, with chard and kale, make sure you don't add the stems or thick ribs--they're very bitter.  Greens can be frozen in ziploc bags if they're starting to wilt, and only take a few minutes to thaw out for a smoothie.  The nutrients won't be AS good, but it's still better than something canned (in my humble opinion).

3. Fruit that's great: mangos (make it nice and sweet and add a great texture), bananas (perfect for texture), peaches, pears (a good sweetener), apples (they make things a little chunky, like applesauce, but are good for sweetening things up), pineapple (great paired with mango and/or banana), berries (blackberries and raspberries can be pretty seedy so avoid those if you don't like that), and pretty much any fruit that you love to eat.  Frozen fruit works well too.  A word of warning: persimmons will eat your blender alive if you don't have a really good one.  They will turn your smoothie into a weird, mucousy texture that gets so thick it can bind up the blade on even an upper middle-class blender.
4. Order of operations: This is what I've found to work for me, using my regular non-fancy blender.  I add the cut up fruit first, with a little water if it won't mix well.  Then I add the leaves slowly, occasionally taste-testing to get it just right.  Then I blend on a higher speed (the smoothie setting usually) for about a minute to make sure it's as smooth as I can get it.  Then I pour it into a quart mason jar and screw on a plastic lid so I can shake it before I pour it if I need to.  I've found that the gravy shaker thing that my mother-in-law gave me years ago is perfect for keeping a smoothie shaken up while on the go.

Last but not least, here' s one of my favorite recipes:

2 mangos

1 banana

1 pear

2 cups spinach

(I add more spinach now, but it's still quite yummy!)

Core the pears. Blend it all together into a blender full of DELICIOUS HEALTHINESS. Enjoy!

Stop that migraine in its tracks!

It's official! I have found the magic recipe to get rid of a migraine.  It has been proven by my extensive study (one person tried it one time and it worked).  I got this particular recipe from this website as part of a bonus set of lessons on herbs when I ordered a board game from them.  It's meant to be a nice drink to help fight colds and coughs, but then I read that ginger is good for migraines.  So I mixed it up and gave it to a friend who had started to see a migraine aura.  A few hours later, when she normally would have been fighting pain and dizziness and nausea, she was fine! No pain, no aura.  So here it is:


Ingredients:
2 inches fresh ginger root
juice of about half a lemon
2 tbsp honey
3 cups water

Grate ginger root into 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Strain into a mug, add lemon juice and honey. Enjoy!