Health Benefits of Green Tea

Camellia sinensis

I enjoy most green teas but this one by far is my favorite.  No need for any sweetener!  We all know that soda and artificially sweetened beverages are no good for us!!! So why should you drink green tea?  Well, for one, its good for your heart! and according to the CDC, an American dies of heart disease every minute!  Green tea has anti-oxidative, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-hypertensive actions and if thats not enough to get your attention, check this out:  it also has a FAT reducing action!  One of the active constituents is an antioxidant called catechin. Longer steeping times will increase the yield of catechin but binds caffeine, sooooo stronger tea means less caffeine but more of the good stuff!  So don't take your tea bag out immediately...wait at least 3-5 minutes! but don't steep it long enough to taste bitter so you won't enjoy it.  According to the side of the Good Earth tea box, the average mg of caffeine per 8 ounce cup in green tea is 30, as opposed to 50 in black tea and 100 in coffee.  So if you are looking for less stimulant towards the evening, green tea is a better option.  And of course, there is decaf green tea available that has the same wonderful flavor and benefits. Green tea is made from the same plant (C. Sinensis) as black tea, less the fermenting process. Black tea does contain some (but not as much) of the antioxidative qualities also, so I'm not discounting black tea.  I'm just happy to find a tea that I don't need to add a poison artificial sweetener to, or unnecessary calories to.  I have found a sweetener that I do add to black tea that is actually good for you :)  Its called Stevia.  The company called Sweet Leaf does not use chemicals in their processing of the sweetener, and it has zero calories and leaves no bitter aftertaste.  You can find it in Whole Foods or a health food store.  They also have yummy flavors in a liquid form, such as English toffee.  Other green teas I have personally tried and recommend are Zen tea from Tazo, Traditional Medicinals, and Yogi Tea Company teas. So pinky up my friends!  Switch to a more healthful beverage today!

A woman is like a tea bag-you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.  Eleanor Roosevelt

For more information on tea visit:  http://www.o-cha.net/english/cup/health.html

ps-these antioxidants are also powerful weapons against cancer!!!

Watch this powerful video if you need inspiration to recycle

                  

 I cannot imagine some of these images in my backyard, and yet they are.  Where will all of our waste go?  Sometimes I need some extra inspiration to recycle.  I'm improving since viewing this video.  Hopefully, if I start to slack, I'll view it again.  There is beautiful land all over this country and in every corner of our earth.  I was reminded just how awesome it is when visiting Sedona.  I had a life changing experience while visiting the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  The red rocks are truly breath-taking and they stopped me in my tracks at every bend of road, but when I looked up to the sky, through the Chapel's window, I was overwhelmed.  I sensed God's presence.  It was very frightening and wonderful at the same time.  I began crying uncontrollably and was humbled beyond belief.  When I see places trashed, I feel badly about the paradise that was created for us.  I wonder what our ancestors would think.  I wrote this poem after my experience.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

They removed 25,000 tons of rock

for me to believe…

a small price

to open a heart,
a soul.
I scaled the
spiral medium
and looked out at the sky.


There was Tom,

Uncle Dick,
Grandmom,                                                                                           

Mom,
pouring over the sides
of clouds,                                                                                                     
down cheeks,
into the shafts of
my bones.


Urgency led
my tremulous hands,
lighting wick
after wick,
as the boy
tossed burnt
pleas into
a box.


I knelt on the solid base
of my doubt,
trying to get a glimpse
of the cross,
but my eyes were
drawn to the
loyal blue heavens.


They removed 25,000 tons
of rock for me to believe…
a small price
to open a heart,
a soul.


Click on this link for facts about plastic bags.  Most supermarkets sell very inexpensive reusable bags now.  I purchased six.  Now I have to work on remembering to bring them into the store with me.  One step at a time.

This beauty stops me in my tracks when walking through my gardens.  Let's appreciate our paradise!

Recycle something today!



Battery Caged Hens = Salmonella---Protect Yourself and Your Family!!!!!!!!!!

                   This is so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Factory farms that use battery cages should be banned!  The European Union has already banned them! These cages allow a living space of 8.5 x 11 inches for the hens entire life.  Its so stressful for them that they peck and kill one another.  The factory's answer to that is to debeak them-yes cut off one-third of their beaks. Because of the stressful lifestyle and close quarters they release stress hormones, which stimulates the growth rate of Salmonella, and lowers immune function.  The factory's answer: feed millions of pounds of antibiotics to them.  The primary source of Salmonella infection is eggs!!  Purchase your eggs from cage-free, organic or free-range sources!!!!!!!!!  Check out this site from the Humane Society.  Cage-Free vs. Battery-Cage Eggs : The Humane Society of the United States.  Cage-Free doesn't mean a great, totally stress-free life for the hen, but far better, according the Humane Society.  Free range seems to be the best choice to provide environments that are harmonious, nutritive, and honor the most basic needs of the animals.  If you google battery cage egg images, it will make you sick..........and aware ( if the above picture wasn't enough to sadden you).

Check out Nature's Yoke for cage-free sources.  Read your egg cartons!


Check out Mother Earth News regarding free range eggs and their increased nutritional value!

This is a favorite poem written by William Carlos Williams.  If he only knew.

The Red Wheelbarrow


so much depends
upon


a red wheel
barrow


glazed with rain
water


beside the white
chickens.


If the animal cruelty doesn't stop you from buying eggs from factory farms who use battery caged hens.......think of the health risks to you and your family.

Your thoughts?


Ross, S., Food for Thought, Holistic Nurs Pract 2006;24(3);169-5
Williams, W., Selected Poems, p 30.

Sources of Inspiration

There are endless sources of inspiration out there and we don't have to look far and wide to find them.  The above picture is one of Isaiah Zagar's mosaics and living dream. Zagar took dilapidated buildings on South Street in Philadelphia and made them into Philadelphia's Magic Gardens.  What struck me about this artist was this:  you can see and feel the true essence of who this man is, past, present and future when you stand in his sculpture garden, or tour the city to see 40 years of his many creations blossom in the most unexpected spaces.  Although I don't want my walls filled with mosaics (well maybe just one), I truly admire Zagar's courage to create his surroundings and life's work with a genuine heart.  Many of his works incorporate silouettes of his wife Julia, who is obviously a part of his being. And of course, he was influenced by many other artists/people along the way.

This adventure left me wondering if I am living my life according to the essence of who I am..........what is the essence of who I am.........who inspires me and who is a part of my being?.............

 Then I came across this quote in Julia Camerons book The Artist's Way -A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity 

                         

                               "You are lost the instant you know what the result will be."  Juan Gris.

So having the "answers" to those questions, I gather is pointless.  The essence of who we are is about the journey we chose:   who we allow to influence our journey and what we make of our journey.  Although I am influenced by negative experiences, I cherish those who have touched my heart in large and small ways and poetry allows me to frame this.  I'm guessing Zagar feels a similar satisfaction when viewing his mosaics.  I am lucky to have my mom, who I cherish for teaching me the meaning of love with an inexhaustible list (volumes) of loving deeds, actions and lifestyle.  And I cherish her mom for the quiet love she taught throughout her life.  I wrote this poem in memory of my grandmom's enduring love for my grandpop, even long after he was gone.

Goose Girl

This spoon chases lops of carrots,
potatoes, celery, and beef,
round the copper bottom pot,
and steam billows towards a
single, hollow stratum between
these apartment walls.


Green cold bottles of 7up
are still to the left in the icebox,
salt and pepper
to the right of the stove.


Today I changed the placemats
for fall,
two tan woven squares,
two brown wooden rings surrounding
two fabric napkins,
laden with crimson berries
and the rich ginger tones
of autumn’s grace.


In the evening,
I pop open the tin for a raspberry candy,
and savor and sway
on the wooden rails of my rocker,
which always return my pushback.

Fridays I go on to pin up my hair
and dust the curio.
Goose Girl looks down on her pleading darlings
with compassion.
Singlehandedly
she remains undaunted,
year after year,
clutching her secret bouquet behind
her back.

I am so fortunate to have such monumental influences in my life, but I also try to appreciate someone or something every day, even tiny doses of inspiration.  Cameron's book encourages you to recognize and nuture your creative self, which is present in all of us.  She advises to journal each morning and seek out your creativity by taking yourself on "artist dates".  For me, setting a little time aside each day reflecting, journaling, meditating or writing poetry makes the world stop rushing by so quickly.  I am greatful for others who teach and nuture creativity.

This week I am treading into new "creative territory".  I visited a local art store and brought myself some colored pencils and sketch pads and a "how to draw with colored pencils" book.  I could never really draw, but Cameron advises us to challenge our inner critic... and so I'm trying not to say "never".  Try your hand at something new and creative.  I hope you share your adventure here.

Thanks Denise for sharing the Magic Garden site and thanks Mare for sharing the Artist's Way with me.

  

The Poetry of Rain

Today I felt like I could conquer the world during Mat Pilates,

building core strength and reaching with strong open arms towards the ceiling sky.  Then I went out to my car and saw this view of the real sky from my car window:  threatening, looming over LA Fitness......over my errands......over my daughters birthday barbeque, over my optimistic conquering spirit.  Then the words of Pema Chödrön popped into my head, and I saw the rain as my teacher.

I remember listening to her CD "Getting Unstuck" and feeling relieved to learn that the "negative" things in life make me balanced and without them I would be very arrogant.   Her teachings include having a loving kindness towards ourselves, and therefore are very comforting to me.  Here are a few of Chödrön's quotes:

"To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest."
— Pema Chödrön

"Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together."
— Pema Chödrön

"Most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We automatically hate them. We run like crazy. We use all kinds of ways to escape -- all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it. We feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain."  (my addiction: food)
— Pema Chödrön

"When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You're able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open. And you notice when you get caught up in prejudice, bias, and aggression. You develop an enthusiasm for no longer watering those negative seeds, from now until the day you die. And, you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start to do things differently."
— Pema Chödrön

and one more...........

"As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find compassion. "

— Pema Chödrön

I took a picture of these beautiful "perfect" flowers on a gloomy evening.  They were behind two of my dead hanging plants that I neglected to water in a heat wave.  I paused in my garden with loving kindness towards myself.  I felt bad about the plants but I did not water any negative seeds.  I did appreciate and delight more in these beautiful brown-eyed susans.

I thought about this again over the weekend after attending two parties with loving family and friends.  It is wonderful to spend time with people who support and care about us.  But life isn't always like this and thats okay.  I wrote this poem Audrey's Gift, and although it reflects a painful time in my life, it has helped to make me the person I am today.  Click on the link, then the "table of contents outline", then the the "Art of Nursing,"  then the PDF file under "Audrey's Gift."
http://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/toc/2009/08000#-237883829

Next time you are going through a difficult time, make sure you treat yourself with loving kindness and know that there are lessons that may help open up your heart if you are willing to stop and listen.