Every now and then the weather changes the best laid plans and we make adjustments.

Yesterday was a ‘Snow Day’ for us. We live in an area that normally sees rain, instead of snow during the winter months; but we had some of the white stuff fall on our lovely evergreen environment.

A Snow Day calls for flexibility. You put off what cannot be done out in the community for another day when the big melt allows for ease of travel and task to be done again.

You prepare your favorite foods and beverages to stay warm and comfortable. This demands that your Pantry has been stocked well to begin with or that you head off to the grocery store before the roads are too troublesome to travel with confidence and safety.

You have the right tools and equipment to deal with any amount of snow or ice. Scrapers for the windows on the car, heat for the home, and clothing for being indoors or outdoors under any circumstances, even if the electricity should wane or go out.

You can put a few logs on the fire and enjoy some freshly-brewed organic tea to warm the interior of the body to do a ‘body good’. At the Bio-Energetic level, cold weather can affect the energy of the Lung and Kidney Meridians and that can stress the Wei Chi to the point where you become vulnerable to pathogens.

It’s a good time for hot chicken soup or a wonderful bowl of vegetarian chili. The garlic, onion, oregano, chili powder, and other spices and herbs do amazing things for supporting the Immune System…more than the noodles or the chicken!

Layer your clothing, so you can add or remove articles at will to maintain an even body temperature. This is the time when you are thankful for knowing how to dress for inclement weather when you go skiing or snow-shoeing.

If you happen to have some Essential Oils of Oregano, Thyme, Rosewood, Lemon, Rosemary, or other warming oils on hand, then apply them to the body with carrier oils. Do not use ‘hot’ oils neat…

Make good use of the phone, the Net, and the neighborhood when you can’t travel or drive anywhere you would have gone to appointments, shopping, visiting people, or outings that have to be postponed due to the weather. With all of the apps and information online, you have direct access to weather reports and changes to help you make or change plans, routes, and choices that keep you safe and sound.

Most of all, sit back and enjoy the Great White Silence that blankets the land. It’s a quiet, a calm, and a peace that is so rare these days!

Martha Stewart offered some great ides for home craft projects for Snow Days on her TV show today:

Martha Stewart and Snow Day Activities

A lot of thought and a lifetime of experience has gone into the title of this post.

I was brought up as a young Italian American girl to learn to prepare food from scratch in my mother’s kitchen and to take care of the family and the household as a sacred duty.

Martha Stewart is like an echo of my wonderful mother and the heritage that all women share in some way for their internal capacity to care for others and for oneself.

I was a good daughter, a good wife, and a good mother; making all of the usual strides to keep my family well fed, strong, active, educated, together, and showing love for one another and Life. It’s an art form and a passion to set an example by living a healthy Lifestyle.

Then my interest shifted from caretaker to healer with my pursuit of educational goals in Psychology and Bio-Energetic Medicine. Following that there was an integration of both worlds to embellish and enhance all aspects of this art through Lifestyle Therapy.

Between Martha Stewart and Dr. Oz as some of the more visible names and forces of nature that exhibit comparable qualities for helping others, it was always my path to bring a healthy Lifestyle into the kitchen with the preparation of whole foods.

Yet it all begins in the garden…

When it all comes full circle, a person comes to understand that a whole Life begins by being in harmony with Nature and growing food with her seasons in the garden. The goodness of whole foods from healthy soil is taken into the kitchen and offered to the family for their health and well-being. The food is that which binds and heals and makes for a joyous group living together in harmony.

If you could combine the best of Martha and the best of Dr. Oz and their cohorts, it would resemble the equivalent of the ideal that I am attempting to convey to you about the Whole Person who gardens, cooks, and heals. In other words, don’t go to a doctor that doesn’t know their way around the kitchen and the garden. Don’t prepare food with a person who is not also a healer or caregiver. And when you reach your fullest potential, you will be your own master gardener, master cook in the kitchen, and master the art of healing self and others. That’s the beauty of a healthy Lifestyle…

The healing takes place with every meal. The healing is never-ending. The kitchen and the family table carries over to the rest of the family Life and that of the community and the world by scale… One way or the other, it all returns to the sovereignty of the soil.

The wholesomeness of each person is determined by our closeness to the natural world. Our health comes from the garden and the field, moves into the kitchen, and into the community of healers who are constantly in the kitchen and the garden soil. It’s a complete circle of Life at its absolute best!

Goldie Hawn appeared on Dr. Oz with her sweet smile and ever-present effervescence.

We first met Goldie when she was giggling and dancing on Laugh In long ago… Then we watched her in movies and heard about her life with Kurt Russell. Then she fell off the radar.

Goldie set up a Foundation for helping with learning for youth. She wrote a book and it’s helping people learn what a difference ten minutes can make when they are ‘present’ and ‘mindful’.

Goldie suffered from depression, yet she searched out the causes for her state of mind and now helps children find ways to approach Life with ‘kindness’ and ‘gratitude’.

She held a brain and explained to Dr. Oz what a precious and profound moment it was for her. She understands the workings and the function of the brain which seemed to shock Dr. Oz.

I would suggest that you pursue what Goldie is in pursuit of…retraining the brain.

She has much to offer all ages and generations with the wisdom she has gleaned in her 63 years of living.

Dr. Oz and Goldie Hawn

Dr. Oz introduced his four ‘go-to’ physicians that he likes to call his ‘disease detectives’.

It’s cute, but is it really much of an improvement over standard Western Medicine?

Dr. Oz and His Four Disease Detectives

In some ways it is and in other ways, it still isn’t enough to make me happy.

But it’s you that needs to be happy with the doctors you choose to monitor, guide, prescribe, and manage your medical care. These four are doing a little more than their more traditional counterparts, yet they just don’t comprehend Bio-Energetic Medicine.

They are treating food like a drug and food is most definitely NOT a drug, not should any doctor prescribe food as if it were a medication.

They are treating supplements like drugs and this is definitely a move in the wrong direction. It really makes me feel as if the educational process has eluded them when they think this way. They prescribe supplements and herbs like they were on the shelves of a pharmacy and marketed by a pharmaceutical sales rep. I find that distasteful and unprofessional and unacceptable.

They are trying their best and I cannot find any fault in that. It is just their mindset that still needs more adjustment before I could recommend my family members with the same confidence that Dr. Oz refers his family to these physicians. Oh, well…

That’s just the point! It’s more about being WELL for me than it is finding disease or detecting the need for drug substitutes. There is a monumental difference between a healthy Lifestyle and detecting disease. A healthy Lifestyle celebrates living well! That’s the preference here.

The ‘disease’ model is not going to keep you healthy and well. Only a healthy Lifestyle does that… It’s one thing to work with finding ways to fix the dysfunction by Functional Medicine, but it misses the whole point of progress.

Dr. Oz was seemingly relieved to learn more about vitamin B12 and it’s importance to the health of the human body, in particular the nervous system.

Some people don’t get sufficient quantities of this essential vitamin from their food or their supplements. B12 is tricky to absorb…

Dr. Oz and Vitamin B12: Deficiencies Must Be Met with Supplying Missing Nutrient

The most ideal source of vitamin B12 is seaweed. The next most reliable source is a sub-lingual nutritional supplement. Then again I prefer to take Vital 18 which is derived from spirulina which is a superior source of vitamin B12 and other minerals for maximum absorption and assimilation in the human body.

It’s one thing to eat meat and think that fortified cereal will suffice. That’s not necessarily true… So if you are feeling any of the symptoms that Dr. Oz and his experts describe, you might want to change your diet, change your supplement program, and change your habits. If you are severely deficient, then a shot of B12 may jump start you back to better health. But you will need to begin to eat foods rich in this essential nutrient even with shots.

The B complex vitamins are water-soluble, so too much will be eliminated naturally by the body’s internal mechanisms. The consumption of whole grains is a wise choice. Bread and cereal do NOT qualify! WHOLE grains… Get it?

Dairy products contain B12 as do eggs and meat, but eating these foods can come at a price unless you eat organic, grass-fed, free-range animal products. You can choose bison or buffalo and other exotic animal meats or eat jerky that is made from grass-fed free-range animal meat. Clams and other seafood will contain B12 as long as the oceanic waters they come from does… If you eat seaweed or spirulina, then you’ve got yourself covered with confidence.

Dr. Oz brought Jennifer Hudson to share her story about her weight loss with the audience.

She told us that she simply decided that she wanted this for herself after she was pregnant. She wanted her body back.

Jennifer is the spokesperson for WeightWatchers whose program she is using to count and eat to get her slender figure back again.

Dr. Oz and Jennifer Hudson

It was a unique moment to find that both Daphne Oz on The Chew and Martha Stewart made the same breakfast drink for the New Year on the same day during both of their respective TV shows today. Was it coincidence or are people beginning to realize just how profound a fresh juice is in the morning for one’s healthy Lifestyle?

The ingredients include carrots, ginger root, and grapefruit, including the rind and the white pulp which supplies bio-flavinoids like rutin and hesperidin. When you juice these whole foods fresh in the morning, you will not only get your New Year off to a good start, it will begin your entire day with healthy nutrients and energy to keep you perky during the day.

Most juicers will separate the pith from the rest of the grapefruit. It is important to use a whole grapefruit, instead of grapefruit that comes in a bottle or canned sections. Fresh and organic is the method that provides you with the froth and the nutrients!

The Chew and Daphne Oz Making Her New Year’s Breakfast Drink

Daphne Oz went on to prepare a meat-free Burger Slider with sweet potato fries that pleased Hugh Jackman and the crew, especially the avowed meatman Michael Symon. I found it interesting that Symon the Grate would admit that he was a smoker and that he was going to kick the habit this year. I would suggest to him that he eats more ‘warming foods’ and fewer ‘cooling foods’. The Lung meridian energy flow is impaired when one consumes more ‘cold and cooling foods’ that throw the body out of balance. From cucumbers to dairy products to iceberg lettuce, he needs to learn more about the bio-energetic nature of whole foods to balance the Chi in the Metal Element which will lessen his craving and addiction to cigarettes for the warming effects of tobacco.

Hugh Jackman was right at home with the crew of The Chew and Mario helped him promote his LaughingMan coffee line while they nibbled on coffee-marinated chicken. The Mandarin Croc-odile and Lady Lunch danced with Hugh while he got tips for his son from Daphne about what to replace meat with to assure that a growing boy gets his protein. Most of the crew want to improve their health for the New Year, especially Mario who is going to follow Gweneth Paltrow’s 21 Day Cleanse with hopes of feeling his oats. Daphne is getting her caffeine from her Green Tea, but the smart money is on her Carrot-Ginger-Grapefruit Drink like her sister from another mother, Martha Stewart.

Whole Living Magazine and Martha Stewart’s New Year Drink

Both Mario and Martha are doing Yoga. Carla thinks that she needs to drop a few of those twenty pounds she’s gained in one year, but if she does her ‘Mindful Walking’ she will simply tonify her body to build muscle mass which weighs more than fat. She has no fat that I can see on her frame.

If you are going to set in motion a New Year’s Resolution, then do it with a strong personal and willful commitment to the daily application of your intent. Hugh Jackman has a wonderful wife who cooks, but doesn’t want Hugh to have a resolution. He is living Life to its fullest these days anyway, so if he simply supports his wife and his son in their quests as he dances and acts through his myriad of roles…all will be well and good!

Your New Year can be one of incredible results when you embrace a healthy Lifestyle…

Dr. Oz tackled the topic of chronic pain on today’s show stating that 116 million people in the USA suffer from painful conditions.

He went through the causes of pain in muscles, skeletal areas, and other parts of the body explaining how the body senses pain from a variety of factors.

Dr. Oz suggested a number of things to do to deal with the pain. You’ll have to read his website to glean all of the different suggestions he gave today in one hour.

Dr. Oz and 7 Days to Less Pain

I liked his suggestion to take a mineral supplement, but you would be wise to take more than only a calcium/potassium/magnesium supplement. The body uses many more minerals to repair damaged tissue and perform regular functions. When you are deficient it often is expressed by discomfort and a lack of energy and nutrients in the human body. Your body uses pain to get your attention that there is an imbalance that demands that you know it is in need.

I also agreed with the use of ginger, turmeric, and chili peppers in one’s food. Warming spices often alleviate the ‘cold’ energy that is responsible for pain at the bio-energetic level. Dr. Oz told people that these spices reduce inflammation which is also a common cause of pain. The Nopalea and the Pearl Powder are two powerful nutritional products that reduce inflammation.

It goes without saying that a good pillow and a good night’s sleep makes a huge difference. Doing some stretching and some yoga upon awakening is a smart move! But has Dr. Oz ever heard of Chiropractic for pain? He seems reluctant to refer people for chiropractic care when that is so often the treatment that makes the biggest difference immediately when the spine is out of alignment or the muscles, tendons, or ligaments are out of kilter.

Chiropractic care and Acupuncture as well as Massage Therapy are excellent choices for dealing with pain. Although basic Lifestyle changes will do more for most people over time to completely address the deep causes of chronic pain. Eating well and living well is the best option there is…

On the Dr. Oz website you will find a link to win a Veloshape treatment that is fairly expensive for cellulite. I imagine that 25,000 viewers will scoop them up quickly, so don’t wait too long to try to get yours.

Dr. Oz suggests Hibiscus Tea and other things to do, but it really boils down to a comprehensive Lifestyle change that is as extensive as it is intelligent. It goes far beyond the limited methods and products that Dr. Oz provided today. So allow for more than seven days to deal with any chronic pain. Even Arnica Gel lasts for only a short period of time unless you change the causative factors…

Dr. Oz is trying to give you alternatives. However, if you have been experiencing chronic pain, I want you to give it more than one week for relief.

One of the best solutions that I have to add to the mix are the CieAura Holographic Chips for Relief.

CieAura Holographic Chips for Relief

It seems unimaginable that 90 percent of the whitetail deer population along a 100 mile stretch of a river in Montana could be killed in one season, but that is what the current numbers are suggesting.

Whitetail Deer are succumbing to biting midges which transmit the disease to the wildlife and the deer then often die from hemorrhagic problems. The internal bleeding can result in death within days of contracting the disease. It will take years and even decades to restore the populations of deer that have been affected this season.

Not only the whitetail deer, but also pronghorn (antelope), big horn sheep, elk, and mule deer are also hit by EHD. It is thought that the animals cannot transmit the disease to humans, even though they eat the venison. But is that actually true?

Remember to cook venison and wild meat thoroughly. No whitetail tartar this year… Just in case!

Northern Plains Herds Hard Hit by EHD Disease This Year

It’s not limited to northern Montana, but the disease extends to many states within proximity with officials tracking the incidence in each state as they do head counts and survey hunters. Reports suggest that this is the worst it has been in over two decades.

When any animal that is consumed by humans or enters the food chain dies from hemorrhaging, it concerns me. The biting midges linger at the bank of rivers where the wildlife come into contact with them. When seasonal weather patterns are prone to extend the muddy waters in their habitat, the disease decimates more of the deer population. It can take years to rebuild the herds.

The only good that comes from this is when cottonwood trees on the banks of the rivers and streams get more of a chance to grow to maturity. Our ecosystem is so unique and interconnected…

The health of our wildlife is an indicator of the health of the entire planet. The human behavior of hunting and land management issues that include wildlife are an integral part of our healthy Lifestyles.

Dr. Oz talked about three distinct ways to improve the sleep you get each night on his TV show this past week.

I think that someone on his production crew has been reading my Blog to learn about the Sleep Masks. Dr. Oz said that his highest recommendation was for the Sleep Mask of the three products he shared with his audience.

I would agree…

However, you can wear a Sleep Mask during the night or day to keep all light from affecting the endocrine system from producing melatonin, but you don’t have to limit yourselves to only the Sleep Mask.

Dr. Oz and Three Ways to Get a Restful Sleep

You do have the option of taking nutritional supplements, using whole foods, and wearing the Sleep Mask to get a more restful sleep at night.

It’s especially important to wear the Mask if you expect to sleep during the day. I would highly recommend the Bucky Sleep Mask, because I designed it.

I cannot tell you to rely upon the l-arginine or the fenugreek supplement that Dr. Oz promoted on his TV show. I use Fenugreek Seed Tea to break down phlegm and address congestion. I have not used it for promoting sleep. I have used Chamomile Tea and Essential Oils for this purpose with success.

I am not in favor of the use of single amino acids. It tends to throw your entire body out of balance if you take a specific amino acid for a period of time longer than a week or so. Instead of supplementing with an individual amino acid, it is preferable to take Vital 18 which contains all the essential amino acids that a human must get from an outside source of food or supplementation.

If you contact Vital 18, just tell them that Lynn from Washington sent you and you would like a sample of either Chocolate, Berry, or Butternut Vital 18 sent to you at no cost. Then they will give you a good price on a six pack of Vital 18. Each bottle supplies an enormous amount of nutrition that not only helps you lose weight to attain your ideal weight, but you will sleep better and get a more restful sleep to awaken refreshed and ready for your day by taking one of your three doses later in the evening before you go to bed.