As I sat down to write this week’s editorial, quite honestly I was at a total loss of ideas. That’s rare. What in the world is wrong with me? I can’t find one single thing to write about that aligns with the upcoming Memorial Day holiday? Am I losing my mind?
While I may be, thanks in no small part to my current deep state of peri-menopause, the real cause of my lack of ideas is because I haven’t been online. I’ve been living entirely in the real world - with real people. New coaching clients, my Friendtorship Cohort, a charity event in Las Vegas, in the garden with my husband and daughter building a chicken coop for my new lady friends - I’ve had little to no time at all to stay on top of current events. And it feels fucking great!
I went outside to do some light meditation and reading, in hopes new ideas would come to mind. Feeling compelled lately to spend time with my Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, I happened to turn to a page that gave me exactly what I needed. Not by accident you realize, as books find us, not the other way around. In sharing his story, Bill Wilson, founder of AA describes how at age 22, a soldier in a foreign war, he landed in England and visited Winchester Cathedral. He was extremely moved and so wandered outside. An old tombstone caught his attention which read:
"Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier Who caught his death Drinking cold small beer. A good soldier is ne'er forgot Whether he dieth by musket Or by pot."
An ominous warning which he failed to heed. Falling into the depths of alcoholism himself, for which we can all be eternally grateful. Without Bill Wilson, a program that has helped millions of addicts and those impacted by addiction regain not just sobriety, but a new and more spiritually fulfilling life would never have been created.
But what does this have to do with Memorial Day? Everything. While Memorial Day, originally referred to as Decoration Day, was established during the American Civil War to honor fallen war heroes, it has morphed over time. After World War I, it came to be observed in honor of those who died in all U.S. wars. In more recent years, it is a time we honor all those who have gone to the grave before us. Which will one day include people honoring you and I. And as the epitaph on the tombstone Bill Wilson encountered back in 1915 reminds us all - we do many things to put ourselves in the ground before our time.
We should work on that.
It’s strawberry season! I came across a recipe for strawberry bread in the Charleston Living magazine sent to me by our realtor, along with a gift bag of Low Country goodies in celebration of our new property on Dewees Island. I got so caught up envisioning what island life in South Carolina will be that I hit the kitchen and played around with a cleaner version, adding a bit more flavor complexity. It came out worth sharing!
As always, remember that quality ingredients are key to eating treats like this, so not to send your body into an inflammatory shock. Use grass-fed butter. Use the ghee spray not crappy vegetable spray. Bob’s RedMill Gluten Free flour allows you to remove gluten from recipes without turning baked goods into bricks and the A2/A2 whole milk is produced by farmers who care about the health of their cattle, the quality of the soil, and the nutrients in their product.
This bread still contains a good deal of sugar which will take years off your life. So be sure it’s only a treat - which by definition isn’t something you eat regularly;)
Strawberry Almond Lemon Bread
1/2 c. unsalted grass-fed butter 3/4 c. organic cane sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp. lemon juice 1 1/4 c. gluten free flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. sea salt 1/2 cup whole A2/A2 milk 1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest 1/2 tsp. almond extract 1 c. cored, sliced strawberries
Icing:
1 c. pure cane powdered sugar 2 tsp. pureed strawberries, use a sieve to remove seeds 1 tsp. milk
Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9” loaf pan with ghee spray.
Combine butter and sugar in medium bowl at medium speed with hand-mixer. Add the eggs and lemon juice and mix until incorporated.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mixture to butter mixture, along with milk, lemon zest and almond extract. Stir until well blended, scraping sides of the bowl. Fold in sliced strawberries. Pour into prepared pan and bake for approx. one hour or until tester comes out clean.
Meanwhile, puree about 2-3 strawberries in a Vitamix or blender and strain out the seeds. Sift the powdered sugar and mix with puree. Add milk if too thick to drizzle. This sauce is amazing on pancakes and crepes too;)
Cool the bread on wire rack. Remove from pan and drizzle with icing.
What I’ve always done to look and feel my best isn’t working anymore. I turned fifty back in November but aside from the excitement of making it to another decade and being a young, hot-looking fifty year old, instead of an old 40-something, I didn’t experience much of a change. But about a month ago I started to notice a decline in my energy. My normal 3pm dip in energy started to show up uninvited at 1pm. My ravenous appetite for red meat and chicken ever so slightly morphed into a mild gag reflex at the first bite. My teenage daughter is celebrating the fact she is no longer the only person in our household to have zits. I look tired and even worse, I feel tired. My sleep went from a 10 to a 3 almost overnight. Waking up drenched in sweat, smelling like I’d spent the night at the gym. While at the same time my body is looking like it’s never seen the inside of one. I haven’t changed anything I’ve done to stay in good health over the past fifteen years yet I don’t look or feel my best. Maybe that’s the problem - I haven’t changed anything.
To be perfectly honest, when I was coaching fitness back in my thirties and forties, I had little sympathy for women going through menopause. When they complained of flabby tummies and profuse sweating, my thoughts instantly were, “well maybe if you didn’t drink wine every night and eat pastries for breakfast, you wouldn’t have these problems.” Proof that 30 year olds know far less than they think they do. While most of these women were in fact drinking wine every night or eating pastries which doesn’t help, their bodies were in fact going through significant changes I didn’t understand. Now I do.
I refuse to use age as an excuse so I did some deeper digging into what things I can be doing differently now that I am in the thick of peri-menopause. There’s no way in hell I’m going to be a soft in the middle, chronically tired, sweaty, smelly, cranky bitch for the next five years! Thankfully I came across a series called Navigating Peri-menopause and Menopause by Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD in the Commune App. In less than two weeks, I have improved my sleep, reduced hot flashes, and figured out what foods and supplements are making me feel better. I can’t say I look better quite yet, but that will surely come with consistency over time.
Here’s what I’m doing:
Triangle Breathing. A scientific study provided evidence that triangle breathing done for twenty minutes twice per day reduces hot flashes by 45%. I will admit I was skeptical at first, but it works! In just a few days, my hot flashes were nearly nonexistent. Triangle breathing consists of taking a 5 second inhale, 10 second breath hold and 5 second exhale - it’s tough to do for twenty minutes and even tougher to do twice per day. But it is worth it. Not just to improve sleep and reduce the horrible feeling of hot flashes but also to improve health. Did you realize that hot flashes are actually a biomarker that your blood vessels are potentially being damaged? Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women so hot flashes should not be accepted as merely, “part of aging.”
Increasing micro-nutrients. For the first time in my life (and the last), I bought a celebrity product. Who am I? I guess I got caught up listening to Elle McPherson talk to Megan Kelly about her midlife-changing super greens and told myself a lie, “I too can look like Elle McPherson if I drink her green super powder.” At $85 for a 10 ounce package, I expected to turn into a long-legged Aussie super model. It didn’t happen. So rather than fooling myself into thinking a magic product exists, I started adding more colors to every single meal - purple onions, sprouts, dark leafy greens and more cruciferous vegetables. Chia seeds, Phospho-Plex Powder, and glutathione seem to be doing the trick too.
Removing all packaged foods. Eating colorfully is my mantra but that isn’t to say I never eat beige foods. As a family, we usually eat tacos once per week - so quick and easy! While I keep our packaged foods gluten-free and clean of inflammatory seed oils, these foods are no longer working for me. They make me feel bloated, tired and disrupt my sleep.
Eating my last meal 3-4 hours before bedtime. This is tough for me because I go to bed early - which means I eat between 5-6pm. But it’s working and well worth it. I had played around with a 16-8 fasting schedule for about six months and found my belly fat actually increased! It seems for me that postponing my breakfast until 11am actually increased my cortisol (caused my body stress) so instead I’m eating earlier in the evening and earlier in the morning. Dinner no later than 6pm and breakfast at 9am. That’s still a fifteen hour window without food which is an effect IF window.
Spending more time with people and being outdoors. This right here is the reason I went two weeks without publishing The Sunday Snewz. Irresponsible? Maybe - but my health is most important and without it, there will be no more Sunday Snewz at all. None of us want that.
Walking and weight training are still my go-to for exercise and something I recommend no matter your age.
If you too are in the thick of middle age (literally) don’t use it as an excuse. Everything is solvable with knowledge and discipline.
The oldest person in the world, Maria Branyas Morera says her secret to longevity is avoiding toxic people. “Order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people” is what Branyas credits with her longevity, according to the Guinness site.
I’m adding to this list: eating real, colorful food, getting adequate sleep, moving your body, avoiding alcohol and challenging your mind.
Death will find us all eventually but there are certainly plenty of things we can do to avoid its premature arrival.