Natural Anxiety Therapy

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What’s normal for an eating schedule?  We hear everything from snacking every few hours with a couple of bigger snacks for meals to eating a big protein meal in the morning and only carbs at night. What are you to believe? What’s right?  In reality, who knows!  There is no right way, only a right way FOR YOU.  Figuring out your own nutritional / dietary needs can be the challenging part!

I can only share with you how I eat to achieve for optimal brain function and anxiety relief.  Eating on a schedule that my allows my body to operate at its best also has yielded other benefits such as losing 55 pounds, increased and ‘mojo’, and age reversal!

My meals include a morning smoothie, mid-morning snack like half an apple with raw almond butter, mid afternoon snack (the other half of the apple with almond butter), dinner that consists of a protein/meat and tons of non-starchy vegetables, dessert is typically a few strawberries or blueberries, and a snack right before bed like a handful of nuts with Ningxia wolfberries.

Eating this way balanced my blood sugar and 6 reasons why I love to eat this way:

1) never becoming ravenously hungry and over eating

2) the adrenals healed by not overworking as they tried to manage erratic blood sugar levels

3) since I like eating, having a snack right around the corner all the time made me feel happy! Yeah, it’s that simple.

4) repairing insulin resistance

5) stopped panic/anxiety attacks

6) losing weight because my cortisol levels were no longer elevated from not eating enough.

Play with your eating schedule.  It took me a long time to figure out my groove. I tried eating two or three hours in between snacks. Then I tried eating my heavy meal in the morning and light the rest of the day. What worked for me that set my body right for the day was the super smoothie first thing. If I don’t do that, my hunger levels are all over the place and occasionally I will still have a massive crash!

I could have sworn that I posted this recipe before, but I can’t find it anywhere!    Requests come to me daily for my “super smoothie” recipe because it starts of the day right by balancing blood sugar and helps stop gnawing cravings the rest of the day. Every ingredient in this delicious (almost ice cream like!) recipe is chosen with a specific action in mind.  So don’t go adding all sorts of stuff (bananas, pineapple, agave, sugar laden nut milk, soy milk) unless you really understand nutrition!!!  Long term daily enjoyment of this smoothie has helped repair my insulin resistance, blood sugar swings, anxiety / panic attacks, and adrenal fatigue.

SUPER SMOOTHIE RECIPE

2 scoops Power Meal

5 drops YLTG grapefruit oil for the taste, chemo prevention, bloating (lymph support)

2 drops YLTG  nutmeg oil for the adrenals

¼ tsp of Redmond Real salt for the adrenals

1 heaping tblsp of coconut oil for thyroid, blood sugar, and yeast (candida)

1 raw egg for the protein, fat, and vitamin A (1/2 an avocado can be used instead of eggs)

Stevia extract to taste

About 10 ice cubes in the blender 1^st, add ingredients.  Then fill up with enough water so it will blend until smooth. Blend super well so it gets fluffy and the coconut oil and ice cubes are no longer chunky.  Add Young Living’s stevia extract to taste.  It’s not only for the sweetness, but stevia is known to help balance blood sugar and decrease cravings.

Sometimes I add 1/4 cup of blueberries, raspberries, cherries, or strawberries to this. Nothing else. NO BANANNAS OR PINEAPPLE – although delicious they are very high in sugar.

If you are at work or on the road and can’t take time out with a blender, just do Power Meal as a snack. It taste goods even on the go by just adding water.

In the summer time I will often crave ice cream. By slightly tweaking the recipe above by adding a few more ice cubes and 1/2 an avocado – the smoothie will be very thick and can be eaten with a spoon. Yummy and health … PERFECT!

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Recipe time!  Another yummy one has been birthed from the kitchen with ingredients chosen “mindfully”.   Eating like this will not only help you’re brain feel fabulous, your pants will become looser too!   My recipes will typically not contain a starch (corn, potato, rice, pasta, bread, etc). This is because I use vegetables as my carbohydrate source due to my blood sugar issues (swings are what caused the severe panic/anxiety attacks). Eating this way also helps repair the “crazy blood sugar swinging” caused by severe insulin resistance.

Any protein can be chosen for this recipe – seafood, poultry, or meat.  I also choose Bragg’s Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce because it has way less sodium, uses non GMO soybeans, has no MSG, is gluten free, and I just plain like the taste better.  Bragg’s also contains these essential amino acids:  arginine, aspartic, lysine, glutamic, serine, threonine, alanine, glycine, praline, isoleucine, methionine, valine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and leucine. Many of these are my favorites for balancing blood sugar and supporting feel good brain chemicals!

Simple Stir Fry:

Ingredients:

2 small onions (small diced)

3 large carrots (julienned)

1 large broccoli floret (coarsely chopped)

½ of a lemon

1 pound of protein cut into bite size pieces (your choice – we did steak!)

¼ cup of coconut oil (melted if not already liquid)

¼ cup of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Mrs. Dash Seasoning – Lemon Pepper

2 drops ginger oil (Young Living ONLY!)

2 tablespoons of tapioca flour

Prep a few hours before cooking the meal:

Marinate protein with Bragg’s and coconut oil.  Sprinkle heavily with Mrs. Dash Seasoning (approx. 1 tsp).  Mix together and set aside for a few hours.

When it’s time to cook:

Saute meat in a wok or fry pan.  Scoop out meat and leave juice in pan. There should be about ¾ to 1 cup of liquid in the bottom, if not add water to increase the volume (add a few squirts of Bragg’s if you’re feeling saucy!).  Add in the vegetables and cook until al dente.

Remove about ½ cup of liquid and add the 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour and 2 drops of ginger oil – whisk until fully blended.  Put back into vegetable mixture and heat until thickened.



Remove from heat, squeeze lemon juice over the vegetables, and mix in the meat.

Now it’s done!  Enjoy.

You can read more about how your diet is related to you “BRAIN” by reading “Can You Really Eat Your Way to Happiness? The Mood Food Connection”.

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In my recent copy of Health Keepers Magazine there was an article on the benefits of raw chocolate. I was shocked at how it can help anxiety!

This doesn’t go for Hersey bars or M & M’s though, just the raw cacao.  Commercial chocolate has been cooked and is no longer raw, therefore the health effects drastically change and doesn’t have the same positive effect in our body.

If you would like to read the whole article, you can visit the Health Keepers Magazine site for the Winter 2009 / Spring 2010 edition.

These are some direct highlights  from the article that I found very exciting and relevant for us!

• Anadamide is called the bliss chemical.  This is an endorphin that is created during exercise.  It has been studied as a chocolate isolate in a lab.  Anandamide has been found so far in only one plant, the cacao tree.  The lipid found in anandamide helps release neurotransmitters that create a feeling of elation.
• Cacao is claimed to be the number one source of magnesium of any common food.  Magnesium is a major mineral responsible for heart beat rhythm, strong bones and smooth muscle relaxation.
• Cacao is a poor source of caffeine.  A sample of raw chocolate will yield anywhere from zero caffeine to 1,000 parts per million of caffeine – less than 1/20th of the caffeine present in coffee.
• Additional minerals found in the cacao bean include potassium, zinc, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, and chromium.
• Lastly, cacao contains tryptophan, an essential tryptophan, an essential amino acid that is transformed into important stress-protective neurotransmitters including serotonin and melatonin.

My newest anxiety therapy creation that came out “oh so good!”   The pumpkin seed oil and hemp seeds added an incredible richness in flavor to the abundance of veggies.

There’s a method behind my madness with choosing these ingredients:

Pumpkin Seed Oil: Rich in Vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B6, D. Good source of minerals selenium, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and trace elements.  Significant source of essential fatty acids and vegetable protein.  Supports prostate, skin, digestive, immune, and circulatory systems.  And BOY is it yummy!

Hemp Seeds: FANTASTIC SOURCE OF AMINO ACIDS and ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS.  Hello,  super easy to digest anxiety busting food here!!!!

Tomato & Cucumber: Reduce acid and mucous levels in the body. AKA: balances the body’s pH which is often off whack when anxiety, panic, inflammation, immune compromise, etc. are present.

Cilantro:  Besides being my most favorite tasting herb on earth, this is why I love it:  balances blood sugar, chelates heavy metals out of the brain, supports digestion, rich in magnesium (calming mineral), reduces acid levels in the body, and protects against urinary tract infections.

Onion: Rich in sulfur which is anti-inflammatory and helps balance blood sugar.  Drains mucous and supports the immune system. Anti-parasitic (Super eewww – but these buggers can create anxious feelings!!!).

Olive Oil: Very trendy ingredient in recent years with all it’s cardiovascular health benefits. But it’s also a great source of Vitamins E and K.  Vitamin E is anti-inflammatory and is needed to help repair insulin receptor sites for those of us who are (were) insulin resistant.  Vitamin K is needed in partnership with Vitamin D for healthy bones.

Balsamic Vinegar:  Delicious and stimulates digestion by activating the enzyme pepsin. Pepsin breaks down protein into amino acids so our brain can have the raw materials it needs to make feel good chemicals (neurotransmitters).  Vinegar also helps improve insulin sensitivity.  (When my body was totally overgrown with yeast, I substituted fresh lemons for vinegar.)

Salt: Still using my favorite Redmond Real Salt.  The adrenals LOVE salt – good salt that is. Not the white bleached stuff that has about ZERO healthy attributes!

Italian Herbs: Oregano, marjoram, basil, & thyme all add savory stimulation to the taste buds but they also help support proper immune and digestive function.

RECIPE:

1/4 cup pumpkin seed oil

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons hemp seeds

1 small sweet onion finely chopped

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

4 medium tomatoes coarsly chopped

1 large cucumber coarsly chopped

1 1/2 teaspoon Italian herbs

salt to taste

ENJOY!!!