Healthy Life Lessons

Probably the most interesting thing for me about visiting Israel is not being a minority for the first time in my life. That being said, I don't necessarily feel I've got a lot in common with ALL Jews. Not being religious, and being extremely socially liberal, I can't say I understand the Hasidic Jews beliefs or way of life at all. But according to our guide, Roni (roni_tours@walla.com), who was fantastic, by the way, most Israelis don't understand them much either. Nevertheless, they have a lot of power in Israel, which is why they don't fight in the Israeli army, and insist on businesses shutting down for Sabbath in Jerusalem. Of course, the other amazing thing for me was just the ancient history of the place. Coming from a new country like Canada, where any structure over 100 years old is considering 'historical', it was mind boggling to see so many buildings over 2000 years old still standing. If the history interests you, then definitely visit places ...

I am finally getting around to writing about our trip to Israel! As you might expect, many Jews from around the world visit Israel. Many go as children or youth because there are programs like Birthright that facilitate this. I never took advantage of anything like this, nor was I in the least bit interested until a few years ago. After my Bat Mitzvah at age 13, I threw in the towel on having anything much to do with Judaism. One reason was that I just wasn't religious or interested in being observant of traditions, but in hindsight it probably had more to do with being Jewish in a small, relatively homogeneous town. I was eager to rid myself of any traits that made me 'different'. It was only a few years ago, after reading The Lemon Tree , that I realized how little I knew about Israel's history and I felt an interest and connection to it. Adam had been as a teen on the March of the Living, and wasn't eager to go back, but after I talked about my desire t...

The topic of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) comes up a lot with my counselling clients because many folks dealing with infertility are drawn to it as a way to try to boost their fertility naturally. A few of the fertility doctors I work with even support clients in their decision to incorporate it into their treatment. For this reason, I was eager to check out Nutritional Healing with Chinese Medicine to learn more about TCM and how nutrition can be used therapeutically. What is TCM? It is an ancient holistic healing approach. The basic principles are balance, connectedness and wholeness. The focus is on yin and yang, qi (energy/vital force), blood and other body fluids, and jing and shen (internal interactions with external environmental influences). Dietary therapy is an integral part of TCM, and is based on the thermal nature or qi of foods. Foods are categorized as hot, warming, neutral, cooling or cold. It is believed that different flavours (sweet, salty, sour, bitte...

I apologize for the absence of blog posts recently. The reason is that, first, we were away on an epic trip to Israel, which I was very excited to share with you, but the day we came back, I was struck with an even more epic case of the flu (a very special variety that included both gastro and respiratory symptoms!). And yes I did get a flu shot, but it's not a guarantee, obviously. In case you think the flu is just a bad cold, I am happy to clear up the misconception. It is not, it is HELL ON EARTH! I can tell you I have never been so sick for so long probably in my life (and I had strep throat and mono simultaneously as a kid!). Last week I spent many days basically in a fetal position. My days were full of chronic diarrhea, painful abdominal cramping, nausea, lack of appetite, throbbing head pain, fever (chills/sweats), coughing, congestion, and sore throat. At no time was I actually worried for my life, but I did think about ending it! Goodness knows if I didn't suppor...