Posted on MarchAugust by Très Spa

Earthworms Returning To The Tundra!

OK, yes, I am being silly but the last few days I have been amazed and delighted to see a rather significant number of earthworms milling about the path. Every morning (well almost every) I go for at least a 30 minute power walk outside.

Why outside?

It’s good to get out and freshen the lungs with air other than your own recycled air. Sure I live in the city and there is air pollution, but the benefits exceed the minor exposure.
30 minutes of sun shine on your shoulders makes you healthy and happy. Vitamin D (Bone health) and if that isn’t good enough for you, John Denver can tell you why: Sunshine on my Shoulders Yes, I know it’s raining (remember the earthworm population explosion). but to those of us who have lived in drought, well that rain fall is a little bit of sunshine!
Give your nose a break! Look, you gotta get away from the same smell or you just dull your senses so go out and play bloodhound and give your nose a break from what is most familiar. But we’ll talk more about your nose in another post.

So why am I so happy about the little wriggly worm?

Because there is enough moisture to bring them back. In case you hadn’t noticed it, they have been in short supply the last few years. When resources are limited, nature has a way of either dying off or going into extended hibernation only returning when the climate conditions are favorable.
Earthworms are one of Mother Natures workhorses for soil health! They clean debris and leave a neutral PH soil that is nutrient richer and properly aerated.
Happy soil makes for a happy life! I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important rich nourishing soil is to our health and supporting life. They bring Harmony to Nature!

If you want to know more about how earthworms benefit the environment, here is a great article from Penn state.

If you see a little earthworm on your path say thanks! After a few days of rain around here, I was giving a lot of gratitude on my walk today! Of course I also looked a bit silly dancing around them all as well, but you know I never mind looking a tad bit silly from time to time. 🙂

Posted on MarchAugust by Très Spa

Say Cheese!

My Favorite Vegan Cheese

What is a Raw Vegan Cheese recipe doing in a skin care blog site? Ok, first let me say I am multi-dimensioned and I have loads of interests so you never know what you will find here. Second, good skin care starts with what you eat. Third stress causes the skin to age, and if you are like me, being cheeseless causes me stress. So here is a helpful treat to help relieve stress while you try to do the right thing and support Vegan for you and the environment.

Cheese Is Hard To Let Go Of

True confession, one of my biggest addictions is cheese. During the time I was a Raw Vegan it was the hardest thing for me to let go of. Yes, harder than coffee. I’ve loved cheese all my life and it was the biggest treat for me, more than cookies or candy or cakes. While I never found a truly satisfying replacement for the melted molten cheesiness of dairy, I did find this Raw Vegan Cheese very satisfying. So give the cows a break and try this supper easy recipe.

Feel free to change it up and make it your own be creative. I find I often switch things around and change the spices or I’ll add things like spring onions or jalapenos or red bell pepper.Play with your food!

Fast and Easy

Time to make: 5 minutes (including prep and clean up and photoshoot)

Here is what you will need for my basic recipe (I never measure anything when I make food, I go by feel and taste and smell. When I make skin care, I am tediously exact):

1 cup Cashews (raw)**- only enough that you can eat it in the next 3 to 4 days You do not need to soak these soft nuts, unless soaking is a compulsion with you then you can soak for 30 minutes. **For a Low Fat option use white beans or yellow potatoes or for a low starch version try using roasted bell peppers
Nutritional Yeast – about 3 – 4 tablespoons.(optional if using cashews but a must with the low fat options)
dash Salt (For a salt free version use dried celery or your favorite salt substitute)
splash ACV
dash Paprika
dash Turmeric
Garlic to taste
Water – enough for the texture or consistency. So if you are making a sauce to drizzle on roasted veggies or a creamy blend to toss with pasta you will want to add more. If you are making a dip or thick spread, use less water. Start out with 1/4cp you can add more as you go but you can never subtract it.
A really good blender or a food processor. Whatever tool you use that can grind a soft nut. I’ve used a variety of tools and basically they all work since the cashew is a soft nut.

Let’s Create!

Toss it all in a blender and blend away!

Blend until you get a creamy texture so give it time to really pulverize the nuts. Bon appetit!

OK so here are the very brief “whys” for each of the ingredients. It’s good to know what is so good about what is good for you right? So I like to know if it is good for my body and for my skin. Of course because I make skin care and the best skin care starts with what you eat (hair care too).

Cashews- The Cashew is really a seed not a nut that has a mild flavor and can be used for dishes from sweet (cashew cream) to savory (toasted roasted and tossed with any number of spices), making it very versatile protein source. The nut is a favorite and nutritionally, it’s actually pretty good for you with unsaturated and monounsaturated (heart healthy) fats, vitamins, fiber and rich minerals. 1/4 cp of raw cashews is about 170 calories. I always encourage folks to buy Raw Organic Fair trade cashews. **If you elected the low fat options then you are adding nutrient density while minimizing fat. So basically, a cheese sauce you don’t have to feel guilty about indulging in.

Salt – I use pink Himalayan Sherpa salt or Celtic sea salt. Salts are mineral rich and minerals act as important electrolytes in the body. They help with fluid balance, nerve transmission and muscle function. The fact is, we all need salt to keep our bodies functioning properly. So feel free to salt to taste!

Garlic – One of my personal favorites for cleansing and keeping a happy healthy balanced inside. Allicin is a form of sulfur and this is what gives garlic the medicinal benefits, fighting radicals, boosting the immune system, and lowering blood pressure. Topically? I have never heard of topical skin care but old wives tales say if you wear a garland of it you will ward off evil. There is about 5,000 years of recorded use of garlic and lots of tales to go with it.

ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) – I use Braggs. There are others but I like this one the best. Some say the “mother” strands (extra proteins, enzymes, and important bacteria), in Braggs make it the “only” one to use for health benefits. There are so many uses and benefits to using ACV that I really don’t think I could do it justice in this little piece. Perhaps another time I’ll do a piece on skin care with ACV.

Paprika – Is a lovely blend of chili and bell peppers. While it can spike up your dish it also delivers antioxidants and nutrients. Vitamin A, E, B-6, Iron, and the treasured Capsaicin which can help lower blood pressure. I’ve never used it for skin care but there are some that tout the benefits of Paprika for a variety of treatments from skin lightening to acne treatment to hair growth.

Turmeric – This spice is well known for its anti-inflammatory aid and has been used for centuries in the East. But another notable use is in Cancer prevention. While I personally do not formulate skin care with this wonderful spice, I have seen others coming out with Turmeric. For now, I stick to using it for healthy skin care from the inside out!

Water – OK this is easy. By now we all should know the value of a glass of good ole plain water so no need to go into it here. If you need some tricks on how to drink more water, you can read my post Top 5 life hacks to get the water you need

Nutritional Yeast (optional unless using the low fat options) – The flavor is slightly nutty and a bit cheesy. I use about 3 – 4 tablespoons for this recipe. You can use more if you want or none at all if you don’t have it. Beyond flavor, I’m not sure what other benefits it would have since the yeast is not active. Do you know?

Posted on MarchAugust by Très Spa

Mosquitoes and Ticks: Why do they bite & How do I get them to stop

Why Do I Keep Getting Bitten?

Are you one of those people who feels they are a target for biting bugs? Do mosquitoes and ticks have it out for you? Ever feel like nature has it out for you? Like there is a network of biting bugs that have you on the most wanted list? You step outside and it seems like they are chasing you down.

Bugs bite for a couple of reasons, usually to defend or to feed. I can’t think of any bug that bites for fun or world domination. In fact, most would rather you never darken their door or cross their path. If you are standing over an ant hill and you stomp your feet, you can expect some angry soldiers to come out and attack you. They are defending their turf that you are trying to invade. Same goes for spiders, don’t expect them to be happy to see you coming. You step into their web, well your just asking for trouble.

But what about the ones that seem to hunt you down like prey. You know the ones that come from the sky and dive bomb your outdoor activity. It seems like they knew you were coming and targeted you like you were painted with a bulls eye. How do they know? It’s in their sense of smell.

The Scent Of You

There are somewhere around 175 different varieties of Mosquitoes in the US alone and they have been around for about 170 million years, they’ve had lots of time to perfect their homing instincts. So if you are feeling like they targeted you, they probably did. They smelled you coming from over 50 yards away. The female mosquitoes (the men don’t bite) are mainly attracted to scent. Some of the scent signatures that attract them are the carbon dioxide we exhale and the lactic acid from your sweat glands. They haven’t nail the exact scent trigger, but the scientists do know that some of us smell quite delectable, giving off a lovely bouquet, and the mosquitoes can’t wait to dig in and feast.

While Ticks can’t fly, or jump, or parachute from trees. They are also attracted to scent that they pick up from sensors in their legs. Ticks like to hid in ground cover or grassy areas where it’s moist (dry heat will kill them). They wait for the right smelling host to brush by and they hop on, crawl around to find their favorite spots ( ears and heads are preferred), then dig in to feast.

Don’t Let Them Get You

So how do you protect yourself? The top two methods to defend you from both are to cover up and to change your scent or cover your scent. There are several synthetic compounds out there that have the power to destroy, but they can harm more than just the mosquitoes so thankfully those are falling out of favor. There are some plants that have a reputation of dissuading bugs from biting or at least throw them off of your scent and natural formulators rely on them to develop a kinder gentler bug repellent that can work in harmony with nature. We developed Hikers Heaven using three of these essential oils and we created an Organic Soap, Aromatic Mist, and a full Organic Body Lotion. While you could use one or two of them, we always recommend the three used together. After all, they are natural plant oils.

We are not your Doctor

The Très Spa website may contain articles on science, or medical topics; however, no warranty is made that any of the articles are accurate.There is absolutely no assurance that any statement contained or cited in an article touching on science or medical matters is true, correct, precise, or up-to-date. The overwhelming majority of such articles are written, in part or in whole, by nonprofessionals. Even if a statement made about science or medicine is accurate, it may not apply to you or your symptoms.

The information provided at Très Spa is, at best, of a general nature and cannot substitute for the advice of a medical professional (for instance, a qualified doctor/physician, nurse, pharmacist/chemist, and so on). None of the individual contributors, nor anyone else connected to Très Spa can take any responsibility for the results or consequences of any attempt to use or adopt any of the information presented on this web site.

Nothing on Très Spa’s site or included as part of any project or product of Très Spa, should be construed as an attempt to offer or render a medical opinion or otherwise engage in the practice of medicine.

Posted on MarchAugust by Très Spa

Top 5 Life Hacks to Get The Water You Need!

Just Can’t Seem To Make It?

Trying to get down the water and you just can’t seem to get it done? You aren’t alone. We all know how important it is to drink fresh clean water every day. Yet, knowing and doing are two different things. If you are like me, you may be struggling with it. It’s time for you to take control and give yourself the water you deserve.

I am not partial to water. I never have been. You see, I was raised with flavored drinks as a kid and that reached into my adult years with soda. Probably one of the worst inventions that could have ever happened to the human population is soda. There is nothing beneficial in soda and in fact, over consumption of carbonated beverages can cause significant damages .

My Top 5 Tricks

Here are my top 5 hacks to drinking enough water

Start each day with a fresh glass pitcher or jug of water. My goal is to get a half gallon so I have a glass jug that I fill every morning and I use this to drink from all day. 64 ounces is eight 8 ounce servings. This way I know what the goal is and I can see myself get closer as the water goes down.
Break it up into servings. Easier to tackle a bit at a time rather than think of the whole half gallon. For example: First thing, before my fitness and before my coffee (yes I drink coffee), I down a full 8 ounce glass of water with fresh squeezed lemon. Double bonus since it is a metabolism booster. I will also sip on a serving of water while I drink my coffee. Then I pour a full glass before a meal and add another during a meal. (This takes care of all my servings and helps curb my appetite) Of course you can always drink more water.
If you find it hard to drink plane water, then try making a really weak tea. When I say week, I mean unbelievably weak. To flavor a half gallon of water, I would use only three herbal tea bags. Use an herbal tea that you really enjoy and one that has a strong scent like peppermint or spice. This is my personal favorite Organic Herbal Tea: Good Earth Teas Organic Sweet and Spicy
Make a Spa tea. Spa teas are lovely and refreshing. Some of the spas I have been to will even change the water depending on the time of day. Say you want a bright pick me up, how about sliced citrus water. Cooling and soothing, add some cucumber. Try spicing it up for extra kick. Some of my favorites are Mint, Tarragon, Basil, Rosemary, and yes Lavender.
In a pinch or if I am on the go, I will squeeze a tiny shot of water enhancer. I’ve used Stur Drinks – Natural Water Enhancer and its pretty good in a pinch and it can travel with you. Hey, it’s not perfect but I’m picking the better of two evils here! Better to get the water in!

Eventually you will become accustomed to just plain ‘ole water. I never thought I could handle it, but now I actually enjoy it now. Just straight up room temperature.

The More You Drink, The Easier It Gets

No matter what method you need to use to try and get the water down, eventually you will find you have acquired the taste for plain old fresh water. Either that or you just get to lazy to fuss with the extra flavoring work and you are hooked on plain fresh water with no tricks.

Mission accomplished!

Posted on MarchAugust by Très Spa

How to Meditate Anytime Anyplace

Meditation, Why do it

Tres Spa Meditation Anytime Anyplace We do it to balance and strengthen us, mind body and spirit! Now I am not here to talk about new age spirituality or any religious dogma, but the truth is universal and the truth is the act of meditation can have a profound impact on the individual. Spending time centering and focusing and quieting the mind can help us drive down our blood pressure, gain perspective on priorities, and adds to our general feelings of well being. And a focused centered mind that is clear is very powerful. There are many benefits at many levels so no matter what your spiritual belief, you will benefit from adopting a regular meditation practice.

Meditation, What is it?

Meditation is a time to quiet the mind. <period. End of Statement> This practice is as old as time itself and is often closely tied to spiritual practices as well and many religious practices have their own version or ritual practice. But does it have to be spiritual? No. The act of Deep Meditation is to simply quiet the mind.

There is also a form of Meditation that is Mindful. This is when you quiet all other mental noise and think only on the act you are doing. For example, preparing a meal for you or your family. You would focus all intent and all awareness on the carrot you are preparing or the celery you are dicing or the potato you are peeling. Musicians and artists tend to gravitate to this as well as chefs and athletes. For this particular customer, I told them to strum the cord of G. We can add D and C down the road. 🙂

The other one would be Meditation in Motion. This is when you are moving but you doing more than moving, you become both focused and fluid at the same time. Martial arts is a good example and so is dance or even endurance or body building training. In fact, athletes tend to phase from one to the other form very fluidly. When I was a marathon runner, I used all three techniques of meditation a great deal.

Meditation, How to do it

Simple! At least it can be. There are lots of ways to go about it and many practitioners who will teach you their ways. Some sessions take longer than others and some have a high level of ritual around it. But the truth is, meditating is as easy as breathing. At the heart of all meditation practice, that is it: let go of the active dialog in your mind and focus on your breathing. Breath inhale and release exhale. The rest is noise or filler.

Most people think they need to do something special or ritualistic. They have special poses and special pillows to sit on and incense to burn and chimes to ring. You can do this if you want to and I do on occasion. In fact I love the spiritual meditation practices but I don’t have time for that every day.

The real secret in any form of meditation is the Eyes. What do you do with your eyes. Well, for deep meditation you don’t close your eyes you just relax the eyelids and set your gaze to a focal point in the near distance and let it fall out of focus. For mindful mediation, you focus your eyes and your mind on the object you are centering on.

Meditation, Where to do it?

Some people think you need to be in a special surrounding. It often evokes images of nature and the outdoors. Tranquil lakes and flowing streams or big puffy clouds. These are lovely images but I live in the city and I can’t get to the countryside every day. Meditate where you are. It is splendid to sit under a 300 year old Redwood in the peaceful forest, but I can’t get there every day and you really do want to carve out at least 10 minutes a day to meditate. Every day!

Two things you learn when running busy life, leveraging and multitasking! This applies to everyone, even if you are not running your own company or trying to get your business off the ground. To fit my 10 minutes of meditation in on a daily basis, I multitask. We all do things every day that don’t require our mental focus so I use those times to spend time quieting my mind. It’s a form of Meditation in Motion.

Here are a list of ideas of when and where you might be able to fit in 10 minutes of meditation:

Riding a commuter train or bus. Notice I did not say driving. You cannot meditate or should not try to when you are operating a ton of powered steel that can kill.
Household chores: Washing dishes, vacuuming, dusting, etc……
Preparing a meal (this can also be a great time to practice Mindful Meditation)
Personal grooming time: Shower, shaving, and any number of activities that don’t require thought.
Hot Tub or Bath time is perfect if you are a tub person or you have access to a hot tub.
Fitness training: Depending on the fitness activity you could do a releasing meditation or a mindful meditation.
Walking or Running: Try doing these on your own and using this time to meditate. You can’t meditate and carry on a conversation. People will notice if you have tuned them out.
Waiting for an appointment, get there early so you can meditate before you go in.

There are lots of opportunities for you to create in your day so no excuses. Oh, one word of advice, try no tot pick the time someone is trying to interact with you as a time to “tune out” and meditate! There is always time in you day to meditate for at least 10 minutes. You can choose Deep Meditation, Meditation in Motion, or Mindful Meditation.