Halloween Themed Health

Howdy! And Happy upcoming Halloween to you all!

Since it is Halloween time, basically everything is pumpkin themed all around the globe, and because I came across some really cool information and ideas, I decided to share them here with you.

We all like to carve pumpkins and some of us use the inside for baking different pies and roasting the seeds. But do you actually know the benefits of pumpkins? It is pretty amazing, how healthy they are.

Pumpkins, and especially their seeds are rich in antioxidants and other vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C and A, potassium, magnesium and zinc.

They also contain high quality dietary fiber and are rich in easily digestable proteins.

Their magnesium content is great for the heart.

Generally, pumpkins help heal the heart, are a blood builder and sleep aid. Their seeds are the only seeds that are alkaline-forming, which is a very good thing as majority of today´s nutrition is highly acidic.

A few tips for people:

• Add pumpkin seeds into your morning muesli, oatmeal (or other type of porridge), or other cereal breakfast.

• Pumpkin seeds are also a great snack - take a ziplock bag with these tasty seeds to work or school, or along for your hiking trip. They are a light, yet nutritious snack

• I love adding all sorts of seeds into the soups I cook, so why not making a nice pot of soup with pumpkin seeds and taking a bowl for dinner. It will help you relax and fight insomnia at bed time.

Here are some delicious recipes from pumpkins. Get inspired at http://smittenkitchen.com/pumpkin-winter-squash-recipes/

A few tips for your dogs:

• If you feed twice a day, add a tea spoon of crushed pumpkin seeds to a cup of yogurt as a morning meal for your dog

• Chop or crush a table spoon of pumpkin seeds and mix with other seeds and herbs as your dog´s weekly detoxication/herbal cure and add to the food.
• Cook a healthy soup with pumpkin seeds for your dog, that you can use to pour over his food portion. You can add root vegetables (except for onions), flex seed and other greens into it.
• Use pumpkin as part of healthy dog treat dough for making pumpkin cookies that help curing sick stomach.

Photo courtesy of www.simmertilldone.com

Recipe for these wonderful Pumpkin Dog Treats is at www.simmertilldone.com.

And while the following has nothing to do with healthy diet, I am adding it anyway. It´s Heloween time and we sure want to have a beautiful and festive table for Thanksgiving and Heloween, and simply autumn themed dinner! :)

You can find this original, very natural and rugged looking decoration at http://ciaonewportbeach.blogspot.se/2011/11/thanksgiving-tables.html, where you can check many other great Thanksgiving table ideas.

And something for animal lovers: 

http://familyfrugalfun.com/halloween-pumpkin-patterns-free-dog-pumpkin-carving-stencils-free-cat-pumpkin-carving-stencils/

Ok, that´s it. No more pumpkin mania. Next time, let´s get crazy with Xmas cookies and other related stuff for the four legged ones :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and got inspired. Please share it on Facebook or anywhere with your friends, if you like it.

Have a great day, stay safe and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fighting For Granite: The Amazing Bach Flower Therapy

"We can judge our health by our happiness" -- Dr.Edward Bach

With Granite, after we´ve decided to not accept "there is nothing that can be done for him". July 2012.

Yes, actually, the more I think about it, the more experiences among humans and among my dogs I have, the more clear and obvious the connection between health and happiness is to me.

My beloved Granite has been fighting with a mysterious illness since the end of winter. While his story is rather long and quite mysterious, and his recovery when we were told he´d live only few weeks at most is nothing less than magical, he is experiencing a relapse right now, after 3,5 months of going stronger and happier.

While his actual story is a subject for my other article I am preparing, here is one amazing result I have experienced with Granite and treating him with Bach Flower Remedies.

To make the long story short for you to understand at least a few facts, we have taken Granite off the conventional medication three and half months ago. Few days after hearing the prognosis and seeing his liver, damaged by cirrhosis, we had nothing more to lose. And once realizing this fact, knowing my beloved dog all too well since the moment he entered this world and life, I remembered the connection between physical health and the state of mind. It suddenly became obvious to me that his trauma comes from within and that his soul needs to be cured.

The first blend of four Bach Flower Remedies (Olive, Crab Apple, Wild Rose and Sweet Chestnut) showed significant impact only after a bit over week of application. It allowed me to cut off the diuretics completely, and Granite started to get back to life - gaining weight, muscles, appetite, and most importantly happiness. He started to accompany us on puppy walks, which we gradually prolonged. Over a month of Bach Flower Therapy put him back on track and no one would ever guess what he´s been through.

Two more months have passed, this time without using the remedies and Granite was doing great, except for his low tolerance of Jachym´s trips back and forth to and from his job. And that actually became something Granite´s fragile and from deadly disease recovering soul and mind could not take on. I blame myself for not continuing with the therapy longer. 

Few days ago, Granite started to show signs of depression. They were physical and behavior natured. Realizing my mistake and once again, remembering the connection between mental and physical health, and Dr.Bach´s wise quote above, I immediately composed a new mixture of five remedies for Granite. 

This time it is Olive, Crab Apple, Gentian, Honey Suckle and Walnut.

One of his biggest issues has always been to express any kind of trauma. He would be ice cold on the outside, with a wild heartbeat inside, telling there´s something going on, with no evidence on the blood test sheet.

Agrimony was the first remedy I reached out for and gave Grantie a few drops during the first two days. The second day, he expressed his emotions twice - once by "wooooing" from excitement to see me come home from outside chores, the second one when we were about to go for a walk. He had never, in his six years of life, expressed his emotions out loud. 

Now, isn´t that amazing?!

So, our journey continues. Granite won´t give up. That is why he is such a special dog. That´s why I love him so much and I feel it is my top priority to help him in any way I can. 

It has always been my top priority to take care of my dogs and often go beyond the commonly known "borders". That´s what allows me to be the best care taker of my dogs I can.

It is very hard for me to write this post. First of all, because Grantie is experiencing a relapse and that alone is very tough. Tough on him, on me and tough for not knowing how things will develop. 

Secondly, it is a very unique experience all along. It is hard to put it all in a nutshell.

Most importantly, I want you, dear readers, to know, that I decided to write this to hopefully help out others, who or who´s animals suffer from unknown illnesses, depression, stress and other related health issues, that the modern science often does not acknowledge. I am sharing this to let you know that there are cures out there and that one should never give up. There are many solutions, although often they require thinking out of the box and out of the conventional and common "this is how things have always been done, no differing" way. 

I have used Dr.Bach´s therapy for myself, my partner, my friends and their dogs, and mainly for my dogs, for years. The philosophy behind the Flower Remedies is amazingly simple and beautiful, highlighting the importance of mental health and it´s influence on the body.

So if you ever search for natural cures that heal the mind and thus the body, or if you were told there is nothing more that can be done, check out Bach Flower Remedies. You will be surprised how many similarities between your own (or your animal´s) daily struggles and feelings and those described within the 38 healing remedies you will find.

There are two excellent books I always keep handy and use as my Bach Remedy bible, that I recommend to read.

The first one is called Bach Flower Remedies For Animals by Gregory Vlamis and Helen Graham. By purchasing it on Amazon, you will help to support my blog and dog team, and in this case, most importantly, Granite´s treatment. Here is the link.

Another great read is Animals Have Feelings, Too: Bach Flower Remedies For Cats And Dogs by C.M.Barrett.
You can buy it also on Amazon, here.

If you like this post, if you find Granite´s story and our experience with Bach Flower Therapy beneficial and useful to you or your friends, please don´t keep it for yourself and share it with others. Thank you!

Wishing you all - two and four legged, the best of health and happiness!

Love

Short Visit From The Frost

First autumn morning found us braking ice from the dogs´ water buckets and taking an extra layer of clothes before heading out for the morning run.

And as you can see - the beauty of ice crystals in the gorgeous sunlight is something one doesn´t want to miss an opportunity to capture.

This is the alst goodbye of the colorful leaves of fireweed, as the frost turned this favorite plant of mine into brown sticks with their leaves hanging down, at some colder places. These were still in the early morning sunlight and still showed some color.

 Crispy, sunny morning. A perfect time to be out with the kids for a nice run.

And they sure did boogie up and down the trails! :)

Frozen lingon berry bushes.

Fallen raspberry leaves.

I simply photograph almost everything! :)

In the shade, it was still freezing quite a bit, with ice formed on the creeks and puddles.

The frozen beauty of the grass, creating a silver-gray carpet, the next is layer of yellow birches, topped with blue sky. Nothing beats the art of mother nature.

 

Sunlit Goosak during a short stop before we continued into the hills.

Katka´s smiling all the way, taking pictures of - everything :)

We tried these crow-berries and they tasted like fruit icecream :)

Almost on the top of today´s run.

The leaders of the morning team - Tazlina and her half-sister Skittles.

On top of the world :)