Food, Glorious Food!

My Mindfulness Journey with Dietary Intolerances

Author and mindfulness teacher Catherine G Lucas shares her experience

Becoming gluten, dairy, yeast and sugar-free has been a journey. Sometimes it has been uphill with a strong head wind in my face. Other times, I’ve been propelled forwards, the wind to my back.

It’s a personal journey, a unique journey, and I guess it has to be for each of us. Even now, there are times when I have to be careful, times when I know I could end up eating something that will make me feel unwell. There are times when I do. Luckily, fairly rare occasions. Nearly always when stress levels peak. My mindfulness practice has been a huge help.

Mindfulness has been shown to help cope with stress, leading to ‘a 58%reduction in anxiety levels and 40% reduction in stress’ according to the Mental Health Foundation.What the research figures don’t tell you is that being gluten-free or dairy-free or anything-free is all about kindness, self-compassion. The journey is essentially one of moving from self-harm to self-care. As our awareness grows, through our mindfulness practice, so too inevitably does our ability to be kind to ourselves, to our bodies.

A breakthrough came for me when I realised it wasn’t about depriving myself of anything but rather nourishing and nurturing myself with all sorts of delicious, healthy alternatives. If we feel at all deprived, the journey is simply an uphill struggle and we won’t achieve what we’re hoping to.

For every food I needed to cut out, in time I’ve worked out wonderful substitutes. From being someone who had never so much as baked a cake, I’ve gone to being known amongst friends for my various tasty breads, cakes and puddings, all totally gluten, dairy, sugar and yeast-free.

But it’s not about the recipes. It’s about bringing our awareness to the journey, to the kinds of situations that might trigger us, where we might slip up. And bringing in self-compassion if we do. A shared supper where there will probably be all manner of puddings laden with sugar, dairy and/or gluten is the kind of situation where I take along something I caneat.

It’s about acknowledging, with that same compassion, that, as is the case for me, I’m dealing with an addiction. It takes the tiniest bit of sugar for me to be right back there, hooked and craving. It won’t surprise you to hear that mindfulness is being used increasingly to help those struggling with addiction. Of the two books I’ve written for the Sheldon Press Mindfulness Series, one is on addiction recovery.

So the journey continues and I’m delighted to have this opportunity to support you on yours, to share what I’ve learnt, how mindfulness and kindfulness help. May the journey to healthy eating for us all be one where, rather than battling against a head wind, a warm breeze gently caresses our skin.

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Cheltenham Holistic Health Centre

Kindfulness & Nutrition

A one-day mindfulness retreat

exploring our patterns around food

Sunday 21 October 2018

10-4.30pm

Are you coping with food sensitivities or allergies? Candida or diabetes? Do you need to avoid certain foods for health reasons but struggle to do so?

Join us for this one-day Kindfulness retreat. We’ll explore ways of self-nurturing, moving from a sense of denial to feeling nourished on every level.

An essential aspect of mindfulness is kindness and compassion, in this case compassion towards ourselves. As we grow in self-awareness and self-compassion, so we move more easily through our food challenges.

The day is suitable for mindfulness beginners as well as more experienced practitioners. For bookings, please contact Cheltenham Holistic Health Centre – £60 for the day; £50 for CHHC clients. Any queries do get in touch: catherine@catherine-g-lucas.com

Please bring on the day

• a pillow and some sort of a throw, shawl or blanket as one of the mindfulness practices, the body scan, involves lying down.
• something for a shared vegetarian lunch.

Catherine G Lucas has been teaching mindfulness since qualifying as a mindfulness trainer in 2007. She has taught many groups, including NHS therapists and soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Catherine is also the author of four books, her two most recent in the Sheldon Press Mindfulness Series.

On this one-day retreat she brings her personal experience of thriving on a diet that is gluten, dairy, sugar and yeast free.

“I couldn’t have achieved this without the self-awareness that my mindfulness practice brings. If I slip up occasionally, it’s kindness and compassion towards myself that gets me right back on track. For me, it’s about moving from self-harm to self-care, from foods that harm me to foods that nourish and nurture me.”

Spring in Traditional Chinese Medicine is associated with the Wood Element (and its corresponding organs, Liver and Gall Bladder). It’s a time of energy, of rising yang and renewal. The earth is coming alive again after its winter slumber and so are we!

The principle of the Five Elements in Eastern Philosophy describes the flow of Qi (energy) through these different stages, with each element having a corresponding season, time of the year and governing internal organ. A practitioner in Chinese Medicine will use these principles to identify imbalances within this flow and use techniques such as acupuncture, herbs or recommended lifestyle changes to treat health problems.

Adapting your lifestyle with the season can have a really positive affect on your overall health, energy levels and immune system.

Here are a few changes you can make in Spring:

• Eat your greens. Green is the colour associated with the Wood element in Chinese Medicine and thinking of the natural world, it’s easy to see why. Adding fresh, young greens to your diet at this time of year is a great way to support, and cleanse, your system.
• Stretch! The ligaments and tendons of the body are also indicated by the wood (liver) element. Now’s a good time to gently waken them up, try adding a morning yoga session to your daily schedule
• Try an acupuncture session. Even a quarterly (seasonal) session, to balance your system can keep you in tip-top condition and help your body adjust to the rush of spring energy.

REPOPULATING YOUR GUT WITH FRIENDLY BACTERIA

“In a 2011 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mice fed probiotics had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone corticosterone than mice fed plain broth. The bacteria fed mice also exhibited much less behaviour linked with stress anxiety and depression than mice fed plain broth. What’s also interesting is that both animal and human studies have shown that certain probiotics can alleviate anxiety by rebalancing the microbiome.” Dr David Perlmutter “Brain Maker.”

We are finally entering a new age where medical science embraces the pivotal importance of a healthy gut. The enormous benefits of a healthy diet combined with a gut flora prolific in good bacteria is being recognised by the mainstream medical profession as being essential for our vitality and well being mentally and physically. The relationship between our gut/brain health as well as every other organ and system in the body is being scientifically proven. No longer are anti biotics the panacea for all our ills this is the age of natural healing.

Many of us suffer from debilitating and long term ailments including; constipation, diarrhoea, liver complaints, halitosis, flatulence, IBS, SIBO, candida, skin problems; acne, eczma, psoriasis, bloating asthma, allergies, depression, anxiety, lethargy, to name a few. A lot of these problems may have been caused or exacerbated by the food we eat, exposure to pollutants and long term use of medication such as anti biotics. The restoration of a healthy gut can be vastly improved by taking three simple steps;

1. De-tox your intestinal tract with deep cleanses and colon hydrotherapy
2. Introduce a wide spectrum of positive bacteria into the gut.
3. Make appropriate dietary changes

Colon Hydrotherapy and Deep Intestinal Cleanses are the quickest way to help old toxic bacteria, parasites and yeast organisms to leave the system. Then we can begin to benefit from the positive changes we hopefully have made to our diet. Otherwise we are just putting in good on top of bad. We can also benefit enormously from High Potency Good Bacteria Infusions direct into the descending colon which I administer at CHHC. This includes; 70 billion viable cells of bifido bacterium bifidum, bifido bacterium longum, lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus casei, lactobacillus plantarum, lactobacillus rhamnosus, lactobacillus brevis, lactobacillus salivarius streptococcus thermophilus in a base of organic Kefir (optional). These support mineral absorption and the production of B vitamins and Vitamin K they also help improve immune function and metabolism as well as the breakdown of toxins and optimise bowel transit time and the digestion of proteins and carbohydrates

Dietary Changes to support a healthy gut and healthy bacteria. Organic where possible, Alkaline foods (75 per cent) including, Vegetables, Salads, Fruit, Seeds, Nuts

Foods Containing Probiotics.

Sauerkraut, Kimchi and other cultured vegetables contain Lactobacillus Plantarum one of the most beneficial bacterial in your body and also Lactobacillus Brevis. Fermented, Raw Dairy Products such as Yoghurt, Kefir, Soured milk, etc, contain Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Lactis, Thermophilus, Bifidus, Bulgaricus. Unpasteurized Miso (fermented soybeans) contains the fungal microorganism Aspergillus Oryzae. Kombucha, (started by using a SCOBY –symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). All help to create and maintain a healthy Microbiome.

Foods Containing Prebiotics

Raw Jerusalem Artichokes, Raw Dandelion Greens, Raw Garlic, Raw Leeks, Raw Onion, Cooked Onions, Raw Asparagus, Raw Banana, Raw Chicory Root, Acacia Gum

New Treatment: To help facilitate the application of High Strength Probiotics direct into the large intestine, from March 2018, I will be offering a new treatment. This includes a short Colon Hydrotherapy session of 10-15 minutes, suitable for those who have had a course of colonics in the past, followed by a probiotic infusion. This hopefully will make it possible for more people to benefit from the wide ranging positive effects of a gut brimming with healthy good bacteria.

Caroline Shaw ARCH, GNC CNHC, ARICA ITEC

www.carolineshawholistics.co.uk

Eric Goodchild shares his recent experiences of treating a patient daily for acute pain.

Last September, my wife and I took the car ferry to Santander in Northern Spain and drove home over the Pyrenees and up through France. En route, we had arranged to stay with some old friends in Southern France for a few days and knowing that Dick had been suffering from fibromyalgia I remembered to pack a box of 200 needles…more.
On the first morning as we were about to leave our Hotel in Pamplona, my wife twisted as she bent to pick up her case and screamed in pain. She had prolapsed a disc in her lower back and couldn’t move. I managed to support her to the car and make her comfortable and we set off over the mountains to our Friends house. By the time we got there she was pale and exhausted from the journey and very immobile.
Fortunately in our bedroom there was a sturdy table exactly the right height and dimensions to make an impromptu treatment couch so I was fully equipped to start a program of treatment. I treated her twice a day for the next 4 days and the results were spectacular. By the fourth day she was walking normally, able to get up from sitting without assistance and sleeping comfortably. She had made the sort of progress normally achieved in a month with acupuncture once or twice a week.
I continued on our return home to treat her each day for the next 10 days and she continued to make excellent progress until she “forgot’ about it and re-injured the disc moving heavy boxes around in the attic! Luckily it was not a severe aggravation and we were back on target within 24 hours.
It is a rare opportunity to be able to give very frequent treatments for acute pain conditions.
Because of the cost and time constraints it is far more usual for patients to opt for 1 or 2 sessions per week. This has therefore become the normal recommendation.
My experience of treating my wife has made me re-think this protocol. Much more frequent treatment allows much more speedy and complete recovery. I will be recommending this to patients in the future.