Home & Hearth: A Lifestyle Paradigm (Health & Wellness) "Heal-th"

An appealing and healthy presentation of nutrition.

Health is vital. The root word "heal" is a revealing connection. The home and hearth are a conducive place to support good health as well as heal. Medical facilities mostly treat your ills, but they are places full of trauma, discomfort and noise - sometimes chaos. And there are not always enough healers in the world.

We are in a continual state of healing. With good health, we do our best to stave off issues, both catastrophic and mildly bothersome. However, it seems like we have lost the concept and ability to treat our bodies like a temple in the way nutrition, activity and enjoying life's small moments were intended. There are a great many reasons. Some applicable from a changing culture, the peer groups one associates with along with government regulated dietary and drug administration.

We are continually encouraged by the media and by some medical professionals to try to use the magic pills and the supplements as we include taking advice from people both credentialed and uncredentialed sitting on their chairs using all the latest buzzwords and preying on those seeking knowledge on podcasts and the internet who do not know our particular and specific needs. We take the injection, we peel the skin, we take the advice with nary a second thought to the long-term ramifications. Nor, do we contemplate how one might cancel out the other and triple what is taken out of our pocketbook for initial treatment, follow-ups, and a lifelong dependency on some pill or another.

We are conditioned to use takeout food for expediency and convenience much like we are encouraged to treat our health. Just like the drive through fast food windows, pick-ups and deliveries to the fixes that result from their poison. These addictive tastes and flavors, devoid of dense and beneficial minerals and nutrients, keep us exactly where we are wanted: In a constant state of poor health.

As a product of blissful ignorance, culture and my peers: I am a willing participant most of the time. I know how to eat right, exercise. I've seen it work. I've fought back from the edge of bad health. Yet still, I slip until something shakes my branches and makes me shiver all the way down the trunk to the very roots of my earthen foundation. The cycle is a vicious and unnatural one.

It's time to step out of the circle and start walking a straight line in the opposite direction.

The cusp of proactive health is now. Blocking out the incessant noise, is now. Taking the extra time to research, grow and make more homemade healthy meals, is now. It's a time for fresh air, fresh food in lieu of processed and strength not only in body, but in the soul and mental discipline.

It is time. Before it becomes too drastically late.

I well know how to do this. The time for words is gone. The time for action is immediate. So, if you would like to join me on this journey, I have some information to share on what is practical for me in this day and age as well as tried and proven for me along with new things I have learned to take upon the proving ground as a human being who works full-time outside the home and hearth and is continually striving for balance between work hours away from my sacred spaces.

Things I know I have to change:

• Those beloved, caffeinated sugary coffees every morning. There was a time when I drank it black and a time when I was strictly about the tea. How did I come to accept that I was comfortable with this?

• Excess. Everything is good in moderation. Life is about balance as well as pleasure and discipline. Enter the 80/20 guideline. Eighty percent whole, unprocessed food and twenty percent wild west moderation of the high salt, unhealthy saturated fat, and added sugary delights.

• Speed. Fast, processed convenient foods are no longer something that benefits me. You pay for it eventually and in a more permanent manner than the immediate money saved verses the hundreds of thousands of dollars you may well be in debt for on the long-term medical and health end of it. Slow down, savor and enjoy every nibble and every bite.

On Notice: Refined sugars, heavy salt and immense amounts of saturated fat are to be on notice and easily replaced with natural sugars to satisfy the sweet tooth like fruit (unless someone gifts you homemade pumpkin bread - then, do that!), homemade creations with quality control and good fats such as avocado.

Seasoned chicken breast with avocado on homemade sourdough bread.

Ah, yes! Avocado, the understated superhero known to boost and absorb itself with ninja stealth into the flavor of whatever it's added to, complimenting it only with the creamy deliciousness of a full feeling and the vitamin and nutrients of champions. Move over kale. There's a new darling in the health and wellness community!

We know well that winter is a time for rest. To recharge. To replenish the stores of energy that were depleted after the solar battery of summer's bright sol ran dry. Midwinter has come and gone. It is time to gently begin the time of awakening. It is time to shift into restorative modus operandi.

But we shall do this gently. Ever so very gently.

A good place to start with is food. Ease back into health and start with what you eat. Winter can be a great celebration of things such as root vegetables, soups and foods that nourish your body as much as your soul. Seasonal things here in the cold, snowy times of year support these dishes as our body feels naturally pulled towards them by ingrained intuition. A touch of rich flavor for good measure, but mostly dependent upon a rich profile of seasoning and healthy fats. We can make things so much simpler when we cook at home with whole, trusted ingredients. Basic recipe ingredients become magnificent when quality is given with attention, and small amounts make a bigger impact saving money and adding a beautiful eating experience to every meal or snack.

Carnivores are the majority of the population where I live and that too, is a part of our culture where it is commonplace to hunt, harvest, butcher, and process your own venison. If wild game is not your jam or available there are always lentils, beans and tofu as options to get good, healthy proteins in a diet. Do your research and find the best local, trusted options. Converting back to the Old Ways of eating healthy before mass production of canned and highly processed convenience foods took hold in the United States, especially, takes effort along with time and research. Once you find your trusted sources or grow your own food - preferably from non-GMO heirloom seeds you can harvest and use again to continue sustaining your own garden, then you are simply reaping the benefits and confident in your newfound taste of freedom from the government peddling its poison your way.

Homemade beef broth flavored with garlic, onion, carrots, herbs and spices. Strained and immediately simmered with more complimentary herbs, spices, sweet carrots, succulent red potatoes, kale and ground venison added in a very light combination avocado and milk cream. Crusty, two-day old homemade sourdough bread for sopping at the end.

Venison is a popular, lean wild meat around these parts. One could expand into chicken (butcher your own or find a local supplier) and lean beef from local farmers, such as Kosta Ranch in Eleva, Wisconsin. Kosta Ranch also has some wonderful beef soup bones for making homemade broth and stock - one of the easiest, simple and healthiest things you can create from scratch.

If you don't grow your own, you can find herbs and spices all over. What I don't grow or harvest on my own I find at other local suppliers like Weavers (a Mennonite store just outside of Fall Creek, Wisconsin). Lower added salt means lower water retention and better heart health as well. Quality salt is a beautiful and exciting thing - and really can get that ticker going if you party with it too much. Experiment and explore other seasonings with an open mind and enjoy tasting as you go.

It's hard to be motivated if you choose to ignore or are uneducated on the benefits of healthier eating. It's not such a difficult journey if you start with small changes. Make them a part of your lifestyle so they stick. Rome wasn't built in a day, was it? Have the cherry turnover once a week. Enjoy a succulent buttered steak. Just not every day. Make better choices in regard to those small substitutions and practice a little mindful moderation of those high fat, salty and sweet experiences. Enjoy this new adventure and manage your health with a good feeling knowing you are treating your body like a sacred and respected temple, so you don't have to pay the steep price of healing later.