March 2009 Vol 2, Issue 3
Reformatted March 2009 Masthead
Greetings!
 
SeedlingSpring is on the horizon. A time of renewal, freshness, and new beginnings. Yet, because of the economic uncertainty we all face, this spring will be among the most turbulent periods in our country's recent history.

In response, our President is calling on us to support bold action: a "Stimulus Package" for the nation.

Many legislators, academics, media, and regular folk are pushing back, fearful of more losses and the devastating effects failure would bring. Others posit that we already have failed; the old approaches have run their course, unable to provide fertile ground for new growth.

While the national debate rages outside, the stresses rage inside, in our own lives, our households, our bodies. And even if you haven't lost a job, or aren't threatened with foreclosure, the vibes of uncertainty are making us all feel shaky.

To settle the atmosphere, and grow the seeds of health and prosperity in our lives, it's time to adopt a "Personal Stimulus Package," a set of specific skills and tools to help improve physical, mental, and spiritual health.

We call this Personal Stimulus Package WHOLE Body Living: concrete steps to shore up or remake the foundation of your life to maximize a bountiful harvest of your most valuable resource--your health.

We're walking wounded, my sistahs, and it's time to heal. Never before have the WHOLE Body Living Principles been more vital. Why? Because at their core is the one resource that cannot be outsourced and must not be devalued or depleted. It's the inexhaustible Loving Energy inside us all.

To stimulate the flow of your Loving Energy and take bold action for your personal growth, join us each month for fundamental, simple, economical tips, and encouragement to nourish the seeds of your new beginning.

We're about self-care. Well-being. Thriving. That is what it means to be WHOLE.
 
In This Issue
Sleep, The Wonder Tonic
WHOLE Self-Care Inspirations: Unplug
This Stock Guarantees Delicious Returns!
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WHOLE is a monthly self-care newsletter made especially with African American women in mind. Have you missed our other issues? Don't worry! They're waiting for you in our Archive!


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WHOLE is brought to you by WeSpeakLoudly, a women's health education firm offering publications and programs dedicated to improving health outcomes for African American women and girls.  To learn more, visit our website.


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Copyright 2009
Jacci Thompson-Dodd, MA, MSSS

All rights reserved
Sleep, The Wonder Tonic
 
Sleeping womanWe all do it. We all need it. Yet few of us get enough of it. What am I talking about? Sleep!

With the barrage of daytime activities that often spill over into night, we often push sleep aside, fooling ourselves that we don't need it.

And when we do get in bed, the flurry of activity continues with laptop churning, TV blaring, and mountains of home tasks piling up in every corner. Sound familiar?
 
Getting adequate sleep is essential to help your metabolism function properly--a key ingredient in maintaining optimal health. Are you diabetic? Suffering from high blood pressure or heart problems? Looking to lose weight? Getting adequate, quality sleep can contribute greatly to improving your health and stabilizing your life.
 
Setting the mood
 
One of the best tonics to promote healing is sleep. Yet far too often the bedroom functions as a multipurpose area where you watch TV, use the computer, pay bills, sort and fold laundry, and do numerous other sleep-interrupting tasks. Your bedroom is not merely a place where a piece of furniture called a bed resides. It is the restorative chamber where you recharge, quiet frayed nerves, regain composure, and center yourself once again.
 
Your bedroom should contain only the things that inspire restful repose. Use all natural bed linens to ensure your skin can breath easily. Get a quality pillow that cradles your neck adequately. Consider slipping an aroma therapy sachet of your favorite scent in your pillow case to inspire relaxing sleep.
 
Consider relocating the TV into the living room. Fine more suitable spaces for other items not related to sleep. An assortment of covered baskets in all sizes, styles, and colors can become storage containers for many task materials. This yields a three-fold benefit: getting back a truly functional bedroom, organizing unsightly (but necessary) projects, and adding a personal flair to other rooms.
 
Night, night!
 
Here are some hints to help restful sleep come more easily*:
  • Keep regular hours. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day, including weekends.
  • Develop a sleep ritual. If you do the same things before you go to bed each night, it will train your body to get ready for sleep.
  • Take some time to relax and unwind before you go to sleep. You may try stretching, relaxation exercises, a hot shower or bath, meditation, or a cup of herbal tea to help you relax and prepare for sleep.
  • Avoid caffeine, alcohol or other stimulants in the evening.
  • If you are taking a diuretic, try taking it in the morning. Diuretics increase urination, and this may keep you up at night.

 *Tips on getting a good night's sleep provided by Targeted Health Solutions, MediResource Inc.

WHOLE Self-Care Inspirations: Unplug
 
Electrical plugLife is moving faster than ever. It is a 24-hour sprint between competing and compelling demands of work, family, relationships, and many other endeavors.

To keep pace, we plug into the latest gadgets and networks to help keep it all straight. Instantly, we're engulfed in a constant buzz of activity. We're wired. Always on. Available 24/7--texting, Twittering, Facebooking, YouTubing, MySpacing.

It's kind of exciting in the beginning. But soon the tools we employ to help us run our lives begin running us. The downside to this easy access is the energy drain required to keep it going. Any wonder why our stress levels are so high?

The remedy? Unplug!

To Unplug is to take a break. To disengage from all the external stimulation for a while and be still. To make room for the quiet to surface from within. When you Unplug, you begin to hear a voice rise above the chaos--your own.

When you Unplug, you take control. You listen to your voice, follow your instincts, and sort out what's important. You prioritize, allowing yourself to set schedules and parameters for your gadgets and networks that compliment your needs--not compete with them.

Set office hours for your online endeavors. Put the Blackberry down. Pull the Blue Tooth out of your ear and get back to YOU--unfettered, un-wired, and unencumbered. You'll find that the conversations you have with yourself can be infinitely more inspired, nourishing, and productive.

Homemade Stock Guarantees Delicious Returns!
 
Tilted Stock Pot, LeftWith the Wall Street markets crashing all around us, there's one investment that is guaranteed to yield delicious returns: your own homemade stock!

Whether it's all veggie, or flavored with your favorite meat or seafood, homemade stock is easy, economical, and infuses each bite with your personal brand of love.

Even if you live alone, you can save lots of money, and gain rich flavor, by doing what our grandmas did: throw odds and ends into a pot and make nourishing meals appear out of scraps. You'll do your diet a favor, too, avoiding the high salt content of many canned stocks and bouillon cubes.
 
Truth is, cooking at home is much more economical than eating out or buying processed foods. It simply takes some time and planning. But your food dollars will stretch much further if you master some basic techniques.

Good to the last drop!

What do onion skins, carrot tops, celery leaves, and other assorted veggie peelings have in common? They're valuable flavor nuggets that you usually throw away. Don't! Instead, get a large zip plastic bag and start saving them in your freezer. When you've collected enough, put them all in a pot with some water and the seasoning of your choice, and voila! You have delicious, nutritious stock as the base flavor for soups, stews, grains, pastas, and veggie dishes. It keeps well in the refrigerator or the freezer, and is a willing sous chef in the dash to get a meal on the table.

No time to wait? A few choice veggie purchases will get you there. In fact, many grocery stores have discounted "quick sale" bags of veggies just at their peak that are a wonderful stash of hidden flavors.

Want to add a rich meat or seafood base to your veggie stock? Every chef knows the value of bones as primo flavor enhancers. For example, save the carcass from your rotisserie chicken. Or purchase fish parts or beef bones from your local grocer, butcher or fish monger. Add them to your veggies and they'll make magic in your pot. Wherever you'd use water, use stock instead!
 
Preserving Your Stock Investment
 
Zip freezer bags of assorted sizes are the perfect partners to preserve your stock investment. For example, when you're making gumbo, reach for a gallon-size bag of stock for your base flavor. Making rice or pasta? Your quart-size bag of stock with infuse them with extra flavor. My favorite storage buddy for stock is an ice cube tray. Making stock cubes is the ideal way to add a flavor blast to sauteed veggies like the asparagus recipe below.
 
Investing in this stock is a sure bet! It will soon become a prized asset that will grow the bottom line of your food budget. Enjoy!

Rotisserie Chicken Stock

When I'm pressed for time, I grab a rotisserie chicken from the market. After our meal, I save the carcass to flavor my homemade chicken stock. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken carcass, with skin and whatever meat remains
1 large onion, coarsely chopped, skin and all
2 carrots, coarsely chopped, including tops if you have them
2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped, including leaves
1 full bulb of garlic, cut in half
2 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
4 quarts water
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Place all ingredients in a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 2 hours, or until liquid has reduced by approximately 1/3. Remove from heat and skim residue from the surface. Strain. Remove skin from chicken and discard along with spent vegetables. If any meat remains on the bones, you may pull it off and add it to your stock. Yields approximately 3 quarts. Stock may be refrigerated for about four days, or frozen for two months.

Sleeping womanSauteed Asparagus
 
This time of year, asparagus is popping up all over the place. The pencil-thin spears are a great snack raw, dipped in hummus or other tasty veggie accompaniments. The mid-sized spears are perfect to saute and are ready in a flash.



Ingredients

1 lb fresh asparagus
1 frozen stock cube, or 1 tbsp fresh stock
1/2 tbsp garlic, finely minced
1/2 tbsp shallots, finely minced
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Gently rinse asparagus, trim away the hard bottom portion of each spear and set them aside. Cut remaining tender spears into 1 inch pieces. Peel and mince garlic and shallots, saving the skins. Place the asparagus bottoms, garlic, and shallot skins in a zip bag and place in the freezer. This is the beginning of our freezer stock!
2. If using frozen stock cube, zap it in the microwave for a few seconds to thaw.
3. In a large skillet or wok add olive oil and heat on medium-high. Add asparagus, garlic and shallots, stirring constantly for about four or five minutes until almost tender. Add stock, stir until ingredients are well coated and let cook for another minute or two just until most of the stock is absorbed. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat. Enjoy!
 
 
Every month I set out to provide "news you can use." Are you finding WHOLE helpful? What kinds of issues would you like me to cover? I'm open and anxious to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line with your comments and suggestions.

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Sending prayers for your health and prosperity this month. Let's meet up again next month.
 
Yours in health,
 
Jacci Thompson-Dodd
WeSpeakLoudly

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Photo credits: Makkis, Darron Greenwood/Design Pic, Moodboard