Thursday, January 31, 2008

Oatmeal Pancakes Recipe

I'm practically a drooler for delicious and healthy oatmeal pancakes, and you're going to be one too once you try today's easy-to-prepare and delicious recipe for...

Chunky Apple Oatmeal Pancakes with Maple Cream

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/8 cup rolled oats
2 Tbs oat bran
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped apple
1 cup apple juice

Combine dry ingredients. Add raisins and apple. Gently stir in juice until dry ingredients are completely moistened.

Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a nonstick skillet or griddle. Cook until bottom is brown and spatula slips easily underneath. Turn and brown other side.

Maple Cream Topping

For a tasty and nourishing pancake topping, mix together equal parts of pure maple syrup and plain yogurt.

The above recipe only makes eight pancakes, so you better double or triple it!

If you have a healthy and tasty pancake recipe you'd like to share, please use the "comment" link below to post it right now.

Chet "Pancake Lover" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com/blog

Thursday, January 24, 2008

How to Stop Snoring Tip

Here's a simple tip on how to stop snoring that anyone can use to end at least some of the nightly nose noise that's driving your partner crazy:

Warm Beverages Before Bedtime Help to Stop Snoring

Drinking a warm beverage just before bedtime has proven to be effective for a number of snorers. Adding a small amount of honey to the water can help coat the walls of the trachea. Some people have even found that combining honey, warm water, and apple cider vinegar creates a rather potent, yet non-addictive and non-fattening anti-snoring drink.

Herbal tea, particularly the kind labeled "Breathe Easy" (or anything that promotes an unclogged airway) can help prevent snoring. Some of these teas can also contain chamomile or other herbs that promote sleeping.

Bear in mind, however, that if the snorer becomes too relaxed, then while sleep may occur quite readily, it's important to remember that sleep isn't the problem: snoring is the problem!

So don't necessarily choose herbal teas that promote drowsiness or "sleepiness"; for snorers, any herbal tea that will clear the airflow/trachea should help alleviate some snoring.

If you found this tip useful, you'll want to click here to check out my very popular 34-page special report How to Stop Snoring without Surgery.

Chet "Stop Snoring Tip" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com/blog

P.S. If you have a stop snoring tip you'd like to share, please click on the "comment" link below and start typing.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Tibetan Monks Diet

I have a diet for you today that you should find quite interesting!

I've lifted the description of the diet pretty much verbatim from a fascinating little book originally titled The Eye of Revelation, which is more popularly known as The Five Tibetan Rites.

If you'd like to lose some weight and gain some energy, give this dietary program a try for two weeks.

You'll find it an interesting and fun adventure in natural health.

Without further ado, I give you...

The Tibetan Monks Diet


By Peter Kelder and Colonel Bradford
Excerpted from The Five Rites
http://fivetibetanrites.com

... after the tenth week Colonel Bradford no longer attended each weekly meeting. However, he still kept up his interest in the "Himalaya Club," and from time to time would speak on various subjects which would aid them in their work.

Sometimes the members requested him to advise them on some particular subject. For instance, we discussed among our selves one night the tremendously important part that food played in our lives. How the right food would make us more alive and vigorous while the wrong food would make us sluggish and dull.

None of us knew much about the subject, however, so we requested the Colonel to advise us at our next meeting as to the Lamas' policy regarding food.
"In the Himalayan Lamasery where I was a neophyte," said the Colonel, in addressing us the following week, "there are no problems concerning the right foods, nor in getting sufficient food...

"Now it is true that the Lamas are vegetarians, but not strictly so. They do use eggs, butter, and cheese in quantities sufficient to serve certain functions of the brain, body, and nervous system. But aside from this they do not need meat, for all who are strong and virile, and who practice Rite Number Six have no need of meat, fish, or fowl.

"Most of those who join the ranks of the Lamas are men of the world who know little about proper food and diet. Yet they are only in the Grand Retreat in the Himalayas a very short while when they begin to show wonderful signs of physical improvement, due no doubt to the diet in the Lamasery.

"No Lama is choosy about his meals. He can't be because there is little to choose from.

"A Lama diet consists of good, wholesome food but as a rule it consists of but one article of food to a meal that in itself is a secret of health. When one eats just one kind of food at a time there can be no clashing of foods in the stomach. Foods clash in the stomach because starches will not mix with proteins. For example, bread, which is starchy, when eaten with meats, eggs, or cheese, which are protein, sets up a reaction in the stomach which often causes not only immediate physical pain, but which contributes as well to a short life and a not particularly merry one.

"Many times in the Lamasery dining hall I have set down to the table along with the Lamas and eaten a meal consisting solely of bread. At other times I have had nothing but fresh vegetables and fresh fruits, while at still another meal I ate nothing but cooked vegetables and cooked fruits.

"At first I greatly missed the large variety of foods to which I had been accustomed; but after a short while I could eat and enjoy a meal consisting of nothing but dark bread or some one particular fruit. Sometimes it would be a feast of one vegetable.

"The point I wish to bring out to you gentlemen is not that you should resign yourselves to a diet of one kind of food to a meal but that you should keep starches, fruits, and vegetables separate from meats, fish, and fowl at your meals.

"It is permissible to make a meal of just meat. In fact, you could have several kinds of meats to a meal. You can have butter, eggs, and cheese with the meat meal, and dark bread, and, if you wish, coffee, or tea, but you must not end up with anything sweet or starchy. No pies or cakes or puddings.

"Then again, your meal can be strictly starches. Then you can indulge in all the sweet fruits, all the bread, butter, pies, cakes, puddings, and fresh or cooked vegetables you like without feeling any ill effects. But keep these meals separate.

"Butter seems to be a neutral. It can be used with either a starchy meal or with a meat meal. Milk, however, agrees better with starch meals. Coffee and tea should always be taken black, never with cream, although a small amount of sweetening will do no harm."
If what you just read was interesting to you, you'd enjoy reading and learning from Supercharge Your Energy with Five Secret Tibetan Rejuvenation Rites, which can be found at http://fivetibetanrites.com

Chet "Monks Diet" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Thursday, January 17, 2008

How to Unwind

When you find yourself getting all wound up and hot and bothered about one thing or another in the hectic life most of us live these days, try this simple technique to unwind and chill back down.

First, if possible, go outside.

Once outside (and this can be done inside in a stairwell or hallway if you can't go outside), look at your watch and start walking, slowly at first.

Increase your pace until you're moving at full stride.

Continue to walk, covering as much ground as possible for two minutes.

At that point, turn around and stride back to where you started.

As you return to where you started, listen to the sounds around you.

Put your eyes to work and look carefully at every detail. Focus and see.

Become aware of the moment.

As your visual and auditory awareness sharpens, let your stride naturally slow down, almost as if gliding back to where you began.

When you arrive at your starting place, come to a complete stop for a minute and just stand there.

Consciously relax your muscles.

Gently arch your back and glance up at the sky while taking a long, slow, deep breath. Slowly exhale while returning to an upright posture.

Repeat the deep breath and back bend twice more.

You're not wound up anymore, are you?

Now you now how to unwind better than most people living hectic lives on this crazy planet.

Chet "Unwound" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Monday, January 14, 2008

Soothing Cucumber Peel

Hey, the next time you're in the kitchen peeling cucumber, I have something for you to try.

If you're like me, you generally peel your cucumbers and then toss the skins in the bin for the compost heap or the garbage pick-up.

Well, next time, before you throw the peelings away, stop for a minute or two and run the inner sides of the peel over your face, hands, and arms for a soothing, refreshing, and very inexpensive skin treatment.

They'd charge you $78 or more in a European spa for a similar but most likely less natural skin softening procedure.

No baloney.

And a Hollywood star or Washington politician would pay even more because the spas these monied individuals frequent double or triple the prices of the European spas here in rural North Carolina.

And, yes, that was a joke.

There are no European spas in rural North Carolina.

Chet "Keep Peeling" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Fresh or Frozen Veggies

I recently had a good letter from a 21 Days to Health & Beyond participant asking me if canned or frozen vegetables were okay to eat while on the program.

That's a good question, as well as an easy one to answer.

First, fresh organic vegetables are always the best choice.

Second best would be frozen vegetables without any additives like sugar, salt, or preservatives.

Canned vegetables would be better than no vegetables in some cases, but be very careful with canned vegetables because many of them are loaded with additives.

Bottomline: Go with fresh organic whenever possible and as a second choice read all labels carefully and make your best decisions from there.

Oh, one more thing. Although you want to eat plenty of uncooked vegetables for superior health, it's also important to have some steamed veggies.

Interestingly enough, some nutrients in vegetables aren't as readily available raw as they are when cooked.

As usual, the key concept is to listen to your body and to strive for balance rather than extremes.

Chet "Likes His Veggies Fresh" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com/blog

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Healthy Bones Smoothie

Let's start 2008 off with a natural method for building healthy bones without resorting to expensive and side-effect ridden drugs or questionable calcium supplements.

The healthy bones smoothie recipe that follows was designed by Dr. Ben Kim, whose commitment to natural health is beyond compare.
Dr. Kim's Healthy Bones Smoothie

Large handful romaine lettuce (torn into pieces)
1 raw, organic egg
1 Tbs super green food powder
1 ripe banana
1 orange
1-2 tsp acerola cherry powder
1 Tbs cod liver oil
Water

Blend all ingredients together in a strong blender. Add water slowly until desired consistency is reached.

Notes: If you don't use a super green food powder, include an extra handful of romaine lettuce.
Thanks to Dr. Kim for permission to reprint his recipe. You should visit his fantastic natural health site by clicking here because Dr. Kim's site has one of the best collections of natural health articles and recipes on the entire Internet.

Oh, one more thing... this smoothie for healthy bones also tastes great!

Who could ask for more this cold winter day in January of 2008?

Chet "Healthy Bones" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com/blog