Michigan Opposing Mandatory Vaccines...

If you are against mandatory vaccines, get involved!
M.O.M.

and

NVIC

Got Milk?

Can't wait to see this!

Homegrown Organic Eatery and Small Planet in Traverse City, MI

I recently went to Traverse City, Michigan and was happy to see they had an organic restaurant. It was right near the end of downtown, and conveniently located across from the beach so we ate our food outside! The sandwiches were REALLY good, and they gave free filtered water. The chips were good too, and I liked the dip, although not sure what it was? I'm going to guess some kind of bean dip! It was also nice how when you order (I told them it was our first time there) they told us that they have 95% organic food. I always wonder what the percentage is when I go to health food stores, and here they just come out and tell you! I like that they weren't trying to hide it-and I think 95% organic is an excellent accomplishment!Despite their stereotypical hippy stuff (tofu, tie die shirts, and save the ethiopian chidren) I actually liked the vibe in there. It was very relaxed, and everyone was friendly. (sorry to use that term, but I've had bad experiences with "health food hippies.")I remembered there was an organic restaurant in Traverse City, but didn't know where it was...and I actually used www.michiganrawfood.com to find it in the directory :) I guess my website is helpful sometimes, lol. Sadly, it was spelled wrong, but I think you get the idea if you click on it lol I have called the hosting company (godaddy) and they fixed it...but the it went right back to messing up again! So, I guess it will stay messed up for a little longer! :( The website for the restaurant is home grown organic eatery.

Another fun place (that gave us better diretions than mapquest!) was Small Planet. They had a lot of really interesting things, like organic cotton clothes, and shea butter. Very friendly people, and a nice store. I definitely recommend checking them out, but if you can't get to Traverse City their website is here: Small Planet


I love Traverse City! If you travel down the roads to the vineyards, there are a ton of fruit (and some vegetable) stands! It would be really easy to be a raw foodist there in the summer...not so sure about the winter though! :)

5 HTP update, and Cold Water Therapy...

The 5 HTP made me feel GREAT for the first 3 days, and then the 4th and 5th day I felt awful. I mean, all I wanted to do was sleep the day away awful. Hmmm. I did some research and read that after 5 days you take a break for 2, and then do it again. Also, you have to feel worse before you get better. I'm not really sure what to believe, so I'm going to give it a couple of days break and see if that helps. I'm not ready to give up on it just yet, as I don't expect miracles in less than a week. So, we will see.

I also read that taking a cold shower is really good for you mood! Who knew?! I always take HOT showers, which I know can dry your skin out, but had no idea cold showers could help my mood! If you have blood pressure problems, or you are really underweight you need to be careful with cold water, but here's the general way to do it: take a regular shower at lukewarm. Than when you are used to it, step outside the shower and turn all the heat off. Make it around 68 degrees (how you can tell that from your shower I don't know, but maybe you will!) and then put your feet in first, than your hands, and then stand completely under the water for about 40 seconds to a minute. I guess you can do longer the more you get used to it.

Some reported benefits-enhanced immune system, better mood, and softer skin/hair/stronger nails.

I started back up at the gym so it will be easy to want to take more than one shower a day, and also even cold water (I hate cold water, but after working out it feels good.)Soo, I didn't notice a huge result but I did accomplish a lot today so maybe that is something? I hope the cold water therapy works-after all, it's free (even saves you on hot water costs!) and seems pretty simple!

Serotonin, dreams, hypnosis, and appetite control!

Anybody who knows me knows I struggle with waking up early. I just can NOT convince myself in the morning to get out of bed. I'm the most depressed person in the world during those first few waking moments. It's really gotten bad though now that I don't HAVE to wake up at a certain time. The last two years of working for myself has really caught me in this slump-the more I oversleep, the more tired I am during the day, and the later I stay up at night-and the later I sleep in! Add to that all the stress I've had this year, and it's a recipe for sleeping your whole day away! I was reading that people who are stressed throughout the day fire off more of a certain synapse that causes you to REM sleep more. The problem with this is too much REM sleep uses up too much energy-so you oversleep and feel groggy the next morning! Too much REM can cause depression as well! That would explain my intense dreams lately also. So, I have been taking 5 HTP and I have to say I noticed a difference immediately. Perhaps all the stress this year has depleted some of my serotonin levels? I also read that serotonin levels increase when you eat foods such as dairy, and meat-stuff I have been craving lately. No wonder when you are depressed you overeat! So 5 Htp may help with my diet will power also. Perhaps some raw foodists who struggle with keeping to a raw food diet are depressed and need more serotonin? 5 Htp is from an all natural source. You may be able to get it from food in a raw food diet, but if you are severely depressed or stressed like me, it might be a quick fix to give you that boost you need. I don't plan on taking it forever, as you can build up a tolerance, and I also believe serotonin enhancers of any sorts can lead to Parkinsons disease or other neurological disorders I'm just not willing to risk. However, for the short term I'm willing to risk it since depression can have negative effects on your health. I also wonder if being depressed makes it difficult to visualize the successful you-the one sticking to your raw food plan? I hear so much in the raw food world about visualizations and how that helps-yet, if you don't have enough serotonin how can you do this? I'm very good at visualizing when I'm in a medatative, relaxed, state but that takes a lot of time. Throughout the day when I visualize things I often get the EXACT opposite of what I want-perhaps I don't have enough waking serotonin to be in the relaxed state to make such visualizations work? By adding serotonin you may also notice your visualizations and ability to manifest work better? It's worth a try! That being said, I'm also doing some hypnosis downloads from, you guessed it www.hypnosisdownloads.com as I've found them effective in the past.