Adopt-A-Turkey

This year, our family joined Farm Sanctuary in adopting a turkey for Thanksgiving! Among the many animals at the organization's two sanctuary locations are turkeys that otherwise were living miserable existences at factory farms. Every Thanksgiving, Farm Sanctuary provides people with the opportunity to adopt a turkey, providing them with resources to care for these and other animals. This year we adopted Payton, a turkey who lives at their California shelter. Christopher was the official adopter and received the certificate he is holding above. The certificate tells about Payton, his personality and favorite foods, and provides a picture too. Chris is very proud of his turkey and we read about Payton every morning at breakfast. If you are interested in adopting a turkey through Farm Sanctuary, visit www.adoptaturkey.org.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Just wanted to let everyone know about The Well Blog on the New York Times website that is currently posting a series of vegetarian and vegan recipes for the upcoming holiday. I am very thankful for these recipes and super excited that veggie dishes are becoming so much more mainstream for this gluttonous holiday! You can be gluttonous and vegan too! Here is the link...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/vegetarian-thanksgiving/

Let Food (and Yoga!) Be Thy Medicine

I have my first cold of the season. Actually, it's the first cold I've had in a long time and I don't like it! Obviously, no one likes being sick but because I try to take good care of myself with diet and exercise, I can sometimes feel like I'm immune to all the bugs going around. This cold hasn't been too bad, but it is here nonetheless.

The thing I do like about getting sick is that it makes me realize that something is out of balance and it forces me to attend to that. In looking at this particular cold, I realize that I've been a bit stressed of late and also worked out a little too hard the past two weeks, stressing my immune system. My diet also hasn't been the best, really since Halloween. I mean, overall it's pretty good but I've definitely had too much sugar for my own good and I know that contributes to lowering immune function.

So now comes the time to reevaluate. When I got this cold, I started to go into healing mode, doing things that make myself feel better. This week, I've kicked up the green juice (I swear it clears up my sinuses for a couple hours when I do this), eaten immune-boosting foods like mushrooms, onions, and garlic (literally that's what I had for dinner last night) and big salads, and relaxed with some gentle yoga and meditation. All of these things are contributing to my kicking this cold in the butt!

Next time you come down with something, take the time to step back and look at the aspects of your life that could be contributing to how you feel. If it is simply a bug that you caught from being around a lot of germy people, think about how you can nurture your body with life-giving foods and practices and then make those things a part of your everyday life!