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5 Reasons to attend a Touch for Health conference
Why attend a Touch for Health conference? After all, it’s not like the modality has changed. Maybe you don’t use this as your ‘real job’, so it’s hard to justify the travel expense, or maybe you’re afraid that you wouldn’t know anybody. Having just attended my first TFH meeting (I have been to IASK conferences and IKC gatherings before, but this one was new), I thought that I would share a few reasons why it is definitely worth it to attend, regardless of your level of training or experience in the Specialized Kinesiology world. Get hugged. A lot. By people you’ve never met before, but who are genuinely happy to…
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Clueless attempts at Permaculture: 3.5 months
The good news is: food is actually growing. The half-dozen pots of lettuce I had planted as we were getting settled are large and we are consistently pilfering leaves for salads. We’ve had our first little crop of radishes and celery, green onions and herbs are in abundance. Almost every tiny bit of space that could be eked out of what used to be our driveway has been put to good use. Combined with our new little property (see below), this feels like a tremendous amount of plants for me. The thing is, while I have always loved to garden and have always had one, up to now it has…
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Making Exercise Fun
It’s Spring, also know as ‘Time to Shed The Layers of Clothes The Protect You From The Wrath of Canadian Winters”. For some, it is a happy time of year. For others it means that some big changes are going to have to happen to get back in line with those New Years resolutions and that often means exercise. Here’s the thing about exercise: people have really weird misconceptions about it. People tell me all the time that they hate to exercise and I find myself asking – do you really hate moving your body in any way whatsoever, or is it the idea of putting on lycra shorts and…
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Healthcare is not free – petitioning for change
Originally published in Health Action magazine, Spring 2016 When Canadians begin discussing politics, few subjects are as loaded as Healthcare. Affordable health care for all has long been part of Canada’s legacy and reputation, but increasing MSP costs are changing this reality for some BC residents. These have risen almost 40% in the last seven years. The Medical Service Plan rates have gone up this year to $150 per month for a family of 3 or more who earn more than $30,000 a year. This isn’t a great inconvenience to higher income families who greatly exceed this household income, but to those families just scraping by, $1800 a year is…
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We work in the dark – we do what we can
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The chicken saga
As part of our shift to try to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle I wanted to have animals to help provide more protein for our diets (eggs, milk, cheese). The tricky part is that I have no clue what I’m doing. Perhaps you don’t know this already, but I’m not exactly a farm girl. We didn’t have animals when I was growing up – we didn’t even have house plants. My husband on the other hand, was raised in a swamp (at least for a little while) and had pigs, chickens and turkeys at various points in his childhood. The kicker is, he’s not here, he has been working in…
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Dreaming of permaculture: our journey to Costa Rica
Written for Health Action magazine It started twelve years ago during a Saskatchewan winter. Having just finished my training in herbology and sick-to-death of the cold, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to study herbs in the rainforest. It sounded like a whim and people laughed it off, but I began to do some research and my husband and I created a five-year-plan to move back to BC, pay off student loans, and embark on a six-month trip to see what I could learn about medicinal plants somewhere warm with gorgeous beaches. We chose Costa Rica for a few reasons. One, it has more protected rainforest than any…
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Daily Affirmations – a month of goal setting
It was one of those ‘Attitude of Gratitude’ experiments – for an entire month I set up a daily affirmation and shared it on Twitter. The result? Better focus and clarity through the day, moving through problems with a little more ease and grace. I have shared the list here in hopes that it might amuse/inspire you. Be Amazing! Alexis Affirmation for the Day: I am clever enough to see through April Fool jokes and good humored enough to appreciate them. Affirmation for the Day: I make my dreams a reality through small steps and good planning. I take things as they come and live in the present (unless the…
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Chan – the Next Super Seed
Chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds – the Western world is getting familiar with the idea that seeds are superfoods. Little powerhouses of nutrition, seeds are packed with enough goodness to give an entire plant or tree it’s start in life and as such are usually pretty good for you. As I listen to the deafening noise of the cicadas in the rain forest of Costa Rica I sip on a weird local concoction that might just be the next superfood seed to add to the list. The first time we tried the strange drink called fresco de chan was five years ago when we were out for dinner and…
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Top 5 Love/Loathe About Living in the Jungle
Every, single day, at some point in the day, I think to myself: This is ridiculous. It’s too hard, it’s too much, what on earth was I thinking? I want to go home. And every single day, at some point in the day, I think to myself: This is amazing. I can’t believe I get to do this, I love my life! These two points are not as far apart as one would guess. We’ve been here almost two months now. Construction on the new space is in full swing and the walls of the kids’ new rooms are almost finished. Anyone who read my post about my attempts to…
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My clueless attempts at permaculture.
OK, so some of you may have been reading about our renovation process and how we are going about rehabilitating the cabinas we have purchased in the jungle. Part of this whole process however is the idea that we are going to live as self-sufficiently as possible and that means growing as much of our own food as we can. Our property is only about one acre: some of that is primary rain forest, some hillside, a large amount of driveway and some inhospitable cliff. We are trying to purchase a nearby property that would give us some actual farming space, but, like oh-so-many things in Costa Rica, it is…
