Wim Hof - Benefits of Cold Showers

For several years, Chris and I have been following the work of Wim Hof (affectionately know as the Iceman! - image: left). He recommends taking cold showers and ice-baths for their health and spiritual benefits.

We don't shower every day (so only do this practice 2-3 times a week), and we always begin our showers with hot/warm water. At the end of the shower we turn it all the way to cold (which, because our water comes from a well, can be pretty darn cold!) 

 

Sometimes I turn it straight to the coldest setting and and other times I work my way gradually through increasingly colder and colder settings. Then I linger for a minute or two running the cold water all over my face, back, armpits, belly, legs and feet.

 

It was very hard to develop this habit at first but eventually the benefits became so apparent that now I find myself looking forward to it.

 

I notice that the cold showers decrease inflammation in my body, reduce feelings of anxiety and depression and seem to help me be more comfortable in cold weather. Here's an article, based on scientific studies of the Benefits of Cold Showers.

I greatly enjoyed this 31 minute documentary about Wim too. Big Pharma VS Wim Hof 

 

Tips for Maintaining a Well-Stocked Pantry

Tips for Maintaining a Well-Stocked Pantry
By Llyn Peabody

Whether you’re concerned about preparing for a natural disaster or economic hard times, or just tired of opening your cupboards and not having a variety of tasty, nutritious items to choose from, it’s always a good idea to get in the habit of stocking and maintaining one’s pantry. Here are some tips to help.

• ‘Stocking-up’ shopping trips: Because we live 25 minutes’ drive from the nearest big city, we’ve gotten in the habit of doing our food shopping in two major trips per month; it’s just more efficient for us that way. But even if you live right in town with convenient grocery stores in your neighborhood, you might want to plan on doing at least one major ‘stocking-up’ trip per month. Find your local discount stores that feature discontinued items or items near their pull-date, or ‘big-box’ stores that sell case-loads of food and food in large containers, these are great places to expand your pantry, even if you’re on a tight budget. We find that shopping on week-day mornings is the best time to avoid crowds and long lines at the registers.

• As you do your regular shopping, look for sale items. If the foods are something you especially enjoy, and eat a lot of and they’re ‘shelf-steady’ (have a long shelf-life) - get more than a few extra. Also, many stores will let you special order whole cases, or large bags of bulk items at a discount saving you money and assuring you won’t run out of the things you eat often.

• Prioritize getting foods that are familiar and bring you comfort. Sure, it’s great to have some variety and to expand one’s menu from time to time but during a crisis is not the time to begin experimenting with one’s food choices. If your external circumstances are creating more stress than usual, you’ll want your mealtimes to bring you comfort and nourishment, not more stress.

• Be sure your pantry has plenty of items that are easy to prepare. You don’t want to be stuck in a crisis with foods that need extensive cooking or have recipes with complicated lists of ingredients. Easy, delicious and nutritious food brings comfort any time but especially in an emergency!

• Remember the treats! Along with your familiar staple items for main-courses, remember to have on-hand some sweets and salty/crunchy snacks, or the ingredients to make them. The trick with these is to dole them out slowly so you have them on hand during a crisis! I find that putting them out of sight, in a place that requires more effort to get to, slows our consumption a bit (but I’m still working on this 😊).

• Make your own: Though honestly, it isn’t always cheaper to grow, can, dehydrate and/or freeze your own foods, having and using these skill-sets does foster a sense of self-reliance and an appreciation for the foods that grow in one’s region on a seasonal basis. And it gives you control over the quality of the end products. If you’re not able to grow your own, go to your local Farmer’s Market and buy fruits and vegetables by the case, to freeze, can or dehydrate at home.

• Storing bulk food items: Bulk items brought home in plastic or paper bags should be transferred to rodent/insect-proof, air-tight containers as soon as possible. We prefer square and rectangular containers (as opposed to cylindrical ones) as they use storage space more efficiently. We also avoid reusing containers that had strong-smelling contents, like salsa, as these flavors can linger in the rubber gasket of the original lid and permeate one’s bulk food items. If you will be storing the bulk foods for a long time (more than a few months) and you’re concerned the lid may not be air tight, you can use a clean, empty plastic bag laid over the opening of the jar and screwed on with the lid as a gasket. Be sure to put dates on home-canned items and to label bulk-items with the date of purchase as well. We keep a roll of blue painter’s tape, a Sharpie marker and some scissors in our pantry to make making labels easy.

• Shelf-life: As you fine-tune your pantry, expand the number of items with a long shelf-life. Canned goods will last a long time and, if necessary, most of them can even be eaten right out of the can without heating (be sure to have a non-electric can-opener on hand in case power goes out). Bulk, dried goods (beans, grains etc.) also have a long shelf-life if stored in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight, but they have the disadvantage of needing to be cooked. This is fine as long as one has access to fuel/electricity for cooking but for this reason, you don’t want to rely exclusively on them as ‘emergency foods’. Dried/dehydrated foods (such as dried fruit, seeds and nuts) are excellent choices since most don’t require cooking to eat them and they’re packed with nutrition. (Nuts do need special care though as their oils can become rancid if not stored well.) Frozen foods are fine for a short-term crisis but if one encounters long-term power outages, frozen foods can be lost as they thaw. (If you should be faced with a thawing inventory of food during a long-term power outage, consider preparing larger quantities of food with the ingredients you have and sharing with neighbors who may not have thought ahead. At least the food won’t go to waste.)

• A note on pull dates: Most ‘use by’ or ‘best by’ dates on packaged items are a general guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. The exceptions are: highly perishable foods that require refrigeration such as dairy/eggs or meat; anything being fed to the elderly, the very young or people with compromised immune systems, and highly acidic foods stored in cans such as tomato-products – in which case the ‘pull dates’ should be honored more rigidly. When you are buying food for long term storage, try to avoid dented or damaged packaging but if you should happen to bring some home, eat it promptly, well before the expiration date printed on the package.

• And lastly, remember to rotate your inventory. As you bring home fresh canned/packaged items, move them to the back of your shelves and ‘front’ the older foods.

To contact the author, Llyn Peabody: ShareInJoy@gmail.com –

For tips on growing your own food, saving seeds and other ‘rural arts’, go to: www.TheSharingGardens.blogspot.com