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Snack Foods Pumpkin seeds: These are a great snack, especially ones you roast yourself with a bit of Braggs Liquid Aminos (like soy sauce, but more healthy, available in most health food stores). They’re very high in Omega 3 oils, which are a most beneficial type of oil and something your body needs in small but regular installments.  Exercise Neck & Shoulder Loosening Sit down on the floor cross-legged. You might want to use a beach towel or an exercise mat. With your hands in your lap, take a breath and exhale as you gently turn your head to the right until your chin is over your right shoulder. Inhale and bring your head back to center. Now exhale and gently turn your head to the left until your chin aligns with the left shoulder.  Repeat this entire sequence two more times. Next, tilt your head backward and inhale. As you exhale, bring it back to normal position. Now inhale as you tilt forward and down to your chest. Exhale as you bring your head back up. Repeat this sequence two more times. Now tilt your head back again and imagine drawing a big circle with your chin while taking a big breath in and a big breath out (one complete breath to each circle). Reverse it, and then repeat. Finish with a big inhalation and pause, then exhale.   Environment My favorite indoor flowers come from Narcissus bulbs. To enjoy this yourself, fill a shallow flowerpot with a collection of small, smooth rocks and shells, and then set five or seven bulbs into the rocks to secure them. Next, I pour water over the bulbs not to exceed the midpoint of each one. I set the flower pot near a window and add water every day or so. When the Narcissus bloom, they are already beautifully arranged. These flowers also add a glorious fragrance to the area they occupy. Narcissus was the basis of the classic French perfume named Joy. It was always promoted as the world’s most expensive perfume. Growing these bulbs is a relative bargain.  Recipe:  How to cook brown rice Massage Reflexology is based on the physiological fact that nerve endings for our entire nervous system can be found in our feet, hands and ears. The respective locations of these nerve endings provide a map to the entire body. In fact, reflexologists call the foot a “homunculus,” meaning “a little human.” They call it that because the shape of the foot is vertical, like the body, and the reflex points on the foot are in roughly the same position on the foot as on the body. So, the head corresponds to the big toe, the sinuses to the little toes, the shoulders to the outer sides of the foot, etc. In oversimplified terms, if you want to ease congestion in your sinuses, you could massage your four small toes, where the nerve endings for the sinuses are located. Physiologically, stimulating the nerve endings for the area in question helps to improve circulation to that area, which then helps in eliminating toxins. Reflexology also breaks up potentially toxic mineral deposits that can crystallize in the feet. For these reasons, massaging the feet can be considered a detoxifying experience. Rice is very important to detox diets because it’s much more easily digested than other grains. Also, many people are allergic to wheat and don’t know it.  While both white rice and brown rice are very nutritious, brown rice offers a lot of fiber, and more flavor. (On the other hand, because brown rice retains some of the natural oils of the grain, it can go rancid after several months in storage. Ingesting rancid oils raises the level of harmful free-radicals and oxidative stress in the bloodstream. Therefore, it is important to use up brown rice within a couple months of purchasing it. If you find brown rice has acquired a strange and not altogether pleasant odor, it’s best to compost it, or throw it away.) The following is a fool-proof method for cooking brown rice, courtesy of Annette Annechild. Either: 2 1/3 cups of rice to 4 cups of water, or 3 1/2 cups of rice to 6 cups of water Rinse the uncooked rice three times, and drain well. Put the water on to boil in a separate cooking pot. While waiting for the water to come to a boil, put two tablespoons of oil in the bottom of a heavy, tight-lidded sauce pan. Next, sauté the well-drained rice in the oil for approximately four minutes while you wait for the water to boil. Do this over fairly high heat. It has to be stirred constantly, otherwise it will scorch. This process coats the rice with the oil and evaporates the water from rinsing. The rice will begin to smell very nutty after a minute or two.  When the water in the second pot has come to a vigorous boil, pour it over the rice in the sauce pan. It is very important at this point not to stir the rice anymore, not even once. Let the liquid come back up to a vigorous boil, put the lid on, turn the heat down as low as you can, and cook this for 45 minutes. (The cooking temperature is different on a electric stove. The lowest setting will be too low. You may have to experiment on your own stove to determine the correct temperature. It should be low, but not too low!) During this time, do not lift the lid or do anything else to it. When 45 minutes is up, turn off the heat and let the rice sit undisturbed for at least 15-20 minutes before serving. The result? Healthy, delicious and nicely textured rice. LIMITED TIME OFFER! 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