We are back to normal.  Well, our summer normal anyway.  The house guests are gone.  It is just granddaughter Libby, John and me as the humans in the house and then there are the five (5) yes, five fur-babies.  Two dogs and three cats.  It seems quiet around here.  We love cooking together and tonight Libby helped fix our salmon, beets and peas dinner.  Buckingham is suffering from his days of wrestling with the puppy and is thus limping around the house and looking sad.  Miss Q is relaxing her vigilance of keeping an eye on the hikers in the house lest they think they could go hiking through the woods without her.  The cats just keep asking to be fed.  You know they are starving!!!!

My daily walk is pretty much back to what it was pre-heart attack.  I have done a couple of the 4.5 mile golf course route with hills, an up and over with my brother which included a few good hills, and one of my favorites, Sherbrooke Hill to Jackson Heights which has a monster hill in it.  I am beginning to feel like my old self again and I am grateful.  I have a weekly challenge with my sister Margot, my daughter Katie, and John and this week my sister won.  This adds a little bit of fun to a daily routine.

The addition of Yoga has gone well and I continue to love it.  The breathing and the relaxation are just what I need.  Caroline’s voice calms me down the minute she speaks.  I know this is a good for me.  I am not very strong on the poses but I am getting there and after two weeks am enough stronger that I notice it.  I love the “child pose” and “happy baby”.  Next week I will add the golf back in.  I now feel ready to get out on the links.

Working on this week’s Module has been new and good.  We have moved into a different place with the majority of our nutrition learning complete we are now into the business model half of the course.  My weakest link.  At least I think it is.  That doesn’t mean we don’t continue to learn and study about different dietary theories but the emphasis has changed.  Now it is more about building confidence so that we can go out and change the world, one person at a time.  So we can start our own “ripple effect”.  Am I ready?  Yes?  Am I nervous?  Yes?  It’s a leap from studying and working with classmates to reaching out to friends and acquaintances and saying “Would you like a free consultation” – I don’t know what I will say but I am determined to give it a try.

I did have an AHA moment while listening to one of the lectures.  The question was “What is the difference between a consultant and a coach.  I am definitely a consultant.  It is what I have done professionally for years.  The definition the lecturer used was “a consultant is an expert who is paid for advice”.  I agree with that statement.  A coach, however, is engaged “in sparking the transformation” in a client.  They are not expected to be an expert in everything.  This is definitely something that I am struggling with as I go through this course.  My personality loves to be the person who solves problems and who loves to be regarded as the expert.  Call Lou when you have a problem, she will fix it.  In the world of technology that worked very well.  In health coaching it is not the coach that fixes it, it is the client who fixes whatever is going wrong in his or her life, the coach just shows them the way from Point A to Point B.

We had a couple of interesting lectures that dealt with Paleolithic Eating this week.  We heard from Mark Sisson on the Primal Blueprint, Click Here for his website.  I found his way of eating to be extreme and while there were some takeaways that I think could work I don’t believe this lifestyle would work for me.  I am still struggling with whether I need to be a vegan, vegetarian or a meat eater.  I can tell you that when I don’t eat meat I don’t feel well.  I am now pretty sure I am not a good candidate for the whole grains world.  I tried for a few weeks and really had no energy, wanted to sleep all the time and craved food constantly.  It’s just going to take awhile to figure this all out.

I was absolutely mesmerized by Daniel Vitalis.  I had never seen anyone like him. I will leave it up to you to make up your own mind but he is something else.  His website can be found here: Live Wild with Daniel Vitalis.  He calls himself a “Rewilding Pioneer” and he certainly has a lot of energy and believes in what he teaches.  I am pretty sure this is not for me but it is good to know about because I may have a client where this style would be a perfect fit.

Talking about beef,  I found it interesting that beef that was grass fed used to be considered the poor man’s beef because that style made the meat tough and rubbery.  Corn fed was much more flavorful and tender.  Today we shun meat from cows fattened in feedlots for all the right reasons in my mind and grass fed is honored.  The difference?  Today the farmers know more about how to feed their cows on grass by rotating the pasture and feeding the cows when the grass is at its optimum. One question my granddaughter keeps asking me is “why is the butter so much better in Canada?”  I think it is how the cows are fed and what they are fed here. I see lots of “milk” cows out in the fields although I do know some dairy farmers who don’t ever let their cows outside.  I don’t want to buy from them.  Libby often says she thinks food tastes better in Canada.  I love that child!  Here are the fresh peas and beets that we found at our local market.  Yum, delicious.

From time to time I will share things of interest that I learn or discover.  This week I have a tip and a recipe to share.  The first came through one of our speakers and the other comes from my daughter Katie who is the chef in our family.

Tip of the week:

Find A Spring?  A quick discovery.  Ever wonder where you can find wonderful fresh spring water?  Well, there is a website that can help you do that.  It is called Find A Spring.  Wasn’t sure if they would include Canada but they include countries all over the world.  I just discovered there is a spring in nearby Sutton so I am going off on an adventure to see if I can find the spring and whether it actually is as good as it claims to be.

Recipe of the week:

Katie’s recipe for her wonderful salmon dinner.   You can use any of your favorite cuts of salmon.  I love Coho Salmon but we get a lot of Atlantic Salmon here in the summer.

Grill the salmon and then add the topping.

Vinaigrette:  Combine in a large bowl 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup sherry vinegar, 1T minced shallot, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 clove garlic crushed.

Saute together in olive oil on gentle heat (don’t smoke the olive oil) a generous handful of spinach, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts (a can or jar packed in water) and your favorite mushrooms.  Once the vegetables are cooked, add them to the vinaigrette and serve warm on top of the grilled salmon.  Delish!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and I look forward to hearing your comments.  So many of you send me wonderful, encouraging words either by email or in person.  You are all special.  Thank you for reading my musings and letting me know that you enjoy them.

Louise