Happy New Year!

Around this time, we’re all thinking about goals and New Year's resolutions, and I think that’s great. However, the resolution to be more connected to ourselves and to one another often gets overlooked.

That’s why today I’m writing about the topic of connection and loneliness. I believe improving this one aspect of our lives would make so many of us healthier and more content. Here in NourishedbyPete Understand the importance of working on our tribe, connecting with others, and cultivating meaningful relationships to create a greater sense of purpose which ultimately optimizes our health. 

Here are five things I’m loving this week.

The Remarkable Story of Roseto Shows the Power of Community

One of the most in your face but valuable lessons of our time in lockdown was that we are creatures of community and that our time with others benefits us in myriad ways. This short film about Roseto, Pennsylvania, is a perfect example. In the 1960s, no one under the age of 55 had died of a heart attack, so researchers began looking at their DNA, diet, and other lifestyle factors to understand why they were so vastly different from the rest of the county. They found that the town’s tight-knit sense of community was the key to their excellent health. Many households had multiple generations under one roof, and most people belonged to groups and clubs. By the 80s, when these aspects of life in Roseta diminished, the rate of fatal heart attacks had increased to the national average. Never underestimate the power of befriending your neighbors! Have a watch, it’s fascinating under 3min in length.

A Guided Meditation for Loneliness

You might be noticing a little bit of a theme with this week’s Pete’s Picks. I’m a big believer that we all need to work on finding our tribe, connecting with others, and cultivating strong relationships to optimize our best health. In fact, the longest-lived people in Blue Zones are known to have very strong family ties, community connections, and lifelong friendships. How about we all commit to working on enhanced community interaction this year. The free meditation linked above helps you observe what it means to feel lonely and understand what lessons we can learn from loneliness. It’s only ten minutes, so why not try it and see what happens? 

How well do you know about your Vagus Nerve?

Vagus means “wanderer.” This nerve is the longest in our body, wandering all through your body to important organs and areas such as the brain, neck, ears, tongue, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, kidney, spleen and reproductive organs in women. The vagus nerve contains motor and sensory fibers. It has wide distribution throughout the body as it passes through the neck and thorax to the abdomen. Think of it as the most important nerve in your parasympathetic nervous system. This is a great article I read recently, and thought to share with you.

Add Sweating to your New Health Habits List for 2022

While I hope you think about supporting your health every day of the year, I know the start of this month has us thinking how to make long-lasting changes to feel better this year. How we set up the year really sets the tone for the entire year.

It’s important to keep the list of healthy new habits we hope to embrace realistic and within lifestyle reach. The idea is to declutter your life not to make things busier for yourself. 

So today, I wanted to point out one part of our body’s innate wisdom that we can tap into, on whatever level works for us individually, to feel our best. I’m talking about sweating.  Sweat isn’t always the most popular topic, but it’s an important one. Thanks to the two to four million sweat glands we are born with, our bodies use sweat to regulate temperature, but so much more happens in the process. 

Sweating helps us:

• Eliminate heavy metals and other toxins. 

• Sweat is mainly composed of water, ammonia, urea, salts, and sugar.

• Sweaty activities promote increased detoxification. 

• Some research even indicates that sweating can help us eliminate BPA. 

Support healthy skin. 

• Sweat naturally moisturizes our skin and even supports our microbiome. 

• Our skin is an essential protective barrier, our first line of defense.  

• Skin has a diverse microbial community that plays a part in our innate and adaptive immune responses. Sweat helps balance the skin's pH to encourage beneficial bacteria and limit the survival of bad bacteria.

• When we sweat, we even produce a specific antimicrobial peptide called dermcidin that protects us against harmful germs. 

Maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. One study found that men who used a sauna four to seven times a week had a 50% lower risk of developing high blood pressure. 

There are so many different ways to sweat, and I encourage you to find the ones that feel fun or relaxing, activities you can look forward to, especially during these colder months of the year. Some of my favorites are long bike rides, Boot Camp training, and spending time in a sauna.

HIIT workouts are great for those of you who want an intense workout but are low on time, and hot yoga is awesome and produces a lot of body heat. 

Comforting Guten-Free Muffins

Carrot, Apple + Ginger Muffins (gluten free)

Makes 12

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice flour

• ½ cup buckwheat flour

• ½ cup almond flour

• ½ cup flax meal (ground flax seeds)

• 2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

• 1 drop cinnamon essential oil

• 1 drop ginger essential oil

• ½ cup almond milk

• ¼ cup (60ml) runny honey ( I use 2 Tablespoons coconut sugar)

• 10 drops vanilla essential oil

• 2 large free-range eggs

• 2 large carrots, grated

• 2 apple, skin on and grated

• ½ cup (80g) pitted dried dates, finely chopped

• Sliced almond to garnish (I used chopped walnuts)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Line a regular muffin pan with 12 paper liners. 

This is a very simple recipe, start with all the dry ingredients into a bowl then use a whisk to mix together thoroughly. In the same bowl add in the essential oils, honey, almond milk, eggs and grated carrot and dates, combine into the dry ingredients. 

Spoon evenly into muffin pan, sprinkle tops with sliced almonds (or walnuts), and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes before transferring muffins to a wire rack to cool.

Best eaten on the day of baking but they will store 1-2 days in an airtight container.

Intro/Refresh on Essential Oils

I will be hosting an intro to oils class every Thursday night 6:30pm on Zoom, for anyone who needs a refresher or if you have a friend (anywhere in the world) who you think would benefit from dōTERRA products and a healthier lifestyle

Cleanse Camp Starts first Monday every month

Do you like the idea of completing a cleanse, but you're not sure you could do it alone?

Join me for 30 days! We will journey through the in’s and out’s of a detox cleanse.  I’ll be providing you personal support & the tools, plus all the resources you need to be successful in achieving your health goals.