Nourishing Cooked Foods

At the top of my street there's a cute little Indian take away place. Not the dodgy greasy kind, but a nice small shop where all the dishes are cooked with loving hands each day by the Indian guys that work there. I walk past it everyday and have done so since it opened over 2yrs ago. And everyday I've seen petite crispy vegie samosa's through the window and have wanted to try them. But a bigger part of me intuitively felt that I would feel ill if I did. And so I never bought one. Never even ventured in - but then again if you wern't going to buy anything, why would you?

This evening on my way home from work after my kinesiology/Chinese Medicine session that I LOVE and look forward to every 3 weeks, I walked past the little Indian place again, and had the same thought; "yum yum vegie samosas", only tonight, I turned around, walked in, and bought one.

I walked home, sorted out my "coffee meditation" (my enema) that I'm currently doing daily, before later sitting down to try one of the crispy samosas I had looked at through the shop window everyday for over 2yrs (a part of me wondered if it was a little counter-productive to do so after an enema but admittedly I didn't really care).

A cooked vegie samosa for a girl that eats raw? Well yes. And why not? Today felt right. Oh how cliché yeh? But for me that’s exactly it. It felt right. The minute I turned around and spoke to the Indian man, it felt right. Almost a 'mothering' energy to what I was doing. I know that the catalyst for change was largely due to the kinesiology session I had – and the horrendous migrane I suffered from last Monday and Tuesday.

Whilst couch-bound last week I watched a DVD on food, nutrition and the links they have with Chinese Medicine. Fascinating! Fascinating!! Omg! Chinese Medicine is something I’ve only very recently gotten into but it’s definatley something I will be furthering my knowledge in. So in watching this DVD, the first topic they spoke about was, believe it or not, MIGRANES. A lot of people look to avoiding certain foods that might be causing migranes (traditionally alcohol, chocolate, bread, dairy, tomatoes, mushrooms – everything I don’t eat bar the last two), but in Chinese Medicine they look more at the cravings one might be experiencing prior to a migrane surfacing to help find the cause; if you're craving coffee and spices then your body is in excess, where as if you're craving sugar, sweets and carbs then your body is deficient.  Interesting point numero uno.

Furthering that, the spleen is like the KING organ in Chinese Medicine, and closely linked to migranes. I remember the DVD talking about warming foods, nothing raw and nothing cold to help with any spleen issues. Chinese Medicine on the whole is against cold foods - think about it, Asian cuisine is so tightly tied in with tea at every meal to help warm the body (amongst many other things).

So when I saw my kinesiologist this afternoon and told him I wanted to look at my headaches and migranes (which for me are clearly 100% stress based – hello migrane came first day due back at college!!), when issues with my spleen came up I was not in the least bit surprised. Adrenals also cropped up – again, no surprises there.

Your spleen cleanses your blood. And your blood carries all nutrients around your body of course. So if your spleen isn’t doing it’s job; either not enough blood is getting around your body (including your head) or not enough nutrients are getting around your body (including your head) which yes… could possibly be resulting in headaches! Interesting point numero due.

Additionally, if you think of your spleen as your wok and your kidneys as your fire, cold raw foods are seen as damp logs on the fire – these foods won’t cook very well in the wok. Warmer foods will. Cooked foods will. Interesting point numero tre. Food for thought...

In my case, there are also (more often than not of late) issues with my adrenals. These babies are located just above your kidneys and in a nutshell, they are HUGE in relation to your stress levels. If you’re stressed your adrenals will be feeling it (Reishi tea I’m coming for you honey!). For me – I could’ve ticked that box before I went in. I’m the first to admit I make mountains out of molehills and am forever trying to reach up to my high high expectations of myself, and wanting/trying/feeling the need to always be doing so so much! CAUTION: ADRENAL FAILURE right there!

So to put it in a pretty picture – high expectations, stress, and wanting to always achieve lead me to over-thinking, worrying, and a hell of a lot of time spent in my head going here, there and everywhere… (as for lying in bed EXHAUSTED at night but UNABLE to sleep… adrenals!!) This literally up-roots my energy, pulling me away from the Earth so I’m not grounded at all. Vicious cycle coz not being grounded only makes things in my head go even more coo-coo. A lack of blood getting around and/or a lack of nutrients being carried in my blood means there’s less of it or less goodies in it getting to my head, which of course would be impacting on the frequency and severity of my headaches and migranes.

But back to the samosa…

The thought of warm nourishing wholefoods has felt good recently. The thought of it even feels very earthing. And I’m an Earth girl suffering from a lack of Earth right now! It almost feels like something I need to go back to for a bit to see how things unravel. My body is never wrong. My mind often can be, and others’ minds often can me wrongly influencing mine. But my body never lies.

So after my appointment this afternoon, and a light day of juices (new one invented - you gotta try pear, lemon, ginger and beetroot OMG), nuts and seeds, I was walking home past the little Indian curry place and I had the same thought; “mmm vegie samosa”, and then something changed and I turned around and walked in.

“One vegetable samosa please” with a big grin on my face. And it felt perfect. It felt nourishing to do so. A little surreally perfect infact.

And so after my coffee meditation, I enjoyed it. It was pleasurable. Meditative. Delicious.

Every. Little. Bit(e).

And that's exactly how a migrane is so totally related to eating a vegie samosa  :)
Everything is inexticably linked...