Tag: health

Double Coconut Hemp Cookies is Where I’m At

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As I write this, a batch of hemp cookies are in the oven. I will share the recipe if they are good. If they don’t work out, I will likely eat them over the sink feeling like a disappointment for losing at baking while watching YouTube reviews of Tiger King.

I’m in about week 4 or so of being shutdown for the Covid-19 world health crisis. Being asked to change my life plans because of a pandemic has sparked all sorts of things in my schedule and in my mental health. The fact that I am baking today and feeling creative and positive about the future is worth writing about.

The past few weeks have been as dark most blondes’ roots. I’ve had days feeling like we need to be getting ready for the NEXT natural disaster, for the much bigger apocalyptic experience I was told would happen as a child growing up in a doomsday cult. I’m so grateful that this is not that and most will survive regardless of faith. Regardless, I am prepared to live through this.

I was supposed to start a new job this week but my new boss has not returned my messages so… ya. Nothing new in the cannabis industry but a let down none the less considering it is an essential service and every business could and should be rocking it out of the park once they figure out how to mitigate viral spread.

My fantastic husband, who is managing to keep a somewhat regular schedule and maintaining his hobbies, suggested I write down what I want to do with this week, this month, this year, 5 years, etc. It helped to bring things back into focus.

I’ve been exercising, eating healthy, staying hydrated, meditating, getting good sleep, and taking care of the apartment Victory Garden as past of my current 2020 survival lifestyle. I’m reaching out to keep tabs on my people and that is also helping to ground me, knowing that I am not alone.

I’ve also apparently been craving coconut. So I made cookies,they turned out, and I must be a winner at life. If you are baking these days, please enjoy.

Double Coconut Hemp Cookies

  • 1C shredded coconut, unsweetened
  • 1C almond flour
  • 1/4 C hemp seeds
  • 4T coconut sugar
  • 1t vanilla
  • 2T water
  • 1/4C chopped chocolate, or chips

Wash your hands. Mix dry and wet ingredients with washed hands or a spoon until fully combined. Roll into 12 balls and flatten into a round cookie shape. Bake at 350F for 10-14 minutes.

Stay safe out there. And remember to Wash Your Damn Hands.

Cannabis Use For The Healthy Conscious

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Up until recently cannabis has had but two types of stereotypical users, sick people and stoners. Both of those uses are very appropriate for the cannabis plant but please let me shed more light on a giant sector of people who are about to step into the circle now that it is becoming legal more places…the health conscious.

Here is what, cannabis is a natural, non-toxic supplement for your endocannabinoid system, the same system that you boost every time you exercise, get good sleep, and stop to smell the roses (terpenes).

What does it look like to use cannabis for your health if you are not trying to get classically stoned or treat a serious illness?

Let me give you a few suggestions on how to use it. I have been using cannabis daily for about 8 years and while some of that time has been managing chronic health conditions and certainly involved feeling its effects at higher doses, a large portion of my cannabis use is about getting the most from the plant with the smallest serving necessary.

5 Ways To Use Cannabis In Your Healthy Lifestyle:
  1. Use Cannabis Infused Topicals. Your skin is your largest organ and a wonderful way to get cannabinoids to your CB2 receptors which will not be intoxicating but can help to regulate your body’s functions. Try a cannabis infused bath before bed, an all over infused lotion after the shower, or take your favorite infused massage oil to your masseuse and enjoy the next level of relaxation. Choose a topical with the terpenes you want to affect you as well.
  2. Drink your cannabis greens. If you are able to grow your own or some how have access to fresh cannabis leaves or small buds, put them in your smoothies. While the research has yet to tell us that this is the most superior way to use cannabis for your health, I can tell you from personal experience that I have felt my healthiest when I add this type of fresh cannabis in my diet. Eating raw cannabis aids in healthy digestion and helps to support the liver.
  3. Use cannabis infused edibles. When is a good time to use edibles? I suggest in the evening to wind down and help with sleep, after a tough workout to ease tired muscles, and to help relieve physical stress. Look for a larger ratio of CBD to THC but try for as full of a cannabinoid spectrum as possible in your edibles. Know that everybody feels a little different with edible cannabis so you will need to experiment and find your right dose and times to use them.
  4. Use terpenes and cannabinoids as athletic training tools. I know a lot of athletes and exercisers who will vape or smoke a motivating cannabis strain or low dose edibles before a marathon, hike, or yoga class to help them slip into the mind body connection and improve their performance and experience.
  5. Using cannabis for meditation. One of the biggest ways to boost your health is to start meditating. Same as above with using it for exercise, cannabis can be used as a focusing tool to help you connect with your breath and bring you deeper.

There you have it, healthy people are benefiting from legalization. Now get out there and start learning more about your body!

Tips For Growing Raw Cannabis In The Vegetable Garden

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As cannabis legalization slowly spreads around the world, more people are taking advantage of being able to grow small amounts of medicinal or personal recreational marijuana in their private gardens.

Growing cannabis in your backyard garden is a special thing. For the past several years I have been growing my own small amounts of medical cannabis outside in the vegetable garden during summer season. Learning as I grow this unique plant has been fascinating and challenging as something that I do to take charge of my health needs.

I grow cannabis with the intention of eating leaves off of them all season and then harvesting a portion of the buds during the end of the plant’s life. Yes, I eat my plants.

While you can find thousands of hot tips about growing cannabis, I have created for you a simplified a short list of things I do to successfully grow and eat off my plants until harvest time.

  1. Plant herbs and low growing root vegetables along borders and throughout the garden that will detract pests and feed nutrients to the soil.
  2. Let the soil dry slightly between waterings. This promotes stronger root growth as they reach out seeking water when the soil gets dry enough. Stick a moisture reader in the dirt to monitor how much water is needed. Watch the leaves, when they droop they may need a drink and when they are reaching up for the sky they are likely full enough.
  3. Feed your garden once or twice a month with probiotic organic teas to feed nutrients to the soil and roots. I make teas with powdered kelp, bokashi, cannabis leaves, flowers, molasses, etc…natural ingredients. Because I am eating my plants, they are never grown with the use of pesticides or chemicals.
  4. Defoliate around the new moon when the plant’s growth is concentrated on the roots. Take leaves near the bottom to increase airflow and the big water leaves creating shade. Taking off about 25% of the leaves off increases nutrient flow to forming flower buds without stunting the plants growth. Note that the biggest reason that you are defoliating is so that you can eat the leaves! Get them processed and stored in the fridge right away for fresh consumption.

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Organic compost tea.

5. Look at your plants everyday. I’ve been told this by more than one cannabis grower and while it seems overly simplistic, I would say that it is one of the most important tips for maintaining a healthy garden. Talking to your plants while you are spotting for pests, broken limbs, and problems as early as possible really allows for quick action to keep the growing season fruitful. On the other hand, part of the beauty of growing outdoors is that mother nature will look after your plants if you ever really have to leave them for a day or two.

Before you go out there and start planting Kush in with the broccoli, make sure that you are up on the local marijuana laws in your area. If you find out that you are not able to grow cannabis plants in your garden, the next step is to contact your legislators and ask them to support cannabis legalization and homegrown in your area. www.norml.org

Before we know it, with a little more work, gardening cannabis with vegetables will be normal.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

2018- The Year Cannabis Goes Raw

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You think you know about cannabis?

I thought I knew about cannabis because I had tried it in every form from smoking, vaping, dabbing, vape pens, edibles, topicals, suppositories, tinctures, patches, pills, bath bombs, lubes, and throat sprays. Plus, I had tried hundreds of different varieties and was successfully managing my chronic health conditions without any additional medications.

Then, I tried it raw. No longer did cannabis feel like a bandaid to be reapplied every few hours or even a pain medication alternative. Cannabis in its raw form felt like it was healing me on a deeper level and providing benefits I wasn’t receiving from all of those other forms of ingestion.

Very few people eat the cannabis plants, even if they grow, and many more still have no idea such a thing is even possible or why they would want to bother with such a thing.

For this reason, I’ve made it a personal passion project and mission to spread this message. Through my weekly blog, that I welcome you to follow, people who want to live healthy and learn more about the health benefits of raw cannabis and the vast ways it can be used for wellness.

Raw cannabis is only one part of living a healthy lifestyle which is why I started a Butterfly Sessions profile on Patreon. As a health coach, I know that people succeed 80 percent more of the time when they have support to reach their health goals. People usually have some idea of how to be healthy but what they really need is somebody to check in with, encourage them, remind them what they are working on, give them ideas to try, and help them acknowledge and celebrate their success. Having this subscription platform really allows me to give that back to people who follow and support me.

With the help of my patrons I will be self-publishing a book about eating raw cannabis in Feb 2018 and moving forward in spreading a health message about this beneficial and nutritious plant.  (Thank you to all my supporters!)

Follow for more health tips follow:

YouTube @Butterflysessions, Twitter @butterflysesh, Facebook @butterflysesh, Instagram @butterflysessions

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

Using Cannabis For Depression

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Talking about depression is tough. Even just writing about it right now is making my skin uncomfortable but I still feel compelled to get out that this is one of the most beneficial things that cannabis has helped me with on top of the chronic pain that I deal with because of ongoing health issues.

If you were to ask the people in my life to describe me they would use words like “bubbly, optimistic, happy, or funny.” Most people don’t know about my very dark side, the depressed one that dwells in a secret closet under a very heavy black cloud. I prefer not to share this part of me to the world. But the reality is that I do deal with depression and anxiety which is very connected to experiencing chronic physical pain and discomfort.

I have never taken prescription drugs for depression or anxiety but I have been using cannabis specifically for my scoliotic spine and experienced the added bonus of relieving my depression. When I look back I can see that I totally have been using cannabis during the blue times in my life, I just would never have admitted to being depressed at the time.

To be really honest occasionally I feel kind of guilty about whether I am using cannabis solely for pain management but also recreationally. I had always associated the getting happy part of marijuana use as recreational largely because that was its purpose as a recreational user until I got my medical cannabis recommendation. I mean, is it ok for me to use cannabis just to brighten my mood when I am feeling blue? The answer is yes. 

The compassionate (and logical) side of me has realized that it is totally ok and beneficial for using cannabis for the depression and anxiety. It kind of all goes together. Pain gets worse when you are depressed and stressed. I know that first hand. For me, depression has nothing to do with the fact that I have a good life and I am grateful for every single person, thing, and experience in it.

Cannabis is simply one tool that I use to keep the dark clouds parted so that I can see sunshine too. I also use regular exercise, a healthy diet, meditation, a practice of gratitude, journaling, and positive peers to keep my spirits lifted. Add cannabis to the mix and I become much more equipped to handle what this little body of mine is throwing at me on a daily basis.

There is no shame in saying you deal with depression or anxiety but it can feel that way when the person you are talking to either does not relate or is not open to listening to you talk about it. There is also no shame in saying that you use a non-toxic, natural plant with no risky side effects that not only relieves your pain but also keeps your spirit lifted so you can experience life on a happier level.

In fact, the more that we talk about depression the less power it will have over us and the more compassionate we can be to ourselves during times of darkness, we just might make it through.

Stay lifted my friends.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

The Legal Washington CBD/THC Suppository Experience

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*NOTE: This is an independent, unsolicited review of a legal Washington product in stores now. 

There is only one cannabis suppository in the legal 502 retail marketplace brought to us by the good people at CPC in Seattle. I’ve been really waiting to try it because I’m super skeptical about the effectiveness of their 10mg/THC dosages.

I like to keep cannabis infused suppositories in my medicine cabinet as a method of managing back and body pain, pelvic cramps, sleeping issues, or anytime I can feel my body is really run down. I swear by them as one of the most effective ways to benefit from medical cannabis.

The challenge comes in being able to buy a good cannabis suppository. Before legal retail cannabis was set up in Washington and consolidated with medical, I was getting my suppositories in the former system from a reputable medical provider and eventually  learned how to safely make my own.

My former suppository experiences have involved using 50-200mg/THC doses with the effects being substantial in relieving pain, and helping me have restful sleep without a heady high.  I’ve only ever used ones made with coconut and whole plant cannabis concentrates, not a very solid product at most room temperatures.

The product I tried from CPC is made with two ingredients, shea butter and cannabis concentrate. From briefly talking to the gentleman who created them, I learned that they chose shea butter due to its ability to hold a form and still be bioavailable to people who are sensitive or allergic to other commonly used oils such as coconut, a personal favorite of mine.

The packaging was easy to read, allowed me to see exactly what I was purchasing, and was not messy to get into. Major bonus.

I also know that the cannabis oil they use is from a company who is conscientious about only using plant matter that was not treated with pesticides. This is a very important point for me.

I took a dose about an hour before bedtime and waited. In the past I would feel a warmth in my pelvis that would wash over my lower body and relax everything in about 15-20 minutes and depending on the dose put me into a restful sleep. After about 30 minutes I still felt nothing. The nagging ache in my hip was not softened or muted, it did nothing to help me sleep that night, plus I woke up just as sore as I would have any other morning.

Basically, taking this suppository felt like a total joke to me, not noticeably beneficial at all. Because of state laws on dosage control, this product is limited to provide 10mg/THC. Weak.

When using it, I appreciated that it mostly held its form during insertion even being stored at room temperature. I would definitely suggest putting it in the fridge or freezer before use to make it a little more firm for easy insertion.

The bottom line for me was that the overall experience was weak and totally overpriced. I certainly can’t blame the company for not putting out a higher dosage when they are limited by laws. More than anything I appreciate that they have stepped up to put out a quality medical type product in a recreational market.

However, would I ever buy it again? Probably not until the dosages significantly increase. I would rather go through the effort to make my own higher dosed recipe with reputable concentrates and coconut oil at home than ever waste my budgeted medical cannabis money on this particular product again.

I have talked to only one other person who has used these and they said they did feel slightly less achy the next morning when using it before bed but did not have a significantly therapeutic experience.

There must be somebody out there finding them helpful though because they have stayed on the market for a while now. If there is ever a better product to come out in the legal market, I will let you know.

Peace.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

Becoming An American Immigrant In 2017

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This week I proudly became an American citizen. They told me at my oath ceremony that it is my right to pursue happiness and that is what I plan to do. Up until now I haven’t talked much about the fact that I am an immigrant. I’ve lived in the US for twelve years and while I may have only moved across the Canadian border it has been a major shift in my world.

When I first moved here George Bush was president and performing shock and awe in the middle east. Moving to a place where you see a military presence everywhere including overhead from a place where you rarely see military is a really crazy feeling. Mildly unnerving at first, but you do somewhat get used to it. Same with the number of guns that people have either in their house or on them at all times, they take the right to bear arms very seriously here and that was a major culture shock for a Canadian farm girl that had never held a gun until she moved to America.

Moving from a country that provides health care to everybody to a country where people regularly go bankrupt and lose everything because they get sick and cannot afford the costs of their medical bills- that makes me uncomfortable on every level. I don’t dare get sick here even if I have insurance and am certainly proactive in making healthy choices to prevent anything worse than the chronic conditions I already have that they can’t cure.

I started reading food labels here and noticed that the ingredient lists are different. There seems to be a lot more ingredients and additives in the food.  Since moving here I either become acutely aware of or actually developed sensitivities to gluten and dairy. I don’t dare eat things with gluten and dairy anymore. On the bonus side, food is way less expensive than in Canada.

Obesity is a real thing here. One of my first times going to a county fair, I experienced my own kind of shock and awe witnessing the excessive amount and size of the food they were serving and the size of the people eating that food. Before moving here I had been working in a health bubble of sorts as the Fitness Manager of two women’s only clubs in Vancouver, BC personal training, teaching classes, and running boot camps on the beaches. Seeing such blatant obesity and obvious imbalance was a major culture shock to me. I adjusted by personal training outdoors, out of my garage studio, and improving my home cooking skills to avoid the ridiculous portions of low quality or low nutrient food served everywhere.

What is next for me now that I am a citizen of the country I’m living in? Why not start with free speech? I have a lot to say and this blog is one of the ways that I plan to practice that right. I want to spread wellness, self-health awareness, and positivity on a much larger scale.

I want to share the holistic options available to other people like myself who are seeking natural ways to manage long term health issues. One of these options that I have been using for my chronic pain, muscle spasms, and migraines is medical cannabis. Instead of taking multiple pharmaceutical pills I have one  non-toxic medicine I have a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, sleep aid, anti-anxiety and antidepressant. One unique way that I use this plant is eating it like a vegetable. I juice the fresh leaves or put them in my smoothies. I can’t wait to share this stuff with you!

I also am a huge fan of hemp. When I was learning about the nutritional and medicinal benefits of cannabis leaves I learned about eating hemp that doesn’t contain THC. This plant has the perfect ratio of omega 3, 6, and 9 for the human body. Plus it provides easily digestible protein and fiber. I have a lot of healthy recipes and ideas to share with you. You may have already noticed that every recipe I post has hemp in it, that is intentional. Check out this Blueberry Hemp Cake

I am a healthy food advocate. I started volunteering for a local food organization that feeds those in need with the less perfect but perfectly edible food that doesn’t end up in the grocery stores. They have a number of programs that help feed hungry children in the community, and that is really important to me. I would love to make it possible for every child in this country to have access to healthy food even if their parents cannot provide. That is my American dream.

Oh, and one more thing. When I told people that I had applied for my citizenship most of them asked me why. The simple answer…President Donald Trump. Not being able to vote in the last election really bothered me and I vowed to be a voter in the next one. I feel connected to this country and although it is certainly not perfect, its optimistic ideals move me.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.