The majority (up to 85%) of new moms experience some level of postpartum baby blues. And another 10-15% experience more severe postpartum depression.

Bringing new life into the world is a miraculous ability of the female body. The time around birth can be joyous and exciting.  Can you imagine this time also being full of feelings of overwhelm, fear, fatigue, and depression?

What causes postpartum depression (PPD)?

The emotional experience of giving birth is enough to cause changes in mood, but on top of that women experience a multitude of physical and biochemical changes during the birthing process. Specifically changes within the immune system as well as the endocrine system especially the HPA-axis, thyroid, and sex steroids (estrogen & progesterone).  These fluxes in hormones and inflammatory systems can trigger the alteration of mood and energy.

In addition to the physical changes, other mental/emotional aspects often contribute to the depression as well.

A 2009 meta-analysis on the rates and risk of PPD showed that a past history of psychopathology and psychological disturbance during pregnancy, poor marital relationship and low social support, and stressful life events were the strongest predictors of PPD.

Baby Blues vs Postpartum Depression

The baby blues are most common and may only last a couple weeks and resolve on their own. Other times the low mood may continue and be more severe, this is postpartum depression. PPD can develop in the first few weeks after birth or up to 6 months later.

How do I know if I have the blues or if I have full-blown postpartum depression?

Symptoms of baby blues:                 Symptoms of PPD:

Mood swings                                               Depressed mood

Crying spells                                               Excessive crying

Sadness                                                       Withdrawing from support

Irritability                                                   Difficulty bonding w/baby

Overwhelm                                                 Intense irritability or anger

Poor focus                                                   Severe anxiety + panic

Sleep difficulty                                           Mental fog and inability to make decisions        

                                                                      Thoughts of harming yourself or baby

                                                                      Thoughts of death and suicide

How do we support mothers through PPD?

We approach PPD just like we approach all of our cases here at RNM, with a whole person perspective (mind, body, spirit). We are looking at all aspects of the woman, not just that she is a new mother.  We listen to her story, her history, how she shows up in the world and what has led to this point.

We are taking into account all levels of being in our approach:

• Physical: The biochemical changes that occur during childbirth – focusing on balancing the hormones is very important here. As is enough sleep!
• Social: Does she have enough support at home? Does she have enough time to take care of herself and her needs in addition to her new baby?
• Mental: Do we need other members on her care team? Therapy and counseling may be suggested if not already a part of mom’s health care team. What are her daily thoughts and perceptions? How can we shift these to be more positive and self-nurturing?
• Emotional: Checking in with her feelings and her own experience of depression. Each mother’s experience of PPD is unique, we take this into consideration to offer individualized support. Our therapies work not only on the physical body, but the emotional body as well.
• Spirit: This part of being is the most subtle, yet can provide the most profound changes in health. Often times over the course of treatment working on the previously described levels of being we create space for the spirit to show up.  Energetic medicines like specific homeopathics, flower essences, and energy work like Reiki, Craniosacral therapy, and even Gemstone acupoint therapy can offer support on this level. Ultimately though, this part of being is sacred to each individual. It is she, and only she, that can tap into her spirit, and invite it to be fully present in her life.

Many of us go through different mood states throughout our lives. Whether it be anxiety, depression, or postpartum depression, there are many ways our naturopathic doctors can support you on your healing journey.  If you are suffering from postpartum depression, please contact our office at (804) 977-2634 to receive the support you need.

Getting Into a Habit Of Healthy Eating Starts With Planning A Weekly Menu That Will Make Eating Healthier More Manageable

As a follow up to the last Batch Cooking: How to Stock a Monthly Pantry article, these small tips will help you prep for a week of healthy meals employing batch cooking methods that save lots of time for busy weeknights. Once you get into the habit of looking ahead at your week and anticipating your schedule, it makes planning your meals much more manageable, and if you plan your time appropriately dinner time will rarely be a stressful time because most of the work will already be prepped. Below are my top 4 tips for planning a weekly menu that I use with my clients over and over again.

Step 1: Plan your recipes. Pick about 3-4 recipes you’d like to make for the week and keep them reasonably simply. I find that pinterest is a great place to store your weekly ideas, rotate through them and store the best ones to use over and over again. Choose recipes that make large portions so you can store them for leftover lunches such as crock pot soups, casseroles, and salads. Keep portioned out servings in glass containers for lunch time servings that are quick and easy to pack.

Step 2: Grocery shop for those recipes before the week starts, ideally on a day off or the same day you’re preparing these recipes. Once you have your recipes picked out, stock your pantry with all of those ingredients so you have everything to get started. Ideally the recipes will have overlapping ingredients like whole grains, spices, vegetables or seasonings so you can mix and match and not have to buy individual ingredients for every single recipe.

Step 3: Batch prep as much as possible and store for later. When you have about 2 hours, prep as much as you can from each recipe so when dinner time comes around later most of the prep work has already been done. Pre-chop your veggies, pre-roast a bunch of root vegetables, go ahead and soak/cook your grains, marinate your meats, soak your beans and even pre-measure your spices if that will save time. You can also prep entire casseroles to just put in the oven the night of. This makes putting dinner together on busier nights much easier because 75% of the prep work has already been done.

Step 4: Look at your calendar – pick out the busiest nights to utilize for your batch cooked weekly meals and then reserve 1-2 slower (usually weekend) nights to cook for the night (or as a family). Batch prepping is ideal to plan ahead for the nights you know you won’t have a lot of time to cook. But it’s always nice to save one or two nights per week to cook together if you have a household, or spend an evening cooking for yourself and enjoying that as a slower process.

Examples of great batch cooking meals: Hearty Chili / Lasagna / Crockpot Meals / Giant Colorful salads with grilled chicken, salmon or chickpeas / Black Bean Burgers / Soups & Stews

Did you know that Spring is a prime time for enhancing natural cleansing and detoxification in our bodies? Are there any health habits and ways of being that aren’t serving you? Are there some changes you’ve been looking to make but find they aren’t sticking?

Below you’ll find some of my favorite tips for replacing bad habits with good ones.

For starters, accept yourself where you are.  It’s important to start making changes from a place of having compassion for yourself about where you are. Rejecting or belittling yourself isn’t helpful and can set you up for failure. Sometimes, this is a spot you’ll need to explore and ease into. Take as long as you need and remember that it’s a practice. Having awareness is the first step.

Tips to support you at this stage:

1. Mantras – Find uplifting phrases about self-acceptance and self-love that resonate with you and  place them in strategic places where you’ll see them often. This could be as simple as placing a sticky note of “You’re enough!” on your desk or on a mirror.
2. Meditation and yoga – If you have a practice already, go ahead and meditate on your mantra or dedicate your yoga class intention to self-compassion.
3. Professional support – Getting a counselor on your care team can help facilitate and expedite your work in this arena. Sometimes there’s a history of trauma and when we work through it, we find greater access to self-acceptance.

Up next is checking-in with yourself about which habits you want to shift and asking yourself why you want to change a habit.  It can be helpful to recall your “why” later to help you stay motivated.

Set yourself up for success with a little prep work.

Prior to actually making the change, figure out realistic steps you can take to increase your chances of being successful with this new habit. This goes for small or large changes. What’s going to be sustainable? Remember, we’re looking for long-term lifestyle changes, not quick fixes. Consider looking for role models – is a friend or colleague rocking it with a given habit? Let yourself be inspired! Avoid the rut of repeating something you’ve done before that hasn’t ever seemed to work.

Take action on your steps.  Be flexible- make adjustments along the way and ask for any help you need.  

Here’s an example:

Bad habit: Not drinking water throughout your day and feeling fatigue and getting occasional headaches because of this.
Good habit and your “why”: Consuming half of your body weight in ounces daily will lead to greater energy and fewer headaches.

Action steps to prepare for change:

1.     Calculate how much water you’d like to consume throughout the day.
2.     Find a cup or bottle you’ll drink from and figure out how many times you’ll need to refill throughout the day.
3.     Decide when in your day you’ll drink the water and go for it!

Action: Execute your plan and enjoy those health benefits!

As naturopathic doctors, we are cheerleaders for our patients in their hard work to replace bad habits with good ones. We offer support at any stage of the behavioral change process and we celebrate our patients’ victories with them.

Please call to speak with one of our Patient Relations Specialists for more information on how naturopathic medicine can help you enhance self-care behaviors to reach your health goals.

It can sometimes be a challenge to stick with your dietary restrictions or stay “on the wagon” when you eat a meal out.  Nutritionist Lindsay Kluge shares her tips for eating out on the healthier side.

As always, I believe that food should be a joyful experience and no matter what you’re eating.  It should be eaten with gratitude, joy and with no negative emotions attached. This means that when you eat out, it can be helpful to look for the healthier options on the menu – especially if you’re prone to “eater’s remorse” and attaching negative feelings onto a delicious meal.

Here are some of my tips for eating out on the healthier side:

1. Go for the most colorful thing on the menu. Usually this is a form of vegetable rich salad with protein that is (hopefully) seasonal and nutrient dense. Stick with oil based dressings like olive oil and vinegar or simple balsamic.
2. Always stick with water (no ice) throughout the meal to avoid extra sugar or alcohol that is difficult to digest and inflammatory to the liver. Drinking room temperature water is so much better for your stomach while you digest so you’re not dampening the digestive fire with cold beverages while the stomach works hard to break down your food.
3. If you’re dish comes with sides or toppings, stick with the vegetables instead of the fried things or extra carbohydrates (like chips or fries). If you’re plate comes with fries, ask for a side salad instead.
4. Avoid the syrupy, creamy and fried options and stick to grilled, sautéed or steamed dishes. This usually keeps ingredients more simple and pure with less fat and sugar included.
5. Keep it well rounded: Always look for a substantial protein (grilled meat, beans/legumes, soy based products or eggs), lots of vegetables and a simple whole grain. Half of the plate should be colorful veggies, ¼ protein and ¼ whole grain carbohydrate (such a brown rice, quinoa, barley or even sweet potato etc).
6. Specials – Often the daily specials mean the ingredients are fresh and new and sometimes local to your restaurant area.
7. Eat slowly. Savor your meal and enjoy the company you’re with. Eating rapidly leads to overeating and over stuffing your stomach, hindering the digestive process. Remember, meal portions served in the US are absurdly large – you don’t (and probably shouldn’t) feel inclined to clean your plate. Box half of it up and enjoy the leftovers on another day.

Interested in more customized and tailored nutrition information just for you? Contact our office at (804) 977-2634 to schedule an appointment with our Nutritionist, Lindsay Kluge, M.Sc, CNS, LDN and get started today!

About the Author:

Lindsay Kluge is a Clinical Herbalist & Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist and received her Masters of Science degree in Herbal Medicine from the Maryland University of Integrative Health in 2012. She has been with Richmond Natural Medicine since 2013, and specializes in therapeutic holistic nutrition, circadian rhythm balance and sleep physiology, digestion, and Ayurvedic nutrition. She offers individualized nutrition and herbal medicine consultations that include meal planning support, custom compounded herbal formulas, nutrition guidance and general wellness support.  Learn more about services that Lindsay offers at Richmond Natural Medicine by clicking HERE.

Turning your kitchen into a space that inspires you to cook more for yourself can feel daunting, and often it’s easy to feel overwhelmed about where to start.  

Organization is the place I always encourage people to take on first. Begin with one corner, work your way through your kitchen, clear out and make space, and slowly cultivate kitchen tools that serve multiple purposes and contribute to amazing meals (like a heavy duty blender or a wok or food processor). When it comes to your pantry space, this is the ultimate place to put your organization skills to work, and make your pantry inventory work for you for your monthly cooking routine. The pantry is also the first place to overhaul when you’re just beginning to change up your diet or cooking routine. It’s a great practice to clean out your entire pantry space, get rid of things that you no longer use (or that are expired!), and start fresh. Keeping this up at least once a year helps to maintain your overall nutrition goals, and will serve you well when you’re planning meals. Here are a few basic tips for stocking your monthly pantry to support a batch cooking routine:

Plan recipes for the upcoming week, then grocery shop.

Stock up on your go-to recipes and review these early in the week. Grocery shop on the weekends and store all of your ingredients for these recipes so you’re not scrambling when it’s time to either batch cook or prepare dinner at night. Not preparing like this is often the number one reason why people don’t stick with their nutrition goals. They feel like every meal creeps up on the them and they resort to not the healthiest options for the sake of convenience.

Keep healthy snacks handy and accessible.

If you anticipate the kinds of healthy snacks you will want to have during the week and keep these easily accessible in your pantry, this greatly minimizes the occurrence of running out for an unhealthy snack (or meal), and also cuts down on your sugar intake throughout the day. Some examples of great snacks include packets of nut butter, small jars of walnuts, almonds, pistachios or cashews (or trail mix), seed crackers (with hummus or nut butter!) or pumpkin seed bars.

Keep the processed foods to a minimum.

Things like chips, cookies, snack foods, etc are often the downfall of a steadfast nutrition plan. If you know that when you have these foods in your house you’ll (over) eat them, then just don’t keep these in your pantry (or any place in your house). Another option may be to always face these items away from you in your pantry, so you’re looking at the ingredient/nutrition labels when you go to reach for them.

Invest in appropriate, glass, see-through storage.

Storing your bulk items in glass jars not only cuts down on packaging waste, it helps you keep a visual inventory of how much you have on hand at any time. It’s frustrating to get halfway through a recipe only to realize you only have half as much rice or flour or lentils as you thought you did!

Buy in bulk and store in glass containers.

Bulk areas in the grocery store are a perfect way to keep meal staples on hand at a fraction of the cost. Things like dried beans, nuts, whole grains, herbs and spices are readily available in bulk areas. Stock up on spices! The more spices you cook with, the more variety you’ll have with your meals and you can even make the same recipe taste different every time by using different spice combinations.

Read More: Transform Your Kitchen into a Positive Space

When it comes to poor sleep, it’s often a chicken or the egg situation, with the patient not knowing if poor sleep is contributing to all of their other health problems, or if their health problems are causing their poor sleep.

There are several things that your body relies on to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm and healthy sleep pattern, and if any one of these is neglected over and over again, your sleep will likely suffer as a result.

Here are some of the top habits that contribute to poor sleep and some tips on how we can help.

1. Irregular morning and evenings routines – Your body likes ritual and routine. Going to bed at the same time every night and waking up at the same time every morning is a major circadian rhythm trigger that is hugely helpful in entraining your body’s natural circadian rhythm and contributes to sustained, restful sleep. Set a bedtime routine with a strict bedtime and do your best to stick to this every single night, even on the weekends. It’s helpful during this nighttime routine to drink a relaxing tea such as chamomile, passionflower or peppermint. Often, our practitioners will custom blend a tea just for you to drink during this time to help your body relax and drift into a deep sleep.
2. Eating within 2 hours of sleep – It’s very metabolically expensive to digest food, especially large meals with heavy proteins, which are quite common as most people’s dinner. When we eat within 2 hours of trying to sleep, the body is still working hard to digest the previous meal, taking essential energy away from resting and repairing your body’s other organ systems while you sleep. A heavy stomach can keep you awake at night and contribute to fitful sleep.  It can also deflect valuable energy away from supporting the rest of your body while in a restful state. Try to have the last bit of your food consumed 4 hours before trying to sleep and reduce nighttime snacks, especially of foods that are high in sugar or carbohydrates.
3. Screens – One of the biggest circadian rhythm triggers is the presence or absence of light as perceived by your eyes to signal the sunset or sunrise and in turn, signals your hormones to adjust to the environment and either help you fall asleep or help you wake up. Melatonin, your body’s sleep hormone, is signaled by the absence of light, and when you keep the lights on right before trying to fall asleep, or are staring at a TV screen, computer screen or on your phone, this confuses your hormones and literally works against you every night. You send your body conflicting signals when you stare at blue light from screens, making it extremely difficult for your body to entrain your natural rhythm and get a restful night’s sleep. Always remove screens from your bedroom, and either listen to a relaxing podcast, do deep breathing or meditation, or read something soothing in place of screens (and dim your bedroom lights!) within 45 minutes of trying to fall asleep.
4. Working in bed – Your bedroom should not be your workspace. Your brain needs time to relax, decompress and let go of the day’s stress before it can feel relaxed enough to sleep. The more stressed or busy our minds are before we sleep, the more intensely our subconscious mind reflects that when we sleep, often resulting in fitful sleep with stressful and troubled dreams that can make us feel stressed out and exhausted when we wake up in the morning. Do your best to keep your work out of your bedroom, and wrap up your day before entering your bedroom. Take some time to make your bedroom a peaceful and welcoming place, free of anything that reminds you of stress, overwhelm or burdens. This should be one place in your home that both your conscious and subconscious mind should feel at ease.
5. Pets – This may sound like a no brainer, but the number one reason my patient’s can’t sleep is honestly due to disruptive pets that they don’t want to acknowledge are a problem. Unless your pet is a champion sleeper, remove them from your bedroom – cats especially. This always takes several weeks of re-training as your pets have their own expectations and rhythms as well, and it is almost always worth it in the end to make this your new sleeping habit for sustained and more restful sleep.

One of the most unique ways the practitioners at Richmond Natural Medicine solve health problems is by asking a lot of questions and digging more deeply into each person’s health story.  Do you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or need some support in setting a circadian rhythm routine to help improve your sleep habits? Contact Richmond Natural Medicine at (804) 977-2634 and our practitioners will help you determine the cause of your sleep troubles and  put together a custom care plan to address your needs and help you sleep soundly.

About the Author:

Lindsay Kluge is a Clinical Herbalist & Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist and received her Masters of Science degree in Herbal Medicine from the Maryland University of Integrative Health in 2012. She has been with Richmond Natural Medicine since 2013, and specializes in therapeutic holistic nutrition, circadian rhythm balance and sleep physiology, digestion, and Ayurvedic nutrition. She offers individualized nutrition and herbal medicine consultations that include meal planning support, custom compounded herbal formulas, nutrition guidance and general wellness support.  Learn more about services that Lindsay offers at Richmond Natural Medicine by clicking HERE.

When it comes to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, food is often only half the issue.

I take a personal interest in working with patients with this ailment, as I dealt with chronic Irritable Bowel Syndrome for about 26 years. I see so many folks dealing with the stress, anxiety, dietary restrictions and lifestyle obstacles that come with IBS that are often overlooked. It’s a multi-faceted imbalance that encompasses a whole body approach including stress reduction, mental/psychosomatic therapy and of course specific food allergies or intolerances that need to be identified and removed.

When IBS lingers

When IBS is present for several months, this can cause what’s called “dysbiosis” in the gut flora, meaning the probiotics within your digestive tract can become unbalanced and disturbed. When this is an ongoing issue, disrupted probiotics can greatly weaken the gastrointestinal lining and also hinder the digestion, metabolism and absorption of foods. Over time, digestive issues (i.e symptoms of IBS) may become worse because the volatility of the digestive tract is becoming more reactive. What may have been a sensitivity to one single food, may expand to dozens of foods, often making the triggers for IBS attacks extremely hard to pin point.

As symptoms of IBS continue for months and even years, an extreme amount of stress and anxiety can develop around the otherwise common practice of simply eating food. Eating out, eating while traveling, going to work or even going out at all may become a stressful trigger for someone with chronic IBS. In some cases, just the thought of an IBS attack is enough to mentally develop digestive symptoms that were almost completely caused by the mental hyperactivity, not a food trigger. This is called a “psycho-somatic” reaction – when our mental brain causes a gut-brain reaction. Even unconscious stress can trigger digestive problems, leading to quite a cyclical whole body digestive imbalance.

Therapies and Strategies

When I work with someone diagnosed with IBS, I always gain an underlying sense of their lifestyle, work, stress load, home life, self care rituals and of course their dietary inputs. I may do food intolerance assessments with them and request they also get tested for food allergies. But what is most important to me is to know how IBS presents for them individually and what their triggers are. Food is often only half of the issue. Stress reduction is the other 50% of their treatment plan. Herbal medicines work amazingly well to not only help the digestive process, but also to support the stress response. I strongly feel like herbal medicine was an enormous ally for me to overcome my struggle with life-long IBS.

If you think you may have IBS or have been diagnosed with IBS, here are a few tips to help begin building a clearer picture:

1. Get a clear symptom picture: Become very conscious of how digestive upset shows up for you and write it down to identify patterns. Do you feel spasms, pain, burning, cramping or bloating? Does it present as diarrhea or constipation? Do you know of any clear food triggers that always set off symptoms? Write everything down.

2. Be honest with yourself about your stress load. If you’re feeling stress, where does it show up in your body? Do you feel tightness in your stomach or intestines? Is your mental state agitated or hyper-active? What are your triggers?

3. Practice mindfulness and meditation practices. Deep breathing is a lifesaver for a sudden IBS attack. Although it may not solve the issue completely, it can buy yourself some time until you’re in a place where you feel safe and comfortable. Close your eyes, breathe deeply into your lower digestion and visualize a calm stillness. Do this for 5-10 repetitions, as often as needed. Do this even when you feel calm to develop the habit.

4. Incorporate warm chamomile tea into your daily routine. Chamomile is a digestive calming aid that is soothing, cooling and anti-spasmodic to the entire digestive tract. Warm tea is so wonderful on a daily basis for digestion.  A chamomile tincture is also great to carry around with your for acute attacks when you’re not at home.

Working with a professional

As far as dietary strategies, I would strongly recommend working with a nutritionist to develop a nourishing food plan while your digestive system is compromised. This will gradually add in more and more foods to support digestion and also heal the lining of the intestines and colon while building up a probiotic culture base again. It’s a slow process, but cultivating a holistic approach to digestive health while solving IBS can be accomplished if you have the right tools and guidance.

If you are or have been experiencing IBS and are seeking relief, please contact our office at (804) 977-2634 to book an appointment with Lindsay Kluge or one of our other practitioners.

Lindsay Kluge is a Clinical Herbalist & Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist and received her Masters of Science degree in Herbal Medicine from the Maryland University of Integrative Health in 2012. She has been with Richmond Natural Medicine since 2013, and specializes in therapeutic holistic nutrition, circadian rhythm balance and sleep physiology, digestion, and Ayurvedic nutrition. She offers individualized nutrition and herbal medicine consultations that include meal planning support, custom compounded herbal formulas, nutrition guidance and general wellness support.  Learn more about services that Lindsay offers at Richmond Natural Medicine by clicking HERE

Meal planning and batch cooking are some of the most efficient and successful practices that I use with my nutrition clients.  So many people are intimidated by this practice, but desperately want to get the hang of it.

When I present meal planning methods to individuals, I usually make adjustments and tweaks to each plan to ensure that the recommendations are sustainable and not overwhelming.  Overtime we add to the meal planning routine. This way it becomes second nature, like a weekly habit that’s easy to remember.  As a result, people start to develop their go-to arsenal of recipes that they can enjoy over and over again. The one recommendation that always remains the same is the practice of Batch Cooking!

Batch cooking is the practice of picking 2-4 meals (or more!) to prepare before your week begins so that you can rely on these already-made healthy meals to tide you through busier weeknights.  I like to get an idea of where folks are struggling the most with their meals before making recommendations as this tends to be a little different for each person.  

Below are some of my tips and suggestions that will help you get started with meal prepping and batch cooking.

Beginning: Take Notes

• What is your biggest obstacle in cooking for yourself? This is an essential question you need to ask yourself  before you start meal planning and batch cooking. Do you not even know what to make? Do you hate cooking? Do you feel like you have no time during the week to even think about cooking? Does you family all eat different things? Discovering and facing your obstacles is key to making meal prep sustainable and eliminating roadblocks. Your nutrition plan / meal planning practice should account for these obstacles and include some strategies to combat them.
• Which meals do you have the hardest time eating / keeping healthy? Are you rushing out the door before eating breakfast? Is dinner time so jam packed that cooking is out of the question? Are you eating every lunch out while you’re at work? Pick the meals you’re struggling with the most. For example, if you’re too rushed to eat a healthy breakfast every morning, consider batch cooking a vegetable rich quiche or frittata, or make some hearty morning muffins and pre-boil some eggs for a quick & easy breakfast. If you’re struggling to get vegetables on your plate for lunches and dinner, consider batch cooking large pans of roasted root vegetables and add a serving to every meal!
• What are some of your favorite meals to eat? Make sure that you’re batch cooking foods meals you love to eat! If you love lasagna, make a big pan of vegetable rich, hearty lasagna for lunches or dinner. If you love salads, make 5 mason jar salads for lunch every day. If you love soups and stews in the winter time, make a big crock pot stew on Sunday and enjoy it throughout the week. Identifying your favorite types of meals will help narrow your search for good recipes and keep you motivated to continue prepping and planning.
• When can you carve out 1-2 hours, once per week to devote to batch prepping foods? Meal planning takes just that – planning. You need to devote time in your weekly schedule for grocery shopping and batch cooking your meals. Look at your calendar and schedule this time. Whether it’s on a Saturday morning or a Wednesday night (it doesn’t always have to be the same time every single week), just make sure you’ve got time to make your meals. This is also loads of fun to do with with your kids, partner or a friend!

What You’ll Need

• Storage containers. I prefer using glass pyrex, but you can use anything you have on hand to store your meals. Mason jars work great for soups and salads.

Action:

1. Gather at least 7-10 recipes that you’d like to try. Pinterest is an excellent place to gather and store recipes!
2. Pick 2 recipes and make sure you do your grocery shopping beforehand.
3. Start out batch prepping just 2 of these recipes to get a feel for the habit.
4. Once meals are batch prepped, store in either individual serving containers or in a large dish to serve during busier night. You can also make two of the same recipes at the same time and keep one in the freezer for another week.

If you need individualized support with meal planning and creating a sustainable nutrition plan that works for you and your lifestyle, consider scheduling an appointment with our nutritionist Lindsay Kluge.  

Additional Resources:

5 Quick Breakfast Ideas
Transform your Kitchen into a Positive Space
Holistic Nutrition: Food as Medicine for a Lifetime
Transitioning to a Gluten Free Diet

About the Author:

Lindsay Kluge is a Clinical Herbalist & Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist and received her Masters of Science degree in Herbal Medicine from the Maryland University of Integrative Health in 2012. She has been with Richmond Natural Medicine since 2013, and specializes in therapeutic holistic nutrition, circadian rhythm balance and sleep physiology, digestion, and Ayurvedic nutrition. She offers individualized nutrition and herbal medicine consultations that include meal planning support, custom compounded herbal formulas, nutrition guidance and general wellness support.  Learn more about services that Lindsay offers at Richmond Natural Medicine by clicking HERE.

As a human, you are an intelligent, living breathing being that is much more than a simple machine that can be broken down into the sum of its parts. Often times in the world of medicine, we have specialties that focus on just the single parts. It is extremely valuable to have experts within different areas of medicine, but it is also just as vital to take a step back to get a glimpse of the bigger picture. As Naturopathic Doctors this is what we do.  We take a big step back to see the ways in which the body and its systems are functioning together or in many cases not functioning appropriately- leading to body wide symptoms.

Okay, so we take a step back to see the big picture. But what comprises the whole person?

The whole person does not just mean the entirety of the physical body, but also includes the mental, emotional and even spiritual realms.

We want to dig deeper into the immaterial parts of who you are, outside the physical body. These are the thoughts and internal self-talk constantly swimming in our heads. These are subconscious patterns and beliefs we hold from childhood. These are the moods and emotions we go through in any given moment. This is the very core of what animates the human body, the non-physical part of you, your very essence.

How do these unseen parts of you affect your health?

You may have heard of the mind-body connection. This is the understanding that the mental habits, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and emotions you hold can influence your physical health.

You can probably remember a time you were extremely nervous or anticipating an event. Did you have the sensation of a knot in your stomach? Or possibly your heart was pounding and sweat was beading up on your forehead? This is the mind body connection. Your body symptoms are the physical expression of the mental state of anxiety.

Your changing mental and emotional states, both positive and negative, impact the biochemical function within the body. The field of Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine-Immunology (P.N.E.I.) is a scientific field of study that investigates the link between communications among the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system and the correlations of this cross-talk with physical health.

In essence the central nervous system, including the brain (where mental habits and emotions become physical messengers-neurotransmitters, hormones, immune proteins) is connected via nerves to the rest of your organs and tissues constantly impacting their functioning.

Emotions & Beliefs

Positive emotions have been shown to reduce inflammatory markers (IL-6) in the body – nearly every single chronic illness is driven by the underlying cause of inflammation! This means positive emotions decrease the risk across the board for chronic illness.

Negative emotions on the other hand, are shown to stimulate the production of proinflammatory markers contributing to prolonged infections and delayed wound healing. Ultimately prolonged immune dysregulation from negative emotions will increase the risk of chronic illness.

You can also think about another positive application of the mind-body connection when you consider the placebo effect. This is seen in clinical trials where patients receive a placebo or inert substance rather than the actual drug being studied. Patients in the placebo group believe they may be receiving the drug that will relieve their suffering and often times their health gets better. In many cases the illness improves just as much as those taking the actual drug.

The simple belief that the placebo is a medicine for a given illness leads to improved physical health! This is remarkable and shows us just how powerful our thoughts, beliefs and emotions can be.

How do we promote better mental and emotional health?

•     Mindfulness
•      Meditation
•      Intention
•      Mantras & Affirmations
•      Deep breathing
•      Tapping (EFT)
•      Self-care
•     Compassion
•      Biofeedback, & Neurofeedback
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•      Hypnosis Qi Gong & Tai chi
•      Visualization
  

What you think, you become. – Buddha

Anxiety and depression are fairly commonplace words in today’s society, which can be both good and bad.

The good part is that people are more aware that anxiety and depression are real and debilitating conditions.  Many people now believe that these feelings are normal to have and that it’s ok to ask for help in coping. The bad part is that our instinct to label and generalize often means we miss the individual nature of what people are feeling or thinking and therefore, what they really need.

Anxiety

Anxiety can be used to describe everything from a teenager’s pre-test emotional state to a parent’s worry about that same teen. Anxiety can range from mild stress to debilitating; to where you can’t get out of bed to face the day due to overwhelming emotions. It is also a word that is used to label or to explain away other symptoms and is often used as a reason to prescribe medication.

Setting aside the diagnosis of anxiety, it is important to know what an individual is feeling and thinking and what they are experiencing when they have anxiety. The word anxious means different things to different people.  It is caused by unique stresses, events and places and manifests in different ways.

It is important as well to look at other symptoms like skin issues, aches and pains and other health changes that may be connected, but haven’t been considered. Once there is an understanding of what someone is really feeling, only then can healing begin.

Everyone today feels they are busy, that change can be hard and that there are some things in their lives they have no control over. We must also understand though that changing, even just a few things and in simple ways, can often help people start to heal. If we do not make time for our minds and bodies to heal, how can we possibly expect to feel whole?

In treating anxiety, naturopathic medicine may encourage lifestyle changes and look at ways to make stressful environments safer. It may prescribe botanical medicines and homeopathic remedies that, because they work at the root of physical symptoms and causes, provide deep and lasting results.

Sometimes people say they believe homeopathic medicine cannot help them because they’ve already tried an off the shelf remedy and it didn’t work. Although there are some good products you can pick up yourself, the problem is that most are very generic and designed just to meet the top symptoms in a given category. Individual treatment looks for symptoms, or sometimes a lack of symptoms that are unique. Through an individualized approach, people are able to achieve a deeper response that is more effective.

Depression

Depression is another label that can have a wide range of symptoms and can impact people to varying degrees. Depression can be as simple as someone not feeling up to doing things or not being motivated the way they used to, to full-out apathy towards life and suicidal thoughts.

As with anxiety, it is important to first understand the person.  What does depression mean to them, how it has affected their life, what are they feeling or what do they feel they are lacking? Often times, looking at the duration of the feelings and the family history can be helpful as well.

Sometimes people have a sense something is wrong but don’t know what.  They may be embarrassed or don’t want to bother someone with their troubles. Giving people the time they need in a non-judgmental, unhurried environment is key to ensuring that they feel supported enough to share, examine and really begin to heal.

As with anxiety, depression requires an individualized approach that may include symptomatic treatment, lifestyle changes, botanical remedies and homeopathy. Lab testing for metabolic, hormonal and food issues may also be recommended as part of due diligence to ensure physical triggers or conditions are not being overlooked.

Many people who experience depression have already met with a medical doctor or therapist.  If they feel that things aren’t changing the way they had hoped, or they’re tired of being medicated, or tired of not feeling like themselves, they sometimes look to naturopathic medicine. Naturopathic medicine aims to fill in the gaps that modern medicine sometimes cannot fill.

Many of the treatments naturopathic medicine uses compliment prescription medicines, sometimes alleviating side effects of the prescription. Treatment protocols can also help patients reduce or get off other medications if that is their goal. Working with their own medical doctors or therapists, a good Naturopathic Doctor will become part of a team to provide patients with a whole health, integrative approach to healing.

It’s OK

Whether people feel they suffer from anxiety or depression or they’re just really sad….it is important to know that whatever they’re struggling with, whatever they’re feeling, it isn’t their fault or anything to be ashamed of and certainly not something to judge.

As is often the case, people generally have the answers within themselves. They know what their stressors are and know when they are pushing themselves too hard.  They just need support in making the changes.

There should not be a stigma to admitting to feelings of sadness, anxiety or depression; it is not a weakness or a failing and it isn’t wrong to need help. Just as you would look for help if you found a lump or had a limb that was sore, when our brains, our emotions and our spirits are in need of help, it’s ok to ask for help and to want to feel well again.

If you or someone you know is experiencing anxiety and/or depression,

please contact our office at (804) 977-2634 to learn more about scheduling an appointment with one of our practitioners.