I have had some health issues in the past that have led me to follow some pretty wacky diets. Think dairy-free, gluten-and-all-other-grain-free, sugar-free… basically “fun”-free! I found dinners and lunches to be pretty do-able, but breakfast was a real challenge, especially because breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. I was all doom and gloom, eating omelette after omelette, wondering when I would be able to eat waffles again when – lo and behold – I discovered the Eggy Pancake! This recipe changed my life. Well, at the very least, it changed my attitude toward a strict diet at breakfast time. You need:

2 eggs
Approx. 1 tablespoon of your favourite nut butter (peanut, almond, cashew…)
A pinch of baking soda (too much will make your pancake taste bitter)

THAT’S IT!

A few additions I’ve made over the years:
Approx. 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed
Approx. 2 tablespoons blueberries
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
Honey to drizzle on top

Combine these ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together so the consistency is smooth (those nut butter lumps can be a bit of a challenge sometimes). Heat a frying pan to med-low heat. Add a bit of butter, oil, or whatever butter substitute you use, and then pour the batter in the pan. Allow it to cook until you see little bubbles forming or until you peek at the underside and it looks golden, and then flip it over and finish cooking the other side (you may want to turn the heat down or off for the second side). You’ll be amazed to discover that you’ve just made a pancake without any flour of any kind whatsoever! I drizzle honey over mine. Yummy!!

This breakfast is super easy, packed with protein so you won’t be longing for a snack too quickly afterward, and gentle on the gut for all those food-sensitive people out there. I’ve passed this recipe on to many a soul who has thought I must be nuts only to become a believer shortly afterward. If you’re starving for breakfast ideas, give it a try!


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_ I’m in a class this quarter called “Cultivation of the Practitioner.” Understanding the connection between mind and body, this class is designed specifically to help students identify and then deal with their “shit” (in the instructor’s words). The idea is that a person who hasn’t dealt with their issues and hang-ups is not in any position to help others with theirs, and that in order for us to become effective practitioners, we must first look inward and heal ourselves. I’m all over this stuff.

We did an in-class exercise this week in which the instructor brought in an assortment of rocks ranging from pebbles to boulders. She lined them up in the front of the room and then asked us to imagine the singular most painful or hurtful event in our lives. She asked us to choose the rock that best represents that event, and then said, “Now imagine carrying that rock with you forever.” I don’t think anybody in the class was too excited about that prospect. 

Although the painful experiences of our lives do not have any physical weight, they weigh down our emotional and spiritual space much as a rock weighs down our physical body. Over time, this emotional weight can manifest in the form of disease. Some rocks are important if they remind us of an unsafe situation in which we might otherwise find ourselves again, but the large majority of them have no function other than to make us miserable! Furthermore, carrying this weight makes dealing with other pebbles that may come along all the more unbearable. We can choose to carry that weight with us and allow it to burden us, which likely prevents us from being open to the fresh and new, or we can practice letting go of what no longer serves us. In this way, dealing with the smaller pebbles of every day life is much more manageable. Easier said than done, perhaps, and yet, as a start, I feel that imagining a giant boulder in your backpack every time you feel like stewing in the sludge of the past is good incentive not to go there. The first step in this process, of course, is identifying what it is that is burdening you.

Step #1: Know thy shit. 

Then decide if you'd rather carry your shit or (excuse the metaphor but I'm on a roll--) dump it. 

 

 

Or, at least, welcome to my medical school experience. In September 2011, I made the move from cuddly Canada to the quirky city of Portland, Oregon to begin a four-year journey toward a doctorate in naturopathic medicine. Having now completed one term of my training (and officially calling myself 1/16th doctor), I can now wholeheartedly declare that the naturopathic profession and its practitioners inspire me on a daily basis and that I am excited to learn what is to come in the remainder of this year and in the years beyond. I hope to share some of it with you. Please join me in this transformative experience!