This week in my project: research, nutrition, and traveling home.
It’s been a tough week. I haven’t been feeling quite myself recently, so it was hard to motivate to get my hours in. However, a short trip home for my Dad’s birthday felt really good, and talking to my parents about my program renewed some of my energy. We cooked together, ate together, and talked about food and nutrition and minimalism.
Cooking has always been an incredibly important part of my relationship with my parents. It was a special opportunity to take skills I had learned with my Aunt Shannon for making traditional Chinese hot pot and teach them to my Mom, the person from whom I have learned all of my chef skills.
Most of my work this week has been good old-fashioned book learning. I have so much to catch up on in my knowledge of plant medicine, and the more I learn the more tangents I go on. I’ve recently become fascinated with cilantro and how it binds with heavy metals in your digestive tract to pull them out of your body. Also, apparently we should all be eating chlorophyll. Go figure!
My main interest in herbalism is shifting from exploring how to make remedies for sickness or to improve wellness, but rather how consuming medicinal herbs and ingredients and consciously incorporating them into one’s diet can help with nutrition, health, and a connection to the way our food affects our bodies.
Sidenote: the documentary The Minimalists on Netflix is really fantastic. I’d love to have a discussion in class about minimalism in food (both preparation/display and content and the value or use of simplicity in cuisine). There’s also a website on minimalism here and my favorite blog on living simply and consciously here. These philosophies have greatly influenced my own ideas and priorities surrounding my body and my health.