Happy morning in Hortus Botanicus

This spring has been cooler than normal. We had many cloudy and rainy days, but luckily also regular warm greetings from the sun:). It has been "a must" to stop in every sunny spot on the streets during the walks and feel the rays of light on our faces for a little moment.

 There has been some impatience in the air: when can we sit on a terrace and visit all the beautiful monuments and museums. Luckily from this week on it's possible to eat and drink outdoors in restaurants and bars from early morning until 8pm. I was enthusiastic when it was possible to book a ticket to Botanical Garden of Amsterdam,

Hortus Botanicus 

I hope it's soon possible to visit also some museums. 

I was not the only person with a big smile on my face this morning. I saw so many positive people today in the garden. Many camera's taking pictures of the colorful flowers and green views. Two photo sessions for wedding pictures, young love captured in a soft morning light. A grandfather walking around with his grand child, admiring the wonders of a new spring and the growth. I felt like home in this place, enjoyed the green hug of the garden. I am a big fan of botanical gardens and this is still one of my favorite places in Amsterdam. 

I admire and respect the people who are taking care of these places full of history and old plants.. so much knowledge behind the scenes. My sister is a biologist and a gardener. It's a hard work to maintain so many different sort of plants, but such a nice opportunity to take care the beautiful places and follow the growth.

  

 

I was inspired of my visit this morning. I will soon go back and go into the flower shop of Hortus as well. They have wonderful books and gifts there and nice flowers of course. It was good to see some life in this corner of the town. It is a nice place to relax, see some details, listen to birds and really forget that you live in a City. There is enough of space and the walking routes are marked, the covid-measurements are well planned.

The weekend is coming. I promised to go shopping with my daughter. We went many times to second hand shops lately to find some cool hoodies and T-shirts for her. Funny deja vu from my own youth all these Guns n Roses logos and other familiar prints. One of our favorite shop is Kilo sale near the new British school in  Amsterdam South. Much cheaper than the vintage shops in shopping streets. It's nice that teenagers are aware of the prices and also see the ecological point. It is fun to walk around with her.

Wishing a good spring time!! I just decided to be more active in here, much more to see and to tell after a long winter. We have to try to enjoy the days, so many thing are already possible at the moment in the Netherlands. I know the news from many other countries in the world are not so good at the moment and I also hope the pandemic will be more fair taken care of...with extra support to poor countries.

Now I'll turn on the TV and will watch the Eurovision song contest. It's organized this year in Rotterdam and Finland is performing this eve in semifinals. Something light and colorful to watch and finalize my nice day.

Step by step towards the spring

Step one

We had real winter for a week in Holland. That was amazing with some white snow and bright sun. We lived here almost 7 years and never experienced this long cold period in Amsterdam. People got totally crazy about the wintery outdoor possibilities and were making the most out of it. For about 3 days it was possible to skate on some canals or the low water areas at the parks. This was such a refreshing surprise in this normally grey season. People got something else to think about than the pandemic. 

Step two 

As fast as the cold days came, so did the warm days. A big temperature rise and a strong spurt of growth took place. The flowers everywhere, the trees raising their arms up like being thankful for this takeover. And so am I. My favorite season is there and this is the best injection of joy I can imagine. Let's open the gate for this spring.

Step three

We rented a small cabin (Natuurhuisje) for the one week winter holiday in the end of February. The location was in the east of Holland near the river Vaal and the town Dalfsen. Our green, wooden house was in a little forest with some other houses nearby. You can't easily find the same feeling of privacy in the Netherlands as I am used to in Finland. The forest areas are quite small and there is often some camping areas nearby. I am not a fan of "holiday parks" they have here. My idea of my own space is bigger than many people are used to in Holland. Having a forest walk here means that you are following a bigger sand road and admire the surrounding from that point and for me it means you step in the forest and walk on a soft, uneven ground and might get lost if you don't pay attention. 

The Nature is more fragile in Holland. Much more people living in a small country, every green area is extra valuable for the animals and for the people. I appreciate every tree that is growing on my street in Amsterdam, but the real calming effect I only get in a forest. 

Our holiday was welcome and we had nice walks everyday and the singing birds woke us up early in the morning. It was a simple change we needed at the moment. Different views, different thoughts and a change of routine for a week. It was peaceful time just for us as a family. 

How long this walk will be? :)

The river Vaal.

Luckily we also have some new perspective. The spring is coming and there is more shades, more colors and textures to see and we enjoy the warmth during the sunny days. The high schools opened their doors for smaller groups and the children are going to school minimum once a week. Every school has their own way to handle the group sizes and the weekly agenda. My kids are happy to go to school again some days. It is more motivating to see the friends and the teachers in real, face to face and be part of the group in a "real class room", do the tests in a familiar way on a paper instead of stressful ways with extra pressure in the internet. I hope the older students can soon go to physical lessons as well. It is worrying that the drugs use is increased among the young people during the corona time. Luckily this older age group can now join the sport trainings outdoors.

The mental health is so important to take care of these days. It is important to stay in contact and have even a small chat with people. I've noticed that the teenagers talk more when you go for a walk with them. It is great to listen to all their plans and how they see the world. 

We are still having a partly lock down in Holland.  Day by day we go forwards and towards the near future. Maybe the idea of freedom will be different after this global crisis. We might notice that the freedom starts first from our own small choices and that we have to accept some changes always come. We can't see the results, the all effects and the end of this period yet. The feeling of safety is connected to the freedom of making our individual choices. In reality it is also connected to the economical situation, health and the rules we have to follow. The choices and the priorities can be adjusted when needed. But there is a limit: a personal one, for different groups/units and for every society/country. 

Spreading hope, a little bit of attention and smiles can help and it's valuable. Being realistic doesn't have to mean putting the fear and the worse scenarios on top of our mind. We can have influence on some things, but many things we just have to accept for now, for a little bit longer. 

With patience, love and going forward...step by step! 

Giving some space for the spring and the changes there is and always will be.

 

Celebrating light

The warm signs of January are welcome to make us more awake. When the sun is shining even a little bit through the thin clouds,  I feel like stepping outside and I want to capture the moment.

Contrasts and reflections are making the reality bigger than it is. Like we could watch the streets and the silhouettes in all a way round, 360 degrees. 

I can see the sky on the street, reflecting from the water puddle.

It feels we could jump in there and end inside the Earth. Like the Earth would be just an invisible bubble or a cell that reflects the space. 

But here I am standing on the asphalt, feeling the warmth of the sun and hearing the noice of my shoes when I'm walking. Celebrating the light.

I'm happy this is real,

Celebrating the life.

The light goes through me with a patient speed.

It makes me curious and it makes me dream.

The first Saturday of 2021

So many sunny days to remember from the last year even it was a hard road to walk sometimes.

What I learned? I learned to appreciate the movement of mind and the movement of body. Together these two are making the action possible.

I learned not to wait too long and think too much before taking the action. Because of the still life in society during the pandemic, the limited possibilities, the loss and the fear we read about. It made me realize I have to start doing the things that really support my interests, my happiness and my health. 

Every year I want to start and learn something new.        

*Happy new Year*

January can start

December vibes

I had to take the opportunity to go out this morning and enjoy a long, misty morning walk. The mist is the most beautiful winter elements in Amsterdam and in Holland I think. This is the closest we get to the white Christmas mood. It is comforting and mysterious to walk near the water and inside a park in a morning like this. The contrast between white emptiness and the shapes of the trees, the architecture, the canals and boats just makes me smile. The people disappearing to the horizon and the houses hiding behind the curtain made of minimal water drops in the air.

It is rewarding to experience these sort of magical moments especially this winter. To keep the mind and thoughts healthy and getting some extra energy in these weird times is sometimes connected to the most simple things.
 

Stripes in Vondelpark

Mind talk

It is about choosing the perspective.

Listening and watching, letting the messages and impulses to enter to your conscious mind.

We should not trust too much on our own assumptions, every situation and every person deserves more open ground to be understood. 

The fear of unknown and the fear of loosing control is often stopping us to really listen to ourselves and to other people. 

What sort of challenge makes the unique 'me' and unique 'you' to develop?

We sometimes like to interrupt too much and we like to believe that what we say is right and the absolute truth. It can be a positive challenge to our mind to not always push our point of view in front and let it dominate our behavior. We can try to be a little bit more flexible and give a thought of the opposite way of thinking. We can be friends or have a positively challenging connection with different sort of people. We do not have to stay in our own safety bubble.

I always come back to this theme.

The communication is one of the biggest keys to our happiness in a relationship, friendships and in professional life. This includes how we talk to ourselves and how we draw the map of our mind first. The Personal goals and making plans together are equal important. The needs are changing...because we, the situations and the environmental factors  are changing all the time.

I try to develop in this skill of communication constantly and it is difficult. Sometimes I have to try to "step out of my skin" to let some uncomfortable emotion to go and to be able to understand the situation more objectively.

New perspective 

Spontaneous, inspiring sidesteps: 

On our many walks last months, we saw some interesting places. For example in  New West, near the little lake of Sloterplas is a local museum, Van Eesteren museum. At the moment there is an exhibition how the youth culture developed in Amsterdam during the time the rock 'n roll music started to spread around the world during the sixties. One part of the exhibition is made from the portrait photos by a Dutch photographer Gijsbert Hanekroot. He took many pictures of famous pop and rock stars during the 1970's and 1980's when they were visiting Holland. We saw some fabulous photos from Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Patti Smith and many more. Many museums were closed last month, but now it is possible to plan a visit to museums again. It is better to make a reservation online, because of the limited space and capacity during this Corona winter. 

We have some limitations right now, but we can do some small, surprising, inspiring things!! 

Music 

I have always found so much energy and positive recourses from listening to music.

Sometimes I miss the times when we went to dance and had so much fun.

The following video reminds me of the mindset of the youth - BUT let's not forget.. many things are still possible at any age :). 

No one can stop us dancing and dreaming, but sadly we are sometimes our biggest negative voices. 

I have two teenagers in my house. 

Watching their friendships and listening to their stories are so big source of joy.

It gives hope and an example of the genuine, honest and pure attitude in life.

Power music for this week, great positive vibes in this video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rURCngUpCfw

P.S - Insecure times

The amount of new Covid-19 cases are increasing in the Netherlands and in Amsterdam. I just got an email from the highschool of my older child that they will be closed from tomorrow on. Next week they will be back to online lessons until Christmas holiday. The government did not give any strict rules for the schools for this next period until mid January (the rule of using masks was already there),but it seems that the virus is at the moment spreading fast inside the schools as well. The restaurants and cafe's are closed at least until the mid of January. The life goes on with these "given cards" at the moment. You can have 3 visitors at home. Our christmas will be peaceful. We stay home and keep on walking in our hoods.

I wish everyone a lot of strength with the challenges and hopefully the injection process will slowly make some new perspective on this situation. 

I am happy I have my fourth session of the Sound Bowls course this weekend. I have to travel there by train, but I am happy that this opportunity is still possible. I am enjoying my new skills and I am eager to learn some more. 

Balanced changes

A little bit of Autumn colors here and there. It is slowly getting more yellow and orange at the park. We have continued our walking rounds even the evenings are getting darker and colder. It is different than it was in the summer and it is more challenging to reach the same daily goals now. It is good to have goals, but I have learned to be more flexible in my thoughts. What I can't or feel doing today, I can do tomorrow or some other day. It is common to say " Better do it now and not wait until tomorrow". Sometimes it is useful to do things immediately and sometimes it is wiser to be more gentle and wait for tomorrow. We only know what is best for us right now. Waiting for tomorrow is different than waiting until the next week or to next month. 

This new situation with the covid-19 virus is changing our perspective. We are having now a partly lock down in the Netherlands for the next 4 weeks. After this period it will be evaluated if the current rules had any effect of the amount of the new infections during this time. If not, there will be some more rules. Our own behavior is in our own hands. At the same time our children still go to school and meet their friends and seem quite balanced. Children under 18 can take part to sport training and the schools are going to stay open as long as it is possible. We are planning things for small periods at the time because we do not know what the next weeks are bringing to us. The outside world is unstable, but we want to feel safe inside our own little unit. We need some continuing routines to frame our days and give a feeling we are going forwards. 

This week it has been more quiet on our walks. The restaurants had to close their doors and there was less traffic on the streets. We have a Autumn holiday at the moment. We are staying home. I went to pilates studio this morning and it was great to be there as a small group of six people and the teacher. Keeping the distance and taking care of the hygiene, but enjoying doing some healthy activity with other people. Small delights are important in these days.

I was writing about my high cholesterol level last spring. I am happy to announce that the changes that I made with my eating and drinking habits have lowered my total cholesterol(HDL and LDL-cholesterol) level from 10 to 5. I found an excellent, professional Finnish blog about nutrition and it made my planning easier. I will link the blog article in the end of this blog post. It is in Finnish, but there is also some references to international studies.

This week I saw a small document about genetic high cholesterol (FH disease)on dutch tv. It was about how people are recommended to use  the medication to lower their cholesterol levels and decrease the risk for the heart and blood vessel diseases. The tricky thing is that many of these people feel totally normal and healthy with their high cholesterol, but get many side effects by using the statin medication for their genetic condition. There are some new studies that suggest that the high cholesterol itself doesn't increase the risk for the heart and blood vessel diseases or to earlier death. The bigger indicator can be the individual differences between the blood clotting. The more easily the blood is clotting, the bigger the risk for the problems with the heart and blood vessel functions. 

Anyway I am not a doctor. I just want to point out that you can try to make some changes with your lifestyle to make you feel more healthy and be more healthy. The cholesterol is just a one indicator and there are a lot more behind many conditions: smoking, stress, lack of movement, overweight...the list goes on. 

When I visited my house doctor this spring he was suggesting for me to start using the statins to lower my cholesterol. I was friendly to my doctor, but against this sudden suggestion. I made it clear that I first wanted to make some changes with my eating patterns and I did. He also agreed that the medication is sometimes too easily offered and that eating more vegetables and less animal fat could really help. I think he was worried, cos my total cholesterol was so high and he wanted to lower it effectively and he was suspecting if I had the familiar cholesterol disease (which I do not have).

Like I earlier wrote I had been eating more or less the high fat/low carbs style of diet before and how I did not feel comfortable with it. My body was telling me...this is not for you. I honestly do not think there is only one suitable way of living for everyone. We have to really carefully listen to our body and mind by choosing the right ingredients to support our health. Everyone has their own weaknesses or risk factors that we have to evaluate.

One key of my beter well being is using more vegetable fats and oils instead of animal fats. I use colors on my plate. This means I am using more vegetables, fruit and berries. I do not take too big portions and I try to enjoy every bite that I eat. I can eat something unhealthy every now and then if I get back to my normal patterns the next day. I do not eat evening snacks after dinner.

I am not being too hard on myself. I still have bad habits like drinking too much coffee...but I use oat milk instead of cow milk. I love cheese, but I am not having a collection of 5 different ones in my fridge anymore. I use cheese sometimes when cooking or have a slice of it with a good bread. 

Here is a list of my favorite ingredients to lower the bad LDL cholesterol in a natural way. 

-A handful of non salted and non roasted peanuts every day (especially the walnuts are excellent)

-Eating enough of Oats and barley (fibre: beta gluten). For example a morning porridge of overnight oats are great.

-Pectin from vegetables, fruit and berries. -avocados

                                           -green beans

                                           -pear with the skin

                                           -brussel sprout

                                           -cassis berries

                                           -bataat

                                           -apple

                                           -orange

                                           -plum

                                           -aubergine/eggplant

                                           -okra

                                           -corn

                                           -rasberry

Other good sources of pectin: Black beans, chia seeds, chickpea, unpeeled potato, peanuts, sunflower seeds

-Using Tofu or other vegetable options instead of eating too much meat. Soya products are lowering the cholesterol. 

The different sort of beans and lentils are as good options as well.

-Using vegetal oils( olive oil, avocado, peanuts) instead of hard animal fats(meat, milk products and butter).

If eating less meat is difficult, try to eat more fish and choose less fatty meat products. Fish is not lowering the cholesterol, but the good fats from the fish are good for the heart.

From milk products the cheese and natural yoghurt are better choices  than fatty milk or butter. I Use more soya-, oat- or amandel products instead of milk.

Margarines are not a good options with the bread. The palm oil is often used to make the product harder. Also some other methods by producing the margarine have an negative effect on the quality on the used vegetable oils. The best way is to use more pure and high quality vegetable fats like  

-extra virgine olive oil

-peanuts

-avocado 

I love to dip my bread in the mixture of good olive oil, pepper and  lemon! I also eat often bred with avocado. If you want to use margarine, do not use the light products, because the quality of the fat is often worse in those ones. Also the margarines that are lowering the cholesterol are not necessarily good for the health of the heart. The European heart organisation is not recommending on using the vegetable statin margarines. Just search the information about products before you make your own individual decisions.

-carlic

-filtered coffee instead of espresso-type of coffee (filter stops the   unhealthy fats from coffee entering to your coffee cup)

- dark chocolade (20-30g)

Read also this Harward study about eggs ! It is not dangerous to eat some eggs. We were always taught that eggs are big cholesterol bombs and bad for the heart and blood vessels. 

I am using a bergamot oil pill to keep my cholesterol level low. Many people who can't use statins are using this natural product instead. Bergamot is a citrus fruit from the south Italy. You can find more information about it by searching from the internet. There are several scientific studies made of using Bergamot to lower the LDL-cholesterol.

You can read more from the following link: 

Basic information about Bergamot. If you are using statins, never stop using them without talking to your doctor first!

I am only writing about these nutritional issues, because I want to take a better care of myself. I recommend everyone should go to regular health checks and try to find the ways to improve the health that are suiting to you. You should always talk to your doctor or with a specialised nutritionist if you have a medical condition and use medication. 

Using a common sense and listening to your body, searching the information and taking small steps can make your eyes open. 

By leaving the alcohol use very minimal, eating better quality food and walking daily I surprised my house doctor with excellent results. I lost my zwollen morning eye bags and lost the few extra kilos from my waistline. 

Egg plant filled with cherry tomatoes and onions. One of my favorite foods!

The lifestyle change gave me new energy to start things I had thought over for a long time.

"I had postponed my own plans and my own needs of growth for a while. I had to get my thoughts clear and dig in deeper to reach my own ground again. 

  I learned to trust more of my instinct or the driven feeling I had in some new situations or during the decision making moments. I am still listening other people, but I trust my own decisions and work on the paths and directions I chose."

The most beautiful and inspiring path I found lately is learning to use the singing bowls for relaxing and trying to find the inner calmth and be better connected to your self. I am taking part in a course to learn a singing bowl massage by Peter Hess method. 

This journey takes me to a small dutch town in Friesland for a few weekends during the next months. It gives me a great joy to give this relaxation to my family or to my friends. Especially in this strange time when we might feel some other sort of stress or fear that we are normally used to. Our body consist about 70 % of water and the vibration of these bowls, set on the human body, are moving through our cells. Like dropping a stone in the water, relaxing our system. It is so interesting! I will tell more about this method in some other post. 

With this shaky picture from my evening walk, I wish you a good weekend!! 

Link to a Finnish Blog about food and Cholesterol