A love letter to Calgary 💗

Hi everyone, little update, as you may know I have been in Calgary for the last six weeks, to get medical treatment.

It’s a very bittersweet goodbye, but definitely not forever. I am planning to return next year for another round of treatment and to see all of the cool people I got to meet the last month and a half 🤩✌🏻

Healing Practitioners

The main reason for my visit was to receive in person care at the Hoffman Center for Integrative Medicine! Here I received daily phospholipid and glutathione IVs as well as intravenous B vitamins and minerals to help correct nutrient deficiencies.

The phospholipids and glutathione are used to help the cells detoxify and rebuild their cell membrane. The membrane is where all of the action happens, nutrients hormones, and intracellular signals are let into the cell via channels and receptors. Our cell membrane also need to function so that toxins can get out of the cell. if we do not have a cell membrane if we are deficient in antioxidants, minerals, fatty acids and vitamins, all of that cannot. That keeps us sick and malnourished.

I also received Neuro feedback training to help my brain rewire and to improve the connectivity between certain brain regions. As I’ve mentioned before, I struggle with encephalitis and brain atrophy. When this happens, certain regions of the brain take over for the parts that do not work as well. Overcompensation can have long-term consequences because the overactive parts will eventually burn out too. Neuro feedback helps all of the brain work together again. Doing in addition to fatty acid replacement therapy will hopefully help rebuild and properly rewire my brain so that I will be in tiptop shape soon. I’ve already noticed some changes in my behavior, I am having less meltdowns and I am calmer overall. Also, I am having less reactions to food, which is nice because I’ve been able to expand my diet as I am sharing in my other posts.

I am very grateful that I came for the six weeks, not only is Dr. Hoffman super knowledgeable, and I feel very comfortable, letting him manage my care, but the staff is incredibly caring and I will honestly miss them 💗

While being in the city, I also took advantage of many other amazing healing modalities. I went to see a fabulous Nucca chiropractor. if anyone is in the area, I would definitely recommend seeing Dr Sholton at Vital Posture.

As someone with hyper mobility /Ehlos-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) my connective tissue is not as supporting as that of others. That means that my posture can easily be misaligned which will impact most of my body functions and the functioning of the nervous system. The Nucca method of adjusting is very gentle, I did not even feel it but the doctor was able to fully correct my posture with literally one gentle touch. He had measured out the exact angle of where to adjust me prior based on x-rays. After five weeks of regularly going, my body has been able to hold the posture on its own. Which is fantastic news😇

Another thing that I got to do to support my health was to get a series of colonics. I was skeptical at first, but when I learned about the average person has a few pounds of impacted stool along with lots of toxins in their colon, I knew that this would be very beneficial for my health to just get that cleaned out. Went to see a very fabulous practitioner, her name is Kelsey Marshall at Fluid Movements. She is very knowledgeable and made me feel very safe. In the three colonics that I did, I was able to expel quite a bit of old stool and toxins which gave my digestive system a reset and will hopefully help with nutrient absorption. This is definitely something I’m going to be looking at when I get back home so I can do this on a regular basis.

Healing Lifestyle

Apart from all the super cool practitioners, I got to see and learn from, I also discovered that Calgary has quite the assortment of health promoting cafés and parks to visit. I was worried that I would lose my wonderful tan that I had built up in Houston , but the weather here really surprised me. It has been very sunny and the UV index has been almost as high as at home on many days. ☀️

The air here is also incredibly fresh, and I’ve been enjoying the sleep with open windows. It’s warm during the day, but typically cools off at night.

I’ve spent most of my time between appointments exploring all the parks. The city has to offer. My two favorites in the city are Confederation Park and Princes Island Park. I think it’s very valuable that a metropolitan city has areas where people can recharge and connect with nature. It’s also such an interesting contrast to see skyscrapers next to rivers trees and mountains 🏔️

Outside the city, I really like the Bowness Park Where I’ve spent countless hours walking along the Bow River writing blog posts just like this one. It’s really close to the farmers market, which I will be getting too shortly 🌳🌲

Nose Hill is also a great park if you like hiking 🥾

In addition to all the fabulous outdoor activities Calgary has a bunch of very nice grocery stores and cafés where I can eat and drink without having to worry that something will flare me up. That has been a very special experience and it also helped heal my relationship with food. I’ve been a lot more experimental I have been getting out of the house 🥹

The best I’ve had the entire stay has to be the oysters at YY Seafood at Farmers Market West 🙏

Not only are the two owners incredibly kind, but the oysters are out of this world. They shuck them fresh they usually have six different varieties for me to choose from. My favorite oyster I have tried has been the Shuck Norris! It is big and meaty and it’s really hard to believe that this is supposed to be for me because it tastes so good🤩

I went at least twice a week to get my nutritious snack. Oysters are incredibly rich and minerals and B12, and electrons which I will be getting to an upcoming post.

Other seafood I regularly purchased here were the Digby Scallops (soooo good) , wild caught haddock, and poke salmon !!

If you end up going, tell them I sent you!!

Apart from having fabulous oysters, the Calgary Farmers Market is also the place to get local food. They have a ton of local farmers selling in season produce and local regenerative meat which we all knows right up my alley. I love Gemstone Farms Beef and Sunworks Chicken and Turkey!!

We also got lucky and were able to enjoy cherry season. That brought back lots of memories from my childhood . Calgary is at the exact same latitude as Cologne , which is my hometown in Germany.When I went back in the summers, we would always go cherry picking. I’ve been enjoying homemade yogurt bowls with all the fresh fruit out in the sun for almost every single day.

Calgary also has quite the health food store scene. While I visited many, my favorite is Community Natural Foods! Not only do they sell local meat and dairy (regenerative and A2 dairy) and local produce , they also have a green juice bar and a lot of the supplements and herbs 🤩

While in Canada I got on a green juice 🥤 kick again, so I went there usually twice a week to get a juice made with kale, celery, lemon, cucumber, lemon and parsley 🌿 more on green juice in an upcoming post ✌🏻

Last but not least, the best cafe ever !! The Light Cellar 🍫

This is the coolest place I’ve been in a while! The store sells homemade chocolate products, coconut products and all kinds of super foods and herbs!

They also have my friends tallow skincare like “Gordita” in the store and I highly recommend you stop by when you’re in the area 😇

But the best part in my opinion is their elixir bar- they have about 20 different superfood drinks ranging from ceremonial grade cacao based elixirs to coffee , matcha and tea bases!

My favorite drinks are the salted caramel cacao and the Heart On drink which is infused with rose 🌹 hyrdosol🥰

They also have a lot of handmade chocolate truffles – my mom adores the chocolate peanut butter ones and baked goods! We love the flourless Reishi Brownie 😇

We took home lots of yummy things including house made coconut butter , chocolate bars and cacao powder. 😊

My mom and I really enjoyed our time in Calgary and are planning to come back next year ✌🏻