Eating for Energy, Part 5 - Food for the Soul

If you are like many, during this busy season, it is hard to find time to think about yourself, with all the shopping, planning, cooking, and numerous activities involved in caring for others and creating a wonderful holiday experience.  So instead of running on low or empty, find some time to  nourish yourself. 

Increasing self-care is one of the best ways to improve your energy level. When you do things that you are passionate about, it fuels your soul. When you allow yourself to take a break and relax, you feel refreshed and have all the energy to take on the world.

Here are some ideas to nourish you soul:

1. Clean, fresh air

2. Exercise/movement

3. Meaningful relationship

4. Fulfilling career

5. Rest and relaxation

6. Spiritual practice

Create a “nourishment menu” for yourself. When you feel like you need a boost, take the list out and do one of the things that fuels your soul. Some ideas: taking a walk in nature, calling your loved ones, doing yoga or stretching exercises, taking your dog out for a walk, taking a walk with a friend to catch up, or working on a hobby.

Sign up for ebook

 For more resources, including my Healthy Holiday Recipes book, visit my website.  Lots of great free recipes await.  And if 2012 is your year to change your health, I would love to support you.  Sign up for a free health consultation and give yourself the gift of one hour to talk about YOU with a holistic health coach.  Your life is waiting and I can support you on your journey.  

Happy Holidays to you and yours and much health and happiness in the new year!

www.blissfulbalancewellness.com

Eating for Energy Part 3 - Boost Your Energy by Caring for Your Nervous System

With all the holiday season craziness that sometimes takes on a life of its own, it is important to care for your nervous system. Taking care of your nervous system can help you restore and replenish your energy, stay focused without the caffeine jitter, and feel calm and relaxed so that you can get the rest you need when you need it.  Let's keep the Joy in the season!

Here are 4 approaches to help care for your nervous system for increased energy:

1. Strengthen the nervous system with herbs such as burdock, dandelion, gingko, nettle, oaks and Siberian ginseng.

2. Encourage calm and relaxation with chamomile, valerian, lemon balm and oats.

3. Explore coffee alternatives such as Yerba Mate, green tea, black tea, or Rooibos (African Red Bush) to avoid the caffeine jitter.  I personally love Yerba Mate and it is a great aid to cutting back or eliminating caffeine without a withdrawal headache. 

4. Calcium has a soothing effect on the nervous system. Eat calcium-rich food for dinner (e.g. leafy greens, bone broth). If you take a calcium supplement, take it with dinner.

So take care of your nervous system so you can enjoy the hustle and bustle without overdoing the caffeine.  You really do get more done from a rested and relaxed place. 

If you need any help with healthy holiday recipes, don't forget all the resources on my website.  Just check out the recipes section. You can sign up for my Healthy Holiday Recipes eBook also and Eat for Energy throughout the holiday season.  

Eating for Energy, Part 1 - 5 Tips to Eating for Sustained Energy

5 Tips to Eating for Sustained Energy

Would you like to have enough energy to get through the holidays in style?  Well I have some tips for you that are so easy to implement and just take a tiny bit of pre-planning.  I know when I share these tips with my clients, after the first week they definitely feel a change in their energy level and the added benefit a better mood.  Now who doesn't want that?  So lets get started!  

To minimize spikes and crashes in energy level, you want to make sure your nutritional intake supports a sustained flow of energy by limiting fluctuation in blood sugar level. An even blood sugar level can also help you improve your focus and concentration, and help you prevent mood swings caused by hypoglycemia.

Here are 5 tips to use nutrition to support a sustained flow of energy:

1. Eat meals with a low glycemic load – combine whole grains and vegetables (high fiber foods) with a moderate amount of good fats and lean protein.

2. Eat foods rich in B vitamins, such as whole grains and nutritional yeast.

3. Eat just the right amount and type of protein for your body – keep a food journal to see how much protein works best for you.

4. Stay hydrated – dehydration often causes fatigue and headache.

5. Avoid caffeine, which worsen blood sugar fluctuation.

So there you have 5 simple tips to keep your blood sugar balanced and your energy flowing.  Be sure and have a small snack mid-afternoon because that is the time of day our energy and blood sugar natually drop.  A few raw almonds are a great snack for that time of day and will help keep you from grabbing a sugary snack.

Check out my website for more information, free recipes, and to join my mailing list.  You can also sign up for my free "Healthy Holiday Recipes" eBook with some great new recipes that won't mess with your blood sugar and cause that unwelcome weight gain around the middle!

Is it time to Celebrate YOU?

Is it time for you to be a priority in your own life? If you want to be closer to the top of your “to do” list, then schedule a complimentary breakthrough session. It will take you one step closer to making yourself a priority in your own life and living a life you love! One conversation could change your life!

Download your Healthy Halloween Recipes Book

Healthy Halloween Recipes

Get this fun and fabulous recipe book for your kids or your Halloween parties!

Here are some samples of what's in the Recipe Book:

Apple Bites
Carrot Finger
Creepy Cheesy Fingers
Creepy Eyeballs
Goblin Smiles
Watermelon Brains
Banana Ghosts on a Stick

and so much more!

Click on the link above to download.
  

Smoking Teeth = Poison Gas

Mercury fillings are a dangerous neuro-toxin that should never be used in anyone’s mouth. I do not understand why our medical system continues to allow and endorse the use of this horribly toxic substance, and in our teeth of all places, next to our brains! Sadly, it is about corporate profit as so many things are.




I have my own personal experience of mercury poisoning from fillings. A few years ago, I was becoming quite ill, ultimately realizing that I was feeling Iike I was being poisoned. Having been a healthy person my whole life, eating well, exercising, and always studying health and nutrition, I knew something else was seriously affecting me. I researched this on my own, and was led to much information on the dangers of mercury fillings. When I found this video on You Tube, it was the evidence I needed to commit to getting all my 30-year-old silver fillings removed. There was no biological dentist in my area, but I ask my dentist if he would learn the protocol to safely remove them, and to his credit he did learn and he did a good job, even though he had previously told me not to worry about them.

I want to spread the word so that others who may be unknowingly suffering from mercury poisoning, can become informed. At the time I was doing my research, I didn’t know about Dr. Mercola but I now know he is vehemently opposed to mercury fillings and has great information on his site. I recommend you check it out if you or anyone you know has these dangerous fillings. His link is at the bottom of this post. You also need to know that mercury is still included in many vaccines that are injected into our precious children. It is called thimerosal or brand name Merthiolate. Ask your doctor if they are in vaccines you are giving your child. No amount of mercury is safe injected into a small child, in the opinion of many, including myself. You have the choice in these matters!

What can we do to stop mercury from being used in humans, and especially our children?

First I recommend you watch this short and powerful video and you will see the vapors that are emitted constantly from silver fillings, and how this mercury lodges throughout the body, and especially in vital organs.

Second, if you are of a mind to want to put an end to the use of this poison, you can help by writing a letter. This is Dr. Merola’s recommendation: “Please write the FDA Director of the Division of Dental Devices, Anthony Watson, at: anthony.watson@fda.hhs.gov

Tell Mr. Watson of the FDA:

• Since the FDA’s own panel of scientists advises that amalgam should “definitely not” be implanted in children, pregnant women, and hypersensitive people, how soon will you take action to protect these vulnerable populations from this toxin?
• Since the FDA has a duty to tell consumers that amalgam contains mercury that can damage the neurological systems of unborn babies, children, and hypersensitive populations, when does FDA intend to clearly state this warning on its consumer website and in consumer labeling?
• Since Commissioner Hamburg claims FDA is committed to transparency, how does FDA plan to keep the public updated on its progress with regard to the amalgam issue?

Don't sit this one out. With your help we can get the FDA to finally admit to the public what scientists have known for a long time – mercury fillings are a public health and an environmental hazard, and should not ever be allowed in the bodies of pregnant women or in children!

The time to act is now!

Together we can make a lasting change and help protect pregnant women and children, along with the health of our next generation.”

The full article and others can be found here:
The Smoking Time Bomb Sitting Next to Your Brain - Has Its Moment Finally Arrived?

If you want to talk with me about my experiences, post a message on this blog or through my website. I will get back with you. Thanks for your support in spreading the word.


If you want to learn more, read the full article here:

You Are Probably NOT Getting Enough of This Vitamin

What vitamin do we need in amounts up to 25 times higher than the government recommends, for us to be healthy?

What vitamin deficiency affects over half of the population, is almost never diagnosed, and has been linked to many cancers, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic muscle pain, bone loss, and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis?

What vitamin is almost totally absent from our food supply?

What vitamin is the hidden cause of so much suffering that is so easy to treat?

If you guessed vitamin D, you're right!
  
Here is what several doctors have to say about this crucial vitamin:

Because vitamin D is so cheap and so clearly reduces all-cause mortality, I can say this with great certainty: Vitamin D represents the single most cost-effective medical intervention in the United States.

- Dr. Greg Plotnikoff, Medical Director, Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

I believe [vitamin D] is the number one public health advance in medicine in the last twenty years.

- Dr. John Whitcomb, Aurora Sinai Medical Center.

I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D. The data are really quite remarkable.

-Dr. Edward Giovannucci, Vitamin D expert.

In all my many years of practice of medicine, I've never seen one vitamin, even vitamin C, have such profound effects on human health. 

- Soram Khalsa MD

15 Facts You Probably Never Knew About Vitamin D and Sunlight Exposure
 

Vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of nutrition. That’s probably because it’s free; your body makes it when sunlight touches your skin. Truth is, most people don’t know the real story on vitamin D and health.

1. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from natural sunlight.

2. The healing rays of natural sunlight that generate vitamin D in your skin cannot penetrate glass. So you don’t generate vitamin D when sitting in your car or home.

3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body. Our bodies can produce vitamin D on their own when exposed to sunlight but the skin must be free of sunscreen, sun blocks and clothing, which all interfere with the process.

4. A person would have to drink 10 tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk each day just to get minimum levels of vitamin D into their diet.

5. The farther you live from the equator, the longer the exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most US states are far from the equator.

6. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 to 30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. This is why prostate cancer is epidemic among black men—it is a simple but widespread sunlight deficiency.

7. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your body cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.

8. Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight; it takes months of vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure to rebuild the body’s bones and nervous system.

9. Even weak sunscreens (SPF 8) block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D by 95%. Sunscreen products can actually cause disease by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.

10. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: your body will self-regulate and only generate what it needs.

11. If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you may be suffering from chronic vitamin D deficiency right now.

12. Vitamin D is activated in your body by your kidneys and liver before it can be used.

13. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body’s ability to activate circulating vitamin D.

14. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required.
     

There is no Junk Food. There is Food and there is Junk.

Case in point:  I just recently heard about the article by Karen Hanrahan back in 2008.  It's about a 12 year old McDonalds hamburger that looks virtually like it did when it was purchased.  Karen says in her post:

"This is a hamburger from McDonalds that I purchased in 1996.  That was 12 years ago.  Note that it looks exactly like it did the very day I bought it.  The flecks on the burger are crumbs from the bun.  The burger is starting to crumble a bit.  It has the oddest smell."

Here is her picture:

So, is this food, junk food, or a chemical concoction made to look like food?  I'll leave you to your own interpretation.

By definition, food is "any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc."  (from dictionary.com).  This burger seems to be anti-food in my mind, as I do not see how it could do any of those things.  In fact, I'm quite sure the body considers it an unnatural substance and has a hard time dealing with it.  

If you have watched the movie "Super Size Me", you can see what a steady diet of this anti-food can do and its not pretty!  In fact, its potentially dangerous.  My point with this is, that there is food (whole/unaltered/natural) that the body knows what to do with, and there is anti-food (altered/manufactured/processed) that is a foreign substance.  It takes a lot of your body's energy to deal with this anti-food which is providing little to no nutrition. 

You have a choice in how you feed your body.  Choose what will sustain life, provide energy, and promote growth.  I will be speaking a lot about whole foods and my recipes consist of whole food ingredients that are easy to prepare and taste great!   Stay tuned.

Watch Your (Fo)odometer!

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Here is a link to my newsletter, "Healthy Lifestyle Solutions". You can access my current and previous newsletters here.

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Confused About Food?

Everyone already knows we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains, and we should exercise regularly, to be healthy. They don't need me or anyone else to tell them that. So why are we as a nation, getting more obese and unhealthy every day?

Well, for one thing, it is complicated to figure out what is healthy and what is not in our food supply today. With genetically modified foods, factory farming, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, additives, preservatives, flavor enhancers, and who knows what else in grocery store and fast food, most people need some help in clearing up this confusing mess so they can feed themselves and their family with the confidence that they are being nourished, and without the fear that they are inadvertently poisoning them in the process!

I have been interested in health and nutrition for most of my life. I read Prevention Magazine at my grandmother's house when I was in early grade school. I helped in her gardens and cooked and preserved foods with my mother. I encouraged my children to eat a wide variety of whole foods, and limited fast food and sugary snacks.  Eating healthy has been my life's quest, but I must admit, I had become confused myself with what to eat. It seemed there was a new diet coming out every other week, that was supposed to be the answer to our problems. And the newest diet likely contradicted the philosophy of one or more of the previous diets!

And then there is the yo-yo diet syndrome that many women of my generation know all to well. What we found after years of that dieting mindset was that none of them worked long term, most of them weren't healthy, and now years later, because of the yo-yo'ing, we can't lose weight at all through dieting!  It is time for a new approach.

So alas, as I am a determined sort, I came to find a way out of this dilemma, and I want to share what I have learned about health and nutrition. Life is our greatest teacher and I have done my share of experimenting on myself with each new diet trend, nutritional supplement, or self-improvement book that I have studied or tried. Don't get me wrong, many of them are great, but the problem for me was that many times I would let the opinion or recommendation of someone else override my own innate knowing of what is right for me.

My way out of the confusion came gradually to me as I began to rely on my own intuition, and began to realize that just because it worked for the author or spokesperson, it may not be right for me. And then I found the Institute for Integrative Nutrition which sort of pieced it all together for me. Their curriculum is based on "bio-individuality", meaning one person's food may be another person's poison. At IIN, we learn from the best of the best -- leading edge holistic health, nutrition, and wellness experts. I'm sure you would recognize many of them.  It has been an enlightening and empowering experience and I am ready to pay it forward.  I hope to help guide others on their journey of self-discovery, in a way that is right for them!

Welcome to Feeding Life Force!

Definition of Life Force:   the vital force or impulse of life; one's source of vitality, spirit, energy, and strength; also called élan vital
(www.dictionary.com)

Feeding Life Force is about eating for energy, health, strength and vitality in a way that nourishes our body, our mind, and our spirit.  And it is about feeding our life force not only through food, but also our lifestyle choices.