Detox Tele-Class Testimonials – Straight From My Members

Posted by Alex on March 8, 2010 at 2:20 pm

I’ve just finished my latest 8 week detox tele-class, and I’m feeling bitter sweet about wrapping up. It’s such a pleasure to create a community of women who all want to feel better, find a new path and work to support each other.

My past members are saying great things about the benefits of my tele-classes:

“I lost 10 pounds, have more energy at night to play with my kids and my digestion is so much better! I prioritize myself and my health – that has been key. By focusing on my own health concerns and what I needed to eat my entire family is doing better. I have a bigger chunk of life to enjoy!

This whole process has been really empowering – no more bloating, no more gas, I finally lost that dress size I’ve been working on for ages, have less congestion, and my skin looks better too. ”

- Sarah C, New York City

“I’m most happy about finally being caffeine free. I have less congestion and I notice what foods negatively affect my digestion. I feel less frantic, less rushed, I’m sleeping better and I can think clearer – all this from changing my eating habits!”

- S., Oahu, Hawii

“Working with Alex has been a wonderful experience for me. It’s been wonderful for my husband, too! He’s satisfied and happy with our meals that are based on whole foods. I have a different idea of what health is now.”

- Christine, North Carolina

Filed under: Uncategorized

Does this look like your shopping cart?

Posted by Alex on at 2:05 pm

I was standing in line at the local grocery store after working out at my local YMCA and taking a nice steam bath. I noticed the woman in front of me in the check-out line was also a member at the Y – I had seen her around the stationary bikes before. She was still in her workout clothes and we both smiled and nodded in recognition. Blonde, athletic and slim, this woman seems to be the picture of a healthy American. She just came from the gym!

But when I looked at the food she was buying, my mouth dropped open:

Equal, a plastic lemon, low-fat, non-organic milk, bacon, Pam Cooking Spray and Gatorade.

Does this look like your shopping cart?

The groceries this woman was buying might be shortening her life span and taking her quality of life down a notch. Here’s what I mean:

Equal: AKA Aspartame

In 1996, the FDA approved its use as a “general purpose sweetener,” and it can now be found in more than 6,000 foods. Serious complaints associated with this artificial sweetener:

Depression: In a study of the effect of aspartame on 40 patients with depression, the study was cut short due to the severity of reactions within the first 13 patients tested. The outcome showed that individuals with mood disorders were particularly sensitive to aspartame and recommended that it be avoided by them.

Headaches: Three randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled studies with more than 200 adult migraine sufferers showed that headaches were more frequent and more severe in the aspartame-treated group.

Instead: Try Stevia or Brown Rice Syrup

PAM: Cooking Spray

The oil isn’t organic, meaning chemical solvents could be found in trace amounts in the fatty liquid. PAM also uses propellants, including isobutane and propane, for the spraying action.

Instead: Use your own high-quality cooking oils and buy a refillable pump sprayer

Low-Fat, Non-Organic Milk:

Non-organic dairy cows are given constant doses of antibiotics to ward off infection in their cramped, unclean living conditions, and growth hormones to increase their milk supply. Both antibiotics and growth hormones can be found in trace amounts in non-organic dairy products.

Dairy consumption has been linked with higher rates of prostate and breast cancers, heart disease and Type 2 Diabetes. Symptoms of milk-protein allergy include asthma, cough, runny nose, sinus infections and recurring ear infections.

Instead: Use any other plant milk like almond, hemp, rice or soy

PLASTIC LEMONS: pasteurized lemon juice

The Vitamin C or ascorbic acid levels are greatly reduced in this “convenience food,” so you’ll get more flavor and health benefits from a real lemon. Acidic foods like lemon juice can also degrade the plastic and leach chemicals into the juice.

Instead: Try real lemons and juice them.

GATORADE: electrolyte replacement sports drink

High fructose corn syrup, numerous other sugars, and food colorings added to enhance “flavor perception” are just a few of the ingredients in this drink. Skip the mind-bending excito-toxins and added sweeteners.

Instead: Try young coconut water or those little Emercen-C packets and water.

Filed under: Food-Mood Connection, Hidden Sugars, Women's Health

The Food-Mood Connection, Part 1: My Story

Posted by Alex on at 12:53 pm

I was 25 years old and I felt tired, cranky, foggy and depressed. Every morning was a struggle, every afternoon was a blur, and every evening I crashed into bed totally depleted. I knew I wasn’t supposed to feel this bad, and I couldn’t go on this way.

I grew up healthy, full of energy and had a positive outlook on life. Even with a family history of mental illness and depression I had managed to dodge the genetic-bullet and usually felt pretty sunny, even in the wet, grey wilds of Oregon, my home state. Or had I?

Here I was, just starting my career path, and I was scared that the depression that had plagued and debilitated members of my family was finally showing up in me. So I went to a doctor. He wanted to put me on Prozac, saying “It could really help you feel better. You’ll probably have to take it for the rest of your life.”

What? Was my body lacking a prescription drug? That didn’t feel like the right path for me. I knew there had to be another option.

I started listening to Gary Null’s radio show on healthy living daily on my local radio station. I began to suspect that my diet had something to do with my mood and lack of energy. Oh, and the weight gain! I was up to 150 pounds, and I had never weighed more than 135! Something was afoot.

I made an appointment with a more holistic doctor who used Kinesiology, muscle testing, and nutrition as part of his overall methodology. The first thing he asked about was my diet. No other doctor had EVER asked me what I ate in relation to how I was feeling. So, I was honest and told him what my diet was like at that time:

Breakfast: cereal with milk, coffee with milk and sugar

Lunch: fast food, soda, french fries, Subway sandwiches, potato chips, fruit

Snacks: candy, soda

Dinner: pasta, pizza, take-out, soda, alcohol a few nights a week

This wonderful doctor pointed out that I wasn’t eating any fresh food, and that I was literally eating myself into depression, weight gain and fatigue.

Oh. I knew he was right. I had always been a skinny kid and got away with grim dietary habits for a long time because I didn’t put on weight easily. But now I was ready to do something about it.

I had hit bottom, and I knew my food choices were killing me….

*End Part 1

Filed under: Food-Mood Connection

Raw Soup? Awesome taste and detox in a bowl!

Posted by Alex on March 2, 2010 at 8:56 am

Drinking your vegetables is a convenient and energizing way to eat while cleansing your body from the Standard American Diet. Blending a bunch of veggies together means you’ll eat more heal-giving ingredients in a sitting, and your body will digest them easier. Why is that?

Your teeth have to do a lot of work to chew vegetables well enough to get all the available nutrition out of raw vegetables. By blending the ingredients first, your body will be able to access all those lovely vitamins and minerals more easily.

I love this recipe because the avocado is high in essential fatty acids and you can easily change the flavor by mixing up the herbs and spices mentioned or by alternating between lemon and lime. This also makes a great breakfast! Just trust me – starting your day with raw vegetables instead of a sugary refined carbohydrate will change your energy in a major way.

Ingredients:

1 ripe Haas avocado, pitted and scooped

2 scallions, diced green and white parts

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1 cucumber, peeled if waxy

2 handfuls of spinach

1 small clove garlic

1 teaspoon Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Juice of 1 lemon or lime

Optional: fresh parsley, basil leaves, cilantro, cayenne powder, almonds soaked overnight in water and drained, etc.

Blend all the ingredients together until creamy – enjoy!

Filed under: Recipes, Special Diets, detox recipes

Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”

Posted by Alex on February 25, 2010 at 12:52 pm

Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”

Yield: 3-4 servings

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

2-3 tablespoons unsweetened, plain soymilk

3 tablespoons vegan margarine (Earth Balance)

1-2 teaspoons white or chickpea miso paste

freshly ground black pepper

freshly minced chives, garnish

  1. Preheat oven to 325F.
  2. Steam cauliflower for 10-12 minutes, until fork tender.
  3. Lightly oil a 9 inch baking dish and set aside.
  4. Transfer steamed cauliflower to a food processor or blender.
  5. Add soymilk, margarine, miso and pepper and puree until smooth.
  6. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake, uncovered, about 6-8 minutes, until slightly bubbling. Sprinkle chives and fold in, serve hot.
Filed under: Uncategorized

Macrobiotics Saved My Finger!

Posted by Alex on February 23, 2010 at 9:11 am

I cook a lot. Sometimes my son cooks with me, and sometimes my son plays under my feet while I cook. Both of these scenarios are sweet and create wonderful memories, but sometimes kitchen work is dangerous.

I was distracted this morning by a little person playing with magnets by my knees at the dish washer, and I slipped and cut my pinkie finger with my very sharp and very useful kitchen scissors. Blood started gushing from the deep laceration, and my first thought was:
“This does not look good.”

It was so deep I briefly considered heading up to the emergency room to ask about stitches. But then I remembered and old macrobiotic trick that can help your body heal from a deep cut quickly and painlessly. It only requires 2 ingredients that you can find pretty easily online or in a health food store:

Dentie Powder: A black powder made from ground sea salt and charred eggplant, this traditional tooth and gum cleaner can be dusted directly on a clean cut.

Nori Paper: Yes, that lovely sea vegetable paper that we know and love to wrap our sushi with can also help heal your cuts! Nature’s band-aid can help hold a cut together well.

Here’s how I wrapped my cut:

1. Clean and dry the cut.

2. Dust the cut with dentie powder:

3. Wrap the cut with a small piece of nori



4. Wrap the nori-covered cut with a clean bandage:


Rock on! This really works well, and after an hour, the throbbing has stopped and I’m back to typing away.

Just goes to show that food can heal your insides and your outsides!
Be well,
Alexandra

Filed under: Uncategorized

Win Osteo-Sun Vegan Vitamin D from Dr. Fuhrman! Comment here:

Posted by Alex on February 16, 2010 at 10:29 am

Click here to order Osteo-Sun from Dr. Fuhrman!

Dr. Fuhrman, a giant in the natural health field, has just launched a new supplement that I’m thrilled with. A quality vegan, Vitamin D that will help protect your bones? Fantastic!

Read about this high-quality product below and leave a comment by Friday, February 19th, and you could win a free bottle!

Vitamin D, the Right Stuff

It does not seem that vegetarians or vegans are more likely to become Vitamin D deficient than non-vegans, but much of the general population is simply not getting enough! Read on to learn why Vitamin D is so vital to your health and well being and how to get the highest quality VEGAN Vitamin D supplement from a trusted physician.

It is extremely important for individuals with limited sun exposure to ingest supplemental vitamin D.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is made in your body after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. Scientists have found that Vitamin D has biological actions in almost every cell and tissue in the human body.  What is troublesome is that vitamin D deficiency is now recognized as a pandemic, affecting 30-50% of the population.1 The amount of vitamin D contained in most multivitamins (400 IU) is simply not enough to fuel all of vitamin D’s vital processes in the body.

Research suggests that vitamin D is important to maintain a healthy immune system, regulate cell growth, and prevent osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Vitamin D has been shown to protect against the development of autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.1-2

Food sources of vitamin D are scarce – exposure to sunlight provides most humans with their vitamin D requirement. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Season, time of day, cloud cover, smog, and sunscreen affect UV ray exposure and vitamin D synthesis. For example, sunlight exposure from November through February in Boston is insufficient to produce significant vitamin D synthesis in the skin. Melanin is the pigment that gives skin its color. The high melanin content in darker skin reduces the skin’s ability to produce vitamin D from sunlight. It is very important for African Americans and other populations with dark-pigmented skin to consume recommended amounts of vitamin D. Some studies suggest that older adults, especially women, in these groups are at extremely high risk of vitamin D deficiency. There is also considerable evidence to suggest that the epidemic vitamin D deficiency in black men contributes to their high prevalence of prostate cancer.

Vitamin D and Bone Health

Vitamin D sends signals to the intestines to increase the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. By promoting calcium absorption, vitamin D helps to form and maintain strong bones. Vitamin D also works in concert with a number of other vitamins, minerals, and hormones to promote bone mineralization.  Recent medical studies document that vitamin D is more effective than calcium for protecting and building bone. In fact, too much calcium can interfere with the conversion of vitamin D into its biologically active form.3 Therefore, high dose calcium, (especially without a corresponding increase in vitamin D) consumed by so many women, is not the most effective way to increase bone density and may even increase cancer risk as a result of lower vitamin D function. The modern world has an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency and most often a multivitamin containing the RDA for D is simply insufficient to bring blood levels up to the ideal range, especially as we age.

Vitamin D and Cancer
Vitamin D regulates several genes and cellular processes related to cancer progression.  Epidemiologic evidence indicates that vitamin D is protective against several common cancers including cancers of the breast, prostate, pancreas, lung, colon, and endometrium.4

Dr. Fuhrman’s Osteo–Sun vegan formula

Features:

  • Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) a fat–soluble vitamin which stimulates the intestines to increase absorption of calcium and phosphorus.
  • Balanced calcium and magnesium for optimal absorption.
  • Necessary for bone–making and bone–maintenance.
  • Added silica, a trace mineral also a major constituent of collagen.

Benefits:

  • Essential for bone growth and maintenance of bone density.
  • Increases calcium absorption to maximize bone health.
  • Promotes strong bones, hair, and nails.
  • Formulated to reduce the risk of, and for the treatment of, osteoporosis.
  • Vital for maintaining a healthy immune system, regulating cell growth, & preventing cancer.

Osteo–Sun vegan formulation is a nutritional supplement designed by Dr. Fuhrman, not only for protection and therapy for osteoporosis, but also for both men and women who desire optimal health. It has been specifically formulated to be higher in vitamin D and lower in calcium and magnesium compared to most other supplements designed for bone health to meet the needs of individuals who work indoors and are not exposed to adequate sunlight to produce optimal levels of vitamin D. Silica has been added to further promote bone mineral density and stronger hair and nails.5

Dr. Fuhrman’s Osteo–Sun vegan formulation gives you the extra vitamin D you need, silica for stronger bones, hair and nails, and just the right dose of calcium and magnesium to bring your intake to the best level to maximize bone health.

Dr. Fuhrman’s Osteo–Sun vegan formulation is designed with each capsule supplying 600 IUs of vitamin D2 so that two to six capsules per day can be utilized depending on each person’s individual needs. Osteo-Sun vegan formulation utilizes vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), a form of the vitamin which is obtained only from plant sources. Some forms of Vitamin D are not vegan. The most common form found in supplements is cholecalciferol, or Vitamin D3, which is derived from sheeps’ wool. The higher levels of vitamin D2 used in Osteo-sun vegan are sufficient to adjust for its lower vitamin activity.

Suggested Use: 2 – 4 capsules daily.
Serving Size: 3 Capsules
Servings Per Container: 60
Supplement Facts: Amount per Serving %DV
Vitamin D (as ergocalciferol) 1800 IU 450%
Calcium (as calcium citrate and calcium amino acid chelate) 375 mg 38%
Magnesium (as magnesium oxide, magnesium aspartate, and magnesium glychinate) 150 mg 38%
** Daily Value (DV) not established
Other ingredients: Cellulose, magnesium stearate and silica.
Osteo-Sun is gluten free.
Contains corn or corn derivatives.

References:

1. American Heart Association. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2009 Update. Dallas; AHA:2009. Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. 2008 Dec 15.

Lee JH et al. Vitamin D deficiency an important, common, and easily treatable cardiovascular risk factor? J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008 Dec 9;52(24):1949-56.

2. Holick MF. Sunlight and vitamin D for bone health and prevention of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular disease. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;80(suppl):1678S- 88S

3. Giovannucci E Cancer Causes Control 1998 Dec;9(6):567-82 Dietary influences of 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D in relation to prostate cancer: a hypothesis.

4. Peterlik M et al. Calcium, vitamin D and cancer. Anticancer Res. 2009 Sep;29(9):3687-98.

5. Lassus A. Colloidal silicic acid for oral and topical treatment of aged skin, fragile hair and brittle nails in females. J Int Med Res. 1993 Jul-Aug;21(4):209-15. Jugdaohsingh R, Tucker KL, Qiao N, Cupples LA, Kiel DP, Powell JJ. Dietary silicon intake is positively associated with bone mineral density in men and premenopausal women of the Framingham Offspring cohort. J Bone Miner Res. 2004 Feb;19(2):297-307. Carlisle EM. Silicon as a trace nutrient. Sci Total Environ. 1988 Jul 1;73(1-2):95-106. Rico H, Gallego-Lago JL, Hernandez ER, et al. Effect of silicon supplement on osteopenia induced by ovariectomy in rats. Calcif Tissue Int. 2000;66:53-55.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Win Free Natural Health Care Products, Women's Health

Cashew Cheese for Lazy Dairy Lovers

Posted by Alex on at 10:09 am

I often hear clients say that giving up cheese is the hardest step towards living a dairy-free life. Creamy and savory, with a whopping dose of fat, cheese causes many people digestive problems. Along with constipation, gas, and diarrhea, dairy also delivers fat-soluble toxins, massive amounts of cholesterol and lactose. So many women have reported incredible benefits from avoiding dairy that I’m always on the search for new ways to include a cheesy substitute easily to the modern diet.

Try this simple, satisfying cashew cheese recipe and vive la difference!

1 cup cashews, soaked overnight and drained

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt (more or less to taste)

juice from 1 lemon

1 clove garlic, minced

Put all in a food processor and pulse for 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides and blend for 20 seconds. Scrape the sides down again and blend until smooth and creamy. **Tastes great with gluten free Mary’s Gone Crackers!

Filed under: Recipes, Uncategorized, detox recipes

My book launch party! Check out the video!

Posted by Alex on February 12, 2010 at 7:39 am

Filed under: Uncategorized

Your Right to Buy Vitamins is At Risk! Read and Sign Today!

Posted by Alex on February 11, 2010 at 12:18 pm

Senator John McCain Introduces Bill Attacking Consumer Access to Supplements

This bill would repeal key sections of the Dietary Supplement Healthand Education Act, which guarantees consumers the right to purchase dietary supplements.

Please contact your senators now to tell them not to so-sponsor this Anti-Consumer, Anti-Health Freedom Bill:

http://www.anh-usa.org/new_site/?p=2326

McCain’s so-called Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) would repeal key sections of the popular Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). It would give the FDA unilateral power, with little or no scientific justification, to ban vitamin supplements except for those produced by Big Pharma corporations.

If McCain’s bill passes, we can look to Europe for a snapshot of what we may be in for: EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, has sharply reduced the list of available supplements and is in process of reducing potencies to ridiculous levels, such as less beta carotene than can be found in half of a large carrot. Europeans already look to the US to obtain their dietary supplements. If this bill passes, where will we obtain ours?

Please take action immediately. Tell your senators NOT to co-sponsor the McCain’s anti-consumer legislation and to do everything in their power to defeat it:

http://www.anh-usa.org/new_site/?p=2326

Filed under: Supplements
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