Eating Good & Feeling Good - 11 Day Winter Detox

I am happy to share the Eating Good & Feeling Good - 11 Day Winter Detox with you! As I mentioned in my post 2014 - Great Expectations creating this detox is the first item on my agenda in this new year of loving myself more.

If you have heard that detoxing is good for you and that it is usually done in the the Spring and Summer, then you may be wondering why you would want to do a detox in the winter.

Hippocrates, in teaching the doctors of his day, said, “Consider the seasons of the year and what each of them produces.”

Detoxing prepares your body for the next season, which is essential for optimal health and vitality. It improves your immune function, keeping the common cold at bay, which is an added benefit in the winter.

In the winter, we detox differently than at other times of the year, aiming to nourish and strengthen the body. Some animals hibernate, and we humans have a similar instinct to slow down. No matter where you live and what the climate is like in the winter, our bodies and minds naturally go inward this season. It is a time to allow for stillness and just be. 

Each season’s detox supports a different organ, emotion, and a different way to cleanse the body. For the winter season, in Chinese medicine we honor the organs within our bodies that give us energy, life, and vitality, which are the kidneys and adrenal glands. The element associated with these organs is water, and by eating seasonally and honoring the seasonal elements, we intuitively bring our bodies back into balance.

According to Chinese medicine, the kidneys are your energy source, also known as your vital Qi (pronounced “chee”). The following symptoms are associated with weak kidney function:

• Low back pain
• Fatigue
• The afternoon 4 pm crash 
• Cold hands and feet
• Poor circulation
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Hormonal imbalances
• Low sex drive
• Digestive disorders
• Sleep problems- especially if you wake at 4 am

The program I have developed will help you nourish the water element by bringing in more foods that nourish the kidneys and bladder this season. By eating the foods in the Eating Good & Feeling Good program, you will strengthen and support your vital energy force. You can think of your kidneys as your engine tank. Every car needs a well-functioning engine to run efficiently.

As you nourish your kidneys, you will see changes such as:

• Your anxiety will lessen or disappear
• Your hair will shine 
• Your nails will strengthen
• If you suffer from anemia, your iron count will improve
• Bags under your eyes will diminish or disappear
• Urinary tract problems will improve or go away
• Lower back pain will lessen or subside
• Your sleep will improve
• Your cravings will subside

If you would like more information about the Eating Good & Feeling Good Winter Detox sign-up to receive a Free-Sneak Peak Booklet! In this booklet you will learn what is included in the detox and get a preview of what kind of recipes you will be enjoying during the detox. 

The official launch date is February 2, 2014 stay tuned!

Click on the picture to get the Sneak Peak!: 

Do you know what is in your Pet's food?

Oliver the Cat

My family and I were given a cat about two weeks ago; this was an exciting event for all of us. His name is Oliver and he a very sweet and pretty animal. As soon as we made the decision that we were going to take him we began thinking about food, kitty litter and other cat care items. We agreed that we didn’t want to feed Oliver a typical grain based chemical cat food mostly because we didn’t want to spend a large amount of money on cat food that would probably make him sick when we could very likely feed him the food we eat and keep him healthy. Since we don’t have any knowledge of what whole foods are safe for cats, we looked up and purchased a book called “The Whole Pet Diet, Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs and Cats” by Andi Brown so we could figure exactly what whole foods Oliver can eat.

I started reading the book as soon as it came in the mail I was surprised when in the first 17 pages it read just like the nutrition and health books I have read. It talked about the “Pet Food Industry” designing its food to make it irresistible to pets even though it’s filled with chemicals, grains, salt and sugar. Does this sound familiar to you? In this book Andi also talks about the diseases our pets are being diagnosed with in recent years and how it’s on the rise. These are diseases such as; liver disease, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, skin problems, digestive disorders, tumors, and joint and back problems. This is where the pharmaceutical industry comes in and makes all kinds of expensive drugs and treatments so that we can keep our pets alive.

Do you see the parallel here? American pets are getting sick eating the same type of diet that American humans are eating; grain, sugar, salt and chemical laden foods. The thought of giving a pet insulin shots for diabetes just seems absurd to me, since when do animals get diabetes? Apparently since their food supply was adulterated with the same things that make us humans develop diabetes.

So what does Andi say is a good diet for cats and dogs? Surprise, surprise its whole foods based, includes vegetables, good quality meat, some greens and those wonderful essential fatty acids. Again does this sound familiar? It makes so much sense to me after reading it, if grain, sugar, salt and chemical foods are killing us humans what makes us think these products are any better for our pets who have less robust systems than ours?  Andi’s book is an eight week program that addresses more than what to feed our cats and dogs but also address our pets Primary Foods. It is a holistic approach to our pets health that will keep them happy and healthy for many years. I am very excited about this book and I cannot wait to get started with the program. Our sweet cat Oliver will be getting whole nutritious foods and feeling vital and energized just we do!

Please take note of your pets health, are they feeling energized, happy and full of life? If not it may be time to think about how their health can be improved. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in holistic health for your pets.

Wishing you and your pets fulfilled and happy lives!

2014 - Great Expectations!

I love the New Year, it always brings a great sense of new beginnings, anything is possible and nothing is unattainable. This year my resolution is to be nicer to myself, to love my self-more and to be less critical. Life is a long time and I don't want spend another second being less than loving with myself.

For me that means giving my body what it needs to renew itself. The human body is an amazing gift from the universe! It truly is a vessel of the soul without it we would not be able to have the wondrous and agonizing experiences of life. There would be no feelings of exhilaration, love, anger, joy or despair… all those feelings that let us know we are alive.

Our bodies take a lot of abuse from us, mostly because we have never been taught that we need to care for them and love them just as much as we do our families, friends and spouses. We barrage them with chemicals and foods that are hard to digest and have no value to the body. Because our bodies are so amazing they keep up with this constant insult doing the best they can to keep us alive and functioning well. However, just like any over-worked unappreciated being they eventually become overwhelmed and burned out. The job of cleansing and detoxing becomes too big and they start to slow down.

You may already be noticing this in your own body; you may be experiencing overload symptoms such as:

• Brain fog
• Indigestion
• Heart Burn
• Fatigue
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Headaches
• Body aches
• Bloating
• Weight gain
• Poor Sleep

You may even have seen your doctor about these bothersome symptoms and received a prescription or recommendation for an over the counter remedy. You take the prescription or remedy and feel better for a little while and then the symptoms return or the side-effects of the prescription cause more problems.

Prescriptions and over the counter remedies definitely have their helpful uses, however in the long run they are not solving the problem, they are only hiding the symptoms so you can forget that there is a problem for a while longer. These symptoms are your body’s cries for help, attention and love.

A wholefoods cleanse or detox is a great way to give your body a much needed break and allow it to heal itself.

This is what two of my teachers at IIN are saying about detoxing:

Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Blood Sugar Solution:

“When our bodies become toxic, it means that our natural method of ushering out metabolic waste from normal human metabolism, environmental pollution, and what has become known as the Standard American Diet (or SAD) has exceeded the threshold for what the body’s innate detoxification system can tolerate. With this toxic load, every system in the human body can become affected. From our head to our toes and everything in between, toxicity makes us sick!”

Donna Gates, author of The Body Ecology Diet:

“Your body cleanses on a daily basis. It’s Nature’s gift to you that keeps illness away, gives you energy, and allows you to think clearly. But too many people are getting used to feeling “not so well”. Too many people live with the painful effects of a toxic system and remain unbalanced in their thinking, emotions, and physical health. You certainly don’t have to be one of them.”

Because of the way we live and eat our bodies are constantly bombarded with chemicals and toxic substances and they simply can’t keep up. A whole foods cleanse takes out the chemicals and toxic substances for a short period of time to allow the body to catch-up in the detoxing processes it performs every day.

The first item on my agenda in this new year of loving myself more is to give my body a break and to nourish it with fresh, whole, beautiful foods. I am working on an 11 day winter detox that will:

• Revitalize my body
• Reduce inflammation
• Reboot my cells
• Help me lose weight naturally

I am looking forward to sharing this program with all of you when I have it finished. I can feel great things are coming!

What is your resolution for 2014? What are you excited about and what is one thing you can do in this month to help you achieve your goals?


Wishing you love and compassion in this exciting New Year!

Cooking Class in January 2014

Have you tried cooking leafy greens before and were disappointed to find that they taste and look lousy?

Have you heard that leafy greens are really great for a healthy balanced diet but have no idea what to do with them?

Do you believe that leafy greens are only for salads?

In this class you will learn about the many benefits of glorious greens, how fun and easy it is to cook these fantastic veggies and the tools you need to prepare and enjoy them on your own.
That old saying "you are what you eat" is still true today and cooking your own food is the best way to eat whole nutritious foods that will give you energy and vitality for the life you deserve!

Join me for a fantastic opportunity to:

• learn how to cook greens properly so they look and taste good
• energize your diet and your life
• Feel lighter and think clearer
• Do something positive for yourself and your family 

Included in this class:

• 4 Recipes for the meals prepared in the class and 2 additional recipes to try on your own.
• A packet of nutrition information about glorious greens.
• A sampling of the food prepared in the class. 
• A special gift to take home.

Sign-Up Now!

Don't wait, space is limited, sign-up by January 4th and get the early bird rate of $20.00(reg $35).

                                    

Do you have a picky eater in your house?

Eeew! Not Broccoli!

Most children have an aversion to vegetables and some more than others. Then there are children who seem to be the pickiest eaters in the world with aversions to almost every food! I encountered one such child when I moved in with my husband and step-son.

I was surprised to find out that my 3 year-old step son would only eat; chicken nuggets, french fries, mac and cheese in a box, white rice, buttered white noodles, PB&J sandwiches, apples and a few other very specific white foods.

I soon realized his pickyness went further than just a preference for specific foods; he would only eat a very specific kind of french fry and when he started eating pizza (which he refused to eat at first) it had to be a specific kind/brand of pizza. Any variance of any kind from the usual, sight, smell and/or texture and he would refuse to eat it, even if it still tasted the same! So, for about two years I would make food for myself and my husband and then make his foods for him. If we tried to give him something else he would not eat anything, and then he would be up all night because he was hungry. Hungry three-year-olds who are not sleeping are very cranky come morning time!

However, there came a point when getting vegetables into him and teaching him about a healthy diet became too important to ignore. He was about 5 years-old when we decided to implement a rule that he needed to try one new food every night at dinner time. It is now three years later, he likes most vegetables I serve him and he is no longer afraid to try new foods. Ya!

If you have a picky eater here are some tools and tips that may help you both try new foods and enjoy vegetables:

1. Start out simple: start with very simple vegetables. Steamed broccoli, add a little butter and a smidgen of salt. Or boiled carrots with a small amount of butter and salt. Complex flavors usually turn picky eaters off. Also if they cannot easily identify what is on their plate they will not want to eat it. 
2. Start with very small portions, one bite of a “new food” at dinner time every day. Then over time start to increase the serving size. If you give too much to start with, the child will feel defeated before they have begun and will not even bother trying one bite. 
3. Give praise for trying new foods: even if they make a face and tell you very clearly that it is disgusting, it is important to give them positive reinforcement. Tell them they did a good job trying that new food. 
4. Don’t take it personally. Children, especially small children, live in a world that revolves around them. So when they tell you that your cooking stinks they don’t understand that they could be hurting your feelings, they are thinking about how the food affects them and that is all they are capable of right now.
5. Get your child involved in the cooking process. It was always much easier to get my step-son to try a new food when he was the one who prepare it himself. He still enjoys helping in the kitchen and is not afraid of the vegetables!
6. Admit when you have botched a recipe. If you have made something that did not turn out good and you don’t like it yourself then say that. It will lend credibility with your child. They need to know that vegetables can be cooked in a way that makes them gross and they can be cooked in a way that makes them taste awesome! Remember that if the vegetable is not completely delicious to you, it is probably gross to your child’s sensitive palate. 
7. Try new foods with your child. Pick out a food that you have never had before either, prepare it together and talk about what you like and don’t like about it. Show your child that you practice what you preach and try new foods with them!
8. Patience, above all else is mandatory! It took about three years of continuous effort, love and patience for my step-son to be able to enjoy and eat almost everything I put in front of him.

Here is a great Kale recipe that my whole family enjoys including my 8 year-old step son:

Basic No-Fat, No-Fuss, Colorful Kale

From the book: Greens Glorious Greens by Johnna Albi & Catherine Walthers

Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients:

3/4 Pound Kale (about 6 cups, chopped)

2    Cups Water

3    Carrots, peeled and quartered lengthwise

8    Ounces of Frozen Corn

      Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Wash kale and strip leaves from the stalk. Discard stalks and chop leaves into bite-size pieces. Set Aside.
2. Bring water to boil in a large skillet that has a tight-fitting lid.
3. Meanwhile, cut the quartered carrots into ½ inch pieces. Place carrots and corn in the boiling water, reduce heat. Cover skillet, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Add prepared kale to carrots and corn. Cover and cook for 4 minutes. Water should be bubbling rather vigorously but not boiling over. 
5. Sprinkle on salt to taste, stir to combine, and remove to a serving dish with a slotted spoon. Serve hot.

Wishing you patience and love in your journey to trying new foods!

Eating Greens

This week I have been trying out a new recipe almost every day from this great book that was recommended by IIN. 

Greens Glorious Greens! By Johnna Albi and CatherineWalthers is everything you ever wanted to know about greens and how to cook them. I for one am very surprised at how wonderful they actually are.

I was not a vegetable eater six years ago. I didn’t know how to cook anything that didn’t come in a box with directions. I grew up only enjoying canned green beans, corn, carrots and potatoes in every form. I also enjoyed the typical iceberg lettuce salad drenched in creamy dressing. I was offered other vegetables but vowed that I hated all of them. After joining a weight loss program six years ago, I realized that if I was going to be serious about following their plan I had to learn how to cook and how to enjoy vegetables. I wouldn’t be eating much if I didn’t start eating vegetables! At about the same time I read that in order to enjoy vegetables you have to train your palette to get used to the taste. This means you have to eat vegetables every day and the more often you eat the same ones the quicker you will like them. I decided to start with broccoli (a common, yet long hated vegetable for me), after some notable failed attempts a cooking in general and also at cooking broccoli, I began to figure out how to cook it in such a way that I could tolerate it. Over time I really started to enjoy it and now I love it!

I  have since broadened my horizons and now enjoy other “exotic” vegetables such as; onions, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, sprouts, garlic and many others.

Leafy Greens are an area of the vegetable kingdom that I have not explored much, mostly because I would see them in the store and think: “Wow, those look great and I know they are so good for me… but what the hell am I going to do with them?” As synchronicity would have it IIN recommends the Greens Glorious Greens book as a give-away to our clients. I am not about to recommend or give away anything I haven’t researched and tried myself so I decided to purchase this book on greens and then after reading it I was so excited I decided to design a cooking class around it. Seven day ago I started to try the recipes so that I could compile the ones I thought would be best for my cooking class.

I was surprised to find that after three days of eating greens, I was really enjoying them and looking forward to eating more every day. One afternoon I chose to be hungry for 3 hours and wait for greens instead of ordering at a pizza place :-) Feeling tired and overly hungry is usually my trigger for not cooking and then ordering out something greasy and heavy. But on this afternoon I wanted my next helping of leafy greens more than anything else!

Another great side effect is I have rediscovered my joy of cooking! The greens recipes in this book are easy and quick so I can make a different one each night and only spend 30 minutes doing it. This really gets my creative juices flowing and energizes me to want to do more for my own health and the health of my business.

My family is really enjoying the new recipes as well. I am so happy to have finally delved into this great new world of leafy greens, yummm!

Here are my thoughts on the greens I have tried this week: The Arugula was surprisingly yummy, the collards and Kale were mild greens that took on the flavor of what they were cooked in and were delicious. I found the broccoli rabe to be bitter and hard to enjoy in the recipe I chose. I put fresh shredded parmesan and baked chicken on mine and was able to mostly enjoy eating it. I’ll keep trying until I find the right recipe to make it tasty.

Here is a PDF of the recipes I have tried and enjoyed this week, I encourage you to broaden your horizons and try them too!

Alicia's Top Five Greens Recipes

Happy leafy green eating!

Circle of Life - 3 Month Check-In

In September I published a post called Primary Foods in which I talked about what Primary Foods are and I described the Circle of Life exercise and what it is used for. Primary foods are sources of joy and satisfaction in our everyday life that help us feel fulfilled and purposeful. Primary foods sustain us in all the ways food nutrition cannot. The Circle of Life in the two pictures to the right is an exercise to help you figure out which Primary Foods need attention in your life.

Here's a refresher on how the Circle of Life exercise works:

1. Place a dot on the line in each category to indicate how satisfied you are with each area.
   
   Place a dot at the center of the circle to indicate dissatisfaction or on the periphery to indicate satisfaction.
2. Connect the dots to see your Circle of Life. 
3. Identify imbalances. Determine where to spend more time and energy to create balance.

As you can see my Circle of Life in September was not a circle at all and had some very out of balance areas. In the past three months I have been posting about my efforts to address my Primary Foods that needed attention. I completed the exercise again last night which is the second picture:  “My Circle of Life – December 2013”. I was very surprised at the significant change. I knew there was going to be a difference in the two, but I was not expecting it to be so drastic. Since September all of the areas have improved and my circle looks a lot more like a circle!

The biggest change I have made that has had a positive affect on all of the areas of my Primary Food is in my Career. I made a decision that my job was having a very negative affect on the rest of my life and took steps to change it. You can read about how I came to my decision and the outcome in these two posts: Primary Foods - Career and Primary Foods - Career Part 2. Making the decision to empower myself has increased my Joy/Confidence, and improved my areas of Health, Relationships and my Career. I still have areas to work on and now I have the desire and ambition to do it!

This exercise has been eye opening for me and I believe it is a great way to first find the areas in your life that need balance and then to track your progress. I encourage everyone to try this exercise, see where you need balance and then make a list of action steps that will help you get there.

If you are interested in completing the Circle of Life for yourself please leave me your email in the comments section below and I will send the form to you.

Wishing you balance and joy!