Tips for Getting and Staying Healthy Naturally

A Trickle of Liquid Vitamins

Aaaaah! WaterToday’s post is another little drip from Vitamin Soup, and it is dedicated to my friend, Karen, who is crystal clear about what this vitamin means to her. But before we jump into that, I want to run something by you.

I submitted the Vitamin Soup manuscript to the publisher last night, so be on the look-out for the trickle of information on how to pool your resources and get some pre-publication deals, before you are swimming in holiday advertising! Ha! I crack myself up.

Vitamin W: Water

“It is pretty common knowledge that water promotes weight loss, digestive health, skin health, and gives us a vibrant glow.

But the nourishment that you can get from water is not limited to its internal health benefits.

Many people feel refreshed by simply looking at a body of water. It has a calming effect on the mind, and just thinking about going to the beach, taking a cruise, or walking along the seashore makes people want to take a deep, cleansing breath!”

A friend of mine, Karen Cannady, knows all about this, lives it, and gets to teach this to people. She is an aquatics authority, and her business, Aquatics and Healing (AAH) is about using water for health, healing, and fitness–water, inside and out. She says on her website, “You are a body of water so why not use body’s [sic] of water for better health, healing, and for fitness.”

“Water is vital to life. All living things depend on it. Learn to use this powerful resource for healing and fitness. Also learn to love, respect, and bless all water sources.”

If you agree and want to learn more, or get some ideas for how you can go with the flow (sorry), please visit and “Like” Karen’s AHH Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/AquaticsAndHealing

And please leave me a comment about this post. No worries; I will not be quitting my day job to start a career as a stand-up comic. I’d probably freeze!

Colder weather is a-comin’ to the northeast. So what can we do to keep our bodies and minds strong during the upcoming hibernation time? Here’s a little blurb from my upcoming book, Vitamin Soup, A Recipe for Soulful Nourishment from A to Z.

Today’s topic is Vitamin B: Books

“Reading is an excellent tool for improving vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and intellect. Reading keeps your brain active and can give you a temporary break from stress.

A good book can transport you to a mental vacation spot. Another can tell you about the real vacation spot. And yet a third can teach you the language or a skill to use when you visit that place.”

Ok, everybody. Where would you go? Anyone who’s known me longer than 15 minutes would probably guess I would transport myself to St. John, USVI. I also love books that are fictionalized history, so I learn something about ancient England or the spiritual development in India, but the stories are stretched a bit.

There’s another point about Vitamin B, Books, that is important to make. Really wise people read a LOT of books. If you want to be successful in business, in relationships, making more money, being more marketable, knowing something about why things are the way the are in the world, chances are there are lots of books you can choose from which to expand your education.

What’s on your nightstand? What are you reading?

As we approach the holidays, remember to nourish yourself with things other than foods. One example from my upcoming book, Vitamin Soup, A Recipe for Soulful Nourishment from A to Z: Vitamin A: Attitude.

“Your attitude determines how you interact with your surroundings and the people in them. The way you interpret events and activities is influenced by a positive or negative frame of mind. Since attitude is a choice—and yours alone—why not choose to be positive?”

A-Coaching We Will Go

Spring is in the air! And it’s mid-October! Crazy weather, but I am loving it. The sun keeps me energized and refreshed. Just what I need before the next few weeks of flurried activity.

I just sent out a newsletter for the first time in a few months, and it feels good to reconnect. Hello, friends!

A friend and colleague of mine, Irene, and I will be co-coaching a call tomorrow night on Singin’ the Sugar Blues. Please check it out if you have sugar cravings, turn to sugar (or salty crunchy things) for comfort food, and find out what to do about it.

Next week, October 17-22, my friend and colleague, Scott, and I are doing our RESET Your Life coaching calls. We have been doing these seasonally for a year now, and the results for our participants have been astounding. We will coach you throughout the entire week while we all do a 5-day high-fiber cleanse that tastes good, really works, and resets your metabolism. Get rid of cravings, release belly fat (love that one!), and get ready to ROCK the holidays.

Please share your comments below on your experience with RESET or with eating low-glycemic.

A colleague and I conducted a telephone coaching support group last week. I am so excited by the results that I just had to share. Everyone on the call particpated, in some fashion, in a 5-day low-glycemic (high fiber) cleanse that, with our help/coaching/tips allowed their bodies to take a much-needed break from the standard American diet.

The way they had been eating had been causing them to gain weight, feel sluggish in the afternoons, and have some pretty nasty carbohydrate cravings. And now, after only 5 days low-glycemic eating, the five people who actually reported their results released a total of 28.5 pounds! That’s more than 5 pounds per person (on average) GONE! They also reported (every single person!) increased energy and not having that “need to take a nap” crash feeling in the afternoons. And I am happy to say that my flatter belly fit into a pair of last summer’s shorts quite comfortably.

How did this happen? Well, we used a system called RESET, a system I have used and recommended to my nutrition coaching clients for seven years. We taught about several solutions to common diet problems and debunked some myths about low-fat dieting, certain “health foods” you should never eat, and what it really takes to get a flat belly.

First, we talked about the glycemic index solution. This is only a part, but a very important part, of learning to eat in a way that tastes good, fills you up, keeps you full, and gets rid of carb cravings. We also talked about the glycemic load, another important part that’s a little more esoteric but is really at the heart of understanding how food affects your digestive system and your metabolism.

You see, the body does this miraculous thing after just a few days of eating this way. And I’m not talking about a diet. I don’t believe in diets. Instead, this is a way of giving your body really good, healthy, fresh, delicious food–stuff you probably eat anyway. It’s not a secret diet or anything. It makes sense, your body loves it, and, for most people who do this, they begin to lose weight, release fat, get more energetic, sleep better, and generally feel better.

Yes, there are clinical studies about how all this works, and I bet you’ve heard of some “diets” that are based on this very simple concept: Mediterranean diet, the South Beach diet, the Zone diet, the 17-Day diet. Check out just about any grocery store magazine headlines about “how to lose 20 pounds and 5 inches in 30 days.” This is the stuff they are talking about.

So, how do you go about doing this for yourself? Well, you learn about the glycemic index solution, you shift your eating habits for a few days to reset your metabolism, you stick with it for as long as you wish, and voila! Quick weight loss to begin with, then sustained and pretty easy weight loss over a period of time.

Exercise? Yes, you can do some of this too, but the good news is that you don’t have to spend hours in the gym. Just the basics–30 minutes, 3-5 times a week–is enough to boost your metabolism and develop healthy habits.

I personally did not do the entire system last week. I ate low-glycemic meals but did not do the “cleanse” the first five days as the participants did. I have done it before successfully and have lost up to 6 pounds in a week. Still, even by modifying it slightly, I lost a respectable 3 pounds, and I hardly changed a thing. Healthy lifestyle habits do the trick to lose weight and release fat. You can get “bikini ready” in a few weeks if you want to, or you can simply feel better in your clothes.

If you have ever done this super easy cleanse to lose weight and want to share, I’d love to hear from you. Or if you want to learn more about how eating low-glycemic is a really effective anti-aging tool, please leave your comments below.

Your Wellness Vision

We interrupt this long drawn-out program on the Four Missing Essential Nutrients to give a little yelp of pleasure and excitement. Tonight, my colleague and co-host, Scott, and I are conducting a Creating Your Wellness Vision Telecoaching call. This is a free thing we are doing as a bonus for our RESET Your Life Telesminar Series participants who have been hanging out with us for about six weeks now.

You see, if you don’t have a very clear vision (something you can see and work/play/choose your way into) for what you want out of life, then you’ll just walk or run or eat in circles. Believe me, I am very familiar with the circle thing. Until I made up my mind that I really wanted to focus on the nutrition coaching/teaching aspect of wellness, I was lost and spinning–for YEARS.

So, if you have not done a vision statement for yourself, grab a piece of paper and start writing or drawing what wellness would look like for you. What does health and harmony look like for you in every area of your life? If that is just too big a question to answer in a snap, then consider asking a coach to guide you through the process. We coaches love to help people visualize and recognize their potential.

If you and a few friends think this would be a fun way to spend an hour (and I guarantee you it will be fun and very, very powerful), please leave me a comment to that effect. I will schedule a Wellness Vision telecoaching event for you.

We began our discussion of essential nutrients that are necessary for optimal health but that are not necessarily in everyone’s daily diet.

Vitamin L, for Love, is the first of four. Vitamin O is the second one. This means we rarely get enough oxygen. Now, for some of you who read this blog, you are meditators, relaxation gurus, and singers. You breathe. And yes, we all breathe–that’s one of the miracles of life. You don’t have to think about it. It just happens and at the end of the day, you’re still alive. Good deal.

But when was the last time most of us sat quietly to enjoy the feeling and results of a few deep mouthfuls (or nose-fuls or lungs-fuls) of yummy oxygen?

Applied to nutrition and health, when we eat under stress our digestive systems are ineffective at drawing nutrients from our food. We eat on the run, we stuff down a sandwich while driving, we grab a quick snack of baby carrots and hummus. But if our mind and heart are racing, our stomachs and intestines are essentially on idle. Stress response trumps food response. Every time. No wonder so many stressed-out people are on a diet!

Guess what? A diet will only help you lose weight if your body is relaxed. (Diets don’t really work, but that is a discussion for another time.)

So the next time you find yourself in a hurry (or in a pickle), stop!! Before you take even one bite, do yourself a favor and take three to five deep cleansing, diaphragmatic breaths. This will shift your body from the fight-or-flight stress response to the feed-and-breed non-stress response, and you will actually enjoy your food more completely. You are likely to take in less food because your stomach and brain will be talking to one another, and you will receive nourishment and not just empty calories.

Breathe before you eat. Bon appetit!

Love is incredibly nourishing. You know when you’re in love and you’re so high on the feelings you forget to eat, and you can’t concentrate or think of anything but that new special someone?

That feeling of giddiness, happiness, and overflowing YUMMMMMMM is what you get when you have an abundance of Vitamin L.

The first essential nutrient that has been missing from our too-fast, run-around, get-it-all-done lifestyle is Vitamin L for Love. Answer me this: where is the love in an energy drink? Where is the love in pre-made diet food?

Have you ever had a disagreement during a meal and lost your appetite? How was that particular meal prepared? Who prepared it? What was his/her state of mind during the preparation of it? Think about the quality difference between fast food and a five-star restaurant. The major difference (besides the price!) is in the attitudes of the people preparing the food.

How do you put Vitamin L in your food? Well, you can use the “think method,” like they used in the Music Man. (Google it, my young friends.) Intention is everything, so they say. So when you are cooking or preparing a meal (even picking it up from the deli on the way home from work), give it a little love.

When you are the one who is cooking (even if that means opening a box and pressing some buttons), consciously add the ingredient of love into your preparation. Think happy thoughts! Imagine that there is “pixie dust” in the food (organic and non-GMO, of course!), and keep anxiety and negativity OUT of the food that you prepare.

Love should be the first ingredient in every recipe, for every dish, all the time. Cook with a more positive, loving attitude to get the most from your food. Be cognizant of the environment and emotional states/stress levels of the people who prepare your food. Bless your food, whatever that means to you, so that you can receive it lovingly. Think nice thoughts towards the people who prepare your food. Give thanks that someone cares enough to prepare a meal for you.

What changes do you feel when you supplement with Vitamin L? How does your health improve? How does this affect the enjoyment of preparation? Or of consuming?

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the next one–but that is what we’ll be talking about. Come back soon. And please let me know what you think about this. Better yet, take a heaping helping of Vitamin L today, and let me know how it nourishes you.

In health and harmony,
Sally

The next few blog posts will be about several essential vitamins that are missing from a lot of people’s lives, but they’re not dietary supplements. You cannot buy these at a grocery store, a pharmacy, or from your health practitioner. Unfortunately, there is probably from whom you could buy these vitamins. Fortunately, you can do it all by yourself.

As a holistic health-oriented person, I have noticed that among my clients, and also very much in my own life, rarely does anyone feel truly nourished in all areas of their lives. Something is “missing” or “out of balance” or “deficient” in one area or another. It could be a factor of our “go get ‘em” culture; it could be the drive to succeed and do more in a day (so common on the East Coast); it could be old habits that are, as we progress through life, no longer as effective as they were once perceived to be. I say that because they might not ever have been effective, but now we notice that it’s not working.

So what do we do?

The good news is that I have discovered ways—really simple ways—to get these four essential nutrients back into our lives. It is not hard to do, you do not have to spend a lot of money, you do not have to set up an account, switch brands, find an associate or distributor, convert to a radically different way of eating, hire a personal chef, personal trainer, or spend hours at the gym!

With more of these four nutrients, you will have more love in your life, you will have more fun, more quality time with your family, your friends, and you may even start enjoying your own company! You will get to slow down and relax more often, balance your work and personal lives, maybe add some spirituality, more money, more time for working out, going out, reading books, watching movies, playing with your pets… Whatever you like that makes you feel nourished.

Sound too good to be true? I promise it is not. But it does take a little planning and a little forethought.
Want to know how to do this?

Tune in this week to learn more about four essential nutrients that we just are not getting enough of but which are absolutely necessary to supplement with in order to get all of what we want out of life.

In health and harmony,
Sally

Today is the anniversary of the day my mom decided it was time to push back from the smorgasbord of life after 41 years and walk away from the table. After only a 10-month battle with cancer, she paid the tab and moved on. Wow. It’s hard to believe that was 27 years ago. I hope she has all the Three Musketeers Bars and iced tea she wants.

I learned how to cook from my mom, and I learned about cause and effect of healthy choices, healthy living, and the alternatives to those. She was a good cook and baker–really. Her sour cream apple pie is very yummy. She was pretty resourceful in the kitchen, and we never lacked for a variety of good-tasting food (except the boring baked cod on Fridays and boiled-to-death Brussels sprouts–ick).

But she was a lousy model for living a good life. Making healthy choices; communication skills; how to dream big; how to open your heart, let someone in, and love big; creating long-lasting, deep friendships based on trust. Not so much. And it took me about 26 of the 27 years she’s been gone to make peace with that and forgive her for doing what she did. I do know that she did the best she could, because I knew my grandparents!

When I woke up on my 27th birthday (coinky-dink I’m writing this on the 27-year anniverary?), I decided I was going to live differently and choose differently with the intention of having a different outcome. So far, so good. I’ve outlived her by several years at this point. And I know how to make Brussels sprouts taste good!

What about you? What are the lessons you have learned from your family? The good ones, the not-so-good ones? What will you keep and pass down to your children and their children? What will you change, and where will you make an effort to take a bigger bite of life?

What’s on your plate for the next few months? How is your health? What are you doing to be around for your children, for your significant others (there are lots people in your life for whom you are significant, you know)?

Do something wonderful for yourself and your loved ones. Make some Brussels sprouts and share the love. Use all the organic ingredients you can. It really does make a difference to your long-term health.

To make enough for 4 people:
About 2 cups Brussels sprouts, rinsed (fresh if you can find them–they come in little trees–amazing)
Chop them in half.
Put them in gallon-sized plastic bag.
Add a few shakes of balsamic vinegar, white pepper, coarse sea salt.
Zip the bag closed and shake (I meant the bag, but it’s fun if you jump up and down a little too) to coat the mini cabbages with the balsamic vinegar.
Spread the little things out on a cookie sheet.
Bake in a 400 degree oven (F) for about 30 minutes or until the vinegar gets a little thick.
Believe it or not, these Brussels sprouts, when roasted, have a little sweetness to them.

Let me know how you enjoy them.
In health and harmony,
Sally

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