Posts Tagged "health"

If the eyes are the window to our souls than what do yours say? Look at the whites of your eyes. Are they bright white or are tinted yellow? Not even Visene can help you here. By the way, isn’t that just another lame cover up rather than finding the source of the symptom? Last time I checked, dousing yourself with this and that and micromanaging your health is not effective or sustainable.

If the whites of the eyes are tinted yellow and they are not as sparkling as you’d like, you may consider doing a liver cleanse to jumpstart you onto a healthier diet. The whites of the eyes represent the health of the liver. Newborn babies will sometimes have jaundice and yellow tinted whites of their eyes due to immature liver function.

If you think of our bodies as one big fish tank think of your liver as the filter. Just imagine what would happen to the fish in the tank if over years you never cleaned the filter. Imagine what the water in the tank would look like. Imagine what a dirty tank smells like (if you want sweet skin read this article) . We aren’t that different from this analogy. Once the stress is off the liver the whites will begin to sparkle.

Try incorporating these practices to get that sparkle back

1. Lots of water (ideally organic water from fresh juicy fruits and veggies)

2. Foods that cleanse and heal the liver are artichoke, lemon, beets, and dandelion greens. Try drinking 64 oz of lemon water upon rising.

3. Herbs such as Dandelion and Milk Thistle can be made into a tea and consumed regularly for continual liver cleansing.

None of the above mentioned solutions will be sustainable and permanent until a clean diet is obtained and continued consistently. Remember, this is a jumpstart but will never undo the damage completely from a poor diet until the diet is changed. Just remember that it is important that the colon is very effective and eliminating optimally. The liver purges and the toxins go into the colon and wait to be eliminated. If elimination is slow, then the toxins will be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream and your efforts will no longer be effective.

Thanks to Paul (the organizer of an amazing raw food metup group), we are able to see a little of what Happy Oasis shared with us on Saturday. Of course, you hear me ramble about how large the co-op has grown thanks to the dedication of Alexis (mentioned in my last post). It is a bit differnt than a CSA. We don’t pay in advance a lump sum or we don’t belong to only one farmer. If you want more information, please send me a comment and I’ll give more details. Perhaps, I will post a blog on how to set up an organic produce buying club for everyone.

Take a whiff of your skin after an intense sweat. How does is smell (considering of course you don’t have a thick slathering of toxic deodorant on)? Is it sweet and clean or is it enough to wilt a bouquet of roses? Not exactly the sexiest thing to have after a sweaty romp between the sheets if you know what I mean. Many people think that body odor is normal. It is important to note that there is a difference between normal and common. While it may be common for many people to have body odor, it is not normal and absolutely not optimal. So many people are spraying, slathering, and applying all sorts of gunk on their skin trying to mask this issue. Why don’t we just get to the source and eradicate the problem rather than coping with cover ups? If you find that your skin is not as sweet as you’d like you may benefit from a cleanse. The smell of the skin is directly related to the elimination functions of the colon, urinary, alimentary system (skin), and liver. If those are overloaded then the symptom is body odor.

Many are asking about my bikini body progress. Well, I started to feel overwhelmed and too wrapped up in every little thing I ate or did. It started to turn into a stress rather than a fun transformation. I was putting unneeded pressure on myself in order to lose weight. It felt more like a struggle than anything else. So, I needed to take a break and change things up.

Not only was I stressing myself out emotionally, I think my workouts were too high stress for me. I even think that the adrenalin rush I would get from intense workouts were defeating the progress. If the cortosol levels are too high in the body and the adrenals are overworked it will suppress thyroid function. Not good for someone who is already dealing with a slow thyroid. So, I decided to pick up the yoga and drop the hard core boxing and boot camp classes.

I even laid off spinning since it really reduced my range of motion and slowed the progress I was making with yoga. I have been dealing with a considerable amount of low back pain. I have hyper lordosis which simply means my low back is really overly curved. It makes it a bit more vulnerable. I injured a disc 10 years ago and it just seems to be my weak link. However, when my quads and psoas are fully stretched my back pain greatly reduces. So, lunges, splits, warrior 1 and all those similar stretches are rocking out! Plus lots of core work keeps me better aligned.

As I was clearing out old data in my computer today I came across pictures I didn’t realize I had. This is me weighing in at 108. As you know I am a little over 5’5″. Don’t mind the boob slippage. I was laying on my tummy and sat up quickly . I didn’t realize I was doing a “fashion DON’T”. 🙂

I decided to post these anyway since it really got me excited to think of being that size again. When I see these pics , it takes me back to that feeling confident in my body. I am enjoying this process. As long as I stay in this zone I feel energized and not pressured. I am happy to watch my transformation.

I want to stay in a state of excitement and gratitude. I want to be thankful for what I have now and remember how lucky I am to even have a healthy able body. So many people are less fortunate, disabled, or ill and how dare I complain. I am one lucky chick and I look forward to being as healthy as possible.

I watched this Ann Wigmore DVD . I am working on setting this lifestyle up at my home! Everyone should consider their home as their own personal health retreat. After watching this I was so excited I made the cabbage rejuvelac. I want to set up a space for sprouting. I have had a friend who has been nudging me to do it, but since I am such a visual person it wasn’t until I saw it in action that I became excited. I also want to make the energy soup and even try it dehydrated to make rolls with. I did incorporate the composting system that was featured in the video and I hope it works out.

Made Raw Miso Soup
I can’t claim dibs on this recipe it was shown to me by someone else, but I thought I’d pass it along. I love it since it is soy free (perfect for my thyroid). Here are the ingredients. These are rough estimates.

8-16 oz Hot water ,1-2 TBSP Adzuki and chickpea miso (pictured above) ,Shitake Mushrooms (dried and soaked, next time I want to find fresh mushrooms) ,Mixed sea veggies 1/2 the bag, rinsed . I am trying to get in some sea veggies or kelp in daily for my thyroid. A sliver of onion (or any allium family: green onion, chives, leeks, scallions, etc)
This is like heaven for my thyroid and perfect for these cold winter months. OK, I live in So Cal and it doesn’t get that cold, but you know what I mean. 🙂

Made a raw curry salad dressing
Inspired by Ani Phyo’s Curry Salad Dressing . I used avocado instead of olive oil and I liked it better. ; ). I mentioned I am trying to obtain my fat from food and not from bottles.

Tried a new yoga class
My favorite yoga of all time is Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga. However, I tried Anusura yoga at a local studio. I learned how to partner up and help my partner get into poses that need some assistance. I did back bends and handstands which I haven’t practiced in a long time, so it felt wonderful. Opening up my body IS opening up my mind. However, I have a pretty open mind as it is! Outside of yoga class I have been practicing yoga with a partner and I am learning how helpful it is to have someone assist me in a pose to take me to a deeper level of my practice. My shoulders and hips are so tight and I look forward to when I can have free range of motion. Here is what I can do on my own now. I want to be able to grasp my hands.

I feel that after years of tight deltoids (shoulders) that I should focus on releasing them. I know I won’t be able to go into deeper poses until I can release this restriction. Hopefully in the future I can post video and photos that are more exciting than this.

Relationships

Self : I have been focusing on practicing more self love since I truly know that this is the key to great relationships. How can others enjoy me if I can’t enjoy myself? This is a huge thing for me since in the past I associated self love with being egotistical or self absorbed and selfish. I realise I need to be a little selfish in order to have anything to give anyone else.

Kids : I feel so close with my kids. I started homeschooling them 3 years ago and it has really changed my life and the way I view education. I also know my kids strengths and aim to nurture them as best I can. We have such an open line of communication and I really have learned a lot about myself as I watch them grow. Lately we have been having fun snowboarding. I also take my kids to gymnastics, speech therapy, guitar and horseback riding lessons. Wow…so time consuming, but I enjoy exposing them to all sorts of environments. The biggest part of being a mom is stepping back and letting them grow naturally. I need to remember less is more and to allow them to do for themselves what they can.

Snowboarding
Here is the mountain view from my home, new snow!
We saw “Phantom of the Opera”

Romance: I am still single as I have been for a long while. I realize that I have not made this a priority and how can I allow for a wonderful man to enter my life if I do not know exactly what it is I am wanting? As I mentioned before I have been listening to the Relationship portion of the Get the Edge series from Tony Robbins I know that in order to have a sustainable relationship our natures must be similar or complimentary. I spent lots of time clarifying my vision of an ideal partner. More to come on this topic.

Community: I am a co-organizer of an organic produce co-op. This is how I connect with the members of the community and encourage healthy living. Again, I really wish more people had this in their community. Here is a photo of Tonya (another co-organizer) and me supporting Bunny Berry and RawFu.

This is where we set up our co-op and basket of organic produce to distribute on Saturdays.

Career

My Garden

Here is the trash bins for compost and as you can see I am already overflowing.

My south facing side yard with 4 raised beds.
This bed is filled with radishes and other stuff that I never harvested. I still haven’t done anything with that irrigation hose. I am still hand watering which is tough to remember with my busy schedule.

Here is my bed of beets. It is the gourmet blend I planted in fall. It is almost ready to harvest. Beet greens are fabulous for liver function, bile flow that breaks down fat. Not to mention that they are awesome for sluggish elimination.

This is my carrot bed and honestly I don’t know why they are growing so slow. I am not sure I’ll grow carrots again, but it was a learning experience.

This is just a mix of all the other seeds that I had leftover that were planted here.

I received tons of goodies for my garden like rock dust! I can’t wait to get going on my spring garden. I mentioned earlier on the Ann Wigmore video, I saw a home compost system that was set up with big trashcans that had holes drilled into it (much cheaper than a tumbler). I went for it and set that up. I received lots of seed catalogs. It seems that winter is when the catalogs are sent and people decide what they want to grow for the year. I want a nutrient dense garden! Gardening is really teaching me to be better at planning and patience. It’s not like I can pop a seed in the ground tonight and harvest the thing in the morning. It takes lots of dedication and love. Who wouldn’t benefit from those traits?

Obtained a new camera
If you read my blog you know my home was broken into and my cameras were stolen. So, I now have a new camera . I am actually excited since the format is jpeg avi which means I can now add to my videos using movie maker. My last one was saved mov. files and I wasn’t able to convert them appropriately. Hey, learning to edit or add special features to my video sounds fun. I gotta embrace the technology world.

I want to install a mirror along that back wall, a barre, a removable pole and of course lighting and surround sound.

Sightings
I came across videos and blogs that were inspired by me. Woo hoo! Nothing feels better than knowing that just by being me I am actually helping others. Thank you! Check ‘em out!
Nancy, Paige, and Annette . Guys, thanks so much for reading my posts and for supporting me.