Yesterday, my husband requested I buy a case of coconut juice to give us energy while working on our new house all weekend. Since I heard we were going to have record-high temperatures here in Colorado (and I know that coconut juice is high in electrolyte minerals that increase energy when hot, drained and sweating) I decided to go for it.

Last night, around 8:30pm, those cans of ice-cold, tropical sweetness were way too tempting. Although I usually only indulge in after-dinner treats on fun or special occasions (I’ll tell you why in a second) this time I couldn’t resist.

What happened is that I woke up around one or two a.m. feeling restless, anxious, and mildly fearful. I wasn’t surprised. Here’s why:

The Insulin/Cortisol Surge

When we eat or drink something high in sugars, an hour or so later we get what’s called an “insulin surge”. Insulin is a hormone that carries sugar out of the blood stream and into storage. You can think of insulin as a kind of “usher”.

Essentially, insulin drops our blood levels of sugar. The timing and intensity of the drop is directly related to the glycemic value (sugar content) of the foods eaten. In other words, if we eat a high-glycemic food without fat or protein to help slow absorption, insulin comes in fast and furious to drop that sugar load in the blood. A quick and sudden rise of blood sugar leads to a quick and sudden drop.

But it doesn’t end there (and here’s where insomnia and anxiety come in).

As soon as blood sugar levels drop, another hormone comes in to counter that action. That hormone is called cortisol. One of cortisol’s purposes is to make sure blood sugar levels are steady, and that there’s enough energy (sugar) in the blood to make us “go”. Herein lies the problem when you’re trying to get some sleep.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that has many more jobs that just raising blood sugar. As soon as it’s secreted by the adrenal glands, it turns on the sympathetic nervous system and decreases the parasympathetic. The sympathetic system prepares us for wakefulness by releasing stored energy for use, increasing heart rate, and preparing us for a “fight or flight” response, if needed.

The parasympathetic system, on the other hand, does the opposite. It’s the “rest and digest” side that prepares us for quietude, relaxation and sleep.

Which of these do you think would come in more handy from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.? You guessed it.

Last night I woke up after the insulin/cortisol surge. With cortisol up, it’s no doubt that I, for one, woke up in the first place, and secondly, that I woke up a little anxious. A cortisol surge (anytime in the day or night) can do that to a person.

If you struggle with insomnia, or have a chronic sense of anxiety or worry anytime in the day, a little work on the insulin and cortisol surge can go a long way.

Must-do blood sugar balancing tools for insomniacs to decrease the insulin/cortisol surge:

1. Always eat carbohydrates with some protein or fat to slow their digestion time. Carbs are grains, pastas, sweets, fruits, breads, cereals, etc.

2. Do not eat sweet foods or drinks in the evening. If you like a sweet treat in the day, have it with lunch, not dinner.

3. Always eat a little protein (animal or vegetable sources) and a little good fat (avocado, butter or ghee, yogurt, coconut meat, nuts and seeds) at dinner to help balance blood sugar for the night and into next morning.

4. Have an earlier dinner (before 7pm) and try not to eat after 8pm.

5. Eat your largest meal of the day at breakfast or lunch. Avoid large meals at dinnertime.

Have you put any of these into practice? If so, we’d love to hear how it has effected you sleep or performance in the day. Please comment below.

Are you the type who thinks you have to “go it alone” or scrape by with minimal attention when it comes to health and taking care of yourself? If so, you probably need to re-evaluate the 7^th focal point in my 7 Core Principles to Lasting Health. The 7^th point is Building Your Health Allies, your team of health professionals that can take you from ill (or mediocre) health to optimal wellness in the least amount of time, with the least amount of resistance.

Of course, the bulk of the work is done by you and you alone, but make no mistake, you can’t do it all on your own.

The Power of a Specialist

Specialists are doctors or practitioners that have chosen a particular area of focus. In ideal conditions, they are “masters” of their practice; they’ve had targeted training in their specialized field, and have been putting that training into practice.

It’s, of course, important to have a general physician (alternative or allopathic) for basic health concerns, but having a small handful of specialists on hand to target your “health hot spots” is equally vital. Depending upon your individual needs, you may have a variety of areas to target, and will require a diverse selection of practitioners to help facilitate healing in those areas.

Here are just a few I recommend:

• Functional Nutritionist
• Chiropractor
• Acupuncturist/Herbalist
• Massage Therapist/Bodyworker
• Cranio-Sacral Therapist
• Energy/Subtle Body/Reiki Worker
• Physical Therapist
• Dental Specialist/Endodontist
• Yoga/Fitness/Martial Arts Instructor
• Psycho Therapist/Trauma Counselor

Ask yourself (and a trained professional) what it is you should be targeting. Having the means to employ all the above specialists is unlikely, but it becomes more reasonable if we whittle the list down to two or three focused areas.

Duration and Scheduling

We don’t have to put these specialists to work each and every week. It may start out that way in some cases, but most likely scheduling will become fewer and farther in between as your body gets more balanced and receptive to the work.

At the same time, there may be a some exceptions, depending upon the size of your pocket book and the depth of current health conditions. Personally, I schedule acupuncture and chiropractic care every 2-3 weeks. I see my yoga and fitness instructors 4-5 days every week, and get some bodywork at least once a month. And…. I’m in daily contact with my nutrition colleagues and teachers via my online Metabolic Typing and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner forums.

Talk to each specialist to see what duration is best for you.

Specialists on a Budget

As mentioned, scheduling duration may be one of the best ways to solve the budget issue. But in many cases, regular, consistent care is needed, especially at first. Too much time in between sessions may not allow the body to correctly re-pattern and initiate full and complete healing.

If there are budget issues, one recommendation is to seek out student clinics. Massage and acupuncture schools often have public clinics, where advanced students can practice skills and meet their clinical requirements at a minimal cost to you. Do a Google search in your area for any health or healing art school (i.e. massage school, acupuncture school, reiki school). If they do have a student or graduate clinic, costs and how to schedule will usually be listed on their website.

Subscribing to online health publications is also a cheap, secondary source for valuable information. I subscribe to at least a dozen, and draw inspiration from other people’s recipes and health advice each day. To sign up for my free weekly eLetter with healthy recipes and articles on health and nutrition, click here.

Establish Your Allies BEFORE You Need Them!

If your back goes out and you haven’t already jumped through the hoops in finding the practitioner that best suits your needs, you’re in for double the pain trying to find one last minute. Even if you find a good referral from a friend, chances are the practitioner won’t be able to schedule you for an “emergency” visit, since s/he has never worked with you before. I’ve found that the more I’m acquainted with a practitioner (and the more they are acquainted with me) they’re more willing to get you in on short notice, if needed.

Do some research first on what kind of modalities might be able to help you the most – Nutrition coaching? Chiropractic? Acupuncture? Massage? Then ask around for excellent referrals from friends and colleagues. You can also search the web for these specialists in your area.

The point is to do the research first, before you need them. We all have good days and bad. On the “good” days, we often feel strong enough and healthy enough that we deceive ourselves into thinking that we don’t need any targeted help; we may think we don’t need a list of health allies. But, inevitably, those “bad” days always do end up coming around, and we need to be prepared when it happens.

As I get ready to launch my Body by Body Metabolic Typing® Program, I’m reminded of a survey I sent out for my mindful eating students last fall. At first, I thought the survey was skewed: I couldn’t figure out why I had three even piles of data with no average reading. How could a third of the participants say that the program’s pacing was perfect, the middle third say they wanted to pick up the pace, and the final third say they could use a whole year to take in all the information?

Just as I was about to toss the baby out with the bathwater, I realized that this is the very nature of Metabolic Typing: we’re all wired differently.

Not only do we require different foods and supplements to match our diverse body types, each of us have varying systems in place for mental capacity, pacing and energy expenditure. It’s no surprise that the participants, depending upon their own unique metabolisms, needed to do the program at their own pace and in their own unique way.

The answer to this quandary is simple: Just allow it to be. So I designed an efficient, yet flexible and self-paced Metabolic Typing program where participants can “do it their way”, in their own time. We’ve heard it said that some people are more visual in nature, some are more intuitive, and others are more analytical. To meet these needs, my program has a “multi-media” format, where participants learn from various modalities.

There’s no one answer as to what’s the best way to learn; that’s individual. But when there’s a multi-modality approach that utilizes written word, spoken word, pictures and an experiential, mindful quality, a powerful process happens within the body-mind to retain that information.

Getting Real with Your Program – How Do YOU Do It Best?

Below are a few body-type scenarios looking at the different ways one might need go about a diet plan, exercise strategy or nutrition program. Which one fits you? For participants in my Body by Body Metabolic Typing® Program, I’ve listed my recommendations on how to implement the protocol to best meet your unique needs.

The “Change Me Slowly” Type

Firstly, try not to be daunted with all the files and folders of information that you’ll get right at the beginning. It’s not meant to be digested all up front. Start simply by just organizing the information into a folder and skimming the resources so you know where to look later for relevant information. Breathe, and respect the fact that you’ve started on a lifelong health journey.

As far as the diet, just try eating the foods on your Allowable Foods List for the first two weeks. First make the effort at breakfast for a few days. Then try adding in lunch, then dinner only when it feels comfortable and non-stress-inducing to do so. There’s no such thing as “getting behind” when you make a lifelong commitment to health.

Listen to any audios or video as many times as needed before moving on to the next.

The “Let’s Get it On” Type

The first thing you’ll want to do is print and memorize your Allowable Foods List so you can have all the foods you like stocked in your kitchen and ready to eat. You’ll also want to get going straight away on getting your ratios of carbs to fats to proteins right for you. Use the guidelines in your workbook and the video for your specific diet plan to start; and then once you’ve listened to the audio, Finding Your Macro-Nutrient Ratios, you can further fine-tune. Use your diet logs right from the get-go to fine-tune. Fine-tuning is the crux of this program.

After settling into the food for a few days, begin to organize your binder. Print out all materials so they are at easy reach when you need an answer to a pressing question.

If you’re the “crash and burn” Sympathetic or Fast-Oxidizer type, remember that this is a lifelong program and it’s not about winning the race to health. This comes through time, perseverance and patience.

The “I Need a Plan” Type

Start by opening the files one by one and printing the documents. Make a quick errand to get a binder and all suggested organizational materials. Having the physical element of an organized binder in front of you will give you confidence and keep your mind busy.

Open the 150-Recipe and Diet Planning Cookbook (available to program participants). Read through my sample “type-specific” diet plans, and after choosing several recipes that look good to you, create a menu plan for the first week. Create a shopping list and ground a time to do the shopping and recipe prep. Utilize left-overs for the next day’s breakfast or lunch.

Follow the suggested week-by-week pace, taking it one day – and one week – at a time.

The “Don’t Box Me In” Type

You might like to sneak a peak at what’s to come. Feel free to preview any of the audios, videos or written material. Just make sure to come back to it in detail when the time comes.

You may be tempted to give yourself more freedom with your Foods List. I recommend that you stick pretty closely to the guidelines, especially at first. Use your sense of adventure to try new foods on your list that you rarely or have never used before. The fine-tuning process to this approach is nearly endless and can be as detailed as you want it to be. If you get bored with your foods, focus on fine-tuning your ratios and note any subtle reactions. Eating the foods on your list will help you feel more grounded.

Remember that this is a process and that your foods list is not forever. Once your metabolism balances, you’ll be able to enjoy a wider variety of foods and metabolize them efficiently.

Make sure to have your favorite foods stocked in your kitchen at all times, so you can get creative and make improvisational dishes. Use the cookbook and menu plans as guidelines only.

The Body by Body Program is an online course with an on-going registration. Start anytime, go at your own pace, and complete it in your own style.

One of the things we just love to do is come up with a plan of what, when and how we’re going to eat and exercise, and then get high on the hope that we’ll actually to stick with it for the rest of our lives. When the inevitable day of reckoning arrives (and it always does) we come down hard, beating ourselves up for not having enough will power to live up to our goals. We’re slotted a “failure”. But if we could simply realize that the body knows exactly what to do to get well, and learn to ride the waves, we’d find ourselves on the path of least resistance toward optimal health.

Just as we get sick of doing the same things day in and day out, cells, too, get tired of being pounded with the same foods, the same nutrients and the same exercise routines again and again. In other words, they need a break.

This is because cells build up what’s called “resistance”. Each cell has receptors for all the different elements that make our bodies run smoothly (hormones, nutrients, neuro-peptides, brain-chemicals, amino acids, etc). Receptor cites can get clogged or laden with too much of these “good things”, and eventually, the cell will shut off to them or down-regulate them, as if to say, “talk to the hand.”

So herein lies the problem of strict diet plans, weight loss diets or fad diets: the body will love it for a while, but eventually will say, “enough”, and will want something more, less or just plain different.

Same goes with exercise. The body will let you know how much it loves it by increasing muscle mass, shedding weight and revitalizing your energy. But just as soon as it has had enough, it will build up resistance. In turn, muscle mass will stabilize, weight will plateau, and you won’t feel as good after a workout.

I noticed this on my Yoga90 Challenge: I got really into one style of yoga and my body loved it so much it practically sucked it up like a milkshake. Then out of the blue, I stopped improving. I was feeling weak and tired in class, and emotionally, I just didn’t want to go. At some point I had to stop and listen. What I heard was that my body wanted something different for a while to satisfy its needs; in this case, less strengthening and more energizing. So I switched styles for a while, and my body was once again invigorated.

So the cells shift and change, and as they do, they need a fresh, new supply of different foods, supplements and exercise to make them work optimally. Sometimes they just need a break altogether. Once you give them a break for a while, they again are able to accept the nutrients and vital energy that was once being resisted.

If we can’t go with this natural ebb and flow, we end up in a love/hate relationship with our bodies, where we try to force-feed it with a diet and lifestyle that we think is going to make us lose weight, give us energy or help us look young forever. Sometimes what our bodies really need is contrary to these beliefs.

Cycling On and Off

When to cycle off and on certain foods, supplements and exercise routines will hopefully become an intuitive thing by simply noticing subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) communication from your body. You may have what I call a feeling-sense of “no”, or “I don’t want it” in your body. Learn what “yes” and “no” feels like in your own body, and then probe further, asking: “Is there anything I want in replace of this?” Think of all other options; your body will hopefully give nods in the right direction. “Yes” usually feels like an expansive, open feeling (of course, strong, uncontrollable food cravings are not what I mean as a “yes signal”).

From a nutritional perspective, metabolism is key in determining which foods, supplements and exercise is right for YOUR body at any given time in your life. These will change as your metabolism changes, so nothing is ever fixed and firm.

The best approach I know of that best adheres to the metabolic rhythms and the natural wisdom of the body is Metabolic Typing®. When we feed the body with exactly what it needs metabolically each day, we can’t help feeling stronger, healthier, happier and easier. Period. We no longer feel the need to force-feed the body like a slave, but instead offer it what it needs on a deep metabolic and cellular level. Food cravings also diminish and we can learn to read the more subtle intuitive cues that our bodies reveal to us.

To watch my videos on Metabolic Typing® and register for my Body by Body Metabolic Typing Program, click here.

Now I’d like to hear from YOU:

Can you remember a time when you “force-fed” your body foods, supplements or a workout that it really didn’t want?

How did your body feel doing it? How did you feel afterward?

What does “yes” and “no” feel like in YOUR body?

What are some other ways you could use this kind of body-based intuition?

Can you honestly say that the foods you eat are exactly what you want to be eating? That they make you feel good and give you enough energy… to the point where you can put your fork down and say, “that was GOOOOOOD!”, and at the same time feel completely nourished at least four hours after eating? If you answered ‘yes’, congratulations are in order: you’re one in thousands.

But chances are you said ‘no’: If you’re anything like most other health-conscious Westerners, you’re eating what you think is supposed to be good for you, and, to a certain degree, hating it.

Why do we do this? I’m amazed to look back at all the nutritional approaches I’ve tried, thinking that because so-and-so said it was healthy, that it would also be healthy for me.

Here’s what I remember:

• Eating certain vegetables ’cause they’re “good for you”, even though they made me bloated and gassy
• Eating six light meals a day to balance my blood sugar, but still feeling hungry and irritable
• Cutting fat off meat and pulling the skins off chicken, and resenting my dog who got to scarf them down
• Not eating anything but fruit until noon, and waking up on the floor after fainting
• Eating whole grains to increase my fiber, but ending up so constipated nothing would come out!

After two decades of trying the popular advice of the day, I’m no longer eating what the health professionals claim to be “healthy”… And ironically, have never felt better.

Now here’s where I could come running in to tell you all about my diet, and how, since it saved my life, it will inevitably save yours too…

WRONG!

Unfortunately, this is where most other well-intentioned health professionals let their confidence in “their” diet lead others astray: Just because it works for them, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you, me, or for a certain percentage of the the hundreds or thousands of people who want to jump on their wagon. I don’t care what approach it is, no one diet is going to work for all people, period. We have to create our own.

The 1-2-3’s of a Personalized Diet

Before jumping into the next “latest and greatest” diet fad or nutrition advice, use these three steps to build your own, personalized, do-it-yourself diet that sustains your energy, prevents disease, maintains your health and makes you feel good inside and out:

Step 1. Get a Foundation - A good starting point is mandatory, unless you want to spend decades (like I did) playing “diet roulette”. The way to start is to use your metabolism, genetics, lifestyle and personal history to your advantage to identify your metabolic type – how YOU process and metabolize certain foods.

The most thorough process for this that I know of is via Metabolic Typing®. Through this program, you’ll take an extensive online questionnaire that takes into account your food preferences, psychological traits, body structure, digestion, genetic factors and more to determine how your specific body type is metabolizing foods and nutrients right now.

Based on your answers, you receive a detailed guide with information about your specific metabolic body type and a food list including the foods that best support your metabolism at this time.

Body by Body, my Metabolic Typing® program, provides you with the official online test, and six complete weeks of detailed information on how to implement a diet perfect for your own metabolism. To read more and register for Body by Body, click here.

Step 2. Building Upward - Once you have your foundation laid by implementing your metabolic type diet plan, it’s now just as important to subtly adjust that diet to meet your body’s very own, very specific needs. We call this “fine-tuning”.

The Body by Body Program goes through three main stages of the fine-tuning process. First and foremost is to define your personal macro-nutrient ratios, the balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats on your plate. It’s important to remember that the ratios of foods on your plate may be strikingly different than another person’s, even though you and she may be following a similar plan and have a similar body-type.

The second phase of fine-tuning takes this a little deeper. You’ll work on a subtle level to define what I call your carbohydrate tolerance, and attune your carb intake to meet the particular needs of your body. You’ll also take a deeper look at which kinds of carbs are better for your body.

Next thing to do is look at your circadian rhythms. Once you’ve identified your macro-nutrient ratios, it’s now imperative to assess whether or not they pertain at every meal. You’ll start to look at patterns and preferences of food at each meal, and how it made you feel after eating. Ask yourself these questions: Do you do better with more protein in the morning, yet need less at night? Do you sleep better with heavier or lighter proteins for dinner? Do you need more calories in the middle of the day and a little extra carbs to keep you going?

Step 3. Identify your “Health Saboteurs” - You could be eating really good foods for you, but if you’re unable to digest and assimilate them due to gut dysbiosis, hormonal imbalances, stress, frozen emotions, genetic factors or a whole slough of other potential issues, they could be doing absolutely no good.

Diet always comes first, and in many cases may actually help to decrease any of the above factors. But if symptoms are chronic, they’re in there deep, and it may take more than a healthy diet to “do right”. In these cases, professional guidance is most likely needed, and is highly recommended.

The Body by Body Program introduces these “health saboteurs” and a few key ways to address them. I recommend lab testing, as well as a variety of clinical modalities to identify your core blockers. Once these are determined, a corrective path toward healing can be laid out and implemented.

Registration for the Body by Body Program is happening now! Learn how to apply these three steps into your daily ritual to get the powerful results you deserve: Elimination of food cravings, sustained energy, balanced emotions, a clear-head, weight correction… and just as important… to simply eat what you love, and love what you eat.

One of the biggest pain points for those who adhere to restricted diets — whether due to food allergies, health concerns, ethical responsibilities or simply to make better food choices — is the limitations in dining out. Worse yet, it can make traveling a nightmare. Eating out is tough, so what do you do when you don’t have a kitchen, and you wouldn’t want to cook even if you did?

One strategy is to let loose and indulge in foods not eaten on your average, normal day. This works great for those who are simply trying to make better food choices, yet have a little breathing room.

But unfortunately, for many others, this just isn’t an option. For this scenario, the most important thing is not to travel blind, letting yourself just “figure it out once you get there”. ‘Cause inevitably, once you get there, you’ll be hungry, and if you don’t have a strong action plan, you’ll most likely find yourself eating somewhere that isn’t able to accommodate your ultimate needs.

A good solution is to do a little preliminary sleuth work in preparation for your trip. With so much information at our fingertips on the web, we can pretty much find everything we need before we even touch down.

BEFORE YOU GET THERE

Search for restaurants: Do a Google search for restaurants using your specific criteria (i.e: grass-fed beef, organic, vegetarian, gluten-free, etc). Get a list going that includes the name, address and phone number of each location. You may even want to “map it” and get a print-out for easy access later. Go ahead and give a few of them a call to see if they TRULY can accommodate your needs. Cross off the restaurants that can’t. Make sure to specifically call the restaurant at your hotel or B&B, as this will be the fastest, easiest food option.

Request a room with a kitchenette: These rooms always have a counter area, small refrigerator, hot plate, serveware and utensils, making it easy to store left-overs, healthy beverages and snacks. See if the hotel can provide you with a blender: a little nut milk, nut butter, frozen fruit, spirulina and protein powder equals a power-packed, high energy smoothie in minutes.

Consider hiring a personal chef: You may gawk, thinking “I can’t afford that!” But after tallying your restaurant food costs at the end of your trip, I’ll bet it comes out pretty much even. But the BEST thing about a personal chef is that they are far more capable of accommodating special-needs diets. For example, I’m hiring a PC for my Bozeman, Montana trip next week, and she’s making a few of MY OWN recipes in large batches and delivering them to my room for me to keep in my fridge. See? What restaurant is gonna do THAT for you? Do a Google search for “personal chef” and your location, or go to the American Personal and Private Chef Association’s chef locator.

Decide where to eat once you get off the plane: The last thing you want is your blood sugar to drop and your energy to crash without a good place to eat mapped out ahead of time. Most likely the climate will be different and you’ll be a little taxed from all the traveling – these can make the body tired and stressed. The solution: know where you’re going to eat once you’ve arrived, AND know how to get there.

Extra! Find a yoga studio and do at least one class while you’re there!

WHAT TO BRING

Snacks: Pack a small zip-lock of nuts and dried fruit for your purse or carry-on; if it gets confiscated, it’s no loss, but if you can get away with it, you’ll have a little something to nibble on if your plane gets delayed or your blood sugar drops. The only thing I’ll say about eating at an airport is to go for fruit and tea with a little honey. This will bring blood sugar up… but not for long. A pack of nuts (albeit overly roasted and salted) from a gift shop can help with sugar crashes.

Immune Supplements: Never get on a plane or go somewhere far and away without an arsenal of supportive supplements. Pack vitamin C (Alacer Emergen-C packs are great) vitamin D, a multi-mineral, an immune tincture (I like Kick-Ass Immune by Wish Garden Herbs) a flu homeopathic like Boiron Ocillococcinum or Heel Engystol, and Yin Chiao herbal.

Collapsible cooler: Stuff this into your room freezer once you arrive so you have a cold tote to pack your food for tomorrow’s excursions. Also make sure to bring some small plastic containers and zip-lock baggies in a couple sizes.

Extra! Bring your own pillows for a good night’s sleep, and some aromatherapy oils and a few tea candles for relaxing baths before bed.

ONCE YOU’RE THERE

Hit up the local natural food store: The day you arrive, make sure to stop in a get some staple items that will come in handy right off the bat. Pick up quick energy, high-electrolyte foods like dried fruits (especially prunes and raisins – these will keep you from getting constipated too!) unsweetened banana chips, coconut water, Brazil nuts and cocoa nibs. Nut butter on gluten-free or raw crackers make a great snack or breakfast. If you have a fridge in your room, you can also stock up on some healthy prepared foods or deli meats and cheeses.

Order extras at restaurants: If you find a good dish that “did you right”, don’t hesitate to place a second order to go. Take it with you and store it in your room refrigerator; eat it for breakfast or lunch the following day. Never hesitate to back to the same restaurant if you know it worked for you.

Stay hydrated: If the water in your room is nasty, buy gallon jugs of bottled water from the health food store. If you can find a market that has a “you fill” reverse osmosis water station, that’s the best option.

Extra! Do some stretching and breathing when you wake up to get you going for the day. Better yet, get to a yoga class at least once while on your trip.

It’s late February, and now’s the time to start planning your transition from winter to spring. While we’re merely anticipating longer days and warmer weather outside, the glandular system is already fast at work making subtle metabolic shifts to prepare the body inside. And the more we can do right now to help it, the better.

5 Tips for Healthy Seasonal Transitions

1. Eat Warm Soups with Raw Garnishes – We’re not out of the cold yet! We need to keep the body feeling warm and safe, and soups top the list. Homemade stocks with stewed veggies and meats supply needed minerals, but adding raw “garnishes” will help alert the body that you’re slowly moving toward more fresh, raw, seasonal fare. Try grating raw carrots, fennel bulb, radishes, parsnips, beets, zucchini or anything you have, onto the top of the soup as a fresh (and pretty) edible garnish.

2. Protect the Thyroid – The thyroid is one of the most sensitive glands in the body. Did you know it takes about ten days for the thyroid to transition from temperature fluctuations of just 5-10 degrees? Here in the Rockies, where it’s common in the springtime to go from a sunny 70-degree day to a snowstorm in 24 hours, it’s imperative to blanket that thyroid! Pull out your lighter-weight cotton scarves (try pastel colors to match the season!) but don’t put them away until it truly is summer.

3. Eat Liver Detoxifying Foods Daily – Despite popular belief, detoxing doesn’t happen that one week a year when we go on a “cleanse”. It’s the liver’s job to detox the body each and every day, but we can help it now by getting it get revved up for the season shift. The following liver detox foods can be added to your daily diet for the next 2-3 months: grapefruit, radishes, watercress, beets, broccoli, arugula, green apples, bitter greens and sulfur-rich foods like garlic and onions.

4. Do Coffee Enemas – Used as an enema solution, certain compounds in coffee purportedly stimulate the liver into its detox pathways. All the while, toxins are easily flushed out via the colon through the enema. Read more about taking a coffee enema in my article: Double-Tall Non-Fat Coffee Enema – Your Morning Cup o’ Joe.

5. Start Juicing (with added protein and fat) – Fresh veggie juices are a great way to get a concentrated, therapeutic supply of nutrients into the body quickly. Juicing any of the above liver detox foods can greatly help the liver. But since we’re still in transition, most of us need some protein or fat along with the cooling, spiking surge of carbohydrate that a glass of fresh juice begets. After pressing, blend a little protein powder or nut butter into the drink. Who says you can’t make a smoothie out of veggie juice?

Most people see marriage as a big commitment and will take the requisite time and needed steps to see it through. Others commit more deeply to a professional partnership or a spiritual path. But fewer still approach health as a commitment and a practice that strengthens and develops over the course of a lifetime.

Commitment is the first of my 3 C’s, the mental attitudes I believe we need seize in order to stay focused on our path of health and wellbeing. These 3 C’s are:

1. Commitment
2. Conviction, and
3. Composure

A big focus for me in the last three months has been on my agreement with myself (and my old friend, Meg) to do yoga every day for 90 days. As those 90 days come to a conclusion on February 27, 2010, I’ve had to come back again to this concept of commitment.

For me, it was also a bit scary to commit so much time and energy into a daily practice: My pattern so far in life has been to give quick bursts of 100 percent commitment, and then burn out and pull out 100 percent.

It admittedly was a challenge to “just keep going” even if I wasn’t at 100 percent (or 80 or 50… or sometimes even 10 percent!). But since my dedication to my health is #1 priority for me, I was able to stay solid with the commitment I made, all the way through.

Crashing and Burning on the Path of Health

How many times have you joined a gym, started dance classes, began a meditation practice, or started a diet and then gradually stopped doing it?

It could be because the practice or diet itself wasn’t the right practice for you. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the same outcome and enthusiasm for Yoga90 if I hadn’t stumbled upon a certain yoga tradition early on in the challenge. So finding the right exercise, the right diet, or the right spiritual practice for YOU is key.

But there’s also the commitment-factor. How committed…really… are you to your health? And WHY are you so committed? WHY do you want to be healthy?

I encourage students in my programs to make what I call a “Health Contract” with themselves. Not just before starting a program, but as a sacred document to call upon throughout their lives that reminds them of WHY they are doing this. These contracts are usually quite detailed, with their own personal “stamp”.

A contract like this can be pulled out again and again as we hit stumbling blocks or walls, or find ourselves knocked down altogether and back into old patterns.

With the power of commitment, and a reminder of WHY we’ve committed in the first place, the ‘crash and burn’ factor is greatly diminished. We still make mistakes and we still have to start over, but at each of these low times, we start to come out with more grace, and a little more confidence in our ability to just keep going.

This is the essence of commitment: to just keep going even if you (or the relationship, or the diet, or the practice…) isn’t perfect. We have all the time in the world to become better, stronger people, and starting where we are right now is good enough.

Your Personal Health Contract

Take some time to write up your own Personal Health Contract. Here are some questions to get you started:

1. Why do you want to be healthy? What are the three main reasons you want this the most in your life?
2. Why do you want these things? What is it about these three reasons that are so desirous for you?
3. What are your most nagging or worrisome health concerns and symptoms?
4. Envision yourself free of these symptoms. Are there things that you would do or have if you were symptom-free that you don’t do or have right now? What are these things?
5. Envision yourself doing and having these things. What would you look like and how would you feel doing and having these things? Get a real physical sense of this in the body and write down your responses.

I welcome your comments below – What are the three main reasons YOU want to be healthy?

I made a big stink blogging about my coffee enemas a few weeks back. Most people know that a ‘cup o’ joe’ can keep you regular, but I didn’t realize so few people were in the dark about using coffee as an enema solution. Used to clean out the gut, detoxify the body and kick-start bile flow, we can now enjoy some positive effects of our morning coffee, just not the way we’re used to!

Enemas have been used for millennia to help slough off stuck fecal matter in the colon, kill parasites, decrease bloating or pain in the lower belly and detoxify the digestive tract. In the Ayurvedic tradition, medicinal enemas are called basti, and are a powerful tool used to eliminate excess vata, treat disease, digestive disorders and restore health and well-being (1).

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Ayurvedic physicians may use medicated oils, tonics or herbal milks as the enema solution (2), but in the west, an enema is generally a flush of water through the colon, sometimes with additions to the water for multiple healing effects. An enema can be administered in the privacy of your own home, and is often used in combination with cleansing or fasting.

Coffee Enemas

Western naturopathic doctors often prescribe enemas that use brewed coffee as the medium. Although the coffee (or maybe just the enema itself) is thought to loosen hardened material from the colon, its primary use is as a liver detoxifier.

Coffee contains caffeine compounds that purportedly boost a key detoxification system in the liver, called glutathione S-tranferase, responsible for neutralizing free radicals (3). For more info on glutathione, please read my article, Top 3 Reasons Why Cruciferous Vegetables are So Good for You. It also helps to discharge bile. The caffeine travels up the hemorrhoidal vein to the portal vein and from there to the liver (4). The coffee, taken rectally versus orally, has significantly less negative side effects from the caffeine (and for many, none at all, as is my own personal experience). In fact, many report a calming effect rather than a stimulating one.

Are Enemas Safe?

There are a few things to take into consideration before taking an enema. First and foremost, anyone considering taking an enema should request the permission of a doctor. Persons suffering from inflammatory bowel disease, obstructed bowel, diverticulitis, rectal bleeding, ulceration, chronic diarrhea, anemia, fever, heart pain or severe abdominal pain should not take an enema (5). If there’s liver or gall bladder disease, or if the gall bladder has been removed, seek the advice of a doctor before using coffee as an enema solution.

I found an excellent guide to enema safety at EnemaBag.com that includes factors such as equipment, the procedure and solutions that go into your enema bag (and ultimately into your colon). Please read these carefully, and peruse their site for enema products and other resources.

EnemaBag.com: Using Enemas Safely

Another safety factor is electrolyte balance. Electrolytes are minerals that effect nerve function. Taking a few enemas is probably not going to alter electrolyte balance, but if used frequently over a long term period, or if over-used, enemas may lead to electrolyte loss. The best way to minimize this is to monitor your reactions closely after taking an enema or while on a duration enema program. You should feel a sense of well-being, increased energy, and a “clean” feeling in the gut. If you start to feel lethargic, drained of energy, moody, or any negative physical, emotional or mental symptoms, it’s a good time to stop and request the advice of a doctor.

How to Take a Coffee Enema

First, you need the right materials if you want to take a coffee enema safely. The coffee needs to be organic and full strength. Do not use inorganic or decaffeinated coffee. Inorganic coffee beans have been spayed with pesticides. Decaffeinated coffee has been processed with chemicals. You do not want to put these into your colon!

You’ll need to purchase a good quality enema bag and hose. Purchase yours online at EnemaBag.com or your local drug store.

I decided not to reinvent the wheel by creating an enema procedure document, nor to lengthen this article by including instructions in it. Instead, the best enema procedure resource I’ve found is at EnemaBag.com. A downloadable PDF version of the procedure is included.

EnemaBag.com: How to Take an Enema

The general guideline for a coffee enema “recipe” is 1 tablespoon of full-strength organic coffee per each cup of water. The coffee is brewed in a percolator, or boiled and steeped for 10-15 minutes and strained. The solution should be not hotter than body temperature, about 98 degrees.

For full instructions on how to take a coffee enema, please use this link:

EnemaBag.com: Coffee Enema

Have you ever done a coffee enema before? How has it worked for you?

Have often do you do enemas?

Have you had positive, lasting results?

Article References:

1. The Chopra Center. Basti. 2010.

2. Enema Info. Ayurvedic Bastis. 2010.

3. Moss, Ralph W. Ph.D. The Cancer Chronicles. Coffee: The Royal Flush. 2010.

4. Rubin, Jordan N.M.D., and Brasco, Joseph, M.D. Restoring Your Digestive Health. New York: Twin Streams. 2003.

5. Bernard Jensen, M.D. Dr. Jensen’s Guide to Better Bowel Care. New York: Avery Publishing Group. 1999.

6. EnemaBag.com. Using Enemas Safely. How to Take an Enema. Coffee Enema. 2010.

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Are you doing what the mass-market diet programs tell you to do when it comes to carbohydrate consumption? If so, have you noticed that you’re on a roller coaster ride? This diet tells you to eat more. That diet tells you to eat less. Question: was the book written for you? Getting the right ratio of carbs to proteins and fats is crucial if you want to get healthy, lose weight and increase energy all day long.

At each meal, everyone needs a certain amount of proteins, carbs and fats to feel uplifted, experience fullness and satisfaction, and to keep a steady level of energy for several hours after the meal. A healthy plate of food for one person may be “lopsided” with veggies, grains or fruits; but for another, meats and proteins are in greater quantity. For another still, the plate may have a balance of proteins to carbs and fats.

So which one’s “healthiest”? From the Metabolic Typing® approach to nutrition, they all are. It just depends upon the person who’s eating it.

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Finding Your Macro-Nutrient Ratios

Macro-nutrients are the foods that we need to eat in larger amounts each day; these are specifically proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The process of finding the appropriate ratios for an individual body is what Metabolic Typing® calls “fine-tuning”. After each person takes a comprehensive test to find their basic metabolic body-type and the appropriate diet plan suited for their unique body, it’s expected that they take the necessary steps to find the exact ratios that give them a sense of well-being, satiety and long-lasting energy for hours after eating.

One of the many tools we use in the fine-tuning process is a special diet log that gives feedback on positive and negative hunger cues a few hours hours after eating a complete meal. If someone reports feeling physically full and satisfied for a good four hours, the meal probably had a sufficient ratio of macro-nutrients appropriate for that person’s body. If, on the other hand, a person’s energy crashed two hours after eating, or she reported that she craved sugar later that day, we can assume the meal was inadequate for her specific needs.

It’s easy to detect a “good” or a “bad” meal by looking at a variety of hunger cues. I call these cues “The Three Hungers” - 1) Physical Hunger 2) Cellular Hunger and 3) Emotional Hunger. Positive physical hunger cues might include the feeling of satiation well after eating all the way to the next meal, or not needing to snack between meals. Physical signs of a good meal may also include being free of pain, gas or bloating. Negative cues are the opposite: feeling hungry 1-2 hours after eating, or any digestive discomfort from the food eaten.

Cellular hunger cues relate with blood sugar. Positive signs may include a steady, even-keeled energy, no food cravings, and the ability to maintain energy for 4-5 hours after eating. Negative blood sugar cues are crashes in energy, fatigue, irritability, food cravings, or a feeling of being “tired but wired”.

Emotions are often closely tied to the foods we eat. Like the other “hungers”, emotional hunger cues can go both ways – positive or negative. Positive emotional cues are a sense of well-being, a positive outlook, improved communication with others and a sense of clarity. Negative cues could be any negative emotion like anxiety, irritability, depression, or obsession. Thoughts may become sporadic and unclear. We may also want to withdraw from social engagement.

Seeing the Big Picture

Once a person has done a few days of solid diet logging, it’s easy to do some sleuth work because she begins to see the patterns emerge. She may have some “off days”, but for the most part, she can clearly see the chronic patterns come to light; they are right there on paper. She might notice that on the days she ate chicken breast for lunch, the meal didn’t last her; but when she ate roast beef, her energy was sustained all afternoon until dinner. Or vice verse.

And what she ate with the protein may also have a made a big difference; when she ate a little brown rice or other whole grain, she felt satisfied and complete, but when she ate too little or too much of it, negative cues persisted.

I’ve included in this article my version of the Metabolic Typing® Diet Record Sheet. I call it The Three Hungers Diet Log, which includes an area that I personally deem important: how we digest our food.

The Three Hungers Diet Log

Please feel free to print several copies and use it often, ideally every day for at least a week (better yet 3-4 weeks) to find your specific macro-nutrient ratios and carbohydrate tolerance.

Announcement! My long-distance Body by Body Metabolic Typing® Diet Program is here! Learn to eat the right foods for your unique body so you can regain your health and vitality, free yourself from food cravings, achieve your ideal weight, and prevent and reverse disease.

Included in this unique self-paced program is the official Metabolic Typing® Advanced Test to find your metabolic body type, my audio and video media kit that leads you step by step in the 6-week Metabolic Typing Diet® process, a 150-recipe cookbook with type-specific menu plans, an explanation of how to find your personal “Health Saboteurs”, The Metabolic Typing Diet book by founder William Wolcott, and much, much more.

Please join me, your Certified Metabolic Typing® Advisor, in this life-altering health journey to change the way you eat for good… and for the better!

Click here to watch my intro video and listen to The Benefits and Process of Metabolic Typing.

The books I’m presenting here have opposite approaches to diet, and both are deemed somewhat “politically incorrect”, at least according to the USDA Food Pyramid and standard western nutrition. You can see why: one promotes a diet rich in animal proteins and saturated fats, and the other relies specifically on vegetarian foods that are left in their natural state… uncooked. Contrary are their approaches, but an intermingling of these two eating styles is the diet I prefer to follow day-to-day.

Nourishing Traditions – The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
by Sally Fallon

Not just a cookbook, this handy resource guide sites information on the myths of fat (especially saturated fat) and its falsely accused ill effects on cholesterol and heart disease. It provides data on refined carbohydrates and their relationship to modern disease, research on animal protein as a principal element of human nutrition, fermented milk products, food allergies, and a whole lot more. Fallon also delves into food selection and the importance of local eating, pastured animals, raw dairy and unrefined foods.

As far as cooking and recipes, readers get all the basics: a slough of fermented dairy recipes like homemade yoghurt, kefir and crème fraiche, how to sprout grains and nuts, stock-making from animal bones and vegetables, and healthy salad dressings and sauces. The bulk of the recipes are based on hearty meats, vegetables, whole grains, and all-natural not-too-sweet baked desserts.

Rawsome! Maximizing Health, Energy and Culinary Delight with the Raw Foods Diet
by Brigitte Mars

Another fantastic book that’s way more than a cookbook (well… in this case, a “no cook” book) nearly half of the book is a reference and resource manual for you to get familiar with the raw foods diet. Brigitte is an internationally known herbalist and nutritionist, and she has included a raw foods encyclopedia to give you all the basics on staple raw foods, their uses and their health benefits. She goes over the many reasons to “go raw” including an FAQ section and information on protein and enzymes.

Brigitte’s recipes are simple, easy and delightful. Ingredients lists are generally short and sweet, as she promotes a raw diet that is practical, yet abundant in alive, colorful foods to get you healthy. Recipe sections include breakfast ideas (who couldn’t use more of those?) alternatives to cheese, milk and yogurt, raw soups and sauces, and some easy entrées like Rawvioli, Pizza and Mushroom Loaf. Her bright and colorful raw desserts, she says, “are healthier than what most people eat for an entrée.” Indeed!

We’re All Different

Everyone’s body is different, and requires varying qualities and quantities of protein, carbohydrates and fats. Some people do well with only vegetable proteins like beans, grains, nuts and seeds; others need heavier proteins and fats, specifically from animal sources.

In my experience, I’ve seen that most human beings need to stick with an omnivore’s diet that includes all of the above – protein and fats from many sources (animal and plant-based) and plenty of green, red, yellow and all brightly colored vegetables and fruits.

From a Metabolic Typing® perspective, some people need lighter proteins like white meat, fish and dairy over heavier proteins like red meat. Some have a higher tolerance for starchier vegetables and grains; others don’t.

What I like to emphasize is the individuality of each person, and that no ONE diet will fit all. Within any diet system, it is ultimately each individual’s responsibility to adjust, modulate and fine-tune the diet until she gets it right… for her. Use these cookbooks and nutrition ideas as a guideline so that you, too, can create the perfect diet that works optimally for you and your own unique body.

1. Fallon, Sally with Enig, Mary, PhD. Nourishing Traditions. Washington DC: New Trends Publishing Inc. 2001.

2. Mars, Brigitte. Rawsome! Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications Inc. 2004.

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In the last five years, I’ve had two blood tests for gluten sensitivity. Both came out negative. Now, I’m not one to eat a lot of wheat, but from the results of my tests, I figured gluten was fairly safe for me to be eating in small to moderate amounts.

I was wrong. I recently found out that I have two separate sensitivities to gluten:

1) Celiac disease (an auto-immune condition concerning the gut lining) and

2) A gluten intolerance known to damage other tissues and organs in the body

So why wasn’t this showing up in my blood tests? (Answers to follow.)

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Info on Celiac Disease and Gluten-Intolerance

There’s no shortage of reliable information out there on why gluten is causing suffering (and even death) for many people. One of the best, most informative articles is a recent post by Functional Medicine doctor, Mark Hyman, M.D. (link at bottom of page). This is an excellent reference article that covers all the bases on how and why gluten is wreaking havoc for millions of Americans.

What hasn’t been covered is what kind of testing is most accurate and most reliable. My article will focus on the importance of getting the RIGHT testing for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. The advice of the day is to take wheat out for a while and “see what happens”, or to get a blood antibody test. I can’t stress enough how inaccurate and incomplete this advice is.

Why Blood Tests Don’t Work (at least 80% of the time)

Antibodies are advanced immune cells programmed to attack and destroy specific antigens, or invaders in the body. An antibody test looks for an elevation of antibodies patrolling for “foreign invaders”, a.k.a. bacteria, viruses, or sometimes even the foods we eat.

When there’s an elevation of anti-gliadin (anti-gluten) antibodies, it’s a clear indication that the immune system is responding negatively to gluten. In other words, it thinks gluten is an invader, and turns on immune cells to attack and destroy gluten molecules anywhere in the body.

As mentioned above, I’ve had two blood anti-gliadin tests, and both came out negative. Why? According to Dr. Datis Kharrazian, Blood Chemistry Seminar instructor and supplements formulator for Apex Energetics, Inc., “blood anti-gliadin tests are only about 20 percent accurate”. (2)

This is because, for many people, the allergic response isn’t happening in the blood stream, but rather, in and around the gut tissue. For this reason, test specimens for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity should be taken from the gut in order to get the most reliable reading (3).

But this doesn’t mean we have to have an invasive (and expensive) biopsy of the gut lining, as is the standard recommended by western medical doctors. Fortunately, a barrage of immune cells are teaming around the gut at all times to ward off pathogens. These immune cells (antibodies) are also found en masse in the stool. Although “messier” than a blood test, this is why a stool anti-gliadin antibody test is suggested, versus one taken from the blood.

Gene Testing – Are You “Turned On” for Celiac Disease?

Many people with celiac disease have a gene turned on that predisposes them to the disease. This can be passed down from family member to family member. Although not everyone with the “celiac gene” will actually get celiac disease, a genetic predisposition to it, coupled with elevated anti-gliadin antibodies and other indicators (see below) may designate a person to the complete and permanent elimination of all gluten-containing foods from the diet. (4)

The study of celiac genetics is a new technology and is one that needs many more years of research and study, but I believe it to be a valuable diagnostic tool when used hand-in-hand with stool testing to detect the presence of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

Accurate Testing Made Easy

The testing process for an accurate reading for celiac disease and gluten intolerance is actually easy; reason being is that you don’t need a doctor-prescribed requisition form, and you don’t need to go into a lab for a blood draw. This procedure is done in the privacy of your own home, and your all-inclusive test kit can be ordered online. The lab, EnteroLab, is a registered and fully accredited clinical laboratory specializing in the analysis of intestinal specimens for food sensitivities.

Tests can be purchased singly, but the most complete, accurate and affordable way is to purchase all five gluten tests in one, called the Gluten Sensitivity Stool and Gene Panel Complete.

This panel includes:

• Anti-Gliadin Antibodies Stool Test – to check for the antibodies produced by your body against gluten

• Tissue Transglutaminase Stool Test – to determine if gluten has caused an autoimmune reaction in your body that can attack and damage the intestine and other tissues of the body

• Malabsorption Test – to assess whether your intestine is malabsorbing dietary nutrients because of damage by gluten (or perhaps other factors)

• Celiac and Gluten-Sensitivity Gene Test – to assess your risk based on your genetic predisposition

• And (for a limited time) Free Milk Sensitivity Test – to test whether or not you are reacting to casein, a protein in milk

This complete package costs $369 ( I know… it’s pricey, but this is the one I recommend if you want to cover all the bases; some insurance companies will reimburse payments). The next best choice is the Gluten Sensitivity Stool Panel Complete, which includes the gluten sensitivity test, transglutaminase test and malabsorption test. This panel is $249 and does not include the gene test or milk sensitivity test.

If you are deciding between the stool panel OR the gene test, the stool panel better determines whether you are actively reacting to gluten, while the gene test assesses the probability that you are reacting or will react to gluten in your lifetime. Again, my suggestion is the complete panel that tests both the stool and genes.

EnteroLab has an extensive FAQ section to answer all your questions about their lab tests, which test is right for you, and information on gluten sensitivity and celiac sprue. Your results and interpretations are sent to you via email within three weeks. The website also has extensive FAQ regarding lab results. All tests can be ordered directly from the EnteroLab Website.

Article References:

1. Hyman, Mark, M.D. Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You. 2010.

2. Kharrazian, Datis, Ph.D. Apex Energetics Functional Endocrinology Seminar. Boulder, CO. 2009.

3. EnteroLab.FAQ: How is Gluten Sensitivity Diagnosed? 2000-2010.

4. EnteroLab. Which Test to Order: What type of genetic testing does EnteroLab offer? 2000-2010.

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It was only two years ago that I started eating red meat after 20 years of abstinence. And now I go and buy a cow.

Last week, my friend and colleague Lynne Eppel (Edible Front Range Magazine) and I went in together to purchase a quarter of a local, grass-fed cow. Much to my husband’s chagrin, his homemade coconut popsicles were confiscated as our freezer became the home to every kind of steak you can think of, three large roasts, a stack of short ribs, brisket, stew meat, stock bones, liver, and 30 pounds of ground beef. (This is called foreshadowing… I’m preparing you for meat loaf, meatballs and hamburger recipes in the very near future!)

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Since I started to eat red meat, I purchased most of it from my local farmers’ market. In the winter, I resorted to Whole Foods Market. I’m grateful that they offer naturally processed meats, but I have never been proud of purchasing meat that was grain fed (as opposed to pasture fed) and had been shipped possibly thousands of miles to get to me. From my personal ethical perspective, as well and an environmental one, I’d much rather purchase a portion of a local cow that was processed humanely and raised on a small farm in open pastures (not even two miles from my house, mind you!) than to buy “part and parcel” meat from a large farm hundreds or thousands of miles from my home.

How Do I Buy Local Meat?

I get a lot of my insider information direct from the farmers at the farmers’ market. Unfortunately, most markets are seasonal and have closed for the winter. So, where to find a local source for food when the markets are closed for the season?

Of course, a Google search (i.e. grass-fed beef, your city and state) is one of the best ways to see what’s available in your area.

Another solution is a national farm search website called Local Harvest that will list local farms in your area. Each farm listing will tell you what they sell: veggies only, grass-fed meats, free-range chickens and eggs, milk, cheeses, fruits, honey. Not only can you find local farms, but also restaurants and markets that sell local food to their patrons. LocalHarvest.org

Why Do I Buy Local Food?

• For one, with all the meat recalls, it’s going to be safer to eat meats and produce from small, local farms where smaller amounts of food is handled with more care.

• The food is also fresher (since it doesn’t have to travel so far) and therefore has retained more of its nutrient content.

• Small farms are also a better choice for the environment and for humane care of the animals. (I watched Food, Inc. a few weeks ago and was appalled to see cows tromping knee deep in their own manure and crammed into small areas with hundreds of other animals.)

• It’s also imperative that our local farmers get as much financial support and emotional encouragement as we can possibly give them. What would we do if we lost all our farmers and farm land?

December commences many months (how many, I do not know!) of cooking my way through all the meat that’s in my freezer! With every dish I make from this animal, I am profoundly thankful for the life that it unknowingly sacrificed for me, the nourishment that it provides me, and for all the hard work and care that went into raising and producing it.

There’s no way around eating good food during the holidays, and lots of it. But wouldn’t it be nice if you and your guests actually felt good after the feast? And even the day after?

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RECIPES!
Wild Rice, Cranberry and Apple Stuffing
Homemade Cranberry-Orange Sauce
Baby Pumpkins with Maple and Cinnamon

Thanksgiving doesn’t have to end with feeling stuffed, bloated or constipated. Here are some simple ways to keep it cleaner and feel good all weekend long:

1. Go Light on the Appetizers - One year, my sister-in-law decided not to serve appetizers before our holiday feast. What a relief! Chips and dips, candied nuts, breads and cheeses can be filling and cause bloating before the real eating has even started. Try this: an hour or so before the meal, serve a brothy soup to help with hunger and excite the tastebuds.

2. Skip the Rolls - You don’t need them. With mashed potatoes, stuffing and yams, the extra carbs from refined bread is too much. Wheat bread expands in the stomach (especially with beer) and is one of the most common causes for digestive upset.

3. Make a Wild Rice Stuffing - Unlike refined bread stuffings that are high in simple carbohydrates, wild rice is a whole grain complex carbohydrate that absorbs gently into the bloodstream. It’s high in fiber (your guests will thank you later!) and is a good source of B vitamins and minerals.

4. Use Real Butter - Margarine is not healthier than butter. It is a highly processed food that contains trans-fats, which are oils that have been structually altered and are known carcinogens. Skip the Crisco for pie crusts. Use real butter; your crust will be flaky and rich, and it won’t give you cancer.

5. Choose an Organic Turkey – Ask around at your local farmers’ market for small farms that raise holiday turkeys. Small and local farms are best: the birds are better cared for and the meat is that much fresher. Always choose a farm that doesn’t use antibiotics, hormones or preservatives on their turkeys.

6. Serve Sparkling Cider Instead of Soda - Kids love it! It’s a drink they don’t get to have everyday and is much healthier than commercial sodas. Add a little unsweetened pomegranate juice for a festive color and fruity taste. At the very least, buy natural sodas that use sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

7. Try Maple Syrup Instead of Brown Sugar - Commercial brown sugar is refined white sugar with caramel color (molasses if your lucky) added back to it after refining. Although it is a simple sugar, maple syrup absorbs slower into the bloodstream than refined sugar. Use it for candying yams and pumpkin pie filling.

8. Make it Yourself - If you make it, you know exactly what’s in it. It’s also fresher. Skip the canned cranberries, candied yams and pumpkin puree; making them yourself with fresh ingredients is easy and the food will taste markedly better.

9. Drink Lots of Water - Staying hydrated is key. The digestive organs need additional water to process the extra amounts of carbohydrate and alcohol. Make a point to drink at least a half a cup of water every hour, and make sure your kids are drinking water throughout the day, too.

10. Stay Alkalized - To much dietary acid from meats, dairy products and sweets can throw the body’s delicate Ph balance out of whack. This causes stress, irritability and digestive problems. A couple times a day throughout the weekend, pound down this alkalizing formula: 12 ounces of water mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon liquid chloropyll (found in the supplements section).

Okay… one last tip (and a very important one, too…)

11. Find Some Alone Time - Holidays can be stressful, and family can sometimes add to the load. Throughout the weekend, make sure to take some time alone for a walk, to read, take a nap or just sit by yourself and breathe. Even 15 minutes by yourself can bring you back into a calm and balanced frame of mind.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

natural cooking food and drink cooking healthy cooking natural foods recipe food blog food blogs chef blogs chef blog recipes Alison Anton food Thanksgiving healthy feast healthy holiday food cranberry sauce wild rice stuffing roasted baby pumpkins

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Although summer boasts fresh, raw veggies, the fall and winter months offer their own share of hearty, healthy, immune-boosting, disease-fighting fare. The holiday season is also the flu season, so now is NOT the time to give them up – we need as much as we can get to stay healthy all the way into next year.

But let’s make winter salad-making fun and festive too.

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Here are my 7 components to match a salad with the season:

1. Use combo greens - Mix basic salad greens (spinach, romaine, Bibb) with spicy bitter greens (arugula, mustard, endive) or colorful choices (radicchio, red cabbage, frizee) to add flair, texture and taste that isn’t too overbearing. Use them in smaller amounts to accentuate the base ingredients.

2. Take advantage of “thermogenic” spices - These are compounds that warm the body and increase metabolism. Salads can be cooling in nature, so balance this action by adding warming spices to dressings. These include: cayenne, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, cumin, coriander and mustard seeds. See: Wilted Spinach Salad with Curried Dressing and Spiced Walnuts

3. Draw upon winter fruits - There’s only one time of year when we can get away with using certain fruits like cranberries, pomegranate seeds and persimmons. Do ‘em up by adding them fresh or dried into your salads and dressings. See: Red Leaf with Shaved Persimmon and Pomegranate-Balsamic Vinaigrette and Glaze

4. Add fresh herb “boosters” - Herbs are known to add flavor, but even a small amount can boost nutrition 10-fold. Don’t underestimate the power of fresh herbs. Snip them right into the salad or mince them into dressings.

5. Bring back wilted salads - Wilted salads are especially festive in the winter months. Not many people do this anymore, so it’s also a crowd pleaser. Wilting breaks the greens down just a bit, making them easier to digest, yet retains nutritional value. See: Wilted Spinach Salad with Curried Dressing and Spiced Walnuts

6. Make hearty slaws - Salads don’t always have to be green and leafy. Take advantage of thicker, denser veggies of the season, for example, cabbage. Rotate for variety (Savoy, red, Napa). Celery, carrots and many root vegetables also make excellent (and healthy) slaws. See: Carrot, Parsnip and Cranberry Salad with Tahini-Ginger Sauce

7. Spice and candy your own nuts/seeds - The commercial ones are over-roasted with oils that have been damaged from high heating. It’s easy to make your own, and you can flavor them with your favorite spices (as well as with natural sweeteners of your choice). See: all above recipes.

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“You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.”
- Linus Pauling, PhD, winner of two Nobel prizes

In this day and age, most of us (if not all) need to consider mineral supplementation due to depleted minerals in our soil, as well as from stress and the consumption of processed foods, which make minerals and other nutrients harder for us to assimilate.

One of my favorite way to get pure, clean minerals naturally (and inexpensively) is to drink a solution of diluted mineral-rich Himalayan salt crystals with water. These “salt diamonds” are nearly 250 million years old and contain at least 84 essential and trace minerals that our bodies need every day.

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Diluting the crystals in water ionizes the minerals, charging them electrically, making them easier to absorb right into the cells. When it comes to absorbing minerals, whole, unprocessed sources are best, as each element relies on the other to make it work properly (1). This concept often goes overlooked with isolated mineral supplement therapy.

Sole Water – An Ocean of Energy

Sole water (so-lay) is an ultimate infusion of ionized minerals. When the salt crystals and the water meet, the minerals better represent the minerals that naturally occur in our blood (2). Unlike common table salt, these salt crystals are not made up merely of sodium and chloride; they contain within them at least 82 other important minerals waiting to be unlocked and absorbed.

According to Dr. Robert Mercola, drinking a sole mineral water solution has many benefits, including (3):

1. Regulating the water content throughout your body
2. Promoting a healthy pH balance in your cells, particularly your brain cells
3. Promoting blood sugar health and helping to reduce the signs of aging
4. Assisting in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body
5. Absorption of food particles through your intestinal tract
6. Supporting respiratory health
7. Promoting sinus health
8. Prevention of muscle cramps
9. Promoting bone strength
10. Regulating your sleep
11. Supporting your libido
12. Promoting vascular health
13. In conjunction with water it is actually essential for the regulation of your blood pressure

Not all salt crystals are the same, though. You’ll need natural, unrefined crystals, where nothing has been taken out or added in. For a sole water solution, you’ll need large, unprocessed rock salt crystals.

Although granulated Himalayan table salt can be purchased readily at natural foods stores, large crystal stones are less available. You’ll most likely have to purchase them online.

How to Make and Use Sole Water (it’s easy… and fun)

• Place several (3-5) Himalayan crystal salt stones in a glass jar with a lid. Add filtered water to cover about 3-4 inches above the stones. Let sit overnight.
• If all the salt crystals have dissolved, add a few more salt crystals to the water. Your sole is ready when the salt no longer dissolves, meaning the water has become fully saturated with the salt. If ever you notice the crystals have dissolved, add more crystals. Add water and more crystals as you use up the sole. Remember, there should always be undissolved salt crystals on the bottom of the jar. This is your visual proof that the water is totally saturated with salt.
• Each morning on an empty stomach, add one teaspoon of the sole to a glass of filtered water and drink. The amount of water is up to you, but you do not need more than 1 teaspoon of the sole. The water will taste more or less salty, depending upon how much water is diluting it.
• Store, covered, on the counter or cupboard. The fully saturated sole will keep indefinitely. Salt is a natural anti-bacterial and natural fungicide – it cannot spoil or go bad. Remember to add crystals once they have dissolved.

To Salt or Not to Salt?

There’s still a big controversy over whether reduced sodium intake lowers blood pressure. Major studies show both sides of the spectrum. But in general, results show that blood pressure is minimally affected by long-term reduction in sodium, and that only some people are affected positively by reducing salt intake (4). This goes to show that each person is different and that the general RDA’s could go up or down, depending upon the individual’s genetic make-up.

RDA’s for sodium are up to 2400mg per day. One teaspoon of mineral-rich sole water with a glass of filtered water is approximately 478mg. Drinking sole water in the morning, and moderately salting foods with granulated Himalayan salt, Celtic salt, or other good quality sea salt throughout the rest of the day (while limiting consumption of packaged, salted foods) should pose no health risks for most people.

Of course, if you have known high blood pressure, you should consult your physician to see if sole water is appropriate for you.

Article References:

1. Bauman College Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts. Nutrition Educator Handbook: Introduction to Micronutrients. Bauman College: Penngrove. 2008.

2. The Original Himalayan Crystal Salt. Benefits of Ionized Minerals. 2009.

3. Mercola, Robert. The 13 Health Benefits of Himalayan Crystal Salt. 2009.

4. National Institutes of Health. Statement on Sodium Intake and High Blood Pressure. 1998.

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Flu season is here, and there’s more hype than ever. With swine flu on the loose, the fear and tension rises as we anticipate how bad it may get. Pressure is on to get flu shots, but for those of us with a holistic approach, vaccines are not an option. So what do we do to beat the bugs?

Colds and influenza don’t just land on people like a game of Russian roulette. The “right” environment has to be present in order for a bug to take hold. A bug may land in the gut for up to a week before we actually “get sick”. In more cases than not, our body’s immune squad will have the bug licked before we even notice any obvious symptoms.

If our body is incapable of warding off a flu or virus in this stage (due to intestinal permeability, weak or dysregulated immune function, adrenal stress, low endocrine activity or liver weakness) we get sick and feel the notorious signs of our immune system deep at work: aches, pains, fever, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, congestion.

If we can establish the wrong environment for the bugs and the right environment to support our body’s immunity BEFORE we get sick, we’ll have a better fighting chance against the battle of the bugs. Here’s how:

Food

Good food is a must these days, and if used smartly, can be a powerful preventative against colds and flu.

1. Drink winter smoothies. Toss in spinach or other dark leafy greens. Power-pack it with high-potency “boosters” like ginger, lemongrass, cinnamon and spirulina. Coconut milk provides lauric acid, a natural anti-microbial.

Recipe: Green Ginger-Peach-Lemongrass Smoothie

2. Make broths a regular part of any meal. Sipping warm broth any time of the day during flu season replenishes needed minerals and provides nourishment for the cells.

Broth Recipes: Chicken Broth, Miso Broth, Vegetable Broth

3. Eat a cruciferous a day. These are some of the most powerful foods for reducing oxidative effects on the body and for preventing disease. Try to eat them in raw form as much as possible: Arugula, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, radishes (and greens), turnips, watercress.

Supplements

We don’t have to get technical by using the “latest and greatest” (and complicated) nutritional supplements. The old preventative stand-bys are still powerful. If it’s in your medicine cabinet, use it!

1. Vitamin D. Not just a “vitamin”, vitamin D is also a pre-curser to steroid hormones known to induce the ability to fight infections. It produces over 200 anti-microbial compounds, particularly a naturally occurring antibiotic. Vitamin D is one of the most deficient nutrients today, yet one of the most important for fighting disease.

The form you take is important. I use a professional brand that combines emulsified vitamin D (in the form most bio-available to the cells) with other co-factors including DHA and EPA from fish oil.

View/Order Ulta-D Complex

2. Adaptogens. An adaptogen is a classification of herbs that help the body prevent stress and repair the body from its negative impacts. They are known to boost or suppress adrenal function whenever one or the other is needed. Ashwagandha and holy basil are two of the best-known adaptogens.

I use a specially formulated professional-brand supplement that combines these two herbs with panax ginseng, rhodiola and others, along with digestive enzymes to help them better absorb into the cells.

View/Order Adaptocrine

3. Hydrochloric acid. The stomach is the first line of defense. When stomach acid is low, food will not break down into small enough particles, inflaming the immune system as if the food were a pathogen. Large particles in the GI tract cause “leaky gut” syndrome, where the lining gives way to real pathogens, like bacteria and viruses. Increase stomach acid with hydrochloric acid at each meal. Read more in my article, It All Starts in the Stomach.

I use a professional product that combines hydrochloric acid with betaine and digestive enzymes – the winning combination for breaking down food before it hits the stomach.

View/Order HCL-Prozyme

Lifestyle

Adrenal stress can make even the “healthiest” person that much more susceptible to illness in the flu season. They may be eating all the right foods and exercising, but anxiety, tension and daily stressors can neutralize any efforts as quickly as it takes to whip up a green smoothie.

1. Unwind everyday (and not with a beer and TV). Quiet time by yourself away from the responsibilities of work and family is not a selfish act. If you cannot adapt to stress, you will not have the energy needed to take care of everything else. Ideas: Journaling, meditation, tai chi, breath-work, hot baths.

2. Exercise. A non-stressful fitness regime will boost immunity naturally as well as build muscle-mass, essential for when the body does get sick. Bonus: Many gym memberships come with unlimited use of the sauna and steam room, giving you additional support for de-stressing.

3. Take a “power-down hour”. Make it a habit to power down at least 1 hour before bed by shutting down the computer, switching off the tube, turning off cell phones. You’ll have a better night’s sleep as your brain winds down from the “electrical activity” of the day.

Article References:

1. Kharrazian, Datis. Apex Energetics Nutritional Complexes Formula Information. 2009.

2. Richards, Byron J. Weekly Wellness Update Pod Cast. Sep. 23, 2009.

3. Mercola, Robert. Important Vitamin D Update. 2008.

4. Douillard, John. Life Spa. Your Daily Adaptogen. 2009.

5. Virgin, JJ. LeanZean. 2009.

Ever wonder why some vegetarian dishes taste so rich and satisfying while others taste like cardboard? This is the magic of “umami”, the best-kept secret of professional chefs, who strive to create the most savory, full-bodied meals for their guests.

Umami is another word for “savory-ness” or “deliciousness”. Until umami came onto the scene in the 80’s, food connoisseurs were limited to only the four coined tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. The fifth taste – umami – adds dimension and roundedness, a sense of fullness and depth of flavor. It’s no wonder that the man who coined the word also patented the manufacture of MSG (mono-sodium glutamate) a food additive that increases food flavor 10-fold.

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Fortunately, we do not have to use MSG to enhance flavors! We now know that foods high in glutamates and inosinates hold the key to unlocking flavors from any dish; use these foods and you’ll naturally increase flavor. Once you encorporate umami, you’ll quickly become a pro at developing flavors, and at picking the best items from any restaurant menu! Seek out the umami and it’s sure to be a winner.

Umami-Rich Foods

Seafoods

• Seaweeds, particularly kombu
• Fish sauce
• Anchovies/Anchovy paste
• Dried fish flakes (bonito flakes)
• Mackerel
• Sardines
• Tuna
• Shrimp
• Oysters
• Shellfish

Meats

• Beef
• Pork
• Chicken
• Lamb

Vegetables

• Asparagus
• Tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Potatoes and sweet potatoes
• Onion
• Chinese cabbage
• Carrots

Other Foods

• Aged cheese
• Cured meats
• Soybeans and miso
• Butter
• Green tea
• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Savory herbs like rosemary and thyme

Creating the “Umami Bomb”

The way foods are cooked can also enhance their umami. Roasting, broiling, caramelizing and curing are great ways to activate the umami compounds. By using multiple layers of umami with cooking techniques that bring it out, anyone can create rich and totally satisfying dishes, just like a professional chef.

Ever wonder why your Thai curry or miso soup doesn’t taste like the restaurant’s? It’s umami. And it’s amazing how just a little of it can turn a dish from satisfactory to mind-blowing.

For European and American food, serve entrees with roasted sweet potatoes, tomatoes and caramelized onions. Add:

• Worcestershire sauce
• Anchovy paste
• Cured meat
• Cheese

For Asian food, serve entrees with sauteed Asian cabbage or shiitake mushrooms. Add:

• Soy sauce
• Kombu seaweed
• Fish sauce
• Miso

Desserts can also have umami. Try dates or fresh figs stuffed with rosemary scented mascarpone cheese or crème fraiche.

Article References:

1. Umami Information Center. What Is Umami? 2009.

2. Encyclopedia Britannica. Kikunae Ikeda. 2009.

If you think about it, seeds and sprouts rely on a ton of energy within them. The energy it takes to get them from where they are now into a full grown plant is enormous, and it’s right there inside them. If we eat them at this state of their growth, we ingest all the powerful nutrients (protein, phyto-chemicals, vitamins and minerals) which can be then utilized for our own bodies.

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Micro-greens (sprouts) can be purchased alive in their containers from most farmers markets. This is the best way to eat them, since they are alive and not losing nutrients as quickly as having already been cut from their roots. There’s also more variety at the farmers market: pictured above are arugula sprouts.

Micro-greens keep well on a plate of water right on the counter. Snip what you need into salads, sandwiches and smoothies, or use them as a “booster food” garnish. You’ll be done with a live box of micro-green sprouts before they can grow back, so regular purchasing is necessary.

It’s not easy: Meal planning, shopping, prepping, cooking and cleaning take dedicated energy and clear focus. With the daily juggle of career, family and social life, we can only make the healthiest choices we can, and hopefully make the process as easy on ourselves as possible.

One of the ways to go easy in the kitchen is by utilizing simple tips to make food stretch a little longer to eliminate some of the stress that comes with, “What am I gonna eat?” Despite popular belief, even professional chefs hear these nagging words inside their own heads each and every day!

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Top Ten Professional Tips to Make Food Last

1. Love Your Left-Overs - People who don’t like left-overs don’t make good personal chef clients. A personal chef will make at least four servings of any dish (even for a single person)  to make better use of her time and the client’s money. Learn to make a double batch – it doesn’t take much longer to prepare, and it will keep your shopping list minimal.

2. Make Hearty Food - Stews, casseroles, whole roasted chicken, marinated meats… These are all good, solid foods that can last several days in the fridge. Before deciding on any dish, think about how long it will serve you. If it wilts in an hour, that’s it for that one.

3. Go for Heartier Veggies - Lettuce salads are refreshing, but ounce-per-ounce don’t compare nutritionally to deep green, hearty vegetables like kale, cabbage or kohlrabi. They also don’t last as long. Pre-make hearty slaws, drizzle with lemon juice, and dress them just before ready to eat.

4. Buy a Whole Chicken - A whole chicken can feed 1-2 people through at least two meals. Instead of buying separate pieces (and spending more money) learn how to cut up a whole chicken and make use of all the parts. Legs and thighs can be braised, breasts can be grilled and the carcass can be made into a stock. See recipe ideas below.

5. Salad Spinners - Delicate greens, as well as hearty vegetables, will keep much longer if stored in a salad spinner versus plastic bags. I have three in my fridge at any given time.

6. Pre-Make Simple Dressings - Have 3-4 staple dressing recipes that you love on hand. Pre-make them at the beginning of the week so they are ready for grabbing just when you need them. For dressing recipe ideas, see my Improvisational Dressings.

7. Puree Soup to Make a Sauce - Hearty, left-over soup can be pureed in the food processor and used as a sauce for meats and vegetables. Arrowroot can be used as a thickener, and fresh or dried herbs can be added to intensify flavors. Coconut oil, olive oil or butter can be stirred in at the end to add richness.

8. Freezing Food - Another reason to make heartier food is that it freezes well. Fresh is best, but stews, stocks, casseroles and sauces all freeze well. I like to freeze in mason jars – just make sure to leave space at the top for expansion. Let food cool to room temperature to alleviate drip loss and sogginess.

9. Vacuum Savers - Although I do not promote the use of plastic, some people value vacuum packed food, as it keeps food fresh for a very long time without freezing. If you’re going to use a vacuum packer, I recommend wrapping the food in parchment first, so that the plastic doesn’t seep directly into your food. The plastic should be reused for the next packing job.

10. Consider a Personal Chef - Personal chefs are becoming more and more popular for middle class families and individuals. S/he will design menus based on your own needs, come to your home and prepare fresh food just for you. Call Bauman College Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts for more information on how to find a natural personal chef near you.

Recipes

Chicken Roll-Ups with Cilantro-Walnut Sauce

Apricot Braised Chicken

Homemade Chicken Stock