Category: Holistic Healing

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Start Your Day with Lemon Water

Every morning, after I take my Female Balance (my favorite natural PMS remedy), I boil some water and squeeze a half of a lemon into it. This is how I start my day. Not coffee. Not food. Hot lemon water. Lemons are like a scouring pad for the body’s insides. From mouth, to throat, to stomach and intestines, lemons scrub away the gunk and start your day off right. Digestion, especially, is improved by lemon water. Having it first thing in the morning gives your kidneys a wake up call and flushes out toxins. Unlike coffee which is acidic and oily, coating the stomach walls so that you don’t properly absorb the nutrients of the food you eat, lemon water goes in and paves the way so you get the most out of all those healthy meals you prepare.

You don’t have to limit this practice to only the mornings. Drinking lemon water 15 minutes before a meal will aid in the digestion of that meal. In his book, The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, Dr. Michael Murray, N.D., lists lemon water as one of seven steps to controlling candidiasis, an overgrowth of yeast found in 1 out of 3 people! He states that the lemon water will enhance digestion. Don’t read “digestion” as just having a bowel movement; it actually means the entire process of digestion, which starts with the enzymes in your saliva before you take your first bite. Digestion also includes stomach acid breaking down your food and your body absorbing the nutrients of your food. When digestion isn’t functioning properly, no matter how well you eat, you’re not going to get the most out your meals.

I want to also tout briefly the other nutritional benefits of lemons. They are an excellent source of vitamin C, which boosts your immune system. They also contain good amounts of vitamin B6, folic acid, flavonoids potassium and limonene. Limonene is a phytochemical being studied for the dissolution of gallstones and anticancer activities. Promising stuff!

A random lemon water note: My husband has a history of kidney stones and his doctor told him drinking fresh squeezed lemon in his water everyday would keep them away. He explained that the lemon juice goes into the kidneys and breaks up the stones that may be forming. Needless to say, he gets the other half of my lemon in his water each day and knock on wood, he hasn’t had one since. It should be noted, though, that lemon peels contain high amounts of oxalates and could contribute to the formation of kidney stones.

Another random lemon water note: When my parents were visiting, my dad informed me that his dad started his day off with hot lemon water every morning also. This is something I never would have known because he passed before I was old enough to know him. He lived a long, healthy life though, with a strong constitution. Coincidence? Maybe, but I’m proud to share a habit with him that I know keeps me healthier.

Like anything, it’s a habit. Just like starting the coffee pot, waiting for it to brew and taking that first sip. Sitting down with a cup of tea. Checking your e-mail. The things you look forward to doing every day. This can be one of them. Leave the lemon squeezer, lemon and full teakettle out the night before as a reminder. Once you get into the habit of starting your day with hot lemon water, it will be easy to remember, and perhaps, like me, you’ll miss it dearly when you don’t have it.

And don’t get me started on plastic! Use a stainless steel lemon squeezer like this one:

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Natural Remedy for PMS

That empty spot? That was mine…

It’s here! My latest shipment of Female Balance has arrived. I want to share this with you, for your mothers, daughters, wives, sisters or any woman you know who may struggle with hormone fluctuations that wreak havoc on everyone and everything.

PMS (premenstrual syndrome) is not a friend of mine. In fact, about five years ago, I realized that the issues in my relationship always revolved around that one pesky week of each month. My insecurities would rise and my sensitivity would heighten. It seemed like everything hurt my feelings during this time, which would lead to deep, dark “discussions” with my boyfriend. Many tears were shed. Many days I felt like I didn’t know who I was and I wondered if I had some alter ego taking over my heart and mind. I do not want to make light of what horrible out-of-control feelings occur during that week leading up to your period. Sometimes I walked around feeling like the tears were building up behind my eyes and it would only take one thing, just one thing, before the dam burst. Other times, I was angry, dissatisfied with life, with my relationships, my friendships, my present, my past, my future and I would spread that frustration everywhere I went. The decisions I made in my non-PMS life were mature, responsible and confident. Faced with similar choices while PMS-ing, I made choices based on insecurity, fear and sadness.

I tried Female Balance on a whim and within a couple of months my boyfriend said, “This stuff has saved our relationship.” I tried not to let that comment hurt my feelings… Then I realized, he was right. He’s my husband now and he’s been with me through the many up’s and down’s of figuring out how to regulate my moods. Nothing has helped like Female Balance. It’s been so long since I’ve had those mood swings that I can barely remember them. Until I talk to a client or a friend… and then I remember just how awful PMS was for me and can be for many women. If I get low on Female Balance, my husband is the first to say, “Spend the money. Buy it. It’s important!”

The company that makes Female Balance is Apex Energetics. During my education at John F Kennedy University, I attended many of Apex’s conferences and seminars; their products are incredible! Female Balance is a homeopathic blend designed to regulate your hormones and it does just that! The label states that it is used “for temporary relief of menstrual cramps, backache during menstruation, sadness, and menstrual irregularity”.

You can order Female Balance through me (use the Contact Form) or search for it online. Unfortunately, they’re not offered through Amazon, though I’ve found them online before, for roughly $19 a bottle. I sell them for $18 a bottle and cover shipping costs when you order three or more. When starting out, I recommend three bottles because you start off taking it three times a day. As time goes on, you will either not need it or need it only once a day and then it will last much longer.

If you are just starting out with this supplement, or are one of my clients and need a reminder, this is how it is often used: One dropper full three times a day (under your tongue) for a month (or a cycle), then taper down to twice a day and after another month, once a day. Some women find they can go off of it completely after a little while and their hormones remain steady. I am not so lucky. Whenever I run out, I feel that creepy, crawly feeling inside of me that something is not right. I also end up with pimples around my chin and jaw line when I’m not taking it. This is the area that breaks out due to hormonal imbalance. When I’m taking Female Balance, these breakouts stop. With homeopathic remedies, it is not recommended that you take them with coffee or mint. I take mine once a day, first thing in the morning, about an hour before brushing my teeth or drinking any coffee. Another thing I recommend when trying any new supplement is to chart your own progress – this is how you know if things work or not! Before taking something, write down, on a scale of 1-10, how you’re currently feeling regarding the symptoms you’re experiencing. Then, after a month of taking it, check in with yourself or perhaps your spouse to see if there’s a noticeable difference. If not, try for another month at the same dosage and proceed from there. There will be times that supplements don’t have an effect on you and that’s okay. There are other options available. Better to try with consistency, to give it 100% and know for certain whether something could have an incredibly positive influence on your life or not.You can order Female Balance through me (use the Contact Form) or search for it online. Unfortunately, they’re not offered through Amazon, though I’ve found them online before, for roughly $19 a bottle. I sell them for $18 a bottle and cover shipping costs when you order three or more. When starting out, I recommend three bottles because you start off taking it three times a day. As time goes on, you will either not need it or need it only once a day and then it will last much longer.

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Healing Disordered Eating, Part 1

 I really keep meaning to write about nutrition, supplements, and health. I have so many posts I’ve started about lemon water, meal-planning on a budget and more recipes. However, my heart is leading me elsewhere and so I follow.

I say this is “Healing Disordered Eating, Part 1” because I believe there will be many more posts on this subject because disordered eating is thick and deep and intense, as are we. So, where should we start?

    The first step to healing, the one that I had the hardest time taking, is kindness. Yup, kindness. To start with, kindness for oneself is so challenging and yet, isn’t it said that you can’t love others until you love yourself? I have to disagree. I have loved and continue to love deeply, though at times I have not loved myself. Let it be said, though, that as I have learned to be kind to myself, my love for others flows more freely and without obstacles. So, perhaps it should be said, you can’t love others freely until you are freely loving yourself.

I wish it was as easy as saying, “Be kind to yourself” and then we could move on, but it’s not. It’s a daily, hourly, by-the-minute practice. It takes conscious effort until it becomes your unconscious norm. Kind thoughts, kind feelings, kind words, kind actions…. Where, oh where do we start?

Let’s get one thing straight: Mean people suck. It’s true. They leave such a bad taste in your mouth and perhaps a PTSD feeling whenever you think about encounters you’ve had with them. I’ve been hurt so badly by people I’ve trusted and by complete strangers. These encounters are not easily forgotten. They shape our view of the world. Words can hurt. Period. I’m sure I’ve hurt many people as well and I am sorry that there have been times I was a “mean person”, or acted meanly. I’ve been most hurtful to myself. Perhaps you have too.

I hear stories about bullying and I cringe. How can people be so cruel? Of course this kind of cruelty is not just small town, schoolyard drama; people are fighting on social media, bullying on blogs, and just being violent and hateful in general. And so it spreads to a national and global level that makes me scared for my children, for all children. And then it just makes me angry.

Before my anxiety and frustration can run rampant, I have to bring it home and I invite you to do the same. Start with yourself. Affirmations go a LONG way. (A quick aside: I practiced an affirmation every day for a few months that stated, “I run five miles effortlessly.” At the time I started the affirmation, I was walking and jogging two to three miles every other day. A couple months in, I truly was running five miles and it was effortless. Making a long story short, it worked!) When a negative thought comes into your mind, try adding, “And I love myself.” Or say, “I am loveable.” Because you are. I know it. Some affirmations to try are the following: “I eat when I’m hungry. I stop when I’m full.” “I am beautiful, healthy and strong.” “I am kind to myself.” “I take care of myself.”

Be nice. To yourself, to others, to all. I don’t have all the answers to the cruelty that exists in the world, but I know it starts somewhere deep within, some kind of wound that festers and breeds all kinds of ugliness. So heal it. Heal deep down inside, the places that you don’t want people to see and the places that cause you to lash out at others when they get too close. The insecurities. The failures. The “I’m not good enough’s”. Speak kind words into those places.

  I’m sorry if you thought this was going to be a step-by-step posting on how to cure your roller-coaster dieting or your binge eating struggles. I wish I could give that to you, but it starts deep within. It starts with kindness. That first, giant step is one that will lead you on a path of complete healing. I can almost guarantee it. When you eat something you think is “bad”, try saying, “I ate this and I am still loveable.” Step off the scale and step into your life because it’s moving forward and you deserve to live it. Stop agonizing over it. Stop bullying yourself. This kindness that your spirit so desperately needs is waiting for you. Speak it. Find it. Feel it. If you want off the roller-coaster and you want to feel comfortable in your own skin again, the exit, the starting line, the journey, and the destination are all at the same place: Here. Now.

I do offer intuitive eating coaching sessions and will continue to post Parts 2, 3, 4 and however many I come up with for this subject of disordered eating that is so near and dear to my heart. For now though, practice kindness.

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My Affair with Wheat & Gluten and How it Ended

Today is my 35th birthday. It’s pretty surreal actually… Getting older and all that jazz. Being a mom to two lovely babies. Being a wife to an incredible husband. Turning 35… Anyway, happy birthday to me! Today also marks another turn in my journey with food.

I gave up gluten when I was in grad school. It was a new concept to me, but as I pursued the nutrition specialty for my degree, I thought, “Maybe there’s something here.” So, I played around with giving it up and I felt better and better as time went on. Gone were the bloating, gas, cramps and unpredictable digestive upsets. Increased energy, clearer skin and regularity arrived in their place. Gluten-free became less of a learning curve and more of a way of life. I learned about gluten-free baking, flours, cookies, packaged products and how to avoid the hidden sources of gluten. I encouraged others to do the same and I have literally worked my practice around the removal of allergens, like gluten.

But I cheated. I hate to use that word, but that’s what it was. I believe in moderation. I believe in obeying cravings. Still, if I’m sensitive to a food and I eat it, I’m cheating. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was just turning the corner from vegan to omnivore and I ate no less than three burgers a week from In-N-Out (aaaah, I miss them!). I didn’t think about the gluten, I just knew I wanted a burger! I was a 90% gluten-free person. I didn’t buy it and I didn’t bring it home, but I would have a bite here and there when I was at restaurants or social events. However, pregnancy seemed to be an especially gluten-filled time.

After the birth of my second child, we discovered that she was allergic to wheat (via a blood test at nine months of age). She had low markers, but considering how little I consumed, we removed it completely from her diet and mine. It wasn’t that hard, considering how familiar I was with a gluten-free lifestyle. Still, I missed it. The occasional hamburger (with bun, from Five Guys… it’s not In-N-Out but it does in a pinch), or naan from an Indian restaurant, or just a good ol’ fashioned piece of real bread made me swoon. I continued to eat gluten-free until my daughter weaned herself at 14 months. Her eczema cleared up quickly and we went about our lives.

When she weaned, I couldn’t wait for a taste. I was so excited. I just had a little here and there and I loved every bite. Then, this summer, I started having reactions. We weren’t sure what they were from but they were serious. They involved rashes, and throat swelling, itching inside and out and extreme lethargy. Benadryl kept me out of the hospital, barely. It also exhausted me for a day or so after using it. Then I discovered HistaEze, which I HIGHLY recommend. It has none of the side effects of Benadryl and all of the necessary ingredients to stop allergies in their tracks (whether seasonal or situational). Still, we needed to know the cause. I started to have increasing anxiety about going places just in case I had another attack. With five attacks in two months, I contacted an allergist and set up an appointment.

My appointment was yesterday. I had a back scratch test done and wheat flared up instantly. By the time the 15-minute wait was over, it was taking over the other tests on my back. As the allergist said, “We found our smoking gun.” Somewhere between pregnancy, nursing, giving up gluten and taking it back, wheat and my body had a horrible disagreement. The Gluten Doctors have a great blog that I read and they also agree cheating is not an option – read more here.

The red “H” up top is the histamine control and the big red dot below is wheat… after one minute.

So, I start the next year of my life armed with two epi-pens and a bunch of paperwork that basically tells me to never eat wheat again. No more splurges. No more tastes. Apparently, exposure can lead to increasingly worse reactions and I’m not up for that. No taste can compare to living a long and healthy life with my family. It’s been a torrid affair and it’s over.

Yes, I know how to live wheat and gluten free. Yes, I can help you learn too. But only time can help me say goodbye. Food is a powerful force in our lives. It’s associated with pleasure and celebration, comfort and joy. It’s okay to mourn. But it’s not okay to deny it or lie to myself about it. Like any bad breakup, it might include some wine, chocolate and a chick flick, but I’ll get through this!

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Holistic Remedies for the Common Cold

It’s so much easier to think and read about cold remedies when you’re not sick. At least it is for me! When I’m sick, I can’t even read, let alone make some fancy concoction. This is the predicament I found myself in last week when my baby girls and myself were laid out flat with really bad colds.

Oh a cold is a cold is a cold and it’s stuffy noses and coughs, right? Well, yes, but sometimes it’s debilitating. The headache, alternating runny and stuffy nose, cough and sore throat really put me down! When it hit me (Day 1), I was kind of in shock and I just sat there, guzzling water and wiping all three of our noses. On Day 2, I was feeling worse and had to be a little more proactive, taking 6,000 IU of vitamin D3 in the morning, 2,000 mg of vitamin C every few hours and 1 Tbsp of liquid silver every four hours. I continued to drink hot lemon water with honey whenever I had the energy to make it. It all seemed to take too much effort. When I woke up still feeling horrible on Day 3, I was desperate enough to raid my arsenal. I continued with vitamin C and silver, while adding garlic tea (see below) and raw chopped garlic to my food. Drinking water, juice and tea all the while, I gradually felt myself improving. By Day 4, I was out of the house, moving around and getting things done. Day 5 found me walking in a 5k with my girlfriends, thankful for my health.

So, what did I learn from this? I need to have my remedies ready to go. I need to be more prepared for the onslaught of exhaustion that might very well prevent me from creating some healing concoctions. I need to ask for help. On Day 3, when I was in tears because I had another 11-hour day ahead of me watching my sick babies and taking care of myself, I asked my husband to chop and peel garlic before he left for work. What a help! It made all the difference, having someone give me access to the things I needed to help myself.

Interested in garlic tea? I learned to make this when I was pregnant and was nervous about what I could and couldn’t take for a cold. It’s very simple. Peel and cut 5-6 cloves of garlic. Pour boiling water over them (preferably in a one-quart mason jar) and cover (I use a pot holder). Let steep for about 30 minutes and drink up. Sometimes I add lemon and honey. Sometimes instead of water I use broth. I also reuse the garlic one or two more times, by refilling the jar with hot water.

I whole-heartedly attribute my quick turn-around to silver and garlic. However, there are some more things I could’ve done and want to be prepared to try in the future. I read this amazing article on Holistic Squid’s blog that gave me some great ideas! You can read the whole article here. I am going to invest in fermented cod liver oil and oil of oregano. I may also get some elderberry syrup. I’m inspired by the posts on Holistic Squid’s website and hope you’ll check them out too!

Just an aside, I can get you any of these supplements as a practitioner who works with Designs for Health. I am very particular about which supplements I recommend because the quality of supplements is not regulated; therefore you don’t always get what you’re paying for. Buying from a company that sells only to practitioners (like Designs for Health) or purchasing supplements and vitamins that are labeled GMP (Good Manufacturing Processes) is your best bet for getting the high quality necessary to make a difference.

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Healing Yourself by Rewriting Your Story

     I’m a carefree woman. I love to laugh, sing, eat, play, cook, dance and make memories. I haven’t always been this person, though. And while I love my life, I have deep sadness for what I have been through.

Can I tell you a piece of my story? Without boring you with the year-by-year play-by-play, I’ll sum it up like this: From the time I was a teenager I had hang-ups about my weight. Not so strange for a teenager, you say. Not so weird for a girl, especially, right? It only got worse. Those hang-ups became motivating factors for these games I would play with myself; games that ultimately would lead me to lose weight (ah, the end justifies the means…). Whether calorie-counting, exercise-purging, starvation or other neurotic eating habits, I mastered the latest obsession with my Type-A personality and perfectionism by my side. I’ve been 98 pounds as an adult. I’ve also been 150 pounds as an adult. My roller coaster consumed me. My control soothed me. Can you relate? I promise you: dieting is not your friend.

I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that I’m not her anymore. What a relief! My sense of self was completely wrapped up in my weight, my looks, my size. How much energy I wasted on controlling my every move, bite, calorie and pound! Now, things are different and I’m thankful every day for the freedom I experience. I don’t own a scale. I am not concerned with the size of my clothes. I don’t count calories or fat grams or carbohydrates. I don’t restrict anything! I don’t work out like my life depends on it. In fact, I don’t work out at all. That sounds like too much work to me. I’m thin, active, healthy and vibrant. I’m living, not striving.

I wish I could give you a formula for what changed, but I can’t. It’s different for everyone, although I’ve pin-pointed a few key factors. I’ve learned how to eat intuitively. What I want. When I want it. I’ve learned to not eat if I’m not hungry. I’ve learned which foods agree with me and make me feel my best and which don’t serve me well at all. I’ve learned to find purpose and meaning in things far more incredible than food, weight, weight-loss and exercise. Sound good? Please, contact me if you want to know more. My program is unique, life changing and empowering. Honest.

All of this would mean nothing if I hadn’t learned the power of a story. My story. Stories others tell about me. Stories the world tells about beauty, women, sex-appeal and love. Stories are everything. If you think about it, really think about it, everything you believe is a story. What stories revolve around you, your health, your life, your purpose, your worth and your beauty? Think of facts that you know to be facts and then ask yourself how you know them to be true… it’s mind-boggling. Using narratives in healing is a way of looking inside a person to find out what their body and mind think about their illness, health, and life. Stories run deep in our body’s cellular understanding, so it makes sense that we would be operating under the rules that our particular narrative is providing for us in any given situation.

In order to experience these transformations, I had to experience deep healing. Healing is really a way of viewing a situation from a larger perspective that allows for growth where once we saw only stagnation, illness, disease, or death. When I refer to healing, I am not talking about a miraculous recovery from a disease, though this is possible; nor am I speaking about a cure. I am referring instead to the delicate balance of appreciation for life, living life to the fullest, and considering one’s purpose, as well as the purpose of whatever challenge one is facing. Change and healing lead to transformation and are journeys, not destinations. They are processes of growth to aid us in living lives of quality and depth. Change is never permanent and healing is not a cure. With these concepts in mind, consider how much hope is restored when we are no longer looking for a specific outcome but are focused on the power of the process, knowing that healing is inevitable.

Change asks us to aim for the healing, not the cure, to live for the journey, not the elusive destination. There is a huge difference between healing and cures, journeys and destinations; it is an issue of quality. Taking a journey can be likened to an adventure, one that is filled with mystery and purpose. Change is such a journey.

I’d love to hear about the changes you want to experience, the journeys you want to take. I’ll also be thinking about the changes I am trying to embody myself; changes that will redefine who I am and how I live. I love how endless the possibilities are, don’t you?