By Alexandra Jamieson on May 16, 2012
When I was 25 years old, I got sick. Not just a cold or flu, or even a string of colds and flu.
Here I was, in the “prime of my life,” but I felt exhausted every day, was putting on pounds like never before, had migraine headaches several times a week, feeling depressed, and couldn’t stop slurping up caffeine and grabbing chocolate throughout the day.
Getting sick was one of the best things that ever happened to me, because it was a huge wake-up call.
I can’t stand not feeling well. And to feel that bad for weeks and months was just more than I could take. I went to a doctor who asked me about my symptoms. When I explained how I was feeling, I was given two prescriptions: one pain medication for my headaches and one anti-depressant.
This is not the answer, I thought. I never filled those prescriptions.
So, What Are You Eating?
Instead, I reached out and looked for a more holistically minded doctor. I knew my mom had some food allergies, and I wanted to find out if I had any sensitivities.
Sitting on the examination table in this new doctor’s office, I was surprised to see posters with vegetables, pamphlets talking about vitamins and supplements, and a diagram of the human body with energy meridians and acupuncture points all over it.
When my doctor finally arrived and sat down across from me, one of his first questions wasn’t “Why are you here today?” or “What are your symptoms?” Instead, he asked, “What is your daily diet like?”
That one question blew the case wide open! I started to detail my diet at the time:
Breakfast: cereal with milk and coffee or a pastry with a latte on the way to work
Lunch: pizza and soda, subway sandwich and soda, or hamburger with fries and … you guessed it, soda
Snacks: salted nuts, chocolate, another latte, crackers and cheese, maybe an orange
Dinner: pasta with meat and cheese, Chinese take-out, soup and garlic bread, turkey sandwich with potato chips … you get the picture.
Nary a fresh fruit, rarely green vegetables, and often soda and caffeine throughout the day. Oh and sugar – lots of sugar.
This doctor didn’t recommend any painkillers or anti-depressants.
Instead he talked with me about how my diet was causing my discomfort, as well as my weight gain and lack of energy. He gave me a sample list of menus for the week, and suggested some books to read. He also told me that my sugar intake was feeding yeast in my body called “candida albicans”.
And he told me I should go off sugar and caffeine to help my body recover, balance and start to heal. He said, “Alex, you need a detox.”
I had about five minutes of freaking out, and then something clicked – I had been feeling so bad over the last few months, even giving up sugar wouldn’t be so bad if it helped alleviate some of the pain and suffering.
The diet he recommended was wheat-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free and excluded all animal products except a few eggs a week and some salmon.
I began to read everything I could and learned that a vegan diet, totally free of animal products, was an additional way I could improve my health.
I jumped in with both feet. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I started eating tofu for the first time, learned to enjoy stevia in my herbal tea, and only ate a small piece of chocolate a couple of times that first week. The first few days were really tough.
But, about 7-10 days later, I remember waking up and feeling – awake! It was amazing. I actually got out of bed and felt rested – and it was the best feeling ever. It was so easy to continue on this new eating plan because I felt so much better. I had energy to start going to the gym five days a week.
It was freeing and enlivening to take out the foods that were hurting my body. And I began to learn how to cook foods that would actually help me feel better and heal! Vegetables and whole grains were a revelation.
I also had the energy and clarity to look at the rest of my life and realized that my diet wasn’t the only thing that needed detoxing. I was unhappy with my career path, so I found a new job and went back to school. I wasn’t connected or passionate in my intimate relationship, so my sweet boyfriend and I went our separate ways.
Once I started pruning the dispassionate things from my life, my energy and life opened up even more, and things really took off! My new career of healthy chef and holistic health counselor was fun, soul-filling, and interesting. I started dating new people and found deeper, more intimate relationships.
Detoxing and Weeding – My Two Favorite Pastimes
Looking back, it all makes sense.
See, I grew up in my parents’ garden. We had weekly chores that included raking, stacking wood, and cutting the lawn. Weeding and pruning were my favorite chores.
I love looking at a plant and finding what doesn’t need to be there, removing injured or dying flowers, branches and leaves, and cutting away the dead wood.
Taking away the useless, even harmful parts of a bush or tree help it grow stronger, create more blooms and leaves, and result in a more vibrant plant.
That’s what detox is like for people, too.
I love looking at someone’s diet and lifestyle, getting into the details about how they feel and what foods they choose. Finding and cutting away the harmful, useless aspects of a persons diet and life empower them to grow stronger, feel energized and create a new, powerful way of being.
Getting Clear, Without Judgment
My career is filled with opportunities to help people – teaching, writing, sharing healing recipes, information and products. I get to explore new and old methods of detoxing all the time – and the results are glorious. My clients all come from different places and backgrounds, but they all have two things in common – a desire to feel healthy and a “knowing” that choosing different foods can help them feel whole.
Clearing away the “dead wood” of my diet was the first step toward growth and healing. Once the no-longer-passionate lifestyle fell away, I found that my energy and life totally opened up, and amazing things became possible.
I’ve since published three books and traveled the world premiering “Super-Size Me” with my son’s father, Morgan Spurlock. I live in New York City and have incredible friends and colleagues who continually inspire me.
While my diet and lifestyle aren’t always as “perfect” as they were in the beginning, I now recognize the signs faster that my body and energy are off balance. One chocolate dessert and one glass of wine usually make for a pretty groggy, impatient mommy in the morning.
Looking at your own diet and lifestyle, ask yourself: What is my body truly needing right now? Does this serve my life? What can I remove to help my body thrive and heal? Are there different choices I could be making that will energize me, help me succeed and live with delicious vitality?
For more information on how to optimize your life, visit deliciousvitality.com.
Photo credit: clogsilk
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By Guest Blogger on May 9, 2012
I remember receiving a card at my baby shower celebrating the “eating for two” shared belief in our culture. It was all about nine months of indulgence with the message: “If you’re going to be gaining weight, you might as well have some chocolate cake and ice cream to show for it.”
There has been a wide range of studies showing that kids are more likely to be overweight or “sugar-holics” if their parents, particularly their mothers, are. Many of these studies have based their conclusions on the role mothers play in selecting foods for the household and in building awareness of good nutrition within the family.
Born with a sweet tooth?
I was fascinated to discover a new study that discovered the food women eat while pregnant and breastfeeding helps to determine specific neural pathways in the developing brain, and later, lifetime eating habits for their precious children. For example, once the neural pathway is connected to “sweet = soothing,” it can take some committed practice to break that association.
As the child grows, we have a variety of opportunities to further influence their taste preferences. When we reward or bribe children with food, we set up a pattern in the brain that wires it to believe food makes everything better … a cure-all. If you reward children with sweets, snacks and desserts, they quickly learn to associate these foods with feeling better. Food can distract an unhappy child, in the moment, offering instant gratification. As adults, we have learned that our lives are not that simple and we cannot find instant gratification in food.
When you get right down to the driving force, overeating is a search for security – a need to recreate the secure feelings we experience as children when we were held and fed, when life felt easy. By eating foods similar to the foods we ate as children, we are looking to find the feeling in food but it’s a search that often ends in excess weight linked to a whole list of health-comprising ailments.
At the dinner table, keeping lines of communication open to let your children know you are there for them when they want to talk. Some families choose to use sharing dinner together as a time to open up about what you feel most grateful for that day. This can be a wonderful way to focus on the positive and bring in great feelings around sharing food together. Encouraging children to help with dinner preparation puts them in closer contact with making food taste delicious.
Modeling a healthy relationship with food is an excellent way to encourage healthy eating choices in your children. Children certainly take note of parents’ eating habits! Notice what you are saying about food choices, preparation and especially about your body. One of my clients was deeply concerned when she noticed her 4-year-old’s preoccupation with weighing herself, repeating what she’s heard her mommy say too many times – “I’m so fat” – as she stepped off the scale.
Mothers may influence children’s brains during all developmental stages, but as a hypnotherapist, I am very happy to let you know we can still positively influence the brain structure any time we choose. New research in neuroscience shows that, while some brains may have developed in a less than ideal manner, applying neuroplasticity and hypnotic principles to help redevelop our brains is powerful and effective. (Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form new connections and change its structure in response to experience.)
Johanna Lynn, a hypnotherapist, offers an inside out approach to truly love your body. Born with a natural curiosity about why people do what they do, Johanna now finds the entire field of mind/body medicine fascinating, with a clinical hypnosis practice focusing on healing with the intention to return to health and vitality.
Photo credit: Manuel
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By Guest Blogger on May 1, 2012
A few years ago, I was introduced to a friend of a friend who happened to be a vegan. As a recently enrolled student at The French Culinary Institute, where meat and dairy reign supreme, I was in awe. I could never be as motivated and devoted as him, I marveled to myself. The idea of removing all animal products from my diet seemed like an impossible mountain to scale.
Fast forward three years later, and here I am, not only a proud, life-loving vegan, but a raw one at that. As it turns out, living on an animal-free and health-conscious diet is just about the easiest thing I’ve ever accomplished. After following a vegan lifestyle for close to two years, I felt a calling to take my lifestyle and health to a higher level. It is, after all, really easy to reach for the not-so-healthy vegan snacks. You’ve been there, right? The cupcakes, brownies, nachos ? I’m getting tempted just thinking about it. I wanted to go further and reach higher.
So what’s the deal with raw? Any fruit, vegetable, nut or seed is on the table in whichever way you choose to serve it. Nothing can be cooked above 118 degrees and your food is always unprocessed. The skinny is that every single whole food contains its own specific enzymes that may help us digest and absorb the nutrients in that fruit, vegetable, nut, etc. How amazing is that? By cooking the food, those very helpful, hardworking enzymes are broken down. When we don’t get these enzymes directly from the source (aka: raw food), we may develop digestive problems, nutrient deficiencies and sad immune systems.
While many people grimace at the idea of seemingly fussy parameters, it truly is the simplest approach to your health and diet. Breakfast can be as easy as a green juice or a sliced fruit salad, and a snack is as foolproof as a mixed nut trail mix with dried fruits. If you’re a foodie like I am, fear not. Raw food can also get pretty, crazy gourmet. I’m talking layered lasagnas, chocolate parfaits and spinach spanakopita, here. You can honestly eat what you want, when you want, for the first time in your life, and feel great and be at your healthiest.
Crossing over to the raw side can be an intimidating thing. Not only are you experimenting with new ingredients and “un-cooking” techniques, but your body is also getting used to the new lifestyle you’ve so consciously chosen for it. Simple recipes should be your calling card for the first couple of weeks. Transition slowly and choose to go raw until dinnertime, or aim for 75 percent raw foods each day. You’ll notice the difference almost immediately, and experience a lightness and clarity that will motivate you to keep on trucking. I like to refer to the following recipes as gateway goodies to a raw diet ? dishes that take a matter of minutes and will leave you feeling like a superhuman.
This classic soup is a great, refreshing choice during the summer months, and also makes an elegant appetizer for a dinner party or main course for an al fresco lunch.
Chilled Cucumber-Mint Soup
Serves 2 entrée portions or 4 appetizer portions
-2 hothouse cucumbers, peeled
-1 avocado
-½ clove garlic, sliced
-1 scallion, chopped (both white and green parts)
-1 teaspoon ground flaxseed
-2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
-½ teaspoon sea salt
-ground black pepper to taste
-olive oil (optional)
-sliced fresh mint for garnish
Place the first seven ingredients in a blender and cover with cold filtered water. Blend until the soup is smooth and creamy, and add more water if you prefer your soup on the thinner side.
Strain through a fine mesh strainer, then pour into serving bowls. Top with freshly ground black pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and thinly sliced fresh mint to garnish.
For breakfast, dessert or both ? this smoothie is whatever you want it to be. Fortified with the superfood of superfoods, cacao, anyone can be won over by this decadent treat.
Cacao Super-Smoothie
Serves 2
-2 ripe bananas
-¼ cup pitted dates (soaked for two hours)
-1 ½ tablespoons raw almond butter
-2 tablespoons raw cacao powder
-½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
-pinch of nutmeg
-almond milk
Place the first six ingredients in a blender and cover with almond milk. Blend until smooth, about one minute. Toast to your rawmazing self, then drink up!
If you prefer a thicker, milkshake-like consistency, freeze the peeled bananas first.
Cristi Young is a New York City-based writer and chef who is inspired by love, books, vegetables and chocolate. She can be found dishing about health, wellness and cooking on her blog, where all appetites for life are welcome.
Photo credit: Luke Chan
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By Guest Blogger on March 5, 2012
Foods are strongly linked to our emotions and moods. Therefore, our day’s events can drive our eating habits. Due to our hectic lifestyles and chronic stress, many of us are turning to food to soothe, comfort and provide relief from intense feelings or low moods. We are bombarded daily by stressors, whether in our environment, workplace, family, relationships, financial or all of them. As these generally bring forth unpleasant feelings or low energy, we may reach for our comfort foods to cope. Under emotional distress, we seek out quick fixes and may not have the motivation to make ideal choices regarding our comfort foods.
Many people report sugar cravings after a stressful event, because blood sugar is low and brain chemicals are reduced. Choosing sugary foods is the first and most convenient method of quickly raising good mood chemicals and energy. However, these comfort foods provide temporary relief with negative physiological effects. The foods we crave to ease our stress generally are the ones that are worse for us in terms of weight gain and digestive and immune system issues. Most common “pick-me-up foods” are frosted donuts, cookies, soda pop, ice cream, gummy candies and chocolate bars. What is your comfort food? Is it from a vending machine? Does your comfort food contain the essential nutrients your body and mind need to function optimally? If your comfort food is heavily processed, sugar-loaded and void of nutrients, it will in the end deplete your vital systems of what they require, putting your physical and mental health at risk.
The good news is that there are many healthy emotionally-soothing or mood-enhancing foods. There are foods armed with nutrients that can provide elevated moods and satisfaction. Carbohydrates can provide the necessary relief we are seeking. Complex carbohydrates include whole-grain breads, whole-wheat pasta, brown or wild rice, bananas, barley, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Vegetables are also part of the carbohydrate family that are filled with all the vital nutrients our body requires for optimal functioning. The key is to have these foods available when we are feeling vulnerable.
Most people crave carbohydrates pre-evening and throughout the night. Bingeing on high-carb foods, such as potato chips, cookies, cereal, French fries, rice cakes and snack crackers, causes one to feel regret and remorse. To prevent carb-overloading after supper, have a half a piece of whole-grain bread dipped in olive oil 20 minutes before supper. This will raise good mood levels enough to take the edge off and prevent you from over-eating at supper. During supper, it is important to eat carbohydrates, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, or mashed turnips and squash. Be conscious of your portion sizes. In the evening, if cravings persist, try eating air-popped popcorn drizzled with olive oil and a hot cup of rooibos tea.
Food cravings can also be managed through stress-relieving strategies, such as having a warm bath, reading a book in a quiet room or taking a casual walk. Jot down some self-care activities that bring you pleasure, comfort and calmness. It is important that your stress-reducing methods be simple so they are easy to follow through. Rather than food, find comfort in a loved one, friend or pet, as they can provide long-lasting physical and emotional benefits.
Using foods to de-stress or defuse emotions and feelings may not be the ideal coping mechanism. However, many choose to do so. As rational thinking may not always be present after a stressful situation, it is important to have healthy foods accessible and available to meet your physical and emotional needs. Eating to live is more satisfying than eating to “get by.” Reassess your comfort food and determine if it is really meeting your needs.
Treena Wynes, author of “Eating Ourselves Crazy” is a Registered Social Worker, former bulimic and owner of a weight-loss counseling service. She focuses on the emotional and mental aspect of food addiction and obesity issues.
Photo credit: **tWo pInK pOSsuMs**
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By Guest Blogger on February 22, 2012
Have you ever felt compelled to keep stuffing yourself to the point of discomfort?
Maybe you’ve found yourself reaching for a packet of cookies when you’re home alone, tired and lonely? Perhaps it’s even healthy foods you’ve overeaten, such as a whole bag of raw nuts.
If so, you are one of many who have overeaten for emotional reasons.
Overeating can wreak havoc on your mental, emotional and physical health if left unaddressed, and the talking down to yourself that typically follows flushes a lot of energy and self-love down the toilet. If you are binging regularly and beating yourself up about it, you’ll also have much less time to focus on what really matters to you – your dreams, relationships, contributing, having fun.
Yet despite what your reason and intelligence tells you to do (i.e., stop overeating), you are still unable to close the bag of processed (or raw) chips.
Emotional eating can be a very challenging habit to release as usually:
- It is a deeply ingrained behavior.
- You have been doing it for a very long time both consciously and unconsciously.
- It can be frightening to consider a life where you don’t numb yourself with food, even if it is a conscious choice.
- Processed foods and junk foods are highly addictive, so even without the emotional component they can be extremely hard to stop eating.
But it can be done.
What is needed is support, compassion, kindness and a safe space without judgment where you can release your fears, and identify your emotions, triggers and real needs. Having a toolbox of strategies is essential to do this.
Here are some tools that you can start using immediately:
1. Identify what’s really going on
Do you stop long enough to see what emotion you are feeling before you stuff them down with food?
One of the most powerful things you can do is to train yourself to stop when you have the urge to eat, and ask yourself “Am I really hungry?” If the answer is no, ask yourself “What emotion am I really feeling?”
This alone can bring so much awareness that small shifts in your eating behavior will occur. You will realize that your heart and soul wants to be heard and fed, but the late-night box of candy isn’t doing it.
2. Find a safe place or person to release to
To heal your relationship with food, you need to safely express yourself and release the emotions you feel. A safe place or person will allow you to do this. There can also be a lot of shame and embarrassment around overeating, particularly binging, so a safe space to release becomes even more important.
Get into a journaling practice where you can write about whatever you are feeling with no talk back, criticism or judgment. Find a person you can speak to about your behavior and what’s really going on for you. Create or find a space where you can go to be quiet, think, cry, laugh, journal, talk, meditate. Having a space that you can always go to will give you a sense of comfort, nourishment, familiarity and a haven as you heal.
3. Create a sacred ritual
One of the best ways to nourish yourself every day is to create a sacred ritual that makes you feel centered, strong and harmonious. When you include this in your routine, you will find that over time you are better able to identify and address thoughts, feelings and stress that contribute to overeating (and other unhelpful habits).
What you include in your ritual is entirely up to you. For most people, one or a combination of the following works well:
- Meditation
- Deep breathing
- Affirmations
- Setting intentions
- Nourishing movement
- Yoga and stretching
- Journaling
- Drinking water or herbal tea
- Reading inspirational material
- Listening to music
- Speaking to a loved one
- Playing with your pets
- Having a hot bath or shower
- Resting
4. Understand and appreciate what food gives you
For many people who suffer from disordered eating patterns, food is the enemy. You stuff yourself and make yourself sick with it. You feel compelled to eat copious quantities until you feel heavy, tired, unwell and miserable. It adds the kilos to your body that you despise. It is the enemy you have to avoid at all costs to stay thin because that’s what you see as beautiful, worthy or your way of maintaining a sense of control in your life.
For many of the women I work with, an important step in their healing is helping them to understand what food really is – how it gives life, nourishment, beauty, joy, pleasure, energy, healing and comfort. Nourish yourself with real, high-quality whole foods that are not filled with chemicals, refined sugar, salts and fats, and learn how they produce beauty, health and energy. Respect is built for the role food plays within your body and a respect for your body itself also grows.
5. Unleash your creativity and do something you love every single day
You have endless creativity and passion within you. When you don’t allow yourself to express, create, be and do as you’d like to, you end up repressing yourself. Repression leads to out-of- control binges as a temporary way to numb that undirected energy.
Find a way to build in some time every day to do something you love, that gives you a creative outlet for self-expression, and that allows you to be exactly who you are or takes you a step closer to that.
Before you start using the “no time or energy” excuse, know that you only need five minutes to start doing this. If you have more, that’s great. If you are honoring your needs and desires by acting on them every day, you will be far less likely to look for the answer in cake. Self- satisfaction and happiness comes with nourishing your whole being – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually – consistently. This is your way out.
Without the drain of overeating, think about how much time, energy and health will be freed up to focus on what you really want out of your life! As someone who has a long history of emotional and disordered eating, I can tell you that you can overcome it, and the freedom and reward you will feel is truly worth the effort.
Casey Lorraine Thomas, certified detox, health and life coach, shows you how to get radiant health and energy, lose weight and heal naturally so that you can live the life you want in a body you love. Casey conducts phone consultations internationally.
Photo credit: wintersoul1
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