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 April 12, 2012
I’ve had to have a lot of va-va-voom in the last couple of years. I’ve re-trained, moved countries, started speaking a new language, started a new job and created my own business.
It hit me earlier this year that among all this drive and determination, I’d somehow left my femininity behind. I’d had to be strong, focused, determined and reliable — for all the right reasons. So much was going on; all good, but I’d lost the part of me that was playful, delicate, sassy, nurturing, soft, patient and kind. I’d lost my femininity.
Even without challenges like this, the demands modern society makes on women mean it’s all too easy for us to lose touch with the soft and gentle side of ourselves.
I’ve always loved being in the kitchen and I’ve learned, over the last six months, that we can bring our womanliness back into the world through our food. I call it nurturing the feminine. Here’s how:
Choose the Right Food
Femininity is balanced, well and happy. Our food should be the same: Hand-pick your produce to feed and nurture your body and your life. Often, with all the shrink-wrap and marketing, we forget that food comes from the ground. Take a moment to remember where it all starts and select produce that feels positive to you; its wellness will be imparted to your being. Better still, try growing something yourself; even if it’s just herbs, you’ll deepen your respect for and connection with your food.
Femininity flowers with moments spent caring for itself. Think about the food you really love and include it in your diet. Your own energy needs to be bright -– that way you’ll make a positive impact without even trying, so make sure you love what you put in your mouth!
Prepare Food with Love
Femininity is delicate and light and nothing brings that out like fresh, unprocessed food. Eating a cared-for fruit or vegetable in its natural, raw state will flood your system with a host of life-giving nutrients.
Femininity adds joy and love to the world. Think about food preparation, in particular cooking, as adding to your food, not taking away. It can add nutrient-wise -– fermenting, sprouting, natural bread making. It can add to the experience taste-wise — choose your food combinations to bring a smile. Finally, it can add with the wellness that’s imparted to the plate through the love that goes into the preparation. Enjoy preparing your foods; the sheer power of the love that you show in the process will transmit to all who partake.
Femininity likes variety, and is joyful and playful. Spend the right amount of time in the kitchen for YOU. Find a balance by varying how you prepare and eat. Don’t forget to experiment and have fun! Let your eating reflect the different sides of your womanhood: sometimes simple, fresh and natural at its best; sometimes sassy with dishes that sparkle with attitude; sometimes pleasing, with carefully crafted combinations to raise smiles all around; and sometimes soft and gentle, showing your caring nature to those you love (including yourself). Think about whether and how you want to spend time in the kitchen each day –- the love you put in through a conscious choice means whatever comes through your hands will nourish the receiver.
Eat Food with Care
Femininity is soft and patient. Take time over and be grateful for your food. Stop for a moment before you raise your hand to your mouth to think about the food’s journey to your plate. If you’re sharing a meal, enjoy the company and drink in any compliments.
Femininity is consciously delicious and sensual. Make your favorite foods a regular part of your life, and savor them. Share the joy of gorgeous food with your loved ones. Every now and then, eat with your hands. Have that treat -– conscious, celebrated luxuries will feed a part of you so well that you’ll still be revelling in the satisfaction long after!
Looking at femininity through the lens that is my kitchen has helped me feel whole again. I’m no longer in femininity rehab. I’ve claimed the power of the womanhood I’d lost by creating beautiful, loved, satisfying and life-giving food.
I feel softer, more playful, sexier and more like a woman than ever.
Enjoy nurturing your femininity and love your food!
Alison Ottaway guides people to their dream life at pathlesstrodden.com, she’s following her own dreams in Italy having lost over half her body weight, transformed her health, changed career and moved countries.
Photo credit: Sharon Terry
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By Michelle Schoffro Cook PhD on February 15, 2012
If you’re like most people, you probably have vague recollections of boring high school chemistry classes when you heard the word “pH.” Don’t let chemistry class stop you from accessing one of the greatest factors for health, including your reproductive health.
Chemistry 101
All you need to know about pH to start reaping the health benefits of a more balanced body chemistry, is that it is a measure of acidity (think vinegar) or alkalinity (think baking soda) from 0 to 14. Zero is the worst level of acidity possible and 14 is the highest level of alkalinity possible, with neutral being in the middle. Your body maintains much tighter reins than that and will work diligently to balance your blood at a just slightly alkaline rate of 7.36. However, our highly acid-forming diet (meat, dairy products, sugar and other sweets, wheat and white flour baked goods and pastas, coffee, tea, trans fats, and food additives found in most packaged and prepared foods) and our high-stress lifestyles can take their toll on our body’s pH-balancing mechanisms, leading to acidity.
Microorganisms, such as yeast, fungi, bacteria, viruses and others, thrive in an acidic environment. Some of these nasty critters interfere with enzyme and coenzyme production in the body, including ones that are essential to hormone health, as well as many other health concerns. If a particular coenzyme is depleted, hormones that are critical to fertility and reproduction in both men and women can become imbalanced. Additionally, many of the microorganisms that begin to thrive in an acidic body can begin to feed on hormones, causing deficiencies.
Excess acidity or the microorganisms that thrive in that environment can be linked to reproductive concerns, such as infertility, vaginal yeast or fungal overgrowth, vaginal infections, menstrual difficulties, urinary tract infections, prostatitis, and impotence. If you are suffering from any of these concerns, you may benefit from kicking acid out of your diet, adding more alkalizing foods and monitoring your pH levels on a regular basis ? all of which are much simpler than you might think.
While the combination of acidity and microorganisms are not the cause of all reproductive issues, our bodies require a certain level of pH balance for health — both reproductive and health in general. “Kicking acid,” as I like to call it, is essential for your health.
“Kick Acid” Tips for Great Health
Bittersweet pH Balancing
Start every morning with a large glass of water with the juice of half a lemon. Wait 20 minutes to half an hour before eating to give the lemon water a chance to start working. Be sure to drink a chaser of plain water afterward, and swish it around in your mouth to prevent tooth enamel erosion.
Water, Water Everywhere
Drink at least 10 additional cups of water throughout the day, preferably on an empty stomach. Add lemon juice, powerfully alkalizing “green” powders (like barley grass or wheat grass powders), or alkalizing liquid drops found in most health food stores to each glass of water.
Lose the Caffeine
Instead of reaching for a caffeine jolt from coffee or cola, drink some raspberry leaf tea. It is naturally caffeine-free and is one of Mother Nature’s gentle hormone balancers. Since there’s controversy over the role of caffeine consumption and pregnancy, staying away from the java may be a good idea anyway.
Take Mom’s Advice
OK, who wants to admit that mom was right when she commanded, “Eat your vegetables!” But she was. Make vegetables the focal point of your lunch and dinner meals. Enjoy some delicious mashed sweet potatoes or rich dairy-free guacamole. I share the easiest and fastest recipe for yummy guac in my book, “The Ultimate pH Solution,” and even my chocolate mousse recipe features the highly healthy avocado — which technically is a fruit, but still highly alkalizing.
Lean, Green Alkalizing Machines
Leafy greens are powerful alkalizers. Eat at least one large salad per day. Avoid store-bought dressings full of rancid oils, preservatives, additives and sugar. Try my blueberry dressing from “The Ultimate pH Solution” — it’s fast and delicious. In a wide-mouth jar, add 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen), 1/3 cup of raw apple cider vinegar, a pinch of Celtic sea salt, and 6 drops of stevia or a 1/2 teaspoon of unpasteurized honey. Blend with a hand blender, or cover with the lid and shake the container well. Pour over a plate of greens or grated veggies. Store the remaining dressing in the fridge.
For more information on how to optimize your health, visit drmichellecook.com/
Photo credit: Aprilyn Podd
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By Gene Baur on January 25, 2012
1. Eat less chicken and fewer eggs. When you reduce or eliminate chicken and egg consumption, you’re helping some of the most abused animals on the planet. Chickens raised for meat are crammed by the thousands into filthy warehouses and denied access to the outdoors, fresh air and sunlight for their entire lives. Specifically excluded from the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, chickens are carried through the slaughter process so rapidly that many are injured but not killed and are instead boiled alive when it comes time to remove their feathers. Gardein and Quorn, two brands widely available in supermarkets, make chicken alternatives that — wait for it — taste just like chicken! Minus the fear and suffering, of course.
Chickens raised for eggs don’t have it much better. They are packed so tightly in fetid cages that they can never engage in basic natural behaviors or even stretch their wings. Millions are starved for a few weeks each year to shock their bodies into another egg-laying cycle. Think about it: Is your momentary enjoyment of an omelet really worth making an already depressed and miserable animal go hungry for weeks? If that doesn’t sit right with you, opt for the high-protein, cruelty-free tofu scramble instead.
2. Replace cow’s milk with a healthy, animal-friendly, non-dairy, calcium-fortified milk made from almonds, rice, oats, coconut, soy or hemp. It’s complete hooey that people need cow’s milk for calcium. Cow’s milk is for baby calves, and there are plenty of delicious, more healthful and calcium-rich plant-based alternatives we can consume. The only way for people to consume cow’s milk is to routinely tear newborn calves from their mothers as dairy cows are trapped in an endless cycle of pregnancy and lactation. Pushed beyond their biological limits, they are worn out and sent to slaughter after just a few years “in production.” Have you had an almond milk or soy milk mocha latte? They are fantastic and truly guilt free!
3. Avoid foie gras like the plague. Foie gras, or fatty duck liver, is only produced by the systematic and abusive practice of over feeding ducks via a metal tube that is forced down their throats. Foie gras is in a class with veal in terms of the cruelty inflicted on animals, and we should shun it every bit as much.
4. Resolve to eat vegetarian one day each week. If the above seems like too big of a challenge to start, eat vegetarian at one meal a week. Before long, you’ll realize how easy and delicious it is to eat vegetarian, and it will feel effortless to increase how often you eat vegetarian meals. Using this incremental approach, you may decide to eliminate animal products from your diet all together. Simply decreasing your consumption of factory-farmed meat will prevent countless animals from living a life of pure misery. More than 95 percent of all meat sold in restaurants and supermarkets comes from animals so cruelly confined they cannot lie down comfortably, extend their limbs, or engage in any of their natural behaviors.
5. Eat more plants! From salads and pasta dishes to vegetarian meats and cheeses, there’s a new world of flavorful alternatives to enjoy as part of a kinder, healthier eating plan. If you want cheese, try the Daiya non-dairy varieties; for sausage, reach for the Field Roast chipotle or apple sage links; instead of a hamburger, try a veggie burger with pickles, tomato, onion and other fresh toppings; when the kids want chicken nuggets, they won’t even realize that Quorn brand nuggets are missing the meat.
It’s 2012 — isn’t it time we stop eating foods produced by industries that treat animals like unfeeling commodities and start eating in a way that reflects the healthy, evolved, compassionate society we aspire to be? Let this be the year you opt out of eating cruelly. You’ll be amazed at how great it feels (and tastes) to eat compassionately.
For more by Gene Baur, visit farmsanctuary.typepad.com/making_hay/
Photo credit: Beth Terry
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By Guest Blogger on January 5, 2012
Six weeks ago, totally out of the blue, I was diagnosed with incurable metastatic bone disease. My spine and pelvis were apparently riddled with tumors that were the cause of my recent backache. At 38 and as the active mother of two very young children, I had put it down to a pulled muscle from making up the top bunk bed. I’m an elementary school teacher, too, so I have loads of opportunities to pull weird muscles chasing (or dancing with) kids. And loads of reasons for “forgetting” about them, expecting them to go away of their own accord.
Within minutes, my husband and I were wondering: “How the hell do we tell the children this?” Our two are ages 7 and 4, utterly incredible (of course) and really close to us. We have always made a point out of being honest with our kids, even about the difficult stuff, but somehow this one seemed insurmountable. So we did a lot of soul-searching and rehearsal. Literally. Practiced being the kids hearing bits of information and putting two and two together to make 42. Making sense out of the fragments we had was almost impossible for us, let alone for my little boy, whose tiny hands still stroke my cheek to wake me in the morning. It took a while, but we came up with a plan.
The fact that we only had a partial diagnosis initially was helpful, because it enabled us to stagger the news we shared. This allowed the children to process the information in little bits and think of questions. Realistically, they followed our lead and were calm, factual and positive, because we were.
At first, we just explained what would affect them: that we had to cancel our family vacation this summer because the doctors wanted to try and work out why my back wasn’t getting better. As we always flew to the States for the summer, this would be their first in England, and we’d try to do lots of fun things closer to home. They were devastated about cancelling the trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s but quickly understood that we’d go next summer and that perhaps they could come to us soon.
A few days later, while we were all curled up reading books, we stopped to explain that the doctors had discovered that there was a disease in my backbones that had started somewhere else in my body, but we didn’t know where yet. We were clear that no one had given it to me and no one could catch it from me. As kids are so drilled about “Coughs and sneezes spread diseases,” we thought this last bit was particularly important.
Then I got out a chocolate bar called an Aero (I’m sure there must be some equivalent in the States; it’s chocolate-filled with bubbles but smooth on the outside). I explained that a bone is a bit like the chocolate bar. The outside looks smooth and hard, but when you look inside, it’s made up of little bubbles.
“If the bubbles were bigger, how would it taste?”
“Not so chocolatey.”
“Would it be stronger or more crumbly if the bubbles were bigger?”
“It would break more, or bits would cave in.”
So then, of course, we explained that my bone was like the bar, but in places there were bigger bubbles growing because of the disease. That was making the bones delicate and painful. Then they got to eat the bar, but I wasn’t allowed any.
“But Mummy loves chocolate!” my daughter protested. We went on to explain that there were certain foods that would make my back worse, and some that would make it better. Simply speaking, white foods were out, and rainbow foods were in — especially green foods. We listed all the white foods we could think of: sugar, milk, ice cream, flour, rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, white sauce. Then we went into the kitchen and introduced other things I could have instead: agave, almond milk, wild rice or spelt, yams. No decent alternative to béchamel sauce yet. They loved tasting everything and made their preference clear (agave=yum, wheatgrass= yeurgh!).
As my juicing and vegan diet reached into our days, they became engaged with exploring all sorts of flavors. The spiralizer is a great favorite, and they love the carrot-zucchini spaghetti — who wouldn’t? We grow a lot of our own produce, so juice inventions have become a daily game. Beet, black currant and red grape; watercress and kiwi; carrot, pineapple and ginger; spinach and apple were all quickly popular (actually, only I liked the watercress and kiwi one, but I like it enough for everyone else put together!). We tried to juice like colors together to keep the end product bright and appealing; that really helped. The children felt empowered to help be a part of my healing through diet and are learning a lot about what goes into their own bodies as a result.
Our chickens love the pulp, so the kids are delighted to give the vitamins to them, too.
We still hadn’t used the word “cancer” yet because we didn’t know whether they had any prior knowledge of the word, and we certainly didn’t want to confuse the issue when we were still trying to build their understanding of what we were facing. But now it was time.
I had a few biopsies taken, and the nurse put stars over the incisions so that the kids would be proud of me. They were, and they kindly kissed each spot better just as I would have done for them! When the results came through, we got both children into the big bed with us and explained that Mummy’s disease had a starting place now, and a name. The name was “cancer;” had they heard of that before? Our daughter, who’s 7, had heard about it but didn’t know anything about it. Our son looked blank.
We explained that there are hundreds of types of cancer, and everyone’s story is different. If they saw or heard anything about cancer, they could ask us, but they shouldn’t think it was anything to do with my story just because it shared the same name. We felt this was particularly important because children could easily say, “My Grandma died of cancer” or “Cancer makes your hair fall out,” and we wanted information to come from us, not the playground. This conversation was something we had anguished over, but they heard it and then said “OK. Can we read some books now?”
Throughout these weeks, they have had very few questions. But they also have had very little anxiety. I think striking the balance between pace and pitch is so important. Small chunks of information spread several days apart helped them process and feel part of the learning curve along with us. We are empowered in the face of this diagnosis and are riding the tsunami rather than swept away by it. They are along for the ride, too.
Last week, I had radiotherapy. Beforehand, we talked about cough syrup. Who likes cough syrup? No one, right? It makes you feel horrid and sticky, and your mouth is all weird. Yuck! But then after a while, your cough’s gone, and you can go back to sleep and get well. So my medicine was going to be a bit like that. It would make me feel worse for a while and then better. Except that my “worse” would last a few days, even a week or so. But then my “better” would last longer, too. I wouldn’t have to take so many pills for the pain, and I’d be able to do more yoga and dancing with them again. Everyone’s a winner!
Now it’s September, and I’m not going back to teaching yet. The children are delighted that I’ll be walking them to school in the mornings, and I’ve let my friends at the school gates know that these times are CFC (cancer-free-conversation) times. Even when they’re just trying to show they care, it’s not the time. Walking to school is when my kids deserve my attention.
My cancer is omniscient but not a source of fear or anxiety for any of us. We will embrace this challenge like any other: as a loving, honest family unit. Talking often and openly.
Emily Evison is taking a year off from life as usual to create an anti-cancer lifestyle after her unexpected diagnosis. She lives in rural England with her husband, two children, six chickens and cat. They garden, craft, make music, play games and love life.
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