8 Easy Steps to Health

We are quickly approaching New Year’s Day and the annual accounting that accompanies it. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions last year? The year before?

Most of the time, resolutions focus on health issues.

  • I will lose weight.
  • I will get healthy.
  • I will completely change the way I eat.

Within weeks we give up, defeated.

If you’re not healthy, if you continue to say to yourself, “I wish I could eat like that, take care of myself that well,” then do it. If the change is radical, approach it with a project plan – one step at a time.

Step One

One of the reasons change is hard is because it usually starts with taking away something. Instead, start the other way around. Every day, drink a smoothie. It doesn’t matter if you have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack. Just drink a nutrient-dense smoothie. There are two important ingredients: a high quality nutrition powder and, depending on the diet, a balanced oil supplement. In a blender, start with fresh or frozen fruit, cover with juice (not always necessary when using fresh fruit), add two tablespoons of nutrition powder, a tablespoon of flaxseed oil or an omega oil blend, and as much kale or spinach or other greens you can handle. See the Powerfully Healing Raspberry Cream Smoothie Recipe.

Step Two

Your enthusiasm for this project will grow as each step makes a significant difference in the way you feel. Step two is to eat a large salad every day. No, I am not talking about a bowl of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I am talking about an incredibly nutritious salad filled with lots of raw veggies. Make it with at least 12 different vegetables, and throw in some herbs and seeds as well. Be sure to add fresh garlic, turmeric, and pepper for synergistic health benefits. Make it big and munch on it all day if you can’t finish it in one sitting. You might find it easier to make a bunch of this salad twice a week. See 80% Raw Food Diet (amazing salad and dressing recipe).

Step Three

It’s time to learn how to breathe properly. Breathing should be done deeply, in a manner that expands the abdomen as you inhale. Proper breathing dramatically increases stamina and mental clarity, elevates your mood, and helps the body detoxify more efficiently (more toxins are released through breathing than through the pores, urination, and defecation combined). For more information, check out How To Breathe.

Step Four

Between your daily smoothie and your daily salad, you are going to be feeling so much better. Your body is getting the nutrition it needs to repair damage and to thrive on a cellular level. Now that you are feeling better, are you ready to feel a whole lot better? If it’s time, move on to step four. Clean out your kitchen. Get rid of all the crappy processed food filled with artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, GMOs, trans fats, and other disgusting chemicals.

You want to eat whole foods, real foods, organic foods. But while we’re taking something away, let’s add something. One of the most amazing things you can do for your body is to take up drinking a gallon of cranberry stevia lemonade a day. Drink it throughout the day. Check out this recipe.

Step Five

Increase the amount of raw foods you eat. Aim for 80% raw – more vegetables than fruit. Produce heals. Munch on produce all day, and eat the aforementioned big salads.

Step Six

It’s time to detox, and balance the gut’s eco-system (though the aforementioned salads have made a huge difference already). True health is achieved by providing the body with the nutrition it needs and ridding it of the parasites, yeast, heavy metals, chemicals, and other garbage that doesn’t belong.

You have the choice to take each of these steps fast or slow. The point is, be sure each step is ingrained before moving on. Check out Kill Candida and Balance The Gut Quickly. See the previous link for a cheap and easy detox.

Step Seven

Do squats. Start with a few, and do a few more every day. Get up to 100 every day. Take your time, and work your way up.

Be sure to see the first link for more on diet and a great salad recipe.

Can you imagine making such a radical change and how it will impact your life? If you can imagine it, you can do it. Just start with step one.

Step Eight

It’s time to take up running! We are made by nature to run, just like we are made to do squats. Running seriously detoxifies the body, flushes the lymphs glands, produces lots of great hormones, and is incredibly good for you. For optimum health, work up to being able to run long distances but also mix it up, do sprints (sprints are great to jump start a thyroid that’s beginning to heal), do slow jogs, and anything in between. Running long distances with an unhealthy body (or with the wrong shoes) can be very bad for your health and lead to injury and many other issues. On the other hand, when you’re in excellent health, running long distances a couple of times a week is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

If running is too much for you right now, start with speed walking, rebounding, and jumping rope (other great exercises).

This would also be a great time to take up yoga. The more well rounded your fitness regimen is, the better it is for your health. Try not to get stuck on one thing. Check out Yoga, A Beginner’s Guide. Also see, Running Without Knee Pain.

Check out and bookmark this list of “Foundational Articles.” See the top one for a Cheap and Easy Detox recipe for the lemonade recipe and a good detox protocol. For a recipe to make your own nutrition powder filled with vitamins and minerals check Make Your Own Homemade Nutrition Formula.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:


If You’re Sick, Chances Are, Candida Is the Foundation of Your Illness

The most common fungus to negatively affect humans, Candida albicans, primarily colonizes the skin and the mucosal membranes of the mouth, genitals, and digestive tract. There are also a few other types of Candida that can impact our health as well; all strains respond well to naturopathic treatment.

Conventional medical experts say that from 30-70% of the present population have a benign colonization of this yeast. I would bet any well trained naturopath will tell you that more than 90% of the population host a Candida colonization and most of them are not benign, not in our modern, processed, easy-food society. In addition, I am yet to meet anyone suffering from any illness, who is not dealing with an overabundance of Candida.

When Candida leads to disease, conventional medical belief states that the infection can be localized, invasive, or systemic. Alternative medical belief would argue that a local infection such as a skin infection, vaginitis, or thrush is an indication that the gut, and likely the whole rest of the body, is already overwhelmed. Lending credence to this belief is the fact that the fastest way to kill any type of Candida infection, and insure it does not come right back, revolves around balancing the gut microbes.

The Candida connection with allergies, asthma, and dermatitis has long been accepted. Current research suggests Candida antigens may trigger celiac and Crohn’s disease. Even though these links of Candida to disease are acknowledged, the conventional medical community is hesitant to understand and accept the role of Candida in patients with multiple complaints often labeled as either non-specific autoimmune disease or more often as psychosomatic illness. These symptoms include fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, rashes, dysuria, urinary frequency, vaginitis, and more. Nor do they realize Candida is so often the underlying cause for chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, environmental exposure syndrome, and central sensitization syndrome. Candida even effects the brain, and can be the precursor to many different mental illnesses from depression to schizophrenia. In other words, when the immune system goes belly up, Candida is almost always a major factor, if not, one of the few basic causes, though this connection is often overlooked or ignored.

There are more than 200 species of Candida, but less than a dozen affect humans. Candida alternate in form from budding yeast cells called blastospores to hyphae, thread-like filaments that bore through tissue and individual cells. The fact that it can alternate back and forth in form makes it harder for the immune system to respond to it. We are now discovering that it can produce slightly differing hyphae in different parts of the body, again creating a different immune response.

Candida is controlled or eliminated through diet and supplements, but studies have shown it often reoccurs. Since the same studies showed diet was the most important factor in eliminating the overgrowth, it only stands to reason that dietary changes need to be a lifelong commitment. A return to a standard American diet is a return to disease. A healthy diet, though not as restrictive as a diet designed to kill Candida, will help prevent a recurrence.

Candida overgrowth is certainly linked to antibiotic use, but it is also clearly a by-product of our sugar laden, processed, frankenscience American diet. If you are experiencing allergies, depression, slow healing, a weak immune system, dizzy spells, brain fog, insomnia, migraines, or any autoimmune problems such as chemical sensitivities, unexplained fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain, or similar symptoms, get the Candida that is in your body under control and know that eating well, eating a truly healthy diet is essential in keeping Candida at bay.

Believe it or not, chances are you eat too much sugar. Even most of us health nuts do. Sugar from fruit is fine when the fruit is whole, but sweet fruit and vegetable juices, agave, honey, brown rice syrup, and any refined sugar feeds Candida. To learn more about Candida and how to fight it, check out How To Kill Candida and Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:
Sources:
  •  Stephen Olmstead, MD; Dennis Meiss, PhD; and Janet Ralston,BS, Candida, Fungal-Type Dysbiosis, and Chronic Disease: Exploring the Nature of theYeast Connection, Townsend Letter, June 2012


Want To Know What Factory Farms Do With Their Waste? (Video)

We’ve known the horrific conditions animals endure when raised in factory farms. One could only hope we have all seen some footage that shows chickens, cows, or pigs crammed into tiny spaces so filled that the animals cannot turn around or lay down. One thing we haven’t seen until now are the cesspools created by factory farming.

Mark Devries, director of the documentary Speciesism, the Movie, explores the cultural belief that “our species is more important than the rest.” His exposure of factory farming as “one of the greatest evils in our history” should give us pause. After all, animal cruelty laws are widely upheld when it comes to the treatment of cats, dogs, and horses. For some reason they don’t apply to factory raised animals.

Factory farms are tucked away and hidden from prying eyes. In his film, Mark crawls through bushes, flies over factory farms, and even uses a drone to videotape the landscape. In a clip (see video below) his drone reveals a cesspool the size of three football fields. The cesspool is simply a giant trench filled to the brim with pig feces and urine. The metal buildings beside the cesspool hold pigs crammed nose to tail. Waste is flushed under each building to the cesspools and then sprayed into the air.

Now here’s the interesting part. The animal waste is not pumped into a treatment facility. It is not pumped into a septic tank. It is not treated in any way. It is sprayed into the air.

From there, where does it go? While giant factory farms make an effort to hide away in rural settings, they still have neighbors. Their practice of spraying waste into the air causes it to drift onto their neighbors’ property. The odor alone is unimaginable. At times, it rain animal feces onto the neighbors’ yards and houses. Asthma rates, especially for children, are high. Runoff from factory farms contaminates waterways and groundwater.

Animals raised under these conditions are highly susceptible to disease. Initial reports regarding the Swine flu epidemic identified patient zero as a child who lived near a factory farm, but these reports were quickly squashed.

Short Clip of the Drone Footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayGJ1YSfDXs

Check out Mark Devries film, Speciesism, the Movie



Powerfully Healing Raspberry Cream Smoothie Recipe

This is a powerful smoothie. The health benefits are enormous. If you have arthritis, diabetes, cancer, or any other major health ailment, or your goal is to prevent these diseases, this is a smoothie you should drink regularly.

For a massive boost of enzymes, tons of antioxidants, and a tremendous amount of anti-inflammatory healthy fats, you can’t do much better than this recipe.

If you suffer from Candida, we recommend you take some SF722 or some other yeast killer, as pineapple is very high in natural sugars. We also recommend adding a few scoops of Total Nutrition Formula for extra nutrition.

This smoothie is absolutely delicious; I’ll bet it’s the best you’ve ever had. And it’s kid friendly!

Just watch the video below and we’ll prove it.

A few of the many benefits of avocados

  • Helps lower cholesterol
  • Reduces the risk of diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease
  • Promotes a healthy body weight and BMI
  • Reduces the risk of cancer
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Promotes a healthy immune system
  • Promotes healthy hair and skin

A few of the many benefits of pineapple

  • Prevents free radical damage
  • Helps build strong bones
  • Promotes healthy gums
  • Helps prevent macular degeneration
  • Reduces the risk of diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease
  • Promotes a healthy body weight and BMI
  • Reduces the risk of cancer
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Helps lower cholesterol
  • Promotes a healthy immune system
  • Promotes healthy skin
  • Detoxifies the liver

A few of the many benefits of coconut oil

  • Helps lower cholesterol
  • Reduces the risk of diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease
  • Promotes a healthy body weight and BMI
  • Reduces the risk of cancer
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Promotes a healthy immune-system
  • Promotes healthy hair and skin
  • Antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral 

A few of the many benefits of raspberries

  • Helps lower cholesterol
  • Reduces the risk of diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease
  • Promotes a healthy body weight and BMI
  • Reduces the risk of cancer
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Helps lower cholesterol
  • Promotes a healthy immune system

Recipe

This is about as easy as it gets. The recipe serves four. It’s perfect for a Vitamix. If you have a smaller blender, you may need to cut the recipe in half. Of course, all ingredients should be organic whenever possible.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole, fresh, medium pineapple
  • 10 ounces frozen raspberries
  • 1 medium to large avocado
  • 4 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Blend pineapple first.
  2. Then add avocado and coconut oil.
  3. After the first ingredients are fully blended, add the frozen raspberries and blend until smooth.
  4. Enjoy!

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:


Grumpy And Groggy? Use These 7 Tips To Get A Good Night’s Sleep

A terrible night of tossing and turning happens to us all at some point. Unfortunately for some, restless nights filled with little or no sleep are far too common. The importance of a good night’s sleep cannot be overstated. Continued patterns of poor sleep can cause everything from obesity to car accidents.

The truth is that if you aren’t getting the right amount of sleep, you aren’t going to be able to function at a healthy, optimal level. The good news is there are steps that you can take immediately that will improve your ability to be well rested when you wake up in the morning.

1. Make Time for Sleep

Does creating a sleep schedule seem strange? It shouldn’t, because often it’s the lack of regular, consistent sleep that leads to problems.

When you train your body to fall asleep around a certain time, you will soon find yourself starting to get sleepy during roughly the same time period every day.

2. Keep a Sleep Diary

A sleep diary or log can provide you with important insight into how you rest. Do you tend to wake frequently during the night? Do you often sleep through alarms? The information can then be used to make changes that will improve your sleeping patterns.

3. Quit Smoking

There are numerous reasons why you should quit smoking; as it turns out, improved sleep happens to be one of them. The nicotine in cigarettes acts as a stimulant. Rather than calm you down so that you can rest, smoking prevents you from easily falling asleep. Smoking also causes breathing problems, which can lead to various sleep disturbances and issues.

4. Consider Buying a New Bed

It may be that you are willing and able to sleep, but your quality of nighttime rest is greatly inhibited by your current bed. If that lumpy old mattress is too uncomfortable, you should consider shopping for a new bed. You spend roughly 29,200 hours in ten years in your bed, so having a poor mattress could have some pretty harsh effects on your health.

5. Get Regular Exercise

It’s believed that just 30 minutes of exercise per day can improve the length and quality of sleep. Whether you take up cardio or decide to start jogging, this burst of regular activity during the day may be what you need to get better rest at night.

A word of caution: It’s recommended you avoid vigorous exercise three to four hours prior to sleep. However, if you can’t rest, there are certain yoga poses you can do to help you prepare for bed.

6. Watch Your Caffeine Intake

Caffeine in coffee or tea is often heavily relied on in order to fully wake up and function during a busy day, especially if one didn’t get enough sleep the previous evening.

The problem is regular caffeine intake is scientifically linked to poor sleeping patterns. If you simply like the taste of coffee in the morning, strongly consider switching to the decaffeinated variety.

7. Don’t Doze Off During the Day

Are you taking regular naps during the day to make up for lost sleep at night? There’s reason to believe this may do more harm than good. While a cat nap can be okay for persons with regular sleep patterns, for persons with abnormal sleep patterns, it can only serve to make the problem worse.

Instead of taking a lengthy nap, go for a walk or do a bit of yoga. Try to avoid naps until after you’ve reestablished a healthy sleep pattern.

Often poor sleep can be brought on by a combination of factors. Making little adjustments and then sticking to these changes can lead to vast improvements in one’s quality of sleep. This can in turn lead to waking up feeling completely refreshed and better able handle whatever life throws at you during your waking hours.

Sources:

 



Natural Menopause Treatments That Always Work

Women who experience moderate to severe symptoms of menopause share a common desire: to find a safe and natural way to control or end the discomfort. While some home remedies that are based on folklore can bring some relief, there are better and more effective ways to treat the symptoms of menopause while avoiding the health risks and side effects commonly associated with hormone therapy. Here are some important facts that will help you find the best remedies for relief of menopause symptoms.

Common Menopause Symptoms

The first symptoms of menopause are irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes, night sweats, and difficulty sleeping. In addition to these, PMS-like symptoms can occur including breast tenderness, bloating, cramps, headaches, and irritability. Some women will also experience memory loss, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and anxiety disorders such as nervousness or panic attacks. Thinning hair can also present as a symptom. Every woman can experience menopause differently. In fact, many women experience little discomfort. This is not the case, however, for everyone.

Causes Of Menopause Symptoms

Hormonal fluctuations are the leading culprit of nearly all menopause symptoms. As the ovaries shut down, estrogen levels decline. Since estrogen has played a significant role in most of the body’s processes up to this point, the lack of estrogen brings about physical changes within the internal workings of the body. Vaginal tissue may become more fragile and can atrophy, natural lubricants during sex may lessen, and painful intercourse can be the result.

Why Are Natural Supplements Superior To Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)?

Although hormone replacement therapy can be highly effective in relieving menopause symptoms, it comes with a high risk for side effects, long term damage, and even life threatening health complications. Natural menopause supplements, created from plant extracts, do not damage the body.

Phytoestrogens and isoflavones are compounds proven to be effective in relieving the symptoms of menopause. They help to restore hormonal balance within the body so it can function much as it did prior to the onset of menopause or perimenopause. There are few, if any, known side effects and no known long-term health risks associated with their use.

The plants that are high in these compounds include black cohosh, red clover, passionflower, wild yam, chaste berry, dong quai, flaxseed, and soybeans. Red clover powder is known for it’s amazing ability to deal with the mood swings that are so common in menopausal women.

Important Lifestyle Changes That Can Also Help Ease Menopause Symptoms

In addition to the use of natural supplements, you can help to reduce your symptoms by taking some common sense steps to improve the health of your body. This begins with eating regular, healthy, and balanced meals. This will provide the body with the nutrients that it needs for optimal functioning. Make sure that you exercise regularly. This along with eating healthy will help you to lose any extra pounds that you may have gained. Maintaining a healthy weight can also make a difference in reducing menopause symptoms. Limit or avoid excessive alcohol use, eating fatty foods, overeating and smoking. If you follow these guidelines, you will help to reduce some of the factors that can contribute to the intensity of menopause symptoms.

Conclusion

If you struggle with moderate to severe symptoms of menopause, there is a safe and natural alternative to HRT. Ensure that the natural supplements you use contain phytoestrogens and isoflavones, both of which can help to restore hormonal imbalance within the body. In addition to supplement use, you can make lifestyle changes that will help to eliminate some of the triggers that can make menopause symptoms more intense. Eating right, getting plenty of exercise and avoiding harmful habits such as excessive alcohol consumption, overeating and smoking are all lifestyle changes that will help to improve the body’s immune system and overall health. When you’re looking for remedies that always work, go natural and take charge of your health. You may be surprised at the results.



Common Nutrient Deficiencies: Iodine, Vitamin B12, Magnesium

Many health fanatics are determined to live a healthy lifestyle. They monitor their eating habits and exercise routines carefully. While this is great, it isn’t always enough.

Even the healthiest eating plans – like the Paleo diet and veganism – might not be as great as you think. Many people suffer from nutrient deficiencies, and they don’t even know it.

Check out the three most common nutrient deficiencies. Are you at risk?

Iodine Deficiency

Iodine is a trace mineral. Its primary role is to maintain the health of our thyroid. Previously, iodine deficiency was believed to be a health issue that was confined to third-world countries. However, the deficiency is becoming more prevalent in developing countries too.

There are several symptoms of an iodine deficiency:

  • Goiter – Iodine is tasked with thyroid development. If iodine levels drop, the thyroid’s health will be affected. Many times, the gland will expand, causing a visible lump.
  • Hypothyroidism – Iodine is necessary for proper thyroid hormone production. Without iodine, hormone levels will dip. This usually causes weight gain, loss of hair, various skin conditions, erectile dysfunction, infertility, and much more.
  • Cretinism – If pregnant moms don’t get enough iodine, the baby could be born with a neurological birth defect.

There are two main causes of an iodine deficiency. First, most people don’t eat enough iodine-rich foods. If you’d like to increase your iodine levels naturally, try cooking up some fish. Grilling retains more of the iodine than boiling. Also, egg yolk is a great source of iodine.

Secondly, many health nuts cut salt out of their diet. While this may, in theory, be a good idea, you are robbing yourself of a primary source of iodine – iodized salt.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency

This is one of the most common – yet severely under diagnosed – nutrient deficiencies. Why is it prevalent and undetected at the same time?

Most people don’t go looking for a vitamin B12 deficiency. And fewer doctors routinely test for it. If you eat even a marginally healthy diet, it is assumed you are getting enough vitamin B12.

When symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, anxiety and depression start emerging, vitamin B12 levels might get checked. Usually, testing isn’t the go-to response until something major like dementia and autism spectrum disorder (in children) start showing up.

A vitamin B12 deficiency is one of the few deficiencies that cannot easily be “fixed” with the diet. Usually supplementation is needed.

If the nutrient is taken via oral pills, the body will have to first absorb it into the bloodstream before it can be used. The vast majority of the nutrient is actually lost during this process. On the other hand, vitamin B12 shots ensure the full dose is utilized.

Which populations are most susceptible to a vitamin B12 deficiency?

The first population is anyone who has another health issue that is impairing the body’s ability to absorb the vitamin B12. For example, Crohn’s disease or celiac disease make it nearly impossible for the body to utilize the consumed nutrient.

Another population segment that is commonly afflicted with a B12 deficiency is vegetarians and vegans. Since they don’t eat animal products (the only source of vitamin B12), they often need alternative sources.

Lastly, senior citizens are very susceptible to vitamin B12 deficiencies. As we age, our bodies struggle to produce intrinsic factor—a necessary ingredient in the B12 absorption process.

If you don’t mind eating animal products and your digestive system is functioning properly, try eating foods rich in vitamin B12 – like liver, salmon, or sardines.

Magnesium Deficiency

Studies show a mere 25% of all Americans reach the recommended daily intake of magnesium. This lack of magnesium consumption can lead to major health concerns like:

  • Diabetes
  • Osteoporosis
  • Heart issues
  • Asthma and other respiratory issues
  • Colon cancer

While the deficiency is still in the beginning stages, individuals can expect to experience:

  • Severe headaches
  • Restless leg syndrome
  • Cramps
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Constipation

There are three main reasons why the general population suffers from a magnesium deficiency. First, our water is too clean! When purifying drinking water, magnesium is usually removed.

Second, there isn’t enough magnesium in the soil. Since magnesium is generally found in plant foods (not animal foods), the soil needs to be rich with magnesium in order to pass it along in the foods we eat.

Third, few of us eat enough magnesium dense foods. For example, when was the last time you sat down to a large serving of Swiss chard or spinach?! Fortunately, there are other sources, too – like nuts, seeds, espresso (yum!), dark chocolate (double yum!) and halibut.

Living a healthy lifestyle is admirable. But if you want to truly take care of your body, you’ll assess your eating habits and foods at the nutrient level.

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