When someone shows interest in natural health, the first question is often, “Where do I start?” Organic food is often prohibitively expensive or hard to find, and there are thousands of supplements pushed, each marketed with its one promise to magically cure what ails us. It can be overwhelming, and getting started is, for many people, the toughest part.

I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that there are some very easy, relatively inexpensive steps almost anyone can take to holistically improve their health.

The bad news is that health and vitality is not to be found in a bottle or some other form of packaging.

I, the owner of Green Lifestyle Market, a company that sells supplements, am here to tell you that if you’re looking for a quick fix, an item you can purchase and consume to allow you to continue living a toxic lifestyle, this is the wrong article. And anyone who tells you that you can get all of your daily nutrition in one shake, smoothie, pill, or powder is only trying to sell you something.

Drink Lots of Good Water

I weigh 210 pounds and I try to drink a gallon of water a day. I need less water when I eat more raw produce, but I still shoot for a gallon of water a day. I get spring water when I can, fresh from a spring that I trust. But if you don’t have access to a spring, or if you have a seriously compromised immune system, distilled water could be a better choice, initially. Just make sure you’re not drinking a gallon of tap water a day. Tap water is toxic, and fluoridated water is a crime against humanity.

Sometimes just plain water is boring. I usually make cranberry stevia lemonade. I take fresh lemons and pure bottled cranberry juice and sweeten it with stevia. For more, check out our Stevia Lemonade with Cayenne within our Cheap and Easy Detox Diet Plan article.

I find that this lemonade is easier to drink when I am not feeling particularly thirsty, and there are tons of health benefits! The lemon and the cranberry help flush out toxins and balance the body’s pH while providing you with electrolytes and other nutrients.

Eat More Raw Fresh Produce

I eat a huge salad almost every day. If I make rice and beans, I add avocados, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and shredded carrots right on top. If I eat soup I add shredded and diced vegetables right before eating. When I snack, I choose fruit and vegetables. I eat red bell peppers like other people eat apples. Approximately 80% of my diet (by bulk) is raw fresh produce. Check out my salad recipe in that article, too.

As the editor and chief of Organic Lifestyle Magazine, I am telling you that “organic” is not the most important thing.

When you’re shopping for produce, if you can afford it, and if it is available, buy organic. By all means, this is very important and you will feel the difference. But when choosing between organic frozen carrots and fresh conventional carrots, I’m picking fresh almost every time. I draw the line at genetically modified foods. To understand what foods to be aware of in order to avoid GMOs, read our Foods that are GMO article.

Cut Out These Foods

GMOs

Soy should not be consumed unless first fermented and not genetically modified. Over 99% of the soy we consume is terrible for our health. Soy naturally has enzyme inhibitors that wreck havoc on our hormones. The way Asians were eating it for thousands of years included fermentation, which nullifies the enzyme inhibitors. This is why health nuts soak and sprout their nuts, seeds, and legumes.

Like soy, conventional corn and potatoes that you find in your grocery store are almost always GMO and should be avoided.

Gluten

There are two problems with wheat. The first problem is that through our farming practices we have genetically modified the gluten protein. This is not to be confused with what we call GMOs. Hybridization is the practice of cross-pollinating plants. For instance, the bananas we eat today are hybrids. They are nothing like the bananas of our ancestors. So, at a genetic level the bananas and every other food we eat today are actually genetically modified, but this is not the same thing as what we refer to as GMOs.

So while our hybrid practices has made much of our food more palatable and more nutritious, it has changed the gluten protein in wheat into something we cannot properly digest.

In addition to the modified gluten, we also do not make bread the way we used to. Our technique for making bread included a fermentation process using lactobacillus bacteria that broke down the gluten proteins and rendered the wheat digestible, or we would soak and sprout the wheat before making the bread.

For most people, cutting out wheat in their diet yields amazing vitality. Try it for a week and you’re bound to notice a difference.

Refined Foods

Your food should give you nutrition. But refined foods rob your body of nutrition. Consuming white rice, for instance, is acidic. Your body uses minerals to balance out the acidity in order to keep your body’s blood at a slightly alkaline pH. If not, you’re dead. So every time you eat white rice, you’re robbing your body of alkalinizing minerals to maintain this balance. Brown rice has these alkaline minerals. This is true for white flour, white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and almost any other refined food. Eat whole foods that have all of their nutrition. Once your taste buds adjust, you won’t even be able to stand the refined crap everyone else ingests. It’s very much like quitting smoking. You wonder how you ever put up with the smell, because now it makes you sick!

Dairy

Some people tolerate raw (unpasteurized, un-homogenized) cow’s milk from grassfed healthy cows very well. Others don’t.  But nobody does well on conventional dairy products. It’s not natural. And milk is a very poor, toxic source of calcium. If you’re looking for calcium, eat green vegetables.

Squat

We are meant to squat. We squatted to go to the bathroom, we squatted to hide from prey, we squatted to hide from predators, we squatted to keep our asses off the ground while relaxing, we squatted many, many times day. In the wild, if we couldn’t squat, we didn’t have much more time to live. Squatting is the most important exercise you can do. It even helps detoxify the body. It puts gentle pressure on your organs while aligning them properly to help eliminate waste. Squatting can even help with several ailments including constipation, kidney infections, back pain, and even baby malposition during labor.

We should all be able to do 100 squats in a row, going all the way down. Most people can’t do 10.

If you cannot squat, try get-ups. Lay down on the floor. Get up. Lay back down on the floor.  Alternate the leg you use to get up.

If you can’t do get-ups, sit in a chair, and stand, and sit, and stand some more. Try to use your legs as much as possible while using your arms and momentum as little as possible.

Conclusion

Many people read an article like this and ask with disdain, “So what can I eat?” There are so many choices out there. But the problem is not so much a lack of choice as it is a lack of convenience. You’re not going to get healthy nutrition from packaged, processed, easy foods. If you want fast food, that’s what fruit is for. But if you’re making dinner and you want to prepare a healthy meal, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and make a meal from scratch using whole, unadulterated foods.

There are so many other things you can do for your health. For instance, a huge step you can take is growing your own food. If you can do this, the return on your investment will be a bit slow, but hugely rewarding once realized. But for most people, nothing else need be done until these steps are first realized. If you suffer from serious health issues, you may want to see Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases, and checkout and bookmark this list of “Foundational Articles.”

Recommended Supplements:

• Total Nutrition Formula

Further Reading:

• Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste recipes included
• Total Nutrition – Make Your Own Homemade Nutrition Formula
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

I used to weigh 368 pounds. I had a 58 inch waist. I was 46% body fat. In addition, I was often sick and had many allergies. My body hurt. Moving was becoming more and more difficult. I was only 17.

I was one of the targets at my school. I was ridiculed and picked on incessantly. The name that everyone knew me as was Fat Ass or sometimes Pillsbury.  And I did have a fat ass. It was huge. I did not store my excess fat in a manly way. It was all badonkadonk!

I was beat up regularly, and I felt tortured. < ahref="https://www.phentermineonline.com/phentermine-before-and-after">Before age 17 I had been in about 75 fistfights, none of which I started. I would get jumped by someone, and if I won, I got jumped by three of his friends. I was the laughing stock of the school and the punching bag for anyone looking to get some fight cred, or to just take out their anger.

I was rarely taken seriously, and the few friends I had were younger than me, as no one my age would be seen with me. While I appreciated the friends I did have, I was still the punch line for many of their jokes. All this simply led to more eating.

On top of all of this, I had a very hard time with social skills. Looking back and talking with some doctors, it became clear I suffered from undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome, as well as a host of other developmental issues. I was tactile defensive and had a very hard time properly communicating with people. Looking people in the eyes was (and at times still is) extremely difficult.

How I Got in Shape

I owe that weight loss to a beautiful woman I had a huge crush on. She was older than me and absolutely stunning. I had to be with her. It was the best motivation a 17-year-old virgin could hope for.

The day after I saw her, I rode my bike to the YMCA. I worked out, lifting weights and using the Stairmaster. I ate more fruits and vegetables and stopped eating entire packages of hot dogs, whole blocks of cheddar cheese, and half gallon containers of yogurt. As much as I loved to tell people that I was genetically predisposed to obesity, the reality is I ate like there was no tomorrow.

I remember that first day I went to the gym. It was a Tuesday. Then came Wednesday. The only difference between that Wednesday and every other Wednesday that preceded it was that I went back to the gym, and I continued to eat better.

I didn’t do everything right, though. I didn’t know any better. I drank Sprite like it was going out of style. I followed the old food pyramid model, so bread was the foundation of my diet. But I quit binging, and I exercised every single day like a man possessed. I lifted weights 5 days a week, played basketball 6 days a week for 2 hours every day, and I ran 6 miles every Sunday. I could not be stopped.

The more I lost, the better I felt. The better I felt, the more I listened to my body. I noticed that the more produce I ate, the better I felt. I ate more produce and fewer packaged foods. When I finally gave up Sprite (after learning how bad refined sugar is for you), my allergies went away! Food allergies, pet allergies, seasonal allergies, allergies I had lived with for years and thought I was stuck with forever, disappeared. But they quickly came back as soon as my diet went off track.

At almost one year to the day, I got my weight down to 215 pounds. I still had a little chub, but I was in incredible shape. I ran 30 miles just to see if I could run a marathon without stopping.

The Difference

Obviously, I was not made fun of the way I used to be. I wasn’t picked on. I was able communicate better, to socialize, and to be more comfortable with eye contact and touching. A couple of times, some of the people who used to torment me tried to pick a fight, and I was able to scare them into backing off. After all the fights I had been in, my new found confidence, my ability to communicate, assert myself, and intimidate, as well as a massive amount of real world experience with fighting, I was easily able to convey to people that I was no longer an easy target. The few guys that decided to try me anyways got put in their place, and that only increased my confidence.

Oh…and I got the girl.

It actually felt like I could have had any woman in that town. At age 18, I knew what it felt like to be popular for the first time in my life. I dedicated my life to putting a stop to bullying. It was a rough town I grew up in, and my friends and I (and I had many more at that time then I ever did in my life) went around looking for people who were being picked on. We would stop the bullying. If need be, I did it by force. Then I moved away, and my vigilante days were over. Well, for the most part. I’ll still fight the good fight if someone is in need.

Relapse

I still, to this day, struggle with my weight. It is an ongoing battle. Some people need to throw out the scale. I need to weigh myself every single day. If I don’t, I quickly notice my pants getting tight. My weight fluctuates by about 25 pounds. I’m 6’3”, so that’s not as extreme as you might think, but it’s still a lot.

About 10 years ago, I ballooned back up to 290. I knew much more about health at this point, as I had been studying naturopathy for many years, but I had not been practicing what I preach. I was engaged to what is commonly referred to as a “chubby-chaser” and we ate and ate and ate together. I loved to cook, we both loved to eat, and she was a tiny little Asian woman who could eat almost as much as I could and not put on a pound. We ate a lot of starchy Asian foods like sticky rice and fried noodles. It was easy to put on the weight with her. But eventually I wanted to get back in shape. Not because I was being picked on, not because people didn’t respect me, and not to “get the girl.” I wanted to get in shape for me this time. As I lost weight, I noticed once again a tremendous difference in how I was treated. I hadn’t even noticed the decline in how people looked at me as I gained the weight, but as it came off, everyone seemed to respect me more and more. My ideas at work were given more consideration, and people wanted to ask my opinion more often. I was invited out more. And that chubby-chasing girl friend of mine? Even she changed her tune. She was digging the new me, a version of the old me that she found a new appreciation for. (And ever since then she has preferred men in good physical condition, so I guess I cured her of that).

How I Lost 50 pounds

I worked out, of course, but this time I had a job and a life, so working out to the extent I did before was not an option. I cut out all of the refined foods. I severely limited the starches. I got down to 220. My diet was 80% raw fresh fruits and vegetables, mostly vegetables. I ate a huge salad every day for breakfast. It filled me up for hours and eliminated my cravings for the rest of the day. Instead of my famous pesto pasta, salads became my specialty.

I also drank a gallon of stevia sweetened lemonade with cayenne every day. This helped to reduce my appetite considerably as well, and it also flushed toxins. A healthy liver facilitates healthy weight loss.

My snacks were produce, usually vegetables. Not just celery and carrots like most people think about when they think of snacking on veggies, I ate kale, collards, chard, beets, peppers–any vegetable that could be eaten raw. I was known for a being the guy who ate vegetables the way people eat fruit. “He’s eating that bell pepper like it’s an apple!” they’d say, bewildered.

Those are my three biggest recommendations: A gallon of stevia sweetened cayenne lemonade with made with clean pure drinking water, a big salad every single day, and snack on produce as well. If money isn’t too tight, I would also say to get SF722 and FloraMend to fix the gut which can radically help reduce bad food cravings.

Stress Eating

Then my whole life changed. It was turned upside down. These words don’t do it justice. My life was shaken up like a snow-globe. I was arrested. I was charged with a crime I did not commit. I went to jail for a month. I bailed out. Then I awaited trial for a year out on bail, and I put back on the weight. I am and always have been a stress eater, and starches are my biggest weakness. I ate and I ate and I ate because I couldn’t cope. I was looking at 30+ years and a lot of other crap that I could not handle. I guess I did handle it, as I’m here. But the way I handled it was with food. I got back up to 310 pounds.

How I Lost 100 Pounds

I went to jail.  My bond was revoked, and I spent another year waiting for trial, but this time in jail. I had nothing to do in jail but read and work out. It’s a bit harder to binge eat in jail, though I certainly saw some people doing it. But I was determined to come out of that situation better than I went in, and one of the ways to do that was to get fit again, once and for all.

I traded my deserts, juices, milks, and starches for vegetables, and got as many donated to me as I could. I could even put together a decent salad. The diabetics traded my candy for their oranges. They hate fruit. That explained the diabetes.

The only problem with this is I ended up with a jail cell full of people who decided to follow my lead. I was very popular in that dorm and become sort of the jail doctor for my fellow inmates. Any ailment, they’d come to me, and I could almost always fix it. I was honest, so people said, “What can I do to get healthier?” and I’d tell then, eat vegetables! So the price of vegetables skyrocketed like gold has done in the last few years. Suddenly, I was having to get money from my family to buy store food to trade for vegetables. Eventually even this quit working and almost all 60 of those inmates wanted to eat their veggies. Even the diabetics wanted their fruit!

So I switched dorms. Well, actually, I got into a fight with a bully, and was moved to another dorm. Then I realized I could just repeat this pattern whenever the price of produce got too high. So that’s what I did, and when I got out a year later I was 205 pounds. I wouldn’t say I was healthy. I aged considerably in jail. It’s not like the vegetables there had an ounce of nutrition, but they were certainly the best choice I had. For the first time in my life,  I knew what it felt like to be fit and unhealthy at the same time.

Stretch Marks and Loose Skin

When I got into my best shape, which was 210 and very strong, I tightened my skin considerably. The bouncy, loose, flabby skin went away. When I took systemic enzymes and really got strict on my diet, the stretch marks faded. You can still see them, but only if you look closely. I believe that most cases of loose skin that people complain about after weight loss can be alleviated by getting down to a very low body fat, and then adding on some weight if desired. I don’t think it’s loose skin as much as loose fat.

Supplements for Weight Loss

I also took vitamin D and Total Nutrition. I found this helped speed my weight loss and noticed a difference immediately, compared to not supplementing.

Conclusion

So we have three distinct methods here:

• Workout like a man (or woman) possessed in order to lose your virginity
• Eat right, drink a lot of water, and workout regularly
• Go to jail

I recommend the second one. But also, find your motivation, and focus on it. And see yourself as healthy. Appreciate your body. Know that it’s brought you this far no matter how you treated it, and love it for this. Love yourself. It’s hard to treat yourself well when you don’t.

Today, at this very moment, I weigh 212 pounds. At 204 I start to get that elusive six-pack. I only had it for a very brief moment. I’m working on it. But I’ve never gone over 235 since that last time before I got arrested, and at 235, I’m just a little pudgy.

I still eat for stress, but I started practicing my gallon a day routine again, I am back at the gym, and I am aiming for that six-pack. I want it.

If you’ve been overweight for a long time, and you’re ready to get in shape, check out Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones and Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases.

Related Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease
• Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid
• 8 Easy Steps to Health

As a clinician and leading voice in the Paleo/Primal movement, I attract a lot of clients who have started following the Paleo/Primal nutrition plan.  Most of these people have seen significant health benefits by following the traditional Paleo nutrition plan.  However, many continue to struggle with chronic health issues including low energy, digestive issues and hormonal imbalances.

I have been tweaking these real food based nutrition plans to help people find their unique balance for years.  Here are three of the most common mistakes I see many individuals making as they follow the real food nutrition plan.  You will also see a great video I did with Garage Games Media on this very topic.  Enjoy it…it is quite informative and full of humor!

3 Biggest Paleo Nutrition Mistakes

Eating Too Much Natural Sugar

The real food/Paleo nutrition plan eliminates all processed and genetically modified forms of sugar but the general plans allow fruit, honey and coconut nectar.  These are natural sweeteners and have health benefits but they also have drawbacks.  The high fructose content in these sweeteners can put a burden on the liver and hamper its ability to detoxify effectively.  This will result in hormonal challenges and adrenal issues.

These sugars also provide the fuel for unwanted microorganisms such as yeast and parasites.  As these microorganisms take over the locust of control in the gut they will release endotoxins that inflame the body.  They will also create gut inflammation that damages the intestinal membrane setting us up for leaky gut syndrome.  This will both affect the adrenals and sex hormones which can lead to energy problems and hormonal imbalances.

Reducing sugar content by minimizing the use of coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc. is very critical to maximizing energy, liver detoxification, digestive function and hormonal control.  Stay off the high sugar fruit such as bananas, melon and pineapple and stick with small quantities of low-glycemic fruit such as lemons, limes, grapefruit and berries.   Limit yourself with the popular fruit & nut bars as they may be convenient but they contain a lot of fructose that will disturb your hormone balance.

Eating Too Many Nuts:

The paleo/primal nutrition plan eliminates the consumption of grains and reduces starchy carbohydrate consumption.  As we look elsewhere to get our calories, nuts are an easy solution.  We are typically quite familiar with nuts as most Americans consume nuts regularly throughout their lives and they are easy to get in any grocery store in North America.

In many health food stores, bulk nuts and nut butters are so popular that they have their own sections.  Almond flour is also a very popular non-starchy flour alternative for baking.  Many of us crave baked goods and we end up using heavy amounts of almond flour for the various pies, pastries, breads and muffins we make.

Anti-Nutrient Content in Nuts:

Nuts can be quite hazardous when consumed in heavy amounts.  They contain phytic acids that bind to major minerals like zinc, calcium and magnesium.  High amounts of phytates in our diet can lead to mineral deficiencies.  These minerals are important for energy production and hormonal balance.

There are also enzyme inhibitors present in nuts that block normal enzyme activity in the body.  This can cause digestive challenges and energy problems.   Soaking or sprouting nuts and seeds helps to reduce phytate and enzyme inhibitor counts and makes the nuts and seeds more bioavailable.

Many nuts and seeds are also very high in omega 6 fatty acids.  Most people in society are already in a state of omega-6 dominance.  Taking in more omega 6 fatty acids only promotes this imbalance and leads to chronic inflammation.  Taking in less omega-6 rich nuts and seeds such as almonds, cashews, pecans and sunflower seeds would be the right move.  They could focus on higher omega 3 content in walnuts, hemp, chia, flax and pumpkin seeds.

The Bottom Line:

Many individuals with digestive challenges have food sensitivities to many different nuts and seeds.  When they consume these foods they increase inflammatory activity and drive up stress hormones.  This drains the body of vital resources and leads to adrenal burnout over time.  For these individuals they need to completely eliminate these from their diet and heal their gut and immune system before reintroducing them.

For most individuals they can consume nuts and seeds in moderation.  A handful of almonds and cashews two or three times a week should not be a problem.  Eating massive quantities of nuts, consuming a jar of almond butter each week and/or making tons of almond flour bread and pastries each week can cause the problems discussed.

Avoiding Raw, Grass-Fed Dairy:

Many individuals who have been following the paleo/primal nutrition plan have completely taken dairy out of their diet.  I agree that this is a great step for a period of time.  Nobody should be consuming typical processed, grain-fed dairy that is a staple of the Western cuisine.  This form of dairy is highly inflammatory as it is loaded with omega 6 fatty acids, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics.

The only kind of dairy that I recommend is 100% grass-fed dairy that is ideally in the raw form.  I am also very leery of any dairy that is not free of A1 beta Casein.  A1 beta casein is in most cow dairy in the US.  Only special breeds of cattle – Bos Indicus do not produce A1 beta casein.  Beyond Organic is a company that has fantastic grass-fed dairy that is free of A1 beta casein.

Great forms of dairy include Beyond Organic raw cheese, Amasai and fermented whey products.  Grass-fed butter or ghee is naturally free of all casein as it is simply milk fat and has no protein so this is a great food to eat.  Grass-fed goat and sheep dairy is also fantastic.

Some individuals are able to thrive on dairy that contains A1 beta casein but many struggle with it so you will have to experiment for yourself.  Some people cannot handle any dairy including the Beyond Organic due to deep intestinal permeability and hyperactive immunity.  These individuals need to heal their gut and modulate their immune system before reintroducing dairy.

The Benefits of Grass-Fed Dairy:

Grass-fed dairy tastes amazing and offers a great nutritional option for those who tolerate it well.  It has many extraordinary health benefits as it is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, carotenoid anti-oxidants, and major minerals like zinc and magnesium.  Cheese has complete protein and tons of branched chain amino acids and CLA which help promote a lean, fit physique and healthy hormones.

Fermented dairy such as Amasai, kefir and whey can greatly improve the health of the intestinal tract.  These foods contain trillions of healthy microbial organisms, live enzymes and L-glutamine which is the major amino acid that is needed to produce healthy intestinal cells.

I recommend for those who are dairy free without a known dairy sensitivity to try grass-fed fermented dairy and grass-fed butter and see how their body tolerates it.  These are really fun and enjoyable foods to include in your nutrition plan and they offer powerful health benefits to those who can properly digest them.

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Is the Paleo Diet a Fraudulent Fad or the Healthiest Diet to Hit Mainstream? Could It Be Both?
• The Way We Used To Eat – The Real Paleo Diet

Sources For This Article Include:

• Paleo Living
• You’ll never believe this real-life, old-school ads put out by Big Sugar – What’s Ta Eat
• How and Why to Soak and Dehydrate Nuts and Seeds – Traditional Cooking School
• Beta Casein Milk-Protein – a2Milk.com.au
• The Problems with Almond Flour – Primally Inspired

A Step-by-Step Guide to Losing Weight the Healthy Way

I eat too much. I love food. I have my demons, and I’ve been fighting to be or stay in good shape my whole life. The way I stay in decent shape is by eating high quality food and exercising. For more on that, check out My Eating Disorder.

There are thousands of articles on the Internet on how to lose weight. Obviously, an Organic Lifestyle Magazine article will have a more natural slant than most articles, but this article is also a very conscious and clear, step-by-step guide that anyone can use.

When I was fat, I found myself overwhelmed with information on how to lose weight. Let me assure you, if you are obese, this article comes from a man who knows the battle we wage in our head as much as anyone. But like everything else you will learn about improving your health in Organic Lifestyle Magazine, weight loss is not a quick fix. Being healthy and thin is a lifestyle; it’s a journey. And you can actually lose weight very quickly in a healthy way when you do it right. But keeping it off means doing it right for the rest of your life.

The Healthy Mindset

Pleasure is short term. It comes in spades with happiness, but it comes at a price with consumption. And often that price exceeds the number on the price tag.

First and foremost, if our mind isn’t right, our diet isn’t right either. Allow me to be very blunt, dispel some myths, and then note some hard truths:

• If you are overweight, you eat too much
• If you are overweight, it’s not your thyroid, your genetics, or your spouse who cooks too well that is the problem
• If you’re overweight, you do not exercise the right way often enough
• If you’re overweight, there is no pill that is going to fix your weight without serious consequences
• If you’re overweight, there is no temporary diet that will allow you to lose weight and then go back to your old lifestyle
• If you’re overweight buying supplements, essential oils, or any fitness products on a late night infomercial isn’t going to take off the weight (though I do recommend B vitamins, vitamin D, and a nutrition powder)
• If you’re overweight, it is your fault

The world is a much, much better place when you’re in shape. People treat you better and take you more seriously when you’re thin. Everything is easier. Life feels better. It’s a massive difference. I used to believe that I was never going to be thin, that I was going to be stuck being fat my whole life. And I believed that people should treat me with the same amount of respect regardless. But while I have mixed emotions about this now, the fact is, everything becomes easier when you’re thin, from getting a promotion, to getting a date, to getting up the stairs. Everything.

I used to say my thyroid was slow, and this is why I was fat. My thyroid was slow. It was slow because I was eating too much, eating crap, and not seriously exercising.

I used to tell people that my whole family was fat, and it was just genetics. I knew that was a lie because my dad was skinny as a rail, but even if your whole family is overweight that’s due to learned behavior not genetics.

The mindset of a healthy person that struggled with weight loss is this:

I need to burn more calories then I consume to lose weight.

If your thyroid is slow, it’s going to be harder. If you smoke, it’s going to be harder. If your liver is toxic, it’s going to be harder. But it is still the same rule. It’s science. And while there are some variables, the bottom line is that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume.

And if you’re like me, a binge eater, a stress eater, an “I don’t need an excuse to stuff my face sick” eater, than eat mindfully. Don’t go into that zone where you’re just stuffing your face. Stay in the moment, mindful and aware.

For Those Who Don’t Have Food Issues

There are plenty of people who don’t binge eat (or rarely do) and don’t even eat very much and still cannot seem to get into the skinny jeans no matter what they do. These people need exercise and they need more produce in their diet. And, in many cases, a liver detox.

Quick Weight Loss

It is totally possible to lose weight quickly and stay healthy. Forget the experts who tell you it is unhealthy to lose weight too quickly. It is unhealthy to lose weight in an unhealthy manner. If you’re eating healthy, and you’re not taking drugs to assist in weight loss, and you aren’t killing yourself in the gym, and if you’re getting enough sleep, it doesn’t matter if you’re losing 10 pounds a week or 2. Healthy is healthy.

If you follow the following steps strictly, you will achieve very quick and very healthy weight loss.

Healthy Weight Loss Plan

Step 1 – Start a Journal

Write down everything you’re eating. People kid themselves. People outright lie to themselves. People forget. Write it all down and hold yourself accountable.

Step 2 – Get a Scale and Measuring Tape

Every morning, at the same time, write down your weight and your measurements in your journal. In my experience and with those I’ve helped, the day you stop measuring and checking your weight is the day you’re off the wagon and back to gaining weight.

It is important to weigh yourself at the same time in the morning, nude. A common mistake to make when weighing oneself is to weight yourself one morning when you wake up and then the next morning after you’ve used the restroom, or had a glass of water, or had a bowel movement, etc. You can lose and gain a surprising amount of weight with these regular morning activities. For me, I always have a bowel movement in the morning, and I weigh myself at my lightest, which is before I eat or drink anything but after I use the bathroom. That’s how I keep it consistent.

Do not weigh yourself multiple times throughout the day! That’s just asking for drama.

And please, if you’re one of those people who think they’re fat when they are not, like when everyone tells you that you look great but you “know” you’re fat, you need to do just the opposite and throw away your scale!

Step 3 – Learn Proper Breathing

Proper breathing will help with stress relief, detoxification, and weight loss. For that information, check out How to Breathe. Do not skip this. Do not doubt its importance. This is life changing.

Step 4 – Exercise

Start exercising every single morning, and every single night, before bed. Exercise at least twice a day. Turn your body into a high metabolism fat burning machine that has no choice but to build muscle and burn fat.

Exercise for Weight Lose

Here is an example of a plan that I recommend, and it’s one I’ve implemented with great results.

In the morning do squats and pushups, and pull-ups if possible. If you can’t squat, stand up from a chair and sit back down many times. If you can squat, squat all the way down. Check out good form and practice it. If you can’t do pushups, do them on your knees. If you can get to some sort of pull-up bar but are unable to do pull-ups, set it up so you can stand up, and then use your arms as much as possible to let yourself go down.

With all the cheats, the idea is to progress more and more until you can do it the conventional way. And progression is key. If you did five squats yesterday, do five today. If you’re sore, do five anyways. When we are focused on weight loss, especially for people who have struggled with it their whole life, routine is key. The idea is to try not to get too sore the first day so you can keep slowly progressing every day, without taking a day off. Not taking a day off has two benefits. It tells both your mind and your body that you are an active person who lives a physically active lifestyle and it also keeps one day off from becoming two and then more.

At night, I like yoga to relieve the stress accumulated from the day and to help me sleep. You can also do more bodyweight exercises. But most importantly, stretch.

After two weeks of doing these bodyweight exercises it’s time to add some other exercise. Take 20 minutes to break a sweat every morning and every night. Breathe heavily. Exercise hard. An example, depending on your fitness level, would be 25 jump squats, 15 pushups, 5 pull-ups, and then 15 minutes of sprints. Make it intense, and make it build muscle and endurance.

Step 5 – Take Up an Active Lifestyle

If you like to go to the gym, got to the gym. This is in addition to the aforementioned workout program. If you have stairs and an elevator to choose from at work, take the stairs. If you sit at a desk all day, get out of the chair and bust out 20 squats when you’re feeling lethargic. Sit on a Swiss ball instead of a chair at work. Go hiking on the weekends with friends. Park as far away as possible from the entrance of the building. Walk faster than everyone else. Get a stress-ball to play with at work.

Step 6 – Eat Right

Eat Produce. Raw, fresh produce. Not just fruit, eat salads. Eat lots of salads. Read How to Be Healthy. Live, eat, and breathe a healthy lifestyle with lots and lots of produce. And don’t skip breakfast. My weight loss diet goes as follows:

• Pre-breakfast – 1 apple and a glass of stevia sweetened cranberry lemonade
• Breakfast – (after a workout) Large salad with a low-fat (or non-fat) homemade dressing
• Snack -1 Fruit
• Lunch – A smoothie with organic berries, leafy greens, and coconut water, and coconut oil
• Snack – A small salad or watermelon
• Diner – Brown rice and beans, or a quinoa stir fry with veggies

Breakfast is my largest meal; it keeps me full for hours and sets the tone for healthy eating all day. Dinner is smaller than breakfast or lunch. I also recommend coconut oil, pineapple, and avocados to anyone trying to lose weight.

Step 7 – Get More Nutrition

I don’t think people looking to lose weight should go out and buy a bunch of supplements and exercise equipment the first day. If you have the discipline to stick with the aforementioned routine, supplements are going to be much more beneficial. Plus, you may find you have a better idea of which supplements you need.

Almost anyone can benefit from Vitamin D, a B vitamin Complex, and Total Nutrition Formula. If you don’t get it from our sister site, Green Lifestyle Market, just make sure you’re getting very high quality supplements. They are not all created equal. And most supplements are actually counterproductive and toxic. Unfortunately, it’s a dirty business. Choose wisely.

Step 8 – Detox

All of the other previous steps can be taken one step out a time, either waiting one day, or one week to start the next. They can also be started all together on the first day. What works for you is what works for you. If you have the discipline to jump right in and start doing everything right, then go for it all on the first day. But if you are struggling with obesity and you do not suffer from any serious health problems at the moment, I recommend you wait and detox after a few weeks of living a healthy and physically active lifestyle.

I usually recommend starting a detox when you reach a plateau on your weight loss regimen.  This is also a good time to go ahead and get some supplements. While I so recommend supplementation, I don’t like to push it on people who aren’t ready to get healthy.  If you’ve stuck to the program for a few weeks, and you’re serious about losing weight, it might be the perfect time to choose a supplement wisely. You’ll be less likely to waste your money.  For a list of detox plans along with some supplement recommendations, check out Cheap and Easy Detox.

On the other hand, if you have serious health issues that should be addressed immediately, or you are someone who is totally and completely addicted to junk food, it might be best to fast with detoxification first.

If your liver is severely toxic, addressing liver toxicity will help speed up your weight loss. Your liver processes fats. A clean and healthy liver helps you deal with fats properly.

And finally, if your thyroid is slow, supplementation will be helpful with that, too. But I don’t recommend anyone get on thyroid supplements until after they have been exercising and living an active lifestyle for some time, unless their thyroid is so dead that getting out of bed is too difficult, and exercising is impossible. But for those who are hoping to find motivation in a bottle, it’s not that easy.

If you have any questions, or you need to talk about struggling with obesity, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment here or message me on Facebook.

A Complete, Step-By-Step Guide to Restoring Your Health and/or Staying Healthy

It’s simple. But in today’s world, it certainly isn’t easy. The hardest part about being healthy is learning how simple it can be. Simplifying one’s life can be very complicated.

Start Listening

Listen to your body. When you eat crap food there is an itch in your throat. That’s infection feeding off of the sugars and the damaged cells caused by one soda or one cookie. Headaches, skin itching, brain fogginess, fatigue, and aches and pains can usually be traced back to something you ate. If you are not yet in tune with your body, pay attention.

Don’t take painkillers. They make it too easy to continue the poor behavior. Healthy people, the truly healthy ones, deal with a headache naturally. They ask themselves what they did to get this headache so they don’t get it again, and they use natural means to remedy the pain. They don’t cover it up, causing other problems in the long run.

Accept the Fact That Your Health Is Up to You

Learn the absolute truth that your health is your responsibility and totally in your hands. A doctor cannot make you healthy. Neither can this article. Your health is totally and completely dependent upon your actions. There are very few people reading this article who don’t have the choice to be healthy. Most people think that their sickness is out of their control–a hand dealt by fate, bad genes, etc. This is so rarely true. Every single ailment has a natural cure. An absolute cure. And none of them work well without a very healthy diet as the foundation of one’s lifestyle.

And the truth is that a healthy diet cures most problems by itself. But there are those who are so sick, so toxic, that they need targeted nutrition.

Recommended: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Forget the magic pill. Almost everyone who comes to me asking what they can do to be well is looking for a shortcut. They’re looking for a few natural “tricks” that will allow them to keep smoking, or drinking soda, or eating fast food. And I know them. I know tons of them. And they work – for a little while. You can take an Advil for a headache, or you can take enough high quality Boswallia, but being healthy means avoiding behaviors that cause headaches and not blaming them on stress and/or genetics. When the body is healthy, I mean really healthy, it is amazing how well it can handle stress, allergens, and even environmental toxins without negative physical reactions.

Genetics are a predisposition. If your father died of a heart attack at 50 years old, that does not mean that you have to die at 50. It simply may mean that if you don’t take care of yourself your heart may be one of the first organs to go. That’s how genetics work.

It’s a hard truth for most to accept. It’s hard because it takes away the excuses and makes it much more difficult to live life in the conventional way, the way most have been raised believing is “normal.”

How To Eat Healthy

Cut Out All the Crap. No soda, coffee, smoking (anything), drugs (over the counter and prescription), alcohol, pre-packaged processed foods, fast foods, microwaving, and restaurants.

That last one is tough, I know. And that includes restaurants that claim to be healthy. They aren’t. Of the 65 restaurants I know of that claim to be healthy, two of them are. Even the healthiest options from the other 63 are prepared by cutting corners that render the food much less beneficial than if it was prepared by you at home. I do eat out. But I don’t do it often, and I know how to order healthy when I do. And every now and then I splurge. But I spent a lot of time eating perfectly, detoxifying, and learning to listen to my body. I also worked in a few restaurants that were supposed to be healthy, and know what to avoid. For the purposes of this article, it’s better to just give up restaurants for a month at least. If you want to be truly healthy, it’s time to prepare your own food. It’s time to learn raw food recipes. It’s time to cook with quinoa and brown rice. No more refined foods. Almost everything should be unadulterated. The few exceptions are certain foods that can or should be fermented, but that’s another article.

Recommended: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

No More Drugs

Smoking marijuana is not healthy. It’s got a ton of benefits, and there are way worse things you can do to your body that are totally legal. But smoking, smoking anything, introduces tons of carbon and free radicals into your body. And if the marijuana isn’t the pure high quality stuff, who knows what else you’re burning into your lungs. There are better ways to get all of the benefits that marijuana can provide.

As written above, no more over the counter medication. It’s not a small thing. One aspirin is not inconsequential. It does damage. I have yet to see anything at all healthy that is sold at a pharmacy, believe it or not. Everything in there is toxic! That is, unless you know of one that sells some organic produce. I haven’t found that drug store yet. Give up cough medicine, throat lozenges, and antacids; nothing you would buy at pharmacy is good for you or your health.

There is a catch that I am well aware of–birth control. Other than condoms, birth control is absolutely terrible for you. Pills, shots, IUDs, they are all absolutely terrible for your health and I have yet to find a natural birth control that works. I recommend condoms and/or spermicide. But I do understand that sometimes those aren’t the best options and we all have to figure out what works best for us. But I do not know of a way artificial hormones can be healthy. And IUDs have serious problems associated with them as well.

Another tough problem to deal with is the prescription drugs for serious issues such as mental illness or diabetes, or other conditions with dangerous consequences if/when we quit taking them. In most cases there is a way off of them. But it’s a long road, and it takes time, patience, and diligence. And while I feel everyone should take health into his or her own hands, this is an exception. Most people on medications such as these should have guidance; someone should be watching and making sure things are going well.

It can be very tough to find a professional who knows enough about health and knows how, or has the desire, to get someone off drugs. If you suffer from a physical health issue, take things slowly. And consider getting help if possible. If it’s a mental condition, and it would be dangerous to be off the medication, I do believe there is a way to get off of the pharmaceuticals and be healthy, but it will take a lot of time and a lot of help, and a lot of discipline for the rest of your life. There are a few cases were I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to take this route. The risks are so high.

No More Processed Foods

I know a lot of vegans. I only know two who are healthy. The rest are junk food vegans.

I know a lot of health nuts. It’s my field; it’s my circle. And while many of them don’t want to hear this, I only know of a handful that are really, truly healthy. Most choose to be “healthier.”

Understanding the difference between healthy and healthier is imperative. Cliff Bars are healthier than a Snickers bar. The latest raw food spirulina bar sweetened with dates and apple juice is healthier than the cliff bar. But what’s healthy is raw whole dates and apples. I haven’t found a mass marketed food bar that is actually healthy. I’ve only seen healthier. The few that I have seen that I would consider to truly be healthy are made by very small companies and sold at smaller individually owned health food stores. And still, the other 19 out of 20 of those sold at these places would fall under the “healthier” category.

Prepare your own food. Take the time. Health is taking time for yourself and your family. Enjoy cooking or preparing raw foods from scratch with your family, instead of choosing a lifestyle that demands quick and cheap meals.

I can cook most meals as fast as other people can cook out of a box. It takes practice, lots of time and energy put towards learning the skill. But there is nothing more important to one’s health than preparing one’s own meals.

Drink

Don’t drink coffee. It’s acidic. It’s not good for you. The caffeine wreaks havoc on your thyroid. It causes a lot of other problems. Soda should come with a warning label as serious as a pack of cigarettes. Don’t touch the stuff. Diet soda is worse. Artificial sweeteners are an absolute no. Truvia is bad too. No soda. No flavored water. No store bought juice.

Limit the fruit juice even when it’s fresh and pressed. It’s still refined and processed because you are removing the fiber. Fruit juice, at its best, is still a concentrated refined sugar product. Green apples are an exception, and can be mixed with vegetables, but juice green apples, beets, and carrots sparingly because of the sugar content.

No alcohol. Humans weren’t meant to ingest alcohol. A glass of red wine has benefits, but those benefits can be had with better choices. Drink water. And make sure it is filtered and toxin free whenever possible. Don’t worry about drinking “enough” if you’re eating right. More on that in a moment.

Exercise

When someone tells me that they don’t have time to eat right or to exercise, I ask them if they ever watch television, and if they have a Facebook or a Twitter account, and if they ever go out drinking with their friends. People are so addicted to convenience and pleasure that it all ends up being very inconvenient. I try to remember that what is convenient today may have a high price to pay, and I also try not to confuse pleasure with happiness.

The truth is exercise pays you back with time in more ways than one. I’m not just talking about the idea that you live longer. And exercise alone does not necessarily help one to live longer when their diet is poor. Exercise for 20 minutes in the morning and once your body becomes accustomed to it you get back much more than 20 minutes in that day. You get that time with mental clarity and the ability to handle stress more effectively. We are more efficient, more productive, and see things in a more positive way when fitness is a part of our lifestyle.

And 20 minutes done right is all I believe anyone needs. I workout for longer than 20 minutes on most days, but the benefits of 20 minutes of very intense ass-kicking exercise are massive. And while one could argue that 30 minutes would be better, I find that on a busy day when I feel that my time is limited, 20 minutes offers me the best return on my investment. I am a firm believer in HIIT training. High Intensity Interval Training. Google it if you’re unfamiliar. I also do yoga, I ride bicycles, I weight lift, I do exercise that last for hours and I do very short and intense circuit training. I mix it up. There are different benefits to all. That said, for anyone short on time, nothing beats HIIT.

If there is no time or money for the gym, that’s fine, because the best exercises in the world are bodyweight exercise! From yoga to squats to sprints, the variety is endless. I believe that squats are the most important exercise anyone can do, and you don’t need weight. If you’re too out of shape to squat all the way down, try what I call “get ups.” You lay down and you stand up (alternating between what side you get up on each and every time is very important). When one ‘s health is too poor do “get ups” then sit down and get up as many times as possible from a seat. As soon as the soreness goes away, try for at least one more than you did before.

Be careful not to do it if you’re out of shape, especially for those with issues that affect muscles and joints like fibromyalgia. It is very easy to get very sore when you’re out of shape, and a toxic body takes so long to heal that a tough workout can be counterproductive.

And while this is one area that I do not heed my own advice with often enough, I recommend everyone take up yoga. An intense 20 minute exercise routine that builds endurance and strength is essential, but yoga is a close second. I don’t make enough time for it, but I will, as it improves one’s life immensely when practiced regularly.

Fast and Detoxify

You can fast without detoxifying. You can detox without fasting. And you can fast and detox while getting lots of nutrition, too. I recommend the latter. A calorie fast is a great way to reduce and eliminate the urge to eat junk food and to eat too much. It helps to reset the taste buds so that fresh raw produce tastes as it should. It can eliminate addictions. And when one is looking to lose weight, the initial results from a fast can help inspire those to start eating well afterwards. But it can also be the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. Coming off the fast gently and slowly with raw and healthy produce is the proper way to ease off. For a few choices on affordable fasting and detoxifying check out Fast and Easy Detox. You can also add a high quality nutrition supplement to the detox and insure you are getting plenty of nutrition. I am a fan of calorie fasting, but not nutrition fasting.

Get Educated

Read all about natural health. The key phrases for Google are: natural health, alternative health, natural remedies, home remedies, holistic health, and alternative medicine. I will warn you, like everything else, most of the information on these topics is crap. But almost all of the information is better than conventional medicine, and even most of the lousy information on natural healing has a higher success rate than conventional medicine, believe it or not. Seriously, the statistics on conventional medicine are scary!

It takes time to get educated. You get better and better at weeding out the B.S. It needs to become a hobby. Health and the knowledge of it should be one of everyone’s favorite hobbies. Doesn’t that make sense?

A lot of people who go through a traumatic health experience dabble in alternative medicine. Then they say, “I tried everything.” The truth in many of these cases is that the person tried 19 conventional medical treatments and one or two alternative medical treatments, none of which included patience and the most important aspect of holistic healing, a lifestyle change. True natural health takes time, patience, and discipline. But once you find it, that magical balance when you are totally in tune with your body, it’s easy and surprisingly simple.

If you’re looking for alternative medicine to compliment conventional treatments, I firmly believe you are wasting your time. As I’ve stated, the only alternative medicine that works in the long run includes a nutrient dense, toxin free (or as close to it as possible) diet, which cannot possibly be very effective if one is consuming the incredibly toxic substances that pharmaceutical companies call medicine.

Take Supplements

There are two reasons I recommend people take supplements. One is that our food, even the organic produce, is grown in depleted soil using conventional farming practices. We have spent a long time developing our agriculture practices to grow food that looks good and lasts a long time on the shelves, without a care for the nutrition content or taste of the produce (and the two usually go hand and hand). For this reason I recommend a nutritional supplement like Total Nutrition Formula. I like to make my own. This article shows you how to make your own Total Nutrition Formula. I also recommend vitamin D, a B vitamin complex (a whole and complete B vitamin complex), and Body Balance. You can also easily make Body Balance yourself, if you are so inclined.

Some people need more nutrition than others. For instance, when someone’s thyroid is weak, which is very common with our lifestyle, there are a lot of supplements to choose from based on their specific needs.

The other reason I recommend supplements is to eliminate parasites and fungi. If you’re familiar with Candida, you know that it’s yeast, a fungus, that when left unchecked causes series problems. And almost everyone you know living the modern conventional lifestyle can contribute every single one of his or her health conditions, at least to some degree, to Candida. Many different kinds of parasites also affect many people in many ways.

And what most people don’t know is that Candida can grow anywhere. Yeast infections are not just vaginal. Athletes foot, sore throats, ear infections. Most infections are actually in part, if not completely, caused by Candida.

How to Know If You Have Candida

If you are prone to any kind of fungal infection (including athletes foot), if your tongue is white, if you regularly drink alcohol (which turns into simple refined sugar in the bloodstream feeding all the bad bugs), and if you have taken antibiotics recently and not addressed Candida, you have Candida overgrowth.

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Kill The Parasites

What do bacteria, virus, yeast, and parasites hate? Garlic, Oil of Oregano, Clove, and a healthy body. In addition, nothing is better at killing Candida than SF722.

Anyone who is getting started with natural health, and/or detoxifying, needs to take Oil of Oregano, a parasite cleaning supplement with clove, and SF722 for at least the first month. And most should continue with lots of garlic and SF722 thereon after if they are typically going to “cheat” and eat sweets every now and then. This is why I always have SF722 ready. I do “cheat” every now and then. You don’t have to always be perfect to be healthy, but most people have to be perfect for at least a month or two (in many cases more) before cheating doesn’t set them back as if they never cleaned up their diet in the first place.

The Most Important Supplement

Blood Detox. I believe everyone should take this. It’s one of the (if not, the) most powerful tinctures there is. Thick, sludgy, toxic blood comes with an unhealthy body. It contributes to all health issues. Thick and gross blood makes it harder to rid the body of any and all infection.

The Mindset

I think this is the hardest part. The healthy mindset sets apart those who are “healthier” and those who are truly healthy. People who will never get cancer, people who will never die in a nursing home, people who will have their cognitive abilities until the day they pass on, all understand that every aspect of our health in almost every single case is under our complete control.

Now comes the information that even most of my close friends who are health advocates will disagree with me on, but I know that the following is absolutely true. If you’re pregnant and have morning sickness, you’re not eating right. If you are nursing a baby who gets diaper rashes, you’re not eating right. If your nails break easily, you’re not eating right. If you have allergies, you’re not eating right. If you get headaches, you’re not eating right. If you have body odor and need to mask it with deodorant or perfumes, you’re not eating right. If you wake up in a fog, sore and achy, you are not eating right.  If you have ADHD or you are not sleeping well, chances are you are also not eating right. If you get cavities, you are not eating right. If you need any medication that is not for an emergency situation, you’re not eating right. The bottom line is, if you have health issues, you either are not eating right, or did not eat right for a significant period of time.

There are so few exceptions. Genetics is very rarely one of these exceptions. In almost every case, genetics are simply a predisposition, not a curse.

There are a very few people who try eating right but are so infected with Candida and various parasites that it seems as though there is nothing they can do to their diet to get healthy. That’s where the nutritional support listed above comes in.

A Truly Healthy Diet

The most important part of this whole article is the diet. Nothing else alone will get anyone to a healthy state, but for many, especially younger people, the right diet can be followed and everything else ignored to get one to a healthy physical condition.

Stop Feeding the Bad Guys – No Sugar, No other Crap

Candida makes everything worse. And it is fed by sugars, rancid fats, and damaged cells. It doesn’t take much! Even a little bit of sugar feeds it and keeps Candida thriving. It is hard to kill, and it comes back so easily. The reason Candida is so pervasive is that humans were not meant to eat refined sugar. This includes agave, fruit juice, sugar in the raw, and date powder. It’s all refined sugars (even “raw sugar” is a refined sugar). Even the seemingly healthiest health-nuts typically eat way too much sugar. This is the number one reason why so many of my health-food loving friends still have health issues. They cannot get away from sugar.

Bacteria, viruses, fungus, molds, and all manner of parasites love sugar and decaying cells. If you eat crap with sugar you feed these infectious organisms. If you eat crap food without sugar you damage your own cells, which feeds these organisms.

These organisms are not inherently bad. We need them. Our bodies and our planet need scavengers to take out the garbage. The trick is not to eat garbage causing our body’s cells to become garbage.

Avoid These Foods

Soy, pasteurized foods, homogenized foods, foods from conventional farms, prepared packaged snack foods, microwaveable foods, “ready-to-eat” foods besides fruits and vegetables, and foods in the health food section (because the real health food section is the produce section).

Also avoid MSG, GMOs, and anything refined that we wouldn’t normally eat wild in nature. I do make an exception for oils, not for health, but for taste. I use a very little bit in my salads and some of my cooking. I cook with high temperature oils, so I don’t eat spoiled rancid fats. I also get plenty of healthy fats from my diet. At times, when money is tight, and/or good produce is scarce, I do take a fat supplement. UDO’s Oil with DHA is my personal favorite. I also like the Nordic Naturals, Thorne, and Carlson brands for their commitment to quality.

If you choose to take a fat supplement, make sure it smells right. It should not smell rancid or fishy.

What to Buy

My diet, in order of what I eat most of to least of, when I can afford it is: fresh raw vegetables, fresh raw fruit, cooked vegetables, brown rice, various beans, quinoa, oatmeal, eggs, and fresh herbs and spices. With very few exceptions, this is my diet. The main difference between when I have a better income and when money is tight is that rice and beans move closer to the top of the list.

I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. I have in the past, but not anymore. There are plenty of great reasons to boycott Wal-Mart, but the point I am making here is their food is awful. I shopped there for groceries a long time ago before I knew better, and a few times since to prove a point. The produce is absolutely tasteless. There are few exceptions that come and go. For the most part, the produce at Wal-Mart is bland and nutritionally void.

Unfortunately, most grocery stores aren’t much better. A little, but not much. Find your local farmer’s markets. Buy produce at a supermarket as a last resort. And buy organic whenever possible, but don’t let that stop you from eating fresh raw produce as often as you can. The exception here is genetically modified foods. Read about GMOs here. Avoid them at almost any cost.

What’s better than buying food, if at all possible, is to grow your own food. It takes time to master the art. It’s not a quick and easy solution. It will likely take a few seasons to get things right, and most people who do grow much of their own food cannot grow everything they need to sustain a healthy diet with enough variety to get all of their nutritional needs meet. Though I do know a few people who forage with great success, but that’s another topic for another article.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Meat

If you do not want to be a vegetarian or a vegan, choose your meat carefully. Make sure it’s sourced from humane farms for ethical reasons and for good health. Chickens should be pasture raised and allowed to eat all kinds of bugs, grasses, and weeds. Cows should be free range too, grazing on grasses all day long. Healthy meat, from a healthy animal, cooked in a healthy manner, is not bad for you, contrary to what most vegans will tell you. But overcooked meat, meat that is cooked on too high a temperature, meat smothered in MSG and other toxic ingredients, and meat from unhealthy animals feed unhealthy unnatural diets is what most people eat. And that is how meat causes cancer.

How to Prepare Healthy Food

If you think my diet is bland, think again. I eat very well. People love my food. It’s really very good. And I am still learning. It’s fun. It takes time, but you get fast and you get good. I can make the most amazing rice and beans in a pressure cooker in 20 minutes. I do have to soak the beans first, and there is about 5 minutes of prep time chopping the onions and mincing the garlic, etc., but once the beans are cooking, I’m able to clean up the mess I made and relax well before it’s finished.

Make salads. Not your typical salads, but salads with lots of variety. My type of salads typically consist of spinach, arugula, collard greens, spring mix, shredded leeks, red onions, red cabbage, red bell pepper, rainbow chard, beet greens, grated beet root, graded carrots, grated zucchini, cucumbers, cilantro, pomegranate seeds, raisins, dried unsweetened cranberries, sesame seeds, and ground papaya seeds. A large salad with a wide variety of vegetables is the most important meal of every single day!

I mix it up. Sometimes I have other vegetables in there. Sometimes I shred an apple and throw it in. My dressing is a balsamic vinaigrette. For the recipe check out my article 80% Raw Food Diet.

You will find that when the bulk of your diet is made up of fresh raw produce, you don’t necessarily need to drink a lot of water. You get it from the produce. And your body will do a much better job than it used to of letting you know when you are thirsty.

When cooking foods, it is important to understand Advanced Glycated End Products. Don’t overcook your meat as this binds the proteins. Rare beef is not dangerous when it’s from a healthy cow.

I also love sprouts! They are super easy to make at home. Check out Five Reasons to Sprout.

Soaking and Sprouting

To be on the safe side, soak all dried beans for 24 hours. Soak all raw nuts for 24 hours as well, and then dry them before eating for taste if you want the familiar crunch. Don’t eat more than a handful of nuts a day except on special occasions. It is common for raw food enthusiasts to eat nuts with every meal. They make cashew cheeses and almond butters. Once you get the hang of these recipes, what you can make is simply incredible. But most raw food advocates eat too many nuts and I believe this is the most common cause of health issues for people who eat mostly or entirely raw. Raw junk food is much healthier than regular junk food, but it is still junk food.

Veganism

I wish everyone would eat vegan. I love animals. But I do not believe that meat is inherently bad for us. And I do know that most vegans are no more healthy (or only slightly healthier) than meat eaters. Junk food vegans, junk food vegetarians, and junk food health-nuts are people who eat prepackaged processed foods of the healthier variety. This isn’t healthy. At best, it’s healthier.

If you do choose to go vegan or vegetarian, you really don’t need nearly as much protein as we have been led to believe. And the protein you do need does not have to come from meat. There are plenty of all natural vegan bodybuilders. And a good protein supplement for those who do need more protein is the Nutrition Formula I also recommend as a multivitamin/mineral.

Get Enough Sleep

This can be very difficult to do when one’s health is poor. But the body needs to regenerate or else lots of health problems will remain and damaged cells feed the bad bugs. For more on sleep check out Ask OLM, Pure Sleep, and 10 Things You Can Do to Have More Energy. We have many articles.

No Shots

Vaccines and other shots are toxic. No matter how useful you think immunization are (and the reason they are crap is beyond the scope of hits article) they put toxic chemical preservatives in every single one of them. You cannot be as healthy as possible with that toxic crap in your system.

My Diet and Lifestyle

It’s simple. Eat like we would eat in nature’s most optimal conditions. If we were the very best, very fastest, very smartest humans before technology and alcohol were discovered, in the healthiest most abundant environment, how would we eat?

But like everyone else, I have my demons. I don’t eat perfectly. There are a few people I know who are healthier than I am. But only a few. And only two of all of the many doctors I know are healthier than I am. I find that when you focus your energy on healing other people all the time, it’s too easy to let your own health become secondary.

I rarely get enough sleep. This is my biggest issue. I spend much of my time trying to help people and trying to make the world a better place in the ways I believe I can, while giving my family as much of my time as possible. It’s a balancing act I am still getting the hang of. I know it’s difficult, balancing one’s life.

But our child is healthy. He’s progressing very quickly, without a single health issue or a cold or anything. At 7 months old he has not had one single health problem besides an occasional diaper rash when his mom’s diet has a little too much sugar (due to smoothies at work with sweetened almond milk or apple juice). Gabriel doesn’t get sick, I don’t get sick, and neither does his mother. We both wake up with energy and clarity. We can focus almost all day, every day. We are vibrant and full of energy. And we ride our bikes everywhere.

I still have a ways to go. I get better and better at practicing what I preach every day. Health is a journey, not a destination.

Must Reads:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet
• How to Make the Healthiest Smoothies – 4 Recipes

There are so many supplements to choose from, so many supplements with so many claims. I have tried hundreds. One of the reasons I do what I do is that I have always been very in tune with my body. I can tell what feels good, what feels amazing, and what feels like nothing, or worse. Most of the supplements people take don’t do anything. Or worse, these mainstream supplements often toxify the body.

Don’t get me wrong, I do a lot of research. I’m researching almost every day for hours and hours. But my body knows best. And in my experience, the two supplements everyone should have are a nutrition powder and a very good all purpose detoxification tincture.

The Best Nutritional Supplement

I don’t take a nutritional supplement every day. I am fortunate to have access to a wide variety of nutritionally dense vegetables and I eat large salads with a wide variety of produce virtually every single day. This is by far the very best way to get your vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and all of the nutrients you need for vitality.

But every now and then I do need extra nutrition. And sometimes I can’t or don’t have one of my salads. When I am traveling for instance, it can be tough to find healthy produce. I like to have a complete whole food sourced multivitamin/mineral nutrition powder with me for times like this. And if you don’t eat fresh raw produce regularly and/or if you eat refined processed foods, you would benefit from a high quality nutrition powder.

For mass produced supplements I like Green Vibrance. It’s a good company that makes good products. For the money and the availability (you see Green Vibrance everywhere these days!) it’s a great product.

But for getting the most nutrition possible, insuring that all of the nutrition is completely bio available, I like Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula. It’s not as easy to find. In fact, there are only a very few places you can get it. But it’s the best nutrition supplement on the market that I know.

It doesn’t have the most ingredients, but what it does have gives your body the right building blocks for health and wellness. When there are too many ingredients in a formula, it can’t do that. Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula has the highest quality ingredients and you will actually feel the difference. It’s amazing.

Is is expensive. In fact, any good nutrition powder is going to be pricey (Total Nutrition Powder and Green Vibrance are about he same price). Sure, health is priceless, but getting your nutrition out of a bottle costs a lot when it’s quality.

Want to save some money? Eat salads like the ones I make (click here). Still need a good supplement? Most people do. I recommend you make your own (click here).

But of course, you can always purchase from us. Total Nutrition is available at our store, Green Lifestyle Market.

The Best Herb

I have to give you two here. Garlic and Cayenne are a tie. I could not include one without the other.

The Amazing Benefits of Garlic

Garlic. If you are coming down with a cold, chew on a clove. Breath in and out of your mouth and keep chewing as long as you can (it likely won’t be long at first, but you’ll get better and better). I put raw garlic in my salads and when I cook I put in garlic at the last minute so it doesn’t cook and lose it’s effectiveness (sometimes I put some in early and then some in later). I feed garlic to my dog in her homemade dog food. It keeps fleas and other parasites away.

My family of four goes through a lot of garlic. I suspect anyone who knows a tenth of what garlic can do would eat a lot of it.

All that garlic can do for us is astounding! Its nutrition includes magnesium, calcium, B1, B6, C, phosphorus, copper, potassium, selenium, and tryptophan.  Garlic can help with a wide range of ailments including, but certainly not limited to, hair loss, acne, colds and flus, bacterial infections, fungus (yeast, Candida, athletes foot, etc.), psoriasis, weight control, cold sores, detoxification, cardiovascular health, and inflammation reduction. It even wards off mosquitoes!

The Amazing Benefits of Cayenne

Capsaicin is incredible. What Capsaicin can do is just mind boggling to me. I always try to keep a bottle of liquid cayenne extract with me because it can actually save someone’s life. If you see someone suffering from a heart attack, they need Capsaicin and lots of it! It can make the difference between life and death, and it can also make the difference between major damage and an easy recovery.

Capsaicin increases blood flow, helps to sooth muscle tension and pain, wakes you up, and helps with focus. Capsaicin is also used to treat bursitis, diabetes, osteoarthritis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, shingles (herpes zoster), postherpetic neuralgia. stomachaches, digestive problems including stomach aches, indigestion,  cramping pains, gas, treatment of the circulatory system, and hemorrhaging.

The Best Herbal Supplement

The best herbal supplement has garlic and cayenne. Ingredients also include Red clover, chaparral, poke root, periwinkle lower, mullein, burdock seed and root, yellow dock root, goldenseal root, Oregon grape root, and bloodroot. This is not for the faint of heart! This tincture will kick you in the mouth! But it’s truly amazing stuff.

Shillington’s Blood Detox

I was really sick recently. I haven’t been sick in such a long time, but I was bedridden, feeling like I was 90 years old on my deathbed.

I have little restraint. And I loved getting high. I had just moved to California and got a prescription for marijuana. I told them I needed the prescription for anxiety, which was due to using marijuana illegally. I thought it was funny, but the prescriber made me come up with another reason to get the prescription. I think we said insomnia.

I got high a lot. And my tolerance shot way up very quickly. I was over a gram a day in less than a week. I was wasting a lot of money and my health was deteriorating. I am not one of those people who have convinced myself that smoking marijuana is good for you. THC has its benefits, but smoking anything, as much fun as it can be, is not healthy. And that’s not to mention the likelihood of smoking pesticides and other chemicals.

Within a couple of months my thyroid was shot, my adrenals were barely functioning, and I was peeing dark brown, almost red urine, And I still had a bunch of weed left!

One day I woke up and I couldn’t move. My body wouldn’t stand. I felt nauseous and dizzy and as sick as I’ve ever been. The next day I was worse. I won’t bore you with the long list of symptoms, but the point is that I made myself very sick (for the first time in so many years!) with a combination of way too much smoking and (probably) some weed that got sprayed very heavily with pesticides. And yes, it was medical grade.

I called my warehouse and told them to send me some Blood detox.  For 3 days I was having trouble simply making it to the restroom (and urination took forever!). When I got the Blood Detox, I was up and walking normally within an hour. It was amazing.

It was a great experience, too–one that I am yet to completely recover from– but I’m back to about 97% (I need to take the time to do a radical full body detox). I learned a lot. And I suppose you could say I grew up, since my desire to get high is next to nothing now. But mostly, it solidified my belief that blood detox is the most amazing herbal supplement I’ve ever come across.

For absolutely any health condition, I recommend blood detox. By itself, in many instances, it can make a huge difference. In combination with other target herbal remedies and nutrition it can work miracles.

If you can only afford one herbal tincture, Shillington’s Blood Detox is what I recommend you have and keep with you at all times. At the first sign of a cold, like a sore throat or congestion, take a dropper full. For any and all ailments, from cancer to diabetes to fibromyalgia, this is the first tincture I recommend, second only to a healthy diet. After a night of drinking and/or using recreational drugs (not that I condone getting high) I do recommend Blood Detox afterwards.

Healthy blood means a healthy body. There is nothing more important for your health than getting enough nutrition and having clean, relatively toxin free blood.

If you need a total body detox or are suffering from any serious ailment, I recommend using the Blood Detox Tincture in conjunction with the Blood Detox Tea.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask underneath within the comments or contact me via Facebook or Twitter.

Doc Shillington not only sells his Total Nutrition Formula, which is available at Green lifestyle Market, he also tells us how to make our own. One of the reasons we love working with Doc is that he empowers people to take their health into their own hands. And as you know, here at OLM, we love DIY healthcare!

Doc’s Total Nutrition Formula, a perfectly balanced blend of whole foods, is specially formulated to supply you with natural food source vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential trace elements. These are nature’s nutrients, not man-made or synthetic.  All ingredients are from the richest, whole food sources on the planet and are organically grown or wildcrafted.  Along with diet, a comprehensive multivitamin/mineral formula from quality whole foods should be the foundation of any health building program.

Total Nutrition Formula Recipe

With this recipe a “part” means a measurement by volume and not weight. What volume you use is up to you. All ingredients should be organic or wildcrafted.

• 1 part Alfalfa Grass Powder
• 1 part Barley Grass Powder
• 1 part Wheat Grass Powder
• 1 part Norwegian Purple Dulse Seaweed Powder
• 1 part Beet Root Powder
• 1 part Spinach Leaf Powder
• 1 part Rosehips Powder
• 1 part Orange Peel Powder
• 1 part Lemon Peel Powder
• 1 part Astragalus Powder
• 1.5 parts Spirulina Green Algae
• 1.5 parts Chlorella Broken Cell Algae
• 5 parts Yeast Flakes
• 5 parts Yeast Powder

Combine all ingredients. Mix thoroughly. You may need a dust mask when mixing, as the powders can get into the air and irritate the nose and throat. We mix ours on a patio when there is no wind where we can easily rinse off the mess.

Yeast (both the flakes and the powder) must be non-active saccharomyces cerevisiae nutritional yeast fortified with B12. Which is safe for patients with Candida albicans. Doc wrote, “I added astragalus as it is the #1 herb for balancing metabolism and blood sugar levels. Without changing my diet one iota, I dropped 10 pounds when I added this little goody to the formula. I also upped the spirulina and chlorella 50% each to increase the protein, and mineral intake.”

Most of the ingredients can be purchased at Mountain Rose Herbs. We plan to offer all of these ingredients at Green Lifestyle Market soon as well so that you can make your own without having to go to multiple stores to get ingredients. Use 1-2 teaspoons as a daily addition to any drink.

About the Ingredients

Again, if you are making your own homemade total nutrition, be absolutely sure to use only the finest wildcrafted or organic ingredients. Doc Shillington tells us about the ingredients in Total Nutrition:

Spirulina  Blue  Green  Algae

“Spirulina is one of the most concentrated, nutritious foods on this planet. It is the highest natural source of complete protein (77%).  Also, it is extremely high in Beta Carotene.  Spirulina is one of the richest sources of minerals, and being one of the oldest types of algae, it has a soft cell wall for easy digestion.”

Chlorella

“Chlorella is second only to spirulina in nutritional content.  Another algae,” it is an extremely concentrated source of nutrition that also assists in heavy metal removal from the body. The cell wall has been cracked to make the nutrients more available and increase its digestibility.”

Astragalus

“In Oriental herbology, astragalus shares the #1 spot with ginseng.  Astragalus not only has a reputation for preventing cancer, but it is legendary for rejuvenating digestive organs and balancing blood sugar levels.  Astragalus also corrects metabolism,and can therefore bring about weight loss or weight gain depending on the needed improvement.  This makes it equally great for weight lifters and weight reducers.  Furthermore, astragalus strengthens and builds the immune system, promotes the healing of every kind of wound or injury, balances hormones and is well known for dramatically increasing energy levels.  Lastly, it is essential in assisting those who wish to handle diabetes.”

Alfalfa,  Barley,  and  Wheat  Grasses

“These are the vitamin / mineral herb Grasses.  They are mildly cleansing and the greatest sources of nutrition and minerals of any of the grasses. Grain grasses are more powerful than the grains themselves, offering a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and chlorophyll.”

Purple  Dulse  Seaweed

“Seaweeds are the richest source of minerals on the planet. They contain all the trace elements that are found in all the oceans and the Earth’s crust.  Purple dulse was chosen for this formula because it has the highest mineral concentration but also a bland, less fishy taste that actually tastes good by itself.”

Beet  Root  and  Spinach  Leaf

“Beets and spinach are some of the best sources of organic iron. Beets, being a root vegetable and growing underground, change inorganic raw elements into plant minerals, that are very usable. Spinach is a great source of calcium, magnesium, iron and vitamin K.  Furthermore, both of these plants are famous for their blood building ability.”

Rose  Hips,  Orange  and  Lemon  Peels

Revered as the best sources of vitamin C, these fruits are also a balanced C-complex source. They contain bioflavinoids, rutin, hesperidin, calcium and all of the trace elements that are now known to be necessary to assimilate vitamin C. The citrus peels are also one of the highest sources of pectin, which has been proven to remove heavy metals (mercury, lead, etc.), and even removes radioactive contamination like deadly strontium 90 from the body.

Non-Active  Saccharomyces  Cerevisiae  Nutritional  Yeast

This yeast is grown on beets and pure molasses. It is the second highest source of complete protein in nature (50%), and the richest source of B vitamins.  It is also a rich source of iron and many other minerals.  The yeast we chose to use is heated high enough to absolutely destroy any yeast activity, but not high enough to lessen the B vitamin content.  It is totally NON active and safe for clients with Candida Albicans or those on yeast free diets.”

When asked about the difference between his formula and other popular formula with many ingredients, Doc says, “Remember, it’s not how many nutrients you can get into your system; it’s how many quality ingredients your body can absorb and use.” There are many nutrition formula recipes and almost as many nutrition formulas being sold on the market.

While Doc Shillington’s formula is one of the most simple versions, it’s also the best. Doc goes on to say, “It is possible to have too many ingredients in a formula. It becomes a question of a homeopathic dosage rather than a nutritional dosage. The idea is to put actual building blocks there, not just a homeopathic teaser that the body likes (or not).”

Our Favorite Basic Smoothie Recipe

In a blender combine the following:

• 1 cup of freshly squeezed organic apple juice
• 1 1/2 cups of organic, frozen, mixed berries (or any other fruit you choose)
• 2 level tablespoons of Udo’s Oil (3.6.9 Blend)
• 2 heaping tablespoons of nutritional powder
• 1 raw organic egg (Must be organic; conventional eggs are a source of salmonella!)

More of Shillington’s Recipes:

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Recommended Supplements:

• Total Nutrition Formula

Further Reading:

• Bullet Proof Your Immune System
  
• Homemade Calcium and Magnesium
• Homemade Vitamin C
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included