Tag Archives: ann wigmore institute

Optimize Digestion and Chew Your Way to Better Beauty and Health

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Hello my cherished loves,

I hope you are doing well! Today’s topic is on chewing and digesting food!

How many times do we rush through a meal to get on with work, get to our next task, drop the kids off somewhere- or even eat while we are working? Or should I phrase it- when do we not do those things, and actually concentrate on eating as its own separate, sacred task? I had some classes on chewing this past week at the Ann Wigmore Institute, with some interesting info and perspectives that I wanted to share with you.

Dr. Ann Wigmore says that if we are not chewing our food well or concentrating on eating- while we are eating- we are wasting our time with food!

When we eat, we are releasing stored energy locked up in the plant food (which is hopefully what you are eating!) that transfers into our body through digestion and assimilation. The food literally becomes part of our organs and glands. But in order for that plant food to really nourish us, even if we are eating the healthiest and most organic plant food on the planet, we have to be sure we are digesting it properly. This is not a mechanical task that always turns out the same no matter what- because it involves our total being, our state of mind, emotions and environment. Below are some ideas to help make sure you are optimizing your digestion:

1. Chew chew chew- the theme of Ann Wigmore. Even if you drink Green Juice, or drink the Green Smoothie, you should chew your food so it mixes well with your saliva to aid the digestive process! Solid food like salads should be chewed 40-100 times. I always ignored this popular adage :) but it is amazing how much saliva you really do produce when you practice it! In one class we listened to music where every 60 seconds a bell would ring and that would signify to swallow. So it forced us to be conscious of chewing for 60 seconds, which pulverized the food into liquidity.

When you chew this well, it is amazing how full you get on way less food! Swallowing chunks of foods is EXTREMELY harmful for the body, which has to waste copious amounts of energy and additional enzymes to then break it down. If you are a fast eater now is the time to change your ways, for your own sake!

2. Prepare the body for eating. You eat with your whole body and your brain. So start by being totally relaxed. Take some deep breaths if that helps. Relax your jaw (most of us clench) and even say the vowels first to fully loosen up the muscles in the face. Move your hands to your stomach to prepare it to receive food. This also puts us mentally in touch with our digestive organs and we become more connected to our body. Smell your food first before eating it, and really look at it. Hopefully it will be vibrant and beautiful!

3. Be conscious of your food in every way before you start eating it. Where did it come from? How was it grown? Who were the people that grew it? Under what conditions did it grow? When I was eating Energy Soup I started really thinking about the sunflower sprouts that it contained, that grew in the greenhouse there. We had classes on growing them, and I saw how full of amazing, vibrant energy they were and how they turned their beautiful little heads towards the light. Like us! We want to always turn toward the Light!

So when we really think about our food, we become more grateful for it, and when we eat in a state of gratitude our food digests better and nourishes not only our bodies, but the emotional, mental and spiritual side of us. Food is energy, and energy affects us on all of these levels. There really is something to the idea of making food with love, and when someone makes something for you with love it does taste better! I always bless my food first.

I know, deep right! Quite a contrast to people that jam the food they just bought at the drive-through down their mouth as they race down the highway driving! I don’t think they have any clue as to how the food came from the factory farm to the slaughterhouse to their packaged container, or the suffering and pain that the animal might have endured that would very much transfer if you were to eat the animal’s carcass. Bad energy transfers also, which leads me to…

 

4. Don’t eat in a loud place! Clanking sounds and chairs and loud talking does not make for good digestion. If a place does not have peaceful energy, chances are that your food was made in a non-peaceful, rushed or agitated way as well. And I don’t want food with that energy in my body! If I sense that I won’t eat there. Many trendy New York restaurants are like that, so if I have a business meeting there or something with friends- I’ll just get something to drink. Don’t worry about what others think- the choices you make affect YOUR body.

5. Don’t eat if you are angry, sad, agitated or stressed out. Your body will not assimilate the food in a good way! It really is better not to eat in these conditions- just wait or put it off!

6. Don’t work, watch TV or read while you are eating. Your attention is diverted from the process of digestion, and you will not take in the food in the same way. Talking should be limited. This is really hard, as eating and socializing have been very much integrated into our culture. I too often eat with others. I try to concentrate on my food when I’m actually chewing and swallowing, then I’ll put down my fork and talk for a minute- then go back to eating, so on and so forth.

I hope that these ideas are helpful to you in promoting your digestion. Eating is a powerful and sacred ceremony of life that must be respected.

Love,

Kimberly

Coconut keeper and lover!

 

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The Enormous Difference Between Raw Foods and Living Foods

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Hi Guys!

I hope you are having a great, post-holiday week. I hear it is really hot in NY, so if you are in a hot city hope you are drinking lots of room-temperature water to hydrate!

I’m here having a fabulous time at the Ann Wigmore Institute. There is so much to talk about, I had to divide this original blog up into 3 or 4 posts. :) But I thought I would start with a topic that has really been on my mind lately, and is emphasized so much here at the Ann Wigmore Institute.

Dr. Ann Wigmore was a true pioneer and her legacy has changed nutrition and the health movement forever. Before she passed away in 1994 (from a fire by the way, not old age), she already wrote extensively on the difference between just eating raw food and actually eating in a superior and nourishing way, which she termed Living Foods. Even back then, in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, the raw food movement was around. Dr. Wigmore observed that many people on a raw food diet, but not a Living Foods diet, had acidic bodies, were deficient in certain important minerals and compounds, had weight and skin problems (like acne) and were certainly toxic. I think if she saw aspects of the raw food movement today she would be horrified!!!! So why is it that if someone is eating “all raw” they can still be so incredibly unhealthy?? There are lots of reasons, but I’ll list a few here:

  1. Living foods are made up of whole, organic plant foods, with an emphasis on greens, sprouts, fresh fruit, and some nuts and seeds. Today the misconception is that “anything goes” as long as it is raw. So what does that mean? People LOAD up on extremely heavy dehydrated foods, tons of oil, cacao, agave, too much sea salt, “superfoods,” way too many (unsprouted) nuts and the like. The emphasis on the simplicity of nature, and greens, has been diminished!
  1. Dr. Wigmore said the most important part of eating Living Foods was eating some blended foods, so you would get the every important benefits of the foods without having to work to digest them, and you would retain the fiber in the food to help create bulk in the colon to sweep out toxicity. This is what the Glowing Green Smoothie is based on loves!! There is a science to it!! If you juice, you remove all the dietary fiber. There are benefits to that as well- but know that you are not getting blended food.

Even if we ate salads all day, most of us don’t chew well enough to get the volume of nutrients in that we would get from some blended foods. BTW, we have some chewing classing here, and it really is amazing how much we need to chew to get the nutrition out!! I was shocked! I thought I was a slow eater, but now that I am conscious, I am a slow eater times 10! :)   It can take me 45 minutes to finish a bowl of Energy Soup.

 

 

3. Living foods emphasize digestion, so contain lots of easily digestible fermented foods, such as Rejuvelac and raw sauerkraut, and you MUST soak and sprout your seeds and nuts! Dr. Wigmore believed the reason so many raw foodists have acidic bodies is they are eating the nuts and seeds without preparing them properly to remove the inhibitor enzymes, which keeps the nutrition dormant in the human body, and makes them acid-forming and mucus-forming.

4. Agave is a HUGE no-no. I know, it sucks because it is so easy to use and makes things so damn tasty! I used to use it and promote it! But the truth is that anything that is too easy and too good to be true like that…usually is. If you look at it closely, you may wonder how it arrived as a syrup that way. Maybe you’ve noticed that I have been saying little quips against agave here and there for the last year or so. I’ve also tried to remove it from as many places in this blog as I could find.

I used to think it was okay- after all the whole raw food world seems to think it is okay! It’s low glycemic, isn’t it? It’s from a plant, isn’t it? It is used without limit in many instances in the raw food world. I’m going to do a whole post on this soon. But the truth is that agave is almost pure fructose, and fructose makes you fat and destroys the collagen in the skin. I think that is one reason why raw foodists that eat it every day gain weight.

I used to promote it too! So don’t feel bad because I don’t. I didn’t fully realize back then how bad it was- but I know now! There is such great marketing attached to it. And I am not being judgmental. When you know better you do better. And I am sharing this with you because I highly recommend for you to cut it out of your diet 100%, the way I have. You have to be careful, because unfortunately now it is in everything from energy bars to raw granola. Read the labels and avoid, avoid, avoid!! I will write extensively on this topic in another post. Stay tuned folks!

 

5. Living Foods do not contain a lot of dehydrated foods. This is sort of related to #1. Dehydrated foods are considered transitional foods for those weaning off of cooked food. Dehydrated foods are concentrated with no water, and very dense. They can be very constipating, and do not promote cleansing and lightness! Dehydrated hemp burgers, too many flax crackers…

I think people rely way too much on dehydrated foods. I make them for dinner parties and when I’m making food for those that eat meat and cooked food, to show them raw food can taste really good. But as you elevate the level of health and wellness, the dehydrated food becomes a tiny fraction of the diet. Dr. Wigmore said dehydrated food should be used very sparingly, like for special occasions or a little bit here and there. Like I was saying in #1!

6. Okay, so sorry to keep harping in on #1! But we can’t rely too much on cacao or oil to make things taste good. Our taste buds are getting used to too much stimulation, and then we aren’t satisfied anymore with a plain salad or a Glowing Green Smoothie. We don’t need all that stuff all the time- keep it simple.

Alright, that is my manifesto for tonight! My brain is bursting with so much to say but I have to say nighty now. The internet is slow and it took me forever to get the post up. But a small price to pay! I LOVE the island life and the lack of technology, TVs, air conditioning (at least here!), etc. and wearing flip flops all day and jumping in and out of the ocean 3 or 4 times a day between classes!

I’ll write more soon!

I wrote this post not to burst your bubble, but because I love you and want you to feel your best and reach the highest level of health that you can reach!

Love, Kimberly

Hair! Part 2

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Hey Guys,

Hope you had a great October weekend!

I thought of something I wanted too add to my hair topic. Grey hair! I watched Marley and Me this weekend in a lazy moment when lounging on the couch watching something easy and fun seemed like the best possible thing to do. In the movie, one of the marked milestone moments in their marriage was when both Jennifer Aniston and Own Wilson both discovered their first grey hair. A cute moment, I guess, but still not one that our society embrace as the  most “joyous” moment, especially for us girls!

Eek! Some of us reading this have never yet had this “maturing” experience, while others of us may be growing grey hair for years- that is beautiful too! No matter what the case, we should keep in mind that we are often told that genetics play a case with “premature” graying hair, but there is much to be said about diet and lifestyle.

Dr. Ann Wigmore, largely credited as being the founder of the modern raw food movement in the Western world,  is one of the most documented and famous cases of grey hair reversal. Her gray hair turned right back to its original dark black color after years of having grey hair! She credits this reversal to drinking rejuvalac, which is an enzyme and B-vitamin rich drink made from the water left over from sprouting wheat berries. Ladies— this happened naturally!!! No hair coloring or anything!!

 

We need to renew the living hair follicle and nourish it with nutrition and healthy blood flow. B vitamins, raw fatty acids, and trace beauty minerals such as sulfur, copper and silicon are important to help keep the texture of our hair healthy and maintained at its natural color.  Be sure to keep flushing the blood clean with your alkaline greens in your Green Smoothies, have salads containing watercress and spinach, and eat B vitamin-rich hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, burdock root, nutritional yeast, Kombucha (based on a similar principle to rejuvalac), and sea vegetables like nori and dulse. Animal products and especially dairy will not promote luscious texture to our living hair follicle since they are clogging rather than nourishing.

Brrrrrr it is getting cold!! I’m getting some of the Fall coats down from the top closet tonight! The yogis in the house may have noticed some changes in their practice. Remember that this is a normal happening in the yogic cycle, and to not be attached to the way our practice expresses itself. Well have a great start to your week!

Love!! Kimberly