Tag Archives: losing weight

A Dozen Ways on How to Eat Beautifying Food on Budget!

32 Replies

Hi Guys!

Finally, I have made it to this topic! So many of you have written me requesting it, and here it is.

I know, I know-  it may seem that eating healthily is hugely expensive and that you can’t really afford it, but rest assured that that is not really true! It doesn’t have to be. Check out some of these tips that may help you along your path, ensuring that you can eat well, and maybe still even have money afterwards to get those hot new sandals you want for summer or save up for a beach trip somewhere!

1. Put your money into your food, not your beverages. We want to eat, not drink our way to beauty. If push comes to shove, you really and truly could get by on fresh water with lemon squeezed in. Expensive beverages like bottled Kombucha, or even coconut water, are far down on the list of priorities if we are in a bind. They are like the icing on the cake, but remember that the “cake” or as it holds here, our beauty, is built from organic greens, vegetables and fruits.

2. Along those lines, nix that bottled water! What a waste of money it is to buy bottled water day in and day out. And (and!) bottled water 1) Is often just  tap water that has been filtered, see my blog on water HERE and 2) All the plastic bottles add to so much waste on the planet, and energy even if it gets recycled! Get yourself a nice water filter and use your stainless steel reusable bottle. I still use the nice blue one I got from the movie Hall Pass!

3. Buy spices, nuts and condiments in bulk. That is clearly the way to go! There are so many websites on line that you can source them from. If I had to spend $6 for every tiny little cayenne pepper container or coriander container, I would be broke. Now I buy them by the pound or half pound since I use them so much!

4. ALWAYS support your local farmer friends! Oftentimes they are not labeled as organic, but they still use organic farming practices. It can cost them a lot of moola to get an organic certificate, so they might not always have the certificate or paperwork done. But often they aren’t using scary chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, and are rotating crops. Not mass production! When possible, I always love to meet the people that are growing my food.

5. Buy or grow your own sprouts. Sprouts are pretty cheap, and they are a really abundant source of beauty enzymes and minerals. Rare is the salad I eat without some sprouts thrown in there. For my ambitious, green-thumbed friends, you can get a jar with some holes on top, or buy one of those sprout kits and grown your own! That would make the cost of your enzyme-filled treat a few cents a day!

6. You can actually get some organic, bulk food at Costco. Yes Costco! Check out their bagged organic baby spinach and their organic 5 pound bags of carrots. Great for families that really plow through huge amounts of produce.

7. When push comes to shove, stick to the most important foods to buy organic. They include (but are not limited to): celery, strawberries, bell peppers, pears, apples, spinach, apricots and tomatoes. Some that are not as important (they don’t attract as many bugs, don’t require as many fertilizers, etc.) include avocados, sweet potatoes, onions. Of course if we had unlimited funds we would but all organic…but sometimes choices are necessary. You can soak your inorganic vegetables in a diluted raw apple cider vinegar soak or some grapefruit seed extract. It won’t increase mineral content, but it will at least help remove some of the creepy chemicals! For more info on this see my feature in Life & Style HERE.

8. Join a food co-op, where you would work a certain amount of hours each month in exchange for really cheaply priced bulk foods and produce. In NYC there is a good one in the East Village, some in Brooklyn, and all around, really.

9. Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. How does it work? You buy into a certain amount of “shares” of a local farm, and every week you get a box of vegetables or produce that is in season at the time, at a set pick up/drop off location that that farm establishes. It is a wonderful way to get a ton of organic produce at a great price. I would totally do it but I travel so much I would miss most of the drop-offs! Highly recommended though, and it helps out our friends the local farmers, who we must all support as much as possible in this increasingly commercial, genetically modified world.

Here is a great website to find a CSA near you! www.localharvest.org/csa/

 

10. Bring your lunch…or at least part of your lunch!! Check out the blog HERE I wrote on great lunch ideas, complete with a link to some beautiful lunch bags my friend Isolde makes. They are great. I have the blue and grey bag.

 

11. Skip all that dehydrated, expensive raw food. That is what makes food shopping expensive! You don’t really need it. Make your own smoothies, your own salads, your own simple nut pates or dishes. Those foods are really dense anyways. I don’t buy them myself!

12. Plan ahead so you don’t get stuck having to eat out or buy expensive food. I always try to keep something in my purse- like my chlorella tablets (more info HERE) or an apple or something so I don’t have to buy a $12 pre-made salad at Au Bon Pain (sorry, but it is mostly barf food anyway :) ). Also plan to meet your friends for tea, instead of going to spend $30 for a salad and some veggie sides you could easily make yourself for $7 at home. Allocate your funds wisely!

I think I’ll stop here because 12 is a good number. :)

Happy eating well, and without breaking the bank!

Lots of love, Kimberly

 

 

Belated Father’s Day Blog: On Making our Men Healthier!

19 Replies

Hi Guys!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend and Happy Summer Solstice! We are officially in the summer flow (at least for my friends reading this in the Northern hemisphere!).

I wanted to post this yesterday on the actual Father’s Day but I had to work on something all weekend, so I am a day late! But it can still count, right? :)

I  love my father so much that when I really think about it, it makes my eyes well up in tears. You know that kind of love? He has always been such a support to me, even when I have been known to do a few wacky things here and there that a father might not like- such as, I don’t know, wander around the world for 3 years with a backpack?! He is super kind and mellow and easy to talk to, and probably the most non-judgmental person I know.

My dad grew up eating the SAD way (Standard America Diet). God bless my grandmother, but the standard fare in the house was pot roasts and meat loaf. Any vegetables to be found were mushy peas. She just didn’t have an in-depth knowledge of nutrition, like most people don’t, and she was busy. Again, no judgments! But what it does mean is that my father did pick up some certain dietary habits, and likes and dislikes, which he carries with him today.

My dad loves crackers and cheese, hamburgers, ice cream, and Cheerios, and he was not such a huge vegetable eater. That is, until recently! I am writing this because I want all you ladies out there that have fathers, brothers, boyfriends, spouses, etc. whose diets range in varying degrees from so-so to horrendous to know that things can improve! I don’t mean to single out the men… but well in this case today with this particular topic I guess I sort of am! :)

My dad always exercised and went to the gym, but over time, like most men, he started packing on some excess pounds, especially in his belly area. About two years ago, I realized it was time I had to intervene. My mother is amazing too and very health-conscious, but sometimes it takes a person outside the couple to peer in and make suggestions. That is probably why I do a lot of nutritional counseling for couples! Sometimes the other person is too close to the situation, and their well-meaning suggestions can be interpreted as “nagging.”

We certainly shouldn’t try to change everything all at once. And that’s what I want to emphasize. It is sort of like going into your kid’s room and throwing out all of his or her stuffed animals (which we know they have outgrown and need to get rid of) at once and packing them into a garbage bag. What would your kid do? He or she would throw a hissy fit! So what we do is start with one stuffed animal, and throw it out, then move on to the next, and then how about that huge old stuffed teddy bear in the corner that is leaking out stuffing everywhere?? Time for him to go!  The kid has a chance to see over time that he doesn’t really need all the old stuffed animals, and that it actually feels better to have them gone and he or she has more space to run around! We don’t shock though- we gently remove in stages.

 

Men can be like children sometimes. They want to cling to their “food comforts”, especially when they view them as treats because they work hard and “deserve a treat.” Getting them to see that food should not be viewed exclusively as “treats”, but rather that it is fuel for the body is a process. And that process becomes fueled by making small improvements that allow him to feel and experience the benefits for himself. Otherwise, it just seems like we are taking away all the “stuffed animals” at once, and being mean!! And that never sticks.

With my dad, we started introducing Green Drinks, which my mother faithfully makes for him. As long as it is front of him, he will drink it –though he would never make it for himself! At first he missed his beloved morning bagel with butter, but then the Green Smoothie crowded it out because he gets full from it, and discovered (gasp!) on his own that he feels better having that!!! So much more energy!!!

Coffee is his true comfort so I leave that alone right now as we focus on other things…. We’ve made vast improvements in the diet (including the very important elimination of most of all the dairy) and he has lost so much weight, especially in the last few months! He looks so young and healthy. I am so proud of him!

So remember ladies, no matter what foods your men might love, no matter how they grew up and with what foods, positive change is always possible. And the best first change might just be the Green Smoothie, and you can build from there.

All my love,

Kimberly

Update: Lessons on Body Image from High Schoolers

15 Replies

Hi Guys! So back in February I got this sweet email from a 17-year old boy about girl issues and a girl he liked being offended when he said she looked “healthy.” Here’s the original post. I posted the initial back and forth, and over the last few months we’ve exchanged a few emails. Heck, I remember being 17, and being really self conscious and not really knowing who I was!! I would hide under ugly turtlenecks and baggy shorts and hated that my hair wasn’t straight! :)

BUT- happy ending!!! Last night I got a sweet email from the GIRL!! Their names are changed and I got their enthusiastic permission to retell their story of teenage love (ahhhhhhh, 16 Candles anyone??).

(Here’s the emails from Feb).

Dear Kimberly,

My name is Kyle and I’m 17 years old.  I know this might not be your particular area of expertise, but since you deal with beauty and self-image issues I thought you might have some good insight on an experience I recently had.  It involved a girl I had just met at a dance.  We talked for a good half hour and seemed to be hitting it off.  She was very pretty, smart and nice.  We even exchanged email addresses.  I was so excited!

Then, things suddenly went downhill.  I commented that she had a “really nice, hourglass figure”. I thought she would take it as a compliment but instead she became deeply offended.  I went into damage control mode and tried to clarify my comments but I think I only made things worse when I used the term “healthy”. With a look of complete disgust, WHAP!, she slapped my face and departed.

As I was standing there alone rubbing my cheek, with my friends nearby laughing at me, I was wondering why she was so offended.  She had a classic hourglass figure – very busty, narrow waist, shapely hips/legs. I guess she had interpreted “hourglass” as meaning big/overweight/full figured. Why can’t girls embrace their curves?

Btw, I do have her email address.  Do you think I should her an apology note or should I interpret the slap in the face as another way of saying she does not want to see me again?

–kyle

HERE’S MY REPLY BACK TO HIM:

Hi Kyle!

I usually take up to a few weeks to answer someone back, when I get swamped, but your email was to sweet and sincere to put off!

You are a fantastic writer and you should pursue something that involves writing as you go to college and eventually choose your career. I am impressed. Teenagers can have a very hard time expressing themselves adequately in words. You are lucky because you can do that through your writing, which not everyone can.

For this reason, I would highly recommend emailing her, and explain what you were really trying to communicate. Use the words “beautiful” and “attractive.” I am personally trying to change womens’ interpretations to view the word “healthy” is actually the body adjective we should strive for. Unfortunately, it does get interpreted differently. A girl that is even slightly self-conscious of her body, which is pretty much every teenage girl, and most women in the world (!), will interpret someone saying she is “healthy” as a nice way of saying fat.

Every girl wants to feel beautiful and attractive. So also tell her that you wouldn’t think she would be any more attractive if she was stick-skinny, and the reason you said she was “healthy” was because healthy is synonymous with “beautiful.” I think the world would be a much better place if women knew that guys like you thought that healthy was much more attractive, and if women thought the world “healthy” was a huge compliment. We do not all have to fit into one stereotype. It starts even earlier than 17, but especially at your age, if girls embraced their bodies it would save so much wasted energy and heartache down the road.

Keep in touch, and let me know it goes with your lady!
All my very best, Kimberly

FROM LAST NIGHT

Hi Kim.  This is Adriana, the girl that Kyle met at the dance a while back.  I don’t know how to thank you for giving him advice.  It turns out that he’s a really sweet guy and we have a great relationship.  Lots of guys my age are jerks and I guess I assumed the worst about him when he made the “hourglass” comment.  I’m happy with my body shape but it’s really frustrating to be judged for your bra size and not your brains.  I do remember that he looked ashamed rather than angry after I slapped him and I was hoping I was wrong about him.  I was thrilled when I saw and read his email!

 

We’re having a great time and can now laugh about the first time we met. Kyle is great guy and a true gentleman.  He’s also really tall too, at 6’6″, and I’m a short girl at 5’2″.  I really had to reach in order to connect with that slap, lol.  But I also assured him that I would never slap his handsome face ever again and planted a big kiss on his cheek :-)

 

Without your help, this might not have happened so you should feel great!

Adriana

Sooooooooooo sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!!! Who doesn’t love a happy ending?!! The heart of it was that he thought she was beautiful and great all along, but  we girls are really the complicated ones with body image and words, and boys mean well, but can sometimes be boneheads when it comes to the right words and communication. :) Glad it all worked out. The young uns’ are happy!! Yay!!

Alright, back to work now!

Oodles and oodles of love to you.

Kimberly

 

How to Eat Like an Islander… and Get Beautiful in the Process!

28 Replies

Hi Guys!

I have been fortunate enough to spend many months of my life on many islands across Asia and the Pacific, including islands that are part of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Fiji, Hawaii and Polynesia. The people that live on these islands and in the remote communities and villages I visited were so beautiful, full of life force, spirit and happiness. There was a presence that is hard for me to describe- the locals are really intertwined in each moment of life. These islands have nourished me, and rejuvenated me on so many levels… and not to mention shaped aspects of my nutritional philosophy that could never be learned from a textbook.

As we come into summer, and the heat index is rising here in NYC, I can feel my body shifting to adjust to the seasons. Accordingly, my diet is adjusting as well. In this climate, my diet is closer to how I ate on these islands.

Here are some of my thoughts:

1. I say this time and time again, but here goes: Do not eat a heavy breakfast. You will not see islanders hunkered down in a café, eating the likes of egg white omelets, bagels and fat-free cream cheese, or Cheerios and skim milk. No! The islanders are out on the fishing boats in the morning, running around and setting up their shops and places of business for a full day ahead. They drink beverages, or may have some fruit, but they stay very light, which keeps them on their toes.

Don’t you get weighed down with a heavy breakfast! Have your Green Smoothie, and become more beautiful every morning!

2. Fruit it up! One of the most important detox fruits is pineapple, because the bromelain enzyme it contains helps bust up toxins in the body. I don’t really do set “cleanses” from time to time, because the honest truth is that I am constantly cleansing from my lifestyle diet. I don’t believe in short-term diets.

In the summer, sometimes I’ll do a few days in a row like this: Green Smoothie for breakfast, pineapple for lunch, Green Smoothie a few hours later, a bowl of blueberries, then a salad for dinner. I’m going to put my beloved father on a program like this soon- he just doesn’t know it yet. :) My beloved mother will support me with this for him as well.

Summer is the season for fruit! We don’t intuitively need heavier foods like we do in the winter.

3. Drink your coconut water if you are active. If you are not active, I don’t recommend having very much of it. Why? It still has sugar calories in a liquid form. If I was sitting at a desk all day and went home and watched TV, I would NOT drink coconut water! But now when I am sweating my _____ off doing yoga, I am drinking coconut water. When I was in Bora Bora and doing yoga on the beach every day, sometimes I would eat/drink 4 coconuts a day. But that was also a big part of my diet. I worry that with the recent coconut water craze people will drink coconut water in addition to their 3 course dinners or turkey sandwich lunches, then get fat, then blame it on the coconut water. It really is for active people. Of course, if someone insists on drinking something with flavor it is better than any soda or pasteurized fruit drink out there!

The Polynesian guy in the picture showed me how to drive a stake into a log in the jungle, then smash a coconut on top to make a hole and pour the coconut water right into my mouth! He also had a technique for squeezing the mature coconut meat to get the coconut milk out, which was quite interesting!

4. No dairy. Dairy is not a natural food of the islands, and you tell by how much better their skin is in general. Avoid, avoid, avoid. Say goodbye to the milk, the cheese, and the highly overrated (and still pasteurized and problematic) yogurt. GOODBYE ugly clogger!

5. Yes, there is some fish and other animal products in some islanders’ diets, but it is WAY less than what the typical Westener eats. And last time I checked, there was no factory farms on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand.  If you do choose to eat some animals (which I personally do not), then make sure they are hormone and steroid-free, and cut back your quantities and frequency of eating them.

6. Celebrate your food! Eat with relish and gratefulness and a joyous attitude. Food helps support our God-given life force. All of us are so lucky, in so many ways.

Much, much Love.

Warmly and with More Love, Kimberly

Drugs in the Water!

23 Replies


Hi Guys!

Hope you are having a great week so far. I’ve slowly starting to get used back to East Coast Time. My feet were dragging a bit today, but after posting this I’m hitting the sack!

I’ve been thinking about water. Water is a gift of life and beauty…but unfortunately there are so many issues with water today. I was away from my own shower whilst being in LA, which is equipped with a fabulous shower filter to filter out all the chlorine and heavy metals from the shower water. I always notice an incredible difference! Especially with my hair. My hair is so much softer showering with the filtered water, and it doesn’t get so weighed down. My skin also doesn’t dry out so much. From a health standpoint, when we take hot showers our pores open up and we can absorb lots of chlorine from the shower water! We don’t want this toxin in our body. So yes please! We’ll take the shower filter- or maybe 2. :) I was in Home Depot recently and noticed that even they now carry chlorine-free shower filters.

We also have to be extra careful these days about the water we are ingesting! Among many issues, did you know that there are a TON of pharmaceuticals floating around in the water supply? Frightening! Metabolites are the chemicals that break down as the end result of our bodies’ drug metabolism after we ingest them, and they literally get flushed down the drain into the sewage system every time we pee.

These chemicals get into OUR bodies, even when we don’t even take these medications. They also pollute the ecosystem for decades. It is said they pass right through wastewater treatment systems.  In 2008 the Associated Press conducted an investigation and found that pharmaceuticals in the form of antibiotics, sex hormones, anti-depressants, anticonvulsants, and more were found in the drinking water of at least 24 major metropolitan areas tested. Don’t think there is enough to really affect us in a significant way? Guess again! In England one study attributed the huge rise of male infertility to the massive amount of estrogens from remnants of birth control pills in the water supply, so much so that they said that even the fish in certain areas were transmuting sexes from male to female!

Unfortunately, bottling companies do not test for the presence of these pharmaceuticals, so we can be sure that they are not going to remove them. There has been some information that bottled water can actually be more contaminated than tap water. Nasty! So what are we going to do about it?


1.    Get a shower filter- like this weekend! Get one for every shower in your house, so your guests and kids can revel in clean water…and have softer, shinier hair to boot!

2.    Leave nothing in the hands of Big Business water companies. Get a really top notch home water filtration system, such as a reverse osmosis system, that cleans your water to the nth degree. You can carry your own water in stainless steel water bottles to work and to the gym or yoga class, which is better for the environment anyway. You can rest assured you won’t be adding to the compiling issue of water bottles everywhere! Even when they are recycled there is lots of energy involved, so best to avoid plastic water bottles when possible anyway.

And BTW, hats off to the studio Warner Brothers!! They now have a no water-bottle policy for their movies, and give stainless steel water bottles to everyone working on each film, with fill up stations instead of individual bottles of water. :) I’ve started a collection of cool stainless steel water bottles I’ve gotten. Each step is progress! If you work at an office or group setting of sorts that hands out individual water bottles maybe you can suggest the same policy!

I’ll write more soon.
I send my love! Kimberly

How Our Tongue Gives Us a Clue on How Much Toxicity We Have

28 Replies

Hey Guys,

Hope all is well! I thought I would talk about our tongues today, which is a part of my body that I have seen remarkable tranformations in over the years while undergoing my own journey to vibrant health. While we might not think to look at our tongues very often (or at all!), having a little peak, and monitoring it over time can be very telling.

Tongue reading is a whole skill onto itself, and some Chinese doctors are experts in it, and can diagnose specific illnesses from seeing spots and patches on specific parts of the tongue. I am in no way an expert on tongue reading, but there are a few generalizations we can make.

Our entire digestive tract is lined with a natural mucous membrane. This membrane is very sensitive, and naturally transparent. When we eat a diet consisting of preservative chemicals, GMO foods, pesticides, very acidic foods, etc., we irritate this delicate lining.

The mucous membrane is always trying to diffuse impacted mucus and toxic residue up from the colon, intestines, and stomach to the less impacted areas of the digestive tract, such as the throat, mouth (tongue), and sinuses. This occurs through the simple process of diffusion, which is really the movement of particles from areas of greater to lesser concentration. The great Professor Arnold Ehret called the tongue a “magic mirror” because as soon as the body has a chance to diffuse toxins out of the lower digestive organs, it will do so and mucus will migrate up through the lining of the stomach, up the esophagus, and into the mouth.

The coating on the tongue is therefore a good indicator off how much constipated mucus has accumulated in the digestive organs. When our breath is really bad, especially in the mornings, this can also be a good indicator of how compromised or backed up our systems are. (Please note: Bad breath along with a dry mouth can also be a side effect of prescription drugs, which interfere with proper saliva production). When our breath generally improves, even having good breath in the morning (wouldn’t that be nice!), that is a good sign that we are cleansing.

If we know we are backed up, have a thickly coated tongue or issues with bad breath(!), we know that we have some cleansing work to do. That occurs by eating more cleansing foods, which include fresh produce and lots of greens, taking daily probiotic supplements, and buying organic food whenever we can. We must also give ourselves adequate time to go to the bathroom in the mornings and throughout the day, and cut out very acidic, clogging foods out, such as my 2 faves to dog on- dairy and soy. :) When our diet improves we can also think about getting some gravity centered colonics, which can be very helpful in pulling out old garbage. These types of colonics can actually strengthen our colons because our own bodies are doing the work (unlike hydraulic pressure units, which uses electric pressure to push water in and out. These are the kind of colonics people like Dr. Oz dismiss as unnecessary and say weaken your colon over time. Those kind of colonics I don’t recommend at all).

So you may want to take a look at your tongue, and monitor it over the months as you improve your diet and begin to cleanse. Mine has really cleared up, and I am very happy to say that I don’t wake up with really bad morning breath (the way I used to! :) ).

Love, Kimberly

NBC Conn. Morning Show: Raw Pecan Pie and Party/Holiday Eating Tips

11 Replies

Hi Guys!

I know you think I’m being lazy by just posting videos and not writing..and maybe that is just a teeny bit true. It’s Friday! :) But I’ll write more very soon!

I wanted to post this since it was from right around Christmas, and for some reason I forgot to.

NOTE TO SELF: Do not make Raw Pecan Pies on air anymore!! If anyone saw my Good Day LA segment, where I also made this same Raw Pecan Pie, you’ll see what I did was pre-blended the filler, since the blender is so loud, and pressed the pie  crust in while talking on air. Both hosts helped me, but in a short segment there wasn’t enough time to press the crust in totally evenly, so it looked “lumpy” when I poured the mixture in.

In this segment, I reversed it. I had the crust mixture already pressed in, and made the filling on air. WELL the blender was so loud (and it was really just to demo), so I turned it off after a few seconds.  It certainly did NOT mix everything through very well… It was lumpy so I stopped pouring it into the pie. (That was the right thing to do right? I mean what else could I do??). I can’t believe the camera man sat on that terrible shot of the mixture for like 30 seconds!! What I really wanted him to do was sit on the shot of the finished pie pieces and what they are SUPPOSED to look like. Actually, I think the whole thing is kind of hilarious!! :)   And what a different kind of host he was compared to the some other shows’ hosts… such as eh hem, the Fox Philly hosts. At least he didn’t ask me any personal questions!

Btw the cameramen come late into the kitchen demo area, and I was miked up 30 seconds before going on air. Very stressful, and not my favorite!!!!!!!

Enjoy the segment, and have a great weekend. See you back here soon.

Love, Kimberly

MY (Fun?!) FOX Morning Show Philadelphia: 6 Easy Detoxing and Healthy Foods for 2010

21 Replies

Hi Guys,

I had a wonderful day in Philadelphia today! I did this morning segment, and the Fox Studio happened to be in the Historic District of Philly- where I have never been before! Isn’t that crazy, since I live in NY? Then I parked at a coffee shop and met with some bloggers and the health reporters for some Philly newspapers. It was like my little office for the day. :)

PLUS I got to see the Liberty Bell for the first time, in its new glass building home, and Independence Hall. Ah, history! I feel like I don’t really do enough of that stuff unless I’m traveling in another country. I mean, Philly is only down the way from NY (but that way does includes the rather horrific, very traffic-filled New Jersey Turnpike, which is a bit of a deterrent :) ).

Anyways, I did a post on these 6 foods recently, and I hope you enjoy also hearing me talk about them in the segment! I always enjoy meeting the different hosts for these TV shows when I go on. Some are more serious and some are more relaxed and like to joke around… like Mike and Chanel from this segment!

Love & Light,

Kimberly

Why Antiobiotics should ONLY Be a Very Last Resort, and How They Can Mess with Your Skin and Body

30 Replies

Hi Guys,

This time of year it is getting really chilly! Many of us are already coming into the season with compromised immune systems, as a result of pollution, chemical pesticides, additives and preservatives in the food supply, stress, lack of proper rest…and too many antibiotics!! I know it seems ironic and you’ve been told antibiotics should help you, there is more to the story. And just because you are not feeling well and your doctor may automatically urge you to fill out a prescription for antibiotics, I would think twice, and think carefully….

I am always shocked when I hear people casually mention, “I’m taking antibiotics to wipe out this flu I have.” Antibiotics are a BIG deal. Each and every time we are taking them, we have to think about it carefully. The remnants of these drugs can remain in the body for years and even decades. And in only TWO days of antibiotic use candida overgrowth can be precipitated in a susceptible person’s body.

The word “antibiotic” literally means “against life.” They kill not only disease-causing bacteria in the body, but also wipe out our friendly bacteria. The harmful bacteria in our bodies start to become overpopulated, and yeasts like Candida albicans can start to quickly grow. This is the perfect environment for them to mushroom their colonies!! You may not even know you have these growths in your body, but in varying degrees they can continue to the production of toxic waste products that circulate throughout the body, which poison and weaken both our immune and endocrine systems.

Guess how else we consume antibiotics? Through animal products! Factory farms widely feed steroids and growth hormones to chickens, beef, etc. to make them grow very quickly so they can be slaughtered quickly (and they can make more $$$$$). This is of course extremely unnatural, and all kinds of illnesses and sicknesses develop in the animals. The next step is to dose the animals with antibiotics so at least the illnesses won’t come to fruition and show before the farms have a chance to slaughter them and sell the meat— which is laden with steroids and hormones, which make us fat, and yes, antibiotics!!!

This is a very serious problem. Because antibiotics imbalance our bodies so much, over the longterm they can contribute to disruptions in our skin, including acne, rashes, psoriasis, fatigue, anxiety, terrible menstrual cramps, insomnia, chronic bloating, and more.

Well what can we do? Here are 3 immediate things:

1.    Take antibiotics ONLY when you absolutely must. A lot of times, your body can heal itself when you are taking care of it with proper food, fluids and rest. When I backpacked the world for 3 years (on a tiny budget!), sometimes sleeping on the floor in bus stations in China, tents across Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa, in smoke-filled gers across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, taking 16-hour bus rides in India crowded into the front part of the bus with the driver with 12 other people….my immunity system took a beating! There were a few times when I got sick, but I only took antibiotics once the whole time (and less than 5 times in my whole life). There were many other times when it was tempting, but I always took care of myself and many of the minor colds and sicknesses passed without the antibiotics- which would still be lodged in my body today had I given in!
I’m not saying never take them if you are truly ill, but remember that the body is an amazing piece of machinery that can heal itself from many things, if we give it the chance. Use your own discrimination and listen to your body.

2.    If you choose to eat meat or any other animal product, choose grass-fed and organic. This is true for eggs, and same thing if you consume any dairy products (which I highly recommend NOT doing!! If you do, the antibiotics in the
dairy are the least of the problems). It gets really iffy if you eat out at a lot of restaurants, so it is best to find some restaurants in your area that you like that you know for sure source their meat from reputable sources. You won’t be damaging your skin and body, and you will also not be contributing to the horrible system of cruelty, misery and pain that is what factory farming is.

3.    Take a daily probiotic on an empty stomach. When you wake up in the morning is good. This will help restore internal balance.

Best wishes for you to feel to your absolute best!!

xx Kimberly

6 Easy, Household Foods for Detoxing and Beauty for 2010

33 Replies

Hello my loves,
These 6 foods are very easy for you to incorporate into your diet regime. These foods will help elevate your beauty and promote detoxing and cleansing on an ongoing basis. Bring them into your life!

1.    Celery. The organic potassium in celery is an important electrolyte that helps facilitate cellular cleansing. An easy and inexpensive way to maintain ongoing detoxification and our ideal fluid levels! Snack on celery sticks, add to salads, or put into my Glowing Green Smoothie.

2.    Figs. An excellent blood purifier. Since blood transports nutrients to cells throughout the body and face, the cleaner the blood the more beautiful the skin. The tiny seeds in figs are not only packed with nutrients, they help draw out and dissolve waste, mucus, and toxins from the intestinal tract.  Raw and dried figs both give these great benefits.

3.    Açai. Greatly popularized in 2009, Acai’s importance continues into this new year. Açai is loaded with beneficial nutrients and antioxidants, including Omega 3 fatty acids, amino acids, minerals, key vitamins and fiber.  The Omega 3 fatty acids found in Açai maintain the structure and fluidity of cell membranes, facilitating the inflow of nutrients and the outflow of waste products, promoting youthful, smooth and radiant skin by keeping skin cells hydrated and strong.  Acai can be purchased frozen in health stores and made into smoothies.

4.    Almond Milk. A great alternative to dairy and soy milk, which are both difficult to digest and mucus-forming. Simply switching to this product for milk uses is an easy and great way to clear up skin and help make it more radiant, keep our sinuses clear, and increase energy.

5.    Onions. This everyday food has a considerable amount of sulfur, which helps cleanse the skin and liver and rebuild connective tissues like collagen. Onions are also an exceptional source of usable quercetin, which works to eliminate free radicals. Onions can help lower blood pressure. If they make you a bit nauseated because of their cleansing properties (or irritated for that matter, as they can fire up that Pitta dosha element in some of us), just got back a bit!

6. Sunflower seeds. These seeds contain all 8 essential amino acids, which our bodies need to obtain from food sources, and uses to manufacture the other 15 amino acids and build protein chains in our bodies.  We can and should derive our protein needs from plant sources at least for a percentage of our diet, even if we are not full vegetarians. Plant protein sources are easier for our bodies to assimilate, and do not make our bodies acidic, the way digesting animal protein does.

 

 

 

Here’s to having a fabulous start to 2010!!
xx Kimberly