1. Don’t hit the party hungry, otherwise you’ll overeat. Try to have something before you go. Try some healthy protein and an apple.

2. Incorporate exercise into your travel plans. Bring easy to carry exercise equipment along with you on the trip such as a resistance band or workout videos.

3. Pick healthy foods for your holiday menu (check out her “7 Simple Food Swaps to Keep You Slim” listed below.)

4. Make exercise a holiday event! Play touch football with your family, do a jingle run, or go for a walk with your kids.

5. De-emphasize food! Put the buffet table or appetizers away from where everyone is sitting.

6. Stay hydrated!

7. Remember the rest of the holiday season will be jam-packed with opportunities to overeat. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a New Years resolution, so start your diet today!

7 Simple Food Swaps to Keep You Slim:

1. Swap white meat for dark meat.

2. Eat brown rice instead of biscuits.

3. Choose steamed vegetables or salad over a casserole.

4. Try a baked sweet potato versus eating candied yams.

5. Indulge in fruit or fruit salad over a fruit pie.

6. Stick to vodka soda or red organic wine as opposed to beer.

7. Drink 20 ounces of water 20 minutes before you eat instead of not drinking nothing.

There are two types of stress groups 1) acute 2) chronic. Acute stress happens when there is an unpleasant experience, overstimulation/work overload, unexpected or uncontrollable noise, prestige or status loss, electric shock, uncontrollable situations, physical illness etc. Chronic stressors include sleep deprivation, daily “hassles”, work overload or underload, role strains, or social isolation. Emotionally, stress can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety, and anger.

Some people may cope well with stress, rising to the challenge and meeting their goals. Others may be more adversely affected by stressors, leading to mental as well as physical fatigue.

In order to understand these changes, I must first introduce you to the immune system. The immune system protects the body from disease organisms and other foreign bodies, known as antigens. The first line of defense is local barriers such as the skin, peritoneum, etc, and inflammation due to immunoglobulins, or antibodies. If those fail to block or destroy the antigens, the cell-mediated immune response and the humoral immune response kick in. The cell-mediated response uses sensitized T cells (white blood cells derived in the thymus) to recognize, attach to, and render antigens inactive. Other types of T cells, helper T cells, which aid in production of antibodies by B (bone marrow) cells, and suppressor/cytotoxic. Helper T cells are also known as CD4 cells, and suppressor T cells are known as CD8 cells (Glaser, Anderson & Anderson, 1992).

There are two general types of stress groups: those who are “high reactors”, and those who are “low reactors”. High reactors are significantly affected by stress, as shown by a significant increase in heart rate, blood pressure, catecholamines, and CD8 cells. Low reactors show little or no change in those areas (Manuck, et al, 1991).

Catecholamines are chemicals produced by the body that work in nerve transmission. The three main catecholamines include dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Dopamine raises the heart rate and blood pressure, epinephrine raises heart rate and opens blood vessels (lowering blood pressure), and norepinephrine closes blood vessels (raising blood pressure) (Glaser, Anderson & Anderson, 1992). Epinephrine and norepinephrine are the catecholamines most commonly measured in stress experiments, and both increase under stress. Increases such as these can suppress aspects of immune function, including natural killer cell (cells that attack antigens without having recognized them first) activity. Increases in catacholemines may also rapidly alter cell numbers via redistribution (Naliboff, et al, 1991). In fact, changes in epinephrine levels are thought to reflect lymphocyte migration from bone marrow, the extremities, and the thymus (Kiecolt-Glaser, et al, 1992) to other areas of the body.

How do these chemical changes influence disease? It is well known that asthma, diabetes, various gastro-intestinal disorders, heart disease and viral infections are influenced by stress. When the immune system is suppressed, as it is under stress, latent viruses can obviously stage a comeback. In asthma, a disease which involves both external and internal factors, it is the internal factor that is most affected by acute effects of psychological stressors. Diabetes mellitus, the most common form of diabetes, is significantly affected by stress. Physical or psychological stressors can alter insulin needs; stressors may often be responsible for episodes of loss of control, especially in diabetic children.

There are many diseases like gastrointestinal disease, people with ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and emotional diseases – that are affected by stress.  So what can you do to adjust your life and your child’s life to overcome these chronic and acute (unavoidable) stressors.

Here is a short list of nutritional things you can do to balance your body systems and prepare yourself to have a low reactive response to stress:

1) Start using 2 tsp of Cod liver oil in a little plain yogurt, add healthy sweetener to it and take this at the start of the day.

2) Take 1 tsp of supa-boost. with water at bedtime improve immune system, balance nervous system, improve sleep quality , and decrease nervous jitters. It is also known for immediately helping someone cope with anxiety. Take 1/2 tsp with 1 little juice or water when you fell most anxious in the day. This product is one of our best sellers.  It works effortlessly on any chronic condition.

3) Follow proper food combining outlined in “Health Search & Rescue” try having a light breakfast with fruits and raw nuts, followed by a light mid-morning snack (maybe the cod liver oil and yogurt). Then have a protein at lunch and finish your day by eating a starch like oatmeal or brown rice at dinner. This will calm your nerves down and allow you to sleep.

4) Avoid foods that have natural flavors, sugar, aspartame, artificial colors etc. These are neuro and excito-toxins that can cause a flair up of ill feelings, physical and emotion stress.

5) Having a fool proof source of remedies and foods that can be customized for your family.  Feel free to contact us at 303.656.1991 to set up an appointment today.

In conclusion, psychological stress does have a significant affect on the immune system. You can’t fully avoid the daily stressors of life but you can adjust your food lifestyle so that stress has much less affect on your life.

1. Using a shower filter by naturally filtered™ is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce harmful exposure to chlorine, toxic hormones, and other chemicals.
2. Showering in naturally filtered water results in greater respiratory health by reducing the risk of asthma and bronchitis from chlorine inhalation.
3. Showering in chlorine-free naturally filtered™ water decreases the risks of bladder and breast cancer.
4. Children, who are particularly at risk of the harmful effects of chlorine inhalation, benefit especially from the removal of chlorine from showering water.
5. As chlorine is a leading cause of fatigue, showering in naturally filtered™, chlorine-free water results in higher energy levels and overall greater health.
6. Removing chlorine from showering water results in better air quality throughout the house.
7. Without the drying effects of chlorine, skin becomes softer, healthier, and younger looking.
8. Removing chlorine from showering water immediately reduces the presence of skin rashes, skin wrinkle and allows deep hydration to penetrate the skin, while increasing
9. Because the hair is able to preserve its natural moisturizing oils, it becomes softer and healthier when chlorine is removed from showering water.
10. When the body is able to retain its natural moisturizers, the need for costly lotions and moisturizers is greatly reduced.

Many cereals, breads, bagels, pancake mixes and muffins imply they contain real blueberries either by using the word “blueberries” on the front of the box or by showing prominent pictures of blueberries on the product packaging. But the ingredients list reveals many of these products contain no blueberries at all. Instead, they are often made out of artificial coloring chemicals, partially-hydrogenated oils and processed sugars. Instead of delivering the nutrients that people expect to enjoy when they eat real blueberries, these “fake blueberry” products deliver chemicals and processed sugars.

If you have purchased a “fake blueberry” product from Kellogg’s, General Mills or other food company, Finkenstein Thompson LLP wants to hear from you as part of their investigation. You may call (877) 800-1450 or email them at contact@finkelsteinthompson.com

More information is available at:
http://www.finkelsteinthompson.com/…

“We believe consumers are likely to be misled into purchasing and eating these products based on the pictures of blueberries or the word ‘blueberries’ on the front of the packaging of these products,” said Rosemary M. Rivas, an attorney with Finkelstein Thompson LLP, which has represented consumers’ rights for over a decade. “Ultimately, we want these deceptive and misleading marketing practices to stop, and enable consumers to make informed decisions when it comes to the food they purchase and eat. We applaud the Consumer Wellness Center’s efforts in investigating and ultimately bringing this issue to the center of national media.”

If you haven’t seen the “Blueberry Deception” video that exposes the fake blueberries used in many cereals, bread mixes and other products, you can view it at: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=7EC06…

The fake blueberry fiasco also led to a satire video (comedy skit) recorded by the Health Ranger, called, “General Mills Total Mind Games,” viewable at: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=85151…

Learn more about the Finkelstein Thompson LLP investigation at http://www.finkelsteinthompson.com/…

I would love to make an appointment and come see you and just check in. Not just to catch up, but also to have you assess where I am right now, and maybe give me some pointers and advice for following in your footsteps and learning from you.

You are a total inspiration to me and if it wasn’t for you, I would still be messing around, instead of having the guts to reach my goals.

- Dani Girl

One more quick question – what digests better – almond butter or avocado?

You rock!

- Sabra Woodcock

- Dawn Kirkwood

Every plant-based food that grows from the earth produces a specific biological action that manifests health and strength within you. When specific foods like ginger and garlic are added to the diet, your body boosts its natural immune system function while reducing cholesterol, stress, pain, inflammation, allergies, osteoarthritis, and much more.

Let’s talk about the healing propertied found in an apple:

APPLES help moisten dryness in the lungs, protect the lungs from cigarette smoke, have a beneficial effect on low blood sugar conditions, and stimulate appetite. Apples help the body overcome indigestion, due in part to the presence of malic and tartic acids, which inhibit the growth of fermented food and disease-producing bacteria in the digestive tract. They also contain pectin, which removes cholesterol, toxic metals (such as lead and mercury), and radiation contamination. Apples and their juice are cleansing for the liver and gallbladder and help to soften gallstones.

Suggested uses: Eat and organic apple each day with some raw cashews or almonds, slice up apple and add them into salads.

Charoset Recipe

Note:  Charoset is a traditional Passover dish.

It also makes for a great breakfast on crackers or toasted sprouted grain bread.

Ingredients:

3                    apples, cored and grated
1 cup           walnut pieces
¾ cup         apricots, chopped
1 TBSP        lemon zest
1 ½ tsp      ground cinnamon
1 tsp            ground nutmeg
3 tsp             lemon juice
½ cup         honey
½ cup         raisins
4 TBSP         sweet red wine or pineapple juice

Preparations:
Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Cover and chill. Serves 5.