Easy Steps to Look and Feel Fabulous
As a Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor, I work with women who overstressed or have problems with weight gain helping them get healthier and happier naturally.
I am always asked about some tips and I always say:ladies, to feel and look fabulous we need to eat more fiber(fruits, vegetables, grains) and less fat(in junk and processed foods).
There are also some general tips to feel and look better:
1. Drink more water.
Water should be purified and not from the plastic bottles or containers. How much water do we need? It depends on your bio-individuality. But simply breathing causes the loss of a significant quantity of water each and every day, depending on the climate in which you live and your level of physical exercise.
2. Eat the right foods.
Fiber. The indigestible parts of fruits, nuts, whole grains, beans and vegetables sweep toxins from your body and slow the speed at which your body absorbs sugars from food.
Healthy fats. Omega-3 fatty acids improve the metabolic function of every cell in your body, primary by reducing the inflammation. Increase your intake of fish, walnuts and ground flaxseed.
Fruits and vegetables and spices. Their phytonutrients - carotenoids in carrots, curcumin in turmeric help to turn on your metabolism at the cellular level and regulate hormones that help control appetite. These foods also contain high level of antioxidants, which as we know reduce inflammation.
3. Exercise/Sweat.
Resistance training builds muscle, and regular sustained movement support your thyroid, lowers inflammation and improves the rate at which insulin can move blood sugar in your cells-so there is more available as fuel and less sugar circulating in the blood to be turned into fat. Any form of exercise helps.
Sweat – detox/ cleans up your system. Your body excretes toxins and waste in perspiration. Regular exercise should make you sweat, but so will saunas and hot baths. Losing weight gradually -not crash dieting-will also help you prevent your blood stream from becoming a toxic dump.
4. Breathe.
Cortisol, the hormone your body produces when you are stressed, increases your appetite and promotes inflammation, reducing the body’s sensitivity to metabolic hormones. To reduce cortisol levels and normalize your metabolism, you must relax. Mind/body practices like yoga and tai chi can help reduce stress. But breathing is also effective. You have to be conscious of your breath for a few minutes every day. It relaxes and detoxifies your body.
5. Eat homemade food.
Learning to cook high quality food for yourselves and those you love can change everything.
6. Detox.
Part of the reason we all need to detox is that our bodies (especially our livers and kidneys) have become saturated with toxins that we have absorbed over time through the air we breathe, the fluids we drink and the food we eat. Toxins can be poisons, heavy metals, pesticides, fungicides, cleaning solvents, smog, and many substances that we don’t even know are leeching into our bodies via our clothing our furniture, and even out carpets. Many of the worst toxins we can ingest are put into our foods as additives, and preservatives, yet most of us aren’t aware of this.
Breathe smile and be happy.
Irina Wardas
Holistic Health and
Nutrition Counselor
http://www.NaturalCounselor.com
Comments
Thanks so much for those helpful tips. I appreciate the detail you provided as to WHY these steps are recommended. I've started implementing a few of these ideas over the years myself and have noticed improvement in my physical and mental health.
Did have a question about detox, though. What qualifies as detox and what are the healthiest ways to detox one's body?
Thanks again!
Detox is a relative term, because anything that supports elimination can be said to help us detoxify. As a matter of fact, our body cleanses itself by an absolutely natural process. If the body is working well with good immune and eliminative system, we can handle the basic every day exposure to toxins. But sometimes we need to change our dietary (healthier food choices) and lifestyle (clearing toxins by sweating, either from exercise or heat) habits to reduce intake of toxins and improve elimination.
I believe in power of whole foods, so for me the healthiest and easiest way to detox is to eat the right foods at the right time. But most of the time it is about what not to eat:-) I have designed eClass"Detox-101-Super Simple Detox" which can be very helpful for everybody who is interested in cleansing naturally.
Breathe, smile and be happy.
Irina Wardas
Holistic Health and
Nutrition Counselor
NaturalCounselor.com
Women's Health and Wellness Programs
Good advice, Irina!
There are many ways to detoxify the body including herbs, colonics, juice, bodywork, foot baths and more...it's a substantial and sometimes confusing list. The first consideration is your state of health. The second consideration is to choose what makes sense for you and fits your lifestyle. Also consider your energy output and climate/environment. Some plans can last up to a month. Detox foot baths are the least invasive, but have 3 contraindications - no pacemakers, no current pregnancy and no transplants. Colon health needs to be optimized. I'm not a fan of the maple syrup, lemon, cayenne pepper, water thing. There are much better plans that give much better results and you'll feel better and get better nutrition in the process. Ya gotta put the good stuff in while you take the bad stuff out. No starving!
It may be helpful to consult with a practitioner who is well versed in various detoxification methods to evaluate which is best for you. Be sure they take a comprehensive health intake first! They need to 'know' you and your health history to make good choices--No need to guess. They will be able to tell you when to build the system up vs. detoxification.
It's also important to be aware of the signs of cleansing before you start so you know what to expect when you feel 'differences'. It's not a bad thing. It's normal and your body's way of letting you know it's rebalancing itself while it rids itself of toxins.
Here's an LNH fave I'll share with you. You will need a juicer for this recipe. You don't have to spend a bundle...run to Costco and get a Jack LaLanne juicer for about $100. It works well and is easy to clean.
This is the best-loved juice for daily detoxification and is packed with nutrients crucial to optimizing good health. Because part of what you're detoxing is pesticides, herbicides, etc., all ingredients are organic:
• 3 large carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 1/3 beet
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 zucchini or cucumber
• 2 large apples with peel
• 1/3 fresh lemon with peel
Wash well and juice. Start with the carrots and end with the apples (which will clean the blades). Pour and enjoy! I've had people who've never eaten a vegetable in their life LOVE this juice. They feel great and eat less (or none) of the 'bad' foods they had been trying to eliminate but couldn't when they came to my office. They all have a boatload of praise reports for me when they come in for meetings...and they look better and better every week---their progress has been well-documented in pix!
The body, mind and spirit are all connected, so remember to detox the mind and spirit, too! Pray, meditate, hike, laugh with friends, take a class, breathe deeply, go to the gym, read a book, take yoga, have sex...whatever you like. You'll sleep better, too!
Kristin Mills, Traditional Naturopath, CNHP
lagunanaturalhealth.com
I've read conflicting opinions about detoxing, yet I've followed a detox plan at least 2x/year for the past several years, now. Mine is a liquid plan that involves drinking what sounds like a weird concoction, and rather spicy (the cayenne), and it's really hard to resist pizza, LOL!
But, my son and his girlfriend have recently completed a similar detox plan and they feel great. They've also tried that foot pad thing and think it works.
So, I can't say anything against the idea of detoxing; I feel better after doing it.
But, I'd also like your opinion on what constitutes a good detox.
First, people don't realize that we have to stop eating junk, sugars, processed foods, meet and dairy two weeks prior to any detox plan and then to incorporate them back into our diets gradually(the best way is to stop eating them at all). Otherwise we do more harm than good.
Second, everyone is different that is why diets don't work, because people try to do smth. that they don't like. The same is with detox. When I work with my clients, I help them find the right solutions based on their bio-individuality, so they like it and stick to it.
As for me, I always use only whole foods and herbs.
Breathe, smile and be happy.
Irina Wardas
Holistic Health and
Nutrition Counselor
NaturalCounselor.com
Women's Health and Wellness Programs
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