Eat Healthfully on a Budget

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I delight in opportunities to teach about fueling the body and supporting its ability to heal itself. In that setting, I often hear questions about how to buy organic foods and others deemed most healthful when on a budget.

I understand such a question. It can certainly appear that eating healthful foods is costly — but after a bit of evaluating I trust you will realize that eating healthy is absolutely possible on a budget. In fact, once you get the hang of it, it can be quite simple!

I’m going to share some of my tried-and-true tips on how to eat healthy without breaking the bank. Read more

Have You Explored the Roots?

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What is the normal pattern of your visits to the doctor? You notice symptoms and make an appointment. Once the doctor joins you in the exam room, he or she asks what your major complaint is, perhaps asking a few clarifying questions, and then offers a prescription to ease the symptoms.

If you were to equate the process with care of a tree, what part of the tree have you addressed? Read more

Is The Tissue Box Nearby?

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Spring is a beautiful time of year with trees bursting forth in fresh, green growth and flowers blooming in a rainbow of colors. For many of us, though, spring means excess mucus, itchy eyes and skin, and frustrating symptoms related to allergies.

As a child, I had plenty of challenges with allergies, including frequent breakouts in hives, swollen lips, and the more common runny nose and itchy eyes. No fun! Read more

Stoke the Fire and Fuel Your Cells

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stomach-acidThere are several avenues by which the outside world enters your body, including breathing, consuming liquids or solids through your mouth, and absorption through your skin. Digestion is involved when you eat or drink.

Digestion – like breathing – is a process we tend to take for granted, unless you notice signs that something’s amiss.

Have you felt the burn of acid reflux or GERD? Read more

Discover the Components of Sustainable Weight Loss

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Butt in Jeans
Two weeks into 2017 … how are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? Did your resolutions – like so many others’ – include an intention to lose weight? I’m going to go out on a limb and guessing that you aren’t having a great deal of success.

Now, I don’t doubt your intention or your efforts. Yet I do know something about how our bodies work. We women tend to focus on body size, or more specifically, on the number on our scale.

How long have you been fighting the battle? How many different plans have you followed – counting calories, skipping meals, depriving yourself, feeling hungry, and counting more calories? Yes, calories matter. But hormones matter more. Read more

Stoke the Fire in Your Gut

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stomach-acidIn prior articles, I have outlined the path that our food takes when we eat a bite. Starting with chewing, and then swallowing to send the food down the esophagus into the stomach, where it meets with stomach acid to aid in the next stages of digestion.

We aren’t aware of the intricate process that our food goes through once we swallow a bite. You may have heard the phrase “you are what you eat,” yet I would say that is not a complete statement. Simply eating doesn’t make the food become a part of you. It must be broken down into its constituent components – proteins into amino acids, carbohydrates into starches and glucose, and fats into fatty acids – in order for your body to absorb them. Read more

Edit Your Digestion – Chew!

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digestion-chartDoes your day revolve around the meals you eat, or is your schedule so tight that you give food little thought? Whatever your situation, you don’t likely put much thought into what happens as you eat.

That bite you take is just the beginning of digestion. Chewing the bite not only breaks up the food but mixes it with digestive juices. Swallowing sends the food down your esophagus into your stomach where it meets highly acidic stomach acid to continue the process of breaking the food down into constituents that can eventually be absorbed. When liquefied, the food (now called chyme) passes into the small intestine where it is joined by digestive enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder. The small intestine is where absorption begins, finishing in the colon before excretion of waste. Read more

Time to Change the Oil!

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1415890We’ve lived with messages promoting eating low-fat or fat free foods for decades. Saturated fats seem to have drawn the majority of disparaging remarks, and many doctors continue to echo the theory that they should be avoided, despite many studies disproving the idea.

Would you like to feel free to consume foods containing fat without fear that you will get fat? Read on, and I will share what fat sources are beneficial, what to avoid, and how to ensure that they are able to be used properly for fuel in your body. Read more

Edit Your Nutrients With Color

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Red-Fruits-And-Vegetables-300x130In my last newsletter we began to talk about the color of our foods. Have you noticed the colors on your plate more frequently since I brought up the subject?

Perhaps you have been adding more colors to your meals. If so, I’m delighted, and would love to hear what you have been eating and whether you can tell any difference in your energy level or taste.

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Edit the Colors on Your Plate

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purple-vegetablesThink back over the meals you ate over the past several days. Can you picture them in your mind? What colors were on your plate?

Why does that matter? Because the color of your food is an indicator of the nutrients that are provided. Contrary to popular opinion, nutrients are the reason you eat. At least that is what your body is seeking.
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