Individualized Optimal Nutrition Planning

Each of us has our own biochemical make up. No two of us are exactly the same. We can see this just by looking at one another, but that just scratches the surface. Our differences and unique individuality go far beneath the outer layer, penetrating all the way to our core. As we are each different, we each have different nutritional needs and optimal diet requirements. Without the proper nutritional intake we will succumb to minor sickness such as the cold, flu, allergies, low energy and weight issues as well as more major health problems such as arthritis, diabetes, ulcers, migraines, chronic fatigue, cancer, heart disease, stroke and more. We are facing a health crisis in this country. Living with a chronic issue or sickness is seen by many to still be living in health, while that is not the case. Optimal health is the absence of ALL symptoms, sickness and chronic problems as well as strong and lasting energy throughout the day, the absence of food cravings and sustained emotional balance. Living with pain, chronic problems or on prescription medication of any kind is not living in a state of health. An optimal diet is the foundation of any healthy lifestyle and the cornerstone of good and lasting health. It is what prevents or accelerates health issues and what gives us our basis for optimal health. Without a personalized optimal diet optimal health is not possible.

Ever day we are bombarded with “conflicting” nutritional information, fad diets, pressure and frustration to look and feel our best without knowing exactly how to make that happen. As I have worked with people it has become increasingly clear that diet standards and particular ways of eating are not only an out dated approach to health but just don’t work. It is common for most diets, fad diets such as the Zone or South Beach, to work for about 30-35% of the individuals on that particular diet, while failing for the remaining portion. Why is that? The answer to that question is found in bio-individuality. Bio-individuality is multi-faceted and includes how your body pH responds to your diet, if your body needs a higher percentage of protein or carbohydrates, what your mind and body constitutional make-up is and if there are any existing nutritional deficiencies or physical or mental weaknesses. There are certain nutrients you as a unique individual will need but there are also some foods that help to keep your body balanced and some that will throw you out of balance, there are ways of eating that will stabilize your blood sugar and body pH and others that will make you become acidic and will make your blood sugar tumble around like a roller coaster ride. Again the key is found in your individual biochemistry.

How do you know if your diet is working for you and if you have already created the optimal nutritional approach for yourself?  There are several key metrics that indicate your diet is working for you and that you are on the right track to strong and lasting health. These metric include:

• You have sustained and consistent energy levels throughout the entire day. You don’t have lulls, 2pm crashes or exhaustion by quitting time. You wake up feeling refreshed, renewed and ready to dive into a new day. You don’t feel cloudy or foggy. 


• You feel emotionally balanced and stable without intermittent feelings of being blue, depressed, irritated, angry, overly emotional or anxious. 


• You don’t have food cravings such as strong cravings for sweet, salty or fatty foods. 


• You easily stay or can return to your perfect weight without much struggle or thought. If you happen to gain a few pounds you easily loose it within the coming days. 


• Your body pH stays right around 7.46 without much deviation. 


• You feel calm, balanced and at peace. 


• You aren’t experiencing any health problems, even minor problems such as pain, skin problems, allergies, headaches, ect. 

To help my clients achieve their optimal health and to meet and sustain the above health metrics I have developed Individualized Optimal Nutrition Planning. With IONP you can now live and experience life as you were meant to with the highest levels of health, clarity and energy.

Through Individualized Optimal Nutritional Planning together we will create a nutritional approach and plan that:

• Helps you achieve and maintain the highest levels of energy. 


• Helps you feel and stay emotionally balanced. 


• Eliminates food cravings. 


• Takes and keeps you at your perfect balanced weight. 


• Keeps your body pH optimal. 


• Helps you feel balanced and calm. 


• Eliminates and prevents ALL symptoms and health issues.


• Teaches you to shop and cook for optimal health. 


• Assesses your kitchen and prepares you for providing only the highest level of nutrition to you and your family.  

Through Individualized Optimal Nutritional Planning we will monitor your body pH as a means of discovering your optimal diet. You will also be taught how to monitor your own body pH which is one of the best indicators of good and long term health. You will learn the proper combination and proportions of proteins, fats and carbohydrates specific to your bio-individuality which will play a key role in meeting the above goals. You will learn your mind and body constitutional make up and the types of foods that best suit your constitution for optimal health and balance. You will discover any underlying nutritional deficiencies and work to restore areas of deficiency.

Included in your IONP is a:

• Complete Individualized Optimal Nutrition Plan with 3 one-on-one 60 minute sessions. 


• Personal one-on-one organic cooking and live food un-cooking class in your own home! I will come to your home and teach you the basics of live and organic food preparation and cooking. After which you will have a strong base of knowledge of how to prepare and make foods that are living, whole and have the highest nutritional value! 


• Complete kitchen assessment where we will assess your current kitchen offerings, set-up and you will learn how to turn your kitchen into a Natural Health and Healing Mecca, increasing and maintaining the highest levels of health for you and your entire family!  


• One-on-one grocery store tour. Together we will make a trip to the local natural grocer where you will learn how to shop organic and natural, how to read labels, the health contributions and benefits of various foods and learn about foods that seem foreign to the Western diet but are oh so healthy!

Contact us today to start your very own Individualized Optimal Nutrition Plan!

My Favorite Juicing Receipes

Drinking live fruit and vegetable juices is an important element to the most healthful of diets. Juicing fresh organic fruits and vegetables is beneficial to your health for so many reasons. Some of the most important include:

• Live juices work to flush the cells, organs and systems within the body with living and active nutrients and enzymes. This helps the cells to release stored toxins and to provide them with the living material needed to grow and repair effectively. 


• You can intake a larger quantity of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes through drinking the juice then you would ever be able to eat alone. 


• Juices are a raw food and helps you to meet your body and mind's need for 80% of your diet living and raw for maximum vitality and living. 


• Fresh fruit and vegetable juices are alkalizing to the body which helps to restore and maintain healthy body pH which is essential to good and lasting health.


• Because the enzymes and nutrients within the juice are active and alive the body can put them right into use without any digestive energy. Living juices add energy back to the body instead of taking away from it. 

Here are some extra yummy and unique juicing recipes to help get you started. I recommend my client's get 2-3 glasses of living juices a day for optimal health....


Green Peace
8-10 Green Leaves (kale, spinach, lettuce)
Spirulina or chlorella
Kelp Powder
Turnip or beet greens
Cilantro
Parsley
Green Apple
Lemon
Fresh Ginger Root

Pineapple Express
2 Cucumbers
¼ Pineapple
2 limes

Electrolyte Mix
Coconut Water
Lemon
Limes
Pinch of sea salt

Grapefruit Divine
Grapefruit
Fresh mint
Agave nectar

Beet by Any Other Name
Beet
Oranges
Apples (any kind)
Cinnamon
Agave Nectar

The Jack Lalanne
Carrot
Celery
Beet leaves and tops
Parsley
Lettuce
Spinach
Tomatoes
Sea Salt

Asian Pear
Asian Pears
Lemongrass
Celery
Agave Nectar

Twisted Carrot
Carrot
Celery
Green Apple
Mango

Green Goddess
Spinach
Kale
Celery
Lemon
Parsley
Gingerroot
Green Apple

Potassium Plus
Spinach
Parsely
Celery
Carrots

Passionate Melon
Cantaloupe
Passion Fruit
Grapes

Drink to Good Health! 

Why Raw?

A raw food diet consists of uncooked or processed fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and seeds or any other food that is kept in its natural state. Raw foods are those that have not been cooked over 110-120 degrees which preserves the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and oxygen in the living food. A raw food is the most natural and healthy way for humans to consume food. That is why I am taking the Raw Food 30 Day challenge. For the next 30 days I will eat only raw foods. I will share my journey along the way for others that may be interested in giving it a try. Here are my top 6 reasons to Go Raw! 

1. Essential Vitamins & Minerals - Food has essential vitamins and minerals that our bodies, minds and spirits need to function at the highest levels of being. Vitamins and minerals are small messengers each with different messages to tell within our bodies. Vitamins fall into two categories: fat soluble and water soluble. The fat-soluble vitamins — A, D, E, and K — dissolve in fat and can be stored in your body. The water-soluble vitamins — C and the B-complex vitamins (such as vitamins B6, B12, niacin, riboflavin, and folate) — need to dissolve in water before your body can absorb them. Because of this, your body can't store these vitamins. Any vitamin C or B that your body doesn't use as it passes through your system is lost. So you need a fresh supply of these vitamins every day. Whereas vitamins are organic substances (made by plants or animals), minerals are inorganic elements that come from the soil and water and are absorbed by plants. Vitamins and minerals allow our bodies and minds to perform the hundreds and thousands of tasks they carry out on a daily basis. Without them we begin to become deficient. Any deficiency is extreme for the body as it cannot carry out the tasks needed in a healthy manner without the needed vitamin or mineral. The body is amazing though and will compensate for the deficiency often by pulling reserves from other places within the body or by taking away from less vital organs, systems and processes. Less vital however still very important! For instance if digestion is even remotely degraded we stop extracting, assimilating and excreting in the most healthy way. All areas are degraded. Over time a vitamin and mineral deficiency can add up to tremendous health problems. Because of the way we process and eat our foods here in the US we see a huge number of people deficient in needed vitamins and minerals. We often eat very little nutrient dense foods and the ones we do manage to get into our diet are cooked and processed. Cooking and processing food degrades their vitamin and mineral content many times by leeching the vitamins and minerals out of the food and into the water in which the food is being cooked. High heat further kills and degrades the vitamins and minerals. So by the time we ingest the food the vitamin and mineral content is poor to minimal. Refining also further degrades the vitamin and mineral content. Take bread for instance, the process in which bread is made strips the grain of its most nutritional out layer and leaves a grain that is difficult for our digestive system to utilize or pass. 


2. Fiber - Cooking also degrades the fiber content of foods. The rough outer layer of most vegetables is an indigestible form of fiber that is much needed by the body to keep the digestive tract and colon cleaned and cleansed. One of the leading reasons we see such high cancer rates of the colon and other digestive organs is because of our lack of fiber ingestion and its regular cleansing effects. Indigestible fiber comes in the form of roughage, the state in which most vegetables grow from the Earth. Eating these vegetables in their natural form is what is most healthy and cleansing to our bodies. It also helps to clean cholesterol out of our blood. 


3. Enzymes - What are enzymes? Dr. Edward Howell, one of the leading researchers in enzyme therapy, stays “Enzymes are substances which make life possible.” They are needed for every chemical reaction that occurs in the body. From digestive processes to neurotransmitter function in the brain. Enzymes are active substance that are catalysts, they make the function occur. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that cooked and processed foods contain few, if any, enzymes. Enzymes are destroyed when food is cooked at a high heat and through the packaging and preparation we typically see in the food industry. Living foods, raw foods, in other wards foods that have not under gone any cooking or processing of any kind, the food in its Natural state, contains active living enzymes. When we ingest these living enzymes our body is able to readily and immediately put them into action. When we ingest foods that are dead or do not have any living enzymes our body then is required to make its own enzymes which takes energy away from other processes. When we take in active enzymes from living foods our bodies are able to correct enzyme imbalance, integrate living enzymes and overall increase the efficiency of digestion and other enzyme dependent processes. 


4. Probiotics - Probiotics are all the rage right now but there is little understanding as to why that is. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria. They help our intestinal tract make vitamins, processes nutrients and rid the body of bad bacteria, germs and parasites. Because our food system is infiltrated with the use of antibiotics our bodies have become filled with second hand antibiotics. Antibiotics are good at killing the bad bacteria but it also destroys all living and beneficial bacteria in the body. Without a new input of beneficial bacteria our body can remain depleted. Raw foods include bacteria and other micro-organisms that affect the immune system and digestion by populating the digestive tract with beneficial gut flora, beneficial bacteria. These are generally killed by cooking. Through eating living and raw foods you help to keep your good bacteria in balance and healthy. 


5. Cleansing - Even if we follow the very best of diet and lifestyle practices we are living in a highly toxic and polluted environment. Eating inorganic foods that are heavily laden with toxic herbicides and pesticides, breathing air that is filled with petro chemicals, drinking ground water that is containment by our own waste and toxic byproducts and living in environments that are stressful takes a toll on our body especially the organs of elimination. Eating and drinking raw foods and juices helps to flush the cells and organs with highly nutrient dense activities living nutrients. This encourages the cells to release stored toxins and build healthy new cells. 


6. Heal & Restore - The human body is made to function at optimal levels of health at all times. The body isn't able to self heal any longer when the system becomes too deficient in needed nutrients or it becomes so over toxified that essential processes cannot function. When sickness or unwanted symptoms begin to appear we know we have become deficient or too toxic. Raw living foods help to restore and correct both deficiency and toxicity. First it supplies the body with the highest level of vitamins, minerals, nutrients and enzymes and at the same times flushes the cells and organs helping the body to remove toxic build up. Once these two areas are addressed the body is able to initiate self healing and corrective measures. Disease cannot exist where there is balance. Raw foods help to bring balance to the body and mind. They also help to balance weight, restore health and reverse unwanted sickness, disease and conditions. 

This free video on YouTube has a detailed and amazing explanation of the Raw Food Lifestyle and the befits to your body, mind and soul! 


Raw for Life


Blessings of Health!

Food PH Chart - Most Alkaline and Acidic Foods

I talked recently about the importance of knowing your personal pH and monitoring the alkalinity level of your body to maintain long term vibrant health and well being and to avoid degenerative diseases and pain. 


I found the following web page to give great continued information of this topic and to provide a detailed and easy to use chart of acidic and alkaline foods.... 



Balanced body chemistry is of utmost importance for the maintenance of health and correction of disease. Acidosis, or over-acidity in the body tissues, is one of the basic causes of many diseases, especially the arthritic and rheumatic diseases.


All foods are "burned" in the body--more commonly called "digested"-- leaving an ash as the result of the "burning", or the digestion. This food ash can be neutral, acid or alkaline, depending largely on the mineral composition of the foods. Some foods leave an acid residue or ash, some alkaline. The acid ash (acidosis) results when there is a depletion of the alkali reserve or the diminution in the reserve supply of fixed bases in the blood and the tissues of the body.


It is, therefore, vitally important that there is a proper ratio between acid and alkaline foods in the diet. The natural ratio in a normal healthy body is approximately 4 to 1 -- four parts alkaline to one part acid, or 80% to 20%. When such an ideal ratio is maintained, the body has a strong resistance against disease. In the healing of disease, when the patient usually has acidosis, the higher the ratio of alkaline elements in the diet, the faster will be the recovery. Alkalis neutralize the acids. Therefore in the treatment of most diseases it is important that the patient's diet includes plenty of alkaline-ash foods to offset the effects of acid-forming foods and leave a safe margin of alkalinity.


A healthy body usually keeps large alkaline reserves which are used to meet the emergency demands if too many acid-producing foods are consumed. But these normal reserves can be depleted. When the alkaline-acid ratio drops to 3 to 1, health can be seriously menaced. Your body can function normally and sustain health only in the presence of adequate alkaline reserves and the proper acid-alkaline ratio in all the body tissues and the blood.
For optimum health and maximum resistance to disease, it is imperative that your diet is slightly over-alkaline. The ideal ratio, according to the world's foremost authority on the relationship between the acid-alkaline ratio in the diet in health and disease, Dr. Ragnar Berg, is about 80% alkali-producing foods and 20% acid-producing foods.


Below are tables of common foods with an approximate potential acidity or alkalinity, as present in one ounce of food....


http://www.alkaline-alkaline.com/ph_food_chart.html#



THRIVE!!!

7 Key Strategies for Superior Health

Staying healthy encompasses so much more then just not being sick. True health gives one the ability and foundation for living life with the highest levels of awareness, consciousness and Being. Vibrant health should make you shine! When you are vibrantly healthy your mind is clear, creativity flows and you are able to accomplish and achieve your personal destiny. Each of us has a unique and special purpose in this life but when our health is not optimal we cannot achieve all we were meant to. Here are my top 7 strategies for Superior Health!

1. Listen To Your Body. Eat when you are hungry and stop when it says it has had enough. Eat until you feel satisfied but not until you feel full. When you are done eating you should feel light and full of energy. Gaze rather then gorge, eating little things often, or eat larger meals with small snacks in between, it depends on what your body needs and it will probably change frequently. Listening to your body takes time and practice only because we have become so far removed from our bodies and their natural innate wisdom. The body is highly intelligent and it knows when to eat, what to eat, when to sleep, when to be active and what activities it prefers if you know how to listen. A good place to start is to monitor your energy levels. A healthy and whole body has clear and clean energy that is consistent all day. Becoming tired after meals, mid afternoon or upon rising are all good signs that something is out of balance and not functioning optimally. It is important to be able to hear your body especially in times of need. If something goes wrong in your body you want to be the first to know and to know before it turns into something very big. The more connected you are to your body the better able you are to hear and feel when things start to veer off even ever so slightly. Spending time checking in with your body through meditative practice, yoga or other forms of self awareness can help you re-connect to your internal wisdom and teach you how to hear your body's needs.

2. Eat a Mainly Uncooked Animal Product Free Diet. Eat foods as raw and unprocessed as possible. Foods eaten in their natural state or closest to their natural state are the most healthful. Cooked foods do not do as well in the body energetically nor do they provide the mineral, vitamin, enzyme or photochemical content that living foods are able to provide. Cooking foods degrades their natural state, healthful fibers and plant materials that our bodies need for healthy maintenance and cleaning. In addition cooking changes the molecular structure of many foods and turns them into substances our bodies cannot utilize or in some cases are toxic to the body. If it isn't broken don't fix it is a good motto to keep in mind when choosing foods. Nature already knows what it is doing with the foods it naturally provides for us. When we start messing with a foods natural state we start to get into health trouble. Animal products are highly acidic which can throw off our natural body pH and are also difficult for the body to process and utilize. Animal products are especially taxing on the digestive body systems and can lead to their deterioration. Animal products also have very poor vitamin and mineral ratios for the human body which leads to deficiencies and excesses within the body both of which contribute to lower levels of health and well being.

3. Don't Ingest Chemicals or man-made concoctions of any kind. This includes "food" items. If the food you are about to put into your body has any ingredients you can't pronounce or you don't readily know, don't eat it. Buy only organic foods. There is much controversy, mostly started by big farming business, as to whether or not organic is really better. Organic is far superior for several reasons. One, organic farming is conscious farming. Organic farmers care about the foods they produce, so much love and time goes into how their plants are grown. Second, organic farmers do not use toxic chemicals. Mass farming uses a plethora of chemical concoctions on the foods they grow and in the soil. Not only do these chemicals get put on the outside of the foods but they also go into the soil and into the plant's cell structure (not to mention our and our animals drinking sources). The cell structure is altered in the chemically treated plant and also in its seeds, so future generations of the plant are also effected. Using chemicals on plants and soils also disturbs the natural environmental balance (weather, bugs, everything!). Lastly non-organic farming soil is severally depleted of much needed trace minerals. The human body is in need of these trace minerals and when they aren't provided through the ground our food is grown in our bodies become deficient over time. Buying local is best as you not only support your local community but you know how your food was grown and cared for.

4. Eat With The Seasons. This may take some time and practice but is the most healthy and natural way to eat. Our bodies are deeply intertwined with the rhythms of nature. Foods grow and are ready to eat at the times are bodies are ready to eat them. There is wisdom deeply rooted within nature's cycles. Our bodies function best when in alignment with Nature's rhythms. Because we have grown so accustomed to just popping into our local mass supermarket and buying produce that is grown in unnatural conditions year round, we may not even know what types of foods are in season and when. The best place to start is to find a local working farm where you can begin buying your produce. They will sell what has just been picked and you will begin to grow accustomed to what foods grow when and can tailor your eating accordingly.

5. Eat a Variety of Foods and Plants. The human body completes and carries out a large number of diverse and various processes within each and every moment. To efficiently and effectively carry out these processes a wide range of different types of substances are needed by the body. Some substances the body needs for these processes are made by the body from the substances we ingest and others the body cannot make at all and is entirely dependent on our intake of these substances. Here in the US we use a tremendous amount of corn and wheat in our food products. Almost every food product sold contains these 2 ingredients because they are cheap to grow and can be "morphed" into a variety of different types of products. That is entirely too much corn and wheat for the body to process and utilize which is why we see the rise of individuals who are gluten intolerant or have food allergies. Our bodies are sick and tired of corn and wheat and crave a much wider range of foods! Your body needs variety for the variety of processes it must carry out. It needs the greens, the reds, the oranges, the blues, the yellows. All of these different types of foods hold different types of minerals, vitamins and energetic components. You body needs them all! If you are sticking to just a couple of different food types it is very easy to become deficient in all the other things your body needs. Change up your foods daily to keep a good supply of all the nutrients your body needs coming in.

6. Find Natural Ways to Heal Your Body. Don't rely on aspirin, Tylenol, or ibuprofen to treat reoccurring headaches, aches or pains for example. Don't run to the doctor or take prescriptions pills to treat health problems. Drugs or surgery are needed in a very small number of cases and only when it is the only viable treatment option usually in emergency or acute type situations. If you are experiencing health symptoms there is a reason. Your body is sending out the symptom as a call to you for attention. "Something is wrong and you need to take notice!" Your body is alerting you to where the problem is, giving you clues as to what the problem may be and asking you to fix it. When you take a drug to "relieve" the symptom or cut out the organ or system that is having issues you have done nothing to resolve the problem, in fact you have just made it worse. You have covered up the signal your body sent you and then further degraded the body by ingesting man made chemicals that are hard for your body to process and throw other areas out of balance or cut out a vital piece of your being. Side effects from drugs are none other then new symptoms appearing from your body being thrown out of balance in a different direction. Instead of entering this vicious and non-healing cycle find the root of the problem and resolve the issue. Your body naturally heals itself. If healing is not happening on its own there is something hindering that healing, a block. It is important to discover what the block is and remove it. Then your body will heal itself naturally and completely. Find a holistic or natural practitioner that really knows and understands the deeper level workings of the body and can assist you in finding these blocks and naturally removing them.

7. Be Active. Life is an active enterprise and keeping both your body and mind active is essential to superior health. Activity helps to clear the body and mind of stress and move through any blocks whether physical, mental or emotional that may be present. It also keeps you connected and engaged to life while increasing strength, flexibility, resilience and resistance to disease, injury and pain. Being active can take on a variety of forms. Most importantly is to find activities that stimulate both your body and mind that are enjoyable, pleasurable and bring a sense of calm and happiness when complete. After an activity you should have a sense of having more energy rather then less. Even if you are tired, on an energetic level you should feel renewed.

These simple 7 strategies can help keep your health in tip-top shape and help to prevent many of the health pitfalls us Americans tend to fall into. Most importantly is to find lifestyle practices that work best for you. Your health and well being are unique to only you as is the journey to finding that place of perfect health and balance.

Enjoy the journey!