Detox Diary: Day 2

The second day of the detox was definitely a little tougher for me. Not only did I feel more tired and a little grumpy, but it always makes it harder on the weekend. It also didn't help that we did some shopping at Whole Foods with all the free samples just teasing me. But I am drinking my last shake of the day and feeling good about the healthy eating today.

I wrote about drinking the fruit shakes yesterday and mentioned that there are 2 scoops of the SP Complete powder in them. Well, here is what is in the SP Complete...

Flax Meal Powder
Brown Rice Protein Powder
Buckwheat Juice Powder
Brussel Sprouts Powder
Kale Powder
Choline
Inositol
Barley Grass Juice Powder
Alfalfa Powder
Soybean Lecithin
Calcium
Carrot Powder
Grape Seed Extract
Red Wine Extract
Whey Protein

These natural, whole food ingredients help to support healthy cardiovascular, digestive, and nervous system function and deliver powerful antioxidant protection to promote cellular health.

Here was my menu for today:

Breakfast: Fruit shake with blueberries and mango.

7 SP Cleanse Pills

Mid-Morning snack: A pear and some home-made sweet potato chips (sliced sweet potato brushed with olive oil and baked). Green tea.

Lunch: Boiled collard greens with sea salt and butter and a big salad with lots of veggies and the olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing.

7 SP Cleanse pills

Mid-Afternoon snack: Some grapes and some more sweet potato chips.

Dinner: Home-made soup with organic vegetable broth, beets, carrots, kale, broccoli, onion, brussel sprouts, garlic, and sea salt.

7 SP Cleanse pills

After Dinner: Fruit shake with blueberries and mango.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the detox.

See you tomorrow!

Live Well.

Detox Diary: Day 1

In general, I would consider myself a good eater. I am definitely not perfect, but my wife and I focus on eating a lot of organic foods and getting a good variety of fruits and vegetables every day. I tend to eat good during the week and then splurge a little on the weekend with a pizza or a burger or some ice cream and maybe some wine or beer. So the detox is definitely a little challenging for me, but it really does help to refocus my brain and body.

In previous posts, I have talked about the 21-day purification/detox program that I offer to my patients. You can read some more about it here. I like to do the program 1-2 times per year to help detox my liver, clean up my gut, increase my energy, and just get me back on track with eating better. And it is always nice to lose a few pounds in the process. Well, I started the detox today and I plan to describe my first week to give you an idea of what I am eating and how I am feeling. I just got over a pretty good 2-day cold, so it is good timing for the detox.

I did all my shopping yesterday and bought all organic fruits and vegetables. (The first 10 days of the detox is only fruits and vegetables.) I also spent about an hour chopping and preparing all the veggies, so that can just put together a meal quickly each day.

Breakfast: Fruit shake. (I actually have this for my breakfast when I am not doing the detox)

Fruit Shake:

1/2 cup filtered water
1/2 cup organic unfiltered apple juice
1/2 cup frozen organic blueberries
1/2 cup frozen organic spinach
1/2 organic banana
2 rounded scoops of SP Complete Powder (included in the detox kit)
1 Tablespoon of Whole Food Fiber (included in detox kit)
1 teaspoon fish oil

Mixed in a blender

With the shake, I took 7 of the SP Cleanse pills (included in the detox kit).

Before lunch: Pear and some carrots. Green tea and filtered water.

Lunch: Big salad with romaine lettuce, kale, broccoli, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, and alfalfa sprouts. Dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, tumeric, and sea salt.

7 SP Cleanse pills

Afternoon: More carrots and an apple. Filtered water.

Dinner: Spaghetti squash topped with tomato paste, broccoli, zucchini, onions, sea salt and organic butter.

7 SP Cleanse pills

After dinner: Fruit Shake with blueberries and mango.

How I am feeling:

Usually the first 3 days I tend to feel a little tired. Today, I had a lot of energy, but this could be do to me just getting over my cold and getting a lot of sleep the last 2 nights. I did not feel too hungry. Believe it or not the 7 SP Cleanse pills three times in a day help to fill you up. I will get into what is in the pills and the shakes over the next couple days. Just know that it is made up of real, whole foods such as juniper berry, buckwheat juice, barley grass, and others.

Continued tomorrow...

Live Well.

Fight Inflammation

Now that you know how inflammation can effect the body, let's go over what causes this inflammation and what we can do about it. Like so many other things, it all comes back to diet and exercise. Our society is surrounded by inflammatory foods. Processed foods, sugars, soda, white flour (bread, pasta), hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils, etc. These can all have a direct effect on increasing our blood sugar and insulin levels as well as creating free radicals in the system which can damage healthy tissue. If we looked back at our ancestors, we would see the women out gathering fruits and vegetables, while the men were hunting and fishing for the meat. Their diets consisted of fresh fruits and vegetables and meat and fish. Is it a coincidence that the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other diseases has drastically increased over the years with poorer nutrition?

I'm sure you have heard it a hundred times before, but so many health issues can be helped through a better diet and some regular exercise. Well, the same holds true for helping to avoid inflammation in your body. The closer you can eat to how our ancestors once ate, the better off you will be. One of the best ways to combat the inflammatory and free radical damage in your body is through phytonutrients and anti-oxidants which are found primarily in fruits and vegetables. Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you would like throughout the day. Just remember that fruit contains a lot of sugar and vegetables tend to have more beneficial phytonutrients, so try to eat more veggies than fruit. As far as meat, lean meats such as chicken and fish are much better than the pro-inflammatory red meats. The omega-3 fats found in fish are also very anti-inflammatory in nature.

Here are some more anti-inflammatory tips:

• Use herbs such as tumeric (found in curry), ginger, and cayenne pepper
• Use olive oil instead of vegetable or canola oil
• Avoid processed and commercially processed foods which usually contain hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup
• Eat other omega-3 rich foods such as walnuts, flax seeds, almonds, green leafy vegetables
• Get 4-5 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise each week (easy as taking your dog on a walk)
• Eat fresh food

Live Well.

Are you inflamed?!

What comes to mind when you think about inflammation? Hot and red swelling? Maybe a sprained ankle, or a hurt knee, or possibly even the swollen ankles you pregnant ladies might have had? What you might not realize is that inflammation is involved with most if not all of the disease processes. Some inflammation related to local injury can be good for the general healing process. However, most of the inflammation in the body is problematic.

The suffix "-itis" denotes inflammation, so any condition or disease ending in "-itis" is specifically related to inflammation. i.e. bronchitis (inflammation of the air passages in the lungs), sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), arthritis (inflammation of the joints), diverticulitis (inflammation within the digestive tract), prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate). However, if a condition does not end with this suffix it does not mean that inflammation is not involved. Here is a list of just a few diseases and conditions that are or can be caused or promoted by inflammation...

acne
allergies
asthma
cancer
chronic pain
diabetes
endometriosis
fibromyalgia
headaches
heart disease
high blood pressure
injury

...and this is just a small sample of the conditions related to inflammation.

After seeing this list, don't you think it would be a good idea to try to avoid things that promote inflammation in the body? The good news is that there are some simple changes you can make with your diet and lifestyle that can help decrease overall inflammation. Whether or not you already suffer from one of the conditions above, your current and future health will benefit from less inflammation.

Next time, we will review some things that you can do to help decrease inflammation.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!

http://www.acucaretotalhealth.com/

Live Well.

Shopper's Guide to Pesticides

In a perfect world, we would all be eating only organic foods. Foods with no hormones, pesticides, anti-biotics, or any other chemicals. Hopefully, someday it will be the only option. But for now, we still have to choose. Unfortunately, the healthier option is still more expensive, but I still highly recommend shopping at Trader Joe's. The organic foods are very reasonable in price compared to any other grocery store I have visited. (I should ask for a stipend from Trader Joe's for the amount I promote them!)

I have a lot of people who tell me they want to start buying some organic foods, but can't afford to do too much. Last year, I gave a top ten list of foods that you should try to buy organic. Recently, I found a good list from the Environmental Working Group that shows different types of produce with the highest and lowest amounts of pesticides. If you can try to buy organic produce from the list that contains the highest pesticides, you will help to cut down your exposure to these chemicals. Here is the list.

Just remember, a little change in your diet, household items/products, or daily environment can go a long way in the health of you, your family, and future generations.

Live Well.

Vitamin D...Part 2

After quite a long break from blogging, I am back. At least I have a good excuse for not posting...After issues with infertility and waiting on the adoption list, Dawn and I are finally parents!!! Zachary William was born on St Patrick's Day and weighed 5 lbs 1 oz and was 17.5 in. We now know why we had to wait for so long. Zack is truly a blessing and we couldn't imagine our lives without him! He is now 3 weeks old and we are having so much fun spending each and every day watching our son grow!!

Now back to the business at hand. Considering I started giving you information about Vitamin D about 2 months ago, I'm guessing you are more than ready for me to finally finish the topic. In the first post about Vitamin D, I talked about the importance of Vitamin D and health issues that have been associated with Vitamin D deficiency. All that information is great, but you are probably wondering how you know if you are Vitamin D deficient and what you should do about it.

Finding out your Vitamin D level is as easy as a simple blood test. You can have your blood drawn at your doctor or at our office or there is even at-home Vitamin D test kits that you can order on the web. However, you need to make sure you get the right type of Vitamin D levels checked. 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D is the proper form of Vitamin D that is best used to check for Vitamin D deficiency. If you go to your doctor, make sure you ask for this form of Vitamin D to be tested and not 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D. Normal, healthy levels of 25(OH)D is between 50 and 80 ng/mL. Any levels below 50 ng/mL may be considered deficient.

Fortunately, if you find out you are deficient or if you live in areas of little sun, you can supplement your diet with Vitamin D to improve your level. Vitamin D3 is the most useable form of Vitamin D in humans, so make sure you supplement with Vitamin D3. The FDA suggests supplementing with 400-600 IU of Vitamin D daily, but studies have shown that higher doses are needed to achieve optimal levels. Here is what Dr. John Jacob Cannell MD, the director of the Vitamin D Council, suggests...

"If you have little UVB exposure, my advice is as follows: healthy children under the age of 2 years should take 1,000 IU per day—over the age of 2, 2,000 IU per day. Well adults and adolescents between 80–130 pounds should start with 3,000 IU per day while those over 130 pounds but less than 170 pounds should take 4,000 IU per day. Those over 170 pounds should receive 5,000 IU per day. Two months later have a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D blood test, either through ZRT or your doctor."

With springtime hopefully around the corner, do your best to try and get 15-20 minutes of sun exposure per day. If not, you should consider supplementing your diet with Vitamin D3.

Live Well.

Disconnect in order to Reconnect

I know I told you that this post would be more about Vitamin D, but I thought first I would write about something I learned in Mexico. I had a great time spending time with my family in Huatulco for the week. This is the second time we have been to Hualtulco. The reason we love it so much is that besides the weather being 90 and sunny everyday, it is very uncommercialized. You won't find any high rise hotels or McDonalds. But the best part is that we did not have internet, television, phones, or newspapers. We were completely disconnected from the "real" world. And it was great! It is amazing how much time there is in a day to do other things when you don't have the use of all those things. We found ourselves reading a lot, playing games, telling stories, and just spending quality time with each other.

Being there was literally like going back in time 20 years. Yes, things definitely did take longer without all the updated technology. Just going out to dinner took an extra hour, but we just called it being on Mexico time. There were always very few tables full at the restaurants, so I am guessing most families were home having meals together. And as we walked around town, we noticed the schoolyards and the playgrounds were constantly full with kids of all ages playing even until after dark. How many of you can remember playing capture the flag or at the neighborhood park until you ran home for dinner or it was too dark too see? I'm guessing most of you. Or how many times have you wondered how we got by without our cell phones or the internet? But we did.

Believe me, I am as big of a fan as anyone of the internet, cell phones, and all the other technological advances that we all are able to enjoy everyday. I mean, I am writing a blog that can only be read on the internet. However, being in Mexico made me realize how much of our lives are spent on the computer or e-mail or on the phone or watching television. And when we got back from vacation, it was the same news in the newspapers and the internet and the same "reality" shows on tv. Oh, the outrage of The Bachelor! The lesson here is that we need to take a day from time to time to just slow down. Our society is so fast paced and we are all so "connected" that we tend to forget that life can actually exist without all of this.

Challenge yourself and/or your family to "disconnect" for one day. Turn off the tv, turn off the computer, turn off your cell phone. Don't worry, I promise that all the same e-mails, texts, voicemails, and news will still be there the next day. I think you will find how much time you will have to do other activities like taking your dog for a walk, playing games with your family, visiting a neighbor, writing an actual letter to a loved one, enjoying a family meal together, etc. All those things that we used to do everyday that we just don't have "time" to do anymore. Who knows, you might actually find that you like it and start to do it for longer periods or more often. Just make sure you check the internet occasionally for the newest post on my blog ;)

Live Well.