Beat the Bulge this Holiday Season

Beat the bulge this Holiday Season
and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the kickoff for the holiday season here in the USA and all it brings  to many of us - the joy, the feasts, the parties - and the stress and over-indulgences.

This is often a time many of us neglect our health and well-being by allowing ourselves to get inundated with all of the above.  It can be difficult to find a balance.  Also, the waning days and often challenging weather seems to invite the eating of "comfort foods", which usually means over loading on starchy carbs which can leave us feeling bloated, icky and full.

Here are some tips I can offer that have worked wonders for me during this hectic time:

- Find healthy options for "comfort" foods.  
I also really like Elena's Pantry and Comfy Belly for wonderful, grain free recipes that don't get stuck in our guts.  Oh, and be sure to check out Detoxinista's recipe blog.  All of these sites feature delicious, "quick exit" (meaning, they leave the body quickly) foods.  Very important for beating the bulge!
- Food combining!  Try to eat your protein and starches at separate meals and you will notice your belly fat melt away.  This is difficult to do in a holiday dinner situation, so do your best.  If you can, eat lots of non-starchy veggies with your turkey; if opting for the starch, avoid the turkey and eat all the veggies you want.  If you really want to have it all, try to stick to just one serving of everything, chew it well and take lots of digestive enzymes.
-  Keep up with your cleansing practices, especially colon cleansing (colonics!)  I have found that keeping up with my colonics is essential in beating the bulge and helping curb cravings.  Plus, I get the added benefits of oxygenating my system, which benefits my skin (which suffers in the cooler months) and my immunity, which is a bonus!
- Stay consistent:  continue to eat a large, water-plump, delicious salad as the start of your lunch or dinner (or both).  If you can, drink raw vegetable juices.  Getting nourished with these nutrient dense foods will leave you feeling satisfied and less likely to reach for the "cheat" foods
- make a blended salad and drink before any event that will have challenging, heavy foods.  The blended veggies will fill you up and create a nice buffer for the heavier, denser foods.  Plus, you might feel less guilt when you reach for that extra piece of french bread!
- If really craving starch, try to go for a vegetable based starch.  Squashes, yams, sweet potatoes, and even baby potoates can all satisfy that starchy urge.  Start with an avocado salad and then finish with one of these starchy vegetables and you won't even miss the bread.

- If craving starch other than the veggies above, try to reach for gluten free brown rice or quinoa pasta; pseudo-grains such as quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat or millet.  A good rule of thumb is to try to go for the "whole food" version as opposed to the more starchy version (such as the pasta, or the bread, or anything with flour in it).  Another tip is to make the starch the smallest portion of your meal.  If you fill up with salads, steamed or roasted veggies and then finish up with your starch, you will be less likely to overeat.
- If hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, make lots of healthy veggie options.  The links above are filled with great ideas.  If attending a dinner, offer to bring a dish or two of your favorite, delicious healthy foods.  This is a fail-proof way of having your healthy eating bases covered.
- If you do end up over-indulging, especially after a holiday dinner, schedule a Colonic right away.  I guarantee you will feel better for it.  If you are away and unable to come in for a session, try to do a home enema.  Another great option after a night of over-indulgence is to take a natural colon cleanser, such as Oxypowder, and just juice till lunch or even till dinner that day.  Have a nice light dinner of salad and veggies only.

The most important thing to remember is - be gentle with yourself.  Every day is a new day, and the opportunity for a new start.  Set realistic parameters for yourself, and do your best to stay within those parameters.  Have fun, enjoy yourself, and remember we are here to support you in any way we can.  We are just a phone call away!

We wish you a safe and delicious Happy Thanksgiving.
We are grateful to know all of you.

In health,
Xell

Colon Irrigation and Liver flushing, right here in Connecticut!

Hi everyone!

Before I start, since I am talking about cleansing, I want to include a disclaimer:

The information contained in this blog is for education only and is not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness.  It is valuable to seek the advice of an alternative health care professional before making any changes.

Sorry for that - in this day and age that kind of thing is necessary.

Okay - so long time no post - I have so many things I wish to share but right now am in the midst of a Liver and Gallbladder Flush following a tweaked protocol from the wonderful book, The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush by Andreas Moritz.   It is intense and tonight is the flush.  Eeeek!  

I am doing this with my husband, which is SO helpful, and we prepared by following a very simple raw foods diet for the week.  I juice fasted the first two days but knew I had a Raw Prep Class (kind of like a cooking class without the cooking!) with the wonderful Michael Perrine (of Gravity East Village in NYC - he is a raw food vegan chef as well as a detox consultant and fellow Colon Hydrotherapist) so I went back to a simple, cleansing diet and enjoyed the feast on Friday...omg his Pist

achio Fudge is to die for and not the best thing to have on a pre-liver flush cleanse!

 

But it was SO good.

Anyway, the day after that, back to the protocol.  I started feeling weak on Saturday, and already looking forward to the end of the cleanse, which is Thursday.  We started juice fasting on Monday, received COLONICS to flush out any solids in the system, and continued juice fasting today, Tuesday.  By 2pm, no more juice!  I am definitely feeling low in energy today, which is why it is advised to be sure to have nothing scheduled the two days of the actual flush, so we took it easy today, starting our day with a green juice and a lovely walk in the sun at the beach close to our house.  So I got some Vitamin D the best way possible - soaking in the rays!

6pm was our first dose of epsom salts mixed with water.  I had always been told how awful tasting this is and I have to say, I was very surprised that it really was not so bad.  I used a tip I had read to first chill the mixture, which we had done, and after drinking the 6 ounces of liquid, follow my sucking briefly on a lemon.  Let me tell you, that lemon juice was ecstasy.  It almost felt like FOOD!  Which I get to have tomorrow afternoon!  In the form of a "Broom Salad", which is a mixture of cabbage, romaine, c

elery, fennel, carrots and can be seasoned with olive oil, lemon, celtic sea salt (the best salt to have due to its high moisture content and electrical charge - this is a truly living salt) and herbs.  I am salivating just thinking about it.

Anyway, 8pm we will have another dose of the delish (NOT) espom salt mixture, and then at 10pm, we have our olive oil/grapefruit juice mix, which sounds so tasty to me right now.  You drink at least half a cup of olive oil mixed with the juice, and then you immediately have to lie down and place a castor oil pack on the liver to help draw out toxins and encourage the release of stones from the gallbladder.

Tomorrow morning we do two more doses of the espom salts (two hours ap

art), then a dose of bentonite clay, then an hour later psyllium husks with a TON of water, then two hours or so after that, our first VEGGIE JUICE of a day, at least 32 ounces of it.  THEN, two or so hours after that, we get to eat our BROOM SALAD.  AHHHHH, I am counting the minutes until then.

Okay, it is 8pm, here goes my second espom salt mix.  

Eck!   Thank goodness for the lemon wedge (supposed to just suck the wedge, not drink the juice...)

Apparently many people release these green like "stones" which supposedly come from the gallbladder.  I have heard that often, many of the stones are actually a congealed mix of the olive oil/grapefruit  mix that you drink.

BUT anyhooooo, I do know that cleansing is great and I know I will feel better afterwards.

I do find that for my own body type, I tend to do better with cleansing/detoxing that involves food rather than liquid cleanses such as juice fasts.  I am fine for a few days but then get bored, antsy, and somewhat lower in energy.  Of course, regular co

lonics, at least every three days, is a must with any cleanse to help unload the burden on the organs as you are detoxing.

I have been doing that and it has helped.

I am already looking forward to some of the lovely concoctions I will be making with my awesome blender, the Vitamix!

Coming soon, more recipes, I promise.  I plan to talk about my latest crazy of dried mulberries - heavenly.

Well, that is all for now.  I will be back to report my results!

WISH ME LUCK!  :)

Why we need Colonics in Connecticut

"There is no ailment, sickness or disease that will not respond to treatment quicker and more effectively than it will after the administration of a series of colonic irrigations."

Dr. Norman Walker

I am an admirer of Dr. Normal Walker, who was a raw food pioneer and a Colon Irrigation enthusiast, as well as a juicing enthusiast.  His book, Colon Health is a must read for anyone interested in vitality and greater health.   You can see his entire collection here.

Matt Monarch, the Raw Food educator, often posts about the necessity for colon cleansing with colonics in his wonderful and always interesting blog.

He writes:  

"When you cleanse the colon you definitely provide a greater opportunity for waste in the small intestines to dump into the colon.  The most important thing about colon hydrotherapy is that it eliminates gas.  That gas pressure is what constipates our cells from detoxing on a cellular level.  You can sometimes feel this gas pressure in your head and other areas of the body.  Most people get MASSIVE relief after doing a colonic.  If you have improved your diet in any way consistently for a reasonable amount of time, then it's a GREAT idea to do a colonic and there is a GREAT chance that you too will experience a massive amount of RELIEF!

Relief is right.  Colonics coupled with a whole foods diet, or even better, a mostly raw vegan diet, will take your health to a whole new level!

Bye for now.