Your Oxygen Mask Goes on First

What is the first thing you think of when you see the words Oxygen Mask and why am I writing about them?  The oxygen mask that drops down when the pressure reaches a certain level in a plane, has become a symbol of the importance of taking care of yourself before you take care of others, when the instinct might be to do the opposite.

When it comes to caring for yourself before others, it can be difficult for many of us to be honest about what we should do more for ourselves so that we can be the best version of us to go out into the world.  Are we talking about making sure we get that manicure and massage this week, perhaps color our hair, have coffee with a friend, or spend a night out with friends?  Or are we talking about going for a run, drinking a green smoothie, making time for Pilates and spinning class, ditching refined carbohydrates, or embracing dark leafy greens?

When it comes to caring for yourself by choosing the right food for your body, do you know what that is?  

Do you ever struggle to know what foods are healthy for your body and what foods are harmful?  We get practically pummeled every day by articles in the news, on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and even delivered directly in our own email (did we even sign up for that newsletter?).  We see pictures of perfect foods on Instagram and Pinterest.  Surely we know from all of that information what foods we should be putting in our refrigerators and pantries, so when we get that pang of hunger, we can simply reach into the kitchen and grab a quick snack or meal.  We know that snack or meal will be delicious and give us what we need to feel energetic, light, and ready for whatever activity we need to conquer next.  Right?  Or do you sometimes find that the more images you see of that perfect smoothie bowl or avocado toast, the more confused you are about what works for your body?

And then what about the fact that one diet that claims to solve all your weight loss woes and energy dips but that it is directly conflicting to the advice of the new diet that claims to prevent chronic diseases and give you great abs??  How do you know which diet is right for you?  Should you buy all the books, read them through, and get to the bottom of it by trying each, one at a time?  Well, that’s one approach, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

So then, what’s a human to do?

I’ll let you in on a well-known, but still sometimes hard to follow secret: Listen to what your body is telling you.  

If you find that your body is telling you to put on your turn signal, get off at the exit, pull into the Burger King, and then down two giant Whoppers with fries and a super-sized cola, then I think we can agree that your body may not be in the right place to be giving directions just yet.  This is where many of us find ourselves, and when someone says ‘listen to your body’ we think “no, that can’t be right, because my body wants that pint of ice cream, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t on the list my nutritional therapist gave me!”

So what do you do next?  

Think about how to give your body room to think.  Right now, you may be so cluttered with toxins that your body is just sifting through them trying to get rid of them as best it can, but there’s a proverbial line of overflowing garbage trucks waiting at the door to your liver, because your liver isn’t able to get through it all fast enough.

The best way to move forward and help your body to function as it is designed is likely not a ‘DETOX’ so please don’t even go there.  I’m not saying detoxification is not good - it’s wonderful and I highly recommend it.  But the thing is, your body is constantly detoxifying.  It’s already been built to do that.  So there’s no need to go out and purchase a 5 or 7 day detox meal delivery plan that will only bring you juice, water, or ‘perfectly combined shakes’ in order to help your body clean out the gunk.  And you don’t need to buy all those diet books either.  

So what’s the secret?  

All you need to do is give your body what it needs to do it’s job effectively, and stop giving it extra junk to process.  Eat Real Food.  Buy it yourself, buy things that do not have ingredient labels, and go home and prepare it yourself.  This is the secret to the effectiveness of diets and cleanses.  When you give your body the nutrients it needs to do what it naturally does, efficiently, without overloading it with additional toxins, it will clean itself out.  You are an amazing being capable of so many things.  Sometimes putting on that oxygen mask just means keeping things simple and getting out of your own way.

Enjoy your clean, real, food, prepared by you, so you know exactly what’s in it.

If you still feel that you’re not sure which foods work for your body, or find that you still experience issues even when you have simplified, gotten out of your own way, and eat good nourishing foods, consider asking for help.  I know three nutritional therapists in the area (myself included), who would be happy to work with you to learn your body’s unique diet and lifestyle needs.  Contact me directly to find out more at: www.StrengthInNutrients.com/Contact

Confessions of a Nutritional Therapist

I did not set out to become a Nutritional Therapist.  Actually, I had never heard of Nutritional Therapy.  Do you know what a Nutritional Therapist is?  Or how a Nutritional Therapist can be of help?

Before we get to definitions, job descriptions, and qualifications, I’d like to tell you a bit more about how I found myself with this job title.

My husband learned he had Celiac disease a few years after he learned that his cholesterol level was a bit high.  After following his doctor’s recommendation to eat a vegetarian low fat diet for a full year, to see if he could bring down the cholesterol level to avoid going on a statin, and seeing no change, he felt frustrated.  What had all that work, and longing for the flavor of bacon, been for?  A few months later, he learned that he has Celiac, and so immediately he took gluten out of his diet 100%, and his cholesterol went down 50 points (on the American cholesterol scale).  He has been living 100% gluten free ever since, enjoying pain-free digestion all the while.

Then when my son was about 3 years old, we tried to figure out a few things all at once.  A bit of a rash on his face, some tummy troubles, difficulty following instructions, clumsiness, and an inability to control his emotions.  While this may sound like your average 3 year old behavior, we knew it was out of the lines of what we and his teachers considered to be in the normal range of behavior for his age.  So I scoured the mass media books I could find on allergies, sensory issues, behavior problems, and any topic that seemed remotely similar.  I learned that ‘leaky gut’ might exist, but that most people were skeptical.  I removed gluten and dairy from his diet when he was four, and found that there were skeptics everywhere.  It was hard.  People thought I was traumatizing my child for no reason, and when we learned we were moving to London a few months after that, I surrendered out of sheer exhaustion.

Fast forward to another year later, and I realized it was the right thing to do again, but this time, with my son in a new school, and with more confidence and preparation, I removed gluten and dairy from his diet again.  

At the same time, I enrolled in the College of Naturopathic Medicine, in their three year program to become a Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist.  I barely knew what that meant, but I knew that it entailed intensive study learning anatomy, physiology, and pathology for a year, followed by two years of study in nutrition and 200 hours of clinical practice.  It was exciting, and I had no idea what I was in for, but I knew that I needed to understand nutrition from the inside out.  I wanted to know how all of these biochemical reactions worked once the food we ate was digested and absorbed.  I wanted to learn all I could from the bottom up or the inside out, so that I could stop being confused by all the conflicting internet information and research articles that were too technical for me to understand at the time, while also being frustrated by the mass media books that were only surface information without references and explanations behind the statements being made.

All I wanted was information.  I just wanted to know what to feed my family.  I was the mom, the wife, and now I was no longer working full time, so it was my full time job to make sure my family had healthy food on the table, and we had allergies to deal with, and maybe some other things called intolerances...?  And for the next three years I went to school, studied, wrote papers, and took tests, and learned more than I ever imagined I would.  And as I began to sit in clinics, and then to practice being the practitioner in those clinics, with my classmates and teachers to guide me in giving recommendations to our clinic clients (our friends, family, and friends of friends who agreed to be our clients), I learned what a tremendous gift I was receiving in this course.  I loved being able to transfer this knowledge to others, who could benefit from all that I had learned over that three years.

In the meantime, I took my son, who was having some troubling digestive issues and behavior difficulties (he felt foggy and out of control), to a nutritional therapist who had graduated from the College of Naturopathic Medicine.  She recommended a plan that involved an incredibly strict diet protocol for a year.  At the time, my son was 8, and I knew that it would take tremendous commitment from him, and our whole family, to get through each day with the restrictions we were facing.  But if it worked, a year was small price to pay, and so, with my faith in this system I was learning so well, we persevered.  It was a lot of work for me, a lot of work and patience for my family, and an unbelievable amount of will, courage, hard work, and sheer determination for my son.

This next bit is a bit harder to describe.  Because I’m his mom.  Because every time another person mentions anything about my son being a ‘normal kid’, I feel myself getting a bit teary.  For any mother who has ever worried that her child was a bit out of the bounds of ‘normal’ or listened to her child beg to know why they are not like everyone else, go through months of crossing fingers, hoping the plan that you are following leads to anywhere near your goal, and done her very best to go all out in the hopes that something will get better, you will understand why I feel that tear welling up.  Because a year later, when people said ‘but he’s just like every 9 year old boy’, I could say ‘yes, he is...now’.  And no one can ever take that away.

He does not eat peanuts because he is allergic.  He does not eat gluten, because he is intolerant and has a genetic predisposition for Celiac.  But he does laugh, he does act like a normal wonderful completely loony bins boy, and he’s still a complete riot.  And now I can worry about his table manners, how kind he is to others, and how loudly he is bouncing his basketball.  I’m proud of everything he has been through, proud that he stuck to it, proud that he trusted and went all in.  And I’m proud of who he has become as a result.

And I want to share that feeling.  I want other mothers, other sons, and other families, to be able to feel that there is a plan, that there is hope, and that there are many ways to feel better that are in our control.  Sometimes we just need information, guidance, and a plan.  And when I can be a part of that, and when something that I have learned can be passed along to be part of that help and part of that plan, then I feel I am giving back, just as someone gave to me and to my family.

And so that’s why I am a Nutritional Therapist.  And it’s why I use my qualification to help others.  It’s important to me to be able to share what I can and to help where I can.  And to find the best and most appropriate resources to recommend when they are needed.  I love what I do and I would love to share it with you if you find that you ever need information, guidance, and a plan.

Thank you for listening.  I am always available if you want more information on Nutritional Therapy or on ways that it may be of help to you.  I wish you laughter, health, and of course, broccoli :)

Weight Loss - What to try next

January has come and gone and we find ourselves squarely in the first week of February.  Did you have a resolution this year to be healthier, perhaps by working out and eating better?  How has it gone?  What have you tried to add into or change about your diet and lifestyle to 'be healthier'?   Which of those things are you still doing?  What stuck?  Was weight loss part of your healthier goal?

If you have a weight loss goal, but don't feel that it's working the way that you had hoped, something’s missing.  Take a look at these key pieces of your daily routine that may be impeding your success and are worth considering, including: an imbalanced diet, insufficient movement, insufficient sleep, your reaction to daily stress, and relationships.  If you are only focusing on diet or exercise, and not finding the results you're seeking, read on...there are a few additional things to think about.

DIET

It would be surprising if altering your diet was not a major component of your effort to shed some pounds.  What are some good things to consider?  Three important factors are: nutrient density of your foods, avoidance of junk and toxins, and fiber.  Oh wait, there's a fourth - water!  If you are not putting nutrient dense foods in your body, it will not feel satisfied, no matter how many calories you consume and your body will beg you to eat more to get the nutrients it needs to function well.  If you are putting junk into your body, (think empty calories in the form of danishes and cookies, sandwiches devoid of nutrients, restaurant take-away) you are giving your body a lot of work to do to just to digest the foods, find any possible nutrition, and get rid of toxins, without providing it with the fuel it needs to get past just digesting the food.  Result: FOOD COMA.  In addition, you have fed the unhelpful bacteria, which over time, can lead to an imbalance, ultimately creating weight gain.  If you eat a good amount of fiber (the government tells you to aim for 25g a day minimum, but I recommend aiming for 50g), your system will run smoothly, toxins will exit your body quickly, and all that helpful bacteria in your gut will keep you healthy because you have fed them as well.  

For example, if you eat a salad with 7 different vegetables (think lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, artichoke hearts, carrots, celery, beets, and fennel), add some tomatoes, avocado, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, toasted slivered almonds, and top it with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil or another rich quality oil, your body has just received a whole host of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, complex carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.  It will NOT have received any refined carbohydrates, additives, preservatives, added sugar - the junk.  You will have provided it with lots of fiber and water to help flush out toxins and keep a healthy movement of the digestive system, getting toxins out faster.  It will be happy, full, and full of energy to help you think about exercising!

MOVEMENT:

It DOES NOT MATTER where you are starting from.  The most important thing is to get yourself to move often and in a variety of ways.  Get your heart rate up for 2.5 hours per week in any way that works for you.  Do resistance training and make sure you train different muscle groups.  Focus on flexibility throughout the week to help your joints by stretching.  And include neuromotor strengthening activities such as balancing and coordination.  It is also important to move throughout the day, which is why all the FitBit type devices have alarms that remind you to get up every hour and walk around.

SLEEP

Do not underestimate the importance of sleep on your health and your weight!  Sleeping more does not help you lose weight as a rule, but if you cut back on sleep, the amount of weight you lose from fat can drop dramatically (one study shows up to 55%!).  In addition, when you get less than 7-9 hours of sleep per night, your body seeks reward in other places, like the mocha frappaccino you just saw a sign for as you rubbed your tired eyelids on your way to work.  Your decision centers are off leading you to seek sugar and fat, you seek caffeine to help you stay awake, and you're too tired to even think about going to the gym.

If you have trouble getting a good night's sleep, make sure you are not drinking too much caffeine (or too late in the day if you metabolize it slowly), that you turn all screens off one to two hours before bed, and that you go to bed close to the same time every night to cue your body into a regular routine.

STRESS RESPONSE:

Ok so there is stress in the world.  It's everywhere, and it's in every job, even if you are working at home, or driving your kids back and forth to activities in between grocery shopping and picking up the dry cleaning.  Our phones are buzzing constantly, not just with email, but with notifications from a myriad of social media sites, breaking news of a startling event somewhere in the world, and your family and friends texting you, WhatsApping you, and FaceTiming you.  Add to that all the regular stressors we have become accustomed to such as long work hours, mean bosses, evil co-workers, fear of losing your job, finances, how to get everything done in limited time, worrying out helping loved ones, and many other normal parts of our lives, and we have a lot to worry about - if we feel like letting it take over.

So what can you do about it?  Well it turns out that no matter how much stress, or what the cause of the stress, how you respond to it is what governs your health.  If you are in a stressful moment, and you think 'right, well, this is interesting, let's see how I can tackle this creatively - I think it will be fun', your brain will biochemically show a different set of pathways than if you say 'oh no, what will I do - I'm doomed'.  And the more you worry and think negatively about your situation and your response to this stressful situation, the more your body produces cortisol, which inhibits proper digestion and assimilation.  You cannot be healthy when you worry constantly.  First step: become aware of how you respond to stressful moments.  Second step: ask yourself how you could be actively positive in any of those situations and try them out when they happen.  When someone driving next to you cuts you off, while screaming and honking...who cares?  Smile, wave, and thank your micro biome that you are not that person - they must be miserable!

RELATIONSHIPS:

Consider your companions in life, who they are, why they are in your life, and whether the relationships you have are positive or toxic.  Having social connections keeps you healthy and helps you to live longer.  You may already know that weight loss occurs more rapidly and successfully when participants of a group connect to support each other.  In addition, social connection enables you to feel part of a group and gives emotional support that helps you know you have support when the unexpected and perhaps stressful events of life take place.  Having a support system, never mind a group of friends who can help you laugh, cry, and talk out your troubles, lessens the strain and stress that contribute to your stress response (the one that we talked about taking over by secreting cortisol and turning off healthy digestion and immune strength and resilience).  

So take a moment this February, and then again later in the year if you find you're not happy with the number on the scale or the tightness of your jeans, and just consider the quality of your diet (not just how much and often you eat), the type and amount of movement you are doing, the quality and amount of sleep you are getting, how you respond to stress throughout th day (perhaps just consider what you find stressful and why, to start), and your friends, family, and support network.  They are all key to your health and wellbeing.  And as such, key to finding your optimal weight.

Good luck!  I know you can do it, but you must commit to yourself.  You’re worth it!

Vegan or Paleo: Which is better?

This is a question I hear a lot, and a question I had myself while in nutrition class.  There are so many anecdotal reasons that each can seem unequivocally the way to go and never turn back, until you hear the other side.  So how did I reach a conclusion and what is my advice, now that classes are over, I’m qualified and practicing, and have an opinion?

Take a good look at each diet.  Go ahead, make a list if you want to.  What should you eat, and what should you not eat, on each of these diets?  You will notice some major differences, which are the ones we all tend to focus on when we ask the question or face the confusion.  Meat, for example, and grains.  Because we’re so focused on the question about what we consider to be staples in our diets, it can be a real brain rattler and take up endless amounts of those precious moments we use worrying when we should be trying to sleep.

But consider what these diets both avoid and it becomes SO much simpler!  What does any really healthy ‘diet’ plan not include?  Processed, packaged, refined foods.  Additives.  Preservatives.  Artificial colors and flavors.  Chemicals.  GMOs.  ‘Ready meals’.  Keep going, I’m sure you can come up with a whole list of things that both vegan and paleo diets do not include.

The truth is that ...wait for it... we are all individual.  So I cannot tell you if your body will need to eat a bit of meat, or do much better with no meat.  What I can tell you is that your body desperately needs the wonderful flavors and NUTRIENTS  in vegetables.  Whole, organic, straight from the ground to your kitchen counter, vegetables.  And it needs a variety of texture, flavor, and COLOR.  So EAT MORE PLANTS.

What else can I tell you?  That any meal cooked in your own home will be healthier than any meal you get at a restaurant.  When you order salmon, mashed potatoes, and broccoli from your new favorite super healthy restaurant, do you really know what you’re getting?  You imagine they are in the back stream, freshly catching your wild salmon, gutting, and grilling it straight away, with just a hint of pink Himalayan sea salt, perhaps a small pat of butter, and some wonderful fresh herbs or spices, and that your mashed potatoes have just been pulled from the organic soil, scrubbed, boiled, and mashed with perhaps again a pinch of that pink Himalayan sea salt, small pat of butter and fresh herbs and spices mixed in...perhaps a bit of freshly roasted garlic.  And the broccoli, freshly harvested from the organic soil that morning, just quickly steamed and lovingly tossed on your plate.  Because this is likely how you would aim to make it at home.  It is possible there is a restaurant out there that comes within decent reach of this goal.  But here’s where you need to swallow a hard dose of reality.  Think about what it takes to run a restaurant, and feed all the customers in a timely fashion.  Food is prepared well in advance, shipped from far away, frozen for long periods of time, pre-prepared and stored in a fridge days ahead of time for easy re-heating in a microwave when you order.  And lots and lots of cheap, low quality oil, salt, and sugar added to make you smile when you imagine how healthy that goodness you are tasting must be, as it so effortlessly slides down your throat.  Repeat after me: Every time I want to order in, get take out, or just go to a restaurant to save myself the effort of cooking, I compromise my health.  Or maybe not, but must importantly, I have no idea.

So LOVE vegetables.  And if you’re going to eat grains, eat whole grains.  And if you’re going to eat meat, eat grass-fed meat, raised on a loving, organic farm and killed in a humane way.  Cook at home as much as you can, and try new things so you are getting good variety of nutrients in your food.  There is ...wait for it... STRENGTH IN NUTRIENTS.  But only if you’re getting a wonderful array of beautifully rainbow colored vegetables on your plate and into your tummy.  The rest matters too, but not as much as making sure those organic, brightly colored organic vegetables are the main event.  Everything else is just a bit of fun on the side!

Choices

What have we learned about the way that we make choices as human beings?  Well, we've learned that we like choice.  We don't like to be told what to do.  We believe the more choice we are given, the happier we will be.  It turns out, however, that given too much choice, we are unhappy.  We worry.  What if we make the wrong choice?  How can we possibly choose with so many options?  If there are so many options, there must be some guidance; there must be a way to navigate the options so we know how to go about making our choice.  If we are given two, or at most three, choices, we are most happy.  We can make a decision that suits us best.

After living in Switzerland for one year, I had an eye-opening moment on 'choice' on a visit to the U.S.  We went into a store to buy shampoo, which seemed like a simple task.   However, after living in Switzerland for a year, I had gotten used to limited options (and most in a foreign language at that!).  At first, I felt this felt frustrating.  How could I have lost so much choice in life?  But suddenly here I was, standing in a shampoo aisle in a store in the U.S., and I was baffled.  I looked up and down the enormous aisle, piled high with at least six shelves of shampoos stretching for at least 50 feet.  How could there possibly be so many options.  So many companies.  Each company had it's own reason that their shampoo was right for me.  Each had a fragrance I might prefer.  And each had several options unto itself.  For the first time in my life, I understood what having too much choice really does inside the brain.  I was just motionless, having no idea where to start.  I won't take you through all the conversations that went on in my head, before I straightened up, made a decision, and grabbed a bottle of shampoo, but suffice it to say, I learned that I, in fact, do not like to have as much choice as I had thought.  Who has that kind of time to spend on picking the perfect shampoo?  Did the store have a shampoo consultant I could just ask to help me narrow down the hundreds of selections?

This is the way it is with our lives.  When we have too much choice, we just sort of give up and either go back to something we know, something that looks familiar, or take a chance either at random, or because someone recommended something we should try.

I find this is also true with the foods, beverages, and exercise products we buy.  There are SO many to choose from, and SO many people have said SO many things about SO many of them.

I took a nutrition class to be able to make more informed choices about the food and beverages I eat.  I felt there was just not enough consistent, believable information coming out of the media and screaming at me from the supermarket shelves to rely on.  And at the end of it all, it turns out that the reason it's all so confusing is that we're not all supposed to make the same choices.  Information is inconsistent because we are not all the same person!  Our choices should be different not only because we are interested in different tastes, colors, and textures, but also because our bodies react differently to different foods and nutrients.  The information I have gained while attending three years at the College of Naturopathic Medicine to learn more about what to do has taught me that it depends :)  Of course it does!  But now I know what it depends on.  Now I know how to gather information so I can make an informed choice...at least about food.  Shampoo, on the other hand, is still mostly a mystery to me.