Friday, May 22, 2009

Just Finished a 21-Day Cleanse!

Howdy Etherworld--

For those of you who know me, you probably know I've been doing Standard Process' 3-week Purification Cleanse,which has presented a host of ups and downs, which is why I've been out of pocket in terms of posting. But it's been worth it in terms of mental clarity, me thinks.

It is a rather rigid yet still doable cleanse that goes thusly:

All foods mentioned are to be preferably organic.

Days 1-10 - Eat NO animal protein, only veggies and a cup of lentils and 1/2 cup of brown/wild rice. You can also eat fruit but you have to eat twice as many veggies as fruits. You can have sweet potatos, avocados, and bananas, but not if you are trying to lose weight and frankly, most people I know are, so that's kinda a bummer.

Days 11-21--Continue eating the above but you can add fish and chicken.

You can have good oils, including butter and coconut oil, but only 4-7 TEAspoons/day.

Take supplements to cleanse the liver, kidneys and to alkalize the body. Also, you take alot of fiber pills and 1-5 shakes with protein powder and vitamins.

No alcohol.

It has been a mostly good experience except for bloating and grumpiness. Grumpiness due to fact that despite its myriad cons, animal protein does provide all the essential amino acids that form the building blocks for neurotransmitters. It is possible to get these from non animal protein, it's just a lot harder. If any of you know how to do this successfully, please email me.

But it's been good. I won't lie: my compliance to the cleanse was around 60%, but just with that, my tastebuds have been reset so I'm not craving sugar and the like. This is very good and reason enought to recommend the cleanse. If I'd adhered more strictly, I would likely have lost weight. I think I lost some, but I'm afraid it may be muscle weight b/c I didn't lift weights during the cleanse.

If you don't do this one, it's recommended that you cleanse your liver twice a year.

Stay tuned: the next post is going to be a great one--I got the results back from the NutrEval test, which assesses vitamin levels and deficiencies and much much more. It's truly awesome in terms of its scope.

Until then...

Think to your health,

Marie

Monday, May 11, 2009

Small Tips to Feel A lot Better

Howdy All--

I've found the following little tips to help me feel better and improve my journey on the road to health. I make speculations as to why they work, but ultimately, I don't care because they do work for me. So give them a try and see if they work for you, too. They are:

  • Pumice your feet with sesame oil.
  • Rub the roof of your mouth with the tip of your tongue.
  • Always take a shower even after the smallest workout.

1. Grab a pumice and some sesame oil and get to scrubbing your feet. Not the dream job you've been looking for, but effective nonetheless.

To give context, I've heard the following regarding wherefore you could have rough feet:
  • You have a fungus that's compounded by spores in your shoes and socks. (ew!)
  • You have a predilection towards dry skin.
  • You have toxins that your body is excreting through your skin.

In my case, I think it's the toxin excretion scenario but, regardless of the why, I have noticed that by pumicing my feet throughly with sesame oil has a therapeutic effect on my entire body, including increased detoxification and increased energy. Your feet also feel great. I recommend doing it before bedtime cos it just feels so good, makes you feel clean, which for me, improves sleep.

2. Take the tip of your tongue and rub it on the roof of your mouth.

This invokes yawning for me, sometimes almost immediately. After a period of yawning, I always feel more awake.

I've read roughly a ka-billion reasons about why we yawn, many of which are very interesting. The best one I've read recently is that yawning cools the brain and the brain works better when it's cool. Here are some good sites on that:

http://www.infoniac.com/science/yawning-saves-your-brain-from-overheating.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070621161826.htm

http://www.thedailyheadache.com/2007/07/yawn-brain-cool.html

http://unlikely-perfection.co.uk/2009/04/20/why-do-we-yawn/

A cool brain also seems to lend itself to feeling more awake. As to why the tip of tongue works on the roof of mouth, my theory is that is stimulates the hypothalmus gland somehow to yawn. I think this may also be why chanting OM can have a similar effect.

Yawning also can cause my eyes to tear up, so I don't look that great for a little while, but it's worth it.

So yawn away, but note: it's contagious, which has it's own evolutionary reasons, which are also fascinating.

3. Take a shower immediately after even a small workout.

This may be a big "duh" for many of you, but it didn't occur to me to do it after moderate workouts. It's because the skin, as our largest organ and a key one in elimination, can reabsorb the toxins it has excreted if you don't wash them off quickly. This, coupled with the fact that exercise can release free radicals, can lead to a major soup of toxins circulating in your blood, which leads to feeling like crapola and cause you to go, "hey, why exercise?"

So I scrub them off furiously now without delay. I don't use soap, which can have chemicals and drying agents, but I do scrub.

An adjunct to this is that you can take 1-3 grams of Vitamin C after workout to help neutralize free radicals.

These are my tips. Best of luck to everyone and please, let me know what you think!!

Thinking to health,

Marie