Why Does Stress Make Me Bigger?

And, why did AgelessXtra melt fat off my mid-zone when it’s not a ‘weight-loss’ product? The answer has helped me understand the connection between weight gain, hormones and stress.

Many of us are challenged to keep our middle parts (hips, tummy, butts) from packing on extra weight as we age?  I’m talking about those of us that had slim or athletic bodies all through our twenties and but, as our thirties ticked by, this stuff started to build up like a bad fanny pack.

When I hit 150 lbs (@ 5′4″) I went on the first diet of my life.  I counted my restricted calories and exercised like crazy.   Weight loss became my part-time job.  I got down to 133 lbs and was very proud of myself. Sadly, this story ends the way most diet stories do.  A year later, I was easily back to 145 with no sign that it would end there.

I started taking AgelessXtra – advanced cell renewal formula for lots of reasons: more vital energy, mental clarity and stress management.  I wanted to help my body regenerate and repair and protect my cells from free radical damage.

The big surprise was that after about four months — my pants were falling off. I had stopped weighing myself or thinking about the weight – why bother.  So, I had not noticed that my weight was down to 130 lbs with no change in diet or exercise.  3 lbs more weight lost than when I literally worked my ass off.

I have since come to understand that as we age, our hormone levels change and women tend to pack on stress-related weight below the belt.  This is all part of the dance between stress hormones (e.g. cortisol), happy hormones (e.g. DHEA) and insulin – to name a few.

It’s not that your life is necessarily more stressful between age 35 and 50 (although for most women it is) — it’s that your body – biochemically speaking – cannot respond to normal stress like a twenty year old.

The bottom-line: the powerful plant medicine in AgelessXtra was changing the bio-chemical reality of stress in my body.  My cells were being supported to ‘chill out’…and — there was a whole cascade of positive effects that resulted in easy weight loss.

My weight landed at 125 lbs — exactly where I was in University and that’s where it stopped. I’ve now been at that weight for the last six months.

Throw some yoga and meditation in the mix and you’re laughing — literally.

Free Radical meet Ann T. Oxidant

If you’re in to health at all – you’ve heard the term free radical. If you don’t know what it is — you’re not alone.

After you read this — not only will you understand what a free radical is — you’ll remember it.  Promise.

A free radical is molecular exhaust. If each of your cells is like a little car — free radicals are what come out of your cellular tailpipe.  A car uses gasoline to make energy.  Your cell uses oxygen to make energy (aka oxidation).  Free radicals are naturally occurring and are constantly being chugged out by your cells as they go about their business.  Pollution, smoke and overcooked food are just a few examples of external sources of free radicals.

So what’s the problem.  A free radical is an atom or molecule with an unpaired electron.  That means it’s unstable. To use a different metaphor.  A free radical is the devilishly charming and on-the-hunt single guy at a dinner party full of couples.  He crashes around the party, a bit drunk, and does damage as he tries to pair with one of his fellow dinners.

It’s a bit like inviting this guy to the country club.

But nature has a way of looking after her creation. Antioxidants neutralize or stabilize free radicals.  They are the single girl that shows up at the party and puts everything back in balance.

When we lived in a pure environment and 70% of our diet was from organic (that’s what they were in the old days) plants — we had all the antioxidants we needed. Life was in balance.

Today – we live in a toxic soup.  Even if your full-time job is eating raw vegetables – it is unlikely you are getting the full spectrum of different anti-oxidants you need to deal with the free radical damage occurring on a daily basis.

The solution?  A high (I mean look way up!) high anti-oxidant supplement.  You want an ORAC score of  at least 4,500 per serving.  Acai juice has 518 per serving. Mangosteen juice has 627.  My favorite supplement has a 4,512 ORAC per serving.* Two servings a day means your ORAC intake is in excess of 9,000 units.  And, it comes in liquid form that is tasty and highly bio-available.

The eyes are most vulnerable to free radical damage. That’s why they are one of the first signs of degeneration — otherwise known as aging.

Invite Ann T. Oxident to this party called life every day — tame your free radicals and stay well.

*tests conducted by a third party. Brunswick Laboratories, Massachusetts.

How To Talk To Your Doctor About Supplements

You can have an empowered discussion with your doctor about your supplement choices, and, you can both feel good about it.   Don’t put your doctor in the awkward situation of advising you on something she may know little about.  Help your doctor to partner with you.

 The old way = “Doctor,  is it alright for me to take this supplement?”

 If  your doctor doesn’t know what Cordyceps sinensis is then she may just say  NO  ‘to be safe’.  That you means you end up missing out on all the great benefits of smart supplementation.

New way = tell your doctor that you are truly motivated to take responsiblity for your own health and ask them to work with you to monitor the effects of the supplements you have decided to take.  Share your research with them.  If they have knowledge to share about your supplement — let them volunteer it – don’t expect it from them.

Real life example ………sometimes, people that take blood thinners are told not to eat green leafy vegetables because it might add to the blood thinning effect of their prescription.  That’s not sensible.  They lose out on the countless health benefits of their veggies and have to deal with drug side-effects. Ask your doctor to adjust your prescription drugs to work with your new healthy life choices (diet, exercise) and supplement program — not the other way around.

You should not be adjusting to prescription drugs — they should be adjusted to work for you. Give your doctor literature and ingredient lists and ask them if they would be willing to talk with your Naturopathic Doctor or Nutritionist about any concerns they have.

 Do your research — get expert advice and opinion — then make up your own mind.

Even Michael Moore has the Wellness Bug

Known for his ‘bad guys and underdogs’ …even Michael Moore has picked up the wellness banner.  Kudos to Michael for getting that we must take individual responsibility for our health and well-being. Changing the system is a great project — but if we don’t clean up our own lives then — we are just playing victim.   Even the greatest, most accessible health care system in the world cannot give us true wellness….that we must give to ourselves.

From Michael’s website…..What You Can Do To Change The World

5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she’s right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it (and, as Michael Pollan says, “Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants”). Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know this sounds like I’ve turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look at Granny — she’s fit, she’s rested and she knows the names of both of her U.S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don’t put our own “oxygen mask” on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of this action plan!

Come Together – Right Now

Things are changing fast and the trend is toward integration.  Right now, there is tremendous power in merging the ‘opposites’:  the sacred and scientific, the economy and the environment, the corporation and the conscience. When we bring things together and create something new – magic happens.

This is also why so many of us love the diversity of the city – people that look and live and love differently – all together in relative harmony. It’s the power of integration.  We respond to it because regardless of our superficial preferences – we know, in our deepest places, that everything around us is arising from the ONE.

When I was first introduced to term MLM – I had no idea what it stood for. Having been deeply cloistered in the non-profit world, I knew next to nothing about business.  I certainly didn’t know that there was a model of business called Direct Sales and within that, a sub-group called Multi-Level Marketing or as we call it, Relationship Marketing.

I also didn’t know that people had a problem with it.  I looked at the model with innocent eyes and saw the potential for the democratization of wealth, sharing, team building, learning communities, accessible entrepreneurship, not to mention tax benefits. I saw the potential for self-transformation experienced in real life, instead of paying someone else big bucks for petri-dish personal development.   In my MLM program – I get the cheques.

I’m no stranger to being in fringe groups that joyfully live a life of rich reward while being misunderstood, feared or frowned at by the masses.  In my experience, it’s where the action is.

This weekend I attended a convention in Portland (great city – must go back) for the natural product company, Univera. One of the most memorable parts of the convention was to witness the explosive growth of businesses within the Latino community.  Not only are they growing fast – they are growing big.

The couple that have been farm workers for more than 20 years, never earning more than $900 a month,  now earning multiple times that and getting healthier instead of sicker.  The older woman that could not speak any English that was honoured on the stage for building a “platinum” business with no cell phone, no car and no computer.  The father of four that walked off the construction site to pursue his dream – lost his home and found his family was sleeping on the kitchen floor of a friends house but did not give up and is now a big success.

I looked at this community and wondered what was different about them.  If you will allow me a generalization, the answer: instead of cringing at the thought of sharing business success with family and friends – they embrace it,  love it and they are prospering  because of it.  They are not trying to build tidy lives with everything in controllable compartments

This is my work and this is my life.  This is my friend and this is my co-worker.  They live in community – integrated – ONE.

These silly separations we’ve created are dissolving – social marketing is a powerful reminder of this.   Welcome opportunities to bring people, projects and purposes together.  Resistance is futile.  Join the party. You might create something truly magical.

“I know you, you know me
One thing i can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me”

The Beatles

Yummy Yam Soup

Everyone LOVES this soup. Kids, gourmet cooks, grandma.  It’s sweet and savory with just enough curry to give it flavor with no heat. Best of all — it’s the easiest thing to make for a big group.

The following makes a big pot.

1-2 tablespoons oil  (coconut is best)

large bunch of leeks

3-4 litres of stock or water with bouillon cubes to taste

2-3 large yams (garnet yams are nice and bright orange)

1 and a half cups orange lentils

1-2 tablespoons curry powder

salt to taste
Heat the oil in a big pot. Chop the leek into rounds using mostly the light green and white parts. Rinse the leek rounds well. Saute until soft and smellin’ good.  Add stock or water with bouillon.  Peel and chop yams into large chunks. Add to the soup pot with the lentils. Bring to a boil then simmer until everything is very soft (30 minutes or so).  Add curry and salt to taste and let it simmer for a bit longer.

Use a hand blender to make it beautifully smooth. If you don’t have a hand blender — get one. Your life will be so much simpler during soup season.

Flu Facts — Nothing To Sneeze At

The flu is something that deserves your serious attention — but NOT for the reasons you think!  You need to be armed with real facts in order to protect yourself from the pandemic of propaganda coming to a newstand near you.

The World Health Organization reports that every year seasonal influenza (the common kind we have every year) is responsible for 500,00 deaths and 5 million serious illnesses. 

That’s right, 5 million severe flu cases per season is NORMAL.

Health Canada records show that every year somewhere from 500-1,500 people die from the common flu right here at home.  In the U.S, that number is 41,000 deaths.

Pandemic sounds like a super scary word. What does it really mean? A pandemic means that a flu has spread to many countries .  It DOES NOT  describe the frequency or severity of the flu.  As a friend of mine said “that means we have a global pandemic of people falling off ladders”. 

The Centre For Disease Control website clearly states ”most people who have become ill with this new virus (meaning the swine flu)  have recovered without requiring medical treatment.   70% of people being hospitalized had an existing medical condition that put them at greater risk including heart disease, diabetes or serious asthma.

The good news for seniors is that adults older than 64 years do not yet appear to be at increased risk of  H1N1-related complications.

The Australian Society for Infectious Diseases President, Dr. Tom Gottlieb has gone on record saying “there’s no need for urgent mass vaccination”  This is an organization with a strong pro-vaccine record.

Why are they speaking up? The H1N1 vaccine will be delivered in multi-doses and they are concerned that this cannot be delivered safely to the public.   While their concerns revolve around cross-contamination of other viruses, it should be noted that multi-doses use Thimerosal as a preservative. Thimerosal is 50% mercury by weight.

Some U.S. states are discussing mandatory vaccination programs with fines and imprisonment.  Thank God, Canada is immune to such foolishness.  We are, aren’t we?

Protein Rich Pancakes – Gluten Free

We love these pancakes and would never go back to wheat flour which is lovingly referred to as ‘gut bomb’ in our house.

Because they are so rich in protein, they are lower on the glycemic index than regular pancakes.  This is great for people that have to watch their blood sugar levels.

Protein Rich Pancakes

4-5 eggs – depending on the size

1 cup yogurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup amaranth flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp sugar (optional)

Whisk the wet ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix the dry ingredients in medium bowl.

Add the dry to the wet – mixing just enough to combine well.

It’s as easy as that.

Now, when I used to see things like amaranth flour I would just turn the page.  I found these unfamiliar ingredients intimidating.  You can get amaranth flour at most health food stores.    If you can’t find it — substitute quinoa flour or potato starch (not potato flour).

Serves 2 very hungry people or 3 lighter appetites.

Serve with fruit or syrup. Apple butter is a fantastic alternative to syrup for those with blood sugar issues.

Health Care Reform: Back To the Drawing Board

Everyone loves the idea of health care for all.  But what if health care itself is a big part of the problem.  Deepak Chopra shares some eye opening information about why — nothing will be solved by increasing access to the health care system as it is now.

Your Body has an Economy

How can you tell if your body is operating on a surplus or deficit?  Little things mean a lot when it comes to your healing. Learn to identify when your health is going in to a recession and how to recover.