Archive for the ‘Healthy Eating’ Category

Step 5 Get Out in the Sunshine and Move!

Get Moving!

Remember the other 4 Steps? Step 1 Eat Fall and Winter Veggies Step 2 Drink High Antioxidant Veggie Juice Step 3 Eat Probiotic and Enzyme Rich Foods Step 4 Get Plenty of Rest

 Step 5 Get Out in the Sunshine and Move!

In a two-year study involving over 45,000 people, researcher, Anne Grunseit, PhD, from the Prevention Research Collaboration in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, and her colleagues found that people who are sedentary increase the risk of premature death due to illness by 55% over those whose jobs include walking and lifting.  With the greatest risk to obese people with sedentary jobs.  Wow, what kind of risk does that pose for you?

Why Is Sitting Around So Dangerous?

When you are sedentary you are literally sitting in your own sewage waste, it just circulates in your body and becomes more and more bogged down.  You feel sluggish, your lymph system becomes overwhelmed with toxic waste, the little immune soldiers, your white blood cells, are overworked and underpaid and can’t keep the “cold and flu causing bugs” away.   Have you ever wondered why people get sick with colds and flu so easily and why it seems more common today than it was fifty years ago?  Think about it, for virtually thousands of years people lived without protection from the elements we enjoy like warm heated and well-insulated homes and cars.  Modern man has been pretty successful in keeping us away from the discomforts of nature, and YET we are still plagued by illnesses associated with wintertime – namely colds and flu.  In fact, these are so common they are considered “normal”…. is being sick and unable to function normal? What’s up with that?

 Being Sick Is Not “Normal”

Back in the “good old days” people lived in huts, cabins, caves, teepees, even out in the woods, and rarely suffered from most of our modern illnesses and yet they didn’t have the vitamins, coats, boots, heat sources and clean water we have.  Have we modernized ourselves right into poor health?   Here’s the problem, our sewers are backed up; well at least our physical body’s sewer system, the lymphatic system.  You see, all waste, metabolic and toxic, that isn’t eliminated through the colon, goes through a system of blood vessels called the lymphatic system.  You’ve heard of lymph glands being swollen, right?  The lymphatic system is different from the circulatory system that circulates your blood.  The circulatory system has a pump, your heart, but the pump for the lymphatic system is your bodily movement.  Yep, movement is the key here, up and down movement is what gets the sewage moving in your lymphatic system so it can be eliminated through the lungs, skin, colon and kidneys. What kind of movement should you get? 

• At least 10 minutes at a time, 30 minutes a day
• You’ve got to get your body moving up and down, you know, jumping jacks, take the stairs, jog a little, trampolines are great to get the lymph fluids moving.
• Try to do it outside so you can also get the benefit of the winter sunshine and vitamin D

Ideas to get movement in this winter

Take the Stairs

Take the stairs every day –when we lived in a big apartment complex in Tennessee I did the stairs in several buildings everyday on my daily walk.  They were covered and it was safe, I could do it any time of the day or night.  Take the stairs at work and you’ll also avoid all the hacking and coughing in the elevator or the germ laden “hand-rails” of the escalator.  Make the most of your stairs at home use them as part of your movement program.

Do 10 Jumping Jacks

Jumping Jacks are fun and a great way to get that lymph fluid moving.  Try getting up from your desk every hour and do a set of 8-10 jumping jacks.

Just Dance!

Dance!  Dancing is a great aerobic exercise and promotes laughter, another immune booster.

Go For A Walk

Walk outside and do a set of jumping jacks before and after your walk.

Jump On A Trampoline or Rebounder

Get a mini trampoline, a rebounder.  Rebounding was popular in the 1970’s; I remember my parents had one that we weren’t allowed to use (let your kids do it too).  There’s a lot of research showing rebounding is by far the best way to get your lymph flowing.  Put it in the room where you watch TV or sit at the computer and every hour, or on the commercials, do a few minutes of rebounding.  There are many documented health benefits to this form of exercise.  You can find them on line or at sporting good stores.  Do you experience problems with balance?  Good rebounders have stability bars.   Let’s review the ways you can avoid winter colds and flu

1. Eat fall and winter veggies.
2. Drink enzyme and antioxidant-rich veggie and fruit juices (unpasteurized)
3. Eat and drink probiotic and enzyme-rich foods like kefir and kombucha.
4. Get 8 hours of good rest between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am.
5. Get movement every day, at least 10 minutes at a time, at least 30 minutes, best outside.

Start with one, get that down and then add another one, the order you start doesn’t matter so much, which one can you start today?

 If You Do End Up With A Cold or the Flu

If you or a loved one does end up with a cold or the flu, our book Wonderfully Well has a powerful healing juice for colds and flu on page 155.  Don’t have Wonderfully Well?  Order an e-copy here Wonderfully Well.

Have you experienced relief from colds and flu by taking one or more of these 5 Steps?  We’d love to hear your story.  Do you have any more great suggestions to help us stay healthy?  Leave a comment, I promise I’ll answer!

A Discovery Session is your first session with Celeste Davis and The Wellness Workshop.  A Discovery Session is a powerful tool to help you learn to listen to your body and understand what it is trying to tell you.

How it works:

• Schedule Your Discovery Session with Celeste
• Find out your blood type
• You complete a series of subjective tests and email them to Celeste
• We meet by skype or phone for approximately 2 hours and you learn information that will empower you to take charge of your own health.

You will learn:

• How past medical history, including your genetic history may or may not lead to your present conditions and how to use food and a healthy lifestyle to “turn off” bad DNA and “turn on” good DNA.
• How your blood type affects your stress relief, food choices and even hobbies and activities.
• How your body type affects your food choices, personality and even the job and spouse you choose.
• Why you crave certain foods and what to eat to stop the cravings.
• What foods affect your body in a negative way and what to do about it.
• If you are toxic and a detox program would help you.

Value of a Discovery Session: Priceless

One-Time Investment: $120.00

Schedule yours today!

615-975-1086

or email: celeste@thewellnessworkshop.org

People who go through our program and begin juicing or using AIM dehydrated juices report they no longer get sick!  Yes, it’s true, your body has a built in “cold and flu fighting mechanism” called your immune system.  If you give your body what it needs, enzyme-rich, nutrient-dense foods, plenty of water, rest and movement, it will do what it is designed to do-keep YOU healthy!

Step 1 Was to eat an abundance of fall veggies and fruits, they have the extra oomf you need from your food for the winter season.

Step 2 Was to eat and drink antioxidant rich foods, especially freshly extracted veggie & fruit juice or the enzyme-rich dehydrated juices from AIM.

Today is Step 3 to Avoid Winter Colds and Flu, Flood Your Body With Beneficial, Friendly Bacteria called Probiotics.

“Friendly bacteria promote the production of B vitamins, break down and rebuild hormones, protect us from environmental toxins, and help to maintain healthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels.”  AIM Companies.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that live naturally in your small intestine and colon.

Where Do Probiotics Come From?

Initially your body is introduced to beneficial bacteria from your mother as you exit her womb through the birth canal.

What Happens To Our Beneficial Bacteria?

Some mothers do not have beneficial bacteria due to taking antibiotics some time prior to her pregnancy or taking a vaginal suppository antibiotic prior to birth.  Babies born c-section also miss this dose of vital beneficial bacteria.  Babies who miss out on beneficial bacteria from their mother are often colicky, have GERD, and are prone to ear infections, allergies and even asthma.  Without the crucial beneficial bacteria, harmful bacteria and candida can overwhelm the gut.

Beneficial Bacteria can be destroyed by taking antibiotics, using antibacterial hand washes and soaps, eating commercially grown beef and chicken or commercially grown non-organic vegetables and fruits that have been sterilized or pasteurized which kills both good and bad bacteria.  Good bacteria not only helps immunity and brain function but it also keeps the disease promoting bad bacteria at bay.  When good bacteria is destroyed, the bad takes over.  This can cause a host of physical problems such as digestive problems, constipation and diarrhea, IBS, muscle aches and pains, neurological problems, poor brain function, allergies, skin problems and susceptibility to viruses and infections of many kinds.

Three Ways To Rebuild Beneficial Bacteria In Your Body

1.  Eat Fermented Veggies like raw sauerkraut

2.  Probiotic and Enzyme-Rich Drinks

3.  Take a Probiotic Supplement

Build Your Immune System, Restore Brain Function, Reduce Pain With Probiotic-Rich Foods

Probiotic-Rich foods have been a part of ancient cultures for thousands of years, I’m sure you’ve heard of Kimchi, a probiotic rich Korean food, Sauerkraut from the Germans, the Norwegians kept a barrel of fermented cod livers by their door and drank some of the “juice” from the barrel everyday. More familiar in our American culture is buttermilk from the frontier days and of course our modern day love of yogurt.

Make Your Own Probiotic-Rich Fermented Vegetables

Body Ecology is a great place to learn more about fermented vegetables and purchase a starter to make your own.

Probiotic-Rich Drinks More Effective Than Pills and Yogurt

You may have also heard of probiotic rich drinks such as kefir and kombucha.  Probiotic-rich foods are higher in living and useable probiotics than pills.  In fact, one serving of Beyond Organic Amasai Kefir (we love the Raspberry and Milk and Honey) has the same amount of usable probiotics as an entire bottle of probiotic supplement pills.  Beyond Organic has two other probiotic and enzyme-rich drinks, Suero Viv (we LOVE the Raspberry Lemonade) and NuVino.

You can make your own kombucha and kefir but you must be careful or you can end up with dangerous bad bacteria if not done properly.  A good source for how-to info is Body Ecology.

Commercial, Grocery Store Yogurt Is NOT A Good Source Of Probiotics

Sorry to burst your bubble, here’s are a few of the problems with commercially made yogurt in the grocery store:

1.  It’s full of sugar and often high fructose corn syrup.  More than 8 grams (2 teaspoons) of sugar alters your body chemistry and can reduce your immunity by 60-80% for up to 8 hours, so sugar filled yogurt defeats the purpose.

2.  Almost ALL commercial yogurts contain the bacteria s.thermophilus.  University studies have shown that s.thermophilus stimulates the T cells (fighter cells) that initiate autoimmune disease.  Read the labels to see if your yogurt contains s.thermophilus, if it does, don’t use it or give it to your kids.  The only one we’ve found that does not use s.thermophilus is Erivan, it only contains acidophilus, the natural bacteria created in yogurt.

3.  Almost ALL commercial yogurts are made with pasteurized milk.  The high temperatures of pasteurization changes the protein casein into a harmful protein and makes milk products hard to digest, which fights against the natural properties of unpasteurized yogurt to ease and improve digestion.

Make Your Own Yogurt

You can make your own yogurt with unpasteurized milk, there is a recipe, Tammi’s Homemade Yogurt,  in our book Wonderfully Well on page 175 for simple homemade yogurt. Beyond Organic Amasai Kefir is made with milk from green fed cows and is never heated above the cow’s body temperature, thus it is not only probiotic-rich but enzyme-rich as well.  This fabulous kefir, the highest quality on the market, has been shown to improve digestion and heal the gut as well as rebuild beneficial bacteria.  If you want to start making your own yogurt or kefir you need a starter, I recommend purchasing a starter from Body Ecology or purchasing Beyond Organic Amasai Kefir and using that as a starter to create your own Probiotic-Rich Kefir or Yogurt.

Probiotic Supplements

We’ve recommended and taken probiotic supplements for many years.  We currently use Flora Food from AIM.  We like this particular probiotic because it is not only the good bacteria but contains the “food” that will help good bacteria to grow.

Two other companies we’ve recommended in the past and still endorse are Garden of Life Primal Defense and Transformation Enzymes Probiotics.

So Remember, To Avoid Winter Colds and Flu

• Eat Fall and Winter Veggies
• Drink Enzyme Rich Veggie Juices
• Eat Probiotic Rich Foods or Take Probiotic Supplements

Juices are Rich in Enzymes and Antioxidants

Can I just take supplements? There are some good antioxidant formulas available, such as AIM Proancyanol 2000, however, supplements alone will not keep you healthy.  As Dr. Rowen Pfeifer, DC says, “only use supplements to supplement a healthy diet and lifestyle”.

Can I Buy Bottled Juice Like Bolthouse Carrot Juice?  Bottled juices are pasturized so the enzymes are dead.  These bottled juices contain vitamins and minerals and antioxidants but don’t have the construction crew necessary to put the nutrients to work.  There is no comparison in the results of bottled juices and fresh juice.  Natural Health Clinics world wide use freshly extracted veggie and fruit juices to heal even stage 4 cancer, not bottled juice.  The AIM company dehydrated juices are processed to retain their enzymes and are a good substitute for freshly extracted juice.

How Much Should I Drink?

The Amount of Juice You Require Depends On Your Stage of “Health Nut” The amount you need depends your current lifestyle and the condition of your body.

Are you Already A Health Nut? If you are avoiding processed foods, refined sugars and chemicals and eating a mostly raw whole foods diet then 16 ounces a day should be sufficient.  You can drink it all at once or drink 8 ounces in the morning and 8 ounces before dinner.  Be sure and wait 20 minutes prior to eating anything after drinking your juice.

Are you a Sporadic Health Nut?  This means you eat raw veggies and fruits every day and make an effort to avoid processed foods and sugar as much as possible but you still partake more than you’d like in the Standard American Diet (SAD).  For you, 16 ounces twice a day is a good idea.  Be sure and wait 20 minutes prior to eating anything after drinking your juice.

Do you eat the “Standard American Diet” of processed and chemical laden foods?  Follow our slow start plan in Wonderfully Well on pages 55 – 63.  Begin with 8 ounces and work up to 32 ounces a day until your diet and your body, are clean.

Are you Sick?  Do you have chronic health conditions or disease?  If you are in this category you definitely need a plan, if you start juicing this much every day and keep eating unhealthy foods and living an unhealthy lifestyle you will temporarily feel very sick because your body will begin a heavy detox.   Our personal coaching programs are extremely effective for people with chronic physical conditions.  We help people create a sustainable system to will slowly cleanse and rebuild the body and  often the body will heal and eliminate chronic disease.

Do you have Cancer?  If you have cancer, we recommend you contact the Gerson Institute and do whatever you can to follow their program.  That said, if you are sick, the more juice the better for you.  Health clinics in the US and worldwide who use juicing as part of their healing protocol recommend 32 ounces to 1 gallon of freshly extracted juice per day.  The more juice you drink, the more quickly your body has what it needs to do it’s job of protecting and repairing your cells.

Why Does Juicing Work?

When you drink freshly extracted vegetable and fruit juices (not bottled or processed) OR enzyme rich dehydrated juice powders on an empty stomach those antioxidant rich foods are absorbed into your blood stream within 20 minutes and go directly to your cells to cleanse and repair the cell.  The powerful antioxidants in these foods and the cofactors that work with them go to work to destroy invading toxins such as virus and bacteria and cleanse the toxic build up of the cells.

In her book, Raw Juices Can Save Your Life, Dr. Sandra Cabot, MD calls freshly extracted raw vegetable and fruit juices “a treasure house of nutritional healing”.  Dr. Cabot further states “juices are unique because they allow the gut to receive a very concentrated amount of phytonutrients (plant nutrients) that could not be obtained by eating a normal amount of raw vegetables and fruit.  You can absorb up to 99% of their value”.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD, in his book Eat To Live recommends adults consume two pounds of vegetables per day for optimal health.  That would be 8 carrots, half a box of baby spinach, 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber and an onion.  That’s a lot of veggies!  It’s not at all hard when you juice, one pound of carrots make eight ounces of juice.  Most people won’t eat a whole pound of carrots.  If you drink 16 ounces of juice per day you’ll get more than two pounds of veggies.

Juicing Makes New Cells Stronger and Healthier. Your body is continually rebuilding cells.  Every 28 days you have new skin, every 120 days you have new blood cells, every 7 years your organs are new and every 10-15 years even your bones are completely renewed.  How does this happen?  When a cell is ready to die it divides into two cells.  The old one dies, the new one survives (remember high school biology?)   If the old cell is cleansed and fortified before it divides, the new cell is stronger and healthier than the old one, keep juicing and the process is repeated over and over again.  Your cells and thus, your body, become healthier and stronger rather than older and weaker.

What Juicer Should I Buy?  See our Wonderfully Well Store for comparisons of the juicers we use and recommend.

I Can’t Afford a Juicer.  The question is do you want to afford it?  I spoke to a women’s group a few years ago.  Prior to the meeting most of the women were outside smoking.  I also noticed most of them had professionally done nails.  When many of them objected to the cost of eating healthy and juicing I asked how much it costs to buy a carton of cigarettes, how about a month of cigarettes?  How much does it cost to get your nails done?  The point is I have people tell me they can’t afford healthy eating or juicing but they go on many vacations a year, they get regular massages, they hire a housekeeper, they get their hair done, go golfing, own a boat or a second home, you get the idea.  You afford what you value.  If you truly value your health you will make it a priority in your time and finances.

Maybe you REALLY can’t afford a juicer, there are people in tight circumstances, we understand.  If you really can’t, first of all pray and ask God to give you one, then send out an email to all your friends and ask if any of them have a juicer they would loan you until you can purchase one. I’ve had many people tell me they prayed for a juicer and shortly after received one.    One of my clients mentioned to her bug man that she was looking for a used juicer.  He told her one of his clients had one for sale.  When he told the person with the juicer about my client, who was a breast cancer survivor, they gave her the juicer.  Craig’s list is another good place to find a good quality Champion or Green Star juicer.  Here’s an idea, if you are a person who values juicing, and you know someone who can’t afford it maybe you could give them one.

Another affordable suggestion is to use the AIM dehydrated juices, a one-month supply of powerful BarleyLife dehydrated juice powder is under $40.

What Is the Best Juice?  It’s important to get a variety of brightly colored veggies and a few fruits.  Fruit juices cleanse the body and vegetable juices repair the body.  Our introductory juice, in our book Wonderfully Well is an antioxidant juice made up of carrots, apples and lemons.  Once people get used to this juice we encourage them to expand to other veggies, especially greens.  Most people start with some form of carrot juice and expand their horizons.

Juicing is somewhat time consuming.  You have to shop for your veggies and fruits, wash them, prep them, juice them, clean up the juicer, it’s not like the drive through at a fast food restaurant.  However, once you get in the swing of it your daily time for 16 ounces is less than 1 minute per ounce, a good juicer, like a Champion or Green Star is a snap to clean up, just wash, rinse and set out to dry.

I Don’t Have Time to Juice or I Travel For a Living.  You can still get the great antioxidant health benefits of juicing with enzyme-rich dehydrated juice powders from AIM.  BarleyLife and Leafy Greens contain over 40 pounds of dried green veggies in a one-month supply.  Do you think you will eat 40 pounds of greens this month?  That would be 20 of those plastic boxes of baby spinach.  There are 25 pounds of carrots in a one-month supply of Carrot Max.  Look at the pictures of the juice powders below; you can see they are antioxidant rich by the richness of their color.  These juices are dried in a special way to preserve the living part of the juice, the enzymes so you get the benefit of freshly extracted enzyme rich juice with the convenience of a mix and drink powder.

We recommend and use AIM dehydrated juice powders when we travel, when we are on the truck or when we have a very busy schedule.  Mixing 2 juice powders together gives a tasty, refreshing antioxidant, enzyme and phytonutrient packed drink.  We like these combinations, the equivalent of two 16-ounce glasses of juice:

• BarleyLife or Leaf Greens and Reddy Beet – cleansing, a sweet tasting green and beet juice
• Just Carrot and CalciAim – repairing and protecting, a refreshing carrot and citrus juice

If you travel for a living or lead a busy life get the nutrition you desperately need from these AIM dehydrated juices.  We also recommend you pick up one of AIM’s Omega Oil rich supplements, AimMega or CellSparc to enhance the juice nutrients and provide essential fatty acids for your heart, skin and brain.

Now Take Action To Avoid Colds and the Flu

• Get Out My Juicer and Use It
• Order A Juicer
• Use My Juicer
• Order AIM enzyme rich dehydrated juices

Life Isn’t Perfect and Neither Are We

My second apology has to do with being perfect, and not understanding your real life.  We found when our life got crazy this spring and summer it was not as easy to stay on the healthy road.  You see in Nashville we created the perfect life for us to be fairly perfect with our food and lifestyle.  Even our job promoted our perfectly healthy lifestyle.

You Juggle Alot!

At times you voiced how difficult it was, in fact, it seemed like your responsibilities to “other people”, travel, cost of healthy eating sabotaged your efforts and made it very difficult to do what you knew you needed and wanted to do to be healthy.  We encouraged you, You can do it!  But the truth is,

We Really Didn’t Understand!

Well, after the past 7 months of not enough time, staying in other people’s homes, hospitals, nursing homes, 155 days away from home, truck stops, poor planning, unavailable healthy food,

 We Get It!  It Really Is Hard!

It’s Especially Hard when you live and work in your original culture.  There we were, the town we grew up in, the people we loved, and we began to celebrate PEOPLE with food and began to deal with STRESS with food and when we were tired we just sometimes gave up putting forth the extra effort.  Emotions ran high all summer long as we were on a deathwatch with Phil’s dad.  Extended family stresses were there and just not having our own schedule.  But what am I saying?  You know this, You get it, You live it!

My dad wanted a bowling party for his 76th birthday complete with bowling alley food…..corn dogs!

I had a corn dog for my dad’s 76^th birthday, an egg and sausage mc muffin at mc Donald’s, many sandwiches with bread, my father in law’s favorite breakfast when I was with him, burnt toast and coffee, more pie than I care to admit.  When we ate out we chose our old hometown favorites, clam chowder on the Oregon coast, our favorite pizza, Mexican and Chinese foods from our hometown of Dallas, Oregon.  Now these would be fine celebration foods occasionally but we were celebrating every day, to the tune of a 12-pound weight gain for both of us, breaking our perfect record!

We were so happy to find some juice on the road!

Our family members were often sensitive to our food choices and at times we were blessed with fresh juice, that was life changing.  They bought food from the farmers market, shared the bounty of their garden and encouraged us with trying to eat better themselves.

Why Is It So Hard??? 

It’s In Your Brain

Addicts lose the ability to control their drives

Most Americans are addicted to processed foods.  Addictions highjack the “Control” mechanism in your brain.  When you detox, you clear your body, your taste buds are cleansed and your control mechanisms are restored.  However, old habits are still there, lying dormant in your brain.  So you begin to pick up a bag of chips, a ding-dong, have an ice cream and pretty soon you are wanting them all the time.  An addict who returns to their addiction typically picks up at the same level they quit.  You quickly find yourself wanting a BAG of chips or a BOX of ding-dongs or a CARTON of ice cream.  This is why a drug addict, off drugs for many years, will die after one time of using, they started where they left off.  So we left off at a point where our food choices over the years virtually doubled both of our body weight.  This summer, when we gave in to those old habits, we picked up where we left off.  We were aware but found it hard to stop.

Why Is It So Hard??? It’s In The Food

Junk Food contains chemicals that are addictive just like cocaine.

Add to your addicted brain, the addictive qualities of prepared, packaged and restaurant foods.  These foods contain thousands of chemicals designed by food scientists to make you addicted to their food.  When this addiction kicks in and the added salt, msg, sugar and fats grab your taste buds, you don’t desire REAL food.  You desire and look for the junk, you truly become, A Junkie!

You will never crave broccoli while you are still craving donuts and coffee.  You have to do what all addicts do.  Stop the behavior and go through withdrawal.  That’s what we did.  Our first days of getting fully back on track, juicing, eating raw veggies and fruits and no coffee and junk.  We Wanted The Junk!  But we didn’t have any available so we just pushed through and drank our juice, ate our veggies and in about three days the junk craving was over and the real food began to taste good.

Why Is It So Hard??? It’s In Your Heart

I was complaining about how hard it was to eat well when around all these family activities and Phil’s brother Jon replied “I didn’t’ seen anyone holding a knife to your throat when you ate that blackberry pie and ice cream last night.”  He was right!  The battle was in my mind and in my preparedness.  This was my time to realize that I STILL celebrate people with food, combat stress with Food and decide what to eat based on my company.  Ugh!

Can you relate to that?  When you are with family and friends, food is such a big part, it’s important to make a mind-shift and realize the celebration is the PEOPLE, not the food.

Why Is It So Hard???  Stress makes you crave fats, salt and sugar

Stress makes you crave fat, salt, carbs and sugar

When stress hits your body and your mind, you need to stay strong and healthy.  You will crave fats, salty foods and sugars.  That is the time to feed the body and eat nuts, seeds and fruit.  When you have a plan in place you can navigate change well.  My problem was, the our life-change hit fast this spring and I didn’t stop and create a new plan, I just flew by the seat of my pants.

We want to stay strong and healthy so we can feel good, enjoy people, have our brains work right and avoid getting sick.  People who have high stress lives get sick more often and have a higher risk serious disease.  You may have experienced this or no someone who had a ton of stress in their life but stayed strong and healthy through it and then once the stress was gone, they ended up with heart attack, cancer or some other tragic disease.

Here’s My New Plan for Stressful or Busy Times

1.  Be Intentional About My Food

Living Well Means Being Intentional, Training ourselves to eat well during stress, to celebrate people with conversation and love and interest, planning for change help us to accomplish our goals of optimal health and wellness.

2.  At Events – Celebrate PEOPLE not food-go to events to see people

• Listen
• Laugh
• Love
• Encourage
• Enjoy

3.  Prepare For An Event by drinking a Fresh Juice or a Protein Shake

Drink it before you go and you won’t be starving.  You will be able to focus on the people and not the food.

Fresh Juice or a Smoothie will curb your appetite and nourish your body.

4.  When You Encounter Stress:  Feed Your Body GOOD FATS

Wild Caught Cold Water Fish, Avocados, Nuts and Seed and Nut Butters

Good Fats – Grab a handful of nuts, eat some nut butter with an apple or celery, throw some avocado on your salads or make some guacamole and eat it with veggies.

5.  When You Encounter Stress Feed Your Body Natural Sodium

A green lemonade juice is packed with natural sodium, lemon, apple, celery and greens, it’s a great stress buster.  How about nut butter on celery, adding celery to your juice or squeezing lemons and lime into your water.

6.  When You Crave Sugary Foods and Treats Eat Natural Sugar

Natural Sugars:  Eat Fresh, Raw Fruit

Remember when you are busy or stressed you need

• More Energy
• Clearer Thinking

You get that from

• Good Fats
• Natural Sodium
• Natural Sugars

 We Found Some Affordable Products To Help In These Busy Times

Of course Lara Bars are great to put in your car, pocket or purse for busy or stressful times.  They are a perfect blend of nuts, seeds, fruit and natural sugar from dates.  But we had a hard time getting our juice made.  We brought our juicer to Oregon but it seemed everything else took priority and so it wasn’t used.

AIM Garden Trio, Healthy Food for Busy People

We overcame our unhealthy habits and addictions to junk food by having some healthy fast products on hand from a company called AIM.

Get the benefits of fresh juice without all the work!

AIM specializes in high quality dehydrated juice powders called BarleyLife, Just Carrots, Reddy Beets and CalciAim.  These are enzyme rich dehydrated juice powders you mix with water.  the juice powder takes 1 minute to shake and drink.  These are made from the highest quality fruits and veggies and are dehydrated in a way that preserves the natural enzymes and vitamins and minerals.

When fresh juice isn’t possible we have our Cleansing Juice, a mixture of BarleyLife and Reddy Beets wait 20 minutes, then have our Antioxidant Repair Juice, a mixture of Just Carrots and CalciAIM, quick and tasty!

Check it out at www.myaimstore.com/thewellnessworkshop  there are links to the web page in this newsletter.  The web page has many videos telling more about these excellent products.

So there you have our second apology, we aren’t perfect, please forgive us for not getting how difficult a healthy lifestyle can be.  We ARE continually working on finding ways to make it easier and sustainable.

Please Leave a Comment Below, if you’ve enjoyed this article, please  Share with a Friend at the top of the page.

I’d love for you to leave a comment below.  Share your ideas, struggles or questions.  Let us know how YOU are doing!  We’ll answer your comments for sure.

It’s been almost 7 months since my last newsletter.  Please forgive us for disappearing.  Your health and wellbeing is very important to both Phil and I as we’ve become friends and fellow travellers on the journey to wellness. Phil purchased a big truck this spring and I’ve been working on a detox and healthy lifestyle for people who travel for a living and truckers.  It’s been on my heart for a few years and Phil tried to go out several times and develop it while driving but that just wasn’t practical.

We call her Gracie. This particular color blue in Spanish is “Celeste”!

Pass Your Physical

Pass Your Physical is a web-based coaching program that will help people lower their blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and gain more energy.  I’ll be telling you more about how to participate soon. Participants in our programs have normalized their blood pressure and blood sugar within 10 days and lowered cholesterol by 25 to 100 points in 28-days.  In just three months we’ve had participants drop total cholesterol over 200 points into normal and double their good cholesterol.

Spring Started With Us In and Out of Vegas and Fall Ended With A Great Loss 

We enjoyed visiting with family through the spring and seeing Phil’s parents who were still living on their own and strong in their 80’s and 90’s until Phil’s sweet mother had a heart attack early in the summer.  I joined other family members in Oregon to help with her recovery and care for his 91-year-old father.  In July his father had a heart attack and started a steady decline ending in his death on September 21 at the age of 92.  Mom has recovered nicely.  We miss dad but know he is home in heaven.  We were so thankful for the ability to have lots of time with him in the last months of his life.

Phil’s precious parents, Al & Marylou Davis, Al is 91 here

We’ve Been Enjoying the Kids

We are loving having more time with our daughter Jesi, her fiancé Kurt and grandsons Josiah and Ian, even with being away from home 155 days since April we’ve had some fun times with the boys and even enjoyed them visiting in Oregon to see Great-Grandpa one last time.  We miss our son Robb, still in Nashville but he also was able to join us for several weeks and then for the memorial service in September.

Our daughter Jesi and her fiance Kurt

Ian 4 and Josiah 12 hiking at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Vegas. Fun but Scarey with an enthusiastic 4 year old!

Son Robb and grandpa. He wrote an amazing tribute to his grandpa and was able to come out from Nashville and sing at the memorial service.

So all in all, it’s been a crazy but blessed spring and summer.   So we apologize for “disappearing” and will purpose not to do that again.

Leave a comment, let us know how your doing!  We miss you!

Fall leaves and fall vegetables share God’s display of rich vibrant color.

Have you ever noticed that fall foods – squash, pumpkins, apples, are the same colors as the beautiful changing leaves on the trees?  Fall veggies and fruits are rich in color.

Notice the dark almost black-green acorn squash and avocado, the deep yellow spaghetti squash, of course our favorite orange pumpkin and sweet potatoes and the rich red in variegated apples and late tomatoes and we can’t forget the rich purple grapes bursting with sweet juice.

There are also greens in fall; spinach, swiss chard, cabbage both green and purple, the cooler yellows in pears and parsnips.  I often hear people say fall is their favorite season with it’s rich color schemes, how comforting that God color coordinates his creation!

Fall Veggies Help You Avoid the Flu and Stay Healthy in Winter

There’s another side to those beautiful rich colors; they pack a ton of nutrition to prepare your body to be strong and healthy through the winter.  All of the fall foods are high in antioxidants.  What do antioxidants do?  They repair and protect your cells.

Your body is comprised of trillions of cells and the health of your cells determines the health of your organs, skin, hair and so on.  To have a healthy body, you must have healthy cells, antioxidant foods protect and repair your most valuable asset, your cells.

How To Identify A High Antioxidant Food

A good way to identify a high antioxidant food is by it’s color.  There are two things to watch for:

1.  The color must be bright.

2.  The color must go all the way through the fruit or veggie.

Compare Spaghetti Squash with Zucchini Squash

Zucchini is dark on the outside but white on the inside, nutritious but not a high antioxidant food. Spaghetti Squash has rich color inside and out, full of powerful healing antioxidants.

Better Than Supplements

These brightly colored veggies and fruits that protect and repair your body are also high in Vitamin C and A, to build your immune system and protect your skin in the harsher winter conditions.  They are high in fiber to keep your “winter gain” down and keep your blood vessels swept clean as you are likely more sedentary in the winter.

All these wonderful health benefits make me want to gobble up as many fall veggies and fruits as I can.

You’ll find some great winter vegetable recipes in our cookbook, Wonderfully Well.

We are enjoying this Spaghetti Squash Recipe, Faux Crab Cakes, here or on page 209

Faux Crab Cakes, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, full of nutritional goodness.

Other Fabulous and Easy Fall Food Recipes in Wonderfully Well 

Cleansing Juice –  Thanksgiving Cocktail using apples, cranberries and grapes    page 153

Healing Juices – Knock the cold or flu before it takes hold with these juices                        page 155

Sweet Potato Fries – Healthy Southern Comfort food, rich in antioxidants             page 201

Winter Squash Recipes – Pineapple Acorn Squash and more                                   page 205-211

Butternut Squash Soup – Sweet and aromatic, like fall in a cup                              page 217

Refrigerator Apple Oat Muffins – stir up a batch & make fresh each morning                                  page 267

Please leave a comment below, do you have a favorite fall food or recipe?  Share it!

Faux Crab Cakes, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, full of nutritional goodness.

The first time I had crab I was in my twenties.  Some friends from Lebanon, Oregon, Kendal and Becky Evenhus, went to Alaska for the summer to work the crab season and brought us back a pile of crab that was about two feet tall on our table.  I grew up in Kansas, so seeing a real crab on my table was a new experience!  I tasted a little and Phil devoured the rest (west coast boy that he is).  Over the years I learned to love crab.  Then I became healthy and I learned a terrible truth, crab is a trash fish and very toxic!

Yep, scientists actually use crab and other crustaceans to determine the toxicity level of the oceans.  Hmmm…..then it became clear to me, eating crab or any shell fish was like taking the filter out of my aquarium and deep frying it.  Not quite as romantic, huh?

Now don’t get me wrong, I do eat crab on occasion and really enjoy it, like this summer when my brother-in-law and sister-in-law hosted a crab fest in Oregon.  We had fresh crab and cabbage salad with blue cheese on it, both of those are celebration foods for Phil and I and we really enjoyed the celebration, I’m sure we’ll do it again.

The problem is, I LOVE crab cakes so what to do?  When I discovered Spaghetti Squash at the ripe old age of 49, I began to notice how much it LOOKED like crab, hmmm….so I began to play with different crab recipes and finally landed on the one I’ll share today.

Fall Veggies and Fruits are rich and colorful, just like the leaves. They are also rich in antioxidants to protect your health during the winter.

Spaghetti Squash is a fall food.

It’s Easy

Spaghetti Squash is easy to prepare and store and extremely versatile.  If you haven’t tried it before, you’ll find it with other squash, usually near the potatoes in your grocery store.  It looks like a big yellow football.  It’s called spaghetti squash because when you cook and run a fork or spoon through it, it separates like spaghetti.

Save Money Too

Squash is fresh in late summer/early fall.  This is the best time to get a great deal.  Yesterday, in October, my big Spaghetti squash cost 98 cents.  It will give Phil and I three or four meals.  You can buy several and store in a cool dark place all winter long.

Cook Your Squash Before You Need It

I always cook my squash while preparing another meal and store it in the refrigerator or freezer until I need it.  I preheat the oven to about 450 degrees, put the whole round squash on a cookie sheet, poke a small hole with a knife in each end and bake for about an hour.  You will know it’s done when you can put a knife through the flesh on the end of the squash and turn it easily.  Take the squash out, allow it to cool to the touch, cut in half and scoop out the seeds.  Then take a fork or spoon and scoop the squash out of the shell and store in a baking dish.

Freeze For a Quick Meal Later

I like to put a batch or two in the freezer.  Place one cup increments in zip loc baggies, seal without any air and freeze flat for future use.

Freeze baked squash in one cup increments, put in a zip loc baggie, pat out flat and freeze flat. It will thaw easily and be a quick and easy meal on a busy winter night.

I store my homemade frozen foods in the boxes my baby spinach or greens come in.

I use the plastic boxes my baby greens come in for storage in the freezer, kitchen, garage, everywhere! Inexpensive storage item and helps the environment.

So your spaghetti squash is cooked and ready for use. Let’s make some Faux Crab Cakes!  Here’s the recipe, you can also find it on page 209 in our book, Wonderfully Well.

Celeste Davis (makes 8-10 / 3-inch cakes)

Enjoy this Vegan replacement that tastes like Crab Cakes. Top with a fruit chutney, dip in organic cocktail sauce or salsa and serve with a nice fresh salad.  Make them small and use for appetizers or “Faux Crabettes”, or as a veggie burger on an organic bun.

Even “non-healthy” eaters will enjoy these.  Our good friend Kay, who helped us by testing and editing our Wonderfully Well recipes makes them often for friends and family who gobble them up and don’t realize….”there ain’t no crab in the cakes”.

Ingredients

1½ cups cooked spaghetti squash

1 medium organic yukon gold potato, boiled and cooled

1 cup zucchini shredded

2 garlic cloves

2 small colored peppers

1 small onion

1 cup organic bread crumbs or crushed organic saltine crackers

¼ cup white Spelt flour

1 large egg 1 Tablespoon almond milk or whole cream

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon parsley

2 Tablespoons Grape seed Veganaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Grape seed oil for frying

Instructions

Cook Spaghetti Squash see “How To Cook Winter Squash” on page 205 of Wonderfully Well or follow my instructions above.

You will need to sauté the veggies before you pan fry the crab cakes.  You can use the same pan or have 2 skillets available.

Prep Veggies

Using your food processor or grater shred blade and shred zucchini, peppers, onion.  Remove to skillet that has 1 Tablespoon Grape seed oil in it. Shred cooled and peeled potato, set aside.

In skillet

Sauté zucchini, garlic, onion, peppers in oil until tender, about 2 minutes.  Add potato and spaghetti squash to zucchini mixture, and remove from heat.

My favorite cooking oil, Expeller Pressed Napa Valley Grapeseed Oil, it’s green!

In Magic Bullet or separate bowl

Put bread or cracker crumbs in magic bullet cup, and add spices and salt.  Add egg, almond milk, Dijon mustard, Veganaise.  Blend well with magic bullet.

In Food Processor with S blade

Put all veggies in a bowl or food processor (use the same bowl you used to shred the veggies), add egg mixture in magic bullet and pulse 2 -3 times to blend well.  Put mixture in a bowl and cover.  You may need to gently mix with your hands to be sure the spaghetti squash is well distributed.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer for mixture to become more solid and flavors to blend.  At this point you could freeze the cakes before cooking.

Cover a baking sheet with wax paper. Drop “balls” of uncooked squash mixture on the paper or cooled cooked cakes. Freeze until solid, store in zip loc baggies.

Cook the cakes

Make these cakes as thick or slightly thinner than the typical restaurant crab cakes – your choice.

Put 1-2 Tablespoons Grape seed oil in cast iron skillet, medium heat.  Dip out ¼ to 1/3 cup with a measuring cup and gently drop onto the skillet, drop it CLOSE to the skillet so you don’t splatter the oil – an ice cream scoop works great for this.   I like to dredge my cakes in a little gluten free or spelt flour just to keep them from sticking, again, your choice.

Use a spoon to form the mixture into a patty on the skillet, to the size and thickness you desire (test and see which you prefer).  Fry until crisp on one side, then turn and fry on other side.  Cakes are done when they are firm and cooked in the middle. Drain on a paper towel, keep warm in the oven.

Vegan?  Use 1 Tablespoon of finely ground flax seeds mixed with 2 Tablespoons filtered water to replace egg.

Gluten Free? Substitute bread crumbs, crackers and flour for Glutino saltine type crackers and/or panko bread crumbs and Pamela’s Gluten free baking mix.

Enjoy!

Serve with a fresh salad for a delicious, health giving meal.

There are many “toppings” for these Faux Crab Cakes, marinara sauce, a garlic aoli, pineapple salsa, be creative or use a typical crab cake sauce recipe.

Quick and Easy Veggie Burger

Take cooked crab cakes out of the freezer, warm cake on a skillet or in the toaster oven and make a veggie burger with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and the tartar sauce below.

We also like this tartar sauce, page 211 in Wonderfully Well

Put all in a magic bullet or blender and blend well.  Refrigerate for up to one week.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Grape seed Veganaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons Greek sliced pepperoncini peppers

Juice from 1/4 of a lime

1/8 red onion

1 clove garlic

2 inches fresh dill or 1/2 teaspoon dried dill

Please Leave a Comment

I’d love to hear what your favorite fall veggie is and what do you like to do with Spaghetti Squash, leave a comment below, I’ll be sure to answer.

For many people the biggest traps for unhealthy food lie in traveling and eating out.

We’ve made a number of road trips (one lasted 5 weeks and covered over 7500 miles) in the last 6+ years of our healthy lifestyle, some trips we were more prepared than others.  We’ve found that when we plan for healthy food on our trip we have more energy and therefore more fun!

Our Number One Secret Weapon, the “To-Go” Bag

• Organic Salad Dressing
• Celtic Sea Salt
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Organic Cream (in case Celeste celebrates with a cup of coffee)
• Organic Tabasco Sauce (in case Phil celebrates with eggs), 100% Real Maple Syrup (in case we both celebrate with whole grain pancakes)
• Digestive enzymes and betaine HCL to help digest the celebration food
• Organic Green Tea and Peppermint Tea (which helps with digestion)
• 2 bottles of water

Last week we mentioned three highly addictive ingredients found in most if not all prepared and fast foods.  Do you remember the three ingredients we talked about? 

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

Dr. Todd M. Narson, D.C., a chiropractor who specializes in natural sports medicine lists 11 reasons to avoid HFCS.  Some of his reasons are:  HFCS raises bad cholesterol (LDL) and lowers good cholesterol (HDL), stimulates the appetite, increases body fat, you can read more here.

MSG

Other words for MSG are:  Monosodium Glutamate, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, MSG, other “glutamate” words.  Truth in Labeling has an extensive list of MSG words here.

Artificial Sweeteners

Aspartame, Sucralose and their code names, Nutrasweet, Splenda and Sweet n Low.  These hang out in the most surprising places; gum, breath mints, cookies, candy, salad dressings, ketchup and more.  Dr. Joseph Mercola,D.O.,  a world reknown natural medical doctor researched and documented the effects of these artificial sweeteners, in his book,  Sweet Deception.

Read more about Aspartame and Splenda

Read more about diet soda and risk of stroke

I’ve heard from a number of people who are avoiding those three ingredients as much as possible and find themselves enjoying eating at home more and more.  Everyone reports feeling much better physically when they avoid processed and fast foods.  One client recently cut out all processed foods and her MSQ score (a measurement we use for health and improvement) improved by 39% from 94 to 58, in just 3 weeks!  Could you stand to feel 39% better in 3 weeks?  She is happy!

Why would cutting out processed foods have such a dramatic effect?  There are many reasons but here are a few:

• None of those three nasty additives I just mentioned.
• No trans fats which bog your system down.
• Full of fiber, helping to clean you out.
• Natural sugar which is food for your brain and gives you energy, rather than creating holes in your brain and depleting your energy.
• Natural fats, helping brain and joint function.

When you eat out , choose God-Made Foods are as close to nature as possible WITHOUT sauces, not deep fried, fresh, crisp and juicy.

Be sure and check out the recipes in our book, Wonderfully Well and watch this two-part video on how to make Aunt Celeste’s Kale Salad!

How to Make Aunt Celeste’s Kale Salad Part 1

How to Make Aunt Celeste’s Kale Salad Part 2

Ellen Briggs, author of Are Your Kids Running on Empty gives compelling reasons to feed your children God-Made food.  The book is full of great ideas on getting your kids on board!  Be sure and check out her website and blog: Better Food Choices, a wonderful resource for mom’s wanting their families to be healthy.

Here are a few restaurants we occasionally enjoy with God-Made Food Choices.

Please leave a comment and feel free to share restaurants you’ve found have good, God-Made Food:

Remember, when you make food yourself you know what is and isn’t in it!

God-made food helps your God-made body do it’s job of keeping you, and your family, healthy!