You know that feeling you get when you've got "something coming on". For me it's usually a scratchiness in the back of my throat, achiness, a funny feeling in my head and unusual tiredness. I just don't feel right and I know that if I don't give my body some help fighting off whatever is trying to get a hold, I'm going to get sick.
I think I've gotten pretty good at helping keep my body in balance, because except for the mildest of colds, I haven't been sick in the last 10 years. Here's some of the home remedies I use when I feel like "something is coming on".
*Note: This is not intended as medical advice and you should always check with your doctor before trying any home remedies.
1. Raise your body temperature so that you sweat - this works like a fever to kill viruses and release toxins from your body - you can do this by exercising; taking a hot bath with sea salt, tea tree and lavender essential oils; or sitting in a sauna. But don't exercise or use the sauna if you are already feeling sick, use the bath instead.
2. Sleep - if possible take a nap during the day and go to bed early. Sleep is when your body restores and refreshes itself and good sleep is essential for your immune system to function properly.
3. Drink Emergen-C - I like to put it into a glass of warm water and will drink 2 to 3 cups during the day if I feel like my bodies fighting something off.
4. Take Eccinacea - follow the directions on the bottle.
5. Take Vitamin D3 - This vitamin is essential for your immune system and most American living in the Northern Latitudes are deficient in the winter time. Read this article from Dr. Mercola for more information on Vitamin D3 and how to prevent colds. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/03/How-to-Prevent-the-Flu-Easy-as-1-2-3.aspx
6. Go Outside - take a walk and breath deeply allowing the fresh air to fill your lungs and nasal passages.
7. Laugh - watch your favorite comedy movie or show. Laughter creates the flood of endorphins that boost your immune system. You know what they say "laughter is the best medicine" they weren't kidding!
Most importantly, if you're feeling a bit "under the weather" slow down and be really kind and gentle with yourself. Most likely your be back "up to speed" and feeling great in the morning!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Days 3 thru 7 - 7 Day Detox
Well I'm back on line after being away for the weekend and I'm here to tell you that it is possible to eat healthfully and follow a detox plan even while traveling, if you plan. I'll explain how I do that in my next post "Tips for Traveling".
Days 3 thru 7 of my 7 day detox basically all went quite well and it's amazing the positive difference that I feel in my body and mood after taking such good care of myself for the last 7 days! My energy levels are high and steady. My skin is glowing. I'm sleeping deeply and soundly and my allergies are 90% better than they were before I started this journey. I feel really, really good and ready to continue with more positive changes in my life.
Here are some notes on each day. Basically each day I ate very close to the first 2 days that I gave detailed menus for in early posts. For the most part Bonnie's Power Oatmeal or Power Breakfast shake in the morning with fruit and coffee; huge salad with grilled meat and homemade soup for lunch; grilled meat, vegetables and salad for dinner. Snacks as needed (see earlier Posts.
One of the things that I did was to make sure that every time I ate, I ate some raw vegetables or fruit with whatever else I was having. I am a big believer in the benefits of "Raw Food" for health and wellbeing. Raw, live foods are filled with enzymes that help with digestion, detoxing and nourishing your body properly.
Day 3 - This was the most challenging day as far as being able to stick to the to the diet. I was having mad cravings for tortilla chips which are my "I can't resist it, I'm addicted, food". I was able to stop the cravings and not give in to the "calling of my addiction" by using EFT tapping. If you don't know what EFT is it stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and it is a simple acupressure tapping technique that is highly effective for dealing with cravings, stress and all kinds of things. If you want to know more check out my website for a free download on using EFT for weight loss and cravings. http://www.justtherightfitsystems.com
Day 4 - Nothing out of the ordinary, the day went smoothly.
Day 5 - I woke up feeling really great this morning. This is the best I have felt in a long while and I noticed that my winter allergies are 90% better than 6 days ago!
Day 6 - I was traveling and away from home and I went to bed late. I woke up feeling tired and I had scrambled eggs and fruit for breakfast instead of my Power oatmeal since I was away from home. It's more challenging to eat well when traveling but it can be done. Eggs and fruit are always a good choice for breakfast (just leave out the homefries and toast). You can always get salads even at fast food restaurants. At nicer restaurants I will usually have grilled meat or fish, steamed veggies and a large salad.
Day 7- This is the last day and I feel really good and it hasn't been that hard to clean up my eating and cut out the processed foods, sugar and grains. I am going to continue on with a slightly modified version of what I've been doing for the last 7 day.
Days 3 thru 7 of my 7 day detox basically all went quite well and it's amazing the positive difference that I feel in my body and mood after taking such good care of myself for the last 7 days! My energy levels are high and steady. My skin is glowing. I'm sleeping deeply and soundly and my allergies are 90% better than they were before I started this journey. I feel really, really good and ready to continue with more positive changes in my life.
Here are some notes on each day. Basically each day I ate very close to the first 2 days that I gave detailed menus for in early posts. For the most part Bonnie's Power Oatmeal or Power Breakfast shake in the morning with fruit and coffee; huge salad with grilled meat and homemade soup for lunch; grilled meat, vegetables and salad for dinner. Snacks as needed (see earlier Posts.
One of the things that I did was to make sure that every time I ate, I ate some raw vegetables or fruit with whatever else I was having. I am a big believer in the benefits of "Raw Food" for health and wellbeing. Raw, live foods are filled with enzymes that help with digestion, detoxing and nourishing your body properly.
Day 3 - This was the most challenging day as far as being able to stick to the to the diet. I was having mad cravings for tortilla chips which are my "I can't resist it, I'm addicted, food". I was able to stop the cravings and not give in to the "calling of my addiction" by using EFT tapping. If you don't know what EFT is it stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and it is a simple acupressure tapping technique that is highly effective for dealing with cravings, stress and all kinds of things. If you want to know more check out my website for a free download on using EFT for weight loss and cravings. http://www.justtherightfitsystems.com
Day 4 - Nothing out of the ordinary, the day went smoothly.
Day 5 - I woke up feeling really great this morning. This is the best I have felt in a long while and I noticed that my winter allergies are 90% better than 6 days ago!
Day 6 - I was traveling and away from home and I went to bed late. I woke up feeling tired and I had scrambled eggs and fruit for breakfast instead of my Power oatmeal since I was away from home. It's more challenging to eat well when traveling but it can be done. Eggs and fruit are always a good choice for breakfast (just leave out the homefries and toast). You can always get salads even at fast food restaurants. At nicer restaurants I will usually have grilled meat or fish, steamed veggies and a large salad.
Day 7- This is the last day and I feel really good and it hasn't been that hard to clean up my eating and cut out the processed foods, sugar and grains. I am going to continue on with a slightly modified version of what I've been doing for the last 7 day.
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Amazing Benefits of Coconut Milk
Some of you may have noticed my recent obsession with coconut milk - it's my new favorite food stuff! Here's information on some of it's benefits, that I took from an article in "First for Women".
Coconut is nature's only abundant source of lauric acid. The body converts this medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) into monolaurin, a compound that disables nearly 100 percent of harmful viral and bacterial cells to prevent them from replicating. What does that mean to you? It means that rich, creamy coconut milk provides a powerful defense against such winter health woes as flu, strep throat, colds and other respiratory infections.
Japanese scientists have also discovered that MCFAs are shuttled directly to the liver for conversion into energy (instead of fat), speeding up your metabolism for a full six hours!
Also, just one cup of coconut milk packs more brain-boosting potassium than a banana and more energizing iron than a serving of spinach. All of this adds up to a great reason to enjoy this delicious tropical treat! Check out my daily posts for recipes on how I've been using this.
Coconut is nature's only abundant source of lauric acid. The body converts this medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) into monolaurin, a compound that disables nearly 100 percent of harmful viral and bacterial cells to prevent them from replicating. What does that mean to you? It means that rich, creamy coconut milk provides a powerful defense against such winter health woes as flu, strep throat, colds and other respiratory infections.
Japanese scientists have also discovered that MCFAs are shuttled directly to the liver for conversion into energy (instead of fat), speeding up your metabolism for a full six hours!
Also, just one cup of coconut milk packs more brain-boosting potassium than a banana and more energizing iron than a serving of spinach. All of this adds up to a great reason to enjoy this delicious tropical treat! Check out my daily posts for recipes on how I've been using this.
Note regarding the 7 Day Detox days
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to bring something to your attention, the detox days are not real time and I am posting these days after the fact. Today I am actually on day 5 of my detox plan. It's just amazing to me how much better I am feeling after 4 full days of eating and exercising well. My allergies are 90 percent better than they where when I started 5 days ago! This fact alone motivates me to keep going.
I'm about to go outside now for my Appreciation Walk it's snowing quite hard so I'm really going to bundle up, in fact the inclement weather canceled the fitness class I was suppose to teach this morning. I'm really bumbed about this because I created a new routine that's a lot of fun and I was looking forward to teaching it again. So, I'm going to do it on my own at home - not as fun as a group but I've got to say: "working out is the one thing that I do, that when I'm finished with it, I never say - I wish I hadn't had done that!" I always feel good and I am always pleased with myself after I finish any kind of movement!
Enjoy Your Day!
Bonnie
Just wanted to bring something to your attention, the detox days are not real time and I am posting these days after the fact. Today I am actually on day 5 of my detox plan. It's just amazing to me how much better I am feeling after 4 full days of eating and exercising well. My allergies are 90 percent better than they where when I started 5 days ago! This fact alone motivates me to keep going.
I'm about to go outside now for my Appreciation Walk it's snowing quite hard so I'm really going to bundle up, in fact the inclement weather canceled the fitness class I was suppose to teach this morning. I'm really bumbed about this because I created a new routine that's a lot of fun and I was looking forward to teaching it again. So, I'm going to do it on my own at home - not as fun as a group but I've got to say: "working out is the one thing that I do, that when I'm finished with it, I never say - I wish I hadn't had done that!" I always feel good and I am always pleased with myself after I finish any kind of movement!
Enjoy Your Day!
Bonnie
Day 2 – 7 Day Detox Diet
Well the first day of my detox diet went very well. I didn't really feel hungry or deprived. It actually felt good to eat healthfully and mindfully. It also felt good to be putting the focus on my own personal wellbeing!
6:20 – Get up for the Day – I'm feeling more refreshed then I did yesterday.
Coffee (at least 3 cups drunk black – hey it's organic!) while I do my morning meditation, journaling and tapping
7:30am – I forced myself to take my 10 minute morning Appreciation Walk (see Day 1 for details on how to do this). It felt really good and I was really appreciating how I have created this wonderful place to live where I can walk right out my door and be on a trail in the woods and this lifestyle that allows me to work from home and set my own schedule.
8am – banana and fresh veggie juice
8:30am – I force myself out the door to take may morning
9am – Breakfast - Bonnie's Power Oatmeal. (see recipe on Day 1)
1:30pm - Lunch – butternut squash soup, large salad with mixed greens, peppers, tomatoes, steak
Snack – celery with hummas
Dinner – butternut squash soup with chicken, large salad of mixed greens and tomatoes
Bedtime Snack - I'm hungry so I had a snack of a banana and some date squares.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Day 1 – 7 Day Detox Diet
Hi Everyone,
Well here we go – time to make a fresh start! This is the plan for my first day of the7 Day Detox Diet. I'll let you know in later posts how it went and if I had any problems (fell off the wagon) or needed to make any modifications
Upon Awakening – 8 oz. of warm water with a slice of fresh squeezed lemon, to stimulate the bowel and get everything jumpstarted!
Coffee (black) banana while doing morning routine of meditation, journaling and MTT tapping.
10 Minute Appreciation Walk
So this is something that I just started doing and I really love it! Whenever I get the chance to do this first thing in the morning, it sets such a wonderful tone for my whole day. Also, since my sinuses don't seem to like the indoor air of my house in the winter, getting out every day and deeply breathing the fresh air, really seems to help my allergies.
This is how I do my "10 Minute Appreciation Walk" First I dress really warmly (I don't like the cold) and then I force myself to walk outside into the cold winter air and head for the trail through the woods that's right outside my door – lucky me!
Now I start speaking out loud everything I can think of that I appreciate. I start by saying things along the line of:
I am so appreciation that I have this nice warm jacket, hat and gloves to protect me from the cold.
I am so appreciating how refreshing the cold air feels in my lungs.
I am so appreciating that my legs are strong enough to carry me along this trail.
I continue on with my own body and then I start to shift to what I appreciate about the scenery and the things that I can see.
Then I'll shift to all the things in my life that I appreciate and so on…… Once I get going on this, I really start to roll and no matter how lousy I may have felt when I started, I always feel much, much better by the time I come back home!
Try this one – I think you'll really like it!
Morning
Veggie Juice
1 small lemon
1 apple
1 carrot
1 celery stick
½ head of large Romain lettuce
6 Kale leaves
Wash everything with "Veggie Wash" (I get it at Stop and Shop in the produce department) and then put it through your juicer.
I find this juice deliciously refreshing and invigorating. I can just feel all those wonderful fresh enzymes going to work cleaning all the "Holiday Sludge" out of my poor abused body!
Breakfast – Bonnie's Power Oatmeal
½ cup of quick oats
1 cup water
1 small apple chopped
½ teas. Cinnamon
½ scoop Whey Protein
¼ cup plain full fat yogurt
2 T ground flaxseeds
Microwave the oats, water, apple and Cinnamon for 2 minutes. Add the Whey Protein and yogurt and flaxseeds. Eat – Delicious!
Morning supplements:
Max GXL
Magnesium
Omega 3's
Vitamin C – 500mlgs.
Whole Food Multi
Lunch
Huge salad of mixed greens & tomatoes, w/lean protein, olive oil, lemon & amino acids.
Butternut Squash Soup
1 32oz. Organic Vegetable Broth
1 package frozen butternut Squash
1 Carrot chopped and peeled
1 Onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 teas. Curry powder
Olive Oil
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add broth, carrot, squash and cook until veggies are tender. Stir in curry powder. Let cool slightly and puree in blender.
Afternoon Pick-Me-Up
Other than being a wellness and personal empowerment coach, I also do graphic design work. So I spend a lot of time sitting working on my laptop. Since I am very Kinesthetic and find it hard to sit still for long periods of time, I counter act this by sitting on my stability ball (covered by a large fluffy towel) will I work. This way I can constantly move around and bounce on it while things are loading. Whenever I get up from my computer I do some of these:
1 Minute Metabolism Booster
Run in place while you count to 20 then count to 20 while you rumble (take a wide stance and get up on your toes and let your butt and hips shake until you get a good vibration going – this really wakes you up!). Repeat this sequence 4 times.
Jump on Trampoline for a couple of minutes
Bounce on Stability Ball
Stretch on the Stability Ball – my favorite is lean back over the ball and letting the ball support your back and let your hands touch the floor behind you. This feels wonderful and counteracts the tension that builds in your neck and shoulders from working on the computer.
Afternoon Supplements - Green Tea, Max GXL, Emergen-C
Snack
Coconut Egg Nog Shake
1 cup unsweetened Coconut Milk (you can get it at your local Health Food Store of Whole Foods)
1 raw organic free range egg
¼ teas. Stevia Leaf
½ teas. Cinnamon
½ teas. Pure Vanilla
Blend Everything in a blender. Enjoy!
I just love this concoction that I created after I was reading how good coconut milk is for you – I think it's really delicious. In case you're wondering about the scoop on coconut milk read my upcoming entry on "The Benefits of Coconut Milk".
Dinner
Steak w/sautéed mixed peppers and onions, mixed greens and tomatoes w/olive oil & amino acids, steamed cauliflower with butter.
Bedtime Supplements - Magnesium, Fish Oil
Bed – by 10:30pm
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The 7 Day Detox Diet
Okay here we go, time to start the Detox! My objective is to clear all the junk out of my body and start my journey to create the best year of my life with a nice clean slate.
I will attempt to do this by eliminating all:- Processed foods
- Sugar
- Grains
- Potatoes
- Wine/Alcohol
- coffee (I refuse to give up my morning coffee, it is a vital part of my existence. In fact a close friend once said to me " coffee is the elixir of life" and I agree!
- dairy
I will help my body along in the process with:
- Getting into bed by 10:30pm
- juicing
- 8 to 10 glasses of water daily
- eating organics as much as possible
- green tea
- daily walks in the refreshing/frigid winter air
- Maxgxl supplements
- working up a good sweat whenever I can
- daily bouncing on my mini trampoline & Resistance ball (this moves the lymph through your body helping it to remove toxins)
- hot sea salt and essential oil baths
- and whatever else occurs to me as time unfolds
The main food essentials needed to pull off this plan are
- copious amounts of all kinds of veggies
- lean protein
- fruit
- nuts
- date bars
- whey protein powder
- flax
- olive oil
- lemons
- stevia
- coconut milk
- organic eggs
Okay, I'm ready to start tomorrow morning.
Talk to you then!
Bonnie
The Best Year of My Life Challenge
Well here we are at last, a new year is upon us. Personally, I'm soooooooo glad the new year is here. As much as I love the Holiday's they really take a toll on me - they throw me completely out of wack! All that eating and all those glasses of wine, not to mention having my class and workout schedule knixed down to a mere shadow of what it normally is, has resulted in extra pounds and my feeling generally yucky and out of sorts.
Every year in January I like to set myself some goals and challenge myself a bit. This year I thought it might be fun to write about it and share it with others. Feel free to follow along with me if you feel so inspired. You can copy what I do, or you can take what you like and leave the rest or create your own custom plan - or not - whatever works for you.
So here's my personal challenge, I am going to make 2010 the best year of my life so far! How am I going to do this you ask, what's my plan? Well quite frankly I'm winging it, I'm making up the plan as I go along, basically day by day. If nothing else comes out of this, it should be somewhat amusing to see what kind of crazy things I come up with!
I do however have a plan for the first 7 days. Starting tomorrow I am doing a 7 Day Detox Diet to clean out my poor "holiday abused" body and make a fresh start. It's kind of like cleaning up the mess in your kitchen before you start cooking.
Wish me luck - this should be interesting 7 day ride!
Bonnie
Every year in January I like to set myself some goals and challenge myself a bit. This year I thought it might be fun to write about it and share it with others. Feel free to follow along with me if you feel so inspired. You can copy what I do, or you can take what you like and leave the rest or create your own custom plan - or not - whatever works for you.
So here's my personal challenge, I am going to make 2010 the best year of my life so far! How am I going to do this you ask, what's my plan? Well quite frankly I'm winging it, I'm making up the plan as I go along, basically day by day. If nothing else comes out of this, it should be somewhat amusing to see what kind of crazy things I come up with!
I do however have a plan for the first 7 days. Starting tomorrow I am doing a 7 Day Detox Diet to clean out my poor "holiday abused" body and make a fresh start. It's kind of like cleaning up the mess in your kitchen before you start cooking.
Wish me luck - this should be interesting 7 day ride!
Bonnie
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