 What, trying is lying? I realized long ago that when we humans say we will "try" to do something, we are actually lying. We most likely will not do whatever we said we would "try" to do. Just think about it. You are having a party, gathering, business event, whatever, and some people tell you they will try to make it. Do they actually come? NO! If they were willing to commit to coming, they would have said yes. We say we will try & do something when we really aren't committed to doing said activity. It feels better than simply saying "no" which would be better all around. Mom was right, honesty is always the best policy.
By now we are several weeks into the new year. How are your 2020 resolutions going? Did you set resolutions this year or simply say something like, "I'm going to try and lose weight this year."? Did you draw a line in the sand and make a commitment to do something that will benefit you, like lose a few pounds, give up sugar, etc.? Do you find it challenging to stick with your resolutions? If you do, it could be that the goal isn't attainable, as in you didn't put it in your calendar. If the action steps to your goal are not scheduled in your calendar, they won't happen. You must schedule what is a priority. I realized how important scheduling what is important was when I kept making a new year's resolution to exercise consistently only to fail year after year. The problem wasn't that I lacked motivation. The problem was that I didn't schedule exercise in my calendar. I would start each day & have exercise on my to-do list. Most days I would finish the day without checking off exercise because I let everything else in my life take precedent & exercise never fit in with all the other stuff on my calendar. I was leaving my goal to "chance". I then realized the only way I was going to be consistent with exercise was to do it immediately when I got up each morning. I put it on my schedule first thing every morning and made it non-negotiable. Consequently I trained my dogs to expect a walk every morning, no matter the weather, so they hold me accountable. Guess what happened? In the past 5 years since I started this habit, I have had very few days where I didn't exercise. It can be 25 degrees outside when I get up but that doesn't stop me. I just bundle up, grab the dogs, and head out the door for my 2 mile walk. My hubby is now on board with this habit as well so it makes it even more fun having a buddy with me. Exercise starts my day right and gives me a sense of accomplishment all day knowing I made what was important a priority. I no longer have it hanging over me throughout the whole day. What a great feeling that is. As the cartoon depicts, exercise is a key component to health. I hope you are scheduling it into your days. Remember, the best exercise is the one you will do! Schedule what is important to you in your day. Make your goals SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. You make them attainable by putting them in your calendar and making them non-negotiable. Draw the line in the sand. Make this year your best & healthiest yet! You are worth it! If you need help with your goals, check out our FLOURISH course. We would love to help you make this year your best year yet!!
1 Comment
 I remember holidays and vacations where I indulged too much and came away with some extra baggage. Like the time I vacationed in Ireland for ten days and gained six pounds. Or that holiday season where I gained five pounds. Oh yeah there was that trip to Peru over the holidays (double whammy!) where I gained eight pounds. And then we have the two cruises I took where I went on as a passenger and came off as baggage. Yikes! Anyone relate? We often think, oh a few calories here and there won't really matter that much. We rationalize, "The holidays (or vacations) are meant for fun and indulgence after all. I don't want to deprive myself." Or how about, "New year's is right around the corner, I'll start taking care of myself then." Perhaps you think that you earned all those treats (and hence calories) by working hard at your job all year. So you reward yourself with food! The average American gains 2-12 pounds over the holiday season beginning with Thanksgiving and ending with New Years. Those pounds go on a whole lot easier than they come off. The older you get, the harder it is to lose them too, I can promise. The real effect of these indulgences is to your health. Eating junk, not exercising, loading up on sugar, consuming excessive alcohol, all lead to a weakened immune system. We need our immune systems in tip-top shape all year, but especially during the holiday season which coincides with flu season. I offer you these tips that will allow you to indulge in this time of celebration while maintaining your weight and health. You don't have to forgo the fun to maintain a healthy weight and body by applying these tips. Twenty Healthy Holiday Tips to Maintain Your Health & Weight:
Make your health a priority today and everyday, even during holidays & special times. Be willing to participate with God in the divine-human partnership for your health. Because after all, if you don't take care of your body, where are you going to live? It is the vehicle that carries you around on planet earth. We need you healthy & whole so that you can impact the world in ways that only you can! With much love & appreciation! Dr. Deb   We can in an instance recognize the smell of a skunk. If you've ever had an animal that was the recipient of the horrific smell, you know well how horrible it is. Have you ever encountered one of those "hippies" that think it's cool not to bathe for days on end? You want to flee the scene if you have, trust me. At times you may even feel like you smell like a skunk and make a point to hold your arms down should anyone get a whiff. Attempting to avoid this smell at all costs, you look for the most effective anti-perspirant on the market.
There are healthier options for controlling underarm smell than toxic products. Anti-perspirants shut down one of the most important detoxification channels in your body. Sweating is a natural response in your body. My belief is that God's design is infinitely better than human thought. He designed each intricate detail of your body with a purpose. We humans somehow came up with the bright idea that we are more brilliant than God. We cut body parts out and shut others down. Brilliant! Except it's not. I have taught people for years to live and eat as close to God's original design. It is perfect and yields good results. Man's intervention is creating havoc with our health and lives. So what do you do to allow the body to do its' job (sweat) and at the same time avoid smelling like a skunk? The most important thing is to eat a whole-food, plant-based diet. It is your best defense from body odor. I promise. You will rarely need deodorant eating this way after you clean out the built up toxins in your body. Daily exercise and staying hydrated helps as well, as these two habits help move toxins out of the body. If you are doing these things and you still have body odor, then you still have toxins to eliminate. Keep up with these healthy habits and you will find you no longer stink! There are healthier options to avoid offending you and others with your body odor. You can always look up a product on EWG - Environmental Working Group. I encourage downloading their app & you can scan products to see their rating. To meet my standards a product has to be pure and cruelty-free. Here are my safe recommendations to apply under your arms:
Please feel free to comment if you've found a non-toxic option that you've found works well! To your health & longevity! Dr. Deb  "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." Hippocrates - the father of modern medicine. Within the last few days I have received bad news from two friends. Their husbands got the dreaded diagnosis - cancer! I have another friend battling for her life from the same thing. I, like you, have lost loved ones to cancer. It makes me angry...and sad. It simply should not be. Cancer is a disease of affluence. And I'm sick and tired of it snatching too many beautiful people from this planet far too soon. Estimates suggest that over 1.7 million people will receive a cancer diagnosis in 2018. An estimated 609,640 will die from the disease this year. It is the second leading cause of death in America. National cancer expenditures exceeded $147 billion in 2017 and is expected to rise. Each time I hear of someone I know getting diagnosed with this horrible disease, I am saddened. I become more committed to getting the message of prevention out to as many people as possible. Is everything within our power to prevent this disease? Of course not. There are things beyond our control for sure - environmental factors, exposure to toxins, etc. Yet estimates suggest that 2/3 of cancer is preventable with diet & lifestyle. Human nature tends to procrastinate - putting off until tomorrow what we should do today. I've certainly been guilty of doing that. The older I get, the less I feel I can put off healthy lifestyle choices. I feel unhealthy choices quicker in my body than when I was young. Their effects are more dramatic. The reality is that none of us can afford to procrastinate when it comes to self care. Health challenges are visiting younger & younger people in today's world. Gone are the days of ignoring your body and getting away with it. There is simply too much stacked against us. If we want to live to a ripe old age in health we have to pay attention now. I have helped people with late stage cancers overcome the disease with no chemotherapy or radiation. They used food as medicine as Hippocrates suggested. It is a beautiful thing to watch someone get their life back with no negative side effects! I share with you my cancer resources in hopes that you will be proactive and work towards prevention. It is much easier to prevent cancer than it is to cure! If you have already received a cancer diagnosis, I offer resources to guide you in a holistic, natural approach should that be your choice. I recognize the decision is not an easy one for you. I encourage you to take a prayerful approach to that decision. God has the solutions and answers to your questions. I am here to support & guide you in any way I can. There are many qualified health professionals to help as well. Also realize that your thoughts determine your life, so commit to mastering your thoughts. It is so important in a situation like this. You must slay the giant of fear! If you don't take care of your body, where are you going to live? It is the vehicle that carries you around on planet Earth. Make you a priority and do the right things for your health. It is worth it, I promise! I wish you the best! My top suggestions based on the below resources:
Resources for cancer (click on highlights for link):
 Do you eat to live or live to eat? The purpose of eating food is to fuel the body, yet in America eating has become synonymous with pleasure. We live to eat instead of eat to live which presents many challenges health-wise. Don't get me wrong, I am all for enjoying food and finding pleasure in eating. You can actually reprogram your taste buds to enjoy healthy food. I promise! I told my kids all the time when they didn't like a food I prepared, "You get new taste buds every 21 days so just wait & you will like this." I can't say they were too thrilled with my response but they did learn to eat a lot of things most kids wouldn't. I'm grateful that both of them make healthy choices now that they are adults. How do you reprogram your taste buds? You reprogram them by continuing to eat the food that gives life - fresh whole plant foods close to their natural state. Live food gives life - dead food brings death. Live food is raw food bursting with enzymes. For example if you don't like kale, one of the healthiest foods on the planet, add it to a morning shake. Try kale chips or saute it with some onions and garlic. Just keep eating it, even if only 1 bite at a time. Your taste buds will adjust to the taste and you may begin to actually like it. Eating a diet that is 75% alkaline is optimal. Cancer thrives in an acid environment. Unfortunately the majority of Americans eat an acidic diet, full of overcooked and processed foods. Foods either leave an acid or alkaline ash behind. I have included a chart below that shows which foods are alkaline or which are acidic. Eat 75% of your calories on the alkaline side for optimal health. Notice that is where most fruits & veggies are. I hope you will choose to eat to live so that you can live a vibrant, long life!  Canker sores (also called aphthous ulcers) are small, red or white, shallow ulcers occurring on the tongue, soft palate, or inside the lips and cheeks. They are very painful and usually last 5-10 days.
One of the best ways to prevent mouth sores is to drink one tablespoon of Bragg's apple cider vinegar first thing every morning. I personally put it in about 12 ounces of water to make it more palatable. My husband prefers downing it with about 2 ounces of water. Whichever way you choose to ingest it, just get it in every single day. You will find your mouth sores disappear for good. Apple cider vinegar provides many health benefits to the body and is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle. I had a molar removed last year and went through the nine-month process of getting an implant. As a result, I found myself getting canker sores weekly and was becoming very frustrated with the situation. My research showed that stress and trauma can be a cause in these painful lesions. Prevention is always forefront in my mind and I was very grateful to find this simple solution for prevention. ACV not only prevents mouth canker sores but provides a host of other benefits to the body as well! These benefits include:
Iron deficient anemia is rampant in America! Anemia can be caused by one of three things. One is Iron-deficiency anemia, another is B-12 deficiency anemia, and lastly is Folic-acid deficiency anemia. For all of the three situations it is important to determine the cause so that you can deal with that. Causes and symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia consists of: Poor Diet, Pregnancy and Lactation, Menses, Intestinal malabsorption, Gastrointestinal bleeding, Genitourinary bleeding, Repeated blood donation, Growth, Gastric Surgery, and Hookworm/Intestinal parasites, to name a few.
For all anemia symptoms eat a diet high in green leafy vegetables and their juices. Suggestions for anemia are as follows: Iron-deficiency anemia - find a reason for chronic blood loss or why you are not absorbing sufficient amounts of dietary iron. Lack of hydrochloric acid is a common reason for impaired iron absorption. Increasing iron levels in the food may help overcome poor absorption. Foods rich in iron are leafy green vegetables, dried beans, black strap molasses, dried apricots, and other dried fruits, and almonds. Vitamin C has been shown to greatly enhance the absorption of dietary iron so it helps to eat something high in vitamin C with the iron rich foods (such as strawberries, oranges, peppers, tomatoes, etc). You should avoid black tea, coffee, wheat bran, and egg yolks as they can reduce iron absorption. Antacids and overuse of calcium supplements also decrease iron absorption. I highly recommend juicing for any health situation as well as for prevention. There is not a single more important thing that you can do for your health. Some juices which are really good for anemia are red & black raspberry juice and spinach juice. Other beneficial juices are parsley, beet greens, and carrot as they are sources of iron. Kale, parsley & green pepper are sources of vitamin C. Asparagus, spinach, and kale are sources of folic acid. In lieu of juicing, make a green smoothie each day consisting of 8 ounces of water or coconut water, a bunch of kale or spinach, and fruits of your choice. Add 1-2 tablespoons of chia seeds for added nutrition. You may want to consider a B-12 supplement as well. The one I prefer is Garden of Life's Vegan B-12 spray which you can order on my dispensary by clicking on the picture below for Emerson. I find that using supplements in anemia situations is key to helping your body get back to health. 
This year seems to be a bad flu year. So they say. As one who survived the 2018 influenza, I'm inclined to believe them. About two days after I recorded this video with my flu recommendations, I started feeling bad. I'm here to tell you that even if you do all the right things to protect yourself, there may be times you catch what's going around. Sometimes it's inevitable. Unfortunately. But in looking back at the days before I got the bug, there was one thing I didn't do right. We'll talk about that. I mentioned most of my recommendations in this video but forgot a couple of things. Here's a recap of my recommendations to build your immune system:
Keep these things on hand for when you get something:
Click on my dispensary link to order the above supplements at a discount! Enjoy & be well!  Thanks to the incredible documentary titled Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, juicing for health and well-being has had a resurgence in the public awareness. As a Naturopath and health coach, I have spent time learning about and personally trying a variety of fasts and health regimes. In the form of a juice fast, juicing for health is one of the safest and most impactful methods I have seen work on myself and my clients. There are numerous healing therapies that incorporate juicing for health, such as the Gerson Therapy which heals cancer and other degenerative diseases. It’s a simple concept but one that does require effort. Here is some pertinent information regarding juicing: BENEFITS OF DAILY JUICING FOR HEALTH:
RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON JUICING:
Categories All |
Deb Harrell, NDDeb teaches you how to use food as medicine to prevent & reverse disease! She is a Naturopathic Doctor & Archives
January 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed