Monthly Archives: May 2012

Secret to Weight loss? Be Authentic

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A mother emailed stating that she watched the movie Forks Over Knives and was confused why she should not consume olive oil.

While I highly regard Forks over Knives, I disagree with that view. There are many studies that show the benefits of olive oil, including that dietary fats are needed for absorption of vitamins and nutrients, lubricates the colon, may help lower your risk of heart disease, normalize blood clotting and benefit insulin levels and blood sugar control, to name a few.

I have seen many people shirk away from eating avocados, olive oil and/or raw nuts because they’re high in fat, but these same people eat protein bars, chew gum and drink soda, alcohol and copious amounts of coffee. It is not surprising that many of these people are overweight, constantly battling to keep off pounds and unhealthy.

Time to put the way we eat into perspective: We want to follow a diet that is feasible, practical and intelligent for us. An important part of this is consuming a moderate amount of good fats like those listed above.

Eating olive oil is not the end of the world. Drinking copious amounts of coffee and soda just may be…for you.

Remember the 90/10 Rule:
  • Eat 90% of your diet in whole foods with at least 60% of that in plant rich foods; and,
  • 10% whatever – cake, alcohol, etc.

Even more importantly, apply this rule to your entire family!

Getting back to the olive oil, here is a clip from Dr. Oz and the Mayo Clinic about the benefits of olive oil:

Unscramble Yourself To Weightloss and Health

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Why is it that we think we can skip breakfast and sometimes lunch, gorge ourselves at dinner and then wonder why we’re so overweight?

The reason why breakfast is termed “breakfast” is because we’re literally breaking a fast from not eating for several hours during the night. This means we should nourish our bodies with light, healthy foods to get our metabolism working. Typically this would include fruit, a JOOS and perhaps some oatmeal.

By lunchtime, we still have at least half the day left, which means we need the proper fuel in our bodies to get us through until evening. Many of you have heard me say that your lunch should be big enough so that you’re not hungry by dinner-time.

We wait until evening, the time when we’re supposed to be winding down, to fill our bellies with food, so essentially the food just sits there inside of us. No wonder why many of us wake up feeling bloated, constipated and irritable.

Fuel yourself the right way with a plant rich diet. You can still eat meat, if that’s what you want, but at least you’ll know that you’re nourishing yourself in a way that makes you feel energetic, balanced and in-control.

Get Your Children to Eat Greens!

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Susan’s husband had a great job offer in Spain. While it sounded like an exciting opportunity for the family, Susan worried what her 3 young children would eat there. Her children consumed the typical American kids foods: chicken nuggets, pizza, macaroni and cheese from a box, etc. Those types of foods are not readily available in Spain.

In the first week of their arrival in Spain, Susan’s children rebelled when the Spanish waiter would serve real food dishes such as chicken with rice and vegetables, tortilla espanola (an egg potato omelet), vegetable or seafood soups. Within a week, something remarkable occurred: Susan’s children started eating real food and even more, loving it! Even more, they slept better at night and were calmer and more alert during the day.

A friend asked me to come to her home to speak with her husband who had severe IBS. He was uptight and irritable, which didn’t make for a fun marriage. When I arrived, I noticed he was chewing gum. He also told me that he loved diet soda and ate a lot of animal protein. Naturally I brought a JOOS with me, but he balked at the smell of fresh, organic vegetables. My friend stated, “he has barely eaten a green vegetable in years.”

Unfortunately, he is not alone. There are many Americans who simply hate vegetables! As a result, they’re not eating the right foods and they’re getting sick.

I love when JOOS drinkers comment to me that after their children watch them drink JOOS, the kids start adventuring with it and eventually grow to like it. Our children emulate us. We eat healthy, they eat healthy. It may be a process, but eventually, they get it.

One note of warning: don’t force it on them. Instead, praise them when they do!

We can help you to develop a simple life-long habit that may ultimately save you: the love of dark, leafy greens!

 

Remarkable Story That Could Happen to You

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Michael showed up at my door for an interview weighing nearly 300 lbs. The right side of his lip drooped from Bells Palsy and his legs swelled from Type 2 Diabetes. He  thought I was completely whacked out when I told him I needed him to help me fresh press organic vegetables into juices and deliver them.

In the more than 3 years Michael and I have worked together, he lost over 80 lbs  (and has kept it off for over 2 years) and has no signs of Bells Palsy or Type 2 Diabetes. He is completely off any related medications. His doctor, once
incredulous that Type 2 Diabetes can actually be cured by a plant rich diet, is
now a firm believer. 

Michael, who is the Director of JOOS  Operations, still drinks beer and eats his mother’s home-made eggplant parmesan, but that has become an exception. Now he drinks JOOS and lots of water throughout the day and eats sensibly-sized, healthy meals. 

By now I hope you all have seen the highly compelling movie, Fat,  Sick and Nearly Dead, about a man’s journey to overcome his own auto-immune diseases and obesity through juicing.  

Unsurprisingly, sceptics believe the movie is over-simplified. My challenge is for them to try consuming a plant rich diet, even if it’s just for one week, so that they can see how powerful it is. 

Let our certified health coaches/cleanse experts support you through this week long experience of consuming a plant-rich diet so that you can see how energized, balanced and in-control you feel.

Here’s Why Fresh Juice Must be Organic

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The word is getting out about the multiple health benefits of fresh, unpasteurized juices, which is wonderful, BUT if it’s not organic, it can actually be poisonous. I actually know juice drinkers who have ended up in the hospital with high levels of toxicity.
The reason fresh juice is so powerfully healthy is because it’s filled with concentrated nutrients, but if it’s not organic, you’re actually consuming concentrated pesticides.
Some juice companies say that they use organic produce when possible and/or local produce. The fact is, if the company is located in a colder climate, like the Northeast, they’re obviously not able to find an abundance of local produce during the colder months.
JOOS is 100% guaranteed organic!
That’s why people fell so balanced, energetic, in-control and healthy when they consume it.

Plant Rich Diets Help Prevent and Perhaps Even Cure Type 2 Diabetes

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Just do a Google search on how  consuming a diet rich in plant rich foods can prevent/reduce and/or perhaps even  curing Type 2 Diabetes and you’ll see a number of primary studies from  prestigious institutions.

For example, you’ll see on by Harvard entitled:  Bottom Line Keeping weight in check, being active, and eating a healthy diet can prevent most cases of type 2 diabetes.

Another article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by a number of institutions, including the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, the Department of Medicine, Children’s Hospital, Boston to name a couple that stated:

Based on what is known of the components of plant-based diets and their effects from cohort studies, there is reason to believe that vegetarian diets would have advantages in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Here’s another by Leiden University Medical Center Department of Radiology in the Netherlands that found that cutting out calorific foods and eating healthier options for just four months is all diabetes sufferers need to do in order to beat their condition.

“It is striking to see how a relatively simple intervention of a very low-calorie diet  effectively cures Type 2 diabetes,” says Dr Sebastian Hammer from the study. “Moreover, these effects are long term, illustrating the potential of this
method. Lifestyle interventions may have more powerful beneficial cardiac
effects than medication in these patients.”

I often wonder, what is it going to take to convince people that they do not need to walk around with burdensome, unhealthy conditions – that indeed they can be
healthy and live full vibrant lives!

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/diabetes-prevention/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/11/29/low-calorie-diet-can-cure-type-2-diabetes_n_1118122.html

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/diabetes-prevention/

Cleansing = Stepping Back to Reclaim Ourselves

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A yoga friend said to me 6 years ago “You don’t know yoga if you don’t now John Friend.”

Now, 6 years later, John friend was forced to resign from the Anusura yoga movement he founded and has been accused of  sexual impropriety with female students and other charges.

Obvious message: Yet another person who mis-used power. Bottom line is that we’re all just human and no one is worth idolizing. The sad truth, though, is that we seek to idolize because we fail to see the greatness in ourselves.

Many of you ask me why I write about topics that seemingly don’t have anything to do with cleansing, but the way people idolized John Friend and his demise has everything to do with cleansing.

Cleansing is about taking a break in our own lives so we can find our OWN truth and what works best for us. In the context of how we eat, it’s about discovering what foods are best for our bodies and how and when we should eat them. For example, some of us with fast metabolisms may need to eat several meals per day, but those of us with slower metatobolisms, one meal per day may suffice. It means that for some of us, following a raw diet may be completely acceptable, but for others, we feel better when we eat animal protein every so often.

A few years ago just after a very painful divorce, someone who I deeply respected at the time told me that if I were to be raw, I would feel empowered. I was raw for one year and it was truly one of the worst years of my life. My stomach was distended and I was too skinny. After that year, I did a cleanse and the leader of the cleanse and simultaneously had my first Ayurvedic consultation, both of which had such a profond influence me that I decided to found a company, JOOS, based on both.

From the cleansing experience, I learned the invaluable lesson to slow down and be more mindful. When my life spins out of control, I now have this basis to return to in cleansing.

From the Ayurveda experience, I learned that every body type has differenent needs and that what is good for one may be highly detrimental to another.

I invite you to do a raw juice cleanse and see what emotional shifts you can make in your own life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How The 90/10 Rule Will Enable You to Lose Weight Forever

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We go on a diet and follow it dogmatically. For a month, 2 months, we lose weight and love our new bodies. Within a few months, though, the weight creeps up and we’re back to where we were, or worse.

Diets are not sustainable. That’s where the 90/10 rule will save you and enable you to reach your ideal weight forever. 

Simply put, the 90/10 ruse is 90% whole foods and 10% whatever you want from cookies to martinis. An important part of this rule is that at least 60% of your diet consists of plant foods, and this applies just as much to athletes as sedentary people.

The 90/10 rule should be taken into account when you plan your year; that is, know that 10% of the time you are going to go “off track,” such as periods during the summer and holidays.

As part of this, it is optimal to do a minimum of 3 cleanses per year in which you eat “clean” foods while you cleanse. Ideally, plan when you’re going to do a cleanse at the beginning of each year. That way, if you fall off track, as we all inevitably do, you know you have a schedule in place to help you regroup.

The more perfect you strive to be in eating, the more off track you wil become. This isn’t about perfection, which is an illusion in our minds; it’s about learning how to incorporate sustainable healthy eating habits into our daily lives.

Optimize Your Cleanse by Eating Right

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The number one reason I hear that people are afraid of cleanses is because they think they will starve. This is not the case!

I strongly believe that in 98% of the time when people do a raw juice cleanse, they should eat, even if it is only a handful of grains per day. The reason is that we want to pace our metabolism. While we want to give it a break, it still needs to do a little bit of work so that it doesn’t shut down and then have to be revved up again.

Time to debunk a couple raw juice cleanse myths:

Myth: “I just broke my raw juice cleanse because I’ve eaten the wrong foods.”

When I ask someone who tells me what they’ve eaten, they typically respond with a list of foods that are totally acceptable on the type of raw juice cleanse we promote at JOOS, such as Larabars, raw nuts, Mary’s Gone Crackers with hummus, brown rice vegetable sushi, corn tacos loaded with sautéed vegetables and tofu, a falafel sandwich with brown rice tortillas to name a few. Sometimes they’ve even gone out for a glass of red wine. Frankly, so what if ythey’ve snuck in a piece of chicken or a sip of coffee? Just make it the exception and go back to the cleanse the next day. There are so many foods that are acceptable and delicious on the cleanse. This is about experimenting with those foods and building a relationship with them.

Myth: “I only ate one meal and I’m starving.”

I just spoke with a woman who is doing a raw juice cleanse and did a very intense workout. She thought she could only have one meal and was feeling starving and deprived. Ideally, part of the cleanse is having one meal and unlimited fruits and vegetables throughout the day, but some people may need more. If you work out intensively and/or have a busy lifestyle, you may need a bowl of oatmeal in the morning or a Vega shake with a banana and almond milk afterwards.

The type of cleanse we promote at JOOS is NOT about starvation or deprivation; it is about learning mindfulness and how to pace yourself. If you are genuinely hungry, then you need to eat more. If you are not hungry, but eating out of habit or boredom, again your Lifestyle Coach can give you strategies how to deal with that.

I can assure you that a raw juice cleanse is not complicated, unless you allow it to be. In fact, once you get the hang of it, you may find that you will be able to follow the principles of it for months to follow. Sure you will probably fall off track. We all fall off track if we don’t practice anything regularly, such as exercise…and healthy eating habits. So the key is to plan ahead.

Remember, this isn’t about perfection, which is an illusion in our minds; it’s about learning how to incorporate sustainable healthy eating habits into our daily lives.