What is Alkalinity Anyway and Why Should at least 60% of your Diet be Alkaline?

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woman eating plant rich foods
One of the major buzz words in dieting these days is alkalinity.
 
I’m going to boil down to what this means in very simple terms: Eating a high alkaline diet means eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables.
 
There is controversy surrounding whether alkaline diets are really that healthy, but there is no controversy about the benefits of dark leafy greens. Eating a plant rich diet has been shown to improve metabolism/digestion and mental clarity and prevent certain diseases, to name a few. It has also become apparently clear how detrimental acid forming foods, such as coffee, red meat, soda, fried foods and dairy. They promote an environment for parasites and disease to thrive within our bodies.
 
At JOOS, we believe that for maximum health, at least 60% of your diet should consist of plant rich foods. 
 
Here’s a challenge: eat this way for one week and see how much more invigorated, balanced and in control you feel.

Vegan Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Healthy

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Alan, age 40 and a vegetarian, is 20lbs overweight. He says he eats healthy because he doesn’t consume any processed food or drink soda. He also consumes a large amount of vegetables.

Sounds good on the surface, but during our health coach session when I probed a bit deeper, a different story emerged.

Alan barely eats all day except for a salad for lunch. Salad isn’t really an acceptable lunch, which I’ll get into in a moment. By mid-afternoon, he feels so depleted that he consumes 2 to 3 cups of coffee. He’s so famished by the end of the day that he eats a huge dinner, which could consist of a very large bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and veggies. By the time he’s ready for bed, he’s so uncomfortable from his big dinner that he finds it difficult to sleep. The next morning, he has no appetite to eat breakfast because his dinner is still sitting in his stomach, not fully metabolized.

Here are some fundamental eating rules, and I use the word “rules” loosely because every body is so different.

When we wake up in the morning, we should be eating something light to wake up our metabolism from fasting all night. After all, it’s called “break” “fast” for a reason.

Breakfast should be large enough so that we’re not hungry until lunch time. Remember it generally takes 4 hours to burn fat in between meals.
Lunch is the largest meal all over the world. We need to fuel ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. Typically, a salad does not provide us with enough fuel to sustain us, particularly during the winter. Remember seasonal eating?
Dinner is meant to be our smallest meal. The night is when our metabolisms are slowing down in anticipation for sleep.
I’ve stated this all very simply, but you can go in depth with one of our certified health coach/cleanse experts who will help you design a healthy, sustainable food plan that meets your needs.

 

The Power of Taking Just One Minute

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Frigid temperatures, like today, can make us tired and irritable. It’s so much easier to take a moment to appreciate the scenery when we’re on a beach or in the mountains than when we’re going through the motions in the routine of life.

That’s why it is even more imperative to take a mini-break that only lasts a moment in which we stop, take a breath, and get in touch with what we’re feeling. The more often you do this during the day, the more at peace you’ll feel, despite the chaos you may be experiencing. After all, how is there going to be peace in your family or in your workforce if you’re not feeling inner peace.

A few weeks ago in our weekly JOOS team meeting, Dana Appel Young, who manages JOOS’ north shore operations and is also a leading health coach, suggested we do a moment of silence in memory of the lives that were lost in Newtown.

The moment of silence was scheduled for 9:30am. We started our meeting at 9am and at 9:30am on the dot, Tricia Pattison, Head of JOOS Customer Relations, set the timer so that we would be silent for a minute.

The minute felt much longer than a minute. When I looked at all the faces of my team mates, I felt solidarity as we all prayed for the lives that were lost and for the families who are suffering as a result.

One minute can be so powerful; yet, we waste so many of them, as I wrote above, on mindless chatter and drama.

When you feel like life is spinning out of control, literally take a minute in silence and just sit and reflect. 

To Graze or Not to Graze?

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Should we graze? Should we fast? How many meals should we be eating per day?

The simple answer is: It depends upon your metabolism.

If you have a fast metabolism, then grazing may be appropriate for you. If you have a slow metabolism, you may only need one meal per day.

Generally, it takes 4 hours without food to burn fat; hence, the reason for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If we have fast metabolisms, we process foods faster so we may be able to eat more frequently.

How do you know if you have a fast or slow metabolism? If you gain weight easily, that’s an indication of a slow metabolism.

How can you determine how often you need to eat? It depends on your energy level when you follow a healthy diet. If you follow an unhealthy diet of high levels of dairy, wheat, animal protein processed foods, refined sugars, gum, soda and other caffeinated beverages, you probably will not be able to determine what the right amount of food is for you because your blood sugar is probably out of whack.

 

 

The New Year Reminds Us that We Can Always Start Fresh

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Here you are at the beginning of the year, which presents a fresh start and clean slate. This year, we all want to get it right.

Do you know that the 45% of people who make New Year’s Resolutions are 10x more likely to achieve their goals than people who don’t make a resolution?

Do you know that only half of the people who make a resolution will not complete it within 6 months?

The main reason is because the resolutions we make are too lofty; that is, too ambitious and therefore not practically achievable.

Here are the Top 10 Resolutions:

1.       Lose Weight
2.       Getting Organizing
3.       Spend Less, Save More
4.       Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5.       Staying Fit and Healthy
6.       Learn Something Exciting
7.       Quit Smoking
8.       Help Others in Their Dreams
9.       Fall in Love
10.     Spend More Time with Family

Source: University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology 

Notice how general each one of them is. No wonder why most people don’t accomplish them. 

Choose something specific and achievable. For example:
  • I will make certain I kiss my children before they go to school.
  • I will not pick at my food while I cook. Instead, I will wait to eat at meal time.
  • I will do 10 jumping jacks every morning when I get out of bed
  • I will eat 2 portions of vegetables daily
  • I will drink 3 glasses of water daily
My resolution in 2008 was to put my car keys in the same place when I walked int my home. I could have set a more general resolution to become more organized, but by choosing something small and specific, I was able to implement it. Even more, being organized in that small area inspired me to put more systems in place in our household.

The following year, my resolution was to stop eating nutrition bars. The reason: I saw that I’d have one bar, which didn’t really fill me up. Then I’d have another. Then I saw I was snacking and bypassing meals. By consciously eliminating just nutrition bars, I became more mindful in what I eat so that I started eating more complete meals and grazing less. As a result, I had more energy and ate a more balanced diet. 

Here it is a few years later and I still put my key in the same delegated place and I do not eat nutrition bars. 

As important as the resolution is to start the year on the best foot possible. That’s why committing to doing a 

Reboot with fresh pressed organic juice is the best way to start any year.
 
How are you going to make 2013 the year to start fresh?
 

Could an Unwillingness to Be Open-Minded Impair Your Health?

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Meet Barbara and Keith, two opposite individuals who look and act completely different on the outside, but uncannily have a lot in common.

Barbara, age 58, only wears the latest in fashion. She always looks like she just stepped out of the beauty parlour and there isn’t a trace of a smile line on her perfectly smooth skin. At 5’4′ and 105 lbs, she eats 1 carefully measured cup of oatmeal with blueberries and a cup of coffee for breakfast, a salad or bowl of soup for lunch and take out from Legals, which consists of a piece of grilled fish accompanied with steamed vegetables and a glass of wine. She never snacks or eats dessert, although she often has a cup of coffee mid-afternoon.

Nothing is ever good enough for Barbara. She’s the one who finds fault with the food at the best restaurants and hardly ever makes a nice comment about anyone.

On the other hand, there’s Keith, age 54, single dad of 3 older children and the life of just about any party. At 6′, 240 lbs, he is about as mindless in what he eats as Barbara is disciplined. He socializes practically every night and since he loves to drink, he often loses sight of what and how much he’s eating. His ebullient, jovial laughter veils the ball of nerves that’s rattling around inside him. Get on his bad side and he’s vicious and spiteful. Ironically, his home is immaculately clean, sterile really, with shampoo bottles perfectly aligned across the shower shelf and not a speck to be seen on his glass dining room table.

Barbara and Keith share in a need from control. Both are unable to let go, except Keith when he drinks alcohol.

Unfortunately, these two individuals are the last type of people who would ever do a fresh-pressed, 100% organic juice Reboot, but they are prime candidates. The reason: A cleanse is such a big departure from the way most of us eat that it causes us to address and make changes in the way we are as individuals.

I constantly receive emails from people who have done a fresh-pressed, 100% organic juice Reboots telling me how it’s changed their lives. I understand because it also changed mine.

Is close-mindedness and fear holding you back from living a fulfilling life? If so, contact me for a health coach session at Lauri@drinkjoos.com

5 Signs You Need a Break & 5 Things to Do About It

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I loved this article by Lauren Imparato so I wanted to share it with all of you:
Work. Friends. Projects. Errands. Family. Health. Repeat. Life has put a lot on our plates, and it seems to be adding more. It is easy to get caught up in this plight of modern life, but you do not have to.
 
Here are five things that I most typically notice and hear as signs of needing a break, and five ways to remedy them.
Signs It’s Time for a Break
1. You dread the alarm clock. Your alarm clock goes off, no matter the hour or day, and all you want is to stay crawled up in bed.
2. Your fuse is short. No matter what someone says, it is not the right thing. You are constantly triggered for arguably no real reason.
3. You avoid what you know you like. You start making excuses for not going to yoga - to that class you love – or a friend’s house you always enjoy, claiming stress and tiredness.
4. Your diet starts to waver. You start eating foods you know make you feel bad, and other foods you simply know are bad, saying, “just today.”
5. You simply do not care. You start to spend more time surfing the web at work, flipping through channels at home, ignoring messages and invites from friends, and pretending your family does not exist, all in the name of “rest” and silence.
 
Ways to Give Yourself a Break
1. Get offline. Turn the internet off two hours before bed, and turn your handheld devices off for at least eight hours a day. Let your mind rest, and spare it the endless stream of often unnecessary information. (This one is hard, I know.)
2. Take a local adventure. Take yourself somewhere new or unfrequented in your city; think neighborhood walk, proper restaurant diner, bikini picnic in the park, or museum wandering. Simply experiencing something new – with different people, air, and vibe – will refresh your mind and body.
3. Plan an escape. Plan a day, week, or weekend holiday within the next six months; anything outside of and away from your day-to-day routine. Something to look forward to will add a skip to your daily step.
4. Laugh. There is really no better remedy. Cures you from the inside out.
5. Do something crazy. Go to a seemingly ridiculous class, plan a one-day escape to the beach, go out for a night on the town, or do something you think you never have time to do, or is simply nuts. The thrill will rejuvenate you.
About Lauren Imparato

Lauren Imparato is the founder of, I.AM.YOU., a yoga centric lifestyle brand & yoga studio in New York City. At the studio and around the globe, Lauren teaches intense, fun, and athletic Vinyasa classes, each set to a unique Music Mix designed by I.AM.YOU.’s Resident Mixologist, as well as leads Nutritional Coaching & Detox Programs for individuals, athletic teams & businesses. Prior to launching I.AM.YOU., Lauren worked on the Wall Street trading floors.

Lauren graduated with an Advanced Certification from Conquering Lion Yoga and received a secondary Advanced Certification from Kula Yoga School. She complimented this with a Certificate in Advanced Studies Yoga Anatomy. Lauren is a graduate of the Institute of Integrated Nutrition and accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She holds an Intermediate Level Certificate from the International Wine Center, and a BA from Princeton University in Romance Languages and Literatures.

For more on Lauren and I.AM.YOU visitiamyoustudio.com, Twitter @IAMYOUstudio, and Facebook: IAMYOUstudio

Want Clarity? Release the Brain Chatter

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I practice yoga when I wake up every morning at my home. I haven’t had the time to go to yoga class, and I thought that my home practice was sufficient.
 
This morning I had a big revelation how wrong I was.
 
For the first time in months, I attended yoga class with one of my favorite teachers. I could keep up with the class, but what I learned was how unfocused I was.
 
At one point, the teacher said, and I swear he was looking at me, “focus on a single point.” At that moment, I realized that I was surveying all the people in the class and what they were drinking.
 
The teacher continued, “When we’re focused, we eliminate the chatter so that we can focus on the moment.”
 
There it was. The reason to practice yoga. It is not just to get ourselves in these contorted positions, although that’s a part of it. It’s to make us more grounded so that we can operate more effectively in life by eliminating the drama.
 
A couple weeks ago I received a phone call from a client who is a very well known interior designer. She was disgruntled because a contractor whom one of her clients wanted her to work with on a project had a horrible attitude. She said, “Every suggestion I make, he shuts me off and says, ‘I’m the contractor, I know better.’ I am so upset and worried that the project is not going to come out the way I’d like it to and that’s a reflection on me.”
 
I asked, “Have you spoken to the contractor?”
 
She responded, “Well I’ve attempted to assert my ideas, but I really haven’t sat down and spoken with him. He has such an attitude. I don’t think it will help.”
 
We spoke about strategies regarding what she would discuss in the meeting and how to present it.
 
This past week, she called and relayed, “The meeting went great, although I feel horribly for the contractor. It turns out he just separated from his wife so he was taking it out on me. He apologized to me for his bad attitude. Now we’re working so much better together.”
 
Instead of taking action and getting to the root of the issue right away, without even realizing it, my client was allowing the contractor’s problems to cause drama in her own life. As a result, she was not performing optimally, which really would have been a negative reflection on her work.
 
A key to peaceful, balanced living is calming the chatter in our minds. Yoga is most definitely one means. Others include meditation, exercise and, of course, a fresh-pressed, 100% organic juice Reboot!
Are you having an issue with chatter and, if so, what actions do you take to unclog it?
 
Week after week I extol the health benefits of a JOOS Reboot. I hope by now many of you realize that it just isn’t about eating healthy food; it’s also about gaining emotional control so that we lead balanced, energized lives. 

Are You a Prisoner of Your Past?

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Sarah became increasingly disenchanted with her  nutrition practice. She found that she didn’t have a big impact counseling one person at a time and it also bored her.

She decided to pursue other paths where she thought she’d have a greater impact. She became a certified yoga instructor, but after teaching a class, she found she didn’t enjoy it. She started to partner with a friend who was a chef to provide meals and meal plans for clients, but she found it frustrating getting the business off the ground. She was so scattered that she never took the time to figure out what was truly her passion.

Another reason Sarah’s career failed to thrive was because her insecurity caused her to act arrogant. She had a masters in nutrition so, she thought, she knew more about nutrition than anyone and should be treated accordingly. As a result, she looked down upon anyone who didn’t have a comparable degree, which caused her to lose many career opportunities.

Patrice, on the other hand, may not have earned a masters in nutrition, but she was so curious about the latest health trends that she studied them voraciously. Her love for health and nutrition led her to become one of the preeminent cleanse experts in the area. She is approachable, funny and brilliant at what she does. Her love of cleansing led her to create the highly popular cleanse, the Kickstart Cleanse!

Often our biggest enemy is ourselves! We allow ourselves to become prisoners to our past and/or to our own insecurities, which blurs us from finding our true passion.

The first step can be very scary to break a habit. Each time I find myself stuck in an old pattern that I know is weighing me down, I turn to cleansing. This helps me eliminate the static in my life so that I can evaluate in an intelligent way how to make changes that enable me to live a more positive productive life.

What steps do you take to get yourself off the cycle of bad habits?

 

5 Essential Actions that Lead to a Fulfilling, Happy Lifestyle

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If our goal is to live happy fulfilling lives, then why do so many of us walk around feeling depleted and depressed?

Here are 5 essential steps to kick start your life to live a fulfilling, happy lifestyle:

1. An organized home (but not rigid).

For some of us, the school year has already started. It will be in full force on Tuesday with full class schedules and activities underway.

This year, I’m determined to be more efficient, which means to fortify my base; i.e., organize my home.

Since my kids weren’t around for most of the summer, I had plenty of time to devote to organizing my home from top to bottom. I literally threw away bags and bags of trash and gave away even more bags of clothes and other household items to charity. 

When the kids came home to an organized home, they were speechless. One of my daughters just stood in her room for many moments. When I asked her if everything was all right, she responded, “Mom, I’m about to cry. You did so much for us.”

It’s been a couple weeks and I’m amazed how determined my children are to keep their rooms clean. I don’t even say a word to them. They are so much happier in our home and have more time to spend together looking at old photo albums, listening to music, etc.

2. A Fulfilling Career/Family-Life

Whether you’re a stay-at-home mother or career woman, you have to be true to yourself to decide which lifestyle is best for you.

I just saw one of my cousins who has a masters degree and has decided to stay-at-home with her children.

She said to me, “I should be doing more.”

I replied, “Like what? You have a healthy relationship with a loving husband and 2 beautiful children you can focus your time.”

She looked at me and smiled, “You’re right. I wouldn’t have such a close relationship with my husband if I were running around in all directions. This way, I’m able to prepare a full dinner for him when he arrives home and we all sit down to a relaxing meal.”

How much better does it get than that?

3. Regular Exercise

We all know by now how regular exercise boosts endorphins and gets us in shape. Simply put, a lack of exercise leads to laziness and I have yet to meet a happy, lazy person.

4. A Loving Community/Partner/Family

Busy schedules make it difficult to find time to build friendships, which can lead to feeling like we’re living on our own islands. It also gets us out of “shape” to socialize. It is crucial to get out once a week with friends, community, a partner/spouse. 

5. Healthy Eating Habits:

Incorporating healthy eating habits can be incredibly challenging. That’s why rebooting our lives through drinking fresh-pressed juice and a clean diet for a period of time is so incredibly important. Just like organizing a home to become more efficient, the cleanse helps us get on track with our eating habits so that we feel in control and more balanced. As a result, we’re in stronger positions to deal with the stress that will inevitably arise from our busy schedules.