Keeping Up with Kerri
It's that time of year to begin new adventures on a clean slate, and that's what I plan to do in 2010. My name is Kerri, and I am a Nutritionist for WIC during the week and for Family Health Center on the weekends. I'm pretty good at giving out nutritional advice, but now need to take the time for my own well being. I challenge YOU to challenge ME in a 6-week program to better OUR health and wellness. Below I have laid out my plan plus some helpful tips and suggestions. Feel free to try one, a few, or all of the challenges I am giving myself, and let's see where it takes us!
~Current feelings: very anxious yet excited and ready
The Plan
January 4th/Pre weigh-in: start candida yeast cleanse diet* (duration 3-6 weeks), Dr. Miller's Holy Tea
January 9th: weigh-in/measurements day
January 10th: take a break from supplements** except for Garden of Life's Primal Defense Ultra probiotics, start Garden of Life's RAW Cleanse (7 days), during mid-cleanse start a series of 3 colon hydrotherapy sessions with Linda
January 17th thru end of 6 weeks: start Garden of Life's Diet 360, resume supplements**
EXERCISE: I plan to do physical activities that I enjoy and take it slow...a good start would be 10 min each day or 20-30 minutes 3x per week. Walking, biking, dancing, swimming, etc. Adding weights to a cardio program can help burn 3x as much fat as either one alone, but again, baby steps.
*Candida yeast cleanse diet - There are a few variations of this diet, the key being to avoid processed sugars and other carbohydrates (including fruit) as well as anything containing yeast. Check out Google for more info. The most "hard core" version that I plan to incorporate is simple: organic meats, organic veggies, water. I will also be including xylitol mints and gum.
**7 Essentials for Optimal Health and Wellness -
1. Cellular Nutrition (ex: Cell Power)
2. RAW Multi-Vitamin (ex: Garden of Life's RAW ONE)
3. Omega-3 (ex: Garden of Life's Healthy Hormones)
4. Probiotics (Garden of Life's Primal Defense Ultra)
5. Digestive Enzymes (ex: Enzymedica's Digest)
6. Vitamin D3 (ex: Now's Vitamin D3)
7. Iodine (ex: Terry Naturally's Thyroid Care)
I have added a few supplements to my personal Essential 7 - Himalaya's LiverCare (to aid my liver in detoxing during this program), Now's Liquid B12/Folic Acid (for energy), and Trace Minerals ConcenTrace (for proper muscle contraction and electrolyte balance)
Beginning Tip: "If at first you don't succeed, deny you were trying at all." JUST KIDDING! I have learned that when it comes to eating habits, Diets don't work. They cause people to encounter black and white (aka all-or-nothing) thinking and lead to failure. Lifestyle changes are the key to success when it comes to eating habits, and mistakes will happen but do not ruin anything. The whole purpose of this 6-week program for me is to detox and jump-start my metabolism so I can then transition into a normalized, healthier way of eating. There are several different choices for "normalized," healthy eating plans that will be discussed more towards the end of the program.
Good luck, everyone, and let the games begin!!!
~Kerri
1/11/10 Keeping Up with Kerri
Well here it is...into the first week! I hope everyone is fired up and motivated to get healthy!
Before the update on my status, I'd like to remind everyone that starting next Saturday (January 16th), we will be having group meetings at the Family Health Center. They will be every Saturday at 10am for the duration of the 6 week challenge. The purpose is to provide team support, encouragement, and accountability. I hope to see everyone's smiling faces! The first week we will do introductions and then discuss our goals. We will also go over different choices for healthy eating plans, detox strategies, and hopefully share some good tips.
My Plan
I have modified my plan a little bit. I am still implementing the candida yeast cleanse diet, but have decided to allow myself mashed potatoes occasionally and Larabars (for sale at FHC). The mashed potatoes have a little milk in them which is normally not allowed, and the Larabars contain dates (a fruit). But I have decided that my sanity and "staying with it" are more important than being perfect. It's been VERY hard for the first few days. I have had some minor headaches and have been hungry most of the time, but otherwise I feel pretty good. By days 5-7 I started noticing more energy and clarity. Yesterday, I started the RAW Cleanse and by today, I'm feeling more "regular" if you know what I mean ;) So far so good...I've lost 4lbs!!!
*I stated before that I would continue with ONLY probiotic supplements during the RAW Cleanse, but decided to include enzymes and minerals as well.
Tip: Listening to encouraging, upbeat music keeps me motivated and excited to continue and can also bring me out of a funk. Here are some of my favorites: "Man in Motion (St. Elmo's Fire)" by John Parr, "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer Sisters, "Love Can Move Mountains" by Celine Dion, "Get On Your Feet" by Gloria Estefan, "What a Feeling" by Irene Cara, "Make it Happen" by Mariah Carey, "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Micael Jackson, "All Things Are Possible" by Darlene Zschech.
Let's Get Going!!!
~Kerri
1/18/10 Keeping Up with Kerri
Thanks to everyone for a great first meeting this past Saturday! As per your requests, I am including some information and links regarding healthy/clean eating and grocery shopping. I will come up with a list of where to shop for these foods at the next meeting.
Here is a link to Farmer Direct for locally produced and sold foods: http://www.illinoisfarmdirect.org Just choose a commodity and type in your zip code for results.
Exerpt from Natural New's Grocery Article:
"Do you know which seven dangerous food ingredients to watch out for in your groceries? These are the "deadly seven," as I call them, and they can directly promote heart disease, migraines, obesity, outrageous food cravings, osteoporosis, diabetes and even birth defects.
The top three most dangerous ingredients I've found in my research are:
1) Sodium nitrite -- causes cancer, found in processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage. Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical).
2) Hydrogenated oils -- causes heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many "manufactured" foods. Used to make oils stay in the food, extending shelf life. Sometimes also called "plastic fat."
3) Excitotoxins -- aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others (see below). These neurotoxic chemical additives directly harm nerve cells, over-exciting them to the point of cell death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They're found in diet soda, canned soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian foods. They're used to add flavor to over-processed, boring foods that have had the life cooked out of them.
Want to know more about the genuine dangers posed by toxic food ingredients and additives? I'll share more with you in this email, but first let me invite you to check out the tell-all book I've written on the subject: "Grocery Warning."
http://www.truthpublishing.com/GroceryWarning.html
It reveals, in shocking detail, exactly which ingredients compromise your health (and how they do it).
Back to the "hidden" ingredients
So how do food companies manage to hide excitotoxins and taste additives to their foods? It's easy: They just keep changing the words to confuse consumers. Once customers learned to avoid MSG / monosodium glutamate, the food companies started using yeast extract.
And now, two years after I started sounding the alarm on yeast extract, many companies have switched to "torula yeast," which accomplishes the same thing. Other hidden sources of MSG include:
• Autolyzed vegetable protein
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Calcium caseinate
• Sodium caseinate
• Textured protein
The ingredients "stacking" trick
Food companies also use the ingredients stacking trick to intentionally leave you with the wrong impression about what's really in their food products.
For example, one company makes a nutrition bar that's absolutely loaded with sugar, but they way they've arranged the ingredients prevents sugar from appearing as the #1 ingredient. Instead, the first ingredient is rice. But looking down the label, you'll find all the following forms of sugar, all in the same nutrition bar:
• Sugar
• Sucrose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Corn syrup solids
• Dextrose
Add all these up, and the #1 component in the bar is, indeed, sugar (or sugary substances). But the manufacturer has used ingredients stacking to make you think the top ingredient is actually rice.
It's a clever, dishonest technique used by food companies to lie with food labels.
Remember, the longer the ingredients label, the less healthy the food. Read those ingredients lists before buying foods, and if you discover chemical names that you can't pronounce, don't buy the food!"
My Update: I have been doing pretty well with my detoxing. The eating part is getting harder, I'm becoming more restless and anxious. I might decide to give myself a little break for one day and then focus on being more strict, that way I don't go crazy and completely give up. I just finished the RAW Cleanse and had my first colonic in the series of 3. I felt good after the cleanse but AWESOME after the colonic. It's such a great compliment to detoxing. I look forward to starting the Diet 360 Monday and resuming my normal supplement schedule. I also need to focus on making exercise a priority.
Tip: I would highly recommend subscribing to the email newsletter www.NaturalNews.com, which is where I found the grocery article above.
Sign up at: http://www.NaturalNews.com/ReaderRegistration.html
~Kerri
1/26/10 Keeping Up with Kerri
Hey everyone! It's hard to believe we are jumping into the middle of our program. I don't know about anyone else, but I am struggling at this point. Eating healthy and doing all the cleanses has actually been the easiest part for me. The exercising thing has been my struggle. And now, by week three (when a lot of people tend to get frustrated), I am struggling with the whole program, ahhh! No worries, though, I'm not about to give up! I have decided that I will start preplanning my meals and writing them down. Keeping things organized definitely makes success more likely. Also, my dad bought the P90X exercise program so I'm considering starting that with him. Working with partners is also a great help for motivation and accountability, and even makes it fun!
On another note...at the last meeting we talked a lot about "clean" eating. So below is some information about one of the healthy foods we talked about: sprouted grains.
Sprouting is the practice of soaking, draining and then rinsing seeds at regular intervals until they germinate or sprout. Sprouted grains are healthy, flavorful, and nutrient rich.
Sprouting grains and seeds before baking produces living, nutrient-rich food. The process of germination changes the composition of grain and seeds in numerous ways. Sprouting increases vitamin content. Sprouting neutralizes phytic acid – a substance present in grains – that inhibits absorption of nutrients and more importantly, Sprouting neutralizes or "predigests" if you will, grains through enzymatic activity. The enzymes produced during the natural sprouting process "in effect" breaks down amino acid protein bonds to promote digestibility of the entire grain.
Sprouted grain bread has numerous advantages over "enriched" wheat flour breads. These breads are made from the endosperm of the wheat kernel (the inside portion), which contains primarily carbohydrates and few vitamins and minerals. The milling of grain into white flour requires the removal of the bran and the germ. This results in the loss of natural fiber, bran and 22 vitamins and minerals. To compensate, five vitamins and minerals (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, iron and folic acid) are added back in, "enriching" the flour. Sometimes calcium is added back as well. But in this process, the vitamin content of the bread is not as easily assimilated in the body.
*Family Health Center carries Sprouted Spelt Bread and Ezekiel Bread in the Berlin Bakery freezer.
Here are two other links regarding sprouting, one that gives a more specific scientific explanation about sprouted grains and one that lists many available sprouted foods:
http://www.westonaprice.org/Be-Kind-to-Your-Grains...And-Your-Grains-Will-Be-Kind-To-You.html
http://www.foodforlife.com/sprouted-grain-difference.html
Tip: "The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead." -quoted from Jordan Rubin's book Patient, Heal Thyself.
~Kerri
2/2/10 Keeping Up with Kerri
How is everyone doing this week??? It seems that a lot of us are losing a bit of motivation for the eating portion of the program. Did you know it takes about 30 days to break a habit? We are right at that point, entering the 4th week. This also happens to be the point where a lot of people get stuck. Two things that are key to getting over that 4 week hump and going on to succeed are 1) changing thoughts and 2) changing patterns. We all know that diets DON'T WORK because they promise a "quick fix" that doesn't last instead of preparing people for lifestyle changes. So...what I think we should talk about this coming week are ways in which to challenge negative thoughts and unhealthy patterns.
For anyone who is reading this, I have a little homework for you to bring to the next meeting: try to write out at least 2-3 negative thoughts you've been having throughout this program and 1-2 unhealthy patterns you've noticed about yourself regarding eating habits. We're going to learn some ways to challenge those thoughts and patterns to prevent them from defeating us!
My plan for the next week is to do another RAW Cleanse while continuing with supplements. I'm also trying to set little goals like writing out meal plans at least twice this week, and motivating myself to exercise at least once. Little goals provide you with more chances for success!
*Anyone who wants their water tested for acidity/alkalinity and oxygenation can bring a small sample to the next meeting where I can test it for you (we briefly discussed this at the last meeting).
Tip: The Chinese definition of "insanity" is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
~Kerri |
