Inspired by Ignite Culture and Ignite London …Ignite Health!?

I am so impressed that one of my contacts on Twitter created Ignite Culture. She did it by word of mouth and it was hosted successfully in Toronto last month. Now it is getting a headline in London Ontario and being presented April 3, 2012.

I tried to think of something I could add to an Ignite Culture presentation and really came up with a blank. I don’t have any artistic talents, I am the product of a very dysfunctional family and can’t really look back in my family tree to point out any interesting cultural stories.

 My daughter is far more well versed in Culture topics. She is history fanatic, she loves classic movies, she loves the theatre, she sings, she loves to act. All of the things I may have been if my childhood had been remotely normal.

So as I realized that I could not create a topic that was specific to Ignite Culture I had a lightbulb moment.

What if I created Ignite Health! Same format 5 minute topics related to health and wellness. A focussed session that you can attend to learn about the body, alternative medicine and healthy living.

I know it would be popular, I know I have a number of contacts in London already that have dealt with illness in their families or illness in their lives. I know I am meeting incrediible people like Kresimer Jug who would be a great speaker on the benefits of Chiropractory. What if we combined all those skills and all that knowledge to improve everyone’s knowledge of their own bodies and the impacts we inadvertantly have on our bodies with the choices we make in everyday life.

I am inspired and wondering where to start…I will sit down with Jenn Nelson soon to understand how she created Ignite Culture. I will talk to Jennifer Murray and Gavin Blair about Ignite London and see how that was started too.

I think that having 8 – 10 speakers talking for 5 minutes each on an aspect of Healthy living can only improve the health of our community!

 

Do you agree or do you think this is overkill for another separate Ignite??

NAFLD Hints and Tips for dealing with Liver Disease

You were just diagnosed with NAFLD or NASH and now you are being told to eat healthy and exercise with no direction and a pat on the head. You search the internet and you find so much mixed information but your doctor told you not to worry about it too much.

 

There is something bothering you, you sense that there might be more to this since you are struggling with exhaustion and stomach aches.

 

Your liver is one of the hardest working organs in your body. I want you to think of it as a powerful sponge that is absorbing all the food you eat, all the beverages you drink, all the air you breathe,all the drugs or supplements you use, all the products you put on your skin, and everything you touch.

 

Your liver is an investigator. It will break down everything that it absorbs. It will take the vitamins and minerals that are in your liver and send them to other organs to make them work better. It will take all the toxins and chemicals and send them to the dump to be rejected from your body.

 

If you are are not overwhelming your liver with too many toxins your liver can do its job and your body will be happy!

Sadly our environment, drug, supplement, skin care, cosmetic manfacturers are generally about making profits and your health is a secondary concern if it is even on their radar.

 

There is very good news for your liver though. Your liver is the only organ in the body that has its own regeneration factory. Your liver is constantly trying to fix itself. Its like a busy body that can’t take a break no matter how much you warn it that its a workaholic

When its not trying to break down toxins it is replanting a cell, watering it, giving it nutrients and care. The cell needs to be nurtered in order to grow. This is the livers part time job and its a careful balance. Its priority is to break down toxins and nutrients that are being absorbed.

 

Your fulltime job as someone with liver disease is to support that balance and be kind to your liver.

 

My job is to share what I have learned that will help you help your liver!

 

 

1. Review the drugs and supplements you are taking. Determine which have warnings that they should not be used if you have liver disease and talk to your doctor about coming off them.

2. Do not buy over the counter medications, Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, Cough Medicines, Stomach medicines. They all have to be broken down by the liver and most are proven to have a negative impact on liver.

3. Read supplement labels and make sure ingredients are from nature. They should be top quality and tested scientifically.

4. Use natural cosmetics, natural skin care products.

5. Use natural products to clean house and clothes.

6. Exercise daily – start with walking and build up to include aerobic exercise that you enjoy.

7. Avoid all added sugars and high fructose corn syrup! Fructose is showing itself scientifically as being the main precursor creating this disease.

8. Do not lose weight quickly this can further damage your liver! No more than 2lbs per week!

9. Avoid Genetically modified products. They are not natural and our bodies consider them a foreign toxin for liver to deal with.

 

Supplements:

 

You can consider using the following basic supplements daily to improve your immunity and help your liver.

 

Millk Thistle

Vitamin B complex

Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Quality Pro Biotic

Vitamin D3 1000 mg

Essential Fatty Acids – Omega 3

 

If you are on Statins you need to supplement with CoQ10

 

Once a week to boost fat metabolism and energy:

L-Carnitine

Chromium

 

 

Food and Beverages:

 

1. Fresh organic vegetables and a few organic fruits. Fruit has lots of natural sugars and if your liver is compromised your intake of fruit should be limited. Lots of Lemon and dark green leafy vegetables.

2. Processed foods should be avoided as a rule. Read labels and look for products that have ingredient lists that you understand.

3. Nuts – Almonds, Walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts all have nutrients and fats that are healthy for live.r peanut butter should be organic try almond butter!. Use Raw organic unsalted nuts!

4. Grains limited – spelt, rye, sprouted grain, Brown rice, brown rice pasta, steel cut oats, air popped popcorn

5. Dairy- Organic greek yogurt, skim milk, organic cheese.

6. Seeds – pumpkin,sunflower.

7. Legumes – chickpeas, beans -not sweetened! Soy not genetically modified!

8. Protein- Lean Chicken,Turkey, Beef, Pork. Nothing with nitrites! Fish – avoid high mercury in Shark, Marlin,Orange Roughy, swordfish, tilefish, Ahi Tuna. Be careful and limit intake of canned albacore or yellowfin tuna, sea bass, grouper and bluefish.

 

Juicing is a great way to get the raw nutrients that your liver craves.

Low Glycemic Index foods are important to keep balance in your body.

Organic and Gluten free products tend to be natural always read labels.

 

 

Try to keep your insulin levels balanced and help your liver as well!

 

Avoid the following ingredients:

Aspartame

acesulfame-k

Artifical colour or flavour

Brominated Vegetable oil (BVO)

Corn Syrup

Dextrose

Fructose

Heptyl Paraben

invert sugar

corn sugar

fructose-glucose

lactitol

maltitol

mannitol

olestra

partially hydrogenated vegetable oil

Monosodium Glutumate

mycoprotein

lactose

hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

gums for thickening

guarana

casein, sodium caseinate

caffeine

benzoic acid

polydextrose

potassium bromate

propyl gallate

qunine

rebiana

salatrim

Sodium Chloride

sodium bezoate

sodium nitrite

sorbitol

sucrose

tagatose

trans fat

xylitol

Are you tired and have stomach aches a lot?

There was no way I thought liver disease when my child was complaining of stomach aches, all kids complain of stomach aches. What a great way to get out of going to school. Sometimes she would throw up and I would think it was a stomach flu, she ate something bad or had heat stroke. Never once did I think Liver disease.

She complained she was too tired to help out around the house, I thought she was just being stubborn or lazy. I never thought Liver disease.

She would take forever to get over any cold or flu bug, I thought her immune system was just weak, I filled her with vitamin C, supplements and chicken soup. I never thought liver disease.

She would have trouble sleeping at night, she would toss and turn, never able to get into a restful spot, I tried sleepy music, I tried calming her with words, I tried melatonin and gravol because she always had a tummy ache. I never thought liver disease.

In Fall 2008 ,When the pediatrician finally did an ultrasound of her stomach and had the blood test results he turned to us and said…you have a disease called NASH, go home exercise.and eat better.

I went home happy, I finally had a diagnosis for my daughter, the name of a real disease, she was not making it up!

I went to the internet and typed in NASH. I got a lot of Steve nash sites. Then i found one site that talked about it as liver disease.

I started reading and see that it can be fatal, that there is no cure and that its the 2nd stage of fatty liver disease.

Now I was angry, how could the doctor just turn to us and casually say this, no real direction no real help!

She could have cirrohsis next how close was she to that , I had no idea.

I then started searching for a diet for fatty liver disease. There was nothing. Out of desperation I started a support group on Facebook. Slowly I started getting people joining the group from all over the world. Some old, some young, some skinny , most overweight. Now I know how to deal with living with the disease and thats why I am doing this blog. I want everyone to know about and to start respecting this disease.

This is a global disease, with global ramifications. This is not going away, you cannot hide from it. Doctors are only now starting to research it and most know less than I do after dealing with over 200 people in my group with the disease over the last 3 years. I know the pains, I know the challenges with doctors, I know the ways to alleviate symptoms.

Stomach aches and fatigue are the symptoms of Fatty Liver Disease. 2 years ago it was estimated that 25% of the north american population has this disease. Now in 2011 that estimate is at 30%. Most people are completely unaware that they have the disease or that their child may have the disease.

With the increase in Sodium, preservatives, pesticides, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and other chemicals in our foods our poor liver has no way to break everything down and it starts to give up. It takes this odd unnatural item and it stores it within itself as a fat cell. It doesn’t want to make the other organs try to deal with this intruder in your body. The liver is a martyr , the liver is the hardest working organ in your body. When its compromised the rest of your body has to work harder. When its comprimised you have no choice but to change the way you eat!

The next time you are at the doctors office, the next time you take your child to the pediatrician, ask them to run a blood test to check your liver levels. You need to know if you have this disease as early as possible to avoid the later stages and to avoid more complications.

So do yourself a favor get tested,  join my group on facebook to find people that understand and please share this blog with everyone you love.

Your liver will thank you

Michelle Clermont

Fatty Liver Disease Consultant

The Truth about Supplements

My friend and personal holistic coach put this article together to help me guide the fatty liver patients in their search for the perfect supplement.

Thank you Brandon!

There are hundreds of supplement companies and millions of supplements out in the market now. How can you decide what a valuable supplement for your body is? How do you know if you are using them correctly?  People are into supplements for two reasons:

1)      The person has a health concern that they have been educated that a supplement will help.

2)     The person is trying to make money selling supplements. They are a salesperson at heart and that is what you always have to remember. They will say what you need to hear about the supplement and promise it will help.

Let’s first talk about what supplements are, supplements are vitamin and/or minerals extracted from whole food, plants and/or another sources. They are made to supplement for a person who is not eating the natural source and make it more convenient for people to consume. This also can be because a doctor or health professional recommended a specific dosage to help with health concerns.

I personally believe supplements are needed when someone has a health challenge and can’t get access to the natural source. This should only be taken for a short period of time to help heal. People can over consume supplements and cause food sensitivities and digestion issues they can essentially become allergic to the supplement. This is the same supplement that was intended to help heal and resolve the health challenge in the first place.

If you have a health issue I always recommend you go to the root, eat the natural foods which contain complex nutrients in the right combination. Remember Mother Nature is not stupid and neither is our body.

The natural foods we consume have the correct amount of nutrients in the right dosages that we need. Our body is intelligent enough to metabolize exactly what we need through what we consume as long as we are eating healthy.

If the body doesn’t use the nutrients it either stores it for later or eliminates it. Nutrients in supplements will be used secondary to the nutrients through natural foods. So if you are getting enough naturally the supplement will be eliminated from your body unused.

Here are some recommendations if you have a health issue and are looking into supplementation:

1) Take the time to do the research, see if you can find a natural source of the supplement that you are being recommended

2) If you determine that you can’t get the nutrients naturally and you actually need to take a supplement

Don’t take it for long periods of time (no more than 30 days in a row). At this point you need to give your body a break from the supplement.

You need to give your body enough time to consume and metabolize the nutrients in the supplement.  Once this initial metabolizing has occurred, you can keep adding to the storage tank for 30 Days. After 30 days your body will start rejecting the supplement, and treat like an irritant. This can result in digestive issues, headaches, allergic reactions, or a whole host of other problems you do not need if you have health issues in the first place.

3) Ensure you work with a holistic coach who can coach you through the process of healing your unique body. Everyone is different and your needs will not be the same as the person next to you who is buying the same supplement. This is not easy and you shouldn’t try to do it alone.

For more information you can reach me at info@ultimatesportstherapy.com or call me at 905-290-1584

Love and Chi
Brandon Krieger
Holistic Lifestyle Coach, Reiki Practitioner and Professional Speaker

 

Liver Disease – Do you Judge? Are you Vulnerable?

I have been running a support group for Fatty Liver Disease on Facebook since 2008.  Do a search on Facebook for Fatty Liver Disease Support Group (NAFLD and NASH).

 I have talked to 100′s of patients with the disease. You might think they are all middle age obese people but you would be very wrong.  Do not take your health for granted, do not assume you are not at risk for this disease. With the current obesity rates in the world the odds are 1 in 5 that you could have this disease and not even be aware of it. You might be a child, a healthy person, a mother, father, daughter, son, grandmother, grandfather, husband or wife. 

Fatty liver disease can be very quiet :

you could be going through your day and feel a pain in the right side of your tummy and easily discount it to a general tummy ache.

You might feel really worn down  and need to sleep more often and easily discount that to your busy life.

You might notice you get sick more easily, you go to the drugstore and fill up with supplements, and vitamins.

You might go to the doctor and they will likely think you are just depressed and give you drugs to treat symptoms.

The liver is the hardest working organ in the body. We all abuse it in some way everyday.

Pollution and Chemicals – in the home, in our cleaning liquids, our shampoos, our beauty products, dusts and mold. Car Emissions, factory emissions, pollens, and allergens.

Eating – Processed foods, spicy foods, junk food, fast food, genetically modified foods, chemical replacements for sugars, diet products, caffeinated, low fat, high sodium, high sugars. chemically treated fruits and veggies, and processed meats. Even organic foods are not necessarily organic!

Alcohol – Oh I know this is the general vision of the liver patient. Uncle Joe has been an alcoholic all his life and now he is paying for it because his liver is pickled!

Drugs – Oh I know the drug addicts sharing the needles down around the corner get liver disease due to their lifestyle choices.

Unsafe Sex, tattoos- Pamela Anderson has liver disease due to unsafe sex and tattoos.

Its so very easy to make quick judgements of liver patients, they should have prevented this by not drinking, partying, abusing their bodies so much.

Let me introduce you to a few of the stories I am aware of:

A 12 year old child is immunized for HEP to prepare for a trip overseas, she returns and gets hit with pneumonia and Mono…6 months later she has liver disease. Her 40 mother is obese but she does not have the disease…

A healthy , skinny, strong healthy young man is 30. He is 6 foot 3 and 183 lbs. He is not a drinker, he does not do drugs, he does not have unclean tattoos. He has liver disease. He grew up with a dad who worked for the coca cola company.. Coca cola was always in the house, he drank it like water.

A 52 year old woman is a registered nurse and she goes to the Gym daily. She deals with one patient with a transmittable liver disease and her life changes forever. She warns everyone to stay away from pain killers and be careful what you eat.

A 29 year old man struggles with knee surgeries, radiation, steroids. He was normal weight…then his fatty liver disease started….

A 30 Year old man has frequent migraines, gets diagnosed with a genetic disease that made him prone to liver problems and now he has fatty liver disease.

A 26 year old woman is rushed to hospital due to excessive nausea and diarrhea, she faints in emergency room. They do ultrasound as she has been told she has galbladder issues for the last 4 years. They poke around and finds her liver swollen and causing pain. They review the ultrasound look at her and say your ultrasound has white masses of fat in your liver. This fat should be filtering through your liver. That it is not is very strange. You are not a drinker, you are not over 40, and you are not obese. So it appears you have non alcholic fatty liver disease.  

35 year old woman is diagnosed with Nash stage 3 fibrosis brought on by  fatty liver disease she is 5 foot 1 and 185 lbs. She is very scared as she watched her mother die from this disease.

a 40 year old woman is mildly obese and finds out not only her but 2 of her children also have fatty liver disease.

A 44 year old woman has undiagnosed Celiac disease and undiagnosed Diabetes. Her Liver finally causes enough trouble that everything gets diagnosed!

What does the liver really do? There are more than 500 functions, here are just a few! 

• processing digested food from the intestine
• controlling levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood 
• combating infections in the body 
• clearing the blood of particles and infections including bacteria 
• neutralising and destroying drugs and toxins 
• manufacturing bile 
• storing iron, vitamins and other essential chemicals 
• breaking down food and turning it into energy 
• manufacturing, breaking down and regulating numerous hormones including sex hormones 
• making enzymes and proteins which are responsible for most chemical reactions in the body, for example those involved in blood clotting and repair of damaged tissues

Your liver is a miracle organ, do not lose hope ever. It does regenerate, in fact its the only organ in the body that can do so. With eating right and exercising, learning how to have fun without alcohol or drugs you can have a full happy life with a liver that will thank you!

Think of your body as an aquarium full of living organisms. Treat the liver as the filter in your tank , a valued member of your team! It does a lot of work and you need to respect it and avoid clogging it.

Please take the time to reflect on Liver patients, no one asks for this disease and they are treated by most of the doctors, and people in the world as being at fault. Please treat them with respect and be thankful its not you or someone you love.

Progress on other levels!

I continue to move forward with my exercise, and my nutrition, went to my family doctor for a physical and she is absolutely thrilled with my blood pressure, and all my blood results except for one little number that will be resolved with my new lifestyle soon.

My coaching is also looking at the self defeating habits and teaching me to view things differently. I am in a processing mindset right now ,some of it hurts and makes me cry, but all of it is correct and its time i lived the life I am entitled to without all the baggage of my past.

Now for what is really on my mind!! My daughter Megan is the key to my getting healthy, she has been a sick child and I have to model for her the right eating and exercise for her to start getting healthy too.  She is currently dealing with extreme dizziness, stomach issues, and general pain throughout her body. I knew after the traditional medical system was unable to find answers for her and prescribed anti depressants and physio that she had been written off.

So I have moved into the Alternative medicine world for her, she saw an osteopath on Tuesday this week. He spent an hour with her and found that her uterus is twisted like a corkscrew , which is likely the cause of a lot of her pain. her liver is covered with fat and is not functioning at a good level which in turn will not properly detoxify her body and is  causing more of the pain. Her brain does have some overlapping that has blocked her pituitary gland as well. Some of this may be related to the dizziness but there are no promises it will resolve that. We can look forward to relieving some of her pain, and a side effect could be an improvement in her ability to walk.

This gives us HOPE again. We had hope when we went to Sick kids and it was destroyed. I have faith in my team now and megan feels validated for the first time in 2.5 years of illness!!

I know we have made the right decision for Megan and I am praying that we can finally get her the relief she so desperately needs to be a normal 13 year old girl!

This is a thinking week, a processing week, a learning week….I am growing!

I found a simple test to ensure your vitamins are effective try this:

TESTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR CURRENT VITAMINS

Few people know that the majority of vitamins and supplements on the market today fail to fully dissolve after consumption. This is largely due to a process known as compression, which compacts the contents so tightly that they cannot breakdown during the digestion process. As a result, most of the nutrition simply passes through the body, without you receiving the full – or any – of the intended benefit.

A simple test can show you the difference between good multivitamins and the other leading brands. Mix one-half a cup of warm water with one-half cup of white vinegar (this liquid will mimic the acidic conditions within your stomach). Drop the brand you’re currently using into the mixture  Wait 30 minutes and then look at the differences.

1. The supplement has not dissolved – in fact, it looks almost like it did when you placed it in the mixture. In this case, you are likely to excrete all of the contents of the supplement, which means you’ll not get any of the promised nutritional benefits.

2. The supplement has only partially dissolved, and is now floating on top of the mixture, possibly stuck to the side of the glass. In this outcome, you are likely to excrete most – if not all – of the contents of the supplement, thereby depriving your body of the promised nutritional benefits. Not only that, but you’re likely to experience an upset stomach.

3. The supplement has mostly dissolved, but the contents have sunk to the bottom of the glass. As in the second case, you are likely to excrete the contents of the supplement, depriving your body of the promised nutritional benefits.

4. The supplement has fully dissolved and is floating on top of the mixture. This is the result you should expect from your supplement, and it means that your body will benefit fully from the included nutrients.

Hope this helps you ensure that your vitamins are helping you….if your vitamin is not effective get in touch with me for one that is!!

Have a great week!

Michelle

Are your multi Vitamins helping you?

I was so surprised to learn that all of the vitamins I was buying at the local drugstore were not actually doing anything to help my body! I trusted that my local drug store would carry products that would help, I was wrong and i know so many of us trust those stores to point us in the right direction regarding our health.

So what have I learned? That very few deaths are actually attributed to the vitamins we are using, compared to the deaths caused by actual drugs we are put on to deal with illness they are harmless, so a bad choice will not kill you!

So why should you care? Well the problem in multi vitamins tend to be that they don’t use proper manufacturing processes or testing processes to ensure the amounts on the labels match what is in the jar. The other problem is that there are 2 things in them that can cause health issues. Too much Vitamin A is dangerous and so is Too much iron. A Canadian study at Trent University tested 70 brands of Calcium supplements US and Canadian. Less than 20% actually contained lead levels that were lower than we find in milk, worse though is the remaining 80% have lead levels that are way higher than we should be consuming and please don’t give them to your kids!

So if the inconsistency in the manufacturing processes don’t scare you yet here is the bottom line.  The basic story is that we are just losing the nutrients in our urine on a daily basis, and what lead, vitamin A and iron is being left behind and causing problems in our bodies? Are you comfortable knowing that?

The reality today is that our foods no matter how careful we are are filled with pesticides, growth hormones, and disease that we cannot avoid. Organic farmers can’t truly be organic due to the prevalence of disease and pests, they have to use some in order to make enough crops to sell to the marketplace.  The processed foods in our world, the genetically modified foods, the diet foods are all doing some level of damage in your body. So how does your body deal with those chemicals and dangerous things we ingest..its smart and it stores it inside our fat. On a skinny woman , think about it, that means its only in their breasts and what does that tell you about increasing breast issues , cysts,cancer, etc…

As a larger woman my body has lots of places to store those poisons, so as I am getting healthy with my eating and exercising my risk is actually that the toxins in my fat are getting released into my body and my organs are at risk of damage.

We all have to deal with the chemicals, our bodies fight this for you, but we really need to give it a little help!

So please invest in a GOOD vitamin source I am providing a list of the top 10 in Canada and in the US . I do suggest you throw out what you have and either order them from a representative( I do distribute USANA) who sells them directly,or go to your local health food store and find the ones available there. Try to stick with 3 star or higher and the book to read is Nutrisearch Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements by Lyle Macmillan. The ones selected are not all the options at all the book has TONS of them. Canada does not have as many quality vitamins available as the US market but I hope to see that  change in the next few years!

Canada

1. Douglas Labratories Ultra Prevention X  – 5 Stars

2. Truestar Health TrueBasics – 5 stars

3. Usana Health Sciences – 5 Stars

4. New Roots Herbal Multi-Max Immune – 4.5 star

5. Selekta Selekta Clear – 4.5 star

6. Canprev – Immuno Pro – 4 stars

7. Body Wise Right Choice AM/PM – 3.5 stars

8. Genuine Health +multi+powder – 3.5 stars

9. Natural Factors Well Betx (and others of this brand) – 3 star

10 New Roots Herbal Multi-Max – 3 stars

US

1. Creating Wellness Alliance (all)  5 stars

2. Douglas Laboratories Ultra Preventative IX – 5 Stars

3. Usana Health Sciences Essentials – 5 star

4. Healthywize Vital Nutrients  – 5 Stars

5. Life Extension Foundation Life Extension Mix – 5 Star

6. Allergy Research Group Wholly Immune – 5 star

7. Country Life Superior – 4.5 stars

8 .Ortho Molecular Products Alpha Base – 4.5 stars

9 Vitamin Shoppe Life Essentials Multi – 4.5 stars

10. Visalus Vi Pak – 4.5 stars

Introducing Brandon Krieger to my Team!

“Michelle I have spoke to you over e-mail a few times and read your blog. I see how important it is for you to lose weight and develop a healthy lifestyle.

  We are going to start from the beginning, I’m going to have you do a postural assessment, Lifestyle questionnaires, stress evaluation, nutrition questionnaires..etc. This way I know exactly where we are starting from. Then I’m going to coach/educate you about your unique lifestyle and develop a nutrition program, exercise program, that will work with your lifestyle to help you reach your goal(s). I develop each and every program specifically for the needs of the person I’m working with. I will be assessing you each and every session to make sure you are on track working towards your goals. I will be modifying your program as needed to make sure you stay on track. We will be developing specific measurable goal(s) for you and an action plan on how we’re going to accomplish them.”

 That’s my action plan, I can’t wait to see you on Tuesday”

Adding Brandon to my mix will allow me to look at my unique health situation that does include life long allergies, high blood pressure and some depression. Then look at my sleep patterns , my hobbies, my stress levels in life and then customize things for me that will be truly suited to my life and needs. The approach will stay the same overall clearly I want to avoid processed foods and diet foods and junk food, its just fine tuning for me!! I will continue to use Usana products in my mix as I truly see that as a quality company in the supplement world and when you have a 5 star company on your side there is no reason to change!!

I will introduce my team to you all over the next week so you can get to know the wonderful people i am surrounded by and they may inspire you too!

This is Brandon’s page!

http://knssconsulting.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/put-my-system-to-the-test/

Hugs Michelle

Planning and vitamins too!!

11 pounds in 2 weeks and learning so much!

This week started with great intentions of working exercise into my daily rituals. What I did not forsee or plan for was the additional workload into my day of preparing to cook low glycemic meals. Chopping all the veggies for lunch salads , for dinner, cooking a breakfast versus Grabbing a breakfast. Not planning out my week but trying to come up with ideas for cooking on the fly in a world of low glycemic foods that I am not accustomed to eating!

So , exercise was not my focus after all that! I did manage to get a few walks in and I went dancing with a great group of ladies Saturday night which made every muscle in my body sore Sunday!! Food wise I did not stray from the low glycemic eating, possibly using too much salad dressing ,which i will sort out this week. I did have 1 cranberry and vodka Saturday night and then stuck to water for the rest of the night. I know I worked that drink off on the dance floor!!

Sunday I took the time to go through low glycemic cookbooks i had borrowed from library and was able to pull together a weeks long menu. This is posted in my group on facebook “getting healthy with michelle” You are welcome to steal some ideas from there! I also took the time Sunday to chop onions, carrots, celery, and green peppers for the week! Overall,the week should run more smoothly and with less panic about what to cook!!

Something that I have learned a lot about in this journey so far is how poor our food source quality is today. Even when you see organic sections in the grocery store there are some chemicals being applied to the crops, its just too expensive for farmers to do it without anything! Baby carrots are the source of tons of rumours around over processing , I an sticking to the ones Bugs Bunny eats!! Genetically modified this and that in order to make larger crops, Hormones fed to our livestock to create bigger animals, some foods create cancer and the next article has that food avoiding it…there is NO WAY to avoid it we have toxins in our body everyday and its not going to get better.

Our bodies are smart and store the toxins we eat in our fat cells. Very safe from the organs that our running our body functions and uneventful until you start to lose weight. As we lose weight we release the toxins that were stored in the fat. It is critical for us to use a high quality multivitamin grouping to put a defensive fence up around the organs that we need working well as we get healthy. I am using Usana as I trust them and they are a 5 star rated vitamin company. They have a great test to illustrate the difference between the store bought vitamin you get in the grocery store or drug store and a 5 star vitamin…In the example you get 3 bowls. you put water in each bowl and an apple slice. Then in 1 bowl put your normal daily vitamins, in the second bowl do not put anything additional and in the 3rd bowl put a 5 star quality vitamin like Usana. This in on youtube and called the apple test. Over days you watch the apple in the water only bowl the apple is starting to brown naturally, the 5 star vitamin is still essentially white but the scary result is the store bought vitamin that has a very dark and ugly looking piece of apple left. If your vitamin does that to the apple slice, what is it doing to your organs? Here is a site with a number of 5 star vitamins listed. http://www.comparing-vitamin-supplements.com/vitamin-brand-ratings.html

Please make sure you spend the money to replace the vitamins you got at the drugstore..they will be generally more expensive but aren’t you worth that level of protection?  I know between the cold fx, the vitamin d, the vitamin e, the vitamin c, the b complex vitamins, and the multivitamin I was buying monthly this works out about the same and I am feeling way better in reference to energy already!

I am so anxious to have people learn everything I know and I will make sure to add some value to each blog I write to help you make better choices too!

As always I am available for questions and comments at michelle_clermont@rogers.com