​Did you start the year with thoughts of a fresh start? New Year, New You!? Many of us do. I know I like to start out the New Year with some goals that I want to achieve and focus on. After all, people who set New Year’s resolutions are 10 times more likely to achieve their goals than people who don’t. That multiplier of 10 is motivating isn’t it?
 
But here’s the problem…Only 8% of those that set resolutions are successful in achieving them.  That factor of 10 doesn’t really get us very far does it? The reality is that making change is really hard and there isn’t much of a way to get around that.
 
Maybe as February starts up, you’re starting to realize that your resolutions aren’t going as well as you thought they would. Perhaps it is harder than you thought it would be. Well here’s why….
 
Many of our behaviors are automatic or what we know as habits. Even though we think that we are making decisions as we go about our day and are fully conscious of our choices, this is not exactly the case. Some studies show that up to 40% of what we do is pre-programmed and automatic.
 
This is why habits can be tough to break. On average it takes 66 days for a new habit to become automatic and it can take up to 8 months.
 
Because we know how tough it can be, we really focus on how best to support our clients with setting goals and making changes to the habits that support those goals. If you are struggling with your resolutions, try some of these ideas that we find effective:

• We help our clients get in touch with why they want to make change and understanding what the tipping point was for them. Knowing this makes it easier to stay on track when the going gets tough.
• We analyze and dissect the habits that are getting in the client’s way. This deeper understanding makes it easier to break the habit.
• We tackle things one thing at a time or in manageable chunks. It is rare that I see someone completely overhaul their life in one fell swoop and it be a sustainable change.
• We don’t expect instant success. It can be a process and so we are there to help get clients back on track without beating themselves up.
• We educate about the benefits of the new habits we are working on and how they will help support the client’s end goal.
• We help identify potential problems that may come up and make plans to tackle them.
• We offer support and encourage clients to get support elsewhere too.
• We suggest using rewards and celebrations  as motivator.

 
If you’re realizing you need more support with your resolutions around your health and nutrition, we’d love to help. Give yourself a Valentine during this month of love by using one of our Special Deals to support you or if you’re not sure how we can help then schedule a free 15min call to find out.

I always tell people that I’m not a great cook but nevertheless I cook all the time. It's difficult to be healthy without some basic skills in the kitchen and beyond that, some understanding of how to put things together in a healthy way. Here are what I think are some of the most important benefits of learning this fundamental skill.
 
You’ll be more empowered
One of the reasons I was drawn to working with nutrition was the level of dis-empowerment I saw around cooking and food in the US. People are so used to things being ready to go and convenient that they lose the knowledge of how to put simple things together themselves and what real food is made from. If you want to be in charge of your own health then you have to have some knowledge and skills to clean up your diet.
 
You’ll make better choices
Healthy foods like vegetables are much more available and appealing when we choose them from a beautiful selection at the store or market. If you eat out a lot you are unlikely to see as many healthy foods offered. People who eat at home more, eat less sugar and processed carbohydrates and fewer calories.
 
You know what’s in the food
When you cook at home, you are in control. When you eat out, you’re not always sure how the food is sourced or prepared. Did the chef add sugar or use a highly processed oil to cook with? Was the chicken organic or natural or am I consuming hormones and antibiotics? At home, I can use coconut oil and eliminate unnecessary sugar from recipes. I have control of the quality of the ingredients I cook with. As I work to help people understand how to upgrade their food quality they will only reap the full health benefit from that if they cook at home.
 
You’ll save money
If you are someone that balks at the cost of buying organic produce or 100% grass fed beef then you may think that being healthier is expensive but add up what it costs you to eat out and you’ll realize that it would definitely be cheaper to prepare meals yourself.
 
It is an act of self-care
When you prepare meals at home, whether just for yourself or for a family, it is a more mindful experience than simply opening a pre-prepared meal and shoveling it down in front of the TV. The time taken encourages us to enjoy each mouthful and appreciate the meal. The process of digestion actually begins when you start thinking about the meal and preparing it. Your body produces saliva and digestive juices in readiness. You get more benefit from the meal because you are able to better digest it and absorb the nutrients.
 
 
You might even have fun!
Cooking can be enjoyable. If you buy good food and take the time, it tastes great!  You can also share the process and the food with family and friends. I always tell my clients to have fun with it when they are trying out new foods and branching out. Getting healthy should never be about deprivation!
 
Because it is so important to me to empower my clients, we now offer cooking classes through Ways to Optimize. Our Chef Dee Iraca provides some cooking courses that she tailors to you! She is a culinary nutritionist so focuses on what is tasty and healthy. We also combine her cooking classes with our nutrition offerings to fine tune things for you even more.  We have some really great Special Deals that you can purchase until the end of the year to get started now or kick off your New Year with a healthier focus.
 
Enjoy your holidays!

​Spring is on its way, a time when nature renews itself from the inside out and we see new growth all around us. As we emerge from our winter hibernation, many of us ritually begin to spring clean our homes and tidy up our yards. It is almost an instinct that lives within us.

At the same time I find that many people are ready for some renewal in their bodies too and they think about a cleanse or detox program.  Perhaps the excesses of the holidays dragged on into the New Year, or perhaps they are ready to jump-start some weight loss. Whatever the reason, it is certainly a good time to start, as nature provides us with so much fresh, local, organic produce to support our body.

My acupuncturist friends tell me that, in Chinese medicine, spring is a time to focus on the liver. This organ works so hard for us: removing toxins from the blood and sending them to the digestive tract for elimination; making bile so that we can digest our fats and access fat soluble vitamins; storing glycogen (our back up fuel supply), making cholesterol to build hormones and for other uses in the body….and more.  With the toxic environment in which we live, it is easy to see how the liver could get overworked and be compromised in its functioning, resulting in a variety of health symptoms.

To take a look at my questionnaire posted June 30th 2015 to assess your possible toxicity levels, click here: Cleanse questionnaire

It can be a challenge looking for a cleanse or detox program. The shelves are full of detox products that promise us complete transformation. Which to choose? We are also bombarded with news of celebrity cleanses like Beyoncé losing weight on the very extreme Master Cleanse or Jaime Pressly doing the famous Cabbage Soup Diet. How do you navigate this for yourself and what is really best for you in the long term?

Some things to consider:
Whatever type of cleanse you are undertaking, if your bowels are not moving regularly then you are not cleansing. Waste products are dumped by the liver into the digestive tract for elimination and so if things are not moving as they are supposed to then the toxins stay in your system.

On the other hand, some cleanses produce so much bowel movement that they can be not only too brutal to the system but also keep us tied to the toilet for the duration. This is pretty impractical for most people, potentially embarrassing and isn’t necessarily delivering any benefits.

The ability to adjust the cleanse to work for you is important, so that you get just the right amount of elimination.

In the same vein, many cleanses include an adjustment to fiber intake. Too much fiber can be hard for the body to handle if it isn’t used to it. Too little can mean that waste products do not have enough to bind to for elimination. It is a balance you have to work on and it is ideal if this is adjustable.

I also hear about a lot of cleanse programs that involve removal of proteins. This makes little sense because the liver cannot detoxify without certain amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Another downside of no protein is that most people will feel weak and unable to function as they normally do.

My last thought for you is to consider that some cleanses are just too hard to stick to. If I had a penny for every time someone told me they were doing a detox while they stood in front of me drinking a glass of wine…. Perhaps what most people really need, instead of a really strict program that will encourage a rebound, is some help in adjusting their habits for the long term so that they can achieve better balance.

I guess you have probably realized that this is my favorite approach to a cleanse. By all means, support the body with detoxification but while you do it, why not get educated and practice some new healthy habits that you can stick to? If you are looking for a cleanse option, I’d LOVE to help you! I have some deals on “Spring Clean Your Nutrition” Group Tele-conference Classes starting in April with some awesome add-ons like cleansing supplements and kitchen/pantry make-overs. Prices start at just $95! Click here for the Spring Clean Your Nutrition Deals!

One of the biggest issues I find with clients is their addiction to sugar.  They know they need to stop eating it but try as they might it lures them back in every time. Understanding why is always the first step to figuring out what to do about a problem.  So I’ll tell you…

It’s all about Blood Sugar Control and Brain Chemistry!

You can learn more about how sugar gets us hooked if you keep reading my full article.  In my next blog I’ll look at the other negative health consequences of a sugar laden diet to give you some real motivation to change.

Breaking the cycle can be a challenge and most people need some guidance and support through the process.  We can work with you to find other ways to support you with blood sugar stabilization and healthy brain chemistry.

So here are the addictive aspects of sugar that plague us. Maybe you identify with some of the symptoms of situations I talk about. 

Blood Sugar
Many people are feasting throughout the whole day on sugar (and white processed foods) that turn to blood sugar quickly.  When they wake in the morning their blood sugar is low.  The grab their sugar laden morning coffee and muffin which causes their blood sugar to shoot through the roof.  There is a temporary good feeling and a burst of energy.

The blood sugar spike is a warning signal to the body that causes it to pump out adrenaline.  When this is going on throughout the day the adrenals can become over worked and a consequence can be adrenal fatigue.

But back to the coffee and muffin story….Soon after the high, the blood sugar crashes back down again quickly. Someone who is affected by low blood sugar may experience tiredness, restlessness, confusion, forgetfulness, poor concentration, irritability and anger.  Low blood sugar is a danger situation for the body and triggers it to look for their next sugary carb fix.  And so the pattern continues.

Serotonin
This is the feel good chemical that our body produces. People low in serotonin are often fretful, anxious, depressed, short in attention span, scattered, angry or aggressive.

Blood sugar assists with driving tryptophan across the blood brain barrier to make serotonin. Of course we need serotonin and we want to have some glucose in our system to do that.  But the reason doctors prescribe so many SSRI anti-depressants is not because people are lacking in sugar intake!  The trouble comes with too much sugar which gives a temporary serotonin rush but stresses the adrenals as we said before and so ultimately depletes us.  It’s one of the reasons we get hooked to sugar.

Beta-Endorphins
Beta-endorphins are the body’s pain killer.  Those with low levels experience self esteem issues, poor coping skills, feelings of inadequacy and isolation, a sense of being stuck, have a victim mentality and an extreme response to criticism.  Heroin is a beta endorphin and addicts can take up to six months to deal with their feelings of low self esteem which is why recovery rates are low.

Sugar can also affect beta-endorphin levels.  Not surprisingly people who have low levels of beta-endorphins reach for sugar.  It is actually just the taste of the sugar that activates the beta-endorphins, not it’s effect on the body, so eating other foods that give pleasure will produce the same affect.

Dopamine
Sugar’s taste ultimately leads to dopamine being released, which provides us with motivation, concentration, alertness, euphoria – the long term planning chemical that allows us to work hard now for something that will benefit us later.


Let us know how you relate to this and what worked for you if you managed to get off your sugar habit.

​What does cholesterol do in our bodies?

• Cell membranes – This is kind of technical but cholesterol keeps the cell membranes at just the right level of fluidity and permeability and helps regulate what goes in and out.  In other words we need the cholesterol for the cells to function properly.
• Memory and learning – Cholesterol is needed for the neurons in the brain to form connections.  (One of the main benefits of sleep for learning and memory is due to the fact that cholesterol production is highest when we sleep.)
• Digestion of fats – Bile acids are made from cholesterol and this allows us to digest fats and access fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.
• Vitamin D –It isn’t just the sunlight that increases our vitamin D levels.  Cholesterol is a precursor to vitamin D.  Vitamin D is best known for its role in calcium metabolism and bone health, but new roles are continually being discovered for it, including in mental health, blood sugar regulation, the immune system, and cancer prevention.
  • Hormones - Cholesterol is the precursor to all steroid hormones, including:
  • Glucocorticoids (blood sugar regulation)
  • Mineralcorticoids (mineral balance and blood pressure regulation)
  • Sex Hormones (many functions)

Sounds important, right?  Well that’s because it really is!

So why do we think of cholesterol as the enemy?
Cholesterol has been one of the most maligned and misunderstood substances of the twentieth century.

Eating foods high in cholesterol was thought to raise blood cholesterol levels.  At the same time, high blood cholesterol has been painted as the enemy or our arteries and the main cause of heart disease.

The popular version of cholesterol goes something like this: when you eat fatty foods, especially foods rich in animal fat, the saturated fat and cholesterol in these foods ends up in your blood and sticks to your arteries. Since saturated fats are solid outside your body, they will be solid inside your body too — (despite the 30-degree increase in temperature – ha ha!). Arteries are much like pipes. When they get caked up with grease, blood flow is impaired, and a heart attack ensues.

OK, so that is just not true!

The truth is that atherosclerosis, where plaque builds up in the arteries, is actually caused by inflammation.  Initially it is caused primarily by the consumption of industrial seed oils like canola oil, which are degenerated due to the heat and pressure of processing.  Other causes of inflammation in the body can then accelerate and exacerbate the process.

Since cholesterol is found in fatty foods that contain a greater proportion of saturated fat, these high cholesterol foods are likely not the culprits of atherosclerosis and heart disease.

So, bring back cholesterol in your diet!  Bonus – it’s found in delicious foods that you are going to love reintroducing!

Want some help navigating all of this?  Get in touch for some personalized suggestions.  We can help you with your diet and offer comprehensive cardio metabolic blood testing which is a step above what you'll get from your doctor.

Check our blog next time for more info on your cholesterol blood test numbers and what to look for.

Are you afraid of fats? If so, you’re not alone. I talked about industrial seed oils in my last blog post Nutrition Myth: Canola Oil is a Healthy Alternative for Baking

We were told that a low-fat diet would help us get the body we want. In fact, it’s one of the biggest nutrition lies that the public has ever been told.  The truth is only now being revealed to us.  The truth is our bodies need fat — more specifically, they need healthy fats.

Here are some healthy fats you don’t need to fear:

1. Butter

​antioxidant. ​Butter’s also rich in fat-soluble vitamins and trace minerals, including beneficial selenium, a powerful antioxidant.

2. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain fatty acids, which are easy for your body to digest, not readily stored by the body as fat and small in size, allowing them to infuse cells with energy almost immediately.
These fatty acids also improve brain and memory function. Plus, the high amount of natural saturated fats in coconut oil mean that it increases HDL cholesterol and promotes heart health, while the antioxidants found in coconut oil make it a great anti-inflammatory.
Choose extra virgin varieties, as refined or processed coconut oils can eliminate many of the health benefits.

3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Olive oil benefits are profound! First, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is great for heart health.due to its high levels of monounsaturated fats. The high amount of antioxidants in EVOO means it protects your cells from damage. It also helps improve memory and cognitive function, and works as an anti-inflammatory.
I recommend only extra virgin varieties of the oil. This means no chemicals are involved when the oil is refined. Unfortunately, many common brands are fake olive oil! Get in touch if you’d like some info about the best olive oils to buy.

4. Avocados
The benefits of avocados are so numerous that they’re one of the healthiest fruits you can consume. They’re rich in monounsaturated fats, which raise levels of good cholesterol. Avocados are also packed with the benefits of vitamin E, which help prevent free radical damage, boosts immunity and acts as an anti-aging nutrient for your skin.
Avocados also contain more protein than any other fruit. For pregnant women, and for all of us, avocado is also one of the great folate foods. Folates can help reduce the risk of birth defects.
Add avocado oil into your kitchen. It has a mild taste that won’t overpower dishes the way other oils might. Its high smoke point of about 520 degrees means that you could even grill or fry with it although it is best used raw on salads, sandwiches or vegetables.

​With all the scary (mis)information out there about saturated fats most people no longer use butter, lard, bacon fat, beef dripping etc. for their cooking and baking. Consumption of industrial seed oils has risen in response as a supposed healthier option.  These oils - soybean, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, corn, and canola oils— are found in just about all processed, packaged and refined foods.

Industrial seed oils contain high amounts of a polyunsaturated fat, the omega 6 fatty acid called linoleic acid.  For years we’ve been told polyunsaturated fats are good for us but the truth is that these are highly unstable to heat and light and can cause a lot of damage in the body. This is the case particularly when you consider that the oils are usually stored in clear plastic and on the store and pantry shelves for a long time before we use them. Exposure to heat and chemicals during processing, and then again during cooking, mean that the oils get oxidized and harmful compounds are formed.  These contribute to a process of cellular damage called oxidative stress.

As a result these oils are associated with a variety of inflammatory diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s to fibromyalgia to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.  They are a major component of atherosclerotic plaques that clog arteries and play a central role in the development of heart disease. High intakes of linoleic acid are especially problematic when the omega-3 fat DHA, found exclusively in fish, is low or absent. This creates a chronic inflammatory environment in the body.

What should you do?
This is a pretty easy fix!!  Throw out all of your industrial seed oils and instead cook with high quality (this is important!) coconut oil, butter, ghee, lard or bacon fat.  Use mono-unsaturated fats like extra-virgin olive oil and avocado oils raw for salad dressings and dipping.

​Sometimes being healthier is just a matter of an easy switch over from something unhealthy to a better alternative and doesn't have to be about deprivation or dieting.  Here's one that is simple; a great way to raise your micronutrient intake and reduce your exposure to toxins.

​This is a myth perpetuated by political lobbyists and shaky science!  Some of you will already be aware that the tide is turning, but for most this is a new paradigm.  It might just rock your world but…

Bring Back the Butter!!!
There is no evidence that a diet high in fat causes weight gain.  Neither is it responsible for heart disease.

Back in the 1950s Dr. Ancel Keys identified a correlation between diets high in saturated fat and incidence of heart disease.  But as we all know, correlation does not mean causation.  Apparently there is a strong correlation between US spending on science, space and technology with deaths by strangulation, hanging and suffocation.

More recently we’ve learned through multiple studies over the decades that there is in fact no causative link between saturated fat and heart disease or obesity.  Lowering saturated fat in the diet can reduce total cholesterol but it is the HDL (high density lipoprotein) particles that reduce and these are not linked with heart disease.

It is by now glaringly obvious that low fat diets have not helped our population get slim.  They typically involve a higher carbohydrate intake, especially high sugars and starches, that increase triglyceride levels, fat storage and have adverse effect on heart health.

The quality of the fats you consume is more important than the amount.  Fats communicate with our genes via binding to receptors on the nucleus of our cells.

Some fats, like trans fats and polyunsaturated, industrial seed oils like canola oil, or animal fats from ‘feed lot’ animals, send the signal turn off your fat burning genes and make it hard to lose weight.

Other healthy fats, like omega 3s from fish, monounsaturated fats like olive oil, and saturated fats like coconut oil and animal fat from healthy, pastured animals, turn on genes that increase your metabolism, help you burn fat and make you more insulin sensitive.

So, if you want to lose weight, put down that non-fat milk and enjoy a whole milk latte! 

If you need help making dietary changes to help you lose weight and keep your heart healthy and manage your blood lipids we’d be happy to help, so get in touch.