Posts Tagged ‘weight loss’

Let’s Get Healthier This Year!

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Welcome 2012! Can you believe another year has passed?!

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the years fly by.

Now that we have all resolved to be healthier, more fit individuals, I would like to share with you one of my favorite ways to eat clean and stay on track:

FARM FRESH TO YOU

I discovered this company last year while trying to get the healthiest, organic food.

Farm Fresth To You is a local company that provides excellent organic food, delivered right to your front door! What I like about it is that it is:

1. Affordable – I get a large box of produce (the size of a file storage box) for just $31.50. (They have smaller boxes too.) The leafy veggies practically stand on their own – crisp and vibrating with energy! In a typical box I will receive: 1 onion, 2-3 bushels of bok choy, 1 bundle of kale or collard greens, I bag of yellow potatoes or 1 butternut or spaghetti squash, 1 head of lettuce, mixed herbs, 1 -2 bushels of broccoli, and a head of cabbage. It’s a lot of veggies! They last me all week long and stay fresher longer because they come directly from the farm!

2. Convenient – Delivered right to your door! If you live in Riverside, the delivery date is Friday. (Check the website: www.farmfreshtoyou.com to see when/if they deliver to your area.) The veggies (they also have fruits, if you like) come to my house super fresh.

3. Variety – I don’t know about you, but I am a creature of habit. I tend to buy the same vegetables every week. With this service, it forces me to eat veggies I normally wouldn’t buy. Remember, variety is the spice of life! Each vegetable has its own unique vitamin, mineral profile – which means that your diet will be more complete by changing up the veggies you eat. The company has a great website that is chock full of recipes to cook these vegetables that you may not be familiar with. (I also use Epicurious, a smart phone app designed to help you cook a gourmet meal with the ingredients you have in your fridge.)

4. Connection – Another added bonus from this company is that you get a newsletter each week from Thaddeus, the farmer who now owns this family run business. Thaddeus is an excellent writer who shares with you the trials and tribulations, the beautiful scenery, and the general going ons that are happening on the farm. It creates a deeper bond to your food – knowing the stories behind where they came from.

5. Integrity – It’s very rare to find a food company that is honest, hard working and dedicated to growing and selling sustainable, healthy and delicious food. Their hard working team are just as passionate as Thaddeus and his brothers are about providing our community with organic agriculture.

6. FUN – The farm allows you to pack a picnic and come out for farm tours and live music festivals! :) I have yet to do this myself, but it sounds like a good family outing!
NOW, you too, can try out this fabulous service. And, they want you to save a “bunch” off your first order! Just use this promo code: 6164. Just go to www.farmfreshtoyou.com or call 1800-796-6009. Please tell them I sent you (Angie Lustrick)

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Christmas Music Already? I Want To Poke My Eye Out With A Candy Cane And It’s Not Even Thanksgiving Yet!

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

By Wilma Young CPT
So now it starts to get into high gear. Thanksgiving decorations next to the Christmas trees and the Halloween candy is now half price. The bombardment of goodies is everywhere and I am not immune to the temptations of the season. Put anything pumpkin in front of me and I salivate like Pavlov’s dogs sans the experimental part but add in a extra dose of the eating frenzy and there I am. I am ALWAYS a huge advocate of working out at this time of year because not only do I want to lose weight before the big push of the New Year but more importantly I want to stave off the extra 5-7 lbs most Americans put on during the holidays. So you go to your sister’s house and the place is over filled with treats and family disasters. Now the family disasters are fun for my clan because we have humor to temper the tragedies and that is either a formula for a Greek play or one of our memorable family gatherings. The advantage I have is that at least half the dishes are on the healthy side since most of us are trying to live an active lifestyle. I know most of you don’t have this benefit. So here are some tricks to help you ward off the extra pounds and add in some much needed nutrition. First, ALWAYS eat breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. Many will try to skip this meal to make up for what they will eat later in the day. This is a mistake! Starving the body and loading it up later slows your metabolism and sets you up for storage of fat. Eat a decent healthy breakfast! Second, make sure there is a huge, healthy green salad. If you are going to someone else’s house offer to make it. They will be thrilled with your offer and you can make sure there is some roughage to wash away the butter that you will be slipping down your pipes. When serving your plate make sure to make half of your plate green salad and one quarter turkey or protein. This leaves one quarter of your plate for the splurge side dish. Third, drink plenty of water and maybe some warm tea. After a large meal, warm water or tea will help your bowels to move. Gross maybe but you’ll thank me later, I promise. Lastly, taking a walk after dinner or getting to the the gym instead of the Black Friday sales the next day will keep you on track. It is unrealistic to think you will not have some Thanksgiving favorites on such a wonderful family day. Also, a meal enjoyed with people you love and prepared with care and thoughtfulness is healthy for the soul. Not everyday of course but in the theme of spiritual fulfillment, a little splurge can be good medicine for you. What is important however is that you keep it to the ONE day, get back to the gym as soon as possible and make sure you make the best food choices immediately before and after such an indulgent meal. Remember, the 5 lbs you save this month will be 5 less lbs to think about in January. And frankly, I’d rather have smaller thighs for Christmas than a extra piece of pumpkin pie and I think Santa would appreciate me not asking again this year for the body of a model, the mind of Einstein and the humor of John Stewart. He really hates to keep disappointing me !

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Who Needs a Detoxification Program

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

by Dr. Adria Rothfeld (Nutritional Wellness Center)

Who needs a Detoxification Program?
Let’s first define what a healthy detoxification program is not:
• A starvation diet where you walk around like a zombie for 10 days.
• An abundance of diarrhea…

What is a Healthy Detoxification Protocol?
• It does not involve fasting, purging, etc., but instead supports the pathways in the body that help to reduce the toxic burden.
• It involves recommended foods and beverages that contain the nutrients needed to help the body eliminate unwanted chemicals. Detailed meal plans and recipes will be provided to help make this very user-friendly.
• We will also use a medical food, mixed as a shake with fruit, which has been proven to assist the body with detoxification. It does this by providing the nutrients that the liver uses to help remove toxins as well as by revving up the body’s natural chelating agent that binds to toxins and allows for their elimination. These ingredients have demonstrated safety even for long-term use.
• A recent pilot study using this medical food found that after just a few weeks, even individuals with severe fibromyalgia showed significant improvement in pain, stiffness, quality of life, and a 74% reduction in mercury levels in the body.
Who would benefit and why?
Traditional medicine focuses on treating symptoms. If you have headaches or arthritis, you get pills to ease your pain, but what’s causing the symptoms is rarely considered.
If we can identify the cause(s), and use natural means to deal with them, we can find a real cure, not only for the current symptoms, but also for future ones.

Can toxins be related to your symptoms?
Our toxic burden is higher than it’s ever been.
• The sick body cannot rally itself if it is busy detoxifying pesticides and other chemicals.
• There are 85,000 synthetic chemicals registered in the US, yet toxicological screening data is available for only 7% of these chemicals.
• In a study released by the environmental working group, 200 industrial chemicals were found in umbilical blood of the babies tested.
• Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually in the US.
• According to Dr. Sherry Rogers, MD, US EPA studies of chemicals stored in the fat of humans show that 100% of people had dioxins, PCB’s and dichlorobenzene.
• Usage of pesticides had doubled every 10 years, but interestingly, pest damage to crops is more prevalent now. On average, less than .1% of pesticides reach their target, the remaining 99.9% contaminates the environment.
Since the 1970’s when toxins started flooding our world:
• Autism increased 10 fold f
• Male birth defects doubled
• Childhood brain cancer was up 40%
• One type of leukemia was up 62%
But, I just want to lose some weight and work off the holiday bulge….how is this all related:
• Pesticides and other toxins are OBESOGENIC, meaning that they spur both the formation and growth of fat cells.
• Do you have trouble losing weight even when you diet? The more toxins you have storing in your fat, the more your body holds onto that fat until you have strengthened the detoxification pathways so that these toxins can be readily disposed of-that’s what a proper detox protocol will encourage.

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Tracking Your Progress

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Have you ever heard the saying, “If your not assessing, your just guessing!” Well, it’s true. If you really want to know if your workouts are working for you, its time to start documenting your progress. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Buy a Tanita scale or other scale that determines body fat percentage. You don’t want to get mad at yourself for gaining muscle and you don’t want to praise yourself for losing muscle! Find out if you are truly losing fat and gaining muscle.
2. Take your picture! A picture is worth a thousand words. Get into a bathing suit and take several, full body pics: Forward, side, and back. You don’t have share these pictures but it really helps to accurately determine if you are shaping up.
3. Journal. If you really want to see results, this is a great tracking option. Track your workouts: What you did and for how long.
Track your food: What time did you eat, what did you eat, and how much.

These three simple suggestions will jump start your progress. If you would like additional tracking, I am available to help you. At Angie’s World, we use a BIA machine to assess your hydration, vitamin, protein, and essential fat needs. It also determines how many calories you are burning and whether or not you are toxic. In addition to the BIA, we have a Biomeridian machine (both machines are non-invasive, no needles!). The Biomeridian determines how your organs and tissues are doing – are you holding stress in your liver? Do you have a stomach parasite? There are many reasons why your body isn’t losing body fat. Allow us to be your detective to help find the root cause of your ailments.
In addition to these two great machines, I also perform structural assessments. I use a plumb line to analyze your posture. I also use inclinometers, which are tools that tell me if your hips and ribs are in their proper positions as well as if your cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine are in their proper curvatures.
Whatever you decide to do, tracking is essential to ensure your body is improving.

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Getting Tempted by Bite-Sized Tasty Treats at Starbucks

Friday, April 8th, 2011

The newest fad that is popping up is “bite-sized” treats. Not only at Starbucks but many food outlets are tempting you with a bite size portion of the Not-So-Good-For-You items as a way to “up-sell” you while you are at the counter waiting for your coffee or paying for your groceries. Even restaurants are jumping on the calorie train by adding mini appetizers and 100 calorie desserts. The problem is that that an extra 100 calories a day on the average person puts on roughly 10 pounds per year! With these little 200 calorie “land mines” that equals 20 pounds in a year. Plus they really don’t have the nutrition to boost your energy and create the body you want. In fact, all processed foods require additional energy from your body to digest them – making you tired and sluggish. If a food doesn’t come from a recognizable source: a plant, a tree, or an animal – stay away! I have never seen a bread tree, cupcake tree, or candybar tree! Now think of this, if you ate 100 calories LESS per day that would equal a 10 pound weight loss in a year with virtually very little sacrafice. Think about ordering an item you normally eat with cheese, without cheese. Or how about oil and vinegar dressing instead of ranch or Caesar. Maybe use salsa as your condiment instead of sour cream. Minor adjustments lead to great changes and tend to stick with you long term. Personally, I would much rather have this new habit stick to me than those bite-size treats that show through your clothes and tend to stay with you for far too long. So next time you are tempted, think about the 10 LESS pounds that saying NO today will do for you this year!

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“An Ounce of Prevention VS. Pound of Cure”, We’ve All Heard It Before

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Our brains know this old adage and yet the New Year starts and we are on the
POUND OF CURE track before we know it. We vow to never put a sweet treat in our
mouths again, that we will go to the gym everyday and sweat away our holiday
guilt and we will force ourselves to a smaller size this year even if it kills
us. The truth is, this lasts only a fleeting moment. We already, at mid-January,
see the gym starting to look more like a library rather than a nightclub. I
think we have the best of intentions and truly want to improve our physical
bodies but somehow we think if we aren’t perfect we are wasting our time. I
think this year we need to be smarter. This year we need to take on our health
with the small steps of prevention as opposed to accumulating the massive cure
we try to impose every January. The best investment of ourselves is IN
ourselves. We are our best doctors, therapists and companions. Try a little
kindness towards yourself. Add massage and lunch with a friend to your health
routine. Remember that health is more than how many push ups you can do.
Balancing your life, living to the fullest and showing love to your family and
friends is as important to your health as the exercise!

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Be Successful This Year!

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

By Scott Drexler

It is the beginning of yet another year and ‘tis the season for New Year’s resolutions. Much like every year the top resolution in America is to lose weight. If you don’t believe me take a gander in your local gym. It is packed with brand new faces all with the same goal. More often than not, the problem with this goal is most people set their goal too high, such as losing 25, 50, or 100 pounds, which often leads to disappointment. Still don’t believe me? In a couple months take another look in that local gym and see how many of those new faces are still there. Chances are they aren’t there because they were not meeting that unrealistic goal they set. The fact that you have already set a goal for yourself is great, but just make sure you are realistic. Instead of focusing on that grand goal, start small, such as taking a walk around the block or not putting any mayonnaise on your favorite sandwich. I am not telling you to completely eliminate these foods you enjoy, but try simplifying things. Trying to make too many changes at once is not smart and not very motivating, (I.E those missing people that were in the gym in the beginning of January). In other words, do not be too hard on yourself, enjoy what you do, do not completely deprive yourself and even treat yourself every now and then. Start small and then eventually that grand resolution of yours will not be a resolution at all, but a result. As the old saying goes “It is the little things that count.”

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The Stress of the Season and the Gift of Health!

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Running around to shop for family, working hard to mail out cards and planning and preparing for the family festivities runs us all down. Then add the extra treats that are lying around and now the nasty bug that is trying to take hold of our immune system and we have a recipe for disaster. At this time it is important to remember that caring for ourselves is paramount to our well being and the well being of those around us. I have heard clients on more than one occasion say that working out should wait until after the first of the year. That squeezing in one more thing is just taking too much time. I want to put a big “ixne” on this idea. If there is ever a time to invest in your workout it is now. Stress and sugar combined with a reduced workout schedule will make you more tired and less than thrilled when the New Year comes along. Knowing that even a 10 minute jumping jack and stretch routine will help you sleep better, manage the shopping frenzy at the malls and boost your immune system should motivate you to spend this minimal amount of time to ensure your well being!I want to suggest that you begin by visualizing yourself feeling strong and energetic. I want you to feel how good it feels to wear your jeans and have them not cut into your gut when you sit down to enjoy your family and friends. I want you to have a holiday that is happy but that doesn’t come with the price of extra weight and lethargy that you will be paying for in January. It’s kind of like credit card debt. What you can’t afford to pay for today will only you cost you more when the bill actually comes due! Be your own Santa this year and give yourself the gift of health! Provide your family with the loving, happy and radiant light that is you and only you. In the end, that is all we ever really want for ourselves and our loved ones and it can only start with you! Happy Holidays!

P.S. Remember, Angie’s World has gift certificates available in any denomination. Contact the office to purchase. My Mom does this for my family members every year and it is one of our favorite gifts. It also gets the New Year off to the right start!!

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How To Avoid The 5 LB Weight Gain This Holiday Season

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Let’s talk Turkey! Yes, we are decking the halls and stuffing the turkey. We are
getting ready to enjoy the most wonderful time of the year. The problem is that
we stuff ourselves at the same time. Then the most UN-wonderful time of the
year starts with acid reflux, gastro-intestinal discomfort and weight gain! How
do we enjoy this happy fun filled time without getting ourselves into a
unhealthy rut? I have a few suggestions to help you along.

My top 3 tips to help you succeed during the holidays!!

1. First, don’t let your work out routine go by the way side. Even if you can’t keep up your normal pace,
put in at least 2 gym visits per week. In addition give yourself 5 minutes in
the morning. Do 20 jumping jacks, do 10 push ups and then do 20 ab crunches. It
will take about 30 seconds. Do 5-10 rounds of this with no rest and trust me,
your metabolism will be on fire and your immune system will thank you. Finish
off with a minute of stretching and you have set the pace for the day.

2. When I go to holiday parties I always have a protein shake an hour or 2 before. This keeps
my nibbling to a minimum especially when I am unsure of what will be served. I
can then indulge a bit without feeling deprived and also prevent my blood sugar
from dropping and turning me into Jaba The Hut looking for any pretty creme puff
that comes my way.

3. DO NOT STARVE yourself to make up for your indiscretions! This is a formula for fat storage. So if you fall off the wagon one day, commit to getting back on the the health horse the next day. Your body
can recover from one day of splurging but if you beat yourself up and then say
“What’s the use anyway”, you will end up with that extra weight that you will
curse yourself for in January.

I always believe that if you can get through the holidays and maintain your weight NO MATTER WHAT IT IS, you will win at the holiday game. You will have diverted the 5-8lb that most Americans gain between
Halloween and New Years and your resolutions for 2011 will be better than they
have ever been before. So this season give yourself and your family the best
gift you can give them, a happy, healthy YOU!!

PS. If you do indulge and have a Tummy Tsunami effect we 3 great products that can help!
First is UltraInflmx. It will reduce gas, bloating and abdominal discomfort and you can even use it as your pre-party protein shake! Second is Glucorest, This will reduce the impact of holiday eating by blocking the quick absorption of simple carbohydrates (sort of like a “carb-blocker”). Last is Insinase which balances blood sugar. All of these products are available at Angie’s World. On November 26th (Black Friday) receive a 10% discount on EVERYTHING in the store. No bag, coupon or minimum purchase required. (Limited to in-store purchases and product on hand). Happy Thanksgiving!

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Drinking Water and Absorbing Water are Two Different Things

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

The debate about water and what kind we should drink has been an ongoing dilemma especially over the last several years. You can walk down any grocery store and see the multitude of choices brands and claims. At Angie’s World, we test for hydration constantly because of the significant role it plays in healthy body composition, weight loss, reduction of fatigue, cellular integrity and the list goes on and on. Anyone who has ever seen a plant that has been neglected from water will see a dry, brittle, non-thriving organism. Well it is exactly the same for the human body. When we deprive our organs of water the effects are dramatic. Kidneys look like prunes instead of plums. Our body fat stubbornly adheres to our thighs and our brain becomes foggy. At Angie’s World, the issue that we have been running up against has been the absorbtion of the water. We have had frustrated clients who finally have committed to drinking the water they need (a good rule of thumb is 1/2 oz per pound of body weight) but don’t see the hydration go up. Sometimes it’s the fact that they are not getting enough protein so the muscle can’t absorb the water that they are drinking. It can also be that they are still drinking and eating too many acidic foods which makes the cells not absorb the water and it runs right through you (aka, A River Runs Through It…and Brad Pitt is not in the picture!). We have also found that water that uses reverse osmosis for purification ( a method that extracts the valuable mineral content) has a low Ph and does more harm than good when it comes to absorbtion. The Ph level of this water is acidic and it keeps the body acidic. An acidic environment does not lose weight and is prone to cancer and chronic diseases. With all of that being said, what water do I drink? Angie and I have had great luck with our Alka Power Water (Ph level is 9-10, although avoid high Ph water if you have kidney issues) with better absorption and lower body fat as a result. But some additional tips are using spring or well water. You can also add a few drops of a mineral supplement (there are several choices of liquid trace minerals available at health food stores) in to each cup or bottle of water you drink. You can also place a few dashes of Hymilayan Sea Salt to your water. This highly absorbable mineral helps to alkalize your water and provide the body with a natural essential mineral and is quite cost effective. You can also add lemon to your water. Although it seems counterintuitive, lemon actually aklalizes your water and your body. In addition, EAT YOUR VEGETABLES! Some of the best hydration you can give your body is in the form of these natural complex carbohydrates (note the word “hydrate” in the word carbohydrate). Vegetables are full of water and fiber and because your body has to break them down before elimination, it has time to extract the water as well as the nutrients. So your primary tips are to drink the water (with a neutral or high Ph), eat enough high quality protein and eat an abundance of vegetables everyday. Your body with thank you and you’ll start off the holidays on the right foot!

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