Week 10: Getting Enough Essential Fatty Acids is Easy – 52 Weeks of Wellness In week 9 of the 52 weeks of wellness program we learned about the importance of essential fatty acids and started trying to identify fact contain foods in our diets. Essential fatty acids must be supplied through our diet because our bodies cannot supply these for us. Humans evolved eating fish and seafood but now the majority of us are deficient in essential fatty acids and our health is suffering. There are two solutions, essential fatty acid supplements or diet modifications. The good news is essential fatty acids are present in a wide variety…

Week 9: You Need Fats to Thrive – 52 Weeks of Wellness Most people, especially women, look at me like I have two heads when I tell them they need to eat more fat.  We've been led to believe that fats (like carbohydrates) are bad and some of them are. The problem is, we can’t live without the good fats. Simply swearing off fat doesn't solve health problems, it often creates them.  The key is knowing which fats are good and which are bad so you can eat accordingly. This week as part of my 52 Weeks of Wellness Program we are focusing on learning about good fats.…

Week 8: The truth about sugar free sweeteners - 52 Weeks of Wellness Week 8 of our 52 Weeks of wellness entails the big three sugar free/ chemical sweeteners to avoid which are: aspartame (Nutrasweet), sucralose (Splenda) and high fructose corn syrup. These may be calorie free but they are NOT healthy or SAFE.  All are derived from chemicals which adds more toxins to the body. Combine the chemicals, additives, preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, over-the counter meds and pharmaceutical drugs that we subject our body to and we wonder why we don't have energy, have stomach issues or other chronic disease.  Because disease is just that, an accumulation of…

Week 7: Enjoy safe sweeteners kick the chemical ones - 52 Weeks of Wellness This week I want to focus on safer options for sweeteners. Have you ever considered why so many people have a bad perception of sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup? Further more, why is sugar thought to be so bad when it occurs naturally in many "good for you" foods like fruits? Believe it or not, natural sugar isn't bad. The problem lies in the amount of it we consume and also in finding the truly naturally occurring sugars INSTEAD of the chemical ones. Natural Sugars to Try: Raw agave (cactus nectar), coconut nectar…

Week 2 of 52 Weeks of Wellness: Hydration & Coffee or Tea The focus is on hydration this month and how coffee/black tea impacts this key to wellness. Both are acidic which disrupt the body’s natural pH balance which in turns disrupts the digestive process. So you say, not a big deal. However, first the immune system is primarily in the gut and second, if you are not digesting food may literally be starving to death. This creates the perfect environment to create sickness & disease. Coffee/Tea with caffeine also greatly stress the body which greats to further health issues. So your challenge this week is to greatly reduce…