Happy and Healthy New Year!

Do you have frequent colds, mood changes, nervousness, headaches, constipation, insomnia, or backaches? These symptoms might be signs of toxicity.

We can get toxins from everywhere: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, our, make up, the household products we use, the clothes we wear, in other words, just about anything we touch.

Just by using shampoo, eye shadow, lipstick, mascara, and perfume, you can be exposed to hundreds of chemicals.  And we wonder why we get headaches, rashes, hormonal changes, allergies, infertility and cancer.

During the winter season, many of us consume much more fat, sugar, alcohol, meat, etc., causing our bodies to become even more toxic

So why wait till spring to detox, when you can feel better all year long with a super simple detox.

Just by drinking more water and shifting from the most congesting foods (sweets, diary products, bread, fats, fried foods, refined flours, meats, hydrogenated fats, drugs) to the least (fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes) you can achieve weight loss, and detox at the same time..

After stressful holiday season support your liver and cleanse your blood and lymphatic system, with some New Year healthy and natural weight loss detox tips:

Tip I. Take Milk Thistle twice a day.

The active compound in this antioxidant herb is silymarin, which helps to repair liver, remove alcohol, metals and pesticides from the body.

Tip II. Incorporate more detoxifying foods into your diet:

* Sulfur rich foods such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, garlic, parsley, celery, watercress, dandelion greens, turnips, avocados, radishes, bell peppers, cranberries to support the liver.

* Fiber rich foods, such as lentils, beans, grains, fruits to get rid of constipation and eliminate toxins.

* Lean protein (wild caught salmon or other fish, organic chicken) is rich in amino acids to prepare toxins for elimination.

* Cleansing herbs, such as red clover, garlic, echinacea, dandelion root, yellow dock root, burdock root, milk thistle, parsley, cilantro, peppermint, licorice, flax seeds to cleanse liver, blood, lymph, kidneys, colon, skin.

* Cleansing spices, such as turmeric, cumin, coriander, cayenne, ginger, fenugreek, clove, cayenne to detoxify the liver and blood, aid digestion, cleanse gallbladder, colon and kidneys.

Let us be detox smart if we want to feel and look fabulous and have happy and healthy New Year, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health and Nutrition Coach, Counselor, and Relationship Expert

The beautiful fall season followed by the winter chill is the right time to balance your body with weight loss detox.  A natural cleanse and a few exercise secrets will allow you to enjoy the season with less stress and to be ready for the cold and flu season.

You can do an easy weight loss detox to reach your body or metabolic balance by changing your food and nutrition preferences based on your bio-individuality.

Winter Detox Cleansing Foods

As we know, processed foods contain chemically derived ingredients our bodies don’t know how to read. This creates a metabolic disaster-imbalance.

Coupled with chronic stress and low level of exercises empty nutrition food contributes to chronic inflammation, which can lead to imbalance in the female hormones in our body.

Toxic chemicals in the water we drink and the air we breathe also affect our metabolic balance and contribute to inflammation in our body, which can lead to all types illnesses.

Fall is the right time to start and easy fall natural cleanse detox with seasonal whole foods. To do so, incorporate as many seasonal, local and freshly harvested vegetables in your diet: greens (kale, dandelion, beet greens, etc.), vegetables (fall squashes, beets, carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic, zucchini, pumpkin, etc) fruits (avocado, apples, pears, kiwi, watermelon, etc.) beans (mung beans, lentils, etc.) nuts (walnuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds). They all are full of fiber and help elimination.

Don’t forget to enjoy local the harvest with  juices and smoothies you can drink in the morning or  as a snack.

You can always use some fruits and vegetables for homemade cleansing detox recipes or rejuvenating facials (tomatoes, avocado, grapes, watermelon, apples, pears, etc.).

Fall and Winter Exercise Shortcuts

We are moving towards Winter, and it means that the days are getting shorter and shorter following naturally after the many long days of light.  But there is no excuse for us to exercise less because we don’t have time. Why? Well, we always can find exercise shortcuts to burn some calories:

• park your car as far as possible;
• take stairs whenever you can;
• get up every fifteen minutes to stretch and deep breathe toh help reduce stress and detox;
• dance / move / jump / stretch in the kitchen while you preparing a meal;
• use more bending and stretching any time you clean the house, do gardening or talk on the phone (you can do the whole working out routine while text massaging).

We have to learn how to prioritize our health, our relationships, our jobs, etc., to sort them out and start a wonderful journey to wellness – a journey that will help us to get back our happy mind and healthy body.

Let us be smart, patient and full of a sense of humor if we want to feel and look fabulous this fall and winter season.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

©Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Coach and Counselor

NaturalCounselorBlog.com

Because we are what we eat, during the winter it is important to eat more winter super foods. 

Fantastic Winter Super Foods to Stay Healthy and Feel Fabulous

I. Whole foods rich in anti-stress vitamins and minerals can fight stress illness and you should try to incorporate them in your diet to have less stress.

Magnesium
It has been found that people who exhibit stress illness have low magnesium levels. A deficiency of magnesium interferes with transmission of nerve and muscle impulses, causing irritability and nervousness.

For more magnesium, eat more apples, dried apricots, avocados, brown rice, garlic, grapefruit, lemons, leafy vegetables, millet, nuts, sesame seeds, salmon (wild caught).

Calcium

Our body needs a proper balance between magnesium and calcium to have a healthy stress response. Healthy foods rich in calcium are almonds, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, figs, kale, kelp, mustard greens, oats, prunes, sesame seeds, salmon, seafood, sesame seeds, tofu, plain yogurt / kefir.

B6.
Studies show that people who are depressed have low levels of B6 and serotonin. Eat more avocados, bananas, fish, spinach, walnuts to get more Vitamin B6.

B12.
As we know, B12 deficiency can contribute too many anxiety disorders caused by stress, such as hormonal imbalances, blood sugar fluctuations, chronic fatigue, depression, irritability, moodiness, nervousness. To eat more salmon, seafood, sea vegetables (if we don’t eat meat) will help.  A detailed plan with suggestions for reducing stress overload you can find in my eBook “ DeStress-101-Survival Kit for Busy Women”

II. The second step in helping us feel better and be healthier during Winter is to boost our immune system with winter holistic detox.

For a quick detox drink, drink more water (filtered of course!) – it helps us eliminate more toxins. You can also drink teas with Dandelion, Nettles, Ginger, Burdock Root.

Also, try sifting from the most congesting foods (sweets, diary products, bread, fats, fried foods, refined flours, meats, hydrogenated fats, drugs) to the least (fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes), which can help with holistic weight loss detox cleansing of your body to bring it into balance.

And we don’t need an excuse to wait for spring to a herbal cleanse of our bodies, because we can use healthy detox super foods, such as apples, beets, celery, squashes, garlic, carrots, onions, green leafy vegetables, lemons, oranges, parsley, seaweed, beans as well as detoxifying spices like turmeric, coriander, fennel, cumin right now.

We need to include these fantastic detox whole foods in our routine and use one or two every day. Why? Because these detox foods can purify our blood, purify and protect our liver, and cleanse our intestines. More on Super Simple Detox – in the detox eBook “Detox – 101“

Never forget that it is also very important to avoid certain foods if you want to stay healthy and not to get colds. My article “Super Unhealthy Foods to Avoid...” has a list of foods to stay away from.

It is Winter, so slow down, relax and enjoy.

Meanwhile, breathe, smile and be happy,

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert