We all know that illness can be caused when toxicity in our body increases.  To reduce toxicity you can always try weight loss detox with whole foods and detox recipes.  But did you know that toxicity can be increased by stress.  So why not try to reduce your stress first?

To reduce stress you can learn to relax, improve sleep quantity, or try some breathing exercises.   If you reduce your stress you may be able to reduce female hormone imbalance and ease pre-menopausal and post menopausal symptoms.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.  ~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

One of the best stress reducers is to try to do nothing for five minutes.  Can you do it? It will be even better if you lie down and put your legs up on the wall – in Legs-up-the Wall Pose. This detoxing pose will help you to relax, drain lymph from the legs and increase blood flow.

If you are not sure how to start, some directions from yogajournal.com might help:

Start with your support about 5 to 6 inches away from the wall.

Sit sideways on right end of the support, with your right side against the wall (left-handers can substitute “left” for “right” in these instructions).

Exhale and, with one smooth movement, swing your legs up onto the wall and your shoulders and head lightly down onto the floor.

The first few times you do this, you may ignominiously slide off the support and plop down with your buttocks on the floor. Don’t get discouraged. Try lowering the support and/or moving it slightly further off the wall until you gain some facility with this movement, then move back closer to the wall.

Try to relax on the floor doing nothing every day, and if you think you don’t have time, lie down while you watch TV, talk on the phone or plan a weekend  getaway.  Breathe, smile and be happy…..

Let us slow down and learn how to do nothing from time to time to feel and look fabulous, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Coach and Counselor

NaturalCounselorBlog.com

Are you still keeping up on your New Year Resolutions? Did you try to change some of your eating habits and incorporate more weight loss recipes into your diet and menu plan?

In order to lose weight, try to speed up your metabolism by adding more fiber rich foods, cleansing spices, cleansing herbs and fat dissolving vegetables, such as onions, green onions, celery, shitake mushrooms, horseradish, turnip, turmeric, etc. in your diet.

Here are two recipes for you to try to keep your New Year Resolution:

Warm Black Bean, Arugula and Goat Cheese Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cooked black beans (soaked overnight and cooked till tender)
• 2 cups arugula
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 /2 cup grated goat cheese
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/6 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp green onions chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 1 tsp horseradish, grated
• Immunity Boosting Spices Mix
• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped, per serving

Directions:

Saute onions and carrots in olive oil for 10 min., add turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, ghee, stir thoroughly. Mix with arugula, top with grated goat cheese. Garnish with parsley.

Comforting and Healthy Homemade Vegetable Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 onions chopped
• 2 carrots chopped
• 1 turnip cubed
• 1 small potato, chopped
• 1 cup shitake mushrooms soaked
• 1 celery stock chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp ghee
• sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp dill, minced (per serving)
• Immunity Boosting Spices Mix

Directions:

For vegetable broth: mix ½ onion, a carrot, a celery stack, a potato, a turnip, in 4 cups of water approximately for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, sauté the rest of onions and carrots in olive oil, for 5 minutes, add shitake mushrooms, chopped and cook for 5 more minutes; add ghee and set aside. When vegetable broth is ready, add sautéed vegetables, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with sour cream and chopped dill on top.

Bon Appetit!

Breathe, smile and be happy

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselorBlog.com

It’s that time of year – cold and flu season when we have to take care of ourselves to stay healthy.

If you don’t want to catch a cold or to reduce stress, have more energy, sleep better, or even to lose, or at least not to gain some weight, you need to know not only which foods to eat but also which foods to avoid to survive the busiest time of the year.

Did you notice that we always look for super foods to be healthier and feel better? But what about foods that might make us super sick?

These are super unhealthy foods which add more stress on our system and are super harmful for our health:

• Hydrogenated oils
• Sugars
• Artificial sweeteners
• High-fructose syrup
• Flour products
• Refined grains
• Junk foods
• Fast foods
• Processed foods
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Tobacco

*** The trans fatty acids most fast and processed foods contain actually reduce circulation and raise blood pressure, keeping your body in a constant state of stress.

*** Alcohol upsets the blood sugar level and disturbs sleep patterns.

*** Caffeine boosts the production of the stress hormone adrenaline.

*** Sweets, raise your insulin levels increasing serotonin for a little while, and then serotonin level goes down very fast turning you into cranky and irritable person.

Did you know that average American consumes more than 190 pounds of sugar a year, and 3/4 of it are “hidden” in processed foods?

Be aware of hidden sugars in the following items:

• Breakfast cereals
• Salad dressings
• Luncheon meats
• Canned fruits
• Bread
• Peanut butter
• Crackers
• Soups
• Sausage
• Cheese dips
• Chewing gum
• Jellies and jams
• Fruit Yogurts
• Fruit Juices
• Frozen deserts (ice cream, sorbets)

You don’t have to avoid these items entirely.  You just need to be wary of them.

A lot of people don’t realize that to stay healthy sometimes it is not about what to eat but rather what not.

So let us be food smart to feel and look fabulous during this holiday season.

Click to listen to Pamela Reilly, Naturopath and Raw Food Coach on How to Boost Our Immunity During Cold and Flu Season.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Coach and Counselor

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