We’ve evolved to a place in time when we think we’re healthy, though we take medication. When we think it’s normal that some bodies can’t digest vegetables and fruits, though they’re Nature’s nutrient-dense food sources. And when we think we can’t do anything to heal heart-disease, cancer, diabetes and now auto-immune disease, because we’re victim to the genetics our ancestors bequeathed to us.

But from a basic common-sense standpoint, doesn’t it make sense to ask, “How do I feel if I don’t take this medication,” and, “What happened to the illness, since this prescription medication eased my symptoms?”  And, “WHY can’t my body digest vegetables and fruits, since they’re known to be the most easily digestible food substances?” AND, “Did I simply get dealt a “bad hand” when it comes to genetics,” or, “Suck it up, ‘I’m getting older?’” 

In case you forgot, or just don’t remember, when we were in elementary school we were taught that the human body is capable of regenerating itself — The human body was designed to heal itself, but like a plant needs mineral-rich soil, oxygen-rich water, and sunshine for photosynthesis to grow, the human body needs the right conditions for optimal health and healing to occur. 

Consider these healing functions the body is capable of, IF you are healthy — Your liver can literally regenerate and rebuild itself within just a few short months; your gastrointestinal tract can renew itself every four days; within hours of an injury, the body begins to repair a broken bone; the brain can create new cells to reconnect pathways between neurons and neural circuitry. 

Beyond any new “genius” technological research or discovery, the body is FAR MORE capable of healing itself, in spite of all the grandiose claims the biotech world sputters! 

So if we know our body is more intelligent, more capable of healing and more responsive than anything outside of us, why do we run around seeking out every new fan-dangled approach to wellness, or worse, accept the conditions exacted by a diagnosis that biologically makes no sense and negatively impacts the quality of our life? 

Three Metaphors

The Frog in Boiling Water

The frog in boiling water metaphor describes a frog being slowly boiled alive. The story goes, that if a frog is put into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out. It feels the danger of the hot water and jumps out to protect itself. But if the frog is put in tepid water, which is then brought to a boil slowly, the frog will not perceive the danger it is in, because it didn’t feel the water getting hotter, so it cooks to death.

Consider that we grow up in homes, within communities, within societies that believe medication is good, that heart disease and cancer are genetically predetermined, though new science says not so, and yes, that some of us can’t eat vegetables. 

And without ever questioning any of these ideas, we, albeit unwittingly, believe these ideas too… because we live within families, within communities, within societies in whch everyone we know believes in these ideas too. 

And if we question any of these ideas, as I did 30-years ago, we’re called “crazy.” I remember one who I thought to be a “close” friend calling me crazy and laughing at me when I first sought out a Naturopath.

The pull to do things the same as everyone is fierce. 

Herd mentality

The pull to do things the same as our friends and family leads to a “herd mentality.” A herd mentality, like a mob mentality, pack mentality or gang mentality, describes how we can be influenced by our families and peers to adopt certain behaviors, and that this happens on a largely emotional, rather than a rational basis.

Examples of a herd mentality are: 

1. Kale — Once kale always, kale, but many now favor this “hot” “new” vegetable
2. Louis Vuitton, “Hot” Style Trends  — Place you in the “in crowd” 
3. The list is endless — BMWs, The Mini Cooper, a Prius, Cabbage Patch Kids, Beanie Babies,  family traditions, community politics and onward… 

While we all might know on an intuitive level that living on prescription medications and living with heart disease, cancer and diabetes is not “normal,” most of us tend to follow the prevailing and predominant thoughts, behaviors and actions of others, because we’re hooked on an emotional level.

I can’t count how many times I have heard, “My family has eaten this way for generations, Carol.” “Americans don’t eat like that, Carol,” (though the whole family suffers with acute and chronic digestive problems). And, how many times have others said to me, “Lighten up,” “Everything in moderation.” “Don’t be so boring.” “You’re no fun.” 

Author Suzy Kassem wrote, 

“Since the earliest days of our youth, we have been conditioned to accept that the direction of the herd, and authority anywhere — is always right.”

In the face of staggering statistics of chronic disease worldwide, it’s time we start questioning the validity of popular, but unhealthy herd ideas. 

Head in the Sand

And we’ve all heard this, if not done it ourselves, we “put our head in the sand,” which simply means, we avoid, or we try to avoid, by pretending that “it” does not exist. This phrase refers to the way ostriches bury their heads in the sand when frightened. 

While some might say burying one’s head in the sand is a flat-out refusal to think about an unpleasant situation, and this is clear and rampant, I also know first hand, from my own experiences early on, that many of us just don’t know how to think differently from canonized, herd mentality, mainstream thought. 

A client recently said to me, “It never occurred to me that I could just go off a medication.” 

I totally get it — Thirty years ago I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. But when I went to get my teeth cleaned with a natural dentist, he said to me, “You don’t have a thyroid problem, you have an adrenal problem.” 

At that time, I was not putting my head in the sand and hoping the problem would go away, I simply did not know how to challenge my doctor’s diagnosis. I didn’t know how to think for myself. The doctor’s diagnosis, and the popular way of responding to a medical diagnosis took precedence — Though I am actively reversing this diagnosis for myself today, while helping many clients do the same. 

But as the examples I offered above show, many are the frog stuck somewhere within a herd mentality or head in the sand. 

The Gap

But there is a gap, and within this gap exists what we know is best for us, or what we feel is best for us, and what we typically do —  It’s like we’re two people, but each in conflict with the other — We intuitively know what the healthiest choice for us to make is, but we don’t choose it. 

Do you struggle with choosing healthy habits because you’re the frog in the boiling water? Has the herd mentality taken over? Have you buried your head in the sand hoping your the health problems will just go away? 

Closing this gap is your charge. The whole quality of your life literally pivots on the ways you choose to be responsible for every detail of your life, including the state of your health. 

Yes, resistance to choosing differently will rise up. Yes, your family may tell you they’e offended when you decline to eat the ravioli. Yes, your friends may insult you when you order a salad rather than join them in eating pizza. And yes, your colleagues may laugh at you, as they pop the cork of a fine wine, and you sip on herbal tea. 

Ultimately, though, closing this gap is one of your life’s greatest calling. 

Closing this gap between who you know yourself to be, and who you pretend to be within your social circles IS the space where freedom, full self-expression, happiness and… your most vibrant, radiant Self exists. 

I’ll never forget the moments when a client leaned over the desk I was sitting at, looked me dead in my eye and said, “Eat a potato. You look terrible.” 

My body was very sick, with an endless list of symptoms my doctors had no healing answers for. My face was covered with painful cystic acne. My eyes were dark and sunken. Anxiety beat hard and heavy in my chest, with a fear that directed every step I took. 

I held my tears back. 

The pull to ignore what I had learned about healing my body was fierce. The pull to go against myself was fierce… BUT the pull to close the gap, to reclaim my health was FAR fiercer. 

If you suffer with chronic or acute symptoms, chronic cravings or excess weight, low energy or acute brain fog, I can’t imagine you not hearing yourself somewhere within these metaphors.

Find what pulls you out within them. Use them as your springboard to be fierce. To choose you. Healthy habits will change your life in ways you yet can’t imagine possible. 

Like the gap, I’ve always loved the space that doctor, writer and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl wrote about: 

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Anxiety was but one of the symptoms I suffered from when I was sick many years back. So one of my doctors, among the several treating me, recommended I take, what was for me, a debilitating dosage of Xanax. When I asked the pharmacist if she could lower the dosage because I couldn’t stand after taking it, she said she’d call the doctor for his approval.

After talking to the receptionist and the nurse, I could tell the pharmacist was then talking to the doctor. She passed the phone to me and said, “He wants to speak with you.” Great I thought, he’ll understand. But he opened with, “I thought you said you trusted me?”

“If you don’t take the medication as I prescribe, you do know what will happen, right? Next it will be panic attacks, after that suicide.”

Suicide.

Though I cried in private every single night with embarrassment and horror from the ways cystic acne began to disfigure my face, and the ways my body would shamelessly pass noxious smelling gas no matter how hard I tried to suppress it when in public, when this “specialist” said that my anxiety could lead to suicide, I knew I needed to find someone, anyone, who could help me heal my body. I needed someone to help me understand, beyond the zero answers the medical community offered me, for why my body was breaking-down.

And so my journey from to illness to wellness began from a team of Western medicine specialists, to treatment by naturopaths, to nutritionists, on to natural dentists, acupuncturists, Chinese herbalists, Ayurvedic practitioners and even a Structural Integrationist.

I attended workshops, seminars, special trainings and read every book recommended to me to try to find answers for healing… And though I learned something from every practitioner along the way, I intuitively knew that taking a handful of supplements every day, versus pharmaceutical medications, was not the answer I was seeking — Every approach I learned still felt reactionary, not root cause work, like icing-on-a-mud-pie.

Why Detoxification Matters, Reductionist Theory and What I’ve Learned

Along the way I became a reductionist theorist — I needed to find the lowest common denominator for why I was so sick — “What’s the root cause? If it’s not root cause work, it’s a waste of my time. Because if I don’t know why my body is spiraling out and breaking down, how can I heal it?”

And this is what 25 years of research, inquiry and critical thinking showed me in clear and ugly color: 

The human body cannot eliminate the food-stuffs of the modern lifestyle — The ways we eat today have devolved to accommodate a fast-paced, unhealthy, “foodie” lifestyle, with no time for anything, but go-go-go… and indulgence. And it’s all considered normal, even sophisticated.

But unfortunately, this diet we think of as normal, because it’s based on the common fare of the Standard American Diet and Fast Food Nation, is a wholly nutrient-devoid, processed, pseudo food-stuffs diet that is made from ingredients that the body doesn’t recognize as useable fuel, because it’s not real food — The foods we eat are largely all manufactured, mass-produced products that have been processed to sustain a long shelf-life, rather than our health. Sadly, like me many years back, many live on this diet today, so they’re taking in little to no nutrition that their body needs to maintain optimal health and ward off disease. 

As a result, we’re seeing epidemic rates of chronic disease, with the immune system grossly going awry, as evidenced by now over 100 autoimmune disease diagnoses today, though cause continues to remain generally unknown within the medical community. The rise of autoimmune disease has skyrocketed by 300% since the 1950s, with costs exceeding cancer by 50%, and evidence showing they pave the way to future chronic and debilitating health problems developing.

And the tide continues to rise with obesity and diabetes, heart-disease and cancer, even food-addiction and pre-mature aging. C’mon, even a rookie can see something is terribly wrong!

If what I say makes sense to you, that the body can’t eliminate the foods of the modern lifestyle, or at the very least, that chronic illness has affected you or someone you love so much that you’re willing to continue to stick with me here, doesn’t it makes sense to now ask, “Where do these foods go? These foods that we’re eating, but not eliminating?”

A Noble Metaphor: The Garbage Bag Theory

Imagine you’re in your kitchen chopping and prepping ingredients for your dinner. Imagine further, that the garbage bag begins to overflow from all the scraps you’ve added in… and someone unexpectedly knocks on your door. To tidy the kitchen quickly, you hurriedly tie the bag and toss it outside on the back porch. It’s 98.7 degrees outside… and you forget you put the bag out there.

Several days later you discover the bag on the porch.

I ask you,

What do you think happened inside this bag of food stuffs, as it sat in 98.7 degree temperature for days?

The Life-Changing Answer to this Life-Changing Question

Bringing the metaphor home: The food in the bag, that is, the back-up of constipated food-stuffs that the body doesn’t know how to eliminate, begin to decay, rot, putrefy and ferment, with the predictable growth of the by-products rot produces; bacteria, yeast, mold, fungus, noxious gases and pathogen (Make no mistake, pathogen is a polite word for parasites. But this post is not about polite cordialities, but the quality of your life). The putrefaction and decay (think premature aging in every horrifying way, far beyond a loss of beauty) begins in the intestinal walls, but easily spreads throughout the body, as it passes into and beyond the digestive wall. Bacterial imbalance circulates. Heavy metals accumulate. Parasites proliferate. Viruses grow. Noxious gases destroy.

Why Detoxification Matters: What You Want to Know

Because the human body is an interconnected, whole ‘unit,’ the impact of “The Garbage Bag Theory,” is far reaching, all encompassing and systemic. This is why your body absolutely needs your help with detoxification — When the colon becomes obstructed with toxic waste matter that hardens, calcifies and blocks your internal pathways, the dominoes of the elimination system begin to fall (read fail), with the liver, kidneys and lymph bearing the heaviest brunt initially.

But you’d short-change the impact of a dirty, toxic body on your health and wellbeing if you stopped at the deleterious effects overwhelming the elimination systems. Because the body can’t remove the calcified, toxic waste, it pushes deeper into every cell, tissue, gland, organ and system within you, including your brain, with acute systemic effects caused by the noxious, carbonic gas it produces (CO2 toxicity is linked to central nervous system damage and permanent deterioration of respiratory functions).

Detoxification becomes squarely about removing toxic waste, and way more than a one and done practice.

Detoxification is the foundational lifestyle habit you exploit, to build whole-body, whole-life wellness upon.

Detoxification is far more than just a whole-foods, live-foods, green-juice laden diet, but your key to guarantee the whole quality of your life.

Think about it, HOW can you look and feel your best, if you’ve got a backed-up dirty sewer sitting in the middle of your body? How can you feel emotionally balanced, or think clearly and smartly and creatively and productively, how can you wake up energized and ready to create newly, if you’re body is permeated with toxic waste matter?

From my reliable reductionist theory rationale, WHAT can supplements possibly do for you, HOW can “everything in moderation” remotely make sense, HOW can the next-best-recipe conceivably matter, IF you do not remove the backed-up, calcified, toxic waste matter that’s obstructing your body’s internal pathways? HOW can you NOT be, even just a little bit, affected physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, by rotting decay in the middle of your body?

Detoxification is not a diet. Detoxification is a tool you use to remove backed-up, toxic waste from your body, to literally liberate you from the mental, psychological and emotional bondage it causes. 

As I like to say to my clients, we are not simply healing you of chronic and acute symptoms, we are not only helping you lose weight, feel more energized and look radiant, we are circumventing the dire consequences that would undoubtedly come if we never got to removing toxic waste from your body.

In today’s world, with the epidemic rates of chronic disease that are ravaging the quality of our lives and the lives of the people we most love, your body absolutely needs your help with detoxification.

Where to Start

To begin supporting your body in the detoxification process, you want to lighten up density in your diet, so what you do eat can pass through efficiently and support your overall healing efforts. That means add in lots of water-rich, live vegetables and fruits, and take out or reduce the harder-to-digest animal proteins. The highly-charged water in fresh vegetables and fruits will hydrate and help magnetize toxic waste out of the tissues of your body. Reducing or eliminating animal protein will conserve your energy for detoxing and healing, since it’s density needs more energy to break it down,

To help get you started, I offer you a comprehensive guide I made for my private 1:1 clients, a guide of 90+ fresh juice, smoothie and salad recipes called The Wholly Trinity Guide. Click the button below to download.

Download Your Free Wholly Trinity Recipe Guide!
Questions? Feel free to post below, or email me. I’d love to answer all your questions. Heeding the truth bombs this post offers can change your whole life, as they did mine.

 

 

Do you suffer from chronic illness, or know someone who does?

Maybe it’s not chronic illness. Maybe it’s chronic headaches, sore joints, allergies, fatigue, dry cough, even premature-aging?

I know, “who doesn’t experience one or more of these symptoms, right?”

I spoke to someone last week who suffers with five chronic illnesses.

Which is why you should know,

Every symptom, may it be physical, mental or emotional, is a sign of imbalance. 

Every symptom. 

We can respond at the first seemingly benign symptom, while trusting that our brilliantly designed body is telling us it needs our attention. Or we can wait to respond, and deal with the consequences waiting causes.

We get to choose when we respond and how we respond, and there’s typically two kinds of responses:

1. A response based on what everyone else would do, like your family, friends and even doctors — This response is reactive and often fear-based. This looks like checking in with everyone you know and asking what they would do, or what they think you should do, rather than you going within to find what you know would be best for you. Or,
2. A response driven by discernment. This choice is reflective, rather than reactionary, it’s calm, clear and empowered. Rather than looking for answers outside of yourself, you go within and you choose powerfully for yourself, even when others approve or don’t approve of your choice.

But there’s no choice when it comes to the solution. When it comes to healing the human body, the lowest-common denominator is creating order out of the disorder that’s taken over. 

Your body, or your loved ones body wants to be in balance. The human body will do everything and anything it can to restore balance.

But here’s the rub — The human body, you’re body, needs your help.

Whether you were born with illness, lived on processed foods your whole life, or just never got on the get-healthy train early enough, your body, irregardless of it’s current state of health, continuously stalks balance… and it needs your help (to counter the acidic and unhealthy lifestyle choices you’ve made for far too).

So how do you help your body create balance, if disorder and illness, or even just seemingly benign symptoms have taken over? 

Theres only one place to begin… “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” and you’re the only one with the answer. It doesn’t live outside you, and no-one else knows what this one thing is but you. One thing, that if you do it, you know with full confidence you’re better equipped to make smarter choices for you! When you do this thing, you can feel your strength and clarity fire up — This is when you become what I like to call, “a self-actualizing machine!”

You KNOW that if you meditate, or go for a run, or sit by yourself with a journal and download all the gunk that causes you confusion and stress, you feel clearer, stronger, more confident, and ready to DO whatever you need to do, to reclaim healthy balance. This IS your one thing, that you must do with consistency and impeccability every day. This IS when you’re like kryptonite, able to defy unhealthy temptation like a superhero!

Because the more often you go within to access your inner wisdom and guidance, the more you will learn to hear and trust you, and what you know is best for you, and the more clearly you will be able to hear and trust the seemingly benign signals your body sends you as warnings to heed, not ignore.

Let’s be clear, the goal is NOT your one thing, but the GOLD-stuff the one thing gives you access to — Calm. Clarity. Confidence. Inner wisdom. This IS what you most want, to heal your body… and for every other good choice you hope to make.

Stalk balance. Do what you need to do to live in balance. Choose actions that create balance. Balance is what you’re after.

From this angle, every symptom becomes your most trusted and reliable advisor.

Don’t you just love that? It’s a reframe, and it’s a game-changer!

If you or someone you know is suffering with chronic symptoms, or suspect now’s the time to grab hold of your health, I am accepting new clients. To schedule a consultation click here, contact me at 860-836-1990 or email me at carol@carol-egan.com

When growing up, my grandfather would bring a roast beef for my Mom to cook every Sunday. And in our Irish American home, of course mashed potatoes and gravy were a given. Roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy were always our slated Sunday family tradition, a tradition laced with love and the sweetest of memories. I remember at a very young age laughing with my grandfather as he would swing me in the air and run around with me and my brothers in the back yard, after our family dinner.

How about you? What were you’re family traditions? Salmon and lox? Biscuits and brisket? Pasta and meatballs? Barbecue and grits? Rice and beans? 

Indulge me for one minute and close your eyes. Try to recall a holiday, or a regular week day when you were young, when you and your family would gather together to have dinner and festivity. What memories rise up, what associations do you hold sacred to the meals you had with the people you love?  

Food and memory are inextricably linked. 

But do you know that food combinations like these traditional classics slow digestion down?

Do you know that carbohydrates, protein and fats each digest at very different rates, and each require different digestive enzymes to break them down, so eating them together is really not good for you?

I can hear you say, “But my family has been eating like this for generations.”

Yes, there might have been a time in history that the inner terrain of the gut was strong enough and healthy enough to break down the meals we know as traditional to our culture. But the modern lifestyle, the Standard American Diet and Fast Food Nation have all undeniably altered and impaired the microflora and inner ecosystem of our gut in ways that we can no longer  break down, absorb and assimilate the foods we eat.  

Let me ask you, do you struggle with weight loss? Perhaps low energy? Poor mental clarity? Or chronic symptoms? 

If you answer yes to any of the above health concerns, then humor me in taking on a healing experiment, for one day, one week… maybe even one month. This experiment I propose is called proper food combining, or “The Quick Exit Strategy.” 

For one month put on your “scientist’ hat to study and observe how you feel and how your body responds to combining what you eat in healthier combinations that promote a quick exit.

Food combining and the Quick Exit Strategy are based on the ways the body breaks foods down. It considers the density of the foods you eat, the varying ways the foods you eat break down and the varying ways your body responds with different chemical reactions. It recognizes your body’s need to absorb and assimilate nutrients, not simply eat them, and it also recognizes the consequences of eating in ways that waste matter can’t leave the body in a timely manner, if foods are combined poorly. The back up of waste matter sitting in your body leads to fermentation, yeast overgrowth, bacterial imbalance and a build up of carbonic gas, which correlates directly to your inability to achieve your health goals with lasting results. I can’t overstate this enough. 

So let me repeat, we want to eat what we eat in ways that provides maximum energy and nutrition, and efficient elimination. It’s the body’s inability to eliminate toxic waste, that cascades in every detrimental way throughout the body, affecting the overall state of our health.

To begin to promote quick exit meals, I offer you 3 simple food combination rules within The Quick Exit Strategy, as a mighty tool to detox your body, lose weight, increase energy, increase mental clarity and decrease chronic symptoms. 

3-Simple Rules of Food Combining: The Quick Exit Strategy

Rule One: Eat low sugar fruits away from all other foods — (lemons, limes, grapefruits, berries and green apples) 

Rule Two: Eat protein and vegetables

Rule Three: Eat starches and vegetables

What does proper food combining look like on your plate?

Protein and Vegetables: Whatever your protein source, be it animal protein, beans, dairy or other vegetarian/vegan options, you will eat it with only low-starchy vegetables, like a big salad, sautéed leafy greens, string beans, asparagus or broccoli. Do note, avocado and olives, nuts and seeds are considered protein fats, so combine them according to the protein recommendations. 

Starches and Vegetables: With this combination you will eat starchy vegetables like a baked sweet potato, winter squashes, roasted root vegetables, or other starchy choices like quinoa or pasta with low-starchy vegetables, again like above, with a big salad and/or any other low-starchy vegetable of choice. 

Since statistics suggest more than 75% of us suffer with chronic digestive problems today, I recommend you experiment with proper food combining and the Quick Exit Strategy.

This recommendation directly addresses the impact of the modern lifestyle on the human body and it’s impact on digestive health, and the natural and biological ways your body thrives. Yes, you’ll have to get to take on and challenge the eating habits you consider normal from your family traditions, but you might discover that you’re able to achieve the health goals you’ve long wanted, and feel amazing again. 

Do you have an inquisitive way like a scientist, like me? 

Tell me how it works for you in the comments below. 

Tell me too, if you try my recommendation, and how it worked for you. 

Questions? Post them below. I’d love to help. 

** NOTE: If you suffer from chronic health symptoms or chronic health problems, do note that animal protein requires a lot of energy to digest. I recommend you keep your scientist hat on and reduce or eliminate dense, animal protein intake, and even lighter choices like wild-caught fish or raw goat cheese for a healing interim, to see how it adds to your overall sense of wellbeing.

If you’ve followed me for even a short time, you know I get-high on building healthy habits. Why? Because I’ve changed my whole life by building one healthy habit at a time — With definite nutrition recommendations, plus mindset and emotional mastery strategies, I help my clients do exactly the same.

I’ve learned on my own, and with my clients, that if we can create success with one small habit, we’re more adept later to take on the bigger habits needed to achieve the loftier goals we REALLY want to achieve most in life.

In this spirit, I offer you 1 super-simple habit to start your day, but one that’s laden with far-reaching health benefits!

Begin every morning with a cup of hot, steamy, boiling water. Hot water dilates your cells, tissues and organs, which promotes circulation, digestion, hydration and elasticity, and washes away impurities. 

Ayurvedic medicine, one of the world’s oldest holistic healing systems says sipping on hot water can cure us of 100s of diseases.

Let’s break this down:

Even if you get just temporary improved circulation while drinking hot water, you’re promoting oxygen-rich blood flow throughout your body, and oxygen is literally life-force energy. This point alone is a compelling stand-alone reason. 

But that most eat a diet high in processed food these days, foods that are categorically devoid of the most life-giving substances on the planet, water and oxygen, dehydration is common place. This absence of water in foods and the mainstream diet causes dehydration throughout the body, which devolves down to the single most common digestive problem today, constipation. Chronic constipation is the single condition with the most detrimental side-effects on the human body and quality of life.

And that the human body is on average 50-75% water, it makes sense that basic levels of hydration are not only necessary for maintaining healthy digestion and radiant, supple skin, beginning on the cellular level, but it’s also necessary to ensure that every organ and system can run your “machine,” your body, as optimally as it was designed to run. Human cells simply can’t function without water.

When water is hot, it can promote sweating and the release of toxins out of your cells, tissues and organs. Toxicity can cause excess weight, fatigue, brain fog and every other health symptom you experience.

Experiment with drinking hot water every morning for 21 days. It’s a simple, but worthy habit to try, to see what sorts of benefits show up for you.

Now for a few complimentary recommendations: 

• Sip water (keep it hot if you know you’re dehydrated) throughout the day for maximum hydration. As an analogy, imagine a dry sponge. Can it pick up water off your counter as readily as a damp sponge? No. Your cells are the same — they can’t absorb as readily when they’re dehydrated, so sipping water throughout the day will ensure maximum hydration, and all the benefits it provides.
• The standard recommendation is to take in 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water. If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ll drink 75 ounces of water, with one caveat: Green juice is the ideal stand-in. I begin my day with hot water, and I sip water throughout the day, especially days when fasting. But I always drink green juice to break my fast, as the first nutrition of the day.
• First thing in the morning, omit any additives, like lemon, and especially like caffeine, which is dehydrating. By sipping plain, hot steamy water first thing in the morning, you’re hydrating, while not asking your body to turn on any systems, like digestion. The benefit? You maintain the state of healing, rebuilding and even promote weight loss during this added window of time.

Try it and see how many seemingly benign problems seem to go away. 

Questions? Post them below. I’d love to help.

Have you heard all the hoopla from the supplement world about collagen?

Collagen supplements are gaining traction as the latest “Fountain of Youth” addition for your daily anti-aging regiment, with endorsements hailing from celebrities and nutritionists alike.

Last year alone the sales of collagen supplements reached $98 million from within the beauty world, and promises to continue double-digit growth by 30%.

While many buy collagen supplements to reduce joint pain and degeneration, many more buy them as an anti-aging fix — to improve hair, skin and nails — to look younger.

The Problem

But there is an unsafe side effect not talked about amidst all this excitement and product sales…

Collagen supplements cause constipation.

Do you know that constipation causes inflammation throughout your body?

Chronic constipation triggers irritation of the colon wall, causing the production of excess mucous and the proliferation of pathogen, like yeast, mold, fungus, rogue bacteria and parasites.

Since the health of your digestive tract effects your overall health, including your mental and physical wellbeing, and the widespread problems constipation can cause, what supplement could possibly be worth the benefits it’s touted to offer?

Your stomach was designed to breakdown and process the foods you eat, to absorb and assimilate the nutrients you need to function optimally, to then move out the waste you don’t need for for elimination.

If there is a breakdown in any of these processes, of course there is going to be signs of premature aging, excess weight and brain fog.

Waste is not leaving the body.

Rather than serve as a weigh station, your digestive system is serving as a toxic waste land.

What’s Possible

Twenty years ago I looked older than I do today (said a former employer I ran into), because I suffered from chronic constipation.

A year ago, when Courtney, my 34-year old client came, she said she felt she looked old and tired — She suffered from ulcerative colitis. Now? She’s off all medication and says she looks and feels better than she ever remembers.

Constipation is widespread today. Constipation brings millions of people to a clinic every year, with more than 700,000 emergency department trips.

The Problem is a Problem

Chronic constipation leads to inflammation, stagnancy and slow to in-frequent eliminations, which causes waste matter to harden, calcify and cause obstruction within your colon walls.

Herein lies the root of all health problems. Waste is not leaving the body.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 out of every 2 of us suffers from 1 chronic disease. One out of every 4 of us suffers from 2 or MORE chronic diseases. Seven out of 10 of us will die of a chronic disease.

Add to these statistics all the ways the digestive system impacts brain health/mental health — 90% of serotonin that is produced in the digestive wall. Researchers at John Hopkins are finding evidence that “irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system (CNS) that trigger mood change. These new findings may explain why a higher-than-normal percentage of people with IBS and functional bowel problems develop depression and anxiety.”

Not an Aside

Among the top over-the-counter medications are treatments for pain relief, laxatives and yeast infections, which treat problems directly directly correlated to chronic constipation.

Yes, the problem of chronic constipation stems from many problems, like a diet high in processed foods and poor lifestyle choices. But with statistics of chronic disease near epidemic, it’s foolish to add a supplement that could hinder healthy elimination, since constipation has such far reaching consequences.

Consider This:

If you suffer from any digestive problem (Are you 1 of the 74% of Americans who does?), the enzyme pepsin and the acid HCL, which are both responsible for breaking down food in your stomach, will be impaired from the cascade of problems that happen from constipation (or diarrhea) — The body won’t be able tp break the collagen down anyway.

World renowned hydro-colonic therapist Gil Jacobs sees how products like these actually build up on the colon wall in his NYC practice — they are a hindrance to vibrant health, rather than a help.

And let’s not forget collagen supplements are a processed product, which the body doesn’t recognize as fuel, but as a foreign invader.

It’s Up To You

There is a we-are-being-sold-to mentality, and there is a question-everything-mentality.

Choose the later.

Why? Even some leaders in the integrative health community tout products that directly spin off the immediate gratification, fast-food, modern lifestyle mentality, with no apparent deeper inquiry into the long-term consequences of the short-term gains they’re suggesting.

This is why I say question everything.

I don’t care WHO the teacher is, put on your investigator hat.

Look to basic common sense. Always.

Trust this:

While we’ve all been taught to love quick fix solutions within our Fast-Food nation mentality, trust this, there are none. Near everything we are being sold today is a product of the modern lifestyle = give it to me (the result) and give it to me NOW (with NO effort extended… and far reaching consequences).

We are living beings that require proper care to function optimally.

If you want to look and feel your best, if you want to look and feel 10 years younger, you don’t need collagen supplements.

You need healthy habits that deliver real results.

Start with these 3 easy steps and you’ll see and feel the results you want in ways far beyond what collagen can offer you:

1. Buy and use a juicer everyday.
2. Eat a meal-sized salad every day.
3. Eat less everyday.

No quick-fix works. But basic common sense does… AND a return home to your own inner guide.

Did you ever hear the saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise?”

While I love to go to bed early, and get up early, most executives I work with say they feel lucky to get 5 hours of sleep a night.

But this means that their body and brain lose 2-3 hours of the sleep they need for the energy, mental focus and peak productivity the next day.

How long can you expect energy to last without a fully charged battery, without proper sleep?

How can you hope to do your best, if you’ve not slept well the night before?

This is why you don’t want to watch TV and return late-night emails from bed — They can interrupt your body’s natural internal clock and the production cycles of hormones melatonin and cortisol that help you sleep.

Unhealthy, interrupted, and poor sleep patterns can affect even your most basic daily routines.

Which is why it’s so important to think about how you end your day, to set the stage for healthy sleep — to set the stage for an awesome next day.

Research shows that the light from computers and technology significantly lowers levels of melatonin, which regulates sleep cycles.

If you constantly wake up or can’t fall asleep, research also shows you could suffer from lower concentration and lower cognitive functioning. Just one sleepless night can cause you to feel foggy, unfocused and scattered.

To ensure that your body is ready to sleep when you go to bed, to create great success tomorrow:

1. You must choose ‘before-bed’ activities that set you up for a healthy and restorative night of sleep, like reading, meditation and removing all technology from your bedroom.
2. You must reduce stimulating activities 1 hour before bed, and aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night, to reap the energy, mental clarity and peak productivity a well restored body offers.

If you do these two simple steps, you literally sleep your way to greater success, because you’ll wake up restored and recharged for all that you want to accomplish!

Don’t underestimate these simple recommendations. You will feel more productive. You will feel more alert and focused. You will feel more energized…

Ask yourself, “what could be possible personally and professionally, if I felt more productive, alert, focused, and energized every day?”

As my client Kathryn said, “I’m getting so much more accomplished now that I’m sleeping better.”

And… I’ve got 4 more simple daily habits like this one that top achievers use to increase their energy by 30% in my free guide, Five to Thrive. You can get a copy here by clicking to download.

Have you ever heard, “Let go of saying ‘should. There are no shoulds. You should never say ‘I should?‘”

The words “you should” are teeming with unwanted advice and expectation.

In “The Alchemist,” Paulo Coelho, said, “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”

A Conversation

Last week I had a conversation with someone who told me he wanted to lose weight and feel more energy. He continued  to describe how he suffered from acute and debilitating anxiety that often left him afraid to leave his home.

And this man is a successful entrepreneur. His company relies on him and his expertise.

When I told him my fee, he said, “Carol, I’d love to work with you, but I just paid a business coach $25K — I’ll call you in a few months.”

Though he suffers from debilitating anxiety, low energy and excess weight, he said with his dollars, his business matters more than his health.

Your Life is Your Most Valuable Possession

Though I said to him, “But you are your business,” I wanted to say,

Your life is your most valuable possession. What benchmark could you achieve in your business, what skill could you develop, what possession could you ever obtain that could be as valuable as your life?

Safeguard your health. Care for, treasure and protect your body. Your life is your most valuable possession.

If you put your health and wellbeing first, you will have far more opportunity to live and learn, grow and achieve.

Don’t take your health for granted. Your body started to tell you long ago you it needs your care and attention.

But at the risk of sounding like a snake-oil salesman, I tempered my response. At the risk of pressuring him, I held back.

Was I wrong? Should I have hard-sold him?

With all that I continue to learn about chronic disease and the generational impact it’s causing, with all that I see my clients gain and achieve because they feel so much better after working together, I say yes, I should have hard-sold him.

Saying, ‘You should,” doesn’t work. Saying “You should,” can actually antagonize, rather than draw in understanding and agreement.

And so I wait to hear from him.

But I’ll say to you, since there’s nothing at stake between you and I, but the whole quality of your health and your life,

Don’t take your life for granted. It is your most valuable possession.

Beyond diets, beyond weight loss, beyond on any achievement and possession, sanctify your life.

Sanctify your life and you will soon see and feel results in every area of life.

Sanctify your life and watch every good choice will flow.

Protect, purify and strengthen your body and watch life rise up within you. Reject what hampers and hinders it and watch health return, beauty emerge, intelligence lead and true power take over.

Do you sanctify your life as your most valuable possession?

Do your choices say “I consciously and consistently choose to protect, purify and strengthen my body?”

I’d love your to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

And if you want first steps to sanctify your life and take control of your health, begin here.

Do you suffer from seasonal allergies?

Does congestion, headaches, fatigue, watery, itchy eyes or other inflammatory symptoms get the best of you when the seasons change?

Research shows that more than 50 million Americans struggle with symptoms associated with allergies.

And many experts believe allergies can’t be cured, only managed, so they prescribe medications like steroids and antihistamines which only offer temporary relief and further complications, like not getting to the root cause.

I disagree. I know allergies can be cured, because I’ve cured myself of chronic and often painful allergy symptoms that I experienced earlier in life, especially every Spring season… and I’ve helped clients do the same.

Allergies are a hypersensitive immune response by the body. And what is important to note about this response is, 1) not everyone suffers from allergies (you would want to ask why?) and, 2) symptoms are inflammatory in nature.

That inflammation is a symptom that is linked back to all health problems, a precursor if you will, because chronic inflammation is known to cause and advance many common diseases.

7 Simple, Natural and Effective Allergy Solutions

Two Foundational Steps:

Yes, these two steps ask something more of you than just popping the immediate-fix prescription or over-the-counter pill. And, yes, these two steps will not give you the same in-the-moment relief. BUT they will, over the long haul, lay the healthy foundation you need, like me, to never suffer from another allergic response again.

1. Your first important step is to remove common inflammatory foods for at least seven days. This one step could very likely offer you the relief you need in a very short amount of time.
2. Next you want to add in foods that quell inflammation and alkalize your body with lots of green vegetables. Green and alkalizing foods carry with all their minerals and nutrients, the most vital substance of life, oxygen. And no symptom, not even disease, can live in a highly-oxygenated environment.

Every symptom is a sign of imbalance, and this 2-fold formula, what I call the Math Equation, is your ticket to counter imbalance and promote homeostasis in your body.

Five Simple Steps You Can Take Now for Immediate Relief

But you need ease from the symptoms you’re experiencing now — I know, or should I say, I remember!

Here are five steps you can take right now for immediate relief.

1. Hydrate+. Hydrate your body with warm or hot lemon water throughout the day. The lemon will help break up excess mucous and the congestion it causes and it’s loaded with immune-boosting Vitamin C. The warm/hot water will cleanse toxins, more deeply hydrate, and soothe your throat and sinus passages.
2. Local Honey. While I’m not a fan of added sugars of any kind, when you’re not feeling well, add local honey to your lemon water to ward off infections and allergies, and boost your immune system. Local honey is known to make your body resistant to a few types of pollens, like an antibiotic works.
3. Ginger Root. Fresh ginger root is a natural anti-inflammatory, and very good as a decongestant and antihistamine. Beyond working directly against inflammation in the body, it has many other health benefits that can help with seasonal allergies, including antioxidant and anti-viral properties.
4. Neti Pot. Cleansing nasal passages of irritants and allergens is an old Ayurvedic medicine remedy, but is growing in popularity in the U.S. With warm water and a little sea salt in your Neti Pot, you can clear your sinus cavity of mucous, to treat seasonal allergies, chronic and acute sinusitis and the common cold. I recommend taking a hot shower first, to help break up congestion and mucous.
5. Sleep. Beyond all the physical, mental and emotional benefits sleep provides, your body heals when it sleeps. If you are feeling rundown, safe-guarding your sleep hours is an important step to help your body recover from illness and the stress it causes.

Remember, as you set out to address these allergies you’re dealing with, they happen because of a hypersensitive immune response, and can affect your whole body. Begin with healthy eating and healthy lifestyle choices. They will serve you in ways far beyond the allergy troubles you’re experiencing. And… hydrate, with lots and lots of warm lemon water. Sweeten it lightly with local honey. Add ginger root if you don’t mind it’s spicy taste.  Flush out and clean your sinus passages of allergens and irritants, and get lots of extra sleep. If you’re not feeling well, there’s no such thing as too much sleep!

BONUS: One Healing Remedy

A personal favorite — Lemon Ginger Tea — a mug-full of all the ingredients I recommend above!

• Boil 2 cups of water
• Peel one lemon (do not remove all the white pith — it’s loaded with bio-flavionids = HIGH vitamin C!)
• Peel 1-2 inches of ginger
• Local honey to taste

Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender and puree until the lemon and the ginger are well broken down. Strain into your mug and add honey to taste.

Enjoy!

After you try my suggestions, let me know how they worked for you in the comments section below. I’d love to hear!

Is there something you feel really adamant about? Something that really matters to you? That though others might not understand why you feel the way you feel, you must give voice to this thing?

I don’t like meal delivery services, and here’s why:

I get you’re busy and this sort of service is a better solution to eating fast-food after work.

I get many meal deliver services tout “fresh and seasonal ingredients” and “delicious and unforgettable meals.”

What’s not to like, right?

It hits all the marks, yes?

The draw of these offers win on seemingly every marker — Convenience. Doorstep delivery. Quality ingredients.

But here’s the thing that’s missing, the thing that shows up for every client I work with and the reason why I don’t like, and don’t recommend meal delivery services:

We’re not taking time for even our most basic self-care, and in this case, a most basic of human needs — preparing our own food!

We work long days. We go to bed late. We get up early. We take little to no time to decompress from the stress of the day, and then we turn to every “time-saving” gimmick, offer and technology that supports us living an imbalanced life, rather than turn back to ways that create balance.

I recently asked a new client who went off one of the worst medications made, in ONE short month of us working together, the same client who is healing in mind-blowing ways, “Why do you think things (your health) got so out of control?”

“I wasn’t taking time to care for me. Business growth and work responsibilities completely took over.”

No time for self care is a common problem for most of us today, and is also the cause of untold stress, conflict, chronic symptoms and chronic disease.

We’re living as though our bodies don’t require any special care to function optimally.

Think about it, we were once hunter-and-gatherer societies. We were once a simple living species. But since the evolution away from a simple lifestyle to the more advanced industrial and technological societies, the human frame grows sicker and sicker. Today, one out of every two of us suffers from chronic disease. Today, eighty to a hundred autoimmune diseases have been discovered. Today, more suffer from depression than ever, with teens affected at even higher rates.

And yet many will argue for convenience over self-care.

It’s time to start cooking your own meals.

From choosing weekly recipes, to planning, shopping, prepping and cooking meals for you and your family, you’ll begin to create more balance in your life — You’ll begin to re-connect with yourself on a primal level, which alone will promote healing on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. Eating a meal is not simply a gastronomic experience to satisfy a need or craving, it’s a primal act with real physiological benefits.

Personally, I love all that I gain from grocery shopping. I love the real relationships I create with real people, like the produce guys, like Nashville and Arun, who’re always teaching me something new about what they’ve got stocked. They offer insights about local produce, how to think smartly about produce shipped in from other countries, and even preparation ideas. I know everyone in every department at my local grocery stores. I even know many up and down the east coast. There’s so much to be said alone for all the real relationships with real people gained from the experience of planning, prepping and shopping.

Another very busy client of mine, she’s a CFO, and I laughed so much yesterday as we talked about perusing our favorite cookbooks as a weekly commitment, to inspire new ways of preparing fun, healthy meals. She said, “I’m so excited about this little idea. I feel so inspired. It feels so fun.” So equal to all the creative benefits you gain from cooking yourself, you gain the opportunity to infuse your meal with love, have lots of fun “dancing and cooking” (I blast FUN music when I cook!) and the sacred ritual of hunting, gathering and preparing your meal!

It’s so important to slow down and connect with you and the food you eat.

Masaru Emoto showed us with compelling evidence in his movie, “Hidden Messages In Water,” that everything affects everything. Emoto’s message resounds with Einstein’s famous mc2 message on energy,

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want.”

Every thought, every action, every emotion carries a pulsating light-energy that affects our reality, beginning on a cellular level. If you are fast-fooding your life, albeit on a more expensive and grander scale with meal-planning services, it’s affecting you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, beginning on a cellular level. This is pure science. That on the most basic level, Einstein discovered that energy and mass (matter) are interchangeable; they are different forms of the same thing.

I highly recommend Emoto’s documentary for a more simplistic explanation of energy and how to think about what you eat from this perspective, but if you are looking for easy health, high-vibe resources, I encourage you to follow chefs who focus on high-vibe foods on Instagram or their blogs — A few of my long-time favorites are Matthew Kenney and Susan Powers.

We live in times when everything and anything we want is available with the ‘bat of an eye’ — It’s not necessarily the best thing for us! 

Take to time to think about the foods you love most this week. Open a favorite cookbook and pick a few recipes you’d love to make. Go to your local grocery store and make a new friend in the produce department. Ask them how their freshest and best can enhance your recipes. Turn the volume up on the Rollings Stones, Bruno Mars or Adele and ENJOY EVERY benefit you gained from turning off work-mode, reconnecting to yourself in creative ways, meeting and befriending new people, cooking and dancing AND having great fun! I dare you to tell me you don’t FEEL the benefits on an energetic and cellular level! IF you can flip your mindset to fierce self-care, I bet you’ll be addicted to EVERY phase of cooking for yourself!