The Ugly Truth About Sugar

It was 2:00 am. I was asleep, but woke up and made my way to the kitchen. I poured a big glass of milk and sat at the kitchen table with a sleeve of Chips A’Hoy cookies. It was kind of a ritual. I loved Chips A’Hoy cookies.

But this particular morning, through my sleepy stupor, I noticed this sick kind of insatiability, like I couldn’t eat the cookies fast enough.

Kind of like feeling possessed.

I looked down. The sleeve of cookies was near gone.

At the time, I didn’t know about the work of Dr. William Crook and his book, “The Yeast Connection.” But when my new naturopathic doctor asked me if I’d ever been tested for candida, he explained that though candida lives in our mouth and intestines and helps with digestion and absorption, when imbalanced and overproduced it could be the cause of a seemingly endless of array of problems throughout the body.

I looked at him and said, “However you measure it, I will be off the charts.”

At that time I had many chronic symptoms, with a team of doctors who all had their recommendations for the specific problem I sought their help. Even my gynecologist had his recommendations, “Carol, take an antibiotic every time you have sex,” as ‘the cure’ for the chronic yeast infections I experienced.

Take an antibiotic every time I have sex? I was 26 years old and in a healthy monogamous relationship.

As I suspected, the yeast in my body could not be measured and had become what is described as a polysystemic disease, which means it affected more than one system in my body.

Indeed.

I learned that yeast over-growth, or candida albicans as it is formerly known, loves sugar. That it has an insatiable appetite for sugar. It thrives and grows and flourishes on sugar. It will die without sugar. It screams for sugar.

I was relieved.

Relieved that I found an explanation that made sense for what I was experiencing, for the constant and unstable cravings controlling my health and the whole quality of my life.

I learned that sugar is as addictive as heroin, destroys the balance of friendly bacteria and unhealthy bacteria on the gut wall and acts like an opioid on the brain.

I learned that when candida is imbalanced in our body, it releases toxic by-products and breaks down the digestive wall causing leaky gut, and so much more, like,

• Digestive problems like bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea and dysbiosis
• Exhaustion. chronic fatigue and poor sleep patterns
• Headaches, dizziness, poor concentration, poor memory, brain fog and inability to focus
• Hormonal imbalance, mood swings, irritability, anxiety, depression and panic attacks
• Autoimmunity such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and even psoriasis
• Vaginal yeast infections and urinary tract infections
• Chronic allergies, including asthma
• Insatiable cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrate
• Fungal infections, like nail infections and athlete’s foot
• Seems like an amorphous list? It did to me at first, except I could check near everything listed.

If you have candida, I suspect you recognize yourself in there too.

To combat the effects of candida, I recommend my clients include supplements like garlic capsules, caprylic acid, oregano and/or clove oil and colloidal silver to kill the over-growth of yeast.

You should also include high dose probiotics of 50-100 billion units, and fermented vegetables to repopulate the friendly flora, counter the overgrowth of unfriendly bacteria, support healthy digestion and absorption and support healthy immune function.

And most importantly, include a diet high in leafy greens in juices, smoothies and salads, and exclude the 5 top inflammatory foods, gluten, sugar, caffeine, dairy and alcohol for a healing interim.

Milk and cookies might be a sweet memory from days gone by for some, but I discovered that there is an ugly truth about sugar and we can no longer look the other way.

If you suspect you have candida, or know someone who may be suffering from it’s effects, please contact me at carol@carol-egan.com

I vividly remember one of the times when I swore off sugar once and for all, when I went looking for my equally sugar-addicted coworker. The drill went like this, I’d whisper “they like you,” about the pastry chefs we worked with, “pleeeze get us a treat, they’ll give you anything you want,” full well knowing I’d long out-used my ‘just this once’ ‘pretty please’ reasoning with them.

We’d turn the corner greedily swallowing what ever sweet-fix we could get, giggle, lick our sugary fingers and swear off sugar yet again.

Maybe like me, you too experience some of the common signs of sugar addiction:

• You crave sweets
• You eat even when you’re not hungry
• Your tired from overeating
• You use every and any other form of ‘healthy’ sugar to satisfy your sweet tooth
• You’ve tried to control or quit eating sugar, but you just can’t

I felt liberated in a sense, when I saw the lecture that Robert Lustig posted on YouTube entitled, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” in 2009, which now has over 6 million views. In this lecture, Lustig refers to sugar as a ‘toxin’ and poison 13 times.

I watched in horror thinking, no kidding!

And then in my research to better understand this thing that felt like a straight-up addiction, I learned that students at a nearby liberal arts college found that eating Oreos activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse.

The student’s research found that high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do, which explains why I couldn’t resist sugary foods.

Actually, the average American today eats 150-170 pounds of sugar a year. If you do the math, this means ‘you’ are eating 1/4 – 1/2 pound of sugar a day!

I found a study that says rats — a whopping 94 percent — preferred sugar or saccharin, rather than cocaine!

Sugar is problem for more than just me, but you still might be saying, so what? So what if I love a lot of sugar?

Sugar directly impacts the health of your gut. Dr. David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain, and Brain Maker, says “sugar has a direct effect on the gut microbiome,” and the gut-brain connection.

Your gut microbiome has more than 100 trillion bacteria living within the gut wall. Sugar causes an imbalance between the good bacteria in your body, and the bad bacteria, candida albicans. Candida albicans thrives on sugar. Sugar feeds the yeast so it can continue to grow.

An unhealthy balance of bacteria in your body, brought on by a high-sugar diet can actually affect DNA expression and lead to increased inflammation, a key factor in issues like poor digestion, coronary artery disease, elevated blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer and even everyday memory and focus!

Sugar increase the uric acid levels in your body. High uric acid levels put you at risk for heart and kidney disease and an overly acidic body, which leads to poor digestion, weak bones and mineral deficiency. Sugar puts undue strain on your liver, leading to potential liver damage. Sugar causes metabolic dysfunction, including weight gain, abdominal bloating, imbalanced blood pressure, elevated blood sugar and high blood pressure. Sugar prematurely ages.

Craig Thompson, president of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the leading cancer research centers, said in the April 2011 issue of New Yorker Magazine, “I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can, because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to decrease my risk of cancer.”

I offer you 10 things that I know will help you curb and eliminate your sugar cravings:

1. Eliminate processed and packaged snack foods. These foods contain high amounts of sugar.
2. Reduce or eliminate caffeine. Caffeine causes metabolic fluctuations, including dehydration and blood sugar swings, which can lead to sugar cravings.
3. Avoid artificial sweeteners and foods with added sugar. Use a natural sweetener like stevia instead.
4. Move your body. Physical activity helps balance blood sugar levels, boosts energy, and reduces tension.
5. Drink water. Sometimes sweet cravings, and cravings in general, are more a sign of dehydration. Before eating a sugary food, have a glass of water, it may be all you really need.
6. Get more sleep. If you are chronically tired, your body will crave sugar for the instant energy it provides.
7. Eat vegetables and the less sweet fruit, like berries, green apples, grapefruits, lemons and limes. Their natural, healthy sugar will satisfy you.
8. Include with spices. Coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom will naturally sweeten your foods and reduce your cravings.
9. Reduce the amount of animal food you eat. According to yin-yang principles of eating, like Macrobiotics and Traditional Chinese Medicine, eating too much animal food, which are yang, can lead to cravings for sweets, which are yin.
10. There are many ways to add sweetness to your life, beyond just food. Look for non-food ways to sweeten your life, like in your relationships and your career. Cravings often carry a psychological or emotional component. By identifying the psychological causes for your cravings, you better understand how to choose healthier choices.

One last thought. Many will tell you it’s OK to eat sugar in moderation. Depending on the severity of your sugar cravings, it’s actually better to avoid sugar completely for a healing interim. Since research shows that sugar is more addictive than drugs of abuse, it’s better to eliminate it completely, until you feel you’ve got your cravings under control. And who knows, you may feel so great from this abstinence period, that you may choose to forgo this highly questionable substance.

Has sugar caused you problems?

You know I gave up sugar for a healing interim to get to the other side of my sugar addiction. I’m curious, do you think sugar could be holding you back from achieving your healthy breakthrough?

Which of the ideas above gave you an aha moment?

I look forward to reading your stories and thoughts in the comments below.

Ready to start eliminating sugar from your diet with a healthy start to your day? Get my 9 nutrient-dense smoothies guide to kickstart your healthy goals!

We live in an ever increasing toxic world, and these toxins are shutting off the production of energy on a cellular level, inside the mitochondria (Adenosine triphosphate, ATP — remember the lessons of energy production from middle school science class?).

Because our mitochondria can’t effectively produce the energy our body needs, our body’s systems can’t effectively function.

Like if you’ve ever experienced seemingly common symptoms, like constipation, allergies, adrenal dysfunction, or a dry cough, or more chronic problems like persistent flu-like symptoms and/or illness, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, autoimmune disease, or debilitating anxiety, research shows mitochondrial dysfunction as root cause for the rise in chronic illness.

And, as our body systems continue to break down, chronic symptoms and chronic illness in mind, body, Spirit ways continue too.

And here’s the simple truth, our body possesses an innate ability to heal itself. This is why chasing symptoms is not the way. Rather, symptoms, illness and disease are the likely outcome, even to be expected, when the body can’t effectively function from the enormity of chemicals and toxicants that make their way into our body from the foods we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breath.

We must retire the old-school practice of chasing the never-ending sink-hole of symptoms, because symptoms will persist if the body can not function effectively. With careful consideration and commitment to feeling our best, our get-healthy, be-healthy, stay-healthy efforts are better spent by removing the stressors that block inner balance, homeostasis, and the body’s innate ability to heal on every level.

When we remove stressors, including parasites, rogue bacteria and environmental and industrial pollutants from our body, the mitochondria can begin to make ATP for our body to heal and restore itself.

As we heal, our body functions will start to work again.

As our body functions work again, the vital force of Life will flow unencumbered again.

And when the vital force of Life flows unencumbered, chronic symptoms and illness clear.

The question I ask all my clients is, “What could be possible if your chronic symptoms/illness cleared? What could be possible if you felt your best every day?”

From all my years studying health, wellness, detoxification, digestive health and human potential, to better understand why I was so sick early on, I’ve found detoxing the human body akin to choosing a Holy path.

Oh yes, indeed, my whole life has changed from purifying my body of parasites, rogue bacteria and environmental and industrial pollutants in all ways, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and energetically. And now I help others do the same every day. Wow, right? From living a life defined by illness, to empowering others to move beyond the physical constraints that limit them in mind, body, Spirit ways.

Are sugar cravings bad? I was a sugar junkie, so I have a definite opinion about this question.

Sugar is  the primary ingredient in the highly-regarded anti-inflammatory diet, and the cornerstone of my clean eating programs, that took me down as a young girl. (Yes, “took me down” absolutely means destroyed the whole quality of my life.) Sure, all of the other inflammatory foods that we remove on a clean eating diet contributed to my body breaking down, but I was a sugar addict. Hands down. What does that mean in a larger context, I was a sugar addict?

My body was riddled with candida—an overgrowth of yeast throughout my body. Candida is an imbalance of bad bacteria, to good bacteria in the body. Ha! That’s when I first heard the word poly-systemic. New vocab word—poly-systemic. Yup, poly-systemic meant that the yeast spread from my gut into the tissues of all the organs in my body. No wonder I was a hot mess! Yes. It was very bad. I had symptoms raging from cystic acne to chronic constipation, from poor digestion to chronic fear and sadness.  And 25+ years ago Dr. William Crook, author of the Yeast Connection estimated that 80 million Americans had candida at that time, but didn’t know it. Hmm. Wonder how many million there are now, especially with the way most of us eat these days? Wonder if you are one of the lucky ones who does not have it, from among those 80 million—with inflation of course. I tried to figure out where and how this began for me. Why? I just wanted to pinpoint where this started so I could stop it from happening. I came up with all sorts of theories, but the bottom line is sugar NOT GOOD, or as my Dad would say, NG!

Sugar is acidic. Sugar feeds candida. Sugar is acidic. Sugar feeds candida.

Sugar feeds candida. Candida loves sugar. Cancer loves sugar. ALL chronic disease loves sugar AND an acidic environment. Candida, cancer and chronic disease can NOT live in an alkaline environment. It’s a simple math equation really. Easy Peasy, right?

So is a little sugar OK once in a while? Is a little alcohol, gluten, dairy and caffeine OK once in a while? You tell me. Are you healthy? Are you happy? I mean are you healthy and happy in the ways that you wake up feeling energetic and on fire for your day—you just can’t wait to go and express your love for your family and friends and everyone you interact with in your life? Does kindness in your heart explode and you can’t wait to share it with everyone? Or do you experience low energy? Do you experience chronic bloating, headaches, bad breath, moodiness, slackened skin, even anger? Or maybe you have behaviors that feel far less that who you know yourself to be deep down, or just not you, but you just can’t help yourself? That is an acidic environment. That IS an acidic environment.

Until we stop the looping cycle of what came first, the low energy and poor health or the negative, less than our best thinking and behaving, I say keep your diet PRISTINE.

People like Jay Kordich and Kris Carr began to eat cooked vegan fare ONLY after they healed themselves. While they were sick with cancer and in healing mode, they kept their diet raw, very green and loaded with juice. Why? Because the raw food diet and juice-fasts are known to be the most healing protocols on the planet BECAUSE they alkalize the body. And if you ever get to talk to her, which I have once at the Tibet House in NYC, she will tell you that she was caught in this looping too. But today Kris Carr is one of the most gorgeous and vibrant voices in the health world! She, among other very luminous people in the world I move inspired me to create a personal credo a few years back “put off what I want now, for what I want most.”

Sugar? My vote? Don’t. Pretty compelling when the president of Sloan Kettering Hospital, the leading cancer research and treatment center on the planet opts out!

Interested in cutting out sugar? Take 1000 milligrams of a supplement, an amino acid called glutamine every 5 hours. It literally fools your body into thinking it’s getting sugar.

An ode to to my first hate-mail sender who “strongly voiced” her opinions of me and my staunch views against sugar.

Have you ever gone long periods without laughing? Without fun? Without the light-heartedness you love about yourself? Many years back it seemed like I’d not experienced any one of these feelings for a very long time. I wanted my sass back.

My new naturopathic doctor said, “Have you ever been tested for candida?”

You’ve Got Candida

Before I got to my first visit with my new naturopath, I had a team of doctors who could not tell me why in my mid-20s I was chronically sick. So when he told me what candida was, an aggressive and opportunistic fungul bacteria, my eyes welled up, I leaned forward and said, “No need to test me. I’ve got it. I’d bet all the money I’ve ever made that I have this candida thing. Matter of fact, I say that if you try to measure it, it will be off the ‘richter scale.'”

Check. They couldn’t measure the candida in my body, it was that high. I had what is called chronic polysystemic candidiasis, which means the rogue bacteria, candida, spread throughout my body, beyond my digestive tract and was eating away at every cell, tissue and organ in my body. Without knowing for sure if I had ‘it,’ I intuitively knew I did.

Making The Connection

At this time, Dr. William Crook wrote and published the book, The Yeast Connection. I learned that at that time, 80 million Americans suffered from candida, like me, but it was largely overlooked by the medical community. I also learned that near every symptom I was experiencing was associated with this bacterial overgrowth throughout my body. I suffered from chronic exhaustion which caused me to think I was just lazy and miserable, an insatiable craving for sweets and yeasty breads that largely made up what I lived on (who didn’t?), cystic acne on my face that broke my heart and caused me to develop a profound self-consciousness and sadness as each bump throbbed, brain fog that affected my concentration, focus and memory that caused me to feel “stupid” and shaped my whole sense of self, hormone imbalance including hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue, chronic allergy problems, digestive problems including, gas, bloating and constipation that impacted everything I couldn’t do, plus chronic urinary tract infections, chronic vaginal yeast infections and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Long list, eh? Take another look. All of the symptoms I experienced are considered ‘ commonplace and normal’ in today’s world — Take a pill, “you’ll feel better in the morning.” But I didn’t.

Prescription Medications and Candida

But my body was breaking down, I was losing my fun Spirit, and my doctors didn’t know what to do for me, but prescribe antibiotics like M&Ms and cortisone like spa treatments, while I ate cookie after cookie! And guess what? When we take antibiotics, they go in and wipe out all bacteria, including the troublesome rogue bacteria AND the beneficial bacteria we need! And when the friendly bacteria are knocked out and imbalanced, the candida rise up and proliferate like wild-fire! Add cortisone shots, birth control AND an insatiable sugar addiction and I had the the perfect storm for candida to take over! (But WHO doesn’t take medications in combinations like this today?)

The research I site from Crook in The Yeast Connection is 30 years old. Today, researchers from Rice University show that 70 percent of all people are affected by Candida! 

Sugar and Candida

Do you crave sweets, bread or alcoholic beverages?

I learned that we who live on a high-sugar diet and yeast-containing foods are prone to a bacterial imbalance of candidiasis. And as I’ve said, but it bears repeating, sugar stimulates the growth of candida, and candida overgrowth in the digestive system can quickly spread throughout the body and affect every bodily function, as it did with me.

This is why eating sugar in moderation can NOT provide the healing your body needs to keep candida at bay.

And because candida is such an opportunistic pathogen, it can become very difficult to treat.

So I ask you, HOW could I be upset with someone who attacks me about my aversion to sugar? I personally know how detrimental it can be on the state of one’s health. She must not know this, or she’d totally understand. She may not have ever experienced profound illness in her body either, as I did, so how could I be upset that she doesn’t get how detrimental sugar can be on the human body.

But maybe you got sick like I did. Maybe when I recommend giving up sugar, to just do it, to cut it off, so you don’t feed and help this opportunistic organism proliferate throughout your body, it resonates and makes sense to you — You hear something from my younger self crying out to you, that an extraordinary life FAR beyond the laughter and play I so longed for years back does indeed exist on the other side of sugar addiction, chronic symptoms and candida.

I hope you heard something for you, in what I shared today. That was my goal in writing this post. It’s WAY more than mind-blowing to recount those early days of illness that have directed and shaped all of who I am today.

Your Next Steps

Do you know sugar owns you? If yes, then buckle up and get ready for 4-5 days to take the sugar-beast on! Addiction will scream (so will the yeast) for more sugar! You can NOT feed it. Think of it this way, can an alcoholic or drug addict have a little alcohol or drug? Sugar is THAT addictive! Bite the bullet and hold on — detoxing CAN help! It’s only the first 4-5 days that you’ll feel really challenged. It get’s easier after that!

Get a quality oregano oil. It’s anti-fungal, anti-viral and a great product to kill off yeast, as you stop feeding it with sugar! You can also add in Pau, D’Arco tea. It’s another great supplement to kill-off candida.

One more tip: Remember to stay focused on WHY you want to take sugar out of your diet. Surely it’s not about sugar, but about all that becomes possible if you’re not possessed and ravaged by the affects of sugar! Commitment can sometimes feel challenging, but the rewards are so worth it!

Do you agree?

Awesome! Now go clean out your cabinets, desk drawer and other little hiding spots with sugar tucked away!

The plant-based diet is getting a lot of attention today.

Doctors like, T. Colin Campbell, John McDougall and Michael Greger, among many others I greatly respect, offer expansive and impressive research showing clear science that you can dramatically reduce your risk of getting cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just by changing to a plant-based diet.

Each of these doctors have helped shape my ideas about health and healing. I appreciate their contributions. Their healing counsel has positively impacted the lives of many.

But their work falls short on a very important matter about healing.

They’re not talking about the energy of food.

In fact, they tell us that we can reduce our risk of getting cancer, heart disease and diabetes while eating pizza, pancakes and potatoes.

But energetically, foods like this contribute to entropy — to the degeneration, chaos and demise of our body on a cellular level.

Albert Einstein taught us that “Everything in life is energy.” Stepping over his important work is having very real and physical consequences beyond just our health and vitality… it’s impacting the quality of our lives.

For example, when Courtney Donnelly and I began to work together last year, she was in the Emergency Room twice a week for months with Ulcerative Colitis, a health problem that esteemed specialists, at an esteemed institution, told her she’d never heal.

If I had her on a plant-based diet as recommended above, we’d never have healed her digestive wall — Foods like pizza, pancakes and potatoes, even if “plant-based,” would have continued to abrade her digestive wall, cause inflammation and cause an excess of mucous production, so healing would have eluded her.

Not only is Courtney healing right before our very eyes (down to one medication), other Mom’s regularly compliment her on her “glowing” skin and radiant energy.

Add on regular love texts from her husband saying, “I’m falling more in love with you everyday,” PLUS the launch of her new design and lifestyle business, Vibrant Home, the benefits she’s experiencing FAR exceed, as Courtney says, “looking and feeling better than I ever remember.”

Courtney’s life has changed significantly because she took on eating a “high vibe” diet, not simply a plant-based die.

Let me explain a “high vibe’ diet.

Imagine your garage-door opener and alarm system on your house, they depend on a specific range of megahertz (MHz) of energy to run efficiently. It’s the same for your body, it depends on a specific range of MHz of energy to function at peak performance.

MHz is a scientific measurement of frequency and vibrational energy.

Imagine if you only provide your garage-door opener and alarm system 10 MHz of energy, though they run optimally at 40 MHz of energy, what do you think will happen? If you guessed sub-par functionality, with very low output, you’d a’ guessed right!

Your body — on a cellular level, operates similarly. If it does not receive the optimal range of megahertz of energy to function optimally (60-70), cellular activity in your body, with every gland, organ and system will function at a sub-par level — think brain fog, chronic and acute symptoms, excess weight, emotional imbalance, poor energy and poor performance.

Unlike electronic devices that just break down, your body is designed to convert MHz of energy from the air your breathe, the food you eat, and water you drink. This is why it’s imperative you understand the importance of quality air, food and water. They don’t just fuel your body, they heal against the ravages of the modern lifestyle.

The MHz of energy in a healthy body is very different than the MHz of energy in a sick body — As mentioned above, the optimal range of megahertz of energy in a healthy body is roughly 60-70 MHz. A common cold and flu start at 57-60 MHz (Warning: not a far drop from the healthy range). Candida overgrowth and disease start at 55 MHz. Cancer — 42 MHz. Death — 25 MHz.

Courtney, I, and all my clients eat a “high vibe” diet. My goal, for me, my clients and you, is to counter the ravaging impact of the modern lifestyle of fast food and immediate gratification, against our body. Statistics of chronic disease show us that trouble is afoot, that what we’re eating is not working for the human body… which is why I’ve created a guide for you to reenergize your body with high-vibe foods.

As pizza, pancakes and potatoes cause entropic demise of your body, the guide I’ve created outlines the frequencies of the foods you eat, so you can make choices to raise your vibrational state. It’s an easy download that you can hang on your fridge, or take shopping with you!

Download Your Free Energetics of Food Guide!

While I highly recommend the doctors above for their extensive research and work on the value of the plan-based diet, I’ve found it’s not enough. A diet rich in high-vibe foods is the key to turning your body back on, like Courtney and my other clients have.

*Do Note: Fruit offers the highest MHz of energy of any other food, so it tops the guide. If not for the impact of the modern lifestyle on the human body, I’d recommend it. But the high-sugar content of sweet fruit feeds yeast, mold, fungus and pathogen in the body — best to limit fruit to low-sugar choices, like lemons, limes, grapefruits, all berries and green apples. 

A challenge to you:

For the next week, challenge yourself to eat a diet of primarily high-vibe foods, while omitting low-vibe foods. Use the guide to lead you to making your best choices, and then assess how you feel, and how you look come the end of the week. When you’re done, come back and let me know how you did! I’d love to hear.

And, if you have any questions or comments, please do post below. I’d love to help!

Many want to do a detox, especially at this time of year, with health goals one of the top most sought after resolutions. 

But bear this in mind, your colon is your ‘waste managing system’ in your body. If you’re not efficiently releasing waste matter from your colon, with at least 2-3 healthy bowel movements a day, you’re likely constipated, and/or suffering from any of the myriad of health challenges that result from this problem = Your waste processing plant is now septic, so clearing your colon is your first ‘order of the day.’

Constipation is one of the top most common problems in the United States… and unbeknown to many, chronic constipation and the septic stagnancy it causes in the body is the root of all illness. 

I remember when I used to host my first online detoxes, many would say, but I’m so bloated.

Here’s why:

Detoxing can be very preemptive and problematic, if you’re chronically constipated, because you don’t yet know the breadth and depth of harm caused by microbial and pathogenic overgrowth and other toxins in your colon, and throughout your body. 

If you want to do a detox to lose weight, reduce cravings, reverse premature aging and restore your health, you first need to get your bowels to release toxic waste matter 2-3 times per day. 

Here are 6 ways you can support regular elimination: 

1. Eat your water and drink your food. What does that mean? To eat your water means to eat water-dense foods, by including boatloads of fresh vegetables and fruits daily. Water-dense foods will hydrate your body, and especially your likely impacted-with-old-waste-mater colon in ways it sorely needs, if you’ve been consuming a more Standard American Diet, that’s laden with dense, dry, nutrient devoid foods, this will help you bring more life-force to your cells, tissue and… colon To drink your food means to ensure you’re getting the vitamins, minerals, photo chemicals and life-force energy, the vital force of Life (electricity) the earth, sun and air provide, especially if your digestion is impaired. You do this by drinking 16-32 ounces of fresh pressed vegetable juices daily. Drinking green vegetable juices daily is my top recommendation because they’re like an IV — The nutrients go straight to you cells and tissues, which you need more than ever, if your digestive processes, like absorption, assimilation and eliminating have been impaired too.  
2. Move your body daily. Every form of movement, from a relaxing walk, to a rigorous run, and everything in between, will increase the kinetic energy in your body, to promote natural peristalsis. This is what we’re all after. Healthy peristalsis means healthy eliminations. Healthy eliminations you’re on the road to looking and feeling your best again! 
3. Reduce stress. Stress is a common culprit with chronic constipation. Try this: Clench your body, including your teeth, the muscles on your face, and your fists and hold for 10-20 seconds. Now release the clenching. THAT IS what stress does inside our body. It causes contraction. Contraction is the opposite of what we want, to promote healthy bowel regularity. Releasing stress, releasing the contractive state allows calm, clarity and balance to return. You want to support inner calm. Everything good happens in life, when the body is in homeostasis, in balance, in all ways. 
4. Hydrate. Drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily. You want to ensure that your body is hydrated. A hydrated body helps waste mater move from point A to point B, efficiently. 
5. Herbal support. Include non-irritating bowel-moving herbs, like Triphala, ginger root, and aloe vera to support movement of waste matter out of your body. 
6. Carbons. Include carbons, like Bioactive Carbons from Microbe Formulas. I LOVE MF formulations in general, because they are NOT a bandaid line of supplements, but a line created to remove everything that does not belong inside a human body (radiation, herbicides, pesticides, mold, parasites, Lyme… ), and rebuild from the cellular level up. Carbons, also known as humic and fulvic acids, are a composition of decomposed plant life that are laden with carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the elements that make up 96% of the human body. Bioactive carbons contain amino acids, enzymes, hormones, antivirals, minerals, trace elements, natural antibiotics, natural fungicides, and free-radical scavengers, and move easily through the body, bind to toxins, and rebuild and restore tissue. 

If you’ve suffered from constipation for years, there are likely other issues you need to address, like parasites, to resolve this problem fully, but addressing constipation, and the obstruction it leaves behind, before taking on a full-body detox, is your primary objective. 

Questions? Please feel free to email me, or leave your comments below.

Fasting in one of the top strategies I recommend to all my clients for healing chronic illness, promoting healthy weight loss, improving mental and emotional mastery, nipping persistent cravings (once and for all), promoting detoxification processes… and so much more.

Fasting is simply a deliberate choice to refrain from eating for a period of time, but with a healing power that is noteworthy.

Fasting will activate your body’s sympathetic nervous system, build and repair muscle tissue and promote the production of human hormone growth, increase cellular repair, support digestive health and reduce insulin, slow aging, protect against disease and improve your health in every way.

There are many kinds of fasting, and each offer something different.

For example, you can try, 

1. Intermittent Fasting, also known as Time-Restricted Eating — Daily fasting, when a person restricts eating to a set number of hours per day
2. Prolonged Fast — Fasting for an extended period; usually anywhere from 4 to 7 consecutive days
3. Water Fast — Fasting by consuming only water and abstaining from consuming food
4. Juice Fast — Fasting by consuming only fresh-pressed juices and abstaining from consuming food
5. Religious Fast — Fasting as a way to regain or refocus spiritually is common in many religions

But you say, I can not NOT eat breakfast, yes?

Actually, you can. You can do anything you want to do, if you put your mind to it.

Ask yourself, “Do I eat at certain times of the day because I feel I need to eat at these times? Is this just a habit, or do I really need to eat now? Do I really need 3 meals a day, or do I just believe this to be true, because everyone I know believes this?” Like me, you were likely raised to believe we need to eat three meals a day, so the idea of not eating one of them could feel off, difficult, even unhealthy.

Consider this: 

Tomorrow morning, before you prepare to eat breakfast, stop, pause, and ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?” It’s crazy how often you’ll sense you are not hungry, but just responding to a habituated lifestyle habit.

Here’s the thing, before you wake up, around 4am, your body begins to pump growth hormone and adrenaline, which basically activates you for the day. You do NOT need to eat for energy for the day, your body has already prepared you in all the ways you need.

Experiment with fasting 

Start by fasting for 16 hours, and eating for  8 hours, and see how you feel. This is how I started, but after a while I felt so good, and fasting felt so easy, I extended the challenge to 20 hours of fasting and 4 hours of eating daily. And ya know what? I am not hungry at all, and I’m holding a healthy weight for someone my size. 

I know, you say, impossible. I could never do it! Ha! Try it, and you’ll see how easy it really becomes… and that’s when you’ll start to take on longer fasts. And the gold will be, you experiencing in a very lived and visceral way, all the benefits fasting offers.

I often juice fast, but today I raise my water glass to you! Cheers! 

Have you tried to “get healthy,” with only hit and miss results?

Do you feel something “off” with your health, on an intuitive level, but can’t figure out why? 

Were you diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, or suffer with chronic symptoms?

Over the past few years, my inquiry into digestive health and detoxification has expanded exponentially, with deeper and more complex reasons emerging as to why getting healthy seems to elude so many of us.

Looking Back

I remember a window of time early on in my get-healthy efforts, when I began eating only the most healthy foods available.

But in spite of my Herculean efforts, my body wasn’t absorbing the nutrients I took in — I remember my devoted mother and I regularly working side-by-side in my kitchen making only very healing food preps, yet one day I eliminated whole, intact supplement-capsules (yes, I saw them floating in the toilet completely intact). 

So in a scientific method approach (I say this very loosely. I’m far too open to alternative approaches to healing, to be bound by hard science), albeit from a desperate-for-healing-answers personal context, I voraciously read everything and anything about healing, to then implement and assess it’s curative viability over time. Did this approach, or that technique, provide “accurate, reliable and consistent” results and proof that “it” worked consistently over time?

My mother, like a devoted lab-assistant, couldn’t keep up with every new hypotheses I was putting under an ‘in-real-time’ lens, so she just continued volunteering her love and support for me with her devoted efforts, as I continued searching for “the” answer I needed to finally look and feel better. 

In spite of our combined efforts, however, I remained sick for many years. 

Answers Came

Over time, I discovered that my body was not a healthy vibrational receptor for the healthy food choices I was making. No sick body, at any level, is… 

I learned that beyond diet, I needed to focus on root cause of health problems. 

I learned that the endeavor to be healthy is far and away beyond just dietary changes. 

I learned that though every effort matters, that though progress is perfection, every effort is kinda’ like icing on a mud-pie, if we don’t remove the mud-pie — That is, if we don’t remove that which doesn’t belong in the human body…

I learned that yeast, mold, fungus, rogue-bacteria, parasites and toxic-environmental elements, like heavy metals, chemicals and radiation, carry a very low-vibrational frequency. And if these invaders thrive in greater numbers within your body, more than life-sustaining friendly flora, they’ll rapidly multiply, while making you, and the cells and tissues of your toxic body, their host for sustenance and survival. (Yes, pathogen thrive in toxic bodies.)

Question to Consider

Do you know what’s happening inside your body?

Sick people invariably suffer from both parasite infestation and heavy metal toxicity.

This is why changes in diet alone are not remotely enough, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise (Which is why the rise of arbitrary health recommendations from pseudo health practitioners could be holding you back!)

Healing is a matter of removing all that’s causing decay, corruption and internal degradation within, so that the body can return to the highest-frequency possible.

More Questions to Consider

Has the impact of the modern lifestyle, that is, has Fast-Food Nation, processed, nutrient-devoid foods, immediate gratification, gerbil-wheel mentality, chronic stress, toxic pollutants, rogue pathogen and parasites overtaken the inner-terrain of your body, or that of a loved one?

Can you trust that you’re achieving all you’re capable of achieving, can you trust you’re being all you were Divinely created to be, if the question lays bare, “Is your body laden with toxic waste matter, pathogen, parasites and toxic pollutants?”

Can you feel confident that you’re mind is a clear, sharp, highly-functioning tool, that your emotions are free, unfettered, and fully and uniquely you, without attending to conclusive research suggesting these low-vibrational invaders are overtaking your body? 

Cutting Edge Research

According to Dr. Todd Watts, a leader in parasitology, “If you have a pulse, you have parasites.”

Many of the breakthrough results my clients and I have achieved are a direct result of my expanded study into these deeper healing and detoxification modalities, like the impact of parasites, viruses and retroviruses, heavy metals, radiation and chemicals on the human body and it’s ability, or not, to thrive.

We’ve been able to:

• Rebuild immunity and regain health
• Increase real internal fire and energy
• Slow, stop and reverse chronic symptoms and chronic illness
• Claim radiance and energy in every way

And these results come from the healing detox lifestyle I personally practice, and recommend to all my clients. My methodology is squarely a game of removing — Removing that which does not belong inside the human body.

With the vibrational resonance this New Year carries, we’re all in line for high-level healing. So if feeling vibrant and healthy has eluded you up until now, if losing weight and conquering chronic cravings are goals you can never completely achieve, point your efforts towards deep-tissue cleansing, parasite cleansing, and the removal of heavy metals, viruses, chemicals and radiation, and… trust that I’ll be talking more about all of these themes going forward. 

Your Questions

Does what I say make sense? Does what I say not make sense, but on an intuitive level, something resonates for you?

If you have questions, comments, or thoughts you’d like to talk about, schedule a pitch-free call with me here.

2019 brought me my most challenging year yet, and perhaps the best year of my life thus far. 2019 asked me to stop, to utterly stop all outward movement, and to go deeply within in profound, meaningful and very active interior ways.

Many questions rose up.

Who are you? What do you perceive, when you look at yourself? When you look in the mirror, do you see someone worthy of love, compassion and acceptance? Do you recognize yourself as a friend?

With two most profound:

Do you believe you can turn to your own inner wisdom? Can you be your own apprentice?

An apprentice is one who is learning from another who is skilled, from one who possesses mastery. 

As I say to my clients in near every call we have, there comes a time when we must turn within, to find and get to know our Inner Guide, our Inner Teacher. There comes a time when we must apprentice ourselves. What does she want to teach us? What does he want us to know?

Consider this:

HOW can we ever hope to BE our best Selves, if we’re continuously responding to the onslaught of noise from the outside world? From others who are also trying to find their way, albeit imperfectly too? HOW can we ever hope to do our greatest work, if we’re disconnected from ourselves on a heart and Soul level?

My time away

I’ve learned so much from “The Summer of 2019,” which I’ll share about in big and little ways from this day forward. But for this post, I want to share with you a poem I’ve read many times over from my bed these past many months, from David Whyte, with the hopes that it inspires in you, as it has me.

Read it once. Read it twice. Read it many times, for it’s gifts are many-layered. Yes, can you apprentice yourself?

May it offer you all the gifts you need to hear from You, the eternal You within, now, and always.

Coleman’s Bed

Make a nesting now, a place to which
the birds can come, think of Kevin’s
prayerful palm holding the blackbird’s egg
and be the one, looking out from this place
who warms interior forms into light.
Feel the way the cliff at your back
gives shelter to your outward view
and then bring in from those horizons
all discordant elements that seek a home.

Be taught now, among the trees and rocks,
how the discarded is woven into shelter,
learn the way things hidden and unspoken
slowly proclaim their voice in the world.
Find that far inward symmetry
to all outward appearances, apprentice
yourself to yourself, begin to welcome back
all you sent away, be a new annunciation,
make yourself a door through which
to be hospitable, even to the stranger in you.

See with every turning day,
how each season makes a child
of you again, wants you to become
a seeker after rainfall and birdsong,
watch now, how it weathers you
to a testing in the tried and true,
admonishes you with each falling leaf,
to be courageous, to be something
that has come through, to be the last thing
you want to see before you leave the world.

Above all, be alone with it all,
a hiving off, a corner of silence
amidst the noise, refuse to talk,
even to yourself, and stay in this place
until the current of the story
is strong enough to float you out.

Ghost then, to where others
in this place have come before,
under the hazel, by the ruined chapel,
below the cave where Coleman slept,
become the source that makes
the river flow, and then the sea
beyond. Live in this place
as you were meant to and then,
surprised by your abilities,
become the ancestor of it all,
the quiet, robust and blessed Saint
that your future happiness
will always remember.