Food cravings are a common problem.

Processed foods. Sugary foods. Salty foods.

Food cravings take over and thwart our very best commitment.

Someone I know emailed me the other day and said, “I need help. I’m addicted to sugar. Can you help me?”

My answer?

One, sadly your ‘addictions’ are highly manufactured. Processed foods are carefully formulated to trigger your brain’s pleasure center at the footnote of of $60 billion every year to make sure you want more!  

Second, I’ve got very good news to counter there efforts and your addiction! You need only do this one thing to easily free yourself from any and all food cravings,

With a high, live-food diet and lots of fresh-pressed, green juices, intermittent fasting is my top health recommendation for all it’s many benefits, plus it conquers cravings!

Think about it, by simply scheduling a shorter window of time to eat everyday, which is what intermittent fasting is, you reset your body to burn fat for energy, instead of sugar.

This reset is significant, since your body typically burns glucose/sugar for energy. When you shift your body to use fat for fuel, rather than sugar, your body will crave sugar less. 

Fat for fuel, rather than sugar for fuel equals freedom from cravings.

It’s that simple.

Just choose a shorter duration of time to eat everyday, like from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm, or 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and you will become a fat burner, rather than a sugar burner.

Au revoir food cravings! 

No joke. This works. Plus I can not impress the overall health benefits of intermittent fasting enough!

Your Turn:

1. Schedule your first intermittent fasting.
2. Plan and prepare what you’re going to eat for your first fasting day, and probably best to include the next day too, so you’ve got healthy food ready to go.
3. Come back and tell me how it went for you. I’d love to hear! PS — Do note, it’ll take more than one time of fasting to become a fat burner, but give one day a go and let me know how you do!

 

Do you struggle with losing weight? Feel exhausted? Stressed? Possessed by cravings, even preoccupied with chronic symptoms?

Worse, do these symptoms impact your day, even your productivity at work and your relationships at home?

It’s kind of wild, but research today says that our body is home to more bacterial cells than human cells. That each of us hosts roughly 100 trillion bacterial cells, that these bacterial cells outnumber human cells 10 to one, and an imbalance in our ‘friendly flora,’ versus rogue pathogenic bacteria can impact every facet of our life. 

You might say, “Cool,” and forget about it. You might say, “So what. Who’s got time to care?” But you might say, “Whaaaat?!?!,” as I did near 30 years ago when I was diagnosed with an imbalance of ‘unfriendly’ bacteria in my body.

Here’s why I say you want to remember and care about this factoid. If the balance of good bacteria in your body, particularly in your gut, becomes imbalanced by poor diet, stress and the fast pace of the modern lifestyle,

• Healthy digestion becomes compromised, and
• Immunity becomes compromised, and
• It spreads throughout your body, including your brain

Even cancer, cardiovascular disease and obesity are linked to an imbalance in the ‘microbiota,’ the inner bacterial terrain.

If you’re serious about reclaiming your health and vitality, there is plenty you can do to encourage friendly bacterial growth to rebalance your inner terrain.

1. The most important first step is to remove processed food-like substances, starchy foods, hard-to-digest foods and the top 5 common toxic-trigger foods, gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol. These foods feed the bad bacterial overgrowth that has taken over. Without the first step, every other step will bottom out. Hands-down.
2. The second important step is three-fold,
   • Add in nutrient-dense, electrically charged live foods that can help restore inner-balance, AND
   • Add in probiotic-rich fermented foods, foods laden with good bacteria, like raw sauerkraut, raw fermented kimchee and kombucha and you can find them all in refrigerated section of your natural foods market. Fermented foods,
     • Help boost the digestibility and boost absorption of foods
     • Produce their own nutritional benefits — They make vitamin B12 and vitamin K that are produced in the digestive wall. Fermented foods actually make them both for us.
     • Reduces IBS symptoms, like bloating, stomach cramping, abdominal pain, diarrhea and/or constipation and flatulence
     • Produce numerous compounds that destroy and inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria.

1. • Add in an anti-bacterial, like oregano oil. Yes, this very intense oil is available in capsule form, but I highly recommend the drops, When you add your drops to a small glass of water to drink, it will coat every tissue it touches, from the mouth, through the alimentary canal. This is super effective in killing rogue bacteria.
   • Add in a high-quality probiotic. This is the one supplement I recommend every client take.

By restoring your gut health and rebalancing your inner bacterial terrain, excess weight will fall off, energy will rise, stress will subside, productivity will return… and, you’ll sleep better, you’re mood will be better, your skin will radiate… and so much more. Makes sense though, doesn’t it, since you are largely a bacterial being?

Action Steps:

1. New to the get-healthy game? Lean in and choose one thing to add in, and one thing to take out.  and start with one.
2. Challenge yourself, this is how healthy change happens.
3. Prefer to start with more basic, but oh-so essential steps to getting healthy? Click here.

Got questions? Leave a comment below. I’d love to help!

Before you head out to the market, I recommend you consider two primary questions when writing out your grocery list:

1. Can the foods you choose leave your body efficiently and easily?
2. Will the food cause you harm?

These are the same questions I ask myself, and I recommend you ask yourself, before you head out to do your grocery shopping.

What I recommend in my ideal grocery list pivots off the grave statistics of chronic disease today.

Shopping for “healthy” is no longer enough. Healing is the game now.

One out of every two Americans suffers from chronic symptoms, so you need to eat foods that turn every cell, organ, system and bodily function on, so your body can run optimally.

And for we the one out of the two of us who suffer from chronic symptoms today, we know that these symptoms literally impact upon the quality of’our literal lived experience.

So, how do you plan a grocery list around these two important questions, with these statistics in mind?

1. Choose foods that leave your body efficiently and easily.

One of the easiest ways to take in vital nutrition is drinking green juice — it requires no digestive fire.

But we cannot live on green juice alone (although I’ve tried!), so your next best bet is eating a diet high in LIVE fruits and vegetables.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to choose foods from the periphery of the story — perishables. If the food you choose is refrigerated, it means it is still alive with life-force energy, vitality, electricity. The very vital electric energy in the live foods you choose is precisely what your body needs to ‘light up,’ and run efficiently.

But how efficiently your body can eliminate what you eat really matters.

What you eat and what your body is able to eliminate can make a profound difference upon living a full and vital life bursting with a Spirit of adventure, possibility and fun, or a life shackled to weekly doctor visits, chronic symptoms, excess weight and premature aging.

2. Avoid foods that cause harm.

Processed foods, nutrient devoid foods and even hard-to-digest foods cause irritation and inflammation in the body. The top 5 common toxic trigger foods known to cause trouble in the body are:

1. Gluten
2. Dairy
3. Sugar
4. Caffeine
5. Alcohol

Not only that, but many conventionally-grown foods are treated with harmful pesticides, so when possible, choose organic. When organic is not available, refer to the  Clean 15 list from the Environmental Working Group to find your best choices.

Oh yes, no doubt there is a whole big world of gastronomy that is considered ‘en vogue’ today, aka, “I’m a foodie.’ Bah! These bourgeoise influences, with familial and cultural ‘traditions,’ are keeping oh-so many of us sick today! One woman said to me, though her whole family suffers from chronic digestive problems, “but Carol, Americans don’t eat like that!”

So, what’s in my grocery cart?

While “Americans” may not eat like this, I certainly do, and so do my clients, as well as the leading health doctors I follow, add in my teachers, and my clients kids too! Heck, even my dear mother focuses on fresh vegetables!

So here’s a look at what goes on my grocery list and into my cart every week, and what I recommend you consider adding to your list and cart too!

• Always in my cart:

  I buy a rainbow of colors, leafy greens (all sorts of varieties), radicchio, sprouts, fresh herbs, avocados, cucumbers, celery, heirloom tomatoes, carrots, red beets, sweet potatoes, winter squash, zucchini, sweet and hot peppers, fennel, onion, garlic, ginger, berries, lemon, limes, grapefruit, green apples

• My favorite condiment:

  Raw fermented vegetables, like saurkraut and kimchee, though natural health food stores are offering many new mixes, with carrots and beets and even jalapeño… and Deliciously Detoxifying Pesto!

• Staples always in the house:

  Healthforce Nutritionals Green Protein Alchemy, hemp seeds, chia seeds, maca powder, raw cacao, sundried tomatoes, raw cacao, jars of organic marinara and Muir Glen tomatoes (yes, these are processed, but the ratio of live, nutrient dense foods to processed is minor)… and the list goes on.

• My favorite snack:

  Thinly sliced purple jewel beets with sea salt or a dollop of Deliciously Detoxifying Pesto!

• Best shopping tip:

  If it has a label, it means it’s processed, which means it is devitalized of any nutritional value — eliminate, or greatly reduce food-like substances with labels and buy fresh, whole foods from the periphery of the store. 

• My favorite place to shop:

  Whole Foods. Everyone who knows me knows I love Whole Foods. Matter of fact, I’ve been in near every Whole Foods up and down the east and west coasts! The produce is SO fresh… and I am primarily a produce girl! With that said… I SO support local farmers, farmer markets, small natural food markets and shops, especially for the speciality items and artisan wares you can’t find in bigger stores. 

• Best simple recipe:

  Roll a healthy dollop of Deliciously Detoxifying Pesto in a purple cabbage leaf with your favorite veggies, avocado and fermented sauerkraut. Super easy and super delicious! 

• Favorite Indulgences:

  Blueprint Juices, Imported Olives, Monterey Farms Fresh Grilled Artichokes and Jackfruit

Start your ideal grocery shopping today with these action steps.

1. Shop on the periphery of the store.
2. Begin to eliminate processed foods with labels.
3. Choose a rainbow of colors when you choose your veggies and fruits.
4. Experiment and discover new 'indulgences' that delight you, but won't harm your body!

And if you have any questions, leave a comment below. I’d love to help!

 

Green juice and green smoothies are taking the world by storm today. With the spotlight on the nutritional benefits of kale, spinach and other leafy greens, interest in green drinks continue to grow, as does the demand in local juice and smoothie bars.
But many ask, what’s the difference between a green juice and a green smoothie? Isn’t it better to leave the fiber in the fruits and vegetables? Which one is better for you?

While there is much debate about this, with varying opinions as to which is better for you, a juice or a smoothie, both offer benefits, albeit very different benefits. Let me explain.

Smoothies are made by processing whole fruits and vegetables in a blender, so they retain the fiber of all ingredients. Because smoothies retain the fiber, they tend to be more satiating than green juice. Green smoothies are quick to make, can be loaded up with ingredients like avocado, sprouts and raw cacao for a chocolatey flavor… and are a great stand in for any meal or snack.

Because of the delicious combinations possible, smoothies are a great springboard to healthier eating habits for newcomers.

However, when making green smoothies, do note:

• The blending process breaks the fiber down in a smoothie, but you still need to chew it to activate the digestive enzyme in saliva, amylase. Amylase begins the digestive process.
• Choose combinations like leafy greens with less starchy fruits like berries, green apples, pears, peaches and plums to ensure healthy digestion, healthy elimination and reduce the risk of fermentation or gas.
• Use only fresh produce. Disregard recipes that suggest using frozen kale, for example. Fresh fruits and vegetables deliver the live, vital, electricity your cells need to activate!
• A smoothie cannot take the place of green juice.

Green juice is made by extracting the vegetable and fruit water from the whole foods used, and discarding the fiber, unlike with smoothies.

This is what many do not understand. They ask, why would you separate the fiber from the water in the vegetables and throw it away?

In a nutshell, when you drink juice, no digestive fire is required. Your digestive system doesn’t have to do anything to take in the nutrients provided from the foods you juiced.

Think of it this way, juice is like an IV running medicine into your body, with the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and live energy from the fresh fruits and vegetables going directly to your cells to nourish and regenerate.

But also think of green juice this way, because it’s so electrically charged, green juices act like a magnet in the body and pull toxic waste matter out of the tissues and cells.

This is especially helpful for all of us who have lived on some version of the Standard American Diet, and suffer from any acute or chronic condition, excess weight, low energy or premature aging because you can take in so much more nutrition when you drink it, versus eating it. If our ability to absorb or assimilate is impaired in any way, green juice bypasses that and gets the nutrients right to the cells.

Green juice offers the most easily accessible and assimilable form of live, vital nutrition. But do consider this, juice is concentrated because fiber was removed, so you want to limit sweet fruits, or it will blast your system with sugar. Sweet fruits are best in smoothies, rather than juices.

My first recommendation always is green juice, but even with their differences, green juices and green smoothies are an awesome and healthy answer to the Standard American Diet laden with processed and nutrient-devoid foods.

Want to experience what more green in your diet feels like? Want to deep dive into an anti-inflammatory, get-healthy game to get your warm-weather swagger on? Join me this Spring for one of my favorite little programs, More Than A Detox. You can learn more about it here. 

Do you know that nearly 70% of Americans take at least one prescription medication, and more than 50% take two?

Do you know that 20% of Americans take five or more prescription medications?

That within these statistics of prescribed medications, antibiotics, antidepressants and painkilling opioids are the most commonly prescribed.

And these statistics are dated. Newsweek says that the use of prescription medication continues to rise.

Consider this, prescription medications treat symptoms.

Symptoms challenge us. Symptoms disrupt our lives. Symptoms inconvenience, trouble and distress us.

Symptoms wreak havoc on our lives.

Symptoms wreaked havoc on my life and many of my client’s lives.

Consider this, without symptoms there is no longer a motivation to do what it takes to find the root cause of the symptom, to heal the symptom, to live life beyond the symptom.

The pill is that powerful. It removes the need to slow down, to eat healthy, to move your body in ways that promote vitality, but while your not experiencing the distress the symptoms cause, the problem continues to progress = you think you’re OK, you think you’re all better, thanks to the pill… while the root cause continues unabated. 

Consider this, the human body was designed to be healthy, energetic, vibrant, and… heal itself.

TELL ME

Do you think pharmaceutical medications are over-prescribed today?

Do you think you could be doing a better job taking care of your body and your health?

Please do note, I am not saying that there is not a time in life to take a prescription medication. I am saying that statistics show we’re using a lot of prescription medication. I’m also saying that symptoms can be very useful, if we use them to guide us to better understanding what our body needs to be naturally energetic and vibrant again. 

Tell me what you think in the comments section below.

I walked out of the restaurant kitchen lugging a very big and very heavy tray of food on my shoulder.

I looked around the main dining room and the laughter, fun and festivity in the air punched me in the gut.

At 23 years old, I was exhausted. It seemed like all I did was work.

In those moments, it seemed like no one in the room could ever match how hard I worked. I stood there tired and sweating and baffled. They sat there having fun.

I mean, I was always working, and these guests were always coming to the restaurant to have fun and enjoy themselves.

That moment unwittingly spurred a lifetime of inquiry into the inner-tickings of human potential. I wanted to understand why some were successful and having fun with life, and why I wasn’t.

Over the past 25 years I’ve learned much, but three things stand out as key to achieving our best and being our best:

 

WHAT WE EAT MATTERS. It’s irrefutable. In the most basic understanding, our bodies are simply biochemical machines, a system of connecting impulses, chemical reactions, electric currents and shared information that work synergistically together. What we eat drives these actions.

To achieve full potential, all of those processes need to happen.

But during those days at the restaurant, I didn’t eat healthfully. And because of it, I suffered with several chronic health problems, like Leaky Gut Syndrome, chronic urinary tract infections and chronic allergies.

So the notion of achieving my fullest potential was not even in the realm of my life experience. Full potential? What’s that? Find me a doctor who can tell me why I feel so poorly, and then we can talk about anything else you want to talk about.

But when I put nutrition first, the most amazing thing began to happen. As my body got healthier, the horizon of opportunity literally began to rise up for me in ways I didn’t even know existed when I was sick.

 

WHO WE SPEND TIME WITH MATTERS. It’s said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. So it stands to reason, that if we spend time with people who are committed to their personal growth, we’ll spend our time committed to our personal growth.

But I had quit high school, so I didn’t go on to develop new friendships with people who were talking about things that interested me as I got older, so I had to get resourceful to find them.

I began to find my tribe in the books I read. Authors like Marianne Williamson, Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield inspired me to think far beyond the circumstances of my life… and soon my sphere of influence included motivating and educational audio tracks, YouTube channels and even basic seminars in the basement of a local hospital.

Who we spend time with matters. It can make the difference between reaching for excellence, or accepting ‘good enough.’ It can make the difference between living with chronic symptoms, or finding a tribe who can help you heal your body, so you can achieve your full potential.

 

MORE THAN FOOD MATTERS.

One afternoon I discovered that my body was unable to digest the supplements I was taking. Yes, that meant my body was unable to break them down. But what I also got was, if my body couldn’t break down the pills I was taking,

Eating healthy food alone was not enough — If my body couldn’t break down the supplements I was taking, how could it break down the food I ate?

That we are not what we eat, but rather we are what we digest, and that healing the digestive wall is the essential first step for any health protocol, and…

That every choice we make contributes to the quality of our health and wellbeing, so we must include personal practices like meditating and journaling, to strengthen our relationship with our self.

The alternative is, every choice we make will pivot off a self fragmented by the demands of a busy life, rather than a calm, centered self.

Back in those early restaurant days, when I felt overworked and exhausted, sick and disheartened, I never even considered that there could be another way, which is probably why I’ve loved this quote from Copernicus since I first heard it, “To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” For me this quote says that by acknowledging that there are things that I don’t know, I can find comfort, and even excitement in the questions and the challenges new learning asks of me, rather than a test of my intellect or ability. From this perspective, answers appear that I might not have ever known existed, like, what we eat matters, who we spend time with matters, and more than food matters.

 

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MOMENT

Now that I’ve shared one of my stories on the power of a moment, I’d love to hear from you.

When looking back, what moments inspired big life change for you? Did you act on what you learned? Why? Why not?

How did the a-ha moments shift your health or your life?

Fill me in by leaving a comment below.

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

No matter how accomplished my clients are, they all come to our work together saying they’ve yet to master the area of health and wellbeing.

Think about it, do you feel like you’re at your ideal weight, physically strong and consistently energized throughout the day? Clear and focused, without wrestling with food cravings and/or chronic symptoms?

Are you happy with your overall health, unencumbered by nagging chronic symptoms or reoccurring health problems?

If you’re like most people, likely not. If you’re like most of my clients, this flat-out does not work.

All say things like,  though they’ve managed to get every promotion they’ve wanted, achieved every goal they’ve aspired to, earned the nod of the Board Chair and now travel the world, they don’t know what to do to get healthy and stay healthy.

I so get it. I tried every healing modality I ever heard of before ‘it’ clicked, for me.

And I learned a kind of ironic thing along the way, to achieve results in any get-healthy game, actually to achieve results in any area of life, you’ve got to know what’s working, and what’s not, IF you want to create healthy lifestyle habits that last.

Exactly. Healthy lifestyle habits are not simply about eating healthy food and getting to the gym. Healthy lifestyle habits are a holistic endeavor.

Which is why I recommend stepping back from your get-healthy, weight-loss and fitness goals for a minute, to check out The Wheel of Life.

The Wheel of Life is a seemingly benign exercise, but it offers usable insights about areas of life that could be helping you, or hindering you, areas that are working for you, and the areas that are not.

Why is this important?

Consider this: Imagine each area of life like a spoke on a wheel: If one of the spokes is shorter than the others, it throws your whole balance off. And this is how it shows up; if your social life is lacking, you could look to food to fill that void. If your primary relationships are less than loving, you could look to food to satisfy your emotional needs. If you’re unhappy in any area of life, it could impact your health and your larger life goals.

The Wheel of Life is a great exercise and tool to help you achieve the results you most want, by helping you create the balance you most need.

But better? The Wheel of Life shows you what areas of life could be holding you back from losing that last 10 pounds, developing a consistent fitness routine, and even developing a regular mediation practice.

 

TO DO THIS EXERCISE:

1. Place a dot on the line in each category to rate your level of happiness in each area, with the periphery being a 10-Level of happiness, and the center being a 0 or 1. As you fill this graphic out, remember that ‘if we’re not growing, we’re dying,’ so consider leaving the opportunity to develop all areas, if even just a little!
2. Now connect the dots to see your Wheel of Life, with all it’s strengths and weaknesses. The perimeter you create by connecting the dots represents the wheel of your life. If this were a real wheel, how smooth of a ride is your life?
3. Identify what areas fall low on your rating scale.
4. Reflect on how and why each area rates as it does for you. Consider how and why each area ‘fuels’ you. Consider how and why the areas that you most fulfilled sustain you. Consider how and why the low-rated areas could be holding you back, impacting your health, and even thwarting your commitment to your health.

 

WHAT IS IT YOU REALLY WANT? YOUR NEXT STEPS

To create what you really want in life, may it be vibrant health, increased energy, clearer thinking or less chronic symptoms, you must identify where you are at right now. Start by completing The Wheel of Life then take these three action steps:

1. Get clear about your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Identify what areas of your life rank low, and what you can do to create greater happiness in that area.
3. Identify what areas of your life are strong, and why and how they got strong — Mirror your own strengths from one area of life to the other, to create a smooth ride on your Wheel of Life.

And if you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’m here to help!