Is it alkaline, or is it good ol’ common sense?

There’s a buzz growing about the alkaline diet these days.

Victoria Beckham popularized the the alkaline diet in 2013 on Twitter.

At this year’s Golden Globes, Kate Hudson attributed her ‘abs of steel’ to the alkaline diet.

Actor Gwyneth Paltrow, model Elle McPherson and talk-show personality Kelly Ripa are all showing up in news feeds singing the benefits of the alkaline diet.

Tony Robbins promotes the alkaline diet at his Unleash the Power Within event, and Dr. Robert Young wrote about the benefits of the alkaline Diet in his book, “The pH Miracle.”

So what’s up with this Alkaline Diet?

The alkaline diet says to maintain ideal health, you must maintain a healthy body pH of 7.35 – 7.45.

You do this by hydrating, exercising and eating a diet of 80% alkaline foods, such as fresh, raw vegetables and low-glycemic fruits; while limiting acid-forming foods to 20%, such as processed foods, gluten, sugar, meat and dairy, and beverages like caffeine and alcohol.

Because your body is 80% alkaline and 20% acidic, your diet should match these same ratios to maintain optimal health.

But in the grand scheme of life, why does this really matter? Why does Tony Robbins and other celebrities subscribe to this diet?

The belief is, an acidic diet demands your body work harder to normalize it’s pH and this demand stresses your body to continually pursue homeostasis.

And look no further than the rhythm and patterns of the modern lifestyle for this stress. Cravings, excess weight, poor sleep patterns, poor quality of life, chronic symptoms and chronic disease and even hormonal imbalance all find root in the modern lifestyle.

An acidic diet and lifestyle causes your body to work overtime to buffer the increase of acid in the body and rebalance the pH. Your body then seeks out the essential minerals it needs to buffer the increase of acid and pulls calcium from your bones and magnesium from your muscles. This causes mineral depletion, inflammation and the whole host of problems caused by low mineral reserves.

To boot, excess acid wreaks havoc on your kidneys and floods your body with stress hormones causing adrenal fatigue.

I love the popularity of the alkaline diet, but for me, it’s ‘the pure and simple common sense diet.’ 

The alkaline diet recommends that you simply include fresh, live fruits and vegetables as  70-80% of your diet everyday. Why? Live vegetables and fruits are high in the nutrition our bodies need to function optimally, but especially the minerals needed to counter the acidic, modern lifestyle.

Leafy greens are very high in minerals.

I recommend the same diet to all my clients, and the results are nothing short of astounding. When my clients increase their live-food intake, and decrease acidic and inflammatory foods, I’ve seen them achieve wildly successful results, like going off anti-depression medications, reduce insulin from 40 units 2x per day to 6 units 2x per day, put autoimmune conditions in remission, go off high-blood pressure medications, heal digestive disorders, improve sleep patterns, reduce stress … plus the favored results of losing weight and glowing skin!

The alkaline diet simply suggests eating a healthy balance between alkalizing foods and acidifying foods to promote vitality and health. Sounds like good ol’ common sense to me! 

Fortunately, with rates of chronic disease skyrocketing, I am thrilled to see more people getting in the nutrient-dense-food-game, and talking about it publicly!

But surely ‘eating healthy’ has got to mean something more than simply eating healthy. Eating healthy is really more about what becomes possible from reducing chronic cravings, or after going off anti-depression medications to live a chronic-symptom-free-life that once defined who you thought you were.

To sound redundant, because it surely is worth repeating, foods from the earth are a whole lot healthier and make a whole lotta’ more sense to fuel the body than processed, nutrient-devoid foods from boxes. 

Are you curious about what the Alkaline diet could do for you, and would love support in implementing this change?

I now have one rare spot in my Inner Circle Best Health Project Program. Let's explore whether that spot might be right for you. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com.

What is your body saying?

From a diagnosis of so many cancerous tumors on her liver to earn the description of “swiss cheese” by one of her doctors, author Kris Carr chose to chronicle her healing journey in the highly acclaimed documentary, “ Crazy Sexy Cancer. ”

Crazy Sexy Cancer is an inspiring story of defying a critical diagnosis with holistic modalities. Carr’s story is compelling, especially for those with cancer.

But there is a potent lesson in Carr’s experience for you, even if you don’t have cancer.

If you take charge of your health like Kris Carr did, you can heal yourself too… of chronic disease, of chronic symptoms, of any of the common problems many experience today, but are dismissed as ‘hereditary,’ or ‘normal,’ or simply not ‘serious.’

I love Carr’s healing story, but I never heard the potency of her story for me when I first heard it, though I was taking charge of my health too.

Cancer was not my experience, but I was diagnosed with a full menu of health problems like IBS, chronic digestive problems, auto-immunity, among a long list of many others that defined my life by the constraints and limitations they caused.

As compelling as Carr’s story is, there are thousands who suffer everyday from symptoms that fall under the ‘danger’ detector like I experienced … and the ways those symptoms impact the whole quality of life are no less grave.

I know.

Indeed, the less ‘dangerous’ diagnosis like I experienced bear an insidious quality because no one takes them as serious as something like cancer. There is no loud wake-up call like cancer exacts.

My work focuses on you who suffer everyday with disruptive symptoms, but not disruptive enough to halt you in your tracks like cancer did Kris Carr, but disruptive enough to constrain and limit you, like they did me. 

Cancer was a teacher, a guide for Carr. Cancer told her she was off track and she needed to get back on track. And that she did. Cancer and other critical diagnosis have that sort of power.

But every symptom works the same way — symptoms are your body’s way of speaking to you, to tell you something is off kilter, not quite right, like a nudge … or a big red flare!

Autoimmunity.

Acne.

Allergies.

Anxiety.

Constipation.

Seemingly benign everyday sorts of problems are actually signposts to heed, not ignore.

Every symptom tells you there is a problem.

But you can heal your body and shift the whole quality of your life like Kris Carr did.

Like I did.

With nutrition and healthy lifestyle changes.

One of the most powerful things you can do for yourself is to learn to listen to your body and heed it’s callings. It talks to you with every symptom it expresses.

Do you experience symptoms that nudge at you, that you know are best not to ignore? Symptoms that are not threatening, but you sense you better do something to up level your health game now?

Leave a comment below, or better yet, let's talk. I just opened up 2 spots in my Inner Circle Best Health Project Program.  Let's explore whether one of those spots might be right for you. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com

 

Today you turn on the TV, sign into social media, join in a conversation at work … everyone is talking about their ideas for you to achieve your best in 2016.

Focus more. Eat healthy. Reduces stress. Lose weight and so on …

I love all of these ideas and more like them. They are worthy, awesome suggestions, smart and doable. I take them all in just like you and create New Year resolutions too.

But what I’ve discovered is their ideas lead you away from your ideas.

Their ideas emanate from their experiences, not yours. And while success does leave clues, and studying the steps of someone who inspires you is smart, it is not nearly as smart as you going within to tap into what is awesome, smart and logical for you.

Think about it. Someone recommends eating healthy to you, and because you know it makes sense, you include eating healthy as one of your New Year’s goals. It feels exciting, like you could lose weight, you could increase your energy and heck, maybe you could even look better too.

But you love fried food. You love chips and pizza and beer. You love all the homemade traditional foods your family makes … so back to unhealthy eating you go.

The problem is, you opted into eating healthy because someone else, for that matter, everyone else said it would be good for you. The suggestion came from outside of you, not from within you, not from your smartest and deepest instinctual knowing.

Quite frankly, I don’t care how esteemed the ‘thought leader’ is, how successful they may be, how well liked anyone is, no one knows better than you what you need to do in 2016.

You are your wisest teacher.

When you reconnect to you and what matters most to you, every resolution you make, every decision you commit to will flow from you, not from someone else.

It’s a seemingly very small tweak in what you are doing now, a ‘slight turn in the dial,’ but it’s the only action that will reap you the success you hope to achieve in any area of life.

In 2016, simplify. Slow down. Breathe deeply. Go within. Tap your smartest inner knowing to guide you.

Ironically, you may discover within that following one thought leader is precisely what you need to do to gain speed and headway in your life, health, career and relationships.

But your choice will flow from you, rather than a frenetic seeking and grasping.

Do you agree, that you are your wisest teacher? Are you ready to go within to create your greatest success in 2016?

Let me know in the comments below …

And if you’d love a tool to create a solid foundation to set goals and for success building that has helped hundreds of people, grab my 7-Days to Success Mini-Course!

I recently heard writer and author Alexandra Franzen say that Americans are more likely to spend 90% of their earnings on business related and money making endeavors than personal care.

I was surprised to hear someone from outside the health arena say this, so I searched for a footnote to support what she said.

CNN Money says that Americans actually spend less than 10% of what they make on personal care.

With the ways the modern lifestyle impacts the state of health and the rise of chronic disease, and the subsequent ways this state of declining health impacts next generations, healthy can no longer be assumed a birth rite.

Were you born healthy? 

To be healthy means to actively choose personal care practices that promote healthy, and to seek ways to counter the pull of the modern lifestyle and the ravages it can cause on your wellbeing.

Healthy is a choice, it’s intentional and it’s planned for and pursued.

Personal care is not a negotiable quotient in the division of your resources.

Healthy is where everything begins … and ends.

Want to create vibrant health and soaring energy in 2016 with results that last? Want to dive into creating healthy as a choice and the priority it is? Check out my online program, 10 Years Younger in Six Weeks, to look and feel your very best … and so much more! Check out the program here.

1000 Tips to Reduce Stress.

Kind of an oxymoron, no? By the time you’d finish reading a list of 1000 tips to reduce stress, you’d likely be more stressed!

But business guru’s do suggest lists. They say ‘you’ love lists. “Write blog posts or create events with 5 Tips. 6 Points. 8 Ideas … ”

I get it. Lists are simple and straightforward chunks of ‘stuff’ to easily take in, and in this era of information overload ‘they’ say tweetable soundbites work.

I hosted a teleseminar the other day, 10 Tips for Healthy and Happy Holidays, and I delivered exactly what is suggested and everybody loved it, 10 easily accessible and bite-sized ideas to choose health and calm in the season of excess and indulgence. Here are the 10 Tips:

• Eat before you go to an event, or even before you go holiday shopping to reduce the risk of binge, emotional or exhaustion eating.
• If you’re going out to eat with friends or family, call the restaurant ahead of time to preorder a healthy meal that delights and satisfies you.
• Stock your office and car, briefcase and handbag with a green apple, to make sure you always have a healthy snack on hand.
• Pack a small bar of 75% chocolate in your handbag or suit jacket to indulge in a treat, with out going overboard.
• Where form-fitting clothes to reduce over-indulgence.
• Avoid hanging out around snack tables at parties, to reduce mindless eating.
• Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol dehydrates, lowers the healthy pH balance of the body, reduces clear decision making, and affects healthy sleep patterns.
• Sit next to healthy eaters.
• Be the healthy role model you’d want to have at an event.
• Plan your indulgences ahead of time so you feel both in-control of your healthy choices and festive with your family and friends. By planning ahead, you’ll find it much easier to choose healthy throughout the holiday season, because you know your treat is coming up!

But … truth be told, you need do only one thing to enjoy happy and healthy holidays.

One soundbite to reduce stress.

One tweetable tweet to feel happy, healthy and in balance during the holiday season.

Reconnect.

Reconnect to you. Reconnect to what matters most to you. Reconnect to why you do everything you do.

If you connect to you, if you connect to your Highest self, every choice you make will emanate from that Higher state of being. What you eat. What you drink. When you go to bed. Who you spend time with. What you do. What you don’t do. Everything you choose to do, and everything you choose not to do will be sourced by your commitment to be your very best self, so the list becomes sort of …  irrelevant.

The tips are super helpful, but pale next to a reconnected and empowered you.

Have you ever said something or done something that you intuitively knew was not your best you? Have you ever felt disconnected from your best self?

I'd love to hear what you've done to reconnect to you in the comments box below.

What if I told you that you never have to experience dry, flaky winter skin again?

What if I told you that the remedy would also purify your body, bring a glow and firmness back to your skin, and it would cost you nothing but the price of a good natural body brush and 2-5 minutes of your time every day?

Your skin is your largest organ, known as your third kidney, yet is largely neglected beyond the facial care where exfoliation is highly regarded for rejuvenation. Think about it, when was the last time you exfoliated your body?

Hello Dry Body Brushing.

Dry body brushing feels invigorating, exfoliates dead skin cells, plus it boosts new skin cell growth! But the benefits far exceed renewed skin. By removing the top layer of dry, flaky skin, you stimulate your lymphatic system, improve blood circulation and support your body’s overall ability to cleanse, detoxify and eliminate waste.

Supporting a healthy flow of lymph is important because the lymphatic system is integral to you maintaining a healthy immune system. It defends against infection with the rest of the immune system and helps balance body fluids.

Dry body brushing breaks down the accumulation of toxic waste matter in your body’s fat cells known as cellulite. By increasing blood circulation in your skin, you increase the flow of oxygen to your cells and help your body eliminate the trapped toxins causing dimpling in your skin to reduce and eliminate cellulite.

Plus, many aestheticians believe that dry body brushing improves digestion and kidney function, because the skin is better able to support the elimination of toxic waste matter.

I offer several natural bristle dry brushes in my online store. There are many formats. All are good and based on personal preference and the benefits each offers. Some are long handled, some have no handle. Some are created for your face only. I recommend trying several to find and incorporate the ones that you like best. Pictured here is one of my all time favorites, but I’ve now incorporated a long handle brush and a facial brush too. Click here to learn more about skin care and looking and feel you very best ever!

The How to Dry Body Brush

Dry body brush before you shower.

Start at your feet, and brush both the bottoms and tops. Move up your calves, to your thighs in long, even strokes. Guide every stroke towards your heart to increase lymph flow and blood circulation as you move up your body to your abdomen, palms, arms, back and chest. Apply circular strokes on your buttocks for easier application.

I recommend at least 2-5 minutes for dry body brushing daily, but do note, 1) your skin may feel tender when you first start out so gage your time accordingly, and 2) you will soon grow addicted to this healthy regiment because it feels so darn good!

Finish with a natural body oil, like cold-pressed organic coconut oil.

You will notice softer, smoother skin in just a few days!

I’d love to hear what you think about this technique.

I look forward to your comments in the box below ... and please do raise any questions you have!

Gratefulness 2015

As Thanksgiving approaches in the states, as everyone prepares for the day set aside to give thanks, I am reminded how the force of gratefulness can turn every moment around. How showing thankfulness even when challenged can bring a sigh of relief. How finding appreciation in the simplest of things makes not-enough, a pure, unadulterated blessing. Those moments when the force of appreciation makes the seemingly impossible, possible.

I know these moments.

I’ve experienced the shifts gratefulness makes possible when it seemed nothing could possibly go my way. I’ve experienced the change in perspective gratefulness revealed to me when I chose to choose a better feeling thought. I’ve experienced the precious joy of life in moments when I couldn’t even imagine something good coming from a dark moment.

Gratefulness changed, and continues to change my life. It’s a rocking, timeless mind hack, an epic tool to create a winning game. 

I offer you a list of some of my favorite quotes from my some of my all-time favorite people, quotes that spark(ed) awesome shifts within me, even as I gather them for you now, but at the end … oh, read all the way through because I’ve got a very special Gaelic treat for you at the end, with much grateful love in between.

May this list contribute to your grateful heart this holiday season … and always. 

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”  ~ Anthony Robbins

Gratitude and acknowledgment are essential components in creating and attracting what you want in your life. Through the expression of gratitude on a daily basis, you align yourself to receive all the good the universe has to offer.

By simply focusing your thoughts and attention on the abundance that is already present in your life, you will literally shift your energy to a positive vibration that will automatically and effortlessly attract even more to be grateful for. ~ Jack Canfield

“May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the Universe.” ~ Hafiz

Be in a state of gratitude for everything that shows up in your life. Be thankful for the storms as well as the smooth sailing. What is the lesson or gift in what you are experiencing right now? Find your joy not in what’s missing in your life but in how you can serve. ~ Wayne Dyer

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love—then make that day count!” ~ Steve Maraboli

A Question

A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth. ~Robert Frost

“With nothing to compare yourself to, aren’t you perfect!” ~Byron Katie

Gratitude Is Our Essential Nature. Gratitude is an inherent quality that resides within each of us. It’s both a feeling and an attitude. Gratitude begins by looking within and appreciating the value of one’s experiences. ~ Deepak Chopra

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.” ~ Brené Brown

I am grateful for the life that pulsates around me. I tune into the sensation of my body, the touch of the soft, wool sweater against my skin, the touch of my fingers against my leggings, the beating of my heart. I am grateful for this body that I inhabit. I tune into my thoughts as they float about in my mind, fading in and out. I watch them curiously wondering where they are coming from and to where they are going. I am grateful for my mind for allowing me to think, feel, create, wonder and reason. I tune my awareness to the center of my chest where my heart resides. I feel a sense of spaciousness and openness and am grateful for this resting place. I open my eyes slowly and gently and give thanks for this moment. ~Sharon Salzberg

“When before the beauty of a sunset or a mountain, you pause and exclaim, “Ah,” you are participating in divinity.” ~ Joseph Campbell

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur at some point, If this isn’t good, I don’t know what is.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” ~ Maya Angelou

I want to feel deeply, and whenever I am brokenhearted I emerge more compassionate. I think I allow myself to be brokenhearted more easily, knowing I won’t be irrevocably shattered. ~ Sylvia Boorstein

“An attitude of gratitude brings great things.”  ~ Yogi Bhajan

“If you would stop analyzing everything and just look for things to appreciate, you would live happily ever after.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. ~ Melody Beattie

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love—then make that day count!” ~ Steve Maraboli

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John F. Kennedy

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is an opener of locked-up blessings.” ~ Marianne Williamson

A Gratitude Affirmation, ~Janice Lynne Lundy

Thank you.
Thank you for this breath,
for this life,
this beingness that is me, that is You,
that is the breath of all beings everywhere.
Root me in kindness.
Grow me with love.
Let “Thank You” by my refuge and my joy.

And in closing, my very favorite blessing from John O’Donohue. After you read it, listen in below, as the author extends this wish for me, to you …

Beannacht, (Beannacht means Blessing in Gaelic)

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

Listen in, to hear my favorite blessing read by the author, the beautiful-hearted John O’Donohoue in his gorgeous Irish brogue.