SUCCESSFUL DETOXIFICATION

Just read an interesting article by a detoxification consultant, Mike Perrine, he really helps us come to terms with our elimination habits as once we don`t poo we are polluted ,and everything starts to break down.
We think that once a day is it but most of us eat 3 times a day, maybe more.....we should be eliminating every time we eat....you notice those of us that do that we call them ducks...better to be a duck than dead! Copied below is Mike's Key Ideas of Successful Detoxification (aka raw food diet, aka vegan diet, aka cleansing program –they all work on the same principles):

1. Almost everyone starts out eating foods that challenge the body. It’s just a matter of degree. A bacon cheeseburger is a massive stress to the body. It costs enzymes, minerals and energy to deal with it essentially leaving you at a loss. Raw foods are amazing because they challenge the body far less. The moment we start consistently leaving out highly challenging foods our bodies will immediately begin to deep clean. (This key concept was taught to me by my good friend and mentor Dr. Fred Bisci) This is basic detox. “Bad food” leaves us at a loss. It’s something to deal with and recover from rather than something that elevates us physically and mentally. Raw food allows the body the energy it needs to go deep. And fasting is the ultimate elimination of challenges giving the body a full rest and ability to go deep in cleaning and rebuilding. When transitioning into a cleaner program and trying to decide what to eat, there are three things to consider. This is what qualifies a health food to be healthy:
1) What A food delivers: We all know this one. Almost every book on health covers this. We want good things from our food. Vitamins, enzymes, trace minerals… I think we get this one.
2) What a food removes: This is big! Very important. An apple a day keeps the doctor away because it’s loaded with raw fiber that sweeps the intestines clean. Health has more to do with elimination than input. (This point was was really emphasized by my great friend and teacher Gil Jacobs who works in NYC as a colonic therapist)
3) What a food doesn’t leave behind: The other side of the coin. If a food is leaving anything behind in your tissues or along your intestinal wall (see Dr. Shinya’s video at www.yourguidetodetox.com) it’s going to pollute your body. Plain and simple.
2. Raw food is not always easier on the body or more cleansing than cooked foods. This is really important because we see people shun a steamed vegetable, but they go to town on raw ice cream. Steamed asparagus is always going to be easier to digest and eliminate than heavy nut desserts like raw ice cream. What makes raw ice cream better than traditional ice cream is that it’s vegan, raw and less refined. (Now don’t take this the wrong way, I love raw ice cream!) I bring this up simply to put things in perspective.
“But what about the enzymes lost in the steaming process?!?!” – Yo chill… It’s minimal. We lose more enzymes stressing out about the enzymes. Steamed veggies are the easiest on the body, but for many people baked yams or squash and sometimes whole grains are extremely cleansing during their transition. Remember, there are 3 things that make a food healthy.
3. The rate at which your body releases toxins is determined by the rate that you leave challenging elements out of your lifestyle based on where you start from. When I first got into a vegan diet I remember eating an abundance of cooked foods and I still cleansed heavily and lost over 60 lbs. That’s how challenging my previous lifestyle was to my body. Eliminating stress alone allows some people to go into a state of cleansing.
There’s a big difference between the cleansing reactions of a 50 year old recovering drug addict and a 15 year old athlete. It has to do with the amount of exposure and accumulation over a lifetime and the strength of the person’s organs of elimination when they start the transition. This is important to understand: The success of any cleansing program is determined by 3 things (there’s that 3 again):
1) Consistency: Many people aren’t getting the results they want because they are inconsistent. “Oh I went on that trip and we had some BBQ, but when I got back I juiced a lot…” That’s great, it’s better than nothing, and there’s definitely no need to beat ourselves up about food, but to get dramatic results we need to be consistent.
2. Understanding Loosening vs. Releasing: The success of any cleansing program is determined by the strength of our detoxification organs. If we have liver problems or a sluggish bowel, the process may be more challenging. Here’s why, The great wisdom of the body gets a little foolish from time to time. The detox process is one of those areas. Every cell in our bodies begins to release the pressure of built up waste and gas when we consistently remove challenges. However, the cells don’t seem to “know” that the colon or other organs are not able to handle the request. So what happens? Lots of circulating toxins with nowhere to go. The end result can range from us feeling terrible (those notorious detox symptoms or “cleansing responses”) to very serious consequences. I don’t want to be negative about this process. I think it is the most amazing journey of transformation we can embark on. However, we have seen over the years people go too fast and get into serious trouble that could have been avoided by transition and bodywork.
3. Willingness:
Willingness to transition
Sometimes less than ideal foods are part of the program. I currently work with someone who fluctuates between 400 and even made it to 500 lbs. He has a massive drug history and binge eats daily. I put him on a diet of water, raw juice, raw salad, steamed vegetables, and BBQ chicken wings (and most of this food was not organic). It was the first time since going over 400 lbs. he went below 400. At the time he went from 465 to 395 in 5 weeks. That’s some deep cleansing! And we can see how quickly it happens. A completely raw diet has the potential to devastate him at this point.
The more quickly one transitions the more bodywork may be necessary to make it a smooth journey.
Willingness to assist the body
A few things to realize here
Many of the substances we find in our tissues today are stuck there for a reason. Our bodies never anticipated their arrival. I’m talking mostly industrial pollution/medical residues, over consumption of animal foods and processed foods and an overabundance of stress chemicals from modern living. This is the simple reason why we can’t always rely on our natural functions to take care of business. The colon is designed to pass a chemical free, plant based diet and in the process removing natural metabolic wastes. That’s it. So when the training is the same, but the job description changes we run into trouble. Plain and simple: Get a series of colonics. Get the sludge out (see Dr. Shinya’s video at www.yourguidetodetox.com) and decompress the gasses. The effect it has on your body is absolutely amazing. I could write a book on this alone. In addition to colonics, infra red saunas, uninterrupted rest and massage therapy make an excellent success formula.
The process of detoxification is our opportunity for transformation and self-discovery. It is a sacred and powerful journey. There is more than just physical transformation that occurs during this process.

CANCER CLEAN UP

Recently I have been corresponding with a young lady of 23 battling colon cancer, her e-mails beg for her quality of life to be returned to her as she is feeling awful from her rounds of chemo and she wishes the craziness to stop....just don`t know, we are so brainwashed into thinking that the doctor going to save us with chemo that we don`t realize there is so much we can do to try and help ourselves..... take a simple thing like deodorant.
I used to get the worst swollen lymph nodes under my arms, and I knew it was because the deodorant was too strong and people like me who don`t perspire a lot don`t need an antiperspirant so I started using mild deodorants or I should say natural deodorants but what's the problem? They don`t last like my good old 'Secret' so what's a girl to do especially during summer in Jamaica ? Answer is apply deodorant twice per day.......most of us just not going through that stress but they say aluminium is a cause of Alzheimer's, and heaven knows what else so I`ll take the inconvenience.
Natural deodorants don't last as long as the other stuff but it's good enough, just accept the fact that they don't work as well as the ones you are trying to avoid and wash and re-apply rather than suffering the consequences of using aluminium-based deodorant....But here comes info from Nomi Shannon's news letter (which is fast becoming my Bible ) that is saying we don`t need to reapply. I usually test whatever she says and normally they are spot on....well here are some suggestions from people who responded on her take on deodorants, one even suggested to slice a lemon thinly pat it on and and let dry. I think I would prefer to try Sodium Bicarbonate a.k.a. Baking Soda. Here are some pros and cons of baking soda according to her readers:

Pros:
* I'm a guy and I only use a dime-sized sprinkle (for both arms) every 2-3 days.
* CHEAP.
* Very, very safe. Proven safe for decades (centuries?).
* Works instantly and completely. I'm always amazed at the instant
change. I believe that most deodorants are only masking the bacteria
while Bicarbonate must be killing it. Hence, it doesn't wash off in
the shower.
* Easier to slip a small ziplock bag into a backpack or woman's purse
than a deodorant stick.
* Doesn't melt in a hot car.
* Lonnnnng shelf life.
* Very, very low impact on the environment (I think...). There are
mines with nearly inexhaustible supplies, hence the cheap cost.
* If any falls on the carpet it's actually beneficial :-)
Cons:
* Use it too much or too often and it chaps. Turns your underarms red
and itches like crazy. ONLY use a little bit when you start to smell
yourself and you should be fine.
* I have also used it instead of tooth paste, though I used it too much
and my teeth really got sensitive.

So you see there are other things to try and I like the fact that Nomi gives the pros and cons......
So it's not easy, you have to be creative sometimes but if you have cancer...... all areas in your life need to be cleaned up, we really have no choice, the craziness of feeling sick will stop as I`m here to tell you but it's a rough, rough disciplined life to follow!

Read stickers and labels

READING MY NEWSLETTER FROM NOMI SHANNON I CAME ACROSS THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION about stickers on produce which I know a lot of my blog readers are not aware of although she says that it's a repeat - every now and then I find we have to repeat what we assume every body knows e.g. eating fruit before, not after, meals..... because every day somebody new comes into healthy eating awareness so it's always worth repeating:

Stickers on fruits and veggies
The little stickers on loose fruits and vegetables have valuable information on them! According to a letter from 'a scientist knowledgeable in the field of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)' in an issue of Gourmet magazine: "a..useful tip to the consumer [would be] a primer on how to read the little stickers on loose fruits and vegetables. Besides providing the store's cash registers and computers with product identification and price information, these stickers can tell you a lot about the food you are buying. A label with four digits indicates conventionally grown food. Labels with five digits starting with an 8 indicate that the food is genetically modified. Labels with 5 digits starting with a 9 indicate that the food is organically grown." Well as soon as I read this I looked at all my little stickers and it's true! All my organic food had stickers with have 5 digits beginning with 9 and all the conventional food had stickers with four digits. There were no five digits beginning with 8, nor do I plan for there to be, but what a great thing to know! Am I the last one to know this?

Reading those stickers and labels has made my own life so much easier, things that don`t have stickers, you or someone you know should have grown them.....I am a little less tense when I shop in the market but once I step in the supermarket all antennas are on alert - even when I am shopping at the mighty Whole Foods whose CEO, John Mackey just likes to keep putting his foot in his mouth. The following article in this week's Economist lifts the curtains on Mr.Mackey:

“A-HOLE FOODS” reads the image adorning one of the more supportive articles to appear in the past week about John Mackey, the boss of Whole Foods Market, an organic retailer. In an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal on August 11th, Mr Mackey set out some right-wing ideas for reforming health care strikingly at odds with those currently being pushed by the Obama administration. This provoked uproar in the online community that now rules the world—with an army of bloggers demanding a consumer boycott of the company, around 13,000 joining a "Boycott Whole Foods" group on Facebook and Twitter circulating countless pledges never again to darken the doors of its stores.
The company soon issued an apologetic clarification, noting that Mr Mackey had expressed his own views, not those of the company. He went even further on his personal blog on the firm’s website, pointing out that the title of the article in the Journal, “The Whole Foods Alternative to Obama Care”, had been added by an editor, and setting out the original, unedited version. This still contained enough dynamite to have ensured controversy by challenging the views of many Whole Foods customers—including opening with this observation by Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Clearly, Mr Mackey is a boss who likes to speak his mind, usually with a directness and disregard for political correctness that makes him a journalist’s dream. Earlier this month he was quoted in the same newspaper saying that (as well as its healthy stuff), “We sell a bunch of junk”.

So make sure you are not fooled by the name, a lot of the FOODS in Whole Foods have nothing WHOLE about them. You have to read the labels and stickers just as how you would do anywhere else.
How many of you know that Cheetos is so delicious because of the MSG in it?
If we would just read labels, life would be so much easier and we would be so aware of how much sugar and salt we put in our bodies on a hourly basis. I love the people who tell me they don`t eat salt or sugar when they mean added salt or sugar....trust me you don`t have to.

CHEMO FOG

Chemo Fog don`t I know it well......for the past 3 years I thought I was an idiot because although I kept telling my friends and husband that I have chemo brain I don`t think he or my friends understood what I was going through ...Thank God for this article from the NY Times The Fog That Follows Chemo.......it's been 3 years and I still have problems remembering and there are some days when everything feels as if it's in a thick dark fog .....I just can`t remember the name of my best friend some days much less the name of a cologne, trying to retrieve a word always feels as if it's at the tip of my tongue and I get so frustrated,I just leave it alone .....me who everyone used to call to get phone numbers that I stored in my head.....now I have to be calling others or writing it down. Even then I forget where I wrote it.
Trust me this did not come with age.....most of my friends my age try to tell me,'Pat it's menopause' NO....just like how the day I turned 40 I could no longer read without glasses, the first round of chemo had me in a dense fog, it made me feel stupid and old.........I feel it is something that will never come back, I feel that the chemo burnt brain cells are lost forever. Nothing temporary about it... and at no time was I, as they said in the article, anxious and depressed, although maybe I WAS anxious as I knew I didn`t want to do chemotherapy, but was succumbing to pressure or to be kind.....ADVICE.
I look on with amazement as people tell me they are on their 4th round of chemo or been on chemo on and off for the past 3 years ...WOW! much props to you guys......my head must be light as I only had 2 rounds, one round with tablets and one round intravenously, it not only gave me chemo brain which I still battle - and it shows no signs of letting up - as an added plus I got pseudomembrane disease, usually diagnosed by an autopsy!

INSANE USAIN

With due respect does Jamaica think that they should be known as the sprint factory of the world and not use it to our advantage ??? We are trying to qualify for IMF help when we have the means to lend IMF money.......we have the insane talent of an Usain Bolt and we have done nothing about it...Puma is using him, Digicel is using him but the Jamaican Govt./private sector,from he won in Beijing, should have set up a school so that young people interested in track and field from all over the world could come here to learn to RUN LIKE THE LIGHTNING BOLT.
We have 2 of the world's best coaches.....we have everything we need to make this a reality.....we have stadiums that have been built and sit rotting...when Usain returns home from his world shattering performance in Berlin, are we just going to have a grand waste of money celebration again, waste a day of production that we can ill afford and nothing till the next time.......
We should be selling our yams as the food he eats which would help our agriculture, he could be talking to our young criminals who have listened to Melanie Walker so much since she won her gold that crime has gone down in her neighbourhood, a lot of those guys must be champion hurdlers the way they scale fences running away from police, you think they are not so proud of him they wouldn`t listen to him ? But after they listen there is nothing for them to do.......
Jumping up and down screaming cannot be all we do after Usain does his thing - we need to harness this feeling that he evokes in all of us.......
As always we miss the BOLT (pardon the pun)!

EAT FROM NATURE OR EAT PROCESSED?

Well my family likes to laugh at me because I brush my teeth with a certain product, I only use a certain dishwashing liquid and wash my clothes with a certain detergent etc.
I`m not fortunate like them, I have a compromised immune system so I research and know that the assault of chemicals is not only through food it's everywhere....all these people with allergies and sinusitis, I do not wish to be one of them, I have enough issues. Well after reading an article on shampoos, I know I am right... laugh on guys......remember lead in lipstick ? Right now you wouldn`t find me putting those long lasting lip glosses on my lips, as you know we will soon be hearing that there is something in them to cause cancer.....all the cheap makeup, do you know what's in them?
Just like how my mother moved us from butter to margarine, and sugar to Equal and from good old fresh milk with the cream on top to pasteurized,now we are all going back kicking and screaming and calling it organic as we learn that margarine is plastic and better we stay with good old brown sugar and scald the fresh milk...I`ll just stay in the past.
See all the people using toothsoap now...I wonder why?
Any thing I can`t pronounce must not go in my body!
I offered a friend Valerian root tea to sleep instead of Ambien..he says he believes in chemicals, well we`ll see......
There must be a reason why we are going back to nature. It's a little harder for us than our grandparents as everyday you see in the news '30 worst foods' or '10 foods with the most pesticide and herbicide'.....It never stops, we really don`t know what to do, eating fresh has problems, but I believe it has less problems than eating man made. When we eat the man made stuff we get in worse trouble. HFCS caters to all of you who like to say "I have a sweet tooth".....that is one ingredient I can do without!
Right now I am doing what I will continue to do....try to eat from nature and not from factory processed e.g ice cream made by my son from frozen fruit and put through the Champion juicer - presto instant ice cream - doesn`t get better than that, simply delicious, and guess what? I can pronounce all of the ingredients!
Last night the ingredient was BANANA !

NAIYAH AND PHILLIP

When I look at this picture I remember reading about a couple who were friends from they were 4, got married at 24 and are still together at 40.........IS THIS ONE OF THOSE LASTING FRIENDSHIPS?
MY GRANDAUGHTER AND HER FRIEND - MY GODSON PHILLIP.......

FUN IN THE SUN

Well I`ve been having fun in the sun with my eldest son and granddaughter....

I am one of those who never can take off time when the father has shown me in no uncertain terms that I need to stop and smell the roses.... well I did and had such a wonderful time over JA's independence weekend. Mark you I was only a phone call away from work but asked my staff to please only call in case of emergency although their view of what is an emergency is a little different from mine, I still got a 2 day break, and the other days although spent popping in to work was done with family en tow....
My granddaughter is 3 she will be 4 next March and I know we were not that aware at that age! Is it the prenatal vitamins mothers now take? Is it more stimulation at a younger age? But something is happening.....My godson who will be 3 next week is also holding his own with her being 6 months older and at times he behaves as if he is the one large and in-charge.
I haven`t spent a week with my eldest son non stop in a long time actually not since he had the worse case of adult chicken pox last Sept.
I honestly believe that when your children grow up and have their own families you need a little alone time with them to just simply catch up so this was done in car drives without the entire family ..I have a friend whose daughter comes for a week at Christmas before the rest of her family comes for some alone time, I think its a great idea!
Things I noted..... how much I prefer papa to daddy, and how the diets of Americans and Europeans differ and contribute to our bad bathroom habits......how much we are responsible for our children's diets......
My son will eat properly if given the food but working and eating in a mall doesn`t make for healthy eating habits and not if your mother brought you up on Pepsi as she didn`t know better.
But since both of them arrived not being "regular" and in 2 days they were having regular movements - I proved that eating well (fruit and vegetables) is our best remedy!
I also watched as others who try to eat well normally, when in the company of people who eat badly , succumb quickly!
I also note how when people are eating badly, they hide from me or expect me to say something.....pleez....we are all responsible for our own lives and I am too busy fighting hard not to succumb too many times!!!!!!
Thanks Kats.....That was better than any hotel...I guess love made the difference.

THE NEW WORLD

We all love to cook out on the grill - thought this UP story was worthwhile to share with everyone.

A U.S. dietitian says marinating meat before grilling helps draw out the chemical precursors of carcinogens.
Dietitian Vicki Piper of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston explains where there is smoke there is a risk of cancer. Burning meat, she says, can create carcinogens -- agents that may cause cancer.
"Grilling any type of meat -- even chicken or fish -- until it's charred or burned can increase the chances of getting cancer, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research," Piper says in a statement.
However, lowering fat is good for many reasons, including that less fat means fewer flare-ups. Pre-cooking meat indoors for a few minutes before bringing it out to the grill helps too because the higher the cooking temperatures, the more carcinogens develop.
Using barbecue briquettes and hardwood products, such as hickory and maple -- that burn at lower temperatures -- is preferable to using softwood like pine chips, Piper advises.
Keeping the grill lightly oiled, Piper suggests, helps keep charred material sticking on the grill from getting on the food. The oil also helps keep fish and chicken in one piece.
Scrubbing the grill thoroughly after every use avoids a buildup of carcinogens that can be transferred to food, Piper says.

The easiest way to deal with this is not to GRILL anything.....What a stress!!!!!!
Let me go eat my mango - oh sorry its guinep season now and like mangoes they have skin so I don`t have to soak them in peroxide and water for hours to get off herbicides and pesticides..........what a world we now live in!!!
We shouldn't grill, we shouldn't cook with olive oil or canola oil, we shouldn't eat grapes and plums etc. without soaking, baby carrots have chlorine, we shouldn't use cell phones,we shouldn't even bathe in water not purified, we shouldn't wash clothes or use dish washing liquids that have not had the carcinogens removed,everything we do has some negative effect.
We really have to be more vigilant than ever as an old time Jamaican saying goes" prevention better than cure"..........The new world has not been good for us at all, I guess it's really the good old days.....so how come we're living longer?
Supplements and modern medicine????? Or is it only certain people living longer,those of us who eat right and exercise???