We all know that staying hydrated is so important and I am sure most of us would agree that we need to drink more water!
In my emails today, I received an update from the Canada Food Guide and it has some great tips for drinking more water. Here is an excerpt from it with 5 ways to add flavour to your water:
From The Canada Food Guide:
5 ways to add flavour to your water
You can add fruits and herbs to your hot or cold water for flavour. Here are some ideas to try:
blackberries + mint
raspberries + cucumber
strawberries + fresh basil
chopped apples + a cinnamon stick
pear slices + a drop of vanilla extract
To release the most flavour:
crush the berries
chop or tear herbs
cut fruit into cubes
If you like some fizz in your drink, try carbonated water.
Every day I start my day with this drink. After drinking this delightful concoction, that I fondly call “My Sunshine Drink”, 🌞 I drink my straight celery juice and then my Isotonix Vitamins, that I have been taking faithfully for 23 years now.
I love starting the day with my Sunshine Drink 🌞. It started off as warm lemon water but now I have evolved it to a threesome of citrus fruits along with honey.
I have made a short video to show you exactly how I make my Sunshine 🌞 Drink.
Here it is, just click on the arrow and enJOY.
I hope you find this helpful and if you want more info on how to make celery juice and why it is beneficial you can learn more here:
Those that know me, know that I am an advocate of celery juice! It must be apparent because I often get tagged on Facebook or private messaged the price of celery at the local grocery stores, especially when it is on special. LOL! I love it.
This infographic from the Medical Medium, has 10 great benefits of celery juice:
. helps to restore the Adrenals
. critical for Acid Reflux
. neutralizes and flushes toxins out of the liver
. kills Epstein-Barr & Shingles Virus
. raises hydro-chloric acid and helps the liver produce bile
. powerful weapon against SIBO and bloating
. fights autoimmune disease
. contains undiscovered sodium cluster salts that are critical for the brain
. helps eradicate Strep bacteria
. brings down toxic liver heat
Please note that that this list of benefits is directly from the Medical Medium’s Info Graphic.
Amazing Benefits of Celery Juice
Sounds pretty amazing right? This is why I continue to drink celery juice as often as I can. I shoot for every day but you know how it goes, sometimes that does not happen so I just do the best that I can.
One of the things I love about celery juice, is how it supports liver health. I often hear people express to me their concerns over their livers. Some have been diagnosed with Fatty Liver and others tell me they can feel their liver and it is painful or uncomfortable. Supporting our livers is super important.
I hear or read about stories almost daily about the beneficial results people have had and are having from drinking celery juice. I would love to hear yours too!
And here is a link to all my past post about celery juice.
The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Bloating can happen for a number of reasons but when it comes to kids, they often don’t know how to tell you that they are in fact ‘bloated’.
Definition of Bloating
noun
a swollen state caused by retention of fluid or gas.”she suffered from abdominal bloating”
There are a variety of causes for bloating:
. Extra intake of air due to nervousness or the holding of breath
. Food sensitivities or allergies
. Lactose Intolerance
. Not enough water
. Insufficient beneficial bacteria
. Eating too quickly and poor food choices
. Constipation
One of the best things you can do with your children to help, is to have open and natural conversations. Children should be taught to ‘listen to their bodies’ and to observe how they feel after they eat certain foods, for example.
Another excellent topic is the “Poop”topic. Make this a natural subject in your house. Learning about how often and what is deemed irregular is very important for kids to learn. Help them to identify if they are having changes in their bowel movements or if they are indeed constipated. Constipation is a huge issue with kids these days. Sometimes it helps to celebrate ‘good poops’ because it encourages the naturalness of having bowel movements.
Another helpful idea for kids that is beneficial all around and that also helps with gut and bowel health, is to encourage and implement lots of fruits into their diet. Here is a link to past posts that I have done on fruit and recipes etc. https://maggiesvitamins.wordpress.com/category/fruit/
One of my favorite products for kids and gut health is Aloe Vera Juice. I have found one that I use with kids and I have yet to meet one who did not love it. The Strawberry Kiwi flavor seems to be a hit with kids. 🍓🍓🍓🍓
🍋Lemons can be kept at room temperature for around 8 to 12 days give or take. When I make my morning lemon water, I like to have a room temperature lemon. I then roll it with the palm of my hand to get the inner juices flowing. Rolling your lemon helps to break down the internal fibers in the lemon and release the juice.
You can also store lemons in your refrigerator if you need to keep them longer. Just make sure that they are not jammed together. It is best to have them in a container that allows air to circulate. Think of how they often come in mesh bags…. this is a clue as to how to store your lemons.🍋
Here is a easy recipe to make a form of ‘milk’ at home that takes about 30 seconds or less to make once you get the ingredients gathered together.
The great part is that it is super healthy, easy to make, cost effective (cheap!), and sustainable which is perfect for times like this when people might have to stay at home due to the Coronavirus.
The finished ‘mylk’
The Recipe & What You Need to Make This Delicious Milk
So here is what you need and feel free to change it up anyway you like. I cannot stress enough that recipes are always adaptable and it is perfectly fine and fun to be creative with them!
1/3 cup hemp hearts
1 – 2 pitted dates
1 tsp of vanilla or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract * play with this to your liking. Make it YOUR recipe
3 cups water
Throw in your blender and blend and you have milk. 🙂 It’s that easy.
Some Variations:
You can add in maple syrup or switch out the dates for maple syrup or have both. You can add in cinnamon. Yesterday I took some of this milk and added it to coconut milk and added more maple syrup and cinnamon and blended and added it to my coffee for a dairy free option and Oh My Goodness is was Soooo good! My kid loved it so much she had 3 small glasses! And she can be picky… just sayin. 🙂
Benefits
And the health benefits of hemp hearts or seeds are enormous! Here are some of the nutrients:
Hemp seeds contain an impressive array of vitamins and minerals and are especially rich in:
vitamin E
magnesium
phosphorous
potassium
They are also a good source of iron, zinc, and B vitamins, including:
niacin
riboflavin
thiamine
vitamin B-6
folate
And MORE!
I encourage you to Google to learn more about how amazing hemp hearts are. And dates and maple syrup also. They are great sources of natural sugars that our livers and brains need desperately. You just cannot go wrong with this ‘milk’. EnJOY!
Fruit is so beneficial for us and I truly see it as Nature’s Medicine.
We should be eating watermelons all year long. They are sooo good for us!
For one thing they are SUPER hydrating, coming in at about 92% water. They provide water, fiber and lots of nutrition like vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. These babies nourish every cell in your body!
They are also easily assimilated by the body and are utilized immediately. This is super for people who have digestive issues as they are not able to utilize their food as well as they should, meaning to break it down and extract the nutrition. Watermelon bypasses this problem and is like a direct hit of nutrition for the body.BAM! 👌︎✌︎
There are many ways to eat watermelon and there are many ways to slice it. Eat or slice it anyway you wish, but make sure you eat it and often!!
Here is a little video with one idea of how to prepare a watermelon for a gang or to prepare and keep in your fridge.
Watermelon slicing or carving
I hope you enJOY ♥ more watermelons in your daily diet. 🙂
Like this info? Why not Pin it over on Pinterest? Here is a picture to pin:
Looking for some great ways to add in more fruits into your daily diet to nourish every cell in your happy body? 🙂 Why not take advantage of my hugely discounted Juicing Recipe book?
February is heart health month so I thought I’d share a few ideas for supporting a healthy and happy heart.
The heart is a muscle and like all muscles, the more we use and work it, the bigger it gets. So with that being said, one of the number one ways to increase your heart’s capacity for love is to use it to love! The more love you can put out, the more you will get back. First and foremost, we need to love ourselves. I write about this often and over and over again and I will never stop until everyone in the world has their own love cup spilling over and oozing out onto the entire planet and through the entire cosmos! 🙂
Loving allows for heart expansion and for streams of gratitude and grace. Practicing gratitude is the fastest way to opening your heart to more self-love and appreciation, and in turn you will have the capacity to love others and to love your life. As the saying goes, it all starts at home, so to speak. 🙂
On the physical side of things, here are a few supportive ideas to keep your heart healthy:
Limit your fat intake, especially saturated fats that come in the form of fried foods, and unhealthy oils. Actually it’s good to limit your fats all around and focus more on plant based foods that are chock full of micro-nutrients, fiber, enzymes and phyto-nutrients. Make these types of foods the focal point of your diet.
Stay hydrated. Thick and sluggish blood that lacks oxygen and good mitochondrial production, is not the place you want to be when it comes to heart health! I have written about that here: Are You Suffering from Toxic & Thick Blood?
Movement. Exercise and movement are crucial for heart health. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the greatest risk factors for heart disease. Aerobic exercise and any type of exercise can be beneficial for strengthening your heart and cardiovascular system, improving your circulation and helping your body to use oxygen better, increasing energy levels so you can do more activities without becoming tired or short of breath, as well as a host of other benefits such as improved joint health. Any way you look at it, movement is beneficial when it comes to health period! Movement also helps to move the lymphatic system, which in turn helps to detoxify the body, which in turn helps to lessen the load on the circulatory system. Exercise and movement can also improve sleep and sleep heals the body and restores the body’s vitality.
Alternative Movement. If for any reason, one cannot move easily there are alternatives. Chair yoga is something that might be of benefit and one can do at home. You can find free chair yoga that you can do at home on YouTube. Another great alternative is to use a Whole Body Vibe Machine. These machines provide a one hour workout in 10 minutes and can be adapted if a person needs to sit. You can read about the benefits here: Link to Benefits of a Whole Body Vibe Session
Peace of Mind. As mentioned earlier, work at loving yourself more and make time for practicing peace of mind and stillness. Yoga, sitting in nature, meditation and listening to calming music are but a few ways to foster calm within the body and mind. Get creative and listen to your heart on ways that will work for you….
Listen to your heart!!!! One of the best medicines for heart health, is honoring your wants, desires and needs. Get clear on what is important to you in life. What brings you JOY? Do more of it! Own YOUR life. Make your life a priority. Life goes by in the blink of an eye, make sure you make the moments count and make moments that matter!
Supplement. Supplements are enhancements and can truly be catalysts when it comes to improving heart health. There are countless nutrients and supplements that can be supportive in heart health but a few major ones are: Co-Enzyme Q-10, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin B-12, Zinc, Selenium, Magnesium, OPC’s and other anti-oxidants, Curcumin, Omega III’s. Astaxanthin, and more. Feel free to reach out to me to discuss supplement choices in detail. I am also available to offer suggestions based on individual situations and with your particular health goals in mind.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Nutritionist and Certified Life Coach who believes in Love and in Loving Life! She helps her clients to love themselves more and in turn they en-JOY their life more! What’s not to love about that? 🙂
Slow, sluggish and toxic bloodis a big problem that correlates to how healthy we are.
What causes this type of blood?
Dehydration
There are several contributing factors one of which is dehydration! Most of us are severely dehydrated and it makes our blood thick. We do NOT want thick blood! Thick 🅱🅻🅾🅾🅳 is not only dangerous (think stroke) but thick sluggish blood, is unable to safely move toxins and pathogens out of the liver.
I often reflect on the example Dr. Jim Morris, The Quit Smoking Coach, uses with people. He shows them a ketchup packet and has them feel how thick and goopy the ketchup appears inside and then proceeds to tell them that this is what their blood is like after they smoke a cigarette. It certainly is a great visual and I now use it for myself with the thought of not being hydrated enough.
We can all relate to a lack of energy that correlates to dehydration whether we have been aware of its cause or not.
Other causes of thick blood are what Anthony Williams, The Medical Medium, calls Liver Troublemakers. Some of these are pathogens such as viruses like Epstein-Barr virus, shingles, herpes simplex, and HHV6, and bacteria like streptococcus, e. Coli, and more.
Heavy Metals/Solvents/Pesticides/Perfumes Etc.
There are also heavy metals involved, solvents, petro-chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and more. Some of the really dangerous ones especially to the liver, thus causing toxic blood, are colognes, perfumes, scented candles, air fresheners etc.!!!! These are a huge, huge, detriment to the body’s master filter, the liver and contribute to toxic blood. In fact, people who are especially sensitive or who have sluggish livers, react almost immediately to these scents, my own daughter included.
When we visualize the circulatory system, we need to realize everything recycles so when there are toxins running through the body, they affect the liver and organs and then they are recirculated back into the blood stream and into the brain and through all organs! Heavy metals also wreak havoc by circulating this way.
And of course, common sense will tell us that the thicker the blood, the harder the body has to work and in turn we could see High Blood Pressure. Here is what Anthony has to say about that:
“Your heart draws blood directly from your liver. When the liver is in good working order, it’s like sipping water through a straw. When the liver is stagnant, sluggish, hot, fatty, or toxic, it becomes a clogged, dirty filter. As a result it becomes inflamed and constricted, so it can’t process blood well, nor can blood travel through the liver as easily as it should. It makes the blood dirtier and thicker with debris and increases the suction needed for the heart to pump up blood from the liver. As someone’s liver becomes more and more congested due to liver-unfriendly food choices while she or he is also chronically dehydrated, as we all are, the heart can be forced to use 10 or even 50 times its normal power to draw blood through the body. The result of all this increased suction is increased pressure—that is, high blood pressure.”
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So one of the most important tasks at hand we can do right now, each and everyone of us, is to lower our toxic load, and work at supporting and healing our liver. Liver is LIFE… ie. Liv..er…. Here is a link to my past posts about the liver and liver health that you might find useful.
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist and Certified Life Coach who specializes in heavy metals and heavy metal detox as an adjunct to her nutritional and lifestyle coaching that she does worldwide.
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