by Christine Pyne | Jan 17, 2016 | Self Care
Your gut, aka “inside your belly”, has been proven to be your bodies literal “second brain”. For years, the medical world has been trying to figure out what causes our moods to change and what causes common problems that most of us face like stress, anxiety, and even depression. These are common problems, and we know they are linked to serotonin, but did you know that 95% of serotonin isn’t even produced in the brain? Serotonin is actually produced in the gut.
What we put inside of our bellies is directly related to our emotional health. Our gut consists of bacteria and we need that bacteria to have a healthy balance or the rest of us will not be balanced including our mood. Your gut and your brain work together, so if one is out of balance the other will be also. Have you ever had an upset stomach because your mind was stressed? Well, think about it, if it works one way it works both ways. There have been many scientific studies that have linked mood problems to gut problems and vice versa.
Is your gut balanced with 85% good bacteria and 15% bad bacteria? That is the recipe for a healthy gut and a healthy mood. The best way to make sure your body has healthy bacteria for your gut is to feed your gut healthy bacteria. Some symptoms of an unhealthy gut include gas, bloating, nausea, sugar cravings, and more. The best way to make sure that your gut is getting the healthy nourishment it needs is through probiotics. Probiotics can be in pill form, or you can get them right through your diet. Excellent sources of probiotics include kefir and fermented or cultured foods and beverages.
Keeping a healthy gut in check will help you to digest food properly, absorb vital nutrients, and maintain a healthy state of mind aka your mood.
What more information about what you can do to support a healthy gut? Contact me for a complimentary health session at christinepyne@thenutritiontree.net.
Chris Pyne
Your Personal Health Coach
by Christine Pyne | Jan 9, 2016 | Self Care
Did you know that when you make juice from raw vegetables, your body absorbs the nutrients within 15 seconds? Talk about an energy shot! No need to buy those sugary and chemical-ish concoctions from your local drug-store or mini mart. Juicing is an all-natural way to boost your energy and feel amazing. When you juice your fruits and veggies, you end up extracting all the water and nutrients from them and leave behind only the plant fibers. By separating the fruit or vegetable from its fiber, we gain access to all of the amazing vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and phytonutrients which are much more easily assimilated by our body than if we were to eat them.
This allows your body to absorb the nutrients more quickly, without having to digest the dense bulk of the plant. You can also fit an amazing amount of veggies into a single glass of juice, making it a great way to use up those extra veggies from your garden or CSA share. PLUS, you will end up with a glass of deliciousness that packs a powerful nutritional punch. Although some would also say that the cost of stocking enough fresh organic vegetables to make daily juices can be somewhat expensive, my feeling is that if you stop buying all of the pre-packaged foods/snacks you were buying, you will end up saving money in the long run on your food AND your doctor bills.
One more thing before I go: while you can control the quality of ingredients when you are making fresh juice at home, always read your labels when it comes to buying store-bought juice. These juices can be high in sugar and have a high glycemic load, which may cause blood sugar imbalances.
Major Antioxidant Juice [Makes 1 serving]
One of the first things I like to do each morning is juice, so I can get fresh nutrients and live enzymes into my body first thing. Here is one of my favorite recipes, packed with beta-carotene and antioxidants to ward off bugs and colds.
1 grapefruit
2 oranges
1 inch ginger root
3 carrots
To juice your grapefruit and oranges, you can try one of 2 methods:
High Speed Juicer: Peel your citrus. Then break them up into segments to fit into your juicer.
Manual Citrus Juicer: Slice your citrus in half between the stem and the flowering ends. Then juice manually.
Wash and peel your ginger. You can easily peel ginger using the edges of a teaspoon. Scrape the edges off until the ginger flesh shows. Rinse the ginger and discard the skin.
Scrub your carrots well to remove any debris. Juice it using a high speed juicer. Next add your peeled ginger. Add your citrus juice to your carrot and ginger juice. Mix thoroughly and enjoy.
Not sure where to begin with juicing? Check out my Beginner’s Juice Cleanse to get you started. It’s FREE and you get my monthly newsletter with loads of tips for a healthier you. So, don’t be afraid to try out the benefits of juicing.
Xoxoxo
Chris Pyne
Your Personal Health Coach
by Christine Pyne | Jan 5, 2016 | Self Care
Most of us can say we know of children or maybe one of your own children suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or ADD. There are more and more children being diagnosed with numerous behavior and psychological disorders. There is significant evidence correlating the link between food additives, preservatives and artificial food colorings to these disorders.
*Above photo, courtesy of Amanda Gardner, Health.com, March 30, 2011
by Christine Pyne | Jan 4, 2016 | Self Care
Does this sound familiar? You hear about this wonderful diet that will guarantee weight-loss, so you try it, only to gain even more weight back once you’ve lost it?
Don’t feel bad. You are not alone. Just because a diet works for one person, does not mean that it will work for you. Diets are destined to fail, and it should come as no surprise. After all, the word “die” is within the word “diet”. That should be your first sign. You want to live your life.
Here are the top 5 reasons that diets are doomed to fail:
- People choose to use a diet to achieve a short-term goal. That goal is usually to lose weight before an upcoming event. Diets are perceived from the onset as a temporary action used to obtain an immediate result. Once that result is achieved, the diet is stopped and old eating habits return.
- The yo-yo diet or weight cycling. As mentioned, many people go on diets, lose weight, and then gain weight, often more than they lost. And, for some reason, the cycle is repeated. To quote Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This repeated failure can have negative effects on a person’s mental health and could result in an eating disorder.
- Many diets are based on the premise of counting calories using a formula meant for the general population as opposed to the individual. Everybody processes calories differently. This formula supports that caloric expenditure exceeds caloric intake and will therefore promote weight loss. It has become clear that this premise is no longer true. Every calorie is not created equal. Calories consumed from spinach or sweet potatoes are much more nutrient-dense than calories consumed from a processed, low-fat muffin. In addition, if you were to consume too few calories, your body goes into survival mode, slowing down the metabolism. You run the risk of your metabolism remaining sluggish once you start consuming more calories.
- Before even starting a diet, people believe that they will be depriving themselves of foods they love. Entering into a program with this mindset clearly does not support success. This constant experience of deprivation will bring on food cravings that will be difficult to ignore.
- This brings me to the last reason why diets do not work. They do not address food cravings and how to handle them. Everyone has cravings. Having the tools to help navigate through those cravings and reach for healthy food alternatives will help to eliminate them.
Unfortunately for many individuals, diets only offer a quick fix to a larger problem. Learning which foods nourish the body and which don’t is the best approach to eating in order to obtain weight-loss and optimal health.
Chris Pyne
Your Personal Health Coach
