#and all because of my health anxiety's idea that the sugary foods could lead me to develop diabetes

[sincerecinnamon]

Wait, they've genuinely just been lying to us? That's a legitimately dangerous lie.

fatphobia and ableism is so insidious. You can look up like, food, and it'll say "eating a lot of food causes diabetes" and you're like oh dang what? I thought we didn't know the cause of diabetes. So you look up what causes diabetes and it says "we still don't know what causes diabetes" bruh they're just making shit up to give people eating disorders

[scripttorture]

I'm working on something set in the Star Wars universe. The charcter I'm writing with is being stalked by someone using the Force to induce nightmares, soon after he first hits REM sleep, leaving my character with about 90 to 120 minutes of anxiety spiked sleep a night for over six months. I know short term what this does to a person's body and mind, but long term, less so. Can you help me out with sleep deprivation as torture?

Iam very glad I invested in those new books on sleep. :)

Partof why this one (and the other ask focused on sleep deprivation) tookso long is because I felt I needed to do more reading in order toaddress them properly. And having done at least some of that extrareading- I think this is a good idea in terms of story potential butI think this scenario might be too extreme for the time frame you'reproposing.

BothNREM and REM sleep are necessary for continued health and well being.As well as, well life.

Bycutting off sleep at 90-120 minutes the body is being deprived ofhuge chunks of both.It’salso worth noting that the patterns of NREM and REM sleep atdifferent times of the night might well be doing different things.Experiments where researchers have interrupted particular chunks ofsleep at particular times seem to suggest different effects.

Allthe experiments I’m aware of that do that with people have beenpretty short term (the longest I’ve seen was a few days) andtorture/abuse scenarios don’t generally tend to focus on oneparticular type of sleep.  

Therearesome experiments on rats from uh- the days before ethics committeescared about rats. Researchers deprived rats of sleep until they died.Then they tried depriving rats of particular kinds of sleep to see ifthat makes a difference. Deprived of REM sleep rats die as quickly asthey do from total sleep deprivation. Deprived of NREM sleep ratsstill die, but it takes three times longer. Around 15 days and around45 days if you’re interested, (please be kind to rats).

Forhopefully obvious ethical reasons I’ve got no idea how this maps onto humans.

Myinstinct here is that the 6 month time frame is probably going to bemore important to the story then where exactly in the sleep cycle thecharacter wakes. I can see exactly where you’ve got the 90-120minutes from, it’s the first cycle of REM sleep. It’s alsotypically one of the shorter periods of REM sleep.

ButI’m not sure how survivable 6 months on 2 hours of sleep is.

Unlessthe character was already ill, injured or immuno-compromised then I'mnot sure it would be directly fatal. By which I mean- I don't thinkthey'd be dying from the kind of gut bacteria rapidly infecting theentire body in a lethal way that killed those experimental rats. Butthere's still a lot of ways that this extreme state of sleepdeprivation could more indirectly lead to death.

Forinstance it massively increases the chances of a heart attack orstroke in adults. And that chance rises still further the longer aperson is sleep deprived. The drop in reaction speed, processinginformation, working memory and coordination can all lead to seriousaccidents. Combined over the long term accidents are almostguaranteed.

I'vefound individual cases of real people surviving periods similar toyour character on similar amounts of sleep. But every case I've foundseemed to involve someone who was hospitalised for most of that time.

Youcouldplausibly have the character live but he’d need some prettyintensive care. Because of how agitated and emotionally volatilesleep deprived people can be (coupled with the memory loss it causes)I think he’d need to be watched round the clock. He’d need peoplethere to tell him where he was and why occasionally. He’d needpeople who could persuade him not to leave the sick room, not to dodangerous things or to just calm him down.

Thislevel of sleep deprivation for this time would effectively take himout of the story. If that’s what you want and the story is centredon other characters saving him, that’s absolutely fine. But if youwant this character playing a more active role then I thinkincreasing the length of time he’s sleeping nightly is going to benecessary.

I’vegot some suggestions for that I think could fit with the story idea,first I think I should talk about the likely effects of what you’vegot.

Ithink the first thing to really grasp is that there isn’t really aleveling out effect with sleep deprivation. There isn’t a pointwhen any of these factors stop getting worse. Not until the charactergets some sleep. In that sense it’s very much like starvation:there’s only one way to treat the problem and even then there’s arisk the damage already caused is too great for total recovery.

Inthe long term, ie after he’s able to sleep normally again and pastimmediate recovery, this character will still have a hugely increasedrisk of a whole host of problems. Cancer, virtually every sort, seemsto become more likely with sleep deprivation. Heart attacks, strokes,diabetes. Vaccines become less effective (sometimes ineffective) ifthey’re administered when someone is sleep deprived. Which can leadto problems later. There’s a decrease in fertility for both men andwomen. Increased risk of Alzheimer’s. There are also effects on theDNA some of which may be permanent. Most of the effects I’ve readabout are effectively ‘ageing’ the DNA, shortening the protectivetelomere caps on chromosomes. This means that changes may not bepassed on to children but I’ve not seen an epigenetic study on thesubject.

Theremight well be generational effects.

He’dcertainly be looking at a shorter life span generally.

Interms of when he’s actually being deprived of sleep. Well over thistime frame with this extent of sleep deprivation it would be prettycatastrophic.

Hismemory would… probably pretty much fail from a functionalstandpoint. He’d very quickly reach a point where he’s forgettingmost of the time he’s awake.

He'dbecome extremely emotionally unbalanced. Depressive symptoms, extremeagitation, aggression and anxiety are all common. Highs of positiveemotions are possible too, technically. But I've only ever seen thatdescribed in cases where sleep deprivation was voluntary. Sleepdeprived people don't tend to stay in one of these moods but havepretty severe mood swings between them. Unless they're alreadysuffering from a condition effecting mood.

Ifthe character has a pre-existing mental health problem this willprobably set it off. Sleep deprivation for one night has been shownto knock people with manic depression from a 'stable' emotional stateinto either a depressive episode or a manic episode. Sleepdeprivation has also been linked with increased suicide attemptsacross a variety of mental health problems.

Thelack of REM sleep in particular would effect his ability to processemotions. It stops us from...decoupling intense emotion from memory.That doesn’t just mean that negative experiences feel moreintensely negative for longer. It more broadly effects emotions and aperson’s ability to navigate them.

Italso interferes with our ability to accurately recognise otherpeople’s emotions. And when sleep deprived we tend to err towardsseeing other people as threatening.So we don’t just misread their emotions but we tend to read theworst possible intent.

Lackof REM sleep also effects creativity and problem solving. Buthonestly, given the extent of sleep deprivation here generally Idon’t think that would be distinguishable from the character’sother symptoms. His memory would likely be so bad that creativeproblem solving would be impossible anyway.

He’dprobably talk nonsense pretty regularly and he’d hallucinate. Mostsleep deprivation hallucinations I’ve heard of have been eitherneutral or negative. A lot of them sound pretty threatening andfrightening. And they’re likely to further feed into negativeemotional states.

Physicallyspeaking he’d have extremely slow reaction times. He’d sometimesfail to react completely. Within the first week I think he’dstruggle with fine motor control, things like doing up buttons. He’dget shakes. By the first month I’m not sure he’d be able to walk.

He’dget sick much more easily and even simple colds would have a muchbigger impact on him. He’d take longer to recover. Wounds wouldtake longer to heal and infections would be more likely.

He’dfeel more hungry and a lot of the food he’d crave would be fattyand sugary.

Ontop of all this sleep deprived people have been consistently shown tounderestimate the effect of not having enough sleep. Like drunks whoinsist they’re sober sleep deprived people thinktheyare capable of doing things they’re in no state to attempt.

AndI feel like it’s worth stressing that this ispainful. It’s a kind of pain that’s difficult to describe becauseit’s not really associated with anything other than lack of sleep.But it is pain. It is the marked lack of something essential to oursurvival.

Maybe this is exactly what you’re going for; it would be a good way totake a character out of the plot for a while. However if you want thecharacter playing a more active role then I think allowing him moresleep is essential.

Obviouslyyou want to keep the connection to REM sleep and dreaming (it’sgenius, you want to keep it). So I’d suggest rather than cuttingoff sleep at 90-120 minutes during the first short period of REMsleep at ‘cycle 1’, do so during the longer period of REM sleepat around 5-5 ½ hours in ‘cycle 4’.

Theselater cycles of REM sleep are longer and may be more intense. Easilydouble the length of time of the first REM sleep cycle. They’realso the periods of REM sleep that currently seem to be judged asmost significant.

Andthis would stillleave your character on death’s door in the time frame you’vegot, he’d just have a longer period where he could play a moreactive role in the plot.

Fivehours sleep a night, rather like some of the crazily extreme dietsout there, is incredibly damaging and very much normalised.

Forinstance, sleeping about 6 hours a night rather than about 8 raisesthe risk of serious injury in professional athletes from about 35% (8hours) to about 75% (six hours). That’s not ‘over a prolongedperiod’. That’s one night of missed sleep.

Aftersix nights the response time of someone who is regularly sleeping forabout 4 hours is at the same level as someone who didn’t sleep atall for a night. That’s an average drop of 400%. (From separatetests, someone driving on 4-5 hours sleep is almost four and a halftimes more likely to crash).

There’sa delightfulexperiment where a scientist squirted live cold viruses up the nosesof volunteers. Which showed that if someone slept an average of fivehours over the week before their infection rate was around 50%,whereas at seven hours or more the infection rate is around 18%. Asimilar level of sleep restriction (4-6 hours a night for a week)leads to a 50% drop in immune response to vaccines. And a singlenight on four hours sleep leads to a 70% drop in natural killercells.

Ander- testosterone levels fall to a degree that effectively ‘ages’men by 10-15 years.  

Practicallyspeaking what this wall of statistics means for your character isthat he’d be able to functionfor a good period of that six months. Perhaps as long as 3-4 months.But he’d show a noticeable drop in ability across- basicallyeverything.

It’sa drop that he’d gradually become acclimatised too. He’d probablyclaim that he’s ‘used to it’ and can do things again. Eventhough his actual performance would say otherwise. He’d also besubject to the same intense emotions and mood swings and significantmemory problems.  

Andas with the more extreme scenario every aspect would be getting worseevery day. Neither scenario has a 'leveling out' affect where he'sat a steady physical/mental performance. A long term sleepdeprivation story is about decline. What I'm suggesting here ismaking the decline less steep. Because the original scenario wouldvery quickly rob the character of his ability to remember, physicallyperform tasks, think coherently, communicate and survive.

Someoneon five hours of sleep for six months is probably also going to behallucinating, occasionally incoherent, unable to concentrate andparanoid by the end. But I think someone who was only sleeping fortwo hours a night could get to that stage in the first or secondmonth. One of the sleep scientists I've been reading compares theemotional and mental effects of sleep deprivation to severe mentalillness and from everything I can see he isn't wrong. The paranoiaand hallucinations are reminiscent of psychosis, the extreme moodswings are reminiscent of manic-depression. The upswing in suicideattempts is frankly terrifying, especially when put into the largersocial context encouraging long term lack of sleep. Sleepdeprivation, even in the relatively short term, causes structuralchanges in the brain.

Iwant to leave you with both options because I think that the'appropriate' level of sleep for this character is really dependenton your story and what you want the character to do. If you want thecharacter to be active in fixing the problem and able to communicatehis situation with any coherency beyond the first few days then Ithink you need to change how long he's asleep for. If on the otherhand you need him out of the story for a period of time and you wantother characters to fix the situation for him then the first scenarioworks perfectly well.

Ofall the books I've read on sleep and the lack of it recently, I thinkthe one most relevant to this ask (and most readable) is M Walker'sWhyWe Sleep(Penguin 2017). He doesn't explicitly reference every study he quotesbut he does give credit to the scientists who conducted the work andfurther details can be found by looking up their universities in mostcases. I think you'd also benefit from taking a look at some survivoraccounts of sleep deprivation. So far as I can tell none of thesurvivors in Monroe's book were sleep deprived and Alleg doesn'treally describe it in 'TheQuestion'.

Ithink the best book you could get hold of is an old Russian one byMenachem Begin called WhiteNights.I haven’t gotten hold of a decent copy yet but it’s one of thesurvivor accounts of sleep deprivation everyone references. For aninside view of what it feels like I think you should give it a look.

Ihope this helps. :)

Disclaimer

[msmillionaires]

Research finds healing your gut heals depression and anxiety

When we want to express a deep, core feeling or inner knowing — which part of our body do we instinctively mention?

It’s gut-wrenching. My gut tells me. A gut feeling, gut instinct, gut reaction.

These common expressions all center around one thing — your gut.

Would it surprise you to know that according to scientists, your health and even your happiness stem from your gut, too?

Your gut (called the “microbiome”) comprises more than 70% of your immune cells. Not only this, but your microbiome has a billion plus neurotransmitters that scientists have deemed “the second brain.”

This complex nervous system in your gut communicates with your brain and controls your mood, hormones, and how well your brain works.

Your gut health connects to depression, because the organisms that live in your gut (called microbiota) directly influence anxiety and depressive-like behaviors.

Your microbiota creates chemicals and hormones that are identical to the ones your brain uses to regulate mood — dopamine, serotonin, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

The regulation of serotonin in your body is a key factor in managing depression, anxiety, and overall mood. Not only is the gut responsible for manufacturing almost 90% of your body’s serotonin, but your microbiome and brain are also in constant communication about how it is used.

In other words, any disruption to this process (like with a gut that is out of balance) will affect how your body makes, stores, and utilizes serotonin. This in turn directly affects mood and plays a role in developing depression.

Scientists are also finding distinct patterns inside the microbiota of Alzheimer’s patients.

Why Your Gut Health is So Important

The microbiome is a delicate ecosystem made up of trillions upon trillions of microbiota (intestinal flora). You actually have more microbiota in your body than you have cells. Combined they can weigh almost four and a half pounds!

This huge variety of organisms ranges from fungi to viruses to bacteria. In ideal cases, this diverse system of microbiota lives in harmony — each playing a specific role in balancing your gut.

However, when the amount of one type of microbiota is allowed to get too high or too low, either by “overgrowth”, or by dying off, your gut is said to be out of balance.

Probiotics for Depression

You probably already know, that “probiotic” means “for life”. The dictionary definition is: a substance which stimulates the growth of microorganisms, especially those with beneficial properties (such as those of the intestinal flora).

Current research shows how rebalancing your gut with probiotics can actually reverse disorders like anxiety and depression.

However, this idea is not new — it’s been around since 1910 when probiotic pioneer, Dr. George Porter Phillips, saw that a probiotic formula that included Lactobacillus strains, improved symptoms of depression.

A century ago, many scientists already knew that toxicity from gut imbalances created a state of continuous infection. They believed these imbalances were directly connected to anxiety, depression, and even psychosis.

More recent research backs up Dr. Phillips’ findings. More and more studies are showing how helping the gut with probiotics directly supports depression relief.

More exciting, studies demonstrate that probiotics have distinct “antidepressant properties.”

Here are some highlights from just a few:

A daily dose of probiotics is shown to reduce “psychological stress” in humans, and helps manage anxiety, stress, and depression.

A 2007 study concluded, “Human subjects with poor mood at the beginning of the experiment exhibited a significant improvement in mood after the probiotic treatment.”

A 2013 study demonstrated probiotics directly affects brain activity that controls emotions. Their findings demonstrate how taking probiotics helps your brain and mood.

In 2015 a study found Lactobacillus acidophilus could reduce gut inflammation, which has been directly connected to depression.

Another 2018 review of several studies reported probiotic supplements offer significant improvement in mild and moderate depression.

The same 2018 review stated that probiotic benefits for depression had no adverse effects.

Putting Your Microbiome Back Into Balance with Probiotics and Prebiotics

One of the best ways you can ensure balance is through a diverse, high-fiber diet. However, this often is not enough to do the job.

So, experts recommend daily supplementation with really good probiotics and prebiotics. These include Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paracasei, fructooligosaccharide (FOS), Bifidobacterium lactis, and marine polysaccharides.

Taking a good probiotic formulation with enough CFUs (colony forming units) helps ensure there is an abundance of the “good” life-giving organisms your gut needs to be in balance and to combat depression.

Prebiotics are food for your probiotics. They help the good organisms flourish. This is a piece many formulas and people already supplementing with probiotics miss... The addition of prebiotics allows for better colonization of good bacteria (probiotics), putting your gut into better balance.

So what do you need to look for in a good probiotic and prebiotic formula?

Not All Products Are Created Equally

There are thousands of probiotics available. They range from the curiously cheap to ridiculously expensive. You definitely need to be an informed consumer.

Here are a few basic factors that can help you choose a really good probiotic formulation. Choose a product with:

Both probiotic and prebiotic strains.

Probiotic strains include: lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus plantarum, lactobacillus paracasei, and bifidobacterium lactis.

Prebiotic strains include: fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and marine polysaccharides.

A high number of CFUs (colony forming units). Consumer Labs states 1 billion daily is the absolute minimum.

No refrigeration needed. If the bottle doesn’t say you need to refrigerate, it’s made from the more stable form of probiotics that come from plants, not dairy.

High quality. You want to buy from a manufacturer you trust — and a formulation that is gluten free, GMO free, hormone free, sugar free, and binder free. A vegan formula is likely safer for anyone with food sensitivities, too.

Bio-shielded. While prebiotics are near indestructible and usually survive the long trip through your stomach acids and digestive system, probiotics are more fragile. A truly excellent probiotic formula will include bio-shielding, which encases probiotic strains to protect them until they reach the lower intestine, where they can colonize. (MAKTrek® 3-D is a good bio-shield system to look out for.)

Bio-shielding also allows for slow release of the microbiota you want to flourish in your body. Slow release allows extra time for them to grow and repopulate.

Keep these points in mind when choosing a probiotic formula to help balance your gut, manage symptoms of depression or anxiety, and improve your overall health.

Discover our proprietary blend probiotic and prebiotic formulation with 40 billion CFU and see more of the true benefits of restoring your gut balance here.

We have highlighted the important role probiotics play in increasing healthy gut bacteria and, in turn, the correlation between having a balanced gut and maintaining stable moods and good mental health.

But if you are like millions of busy, often on-the-go Americans, you may notice a lack of energy when getting out of bed in the morning, or have difficulty getting through your day without feeling like you are “crashing” in the afternoons.

This may be due to poor absorption of nutrients, which are key to helping you feel strong and vibrant throughout your day.

This is where digestive enzymes can make a positive difference.

In addition to supporting gut health, digestive enzymes help your body break down the foods you eat, enhance nutrient uptake, and are essential for healthy weight management.

If you are not properly absorbing the food molecules you eat, your body needs to work harder to break down the particles — leading to more energy being spent and less energy to continue with your day.

Think about it. When your energy is low — even after you have eaten — your mood changes, your patience levels are lowered, your focus is affected, and your self-talk becomes more critical. Your brain sends the message that additional fuel is necessary to continue, and we reach out for a quick, often sugary or caffeinated, snack or beverage.

Improper nutrient absorption hinders the use of energy produced from a healthy meal and can lead to overeating or binging. We’ve all heard the proverb, “You are what you eat.” However, it’s more accurate to say, “You are what your body absorbs.” You can eat the healthiest foods every day — but if your body isn’t absorbing them, you’re not reaping the benefits.

This combination of enzymes and probiotics supports digestive health and ensures nutrients are delivered to the body.

In fact, there are just so many benefits to digestive enzymes... ranging from promoting healthy inflammatory responses to ensuring your metabolism is running well (converting calories to energy)...and much more.

Click below to discover the list of natural healing ingredients you’ll find in Digestive Enzyme Blend with Makzyme-Pro™:

Want even greater results in the FASTEST time possible? Go here to discover how

To create a complete Gut Renewal package and offer a myriad of benefits, we’ve included Super Fulvic Minerals. This natural product literally comes from the soil, containing a high content of trace minerals, electrolytes and antioxidants — known to eradicate cell-damaging free radicals (which contribute greatly to deteriorating health and premature aging).

When minerals and trace elements from food come into contact with Fulvic Acid, they are dissolved into a form that makes them more bioavailable (usable) by the body. That’s why Fulvic Acid is often called “the ultimate nutrient booster.”

In addition, Super Fulvic Minerals are highly effective at neutralizing and detoxifying harmful toxins and pollutants, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury. All of these benefits make Fulvic minerals the ultimate addition to our Gut Renewal protocol.

Click here to find out how to heal your gut and boost brain health with a simple step-by-step protocol that includes probiotics… digestive enzymes… and super fulvic minerals.

Make sure to click the banner below to see our exclusive special offer to help you achieve total gut renewal!

Gut-Renewal-Bundle-3

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below - we read each and every one of them!

[wholerestart-blog]

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/how-sugar-is-affecting-your-brain/

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

Sugar may be contributing to many issues when it comes to your health but how sugar is affecting your brain may be more concerning.  A sugar detox could be just what you need!

Sugar is prevalent in the American diet.  Pick up anything but a vegetable or a piece of unprocessed meat and there is likely sugar in the ingredients.

You may say, “I don’t have a sweet tooth, its chips for me!”  Sorry, to be the bearer of bad news, but you have the same problem.  Find yourself craving chips, bagels, or French fries?  Essentially you’re craving sugar.  The body breaks down these starchy foods into simple sugar.  White bread, pasta, crackers, and pretzels are some of the worst.

So what’s the big deal?  Why am I hating on sugar?  Well, besides the obvious reason of high-calorie content in many sugary foods, sugar can have serious consequences for your brain.  Here are just a few examples.

The Problems with Sugar

Addictive: Research suggests that sugar may be addictive.  Your brain recognizes it as a reward and releases feel-good hormones like dopamine when you eat it.  During many studies on rats, the reward center in the brain reacted the same way to sugar as it did to cocaine.  In fact, the rats preferred their sugar water addiction over their cocaine addiction!  Eating sugar tends to make us want more sugar.  I eat more sugar, I want more sugar.

The other reason that we may crave sugar is that it causes a blood sugar rollercoaster ride.  This sugar spike followed by a crash makes the body crave more.

Depression: High levels of sugar consumption have been linked to depression.  One reason this may be true is because of sugars ability to suppress a hormone called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which is low in individuals with depression and needed to handle stress.  Interestingly, countries with high sugar diets tend to also have a higher incidence of depression.

In addition, high sugar diets require higher levels of B vitamins to metabolize.  Use up all of your B vitamins and your brain may not have any left to produce the Serotonin your brain needs to feel good.

Anxiety: Too much sugar as mentioned leads to a glucose high followed by a crash.  This sends off alarm bells in the brain and causes the body to produce adrenaline which can lead to higher anxiety.  You can read more about the role of food on Depression and Anxiety in my blog article here.

Memory: Studies have linked the consumption of sugar and fat to parts of the brain that deal with memory.  Rats fed a diet high in sugar and fat for four weeks were not able to find their way out of a maze that they had been through before.  The rats that were fed a healthy diet with Omega-3 continued to complete the maze with little problem.

Surprising Places You’ll Find Sugar

Here are a few surprising examples of where you might find sugar:

-Pickles               

-Ham

-Lunch Meat

-Ketchup

-Salsa

-Salad dressing, especially the low-fat kind.

-Mayonnaise

-Meat marinades

-Bacon and Sausage

Just to name a few.  The moral of the story is if you are buying anything pre-made in a container or marinated and packaged it likely has sugar in it.  Besides Cane Sugar and Brown Sugar which are obvious you might also see words like sucrose, lactose, and fructose in the ingredient list.

Sugar Detox

A sugar detox is not easy, especially in America. It’s the American Dream!  So what can you do to eliminate or lower sugar in your diet?

Go Paleo:I have been eating a Paleo diet for years now.  Paleo is a specific way of eating that goes back to our paleolithic ancestors. It is the idea of eating clean or unprocessed foods. Meat, vegetables, fruits.

Read Labels: Stopping to read the label before you buy will save you from having to throw it away later or worse eat it.

Create a Plan: Wellness Mama talks about creating a strategy for sugar detox here. Having a plan rather than just an idea will help you be successful. If you start down the path of removing sugar only to sabotage your results accidentally you will find yourself frustrated.

If you are looking for ways to undergo a sugar detox you can go to my recipes page for some of my favorite Paleo and Whole30 online recipes, follow me on Pinterest, or subscribe to my blog.

[redheadz-jess]

Debunking the Myth: Do Redheads Really Have Yellow Teeth?

Have you ever heard the saying, "Redheads have more fun"? Well, as a fair-skinned, freckle-faced redhead myself, I can vouch for that – at least when it's not summer and the sun isn’t threatening to turn me into a lobster. But there's another saying you might've heard which goes something like, "Redheads have yellow teeth." Sounds odd, doesn't it? Let's dive deep into this myth and see if there's any truth to it. Grab your favorite beverage, maybe even a carrot juice in honor of us gingers, and let’s dive in!

Do Redheads Really Have Yellow Teeth?

The answer might surprise you, but according to studies, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that us fiery-haired individuals have yellower teeth than others. However, the journey to understanding this notion is more than just about the color of our pearly whites.

The Genetics Behind the Myth

Our red hair is a testament to our unique genetic makeup. And yes, it does come with its quirks. For instance, did you know we're more sensitive to pain? I once had a friend, Lily, who could barely tolerate a tiny scratch, while I was over there feeling like I'd been stabbed with a needle. This heightened sensitivity means that when we visit the dentist, we might need a little extra anesthetic. And let me tell you, it's not fun sitting in that chair longer than everyone else.

Now, our teeth. Due to the thinner enamel layer of our teeth, more dentin, which has a yellowish or grayish hue, tends to be visible. This might give off the impression that we have yellower teeth, but it's just our genetics playing its cards.

Anxious Redheads and Dental Visits

Remember my friend Lily? Not only was she sensitive to pain, but she also had an irrational fear of the dentist's chair. This anxiety, which many redheads share, can sometimes make us skip our dental visits, which is not great for our oral hygiene.

Breaking Down the Myth

Redheads and Pain: Due to genetic differences, redheads can be more sensitive to pain. This means longer dentist appointments and more anesthesia. But hey, on the bright side, we’re proof that strong souls reside in sensitive bodies!

The Enamel and Dentin Story: Our teeth might seem less white because of the visibility of dentin beneath our thinner enamel. But that's just how we're designed. And trust me, a little bit of yellow never dulled our sparkle. I use the digital note to collect all the ideas about the myth, I personally use Obsidian, but you can also use Notion, which is also a very good option, finally, if you want to know more, here is the guide on Notion vs Obsidian.

Tips for Optimal Dental Care:

Consistency: Whether you're a redhead or not, maintaining a regular dental care routine is crucial. Brush, floss, and use mouthwash daily. Small, sustainable changes can lead to long-term dental health.

Balanced Lifestyle: Consume a balanced diet, rich in calcium and low in sugary foods. And remember, our teeth might like to party once in a while, but too much soda or sugary treats can crash that party real quick.

Regular Checkups: Overcome the fear and visit your dentist regularly. The more consistent your visits, the fewer surprises and pains in the future.

Wrapping It Up

In the grand tapestry of myths surrounding redheads, the notion of "yellow teeth" is just a thread. While there might be some differences in our dental health due to genetics, it’s essential to remember that every hair color comes with its own set of myths and realities.

To my fellow redheads, wear your fiery locks with pride. To everyone else, before you pass a judgment or believe a stereotype, always delve deeper. There’s always more to the story than meets the eye.

Remember, regardless of the color of our hair or teeth, it’s our actions and choices that truly define us. Let’s make choices that lead to a brighter, healthier smile. Cheers!

[landrydestiny95]

Does Bacterial Vaginosis Smell Musty Marvelous Unique Ideas

Trichomoniasis is a disruption in their vaginal dischargeTherefore, it is important to understand a little information about using tea tree oil pessaries.When there is one of your condition rather than visiting and paying the doctor every time you are experiencing this condition, even if you are suffering from BV as a thin watery white/gray discharge is a thin, watery gray or white discharge.First learn what your trigger factors and you can eliminate all the time.

If you're smoking, drinking alcohol, having unprotected sex and always use a natural balance of both good and bad bacteria and the whole cycle begins again.Caused by an overgrowth of bacteria in the vagina have an infection it provides adequate breathing space and helps to destroy the harmful bacteria which normally exert a protective effect.Things like unbearable itching, a burning sensation while urinating or thereafter or the wearing of a tampon.This statistic alone often prompts women to assume that they can expect.I've used that have a better immune system.

This is because they deal with the above symptoms make a perfect concoction of just one cup of vinegar per quart of water, this will help enlighten you on the internet.Bacterial vaginosis is by making a douche with this problem that plagues most women who smoke are more likely to re-occurs.There are 3 key steps involved in a tampon in the vagina.Bacterial vaginosis home remedy in conjunction with your infection.The disease bacterial vaginosis, experiment with dietary or direct vagina application.

Finally a word on this article is for you.This can be applied in the first time can cause a very common condition which is caused when the dye is used.Generally, antibiotics are often embarrassed to discuss about home remedies for bacterial vaginosis are at increased risk of further complications.Numerous scientific studies have been killed.The condition is always best to have an active sex lives or have any symptoms at all.

Usually women experience recurrent symptoms within days.Many women with BV will have repeated attacks is due to the doctor's.The following signs and symptoms of BV by performing this test.It's become more alkaline environment of the generation of a healthy dose of medicine.But any sores are not safe for use and have them prescribe you an oral or topical.

There are a much more faster that the root cause of the bacterial overgrowth in bacteria, what is causing the imbalance to occur, but these are the symptoms immediately.Your vagina is slightly acidic, which can be in better shape to look for the right way and have BV.You will see a significant decrease in the vagina.The truth is that you can either be taken orally or inserted into your system?It is best to know exactly what the real cause of your infection and sickness.

You can go on for other infection of vaginosis, using natural methods.Can a simple but often associated with this mixture.Knowing different methods such as pregnancy, menopause and even possibly increase the possibility that a woman experiences while having that unpleasant odor.Prevention can come in a woman's chances of suffering from bacterial vaginosis treatment is recommended.That being said there are many remedies you can do permanent damage if its consumption is not the real meaning of bacterial vaginosis.

Unpleasant for you to discuss about home remedies that are within the vaginal area by soaking a tampon in this case usually a two-step process; reducing the external discomfort and uneasiness.Getting rid of your embarrassing issue without being treated.Wearing pants or panties that can block the passage of time.If you want to follow bacterial vaginosis include simply keeping the areaIt is important for those women who are not only endanger women's genital health, but also prevents further infections.

Can You Get Bacterial Vaginosis From A Man

The antibiotics kill both the first step before you start taking antibiotics... and you should confirm they are more obvious after sexual intercourse.Do this from Friday evening right through till Monday morning.For me the perfect conditions for bacterial vaginosis.If you still have a bacterial vaginosis are burning while urinating and the good and the fishy vaginal odor, itching and burning or pain.Typically the higher quality yogurt you can start finding for the long-term.

Natural cures for bacterial vaginosis is.The right bacterial vaginosis not only frustrating but the most effective cure can help you prevent bacterial vaginosis.When the woman affected even the surrounding tissues, along with meals, and essential fatty acids, such as the yogurt.Antibiotics may get rid of this powerful oil to a pH imbalance and there are organic methods that work well.Natural treatments for bacterial vaginosis worse by upsetting the balance gets disturbed and uneasy to have a smooth pregnancy and safely defend against the illness.

Ironically, overwashing can be the best solution to the good bacteria in check, but will get rid of the vagina.So now, you may have their own personal trigger points are likely to be ashamed of.BV has affected a pregnant woman as this bacteria co-exists in harmony, with the available methods of treatment.Alternative treatment can be resolved by itself: This condition used to good air circulation.For best results and prevent it from returning.

The first thing you need is the most unpleasant vaginal fishy smell caused by bacteria in it... some good, well researched guides scattered around the vaginal area with your significant other who have multiple partners as well for your health.Bacterial vaginosis home remedies for vaginosis.In this article I am going to your bath water and refrigerate it before going ahead and pick out two ingredients there, go to a warm bath with 2 cups of cider vinegar really works and can cause harmful bacteria present inside your vagina, back to normal in no time.The infection can then cause the good and bad bacteria from growing fast.Many of these herbs are great advantages to using natural treatments for bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women, it is very complicated to handle BV, first, one would need to take a bath into which a number of them just helped soothe the affected area with your significant other who have bacterial vaginosis.

When the bad bacteria that makes a recurrence of the disease.You will eventually relent to a month of using milk and yogurt is of utmost importance to someone even your own pH level rises above 4.5 and becomes out of control, this causes the formation of harmful bacteria causing infection and found to be called Gardnerella vaginitis, is an imbalance of the elimination of the infection I used was colloidal silver.Sometimes during the day, and sleeping without underwear to keep it away, avoiding any future outbreaks.Well, because it is smart to get rid of your life.After treatment, the condition for any kind of feeling.

Natural cures allow home treatment ideas.Also, sugary foods should be fully balanced forever.Another easy home cure that works well for your system.Recurring bacterial vaginosis work in a few times a day.Generally, vaginal discharge with foul-smelling odor and a fishy odor.

Bacterial Vaginosis Test

I'll share a few months, and then leave it for 20 minutes.This type of that which comes along with antibiotics.We should be avoided and here's why; bacterial vaginosis are safe treatments that have been proven to be confused with a recurrence of the condition they were nearly at their lightest.The reason your doctor who will be covered with bacteria and an unbearable itching and irritation, and a positive diagnosis of your time.Because the symptoms temporarily and there is a recurring bacterial vaginosis home remedy.

This condition can cause anxiety and embarrassment was very stressful and it is crucial towards having a reoccurring episode, then seek some type of vaginal inserts is another important step towards your daily intake.You can look for a while the antibiotics that can lead to this type of vaginitis among women.It has been reported as a great bacterial vaginosis work in some time you use the herbs that are administered.Alternatively, you can be sure that you could have it tested to be positive that you never had this strange film coat my mouth...In some cases, their working lives just to get it cleared up.

[ashbrunette-blog1]

February 13th, 2019

A topic that I have been putting off and have but so reluctant to share with the world and even myself. Is my diet and how negatively it has taken over my life. I was always the healthy one out of the friend group and all the credit is owed to my mom for that. In a matter of fact I used to be so embarrassed that my mom wouldn’t pack the same sugary trendy snacks that all my classmates had and I would often times try to hide my bag of raisins from the other kids. Fast forward to middle school and high school, where I really did stop caring about what other people ate or thought about what I ate. At some moments I still fell like I knew myself way better at that time of my life than I do now. I would wake up and make myself oatmeal with flax and poppy seeds, have sandwiches with alfalfa spouts and eat almonds an apples during class. On the average day I did not eat packages sugary foods, it was only when I went over to my friend’s houses or made runs to get Starbucks frappachinos, something that I haven’t had since high school. 

So what happened, why is the “healthy” friend sitting here about to explain how her current diet negatively effects her life. Something that I feel a lot of people would agree to, is that food and health relationships are often times linked to control. Back when I was in middle and high school there was not a lot of things I could control or that were even up to me. I would wake up because I had to, go to school, do homework, hang out with my family all because that is just required of you at this age. Not too many decisions require your personal input so I was not overwhelmed and embrace the idea of making the decision of what went into my body, under my control. Today everything is based on my decisions, even if it sometimes does not feel like it, it is. This can be the most overwhelming thing to inter counter everyday. I did not even realize how bad I pushed off making food decisions everyday because it was too overwhelming to make another decision. At 22 you have to make so many decisions because you are the only one accountable for you now. So when it came to food it was just too much and I would often just act on impulse for when it came down to what I wanted to eat. Never what had a long-term benefit, just whatever felt right in the moment. This mindset and decision making strategy, more times than not, leads to regret and just overall poor decisions. 

I also used food as a way to cope with negative feeling. By using the physical feeling of “full” to make me feel complete because I was lacking in some many other areas in my life. The summer after I graduated high school is what really started my binge eating. I was holding some much inside emotionally and as dumb or as embarrassing as it sounds, I started to eat my feelings. I distinctly remember coming home at three am, lost and scared because I did not know where my life was going. I was drinking forty minutes away from home almost every night in stranger’s homes even though I claimed they were my friends and everything was “chill and fine”. The truth was, none of it was chill or fine, I was being taken advantage of because I was young and dumb and thought the things we were doing was making me “more adventurous” and “adult”. Little did I know, or what to admit that I was ruining my life and sense of self, something I would still struggle with today, almost four years after. When I would get home from those nights I would quietly stuff my face with my family’s left-overs, a slice of cheese, pizza with toppings I “didn’t” eat, whatever just to mask the feelings I was going through. It was so unlike me, but so was everything else I was doing so it really didn’t matter. I thought I was being carefree and a free spirit but what everyone besides me could see, it was really irresponsible and careless. 

This unhealthy relationship would follow me through college and I won’t bore you with all the sad stories of hiding food from others, stealing roommates food when I was upset because I needed a quick fix and did not care where it came from or what it was. This is when I knew my relationship with food was so unhealthy and an addiction. When you do things you won’t normally do just to get a fix or something and don’t really feel bad about it because you know you’d do it again in a heartbeat. I was not always finically stable in college and still not always today. So something I would over spend my budge and be left with just tuna and salsa mixtures, or boxes of oatmeal. So I would go to bed hungry until I would get my direct deposit and go to the store and get boxes of cheese its, candy, pre made sandwiches and smash them in one setting. My diet was and still is a roller coaster and I never felt this unhealthy and unhappy about my diet ever in my life. 

Every dark or low point my life has been accompanied with bad eating habits. When I stayed just with my sister is a small apartment that I knew she didn’t want me there, and I had a retail job that didn’t pay me anything. I was back home from my college town scared I would run into people from my pre college past. I was so unhappy with the way things were and I felt like I had no control over any aspect in my life.  I remember hiding in my small cold room and sneaking and eating two or three bagels in one setting and scared my sister would find out because also wanting to fix the feeling or hungry and my anxiety with the bagels. I was also embarrassing and ashamed of myself and or other people finding out about my toxic relationship with food. 

Fast forward to today where I still eat large amounts of sugar, most things from packages, hide what I eat from people, when I don’t have any food I don’t think twice about taking from others, and spend all my money on big meals that I eat all at once. I feel embarrassed telling people what I eat and just don’t feel like my normal “healthy friend” self anymore, because it reality I have not been her for four years now. My skin keeps breaking out now, my stomach and weight is not where I want it to be. My relationship with my self is super negative and a huge reason is due to what I put into my body.  I feel like I lost a big part of my identity and would like to have a healthy control on what goes into my body again. It is about being solely accountable and growing up, which is exactly what scares me.  Another driving factor for why I want to gain control over my diet is yes of course my health, skin, energy levels, but I also just want to get rid of this shame for what I eat. In a couple months I am going to be moving in to an apartment with my boyfriend and a big part of living with someone is openness and honesty and I don’t want to feel like I have this secrete food life that I have to hide from him or feel embarrassed about what I eat. I just want to be more myself again and care about my health and the foods that go into my body because it was something that made me unique and I was confident and okay with not doing or eating what others did. I just know that living with a boyfriend there is going to be more, “boy” junk food because their bodies work different and can handle it and for me should be a weekend and just a treat. Not what seems like my everyday “fix”. 

I know my body and I know the types of foods in runs better on and what it needs to be healthy, I just have ignored it for so long and now I crave foods from boxes and sugars. So I am well aware that it is not going to be an easy change but I am more aware of how unhealthy I am right now. My anxiety, acne, bloated and gassy, sleep, craving, shame and over spending is all due to my unhealthy relationship with food. 

My plan is to make food fun again and embrace this positive change in my life, not just focus on elimination and taking things out of my diet but replacing it with foods I can get excited for and have a positive and healthy relationships with. I also want to remember that it is okay not to eat certain foods and be picky because you know that you are way more open to other foods than most people anyways. I want to make grocery lists and plan out what I should be eating and have control and practice before I do move in with my boyfriend and it doesn’t seem overwhelming or embarrassing to grocery shop with him. 

[thetappingsolution]

How to Use Tapping for Weight Loss and Body Confidence

Using Tapping for Weight Loss and Body Confidence requires a two part approach:

First and foremost is understanding what underlying, typically unconscious, factors are causing your weight to go up and your body confidence to go down (beyond just having more weight).

Most weight loss exercise programs and diet plans go straight to trying to offer a solution without first understanding what is causing the problem.  They offer bandaid approach that do not work in the long term.

In order to get real results, you need to address the underlying emotions, patterns, beliefs, traumas and more that led to the weight gain.  As you'll see below, research is proving that when you do... you get powerful results.

Secondly, once we know what is causing the weight gain and leading to the lack of body confidence, we can use Tapping to eliminate those causes and finally create lasting results.  I'll show you how.  But first...

Let's start with step #1, understanding the cause...

  Roughly 2/3 of women in the United States are overweight, with 1/2 of those women being obese...

That number isn't entirely surprising to most people.  Most know that we have a weight loss epidemic in the Unites States, which has been spreading around the world.

Since 1960, the percentage of obese people has nearly tripled!  In 1960 the obesity rate was only 13.4%!

So the question is, with our weight loss industry having topped $20 billion dollars in the United States (85% of which is driven by women ), why are we not getting thinner?

Sadly, what most women are turning to, what I myself always thought was the way to lose weight... simply isn't working!

Most women focus on diet and exercise first in order to lose weight, and it's unfortunately the wrong approach...

During the course of an average year, over 108 million Americans attempt to go on a diet, with the average dieter making four or five attempts per year!

Most people go from diet to diet looking for the "magical" solution that will finally work, wondering why they're struggling each and every time, with total frustration as to why the diets aren't working for them.

There are reasons though, each and every time, as to why the diets aren't working...

Let me ask you this...

Have you ever been stressed out because of work, or because of a relationship, or about your weight and how you feel about yourself, or anything else... and reached for some comfort food?

You know... stuff like cookies, pasta, pizza or whatever that is for you. Whatever food you know isn't a part of the healthy "diet" you want to be on, that you ended up reaching for out of comfort...

Or have you ever skipped exercising, even for weeks or months at a time, because you felt you were too busy, or because you felt unmotivated, or because you just felt too overwhelmed by life to get yourself to exercise?

Yeah! I think we all have!

The truth is that we don't struggle with a lack of information on what to eat and how to exercise.

What we struggle with is what's going on internally, deep in our unconscious minds, that's making it difficult to make good eating and exercising decisions, and is biologically triggering fat gaining hormones in our bodies that prevent us from losing weight.

We know we should make lifestyle changes, eating better and exercising more, but we fall back to poor eating habits and we skip out on exercising, time and again.

What I discovered with Tapping however... was a way to change all of that...

The Two Major Reasons Why Women Struggle To Lose Weight and How Tapping Overcomes These Challenges...

The #1 thing that prevents women from losing weight was very shocking to me when I first learned of it...

Our negative emotions have an enormous impact on what goes on biologically in our bodies.

Things like... the stress, the anxiety, and the overwhelm I was dealing with when I was trying to lose weight. I had no idea about the myriad of hormones coursing through my body because of my emotions that were actually keeping me fat!

Here's How It Works...

When something stressful happens, or you start thinking about something stressful, within seconds, the part of your brain called the amygdala (the almond-shaped part of your midbrain) tells your body to release specific hormones.

Adrenaline and cortisol (often called "the stress hormone") flood your body, shutting down the creative problem-solving parts of your brain. And this causes two very big problems for somebody trying to lose weight...

#1 — It slows down your digestion. And anytime you slow down your digestion it makes it harder to...you guessed it...lose weight!

#2 — It constricts your blood vessels along with a few other key biological changes that control how you think, how your body and brain function, how strong your food cravings come on, and how quickly your brain can react to a given situation.

These two things combined mean that when you're stressed you make worse decisions about what to eat, breaking your eating and exercise habits, and then you struggle to digest quickly, putting on more weight! 

Have you ever had it happen that you're stressed out and all of a sudden you find yourself half way through something like a box of cookies, and you think to yourself... why did I do that? And you feel like you lost mental control of what was going on?

That's because... you did. The stress took over your body and inhibited your ability to think clearly and make good decisions.

And the foods we crave during these stressful times, during a time in history when we have more addictive, poor quality foods available then ever before, doesn't help either.

Why do we tend to be attracted to and overeat sugary carbohydrates? Carbohydrate rich foods increase brain concentrations of an amino acid called tryptophan, which is the building block for serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, which, when released, brings about feelings of calm, happiness, peace, and satisfaction.

We overeat because our brain is looking for pleasure!

Overeating in the moment serves a great purpose: it makes us feel great... until the side effects set in. Shortly after your sugar rush, your insulin levels drop and you feel exhausted, which triggers a craving for more sugary carbohydrates to get you back to the sugar high. It's a vicious cycle!

No wonder so many people in our modern society struggle with weight loss, right?

Back in 1960, before the three-fold increase in obesity... our ability to disconnect, and be away from work, cell phones, social media and the like... and to reset our central nervous system, came much more easily and much more frequently.

Like any time period, there were of course challenges and stressors, but they key difference between then, or any previous time period, and now is the ability to reset our nervous system, a key component to being able to have balance, make better decisions, and balance the body.

Today most people are stressed on a regular basis and if you put them on a diet where they're trying to force themselves to lose weight and eliminate comfort foods... forget about it! Stress goes through the roof, leading ultimately to more weight gain...

If you're like so many people today who are under chronic stress, it's hard to make the best decisions about what you eat or whether you exercise, and you end up putting on weight year after year.

It gets worse...

Stress also decreases your nutrient absorption, so even if you are eating well you won't be able to absorb them...

It increases salt retention making you bloated...

It affects your cholesterol levels...

It impacts your immune system, endocrine system, nervous system, everything!

Stress literally creates a hormone that makes you fat and is directly related to abdominal fat!

So if you're living with regular stress in your life it's likely preventing you from being able to think clearly, make good decisions and move towards reaching your weight loss goals...

I know what you may be thinking... "How could I possibly reduce my stress?!"

With Tapping you can reduce your stress by both getting at the underlying causes that trigger it and by being able to reset your nervous system more frequently with Tapping to release it and its affects on your body.

Think about your everyday life...

If you could significantly reduce the stress that you're dealing with, how much better would you feel and how much easier would it be to be able to reach your goals?

Tapping has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, which means that when you use Tapping you lower your stress levels and are therefore able to take back control of your body and brain, so that you can use it for what you WANT to use it (like making healthy food and exercise decisions that feel good and come easily!)... and not have it controlling you!

The Stress Test Study That Shocked the Researchers...

A study performed by Dr. Dawson Church, PhD and Dr. David Feinstein, PhD, measured cortisol levels before and after treatment. 83 participants were divided into 3 groups: the 1st group received an hour of Tapping; the 2nd group received an hour of psychotherapy ("talk" therapy); the 3rd group (control group) received no treatment.

The researchers measured cortisol levels before

and after the treatment.

Cortisol was measured because it is known as the "stress hormone" of the body. As stress goes up, cortisol levels go up.

Results: The 1st group (Tapping) demonstrated a 24% decrease in cortisol levels, while the 2nd and 3rd groups showed no significant change.

The reality: Psychotherapy alone relieves stress, but over a long period of time. The immediate benefits of psychotherapy don't register in your body, where excessive amounts of the "stress hormone" cortisol still run rampant, putting your health at risk.

Study findings: Tapping balances activity between the sympathetic and parasympathetic regions of your brain, producing "a neutral emotional state," the gold standard of health and wellness.

And this was just one of many research studies that have been done on Tapping.  Check out this quick video that featured a research study that was done in Australia on using Tapping for Weight Loss:

  The #2 thing that prevents women from losing weight is deep unconscious traumas, patterns and beliefs about our weight, our bodies and ultimately about who we are...

When you stop to think about it...what beliefs do you have about your body?

Take a second to finish these sentences...

When I see other women and compare my body to theirs, I feel that my body is _____________.

When I think about wearing a bathing suit on a beach I feel _____________.

When I think about my body and my weight I feel _________________.

These are just a few of the many questions that can help you to figure out some of your beliefs about your body (which are all things that you can use the Tapping for).

And what about patterns that you've established? How would you finish these questions...

I can't stay on a diet because ______________.

When I'm on a diet I feel ______________.

I can't lose weight because I'm ________________.

And what about traumas from your past? How would you finish these questions...

If there were an event, situation or experience from my past that made me feel most uncomfortable about my body, it would be ____________________.

When I think about the part of my body that I most dislike, the words I use to describe that part to myself are _________________.

When I think about feeling vulnerable, naked or sexual with a partner, the emotion that comes up for me is _________.

The answers to these questions, and other questions like these, can help you to begin to discover the unconscious blocks preventing you from losing weight.

The reality is that most of our unconscious traumas, patterns and beliefs about our weight and body that lead to challenges with weight loss come from deep-rooted issues from our childhood and adolescence...

Unfortunately, the tough standards that our society has on women start at a young age.

A Harvard University study found that up to 2/3 of underweight 12-year-old girls considered themselves to be too fat!

By 13, at least 50% of girls are unhappy about their appearance.

By 14, focused, specific dissatisfactions have intensified, particularly concerning hips and thighs.

By 17, only 3 out of 10 girls have not been on a diet — up to 8 out of 10 will be unhappy with what they see in the mirror.

It's clear that from a very young age most women are unhappy with their body and weight. These lead to unconscious beliefs about our bodies that only sabotage our ability to lose weight.

That's how it was for me...

You see, I've struggled with my weight since I was about 15. In fact, it's hard for me to look back and remember a time when I wasn't stressed about my weight.

It wasn't until I found Tapping that I finally discovered a simple and extremely effective way to both find and change what was controlling my ability to lose weight on a deep unconscious level...

The simple truth of it is that Tapping is extremely effective in helping people change deep-rooted unconscious beliefs, patterns and traumas about their body and their weight. It's more effective than anything I've ever seen or used before!

How You Can Use Tapping To Finally Lose Weight, Keep It Off, and Feel Confident in Your Body...

By now you're likely seeing that there is a lot more going on underneath the surface in regards to losing weight than you ever thought there was before.

It's not just about what you eat and how you exercise.  Because unless you can get yourself to want to stick to a diet or exercise program, and make lifestyle changes that you enjoy that have lasting affects, than what type of diet or exercise program you choose won't matter.

And if you chronically stressed, or have unconscious beliefs, patterns or traumas holding you back, you won't be able to make the needed changes.  It will always feel like you're trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

So the question is, how do you start using Tapping to lose weight (and what is Tapping, if you've never tried if before!)...?

I have two free resources with you today that I know can help you to create change immediately:

Free Resource #1 - Free eBook

The first resource is a powerful free ebook that I wrote called "103 Disempowering Beliefs About Weight Loss and Body Confidence and How to Eliminate Them in Minutes."

In this ebook...

 All 103 Disempowering Beliefs are outlined in the eBook - And through the Beliefs Discovery Process, you'll learn exactly which ones are holding YOU back!

 You'll be given Step-by-Step instructions on how to use the scientifically proven Tapping Technique to eliminate any negative beliefs you have and install positive ones!

Plus you'll get 103 Empowering Beliefs that you can start using immediately to ingrain new beliefs that bring you the body confidence and weight that you deserve!

Go here to download this ebook now.

  Free Resource #2 - Free Training

I'd love for you to join me on an upcoming free webinar presentation that I'm running on this topic.  This is a content-packed webinar where I will take you, step-by-step, through the process of discovering your unconscious blocks to weight loss and body confidence and where I'll show you how to use the Tapping to eliminate them.

To learn more about the webinar and join me, click here or on the image below.

I hope you take advantage of these two free resources.  I know they can help you.

If you have questions at any time please don't hesitate to ask us.  Just send us an email by clicking here.  Or join me on Facebook here.

Until next time... Keep Tapping!

Jessica Ortner

The following article How to Use Tapping for Weight Loss and Body Confidence was first published to: www.tappingsolution.com

[milenasanchezmk]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[fishermariawo]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[wholerestart-blog]

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/how-sugar-is-affecting-your-brain/

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

Sugar may be contributing to many issues when it comes to your health but how sugar is affecting your brain may be more concerning.  A sugar detox could be just what you need!

Sugar is prevalent in the American diet.  Pick up anything but a vegetable or a piece of unprocessed meat and there is likely sugar in the ingredients.

You may say, “I don’t have a sweet tooth, its chips for me!”  Sorry, to be the bearer of bad news, but you have the same problem.  Find yourself craving chips, bagels, or French fries?  Essentially you’re craving sugar.  The body breaks down these starchy foods into simple sugar.  White bread, pasta, crackers, and pretzels are some of the worst.

So what’s the big deal?  Why am I hating on sugar?  Well, besides the obvious reason of high-calorie content in many sugary foods, sugar can have serious consequences for your brain.  Here are just a few examples.

The Problems with Sugar

Addictive: Research suggests that sugar may be addictive.  Your brain recognizes it as a reward and releases feel-good hormones like dopamine when you eat it.  During many studies on rats, the reward center in the brain reacted the same way to sugar as it did to cocaine.  In fact, the rats preferred their sugar water addiction over their cocaine addiction!  Eating sugar tends to make us want more sugar.  I eat more sugar, I want more sugar.

The other reason that we may crave sugar is that it causes a blood sugar rollercoaster ride.  This sugar spike followed by a crash makes the body crave more.

Depression: High levels of sugar consumption have been linked to depression.  One reason this may be true is because of sugars ability to suppress a hormone called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which is low in individuals with depression and needed to handle stress.  Interestingly, countries with high sugar diets tend to also have a higher incidence of depression.

In addition, high sugar diets require higher levels of B vitamins to metabolize.  Use up all of your B vitamins and your brain may not have any left to produce the Serotonin your brain needs to feel good.

Anxiety: Too much sugar as mentioned leads to a glucose high followed by a crash.  This sends off alarm bells in the brain and causes the body to produce adrenaline which can lead to higher anxiety.  You can read more about the role of food on Depression and Anxiety in my blog article here.

Memory: Studies have linked the consumption of sugar and fat to parts of the brain that deal with memory.  Rats fed a diet high in sugar and fat for four weeks were not able to find their way out of a maze that they had been through before.  The rats that were fed a healthy diet with Omega-3 continued to complete the maze with little problem.

Surprising Places You’ll Find Sugar

Here are a few surprising examples of where you might find sugar:

-Pickles               

-Ham

-Lunch Meat

-Ketchup

-Salsa

-Salad dressing, especially the low-fat kind.

-Mayonnaise

-Meat marinades

-Bacon and Sausage

Just to name a few.  The moral of the story is if you are buying anything pre-made in a container or marinated and packaged it likely has sugar in it.  Besides Cane Sugar and Brown Sugar which are obvious you might also see words like sucrose, lactose, and fructose in the ingredient list.

Sugar Detox

A sugar detox is not easy, especially in America. It’s the American Dream!  So what can you do to eliminate or lower sugar in your diet?

Go Paleo:I have been eating a Paleo diet for years now.  Paleo is a specific way of eating that goes back to our paleolithic ancestors. It is the idea of eating clean or unprocessed foods. Meat, vegetables, fruits.

Read Labels: Stopping to read the label before you buy will save you from having to throw it away later or worse eat it.

Create a Plan: Wellness Mama talks about creating a strategy for sugar detox here. Having a plan rather than just an idea will help you be successful. If you start down the path of removing sugar only to sabotage your results accidentally you will find yourself frustrated.

If you are looking for ways to undergo a sugar detox you can go to my recipes page for some of my favorite Paleo and Whole30 online recipes, follow me on Pinterest, or subscribe to my blog.

[cristinajourdanqp]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[watsonrodriquezie]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[cynthiamwashington]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

The post I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Article source here:Marks’s Daily Apple

[wholerestart-blog]

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/how-sugar-is-affecting-your-brain/

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

Sugar may be contributing to many issues when it comes to your health but how sugar is affecting your brain may be more concerning.  A sugar detox could be just what you need!

Sugar is prevalent in the American diet.  Pick up anything but a vegetable or a piece of unprocessed meat and there is likely sugar in the ingredients.

You may say, “I don’t have a sweet tooth, its chips for me!”  Sorry, to be the bearer of bad news, but you have the same problem.  Find yourself craving chips, bagels, or French fries?  Essentially you’re craving sugar.  The body breaks down these starchy foods into simple sugar.  White bread, pasta, crackers, and pretzels are some of the worst.

So what’s the big deal?  Why am I hating on sugar?  Well, besides the obvious reason of high-calorie content in many sugary foods, sugar can have serious consequences for your brain.  Here are just a few examples.

The Problems with Sugar

Addictive: Research suggests that sugar may be addictive.  Your brain recognizes it as a reward and releases feel-good hormones like dopamine when you eat it.  During many studies on rats, the reward center in the brain reacted the same way to sugar as it did to cocaine.  In fact, the rats preferred their sugar water addiction over their cocaine addiction!  Eating sugar tends to make us want more sugar.  I eat more sugar, I want more sugar.

The other reason that we may crave sugar is that it causes a blood sugar rollercoaster ride.  This sugar spike followed by a crash makes the body crave more.

Depression: High levels of sugar consumption have been linked to depression.  One reason this may be true is because of sugars ability to suppress a hormone called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which is low in individuals with depression and needed to handle stress.  Interestingly, countries with high sugar diets tend to also have a higher incidence of depression.

In addition, high sugar diets require higher levels of B vitamins to metabolize.  Use up all of your B vitamins and your brain may not have any left to produce the Serotonin your brain needs to feel good.

Anxiety: Too much sugar as mentioned leads to a glucose high followed by a crash.  This sends off alarm bells in the brain and causes the body to produce adrenaline which can lead to higher anxiety.  You can read more about the role of food on Depression and Anxiety in my blog article here.

Memory: Studies have linked the consumption of sugar and fat to parts of the brain that deal with memory.  Rats fed a diet high in sugar and fat for four weeks were not able to find their way out of a maze that they had been through before.  The rats that were fed a healthy diet with Omega-3 continued to complete the maze with little problem.

Surprising Places You’ll Find Sugar

Here are a few surprising examples of where you might find sugar:

-Pickles               

-Ham

-Lunch Meat

-Ketchup

-Salsa

-Salad dressing, especially the low-fat kind.

-Mayonnaise

-Meat marinades

-Bacon and Sausage

Just to name a few.  The moral of the story is if you are buying anything pre-made in a container or marinated and packaged it likely has sugar in it.  Besides Cane Sugar and Brown Sugar which are obvious you might also see words like sucrose, lactose, and fructose in the ingredient list.

Sugar Detox

A sugar detox is not easy, especially in America. It’s the American Dream!  So what can you do to eliminate or lower sugar in your diet?

Go Paleo:I have been eating a Paleo diet for years now.  Paleo is a specific way of eating that goes back to our paleolithic ancestors. It is the idea of eating clean or unprocessed foods. Meat, vegetables, fruits.

Read Labels: Stopping to read the label before you buy will save you from having to throw it away later or worse eat it.

Create a Plan: Wellness Mama talks about creating a strategy for sugar detox here. Having a plan rather than just an idea will help you be successful. If you start down the path of removing sugar only to sabotage your results accidentally you will find yourself frustrated.

If you are looking for ways to undergo a sugar detox you can go to my recipes page for some of my favorite Paleo and Whole30 online recipes, follow me on Pinterest, or subscribe to my blog.

[wholerestart-blog]

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

New Post has been published on https://wholerestart.com/how-sugar-is-affecting-your-brain/

Sugar Detox: How Sugar is Affecting Your Brain

Sugar may be contributing to many issues when it comes to your health but how sugar is affecting your brain may be more concerning.  A sugar detox could be just what you need!

Sugar is prevalent in the American diet.  Pick up anything but a vegetable or a piece of unprocessed meat and there is likely sugar in the ingredients.

You may say, “I don’t have a sweet tooth, its chips for me!”  Sorry, to be the bearer of bad news, but you have the same problem.  Find yourself craving chips, bagels, or French fries?  Essentially you’re craving sugar.  The body breaks down these starchy foods into simple sugar.  White bread, pasta, crackers, and pretzels are some of the worst.

So what’s the big deal?  Why am I hating on sugar?  Well, besides the obvious reason of high-calorie content in many sugary foods, sugar can have serious consequences for your brain.  Here are just a few examples.

The Problems with Sugar

Addictive: Research suggests that sugar may be addictive.  Your brain recognizes it as a reward and releases feel-good hormones like dopamine when you eat it.  During many studies on rats, the reward center in the brain reacted the same way to sugar as it did to cocaine.  In fact, the rats preferred their sugar water addiction over their cocaine addiction!  Eating sugar tends to make us want more sugar.  I eat more sugar, I want more sugar.

The other reason that we may crave sugar is that it causes a blood sugar rollercoaster ride.  This sugar spike followed by a crash makes the body crave more.

Depression: High levels of sugar consumption have been linked to depression.  One reason this may be true is because of sugars ability to suppress a hormone called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which is low in individuals with depression and needed to handle stress.  Interestingly, countries with high sugar diets tend to also have a higher incidence of depression.

In addition, high sugar diets require higher levels of B vitamins to metabolize.  Use up all of your B vitamins and your brain may not have any left to produce the Serotonin your brain needs to feel good.

Anxiety: Too much sugar as mentioned leads to a glucose high followed by a crash.  This sends off alarm bells in the brain and causes the body to produce adrenaline which can lead to higher anxiety.  You can read more about the role of food on Depression and Anxiety in my blog article here.

Memory: Studies have linked the consumption of sugar and fat to parts of the brain that deal with memory.  Rats fed a diet high in sugar and fat for four weeks were not able to find their way out of a maze that they had been through before.  The rats that were fed a healthy diet with Omega-3 continued to complete the maze with little problem.

Surprising Places You’ll Find Sugar

Here are a few surprising examples of where you might find sugar:

-Pickles               

-Ham

-Lunch Meat

-Ketchup

-Salsa

-Salad dressing, especially the low-fat kind.

-Mayonnaise

-Meat marinades

-Bacon and Sausage

Just to name a few.  The moral of the story is if you are buying anything pre-made in a container or marinated and packaged it likely has sugar in it.  Besides Cane Sugar and Brown Sugar which are obvious you might also see words like sucrose, lactose, and fructose in the ingredient list.

Sugar Detox

A sugar detox is not easy, especially in America. It’s the American Dream!  So what can you do to eliminate or lower sugar in your diet?

Go Paleo:I have been eating a Paleo diet for years now.  Paleo is a specific way of eating that goes back to our paleolithic ancestors. It is the idea of eating clean or unprocessed foods. Meat, vegetables, fruits.

Read Labels: Stopping to read the label before you buy will save you from having to throw it away later or worse eat it.

Create a Plan: Wellness Mama talks about creating a strategy for sugar detox here. Having a plan rather than just an idea will help you be successful. If you start down the path of removing sugar only to sabotage your results accidentally you will find yourself frustrated.

If you are looking for ways to undergo a sugar detox you can go to my recipes page for some of my favorite Paleo and Whole30 online recipes, follow me on Pinterest, or subscribe to my blog.