Good Digestion = Good Life

Our digestive systems’ ability to give our body the nutrients it needs to be strong and healthy depends in turn on our body’s energy level.

Digestive problems arise when the body’s energy levels are low or diverted to another bodily function like the nervous system.

Our physical energy levels are affected by our genetics, our activity level, our emotional state and our mental tendencies. Therefore some solutions are more suitable for different people (Dosha types in Ayurveda) and situations.

Kaphas experiencing digestive irregularities will find that the most likely underlying problem is a slow digestive system, in other words slow metabolism. Kaphas do things slowly. They will feel more energetic when they experience change in routine or in increasing activity levels.

Therefore the goal is to increase metabolism. Early morning aerobic exercise is a great way to jumpstart the body’s energy and metabolism. During morning exercise you can aid digestive fire by including abdominal exercises.

Before meals, take deep abdominal breaths. If digestion still needs help, a spice /herb combination call Trikatu is recommended in Ayurveda. I use Trikatu when the weather is very cold and damp (Kapha weather)or when I am eating a high carbohydrate or fat meal (Kapha foods). Banyan Botanicals, an organic line of Ayurvedic herbs makes Trikatu ( http://www.pureandsimple.ca/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1256&category_id=233&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=27 ).

Vatas have lower digestive energy. Therefore in Ayurveda, it is recommended that they eat mainly cooked foods. Eating foods warm especially in cold weather or times of stress is highly recommended. Since they tend to be slim with a high metabolism, Vatas need to eat more or eat richer to maintain their physical energy. To support adequate digestive energy, Vatas need to create calm before eating. This can be as simple as deep breaths before eating.

To increase the body’s energy to support better digestion it is recommended that Vatas do Pranayama, Chi Kung or Meditation regularly to calm their mind. More energy can be saved if their minds can be disciplined to not waste energy with needless worry and nervous activity.

To support their digestive fire Vatas can take Hingvastek, a combination of organic spices especially formulated for them from Banyan Botanicals (http://www.pureandsimple.ca/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=571&category_id=233&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=27 before meals. I use Hingvastek before meals often as I am predominately a Vata types ( see past blogs for more information on the 3 Doshas) but especially when the weather is cold and dry or when I am mentally or emotionally exhausted.

Pittas are born with good metabolism. Their high fire element give them the advantage of good digestion. But when they over do their strengths in leadership, competition and organization their digestive systems fight back with excess acid and lower digestive fire.

While cooked food is easier to digest Pittas can oily suffer from the inflammation cooked foods can cause. Cooked food can result in excess mucous that can further negatively affect the digestive system so when digestion is compromised or when you are tired lightly cook food. Do not eat oily or rich foods like red meat and oils.

Two books I recommend to help you incorporate good digestion with a better way of life are “The Slow Down Diet” by Marc David (http://www.amazon.com/Slow-Down-Diet-Eating-Pleasure/dp/1594770603 ) and “unwinding the Belly” by Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere (V http://www.amazon.com/Unwinding-Belly-Healing-Gentle-Touch/dp/1556434782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271433971&sr=1-1 )

Poor Digestion? You have an Energy Crisis

Digestion requires energy. How many of us can willing sit quietly to eat? How many of us believe eating is a time to multi-task?

As urbane ambitious people we spend very little energy to digest our food. Our greedy ambitious brains grab at least 20% of our body’s energy output and we willing give it more as we read or work as we eat.

Then many of us are concerned about our weight or body measurements so we choose to lower our caloric food intake resulting in lower energy intake. To further lower our calorie (energy) utilization, we are choosing harder to digest raw or almost raw foods. A high percentage of the raw food we eat is not digested.

But diets of raw, low fat, low carbohydrate foods have become popular as we have come to believe those foods to be best for our health.

A good example of how diet demagoguery can use science to promote it. The Paleo Diet ( http://paleodiet.com/). Proponents of the diet eat the foods of our hunter gatherer ancestor. A diet that our ancestors ate sounds like an good diet for us longing for the simple life. This combination of the raw food diet with Atkins sounds inviting to those who are nostalgic about the past. With visions of wholesome unfettered food and the simple life, we start to stock our freezers with meat (guess the hunter ancestors we are envisioning were living in the ice age) and our refrigerators with vegetables ( with gathering is so much easier with a supermarket near by).

Those of us who have tried low carbohydrate or Atkins diets have found that we can become very dehydrated and those less fortunate found our kidneys really hate protein overload.

But who hasn’t wanted to eat our food in its most natural form, raw, only to find that our stomachs were not so nostalgic.

Raw food and high protein diets take more energy to digest and many of us are just not ready to change our lifestyles enough to accommodate it.

So what diet is best for us. First there is no one size fits all so seeking out professional help is advisable. Call a school of holistic nutrition i.e. http://instituteofholisticnutrition.com/ihn.asp or a directory http://www.enviromedicine.com/index1.htm

To improve our digestion, we need to get more energy to our bellies but where is that energy going to be coming from?

If you are an extreme athlete, are you willing to reduce your practice to give your digestion the extra energy it needs?

If you are on an ambitious run in your career, are you willing to slow down to improve digestion?

Or if you are a consummate thinker or worrier do you have a strategy to lower your brains demands on your body’s energy supply so you can improve your overall health?

If the answer to any or all of the above questions is yes, then you are all set to better digestion. And don’t need to read further.

But if the answer is no or if you chronically experiencing low energy, then instead of redistributing energy we need to increase the amount of energy.

We can add energy directly to the digestive system with digestive enzymes, spices and herbs and by cooking our food. Taking a full spectrum digestive enzyme (my best performing one is Genestra’s Digest Plus) with your meals will give your stomach support in metabolizing the foods you eat.

You can help digestion by starting the metabolic process outside of your stomach by cooking or marinating (vinegar, lemon as in a salad dressing) or salting it.

Yes, cooking reduces the nutritional value of your food but it will add digestive energy to the food. Cooked food is more easily digested and allows our body to utilize more of its nutritional value.

We can also increase our energy supply to our bodies which can increase our digestive energy. They include increasing the time or quality of our sleep, practicing Chi Kung (Chi Kung is the only exercise that nets you more energy), meditation and Pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) and increasing the amount of calories in our food intake.

Each one of us will benefit from some of the above suggestions more than others. i.e. cooking our food is great for those of us who are mind active while exercising the belly is better for those of us with slow digestive metabolism..

Some of the suggestions are not suitable for some of us. i.e increasing food intake is not recommended for those with slow metabolism or cooked food is not so beneficial for those of us who suffer from inflammation.

The more aware you are of the characteristics your body and mind, the more effective your choices will be. In the next installment I will try to help you choose some of the suggestions with the help of Ayurveda.

Stick Your Belly out if you want Good Digestion

There is probably no bodily function we have some influence over that is more critical to our personal success than digestion. We all agree that digestion is the foundation of good health which we are now beginning to link to beauty and ability to succeed.

In Skincare, poor digestion is usually one of the main causes of acne, inflammation and dull wrinkled skin. For more information on causes of skin problems refer past blogs.

During my visit to New York City, I had the serendipitous opportunity to attend the seminars at the New Life Expo (http://www.newlifemag.com/ ).

“Yoga for Healthy Digestion” with Dedee Benrey ( http://www.dedeebenrey.com/ ) was of great interest to me both personally and professionally. I am a longtime sufferer of poor digestion with food allergies and food intolerance and the bad skin that is the result of it.

I had attended a “Yoga for Digestion” workshop at the Yoga Studio at Yonge and Eglinton (http://www.yogastudio.net/home.html ) a couple of years ago with a very supportive Yoga Teacher, named Cat. It was a great 2 hour class that took us through yoga poses that improved different digestive issues. But except for the “Reclined Cobblers Pose” ( a reclining pose I take when my digestive system disagrees with what I had chosen to eat) I have not practiced the many poses Cat showed us. Like many people, I wanted better digestion, I just did not invest the time to achieve it.

So why do we have to bring more energy to our belly’s so we can be relieved of digestive problems? Because we gave the bulk of our body’s energy to our passions and achievements.

Dedee’s seminar demonstrated some convenient poses (Dedee is in the photo above doing the Pigeon pose that extends out our abdomen) that we can do at work or infront of a computer like Spinal Twists done on a chair. – to get more energy to our stomachs to help with digestion.

The big take away here is to do twists and to do poses like “The Bridge” to open up the area of our abdomen so that there is more blood flow to our stomachs.

So if Yoga is not your thing think of other exercises you can incorporate movements that focus on the belly. Concentrate on the belly movements from your favourite activities like dance or floor exercises. Why not take up belly dancing. Most of us type A’s want more from our exercise than physical movement. The great thing about Yoga, Tai Chi and Primal Dance is you can derive spiritual, emotional and mental growth along with physical health.

Physically giving our bellys more bloodflow and energy is just part of the story. Where are taking that energy from? We will discuss this next week.

Primal Dance Therapy

I apologize that many of you have been unsuccessful in giving me feedback. I unknowingly had the wrong setting on my blog. Soon as I was told of this I got help to change the settings as I would really appreciate your feedback to help this blog become an interactive experience.

Please let me know if you ould like to hear more about certain subject matters or if you have something to share. The comments are not going to be edited except for “unrelated comments”.

I had a chance to attend the Sustainable Cosmetic Conference in New York City last week and took the opportunity to stay for the New Life Expo , http://www.newlifeexpo.com/newhome.php , on the following weekend. I am a big fan of the Whole Life Expo, http://www.wholelifecanada.com/ , here in Toronto and love walking through to discover useful healthy food and time proven alternative therapies. But most so called "Health & Wellness" Shows are too “fringe” for me with the usual psychics and esoteric healers selling "miraculous" supplements and unattractive wire pyramids and other questionable devices.

My perusal of the program ahead of attending the show made the New Life Expo seemed heavy on the subject of “energy” with seminars like “I put a Spell on You and Now You are Mine: I put a Spell on You and It is Strong” and “Lemurian Seed Crystals, Sacred Tools for Personal Transformation“. When I entered the Expo, I felt visually crowded by the small, unattractive booths of mostly “snake oil” type products.

But I am glad I visited the Expo, as my picks for seminars helped to increase my personal awareness. My first class was “Primal Dance.” This dance therapy was taught by Heidi McClure of Spirit Freedom, http://spiritfreedom.net/about.html . She is the dancer in the photo above.

Based on the belief that our bodies hold emotional memories from our experiences starting from the womb until the present, Heidi lead us through dances where we released our physical body parts. These exercises helped us become aware of which areas were negatively affected by past emotions. We became aware of how the effects of past experiences affected our postures and our movements. In that short hour, I understood how the emotional affects on the body lead to a legacy of illness. I love the idea of how fun exercise like dance could also improve my knowledge of my emotional life. I didn’t even mind dancing to Madonna’s “Like a Pray”. As one who loves a good "2 for 1", I plan to use my next vacation learning from her in NYC.

In my next blogs I will intend to share with you other interesting seminars like "Yoga and Digestion" with Dee Dee Benray, the Yoga Master in the book, Aveda Rituals , http://www.amazon.ca/Aveda-Rituals-Natural-Health-Beauty/dp/0805058001 , and how a lower body temperature can cause you illnesses like Cancer, Diabetes, and Thyroid Disease with Dr Tasumura Hillyer, http://www.cancercontrolsociety.com/bio2008/hillyer.htm . If you like, I can also report on how you can use semi-precious and prescious gems for self transformation and to protect you from negative energy. Let me know your interests.

Aging Gracefully but Really Slowly

I am on my way to New York City to attend the Sustainable Cosmetic conference but what I am really looking forward to is my Korean Body Scrub booked at Yi Pak.

I have been suffering from extreme peri-menopause. My PMS has escalated with an increase in the duration and number of hellish symptoms and along with the increased incidences of brain fog and intolerance from internal heat.
I look like I am tired even when I am not.

I know from experience and research that this is caused by the dance of poor circulation and dehydration. So the thought of a wet hot sauna and then a vigorous body scrub spelled relief.

Constance Gaud, author of “The Energy Prescription” – (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dus-stripbooks-tree&field-keywords=The+energy+prescription&x=10&y=21) a shaman and pharmacist wrote that. “…what is dry is dead”.

This seems to be the story of my physical body. As I age, I struggle more to keep my body from drying out. My skin needs more attention to stay healthy and hydrated warning of internal dehydration. My mucous membranes are more irritated by the lack of moisture in my body. Even my eyesight is affected by my hydration levels.

What causes this increasing drying of our bodies. I found that my hot flashes or the less dramatic but constant higher heat in my body causes increased dryness. The lower circulation brings less moisture and nutrients to our skin cells, especially the ones at our extremities like our head, hands and feet.

So what can we do about this?

We can take more care in making sure we eat more moist foods like vegetables and fruit. Fruit is especially good if you are in a hot spell as sweet tastes cools down the body. Reaching for a chocolate bar or a piece of cake - even a slice of Dufflets - is temporary with side effects.

Body treatments like massage can help our body’s circulation and relax us (less heat).

Making sure your skin is moist and warm will help maintain or increase circulation to those areas.

I have been receiving Intense Pulse Light Treatments and Sea Salt Microdermabrasion to help me look more youthful. Both of these treatments increase collagen production and the Sea Salt Microdermabrasion was a great treatment to increase the skins ability to appear more hydrated.

But Georgeta one of our senior estheticians has a following of clients that received only micro current facials and the occasional Sea Salt Microdermabrasion to look their youthful best.

A month ago, my long time client Alice showed me her NuFace hand held microcurent machine for home use. She claims it help her facial skin to tone up. While the results were minimal, she was satisfied.

In the fall, I had been crazy busy with moving a spa and then I was off for PanchaKarma. When I got back I had to start preparing franchise plans for an interested party from China. So I was way past the ideal time to do my annual course of Sea Salt Microdermabrasion and Intense Pulse Light Treatments.

So I gave the less used micro current a try. A great decision because I found that the treatment increased circulation so that my sinuses were released and my eyes were less puffy while my skin looked more toned, radiant and dewy. While we have offered this treatment to clients for years, as a Vata, the results were not fast or dramatic enough. Also the more frequent treatments required to keep results were not attractive to my more change-oriented nature.

I am not alone. When we help our clients choose and plan their skincare maintenance, the possibility of multiple monthly treatments were not a time or budgetary commitment they were ready to make.

I am in the third week of my treatments and to keep up the improvements I need to have a micro current facial here in NYC. I want to find a good one so I can bring back something new for our staff.

But my seven weekly treatments end soon so when I get back I will be exploring the market of hand held micro current machines. I have a call into NuFace but it is not in my nature to take the first option. I am looking for the best one.

This will give an viable alternative for those of us who want to age gracefully but slowly to be able to benefit from Micro current treatments by extend our professional treatments to monthly. Sure the results may be less and of course it’s not as enjoyable but we lean to trade off in our time insufficient world. Wish me luck as I am finding lots of crazy concepts for thses hand held units.

Eating for Your Health + Beauty

Becoming Vegetarian has revolutionized my life. It was not my first time at eliminating flesh from my diet, but this time it felt less about following a diet. While my vegetarian fast had proven the benefits of better physical energy and mental clarity, I was wise enough to customize it to my allergies to common vegetarian sources of protein like legumes and dairy and intolerances to some grains.

My commitment to change my diet was greatly influenced by my two week visit to the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico for PanchaKarma. Unlike my other entries into vegetarianism, fear was not my companion. Instead I planned the changes in my life to maintain this diet that was giving me better life energy and a better opportunity to contribute positively to my community.

The biggest change was cooking for myself. Focusing on developing my business left me eating out and trusting strangers to nourish me. Cooking for myself was not just healthier but I finally was giving myself time to nurture myself. My trip and my new diet strengthen my emotional detachment. It was changing how I perceive my relationships and interactions with others without losing my passion in life. Instead my love for others increased and deepened.

My life right now is in chaos as I am still experimenting with different foods and recipes as I try to create routines. When I indulge in my old ways, I treat myself to a couple of meals at Kale Eatery at 2366 Yonge Street north of Eglinton. The food is vegetarian and delicious. All of the dishes are labeled with ingredients for us who need to avoid allergic ingredients. I have eaten vegetarian in old favourite places but the experiences just increases my tendency to choose to eat at Kale.

And for a healthier alternative to Starbucks, I meet friends for “coffee” at the Organic Oven at http://www.organicoven.com/. Gluttonfree bake goods with organic beverages make this freindly time healthy as well. And while I still cannot eat as much bread as I would like to, the goods from the Organic Oven help me keep my home meals interesting and satisfying without causing me any adverse reactions.

After decades of herbal remedies from Naturopaths, Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic Doctors; numerous detoxification fasts, my body has become intelligent enough to decide what was the best nutrition for it.

In this second half of my life I have finally embraced "food is the best medicine". Eating well is about prevention but best of all it means optimum health daily. An ancient Chinese sage once declared that the best doctors are ones that can keep us healthy with just food and lifestyle.

You can do this for yourself by using Ayurveda to help you monitor your health and your external environment and help you balance your mood, health and productivity with food.

But I am not a Vegetarian Evangelist. Eating for your health does not mean a philosophy of eating by principles as in vegetarian, low carbohydrate or raw food diets. It is about eating to contribute to your overall health. No one diet is perfect for everyone.

How can you discover your perfect diet?

It is a combination of self discovery and experimentation. Ayurveda's individualized diet recommendations for different body types is a great aid for those who do not know where to start. For thin Vata Types eating rich foods like meat, oils, dairy and nuts are excellent. Avoiding dry crunch foods is advisable. I avoid uncooked foods and gassy foods like cabbage and broccoli as a Vata and especially in Winter. Grazing is an excellent way to get all your nutrition without over working the stomach.

Pittas can indulge in bitter foods like greens and sweet foods like dairy. They should avoid fatty foods like meat and oils and acidic foods like citrus and vinegars. Hot temperature as well as hot spicy foods. In summer a raw food diet would be an excellent chose for fiery ambitious Pittas.
Kapha types can eat warm light crunchy spicy foods. These foods help to keep Kaphas alert and energetic. Heavy sweet foods like dairy and sweets and fatty foods like meat and nuts can slow down Kapha metabolism and energy.

For more information on the Doshas, you can read my earlier blogs or get a book on Ayurveda. For those who want more indepth information on Ayurveda and diet I would recommend Jennifer Workman’s “Stop Your Cravings” (http://www.amazon.ca/Stop-Your-Cravings-Satsify-Sacrificing/dp/0743217063/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268522035&sr=1-2 ) this book offers advice on common food issues of cravings, food sensitivities, weight management and protein versus carbohydrate

But that is just a start. As you gain more awareness of your relationship with food you may want to explore other ways foods affect you. “The Body Ecology Diet” by Donna Gates (http://www.amazon.ca/Body-Ecology-Diet-Recovering-Rebuilding/dp/0963845837/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268522230&sr=1-1 ) Here you will learn how to care for your digestive system along with the healing treatments and foods for the areas of concern.

Robert Thayer’s “Calm Energy” helps you find foods to include in your diet that can help you find harmony in our stressful overly ambitious society.

While I use Ayurveda as the basic structure of how I stay healthy and happy, I am open to any positive influences. I take what I find suitable for me and I may also pass on any information I feel may help another.

One such source is Dr Peter D’adamo’ “Eat Right for your Blood Type” Find it at http://www.amazon.ca/Right-Your-Type-Peter-Dadamo/dp/039914255X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268522456&sr=1-1

What ever your goals are food can have a great influence in your success. To help our clients achieve the beautiful skin they covet, our estheticians find that diet advice increases their success.

My Vegetarianism is reinforced by my desire to grow more connected to my world. This time with the role model of Dr Lad from the Ayurvedic Institute along with David Frawley's book "Yoga and Ayurveda" (http://www.amazon.ca/Yoga-Ayurveda-Self-Healing-Self-Realization-Frawley/dp/0914955810/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268523649&sr=1-1) I found my path to self discovery is aided to by a vegetarian diet and mindful exercise like Yoga and Chi Kung.

If you are interested in Vegetarianism go visit the the Toronto Vegetarian Association site at http://www.veg.ca/. It is great for encouragement, recipes and important health news not reported in the mainstream media

Self Discovery, Self Worth and the Pursuit of Beauty

Attraction to beauty is based on our primal instinct for survival as species.

The above scientific claim may surprise you. As a bookworm, I found the statement delightfully enlightening but unjustly vindicating the males species whom I had long scorned for being the more shallow sex for choosing beauty over brains. Years ago a TV program (CBC) proclaimed that men were programmed by nature to select the most beautiful as their mates to ensure the propagation of the human race.

Then to make me really feel I was raised on another planet --- it claimed that females naturally are atracted to mates that can support the family. This was one moment of enlightenment for me! I no longer was so sure of my embrace of idealistic principles or my perception of being human.

No, I did not become an advocate of plastic surgery to successfully use modern science to mimic male fantasy. After all we women no longer yearn to be chosen for our abilities to mate. Not consciously anyway. - So why then work at being deemed beautiful?

If we remove the time sensitive values out of the scientists' argument, we can learn that our primal instinct for "beauty" is basically a preference for wellbeing.

So redefining beauty as the unveiling of our awareness and our uniqueness can reconnect us with our true nature. Therefore, contrary to our conditioning, it is ideal to look into a mirror and use the information found in your eyes, tongue and skin to tell you about your day to day health.

If your skin is dehydrated - you can maintain a youthful appearance by moisturizing your skin more more to keep up good circulation. But since dehydrated skin is signally the beginning of internal dehydration -- ensure internal health by increasing the consumption of hydrating foods like herbal teas, vegetables, and soups on such days.

If you still have a white coating on your tongue after the morning is long gone; it is telling you that your body is sluggish and need help with digestion and elimination. Spice up your next meal and forgo the sugary snacks along with other "Kapha Carbs". Pump up your exercise from a relaxing Yoga class to a high impact aerobics one. If the condition is chronic then your skin will scream at you by being dull and congested. While you can improve your appearance temporarily with good skincare, you really need to change diet and lifestyle to increase your internal fire or "Chi"

So as you see, a moderate regard for your external appearance is healthy and very advisable. Taking time daily to keep skin in good condition will not only help to keep skin attractive but also promote good circulation and body temperature control.

Where it can be a bit over the top when we become self critical and adopt a belief that our beauty is based on some one else's definition of beauty.

And extreme solutions are very poor substitutes for daily maintenance. They cheat us of our self discovery. Self love leads to true beauty which spirals back to feed our self confidence and so on and so forth - So goes the circle of growth and wellbeing.