to elevate your body
How did Day 1 go on the Kleanse?
Did your chicken, kale salad and veggies fill you up?
Please send me your comments and your questions. I want to support you to get Klean and make new habits that will help relieve cravings and encourage whole-body health.
Stay with it! You can do this. Health and nutrition are a choice. Let’s get well, let’s get strong and let’s do it now!
If you have a cat, watch them wake sometime. They don’t hop up like we do. Cats take their time. They stretch, one foot reaching forward, the back leg reaching back. They arch their back, they extend their back, then they go. It’s a smart way to start the day. Once they’re up and moving, they typically have a little play time, running around, getting the blood flowing, another really smart way to start the day. Then they settle back down until they start that whole process over, several times a day. What could that mean for you? It could mean that you stretch, that you get your blow flowing (heart rate up) and then you settle back down, several times a day, just like the other smart predators. So here’s your challenge:
Before getting out of bed, curl your hip bone towards your bottom rib (low back pushes down into your bed) then press the pelvic bowl away from your ribs (low back arches up). Do this 8-10 times, using the abs to make the movement happen. Then try dropping one hip bone down then the other hip down, knees bent, legs still, moving the pelvic bowl side to side. It feels funny at first, but you will feel a stretch across your low back. After releasing your low back, stand up and do 20 squats, right off the side of your bed. Make sure your knees stay behind your toes, engage your core and simply bend your knees, and straighten, pressing up through your heels- 20 times. Your heart rate will go up, but you won’t break sweat. Then start your day. Try doing this 5 times a day, but when you’re at your desk, just do the pelvic bowl rolls standing. You will draw your navel to your spine, feeling your hip bone curl up towards the bottom rib, then release it, press your belly out and feel your low back extend. Do this 10 times and then your 20 squats. If you don’t want to do your pelvic rolls standing, try them sitting, but you’ve got to get up and do the squats.
Doing this simple routine will get you off to a great day. It will release some muscles that might be tight from sleep, and start your metabolism with the increased blood flow created by the squats. We are the smartest animals, we just need to follow our instincts for movement to keep our beautiful bodies healthy.
Have questions? I’d love to hear them. Thanks for reading and have a STRONG day!
Are you eating consciously?
Today we run through life. We are busy, our kids are busy, work is busy, technology is busy and we seem to think we don’t have enough time for food. So we buy junk and we inhale it. So many people unconsciously drive through fast food windows and grab food and eat in their car. We grab boxes off of shelves that state silly and misleading things like “low-fat” or “low-carb.” Whatever the latest diet says is best for us.
If we are reading boxes from food marketers, we are in trouble. They do not care about our health. They care about their bottom-line, and it is large (yours will be too if you follow their advice). We must slow down and think for ourselves. Can we grow this, can we hunt this? Can we pronounce these ingredients? If you can’t grow it or hunt it, it has very little nutritional value for you. If you can’t pronounce it, you don’t have the enzymes to digest it. Are you eating nutritionally dense foods or calorically dense foods?
Your body is your vessel. It is what you are traveling through this life in. Every morsel of food you take into your precious body feeds your cells. Respect the importance of that for you and your loved ones. We are indeed what we eat. Do not allow yourself to become made of chemicals. Allow yourself to become made of positive energy. Plants that were grown with respect and care. Animals that were raised in positive environments. Fish that come from healthy bodies of water. As these natural and real foods become part of you, you will become stronger, healthier and more conscious of what it feels like to be well.
Don’t be too busy to feed yourself or your family. Take care in your choices and take time to prepare your food and enjoy it. Eating slowly and consciously with love and gratitude. Don’t wait to become sick and wonder why or what you can do to get better. Slow down, think of food as medicine and plan on health. You can save a lot of time and a lot on doctor’s bills by being conscious.
There’s so much truth and value in eating the foods that are naturally available to us within each season. The great news in Spring and Summer is that there is so much fresh produce available.
Here’s a brief reminder of all the great nutrients and vitamins that come in the form of tasty fruits and veggies for Spring:
Apricots; mangoes; rhubarb; strawberries and cherries just to name a few in the fruit section!
Artichokes; asparagus; mustard greens; spinach; carrots; chives; and water cress just to name a few in the veggie area.
Look for organic produce that is not coming across the country to your grocery store or just go to the local farmer’s markets. It reduces the footprint on the Earth (less gas and pollution to get our food to us) to buy local and it’s so much better for your body! Happy Spring!!!
The Secret to a Toned Body
Jack LaLanne (if you don’t him Google him, he was amazing) had a great saying, “Exercise is the King and diet is the Queen.” I love Jack LaLanne, but he had this one backwards. Diet is the King and exercise is the Queen, and that’s a fact.
More than 80% of how we look depends on nutrition. Exercise is VERY important, don’t get me wrong, but without the right food at the right time, you’re spinning your wheels as far as how you look and maximizing the benefits of your workouts.
Exercise works on us internally, which is why it’s so important. It keeps our heart working great, our cells detoxifying with fresh oxygen turnover, our muscles get harder, stronger, and more beautiful, it’s ALL good. The problem happens when people feel that their exercise routine is going to give them the look they want. It certainly can, but not unless they’re willing to cut out the sugar (98% of the time), cut out the processed foods (all the time), and get back to eating foods that support leaning out the fat and building muscle.
What foods help build muscle and get rid of fat? Lean protein, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and eggs. Whole grains such as oats, brown rice, buckwheat groats, spelt and quinoa are great, too, but keeping the carbs down in the form of grains is important to a leaner-looking body.
In addition to what you eat, when you eat is just as important. You should have 4 ounces of protein every 2-3 hours. Adding a serving of fruits or vegetables (preferably raw)is a great compliment to helping your body utilize the protein. It’s most important that you eat some protein within 45 minutes of a workout to give your body the nutrition it requires to build up the muscles you worked out. Remember, the purpose of working out (breaking down the muscle tissue) is so that you can build the muscles back stronger than before. Without the right nutrition at the right time, your body will actually consume the muscles you have in order to keep more vital body parts working (your brain, your organs, etc.). That’s why eating the right food at the right time is so important to how you look.
Are you eating for health?
Please let me know if this post was helpful to you. I’m also always open to questions about fitness and nutrition, I love it!
Mardee Calkins is an ACE certified personal trainer, wellness coach, double certified Pilates teacher, a PMA certified Pilates instructor, Spin instructor, registered yoga teacher, Kettle Bell Instructor, Rebounding instructor, expert at using food as medicine, author and mom of three.
I had a fascinating meeting with one of my holistic doctors a few years ago. He explained to me why my body, and so many other bodies like mine, have stopped digesting the foods we’ve eaten all of our lives. Why all of sudden, we can’t just eat what we want. It was a light bulb moment for me, so simple, yet so profound. He said that as our food has been genetically modified over the years, infused with pesticides and hormones, our bodies have become confused. They no longer know what to do with wheat because wheat doesn’t look the same to our enzymes and cells. It’s an impenetrable substance that clogs up our system now. Why are so many people lactose intolerant now? Because our bodies could handle digesting casein when they didn’t have to figure out what to do with pesticides, hormones, fake fats, enhanced sugars and chemicals we can’t even pronounce. Our bodies are finely tuned machines and when we began to think we could change our foods to make them more cost-effective on the grocery store shelf, we got too smart for our own good.
So it’s time to back-track. Go back to the basics. Meat, eggs, nuts, fruits and vegetables. That’s quite a bit of food, all you have to do is stick with those simple things for awhile (keeping in mind that you can react to eggs).
A few good rules of thumb are: If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it. If it’s in a box or bag, that’s a problem. And if you can drive through and get it, don’t do it, there’s no telling what you’re actually eating. Think you’re too busy for this? Think of it as saving time by not needing to go to the doctor. Think it’s too expensive to eat organic fruits and vegetables? Think of it as saving money on prescriptions and doctors bills. It’s your body and your health and you get to CHOOSE how you feel by choosing healthier food options. It’s a beautiful thing!
Do you have any ideas on:
1) How to rebuild the immune system?
2) Why some people can’t process even healthy, organic foods?
3)How hormonal imbalances effect the immune system?
I know I’m not alone. Let’s figure it out!
Have you or anyone you know had cancer, an autoimmune disease, or heart disease? Most of us have lived through one of these issues, or know someone who has. All three problems have one common denominator: inflammation. As a matter of fact, almost all of our health issues start with inflammation. Even common allergies cause inflammation and in the next ten years modern (western medicine) is going to become tuned in to this problem and how we can minimize inflammation in our bodies. Controlling inflammation is the key to staying healthy and controlling it starts with keeping your body alkaline.
Acidity and alkaline in the body can be a little confusing, but it’s very important for the body to remain alkaline for many reasons, most of all to keep inflammation at a minimum. So put simply, acidity causes inflammation and being alkaline minimizes inflammation. Staying alkaline can make all the difference in how a person with an autoimmune disease feels.
How do you get alkaline?
Let’s start by looking at how a body gets acidic. And, like most things that have to do with how you feel, acidity comes from what you put in your body.
Acidic foods include: meats, table salt (not sea salt), milk (a huge offender), sodas, coffee, chocolate (heartbreaking), sugar, alcohol, cheese, and some grains.
So, one of the best ways to get alkaline is to try to eliminate these often tasty items from your diet.
Why? Because being acidic can cause lots of serious problems ranging from general inflammation to life-taking cancer. Other potentially serious acidity problems include: osteoporosis (an acidic body will steal from the bones), kidney problems and cardiovascular disease. So… you really don’t want to be acidic, even if you don’t have an auto-immune disease.
What are some things you can put into your body each day to make it alkaline?
It’s easy :O)… most fruits and vegetables, apple cider vinegar (in place of acid causing regular vinegar), and adding half a lemon in water. Adding these things to a meal that may have some acid-forming foods provides balance for the body. If you’re feeling inflamed, avoid the acid forming foods and drink lots of lemon in water. See if that helps how you’re feeling.
Some great books that discuss the importance of staying alkaline are Clean, by Alejandro Junger, M.D. and The Paleo Diet, by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. Both books address autoimmune diseases and have some great ideas on how to care for the body holistically.
Got some thoughts about acidity and alkaline? I’d love to hear it!!
Our bodies are amazing vessels that house our souls. It’s up to us to treat them with respect by how we feed them, groom them, and use them. You do have healthcare choices, and they don’t have to do with insurance or the government. Start with loving yourself, detoxing through sweating, and cleansing your body with healthy fruits and vegetables.
Thank Goodness for old school medicine and common sense. How has it become the norm to get sick, get pills, and get sick again? What are we doing to our bodies with all of these chemicals, both in our food and our medicine? It seems more like we are the lab rats now and a brief warning of the myriad of side effects you might experience on any medication is the pharmaceutical company’s free license to see how the public weathers the chemicals that are pumped into us by the billions, and that’s billions with a big $$$ behind it.
Have you ever wondered how we can improve the healthcare system in this country?
Here are a few ideas:
1) Start with demanding ORGANIC FOODS that are pesticide, hormone and anti-biotic-free. You can do this simply by only purchasing organic foods. It’s not expensive when you put your focus on the value of a healthy body and saving money on medical bills.
2) If you get sick, or your kids do, with an immune system issue, try an elimination diet. Start with gluten and yeast, the most common offenders. If you can afford to go to a holistic doctor, have them do an Immunolabs (http://www.immunolabs.com/patients/) blood test for food intolerances.
3) EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE!!! There is NO substitute. Our bodies are designed to move, beautifully, so make that happen. Get sweaty! Sweating is one of your bodies best systems for detoxification. Sweating purifies the blood, the lungs and the organs. Once you get going with a workout routine, you’ll crave it. Start a new habit. Don’t have time? MAKE TIME, it’s your body, get to know it and take care of it :O).
4) If you need a doctor, go to one that is trained in a holistic approach to medicine, sometimes we need the big guns- cancer, for example. But if it isn’t life-threatening, try to figure out WHY YOUR SICK, with a good holistic practitioner to find a natural solution.
Please share your story, ask questions, or offer answers. We’re all in this together.
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