Alisa Herriman - Wellness Blog

4 Mistakes People Make When Trying to Live More Naturally

5/16/2021

Wanting to live more naturally is a noble goal, but unfortunately many individuals don’t understand what this means, or make some very common mistakes. Here are some areas where you might be going wrong, but don’t worry – they are all easy to fix.

Trying to do it All
A very common mistake made when trying to live more naturally is when you try to do it all. You can’t “win” at living a holistic life. You don’t need to do it 100 percent perfect 100 percent of the time, and you definitely don’t have to dedicate all your time and energy to it. What this is going to do is overwhelm you, and make you think you are failing because if you don’t do everything perfectly, you won’t do anything at all. Remember that doing just a little something is better than doing nothing when it comes to living more holistically.

Not Making Consistent Change
It really is better to start slow with your new natural lifestyle, and work on changing small things, one at a time. Don’t attempt to change everything at once, but work on more of a consistent change. This allows you to take small steps that don’t completely change your life rapidly, and make you feel like you can’t keep up. Choose one thing at a time, like buying organic produce or switching out your skincare products for more natural ones, then change the next thing when you feel ready.

Failing to do Proper Research
It is super important to spend time planning, researching, and educating yourself on living a holistic, sustainable lifestyle, otherwise you might not realize all the other mistakes you are making. Be sure you understand what is natural, what organic means, what you can recycle, and so much more. There is a lot to learn about living more holistically, being sustainable, and reducing waste. It is a BIG lifestyle change, and one that requires you to continuously learn more as you go along with it.

Forgetting About the Small Things
Living more simplistic and natural is not complicated and doesn’t have to be expensive. Try not to spend your entire budget on pricey essential oils and all organic food if it is not within your budget. This is a common mistake that often leads to people giving up, because they think they can’t afford it. There are many ways to cut costs and not make it so complicated for your family just to live a natural lifestyle. Start with the Dirty Dozen list when it comes to choosing your organic foods and source out suppliers at your local farmers markets. You can also grow your own chemical free food year round with a Tower Garden! https://alisaherriman.towergarden.ca

Yours in Good Health
Alisa Herriman

Join my 5 Week Holistic Living Course this June 2021!
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How to Eat Clean on a Budget

5/10/2021

Fast foods appeal to many people. They are cheap, filled with tasty flavors and fit in today’s fast paced world where many people hardly have enough time to cook their own meals. But those burgers, fries, pizzas, donuts and soft drinks come with a hidden price – your health. Fast foods are often loaded with too much sodium, extra sugar, saturated fat and harmful chemical preservatives. When you factor in the cost of managing heart disease, diabetes and obesity, those meals don’t seem to be much of a bargain.

Most people eat junk food because they believe that eating healthy doesn’t come cheap. However, with the right strategy, you can easily eat right without a hefty price tag. Here are 10 tips you can use to start eating healthy on a budget.

Buy Frozen Fruits & Vegetables
Buying frozen (organic) fruits and vegetables can be a great money saving option. Frozen foods usually have a longer shelf life and this makes them cheaper than their fresh counterparts. Since good vendors pack their frozen fruits and vegetables right from the farms, many of the nutrients are locked in, thus ensuring that the frozen produce retains all its nutritional value. You can even save more by buying healthy frozen fruits and vegetables in bulk when they’re on offer, then store them in your freezer and not have to worry about the food going bad.

Don’t Go Shopping When You’re Hungry
You’re more likely to succumb to temptation and buy expensive foods and snacks when shopping on an empty stomach. Having a meal before you shop for food will actually help you to avoid impulsive spending and stick to healthy choices while you shop. If you don’t have time for a full meal, a filling healthy snack will still work to help you avoid overspending.

Drink Plenty of Water
Water is the best beverage to keep you hydrated. It contains no calories and best of all, it costs nothing. Drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day helps to promote weight loss, flushes out toxins, improves skin complexion, boosts immune function and relieves fatigue. Dehydration can be mis-interpreted as hunger and contribute to overeating. Staying well hydrated helps to keep your body cleaner and can reduce unnecessary calories.

Fill Up on Fiber Rich Foods
Fiber provides a feeling of satiety since it metabolizes slowly in the digestive tract. This in turn curbs hunger cravings, allowing you to feel more satisfied. Fruits, leafy greens and whole grains are some of the best sources of fiber. These foods are also packed with nutrients and generally low on calories, making them a great addition to any healthy diet on a budget.

Freeze Your Leftovers
Studies have shown that the average family of four throws away about 40% of the food that they purchase every year. However, these leftovers can easily be frozen and re-heated. By doing this, you’ll avoid wasting such large quantities of food that would otherwise end up in the garbage bin and therefore spend much less at the grocery store. I personally freeze two servings from all our families’ soups, stews, chili’s, pastas and sauces. This gives us freezer ready meals when time is limited, or I just don’t feel like cooking.

Go for Fresh, Lean Meats
While processed meats such as burgers and fried chicken are tempting, they’re neither healthy nor good value for money. If you eat meat on a regular basis purchase fresh, lean cuts of meat such as chicken breast or turkey breast. You’ll also supply your body with some lean protein without filling up on harmful trans fats and chemical preservatives. The best part is with a few spices, you can crank up the flavor of these meats and make them taste even better than their processed counterparts. Reducing the serving size of animal protein can also save money and provide several meals. Filling up on whole foods with a small side serving of meat, reduces food costs and is far more nourishing for your body!

Look for Special Offers
Before heading to the grocery store, take the time to look for discount deals. There are many sites online which provide great deals on local healthy foods which are constantly updated. Local daily newspapers are another excellent way to find discounted healthy groceries in your area. Also, make sure to keep your eyes peeled when you’re in the grocery store, as there are likely to be lots of promotions running while you shop.

Try Homemade Sauces
Making and canning your own homemade sauce can save you money. You can use many locally sourced fruits and vegetables for the ingredients and these will cost a fraction of what you’ll end up spending on 1 bottle of ketchup. The best part about making your own sauce is that they taste so much better than the processed sauces you’ll find in stores. Plus, there are many free recipes on the Internet that can help you get started making your own sauces instantly.

Prepare Your Healthy Meal Plan in Advance
A sure way to overspend is by heading to the grocery store unprepared and tossing whatever looks good into your shopping cart. Instead of doing this, plan your healthy meals in advance and write a shopping list for the week ahead. This will allow you to control how much you spend on groceries and prevent you from going over your budget.

Take Advantage of The Grocery Store Clearance Rack
You can cut back on your grocery bill by checking for discounted foods at the clearance rack. Some stores mark down the price tag on perishable goods that are stacked on shelves when the expiry dates are nearing in order to encourage buying and reduce waste. By taking advantage of these deals, you can enjoy discounts of up to 75% on a range of tasty and healthy foods. Many of these foods on the clearance rack can be frozen, so even though you’re paying a fraction of the price, you don’t need to eat them right away.

Summary
If you want to eat healthy but haven’t found a way to do it while sticking to your grocery budget, these 10 tips can be used to slash your shopping bill while increasing your intake of healthy whole foods. Start with one tip at a time and track your spending and savings for the next few weeks. Eating healthy does not have to cost more, in fact you may even find you are eating better and saving more!

Alisa Herriman is an award winning nutritionist on a mission to help families eat healthier foods and live healthier lifestyles! If you would like to connect with Alisa, fill-in the contact form to learn about some customized support options for you and your family.

Why Sleep Matters

5/2/2021

It’s common sense that sleep is beneficial for the body. After an uninterrupted sleep session, you feel refreshed, full of energy and ready to take on the day. The importance of sleep goes beyond boosting your mood and energy levels. In recent years, scientists have gone to great lengths to understand the health benefits that sleep brings. In this article we’ll be looking at exactly how sleep enhances your health.

Better Memory
Numerous studies have shown that sleep has a positive effect on your memory and allows the brain to become much better at remembering things. Researchers believe this is the result of a process known as memory consolidation whereby the brain recalls skills learned while you are awake.

Enhanced Concentration
Sleep is like nutrition for the brain. When you get enough of it, the chances of losing concentration during the day are much less. This makes you much more alert while you complete your daily tasks and has a direct positive impact on your effectiveness, productivity and performance.

Faster Muscle Growth
The body releases growth hormone and builds new muscle cells while you are sleeping. Not only does it renew and revitalize your cells, but it also repairs any tissue damage. This is particularly beneficial if you perform weightlifting workouts, as the intense exercises that make up these workouts tear your muscles slightly so that they can grow back bigger and stronger. Sleep provides your body with the platform it needs to fully repair these torn muscles and maximize your muscle size and strength.

Increased Fat Loss
Researchers have found that getting enough sleep can help you eat less and even accelerate the rate at which your body burns fat. Sleeping helps to regulate the levels of ghrelin and leptin in your body – 2 hormones that control hunger and appetite. It also stimulates the production of human growth hormone – a hormone which supports and speeds up your body’s fat burning processes.

Improved Physical Performance
If you’re an athlete who wants to improve your performance, getting good quality sleep every day can help you achieve this goal. Researchers at Stanford University ran a study on college football players who slept for at least 10 hours daily over several weeks. They found that not only did the well-rested athletes increase their average sprint times but also felt less tired and had more stamina during the day.

Reduced Stress Levels
When your body is sleep deprived, it goes into stress mode. Its functions remain on high alert which causes a spike in blood pressure and cortisol – the stress hormone. High blood pressure increases your risk of heart attacks and stroke while being stressed has a negative impact on your mood and increase your risk of falling into depression. By ensuring that you get enough sleep on a regular basis, you can keep your body out of stress mode and stay in a calm, relaxed state.

My Top 4 Sleep Tips

Go to bed and rise at the same time 7 days a week if possible. This helps to support a natural sleep rhythm for your body.
Meditate or listen to relaxing music before going to bed. This helps you to shut off your day and get into a more restful state.
Avoid technology for 30-60 minutes before bedtime.
Read something positive or fill in a gratitude journal when you get into bed.

As you can see, there are so many reasons to enjoy quality sleep. So, if you’re not currently getting at least 6-8 hours every night, make some changes to your lifestyle right now, set aside the time for quality sleep and start enjoying all these benefits.

Yours in Good Health
Alisa Herriman RNCP ROHP CHCP

5 Metabolism Boosting Tips

4/25/2021

When it comes to boosting your metabolism through diet, a lot of the information floating around is either false or heavily exaggerated. However, if you know which information to listen to and which information to ignore, you can quite easily increase the amount of calories you burn each day with a few simple dietary changes. In this article I’m going to be showing you how to do just that by listing five highly effective metabolism boosting diet tips.

Eating for a Healthy Metabolism
One of the biggest metabolism truths out there is eating for stabilized blood sugar levels. A healthy metabolism has a lot to do with the quality of your nutrition and the stability of your blood sugar levels. What does that mean? Following a schedule that fits your day while also choosing clean whole foods that nourish your body. Skipping meals and snacks only puts you in a lower metabolic rate (your body does not know the difference between busy and starvation). When you miss your meals and snacks your body’s primary source of fuel, glucose (blood sugar) plummets leaving you ravenous and more likely to make high glycemic food choices (your brain is literally telling you to!). Blood sugar also instability increases your risks for cravings and overeating as well!

The goal is to create an eating schedule/meal plan that suits your day-to-day lifestyle. Focus on unprocessed whole foods that will not only provide a spectrum of bioavailable nutrients, but also contain fibre, clean burning protein and complex carbohydrates that will help to stabilize your blood sugar levels. By doing this, you will be supporting improved energy levels and living in a more nourished body!

Utilize Spices
Spices are a great way to add a kick to your meals and they also boost your metabolism in the process. When you consume spices, they temporarily stimulate your body’s fat burning processes and this results in you burning more body fat after you eat them. In addition to this, eating spices raises your body’s temperature and your body then uses up more calories as it regulates this temperature increase.

So if you don’t currently utilize many spices in your cooking, start making some changes today. There are plenty of different spices available with different intensities and flavors, so you can easily find one that you like. Spices are also incredibly versatile and can be used to season your organic meat, nut and seeds, vegetables and whole grains.

Base Each Meal Around Protein
By basing every meal, you eat around protein, you give your metabolism a huge natural boost. Unlike refined carbohydrates (which burn very few calories during digestion), studies that when you consume clean protein, your body uses up 25% of the calories it contains during digestion.

So, if most of your meals are rich in processed carbohydrates (such as white pasta or white rice), base them around a plant-based protein source instead and then top up the meal with even more vegetables. By doing this you’ll still get some nutrient packed carbohydrates in your meal, but you’ll cut out the processed carbohydrate calories and enjoy the calorie burning effects of protein.

Get Plenty of Fibre
Like protein rich foods, foods that contain high levels of fibre require more energy to digest so naturally enhance your metabolism when you eat them. Fibre rich foods also increase the amount of nutrients you can absorb from your foods, protect against bowel disease and much more. Most plant based foods contain high levels of fibre. Therefore, to get plenty of fibre in your diet, simply fill up on fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables. The great news is when you focus on more plant-based protein sources in your diet, you also get more fibre!

Avoid Processed Carbohydrates
As mentioned above, if your diet contains a high concentration of processed carbs and you want to maximize your metabolism, then you need to be replacing your carbohydrate rich meals with complex carbohydrates and clean burning protein.

The reason for this is that processed carbs require very few calories to digest, so the more processed carbs you eat, the fewer total calories your digestive system burns off. In addition to this, processed carbs contain very few, it any vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. These nutrients support numerous processes within your body (including metabolism) and by failing to get enough of them in your diet, you can slow down your metabolism and reduce the total amount of calories you burn each day.

So to keep your nutrient levels topped up, increase the amount of calories you burn during digestion and maintain an optimal metabolism, cut back on processed carbs and instead fill up on whole-foods which are fiber rich, nutrient packed. These whole foods include: fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

Summary
As you can see, there are no magic dietary tricks when it comes to boosting your metabolism. However, by being sensible and adapting your diet so that it incorporates the five tips above, you can naturally raise your metabolic rate and burn through an increased number of calories each day.

Yours in Good Health
Alisa Herriman

6 Tips to Growing Your Own Herbs

4/24/2021

Living a more natural and holistic life has many facets, including what you eat and where you get your food. To be as holistic as possible, consider growing herbs from home. Not only can you use herbs to cook, but you can also use some of them for healing and natural medicine. You will save money and ensure you have the most organic herbs possible.

1. Have a Plan Beforehand
The first step to growing your own herbs is the prep stage. You want to take some time figuring out where you will place your garden, what you intend to grow and ways you are going to use them, and how much room you are going to need. This is when the research comes in handy. The worst thing you can do is just go buy some seeds and fertilizer, and start planting without having planned exactly what you intend to do beforehand.

2. Decide Between Seeds or Start Plants
There are two main ways to grow herbs; you can start them from seeds, or you can purchase plants that have been started for you. Naturally, if you are a beginner at growing, the plants are going to be much easier for you. This is recommended for most people who are starting their very first herb garden, as you ease into caring for herbs, without having to start them from seeds.

3. Become Familiar with Each Herb
Before you start planting your herbs, understand what each herb needs you to do as far as care and growing it healthy. Every herb will have different guidelines, such as how much water it needs, when to give it direct sunlight, and whether it needs to be in a container or in the ground.

For example: Mint grows very fast, and works best in a container with only mint in it. Mint grows well in sunlight, but it can also use a bit of shade and still grow well. With rosemary, it grows better in cool climates that have sun, and needs to be brought indoors during the winter.

4. Caring for Your Herbs
While many herbs can be grown indoors in planters, they still need to be close to a window. Some plants may need to be moved outdoors for at least a few hours, as most herbs should get 3-4 hours of direct sunlight each day. Again, this will depend on your herbs. Remember that care includes sunlight and temperature control, watering, and using the right soil.

5. Harvest When Ready
Something to keep in mind when harvesting your herbs is that the more often you do it (when they are ready), the healthier the herb plant will continue to grow. Again, look at each variety’s instructions to understand harvesting guidelines.

6. Grow Your Herbs on a Tower Garden
Tower Gardens are the easiest way to have chemical free herbs year-round without the worry of watering or weeding. I have been growing all of my herbs on a Tower Garden for 8 years and the taste, quality and abundance is incredible! I encourage all my clients to invest in Tower Gardening. It’s a great way to save money and improve the quality of the food your family is eating! All of my Tower Garden Clients receive special support and meal plans to support healthy eating!
https://alisaherriman.towergarden.ca/tg

Check Out Tower Gardens Here

HOW TO BUILD AN ONLINE HEALTH SUPPLEMENT BUSINESS

11/22/2020

I am so glad you are taking a few moments with me here to learn how I grew my online health supplements business into a lifestyle I wake up incredibly grateful for every day! I also wanted to bring your awareness to this online form you can fill in at any point during your read here. I will connect with you to offer some guidance and options for you to move forward launching your own health supplement business.

Let me Help! Fill this in!

I started out in the online health supplement world as an exhausted health practitioner. I had reached my professional goals of running a thriving practice, filling large workshops and teaching at several colleges. The downside this level of success was, during this time was I was super close to practitioner burnout. In addition to that I had hit the ceiling in my income, as I literally had no more billable hours! I was exhausted, frustrated and knew I was meant for more!! I had so much more to give and wanted to have a bigger impact!

When I first added Juice Plus+ to my business I was thrilled with the results my clients were achieving. The added concentrated whole food-based nutrition was making a huge difference for my them! As a result of these great results and raving fan clients, I started to professionally experience an additional and growing revenue stream as well.

I was helping my clients get better results and I was generating additional income, all without adding additional time commitments to my already full plate. It was during this time that I realized I COULD increase my revenue, help more people and maybe even take a few things out of my schedule so that I could be home more with my husband and four children.

ADDING A JUICE PLUS+ BUSINESS TURNED OUT TO BE RATHER SIMPLE!

I would share my love for these incredible products.
I would send out an order link, or take the order there on the spot.

This simple process was so successful for me, that I naturally started to add new Partners to my business and together we created a customer support system. This wonderful customer support system includes: Weekly health webinars, complimentary meal plans every month, and an uplifting community focused on teaching our customers how to truly enjoy a healthy lifestyle and make improvements one step at a time.

Naturally this also encouraged others to share these incredible products with the people they cared about, which has grown into an incredible community of individuals passionate about sharing healthy living, using the simple process to grow their own incredibly successful businesses.

Our Team (Partners) ranges from families enjoying a discount without any sort of monthly purchasing obligations, to stay a home mom earning a part time income, to health practitioners who have seamlessly added the Juice Plus+ line of health products to their existing business model.

Fill in for One on One Support

HOW TO GET STARTED
Adding Juice Plus+ to your personal health program is one of the best steps you can take towards better health! These products simply make sense! Its concentrated whole food nutrition. Your body recognizes this form of nutrition, easily absorbs it, and there are zero risks of toxicity for you your family. The products are safe, natural, clean and proven! (ahem…. proven by being published in more than 40 clinical publications with double blind research!!)

Check out this 6 min video on our incredible capsules by my friend and fellow Nutritionist Charlotte Caunter: https://youtu.be/kipZ6S5MkH8

Here is why I personally LOVE Complete! https://youtu.be/qyTALRponlA

You can also check out my online store here

My Online Store

THE FIRST STEPS TO GETTING YOUR ACCOUNT SET UP
Juice Plus+ does not require monthly purchasing or sales to become a partner. In fact, you can simply enjoy the benefits of earning commissions on your own personal purchases! Another business win with Juice Plus+ is, once you achieve a higher title and commission increase, you get to keep it for life!! There is no backwards or commission level decreases with Juice Plus+. You earned it, you keep it!

To enrol, fill in this online form below

If you are enrolling outside of Canada, you will need to click the little world icon at the top of this screen and change to your country. Be sure that my image and name is at the top of the new form. We have a successful international team and our step by step business system can help you grow a successful international business as well! If you wish to connect with me before you enrol, fill in this online form and I will personally connect with you.

ONCE YOU ARE SET UP
Once you have your enrolment form submitted you will receive and email with access to your back office. After you get your virtual office all set up, you can place your own customer order by clicking on the customer box. There you can order any of the Juice Plus+ products (I recommend you try them all!).

If you are ordering as an adult with a child in your home for free, you will want to click on the Healthy Starts for Families tab. Tower Garden orders are placed in the third area. If you need any help at all ordering your products, we will help walk you through it!

WHAT ELSE TO EXPECT
Once your enrolment and personal product order is all set up, we will add you to TWO great communities. One will be our Team Community, where you will have access to all our business trainings. The second group is our Customer Community where you will also have access to all of our customer support tools including weekly health education webinars, healthy living guides, recipe books and monthly meal plans.

PERSONAL SUPPORT
You are not alone on this journey; in fact, our job is to provide you with guidance and support for every level of your business! We will help you set goals that fit your lifestyle and help you develop and implement a step by step game plan that focuses on your goals! All you need to do is get started and set up your account with our team and add in the products you are ready to get started with.

Last chance to fill this in!

Alisa Herriman is an International Marketing Director with Juice Plus+. Her journey started in 2012 when she was looking for a quality health product line for her nutrition practice. Alisa has since grown and international business that focuses on helping families live a healthier lifestyle. She has replaced her traditional business income with her Juice Plus+ business and now focuses her time and energy helping others build successful online health supplement businesses.

Let's Talk Menu Board

11/4/2020

Lets talk Menu Board.
This board is our secret weapon to planning our family’s menu every week! It helps us save money on groceries and allows us to have the right healthy foods in our home.

Our family menu board is usually mix of plant based dinners with a few including animal protein each week. Our goal is to always focus on eating as much plants as we can!

This weeks board is 100% plant based and focuses on clean, easy to digest foods. I am doing a digestive reset and eliminating dairy, gluten (for me), all processed foods, all refined sugar and all animal protein. Its been 3 days and I am already starting to notice some pretty big improvements in my digestive health!

Since I have been sharing my journey with you all, I thought you might like to see my menu this week. Breakfast is chia and oats, morning snack is Complete protein with water, lunch is dinner left overs, afternoon snack is always fresh fruit, or veggies paired with nuts or seeds.

My dinners this week are:
Veggies Soup: (Monday) – all veggies in my fridge with veggie broth, and lots of seasoning and fresh herbs.
Buddha Bowls: (last night) – I included rice, black beans, lots of fresh veggies and homemade lemon dressing (I made it up with no idea of measurements in case you were about to ask lol)
Rice and Beans: (tonight) leftover rice and beans refried with lots of onions, peppers, cajun seasoning and topped with salsa, fresh greens from my tower. My kids will make this into burritos and add they will likely add shredded cheese.
Broccoli and Rice Casserole: (Thursday) I may swap out rice for Quinoa in this recipe tomorrow as I used rice for the Buddha bowls and I had originally planned for Quinoa. I loosely follow the recipe for this from Forks over knives cookbook (which everyone should own!)
Pad Thai: (Friday) rice noodles and veg with Pad Thai sauce.
Veggie Stew: Glorified veggie soup with bigger chunks of root veggies (some I will roast).
Black Bean Soup: Super easy and will try and find some gluten free bread or buns to go with this as garlic toast. Also planning a spinach and beet salad for Sunday as well.

You may notice there are a few soups this week and these are there for two reasons. One soups and stews are easiest to digest when doing a digestive reset. The second reason is I can use my crock pot for both Saturday and Sunday dinners freeing up our day for family time.

Is Your Cravings the Result of Dehydration?

10/25/2020

Is your Food cravings caused by Dehydration?
Often dehydration is misinterpreted as hunger and sometimes-even be interpreted as cravings!

Did you know when you are dehydrated your blood volume can actually drop?! It’s true, and this slight decrease in blood volume can decrease the amount of nutrients and oxygen (in our blood) that reaches the cells of our body. Many of us are not optimally hydrated and for those of you like me who like the occasional caffeinated beverage, you are at even more risk of dehydration due to the diuretic effects of caffeine.

Want to know my #1 secret when it comes to staying optimally hydrated? Measure your water and aim for a minimum of 2 litres of clean filtered water every day. Increase that amount during physical activity, after a caffeinated drink or if you live in a hot/dry climate.

Are Your Cravings the Result of Deficiencies?

10/22/2020

Are your cravings the result of Nutrient deficiencies?
Here’s the Thing: When your body is lacking key nutrients it can turn up the volume on hunger and cravings.

Are you like one of the thousands of people who have strong cravings for certain foods?
The first questions you want to ask yourself when you are struggling with a craving is “Am I currently riding the blood sugar roller coaster?” If you have made an effort to each on schedule and have made some great whole food choices, then there could be an underlying nutritional need your body is experiencing that is contributing to your cravings.

So how can you tell what your body wants? Sometimes the foods we crave can be an indication of nutrients we are looking for. An example of this is a craving for dark chocolate around your monthly cycle. Quality chocolate can be a source of magnesium, and a woman’s requirement for magnesium goes up slightly before her cycle begins. Craving greens could be a sign of needing more minerals, craving red meat or liver could be a sign of a body looking for more iron. I can easily be a vegetarian right up until my monthly time, at which point I turn into a carnivorous beast who is not satisfied until I consume some animal rich source of iron and protein (yes I strongly encourage plant based eating, but and sharing some real life truth with you).

So how can you tell what you are really lacking, based on what you are craving? The honest to goodness, truth? You cant! Cravings can be an indication of deficiencies and if there is one thing I have learned about our nutrient requirements, its that we never need just one thing!

Our body may be indicating the desire for a food that is high in a particular nutrient, but the important thing to know is that no one single nutrient is ever really needed on its own.  If you are not riding the blood sugar rollercoaster and you are continuing to experience cravings that you feel could be related to possible nutrient deficiencies, my suggestion is to focus on 80% of your calories from whole foods, they are in fact the most bio-available source of nutrition for our body. (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and legumes)

If you struggle with eating this much of your food from whole food, or if you want to pump up the volume on the quality of nutrition you are eating, I also recommend all of my clients use a concentrated whole food supplement like Juice Plus+. This fills the gaps and adds more nutrient dense foods in concentrated form to your body every day!

Are Your Cravings the Result of Blood Sugar Instability?

10/17/2020

Are you cravings a result of blood sugar instability?
If you are like the many of us busy humans, adulting in our fast paced, highly stressed environment. Living with little to no prioritizing of a healthy eating schedule….. All, while ingesting fast paced (processed) foods, you my friend may be riding the blood sugar rollercoaster, which could also be a significant contribution to your cravings for the wrong foods.
This ride of highs and lows in energy, moments of uncontrolled hunger, combined with a possibility of mood swings, often making those around you question your stability is usually the result of high and lows in blood sugar. The good news is, this is easily preventable with these 3 simple strategies:
1) Get on an eating schedule. In order to manage your blood sugar levels and frankly your sanity, you must find a routine in your daily eating patterns.
PRO TIP: Your eating schedule has to be the same day after day, especially when you are first establishing your healthy eating routine to stabilize blood sugar levels and energy throughout the day.
2) Eat REAL food!! Whole foods are a rich source of blood sugar stabilizing fibre. Whole foods also provide enormous amounts of nutrition (vitamins, minerals and antioxidants) that your body needs to function optimally.
PRO TIP: Nutrient deficiencies do not occur because we don't take enough isolated vitamin and mineral formulas. They exist because we do not eat enough of the right whole foods!
3) Kick the refined sugar habit. This my friend, is the hardest of the three steps and I encourage you to start with steps 1 and 2 to lessen the blow of coming off the sugar crazy train.
PRO TIP: Never sugar detoxed before? You may be surprised how correct that last statement is! Once you are eating on a schedule and planning for more of the right foods, look at where refined sugar is still sneaking its way into your daily diet. This immune supressing, candida feeding, bloat and inflammation causing fiend no longer has room in your healthy diet. Remember when you cut refined sugar you also cut the food supply of many unruly and unhealthy bacteria in your gut. Be prepared for a few days of intensified cravings.
If you have mastered steps 1 and 2 prior to step 3, you may find this last step is not as scary as you had anticipated.

Author

Alisa Herriman has been researching and teaching Nutrition since 2003. Leaving her job in the health care industry to share her passion for healthy living, Alisa travels all over Canada sharing her mission and teaching communities how to prevent and fight disease with Nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.

Alisa Teaches at Edision Institute of Nutrition, and is a very popular coporate speaker. Join Alisa in her mission to change the health of families and share these holistic living articles!

Join Alisa's Health Team!

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DISCLAIMER - It is not recommended that you make radical dietary changes without first consulting with your physician. All Nutrition Programs are based on healthy eating schedules and the inclusion of whole food nutrition, including a clinically backed whole food supplement, Juice Plus. None of our programs at Nutrinity Health Services are a treatment for any disease. It is well understood that a better nourished body is capable of healing from a variety of ailments, your individual result will vary. If you require a diagnosis, we ask that you seek the guidance of a licensed physician. All participants are offered ongoing support, but are participating at their own risk.

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