Happy New Year 2012: Tips and Resources for Vibrant Health

Happy New Year 2012

If you’re like many, today is the day to create New Year’s Resolutions.

The sad truth is the majority of people who make New Year’s Resolutions abandon them and fall back into old habits by the first of February.

Why do so many people fail to make lasting habit changes, even though they are so determined to succeed?

What I’ve noticed is that when you set a New Year’s Resolution, usually a habit that needs to be changed, you do so before taking the time to get connected to the mindset and feelings it takes to put the new habits into action.

You attempt to change a habit without first changing the underlying thoughts and emotions that created the habits that need to change. In my experience with thousands of patients and students over the years is that long lasting change happens when you make changes in the following order:

Head, Heart, Habits

12 Steps to a Healthy and Happy 2012

When you approach your health in an organized fashion and take steps in logical order, you are setting yourself up for success.. Below are the steps I have found to be most useful and are the ones I take my VIP private clients through. The order may be slightly different based on individual circumstances but the overall flow is similar.

Go ahead and get started. Your health will blossom and flourish when you do.

1. Get in touch with your core values and visions: Start by getting in touch with what’s really important to you. Knowing what you value above all else helps you make choices that support your health and life goals. Make a list of your core values – those things that are most important to you. Imagine that it’s the end of 2012 and your life is exactly the way you envision. Nothing has gotten in your way, you’ve done everything you needed to create the body and life of your dreams. Write a description of your life in vivid detail.Take the time to stay focused on your vision and values. Every day, make choices that will bring you closer and closer to your vision. http://www.vibranthealthmindset.com
2. Move your body every day, even if it’s only for 10 minutes to start.
3. Rest and sleep need to be at the top of your priority list. It’s essential important for hormone balance, blood sugar balance and optimal fat burning. Check out my blog posts on sleep:
4. Keep hydrated. Half your body weight (pounds) in fluid ounces is recommended.
5. Eat and Drink Green Food – Lots of it – every day. http://www.drritamarie.com/BlendedGreens
6. Balance your fat intake so that you have the correct ratio of omega 3 and 6 fats and avoid the dangerous heated, processed and oxidized fats.
7. Put fun into your daily routine and learn to transform stressful moments to health enhancing opportunities. Join me on Thursday Jan 5 at 10AM Central time on My Radio Show as I explore play with a very special guest. http://www.drritamarie.com/radio/2011/12/play-living-life-to-the-fullest/
8. Balance your blood sugar: http://www.B4BeGoneSystem.com
9. Identify and remove hidden food allergies. Join me for a free teleseminar on January 3
   http://www.drritamarie.com/go/TurningFoodAllergiesInsideOut
10. Optimize your digestion – read up on Leaky gut and digestion HERE
    
11. Clean up your environment – replace cleaning and self care products with natural, non toxic equivalents.
12. Balance Your Hormones http://www.VibrantHormones.com

Bonus Tip: Fine tune your body with structural and energetic balancing. Get regular chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, and/or energy work keep yourself in balance.

Free Yourself in 2012 from the effects of Hidden Gluten Sensitivity and other Food Allergies

If you’ve been having any persistent health challenges at all, serious or mild, or are struggling with weight that just doesn’t want to come off, you might have hidden food allergies that are keeping you sick. Gluten, dairy and eggs are high on the list of most common allergens, and they are all ingredients in the conventional versions of holiday treats. Some researchers and authors estimate that 30 – 50% of the population may be sensitive to gluten, and most don’t know it.

That’s because gluten sensitivity symptoms are often vague and chronic, and so don’t seem to flare up when gluten is consumed.

Part of the inability to detect a change in symptom presentation when eating gluten is that the average American eats gluten all day long every day! If you add it up, you might be surprised to find that many people eat more than 50% of their calories as gluten containing foods.

If you’re ready to learn how food allergies may be hurting you and what you can do about it, sign up for my free teleclass on Tuesday, January 3rd: Turning Food Allergies Inside Out: Revealing the Culprits, Causes and Cures

http://www.drritamarie.com/go/TurnFoodAllergiesInsideOut

2012: A free kit to help you kick gluten in the gluteus!

My gluten-free survival kit has just been updated to include a fabulous new e-book called Eliminate the Gluten and Accelerate your Health. It’s filled with recipes, articles and lists of foods that contain hidden gluten. The kit contains an audio, recipes, an article on the link between autism and ADD and gluten, and a presentation about the thyroid gland.

You can access it here:

http://www.drritamarie.com/glutenfree

Please pass the link to anyone you know who might be suffering from gluten sensitivity.

I look forward to connecting on Jan. 3rd to demystify food allergies and guide you to assessing the likelihood of hidden food allergies compromising your health.

http://www.drritamarie.com/go/TurnFoodAllergiesInsideOut

Lov, Health and Joy to you in 2012,

Dr. Ritamarie

Boning up on Bone Health

How strong are your bones?  If you’re like most people, you probably have no idea.

Women are often offered a bone density test as a part of an annual exam once they hit menopause, so if you’re “of that age”  your bone strength may have already been tested.   If you’re over the age of 50 you have a high probability of having osteoporosis.  According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 55% of people over 50 have osteoporosis and 80% of them are women. And a whopping  75% of people over  age 70 have osteoporosis.

If you would like to beat the odds, you need to start NOW, regardless of your age.  The younger you are the better chance you have of avoiding osteoporosis if you’re taking care to strengthen your bones.

On Thursday April 28, I’ll be doing a Blog Talk Radio show about your bones.  On it, I’ll share the details of a test most people don’t know about that will let you know if you’re losing bone or building bone.  It’s a simple urine test you can do at home.

I’ll also tell you about some of the foods you can include in your diet regularly to promote stronger bones and let you know which ones to avoid.

Tune in at Dr. Ritamarie Radio to listen live or on replay.  There are two parts to the broadcast.  Part one is on the causes of osteoporosis and Part 2 covers natural approaches to strong bones.

Our “Eating for Bone Health” class is designed to empower you even further to healthy bones.  The videos will eb avaialble in case you miss the live class on  Sunday May 1 at 12PM PDT, 1PM MDT, 2PM CDT and 3PM EDT.  You can attend live in Austin, TX or online.  If you have a time conflict, you can register for the webclass and get access to the digital videos, organized by topic and recipe for your viewing convenience.

http://www.drritamarie.com/glutenfreeclasses/bonehealth2011-04

If you attend live, you’ll also get access to the videos, so you can watch as a refresher anytime.  Plus you’ll  get a beautiful recipe guide and checklists of foods that promote bone health that you can hang on your refrigerator.

In this one of a kind class you’ll get practical information and get to watch us make bone building foods right before your very eyes, including:

Strengthen My Bones Green Smoothie

Skeleton Supporting Savory Sesame Sauce

Bones Don’t Crack Crackers

Creamy Italian Bone Boosting Soup

Bone Building Super Salad

Bone Building Brownies

Don’t wait to be one of the millions that don’t even know they have osteoporosis until a bone breaks. Even if you’re a man or young women, this information can save your quality of life and even your life itself.

Love, Health and joy to you and your bones,

Dr. Ritamarie

Vitamin D, Bone Health, Cancer and the Importance of Testing

In Vitamin D: Are You Getting Enough? I talked about the role of Vitamin D and why we are finding such an epidemic of deficiency in our modern world.   The widespread use of sunscreen in an attempt to protect you from basal cell carcinoma, one of the easiest to treat cancers, increases  your at risk for more serious disease, like colon, prostate and breast cancer.

Part 1 of a two part video series about Vitamin D discussed the role of vitamin D and why it’s important to test.

Today’s video shares how to interpret the test and bring your blood Vitamin D level up to a range that helps protect you from cancer, osteoporosis, autoimmune disease and a whole lot more.

It’s easy to get your vitamin D tested.  If you don’t have a practitioner, or your doctor is unwilling to order the test for you, you can order it yourself through Direct Labs, an online testing service that allows you to take charge of your health and order your own blood tests.

If You’re Suffering from any of the Issues listed Below, Get Your Vitamin D Level tested Right Away.

1. Obesity or excess bodyweight
2. High blood pressure
3. Osteoporosis and osteopenia
4. Autism
5. Autoimmune conditions (such as Hashimotos, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis)
6. Cancer
7. Depression
8. Asthma
9. Migraines
10. Cystic fibrosis
11. Diabetes(both types 1 and 2)
12. Multiple sclerosis
13. Schizophrenia
14. Epilepsy
15. Osteoarthritis
16. PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
17. Musculoskeletal pain, including joint pain and low back pain
18. Muscle weakness
19. Poor balance
20. Systemic inflammation
21. Fibromyalgia

Simple Strategies for Improving your Vitamin D status

• Get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine for at least 20 – 30 minutes a day during, preferably when the sun is highest in the sky.
• Avoid sunscreen for a full 20 – 30 minutes.
• Expose your arms and legs.  You need to expose 40% of your skin to make sufficient Vitamin D.
• Be sure to avoid washing the exposed parts with soap for at least 48 hours to give your body a chance to absorb all he Vitamin D it produced as a result of the sunshine exposure.
• Get tested for vitamin D. The 25, hydroxyl vitamin D test is the one most commonly used.
• Supplement with Vitamin D if you’re low.

Vitamin D Levels — what’s optimal?

Remember, it’s important to test.

If you decide to skip the test and just supplement with 2000-4000 IU you run the risk of not correcting the problem.  If you supplement with 10,000 – 20,000 without testing, you run the risk of vitamin D excess.

It’s important to work with a trained practitioner.  Fortunately it doesn’t have to be one on one anymore.  I’ve pioneered training people to assess themselves with my guidance in cost-effective group programs, where you do the assessment and can ask me questions to guide you.  The program is called Assess Your Own Body Chemistry and it’s intended to teach you to read your own body’s signs, symptoms and lab tests so you can create a nutrition plan customized to your needs.

Additional reading on Vitamin D from Dr. Joe Mercola

[1] Mercola.com “Daily Sunlight Can Keep Cancer Away” August 7, 2008

[2] Mercola.com “Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year” August 24, 2007

[3] Dr. Joe Mercola Comments How Much Vitamin Do You Need?

[4] Video by Dr. Joe Mercola.   1 hour video with lots of details about Vitamin D

Medical research papers on the Vitamin D cancer connection

[1]Annals of Epidemiology April 14, 2009  Dr. Cedric Garland

[2] Annals of Epidemiology July 2009, Volume 19, Issue 7, Pages 468-483

[3] Science Daily, “New Model of Cancer Development: Low Vitamin D Levels May Have Role” May 26, 2009

[4] The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology March 2007; 103(3-5):708-11

[5] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2007; 85(6):1586-91.

[6] American Journal of Epidemiology October 12, 2007

Question of the day:

Have you been tested for Vitamin D yet?  If yes, what was your level?  How much are you supplementing if low?

COMMENT BELOW and LET ME KNOW if you’re supplementing and what your level is if you’ve been tested recently.

With Love and Gratitude,

Dr. Ritamarie

Vitamin D: Leaky Gut, Autoimmune Disease and Lack of Sunshine

Vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in our modern world.  We spend too much time indoors, use too much sunshine and have too much stress to maintain healthy levels.

How do you know if you need to supplement?  Listen in as I explain.

In “Vitamin D Are You Getting Enough?” there are lots more detail about how vitamin D works.

Go get some sunshine and get your Vitamin D level tested ASAP.

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

How Do Vegans Get Their Calcium, Iron, Vitamin B12 & Vitamin D?

Where do vegans get their nutrients is a question asked by many concerned relatives and friends.  Calcium, protein and Vitamin B12 are the nutrients that most inquirers are interested in.  All the while, they’re chowing down on burgers and fries, fritos and coke.  It’s very interesting.

As with all diets, you need to be conscious of the balance of foods you eat to be sure you get all the nutrients your body needs to thrive.  Such is true of veganism as well.  Many people tell me that they eat any they want as long as it’s vegan.  That’s a good way to get yourself into trouble.  A poorly planned,  unbalanced vegan diet puts you at risk for deficiencies of several vitamins and minerals, just as a poorly balanced omnivorous diet does.

Greens need to be the cornerstone of any diet, and this is especially true of vegan diets.  Sea greens are exceptional sources of minerals that have become depleted in our soil an deficient in many land vegetables.  The way greens are prepared is especially important for nutrient balance and absorption.

Trevor Justice of the Vegan Mastery Program is offering a new e-book  called “How Vegans Get Calcium, Iron, Protein, A, B12, & D” and it’s packed with good information, like the importance of fermenting, sprouting and germinating to enhance absorption of these key nutrients, what good vegan sources of these nutrients are and how to combine foods and nutrients to get best absorption.

If you’d like to thrive on a vegan diet and avoid being vulnerable to vitamin and mineral deficiencies, thus guide is a great resource.  When you request the guide, you’ll also get access to a recording called “Balancing Raw and Cooked Whole Foods” plus a few other reports and articles.

To get your complimentary copy of the new e-book from the Vegan Mastery Program “How Vegans Get Calcium, Iron, Protein, A, B12, & D” simply follow this link.

http://www.drritamarie.com/go/veganmastery

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie