What is pH?

Since the body is over 60% water with our blood over 80%, this water can be measured to have acidic or alkaline properties. This is measured on a scale called “pH” or (potential hydrogen) from 1.0 - 14.0. 1.0 - 6.9 is considered acidic, 7.0 is neutral, and above 7.0 to 14.0 is considered alkaline. The lower the number the greater the acidity and the higher the number the greater the alkalinity.

Whats the Big Deal?

A simple test that measures your pH can warn you of imbalances in your body that can lead to disease. Prolonged pH imbalances that are too acidic or too alkaline can wreak havoc on your health. The body has its own way of balancing its pH levels through circulation, breathing, and digestion. However, it can only do so much, and cannot prevent you from eating certain foods. Cells that measure too extreme to one side are self poisoned and die. Primarily all degenerative diseases including heart disease, kidney stones, cancer, arthritis, etc.. are due to strongly acidic pH levels in your body. It is known that cancer cannot thrive in an alkaline body.

What are Healthy Levels

It is agreed that optimal levels for the body’s fluids is 7.4 or slightly alkaline. A survey done indicated that most children have levels reading 7.5, the average adult reads 6.5, and cancer patients usually have pH of 4.5.

What Causes pH To Rise or Fall?

Foods we eat are the #1 factor that affects our pH levels. Acidic foods include most meats, fast foods, refined sugar, salt, processed foods, and colas. Alkaline foods are most vegetables, yogurts, almonds, avocados, and some fruits. Potassium is strongly alkaline and can be effective in raising your pH levels. Potassium tablets can be easily found at your local grocery or drugstore. Also most of the water we drink is acidic; distilled, reverse osmosis, and deionized water all have had there minerals removed. To combat this, a few coral calcium tablets can be added to your daily drinking water which will raise the pH levels.

How to Monitor Your pH Levels

You can purchase pH Testing strips at your local drugstore and can test yourself using your saliva or urine. Simply dab a little of your saliva on the paper and wait a minute or so to read the paper. Remember 7.4 is normal, anything below 7 or above 8 should be watched carefully. If you cannot find pH paper it can be purchased here Indigo

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Kidney stones are tiny solid pieces of material formed from the substances in the urine. Stones can either remain in the kidney or break free and travel down the urinary tract and out of the body. If the stone is very small, there may be little or no pain. However, a slightly larger stone can block the tract and cause extreme pain! Below we will talk about 2 Kidney Stone Flushes that may be of help.

A Few Facts

Kidney stones affect approximately 1 million Americans each year. Men are more susceptible than women, although the number of women experiencing stones has been on the rise. The age of most sufferers is between 20 and 40. Experiencing stones can be a snowball effect, the more you have, the more you are likely to experience.

Kidney Stone Symptoms

How do you know if you have a kidney stone? The most common symptoms are as follows:

• Burning feeling during urination
• Extreme, frequent pain in the lower side or back
• Blood in the urine
• Cloudy Urine
• Nausea and Vomiting

Kidney Stone Watermelon Flush

One of the easiest ways to cleanse a kidney and to flush out stones is a watermelon flush. Simply buy a few large watermelons and eat as much watermelon throughout the day drinking all the juice as well. Watermelon contains over 90% of water, and has one of the highest among fruits. It is also a natural diuretic and will make you use the restroom a lot! You can also take the seeds, crush them, and make a hot tea to sip throughout the day for extra benefit. Many people have passed large stones using this simple but effective method. (If you are diabetic do not use this, as watermelon contains sugar)

Olive Oil and Lemon Juice Flush

Mix equal parts lemon juice and olive oil about 5oz each at the first sign of a kidney stone. You can also add honey for taste. Mix well and drink. Many people swear by this.

Prevention

The best way to prevent kidney stone formation is to drink lots of water daily. Increase your fiber intake and decrease meat consumption. Try to eliminate coffee, teas, and colas from your diet as well. As always exercise can keep your body healthy and staying active can prevent stones from forming. A unique way to rid stones can be found here Jump and Bump. I personally have used the watermelon flush with much success!

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What are the Benefits

Because it is a full glass of fruits and vegetables, this basically takes the place of our morning breakfast, and you will feel quite ‘full’ afterwards. Much more healthier than eating fried eggs and bacon! Not only that, when you wake in the morning your stomach is empty, so this is an optimal time to cleanse your insides with a smoothie. If you’re having trouble with constipation, this can end that very quickly. After my smoothie every morning, I go to the bathroom like clockwork. Besides all this, it is downright healthy!

What do you need?

You can mix and match fruits and vegetables to your liking, but I do suggest these three as your ‘core foods’: apple, banana, and kale. All three are highly nutritious foods and contain a high dose of fiber, potassium, and vitamin C/A. Other foods can be mangoes, blueberries, watermelon, cucumber, grapes, and cabbage. Just try to balance your fruits and vegetables, the more vegetables the more bitter, and the more fruits the sweeter it tastes. Throw all this into a blender with about 1-2 cups of water. This is to keep it smooth and drinkable, blend, and enjoy your morning smoothie!

Because smoothies are so popular, I would love to hear what are some of your own smoothie concoctions! Please leave your recipe.

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What is Water To Go?

I’m sure many of you have heard of this useful little store, for those who haven’t, they sell nothing but pure, clean H20. Without going into all the hazards of tap water, (another time another post), buying your water is a must nowadays. But what do you buy? Distilled, drinking, spring, etc… its honestly quite confusing when you’re at the local grocery store and they have 5-6 brands and types of drinking water. Water to Go offers a simple and alternative solution for this.

How it works

Before visiting the store, you need to have some empty water bottles on hand to fill up. If you don’t, no worries, the store sells 1, 2, and 5 gallon bottles as well as many other accessories. You then purchase X# of gallons up front, I believe they offer 20, 50, and 100 gallons. The more you purchase the cheaper it is, for 100 gallons it comes out to .35 a gallon where I go. That’s cheap! Then every time you fill-up, they simply mark off how many gallons you used from your total.

The Water

The water is crisp and delicious, once you get used to it, you will not want to drink anything else. Each location has their own in-house 12-stage purification system, which produces top quality drinking water. The 12 stages of purification are below:

• Ion Exchange
• Carbon/Chlorine Filter
• Sediment Filter
• Booster Pump
• Reverse Osmosis Filtration
• Ozone Re-pressure pump
• Ozone Generator
• Ozone Mixing Tank
• Pressure Pump
• post Filtration
• Sediment Filtration
• Ultraviolet Disinfection
• Pressure tank

Where are they Located?

You can go to their website Water to Go® and search for store locations to find the one nearest you. Since it is a relatively young company, they are still expanding across the US and my not have one in your state. If your an entrepreneur, you can open up your own store as a franchise. Make some money and promote good health! Nice!

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1. Exercise

One of the most natural and healthiest ways to relieve stress is to exercise. This can include yoga, hitting the gym, playing any sport, or even just taking a short walk. These physical activities allow the body to increase the blood flow, release muscle tension, and sweat which all aid the body to relieve stress.

2. Deep Breathing

One thing that we can control is our breathing. This is a simple yet effective technique to relax the body and the mind. Here is how I was taught to deep breathe:

• Inhale through the nose while slowly counting 1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4
• Pause count 1 .. 2
• Exhale through the mouth while slowly counting 1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4
• Pause count 1 .. 2 (Repeat)

There is a neat little illustration of this over at Deep Slow Easy

3. Massage

Relaxation is key to relieve stress, and nothing can compare to a quiet soothing massage. Because the muscles and mind are connected, if the muscles are relaxed your mind is more likely to be relaxed as well. Not only does it relieve stress, but helps to lower your blood pressure, improve circulation, and facilitates joint mobility.

4. Laugh

A hearty laugh just feels food for the body and soul. When you do this reach for those belly aching laughs that are deep. This releases endorphins which make you feel good and are great stress relievers. There was even a study done by the University of Maryland that concluded people with a well-developed sense of humor, were less likely to have heart problems.

5. Organize

Go ahead and take a look at your desk or workspace right now. Is it cluttered and messy? Believe it or not, for many individuals clutter = stress. This doesn’t just happen where you work, your room, kitchen, bedroom, etc… all add to the stress factor. The good thing about this is there is a simple solution, just organize!

6. Be Positive

Who likes to be around a negative person with a bad attitude? Well, this has more affect on you than you think. Optimists enjoy a healthier life, have more positive relationships, and yep experience less stress.

7. Take a Nap

A quick ‘power nap’ can do wonders for a crammed and stressed schedule. A short 30 minute nap, can feel like you’ve just woke up from 8 hours of sleep. I did a thorough review of napping in my post Is Napping Healthy?.

8. Listen to Music

Soft quiet music in the background has a soothing effect on the mind and body. While everyone’s tastes are different, I’ve found slow music without words or classical music can do the trick. Here’s a free online station for classical music The Classical Station

9. Aromatherapy

Get your senses involved to relieve stress. Smells are known to alter mood and promote a stress less environment. This can be done through oils, candles, or incense. Some of the more popular scents are lavender, sandalwood, and ginger.

10. Take a Vacation

Last but definitely not least is just get away! A vacation is an excellent way to remove yourself from that stressed environment and recharge your batteries. Just being outside in nature has benefits of its own and is a natural stress relief!

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The Facts

Ever heard of ‘Death begins in the Colon’? Well according to the Royal Society of Medicine U.K. - “90% of all chronic diseases are due to infection of the gastrointestinal tract.” Here are a few other statistics that may startle you:

• 1 out of every 17 americans will develop colorectal cancer
• 1 out of every 6 people carries a parasite reported by the Chicago Tribune
• 10 - 20 pounds of fecal matter can be clogged in the colon
• More than 100 million americans have some type of digestive disorder

Considering what the common american diet is made up of, the above is no surprise. A poor diet = poor colon health.

The Healthy Colon

So how does a healthy colon function? When the colon is healthy, for example a baby’s, the person should have 2 or more well-formed bowel movements a day. Basically 1 movement after every meal eaten. This should be done easily and effortlessly with no constipation or strain whatsoever. If you’re taking a magazine to the toilet, that probably means you have some sort of fecal buildup.

The Sick Colon

When the colon is not eliminating properly, the waste can sit there for days, months, even years! This buildup begins to decay releasing toxins through the colon into the bloodstream which affects the whole body. Dr. Bernard Jensen DC, Phd. states

“Poor bowel management lies at the root of most peoples health problems. This is because the poisons back up in the system polluting our inner environment.”

How do we cover up this putrid release of toxins? We use air fresheners, deodorant, mouthwash, foot powder, etc… Not only that, when we do attempt to eat healthy or take vitamins, the nutrients have a difficult time being absorbed properly because of the buildup along colon walls.

Symptoms of a Sick Colon

Take a look at some common symptoms of a sick colon:

• Constipation
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Bloating
• Gas and heartburn
• Cramping and vomiting
• Crohns disease
• Colon cancer
• Not to mention unwanted parasites and worms!

How to Clean Your Colon

With all this negative talk about the colon, it wouldn’t be fair to not at least mention what steps you can take to begin cleansing the colon. They range from simple pills, herbal products, colon cleansing kits, colonics, homemade colon cleansers, and other colon cleansing programs. While there is not enough time or space to review everyone of these. I’ve had success with a colon cleansing kit, that you can read in my post Colon Cleansing Review. If this is all new to you, take a look at Bowtrol or Dr Natura, both are herbal colon detox programs.Take a look at what can come out of you, during a routine colon cleanse.

I highly recommend you investigate this further, after my first cleanse, I really did feel lighter, have more energy, and just overall felt more healthy! To end here are just some of the benefits of a healthy colon.

• Improved digestion
• Increase in bowel movements
• Clearer skin and hair
• More energy
• Feel lighter with a flatter stomach
• Less gas, bloating, and constipation
• Remove excess weight
• Reduces allergic reactions to food

I hope you can begin to can see that taking care of your colon is key to a healthy lifestyle.

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Intro

With all the diet pills, weight loss programs, and latest diet fads out there, I decided to grab a copy of Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. It claims to be a #1 seller for 4 straight years, so I wanted to see what all the hype was about. The nice thing about it is that its an ebook, that can be instantly downloaded onto your computer. At over 330 pages, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth. (Price tag $39.95 - basically 1 month supply of the latest diet pills)

Highlights

Tom definitely cuts through the fog, and tells it like it is. No quick fixes here. His program is a comprehensive blueprint for burning fat and keeping it off. He even has a chapter on goal setting and mental training. Very unique. My personal favorite was chapter 7 where he discusses how to ‘turbo-charge’ your metabolism by eating a high frequency of meals. He also includes a nifty little meal template to plan your meals throughout the program as well as the recommended foods sorted by category.

So what kind of ‘diet’ is it?

Apart from what you may think, it is not some type of extreme eating diet. Nor is it a high protein diet or low carb diet. It is basically a blend of a proper mindset, exercise, and a flexible diet plan that will change depending on the individual. For instance, you will be able to easily determine your own ideal protein, carbs, and fats ratio. There’s also talk if you are an endomorph, ectomorph, or mesmorph? Say what? No worries, just fancy talk for the different body-types, I’m whats called an ectomorph or ‘hard-gainer’.

Sneak Peek

Tom is straight to the point and debunks many of the so-called diet fads. For example, how can thin people eat so much while overweight individuals diet and starve themselves yet continue to gain weight? He explains this very simply; when the body limits its food intake, it goes into ’starvation mode’ and preserves every ounce of fat to live on. Thus slows down the fat burning process. However, when you eat a lot multiple times a day, your metabolism kicks into high gear thus speeding up how the body burns fat! Cool huh.

Who Benefits

This book is NOT for someone looking to lose 30lbs. in 10 days. Don’t think implementing this type of program will be easy. Tom even quotes “Burning the fat is simple, but not easy.” I personally think, if you’ve tried a handful of programs or pills with no success, I think that may be part of the problem. The discipline to stick it out. This book offers a ‘plan of attack’ on how to reach your goals which I feel is very useful. Not just for burning fat, but for setting and attaining goals in every aspect of life.

Bottom Line

While it is no ‘magic-bullet’ I feel anyone who wants the truth about fat loss and who is ready to put in the time and hard work will find its a sound investment that WILL payoff. Here is the official website –> Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
(Check out some of the testimonials … pretty inspiring!)

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Everyone drinks milk right?

More and more americans are switching to a dairy-free life, and well … I’m right along there with them. Besides being lactose intolerant, years ago I’ve come to conclude that milk is not what it is all cracked up to be.

Consider this, of all the mammals, only humans and for that matter mostly Caucasians, drink milk beyond their childhood. In nature, full grown adult mammals cannot be found drinking milk. Not only that, it has been proven that cow’s milk is specifically designed for calves, not humans.

I mean, why do we not drink cat’s milk, camel’s milk, or how about rat’s milk …. I think the dairy industry has the answer to that question.

The cow: docile, plentiful, and not to mention its abundant supply of milk! Add to the fact, if we inject it with enough hormones, we can up the supply from about 2,000 pounds/year to over 50,000/year! Yikes! That can’t be healthy or natural.

So why do we continue to drink milk?

When we see Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Cal Ripken, etc… all with their milk mustaches, while at the same time we hum in our minds “Milk it does a body good”. Who can you blame? Ever since I was a kid, it’s been drilled in my head to drink milk. Didn’t they tell you this in elementary school? I need it to be healthy and for strong bones right?

What about my daily calcium?

Believe it or not, in nature milk is not the only calcium-rich food. If your looking to go dairy free, add these healthy foods to your diet, and you’ll have all the calcium you need:

• Leafy greens: kale, spinach, collard greens
• Fortified cereals: Total, Raisin Bran, etc…
• Fortified juices
• Soybeans and legumes
• Enriched grains, breads, waffles
• Fish such as salmon
• Almonds

These foods are not only more healthy and loaded with calcium, you don’t get all that saturated fat, that milk contains, which leads to heart disease and well unwanted fat.

So no more dairy, ever?

Going dairy-free, is not as easy as it sounds. I mean you would have to literally stop eating all cheeses (that’s a tough one for me), ice cream, yogurt, butter, etc…

While I can definitely see the benefit from a health point of view, I still need to have my occasional bite of cheese or slice of pizza. Just stop fooling yourself that milk does a body good, because quite frankly it doesn’t.

If this is the first time you are hearing this, you might want to check out Notmilk. You will see this is just the tip of the iceberg and how deep the rabbit hole goes. Who knows it just might convince you to stop drinking milk altogether. Your body will be glad you did!

I will love to hear from my readers on this subject .. please post a comment and give your opinion!

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When asked after he won why the blueberries, he responded, “blueberries are the best type of brain food, and that he couldn’t have won without them!”

Wow … there’s some motivation to eat blueberries! There’s a major health benefit of blueberries!

Top Antioxidant Foods

Not only are they an excellent brain food, they’re loaded with antioxidants. According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2004), blueberries ranked #2 among the top 20 foods surveyed for antioxidants.

Here is the top ten list with their antioxidant count per serving:

1. Small Red Bean ——-13727
2. Wild Blueberry ——-13427
3. Red Kidney Bean —–13259
4. Pinto Bean ————11864
5. BlueBerry (grown) —-9019
6. Cranberry ————8983
7. Artichoke ————-7904
8. Blackberry ————7701
9. Dried Prune ———–7291
10. Raspberry ———–6058

You can see our beloved blueberry lost to the small red bean. That’s ok, I’d much prefer to munch on blueberries than a cup of small red beans!

Benefits of Blueberries

Here are some other noteworthy benefits of the blueberry:

• Decrease your risk of cancer
• Prevent heart disease and stroke by reducing your ‘bad’ cholesterol
• Promotes optimal vision
• Strengthens the immune system
• Guards against Alzheimer’s and short term memory loss

So, next time you walk down the aisle at your local supermarket, grab a box or two of blueberries. Whether your playing a cutthroat game of poker, or just want to pour them on your morning cereal, you can’t go wrong by eating blueberries!

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