Why feel deprived when you can so simply have delicious and healthy ice cream at home, even if you’re dairy free?  I make mine with coconut milk, xylitol and fresh fruit, and it is soooo delicious.

You can use the inexpensive Cuisinart, or indulge in the more extravagant DeLonghi. I used the former for years quite happily, but the DeLonghi is really fabulous: easy to use, easy to clean, and the end result is unbelievably yummy!

I love my Kombucha!  It’s my favorite mid-afternoon and post yoga drink, and I often have some first thing in the morning as well.  I started drinking it out of the refrigerated case at the health food store, but at almost $4 a bottle, it wasn’t very practical to have on a daily basis.  Yet it is delicious, has so many health benefits, and even I get tired of drinking only tea and water sometimes.  Brewing it at home is amazingly simple and cheap.  I’ve been brewing my own Kombucha since July ‘09, and now have a quart a day for just pennies.

Kombucha has all the benefits of fermented foods, is rich in probiotics, B Vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, and is highly alkalinizing and anti-inflammatory.  It is so good for you, and it tastes great.

Note: Kombucha does have a little alcohol: about the same amount as a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. And it does have a little caffeine: about a third that of a cup of tea.

A study from Cornell University concluded:
“Kombucha may be a healthful beverage in view of its anti-microbial activity against a range of pathogenic bacteria. This may promote immunity and general well being.”

I ordered my home brewing system here.  What I love about it is that you get EVERYTHING you need to get started, other than the water and a pot.  This system really makes it foolproof, and you will be drinking your own Kombucha in a week.  Even better, if you mention my name and email in the comments section when you order, you can request a free DVD with lots of great tips on brewing, bottling and more.

If you like Kombucha, this system quickly pays for itself.  Not only that, my clients who have tried it agree with me: home-brewed tastes even better than the expensive store-bought stuff.  And of course, if you have any questions about brewing, I’ll be glad to help.

Buy your complete Kombucha brewing system here!

I get asked this question a lot.  I really depend on my shake for a delicious, satisfying, and nutrient-dense start to my day.  I often work right through lunchtime, do my yoga practice and don’t eat a second meal until 2 or 3PM, and my shake keeps me energized, full and focused all that time.

Here’s how I make it.  All the ingredients are usually organic.  Yes, there’s a lot in it, but it only takes a few minutes to put together, and breakfast is the one meal I eat on the run as I’m getting ready for the day.  This blend of ingredients really works: my shake is an essential part of my health and fitness.  Everything is gluten-free, of course.  You can follow the links to order any of the products, or consult me if you want help customizing your own shake, for a great nutritional foundation each morning.

• 4 ounces of unsweetened almond milk, either plain or vanilla

• about a cup of frozen berries  Berries are low glycemic, high anti-oxidant, and high fiber

• a little bit of a higher glycemic fruit, like 1/3 banana, half a dozen cherries, or a few pieces of frozen mango  Don’t skip this part or you will be hungry too quickly!

• 1 Tablespoon FiPro Flax Organic cold-milled flax seed adds healthy fat and fiber.

• 1 teaspoon OmegAvail Ultra TG I love this product because it combines high potency Omega 3s with Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K, all in one.

• 1-2 scoops Salba Rx This Salba/Maca blend is incredibly nutrient dense. It is a source of protein, calcium, healthy fat, and fiber, and enhances both the taste and texture of my shake.

• 1 scoop Whey Cool This is the cleanest whey powder available, retaining the fragile immune boosting components available in raw milk, from cows fed only on chemical free grass pasture.  Often tolerated even by those sensitive to casein.  I usually use the unflavored, but it also comes in vanilla and chocolate.

• 1/2 scoop Ultra Lean Vanilla I want a little more protein in my shake, and simply put, this one tastes the best.

• 1 Tablespoon MCT Oil Energy-boosting fat from coconut oil is thought to help with weight management, and also gives a nice frothy texture.

• 1 Tablespoon PaleoFiber I love this because the fiber comes from fruits, vegetables, roots and seeds.  It is hard to find gluten-free fiber products.  You can add it to just about anything, but in a shake I find it extends the time before I’m hungry again.  That’s because it significantly reduces glycemic load.

• 1/4 teaspoon Taurine powder  Because I’m a vegetarian, it’s important to supplement taurine for heart health, immune support, and a calm and healthy nervous system.  It also helps stabilize blood sugar and aids fat metabolism.

• 1/2 teaspoon CoQ10 Nano powder teaspoon delivers 140 mg of CoQ 10 in a highly bio-available and easily absorbed form.  Important for cardiovascular health, periodontal health and mitochondrial function.

When the weather is cold, I usually pour about 4 ounces of hot water over the frozen fruit; in the summer I’ll add ice instead.  I use a stick blender because I’d rather clean that than my VitaMix every morning.  Every few months I’ll do a detox shake instead, replacing the Whey Cool with PaleoCleanse or ProtoClear.

For those who don’t eat dairy, I recommend Prescribed Nutrition, a blend of pea, hemp and rice protein with lots of added fiber and greens, or PaleoMeal Dairy Free.  Both are good tasting, sound nutrition.

So there you have it: my secret formula for my morning shake!

Yoga has so many benefits, we probably don’t even know how to recognize or measure most of them yet. Flexibility and calming are just the beginning. Yoga can help you improve circulation, energy, memory, attitude, digestion, metabolism and strength. You don’t have to turn yourself into a pretzel or stand on your head in order to attain this, either. Even if you start with just a few sun salutations, you are doing yourself a world of good. And no matter your age and condition, you can learn to twist like a pretzel and stand on your head—I speak from personal experience!

My own personal practice is Ashtanga, a lineage of yoga that has been taught by Shri Patthabhi Jois and now by his daughter Saraswati and his grandson Sharath. It incorporates breath, movement and postures to produce an intense cleansing heat in the body, and a quieter mind. You can learn more about it here. For me, finding Ashtanga was like coming home. I encourage you to find a yoga practice that is right for you.

For my local Orange County clients, I am happy to recommend Happy Buddha Yoga, right in the center of Goshen. Kelly Kamm, the owner of the studio, offers vinyasa yoga classes for beginners to advanced yogis, and if you mention my name you can take your first class for free.

Here are some books I recommend, on a variety of subjects.

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook The author of my favorite Gluten-Free recipe blog, Elana Amsterdam, finally puts it all together in a cookbook. Elana uses almond flour for her baking, which is far more nutritious than either wheat or other gluten-free substitutes. While this is an omnivore’s cookbook, there are still plenty of recipes for those who are gfcf, vegetarians and even some that are vegan-friendly.

The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First Mark Hyman says everything I’ve been saying for years, and he says it with an M.D. and plenty of research to back him up. The book is brilliant, very readable, thorough, and right on target.

The Schwarzbein Principle, The Program: Losing Weight the Healthy Way I am trained and certified by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein, in both her general program on healing the metabolism, and in GastroIntestinal Issues. This is her most recent book, and while it isn’t completely up to date in terms of what she is now teaching, it is an invaluable text for learning about healing the metabolism and rebalancing hormones naturally. I strongly encourage you to customize your Program with me for best results.

Homeopathic Self-Care: The Quick & Easy Guide for the Whole Family The book I recommend for acute care homeopathy at home.

The Vaccine Guide: Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults He gives you the information about risks of each vaccine and each disease, risks of actually contracting the disease, possibilities for treatment if you do, all of which enables you to make an informed and educated decision. An excellent resource that I have referred to so many times (in its various forms) over the past two decades. Continually updated.

Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic & Dangerous Grains: Why Gluten Cereal Grains May Be Hazardous To Your Health Two books I recommend on gluten sensitivity.

The GF Kid: A Celiac Disease Survival Guide Kids are often overwhelmed when first told they can’t eat gluten. This is a fun and informative book from the perspective of an 11 year old (the author’s daughter). It answers a lot of questions with humor and compassion, and even doubles as a coloring book, if your kid is so inclined.

Gluten-Free Baking: More Than 125 Recipes for Delectable Sweet and Savory Baked Goods, Including Cakes, Pies, Quick Breads, Muffins, Cookies, and Other Delights This book on gluten-free baking is for more experienced bakers. Professionals I know have used it.

The Secret Pleasures of Menopause I love many of Christiane Northrup’s books for and about women, and this new one is no exception.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto & The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals “Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that! Michael Pollan is one of my heroes.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food An encyclopedic vegetarian cookbook for everyone, whether you eat meat as well, or not. These recipes are consistently simple and delicious. Mark Bittman writes “The Minimalist” column for the NY Times.

Vegan Fire & Spice: 200 Sultry and Savory Global Recipes Another cookbook I return to over and over again. Delicious spicy recipes from around the world.

Moss Nutrition is the primary supplier I use for supplements.  I rely on them to find me the highest quality products and supplement lines.  You can order most of the supplements I work with through them.  Just let them know you are my client, and they will ship directly to you.  You can order by phone 800-851-5444, or online.

Visit Moss Nutrition online.

Short Burst Exercise
Are you too busy or too tired to exercise regularly? Have you exercised and found it didn’t make a difference? Do you feel like you need to do increasingly more exercise to stay in shape?

You are not alone, and it is not your fault.

Here’s an important news flash: more and longer cardio does not work! It can even make you fatter.

High intensity exercise of short duration is better for cardiovascular fitness, fat burning, and hormone response than low intensity continuous exercise. What that means is that working out REALLY INTENSELY for just a few minutes, to metabolic and muscle failure, is more effective than working out an hour a day. This is “burst training” and the research is impressive on its effectiveness. And as someone who has gone from exercising an hour or more a day in the past, to an hour a week, and lost fat, weight and multiple dress sizes doing so, I am happy to share my experience and enthusiasm as well as the research. Many of my clients have had the same significant results, even without dramatic dietary changes or other exercise.

(If you’re ready to start doing Burst Training, go right to the link for the Xiser here. It’s a unique portable stepper, and the absolute best, most efficient way to do high intensity interval training. You can use it just 4 minutes a day, 3x a week, and burn more fat immediately, and really rev your metabolism for continuous and increasing fat burning over time.)

When we exercise for long periods of time, our body perceives it as stress, and we are flooded with cortisol. Cortisol is a “breaking-down” hormone that contributes to aging, and tells the body to store fat. The longer we exercise, the greater the catabolic, or breaking-down effect—this is not good! But here’s the good news: when we do short bursts of high intensity training, our body produces a tiny bit of cortisol but it also produces human growth hormone and testosterone, a perfect hormonal cocktail that has a favorable effect on our metabolism. In fact, a mere 60 seconds is an optimal time to exercise at high intensity. Yup, just one minute maximizes calorie burning, beta-endorphin levels, HGH, and several other markers of fat burning and muscle building. Furthermore, when we exercise like this— anaerobically—we also increase our aerobic capacity and our oxygen capacity (V02). The reverse is not true. In other words, increasing our aerobic capacity does not increase our anaerobic or VO2 capacity.

5 MORE Reasons to Burst:

1. The loss of muscle mass associated with aging is primarily associated with Type II muscle fiber, and only high intensity exercise utilizes it significantly.

2. Immune system function is improved by bursting, but decreased by long-duration exercise.

3. HDL, the good kind of cholesterol, shows much better improvement with bursting compared to long duration exercise, as do blood pressure and waist circumference, significant indicators of cardiovascular health.

4. In Menopause, our ability to increase human growth hormone and testosterone is blunted. So if you are in peri-menopause or menopause, short burst high intensity exercise is perfect for you. It can boost libido, help build lean muscle and get rid of the fat that just seems to keep adding on incrementally. In fact, burst training is anti-aging for both men and women, and can be done safely and effectively at any age, regardless of condition or exercise experience.

5. Short burst exercise actually retrains our bodies to recover from the biochemical effects of chronic stress, as long as we train at our highest intensity, and allow ourselves to rest in-between bursts. Rest can be a few minutes, a few hours, or a couple of days, but it is critical to give the body the opportunity to recover and rebuild. Doing this teaches the nervous system how to adapt to stress in the way we were meant to, because it’s exercise in a form that is more natural to us. We wouldn’t likely be running from a saber tooth tiger for an hour, would we? We’d either be dinner, or we’d be safe. Short bursts are the way our bodies were designed to work, and when we work with nature, the benefits are significant.

Bursts are so easy to incorporate into your daily routine, and you will find the results very gratifying very quickly. Order the Xiser here.

How to Have Flawless Skin

I am regularly asked how I get my “flawless skin.” I appreciate the compliments and I am pleased to share my secrets, such as they are.

Certainly, a healthy lifestyle is the foundation for healthy skin, and I practice what I preach:

The Dos:

• I eat well, including huge quantities of fresh organic produce, and lots of foods with healthy fat, including nuts, avocados, coconut oil and olives.
• I try to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night
• I drink a lot of water, herbal tea, fresh green juice, and Kombucha
• I have a sweaty and vigorous one hour Ashtanga yoga practice 5 or 6 times a week

The Don’ts:

• No coffee
• No soda, other than seltzer
• No alcohol
• Minimal sugar
• Minimal processed food

I also detox myself regularly, using kinesiology, just as I do in sessions, as well as nutritional supplements. Supplements for skin need to be customized, but can include zinc, anti-oxidants, B vitamins, as well as a base of a good food-based multi-vitamin, calcium, magnesium, and Omega 3s.

Products alone won’t give you gorgeous skin. But the right products help support and enhance the appearance of healthy skin, and keep it looking its best as we age.

For excellent skin care products, I am happy to recommend Paula’s Choice. The author of seven books, and known as “the cosmetics cop,” Paula’s mission is to both to educate consumers on the frauds behind much of the beauty industry and to provide effective and economical products herself. Her website offers a wealth of information. I have used many of her products for many years, and am happy to recommend some of my favorites below. Or you can take a look at her bestsellers.

Here are some of the products I depend on:

• Exfoliating 2% BHA Lotion for my face
• Skin Revealing Body Lotion for my body
• Skin Balancing Moisture Gel
• Skin Recovery Daily Moisturizing Lotion with SPF 15 & Antioxidants
• Resist Barrier Repair Moisturizer

Her sun blocks are great, too, both the SPF 15 and 30. They don’t irritate my eyes (often a problem with contact lenses) and don’t feel greasy or heavy on my face or body. Paula also offers makeup, accessories and hair care products.

By the way, Paula never tests on animals, and supports many animal-centered charities. She uses recycled and recyclable packaging.

Bio-Pro chips are small and unobtrusive and are placed on cell phones, computers, and portable phones for protection from radiation. I strongly recommend them for everyone who carries and uses a cell phone, PDA, bluetooth device, lap top, or desk top computer. You can buy them directly from me for $40 each (no charge for shipping), or from BioPro. Please contact me if you have any questions about their use and effectiveness.  If you are in the office, I can do a simple demonstration of their effectiveness with you own cell phone.

I’ve had a few juicers and this is my favorite. It’s simple to use, efficient, easy to clean and assemble and a good value. You can spend more, or less, but this one will serve you well for a long time.  I particularly like the large chute, which means you don’t have to chop or cut as much.  For more information on the benefits of juicing, see my article.