~To digest and absorb nutrients from food
~To concentrate fecal material by absorbing fluid (and electrolytes) from it
~To store and control evacuation of fecal material

Statistics state that 1 in 17 people, in the United States, will develop colorectal cancer. Deaths from colorectal cancer rank third after lung and prostate cancer for men and third after lung and breast cancer for women. Diet (that’s what you eat regularly, not diets you go on), obesity, and smoking are all linked to colon problems.

Colon cleansing has gotten quite a bit of hype recently. This is a subject that is heavily debatable. Personally, I have done colon cleanses (the Master Cleanse/Lemonade Cleanse) before and while I did in fact drop weight, it was never sustained, being that it was mostly water weight, and not to mention very challenging. However, I have noticed that my metabolism has drastically changed since introducing this vigorous method into my life. Is it solely a function of the cleanse? That I don’t know, but I have chosen to never do it again. There is the argument that the body is designed to know what to do to maintain homeostasis/a balance and that introduction of alternate methods is what messes with it. On many levels I agree with this view. What I want to say on this, however, is that the nutritional make-up and design of our food and environment has made leaps and bounds in changes and I would say that our bodies are not able to keep up and deal properly with these added toxins…thus cancer, obesity, and general overall health is becoming a larger problem. One could say natural “evolution” of our bodies, is not keeping up with the fast paced, dramatic “evolution” of our food, environments, and world.

I used to be involved with a man who had ulcerative colitis which is characteristic of bleeding ulcers in the colon. His lifestyle prior to developing UC was not any different than any other person’s…but the lifestyle he had after was, and will forever be, more challenging, difficult, and restrictive than the average person’s. Not only was what he could eat greatly reduced in options, he was constantly in pain, having to be near a bathroom, anemic, and losing weight. He ended up having to medically leave his job as a pilot, a job that at 29 years of age had become too difficult to do comfortably and safely with his illness. It was also greatly effecting the happiness of our relationship as his emotional stability was unpredictable and understandably so. He battled UC for roughly 9 years and after researching every possible healing method, trying almost all of them, and still having a low quality of life…he had a colectomy where his entire colon was removed.

I tell this story to highlight the importance of colon health. His illness was unpredictable, yet was it avoidable?

Pay attention to what foods upset your digestive system…then don’t bombard your body with those foods and do so only moderately or never if it is truly painful. See a medical doctor if you have digestive pains that do not resolve themselves w/in 24-48 hours or with a bowel movement. Gas pains can be rather painful, but it’s only gas. If blood is involved in a bowel movement, see a medical doctor immediately. Take probiotics to maintain healthy digestive flora in the intestines.

There are so many illnesses that are cropping up in the digestive system these days…I, again, question the ingredients in the foods we are eating and the quality of our environment.

You’re probably wondering what specific foods are good for keeping your digestive system rolling and functioning as it should.  Here’s a short and simple list that should clear all your doubts, and get you on your way to better health…

1. Water
   A no-brainer, among the benefits of drinking water are improved colon function and constipation relief. Drink half your body weight in ounces and you’ll be fine!
2. Fruits & Vegetables
   Fruits and vegetables are one of the best food groups that relieve constipation and a sluggish bowel in my opinion.  Try eating as much fruit and vegetables as you want for a few days and see how you feel.
3. Grains
   Eating foods like oatmeal, brown rice, whole-grain bread, pasta can help you up your fiber intake, but eating too much fiber can have the opposite effect of actually causing constipation.  Make sure you balance it out with a lot of water, fruits and vegetables.

One cannot go anywhere without some aspect of health and fitness exposure. Advertisements, businesses, gyms, media, “health food”, skinny people, overweight people, obese people, fit people, and not-so-fit people are everywhere…and if you were to take a moment, you’d realize you have some pretty strong opinions about the fact that it IS everywhere, staring you down, in your face, and taking up space in your head.

The fitness and health industry is a MULTI-billion dollar industry and there are more people walking around saying that there isn’t a health problem than those acknowledging there is and actually doing something about it. Sure, there are those that realize there’s something going on, that humanity is growing, not only in numbers, but wider across the midsection….and knowing that, they do nothing.

In a recent Forbes article it states: “Experts say it is not surprising that people across the globe are increasingly becoming overweight. They blame urbanization and the influx of Western ways of life including myriad fast food choices, little exercise and stressful jobs.” But is it just that?

Ok…we have tons (no pun intended) of evidence, we have ancient methods that, in my opinion work just as good, if not better than the most recent ones, that promote health and fitness and as a whole, humanity is struggling. We also have countless “fad” diets out there that aren’t making the difference!

Is it purely laziness? Is it denial? Is it genetics? Well, for the last come back for “G”.

At any rate…we have a multi-billion dollar industry that seems to be helping some, only the majority is simply getting fatter, unhealthier, and more uneducated about health–which I do believe is a key to the real problem.

Think before you invest in health products, diets, or programs…talk to people that have done it, how it worked for them, were there long term results, problems that came afterwards, is it something they would have their mother do?? Throwing money into something isn’t the same as being committed to a real transformation in it. For example, simply putting gas in your car doesn’t provide for longevity in your car’s life…there are other things you will have to do to upkeep the quality of your vehicle, and one usually researches pretty heavily before purchasing a car…why wouldn’t you do the same for your vehicle in life–your body?!

So why do it? Since Anaerobic Exercise is using your muscles intensely for a short period of time, the benefits include:
~Developing stronger muscles
~Improvement of your cardio-respiratory fitness and health (this is accomplished because you are improving your VO2 max–ie. the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise)
~Increase your capacity to withstand the buildup of waste substances (ie. lactic acid) and remove them from the body. This means your endurance and ability to fight fatigue will improve.

Anaerobic exercise helps a person become leaner and manage their weight better because, while it burns fewer calories over all, it does build more muscle mass which uses larger amounts of calories ongoingly. It also greatly benefits the heart and lungs in the same way, by building lean muscle.

Fast, high intensity exercise causes a temporary shortage of oxygen to the muscles. This shortage causes the muscles to work anaerobically and a by product called “lactic acid” is produced. Lactic acid (a good letter “L” in Fitness and Health) causes muscle fatigue when it builds up in muscles. This is why Anaerobic exercises are not long lasting. Over time and with training, the muscles become better equipped to deal with the buildup of lactic acid and the amount of exercise before muscle fatigue is greatly increased. This helps, in the long run, with endurance and strength in both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

Anaerobic exercise is not for beginners and those who want to incorporate it into their workouts should build a strong base level of fitness beforehand. And for those that are adding Anaerobic Exercise into their routines, make sure to give yourself plenty of time to warm up and stretch.

“They say cow’s milk is pure…however, fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000
pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers give 50,000 pounds! How was this accomplished? Drugs, antibiotics, hormones, forced feeding plans and specialized breeding; that’s how.” Excerpt from Dr. Kradjian article, see link below

“During the 1930′s, Dr. Francis M. Pottinger conducted a 10-year study on the relative effects of pasteurized ad raw milk diets on 900 cats. One group received nothing but raw whole milk, while the other was fed nothing but pasteurized whole milk from the same source. The raw milk group thrived, remaining healthy, active and alert throughtout their lives, but the group fed on pasteurized milk soon became listless, confused and highly vulnerable to a host of chronic degenerative ailments normally associated with humans, including heart disease, kidney failure, thyroid disfunction, respiratory ailments, loss of teeth, brittle bones, liver inflammation, etc. But what caught Dr. Pottenger’s attention most was what happened to the second and third generations. The first offspring of the pasteurized milk group were all born with poor teeth and small weak bones…which indicated lack of calcium absorption from pasteurized milk. The offspring of the raw milk group remained as healthy as their parents. Many of the kittens in the third generation of the pasteurized group were stillborn, while those that survived were all sterile and unable to reproduce.” Excerpt from The Tao of Health, Sex, & Longevity by Daniel P. Reid

There is so much more information…and this isn’t to say that all milk is bad. Choose wisely what you put into your body. I still occasionally have cheese, but no more pasteurized milk. I do use rice milk, however. The choice is always yours…I’m just here to get information out. Keep on truckin’!

Dr. Kradjian’s article: http://www.notmilk.com/kradjian.html

Plenty of more info: http://www.notmilk.com/

This is the trap my friend. We, or I, revert back to doing what has always worked in the past. Working on trying to get back there, only better, faster, and with less effort! Seriously, it’s like craziness. Why am I trying to get back anywhere? Always forward…always forward.

Anyhow, recently I was reintroduced to Isagenix by some new friends. They, again, weren’t pushy…just reaching and surpassing their fitness and health endeavors.

My boyfriend has been dealing with ulcerative colitis for 9 years. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a dreadful disease that NO ONE deserves! I’m always on the lookout for what is going to help him reach his goals…the simple stuff in life we often take for granted. Then I started hearing about the benefits from Isagenix in colitis among many other illnesses! And, I was intrigued.

Long story short…my boyfriend and I are now on our own Isagenix journey! In two days he is already having improvement with little pain and irritation. I am having more energy and clarity! Amazing! I’ll be letting you all in on our breakthroughs and accomplishments as we go along our paths. Stay tuned! If you’d like to know more about Isagenix, click the link below.

http://EasyHealthAndWeightLoss.com

I’m off to knock the socks off of today!!

I chose to be sad and scared at first. I called my mother, I called my boyfriend, and I called my closest friends. After speaking to all of them, I was able to be really sad and scared. So, I cried. I cried for about half and hour, and then I was, for lack of a better word, relieved.

The news was “pre-cancerous” and I’m a healthy young woman. There’s no way that I’m going down yet…and definitely not to cancer. So, what’s the next step?

Unfortunately, I was no longer with my prior company and no longer carried any insurance–this was one of my biggest challenges.  I knew it was going to cost a bit of money to get treated and to have the testing/lab work done to be healthy…and when I called my doctor’s office, they were more than willing to work with me to have it be affordable…at least the procedures at any rate.

3 weeks later I went in for a colposcopy biopsy.  My boyfriend had to work and couldn’t be there with me this day and so I went in, scared out of my bones about the procedure.  The nurse and my doctor were simply fabulous and made it really easy for me to relax and even have some fun with it.  It was, to say the least, uncomfortable and only really painful when I cramped up.  For more info on a colposcopy http://www.webmd.com/cancer/cervical-cancer/colposcopy-and-cervical-biopsy.

I was then to wait.  I had to wait for my test results to get back on the biopsy and for my doctor to get back from vacation…a grueling 3 weeks!  In the meantime I had to heal.  This was, by far, the most annoying and depressing part of the procedure.  It took a full 2 weeks before I could get back to my normal exercise and active routine…(oh, and no sex for 3 weeks!).  It was also apparent that I would need a LEEP procedure…that was scheduled 5 weeks out from the date of the colposcopy and would be much more invasive.

Yummy Yogurt!

Constantly staying ahead of the artificial additives game in the food industry is trying and today I discovered something new, at least for me and perhaps you! I recently became addicted to strawberry yogurt and granola…it’s a delicious and good for you snack, if you are using the right yogurt! Yoplait, a very common and massively consumed brand, took up most of the area.  So I decided to investigate this popular brand a bit, Sherlock Holmes style, by reading the ingredients.  I’m sure he was much more intense in his sleuthing than I, but I did find something shocking!

Yoplait has Aspartame in it!  Aspartame is that artificial sweetener that has recently been found to do all kinds of nastiness to your body!  Here’s a little excerpt from the attached link stating what Aspartame does.

“Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.”

Now, if that isn’t enough to turn one off a bit from diet sodas, yogurt, and other artificially sweetened products, I’m not sure what it will take.  If you read more of the article link, you’ll find out more information.  And, as always, feel free to research it on your own.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a complete addict in recovery from Diet Pepsi and Splenda…it took a lot, but what I recognized immediately was how much better I felt knowing I was putting something natural into my body, not something manufactured in a huge processing plant.  At any rate, the choice is always yours, just remember this is the only body you get for this lifetime (unless science proves me wrong)…so listen to it, treat it well, and it will treat you well back.

On the yogurt quest, well, I ended up with Activia.  Unfortunately, it does have sucralose in it (think Splenda) and I won’t be sticking with it–I just wanted some strawberry.  But it was my best bet at the particular market I was at.

The best I’ve found so far (although not the tastiest) has been Nancy’s Vanilla yogurt.  It uses organic agave sweetener and loads of live cultures.  I’m still in search of a great tasting strawberry flavored yogurt, though.  My suggestion is do your research before you go to the market.  I will be doing more researching.  I would love to hear any suggestions and thoughts!

Oh…and my favorite by far…is frozen yogurt!!  Yummy!

Aspartame link:
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/dangers.htm

6-20-09 An Answer!

Hello there!  Since I wrote this post I have been searching high and low for a great yogurt…and I’ve found two!  One can be found at Trader Joe’s and is their brand.  They have several, so look through them and find the one that doesn’t contain sugar…it’s delicious and great for you!  The second, and my favorite, is Brown Cow brand.  It does contain organic cane juice…and that’s a heck of a lot better than straight sugar and a universe of difference from Aspartame!  I found Brown Cow at Whole Foods and I love the Maple flavor with some granola for breakfast!  Hope you are finding yogurts that work for you!  Love hearing from you!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_papillomavirus

http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

From my understanding, with my conversations with my Dr. and many other professionals, HPV is very prevalent in our society (~90% of sexually active people that have had more than 1 partner will have some form of HPV in their lifetime, and many won’t know they have it) and there is not enough education about it.  A person can have contracted HPV years before any signs show up or it becomes an active infection.  Last year when I had my Pap smear I was clean…but within a year my HPV had activated and was now affecting my body.  It’s also pretty save to say that men are just carriers of HPV.  There is currently no test for men to see if they have it, and there are no solid facts or stats that show any effects of HPV on men.  

Guardasil is a new injection that can be adminstered to protect against HPV…but here’s the skinny on that (from what I have heard):

• You have to be under the age of 24
• It only protects agains 4 strains of HPV…where there are over 130
• You have to have never had sex before or only 1 partner (not sure if this is a truth at all, but something I heard)
• for more info  http://www.gardasil.com/what-is-gardasil/index.html

So, that’s what is there for protection and prevention.  The other steps a person can take is to practice safe sex, although this alone does not 100% protect a person from HPV, it does help.  And, the other action is to stay healthy, eat healthy, and deal with your stress–as stress is often a trigger for HPV to become active.  I had just moved to a new state with my boyfriend, away from my close friends, and was starting a new business when I was diagnosed…to say the least, I was stressed.  

Stay tuned to find out what I’ve had to do since the diagnosis.