“Research is now indicating that the brain can be unset and reset — and meditation can do that effectively.  Meditation can give you a sense of control over life, and that’s pretty significant.” – Fran Sussman

via ‘Possibly a game-changer’ | recordonline.com.

An article in The Times Herald Record on how meditation is being used and researched for healing trauma and anxiety, featuring yours truly.

For more information about my upcoming meditation class, mentioned in the article, and to register, click here.

Register online now!

Want to never have to diet, have cravings, or be hungry again?
Want to get in great shape and feel terrific in the process?
Want to know how to lose fat and increase muscle, without hours at the gym?
Want to lose the belly bloat, rev up your energy, and look and feel years younger?
Want to learn how you can navigate any situation and make the right food choices?

Then I designed this class especially for you!

You will also eliminate chronic symptoms like aches and pains, GI upset, headaches and allergies, and make lifestyle changes that will help you reclaim and protect your health now and for the future.

This will be a small, ongoing (10 week) group workshop to teach you the secrets I have learned and shared with my private clients over the past twenty years to help people from their teens to their 70s achieve healthy weight loss, and feel great!

If you have wanted to work with me but been held back by finances, or love the motivation and energy that a group provides, here is your opportunity to access my expertise and consistent results.

What You Will Get:

• Tips for Quick Fat Loss

• How to lose fat, not just pounds (you don’t want to lose bone, muscle or water)

• How to increase lean muscle – without hours of exercise

• How to improve hydration – it’s not just about drinking more water

• How to eat to create a healthy metabolism, even if yours is “dead”

• The “healthy” foods that sabotage your metabolism and keep you fat

• How to achieve healthy hormonal balance, at any age

• Boost energy, improve focus, and lose the brain fog

• Clearer skin, better digestion, and sounder sleep

• Individual weekly body composition analysis

• Simple, healthy and tasty recipes and menu plans

• Examples of how to shift to healthier habits, painlessly

• Information and inspiration that will help keep you motivated

• A healthy protein powder and other supplements to use every day throughout the ten weeks to support your healthy weight loss (replaces one meal daily and a second one occasionally if you choose)

Each participant will have at least one opportunity to work with me individually during the class. Class size is limited, so reserve your spot now.

Fee of $629 includes enough healthy protein powder (whey or vegan/dairy-free) to use for one meal daily, as well as other products to use during the program to support healthy weight loss.

10 Thursday evenings starting July 5th, 7:30-8:30PM and ending September 6th.

Register now here!

I saw nine clients yesterday: 4 for weight loss, 3 doing their Customized 21 Day Detox, and 2 for general health issues.

Everyone doing weight loss or detox lost weight and more importantly – fat.  How do we know? Because I use a medical grade body composition analyzer, and it tells us not only if you lost weight, but where, and whether it was fat, muscle or water.

Here’s the rundown:

1. “My clothes are loose!  I wore a dress last night I haven’t been able to wear in a year. I feel good!”  On her 4th session, she’s lost 8 pounds of fat since beginning her 13 Week Success Program.
2. “I’m surprised! This isn’t hard!” from a woman who just started, and is already sleeping and feeling better.
3. “I’m not hungry at all”  from a woman who lost 5 pounds of fat in her first week, half of that just from her belly.
4. A woman who just finished her 21 Day Detox lost 7 pounds of fat, 5 from her belly and said “I’m so glad I walked in to your office!”
5. On her first week, a woman found “I’m able to control my appetite better. Turns out being hungry was just a habit, not a reality.”
6. And a woman in my 13 Week Success Program has gone from 100 pounds of body fat to just 76 pounds of body fat in 8 weeks, still 5 more to go.  Not only that, her skin glows, she radiates health and vitality, looks about a decade younger, and all her friends and colleagues are astounded at the change.
7. Another client who comes in for general health and well-being worked with me on how to deal with unrelenting job stress without making herself either sick or miserable.
8. “I’m not depriving myself of anything!” and yet lost 5 pounds in her first week, half from her belly.
9. And lastly, a client who has not been well since a surgery went wrong years ago did some more work to support and rebalance her system.

All in all, a very gratifying day.  Wouldn’t you like to be among the people getting such fabulous results?

This article was originally published as my Holistic Outlook column in The Times Herald Record.

I’ve previously debunked the myth of calorie-juggling and the mistaken notion that fats make us fat and sick. Today, let’s explore the myth that whole grains are essential to a healthy diet.

Not only is it untrue, but also it does a large number of people a great deal of harm. Those “healthy” whole grains make a lot of us ache-y, bloated, tired and fat, and perpetuate both hunger and cravings — so you are more likely to gobble ever more cookies, crackers, bread or pasta.

Every food has proteins, and when we react to a food, it is almost always to the proteins in it. Gluten is the protein in wheat, oats, rye, spelt and barley. One-third of the population has a genetic sensitivity to gluten, but recent research shows that even in people who are not gluten-sensitive, gluten causes inflammation: in the gut, the brain and throughout the body.

We’ve been told that increasing whole grains will improve our health, but, for most, taking them out does more good. My clients are amazed at the improvements they feel when they eliminate gluten, often within days. And those improvements continue to accrue for two years, as the body continues to heal.

Gluten lite?

People often ask if cutting back on gluten has the same benefits as eliminating it. Unfortunately, no. Glue-y gluten “sticks” in the system for about 10 days each time you ingest it. If you have gluten once a week, your system never gets to heal.

Secondly, gluten has addictive biochemical effects, so each time you eat some, your cravings resurface and you struggle to resist eating more and more. Conversely, once you eliminate it completely, cravings diminish, and willpower isn’t an issue.

The great masquerader

Gluten is a “hidden” food sensitivity, because response is not immediate and dramatic, but delayed and cumulative. Historically, gluten was associated with gastrointestinal issues, such as constipation/diarrhea, and the infamous “wheat belly.” But now we know only a minority of people suffer from gut issues. Most experience other symptoms as diverse as skin rashes, painful joints, asthma, chronic sinusitis, anemia, osteoporosis or anxiety. If you’re wondering if you might be one of the many who feel better gluten-free, I encourage you to experiment and find out for yourself.

Register online

Are you stressed?  Have you been feeling more forgetful?  Foggy?  Unfocused?  Overwhelmed?  Would you like to improve your memory, focus and attention, in just minutes a day, while getting all the well-documented benefits of meditation for both the body and the spirit? Then this 8 week meditation class is for you.

We will be learning and practicing a simple 12 minute meditation that has been shown to improve memory and executive function as well as mood, and to decrease tension and fatigue (research published in esteemed peer-reviewed journals).

In addition, I will be sharing many other tips about retaining and even improving brain function as we age.

The class is open to all, whether you have experience with meditation or not.  It is perfect for complete beginners, as well as experienced meditators.

This class will provide a structure and a safe forum to learn and develop a personal meditation practice.

Meditation can help to calm and reset a highly activated nervous system. The brain can get “set” in certain habitual grooves due to stress, but it can also be “unset” and “reset”. Meditation is a very effective and well researched way to do that.  Studies show it offers significant improvements in sleep, pain reduction, stress, use of prescription medications, lowers blood pressure, and gives people an improved sense of control.

More and more research is investigating and highlighting the numerous benefits of meditation.  People who are highly stressed, whether they have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, depression, or just general “overwhelm”, usually have accompanying symptoms such as loss of memory, attention and focus.  In a surprisingly short period of time, the right kind of meditation can improve all of these significantly.  The meditation I will teach in the class has been found in peer reviewed journals to improve these measures, as well as to repair cognitive function.

Classes will take place at my office, on 8 Wednesdays from 6-7PM, starting May 30th and ending July 25th (no class June 27th).  The cost for the class is $197.  Class is limited to 15 people.

I have been practicing and teaching meditation for about 15 years, but haven’t taught in the past couple of years, although I often get asked. This new-to-me practice inspired me so deeply that I knew I had to share it.

• If you have ever felt that you would like to meditate, but don’t know how to start on your own, or want the structure of a class and teacher to develop and maintain a personal practice, then this is for you.

• If you are concerned about the effects of stress or aging on memory, focus, attention and other measures of cognitive function, then this class is for you.

I hope you will join us.  Register now

This article appeared as my Holistic Outlook column in The Times Herald Record.

Surprise! Eating Some Fats is Good for You

In my last column, I explained how the calories in/calories out model sabotages your weight-loss plans. Let’s continue busting common health myths. Today: the myth that eating fat makes you fat.

Have you been frightened into thinking that eating any amount of dietary fat is harmful? In fact, eating a low or no-fat diet is more likely to put you at risk, because fat, and yes, even cholesterol, are essential to human life. Without them, you disrupt many normal functions, cause accelerated aging and break down your metabolism. Fats are essential to every process in your body, including a healthy, well-functioning brain.

Body fat is not necessarily correlated to dietary fat, in part because eating fat does not stimulate release of insulin. In fact, body fat and high cholesterol are more likely to be the result of a diet high in processed and refined carbohydrates.

Numerous studies show that people lose weight and improve health by adding healthy fats to their diets, not reducing or eliminating them. But there’s the clue: the difference between healthy fats and unhealthy fats, even if the number of calories is the same.

Plant fats generally good

Plant fats are generally good for you. Nuts and seeds, coconuts and avocados are better than fat marbled into a burger or steak, fried foods or processed foods made with hydrogenated fats. And most people know that fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel and trout provide healthy fats.

But did you know that pasture-raised cows that are never fed grain have a healthier fat profile than farm-raised, grain-fed fish? Animals fed “species-appropriate food” are always healthier to eat.

A recent headline-making study that showed any amount of meat increased mortality from cancer and heart disease did not take this into account. I was not surprised, however, that it showed significantly higher risk for people who ate processed meat, such as bacon and deli meats.

Beware: Many low-fat foods, including ice cream, yogurt, cakes and cookies, add extra sugars to make up for lack of palatability. Plus, eating low fat often leaves you hungry and craving carbohydrates shortly after. So don’t be afraid: Add some healthy fats back into your diet.

link to published article here

“…one serving daily of a sugar-sweetened beverage was linked to a 19 percent increase in the relative risk of cardiovascular disease.”

via Sugar-Sweetened Drinks Linked to Heart Disease – NYTimes.com.

As I have been teaching clients for many years, heart disease and problematic cholesterol, as well as diabetes, are far more likely to be a result of refined and processed carbohydrates, including sugar, than of dietary fats.  Low fat diets are neither safe nor health-promoting.  And if you add more healthy fats to your meals, you will find that you have fewer cravings for carbohydrates!

And please note that, as the article states, artificially sweetened drinks are not the solution, but their own problem, as they cause metabolic damage.

This article appeared as my Holistic Outlook column in The Times Herald Record.

Let’s bust some health myths. In the next few columns, I will discuss common beliefs that keep you from your optimal health, weight and body composition. People usually have the best intentions for their health and just need better information and understanding of how the body works. I can help you with that.

Let’s start by busting an almost universally accepted myth: the myth of calories.

Our bodies aren’t spreadsheets

How many times have you overindulged at dinner, thinking you’ll make up for it by skipping meals, drinking coffee or just eating salad the next day? After all, we’re told that if we just keep at a certain calorie level, we’re OK.

But our bodies don’t function like spreadsheets where you can move things around as long as they still add up to the same number. Nope, we are more like a chemistry lab, with everything changing and affecting everything else, all the time.

We are designed for homeostasis, the need to coordinate different systems to maintain overall stability. For example, the body will protect our organs and maintain core temperature, if necessary, by decreasing blood flow to our hands and feet.

When we restrict calories, our body goes into conservation mode. The oldest part of our brain, geared for survival, knows that less food means there may be a famine and so shifts our metabolism to make the most of every calorie we consume, with special attention to storing fat, in case there are times ahead with no food at all.

Don’t go to extremes

Not what you had in mind? Unfortunately, our survival mechanisms haven’t kept up with the times; they’re still the same as they were thousands of years ago, before the existence of refrigerators, supermarkets and fast-food drive-throughs.

Want to look like a Sumo wrestler? I didn’t think so. Yet that’s the extreme you’re going toward if you follow a pattern of overeating and fasting. It’s exactly how the body will put on the most weight.

Obviously, calories count. If you eat thousands of calories a day, you will probably be overweight (unless you are a teenage boy or a bodybuilder). But having three balanced meals daily of lean protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fat is much more important and helpful to your metabolism than playing the calorie-juggling game.

Update: I have a quantity of great quality cistus incanus and am able to sell it for $35 for a very full sandwich bag.  (picture to the right is of a smaller bag)  Plus shipping of $6 priority mail, if applicable.

Directions: Use 1 teaspoon per 8 oz boiling water. Steep 8-10 minutes. Tea can be re-used several times and still have therapeutic effectiveness.

“Because calories change as they enter the body, the nine grams for fat and four for everything else turn out to be not very accurate measures at all”

via Is a Calorie a Calorie? – NYTimes.com.

After years of consistently preaching the outdated calories in/calories out model, the NY Times finally comes around.  I’ve been preaching this for years, and in fact my upcoming Holistic Outlook column for The Times Herald Record is about this very topic.  I’m not sure when it will be published, but you can have a sneak preview here:

How many times have you overindulged at dinner, thinking you’ll make up for it by skipping meals, drinking coffee, or just eating salad the next day?  After all, we’re told that if we just keep at a certain calorie level, we’re okay.  But our bodies don’t function like spreadsheets where you can move things around as long as they still add up to the same number.  Nope, we are more like a chemistry lab, with everything changing and affecting everything else, all the time.

We are designed for homeostasis, the need to coordinate different systems to maintain overall stability.  For example, the body will protect our organs and maintain core temperature, if necessary, by decreasing blood flow to our hands and feet.

When we restrict calories, our body goes into conservation mode. The oldest part of our brain, geared for survival, knows that less food means there may be a famine, and so shifts our metabolism to make the most of every calorie we consume, with special attention to storing fat, in case there are times ahead with no food at all.

Not what you had in mind?  Unfortunately, our survival mechanisms haven’t kept up with the times: they’re still the same as they were thousands of years ago, before the existence of refrigerators, supermarkets, and fast food drive-throughs.

Want to look like a Sumo wrestler?  I didn’t think so.  Yet that’s the extreme you’re going towards if you follow a pattern of overeating and fasting.  It’s exactly how the body will put on the most weight.

Obviously, calories count. If you eat thousands of calories a day, you will probably be overweight (unless you are a teenage boy, or a bodybuilder!).  But having three balanced meals daily of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fat is much more important and helpful to your metabolism than playing the calorie juggling game.