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My 14-Year Health Journey + The Power of Probiotics

Amie — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 20:04:20 +0000

This featured article is sponsored by VSL#3. All opinions are my own.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about my health journey. And so, today I wanted to take some time to talk about where I’ve been, how I’ve been feeling and what’s next. I started this website back in the winter of 2009, just over a decade ago, and it’s incredible to see where I started with my health and where I am now as I begin to more fully emerge back into life and start to truly L-I-V-E. I’ve learned a lot throughout this journey of chronic illness from the age of 24-38, and it’s taught me more than I can put into words. However, I am going to do my best today to talk about a few of the experiences that really made a profound difference with my healing process—especially my experience with the high-potency probiotic medical food VSL#3 for the management of IBS.

THE FIRST SHIFT INTO INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

The first shift I want to address is releasing the old paradigm of allopathic medicine and working with Integrative Medicine + Energy Medicine. This has been profound for me. If you’ve read my book, Eating Clean, you know all about the difference between the conventional medicine route and the alternative path (the road less traveled). If you’re new here or you’re just starting on your journey, I highly suggest reading the front of my book as well as the integrative medical testing in the back of the book so that you can understand how and why to find an integrative practitioner who can look closer at your condition and imbalances as well as the tests that gave me so many answers – that unfortunately allopathic medicine does not use.

This shift into Integrative Medicine is the first step. Here is where you’ll start to realize that many of your diagnoses are simply jumbled up toxicity: yeast, mold, fungus, non-beneficial bacteria, heavy metals and so forth. Shifting to Integrative Medicine changed my life because it allowed me to address all of these issues on a deeper level and it took me off of medication. It looked at my body as though everything was connected – something no one addressed with me for even a second before I discovered this new way to fully treat the body.

From Integrative Medicine, I still had healing to do that couldn’t be done by solely relying on medical treatments and supplements, so I went on to discover Energy Medicine and dove into years upon years of how to heal the nervous system and trauma, all of which is what shut me down in the first place, unbeknownst to me until my mid-30s. It’s taken me quite a while to understand this deep connection, which I couldn’t clearly see for many years because I was in such a state of survival, fear and pumping out cortisol and adrenaline every minute. I will be speaking much more deeply about how I connected all these pieces moving forward this year on Instagram, so stay tuned for more about this mind-body connection.

For now, you can read these mind-body articles to start to help you piece together what has slowly been shutting you down over the years because we all know illness does not happen overnight – it’s a long journey of toxicity accumulating, bacteria getting out of balance, stress compounding and so much more. It’s the result of years, often decades of imbalance in our bodies that conventional methods overlook. Now, it’s up to us to take our power back, to take full responsibility for our own wellbeing and help to address what has been out of balance within ourselves.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM + STRESS

In regard to stress, which is something I often ignored reading about throughout the first portion of my journey, I do want to mention how important it is to regulate your response to stress versus just trying to lower your stress, which often backfires. In my experience, so much of this comes down to regulating how we respond to stressors in our daily lives that toss us into survival mode and keep us locked in that mode for months, years, and even decades because getting out of the go-go-go to slow down is too scary for our nervous systems and this often becomes who we think we are – we think this is just “us” but it’s not. It’s actually learned behavior that has kept us in survival mode going 100mph unable to address what’s going on deep down inside.

What happens when we’re in survival mode is that our digestion slows down so we’re left with bloating and digestive issues while our food does not get digested properly and ferments in our gut, turning into everything from SIBO to candida and more serious issues. This is where probiotics come in, which I’m going to touch on in a moment because they’re a key piece to our health journeys and it’s important to know what brands to trust and use regularly.

Along with our digestion slowing down, our livers also stop detoxing toxins, which is what leads to all sorts of health issues because the toxins that we accumulate in our bodies everyday have nowhere to go and no way to leave the body, so they get recirculated throughout the body and wreak havoc on our organs, especially our digestion. PMS is one example of this because if our livers are not detoxing our hormones, those hormones get recirculated throughout the body and start to cause terrible symptoms from PMS to endometriosis to more serious hormonal conditions. The liver is also in control of so many internal operations and affects our moods, our breath, and our digestion and is often the culprit of brain fog and fatigue.

HORMONE BALANCING

Lastly, when we are in survival mode, our reproductive organs start to stall because our bodies do not think it’s safe enough to carry a child. When even one tiny hormone stalls and falls out of balance, the other hormones follow because hormonal balance is a dance and when one is high, the others are low or when some are low, there are others that are high and so forth. This also pertains to our digestion because we have so many hormones in our gut, which I learned after I gained tons of water weight after having C. diff colitis ten years ago. When your hormones are off, you’ll experience everything from weight gain to hair loss, brittle nails, mood swings, sweats and so much more. With hormonal imbalances, you’re also likely to experience candida since our hormones play a role in the levels of yeast we have in our bodies, which is another reason your digestion may be off and you can experience bloating and gas as well as other digestive symptoms.

Just from this brief overview, I hope you can start to see how our minds impact our bodies, especially our digestion, and how we have to look at our bodies as a whole to start feeling better instead of covering every symptom up with a band-aid approach, which ends up not working in the long run and often causing more harm than good. Our gut makes up over 60% of our immune cells so it’s the headquarters for your immune system and the hub for so many of our day-to-day ailments, not to mention it contains trillions of bacteria, which you’ve heard me address over and over again throughout the years. Most of this bacteria is beneficial bacteria keeping us healthy (because we are more bacteria than we are cells, folks), yet there is also non-beneficial bacteria and if you’re someone with IBS or other digestive issues, you know what I mean.

SOOTHING RITUALS

What you’ll notice from all of the above is a common thread: digestion, which is what takes such a huge hit when we are stressed or living in survival mode, which we all are living in these days! Because of this, I want to talk for a minute about a probiotic that helps me tremendously in my gut health journey and has continued to benefit me in incredible ways. It has been a staple in my refrigerator, and it is my go-to recommendation for my clients as well as my family for quite a long time.

Along with taking VSL#3 probiotic daily as a supplement with my vitamins and minerals, I also add it in recipes as another way to get my daily dose of high-potency probiotic into my routine. Most people ask me how I’ve been able to stay so positive throughout all of these ups and downs and it’s because I literally made everything I had to do for my health into a ritual.

I bought beautiful tiny handmade wooden bowls to hold my daily supplements, so I wasn’t reminded every day that I was sick with tons of bottles of nutrients around me; I added this VSL#3 probiotic to my smoothies and chilled summer soups to allow me to be a bit more creative in my kitchen versus taking it as a capsule all the time; I bought beautiful plates on sale at Marshall’s and made myself beautiful meals (when I had the energy to do so); I bought a few electric candles and dimmed the lighting in my home with dimmers so my adrenal fatigue didn’t suffer from bright lights; I bought a small speaker for my kitchen and listen to beautiful music (like this playlist I created for you) to soothe me and relax my nervous system while cooking; and so much more. These are a few ways I started creating soothing and nourishing rituals for myself. I have many more that I will share as time goes on and now that I’m really starting to get my energy back, you’ll see more of me, especially on Instagram stories.

Speaking of Instagram stories, I’ve created a delicious organic soup recipe (as seen in the photos in this article) using VSL#3 probiotics and you can watch me make it step-by-step.

VSL#3 PROBIOTICS

So, now that you have a slight peek into how I’ve been able to manage my health journey, I want to give you some more information on VSL#3. Whether you’re living with digestive issues, or you experience gut health imbalances from time to time, I’ve found that it’s key to really keep your microbial balance in check with a quality probiotic and it’s taken me many years to find one that my body does not reject and that actually works for me.

If you’re like me and you’ve dealt with IBS or other digestive issues, you know that it just so happens that we end up with more non-beneficial bacteria than beneficial bacteria in our gut, which can lead to anxiety, bloating and overwhelm in trying to manage and determine what is actually going on inside of us. I use VSL#3 for the main reason that it provides multiple strains of bacteria needed to restore the necessary amount of good bacteria in our gut. I nearly fell on the floor in amazement when I realized this probiotic carried billions of CFUs (colony forming units) because up until that point, I personally had never seen a probiotic that powerful.

Now, patience is key here. Just because there is a lot of power in this probiotic, it can take up to one month for the colonization of the gut to become optimally stable, so be patient with yourself. Patience is key because stressing out over not feeling better “soon enough” does more harm than good, putting you even deeper into survival mode and making the situation much worse.

What I love about this probiotic is that it provides a higher CFU count and diversity of strains than other leading over-the-counter brands* to help protect the GI tract and help manage your gut health – I like to think of it as helping to restore the necessary amount of beneficial bacteria in your digestive tract. Please note that, VSL#3 must be used under medical supervision.

I prefer to use the powder form of this supplement as shown in this article but you can certainly use the capsule form if you’d like. Remember these probiotics must be refrigerated to keep the bacteria alive. And for those of you who need to read ingredient lists, this probiotic is free of lactose and gluten and non-GMO verified. More information on VSL#3 and its use for serious digestive issues can be found at www.vsl3.com.

TRUSTING YOUR BODY + MOVING FORWARD

As you continue to work towards building back your health, I implore you to also keep in mind the connection between what’s going on in your mind and your body. This was a huge piece of the puzzle for me. When you’re anxious, what is going on in your body? Does your stomach hurt? Do you feel pressure in your head? Do your shoulders get tense? Start to look at what your nervous system is telling you – your body is a feedback mechanism so in conjunction with taking supplements and probiotics, it is key to look at your own level of consciousness (self-awareness) and see what feedback your body is giving you based on what is going on in your mind. I suggest digging deeper to understand what causes fear in your nervous system as that will directly impact your digestion and your overall wellbeing. Start with this two-part series on How to Trust Your Body Again, which is a powerful place to begin.

I’m sending you all a lot of love and remember that life is a journey and chronic health issues are a wakeup call to help us restore and reclaim who we are, take full responsibility for our past and move forward into a more conscious way of living so our bodies can return to balance. My book, Eating Clean, is a wonderful resource to help you get started and to point out the deeper medical testing that took me years to discover. My hope is that this article provided you with some support and guidance on your own journey.

Believe in yourself and keep going. If I can do this, so can you.

If you’re interested, you can purchase VSL#3 here online. When ordering online at www.shop.vsl3.com enter the code TRYVSL3 at checkout to save $5 or receive free shipping on a 2-pack.

*Compared to Culturelle and Align.

VSL#3® is a probiotic medical food intended for the dietary management of ulcerative colitis (UC), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or an ileal pouch. Use under medical supervision.

The post My 14-Year Health Journey + The Power of Probiotics appeared first on Amie Valpone.

Carrot Grapefruit Salad with Avocado

Amie — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:48:24 +0000

I haven’t eaten a grapefruit since I was a kid. For many reasons. One being that I couldn’t eat fruit for the last two decades because of yeast overgrowth in my gut (candida) and another being that I pretty much lost my appetite for anything sweet during my 12-year health journey.

That said, I’ve finally started to get my sweet tooth back, which feels like I’m living again – learning how to bite into juicy apples and tart cherries and sweet grapefruits. It’s been divine to say the least.

Grapefruit has a special place in my heart. It was the “dessert” my parents served my sister and I growing up. My father would peel the grapefruit, and my sister and I would wait with anticipation for who would get the next peeled segment. It was pure joy and so much fun. It also made me appreciate the natural sweetness for desserts and, hence, why I really don’t have a sweet tooth.

This recipe is the perfect end-of-summer escape for you to dive into in your kitchen. It’s literally a garden in a bowl and I think you’re going to love it.

Put on our Kitchen Playlist, turn on the air conditioning or your fan, and have fun. That’s what all of this is about. Enjoy yourself and enjoy these last few weeks of the summer heatwave.

SHOP the RECIPE

Carrot Grapefruit Salad with Avocado

This easy salad is the perfect end-of-summer escape. It's literally a garden in a bowl, featuring greens, carrot ribbons, and grapefruit of course.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword carrot, salad

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 0

Total Time 10

Servings people

Calories 177kcal

Author Amie

Ingredients

4 cups baby kale
4 small radishes
3 large carrots peeled lengthwise
1 large ruby red grapefruit peeled and segmented
1 large ripe avocado peeled, pitted, and diced
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 handful torn fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

In a large shallow serving bowl, combine the kale, radishes, carrots, grapefruit and avocado. Drizzle with the olive oil and season to taste with sea salt and pepper.
Garnish with fresh parsley and crushed red pepper flakes. Serve at room temperature.
Store leftovers in a sealed container for up to 2 days.

Nutrition

This article may contain Amazon or other affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase by clicking those links.

The post Carrot Grapefruit Salad with Avocado appeared first on Amie Valpone.

Amie’s Supplement Shop

Amie — Wed, 15 May 2019 17:54:52 +0000

Amie has compiled a shortlist of her favorite supplement brands she trusts and has used personally. Click on each bolded item below for more information. Please note this is a very basic list of anti-inflammatory supplements.

TheHealthyApple.com participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.

INFLAMMATION

Inflammation spans from everything like a canker sore to a bloated belly, from PMS to arthritis. Here are a few supplement products Amie loves to target and decrease inflammation.

Enzymedica’s SerraGold

Vitamin C

Omega 3

Zinc

Magnesium

Holy basil

Turmeric/curcumin

Ginger

Specific amino acids

High-quality fish oil

Glutathione oral

Glutathione suppositories

Immune System Tea

GUT HEALTH

Almost 70% of our immune system lives in our gut so if we want a healthy body, we need to focus on the beneficial bacteria vs. the non-beneficial bacteria and yeast (candida) in our body. Here are a few supplement products we love to support your digestion and gut health.

Dysbiosis //

Take 1 Tbsp. coconut oil two times a day. It contains lauric and capric acids, which discourage viruses and yeast, so it’s great for maintaining your intestinal health.

Gastrointestinal Support //

Glutamine, quercetin, aloe vera, licorice, slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, fibers, probiotics, and prebiotics. Include “prebiotics” (foods that act as fertilizers to help your good bacteria grow) like apples, berries, pears, legumes, and most veggies. Add at least 30 grams daily of real food fiber (fruits, whole grains, veggies). Other options include oregano oil, thyme oil, berberine, goldenseal, grapefruit seed extract, gut-lung therapy, raw garlic, and high-quality probiotics (see below for the probiotic section).

Lactose Intolerance //

The enzyme lactase can help break down lactose in dairy. Try Lacto by Enzymedica.

Gluten Intolerance //

Gluten-digesting enzymes DPP IV can help digest small amounts of gluten when you are eating out at a restaurant (in case of contamination). NOTE: this does not mean you can eat gluten; this is only to help you in cases of cross-contamination.

Probiotics //

Try a few of my favorite brands: Probiotic Plus, Metagenics UltraFlora, Jarrow Formulas, Klaire Labs Therbiotic Complete and Flora Probiotics.

Enzymes //

For trouble digesting beans, try enzyme alpha-galactosidase. Bean Assist by Enzymedica is also great. For sluggish digestion, proteases help with proteins, amylase is good for carbs, and lipases work well for fat digestion. Try Flora Enzymes, Similase by Integrative Therapeutics, or Digest Gold by Enzymedica.

Digestive Enzymes

L-Glutamine

HORMONE BALANCE + PMS

These supplements target balancing your hormones (endometriosis, PCOS, PMS, menopause).

Adrenals and Hormones //

Isotonic Quinton Sea Water or Hypertonic Quinton Sea Water

Organic Maca Powder

High Blood Sugar //

Glucomannan

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Chromium

Curcumin

Iron

Grapefruit Seed Extract Pure Encapsulations

Biotin

COQ10

Selenium or 3 Brazil nuts per day

Vitamin C Ascorbic Acid

Thyroid

DIM

Chastreeberry

DHEA

B Complex

Vitamin D3

Ashwagandha

Methylcoblamin

DIM Detox

Junior Nutrients for Kids

Saccharomyces Boulardii Jarrow (use for Candida and yeast infections)

Women’s Nutrients

ENERGY

Here are a few supplement recommendations to start supporting your energy.

Liquid B12

B Complex

Methylated Folate

Methylated B12if you have the MTHFR mutation

Taurine

Hypertonic Quinton Sea Water

High-quality white sea salt

Zinc

SLEEP

Focusing on the quality of your sleep and your circadian rhythm is key for a good night’s sleep. Here are a few supplements I’ve used in the past.

Boiron’s homeopathic medicines work naturally with the body without causing drowsiness or sleeplessness and do not interact with other medications or supplements.

Passionflower (I suggest this instead of Melatonin)

Taurine

Essential oils (lavender)

Chamomile tea

Magnesium

Calcium + Magnesium

TRAVEL

Headache //

Mix chamomile tea, pure coconut water, and peppermint essential oil with almond oil. Apply onto temples, forehead, and neck (avoid the eye area).

Essential oils

Vitamin C

Zinc

Magnesium

Isotonic Quinton Sea Water or Hypertonic Quinton Sea Water

Motion Sickness and Nausea //

Ginger one hour before moving.

CONTACT SUPPLEMENT BRANDS

If you are concerned about potential allergic reactions, call the companies before using any of the following.

The products and claims made about specific products on or through this Site have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. This website is not intended to provide diagnosis, treatment or medical advice. Products, services, information and other content provided on this Site, including information that may be provided on this website directly or by linking to third-party websites are provided for informational purposes only. Please consult with a physician or other healthcare professional regarding any medical or health-related diagnosis or treatment options.

The post Amie’s Supplement Shop appeared first on Amie Valpone.

The Healing Glossary

Amie — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 19:04:34 +0000

This glossary was created to help you go deeper into your healing by giving you the tools and definitions of the words, phrases and concepts we use throughout our work. This is a place you can come back to throughout your journey to discover new articles and features that you may not have understood the meaning behind before.

PHYSICAL LAYER // the foundation

The Trigger that Pops Your Balloon – Something always triggers something in the body to react. Either it’s the pollen outside that’s causing you to get allergies or a parasite that you got from drinking a raw green juice that caused your autoimmune issues, or a really intense, angry parent who made you cry and have breakdowns as a child. We all have triggers. We’re just not quiet enough with ourselves to actually sit back and think, “Hey, what caused this?” Let Amie give you her honest answer about what she refers to as ‘Your Balloon” in a way that makes you understand ‘healing’ as simply as possible: “Think of your life and your body as a balloon. A big, blown up balloon. Throughout your life, you hit bumps, you have heartbreaks, you lose people you love, you catch colds, you may eat a certain food that gives you a parasite, you deal with traumas, etc. All of these things press up against the balloon and there are some people who have been sailing along their whole life and their balloon has been pressed here and there – sometimes pressed harder than other times, but their balloon doesn’t pop. Or perhaps it pops when they’re 50 or 60 years old in the form of a health issue. For the rest of us, something….some trauma, some food, some parasite, some accident, some breakup, some heartbreak, some traumatic moment pops our balloon. For me, it was her college breakup. I had no idea that my college breakup shut me completely off until 6 months ago. I was on a date with a lovely man who was telling me about his sister who had just gone through years of health issues and I asked what the trigger was and he said, ‘A breakup with a man she loved.’ BOOM. I almost couldn’t talk. ‘OMG’, I said to myself. That was it. Wow. Your mind is blown, right?”
The Nervous System – Think of your nervous system like an antenna that picks up on subtle signals around you that you can’t see but you can feel. People who have chronic health issues are dealing with a collapsed nervous system, which needs to be addressed in order for the body to heal and repair itself.
Fight, Flight, or Freeze Mode – This is the mode (fight-or-flight) of the nervous system that is also referred to as the Sympathetic Nervous System, which is where most of us live these days in our fast-paced go go go lifestyle that revs up our adrenaline and cortisol. This is the mode you should be in only if you are running from a tiger or dodging a truck coming at you. It should not be where you’re living day in and day out. Your body cannot heal when you are in this mode so you can do the math here as to why most people do not heal; it’s because they’re trying to heal when they are stuck here and they must get out of this mode to heal.
Rest and Relaxation Mode – This is the mode of the nervous system that is also referred to as the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which is the mode you should be in when you’re sleeping and eating and repairing your body. This is the mode your body must be in order to heal.
The Limbic System – This is the emotional center of the brain, which must be addressed for true healing to take place.
Neuroscience – This is a form of science that deals with the function of the nervous system. We now know we can rewire the brain through neuroplasticity, which is what Amie used to heal herself and what she uses to help my clients heal themselves, as well.
Detoxification – Our bodies were built to deal with natural pollution created by digestion, respiration, and metabolism, but they’re not designed to handle the enormous amount of artificial pollutants we’re exposed to in today’s chemical-filled world. The only way to deal with this toxic overload is to assist the body’s natural self-cleansing mechanisms with detoxing. Amie’s best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean, is a great resource to start detoxing toxins from your lifestyle.
Epigenetics – epigenetics, which says that it is NOT your genes that determine what happens with your health, it’s about your environment! This means you have more power than you think because if you can remove the toxicity from your mind, your tap water, your food and other places in your lifestyle such as your beauty products and your personal care products, you have the power over your genes. Your genes do not determine your life! Dr. Bruce Lipton, MD, has an incredible book, The Biology of Belief, which Amie wrote about and he discusses how he discovered this fascinating research in his laboratory.
Inflammation – Inflammation is very common topic these days because it’s the root cause of unwanted symptoms and health issues. When our immune system is imbalanced, inflammation can lead to chronic health issues. Inflammation can be caused by stress, mold, pesticides, mercury, hidden parasites, bacteria and viruses as well as by eating an inflammatory diet filled with table salt, sugar, white flours, refined vegetable oils and processed foods, all of which lack nutrients that our body needs on a daily basis to function optimally. Amie’s best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean, is a great resource to start detoxing toxins from your lifestyle.
Mitochondria – These are the little worker bees in your body that keep you functioning. Mitochondria production is key for anyone going through a chronic health issue.
EMFs – We are exposed to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from just about everything these days (our phones, our computers, our microwave, cell phone towers, wi-fi, etc.) and just because we cannot see these frequencies doesn’t mean they’re not negatively affecting our health.
Toxins – Toxins may seem harmless in small amounts, especially when you don’t have an overt reaction. But they’re sneaky—they can lie dormant for years, accumulating in our bodies and eventually overwhelming the liver to cause inflammation, which then leads to disease. Inflammation can occur anywhere in the body where toxins exist. If it exists in the joints, then you may get arthritis. If toxins are harbored in the colon, you may get colitis. Amie’s feature on Body Burden from Toxins is important to read to understand the levels of toxicity in our environment. Amie’s best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean, is a great resource to start detoxing toxins from your lifestyle.
Herxing (A Healing Crisis)– This is also known as ‘die-off’ symptoms when your symptoms get worse before they get better and it’s a sign you’re healing. This happens when the patient is trying to remove heavy metals or candida (yeast) or some other toxic material from their body and their liver cannot handle the process of removing toxins fast enough; therefore the patient ends up with flu-like symptoms that can last days until the liver is supported appropriately. This is a very scary process and Amie went through years of die-off with biofilm, heavy metals, mold, Lyme disease and more and trust us, it is not a pretty picture.
Healing – For true healing to take place, the patient must focus on the physical, emotional and energetic layers of the body. After years of focusing solely on food and alternative treatments such as infrared saunas, coffee enemas and more, Amie realized that she was missing a crucial step that she needed to address if she really wanted to heal and feel better and that’s exactly why she introduced the emotional and energetic layers to her work to help her clients heal.
Conventional (Western) Medicine – This is a form of medicine that some people refer to as allopathic medicine and it focuses mainly on ‘fixing’ the body with Band-Aid approaches such as pills and creams (think dermatologist and gastroenterologists). This form of medicine is WONDERFUL for when someone breaks an arm or gets in a car crash or is having a heart attack. However, while it seems to excel with these acute issues, it fails in chronic health issues because conventional medicine doctors lack the knowledge to actually heal the body. This form of medicine saved Amie’s life many times with c.diff colitis and put her on steroids when she had myositis, which was very helpful at the time; however, it did not know how to heal her body, and the antibiotics and steroids and water pills she was put on made her conditions much worse by kicking up yeast (candida) and mold in her gut leaving her with something called Hairy Tongue, which is when your tongue turns black from too much mold in your gut from numerous antibiotics and steroids.
Functional Medicine – This is a form of alternative medicine that looks beyond Western medicine blood work and basic testing. This form of medicine is meant to help the patient understand the underlying causes that are manifesting as physical symptoms. Amie has worked with many Functional M.D.s who she believes in such as Mark Hyman, M.D., Susan Blum, M.D., and Jeffrey Morrison, M.D., amongst others. Amie’s best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean, is a great resource to start detoxing toxins from your lifestyle. Here is a list of our favorite Functional Doctors in New York.
Integrative Medicine – Unlike Western medical doctors who follow a disease model (seeking the problem in one area of the body), integrative doctors want the whole picture and they also include forms of energy work (energy medicine) to heal the body at the root cause. Amie’s best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean, is a great resource to start detoxing toxins from your lifestyle. Find an Integrative or Functional Doctor in your area.
Survival of the Fittest – Our society is all about the no pain, no gain and rewards us for pushing ourselves with everything we do and it seems like this outdated model of survival of the fittest is doing nothing but making everyone stressed out, anxious and feeling like they’re not enough, which affects our health on the physical, emotional and energetic layers. This is a big reason so many people see symptoms pop up ‘out of nowhere’ because they’ve been pushing themselves for decades and they’re like a ticking time bomb so it’s not long before the underlying symptoms just need one little thing to occur (food poisoning, verbal abuse, dealing with a negative colleague, etc.) before the physical symptoms manifest as a chronic health issue.
Survival of the Nurtured – This is what we all longed for as children, isn’t it? Unfortunately, we were brought up with shame, guilt, and many other painful emotions even if we were a part of the ‘perfect’ family. We cannot go back into the past and turn back time to change anything but what we can do is heal our past by rewiring our brain through neuroplasticity, which Amie describes. We don’t have to hold onto these painful emotions and push ourselves like ‘survival of the fittest’ as mentioned above. To truly heal, we must nurture ourselves so that our bodies can relax and get out of the fight, flight or freeze mode and heal. A nurtured childhood is what we craved as children because a lot of our subconscious pain and memories were from not being nurtured. And yes, everything is connected; the emotional pain you feel in your body when you think of a past painful memory proves that to you. Healing that pain is the name of the game.
Nourishment – As Amie mentions in her best-selling book, Eating Clean, foods have so much more to them than calories, and yet many people think the caloric intake is the bottom line. Au contraire, my friend! The number of calories a food has is merely information, and as with any other kind of information, less isn’t necessarily better, just as more isn’t necessarily bad. A 100-calorie snack pack is in no way equal to 100 calories of an avocado. Counting calories is the last thing you should worry about when you’re trying to eat clean. A handful of nuts may be calorically dense, but there’s a lot of goodness packed in there you can’t get somewhere else. Choose foods based on how they nourish every cell in your body, rather than by how many calories you believe they will glue to your waistline. When you’re eating clean, believe it or not, those calories don’t add up to love handles and saddlebags.
Clean Eating – Food in its whole form is the healthiest version. That’s our rule of thumb, and it should be yours. The majority of what you eat should have one ingredient. What’s in cabbage? Cabbage. What’s in an orange? An orange. If most of your meals come from a box, then it’s worth rethinking your diet.
Because we live in the twenty-first century, we get that there are a fair amount of packaged convenience foods you probably won’t cut completely out of your life. If the only way to know what you’re eating is to read about it on the side of the package, though, you are, as Amie always says, eating sawdust. The more a food is processed, the less of its original nutrition remains. Sure, some foods need to be heated to make them palatable and to ease digestion, but we’d rather you do more of the processing yourself, be it heating, blending, or chopping, and leave less of it to manufacturers. More information about clean eating is in Amie’s best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean, which is a great resource to start eating clean. C
Organic Food – When looking for organic produce, look for the #9 on the sticker to confirm the fruit or vegetable is organic. When looking at other food products and lettuce, look for the USDA certified seal to confirm the food is organic. More information about the organic food farming process HERE.

EMOTIONAL LAYER // the clearing

Subconscious Mind – This part of your mind stores and retrieves data based on your past experiences, which have programmed you to do the things you do unconsciously. You can’t necessarily ‘see’ what’s in your subconscious mind because it’s hidden from your conscious mind and was developed from ages 0-7. Think of this part of your mind as what’s keeping you in your own way when you feel stuck and you’re scratching your head, “why?”. The unconscious mind communicates with the conscious mind through the subconscious and it provides us with meaning to every interaction we have with the world as filtered through the lens of our beliefs and habits. It communicates through dreams, emotions, imagination, sensations, and feelings. Things that the conscious mind wants to keep hidden from awareness are repressed in the unconscious mind. Whatever is in the unconscious mind is only available to the conscious mind in disguised form.
Conscious Mind – This part of your mind that you’re conscious of all day long while you are living your life. It consists of everything inside of our awareness. It’s the part of us that we can talk about in a rational way. Doing a math problem is a great example of using your conscious mind. Or having a conversation is another great example. However, if you are driving a car and having a conversation at the same time, your conscious mind is having the conversation while your subconscious mind is driving the car!
Limiting Beliefs – A false belief that we acquire as a result of making a conclusion about something that is not correct. It’s just a belief. It’s not true or false. It just is. The belief that all thin women are beautiful is not true, it’s just a belief you have that someone installed into your brain through movies, advertisements, friends, colleagues, and these beliefs end up negatively affecting our life. In this case, having that limited belief that only thin women are beautiful is what led me to have an eating disorder. I was unconscious to not even realizing that it was just a belief and it was not true, yet it had a huge impact on my overall health and life. Limiting beliefs are often about ourselves and our identity. We can change our negative beliefs by working with the subconscious mind, which is where our beliefs are stored.
Beliefs – How you perceive your experiences is based on what you believe. Eight people could see the same event take place and be in the same spot at the same time and they would all have a different perception of what happened and they would all have a different reaction to what happened. The reason for this is because they have different beliefs based on their past experiences and what beliefs are lurking in their subconscious mind that they cannot see. Your beliefs create you to act a certain way every day so it’s helpful to start looking at why you do the things you do and why you feel the way you feel around certain people, situations, etc.
Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) – These people absorb other people’s emotions. Amie is an HSP. Most HSP’s can walk into a room and sense the moods of people immediately. It’s like we have extra sensitive antennas on our bodies that pick up on subtle frequencies that other people who are not sensitive cannot feel or pick up on. This can have a tremendous effect on your health, which is what Amie discusses with the Energetic Layer of the body.
Empath – Someone with a strong ability to feel the thoughts, emotions, and energy of others very easily. Amie is a highly sensitive empath, just like many of her clients. Many people, women especially take on the pain and emotions and energy of others and it affects them on a physical layer, manifesting as physical symptoms. This can have a tremendous effect on your health, which is what Amie discusses with the Energetic Layer of the body.
Trauma – A deeply disturbing experience and anything that your nervous system registers as a threat. Trauma gets lodged in the body and can manifest as physical symptoms, which is why trauma is a huge part of Amie’s work, where we address how to rewire the brain through neuroscience and heal ourselves by healing our traumatized minds and body from our past. This is what it means to truly heal yourself. The mind can hurt just as much as the body can so addressing trauma is key for health to take place.
Consciousness – The state or quality of awareness of being aware of something within yourself. Being aware of what’s going on in your mind as your brain brings the information to you and being aware of the experiences you’re having as a result. If you are not aware of this, your choices will be driven by the oldest areas of your brain which is to fight/flight/eat/reproduce! When people start to become conscious they start to see how they’ve been in a trance-like state for the majority of their life running on programs that were installed into them by teachers, parents, movies, TV, etc. For example, when you become conscious, you can see all the ways you numbed yourself out with food or alcohol or drugs and at the time you didn’t even realize what you were doing but now that you’re conscious of it, you can see and probably can’t believe what a trance-like state you were in for decades without realizing it and unconsciously reacting to everything around you or being triggered by other people when it has nothing to do with them but everything to do with why what they’re doing bothers you.
Unconscious Behavior + Actions – When you’re unconscious to your behavior and your actions, you have no filter and you could just do things such as yell, scream, fight, etc without pausing to become conscious of what’s going on in your mind before you lash out. This is an unconscious behavior. Other unconscious behaviors as noted above are people who have addictions and they can’t see what’s going on but everyone around them can see that they’re addicted to certain things. This could be an addiction to TV, junk food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc…the list goes on and on. The issue is that there’s something unconscious going on that the person is not aware of and so instead they resort to numbing behaviors to keep themselves from actually feeling anything.
Victim Mentality – When someone recognizes themselves as the victim of the negative actions of others in a situation and by doing so, it causes self-harm unto themselves and others around them. We all know someone who plays the victim “poor me” etc.
Disassociation – When someone disconnects from their body, their thoughts, and their feelings. It’s a loss of identity of sorts and Amie went through this after traumatizing experiences that shut her down emotionally, physically and energetically. At the time when she was disassociated from herself, Amie clearly could not see this because she was in her own way and in a trauma trance just trying to survive while her body and her brain were stuck in fight/flight/freeze mode. All of Amie’s clients have experienced disassociation of some sort from their body because when you go through a chronic health issue and you’re in so much pain and so confused about what doctors to believe and what to do, you cannot cope and so you disassociate from your body and resort to not feeling and numbing yourself out.
Charged Triggers – These trigger past trauma. The only reason someone reacts to you and the only reason you react to someone else or something else instead of responding is because this situation triggered a past emotional wound for you that you haven’t dealt with and so you’re triggered and you react, which may look like yelling or losing your temper or fighting etc.
Limitations + Barriers – These are the blocks you have in your life that are put there by you unconsciously and they keep you “safe”, stuck and in your own way. Read our series Why Staying Safe Makes You Feel Stuck & How to Move Forward.
Comfort Zone – This is an imaginary zone that we create inside our heads and we believe (and have a limiting belief) that we cannot go out of this zone because we fear what’s outside of it. This zone is nothing but an illusion inside of our heads based on our limiting beliefs, traumas, fears and more.
Fear – Fear is nothing but an illusion, as well, which we discussed in Why Staying Safe Makes You Feel Stuck and How to Move Forward. Fear is an unpleasant emotion that is created by a belief that something is scary or a threat or dangerous. Fear keeps us stuck and in our own way whether it’s being fearful about dating after a chronic illness, fearful of flying an airplane, fearful of getting a promotion, etc.
Self-Destruction – Behavior that is harmful to the person who engages in the behavior.
Self-Loathing (Self-hatred) – The underlying feeling that we are not good at this or that, not good enough such as when we compare ourselves to others and find fault with ourselves or the harsh inner critic that we listen to in our voice.
Self-Doubt – Lack of confidence in yourself and what you can do.
Negative Spiral – When one isolated incident triggers a spiral of negative thoughts. It is often a symptom of anxiety and/or depression but happens to many of us every so often.
Reticular Activating System – Filters out unnecessary information so the important information gets through. It takes what you focus on and creates a filter for it, which means you see only what you want to see in situations because it seeks information that validates your beliefs!
Anxiety – Excessive worry, fear, apprehension, and nervousness.
React vs. Respond – Reacting happens when your conscious mind doesn’t have the awareness to be conscious of the situation so you react unconsciously. When you respond, on the other hand, you pause and allow your conscious mind to take a step back and look at the big picture and instead of reacting, you gently respond in a more conscious manner.
Emotions – A state of mind that manifests from your mood, situations in your life and your beliefs.
Feelings – Read How to Feel Your Feelings.
Intuition– Read How to Trust Yourself and also Intuition.
Worthiness – Believing that you are enough and that you deserve respect. There are no conditions attached to worthiness– it is unconditional.
Self-Compassion – Being compassionate and warm to yourself when you’re experiencing discomfort, pain and unpleasant situations instead of beating yourself up with self-criticism.
Self-Reflection – Taking quiet alone time to become conscious of/reflect on your motives and actions.
Nourishment – Nourishment can also happen on the emotional level and doesn’t just refer to physical nourishment through food. We can nourish ourselves emotionally by taking alone time for ourselves, saying “No” to others when we don’t want to do something, trusting our intuition and getting into alignment with ourselves so that no one can knock us out of balance.

ENERGETIC LAYER // the transformation

Paradigm Shift (the shift) – A change in your assumptions and/or beliefs/and or approach in the way you see things. This often happens when something you’ve been doing for years no longer works and you see there is another way that you didn’t know about. Hence, you don’t know what you don’t know. This happens a lot when people go beyond Western medicine into energy work and alternative medicine.
Energetic Boundaries – Listen to our feature on Boundaries. Having clear boundaries is essential for your health and well-being.
Flow State – This is a state of mind you can get into when you’re doing what you love and time seems to fly by. It could be when you’re cooking, meditating, playing with your children, engaging in work you love- you simply are in your flow without resistance.
Pleasure – After experiencing the trauma of any kind (medical, verbal, physical, etc) many people including Amie could not enjoy pleasure because it was too scary to actually feel pleasure when you’ve been in such traumatic experiences previously. On top of that Amie had a limiting belief that she did not deserve pleasure and that she had to work hard and believed “no pain, no gain” which did not allow any pleasure into her life and led to her feeling depleted, deprived and shut down on the physical, emotional and energetic layers.
Receiving + Allowing – The act of receiving and allowing plays a role in our health because many of us do not know how to receive and this can be tied into worthiness (above). To heal the body, we must be able to receive love, care, abundance, etc. from yourself and others.
Letting Go – allowing what no longer serves you to be left behind to free yourself. Listen to our feature about Letting Go.
Synchronicity – Events that happen in your life that are quite hard to believe because it feels like ‘magic’. The events seem to be related but they have no causal relationship. This happens often when you’re in the flow state (above) during the healing process.
Resistance – The heavy momentum you feel in your body (usually in your chest area or your head) when you have a belief that is not in alignment with what you’re thinking or doing.
Alignment – Living in the present moment and living your truth (not doing things that you don’t want to be doing, saying, etc.) is a great way to start to align your energy with your lifestream. When people get themselves into alignment, they often experience synchronicity (above) very often in their lives and they feel that their lives are in a constant flow state (above).
Conditioning – The associations we made (and continue to make) based on our surroundings. We all have conditioning from our parents and teachers and coaches and friends and movies and commercials, etc. that have positively and negatively impacted our lives through beliefs we created and we’ve taken these beliefs on unconsciously as children (as well as throughout our adult life).
Inner Power – Realizing the power is inside of you and all the answers you need are inside of you. We’re taught that all the answers are outside of us but they’re not. The ‘noise’ outside of us in the form of social media, TV, etc. is made to distract us from ourselves and when we realize that and get quiet with ourselves, we can access this inner power to transform our health and our entire lives.
Manifestation – Creating and curating the life you desire and deserve by releasing subconscious blocks (glass ceilings), getting into alignment with yourself and healing your past emotional pain.
Clarity – Feeling clear, vastness and openness in your mind like there aren’t a ton of thoughts going through you pulling you around. Clarity comes from being in the flow state (above) and in alignment (above) with yourself and it often leads to incredible breakthroughs in your life.
Energy Work + Energy Medicine – Working with the deeper layers of the body beyond the physical symptoms to address past traumas and blocks of energy in the body and the mind that are keeping you stuck and going in circles.
Transformation – Shifting who we are to enter a state of wholeness. This is where the real healing takes place!

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The post The Healing Glossary appeared first on Amie Valpone.

Elevate Your Plate // The Best Foods for Liver Detox

Amie — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 13:00:00 +0000

In our new column, Elevate Your Plate, we’re bringing you Amie’s favorite ways to literally elevate-your-plate with anti-inflammatory foods + detoxifying ingredients for your liver so you can feel good about what you’re putting in your body. Let’s start with the best foods for liver detox.

TheHealthyApple.com participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.

A few times a week I get asked the question, “Amie, what are the best foods for liver detox?” Because this is such a popular question, we decided to create a feature for you to read and reference back to when needed to keep your liver in tip-top shape. We’re also addressing foods that are bad for the liver and talking about how to improve liver health.

Why Focus on the Liver?

Good question.

The liver, in case you didn’t know, is in charge of filtering out ALL of the toxins you come into contact with ALL DAY LONG! The key hours for liver detoxification are between 1-3AM as seen on the chart in our feature 4 Small Changes to Transform Your Sleep, which means your sleep is super important. Your organs all detox when you are sleeping, which is why I went into great detail about the circadian rhythm in that article so you can understand the link between your sleeping hours and your health. This is why it’s so important to support your body by eating the best foods for liver detox.

Liver Toxicity Symptoms

Your liver is what gets backed up with toxins, hormones, chemicals, anger, etc. + causes PMS, headaches, bad breath, edema, bruising, hyperpigmentation on your skin, brain fog and many other serious conditions. From my experience of going through 12 years of chronic health issues including elevated liver enzymes in the 400’s for over 6 years + having misdiagnosed fatty liver disease for 11 of those years, I know a thing or two about the liver.

The Best Foods for Liver Detox

Today I’m sharing a few of the foods you can include and exclude when you’re focused on healing your liver. In my opinion, the liver is the first thing that should be addressed before gut health when a patient is unwell because in order to heal, you must remove the toxins. Trying to fix gut health first will backfire if your liver detox pathways are not working properly and toxins will recirculate throughout your body. All of this and more are covered and addressed in my 30-Day Reset.

DIM

The best liver support comes from the sulforaphane, which is easily found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and arugula. Diindolylmethane (also known as DIM) is the compound in cruciferous vegetables that many Functional + Integrative MD’s give their clients as a preventive measure.

DIM pulls excess estrogens out of your cells and sends them to the blood for elimination. If you’ve taken DIM you may feel awful because all those toxins are circulating throughout your body, which is exactly what happens with any detox. When you start to remove chemicals, heavy metals, mold toxins and more out of their hiding place in your body, you may feel awful (people often do), which is why it is so important to support your body’s detox and elimination systems while you’re taking DIM or doing other detoxes. The foods and supplements listed below are helpful for removing toxins from the liver. If you do need extra support while detoxing because you experience die-off symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and nausea, you can use the suggestions in the Extra Liver Detox Support section below.

The Best Foods for Liver Detox

Cauliflower //

Cauliflower is a cruciferous veggie, just like the veggies listed below, which is ideal for supporting your liver. Cauliflower can be made steamed and sautéed on the stove top or roasted and baked in the oven. It’s incredibly versatile and is ideal when pureed after cooking and used to replace cream in soup.

RECIPE TO TRY: Creamy Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Broccoli //

Broccoli is another cruciferous veggie and tastes best when it’s roasted with olive oil, sea salt and pepper in the oven at 450 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until tender and crispy.

RECIPE TO TRY: Rainbow Swiss Chard Salad with Hemp Seeds

Cabbage //

Red cabbage, which looks purple to me, is ideal served raw to add a crunch to salads, tacos and fajitas. If you have a thyroid condition such as hypothyroidism, I suggest you do not eat more than 1 cup of raw cabbage per week.

RECIPE TO TRY: Stuffed Quinoa Sweet Potatoes with Hummus Sauce

Arugula //

Arugula is one of my favorite cruciferous veggies because, for those of you who have SIBO or Candida, many of you cannot handle gassy veggies like the ones above, which is what makes arugula a star. It has all the qualities of a cruciferous veggie, which supports liver detoxification, but isn’t gassy and doesn’t cause bloating. Serve arugula in your favorite salad recipe or tacos to add a touch of peppery taste.

RECIPE TO TRY: Gorgeous Apple + Arugula Salad

Burdock //

I discovered the wonders of burdock a few years ago and I love using it in juices and recipes. It has a bit of a nutty flavor, which is delicious when roasted in the winter. Burdock aids in the removal of waste products and can be found in health foods stores. It looks like twigs so don’t be alarmed when you see a twig named burdock next to your lettuce in the produce aisle. I suggest peeling the burdock.

RECIPE TO TRY: Slice the burdock root into 1/4 inch pieces widthwise and lay them flat on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil and some sea salt and bake for 15 minutes, then flip the pieces and bake for another 10-12 minutes. If you can’t find fresh burdock in your produce aisle, you can try this organic Burdock Tea that I use a few times a week at night before bed.

Dandelion Root Greens //

Dandelion root greens are delicious to add to stir-fries and salads. I finely chop a large head of these greens and add them to a large skillet with extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt, and pepper and saute it for 10 minutes on medium-low heat on the stove top. You can also eat these greens raw in salads when the temperatures are warmer in the summer and late spring. Note: these greens are a little bit bitter so if you prefer you can serve them with kale or spinach to lessen the bitter taste.

RECIPE TO TRY: If you cannot find fresh dandelion root greens, you can purchase roasted dandelion root tea for liver detoxification, which I use daily. This is also a wonderful option for a coffee alternative when you are cutting out coffee during your detoxification process in my book, Eating Clean.

Lemon //

Lemon is not a cruciferous veggie but it is helpful for supporting the liver and kidneys. Try adding 1/2 lemon to your glass of room temperature or warm water and sip it throughout the day. Or add a squeeze of fresh lemon to your favorite salad with olive oil, sea salt and pepper for a simple and clean dressing. This is the lemon squeezer I use so that the lemon seeds don’t end up in my food!

RECIPE TO TRY: Lemon Basil Millet Burgers

Extra Liver Detox Support

As I mention every week, food is only a small percentage of what it takes to be truly healthy. I highly suggest you look into Castor Oil Packs + Coffee Enemas to help support the detoxification of toxins from your liver. Infrared Saunas, which heat the body from the inside out to secrete toxins, are another great option.

If you’re looking for more support, our 3 Month Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan is the perfect place to start detoxing your liver.

Liver health supplements that I’ve used are milk thistle + vitamin E + NAC + glutathione + DIM along with all the liver detox pathway supplements I address in my 30-Day Reset.

Fatty Liver Foods to Avoid

When I had fatty liver disease, I learned quickly what foods to avoid. Yes, there are a lot of foods to avoid with liver disease and below are a few to help you get started. I highly suggest tossing these from your pantry and fridge and replacing them with items on our anti-inflammatory grocery guide.

Some foods that are bad for the liver include fried foods, any food made with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), sugar (including candy + desserts), processed foods, white bread/white flour/white flour products, alcohol and table salt.

For more support, check out our 3 Month Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan, which is only available for a limited time. We

The views expressed in this article intend to share alternative treatments to bring about conversation and are for informational purposes only even if this article features advice from MDs and medical practitioners. This featured article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, treatment or diagnosis and should never be used for specific medical advice.

The post Elevate Your Plate // The Best Foods for Liver Detox appeared first on Amie Valpone.