I hope that your summer was rich in adventures, experiences and fun, rest, healthy foods and great friends and family to share it all with. Summer is such a wonderful time to relax and enjoy family life in a different way: no holidays to fret over, just sun, backyard barbecues, pick-up games of flag football or competing for the silliest pool jump! Bishop Desmond Tutu said it best about families: ” You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”
As much as we love the relaxed summer mode, our body and mind crave routine and fall is synonymous with back to school, early morning wake-up times and getting back into a rhythm.

In Ayurveda, the 24 hour clock is evenly divided in 6 periods, to represent the Vata, Pitta and Kapha times. It is called the Dosha cycle and understanding it is helpful so you can tailor activity and rest to maximize benefits. For example, it is beneficial to get up and start your day while in Vata time, before 6 am. Working out is most beneficial in Kapha time, between 6 and 10 am while eating a larger meal and expecting great digestion is best accomplished at lunch, the peak of Pitta time.

Fall is also a great time to do a reset on nutrition. Did you know that studies show that the average adult gains between 5 and 15 pounds between October 15th and December 31st?
If this gives you pause for thought, good… it should! Now is the time to learn how to “Eat for Life”! No need to make New Year resolutions to lose weight, only to fail, yet again, by March 1st! Eating well is a daily action, not a quick let-me-starve-myself-fix. Contact me at christine@satyawellness.com or 978 430 6122 for a free consultation, I’d be happy to help.

Cleansing is also a great tool to have in your nutrition toolbox. If cleanses evoke starvation, detoxing and endless evening meetings and you would rather run away, I have some gentle and easy solutions for you!
The first is a 7 day cleanse, done on your own without disturbing your daily routine. Is is easy to accomplish and the Ayurvedic herbs help get rid of toxins in a gentle yet very effective manner. The result? Better energy, radiant complexion, weight loss and less cravings. Deepak Chopra says it better than me, so watch  him in this 2 minute video.

If you feel a little more adventurous and would like to try your hand at an elimination cleanse, I have a home study program just for you. The 4 Weeks to a New You program is easy to follow. It contains 4 CDs and a workbook that can be used over and over again, each fall and spring. It can be condensed into 2 weeks if you choose to.
Both methods will deliver great results and I have been using them for myself and my family for years as well as many satisfied clients. Contact me at christine@satyawellness.com with questions or to order.
So this year, I hope you will fall into wellness, easily and effortlessly.
Remember, when you are looking at that cider donut, say this mantra under your breath: “Nothing tastes as good as good health feels”…
Wishing you crisp mornings and sunny days. Happy Fall!
Be well,
Christine

If you find yourself wishing you had eaten one less chocolate egg this Easter season, I am sure you are not alone!

The last few weeks have been a sugar fest for adults and children alike, and the most obvious results are a lack of concentration, poor sleep, sluggish digestion and a weakened immune system.

It is time to go on a spring cleaning mission and eliminate the sweet left-overs! One of the tastiest ways to do that is to embrace a few days of juicing. It is simple to do, it tastes fantastic and your cells are already smiling just thinking about all this goodness coming in!

You need very few things: a good quality juicer is a must, veggies and fruits – preferably organic – and a few add-ons like an avocado or nuts which will not go through the juicer.

For the rest, let your imagination take flight…I love to make my juices mainly vegetables, with a little fruit added in for sweetness. Lunch today was celery, carrots, zucchini, parsley, ginger, cucumber, an apple, a pear and one peeled lemon. Adding beets is fun, colorful and very tasty.

For a little twist, pour the juice in a Vitamix or similar mixer, add an avocado and a few nuts. It will become a creamy concoction that replaces lunch without leaving you feeling like you missed anything.

Do this consistently for a week, instead of lunch. You will feel energized, lighter in body and mind, and your cells will do a happy dance!

Spring always reminds me of a brand new box of colored pencils: vibrant yellow daffodils, soft pink petals and blue primrose.

But most amazing are all the shades of green that come up in the spring. I don’t know about you, but my lawn has turned greener by the day this past week…

There is nothing that heralds spring better than the first blades of new grass, that shout-out from mother nature that it is awake and ready to grow.

From a health perspective, there is a reason for eating spring’s glorious greens. In older times, before trucks and planes that transport our food from thousands of miles away, winter was a time for root vegetables, stored grains and meats. There was very little green food to be found, we ate local foods by necessity, not choice. Spring, and its first green growth, was a welcome change in a fairly bland winter diet.

The body, after having gone through the Vata season of late fall and winter, changes to the Kapha season of spring. Kapha is represented by cold, wet and humid conditions, melting snow and muddy fields.  Even though this year has been very uncharacteristic for a New England winter, Kapha season is here for the next couple of months and it may be the reason why getting up feels harder lately, why energy seems to be in short supply and why the couch is more inviting than the gym! If you feel this way, you are probably in good company…If your dominant dosha is Kapha, you are most certainly feeling it even more.

What’s a Kapha to do? Eat greens!

It is time to detox that winter lethargy and greens are bitter and astringent, two of the tastes that help when Kapha is acting out a little.

Today, it is not very difficult to find vegetables and fruit all year round. We certainly do not have to wait for months for the first green weeds and leaves to sprout. But our bodies still crave this bitter-tasting, energy-giving offering: dandelion greens, sorrel, lamb’s lettuce, fiddle heads, arugula or spinach. The health benefits of eating leafy greens are numerous. They are loaded with vitamins A and C, as well as several of the B vitamins. Just one cup of these greens provides 70 percent of the daily recommended intake for vitamin A and 20 percent for vitamin C. Greens are also a rich source of iron and calcium and numerous trace minerals. Dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale also are good sources of vitamins K and E. Eating organic greens ensures that you get a healthy load of phytonutrients that offer anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

If you are lucky enough to live a little off the beaten path, you can gather your own wild greens; fiddle heads and dandelions are plentiful if you know what to look for. If you feel unsure about the harvest, a great book is “Edible wild plants” by John Kallas.

Dandelion salad is still one of my favorites! When you pick them really small, they are still reddish in the center and tender. My mother used to serve it with a homemade oil and vinegar dressing, tiny pieces of crispy bacon and egg slices. With a piece of homemade bread, it was a dinner fit for health!

Picture courtesy of Patrick McDonnell “Guardians of Being”

Happy 2012!

The start of a new year is always filled with great promise; it is the time we chose to start fresh, to wipe the slate clean and start a whole new drawing! Like the Etch-A-Sketch of our childhood, we have a clean canvas.We make promises to ourselves: “This year, I will keep my resolutions. I will ….(fill in the blank)…every day and be happy forever!”

If age has taught me anything at all, it is that any change requires more than a New Year’s Eve promise to become an ingrained habit.

Change requires commitment, of course, but mostly, change requires taking responsibility and action. It takes follow-up and daily check-ins to stay on the right road; it takes a renewed commitment at every turn, when faced with the possibility of an easier path or a less-than-healthy choice. Change takes time and today’s success builds on yesterday’s success, however small, and together they eventually amount to a real shift.

Most New Year resolutions revolve around weight, or more precisely weight loss. It is a national obsession and, starting on January 1st every year, everyone is on a diet! By February 2nd, most resolutions have faded and are conveniently forgotten… We know that diets do not work. A study published in the Journal of the American Psychology Association states:

“Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.” 

There is something fundamentally flawed with the dieting process, teaching the body that feeling deprived is a normal state, thereby encouraging the storing of fat for the next “famine”.

Learning WHAT to eat and WHY is more important than going on any diet. Food is the fuel of life…would you fill your car with the wrong fuel? It is time to make changes that are sustainable on the long term, bring results and optimize the way your body works. When given the proper nutrition, the body normalizes and weight stabilizes naturally.

A great way to start is to go on a gentle, cleansing and detoxing period of a few weeks to give your body and your digestive system a real vacation!

   Cleansing is an ancient ritual, a tradition thousands of years old that spans all cultures. In our modern life, we are exposed to many environmental      toxins every day: pollution, chemicals, pesticides and dyes in our food, our water and the air we breathe. Cleansing will help rid the body of these unwanted elements in a safe and gentle manner and restore good digestion. In Ayurveda, all health is traced back to the digestive system. If the digestion does not work optimally, disease appears. A food-based cleanse is a great way to reset the digestion while eating beautiful, live foods and   not feel deprived. During a cleanse, you celebrate food and eat…this is not a fast!

Do you feel sluggish, have difficulty concentrating, suffer from unexplained headaches, carry too much weight and have a general feeling of being unwell? Then this program is for you!

In the program “4 Weeks to a New You”, you will be taken through 4 weeks of clean eating, progressively eliminating common allergenic foods to allow your digestive system to rest for a little while. The easy-to-follow program contains 4 CD’s, one for each week, explaining in detail the procedure to follow, giving tips and practical advice as well as recipes to make the journey easier to complete and more enjoyable.

You can track your progress as the weeks go on, charting your exercise routine and maintaining a weekly journal to keep you motivated. The course also contains a weekly health tip that will help you feel your best, during the process and beyond.

What can you expect after 4 weeks?

Some of the most common results are:  (and the list is not exhaustive)

♥    Increased energy
♥    Weight loss
♥    Less aches and pains
♥    Better sleep
♥    Glowing skin
♥    Improved mental focus and less foggy feeling
♥    Less allergies
♥    No more headaches
♥    Better digestion
♥    General awareness around food and its benefits on the body

Increased energy, weight loss, less aches and pains, better sleep, glowing skin, better focus and less foggy feeling, less allergies, no more headaches, better digestion, general awareness around food and its benefits on the body.

Some have noticed after a few weeks that they felt much better when eating less or no gluten or eliminating most added sugar. Every body is different and results vary from individual to individual.

So go ahead, take action today to make changes in your wellness routine…

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Martin Luther King Jr.

The program is available to PURCHASE HERE  or by contacting christine@satyawellness.com or calling 978 430 6122

You can also contact me for personalized nutrition programs and holistic life and wellness coaching.  Remember: It’s your life…be ALIVE in it!