What's For Breakfast?

by Donielle Wilson, ND, of TheHolisticOption.com

Breakfast is the key to starting your day feeling both healthy and energetic. Whether you are focused on balancing your blood sugar, lowering cholesterol, losing weight, avoiding gluten and dairy, fighting off yeast or improving your mood and focus, the breakfast recommendations are basically the same! This may come as a surprise, but these three simple concepts really do control all of the above:

1. Make sure to include protein.
2. Minimize carbohydrates.
3. Include healthy fat and fiber if possible.

Ok, with those three points in mind, let's build a breakfast for you. I would like to encourage you to think outside the breakfast box! Forget about cereals, pancakes, waffles and the like. They are simply too high in carbohydrates, have a high glycemic index and, furthermore, tend to contain gluten (an all too common grain that many people can't eat).

Set aside American breakfast concepts, and those advertised on TV and start thinking of breakfast in a whole new way. How about wild salmon for breakfast? (that is one of my favorites) Or left over chicken and roasted vegetables.

Here are my favorite breakfast choices:

1. Protein shake (Metagenics Sustain or Thorne Mediclear Plus) with flax seed oil, ground flax seeds and ProBerry
2. Turkey Bacon (hormone and antibiotic free)
3. Frozen turkey sausage (hormone and antibiotic free)
4. Wild Salmon, sauteed with onions
5. Turkey Bologna (hormone and antibiotic free)
6. Whole, Organic egg (if you are not intolerant to eggs) poached or sauteed with arugula and goat cheese

How much you ask? My recommendation is to eat half. Eat half as much as you think you need or half as much as you usually have. What is the worst possibility? You might feel hungry in an hour or two? Great, then eat a second breakfast.

It is better to spread out the calories and eat every 3 to 4 hours throughout the day, so for those of you like me, who love breakfast, I don't think it will take much convincing to switch to breakfast twice! That is right, eat half, and eat the other half (or something else) in a couple hours.

To drink? Stay away from juices. They are basically sugar, adding to your carbohydrate load and making a tasty breakfast for yeast, encouraging them to stay instead of go away. A much healthier option is green tea. It helps regulate blood sugar and metabolism, and prevents cancer at the same time.

Otherwise water, filtered of course, is a great place to start your day, especially if you consume caffeine, which is a diuretic. Minimize the caffeine, but at the same time I think you will find that the longer you stick to these breakfast items, you won't be needing that caffeine to boost your energy so much anymore.

By following these recommendations, you will likely notice a difference in how you feel even the very first day you try it. From then on, I bet you won't look back!

Dr. Donielle Wilson's website is www.doctordoni.com.

The Power of Words and Thoughts

by Acharya Sri Khadi Madama, RYT, of TheHolisticOption.com

Many years ago I was asked to teach a Yoga class at a local school. It was my habit in those days, on the first night of class, to ask students to write an anonymous note as to why they were in the class and what they hoped to achieve during our 10 weeks. It was also my habit to tell them that at no time during the 10 weeks were they to use phrases like "I'm getting old", I'm sick and tired" or "I'm dying to __________" (whatever their statement was). I told them that in Yoga, we cannot use these phrases if we want to train the mind and the body to be well. When the students returned the next week, they handed me their folded anonymous notes which I read when I returned home that evening. One was a long letter from a lady telling me that she had inoperable brain cancer and had been given 6 months to live. She had taken up my class because she felt it would help her to relax and be soothing to her, but when she heard my words on that first evening to get the word "dying" out of her mind and experience, she told me that she decided that she would follow what I said by changing everything she said to "I'm living to go to the movies", "I'm living to see my sister next week", etc. I did not know who this student was and I taught maybe one or two more semesters, having some of the students return subsequently, before ending my time at the school. I had taken a particular liking to a small handful of the students and had wondered to where some of them had gone. It was not much time after then, that I was asked to host my TV show, Yours Truly, Yoga, and once again agreed to teach publicly due to viewers writing in to ask where they could take classes with me. During that time, I had also been asked to be a special guest, appearing for Clinique at an event at our local Mall. Even The Amazing Kreskin was there and he WAS pretty amazing and also very friendly. One of the former regular students from the local school came into my mind and I wondered where she had been during these last years. A moment later, I turned around and was amazed to find her at the counter opposite me. We both were surprised and she came up to hug me. When she did, she whispered in my ear "I'm the one who had the brain cancer and it's 8 years later, here I am, it's in remission. I believed so strongly in what you said and I lived it every day. Thank you." I saw her again a couple of years after that at a craft store, still happy, still well. I tell her story in every workshop and at every speaking engagement because it's true and people need to hear it. She believed so deeply that if she changed her mind to focusing only on living, in thought, word and action, that she would live, and she did.

Yoga teaches us to keep our minds clear and focused. On a deeper level it teaches us that if we learn the true art of concentration, Dharana, we can then truly fund the energy needed to bring about great change in our lives for the better, by funneling our energy in beneficial directions. What we allow ourselves to hear, think, say and see has such a deep impact on our wellness that it behooves us to live as the Yogi's did, in those ancient, more simpler times by keeping our thoughts and words sweet and pure and to focus on being well first within our spiritual core, which radiates pure healing energy to our minds and bodies. Strive today to be protective about what you allow yourself to see in the media; keep the company of positive people; don't focus on minor discomforts by speaking of health and well-being. Watch happy movies, read uplifting books....and most of all, fill your life with Divine Love.

Khadi's website is www.yourstrulyyogatv.vpweb.com.

Importance of Raw Food For Dogs

by Kim Bloomer, VND and Jeannie Thomason, VND, of TheHolisticOption.com

Question from TheHolisticOption.com community member: I have an 11 year old, male, English Short-Haired Pointer mix who suddenly presented with the following symptoms a few days ago: Won't eat usual amount or anything at certain meals, drinking a lot more water than usual and urinating more because of it; tremors, shaking, trembling; muscle fatigue/weakness; has had loose stool; generally unmotivated, lethargic, which is not typical of his personality. My conventional vet has diagnosed this as Addison's Disease. What do you suggest may be the cause... and what can be done about it, naturally? - S.C.

Dr. Jeannie and I are both in agreement on this... This dog needs to be switched to a raw diet. Processed food is a major part of the problem. Her veterinarian will not agree due to the training they receive in pet nutrition , which amounts to training by the pet food industry. Bottom line, dogs are opportunistic scavenger carnivores. We've both seen these types of illnesses resolved just by switching the diet to a natural diet which is a raw diet such as they'd eat in the wild. Again, her veterinarian will disagree, so the choice will ultimately be hers.

This dog's owner can learn much by visiting these sites. Editor's Note: Some of the images seen on the websites below may be disturbing to some viewers.

www.rawmeatybones.com
www.rawfeddogs.net
www.rawlearning.com
www.rawfed.com

Another factor is vaccination. Stopping the annual vaccines is key since this will only contribute to the decline in the dog's health. If the has dog been vaccinated recently, it could be an adverse effect thereof.

"Homeopathic veterinarians and other holistic practitioners have maintained for some time that vaccinations do more harm than they provide benefits. Vaccinations represent a major assault on the body's immune system.... Vaccine induced chronic diseases range from life-threatening conditions such as auto-immune crises to conditions destroying the quality of life of an animal as in chronic skin allergies." - Charles E. Loops, DVM

We wholeheartedly concur! And we hope this dog gets a chance to become all that he can be with proper nutritional support through a species appropriate raw diet and eliminating the toxins of processed food and any other toxins such as vaccines, pesticide pest control and whatever else that allopathic medicine overloads our pets' immune systems with. The naturopathic approach that include fresh air, sunshine, pure water and a species appropriate RAW diet can help animals AND humans alike heal. If we honor the eight laws of health, then we and our animals can and will be well.

Dr. Kim Bloomer's website is www.aspenbloompetcare.com. And Dr. Jeannie Thomason's website is www.thewholedog.org.