Getting Fit

One of my goals is not only to eat healthier and follow my Genotype food lists but also to follow my Genotype exercise plan. That plan includes building muscle and cardiovascular strength in my body. I have been using the Pilates Boot Camp with Mari Winsor and it has been a tremendous endurance strengthener for me. It's only 20 minutes and it works great! The other routine I do 2 - 3 times per week is Gunnar Peterson's Core Secrets Boot Camp Workout DVD. I friend gave me this one and I cannot find the exact link to it but here is his website: http://www.gunnarpeterson.com/

Overall, I am feeling stronger since I started in March the above routines. Since the heat has hit this summer I'm not as regular as I should be.

If you are in the Toronto area and looking for a Naturopath to help put you on the right track in regard to your diet and exercise plan click here.

Learning about Genetics

Before I get into the topic I've been interested in, I would like to share this site where you can buy a cheek swab kit. This swab will be tested for your genetic markers and the migration of your ancestors. It's so cool. I haven't purchase it yet but would love to in the future.

On another note, I've been reading the book by Dr. Peter D'Adamo, The Genotype Diet. I purchased the computer program that is even more personalized called SWAMI. If you live in Canada these two products are available at aboessentials.com. This whole way of eating is based on your own personal blood type, secretor status, fingerprints, jaw shape, teeth shape, leg lengths, torso measurements, ancestory medical history and personal medical history. The progam basis the selection of foods based on all the data input. There is also a customized recipe program. I'm just learning to use the results in my daily food preparations and it opens up foods I never thought of eating. I've added bok choy and leeks to my diet. I never would have thought of eating these before. It's a diet based on changing your genetic destiny for the better. It also recommends the best exercises for you as well. Take a look and maybe give it a try. I highly recommend it. Many people have been helped and there is a forum for support.

Learning about Water

I just recently read an interview regarding the healing power of water. I never realized that this could be part of some of my breathing problems and how histamine is directly related to water.

Here is the website:



Now to get my boys to drink water throughout the day so their urine is clear :)

Real Age Website

I really love this website. It has a great tool to use as well when preparing the shopping list:

Click here for Nutrients

McDonalds Chicken McNuggets

A friend just emailed me this and I thought I would post it here:

McDonalds chicken nuggets are a favourite with children in many families. Parents buy the 'chicken nuggets' believing they are indeed made from just chicken. McDonalds even provides flyers titled "A Full Serving of Nutrition Facts: Choose the Best Meal for You." However as you can see from the ingredient list below, there is a lot more than just chicken.

Chicken, water, salt, modified cornstarch, sodium phosphates, chicken broth powder (chicken broth, salt, and natural flavoring (chicken source)), seasoning (vegetable oil, extracts of rosemary, mono, di- and triglycerides, lecithin). Battered and breaded with water, enriched bleached wheat flour (niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dried whey, corn starch. Batter set in vegetable shortening. Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). TBHQ and citric acid added to help preserve freshness. Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming
agent.

There are 38 ingredients in a McNugget; many of them made from corn. Further down the list there are the mono, diandtriglycerides, and the emulsifiers that keep the fats and the water from separating. More corn flour is used to make the batter, and the hydrogenated oil in which the nuggets are fried can come from soybeans, canola or cottonseed, depending on the market price.

It gets worse: a number of the ingredients come from petroleum products, to keep the items from spoiling or 'looking strange' after months in the freezer or on the road. If you are truly worried, look up these ingredients: sodium aluminum phosphate; mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are used to keep the animal and vegetable fats from turning rancid. Then there are "anti foaming" agents like dimethylpolysiloxene. According to the Handbook of Food Additives, this material is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigenic, and reproductive effector. It is also flammable.

The most alarming ingredient in Chicken McNuggets is "tertiary butyl hydroquinone," or TBHQ, derived from petroleum. This is sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." Again, according to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food. It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams can be fatal.

Do you really want to give your kids Chicken McNuggets?

Source: the Gerson Healing Newsletter - www.gerson.org

"If you change nothing, nothing changes"

The Health Food Store

Well, that's it. I really do have to watch what I buy from the health food store. So far I have returned three products on three different occasions while trying to find something that will help me feel better. Instead I end up feeling worse than before I went in there.

What have I learned besides the fact that I am allergic to most things that are powdered and concentrated? I have learned to stop trying anything that is not already working for me now. I found out yesterday that I am allergic to Maca powder. Now I bought that thinking it would help me with energy and managing stress since it's a type of ginseng. It is also related to the yam family. How bad could that be? It looks like a beet when its harvested and is freeze dried to make a raw powder form. It is grown in the Andes mountains and survives frigid temperatures in Peru. Most people swear by it, but it's way to strong for me, so I returned it.

One other time I tried Magnesium Citrate and even a whey protein powder. I had to return each of these due to major intolerance.

I really do like to go to the Health Food store and buy organic food but I really need to stay away from the other isles or not go in the store at all.

Health Canada wants all health products to be licenced for sale in Canada with an NPN number to insure testing for quality, efficacy and purity. Is what they say on the bottle really in the bottle? The health food stores are furious about this legislation, however I believe it's for our protection. I have been burned too many times because of the lack of regulation of these products.

I have nothing against health food stores but shopping wisely and cautiously is a must when going into these places.