Spring Cleansing: Self-Maintenance Throughout the Year

It is not uncommon for medical test results to show nothing wrong despite the fact that you are not feeling well. No diagnosis and yet you are experiencing headaches, body pains, insomnia, dry skin, rashes, or fatigue. Better than no diagnosis, have you ever heard the not so helpful “it’s just stress…?”

Just as stress builds up in the body over time, so does toxicity. Stress wears down the tissues and impairs the kidneys and liver’s ability to filter and clean our body’s accumulation of daily toxins. This allows the toxins to flow freely through the bloodstream. Our body, which is cleverly trying to heal itself by finding ways to release these toxins, may begin to expel them through the skin. You may then find yourself wondering why “out of the blue” you are experiencing eczema or psoriasis. Without finding alternative ways of escape, toxicity can wear down the tissues of the digestive system, contribute to the creation of an autoimmune disease, or move up to the head manifesting as a migraine or unclear thinking.

Diet plays as a large part in the build-up or breakdown of toxins. Fueled by the correct foods that complement our bio-individuality, combined with the mindfulness of eating, our body is capable of performing a self-healing process.

Are you choosing foods that harm or foods that heal?

Are you eating too much? Overeating contributes to toxicity by preventing the digestive system from properly breaking down the food.

Are you eating too fast? Digestion begins in the mouth through the saliva. When we swallow our food whole, it makes it hard for the body to break it down. This causes the food to ferment in our systems. If you are experiencing gas, it is not necessarily due to the type of food but to the swallowing of air while shoveling it down.

Are you focused on eating when eating? Do you sit down in a calm environment for each meal or are you multi-tasking fighting traffic or sorting through e-mails? Let your body focus on digestion while you eat. A meal is a conversation between your body and the food. Multi-tasking while eating is like having two conversations at once; if two people are talking to you at the same time about two completely different matters, how much of each conversation are you going to process?! And if the larger portion of your energy is focused on the other thing you are doing, your body is not getting the message to activate the digestive system. Shocked to receive food, the body is unprepared to digest.

When are you eating? Just like the sun, the digestive heat is strongest during the earlier half of the day. If we race through our days too busy to eat right, our body will be starving by evening. Eating too much too late, the body ends up focusing on digestion instead of on detoxification. Thus, the following morning we are still carrying yesterday’s toxins in our system. It is time to take a look into what we are doing and how we are doing it.

Recipe for a Spring Diet: A cleansing Meal

As the seasons change, our needs change accordingly. Nutritionally, this is a good time of year to cleanse. Your diet should become lighter, with more foods like greens, sprouts, salads, fruits, nuts and seeds. Incorporate some grains and reduce heavier foods such as dairy and meat. Fried foods, foods containing chemicals, and alcohol should be avoided. Spring is an important time of year to develop a regular exercise program. Creating clarity and developing focus through mental relaxation is important during spring as this is a time of new beginnings. By eliminating excess and congestion, we create room for a brighter now.

Spring Salad:

All ingredients in this salad contain cleansing properties

Dandelion greens
Sprouts (mixes of sprouted beans, lentils, seeds and peas are available at your health food store)
Daikon Radish

Dressing:
Lemon juice (preferably freshly squeezed)
1 clove of garlic (optional)
Drizzle of olive oil (optional) 1 Tsp of Mustard (optional)

This salad can be either warm or cold:

Warm salad:
Sauté daikon radish and garlic in either a tablespoon of olive oil or a little bit of water, then add greens and sprouts for the last 2-3 minutes. Once it is done, season with lemon juice and mustard.

Cold salad:
Slice daikon into rings (as you would a carrot) and cook by either slightly sautéing or baking with olive oil at 375 until tender. Once cooked, mix daikon with raw dandelion, lemon juice and mustard.

Fire Your Metabolism with Breath:

We hear much talk of diet and how exercise burns calories. Yet many people starve themselves on low calorie diets and exercise like maniacs_and the weight refuses to come off. Obviously there must be more to the picture….

A calorie is simply a measure of heat that is released when something is burned.

The amount of energy, or heat, that is released from the foods we eat is the measurement of how many calories those foods contain.

To extract the energy from food, the body breaks it down and sends it to our cells where it combusts with oxygen, releasing the energy.

Our digestive system is like a fire: it needs food for fuel and the right amount of air to maintain its power. Without oxygen we are unable to utilize the energy in the foods we eat. In simple words: Calories need oxygen to burn. With food, quality is vital; with oxygen, quantity is what counts most.

Relaxed breathing during meals strengthens metabolism. If you eat when feeling tense, eat too fast, or are distracted by work, your breathing is shallow and your metabolism weak. The breath is a fundamental ingredient to our meal.

• Work towards a deeper breath that still feels natural and unforced.
• Have meals in an area richer in air when possible, such as in a room with an open window as opposed to one with circulated air, like a sealed office building.
• If dining out, choose a restaurant that has a relaxed atmosphere rather than large and noisy dining area.
• Dine with people who inspire you and keep conversation positive.
• Sitting up straight allows a fuller breath capacity.

Green Foods For Spring

The spring season is a time of renewal. It's a time for spring cleaning, also for the body. Leafy greens are some of the easiest and most beneficial vegetables to incorporate into your daily routine, and provide the materials for a thorough cleansing.

Greens aid in purifying the blood, strengthening the immune system, improving liver, gall bladder and kidney function, fighting depression, clearing congestion, improving circulation and keeping your skin clear and blemish free.

Think of these foods as another way of adding that oxygen into your diet: isn’t that what they produce?!

They are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous and zinc, and are a powerhouse for vitamins A, C, E and K. They are crammed full of fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll, and many other micronutrients and phytochemicals.

Members of this royal green family include kale, collard greens, swiss chard, mustard greens, arugula, dandelion greens, broccoli rabe, watercress, beet greens, bok choy, napa cabbage, green cabbage, spinach and broccoli.

Recipe: Simply Boiled Kale

Step one:

• Boil water in a pot.
• Remove leaves from stems and cut or tear leaves in any size you like. Chop the stems into ½-inch pieces, discarding the bottom as it tends to be tough.
• Add Kale to boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. By the end the leaves should be slightly wilted yet bright green.
• Strain the kale and keep the water

Note: The water you boiled the kale in has taken on a sweet flavor. Sip it as a tea, use it in your next broth or soup, or let it cool and water your plants with it.

Step Two:
Choose one of the following variations:
o Toss with lemon juice and salt
o Toss with a dash of tamari/ soy sauce
o Toss with balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar
o Sautee garlic in olive oil and mix kale in on the last minute.
o Top with nutritional yeast
o Drizzle a few drops of sesame oil
o Sauté onions, mushrooms, red peppers, leeks, corn… whatever sounds or looks appealing to you and mix in the greens for the last minute of the Sautéing
o Add some chopped walnuts to one of the variations above
o Toast pine nuts on a cookie sheet in a 325-degree oven for 5 minutes. Then toss with greens, some raisins, and a squeeze of lemon juice

Published in Martha Stewart!

In the News:

Max sense of self is proud to be featured in what we consider to be one of the top and best health magazines available today; Martha Stewart's Body & Soul Magazine, the April addition. In this Article we recommend a simple yoga posture that calms the mind, relieves stress, aids in adrenal fatigue and in optimal digestion. The article is featured on page 88.

Metabolize Your Life

The definition of metabolism is the sum total of ALL chemical reactions in the body.

With the understanding that our thoughts also create a physiological chemical reaction, we might say that metabolism is not tied purely to the physical body, but plays a part at a mental and emotional level as well.

Food that is not properly metabolized and digested may be stored in our bodies as fat or will cause other toxic reactions. Similarly, if we rush through our life experiences and miss the lesson, we do not properly process and digest each situation. Unresolved experiences and emotions may accumulate as tension in the muscles and other tissues of the body.

Racing through life and rushing through our meals puts our body into a stress-response mode rather than a state of rest-and-digest.

If we continue to approach each of our experiences in a fight or flight response, we are expending more energy then we are creating. Our digestive system and metabolism weaken, our breath shortens, and our muscles chronically tighten.

Accumulating energy and bringing metabolism back to its optimal functioning level will happen by finding ways to slow down: achieving more by doing less.

What you eat is only half of the equation; how you eat is the other half.
Let’s work toward stopping the fight. When we love, we are receptive and open to receiving our food and our experiences. By embracing these things, we correctly metabolize because the body wants to integrate them rather than see them as an enemy that it needs to restrict. Can you start to relax enough to choose healthy pleasure over fighting the pain? Life is not working against us and food is not an evil culprit.

It is my personal belief that one of the biggest keys to a strong metabolic rate is feeling personal empowerment. When we feel self-empowered we receive a sudden huge surge of natural energy. When we feel strong, our body feels strong.

Simple first steps toward introducing mindfulness while eating:

* Eat with chopsticks.
* Eat with your non-dominant hand.
* Chew your food 30 to 50 times per bite.
* Eat without TV, newspaper or computer.
* Eat sitting down.
* Put the proper portions of food on your plate and try to make the meal last at least 20 minutes.

Oils and Fats

Not all oils and fats are created equal. Heavily processed, hydrogenated, “trans” fats and oils that are used in prepared, packaged foods can be extremely damaging to the body. However, fats and oils from whole foods and other high-quality sources can steady our metabolism, keep hormone levels even, nourish our skin, hair and nails and provide lubrication to keep the body functioning fluidly. Our bodies also need fat for insulation and to protect and hold our organs in place.

A healthy percentage of high-quality fat in a meal satisfies and leaves feelings of energy, fulfillment and warmth. When there are excess fats and oils in the diet, especially heavily processed fats, symptoms can include weight gain, skin breakouts, high blood pressure, liver strain and an overall feeling of mental, physical and emotional heaviness. Signs of insufficient high-quality fats are brittle hair and nails, dry skin, hunger after meals and feeling cold.

There are many sources of healthy fats and oils. Oils higher in saturated fat such as high quality butter, ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil hold better at high temperatures. When sautéing and stovetop cooking at moderate temperatures, try organic extra virgin olive oil. Any vegetable oil is best when unrefined. Oils like flaxseed, sesame, walnut and pumpkin seed are best used unheated. Try using less oil with cooking and then add it unheated in sauces or dressings, on top of salads, veggies or grains. Other healthy fats are found in whole nuts and seeds and in their butters like almond butter or tahini. Whole foods such as avocados, olives and coconuts are great sources of healthy fat, along with wild salmon and omega-3 and omega-6 organic eggs. Experiment with these healthy fat sources and see which agree with you and leave you satisfied.

Choose UNREFINED oils.

When selecting oils, buy the highest quality organic products you can afford, since cooking oils are the backbone of so many dishes. Good words to look for on the label are organic, first-pressed, cold-pressed, extra-virgin and unrefined. Words to avoid are expeller-pressed, refined and solvent extracted.
Oil is sensitive to light and heat so those that come in plastic clear bottles are usually oils of a lower quality.

Recipe: Savory Tahini Sauce

Prep time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 cup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
pinch of cayenne (to your taste)

Directions:
1. In a bowl briskly whisk together the tahini and water until combined. It will look separated at first: just keep whisking!
2. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until combined.
3. Adjust flavors to your taste. Add additional water if you want it thinner.
4. Serve over grains and greens.
Note: Tahini sauce keeps refrigerated for up to one week.