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We all know that person, and maybe we are that person whose breath could use more than just a mint. You may have even noticed from wearing a mask lately that you are indeed that person. Masks may be the band aid needed to hide the halitosis, but it is no lasting fix!

Well no fear, Candice is here!

Bad breath is a signal your body is giving you that your digestion is working at a sub optimal level. And no big surprise, this signal works on both ends of the digestive tract. Yes, I am talking about farts! We all know that person that clears a room with the air they emit from their backsides. So be a pal and send them to this blog post!

Step 1:

Start tongue scraping. You may say what is tongue scraping? Tongue scraping is one of many lost artforms and once you start, I guarantee you won’t stop. You will need to purchase a stainless steel or copper tongue scraper, or in a pinch can use the back of a spoon. You scrape the tongue from the very back of the tongue moving forward until the tongue is clear, as the very first thing you do upon waking. This is removing the film that has built up on the tongue overnight during the time the body works on detoxification. Although we want the toxins to be eliminated in our stools, the tongue is also a place the body sends them, especially when digestion is weak. As digestion improves, the film also gets noticeably thinner and more opaque in color. You may think that brushing the tongue will suffice, but you are unfortunately mistaken. Just brushing the tongue pushes bacteria and toxins back down the throat for the body to try to eliminate again. You may also think you can grab that coffee and have a quick swig before scraping, and you would be mistaken again! No food or drink before tongue scraping! The act of tongue scraping also stimulates the vagus nerve and signals the body to emit digestive enzymes to wake up the digestive system. Whoa!! All that from tongue scraping?? YES!

Step 2:

Once the tongue is clear, you may now brush your teeth and then, super important!!!!

Have a large glass of warm water with lemon. This is not only rehydrating you after the long night’s rest and most likely some mouth breathing, but it is also aiding in firing up the detox pathways. We only detox as well as we digest and vice versa so these 2 simple steps are the easiest and fastest way to start waking up and cleaning up the digestive system.

Remember: Digestion starts in the mouth!

For more detailed info on your unique body odors, you can always reach out to me and schedule a visit, and I always offer a 15 minute complimentary consult.

All my best,

Candice

“Hello?! Wake up! It’s me your body!”

Did you know your body is talking to you? Like all the time?

Some of us are very in tune with our bodies and the languages they speak, and then there are those of us who seem to be operating without a user manual, or maybe the one they have is written in a foreign language and is impossible to understand.

No matter where you fall in hearing messages from your body, it is all about what we do with those signs and signals that make the difference in our health. The messages usually start out in a whisper and get louder and louder over time until the whispers turn into screams.

You may be wondering what a whisper from the body could sound like? Well it could be a number of things, and is usually something that we rationalize out of looking into or taking care of at the root.

• Do you experience headaches after eating certain foods?
• Are you constantly tired at certain times of day but just push through with caffeine and then unwind with alcohol?
• Have you had a well formed daily bowel movement resembling a nicely ripened banana?
• Do you find you get a stuffy nose after eating or do your eyes burn from overuse of technology?
• Is there some rash that just keeps reappearing?
• Do you feel this underlying sense of anxiety? Do you have heartburn frequently but just quiet it down with medications?
• Is your blood pressure or sugar too high or too low?

So as you can see there are many, many signs our bodies are sending us before things reach a point that is harder to come back from.

Our bodies also send us certain signals during each season that clue us into what needs to be done to bring balance back to our bodies and minds during the seasonal transitions. Right now you may be experiencing dry nasal passages, or the beginning of fall seasonal allergies or late summer colds. You may have noticed eczema symptoms flaring up, irregular or loose stools, feelings of restlessness and anxiety.

If you are interested in finding out more about what your body is saying to you right now, consider joining me next Tuesday September 10^th as I will be hosting Fall Into Balance: Eating With The Seasons. This is a 3 week workshop and fall cleanse series that will shed some light on the cues our bodies are trying to convey to us. Please reach out if you have any questions.

All my best and much love,

Candice

Oh Summer, how I love thee! The heat, the sweat, the fun, the fresh vine ripened food, the days at the beach and the beautiful warm glowing sunsets.

Summer brings with it many things to be grateful for, yet for some people summer may not be their favorite season. The fire element is very strong and present in summer and we have been experiencing its heat here in the Northeast. For people that have a lot of fire in their constitution, summer can be the time when they experience more imbalances and discomfort as opposed to the cool and cold days of fall and winter. But don’t worry, nature has your back!

We are given gifts at each season, things that are designed to bring our bodies back into alignment and ride the seasonal changes with ease. So it’s time to listen to the cues! By using opposites to balance, we turn to cooling foods and activities during the hot summer days. This is where the super summer food, aloe, comes into play.

Aloe is widely used for sunburns. Its cooling properties are well known to help soothe and heal the skin on the outside of our bodies. But did you know that aloe is also amazing at healing and soothing the skin on the inside of our bodies, too?!! Well, you do now!

Aloe when taken internally, either in the whole food form, juiced, or freeze dried, etc. is really amazing at loving on our intestinal skin. Our intestinal tract is lined with a mucous membrane. When the lining is too dry, constipation, bloating, and gas result. If these conditions do not improve, the body produces excess reactive mucous to make up for the dry conditions. This leads to loose stools or mucous in the stool and creates a cascading effect. Now the microvilli and villi are susceptible to damage. These are the mucosal finger-like projections that line the small intestine and are responsible for the absorption of nutrients.

OY!

It’s ok though, our bodies want to heal under the right conditions. Aloe is not only cooling when there is excess heat which can cause excess dryness to our system, but it is also mucilaginous in nature. By helping to reline the mucosal tract, it helps to bring conditions that aid in repair of the villi and microvilli over time, as well as providing relief to things like acid reflux and sour stomach. There are soooooo many things that nature offers us to help keep our bodies healthy and aloe is just one of them. So keep some aloe handy, not only for your sunburns but for your digestive health as well!

Please reach out if you would like to learn more about your unique health situation, I’d be happy to help. Also check out my newsletter for some aloe recipes.

All my best,

Candice

Are you are confused about all the conflicting information in the world of nutrition? Well, look no further as nature has shown us the way!

We are circadian creatures. We have natural rhythms in our body that mimic the rhythms going on in the world around us. We are the microcosm of the macrocosm. Ayurveda, “The Science of Life” and OG of circadian medicine lists one of the three main causes of disease to be parinama, meaning seasonal variations.

We live in a world where everything is at our fingertips. You find blueberries and tomatoes at the supermarket in January. When being shipped from across the country or from other countries, the nutritional content has been compromised. Waxes and chemicals have also been added to help make the produce look more appealing and retain its integrity.
Although the abundance and variety of food we have at our disposal is comforting, is it truly in our best interest to consume all year round? We all know produce tastes much different when grown locally and in season, but the food we eat has a deeper importance and purpose which is to bring balance to our bodies at certain times of year.

At each change of season, nature provides us with food that will support, nourish, and balance our bodies. Think about it:

• When is an appropriate time to eat heavier grains, fats and dense meat? In the winter when we need some extra insulation and protection from the outside world.
• When should we be lightening up, eating things like bitter roots, berries and greens? In the spring when the abundance of the bitter taste helps our bodies stimulate natural cleansing and fat burning processes.

A teacher of mine, Dr. John Douillard is a champion of seasonal eating and has written the book The 3 Season Diet as well as Eat Wheat and many articles illustrating the importance of taking cues from nature. One of the articles written highlighted research done on the Hazda tribe in Tanzania. The study showed that the microbes in tribe members changed dramatically with each season. In addition to their microbiome making dramatic seasonal shifts, the tribes’ gut bacteria are also significantly more diverse than that of a western-cultured microbiome. You may be thinking so what? Well, there are certain microbes that help us break down foods like wheat, dairy, protein, etc. These microbes are naturally present when these foods are in season. WOW! Mind Blown! So maybe we don’t need to be on a wheat free, dairy free, carb free, fat free (you get the point) diet. Maybe we just need to get back to nature, back to our circadian rhythms and circadian eating.

So what are the main reasons to eat seasonally?

• We are circadian creatures.
• Provides gut with microbes needed to strengthen digestion at this time of year.
• Nature provides the nutrients and the model needed to balance seasonal conditions.
• Produce is fresher, more nutritious.
• No added waxes and chemicals for shipment and storage.
• Supports local farmers and soil.
• Reduces carbon footprint.

If this post peaked your interest in seasonal eating, please feel free to reach out to me for guidance.

All my best,

Candice

Are you feeling a bit sluggish? Stuck in the mud? Well you aren’t alone!

Spring season is affectionately referred to as the mud season, and for good reasons.

This time of year the snow has melted and new life is sprouting everywhere we look. We see the elements of earth and water very distinctly. When earth and water mix, mud forms.

This same thaw is happening in our bodies leaving our mucus membranes in the nasal passageways and intestines a bit bogged down. If we don’t tend to this heaviness inside the body, the accumulation of mucus will overwhelm our system and lead to sinus congestion, allergies, sluggish bowels, lethargy, and weight gain. Oy!!

Not to fear, nature has the answer! Spring is nature’s New Year, the time for spring cleaning for the body and mind. Utilizing what is in season at this time of year to balance out the excess insulation we built over the long winter will serve to aid in our body’s natural shedding processes.

Just as we have sheltered ourselves from the harsh winter elements, we have also interrupted our innate ties with the natural world and the cues we receive from nature. In order to get back in tune with this rhythm, I am leading a 21 day reset beginning Friday May 3^rd. I encourage those who are interested in losing weight, improving digestion, boosting health, and preparing their body for the next cycle to come with a partner and share the health.

21 days of providing the body what it needs and craves at this time of year. No gimmicks, only real food made simple. Herbs to kindle your digestive fire will be provided according to each individual’s constitution to help aid in the detoxification process. I will accompany participants on a guided grocery shopping adventure and we will meet weekly for seasonally inspired nutrition gatherings. You will receive recipes and step by step instructions on how to navigate your 21 day reset. The health investment is $200 and if you bring a partner you receive ½ off the second entry.

Get ready to feel lighter, clearer, more focused and more in tune with your body’s natural rhythm.

Please feel free to reach out via email, phone, or just come by the office. I look forward to working with you and partnering in health!

Much love,

Candice

In honor of March being National Nutrition Month, I am publishing the first post on my blog, The Ripe Banana.

You may be wondering why this blog is titled The Ripe Banana? Well let me explain…

First of all, let’s get something straight. As far as nutrition goes it is not just important what goes into your body, but it’s truly how we can digest/process/metabolize/absorb/distribute the breakdown elements or nutrients and wastes from our food to our tissues or eliminate them from our bodies.

That last part, eliminate is soooooooooooo important!

In my opinion we do not talk about poop, yes I said it, poop (I said it again) enough in our American society. Well let me tell you- this is a safe space for all the poop talk out there.😊 Let’s not whisper about our poop, let’s really get into this sh#t! 😊

So now we can talk a bit about our constitutions, and don’t worry you don’t need to learn it all here in one sitting. That would be crazy talk. When I speak of or to client’s constitutions, which I do…a lot, I am speaking in terms of Ayurveda. The science of life, as it is translated. It is the 5 element theory consisting of space, air, fire, water, and earth that makes us up as people; our thoughts, our food, the seasons, nature, our habits, the way we digest and yes you guessed it, the way we poop.

You have different categories of pooping depending on your constitution: the people who are prone to constipation, people that are prone to loose stools, people that are prone to boughts of constipation followed by loose stools (irregularity, IBS). Then you have the stools that sink to the bottom of the toilet, those that stick to the sides of the toilet and that you have to wipe multiple times before wiping clean, you have people that have lots of undigested food found in their stools (and no I don’t just mean corn!). Then there is the mucous or blood, different colors- brown, tar black, red, green or yellow stools OH MY! SOOOO many different poops!!

With all of this variability in poop can come lots of confusion. So let me clear it up by describing the kind of poop we should all be striving for.

1. We all need to poop every day. Yes, every day. Otherwise you are constipated. Even if this is your normal it is not your ideal.
2. When you poop every day, here it is, here’s what you’ve been tuning in for…You are striving to have a poop very nicely resembling a ripened floating brown banana. Not too soft, not too hard, not too sticky, not too dry, not too heavy, not too light- the goldilocks of them all, The Ripe Banana. A big shout out to my Ayurvedic school teachers at Kripalu for giving me this beautiful pearl and visual.

Why is it so important to have your nice ripe banana every day? Well this is your daily sign that your body is processing your food and eliminating wastes and toxins properly. We only detox as well as we digest and visa versa. A telltale sign of a toxic burden is the sticky muddy stool. Constipation- where you can’t even get the toxins out just allows them to be resorbed in your tissues, which is no Bueno. Loose stools or undigested food particles means things are moving too quickly from your system to even absorb and get the full benefits. All of these things in turn lead to many of the imbalances we find in our skin, our minds, our hormones, you name it. But this will be a topic for another blog.

This may have led you to wonder how the heck can I get my poop to be like this? I have never had a poop like this, or maybe you are one of the shiny few who do have these prize winning poops on a daily basis. Either way, I am here to help you wherever you are on your pooping journey. So for more information or to work with me feel free to send me a message via email or Facebook Messenger and let’s get the potty…I mean party started.

~Warmest regards and happy pooping,

Candice