It's here...

Alright, I did it! I posted my first rough, unedited video on YouTube! Here's the video for your viewing pleasure:

My daughter spilled juice all over my camcorder. I thought it survived. The green stripe at the bottom says otherwise! :o

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you think you could get healthy by sprinkling a little powder on your family's food? It seems almost too easy, but consider this: It took 18 years of research and development and over 20 million dollars for this product to be available! 

Nutriverus is a multivitamin/multimineral/antioxidant/glyconutrient powder that can be added to virtually any food. I've put it into yogurt, ranch dressing, on egg cups, on meatloaf, sprinkled over vegetables, in salads, on fish, on chicken breasts and in protein shakes to name a few. I did all of this without telling my family to see their reactions (this is what you get with a nerdy scientist mom in the house!) My husband noticed no difference in the food, but after I did it for a week he told me he felt better and had more energy. My kids (who are very picky eaters) only noticed it in plain vanilla yogurt (but when I added a dash of cinnamon they no longer noticed it) and ate it without issue in every other food and beverage I put it into. 

Some additional benefits: 

-When you get this every month, just like a vitamin at the store, you're also saving the life of a malnourished child in critical condition around the world for that month

-You're giving your body the nutrients it needs to heal and repair itself, the common side effects of which are feeling great and having more energy

-When you try it and see amazing results and tell your friends, you can get a 25% discount on your own product. Tell 4 friends, nourish 5 kids and get your product free

How cool is that? If you're interested in helping me save 50 kids by Thanksgiving of 2012, e-mail me at mannateamkratos (at) gmail.com and let's change the world together!!

Lizi

Just Do It!

I've noticed a trend in people that are changing their lifestyles.

They want to change their eating habits. They want to start working out. They have a general idea of why they want to do that: live longer, lose weight, look fabulous, have more energy and so on.

And then they talk themselves right out of it!

Either their wasn't specific enough information on exactly when to do what exercise, or when to eat what specific meal, or what kinds of foods you should combine, or that sounds like too much food or not enough food and so on.

For the love--Don't talk yourself out of a healthy lifestyle!!!! ALL OF THOSE ARE EXCUSES!!! 

The bottom line is this: Eat healthy, real foods (real foods don't come through a window or out of a bag/box).   Aim for 5 days per week of mixed exercises. Drink plenty of water. Supplement your nutrition appropriately.

That's pretty much it.

"But!!!" I hear you cry, "But do I do cardio, or yoga, or weights, or pilates, or yogalates, or Insanity, or use a personal trainer? And when I eat, do I eat according to my blood type, or low fat, or low carb, or Paleo, or according to an endo-ecto-mesomorph plan, or 500 calories a day? And do I weigh myself, or measure inches, or use calipers, or buy a $200+ body composition scale?"

The answer to those questions is...yes.

Ha! Now I've really got you trippin'!

You can do whatever kind of exercise you like. I myself, for example, love to run and lift weights. So, if my day allows it, I go on a 2 or 3 mile run (to some of you that's puny, to some of you that is a Herculean feat, to me that's what I have time for). If you like Yoga, do that! If you have a personal trainer, use them. If you used to like one thing but you got bored of it, FIND SOMETHING ELSE! It's the Age of Information, y'all--there IS something out there for you.

You can follow whatever realistic eating plan you want to--as long as it's real food (You know, fresh fruits and vegetables, the best meat you can afford, prepared in your home with healthy ingredients you add yourself. If you have no idea what real food is, open a new tab on your browser and fart around for a bit finding out--it's worth it). You cannot eat a fast food diet and be okay--you might take the buns off and have a chicken breast with a diet soda but consider this #rant: The "chicken breast" is made up of old, bacteria-laden mixed parts (bacteria laden because of antibiotic use in modern farming, mind you), then it was injected with a sugar/salt water mixture to make it moist and tasty (barf), then it was fried, then it was coated in liquid smoke to make you think it was grilled. You can re-name your diet soda chemical soup. You basically consumed a bunch of garbage that will release free radicals to zing around in your body, damaging otherwise perfectly happy cells, which (if you eat like that I'm guessing you don't care about supplementing vitamins too much) don't have the proper nutrients to then recover from the damage. You age your body every time you eat that junk. Cut it out! /#endrant

I think he says it best:

Drink your freakin' water too. Your body is over 90% water--you literally need it to live. If you get all of your water from carbonated crap, you're surviving but you're not thriving. When you drink your 8-10 glasses daily, your body releases toxins stored in your cells for your kidneys to deal with, which can often make you lose weight. Also, your cells release extra water they were HOARDING because they thought you lived in a desert, which often causes you to lose weight. Additionally, your molecular functions work properly when they have enough H2O to work with, giving you more energy. Oh, and you'll probably lose some weight.

On supplementation: The only reason I recommend it is because we've jacked up this planet so much our plants can't absorb the nutrients necessary for our optimal health. Some of us have seen the study on the peaches in the 50's versus the peaches now. Basically, we said screw composting, we'll concentrate on phosphorus/nitrogen balance in the soil only to make sure we can make more food to make more money. Do you think dirt is made up of 2 minerals? If you've gone through 10th grade chemistry, then you know it's incredibly more complicated than that. In addition to the declining nutritive value of our food because of crappy farming practices, we're now also genetically modifying it without enough testing to make sure that's okay to eat, spraying it with pesticides, covering it in salmonella, e.coli and MRSA--and recommending everyone eat more of it!  The USDA recommends 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily for men, and from 9 up to 13 servings per day for adolescent teenage boys. Don't get me wrong here: EAT YOUR FRUITS AND VEGGIES! Just be aware that what you put in your body might have unnatural issues, and to counteract that, you might need to add additional plant-derived nutrients. Examples would be antioxidants, because they fight free radicals to keep your cells happy, glyconutrients to keep your cells communicating properly and recovering from damage, enzymes to properly break down and use nutrients from the plants you eat and so forth. Another thing to supplement is protein if you--like me--don't get enough of it. I eat really healthy, but I am also busy, and if given the choice between stopping my life to cook up a bunch of meat because I forgot to on a Sunday (when I try to prepare it ahead, but seriously, I'm not perfect) OR eating chopped up raw broccoli and roasted red pepper hummus, guess what wins every time? The faster one! And while chickpeas in hummus are healthy and have protein, that's not enough to sustain my level of output during the day. Therefore, I supplement with a good, clean, real protein powder, and vitamin complexes derived from plants, and glyconutrients, and antioxidants and omega 3 essential fatty acids (they're necessary for a healthy brain, eyes and heart as well as a natural anti-inflammatory). 

Sorry for the nutrition rant. I'm a little passionate about the care and keeping of the world and the human body. 

Anyway, you can complicate your life as much as you want to, but you'll end up feeling like a failure and quitting. Don't do that. Don't give up on being healthy, or being able to see your feet when you look down, or running a mile, or living to be 130 years old and the world's top endurance knitter (I don't even know if that exists...yet...). Don't give up on your desires for a better, healthier lifestyle. 

Just do it already. 

Eat real foods. Aim for mixed exercises 5 times per week. Drink your water. Supplement appropriately. 

Repeat, and enjoy a long, healthy, happy life. 

Lizi

XFM!

XFM is the little moniker for Xtreme Food Makeover--something Mannatech is doing to educate people on what has happened to our food supply, what has happened to our vitamin industry and a real food technology solution to the issue.

Today I went to an Xtreme Food Makeover in Rowlett at the home of Marla Finley, one of the famed 2 Manna Sisters. We had an awesome time--My good friend Merissa came with me, and we helped Marla prep for the party. We chopped broccoli and cucumbers, prepared blueberries and strawberries, put out the Osolean and Glycoslim for making shakes while my two little princesses played in the backyard.

As everyone was arriving, the conversations branched off and Marla's warm kitchen was filled with laughs and smiles and exclamations over the food. She whipped up a healthy chocolate peanut butter shake with Nutriverus, a Pina Colada shake with Nutriverus and a "Purple Monster" smoothie (purple from the blueberries--of course this one was a hit with the kids!)

If you want to see some of the educational videos we watched, you can click here! :)

Here's some pics from the XFM:

Food Display 

Veggies with Nutriverus in the dip

My girls with healthy food all over their mouths!

Talking about nutrition at the table

Talking about how the world is changing

Delicious shakes!

This is what happens when your vitamins have nasty junk in them...they turn black when you bake them. Notice the pure vitamins didn't putrefy from the heat.

Shocking Truths

Did you know that 95% of over-the-counter vitamins are petroleum by-products, or made with coal tar?

Did you know that research in 1941 by Dr. Agnes Morgan showed animals fed synthetic vitamins died more quickly of degenerative diseases or had toxic reactions to the synthetics as opposed to vitamins consumed in a whole foods diet (University of California study).

Did you know that there are iron shavings in cereal? And baby formula?

Does this sound like maybe we're being asked by companies to pay for something that's killing us?

You can see more about what's happening in the modern diet here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uBGXBLyt8A

And, if watching this makes you angry at the lies we've been fed and sad at what we've been consuming and feeding to our families, you can do something about it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO-jNJj_Caw&feature=player_embedded

And here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB__rZ8ZvVg&feature=player_embedded

Imagine giving your body what it needs, nutrition from whole food sources. And while you're doing that, you're sending nutritional supplements to a child in critical condition.

How cool is that?

Vitamin C: Plants VS Synthetics

As the weather (finally!) cools off here in Texas, a lot of folks are coming down with the sniffles. I know when that used to happen, everyone would say, "Oh, you gotta take your Vitamin C!"

Now, studies have been done showing that isolated vitamins (such as the weird tasting white tablets at the store) do not have as positive effect on the body as a whole vitamin (like from fruits and veggies). This is partially due to where they extract the vitamins and minerals from--for example, many minerals in modern supplements are derived from rocks and petroleum products. In the case of drug store vitamins, the problem is that the vitamin is isolated as a chemical, and doesn't have the necessary co-factors to be used properly.

Let me give you an example--obviously we'll be working with Vitamin C today! A vitamin, as defined in 1956 by Dr. Royal Lee in Applied Trophology is "a working process consisting of the nutrient, enzymes, co-enzymes, antioxidants and trace mineral activators." That's a fancy way of saying when you look at the back of a bottle and it says "Ascorbic Acid" by itself, that's exactly what it is--and that is NOT vitamin C! Vitamin C is actually a blend of trace mineral co-factors, ascorbinogen, bioflaveniods, tyrosinase and other factors.

All of that fancy talk just to say: what you get at the grocery store is a well planned lie. It is a tiny fraction of what you should be getting. It is like someone baking a delicious pecan pie (bear with me here) out of brown sugar, flour, eggs and so on. They put the pie on the table. They pick up a fork. They scoop up ONE pecan from the top of the pie, put it on your plate, wink and say "There's your pecan pie!"

Would you agree with them? Or would you say, "heck no, that's not pecan pie! Where's the rest of it?" That's what your body says when you flood it with a fake, isolated acid, wink at your cold and say "there's some vitamin C!"

It's not. If you eat a strawberry, there's vitamin C. If you drink some rose hip tea, there's vitamin C. And it's intact, with all of its molecular structure that God designed to work as a whole in your body. No matter how you dice it, plant-based nutrients are superior to synthetic isolates.

Let's look at some historical examples. Most of us are familiar with scurvy, right?

Treatment by fresh food, particularly citrus fruit, was periodically implemented, as it had been since antiquity, but the ultimate cause of scurvy was not known until 1932, and treatment was inconsistent, with many ineffective treatments used into the 20th century. It was a Scottish surgeon in the Royal Navy, James Lind who first proved it could be treated with citrus fruit in experiments he described in his 1753 book, A Treatise of the Scurvy,^[1] though his advice was not implemented by the Royal Navy for several decades. (From Wikipedia)

In 1842 the medical journal The Cincinatti Lancet published that potatoes treated scuvy just as well as citrus fruit.   In later scientific studies, potatoes are shown to have less than 20mg of ascorbic acid! Do you know what most doctors recommend to prevent a cold? 2,000mg of ascorbic acid! So why do potatoes work when ascorbic acid by itself doesn't? Because ascorbic acid doesn't have the necessary components of Vitamin C to make it effective. 

I hope this little toe-dip into the world of vitamins and why plant-based nutrition is superior to a synthetic isolated aspect of a vitamin. 

Want more information like this? Leave me a comment below! :)

Lizi