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

Eating Healthy

Hey guys, how's it going? We're living life with an insane impact here at Team Kratos! We've got testimonials coming in from everywhere, I'm being asked to speak all over DFW and even at some out-of-state locations as well as having people ask for weight loss and healthy lifestyle consultations! How awesome is that? And the best part is: malnourished kids are getting fed as a direct result of our efforts. That's what it's all about, right?

So today, I'll keep it short and sweet and focus on eating healthy. I know a few years ago I was a medical assistant with tons of health information crossing my desk every day but I was 30 lbs overweight after my first child and SO CONFUSED about what healthy eating really meant. (Maybe 30 lbs doesn't sound like much to you, but I'm only 5'1"...so I looked and felt pretty hefty).

One study said low carbohydrate diets were the only way to lose significant amounts of weight.

Another study said that low carbohydrate dieters lost significant weight at first, but almost always gained it back within 1 year.

Another studies said a high carbohydrate, low fat lifestyle was the only way to go.

Another study said high carbohydrate, low fat lifestyles led to increased health risks later in life.

One study said Paleo-style diets were the authority on healthy living.

Another study said Paleo-style diets caused kidney failure and other health complications.

So you can see my dilemma. Here I was, just had my first child, the doctor told me I was breastfeeding too much and making my baby fat, my OB/GYN was telling me he was concerned because he thought I should've dropped like 20 lbs by now post-baby, I hadn't slept in 3 months because my little girl had colic and everything I was reading contradicted everything else I was reading.

So what did I do? What any unhealthy, red-blooded American woman would do--I lived on Diet Coke, popcorn and chocolate with the occasional iceberg lettuce salad...covered in Ranch dressing...

As my weight continued to stubbornly stay put almost no matter what I did, my life stress levels were increasing due to lack of sleep (my daughter had colic for her first 9 months of life and no one slept!) and increased work load. I eventually developed stress related chest pain that culminated in a panic attack. It was kind of funny actually, I had no idea what was happening and thought I was dying or something. Fortunately my husband had experience with anxiety which had never plagued me before, and was able to figure out what was going on.

Anyhow, after that period in my life I did several significant things.

#1. I jumped OFF of the bandwagon. I decided that media on dieting was too varied: the master cleanse and the 17 day diet went in and out of popularity faster than I could blink--and I'm sure they'll do it again in a few years. I just thought about what the facts were, what every body was seeing in a general blanket and that I would stick with those, namely increasing vegetables and decreasing processed foods and simple carbohydrates like white flour and white sugar.

#2. I made vegetables my best friend. Don't get me wrong--I love meat and I'm not a vegetarian. But instead of eating a giant steak with a few pieces of broccoli, I switched it around to a palm-sized portion of meat with 1 cup of broccoli. And for snacks, I avoided anything packaged and ate celery, chopped zucchini and summer squash with humus or some other kind of naturally occurring, non-packaged veggie. If I was cooking a larger portion for guests or something, I chose a meal with a basis of vegetables, such as a stir fry. That way, I could continue to eat healthy by having vegetables as the basis of the meal instead of a starch (our stir fry's are usually chicken or shrimp tossed in with frozen stir fry vegetables or cabbage and broccoli instead of rice--just as delicious and twice as healthy).

#3. I combined protein and complex carbs with every small meal, and increased my meals to 4-6 small meals daily. At first, I felt like I was just slightly hungry all the time. Eventually--probably after 2 or 3 days--my body began to adjust to the smaller, more frequent meals and it became natural to crave food every few hours and to feel satisfied with smaller meals more frequently. An example of protein and complex carbs would be: Lettuce (complex carb) and Chicken breast (protein), Apple (complex carb) and Peanut Butter (protein), raw Broccoli (complex carb) and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (protein). Or, another one of my favorites: 1/2 a banana (complex carbs) with a scoop of Osolean (protein) and some spinach (MORE complex carbs, yum!). Pretty easy stuff, right?

#4. I began to exercise. Like, really exercise, not consider walking around Wal-Mart for 20 minutes exercise. I lifted weights--dinky little 3 lb weights at first--for 10 minutes three times per week and went on 2 mile power walks on my lunch break (took me about 40 minutes at first). Eventually, I worked my way up to what I now LOVE to do: about an hour of running 5-6 times per week and weights 3-5 days per week. Mind you, I feel incredible when I work out so it's not something I'm doing to be vain or self-righteous--working out is now something I adore. I also park further away from the store to get in more of a walk, walk around a shopping center instead of going to one store, then my car, then driving to the next store haha, I take the stairs when possible, I limit my television and computer time, I walk while I read and in general do everything I can to keep my body moving. A study was just released that for every hour of television you watch, you take 22 minutes off of your life--THAT'S DOUBLE THE TIME FROM SMOKING A CIGARETTE! Not that I condone smoking--I absolutely don't, but how shocking is it that our TV habits are worse than smoking???

So, there you have it. A generalized condensed plan of how I changed my thinking patterns, my eating habits and began exercising to lose 35 pounds and keep it off for 4 years.

Have you lost weight? What worked for you? Comment below!

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.

A Broken System

In America, it is recognized that our current diet and lifestyle choices (eating fast food, eating at restaurants, constant stimulation from advertisements and games and a metric ton of oxidative stress from working too much and not relaxing enough) are killing us.

Many popular doctors say all you need to do is supplement your diet, eat at home and take extra antioxidants and you'll be fine. 

Hold up. Let's address these one at a time, shall we?

Supplement Your Diet 

When you go to the doctor and he says "make sure you're getting a good multivitamin" he then tells you, usually, to go to the store and pick up a reputable brand, right? Well, there are a few problems with that. 95% of the supplements on the grocery store shelves are derived from coal tar and petroleum by-products. Most calcium supplements on the shelves have the calcium derived from limestone. I know that doesn't sound too terrible, so let me elaborate.

Most women know that when you start a higher level of calcium (like a calcium tablet or even chewable), you can become constipated, right? So the doctor tells you to pick up some magnesium citrate (a fancy word for a petroleum derivative that has been treated with citric acid to be more easily absorbed by your body). Well, that takes you from not being able to poop, to not being able to stop! And if we take a moment to appreciate the fact that 80% of your immune cells are made from your gut, you can begin to appreciate how vital intestinal health is to overall health. So when you're trying to add healthy things to your body by adding the above two minerals, you could actually be harming yourself.

Have you ever become constipated from spinach? No? How about almonds? Broccoli? Oh, celery? None of the above? These are natural, vegetable sources of calcium. Do you understand that it isn't the calcium causing the gut issues?

Which leads us to the next issue, the junk in our diet.

Eating at Home

This no longer means what it used to mean. A hundred years ago, eating at home meant eating food that you'd raised and slaughtered yourself, more than likely. If not, someone you knew did it for you. Local homesteads--a quaint term for a suburban farm--would raise some chickens and grow vegetables to give to the grocery store, to supplement if farmer's couldn't meet the demands in a humane manner.

All of that's been thrown out the window. Even chicken meat that you buy at your local health-conscious store that says "free range" has arsenic in it. Yes, arsenic--they add it to the chicken feed to plump up the chickens. They're supposed to remove it before the last feed, but you know, the extra pounds mean extra profits, who cares if anyone dies. How do I know? Someone I trust with my life got arsenic poisoning from *drum roll* chicken meat. And he was informed of how it got there by a highly ranked scientist at a nationally renowned laboratory.

And most people are familiar with the "Dirty Dozen"--the foods that have a higher than normal amount of pesticides that should be purchased organically (and still washed-- E. Coli isn't a pesticide and doesn't care if your strawberries are organic!)

My point being--fast food isn't food, but what we're getting at the grocery store isn't much better. It doesn't matter if you shop the perimeter, there's something really wrong with children getting cadmium toxicity from iceburg lettuce, adults and children becoming gluten and casein intolerant, the staggering amount of Americans with gut issues and the rising amount of anaphylactic allergies to fruits and vegetables (I had one of those myself to kiwis). 

So if we can't trust our fruits and veggies, how are we supposed to get our antioxidants?

Take Extra Antioxidants

And the last suggestion to combat common health issues is to take in extra antioxidants. Some antioxidants are vitamins, like Vitamin E or C. Some antioxidants are berries that are high in cyanins like blueberries, nutrients found in green tea, bioflavenoids in vegetable skins and other nutrients such as resveratol in red wine. 

Some people take in extra antioxidants by juicing--which is great, if you are using food you grew yourself and harvested organically, and if it is mostly vegetables. Most people can't stand the taste, so they just juice fruit, which gives them an enormous amount of fructose (fruit sugar) without any fiber to balance it in the body. Then they get fat. And angry. This isn't to say juicing is a bad idea, just that most people don't do it in a healthy manner.

Another way people take in antioxidants is from an antioxidant drink. There are several brand names out in the marketplace that boast having a very high antioxidant level. If you check the label, you'll find either that it is mostly sugar, contains very unhealthy ingredients or is made up of mostly synthetics (for example, d-alpha tocopherol, which we've discussed previously, is not Vitamin E). 

What Can You Do About It?

I don't know about you, but when I found out about all of this stuff, I despaired  I thought, "man, no matter what I give my family, it's going to hurt them. Supplements are bad, the food is bad, the air quality sucks, there's poisonous stuff in the water--maybe I should give up on trying to keep us healthy. Maybe the best we can do is pray not to get heart disease or cancer."

Well, that's a crappy attitude. There is something you can do. Mannatech has developed a line of products that are plant based and hydroponically grown--meaning they control the nutrients the plants receive,  the air quality where they're being grown and the processing to ensure the maximum amount of nutrients in each supplement, which is then proven to be effective in their state of the art analytic chemistry lab. That's good nutrition that won't harm when it's supposed to help heal.

There is a new product out now called Nutriverus. It's the culmination of 18 years of research and over $2 million in research and development. And now, it's less than $60 USD. Not only that, but there's a way to get it for free (e-mail me and I'll hook you up).

NOT ONLY CAN YOU GET IT FOR FREE, but for every auto-order, a months supply of this nutrient-rich, plant-based, real food technology solution is sent to a child in critical condition from malnourishment.

So, you save yourself.

You save your family.

You save the economy.

You save malnourished children in critical condition.

You save money.

What in the world do you have to lose?

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?

How Do You Know?

How do you know if you're healthy? It seems like a funny question to ask, but there's a surprising amount of confusion regarding what "being healthy" really means. Let's define being healthy, and if you find you're way off, let's talk about some solutions. 

"Health" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "The condition of being sound in body, mind or spirit; especially being free from physical disease or pain." I really like that bit at the end, because most often that is how we measure whether or not we consider ourselves healthy. Do I have a disease? Do I hurt? Nope? Alright I'm good! 

We fail to take into account the first part of the definition: The condition of being sound in body, mind or spirit. Some questions to ask yourself regarding health in those three areas are:

Body:
-Do I have any medical conditions that I'm ignoring? (Toe fungus, reoccurring pain, ongoing bowel issues like constipation or diarrhea, rashes that come and go, allergies)
-Do I feed myself well? (Limiting packaged foods, reducing sugar intake, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, not overeating, avoiding stress eating, consuming plenty of protein)
-Am I supplementing effectively? (plant-based supplements, avoiding synthetics, taking in an adequate amount of vitamins, minerals and extra antioxidants)

Mind:
-Am I in control of my thoughts? (not letting thoughts run wild, feeling organized in thinking patterns, being able to switch subjects mentally and then switch back)
-Do I "feed" my brain every day? (read the Bible daily, read success books, listen to motivational and inspirational messages)
-Are my emotions under control? (controlling feelings of anger, able to not have outbursts, able to control sadness, able to stop crying, have the ability to get out of a mood once you get into it)

Spirit:
-Do I know why I'm here? (If you don't, you should work on that. Proverbs 29:18 Amplified: Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]—blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.)
-Do I know where to go for answers to a serious dilemma? (having a fellowship of people to support you, help with thoughts of suicide or murder, help with an addiction, someone to lean on and guide you when you're lost)

If you've got these bases covered, you're well on your way to health. Why on your way? Why not instantly healthy? Because in life you are always developing, improving and maturing. I like the expression, "When you're green, you're growing; when you're ripe, you're rotten." It refers to when you're learning something new, you're continuing to grow into something great. But if you harden your heart and decide there's no room for improvement, well, then you're rotting, you're done. 

If you have any health questions you want to talk about, or if you want to take a free health survey to find the right supplementation for your health, leave a comment below or send us an e-mail!

Team Kratos
mannateamkratos@gmail.com

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