Juicing Basics

The first phase of the New Year-New You program, let's just call it NY2 for simplicity sake, consists of a 3 day juice fast.  I know, I know, you're afraid.  I am too-but we can do this.  Half the battle is the preparation and the foreknowledge of what we are getting in to.  I have done this juice fast in the past. It. Was. Hard.  Let me be upfront with you, the worst part of the fasting portion is the caffeine withdrawals.. Words simply cannot prepare you for this if you are a caffeine addict like myself (I know, shame on me).  But I will say, I did experience quite painful electric shock type pain that would fire off from my neck into my jaw for 2 days.  I swore I would never become addicted to caffeine again, and well, here I am, back at square one.  Was it worth it?  Of course, I'm back for another round.

So juicing basics.  To start, let's discuss what the needs will be.  

1. The Juicer:  To get the juice you either need to purchase a juicer or obtain the juice locally-likely almost daily-as it must be extremely fresh to carry the potency worth being hungry for 3 days straight.  To purchase there are two major options, centrifugal and masticating. Centrifugal juicers run around $100 and masticating a usually $250 and up.  The reason the latter is more costly and better is because it does not heat the juice while juicing, preserving more nutrients and allowing you to juice extra and store it for a day or two.  Centrifugal must be juiced fresh for each meal. Read up on the comparison if so desired.  Basically, if you want to make juicing a lasting part of your life and can afford it, the masticating juicer is worth the investment.  If you are planning to buy juices locally, research local places in advance and be sure they are "cold-pressed." 

2.  How to make it: There are some general guidelines for juicing and from there you just wing it.  Each juice must have the following:  -a base juice: something to give it the water content. For this I use cucumbers, celery, and romaine lettuce.  -dark green leafy vegetables: spinach (quite a lot of this can be used and still taste great), kale, Swiss chard, and really any other fresh green that is in season (these have more potent flavors, so use less).  -a dash of pleasant flavor: this is what will make actually (over time) enjoy your green juice.  My favorites for this are a 1/3-1/2 of a green apple or a half of a lemon (both per person), or even both together.  Really anything that will add a dash of sweetness but has low sugar content.  Green apples fit this description perfectly. 

3. Side notes: I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes, you must buy organic for this portion.  At least for the majority of ingredients.  Part of the reason juice fasting is so beneficial is that the nutrients are so easily absorbed because there is no fiber or roughage blocking the absorption process.  Unfortunately, this also facilitates the unobstructed absorption of pesticides and chemicals from non-organic foods into our bodies.  This can, at times, make things a little tricky.  Cucumbers for example, can be more challenging to find organic yet at the same time are one of the most pesticide and toxin-heavy vegetables.  At times buying non-organic is inevitable.  In these cases, be sure to look into The Dirty Dozen and download there app for grocery store trips.  

I think that about covers the basics needed for planning. Check back for recipes and grocery store lists.  I am excited to share this journey with each of you.  Please feel free to post any questions below.

~McCall

New Year. New You.

I love the holidays. Peg me as one those people that has to hold back from setting up their Christmas decorations until after Halloween.  The lights, the apple cider, the extra family time (so often in pajamas). It's lovely. I would want it go on forever, except for the pure fact that by the end of it, I feel terrible. Bloated. Tired. Unmotivated. Weighed down - emotionally and physically.  This has become even more pronounced since I've changed my eating habits, normally fueling my body, giving it what it needs to function well and efficiently.  I'm familiar with what I'm supposed to feel like.

It's only December 19th and I already feel far from my body's optimal performance.  

So I'm planning a reset.  A fresh start.  That is what January is about right? Even my husband, ever so resistant to change is on board. (I think he too has eaten one too many pieces of pie in the last month. So as a family, we are committing to it, and I think you should join us. 

Food plays such a powerful role in our health. Everything we put in our mouth either helps, or hurts us. Truly, there is no in between.  Let's start the year by fueling our bodies with the nutrients it needs to properly function. I think you'll find it changes things in ways you never thought possible. 

The Plan:       

1. We'll begin our journey to health on January 3rd by doing a 3 day juice fast. No, I'm not talking about orange juice.. Aka nature's version of soda.  I'm talking about green juice. Vegetable juice.  Don't throw in the towel yet, it's delicious, I promise. It takes some re-framing of your concept of juice but after that (somewhat intensive) re-framing (and recipes from me), you'll enjoy it.  Obviously, some things must be considered before doing this: like pregnancy, high exercise demand, etc, and it never hurts to ask your doctor (though they may look at you kinda funny) but for the vast majority of people, short term fasts have many health benefits.  For example, it is one of the most powerful tools for resetting inflammation in the body. It helps prevent aging of the brain and maximizes brain function. Fasting facilitates the breakdown of toxins stored so deeply in our body, they would otherwise be left to continue to propagate damage, sometimes for decades.  It kicks in the mechanisms that repair our genes and DNA which play a role in disease and cancer prevention. HGH or human growth hormone is activated, this activates our bodies repair mechanisms promoting healing and the breakdown of fat.  One of the most important byproducts of fasting is the break it gives your gut.  Allowing it to heal and better absorb nutrients and protect your body from harmful pathogens. 

2. After the 3 days of fasting we begin 30 days of pretty hard core healthy eating. January 6th-February 4th. For this we will follow the guidelines of the Whole30 diet. The Whole30 diet consists of, well, exactly what you would think, whole foods for 30 days.  It goes further than that and restricts you to only whole, unprocessed foods that are low inflammatory foods. This is the kicker, your body can do amazing things when it isn't inflamed. Another interesting property of this "diet" is that is changes the way you want to eat.  We did this earlier in the fall, my husband, Casey and I.  You could say that my husband has never had ANY self control with food his entire life, and I wouldn't tell you that you were exaggerating.  The man used to eat Reece's Cups like potato chips before falling asleep. Nightly. He is one of the lucky ones who can eat anything, anything, and not gain weight. In short, this leads to no need for (even the slightest) bit of self control.  After our first round of the Whole30 he doesn't even want sweets. He wants to eat a salad for lunch each day.  To watch that evolution, has been nothing short of remarkable. Find out more of the details on the Whole30 here: http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/

If you are saying to yourself, "this is too hard," I want to say this to you (as taken from the Whole30 site):  It's not hard.  Don't you dare tell us this is hard.  Beating cancer is hard.  Birthing a baby is hard.  Losing a parent is hard.  Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard.  You've done harder things than this, and you have no excuse not to complete the program as written.  It's only thirty days, and it's for the most important health cause on earth-the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.

I believe in this. I've seen it change the lives of my patients and in my own home.  It can change you, from the inside.  Join us, you only have one body, one life time, nourish it.  Nourish it better. 

Keep up the momentum by joining us in our plan.  Subscribe to the blog for recipes, as well as juice and meal ideas throughout the month.  We are excited to share this journey with you. 

The Truth About Your Thyroid (part 1)

Every year I'm hoping medicine will catch up, that health care providers all over the country will get the news "YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE WAY YOU DIAGNOSE AND TREAT HYPOTHYROID!" It's December and this year isn't looking good.  So I want to take some time to talk about the basics, so that you in turn can know what to discuss with your doctor, PA, or NP. 

Let's talk thyroid signs and symptoms and you see if these sound familiar: fatigue, dry skin, depression, brain fog, brittle nails, hair loss, constipation, decreased sex drive, always being cold, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, thinning at the edges of your eyebrows, brain fog (did you catch that?). The incidence of hypothyroid also goes up post-pregnancy. 

Ok, this can get a little dense but do your best to get through it. There are 3 major players in thyroid function: TSH, free T3 and free T4.  Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) sends out the message for need of some T3 and free T4. It is like the gas pedal, the harder we push on the pedal the harder the car is going to work, and the higher the number of TSH will be.  When the thyroid received TSH it begins releasing hormones. The majority of what is released from the thyroid is T4, which unfortunately doesn't do us a lot good until it's converted into T3, which a small percentage is. Once finally reaching T3 things can go 2 ways: either free T3 (yay) or reverse T3 (boo).  Free T3 is the active form of thyroid and is what carries the effect of our thyroid throughout our bodies (the MOST important). You can think of reverse T3 as free T3 competition. It can bind to the same receptor site taking up the parking spot (why not continue this car analogy?) of our beloved T3.  Reverse T3 is often high when our body is under stress or significant inflammation which means we get even less free T3 activity.  So what our body really uses is the T3, but this is the least monitored out of the 3. I have no idea how that ending up happening.  Often, the only thing being checked is the patient's TSH.  Complicating things further is the fact that the "normal range" most used by providers, are grossly inadequate for all three of these hormones, but most dramatically TSH-making even the potential initiation of a hypothyroid diagnosis extraordinarily sparse.   In practice, I simply use the TSH value to tell me how hard the thyroid is working to get the output of the patient's T3 and T4. Besides, it's not uncommon for it to be low if a patient is on thyroid medication. This renders it even more useless and problematic, as it is often still the only thing checked for patients being treated.  Oh TSH, the problems you cause us.

 *There are some other labs that can be useful but we will save for a later post.*

Let me recant my hypothyroid experience at my primary care doctor's office a few years ago. Bear in mind I had been on thyroid medication for years and am obviously familiar with with the symptomology associated with hypothyroid on both a professional and personal level.  It went something like this:

Me: "I am having symptoms of x, y, z (really more like a-z), I think I need to increase my thyroid med."                           

Doctor: "Let's get some lab work."

Me: "Ok."

Lab work returns.

Doctor: "Oh it looks like we need to decrease your thyroid medicine."

Me: "WHAT? (almost jumping across table) Can I see that? (almost ripping it out of his hands) Oh, well you only the checked the TSH.

Doctor: "Ya..."

Me: "You can't decrease my thyroid medication based on this, this isn't even the right lab work. If you want to order my Free T3 and Free T4 then we can talk, if you'll still want to decrease my thyroid meds after that I will have someone else manage my thyroid."

I returned a week or two later.

Doctor: "Your free T3 and free T4 look ok but your TSH is still too low and I think we need to decrease your meds.  Oh and by the way, I looked up the labs to run and I was right-TSH."

Needless to say, I went elsewhere. On my thyroid screening questionnaire I filled out at my intake, I checked off each every single thyroid symptom. Every single one. The doctor looked at the same lab results as the previous doctor and thought my free T3 looked low and it was not wonder I was having so many problems.. I have a hard time admitting this to people but for two months leading up to that appointment I was almost bed bound.  I literally went to work every day, got off in the afternoon and went to bed by 3pm until the next morning. I remember telling my husband in the car at one point that I think he may need to just take me to the hospital, that I was just too tired and I just didn't feel like I could push myself any more. 

That second doctor gave me my life back.  He thinks I'm silly when I tell him but he gave me my life back because it's something so simple. The coolest thing is that sometimes I get to give people their life back.  They come to me for depression but they don't need an antidepressant at all-they simply have a thyroid problem their doctor missed by only checking their TSH. 

Some good internet resources for information pertaining to thyroid are the websites of Stop the Thyroid Madness and that of Dr. Amy Myers out of Austin, Texas.