Is Seltzer Water a Healthy Choice?

Here's a post from one of my colleagues and mentor's Tracy Harrison, Founder of the School of Applied Functional Medicine:

"Here are some facts which might be influential:

• The human body is roughly 2/3 water.
• The human brain is close to 3/4 water.• About 85% of our blood is water.• The average adult human loses from 2.5 to 3 liters of water every day (via urine, sweat/evaporation, stool, breathing)• Water is a perfect conductor of electricity, and both our brain neural activity and cardiovascular activity require a fixed electrical circuit, based on stable concentration of electrolytes.• Targeted levels of water are required in the body to allow toxins to leave our tens of trillions of cells and be excreted in our urine/stool. Otherwise, we suffer from toxic build-up, which leads to cellular dysfunction and eventually chronic disease, especially cancer.

I think that broths and herbal teas are both therapeutic contributors to general hydration during a day because both will contain minerals, and neither will be acidic or function as a diuretic (unlike coffee, tea, alcohol, soda).

On the other hand, all carbonated beverages (including seltzer) include dissolved carbon dioxide, creating carbonic acid, which usually features a pH between 3 and 4 (more acidic than most coffee, actually). Clean, pure spring water would have a pH closer to 7 or 7.5. So indeed, they are not the same, and carbonated water puts a pH-balancing burden on the body (and the average American's diet is already metabolically very acidic). I recommend my clients only consume 1 glass of seltzer at most per day and that it is not a substitute for plain water."

In Addition, my concern is that this is compounded by drinking out of aluminum cans. If you want to preserve your brain and memory, I would not recommend this.  Want to learn more? Check out this Documentary on The Age of Aluminum and tell me what you think. That is, if you can remember...

Serious food for thought.

So what to do? Drink clean filtered water in a glass or stainless steel water bottle. Add berries, cucumber, lemon or lime for delicious flavors and vitamin C. Lemons and limes are alkalizing to the body and therefore give you a triple beneficial effect.

Carpe Diem,

Lisa

About Lisa

Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker and a functional medicine coach with a mission to inspire others to feel and look their best at any age.

Lisa's book Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think and Thrive outlines her seven-step process towards optimal health that is fun and transformational.

Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement and the Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance. 

Turning Impossible to "I'm Possible"

Self discipline is consistently doing something (you may not always feel like) to get the results you really want. 

What is the result that you really want? Make a mental picture of this in your head. Then begin to act like you've already achieved it. Feel it in your bones. This is how you create a vision.  A vision is so much more powerful than a goal. Goals, like rules are often broken. A vision is something that you feel and enables you to feel contentment in the moment.

You see, we've got it all backwards. We think that if we just do this one thing, or lose weight, or meet our goals, then we will be happy. Feel contentment first, and then you will unlock the ability to manifest your goals.

When you are happy and relaxed, your body can heal and repair itself. Do this first, then know and discover your own ability to heal from within. 

Think of a time you felt something was impossible. Like riding a bike. Remember what you did to prove otherwise. Maybe you started with training wheels. Next, you had someone hold the back of the seat and run alongside you, giving encouragement while you gained speed. Then suddenly, you realized you were riding the bike all on your own, Woo Hoo!  Remember and feel the exhilaration!

Create the vision and then get the right kind of support to turn what appears as Impossible to "I'm Possible".

An accountability buddy or a coach can help you develop the self-discipline muscle. This is why I am offering a Kick-Start to Wellness Program to provide you with a supportive framework. Join us next Thursday for a free webinar to learn more.

Carpe Diem,

Lisa

About Lisa
Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker and a functional medicine coach with a mission to inspire others to feel and look their best at any age.

Lisa's book Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think and Thrive outlines her seven-step process towards optimal health that is fun and transformational.

Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement and the Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance. 

9/11 Remembrance

Sometimes life stops you dead in its tracks. Tragedy forces us to stop and re-prioritize. Fear can be paralyzing or mobilizing.

This day, sixteen years ago, terrorism hit home in America. Our dear friends and colleagues lost loved one in the collapse of the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon.

My father had retired. The third plane hit where his office had been in the Pentagon. He was the architect behind the Pentagon's renovation and he died 6 months after 9/11. The Vice President of Tramel Crowell spoke at his funeral and shared how his renovation had saved lives. The expanded fire walls prevented further damage and the fact that part of this section was still vacant.

This is day that many remember. I was working in my office in Rockville, Md when I received an instant message from my daughter Dana in college. "Mom, Do you know what's happening? They are saying another plane is heading towards the Pentagon." Her younger sister, Margo was in school not far from there. I jumped in the car and arrived at her Arlington school on autopilot, stuffed Margo and four friends in my two seater car and brought them home.

We react out of fear or we respond out of love. On September 11th, 2001, I did both.

I had stayed in a hotel with a bird's eye view of the World Trade Center just the Tuesday before. My boss lost his brother in law, the Chief of the NY Fire Department when the second tower collapsed. My CTO at the time was David Beamer, his son Todd lost his life on the plane headed towards DC. His wife wrote the book, Let's Roll of his heroism on the plane to stop the terrorists.

I'm currently reading a book called Living Forward, by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. It's a "how to" book on living a life of meaning, significance, joy, and satisfaction. One thing I know for sure is that we will all die someday.

So how do we live life today to it's fullest? We learn to live life on purpose. We live and choose consciously out of love, not out of fear. We create our own roadmap. We determine our priorities.

We must prioritize ourselves, for our loved ones to make it happen.

Are you living the life of your dreams? Or are you just drifting? What adjustments do you need to make to get back on course?

Will you take time today to remember the truth of who you really are?

Carpe Diem,

With Love & Gratitude,

Lisa

About Lisa
Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker and a functional medicine coach with a mission to inspire others to feel and look their best at any age.

Lisa's book Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think and Thrive outlines her seven-step process
towards optimal health that is fun and transformational.

Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement and the Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance. 

Why Kick-Start? What's The Difference?

Food is Love.  What's the difference in a Kick-Start to Wellness Program and a cleanse? It depends. The purpose of the Kick-Start is for you to identify what your unique body needs with education and support.

Our goal is to Inspire, Educate and Empower you to find your own optimal health and wellness.

Join us a week from Thursday, September 21st for a FREE Webinar to learn more.

This is a way for you to:

1. Bring in healthy foods that are decadent and delicious, nourishing and nutritious. 
2. Minimize food sensitivities, toxins, and inflammation and 
3. Help you to prioritize self-care.  

Here we will discuss specifics on why and how you can Maximize, Minimize and Prioritize.

This is NOT about dieting or deprivation! Feeling HANGRY (Hungry and angry) is NOT our goal!
See the funny towel my sister gave me below:

Each one of us are unique and different. We can have ten people with the same medical diagnosis and all ten could have different root causes and therefore different nutrient needs, different genetic capabilities to detoxify, and different environmental factors. A Kick-Start helps you discover what your unique body needs starting with what you are eating.

This Thursday, I'm speaking at the Loft @ Lululemon Store in Georgetown for a group of runners training for the Marine Corp Marathon. Click here to for more information and to register.

Territory Foods will be serving dinner while I speak about maximizing nutrition and give a few pointers for increasing breath work and the importance of rest and repair during training.  When preparing for a marathon is NOT the time to do a cleanse!  It is, however the time to Maximize, Minimize and Prioritize YOU so you can be your best!

So how is our Kick-Start to Wellness program different from a cleanse? First of all, this is not a one size fits all program. Included in the program is a health history and symptom questionnaire and a 30 minute consult to determine what your unique body needs are so you can set the goals you wish to accomplish over the next three weeks.

It includes group support, education and motivation. Something all of us, myself included, can benefit from. Just because I know what to do doesn't mean I always do it. I need you to keep me motivated too.

Most of all, this is about self-love and life affirming food, thoughts and actions.

Email me if you would like to join us Thursday, September 21st for our Free "Why Kick-Start?" Webinar to learn more.

With Love & Gratitude,

Lisa

About Lisa
Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker and a functional medicine coach with a mission to inspire others to feel and look their best at any age.

Lisa's book Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think and Thrive outlines her seven-step process towards optimal health that is fun and transformational.

Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement and the Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance. 

Are you Ready for a Fall Kick-Start to Wellness?

For me, Fall is a time of new beginnings. As a child, back to school meant new classes, new friends, new opportunities. As a mother, it meant more structure and needed discipline to meet busy schedules.

The summer heat wanes and encourages us to focus inward. It's a great time for nourishing savory soups and kitchari. Fall foods prepare us for the winter season and can protect us from seasonal allergies.

Individuals and families today have more stressors than ever in our history. This week I spoke with a client in Houston as well as a doctor I consult with about the effects of Harvey on their lives and their businesses. We have unprecedented physical and emotional challenges from the floods to the assault on our brains and bodies due to increasing toxins in our food, water and air. It is hard not to turn on the news and worry about the health of our country. Many feel anxious about the state of affairs.

When I graduated from nursing school in 1981 there were only a few autoimmune diseases, now there are well over a 100. Autoimmune disease, cancer, autism, ADHD, Aspergers and Alzheimer's have all risen dramatically.   

What has changed dramatically in my lifetime? (Our genes haven't, only the expression of them). Specifically, we've seen a dramatic:

1.  Increase in consumption of non-food items; an estimated 600,000 products in the grocery store stored in a box or a can that our ancestors would not recognize. If they can sit on the shelf and the bugs won't eat them, why do we think we can? 
2. Thousands of new chemicals and toxins added to our food and environment every year, none of them tested in synergy with other toxins. (please read this section in my book). We've known about this since 1962 when Rachel Carlson published Silent Spring.

When we are in fear mode, we often fail to make the most loving choices. Love is the antithesis to fear. So my quest and challenge to you is to practice self-loving, life-affirming actions.  EAT, THINK & THRIVE

We know that toxicity and inflammation is the root cause of all chronic dis-ease.  So how do we maximize nutrition and minimize toxicity and inflammation?

Take time to get to rediscover what your unique body needs. 

Use curiosity to turn fear and overwhelm into empowerment. 

Join us for my Kick-Start to Wellness Program.  Make conscious choices that will yield more energy and less stress. Join us for weekly educational webinars and support to bring in positive actions and prepare you for the fall and winter season.

Optimal health is not complicated but if you could have found it on your own you would have done it already. We are social beings and studies show that our health and longevity is determined by the people we surround ourselves with. Join our community to consciously choose constructive change.

Be the change you want to see in the world.
Introductory Webinar is Thursday, September 21st followed by three Wellness Wednesday Webinar sessions.

Register Here: 

Carpe Diem Wellness

Because nothing is more important than your health.

Lisa

ABOUT LISA JACKSON, RN, CHC, RYT-500, FDN, AFMC

Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker and a functional medicine coach with a mission to inspire others to feel and look their best at any age.

She is the former Executive Director of the Integrative Wellness Program for the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Lisa's book Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think and Thrive outlines her seven-step process towards optimal health that is fun and transformational.

Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement and the Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance.