Get Your Teeth Looking Their Best

People are always telling me how nice my teeth are and asking me what I do, therefore I thought I would share my regiment.

Step 1: I combine baking soda + Tom's fluoride free tooth paste + water and I use that as my tooth paste and brush with my sonicare tooth brush for two minutes. Once I rinse, I floss with Tom's fluoride free floss.

Step 2: I then mix 1 part Tom's fluoride and alcohol free mouth wash with 1 part hydrogen peroxide (active ingredient in whitening strips) and swish anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute. I find the peroxide not only helps to whiten my teeth but if I have any kind of canker sore or cut, it helps to clean it out and heal.

Step 3: I oil pull with organic coconut oil for 20 minutes. I break off a little piece and swish it around my mouth. No need to melt it if it's in solid form as it melts quite quickly from the heat of your mouth.

I try to do this every day but it's not necessary and I think once a day at most is good enough. You should notice a difference within a few days and be on your way to getting your best smile. Nothing makes you feel better than being able to flash a mouth full of pearly whites.

Clean Eats: Bacon + Avocado Egg Salad

I've gotten a lot of requests for the following recipe, therefore I felt it necessary to share! This is an easy recipe to prepare ahead of time and all you have to do is reheat the bacon stove top, in a toaster oven or a full oven. Microwaving it will zap the nutrients and you certainly don't wish to do that!

Ingredients

1 Medium Haas Avocado
2 slices of uncured bacon (Cooked however you wish. I cooked my bacon stove top first with just Himalayan Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper then reheated it in the toaster oven. It was perfectly crispy which is definitely KEY here!)
2 hard boiled eggs
Himalayan Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper to taste

Take your lovely, ripe Avocado, cut it up and scrape out all the deliciousness and mash in a bowl. Cut up your hard boiled eggs and mix well with the avocado. Finally, if your bacon isn't already, cut up your 2 slice of bacon into bite size bits and mix with the avocado and egg. I just did a few cracks of Himalayan salt and it was perfect but some people like pepper in theirs as well. Stir and enjoy!

Week 2 of Cleanse Reflection

Going into week three of the cleanse now and I'm noticing some amazing differences, even bigger differences than I have in the past. I've always known that cleansing lowers your testosterone levels, hence why the weight tends to go in the areas that men typically gain it I would imagine. That being said, I've noticed a significant decrease in my facial hair growth as well as a decrease in hair loss on top of my head. This is something that has hardly ever slowed since I began losing it. I literally just got choked up on the phone expressing this to my mother. This is something I have been dreaming about for no less than nine years. It's absolutely unbelievable to me. My skin has also been unbelievable as well. I've noticed a huge difference in my face. 

My upper arms are incredibly soft. I'm actually sure my coworkers think I'm a creep because I definitely just took my arm out of my blazer and started caressing my arm. Ew, I even sound creepy just writing it! Haha. The healing capabilities of my pimples has also decreased from seven days to just two. I honestly am shocked by the improvements and can't wait to see where I am a few months from now.

Overall, as of this morning, I am down a total of 10lbs (4lbs for round two). On average I'm losing 5lbs per week therefore I'm hoping I get down to 145lbs by the end of this cleanse. I'll also be quite excited to see how many inches I've lost come next Monday. Post cleanse I hope to continue eating the way I have and perhaps incorporating some seafood. I plan to only eat meat and have cheat meals when eating out and eating Clean/Pescatarian the remainder of the time all the while tracking it via Weight Watchers. I also plan to continue doing double T25 workouts, riding my bike on the weekends and starting to train for a half marathon that I hope to do in November. Hoping this is the beginning of the next part of my journey!

Week 1 in Review

The first week went better than I had anticipated. I'm down 6lbs already and I can really see it in my face and stomach. I keep looking in the mirror, a little too much. The bloating has gone down quite a lot and it's really exciting, especially in my fingers. Despite eating less, I've discovered that I'm not as hungry. If I eat too much, I feel it immediately. 

On yet another high note, I saw my functional medicine doctor on Monday. I cannot believe I went so long without seeing one. It's just unbelievable to be able to sit down in a doctors office and say, "I'm finding that I have pimples around my hairline and forehead," and have them respond with, "Are you using gluten free hair care?" Something I would not have thought of in a million years and something that would have prompted any other doctor to suggest medications or medicated cream to get rid of it, or suggested a million tests to figure out what it was. The days of going through medications and multiple tests is over. I honestly don't know how I ever went without a Functional Medicine doctor. They're quick when you want them to be but my visits always last an hour at least because that's how much time they're willing to spend with you. If you're interested in finding a functional medicine doctor near you, below is the site I used to find mine. For those who are local to the Boston area, my doctor works out of the Dedham location for Visions Healthcare and they also have a location in Wellesley. If you find that you get sick often, are on a lot of medications, have serious health issues, etc I highly recommend these kinds of doctors. They focus on the source instead of just putting you on medications that cover up the issue. It's truly amazing!

http://www.functionalmedicine.org/

Cleanse Day 3

Had a decent day yesterday. Woke up feeling great! Amazing what a difference two days can make. 

I left my Shakeology at home yesterday morning and replaced it with a Naked Blue Machine smoothie. I more or less swapped dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner but I have to admit it had a negative affect on me for the day. After lunch, around one-thirty, I started to get Vertigo that put me into an almost narcoleptic state if you will. I ended up having to leave work around three instead of five therefore I've certainly learned my lesson! DO NOT SKIP THE SHAKEO! Feeling much better today and hoping that as long as I stay on track with my previous schedule, I'll be just fine. I still have a breakout on the right side of my forehead but other than that, my face is really improving. It may just be because I'm more mindful of how much I exfoliate in the morning but my skin is definitely improving as well, especially my arms. The keratosis pelaris seems to love the cleanse. Looking forward to seeing how I feel by the end of day four.

Cleanse Day 2

Water Consumption: 84oz

I slept much better last night. Woke up and the edema has greatly diminished yet again in both my stomach and fingers (what they usually look like in the image on the left and what they look like today on the right). I swear I can already see a difference in my face. The headache is gone today although it was replaced by low energy and vertigo. Hoping another good night sleep will kick this by tomorrow.

Cleanse Day 1

Week 1 Cleanse Regiment

Breakfast
Supplements: Mineralize, Optimize, Vitamin D3, Iron, Vitamin C, Magnesium, Zinc + Wild Yam Root
Meal: Shakeology

Lunch
Supplement: Mineralize + Optimize
Meal: Balsamic Rosemary Chicken + wild rice with herbs and sunflower seeds

Snack
Supplement: Mineralize + Alkalinize
Meal: Granny Smith Apple

Dinner
Supplement: Mineralize, Optimize, Soothe + Wild Yam Root
Meal: Blue Machine Smoothie (Organic not from concentrate apple juice, 3 blackberries, 1 cup blueberries + 1 banana)

Water Consumption: 48oz

Did not sleep well last night unfortunately, woke up with a headache and my stomach was not feeling great. As the day has gone on both my headache and stomach have felt much better and I'm looking forward to getting a good nights rest tonight. Day one has gone strong and I'm excited to see results at the end of this in how I look, feel and my cravings for bad food. So far I'm already feeling and seeing a difference in my fingers as the swelling has gone down. I've decided to combine the Clean cleanse regiment with the Ultimate Reset. I'll be consuming one liquid meal in the morning, one solid at lunch, an apple for a snack in the afternoon, and another liquid meal for dinner while removing toxins and slowly working towards a vegetarian diet by week three.