Creating Optimal Health

If we want to cultivate Love and deepen our relationships it is important we begin with ourselves. We can discover that goodness is our intrinsic nature and we were born with a genetic code to find and experience love. It has been written the heart has nine centrifugal rings surrounding its energetic core. As one experience’s and lives life one can circle the rings dropping deeper and deeper and allowing the heart space to heal or harden. If we choose not to feel a feeling we can shut down a heart center. This can bring about an unaware hardening and strangling of a heart ring which can damage and hurt the heart. Allowing love, tenderness, and compassion to be experienced (even when it hurts and does not feel safe) allows emotions to be developed which bestows the gift of truth and integrity within the inner self. Once the relationship with self is experienced it attunes us to experience and deepen our relationships with others.

In my daily work with others, I have learned how to be kind and tender with myself. If I can find and ask the question it is surprising how the body and soul reaches out for the answer. I have found the heart is the compass and it can break through the hardships of daily living if we reach out and find the question. The present waiting to be opened is learning how to sit quietly and simply listen. Listening hard allows oneself to drop deeper and deeper into a void where answers are waiting to be discovered. As one listens a deeper understanding within the self begins to emerge. This is the work we are required to do in order to progress on our life journey. We begin to learn how to release “the inner critic” and how to release the “imagination”. We teach ourselves how to become “an active listener”. As we learn how to become receptive we discover a true inner self that has been waiting for eons!

There is a gift we begin to unwrap in the moment. We find inner peace that is deep and fills up all the rings of the heart. As we experience and learn how to open and reopen more to our inner self the heart space expands and grows larger. The rings become stronger and create a depth of understanding of what “LOVE” is. We fill up completely and understand the mysteries of the universe. We know deep within the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, “They must be felt with the heart”.

God Bless you in 2012!

PERMANENTLY ELIMINATE:

1. All vegetable oils exposed to light.  Use only cold pressed extra virgin oil or grape seed oil in dark glass bottles or cans or raw flax seed oil in black bottles.  Cook with ghee or virgin coconut oil.  Heat will ruin oils.  Absolutely do not eat products containing canola oil.
2. All margarine or anything that contains it.
3. All vegetable shortening or anything that contains it.  It is used in more than 80% of all packaged baked goods.
4. All hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil or anything that contains it.  (These are used in about 80% or more of all packaged baked goods including most self-popping corn and movie theater popcorn.)
5. All smoked or processed meat, such as bacon, salami, bologna, pastrami, sausage, ham, self-basting turkey, dried beef, etc.  (causes an extreme immune system reaction by increasing the white blood-cell count.)
6. All white refined flours or white sugar and anything that contains them. These are extensively processed and denatured eliminating nutrients essential to life, produced using chlorine bleach and phosphoric acid (and more), and are extensively damaged by oxidation.  They are extremely harmful to the body and can be addictive.
7. All soft drinks and other carbonated beverages, regardless of brand name.
8. All boiled or canned food.
9. All fried or deep-fried food.
10. All micro waved food (causes extensive free radical damage to the nutrients).
11. All tobacco products.
12. All synthetic sweeteners, containing aspartame such as NutraSweet®, Equal®, Sweet’N Low®.  Extensive muscle testing indicates they cause immediate muscle weakness.
13. All alcoholic beverages including wine for the first four months.
14. All hard cheese for the first four months.
15. All vinegar, except for raw apple cider vinegar (available in health food stores).  You may use fresh lemon juice instead.
16. All tap water or filtered water that does not eliminate fluoridation.  Use quality spring water for drinking and cooking.
17. All added food chemicals and preservatives, including sodium nitrates, artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, and food additives including corn syrup, dextrose or white sugar.  Simple forms of sugar (typically processed sugar) feed cancer cells.
18. All irradiated food.  Since 1986, all irradiated products must carry the international symbol called a Radura, which resembles a stylized flower.  FDA requires that both the logo and statement appear on packaged foods bulk containers of unpackaged foods, ingredients and products sold to food processors.  Irradiated food not only has lost most of is nutritional quality, it actually tests harmful to the body using Applied Kinesiology muscle testing.
19. All GMO (genetically modified food).  Most GMO foods are not labeled and also test extremely harmful to the body using Applied Kinesiology muscle testing.  Ask your grocer if they are selling GMO foods and most of them won’t know for sure.
20. All “farmed” fish.  Usually farmed, Salmon are fed unnatural diets, which cause extensive disease and predatory infestation resulting in a food substitute that is in fact harmful.  The fish lack the natural resistance to environmental stresses and other challenges.  With farmed Salmon, their flesh typically is not Salmon colored and can be a whitish gray.  There are approved dyes added to the man made food fed to these animals that results in an unnatural pigmentation of their flesh by artificial means.  Other fish, which are typically farmed and fed unnatural diets are freshwater Trout, Catfish and Bass as well as Yellow Tail (Hamachi if you enjoy sushi) from Japan.
21. Absolutely stay at least 30 feet away from the front of microwave ovens while they are in use. The radiation from them can cause free radical damage to all parts of the body exposed to the radiation.  The closer the body is to the microwave oven, the more free radical damage occurs.  Free radical damage from any form of radiation that the individual cells cannot defend themselves against can  cause cancer.

20 March 2010
8:00 am	to	3:00 pm

I will be presenting a talk during the upcoming women’s health expo in Annapolis, REJUVENATE – FINDING BALANCE.

My talk will be titled “Super Health Begins with Super-food Nutrition” (SESSION III-S, 12:00 – 1:00 pm). The Sixth Annual Women’s Health Expo will be taking place on March 20th from 8am – 3pm at:

Sheraton Hotel
173 Jennifer Rd
Annapolis, MD 21401

Map link.

The conference website is here

For more information, download the brochure here.

Presented by the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition and sponsored by the National Breast & Ovarian Cancer Connection, a grant from the Maryland Attorney General Settlement fund, and Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

Irradiation damages the quality of food.

Irradiation damages food by breaking up molecules and creating free radicals. The free radicals kill some bacteria, but they also bounce around in the food, damage vitamins and enzymes, and combine with existing chemicals (like pesticides) in the food to form new chemicals, called unique radiolytic products (URPs).

Source: US Government Accounting Office. The Department of the Army’s Food Irradiation Program –Is It Worth Continuing: PSAD-78-146. Washington, DC 9/29/78, pp. 27-28. Also David R. Murray, Biology of Food Irradiation, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1990), p. 74-77.

Some of these URPs are known toxins (benzene, formaldehyde, lipid peroxides) and some are unique to irradiated foods. Scientists have not studied the long-term effect of these new chemicals in our diet. Therefore, we cannot assume they are safe.

Source: A Broken Record, a report by Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, October 2000, pages 25 and 26 (Originally in “Evaluation of the health aspects of certain compounds found in irradiated beef.” Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Bethesda. Prepared for the US Army Medical Research and Development Command, Fort Detrick , MD, August 1977. Supplements I and II, March 1979). This refers only to compounds found in irradiated beef, however, it is justifiable to assume the same kind of chemical changes occur in other meats, and likely something similar, though probably less extensive, in fruits and vegetables.

Irradiated foods can lose 5%-80% of many vitamins (A, C, E, K and B complex). The amount of loss depends on the dose of irradiation and the length of storage time.

Source: P.S. Elias and A.J. Cohen. Recent Advances in Food Irradiation. (Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier Biomedical Press, 1983.) P.S. Elias and A.J. Cohen. Radiation Chemistry of Major food Components (Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier Biomedical Press, 1977). W. Heiman. Fundamentals of Food chemistry. (Chichester, England: Ellis Horwood, 1980). Both cited in Kathleen Tucker, Food Irradiation: Who Wants It? (Washington DC: Essential Books, 1987).

Most of the food in the American diet is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for irradiation: beef, pork, lamb, poultry, wheat, wheat flour, vegetables, fruits, shell eggs, seeds for sprouting, spices, herb teas. (Dairy is already pasteurized). A food industry petition currently before the FDA asks for approval for luncheon meats, salad bar items, sprouts, fresh juices and frozen foods. Another petition before the USDA asks for approval for imported fruits and vegetables.

Source: The FDA and USDA dockets. See http://www.purefood.org/irradlink.html in the news archive for the news reports.

Irradiation damages the natural digestive enzymes found in raw foods. This means the body has to work harder to digest them.

Source: In my best judgment “damaged” is a general statement that can be made about all digestive enzymes. I base this judgment on the following:

1. induction: if irradiation breaks molecules and creates free radicals, they will damage large molecules like  enzymes as well as bacteria.
2. irradiation at the proper doses delays (or sometimes, if the dose is inadvertently too high, stops) the ripening of fruits and vegetables. Ripening is caused by enzyme activity, therefore when a fruit doesn’t ripen, it is because the enzymes are not activated.
3. Two studies I am familiar with where irradiation caused abnormal growth (which is controlled by enzyme activity) are:

• A. (Patel et al., Behaviour of lipase activity of the gamma-irradiated groundnut during germination, Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society, 1965; 42:617-619)
• This study investigated the effect of gamma irradiation on lipase activity of the groundnut (peanut) during germination. The dose levels were 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 and 120 Kiloroentgens, which convert to .1, .3, .5, .7, .9 and 1.2 kGrays. These doses range from one-eightieth to one-eighth the maximum dose requested in the Australia/New Zealand application to allow irradiation of oilseeds. The suppression of lipase activity (Figure 1) is for almost all doses dose-dependent. The figure shows that a difference in the level and rate of lipase activity between control and irradiated seeds begins at day 6 and continues through the germination period. The authors state “irradiation of 50 kr [.5 kGray] and above induced damage to the active centers [of lipase production].” “In general the growth of irradiated seeds was poor (only epicotyls are developed) and seeds irradiated to higher dosage levels, i.e., 70 kr [.7 kGray] and above did not grow at all,” although lipase increased without germination in these seeds. The authors attribute the abnormal timing of lipase production and failure to germinate  to irradiation damage to the nucleus and mitochondria.
• B. (Sitton et al., Electron beam irradiation effects on wheat quality, seed vigor, and viability and pathogenicity of teliospores of Tilletia controversa and T. tritici, Plant Disease 1995; 79:586-589)
• This study specifically addresses the issue at hand. The authors compared irradiated fungus spores and wheat at doses of 0.0, 1.2, 2.6, 4.6, 6.7 and 10.2 kGray for spore viability, wheat usability in baking, and germination. Germination was tested by storing the seeds on germination paper in the dark for 7 days at 20ºC, then planting them in soil in early spring. Table 3 (“germination test,” the ‘easiest’ test) shows that no normal germination occurred at any irradiation dose. The percentage of seeds that did not germinate increased from 0.5% (control group) to 6.0% (10.2 kGray). The remaining seeds germinated abnormally. There are many similar studies on deliberately retarding the sprouting of potatoes, the spoilage of oysters, etc.

If unlabeled, raw foods that have been irradiated look like fresh foods, but nutritionally they are like cooked foods, with decreased vitamins and enzymes. The FDA allows these foods to be labeled “fresh.”

Source: First sentence: see above. Second sentence: Federal Register of January 6, 1993 (58 FR 2302 at 2401), FDA final rule regarding labeling (this applies to “raw” foods treated up to 1 kiloGray).

Irradiated fats tend to become rancid.

Source: Murray, pp. 83-84.

When high-energy electron beams are used, trace amounts of radioactivity may be created in the food.

Source: Report on the Safety and Wholesomeness of Irradiated Foods to the British Government, November, 1984, sections 4.6 and 4.7

Science has not proved that a long-term diet of irradiated foods is safe for human health.

The longest human feeding study was 15 weeks. No one knows the long-term effects of a life-long diet that includes foods which will be frequently irradiated, such as meat, chicken, vegetables, fruits, salads, sprouts and juices.

Source: The 15 week study was conducted in China. Discussed by Donald Louria, M.D., in “Zapping the Food Supply,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, No. 46 (1990), pp. 34-36. This is available at <http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1990/s90/s90louria.html> Interestingly, no feeding studies have been done on pigs, the most common surrogate for humans.

There are no studies on the effects of feeding babies or children diets containing irradiated foods, except a very small and controversial study from India that showed health effects.

Source: Neither Public Citizen nor Food and Water, which researched the issue, nor my own readings, have uncovered any studies on babies or children. The Indian study had 5 malnourished children given diets with freshly irradiated wheat, compared 5 children given stored irradiated wheat. The first group showed chromosomal damage. I’ve read the criticisms and the countercriticisms. The criticisms say that the researchers’ method of counting the chromosomes was faulty and not reproducible, so their judgment that the children had been harmed is faulty. The countercriticisms deny their counting methods were faulty. I can’t judge, so I downplay  the study in my materials.

Studies on animals fed irradiated foods have shown increased tumors, reproductive failures and kidney damage. Some possible causes are: irradiation-induced vitamin deficiencies, the inactivity of enzymes in the food, DNA damage, and toxic radiolytic products in the food.

Source: See Murray, Chapter 6. Also A Broken Record. Both have numerous detailed sources.

The FDA based its approval of irradiation for poultry on only 5 of 441 animal-feeding studies. Marcia van Gemert, Ph.D., the toxicologist who chaired the FDA committee that approved irradiation, later said, “These studies reviewed in the 1982 literature from the FDA were not adequate by 1982 standards, and are even less accurate by 1993 standards to evaluate the safety of any product, especially a food product such as irradiated food.” The 5 studies are not a good basis for approval of irradiation for humans, because they showed health effects on the animals or were conducted using irradiation at lower energies than those the FDA eventually approved.

Source: FDA Memorandum from Marcia van Gemert to Clyde Takeguchi, Dec. 28, 1992, in A Broken Record, note 27

The FDA based its approval of irradiation for fruits and vegetables on a theoretical calculation of the amount of URPs in the diet from one 7.5 oz. serving/day of irradiated food. Considering the different kinds of foods approved for irradiation, this quantity is too small and the calculation is irrelevant.

Source: First sentence: A document prepared by chemist Jeffrey Reinhardt, from FDA projections, available at http://www.purefood.org/irrad/liverurps.cfm. Second sentence: The FDA considered fruits and vegetables in isolation, not as part of a diet consisting largely of potentially irradiated foods.

Even with current labeling requirements, people cannot avoid eating irradiated food. That means there is no control group, and epidemiologists will never be able to determine if irradiated food has any health effects.

Source: Not necessary

Science is always changing. The science of today is not the science of tomorrow. The science we have today is not adequate to prove the long-term safety of food irradiation.

Source: Every scientist knows that science is provisional.

Irradiation covers up problems that the meat and poultry industry should solve.

Irradiation covers up the increased fecal contamination that results from speeded up slaughter and decreased federal inspection, both of which allow meat and poultry to be produced more cheaply. Prodded by the industry, the USDA has allowed a transfer of inspection to company inspectors. Where government inspectors remain, they are not allowed to condemn meat and poultry now that they condemned 20 years ago.

Source: Speeded-up slaughter has occurred as part of deregulation. This is described in Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry, by Gail Eisnitz.(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997), available from the Humane Farming Association, chapters 26 and 27.

Because of this deregulation (continued under President Clinton, a protégé of Tyson Foods), the meat and poultry industry has recently lost money and suffered bad publicity from food-poisoning lawsuits and expensive product recalls. Irradiation is a “magic bullet” that will enable them to say that the product was “clean” when it left the packing plant. (Irradiation, however, does not sterilize food, and any bacteria that remain can grow to toxic proportions if the food is not properly stored and handled.)

Source: For the Clinton-Tyson connection, see Slaughterhouse, p. 245. Also of interest is an agricultural journalist’s report on his favors to Tyson at <http://www.purefood.org/irrad/tysontakeover.cfm> Losing money and bad publicity—common knowledge (Jack in the Box, Hudson Foods recall of ground beef etc.) Magic bullet statement: my interpretation of the most important value of irradiation to producers: it shields them from liability (of course, they could say that they care most about protecting the customer). Not sterilizing: the doses used for regular food are not sterilizing doses (44 kilograys is the dose for meat for astronauts). Sterilized food is only used for immunocompromised patients (rarely), astronauts’ meat (rarely) and lab animals. Regrowth of bacteria at room temperature or warmth: common knowledge.

In 2000, seven meat industry associations submitted a petition to USDA to redefine key regulations relating to contamination. If accepted by USDA, this petition would permit unlimited fecal contamination during production, as long as irradiation was used afterwards.

Source: [Federal Register: May 15, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 94)][Page 30952-30956],  [Docket No. 00-014N], items 4 and 5 describing changes requested by the industry. This is available at http://www.purefood.org/irrad/haccp.html

Labeling–a public policy decision unrelated to science–is necessary to inform people so they can choose to avoid irradiated foods.
Because irradiated foods have not been proven safe for human health in the long term, prominent, conspicuous and truthful labels are necessary for all irradiated foods. Consumers should be able to easily determine if their food has been irradiated. Labels should also be required for irradiated ingredients of compound foods, and for restaurant and institutional foods.

Source: N/A

Because irradiation can deplete vitamins, labels should state the amount of vitamin loss after irradiation, especially for fresh foods that are usually eaten fresh. Consumers have the right to know if they are buying nutritionally impaired foods.

Source: N/A

Current US labels are not sufficient to enable consumers to avoid irradiated food. Foods are labeled only to the first purchaser. Irradiated spices, herb teas and supplement ingredients, foods that are served in restaurants, schools, etc., or receive further processing, do not bear consumer labels. Labels are required only for foods sold whole (like a piece of fruit) or irradiated in the package (like chicken breasts). A radura is required. The text with the declaration of irradiation can be as small as the type face on the ingredient label. The US Department of Agriculture requirements have one difference: irradiated meat or poultry that is part of another food (like a TV dinner) must be disclosed on the label.

Source: First sentence: my judgment. Remaining paragraph:
FDA and USDA  regulations. The FDA regulations are available at http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/98fr/021799a.txt; the USDA regulations athttp://www.usda.gov/news/releases/1999/12/0486

The US Food and Drug Administration is currently rewriting the regulation for minimum labeling, and will release it for public comment by early 2002. They may eliminate all required text labels. If they do retain the labels, Congress has told them to use a “friendly” euphemism instead of “irradiation.”

Source: The FDA is planning to resubmit the regulation by early 2002. One of the options in the original February 1999 proposal was to eliminate all text labels (see next item for source)

Electron-beam irradiation today means nuclear irradiation tomorrow.

The source of the irradiation is not listed on the label.

Source: Current FDA regulation on labeling, 21CFR179.26, Page 419-42, available at http://www.purefood.org/irrad/title21.cfm

The original sponsor of food irradiation in the US was the Department of Energy, which wanted to create a favorable image of nuclear power as well as dispose of radioactive waste. These goals have not changed.

Source: Michael Colby. “Food Irradiation: An Activist Primer,” Walden, Vermont, 1998. Allen Greenberg “Comment,” Critical Mass Bulletin, April 1984. Also discussed in Kathleen Tucker’s book, Food Irradiation: Who Wants It?

Many foods cannot be irradiated using electron beams. E-beams only penetrate 1-1.5 inches on each side, and are suitable only for flat, evenly sized foods like patties. Large fruits, foods in boxes, and irregularly shaped foods must be irradiated using x-rays or gamma rays from nuclear materials.

Source: David R. Murray, Biology of Food Irradiation, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1990), p. 34

Countries that lack a cheap and reliable source of electricity for e-beams use nuclear materials. Opening U.S. markets to irradiated food encourages the spread of nuclear irradiation worldwide.

Source: Inference. Does anyone think that Egypt or Guatemala is going to use electricity?

Irradiation using radioactive materials is an environmental hazard.

The more nuclear irradiators, the more likelihood of a serious accident in transport, operation or disposal of the nuclear materials.

Source: Opinion

Food irradiation facilities have already contaminated the environment. For example, in the state of Georgia in 1988, radioactive water escaped from an irradiation facility. The taxpayers were stuck with $47 million in cleanup costs. Radioactivity was tracked into cars and homes. In Hawaii in 1967 and New Jersey in 1982, radioactive water was flushed into the public sewer system.

Source: “Facts about food irradiation,” Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, New York, 1999.

Numerous worker exposures have occurred in food irradiation facilities worldwide.

Source: See this report from government researchers at Pacific National Laboratories.

Irradiation doesn’t provide clean food.

Because irradiation doesn’t kill all the bacteria in a food, the ones that survive are by definition radiation-resistant. These bacteria will multiply and eventually work their way back to the ‘animal factories’. Soon thereafter, the bacteria that contaminate the meat will no longer be killed by currently approved doses of irradiation. The technology will no longer be usable, while stronger bacteria contaminate our food supply.

Source: Radiation resistant bacteria have already been discovered (not in irradiated food though). I think this scenario is very likely over 20 years.

People may become more careless about sanitation if irradiation is widely used. Irradiation doesn’t kill all the bacteria in a food. In a few hours at room temperature, the bacteria remaining in meat or poultry after irradiation can multiply to the level existing before irradiation.

Source: First sentence: opinion. Third sentence: There are several locations: one is in a discussion IDENTIFYING, ADDRESSING AND OVERCOMING CONSUMER CONCERNS: A Roundtable on Food Irradiation, Convened by: Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, National Food Processors Association and International Food Information Council. February 18-19, 1998, page 9.

Some bacteria, like the one that causes botulism, as well as viruses and prions (which are believed to cause Mad Cow Disease) are not killed by current doses of irradiation.

Source: Botulism: Killed at 50 kilograys, in Murray, The Biology of Food Irradiation, p. 29.  Prions: can’t be killed by anything. Viruses: Murray, the Biology of Food Irradiation, p. 30 (cites N.J. Jensen “Irradiation of Food: The Translation of a report by a Danish working Group” pp. 115-131, LST, National Food Agency, Denmark (1986)).

Irradiation encourages food producers to cut corners on sanitation, because they can ‘clean up’ the food just before it is shipped.

Source: See above, May 15, 2000 petition.

Irradiation does nothing to change the way food is grown and produced.

Irradiated foods can have longer shelf lives than nonirradiated foods, which means they can be shipped further while appearing ‘fresh.’ Food grown by giant farms far away may last longer than nonirradiated, locally grown food, even if it is inferior in nutrition and taste. Thus, irradiation encourages centralization and hurts small farmers.

Source: A logical conclusion from irradiation’s known ability to prolong shelf life of selected foods.

The use of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and other agrichemicals, as well as pollution and energy use, are not affected. Irradiation is applied by the packer after harvest or slaughter.

Source: N/A. I suppose one could quibble and argue that by making fruit  last longer, slightly less needs to be grown. But because grocers’ decisions to keep food on the shelf doesn’t have anything to do with the supply, I don’t think there would be any difference.

Free-market economists say irradiation is ‘efficient’: it provides the cheapest possible food for the least possible risk. But these economists are not concerned about the impaired nutritional quality of the food. They are not considering the environmental effects of large-scale corporate farming, the social costs of centralization of agriculture and loss of family farms,, the potential long-term damage to human health, and the possibility of irradiation-resistant super-bacteria. All of these developments should be (but are not) considered when regulators and public health officials evaluate the benefits of food irradiation.
Look at the context of food production and you can see that there are mega-system effects. These are never discussed by the media or advocates of irradiation.

Brought to you by: Organic Consumers Association
Office: 6101 Cliff Estate Road, Little Marais, MN 55614 (218) 226-4164, Fax: (218)  226-4157
Irradiation Coordinator: Danila Oder, danila@purefood.org
Knowledge is power and your choice and spending sends a message. Ask your local health food market to label all irradiated foods.

Building the foundation for Health and Wellness requires an inventory process to be taken that is specific, dynamic and captures the individual’s body blueprint, which is a code that is unique to each of us that tells us all about who we are and how our body works.

Like an architect creates a blueprint to be used as a map to capture the design of a home, we can create a blueprint as a guide to help discover what our body wants us to hear. This blueprint acts as a map, or compass, guiding us in the direction our body wants to follow.

For example, if we are holding an extra 10 lbs of weight specially located around our waist, the body is directing us that it has “a craving for the sweetness in life”. The extra weight is the body’s way to make sure you are getting this message. Exercise is only part of the answer; the first step is the recognition of this feeling. The second step is finding the solution and creating tools to resolve the body’s emotional craving. Decoding the body’s message is always an individual process and requires collecting data for the blueprint to see the pattern.

Collecting the data
Many women have developed self defeating patterns, such as making choices that take away their power as opposed to empowering themselves, not understanding boundaries, or living a cycle of repeating drama between the ” Victim”, the “Rescuer” and the “Persecutor”.

These self-defeating patterns need to be broken down and many woman can only see the details according to the pattern she is identifying with at the moment. Therefore, collecting the day to day information about who you are and what is going on with your body will help you to identify all of these patterns. But many women need help in how to honestly collect the information necessary to create their blueprint.  A few suggestions to get started are:

• Write down a history/inventory of your overall health; include all medical issues/breakthroughs, emotional traumas you’ve experienced as well as cultural and/or spiritual beliefs.
• Gather documentation of all your lab tests and their results.
• Write down all of the physical symptoms you have as if they could all be taken away with a magic wand.
• Find someone you trust, who you can feel safe with, to tell your story to, that can walk you through the tough questions about what is really going on in your life.

Decoding the data
By gathering all of this information, and by finding someone you trust to share your story with, you create a safe setting to discover the self defeating patterns and triggers that have been developing in your day to day life.

Decoding this information, the blueprint, is a way to start seeing the answers that may have seemed invisible, this information must be felt and not just seen. Identifying and using this information affects our choices of how to nourish and care for the physical body and how to create harmony as in a well tuned instrument. Think about it, when an instrument is out of tune or not creating a pleasant sound, tuning is required to allow the instrument to function properly and in harmony again.

Your body is the same way when it is lacking something or is nutritionally out of tune. When the vessel, (the body), is empty it will search for something to fill it up or bring it back to harmony.  The body’s natural instinct is to heal itself, while maintaining a healthy balance of weight and optimal energetic levels. And once these patterns are identified, and validated, it lifts the pressure or burden you may have been carrying. A sense of permission is granted to move forward on this journey of rebuilding the foundation with ease and grace.

Fine tuning and building a new foundation
Once the clarity of the patterns has shown up it is time to fine tune your body and heart. In order to do this one must first find the courage and want to change one’s patterns.  This requires practice and patience to create new behaviors that will support the shift.

Tools need to be created to help delete the old patterns that have been worn as the truth for so long and at the same time support this new way of thinking and being…

What you need is to create a tool belt fully designed to support you so that you won’t crash―stay strong throughout the day― as well as ways to create a feeling of safety and complete control over your life.

These tools can be used as a map to govern you toward a quicker success. This process is designed to empower you by helping to identify who you are, where you are as well as when and why the body is having problems and/or symptoms. These answers may help you, if necessary to find someone you trust, to help you in fine tuning your blueprint.  Some of the fine tuning tools may include the following suggestions:

• Testing—Have testing done to identify what the weak links are that trigger the imbalance or symptom. Identifying the causes and knowing why you are feeling the way you are will empower you.
• Feeling—Use your feelings and intuition to help you identify how something, such as the foods you are eating, are affecting your energy, awareness, and even emotions. (Believe me on an intuitive level, there is so much more to learn and understand.)
• Education—Learn all you can about what is affecting you. For instance, have someone educate you on the nutritional values of foods; addressing how foods are affecting you and help you to identify the foods that will support the re-balancing process as well as help get the most healing and spiritual value out of what you eat. Through subtle shifts in our diet we can re-awaken your natural beauty, inner happiness and physical energy.
• Connections—The foods we crave can also indicate what we are lacking both physically and mentally. For example, if we are carving sweets, we may want more sweetness out of our life while spices may indicate the desire for more passion in life. Sticky starches can indicate a deeper and more profound need for comfort.
• Ask for Help—Don’t be afraid to reach out for help from others, from support to guidance…

These are just a few suggestions to get started. When creating an individual body blueprint, each individual needs to tailor programs according to their life style to ensure sustainable and optimal health. And remember a body blueprint is a living document that needs to be continually monitored, modified, and re-decoded as we continue to grow and change.

Cheryl Diane’s magnitude and passion is apparent in her company Creating Optimal Health™, which is a full-service wellness center dedicated to helping individuals live naturally. Focusing on the energy of food, diet, exercise and total wellness, Cheryl Diane counsels and empowers her clients to live a life enriched with joy, wellness, and balance.

(originally published at ARC Association)