Category Archives: Stress

5 Ways to Get Clean in the New Year

Posted on January 1, 2016 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 1 Comment on 5 Ways to Get Clean in the New Year

Well, it’s officially over … glitter, sparklers, gluttony, booze and stress. Are you dull and puffy? Bloated and irritable? It’s time to hit the reset button and get clean.

Get into a balanced eating regime. You’ve got to Detox Your Body! It’s not as hard as you think.

While your liver is the disco queen of detoxification, she becomes sluggish when abused. Toxins back up and cause all kinds of issues that reveal your liver is unhappy. When you over-eat, consume excess sugar, alcohol and don’t get enough sleep, the body’s ability to detox naturally slows — which then sits stagnant in your liver and fat cells. Gross.

Here are five ways to get clean in the New Year:

Drink 32 ounces of lemon water first thing in the AM, which kick starts your metabolism and flushes toxins immediately.
Shoot 1-2 teaspoons of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar. Alkalizing, cleansing, healing. Just do it. Other goodness: powerful herbs and roots like ginger, turmeric, fennel, green tea and peppermint are also huge health boosters and detoxifiers, and New Chapter’s Herbal Detoxification supplements include a little of everything good in this world.
Practice 20 minutes of yoga or 10 minutes of meditation. Calm your mind, set your intention and let go of toxic thoughts.
DRINK Daily Green Juice. This goodness instantly detoxes your system and energizes your body and soul. You don’t have to be on a juice cleanse to get your daily dose of health-boosting nutrients. Celery, lemon, leafy greens, beets and cucumber are some of the ways to keep your digestive system happy and bloat-free everyday. Find some of these heroes in a Radiant Glow.
DUMP dairy, gluten and sugar for seven days. This will accelerate your detoxification, make you lighter, brighter and ready to take on the new year. It will help you make better choices and show you where your demons lie. A GEM juice cleanse is a great way to kick start. Do it with a friend!

At the end of the day, it is about a lifestyle change, not a week or so of regimented consumption. Find things that work for you and add them into your daily life. A healthy routine paves the way to a vibrant future of health and happiness!

Need more information and motivation? We can help you get there with our Day In the Life of A GEM Series beginning Wednesday nights this January 13. Our series consists of four small group counseling sessions that reveal step-by-step details of what a healthy day should look like. It’s an amazing group! Learn more about it here.

AND … drum roll please! So you don’t miss out on getting your daily GEM goodness, in the new year we are extending our hours to stay open until 6 p.m. Monday – Friday. YEP. WE ARE OPEN UNTIL 6 p.m.

See you at The Gem!

5 Tips for Staying Healthy This Winter

Posted on December 15, 2015 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 3 Comments on 5 Tips for Staying Healthy This Winter

This season brings with it happy holidays and festive parties. It also brings stress, less exercise, and more time indoors which equals a greater risk of getting sick with colds and flu. Want to stay strong, boost your immune system, and increase your chances of staying shiny, bright and well this winter? Read on (hint: it’s not just about more vitamin C):

TIP #1: FEED YOUR GUT good bacteria. Our gastrointestinal system is the center of immunity. Maintaining a healthy gut flora is key to strengthening our immune system and helping to prevent illness.

Probiotics, or “good” bacteria, diminish inflammation in the gut and thus help fight illness. So, during this season especially, make sure you’re consuming probiotic-packed foods, like sauerkraut or organic miso. Daily shots of raw apple cider vinegar will also help. Add a probiotic supplement – it’s imperative. We love BIO KULT because it doesn’t need refrigeration, which makes it easier to carry.

TIP #2: BOOST YOUR DIET. Sure, Vitamin C will help keep your immune system strong, so include foods like oranges, blueberries, peppers and broccoli. But don’t just focus on one nutrient.

Eat a whole food, plant-based diet with lots of in-season vegetables like winter greens, yams, carrots, and squash. Our LENTIL SOUP, made from scratch, packs rich vegetable nutrients into a warm cup of ridiculous yumminess.
If you struggle to consume the recommended 8 servings of veggies each day, try juicing them! Drink juices that consist of 3/4 vegetables and 1/4 fruit. Our RUBY SLIPPER, a blend of carrot, beet, lemon, ginger and cucumber is a stress-busting combination that will fortify your immune system. A GREEN GLOW has been known to cure all that ails you! Add ginger and lemon boosts too.
Use lots of herbs and spices. Turmeric and ginger are possibly 2 of the most anti-inflammatory, immunity boosting spices you can consume. Daily IMMUNITY SHOTS at The GEM part of your ticket to staying well. Buy the IMMUNITY MIX (turmeric, ginger, lemon) in 8 ounce bottles and make your own super powered ImmuniTEA with raw honey. It’s SO good!
Vitamin D deficiencies also contribute to our susceptibility to illness. Sunlight AND a D3 supplement will help do the trick.
Immune boosting SUPERFOODS such as our ADAPTOGEN drops with medicinal mushroom tincture is the final gloss on ensuring your health for the season. If you do find yourself feeling a little under the weather, start immediately with our COLDS COCKTAIL, a tonic that helps push that cold on through.

TIP #3: MANAGE STRESS. Stress triggers the production of cortisol, a hormone that weakens the immune system, making you more susceptible to infection. People who are under more stress are twice as likely to develop colds when exposed to them than those who are chill. Meditation, yoga, deep breathing – these are KEY to managing stress. Don’t skip over this. It’s important.

TIP #4: DON’T SKIP THE EXERCISE. Moderate EXERCISE is cleansing, moderates stress levels, and bolsters immunity. 30 minutes a day. End of story.

TIP #5: GET GOOD SLEEP. Sleep offers your body time to repair and restore your system. 7-8 hours is the minimum. The nights are longer in the winter for a reason: your body needs more sleep to stay well and strong.

Stay healthy, my friends! And see you inside THE GEM.

Your fatigue’s dirty little secret

Posted on November 11, 2014 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has Comments Off on Your fatigue’s dirty little secret

Are you in a constant state of fatigue?

Do you …

Feel rundown or overwhelmed?

Have difficulty falling asleep?

Wake up in the middle of the night?

Wake up exhausted, even when you go to bed at a reasonable hour?

Feel exhausted late in the afternoon, but more awake, alert and energetic after 6PM than you do all day?

Crave salty and sweet snacks?

Have brain fog? Chronic racing thoughts?

No, you probably aren’t falling apart. You just might be experiencing adrenal fatigue. What is that, you might ask?

Adrenal glands are endocrine glands that sit at the top of the kidneys. These guys mobilize your body’s response to every kind of stress. They regulate blood sugar, regulate energy production and storage, immune function, heart rate, muscle tone and other processes that enable you to cope with the stress.

Important roles, no doubt.

So it’s important to keep these guys working properly and don’t over work them. Adrenal fatigue occurs when the demands of stress cannot be adequately met.

Whether emotional, environmental or physical, prolonged stress is disastrous for the adrenals. Prolonged stress wreaks havoc on your blood sugar, causes thinning skin, muscle wasting, memory loss, high blood pressure, dizziness and night sweats. Eventually, the adrenals become fatigued.

You want to recognize fatigue so you can begin to manage it before it gets out of hand. Overworked adrenals eventually crash, leading to adrenal exhaustion, where the body is unable to maintain adequate adrenal hormone production. And then you can say hello to extreme fatigue (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), irritability, inability to concentrate, frustration, insomnia, addictions to sweet or salty foods, allergies, depression, anxiety, sensitivity to cold, diabetes and headaches…Cliff Notes version: it is not fun!

While we can’t always eliminate stress, we can nourish our bodies and souls in a way that strengthens the response and keep the negative effects on your body at bay.

10 tips to nourish your adrenals:

1. Breathe! Commit to regular deep breathing exercises. Aim for 10 to 20 deep belly breaths every morning and every night. Six counts in, six counts out. Not only is it calming to the mind and body, it is cleansing and energizing.

2. Eat clean, whole foods. Let food be thy medicine, right? Rid your diet of the nasty five: caffeine (see ya later, coffee), alcohol, table salt, soda and sugar. And say hello to good sources of protein, complex starch, nuts and seeds, super berries and lots and lots of dark greens (they contain great amounts of B vitamins). Nourish yourself through food.

3. Daily organic juice. Flooding your body with super powered greens nourish every inch of your body. Instant energy, without a crash, daily juice helps maintain blood sugar levels and boosts immunity. The new Disco (Super GREEN) juice is the most detoxifying juice yet, power packed with chlorophyll and phytonutrients certain to boost you back to vibrance. For REAL!

4. Sleep. Try to get eight hours for rest and repair. Lack of sleep not only affects adrenals but also hormonal balance. Cortisol levels contribute that puffy ring of belly fat around your middle. Go to bed earlier, and stay screen free for at least 30 minutes prior to bed. Late night viewing of electronic screens are proven to negatively affect sleep patterns.

5. Daily quiet time. This is a good time use a Gratitude Journal identifying five things to be grateful for. Try it—you’ll be amazed how it soothes the mind. Bring awareness to your daily life with meditation. Studies show meditation can drastically reduce stress. Just do it!

6. Try a weekly detox soak. Take a relaxing bath at least weekly to promote detoxification of impurities that tax your system. A detox bath of one cup Epsom salts, one cup baking soda and eight drops of lavender oil just might change your life!

7. Take a daily probiotic. When your gut is healed, health will naturally improve. Bio-Kult is the VERY best probiotic out there. This is something I recommend always!

8. Recover with Bloom! This incredible elixir, called Recovery, is a combination of several organic herbs in a liquid format that helps support adrenals and help the body “recover” from stress—be it physical or mental. I take two droppersful in the morning and at night. I sleep better, and that afternoon fatigue starts to disappear. It’s AMAZING! Get your magic elixir inside The GEM today.

9. Learn to love restorative exercise like yoga. Simple daily yoga stretches, even for just 15 minutes makes an enormous difference.

10. Learn how to say NO … Boundaries. Build your own. This is a major cause of stress. Don’t over commit yourself. There’s only so much of you to go around!!

Learn more ways to nourish your body and soul with a Diamonds on Your Inside counseling session. That’s why we’re here.

Yoga for Stress Relief

Posted on September 8, 2014 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 5 Comments on Yoga for Stress Relief

Have to preach this…yoga is a critical component for stress relief.

Don’t turn off the screen just yet. Yoga doesn’t have to be:

Difficult to practice. Simple postures can be done anywhere, anytime.
Intimidating. If you don’t already practice yoga, don’t be scared. You gotta start somewhere. Most folks can’t twist into a pretzel and stand on one finger.
Practiced on a mountaintop in white robes. It’s not weird. I ran from the idea of yoga just a few years back, and now can’t live without it! Plus, it is one of the oldest defined practice of self development.

Yoga may be more familiar than you think. Many popular techniques found to reduce stress derive from yoga:

Controlled breathing. This stuff works.
Meditation. Be grateful for your life and the big and small things in it.
Physical movement (exercise)
Mental imagery. See it, think it, be it.
Stretching. It’s crazy what a difference a few stretching poses can make.

Yoga can provide the combined benefits of these activities in one technique. It brings together the mind, body and spirit. Whether you use yoga for spiritual transformation or for stress management and physical well-being, the benefits are numerous and undeniable. Those with physical limitations can and actually SHOULD practice yoga, just make sure you have a good instructor.

There are several different styles of yoga, some moving through the poses more quickly and other styles relaxing deeply into each pose. Some have a more spiritual angle, while others are used purely as a form of exercise. Certain poses can be done just about anywhere and a yoga program can go for hours or minutes, depending on your schedule.

This is what yoga can do for you:

Reduce stress, anxiety and muscle tension
Increase strength and flexibility
Reduce cortisol levels–which make you hold on to fat, among a million other things.
Lower blood pressure and heart rate
Spiritual growth. It can happen, regardless of your religion.
Sense of well being. Well, sign me up!

Yoga’s benefits are HUGE—it gives a crazy high payoff for the small amount of effort you have to exert.

There are so many studios that offer beginning yoga, often with incredible guidance from the instructor. You really want to have that extra attention at the beginning to learn proper form and be more engaged. Places like Sunstone offer classes that are heated, slower, and more methodical. Start with Spark and work up to Fire Class. Water class (a true spiritual experience, in my opinion) is my personal favorite. Exhale & We Yogis have lots of different varieties of classes. We Yogis even has classes for kids and teens. Dallas Yoga Center has classes for beginners and even some that focus on meditation. Try a few online videos and images (simple beginner poses), though the energy of a live class is so much more therapeutic.

Select a place that you feel comfortable with and try it out. Give it several tries with different types of yoga until you find what is right for you. Private yoga sessions including guided meditation are an incredibly rewarding option!

Bottom line: Make the connection between knowing your stress levels and changing your behaviors. Managing stress in a positive way will make a life-changing impact your body and your life.

Do you have a favorite yoga studio? Share it with us!!

Peace. Happy. Yoga.

5 Ways to Manage Back-to-School Stress

Posted on August 19, 2014 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 3 Comments on 5 Ways to Manage Back-to-School Stress

School is almost back in session which means major organization needed, major scheduling, major traffic, AND obviously, major stress. Stress is an unpleasant fact of life. We all experience it, and for some of us, we allow it to take over our minds and eventually our bodies.

The key is to find ways to manage it—squash it—and don’t let it rule us. Stress does terrible things to your mood, your energy and your overall physiology. Common symptoms of stress we know all too well: insomnia, headaches, jaw pain, back and neck pain, heartburn and nausea, nervousness and anxiety, nail-biting, and trouble focusing. Even high blood pressure, stroke and obesity! But stress does some other crazy sh*t …

Stress changes the expression of your genes. Your genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger. Your stressed our body produces chemicals, activating genes that change everything — how much fat you store, your immune function, ageing and even the development of CANCER.
Stress affects memory function. High levels of stress hormones damage critical parts of the brain, especially the area responsible for memory. People experience adrenal burnout after chronic stress because the brain actually turns off the adrenals. So relax, silly.
Stress jacks with your immune system and increases inflammation. Stress is the ultimate immune-modulator. It slows wound healing and increases your susceptibility to infections.
Stress slows your ability to metabolize and detoxify. Genes responsible for enzymes that break down fats and detoxify prescription drugs are negatively impacted by stress. Stress also adds to your toxin burden by increasing your cravings for high fat, high sugar foods. We all know that one, right? The stress hormones actually make you hang on to your fat cells.

The American Institute of Stress (AIS) has a list of 50 common signs and symptoms of stress. Check it out! So in addition to making us cranky and fat, it can also make us chronically ill? Tell me how to fix this!

What we think and feel, and how long we think or feel it, determines our health. The science is strong, and yet so often since stress is considered something we can’t really quantify, it gets dismissed as not being “real.”

Here are a few ways to quell stress in your life:

Meditate. Come on … Don’t quit reading. Meditation can mean different things to different people. Mindfulness, intention setting, gratitude lists all are part of a mediation practice. Simple deep breathing exercises and morning quiet time (even 15 minutes a day will make an enormous difference). Gabby Bernstein rocks. Wayne Dyer too. This does not take the place of your daily prayer. Try deep breathing exercises in the carpool line or at a traffic light. I swear it will change your life.
Laugh. Call a friend, watch a movie, fake it if you have to!
Magnesium. Deficiencies in this mineral have been linked to anxiety as well as a litany of sleep disorders. Go get you some CALM tea today. P.S. It will also keep you regular. There is also a Calm Bath Soak that is amazing as a bedtime ritual along with some lavender oil that will knock your socks off.
Exercise. Do something everyday—preferably something that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat. Walk with a friend, jump on the trampoline with your kids, or turn up Donna Summer and disco dance off of the chandeliers for all I care. Just do it!
Plan your food. At the very least, have healthy food options in your fridge. You can’t manage stress on Cheetos and drive-thrus. Plus eating like that can add MORE depression and anxiety to your life. (Insider scoop, we will be blogging about this in September: simple, healthy fridge options). Start your day with a Green Glow or a superfood-packed Crown Jewel smoothie. What stressor can possibly bring you down now??

We can help you with all this at The GEM, whether with your nutritional needs, a much-needed laugh or schedule a Diamonds Counseling Stress Session – Just ask!

Next up: Stress and Yoga!!

(Another) Key to Health and Wellness During Stressful Times

Posted on December 19, 2013 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has Comments Off on (Another) Key to Health and Wellness During Stressful Times

Let’s just cut to the chase about health and wellness during the holidays. We are all stressed. Stress causes a diminished sense of energy and vitality, loss of sleep and increased anxiety. It begins to break down your immune system.

We can’t always get rid of the stress, it is more about how we manage it.

How are you managing it to stay well and vibrant?

We have a new practice that helps combat the physiological symptoms of stress we want to share. And it rocks our world.

Recently, the GEM girls were introduced to an amazing assortment of herbal wellness drops that positively support allergy & sinus relief, immune system and adrenal glands. We have been in love ever since.

The GEM’s Famous Energy tips not withstanding, here are a couple unique and targeted remedies you can use to stay afloat in the stormy sea of winter stress, cold, flu and fatigue. Jack, we got your magic bean for health and wellness.

It’s called BLOOM.

These precious wellness drops are organic, vegan, non-GMO and gluten free. Made from organic herbs, roots, flowers and other gems of nature, they are an amazing remedy for systems out of balance.

Bloom for health and wellness: let us break it down for you fellas:

COUGH

This one is effective against any upper respiratory issue, cold and cough. You can take them in conjunction with the others for a well rounded arsenal against your yucky cold/cough.

SINUS

Congestion, headaches, nasal drips, itchy eyes and hay fever don’t stand a chance against these fast-acting drops. They quickly reduce the swelling and inflammation of sinus tissues. Really! Say goodbye to your creepy sinus medications for seasonal allergies …

ALLERGY

Take this for 10 days and watch your system balance out your immune system, detoxify the liver and regenerate the adrenals to get to the ROOT of your allergy woes. Heal your allergies naturally.

RECOVERY

This tincture supports your adrenal glands which keep your sleep patterns in check, regulate your cortisol levels, keep you running smooth. Excessive anything is not good for you: intense workouts, late nights, worry. Your body needs replacement and recovery from this depletion. Recovery relieves exercise/stress related head & body aches, nausea, dehydration and general fatigue, while promoting healthy liver and adrenal function. It helps with consistent sleep patterns affected by out of whack adrenals. Post workout, post party (hangover) and late night out. We heart this. A lot.

IMMUNE SYSTEM BOOSTER

Just like the name says, this stuff really gets your immune system ready to fight the toughest opponent. It has anti-viral and bacterial properties with Echinacea, Elderberry, Peppermint herb, Magic Mushrooms Shitake and Maitake (these guys also fight nasty things like cancer). We like to take the Immune System Booster alongside the Recovery for a super badass defense against fatigue and illness.

Grab the ones that are right for you, mix them into your tea or water and start feeling the effects of nature’s remedies. So …

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