​The way jolie combines foods significantly impacts how well our clients’ bodies absorb nutrients. While eating a nutrient-rich diet is important, ensuring those nutrients are fully absorbed is just as critical. 
 
Certain foods enhance absorption when paired together, while others can inhibit it. Understanding the right combinations, the role of raw versus cooked foods, helps optimize your nutrition and wellness.
 
Nutrient absorption is influenced by factors such as digestive enzymes, gut health, and food synergy. Some nutrients require fats for better absorption, while others are inhibited by compounds such as phytic acid or tannins. By structuring meals with these principles in mind, your body's ability to utilize essential vitamins and minerals is enhanced.
 
A Paradigm for Maximum Nutrient Absorption
A balanced ratio of raw and cooked foods, strategic food pairings, and mindful meal timing maximize nutrient uptake throughout the day.
1. Raw vs. Cooked Foods: Striking the Right Balance

• Morning (Raw-Element Meal)
  • Start the day with enzyme-rich raw foods to stimulate digestion - berries, yogurt, nuts.
  • A smoothie like the Morning Miracle with leafy greens, berries, and soaked nuts/seeds provide bioavailable vitamins and minerals.
• Midday (Cooked + Raw Meal)
  • A mix of cooked and raw foods allows for both fiber and enhanced bioavailability of certain nutrients.
  • A warm bowl, salad, or soup and salad which combine cooked and raw vegetables offers fiber, resistant starch, and digestive enzymes.
• Evening (Cooked-Dominant Meal)
  • Dishes with predominantly cooked foods in the evening are easier to digest and help with nutrient assimilation overnight.
  • A lightly cooked protein with steamed greens and healthy fats aids in optimal digestion and nutrient absorption.

The jolie weekly ratio we aim for is 50% raw (mornings and snacks) and 50% cooked (afternoon and dinner).  This balance ensures digestive enzyme availability while maximizing bioavailability of minerals from cooked foods.  For clients with digestive challenges, however, primarily cooked foods are needed to ensure the ability to digest what’s eaten.
 
2. Best Absorption Pairing & Why It Works
Iron (Non-Heme)
Leafy greens + citrus (e.g., spinach + lemon)
Vitamin C increases iron absorption.
Fat-Soluble Vitamins (A, D, E, K)
Carrots + olive oil, eggs + avocado
Fats enhance absorption of these vitamins.
Calcium
Leafy greens + fermented foods (e.g., kale + yogurt)
Fermented foods improve calcium uptake.
Zinc
Pumpkin seeds + garlic
Sulfur compounds in garlic boost zinc absorption.
Magnesium
Dark chocolate + bananas
Vitamin B6 in bananas helps magnesium utilization.
 
3. Cooking Methods
Roasting, steaming, soups, broths, and quick wilting are the best cooking methods for bioavailable nutrients. Cutting and chopping food is also an important part of increasing the absorption of nutrients during digestion. Cutting releases enzymes which begin to liberate nutrients even before they make it to your mouth.
 
Maximizing nutrient absorption is about more than just eating healthy foods—it’s about eating them in ways that optimize bioavailability. A balance of raw and cooked foods, strategic pairings, and mindful cooking methods can enhance digestion and nutrient uptake. By focusing on proper food combinations you can ensure your body is deeply nourished. 
  
P.S. Body sculpting is super fun and rewarding.  One of my favorite books on it is Figure Secrets.

​Power and support comes to your aid when you can shift your healthy living narrative from deprivation to privilege.
 
What if, instead of feeling deprived, you realized you were actually being liberated by eating in a way that makes you feel good inside? What if every conscious food choice was an act of power, self-respect, and privilege?
 
Let’s reframe the way you think about food, weight loss, and what it truly means to live fully.
 
What Are You Really Giving Up?
When you say “I feel deprived,” you communicate only missing out on something wonderful. But the status quo is not wonderful

• Cravings that leave you exhausted and frustrated
• Inflammation and bloating that make you feel uncomfortable in your body Brain fog and fatigue that rob you of focus and joy
• Blood sugar crashes and mood swings that keep you on an emotional rollercoaster
• Clothes that don’t fit the way you want them to
• The disappointment of not keeping promises to yourself

Now, let’s flip the script, by eating in a way to get to your goal you gain:

• Mental clarity and focus
• Stable energy from morning to night
• A body that feels light, lean, and capable
• Hormonal balance that makes weight loss effortless
• Confidence in every area of your life

That feels like freedom to live better; it feels like self love in action, and treating yourself royally.
 
Mindset Shift
Old Mindset (Deprivation): “I can’t have that dessert, I have to lose weight.”
New Mindset (Empowerment): “I am choosing foods that love me back and make me feel my best.”
 
Old Mindset (Sacrifice): “I have to eat less and miss out.”
New Mindset (Opportunity): “I get to nourish my body in a way that creates the life I want.”
 
Old Mindset (Restriction): “I can’t eat junk food.”
New Mindset (Freedom): “I no longer want food that makes me feel heavy, tired, and bloated.”
 
Choose where and what you want to be free of - to be truly at ease.

Creatine is something I use for specific goals: mainly when body fat is super low and I want more muscle plump or if I am at risk of overtraining.
There is a lot of misguided assumptions about what it does - so  let's break it down.
 
The big myth is that creatine builds muscle.  It does not.  Creatine itself doesn’t "build" muscle, it enables the conditions that allow YOU to train harder, recover faster, and ultimately gain more muscle over time.
 
Here is what it does
1. Creatine Accelerates  Recovery.
Creatine causes less muscle soreness after intense workouts through increasing intramuscular hydration and faster energy replenishment, so you feel stronger for your next session quicker.
 
2. Creatine Increases Energy Available.
If taken pre-workout, creatine helps you feel stronger and lift heavier during your workout by replenishing ATP more quickly.  That way you lift heavier weights, complete more reps, and sustain high-intensity efforts longer. Over time, by you increasing weight and reps, you grow more muscle.
 
3. Creatine helps muscles look bigger.
Creatine has a plumping effect by increasing intramuscular water retention and muscle fullness, creating the illusion of added size, but it’s temporary and not actual muscle fiber growth.
 
4. Creatine Aids Muscle Preservation
If you are hitting the gym hard, doing double workouts, or under fueling to maximize muscle definition by achieving very low body fat, you risk muscle breakdown as the body scavenges for energy.  Creatine protects the muscles from being broken down for energy when fat stores are scarce.
 
5. Creatine Is Neuroprotective
Creatine has shown to support nerve cells in creating energy too, making it an interesting supplement for brain health. Research shows it to enhance cognitive function; support brain energy metabolism, and possibly reduce neurological decline in conditions like Parkinson’s and ALS.
 
Creatine and Weight Loss: Not a Great Fit
If you're trying to lose a lot of weight, creatine is not your best ally. This is because creatine increases intramuscular water retention, meaning it pulls water into your muscles, making them look fuller, and heavier on the scale.
 
For those aiming for a leaner physique or a weight goal, this added water weight is frustrating. It can mask fat loss progress and create fluctuations in body weight that can be discouraging.
 
However, if you still want to use it during weight loss, I recommend 3g per day as opposed to the standard 5g. 
 
Which one to use?  You want creatine monohydrate.  I love the one from Momentus. 
 
When to take it?   Ideally, post workout.  For workouts longer than 65 minutes, you can take it pre workout to build stamina. For neuroprotective effects only, you can take it during the day with food.
 
Creatine is not a universal fit. If your goal is more prominent muscle and performance, it’s great. If your priority is fat loss and definition, skip it. If you are not training consistently, skip it. If you don’t want weight gain of any kind, skip it
 
P.S. Body sculpting is super fun and rewarding.  One of my favorite books on it is Figure Secrets.

Heavy metal toxicity is challenging to detox from without support.  The fastest, safest way I have found to support client's detoxing from elevated heavy metals levels is jolie Nutrition + lymphatic drainage. 
 
To safely remove heavy metals from the body, you need chelators—substances that bind to metals and help excrete them through urine, bile, or stool.
 
Natural Chelators and Detoxifiers:

1. Cilantro – Binds to heavy metals like mercury, lead, and aluminum, helping mobilize them for removal.
2. Garlic – Contains sulfur compounds that support detoxification pathways in the liver.
3. Sulfur-rich Foods – Crucial for detoxification, found in:
   • Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage)
   • Eggs
   • Onions and garlic
4. Activated Charcoal – Binds toxins and heavy metals in the gut, preventing reabsorption.
5. Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) – A potent antioxidant that can cross the blood-brain barrier and chelate heavy metals. Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is an antioxidant synthesized by the body and available in foods like spinach and broccoli.

Once heavy metals are mobilized from tissues by your food, they need to be flushed out. Lymphatic drainage accelerates this process, preventing toxins from being reabsorbed.
💆‍♀️ Manual Lymphatic Drainage – A gentle technique that stimulates lymph flow, removing toxins through sweat, urine, and bile.
🚶‍♀️ Movement & Dry Brushing – Jolie encourages movement, rebounding (jumping), and dry brushing to stimulate lymphatic circulation.
🔥 Infrared Sauna & Hydration – Infrared heat sweats out toxins, while optimal hydration flushes them through the kidneys.
 
When you detox heavy metals your brain, body, and immune system work better.  Metals disrupt the transmission of electrical charges in your body which impacts nerve synapsis and the ability of cell membranes to function properly.
 
P.S. Shape of You Spa in Summit, NJ  is a great space for both infrared sauna and manual lymphatic drainage.  It is my lymphatic home combined with frequent sauna and at home self-massage.