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The adaptive immune system is the third layer of your immune system - each layer is more complex and more targeted than the other. The adaptive immune system regulates acquired immunity and is uniquely able to respond with specificity to pathogens.
When a microbe enters your body - your innate immune system (layer 2) looks for specific patterns or structures that are most common to most pathogens. These structures and patterns are general enough that innate immune cells can lock on and destroy. But if a pathogen enters that is different from a recognized pattern or structure - the innate immune system signals for the adaptive immune system to take over due to its ability to handle new pathogens. Vaccines work by triggering the adaptive immune system to make antibodies specific to the pathogen being immunized against. Your adaptive immune system can not only do this, but it creates an immunological memory of the pathogen in case you encounter it again. This is the most powerful part of your immune system because of its specificity, immunological memory, and it is ablity to differentiate between you and non-you. It is vital we work to maintain the adaptive system because it protects us from never before encountered pathogens and autoimmunity. A weak adaptive immune system opens us to more severe illness and the development of autoimmunity There are two key factors in maintaining and strengthening the adaptive immune system: sleep and nutrition. And both are equally important. Do not compromise sleep - this coming from someone who used to challenge herself to sleep as little as possible. Lost sleep cannot be made up. You don’t need to be an early riser or early to bed - follow your innate sleep rhythm, but you need 7 hours minimum. There are those who will say, especially as they get older, I do not need as much sleep as I used to - you may think that, but your body doesn’t know it. One reason adaptive immunity begins a rapid decline as we age is lack of sleep and lack of nourishment. As you get older do not trust how sleepy you are, how hungry you are, or how thirsty you are. Sleep, eat, drink following the rules: 7-8 hours of sleep, tons of vegetables, whole grains, some healthy fat, and some protein; ½ oz. water for every pound of body weight. Make this a habit while you're younger - so as you get older - and the feedback loop is less reliable - you can still maintain good health. Nutrition: the aspect of nutrition that impacts the adaptive immune system is your micronutrient profile. Eggs and toast, a ham sandwich, and a bag salad with chicken does not meet micronutrient needs. For that you need variety. A great example of deep micronutrient nourishment is the Wahl’s Protocol. It calls for 3 cups of leafy greens, 3 cups of sulfur containing vegetables (mushrooms, onion family, brassica family) and 3 cups of colorful vegetables / berries. Here is a link to a Wahl’s Cheat Sheet. My passion is vibrant longevity - so everything in the jolie meal programs is first and foremost making sure you get all your micronutrients. When you do, I know you become more disease resistant, heal pathologies that may be forming, and strengthen your immunity and regenerative mechanisms. With this, you can be at your optimum which means you are strong, resilient, and recover well. Julia xo Your body is equipped with programming to slow aging and prevent the concurrent diseases of aging: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and dementia. The interesting fact is that the body only activates these protective pathways when it experiences a drop in food intake, extreme heat or cold.
You want to activate your anti-disease and aging programs regularly. I do this with a seasonal juice cleanse. Low sugar juice cleanses like we have a jolie mimic fasting, as does the first leg of the 10 Day Reset. Doing the juice cleanse is easier when you know what you are doing for your body. Benefits are motivating. What happens when you juice cleanse? By dramatically lowering calories and protein, your body perceives this as a time of scarcity and upregulates all systems to work more efficiently creating more mitochondria, cleaning up damaged cells, upping metabolism, and tapping into fat stores. The ideal length of time for a juice fast or cleanse is 3 days for maximum benefit with adequate nutrition. It is also important that the cleanse be low in sugar. You want mainly vegetable only juices and nut milk with one to two juices containing fruits other than lemon. Here is what is happening in your juice cleanse: Day One - You burn through stored glycogen in your liver and muscles and begin to transition into fat burning.
Day Two - Fat Burning and Brain Clarity By this point your body has fully transitioned into fat burning. This is the beginning of mild ketosis where the liver begins to produce ketones for brain energy. Ketones are made from fatty acids coming from your fat cells. This is how your stored energy becomes used energy. The ketones created by your liver from the fatty acids fuel your brain and other organs. The use of ketones is beneficial - it reduces inflammation, improves brain health and the creation of new neurons, and improves metabolism long term. At this point, most clients feel amplified brain clarity. Day three - Stimulated Healing and Fat Burning By day three, fat burning accelerates. Due to deeper ketosis, other healing systems are activated.
With all these positives in three days, why not continue? Here is where the principle of diminishing returns kicks in. With fasting you want adequate nutrition so that your body leaves the cleanse stronger than it entered. Prolonged fasting can create nutritional deficits that are not desirable. With a regular cleanse or fasting schedule you provide yourself with intense self activated healing that improves your immediate and long term health. Love, Julia xo So many times people who loved me told me no. I expressed something I wanted to do, a goal, a dream. Then came the reasons why it was not possible, practical, prudent, or acceptable. Unfortunately, the person who told me no most often was me. This too is true for many of my clients and women I encounter in group programs.
Why do we disapprove of ourselves so willingly? Partly it’s an internalization of what is expected of us. We also naturally seek what is familiar and safe. Our desires by definition lead us into unfamiliar territory with the risk of failure or disappointment. We are so used to looking after others and the needs of friends and family, that we easily dismiss doing anything which may jeopardize their acceptance and conflict with their needs. To be truthful - there are expectations of us - but not as many as we think. Write down something you wish to do or wish to have now. Then write down all the expectations that are blocking you. In my own life, when I wanted to return to work after being a stay at home mom for 14 years, I had a list of why I couldn’t. The kids needed me to be available, what if they got sick and needed to stay home, how will I fit in all the extracurriculars, how could I continue my routine of self care which would demand more time when I was already taking time away to work. Basically, I was disapproving of my desire out of fear that my children would see me as a bad mom. Most expectations are like a mirage. We feel internally like we are expected to do something or be available for someone, but in reality most people are in support of our happiness, can accommodate change, and are willing to support you in living a full life. You must support you too! My children were actually fine. They knew how to tend for themselves more than I realized. Sick days were few and manageable. And, they loved the happiness and joy it brought me. All the apprehension I had was simply my internal resistance based in fear and judgement. Expanding yourself frequently triggers a no. We internally say no because we feel underprepared, undeserving, or not enough. When I feel this, I stop and approve of my desire and my fears. To do this, I follow the subsequent steps. I acknowledge my feelings and resistance. I am thankful for them. I affirm that I can only desire to do that which was made for me or I was made for it. Desires arise from your heart. I approve of my heart desires. I examine them to see if there is anything to learn from the “nos” I feel. For example, one thing that helped the transition was streamlining life by decluttering both space and schedules. I spend time feeling into how good it feels or will feels in the experience of that desire. Then I choose one small action to take in the direction of my dream. This gentle path will guide you forward. By eating jolieLife you are doing more good than you realize, you are participating in the amazing work that goes on at Lani Farm for the earth and humanity.
Yesterday I toured the main farm that supplies us wth vegetables and fruits. The tour could not have come at a better time - a gift I needed. I choose all the suppliers for jolieLife based on their farming practices and the spirit of the people because I want jolieLife food to feed your body, but also in doing so, to be an act of good in the world and to the earth. I encountered Lani farm at the Union Square Farmers’ Market and have been receiving food from Lani Farm since jolieLife started, but I had not gone to the farm. Yesterday’s tour was proof that you can draw to yourself exactly your perfect match. Lani Farm was created by Steve and Dusan - Steve began farming in Korea and Dusan in the former Yugoslavia. They are both a gift - passionate, innovative, and forces of good. First off, all the farming practices go further than organic requirements and are kind to the earth. The farm itself is as self sustaining as possible producing it’s own compost, mulch, and water sources. The prepared Korean food and flours they sell are all with vegetables grown on the farm - if they don’t grow it, they do not sell it. Vegetables are grown in mixed communities of plants so that pests are kept at bay, soil nutrients are built up, and plants are allowed to grow as strongly as possible. This all means more nutrition in your food. The plant varieties are chosen for health, performance, and taste - many of them heirlooms. For example, they grow ancient wheat. Un-genetically modified wheat has extremely low yields. But it tastes better, and is better digested by the body. Crops are constantly rotated, cover crops are turned into the soil to maintain and improve soil health with each planting, fields are allowed to rest. This practice, even in organic farms, is frequently ignored in favor of higher profits. But more than anything, the will to do good is so evident. There is a pervasive desire to work in cooperation with the earth, the individuals who work on the farm are provided with amazing housing and leisure spaces that reflect their worth and value as equal human beings - most farms provide what I consider sub-humane living conditions. And, this is the pièce de résistance, the farm is in the process of constructing a retreat space, a housing community for the elderly, and low income housing where Lani Farm absorbs all housing expenses for the people living there. And, within the farm is farmland allocated for growing crops purely for donation to food pantries, I know of other farms that donate their surplus, but this level of generosity is unmatched The spirit and actions of generosity and social responsibility were exactly what I needed when the world looks so dark with Covid, financial crisis, and the murder of George Floyd. There is still a lot of light and love in the world. And when we desire to be a force of love and light, we often are already in cooperation with love in ways we do not even realize. Love, Julia xo Therapeutic Emotional Release is a technique I teach clients to process sorrow, grief, disappointment, anger, and injustice.
It is invaluable as a daily tool when dealing with loss - death, divorce, or big life change - trauma, or a build up of negative emotions. It is also one of the maintenance tools I encourage and use to keep me emotionally clear and light. Emotions are a necessary part of being human. However, it is difficult to know what to do with our negative or darker feelings. If you are like me, you were taught to suppress them. I cannot tell you how many times my father told me to stop crying, get over my anger, pick yourself up and keep going, or swallow my disappointment. Yet despite expert suppression and denial, emotions did not dissipate. Instead they lodged themselves in my body. They became a budding ulcer. Emotional suppression is one of the leading causes of stress related illnesses: heart disease, obesity, autoimmunity, insulin resistance, depression, insomnia, and digestive problems. We need to deal with our feelings. Therapeutic Emotional Release is an easy-to-learn technique to release emotions from the body without losing it. You can do it in a controlled, precise method. The practice has three parts and should take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes a day - you get to decide how much time to devote to it. . Part 1: Decide what emotion you wish to work on releasing or what situation you want to address. Write this down on a piece of paper you will discard once you are done. This part is short - 1 minute tops. Whatever emotion or situation surfaces first is the one to deal with now. Part 2: This section takes ⅔ to ¾ of the allotted time. You are to embody the feeling. If it is sorrow or grief - cry, sob, rant, get on the floor, curl up into a ball. Do what feels like sorrow or grief. The point is to allow your body to physical act the emotion - think modern dance. If the emotion is anger, you may scream, punch a punching bag, pound a pillow, jump on a trampoline, Allow the words, emotions, and energy to flow out of you in movement. The movement is essential because it is what dislodges and empties the emotions from the body - it is like flushing the toilet of anger, sadness, or grief. Part 3: You cannot skip this part of the technique. Without the third part, you no longer have Therapeutic Emotional Release. It will not be effective without the third part. In the third part, you use your senses to bring pleasure to the body. You can dance, you can eat something luscious like a strawberry or orange slowly, you can bathe, you can feel soft fabrics, you can run your fingers through your hair, you can sing - the point here is to do something pleasurable with your body that is also beautiful. This third part is refilling you with good feelings and peace. After you flush out the emotion, it is important to refill the tank with clean water. As you engage with this form of therapy, you will find yourself lighter, less reactive, and healthier. You will also discover that negativity does not need to intrude on the rest of your day. There is time set aside to deal with what you are going through. If you have a large build up of emotion, I recommend daily practice of Therapeutic Emotional Release. As your emotional septic tank gets emptied, you will need the technique less and less. I encourage you to commit to a 30 day practice if you have a significant loss or trauma. Otherwise commit to using this practice once a week. It will transform your life. Love, Julia xo Yesterday I attended a small gathering of people which allowed me to observe and test some of the practices I teach in coaching.
1. Attention changes interactions to connections. Eye contact is most effective when not only your eyes, but your attention is focused on the other person. Attention is likely the most scarce resource in modern human interaction. Talking to another while thinking about yourself or something else, blocks your ability to connect. Placing all your attention on the other person allows you to see the next questions to ask, where they may be resistant, and gives them a subconscious feeling of being seen. In last nights event, the deepest connections where made by focused attention and those conversations flowed without awkward pauses. 2. Authenticity can include challenge. When seeking true connection with another being authentic is key, but so is challenge. We all enjoy agreeable people, but those who never introduce an different viewpoint or disagreement are more difficult to connect with because they do not demonstrate individuality or how they are unique. When you speak with people be yourself, but also do not be afraid to challenge them. 3. Ask questions. Observing those who talked about themselves mostly with those who asked frequent questions, especially follow up questions - the conversations liberally sprinkled with questions definitely allowed the participants to learn more about each other and deeper discovery. Also, throughout the conversations with questions the participants exhibited more open body language. To learn more about how you can optimize your ability to connect with others to make your life and their life better, join me in a coaching session. To learn more click here. Here is my technique for unblock beliefs that are keeping me stuck or hampering my progress. It is very simple, always works, and requires little effort from you. All that is necessary is a willingness to release beliefs which are impeding your progress, repetition when necessary, pen, and paper.
The Release Technique I write down the belief or beliefs that I am holding which are not helping me move positively. This I do anywhere. I keep it as simple as I can. I write whatever comes to mind no matter how irrelevant or unimportant it seems. A belief is simply an idea. An idea someone crafted because it worked for them. It made sense to the creator of the idea. In some cases the idea is enshrined as a cultural norm, familial expectation, social attitude, or the rule of a particular group. But, in its essence, it is simply an idea. An idea that worked for someone else in their particular situation does not mean it works for you. Even an idea that worked for you, may not continuing working for you. So instead of seeing a belief or idea as a rock which is unchangeable, think of it more as water: it can shift and change. Beliefs are fluid. I then look at each idea and I cross it out. Crossing it out signals to my consciousness that I don’t need that idea anymore. For stubborn beliefs, sometimes I have to keep writing them down and keep crossing them out until I feel the belief loosening and drifting away. My father had told me many things I couldn’t do. They were all beliefs from his perspective and experience, crafted to protect me and him too. Many simply stopped working for me - he is quite old fashioned. So, I crossed them out. I have done many of his "you can'ts." This is a way to open yourself that doesn’t require a lot of work because it shifts you internally. As your thoughts about yourself and what's possible changes, your actions change. Your energy changes, and it opens up more space for you to grow. In my practice, I work on energetic changes because they are the ones that help you grow with grace and as much ease as possible. By changing in this way, the path to your goals is smoother and attainable. Love, Julia xo How do you know you need a detox? But, more than that, do you even need to do a detox in the first place?
Detoxification is something that your body naturally does through the liver, skin, breath, pee, and poop. It is a constant process that never ends and is quite efficient on its own. It is necessary to clear out the remains from all the millions of chemical reactions which allow you to live. It also clears out very natural environmental toxins like too much sun exposure, fumes, smoke from cooking fires, plant and animal toxins. In its ideal state, the body does not need you to do a “detox.” Problems arise when it doesn't have the necessary nutrients to use in the process or is overloaded with environmental and agricultural toxins. Then, we need to detox. A gradual acceleration of detoxification will happen as you eat more plants; to kickstart or deepen the process do a detox. I experienced this after switching to a plant based diet (for the curious, I do eat meat). I could feel the increased energy, clarity, and glow that came as my body was able to function better and detoxify faster. However, at some point I reached a state where the need for deeper detoxification arose - think of weekly cleaning versus spring cleaning. So I decided to do a three day juice cleanse every month. I detoxed in this way for about 3-4 months, then one day a month for another 3-4 months. Each time I felt better and better. But, after the 6th or 7th one, I knew I didn’t need to keep “detoxing.” The deep cleansing was complete and my diet gave my body what it needed from there. I recommend detoxes to clients that are experiencing intestinal issues, mood instability, decreased energy, skin eruptions, and accelerated aging. Do a 1-3 day detox for a few months, then a 1-2 day detox until you feel your body clean - trust the body, it knows when to stop. Soup cleanses, low sugar juice cleanses, broth cleanses, and carefully designed food cleanses can all be used as detoxes. For our cleanses, click here. If you need help designing a detox for your particular needs, I am happy to give you some guidance. Please reach out. Love, Julia xo P.S. Sleep and water are essential for detoxification always. Their benefits are immense and you can start today with 7 hours of rest and more hydration. Jolie | Blue Mill, Morristown, NJ 07960 Unsubscribe {recipient's email} Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Self-care is practicing caring for yourself as you would a dear friend. You make self care a priority because when you feel good and good about yourself you are naturally kinder to yourself and others. If you have a hard time seeing the correlation, think about when you are hangry - you act angry not because you want to bite someone’s head off, but because your deprivation, hunger, makes it hard to be kind.
Likewise, when we feel like the best version of ourselves, kindness and giving flow more abundantly and effortless from us. Self-care will energize and recharge you because it turns us on and makes us present to our lives. You don’t need a lot of free time or to start a new exercise routine, or start eating clean to engage in caring for yourself - in fact, all of those things are usually the effortless outflow of self-care. cared for and good. with love + light, Julia |
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