Beauty, Wellness, Recipes, Food
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Even at Whole Foods, most of the food is processed food. Back to the basics means eating food that hasn’t come from a factory - even an organic factory.
When you sit down to a meal - if there are carrots in a dish, you need to be able to see the carrot. If you have a strawberry something and all you see is strawberry goo or you taste them but can’t see them - that is not a whole food. We learned in The Jungle that when food becomes unidentifiable there are things in there that you don’t realize are in there. That rings true today also. And what is added is not added for your health, rather it is for shelf life, texture, color, or smell. More importantly, what’s taken out is even worse for your health. Fiber, vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, antioxidants are lost. “It’s not the food, it is what is done to the food that makes you sick, “ my favorite quotation and a guiding light in the grocery store. It comes from the book Metabolical by Robert Lustig, an awesome book. For example, whole grain factory made foods are not truly whole grains. In most cases, it began as a non-whole grain food. Why? Because whole grains are not as shelf stable as refined grains. So, refined grains are used and then the bran and fiber are added back in after being stabilized by heat or chemicals before the product is completed. So you are actually getting the stripped grain and denatured bran and fiber - a key reason foods are fortified to partially make up for the nutrition loss. But, when you strip the grain you change how your body processes the sugar in the grain - the sugar is absorbed quickly giving you insulin spikes; and the fiber becomes less healthful. So what to do? Get back to truly whole foods. That does require time - one of the reasons I created jolie: whole foods based prepared meals focused on health and priced accessibility. Opt for snacks that are not from a box or with a wrapper: fruit, half of lunch, jolie or homemade soups, olives, smoothies jolie or yours, nuts, cut up veggies,. Buy your grains minimally processed. My favorite grain or grain substitutes are wild rice, black rice, oat groats, and, if you are not gluten free, wheat berries. These are basically all intact - so there is no nutritional loss and your body knows what to do with them. If you haven’t tried jolie, this is a great time to begin. with love, Jolie xo Having the Best Year Ever - which I want for you - begins with dialing in the basics. The basics will get you 80% to where you need to be.
What is the biggest dietary source of aging, inflammation, hormone imbalance, gut dysbiosis, metabolic disorder?
Correct answer: C Sugar does all that. Dialing back your sugar is first priority for the new year. And from wherever you are there is a tweak you can make. If you have belly fat, that is a telltale sign of excess dietary sugar. If this is you and you eat a healthy diet, it is time to reduce grains, beans, oats, sprouted breads. Lessen your sweet tooth by training yourself to lower levels of sweetness. When I was a baker, I always added HALF the amount of sugar called for in a recipe right out of the gate. From there, everytime I used that recipe again, I would take a little bit more out until I reached the bare minimum. This is the origin of the jolie Bakery: great foods, minimal sweetness. When given a choice go for the less sugar filled option. Seltzer over Coke, Vinegar chips over BBQ. Mustard over Ketchup. Omelet over Pancakes. Smoked over Honey Glazed. Iced coffee over Coffee-chinos. Gin & Tonic over a Mojito. These small changes make a difference. Reduce quick converts to sugar. These are your breads, oats, and grains. Eat half a bagel. Skip the toast. Scoot all the pizza toppings to one side and eat less crust. Use an ice cream scoop to portion rice, pasta, oats, and other grains. At jolie, our medium size ice cream scoop is our standard serving of grains. Choose savory snacks over sweet ones. Individual portions of olives or nuts. A boiled egg. Nut butter with cut up vegetables. Baby cucumbers or tomatoes. Let fruit be your sweet. Mother nature packaged fruit with fiber and water. The sweetness you perceive in fruit is unlike the sweetness in pretzels or chocolate chips. An apple a day will benefit you, not harm you. As we stay away from more and more sugar, our taste buds change and perceive sweet things more intensely, even unpleasantly. This helps us to eat less of a sweet treat and to crave sugar less. with love, Jolie xo P.S. When baking you will also slightly reduce the wet ingredients because of the drastically reduced sugar. What is the opposite of the fight or flight response? The rest and digest response. You can turn on rest and digest with your breath. Learning how to do this will give you better digestion, rev up metabolism, help balance adrenals and lower the toll of stress on the body.
Your breath can exaggerate imbalances: suppress your immune system, depress metabolism, encourage belly fat, and wreck your hormones. Shallow breathing or feeling like you're frequently holding your breath - negatively impact your health everyday, every moment. I want to teach you to use easy breath practices that you can integrate into your day (no meditation necessary) to help you feel better and be better. Your breath is healing. Each time you take a deep breath you are telling your body that everything is okay and you are safe. This is because deep belly breathing stimulates the Vagus nerve which governs the off switch of the fight or flight response. This connection with your brain is key to understanding why your breath affects not only digestion, but your entire body. Learning how to breathe for better digestion, hormonal balance, metabolism, and less anxiety is a priceless life tool that will make everyday better, and particularly this holiday season. How do I juggle so much - one of the tools in my toolbox isI using deep breathing every day to manage stress, pressure, and overwhelm. Learning to breathe therapeutically can change your digestion, correct constipation, promote weight loss, accelerate detoxification, and reduce cravings. You don’t want to miss it. Another bonus of belly breathing is by improving digestion and oxygen flow it helps you to lose weight and have optimal metabolism. Emotional eating, sugar cravings, and hunger decrease with the activation of relaxation resulting from deep breathing. Many of our habits of overeating or making sub-optimal food choices are stress induced. Reducing stress lessens and alleviates the driver of these health and control robbing behaviors. Love, Jolie xo  Broth is magical - I want you to have broth. It is one of those hidden culinary gems that is also a health, beauty, and weight loss elixir. I glow, recover, and revive with broth.
In revamping service at the cafe - faster, more grab and go, and even better for you - I wanted for you to have broth. So now it is here for you at the cafe on demand! Broth, especially during the colder months, is going to help you stay energized, recover from colds, and feel fabulous inside and out. Despite all the benefits - broth has so few calories - 60 tops - it confers so many benefits. Why I drink broth Hydration with warmth, no caffeine, and healing properties Weight maintenance or loss - mineral, mushroom, chicken and seaweed broth is the perfect for fasting - satisfying, healing, reduces inflammation and increases immunity without calories. Staying younger longer - broth, all kinds, are amazing at helping your cells repair, seek out rouge cells, and detox. Healing - after injury, surgery, or during periods of intense physical training chicken bone broth gives me the extra protein and collagen to speed up healing - especially for those of us with very light meat consumption. Cold prevention - this is when I reach for broth for me and the kids. It is a great fortifier - so if you are around people who are sick or work in an environment that challenges your immune system - a daily broth will help. Also - for this and all my supplements I cycle on and off of them to improve and maintain efficacy. I have to highlight the seaweed broth - this is so good for your hormonal balance, thyroid support, and chronic fatigue. love, jules xo  When does my body feel off kelter, bloated, and my waistline feels tight? When there are days of disordered eating,
Disordered eating are the days when your meals are stretched out, patched together, skipped, or squished together. Most often it’s due to busyness - running here and there - or unpreparedness. September is a danger zone for this. The impact of disordered eating, even when eating healthy, is that you throw your hormones out of whack, you encourage weight retention, and create digestive problems. Consuming food triggers a cascade of hormones in your body which then influence other hormone pathways. Disordered eating creates insulin dysregulation - most often keeping insulin levels raised (not diabetic, just raised). The danger here is that insulin functions as a growth factor within cells - this is one reason why elevated insulin levels are related to cancer growth and accelerated aging. A healthy microbiome cannot exist on grazing, coffee and energy bars, or snacking instead of eating a meal. This lacks fiber - necessary for your beneficial bacteria. When they are starved, they eat your gut lining which leads to leaky gut, increased allergies, and compromised immunity. Bunching your meals, on the other hand, creates a digestive backup and encourages reflux, And, most often the bunching happens later in the day which leads to weight gain. Being conscious of meal timing - eating distinct meals with 4-5 hour periods of non-eating between meals will help you maintain energy, lose weight, regulate your hormones, improve gut health, and protect you from GERD. The solution to disordered eating is having meals planned, ideally prepared, and creating an eating schedule that you stick to each day. The schedule does not have to be the same every day, but each day you need to plan when you will eat, when you will not eat, and what you are eating. Without the time or desire to do this on your own - join a jolie meal program. Or perhaps lunch is your hardest meal to get in, order lunch delivery for September. Or if breakfast is the hard part, think about intermittent fasting or have a smoothie or broth pack delivered. Love, Jolie xo Anxiety over health is so common within the mental health field it is referred to as health anxiety. Anxiety is often rooted in feeling out of control or powerless over something. With health - conscious prevention helps relax anxiety and puts you in a better health space even if a challenge arises. I don’t want you to be anxious.
I am sharing with you a smoothie I am dubbing the Morning Miracle. A client shared a recipe given to him when undergoing prostate cancer treatment with one of California’s leading cancer doctors. She specializes in breast cancer, but many of the triggers and mechanisms of prostate and breast cancer overlap.. Dr. Kristin Funk prescribes this for all her clients to have daily and is the author of Breast: The Owner’s Manual. The smoothie contains active foods: 1. herbs to reduce inflammation - major driver of cancer 2. berries to prevent angiogenesis - the creation of blood vessels to cancer cell groups 3. ECGC is a polyphenol that is showing cancer fighting, blood pressure lowering, metabolism boosting, and brain protecting capabilities in clinical trials. 4. Indian gooseberry is being shown to prevent growth of and invasion by cancer cells. 5. aloe which is being shown as a cancer deterrent and increases the effectiveness of cancer treatments 6. antioxidants to protect the cell replication process and keep disease genes turned off Morning Miracle 2 c. berries fresh or frozen 2.c. spinach or other green 1 t. Matcha ½ banana 1 date 1 t. flax seed (more potent than pre-ground flax) ½ t. black pepper ½ t. turmeric 1⁄4 t. Amyla powder 1 oz aloe juice 1 ½ c. plant milk - plain like jolie plant milk or Malk 1 t. cinnamon Blend together in a high power blender. Long enough to grind flax. Drink. We will be introducing this to the cafe menu June 15th. In trialing it myself for the last month - it is truly as powerful as Dr. Funk says. The difference was visible which was remarkable especially as eating jolie your diet, as is mine, is packed with nourishment. But, it is the synergistic effect of these ingredients all taken together - in natural form, no pills - which is so powerful. Love, Julia xo P.S. Besides cancer this smoothie is effective in combatting systemic inflammation, boosting immunity, improving gut health, and re-balancing metabolism. Use your food to suppress genes that cause disease.
Diseases like some cancers, diabetes, autoimmunity, obesity and many others have a strong genetic factor. But, all research confirms that genes are only part of the equation. The genes need to be activated. And, most wonderfully, your body has the mechanism to suppress disease genes. This is the field of epigenetics. However, when certain micronutrients are absent the body is unable to keep disease related genes suppressed. Those are the small guys: the molecules in your foods that comprise vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, and antioxidants. Eating the rainbow is how you ensure you do your part to avoid disease - what gives color also prevents disease and illness. This way of eating also has the possibility of turning off disease genes that are active. On next week's menu, we are eating the rainbow. We do this within all our nutritional programs, but next week each day will highlight a different color of the rainbow to show you how to integrate the colors when not eating jolie. Sign up for your experience of Eating the Rainbow and benefit with feeling more energized and good going into the Memorial day weekend. Love, Julia xo Honestly, I sometimes worry if my” obsession” with health will make my kids, daughters especially, self conscious, diet conscious, or weight obsessed. I am just like you. I want my kids to grow up with a healthy relationship with their body and food.
The interesting thing I’ve observed (in my subset of 7) that will help you as a parent is that the old adage of more is caught than taught is true. And they are watching how you feed yourself, how you feel about your body, how much anxiety you have over how you look at social gatherings, whether you enjoy shopping for clothes or find it frustrating. They have a sixth sense to know if you are nourishing yourself, punishing yourself, or giving up on yourself with food. They even know if you feel controlled and exasperated by food or in control of your nourishment. At first eating with health in mind may be a conscious choice. But, overtime that conscious habit becomes an unconscious lifestyle where you equate nourishing yourself with foods that make your body and soul feel good. You equate how you eat with self love, valuing yourself, and self care in the deepest sense. Once you experience that transformation - not only you, but your children benefit. What they begin to see is a parent that prioritizes investing in themselves. They see a parent that is vibrant, has energy, can confidently enter a room of strangers. They see a parent who is comfortable in her skin - happy about how she looks and feels. They see a parent who is at ease with food: she can enjoy celebrations and normal life without anxiety. That is a gift. And from that gift which you give them when you eat well, learn to eat well, make it your default - is that they see an alternate reality from what may be in the social surroundings. They see that life doesn’t need to be a diet to feel good about yourself. That everyday eating well gives you room to indulge without guilt or repercussions. They see that as they grow, their bodies change and they can feel beautiful every step of the way. And, very importantly, you teach them that they have power over their choices, how they feel, and their health. The result in my own family is: They naturally developed habits that make them feel good:
I invite you to consider that more is caught than taught. So everything you do to take care of yourself is powerful. You can teach your kids and those around you lessons for life. And they will model for others. You can be the center of a beautiful ripple of health and self love. Take a moment and tell me what ripple you are creating this week. Julia xo Thank you for sharing your burning questions with me! One question that came up a lot was regarding intermittent fasting. I wanted to give you the broad stroke answer on fasting ahead of the opening of the Weight Loss Success course to sign up. Here we go.
Do I have to fast? The short answer is no. You don’t have to practice intermittent fasting, but you DO need windows of not eating. Observational studies have found that small frequent meals do not produce the results we expect. This outdated model of eating 5-6 times a day increases hunger, food consumption, and does not help reduce weight gain. (For a recent client, she was able to lose weight with this one step.). But, at the same time, you don’t need 16-18 hours of fasting - particularly as a woman - on a daily basis. What is a non-eating window? Time when you're not eating or consuming caloric fluids. Non-eating windows are highly beneficial. The non-eating window gives you time to, one, burn off the foods you consume and, two, to switch into fat burning mode to burn off stored energy found in your muscles, fat cells, and organs. A non-eating window can last anywhere from 5-12 hours. In non eating windows you 1. Create metabolic flexibility - teaching your body to burn both glucose and fat. This decreases hunger, cravings, and energy dips. It also trains your body to not go to hangry when you miss a meal - you will have greater stamina and less food dependence. 2. You give your gut time to repair and your microbes a chance to feast. Your gut naturally is equipped to repair itself, but it needs time not involved in digestion. If once digestion is over, you refill, your gut doesn’t get a chance to repair. Digestion takes 6-8 hours from mouth to large intestines. Eating every 3-4 hours keeps this process in continual motion. Having a period of 5+ hours between meals and 12 hours of rest at night gives the digestive track repair time. This will benefit you with less sickness, fewer allergies, and more regular bowels. Prolonged fasting (3-5 days) is a tool to: 1. Reset your weight set point. Your weight set point is an interesting mechanism which keeps your weight basically the same despite occasional overeating or under eating. This is also the bane of weight loss because it pushes you to regain. To not regain without continual dieting - you must reset your set point. Fasting is a tool for this. 2. Feel younger. Prolonged fasting is a tool for rejuvenation. Longer periods of fasting that happen monthly, seasonally, or yearly helps your entire body renew itself on a cell level. We use this in the Deep Reset and in juice cleanses. To learn more about fasting, stay tuned. It is a wonderful tool and not as onerous as you may have thought or experienced. Love, Julia xo P.S. If you didn't get to submit your burning questions - do so here. https://www.thejolielife.com/your-burning-questions.html Cravings sabotage our nutrition programs, efforts to reverse chronic disease, and weight loss plans. Cravings make us feel out of control, defeat us, and can mentally make us feel like we are not fixable.
I acknowledge all those feelings that cravings create, AND, I offer you an alternate view and path to use to make you healthier. First off - cravings have a biological root. They are not the result of your weakness, lack of self control, or self sabotaging. The body actually becomes addicted to foods: sugar and bread are two common examples. Interestingly, foods that are inflammation inducers prompt the body to create antibodies to them as part of your immune response. Knowing that dairy, for example, inflames you, you avoid dairy. But the presence of these dairy antibodies circulating in your body actually triggers a desire for the enemy, so your cravings for ice cream, lattes, and cheese increase. Understanding the biological root of cravings is important for two reasons. Firstly, it underscores that there is nothing wrong with you, your body is functioning well and correctly. Secondly, it guides us in addressing cravings. Realizing that they are basically well worn food pathways that your body has come to expect, the most successful approach is to create new pathways and walk down the well-worn path less and less frequently until it all but disappears. Here is a quick outline of how to get started in unhooking cravings that are not supportive of your wellbeing.
with love, Jules xo Each month we are featuring a client success story to give you inspiration for your own wellness.
The jolie nutrition programs are designed to change your life. Read the transformation story of our client Carrie. ***** I hadn’t been in for a check up since before Covid. When I got my blood work back from my doctor it was a shocker. My A1C was 9.6. My blood sugar 230. My total cholesterol was 256. I was overweight - that part I already knew. I couldn’t believe it. I was immediately put on metformin. I didn’t want to be on medication, I wanted to do a lifestyle intervention - but my doctor was concerned because my numbers diagnosed me as a diabetic. He gave me 45 days. If everything remained the same - I’d start on insulin. After crying my way home, I googled information on reversing diabetes, lowering cholesterol, losing weight, reducing blood sugar. This was Wednesday. I decided the food was too complicated- I didn’t have time to cook, grocery shop, plan, and figure it all out at the same time. Plus, I needed time to start an exercise program and decompress my life. I started on a 6 day jolie nutrition program the following Monday. Breakfast, lunch, dinner - I had a list of jolie recommended snacks. All the food came prepared with options to heat - especially dinner. The first week I definitely had sugar withdrawal and although I was not at all hungry I craved sugar. We made some program adjustments to help me transition - eating breakfast a bit later or on days I was super busy using breakfast as a snack. That adjustment and drinking the two daily teas helped me feel more satisfied overall. The first difference I noticed was I slept better. My stomach went down. By the next Sunday, I had lost my first four pounds. Fast forward to my follow up appointment - the results were amazing!! I lost 30 pounds, my A1C dropped to 6.5, my cholesterol was down from high to borderline high, and my blood glucose normal. My doctor couldn’t believe the change - especially in such a short time. I am continuing - my goal is completely normal bloodwork and another 15 pounds. The jolie meal delivery gave me structure and discipline around food. I didn’t have to wonder or second guess myself and my family could have what they wanted, while I had what I needed. I feel like a new woman. **** Food does transform. Give yourself more time and peace of mind - sign up for a jolie nutrition program. It’s flexible, customizable, and it works. For the new year, reserve your spot in the Total Body Reset. I can teach you how to lose weight permanently. Last week we celebrated the 11th birthday of my youngest son. His birthday is an extra special celebration for me because after his birth I experienced the biggest health transformation of my life. Losing 80 pounds - a transformation that has persisted for the last 10 years.
You know this - weight loss is rarely permanent and is something people grabble with for huge portions of their life. Research validates this rollercoaster you may have experienced - in a meta-analysis of 29 long term weight loss studies (post-pregnancy included), more than half of the lost weight was regained within two years, and by five years more than 80% of lost weight was regained. Keeping weight off IS as big a challenge as getting it off. That being the case, why is there no emphasis on learning the mindset, habits, and choices that will naturally bring you to your optimal weight and health? With this there is no “maintenance program.” The same process that brings you to thinness, keeps you there. I can teach you how to lose weight for good - without deprivation, without giving up everything you love, and while being flexible, leading an active & social life. Food matters - but there is so much more in the way of re-learning how to eat and creating a new mindset - a new you inside and out which will keep the 10 pounds off as well as the 80+ pounds off. Lessons learned over the last 10 years, lessons learned through nutrition, and lessons learned working with clients result in knowing not only how to help you lean out, but in how to help you cultivate a level of health which ensures active longevity. Unfortunately, body fat and long term health are intimately linked. 10 Week Optimize You Program: Lose Weight, Feel Vibrant is designed to be used alone (it contains food plans, recipes, shopping lists) or in conjunction with the Optimized jolieLife meal delivery. You will re-learn how to eat, practice lifestyle shortcuts to optimize health, and learn how to handle restaurants, parties, holidays, vacations, and celebrations without derailing yourself. The program is designed for all diets: vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, and paleo-types. It will also address specific health concerns such as allergies, autoimmunity, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease. The first program cycle will begin October 16th ending Dec 24th (the perfect holiday gift for yourself). I am also opening up weight loss coaching opportunities to help clients one-on-one reach their goals. Metabolic disease is reaching epidemic levels in our country accelerating diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia, heart disease, and some cancers. I passionately want to change this person by person, group by group. I welcome all opportunities to speak to groups, hold workshops, and provide small group & corporate programs to help heal metabolic issues. Please contact me for more information. Julia xo Prevention is the best medicine and care. For beauty and anti-aging I utilize a lot of modalities besides plant based food, which is the basis of health and beauty without a doubt. My favorite treatments are those that give the most impact for both health, longevity, and beauty.
My top alternative beauty treatments: 1. Massage. Massage is the one weekly treatment I get to do everything. It boosts my recovery time from workouts as well as my athletic performance. Massage improves health by three mechanisms: it relaxes the body - a less stressed body fights off disease more easily; increases circulation so toxins are removed more quickly and thoroughly, and it moves lymphatic fluid which increases detoxification and fluid stagnation; it releases the facia to prevent pain - non-specific pain within the body as we get older can be due to tightness in the facia. 2. Facial acupuncture is #1 in line prevention treatment. Facial acupuncture not only prevents the formation of fine lines, but also diminishes the appearance of fine lines by stimulating muscle relaxation, similar to what botox does, leaving a more natural contour. Acupuncture also balances energy flow and releases energy blockages so that your skin, soft tissues, and musculature is more nourished. My acupuncturist, Maureen Griese of Soul Sprout Acupuncture (http://www.soulsproutacupuncture.com/), combines facial acupuncture with a general treatment to balance overall energy and wellbeing. I love that Maureen includes lymphatic drainage to remove any facial puffiness, microcurrent treatment to tighten the skin, and LED light to reduce inflammation and boost collagen production. Love it! Definitely try it, it feels lovely. 3. Lymphatic drainage. Lymphatic drainage of the body is the most recent addition to my beauty treatment routine. When combined with a diet, like jolie (https://www.thejolielife.com/store/c21/jolielife_Meal_Delivery.html), that reduces water retention, lymphatic drainage eliminates any stagnant fluid leaving a beautifully contoured body. It is a great antidote to water retention related to my menstrual cycle and travel. 4. Sauna. I began heavy use of the sauna last year and have continued it since because it makes me feel great and offers the benefits common to extreme temperature therapies: increased longevity, immunity, and stamina. A great podcast on the benefits of heat is here: https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-and-health-benefits-of-deliberate-heat-exposure/. Cold therapy is also very beneficial. You can find out more here: https://hubermanlab.com/using-deliberate-cold-exposure-for-health-and-performance/. I do not use cold therapy because I strongly dislike being chilled. 5. Meditation. Stress is inevitable and it mars beauty and wellbeing. My daily antidote is meditation, preferably outside in nature, but wherever I can get it. I use mostly visualization and mantra based meditation in the morning or afternoon. This kind of release - only 6-12 minutes required - helps drain worry from the face and body and reinstates a sense of wellbeing which radiates out. If you doubt, try it. Julia xo Inflammation is frequently discussed, but often is not considered a key health concern unless you have joint pain or irritable bowels. Inflammation does impact your joints - if you have pain, stiffness, or creakiness, reducing inflammation will make you feel smoother, more fluid. For your digestion, reducing inflammation will decrease allergies, autoimmune disease, and gastric upset.
But inflammation matters even more than that. So much more! What’s the number one cause of mortality that begins to develop in your 30s (actually, based on military autopsies it can begin even earlier)? Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease aka heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. The causative agent in heart disease is inflammation. Inflammation plays a key role in both the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis which eventually leads to heart attack and stroke. Causative agents are not only the intiatiants of disease, but they are also the areas you can correct now that will make the biggest impact. What can you do?
By eliminating the causative agent, inflammation, you reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease in addition to other diseases linked to inflammation such as - colitis, pancreatitis, arthritis, and colon, pancreatic, and liver cancers. This coming week our food delivery menu will focus on anti-inflammatory foods. Kick start and boost your health with a week of jolieLife in addition to following the recommendations above. Julia xo Aging as a disease is gaining scientific traction. Under the disease paradigm, aging begins slowly, imperceptably - in the advanced stages of the process age related disease begins to present - such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzhemiers, and some forms of cancer.
Whether your process is fast or slow depends on lifestyle, genetics, and diet. Diet is by far the most powerful way to slow aging. A longevity diet does two things: it is both the defense to reverse aging and the offense to prevent it. Defensively: diet can reduce cholesterol, reverse diabetes, reduce weight, lower inflammation, encourage disposal of senesent and cancerous cells. Offensively: good diet choices boost immunity, increase cell turnover, encourage natural detoxification processes, strengthen mitochondria, maintain healthy gut flora, keep hormones balanced, and support neurological functions. A longevity diet provides all the nutrients for both the offense and the defense. In addition, when you undertake a longevity diet you automatically begin to treat other conditions such as high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmunity, poor digestion, depression, metabolic disorder, suboptimal sleep, infertility, and obesity. A longevity diet can include only plants or plants and animal products and is not a calorie restricted diet, but will encourage optimal body weight. JolieLife is a longevity diet. To summarize a longevity diet in a nutshell: – Fiber-rich and micro-biome promoting foods, particularly vegetables, beans, mushrooms, nuts (especially walnuts!), and healthy grains like quinoa are the foundation. – Contains generous amounts of healthy fats: this means fats from olives, olive oil, avocado, walnuts, fatty fish, chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and so on. – Includes healthy proteins: this can be plant based protein or animal protein in moderation :this means eating less red meat than the average American (beef, pork, veal, etc.) and more white meat (poultry) and fatty fish (salmon, anchovy, mackerel, herring, etc.). – Contains fewer sugars (soda, cake, cookies, etc.) and starches (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, etc.). A note on protein and longevity diets: One hallmark of aging is the accumulation of proteins inside and outside cells. Protein accumulation pays a key role in heart disease, particularly heart failure. High amounts of animal-protein accelerate protein accumulation. The longevity diet recommends that in order to expand your lifespan reduce your intake of animal protein. Make this fall a time for you to launch your longevity program with a month subscription to jolie meal delivery. Monthly subscriptions provide you a 15% discount - costing less than $55 a day for three meals a day. Start this September. Julia xo August is my month. Busyness winds down - glow food populates the farmers’ markets - the sun and heat are at the peak.
Before you continue reading, if you want to take advantage of jolie’s Glow inducing meals - you can order in August at the subscription price using the code AUGUST22. A big part of Glowing Up is focusing on and polishing up your goals. I strongly believe that we create our life either passively or actively. The more intentional we are in how we are living - the more fulfilling life is and the more fabulous it becomes. August is the perfect time out to refocus. The slower pace and the ease of August opens up time to reflect. This kind of reflection isn’t like end of the year reflections or new year’s visioning. In August, there is less pressure and you can use the beach, long walks, vacations, car trips, plane rides, bbqs, sitting outside as time to consciously reflect on what you want to create in your life: immediately (the next 2-4 weeks), near term (the next months - ½ years), and long-ish term (the 3+ years). I begin this process by writing down 3 desires in each category. Sitting with those 9 for a day or two and then selecting one from each category to focus on for the next 30-60 days.. Once I have my three - I write them down every morning, meditate on them, and see what inspired action I can take that day toward each goal. Taking the daily actions is a bit easier in August because time slows just a little bit. The actions in August get the ball rolling and the stillness and slowness of August allows you to see more clearly when people, things, books, and ideas are put in your path that lead you closer to your goals, provide you with necessary information or inspiration, or provide the next step. When you begin to focus on something, it actually stimulates your visual cortex to begin noticing new things within your visual field, both actually and experientially, that you did not notice before. This is what happens when you buy a yellow car and start noticing all the other yellow cars driving around. Setting your three goals awakens your visual field to notice resources, people, bits of conversation, books, opportunities that relate to your goal - what is called the bridge of incidences which helps you achieve your goals. Slower paced August gives you more time to notice and take advantage of those “incidences” that pop up. Take advantage of this time to consciously reflect on your desires and use both action and meditation to help them materialize. Using this process daily and refocusing every 2-3 months will turbo fuel your big and small goals. Julia xo  We celebrated the 4th of July in a difficult time that for various reasons felt less celebratory. But, I want to highlight the need and power of celebration. Not only in our country, but in our lives, and in our health we sometimes have difficult, scary, and emotionally charged times. The anger, disappointment, and related emotions have constructive energy to move us to action and speaking out - BUT for them not to become incendiary we need celebration.
Celebration is a spotlight on what works, what you’ve done well, the rights you have, the love that exists, the good will that persists. It is those things that empower you to speak your truth, work on behalf of others, and commit to your better life. Reminding yourself of what you already have, the battles you have already won, and the progress you have made is your foundation. The more you strengthen your foundation by celebrating your assets, accomplishments, and rights, the more hope you have in transformation. Hope is what keeps you going despite what is happening now. When you take a moment to celebrate your good food choices - woo hoo!!! - the slip ups don’t take you back to I will never be able to to do this or this is too hard. In outrage about politics, news, or life happenings - celebrating the love, support, access that is there - liberates you to channel the energy of outrage into big and small gestures in the right direction. Sometimes problems or challenges seem to loom so much larger than your personal agency. Never lose sight of the impact of small choices. You cannot reverse heart disease in a day, but daily choices can lead to a 40 point cholesterol drop as one of our weekly meal plan clients experienced. Racism is larger than you, but your kindness creates a difference for those you interact with which shifts the pendulum. Women’s rights are challenged, but when you help another woman, volunteer, or tell your story you raise up all people. I am the worst at stopping to celebrate. I am too busy, or there is still so much more to do, or I am on to the next thing, but over time it burns me out, steals my zeal, and slows me down. Over the last week, I committed to a celebration of where I am and where we are as a country. I feel refreshed, hopeful, and am able to not be in despair, but see how I can support women and community at this time. Think about how you can improve your practice of celebration. I encourage you to celebrate the heck out of life - this will do so much for your joy, effectiveness, and vigor. Birthdays, holidays, births, graduations, accomplishments, awards, anniversaries all are reasons to celebrate - a toast, a shout out, a special dinner, wearing your favorite outfit, even turning in early can be the celebration. How will you celebrate? Julia xo One month of wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and using an app called Levels gave me an inside view of how food is metabolized in my body.
Everyone should use one for at least 2 weeks to see how what they eat is affecting blood sugar levels. Our blood sugar levels greatly influence the likelihood of disease, weight gain, hormonal stability, alertness, and stamina. When you see a graph of your blood sugar levels throughout the day, you want the range of fluctuation to be tight so that it looks more like slow, gentle rises and gentle dips. If it looks like an EKG, it’s trouble. The opportunity to get continual information provided me many insights and confirmations. I learned that stress caused sharp spikes. The order I ate made a significant difference as well as the fasting windows (periods of no eating or snacking) between meals. When meals were glucose stable, snacks were unnecessary. FYI, snacking keeps glucose levels elevated throughout the day - bad for weight loss, pre-diabetes, and above normal A1C. Here are the takeaways that you can use to further customize your daily eating to bring down A1C levels, reduce insulin responses, reverse pre-diabetes and diabetes, and to lose weight.
How did Jolie perform? I loved testing out the jolie meals at the cafe and for the food delivery programs. I know the science, but there is always a chance that when you see the data things don’t measure up. Sign of relief - the jolie meals provided stable blood sugar: minimal, very gentle rise and fall. This is great news if you are pre-diabetic, diabetic, lowering A1C, losing weight, or on your longevity journey like me. I did do some head to head comparisons of jolie versions of juices and smoothies versus other places. Jolie juices and smoothies, won by a landslide in the competition for not raising blood glucose. As to the delivery programs all stars were the Soup Cleanse, 10 Day Reset, and Broth Cleanse. The Optimized and Paleo programs kept blood sugar lowest; in the jolielife and vegan programs blood sugar was kept low and stable by eating the veggies first and beans, rice, quinoa, oats last. For eating at the cafe: For breakfast or a snack your best choices are the energy bowl, frittata, smoked salmon toast on glow Bread, avocado toast on glow bread, the bunny muffin, and the chocolate love bar. Salads, no surprise, are great lunch choices with our no sugar housemade dressing. The bunless jolie burger and garden tacos are good choices too. Keeping glucose low in your blood will reduce A1C levels, improve liver function, curb energy crashes, speed weight loss, and reverse diabetic conditions. Eating jolie will make it easy for you to do all that. Love, Julia xo  Metabolism - the cellular actions that convert glucose to energy - is dynamic and largely under your control. Do not believe that metabolic decline is inevitable. So many clients and friends come to me suffering from low energy, stubborn weight issues, menopausal weight gain and feel hopeless.
Have you too heard that after 40 or after menopause metabolic slowing is inevitable? It’s not true. Just like physical conditioning interrupts the decline of the body; metabolic conditioning keeps energy up, weight healthy, and inflammation low. Metabolism is essentially the generation of energy within the body from the environment - air - and food. The factors which inform metabolism are physical activity, stress, sleep, food composition, food order, and eating frequency. When energy is available and steady, you have optimal metabolic health. With optimal metabolic health your experience: Stable energy Sharper memory Exercise endurance Less anxiety and depression Stable mood Clearer skin Fewer wrinkles Improved fertility and sexual health Stronger immune system If this is not you, then it is time to change how your metabolism is running with conditioning practices. But how do you change your metabolism? Sleep more. Lack of sleep slows down metabolism by hormonally favoring glucose storage over use. This means when you consistently get less than 7 hours of sleep, your body is primed to hold onto fat, create more fat, and burn less of what you eat. You can’t catch up on sleep, so the primary way to make sleep work for your metabolism is to consistently get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. The effect of sleep is cumulative so consistency is important. Exercise. You have energy stored in your muscles. The pathways that move energy from blood to muscle and from fat cells to muscles benefit and become more efficient with regular activation. Daily exercise keeps these processes online, so that they are more accessible to you even when not exercising. That way when you eat, instead of a spike leading to fat storage, your body will store energy in your muscles; then when you need glucose instead of the valley of hunger and tiredness, your body will draw fuel from the stored energy, glycogen, in your muscles. Use your stress tool box. Stress is normal when it is situational. Chronic, all day, frequent stress is not what your system evolved to manage. For that reason, you have to be intentional in bringing your stress down by stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system. Your natural de stress pathways are activated when you exercise, do yoga, breath deeply, spend time outdoors, have social connections, or enjoy a cup of tea. Not activating relaxation keeps you in a metabolic straight jacket - cortisol favors fat storage, hunger, high insulin. Food wise you condition your metabolism by avoiding foods and food sequences which create glucose spikes. Key ways to do this is to start each meal with vegetables, eat your starches and sweets at the end of your meal, and always avoid consuming sweets or carbs on an empty stomach. Love, 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  You can increase longevity by improving the health of your skin. It’s your largest organ and the cellular age of your skin affects vitality and, in fact, once you are over 60 the condition of your skin is of life and death importance.
Feeding our skin is not just about beauty. Skin protects you against a myriad of allergens, pathogens, infection, and foot ulcers. Skin thinning is a major problem as we age that weakens the skin barrier leading to tears in the skin, abrasions, easy bruising, and foot ulcers. The incidents of foot ulcers in those 65 and older is growing. Foot ulcers can lead to death within 5 years even when treated. Bioage determination is a growing field of research which is finding that bioage of our skin correlates with longevity - mainly because of senescent cells and what is good for our skin is good for our overall body and what harms the skin, harms other cells in our body. Senescent cells are cells that are damaged to the point that they no longer replicate, but do not die. Senescent cells exist throughout the body, but accumulate more densely in the skin due to sun damage, environmental stressors, and nutritional oversights. These cells inhibit the healing of the skin and are implicated in cancer, diabetes, dementia, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and decline in eyesight, Senescent cells secrete cytokines, pro-inflammatory factors that not only damage nearby cells, but also pass into the bloodstream contributing to systemic inflammation and cell dysfunction. Eating for skin health and practicing skin care is less cosmetic, but is deeply connected to your overall health. You can strengthen your body by lowering the age of your skin.
Specifically to decrease senescent cells:
The bonus here is the more you nurture your glow the better you feel, the more confidently you face your world, and the more you improve every aspect of health. I started Monday last week with a colonics session at Living Waters in Morristown. I would never choose to begin my week like that ever in my life again. However, I’m writing about it because it was truly opening, worth the discomfort, and helped me be more intentional about what’s going into my gut.
Colonics is a detoxifying therapeutic procedure where the colon is irrigated. (Yes, that’s a very santitized description as the reality for me was never ending water and sensations that reminded me too much of childbirth.) After the session, and being gifted with squeaky clean insides, I did not want sugar inside my gut, nothing processed - not even “healthy processed foods,” no dairy, no meat, no eggs, and no wheat. It was not even a feeling of good vs bad or plant based vs. not plant based. It was more that I got to consciously choose with what to repopulate my gut. What I did want was lots of water. I wanted fresh fruit, greens, broths, soups, green juices, tea, veggies, and sweet potato. I also wanted to do more yoga - interestingly post colonics my practice has been longer each day. I love ab exercises - I am doing more of those, and walking. I want to walk more. The feeling of lightness is something I want to preserve after the extreme feeling of lightness that comes about 12 hours after colonics. On reflection, after writing this, I may choose a Monday again, but I would clear my morning schedule beforehand and have broth and green juice waiting for me and set the whole week up as a cleanse week which is what it turned into. Unprepared - on Tuesday I made a huge pot of mineral broth to nourish me throughout the week. The colonics was like a turbo boost to detox more deeply. I’ve been doing a “reset” ever since, but it’s been super easy because my body just wants it that way. So far, I haven’t added dairy, gluten, or meat into my diet, but neither beans, rice, or other grains. For the last week or so, I have enjoyed what I am eating although I know the next steps are reintegration. Introducing back in more variety is important for my long term health. I am thinking of fish as the next step - as I was a pescatarian for a long while and fish digest easily in my body. So my recommendation: The long term benefit and the reframe the experience gave me was worth the process. It was like instead of renovating a house, you are given an empty plot to build it as you want. That is quite extraordinary! And I will say Living Waters was wonderful!! with love, Julia Wintering by Katherine May has transformed my winter. A client suggested this book in early December - both my daughter and I read it, loved it, and were inspired to make changes to embrace winter itself and the winters in life.
One practice inspired by the book was using the sauna regularly. I have taken to sauna-ing two to three times a week - a practice I really haven’t had since living in Russia. There is no greater pleasure than being warm. I follow with a cold shower. My energy and focus for the rest of the day is completely dialed in. Additionally, my skin is loving the pre and post sauna treatment with the Pomona Skin - goodbye winter dry skin. I get to detox and boost my immune system all with a 15 minute time commitment. The book inspired me to enjoy more soups and broths and hot matcha. As it relates to life - magically the book has evoked more patience in me for the process of life. I am definitely one who could live in perpetual summer, but May reminds us in so many ways that the quiet, more insulated times of life are necessary for more robust and expansive springs and summers. Also, not to fight the quiet times or the times of healing because they are as much part of the cycle of life as are the seasons. love, Julia xo We are offering a four part cooking class focusing on soups and broths. You will learn how to make a fortifying mineral broth that you can use as a soup base or drink alone. Mineral broth contains anti-inflammatory herbs, sea vegetables for thyroid support, and immune boosting vegetables. We will also learn to make a mushroom broth. We call mushroom broth Immunity Broth because it is such a big booster of immune activity and down regulator to auto-immunity.
After broths you will learn to make soup. We will concentrate on the technique or formula for making a traditional soup. I love to teach by breaking down the components of cooking because it frees you from recipes and long ingredient lists. Simplifying the process will help you make the simplest soup as well as the most complex. We will also learn to make cream soups that are completely devoid of dairy, cream, or butter. They taste amazing and are great soups for guests, celebrations, lunches, and cleanses. Along the way we will talk about health, nutrition, and how to make cooking a pleasurable, intuitive activity. You will always leave with something to take home and enjoy and with the experience of cooking yourself. Julia xo |
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