I have heard a lot of people saying that lately they are more tired than usual.  This could be due to many factors – school starting, winter approaching, and heading into the time of year when there is less sun.  I did a little bit of research on fatigue and found this interesting (and short) article on using your diet to reverse fatigue. 

http://www.westonaprice.org/askdoctor/chronicfatigue.html

In it, the author discusses the role that eating too many simple carbohydrates plays in creating fatigue.  When simple carbohydrates are replaced with more nutrient-dense foods such as meat, dairy, and vegetables then many people find relief from fatigue. 

Please note that the author emphasizes the intake of raw dairy products which are wonderful (if obtained from a healthy cow raised by a farmer with reliable farming practices) but may be illegal in your state.  I know that raw milk is illegal in Iowa and Hawaii but is legal in California – if you live in a state other than those three you may want to do some research. 

Most states will allow raw cheese and butter to be sold, since they are cultured.  If you prefer to drink milk, then look for non-homogenized, low-temp pasteurized milk which is much easier for most people to digest than the homogenized, ultra-pasteurized milk that is sold in most grocery stores.

Below is a testimonial written by Wendy, one of our favorite customers here at Marilyn Farms!  She recently discovered the Master Cleanse (also known as the lemonade diet) and was kind enough to share her experience with us.  Thanks Wendy!

The first time that I heard about The Master Cleanse was years ago when my sister used to do it. I thought that she was crazy!!! The next time I heard about it was last fall on a visit to Maryland. I spoke at length with someone who had done it for 21 days and it sparked my interest. I went and bought the book (The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs), read about it, and it took 6 months of thinking and wrestling and praying about it and then one day I decided that it was time to stop thinking about it and just do it.

It had become quite apparent to me that I needed to do something rather drastic as I had not been feeling well for some time, my eating was out of control, and I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Much to my dismay I discovered that after menopause my metabolism did not work quite the same way to drop extra pounds!! So began my experience with doing the Master Cleanse. I chose the time period and followed the instructions in the book very carefully.

For 3 days I ate less and only fruits and vegetables and cut down on the coffee that I drank. The first 5 days of the cleanse were a bit rough.  I had a very bad headache that left me feeling nauseated and not a great amount of energy. It was still possible to do everything that I had to and I was not hungry. A lot of the headache was likely due to coffee withdrawal and also the tension in my neck. On the 5th day I received a neck massage which greatly helped in getting rid of the headache and then throughout the rest of the cleanse I did an infared sauna and an ionic footbath 3 times and that made a big difference with how I felt.

The next 5 days I had more energy and felt pretty good. One of the things that you do during the 10 days is a salt water cleanse in the morning.  I only did it 3 times the first time and 4 times the second time and that is something that you can be more flexible about. If you don’t do that you need to make sure that you take an herbal laxative tea or a colon cleanse capsule of some sort that does not have too much fiber in it.

I followed the book’s instructions on how to break the cleanse and come off of it gradually and allow my system to accept food again. I have to tell you that on the evening of the second day of breaking the cleanse the vegetable soup that I made tasted like heaven and I savored every mouthful.  This cleanse for me was an answer.  I have tried to do cleanses before, but because my system is very sensitive to many medications, herbs and vitamins I have always reacted badly and not been able to continue. This one being only fresh lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup was simple and my system could handle all those things.

The most amazing thing that it did for me, was that it took away all the food cravings that I was struggling with before I began. Also as an added benefit I was able to lose 14lbs that I did not put back on after I was finished. The weight loss was not my primary purpose for doing it, but I was happy with what happened. If you don’t want to lose weight or if you need to gain weight then you can adjust the amount of the maple syrup to accomplish whatever you need to do.

This cleanse gave me the kick start that I needed to begin a healthier lifestyle. I have just finished doing it for the second time and during this one felt much better throughout it than I did the first time. There were some different things that I experienced throughout the 10 days, but nothing that stopped me from doing all the things that I had to. Also I did the ionic footbath and infared sauna 4 times during the 10 days and that was a big help.

In total I have lost 20 lbs since the first cleanse and have been able to keep my eating in check and do not feel deprived. People have told me that my skin looks really good and that my whole being just looks different. I can eat pretty much anything, but just much much less of it, especially sweets and junk food. Also, I am trying to eat as little wheat as possible.

For me this was an answer and something that was pretty easy to do both time wise for the preparation and cost and not feeling deprived of food. If anyone is thinking of doing it, I would strongly encourage you to follow the instructions very closely for going into it, while you are on it, and also coming off of it.

Last week I attended a 4-day conference in Chicago on nutrition and chronic disease.  The conference itself was fantastic, but I’m writing this blog to tell you of my 4-day love affair with the free samples of magnesium glycinate (the same form of magnesium found in our very own Mag Calm and Essential Calm) that were provided at the conference.  You see, the conference was sponsored by a supplement company that wanted to make sure the practitioners in attendance knew all about the wonders of their supplements so they had open bottles of their entire product line for us to sample.

Magnesium is commonly used for the nutritional treatment of a diversity of issues including osteoporosis, pre-menstrual syndrome, fatigue, fibromyalgia, arthritis, insomnia, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arrhythmia, and diabetes.  I personally experience none of the above but since an estimated 80% of the US population doesn’t get enough magnesium in their daily diet I thought I’d take advantage of the free samples.

After just one day of taking about 400 milligrams of magnesium I found myself sleeping better, waking up easier, and just generally feeling relaxed and refreshed – which is not usually how I feel when sitting in a chair for 8 hours a day listening to scientific lectures.  The dosage I took is slightly above the RDA of 310 mg/day for women but magnesium is hard to overdose on when taken orally – if you get too much your body will eliminate the extra via the bowels (translation: if you find yourself running to the bathroom, you took too much).  The only exception to this would be if you have inadequate kidney function or are on medications that alter your metabolism of magnesium.

As I write this blog I’m staring at my own bottle of Mag Calm, which I keep by my computer to remind me to keep up the experiment I started at the conference.  It’s been a week and I’m still feeling energetic and waking up refreshed and happy in the morning which is highly unusual for me when it starts getting cold outside!

Magnesium has so many amazing qualities that I couldn’t do it justice in one blog so I wanted to also provide you with a link to one of my favorite reference websites on nutrition – the Linus Pauling Institute.  Here is the link to their page on magnesium.  Enjoy!
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/magnesium/