How NOT to Overeat this Holiday Season

 Want to avoid a massive overeat this holiday season? Read on!

 I adore Christmas. I adore lights, presents, friends, family, trees, elves, and most of all, I adore food. Yes, I know - I know I am supposed to be a beacon of radiant good health and moderation. This is a health blog after all. And as important as my health is, and as important as healthy eating is to a healthy body and mind, sometimes a gal enjoys a feast.

That being said, there are ways to enjoy your cupcakes without getting a muffin top.

This is a muffin top!

1. Before you go to a party or a big feast where you know you will be tempted, drink a protein shake with added fiber. I love a product from RenewLife called FiberSmart. This will do a couple of good things. It will help fill you up a bit so you make decisions based on what you actually want, rather than random shoveling of food into your open mouth (oh, come on, I know I am not the only one!). It will also help to regulate the rush of sugar you are going to unleash on your unsuspecting system. This is critical not only to your health, but to your weight. The slower the sugar rushes through your system, the better. So fiber it up before hand!


2. Choose only your favourites. If you are going to cheat and eat from the naughty list, then at least make sure it is the very best of the naughty. If you want chocolate, have chocolate, but make it the stuff you really love. High quality food, ate with enjoyment and savoured, is instantly removed from your thighs by elves...true story! Ok, maybe not, but if you truly savour and enjoy food, a few beneficial things happen. First, you tend to eat slower and therefore eat less. Second, up to 20% of digestion happens before you  ever put food in your mouth. It starts with enjoying the colour, the smell, and the anticipation. Your body, acting like a little Pavlovian dog, starts releasing anticipatory chemicals, juices and enzymes, so that the delicious treats you consume can be digested. And the better you digest, the healthier you are, the stronger your immune system and the easier your weight management will be.

3. Move away from the food! I don't know about you, but as long as I stand by the food table at a party, or as long as I sit at the dinner table with all of the leftover turkey and stuffing, I tend to keep eating. And I do it rather mindlessly. So once you ate your fill, back away from the food before it lures you back in for seconds (thirds and fourths). Simple, but effective.

I wish you a remarkably enjoyable and healthy holiday season. I know I will enjoy mine!

Kristi Shmyr

Holiday Giving

Someone very close to me was homeless for 3 years, the latter part of his experience as a homeless person being on the streets of L.A. These days, I look at homeless people in a different way, acutely aware of the fact that each one of them has a story. I love stories - I love hearing them, reading them and thinking about them. Over the years, I've gotten over the need to share and re-share my own victim stories from the past, though I have a nice collection of stories that relate to challenge, creation and growth and new stories unfold in my life every single day. I believe there is lots of power and potential to heal through our stories and what we can learn from them. A story is really only a victim story if we do not find the capacity to learn and grow from that story.

As it relates to homeless people, I've just been perusing the Mustard Seed website and there's a section on "stories", which I, of course, find very fascinating. As I perceive the homeless of Edmonton, I consider that maybe one guy started out as a wealthy business owner and lost everything to an addiction, winding up on the streets. Or maybe that woman, having come from a warm and loving family, got caught in a cycle of abuse that landed her homeless, unable to see her children. Or perhaps another guy on the street tried for years to enter a monastic order in California to no avail, so decided to take a prolonged walking pilgrimage between California and Mexico, only to end up on the streets of L.A., still unable to be accepted by the monastery. All of these stories inspire and amaze me and I only wish I could collect every one.

Regardless of what each homeless person's story is, the fact is, they've given up belongings, lodging and comfort - whether consciously or unconsciously - to pursue a much more simple and challenging life where making it day by day is the name of the game. A luxury for a homeless person is somewhere semi comfortable and warm to sleep or some warm, running water or a hot meal - all things most of us surely experience every day and likely take for granted.

I still really love the idea of re-gifting at Christmastime, as I blogged about last year. I feel that re-gifting is giving back to our precious earth, not to mention propagating a spirit of reduction as opposed to consumerism. This year, I maintain my love of re-gifting, while I have other things on the brain as well. Why not consider giving back to those who are without a home this holiday season by donating items, money or time to the Mustard Seed here in Edmonton? I am struck by compassion as I consider being without home and family at Christmastime - a time that is punctuated by a warm hearth and warm hearts that are made warm by joviality amongst family and friends.

Please check out The Mustard Seed to find out ways you can help during this holiday season. Personally, I'd like to get some Winter Backpacks (see very bottom of page) together. Please contact me at roberta.a.shepherd@gmail.com if you have any of the listed items for winter backpacks that you'd like to donate.

Happy holidays everyone! I would love to hear YOUR stories through the holiday season and/or in the new year. Flower Essences is a perfect way to share your story with a great listener (me!) and embark on a healing journey through the use of these ingestibles. Please call me at Prana Holistic (780.454.5299) if you'd like to learn more about flower essences - my absolute favorite thing to facilitate as a practitioner!

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Ho-Ho-Holistic

Remembering

Friday is Remembrance Day - a day to remember those who departed from this earth plane in an attempt to protect and serve the rights of you and me. Certainly Remembrance Day is punctuated by strong energies that relate to loss at the hands of war and the memories that living veterans carry in the present day. I also think that it lends itself to a more general remembering of those we've lost.

Loss is a bit of a challenging topic because there's so much emotion around it. Perhaps that's what I'd like to reflect on. I recently lost someone close to me and while it is a painful and emotionally charged experience, I am left thinking about how very human grief is. The more awakened part of me recognizes that all is well, that the person who was "lost" is not really lost, only changed in form - only his body is lost, our bodies being the most dense part of our beings. The human part of me struggles with remorse, regret, anger, sadness and longing. Surely the person who has departed is not feeling any of these challenging feelings - he's been set free of such dense and heavy emotion! So, why do I mourn? Do I mourn for the pain of the person who has departed? He no longer experiences pain. Do I mourn for the pain he experienced here on earth? But again, he's been set free of this pain. In my estimation, there's one primary reason that I'm mourning and that's for MY loss, not his. With him gone, I feel as though a part of me has been lost - that part of me that this person fulfilled - and pain sets up camp in that void, at least for now. We tend to grieve that which we perceive as being lost in our own lives, and that is very human of us. That being said, I think it's very important for us to honor our humanness and do what we need to do in order to BE human, moving these emotions through our bodies as productively as possible.

Meanwhile, our higher selves know that nothing has in fact been lost and that perhaps something has actually been gained. Those close to us that have departed have gained freedom and, down the road, we are able to gain strength, insight and empathy, which lends itself to our increased capacity to support those around us. Feelings that are associated with grief and loss are very heavy because we experience them in our bodies, which are also very heavy. Our spirits soar and are weightless. May we remember that once a person departs from this earth, their spirit is set free from the constraints of the body and everything is...probably pretty dreamy and amazing, to say the least.

Someone once told me that when love is "lost", as in the breakup of a relationship, that love lives on in other ways because, as love is energy, it can be neither created nor destroyed, only changed in form. It was comforting to me to consider that while my heart may have felt as though it was aching for love having been "lost", every love having been shared lives on and there really is nothing to mourn. Rather, I could celebrate that I had been blessed with the gift of experiencing love in that form for that period of time and celebrate how that same love shows up in my life in different ways.

This is a short reflection with a simple point: as we remember those that departed while protecting our country and those that have departed in other ways, may we also remember that their souls are not lost, but rather changed in form. Their souls are free from the weight of this earthly plane. May we find comfort in knowing that they now guide and protect us with a bird's eye view and that their peace is one that we do not yet know.  May we honor who they were on this earth and remember to celebrate the freedom they have now gained. Lest we forget.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic

Boundaries: A Story of Transition and Personal Growth

I had a very intense and transitional experience recently that I'd like to share. My son has been in care at a day home ever since I returned to work in February 2010. While at the outset of arranging care all seemed perfect and wonderful, things have progressively gotten "bad". I've realized that there are core values that myself and my care provider don't have in common. Since that realization, it's been a slow road of first acknowledging that truth and then doing something about it. 

In the summertime, my care provider suggested that we might be happier elsewhere where our needs would be better met. Amazing that it was her suggestion and not mine, even though I had thought of it many times. I started looking for alternate childcare facilities and got myself on 2 waiting lists for places that really fit what it is that I'm looking for for myself and my son. After confirming my spot on these 2 waiting lists, I felt pretty discouraged. It's a lot harder to find appropriate childcare in Edmonton than I ever imagined. I felt bound to the day home and proceeded by trying to be as positive as possible, despite feeling like my values were being compromised every time I arrived there to drop my son off. 

Most recently, an incident occurred that made me feel extremely uncomfortable and as though my son's welfare was being compromised - maybe in ways that I wasn't even aware of. In anger, I wanted to pull my son out of this person's home right away, never to return, but I didn't. I went back to the drawing board with the intention of exhausting my search for alternate childcare. I first checked in on the status of the 2 waiting lists, only for God to reach down and bless us with an opening for November 1st, specifically in my son's age category, at the bilingual Montessori childcare center 5 minutes walking distance from our home! After that was settled, I had a gnawing feeling in my gut - I felt so uncomfortable bringing my son back to the day home. But I did. 

On Friday, I called home to Grande Prairie to see if I had any other options, ie: if either of my parents could come spend some time in Edmonton to care for my son while I continued to go to work. My dad offered to come and yet, I was still on the fence. Why? In my head, I knew that the best thing to do was to pull my son from care at the day home, but I couldn't integrate that into my body to gain confidence around that possibility and I had immense guilt at the thought of doing so. My son has been under care at this home for a year and a half and all people are inherently good, aren't they? And people make mistakes and are allowed to make mistakes, isn't that true? On Friday night, after doing a meditation to gain clarity on which direction to take, I knew what I had to do - pull him from care for the last 2 weeks until he started at his new daycare - but the guilt was almost paralyzing! I thought I had done so much personal work around guilt in my life and yet, here it was, glaring me in the face and clubbing me on the shins.

Starting on Saturday morning, I decided to take Pink Yarrow (a flower essence) - 1-2 drops every 1-2 hours to try and speed emotional catharsis around personal boundaries. Pink Yarrow, specifically, is for those who tend towards taking responsibility for other people's feelings and experiences, thereby having a difficult time establishing emotional boundaries. I also implemented Emotional Freedom Technique and Kit Furey's methods for clearing. Late Sunday afternoon, my personal clouds started to clear and I felt more protected around my heart center. I recognized that this comes down to something as simple as the fact that parents and childcare providers absolutely ought to be on the same page, and we weren't. That, in itself, was enough reason to remove my son from care. Today's his last day.

There are a few points to this story:

1. I'm really in to gross honesty lately. As in, honesty that's potentially embarrassing. More than anything, this is regarding my being honest with my own self, something I've historically had a hard time with. As it relates to this story, let me say that I always - ALWAYS - thought that I would do ANYTHING in the moment to protect the welfare of my child. And I didn't. This points to the fact that whatever our core issues are - one of mine being poor establishment and maintenance of boundaries - no single person can change or improve those issues for us, just as we have no power to affect others' issues. While I thought that becoming a mother would resolve so many of my core issues, it's been my own decision to pursue personal work and activities that stimulate personal growth that has actually brushed the surface of rectifying any of my core issues. My son's presence in my life, alone, has done nothing to make me a better person. That being said, his presence has stimulated me to want to be a better person in order to set a positive example and, as a result, I've pursued many avenues towards change. 

May we stop claiming that "when I become a parent" or "once I'm in a fulfilling relationship" or "once I earn more money" etc. we will be happier and better people. All we have is now and the only one in your life with enough power to create change is you.

2. This p0int brings a side story to the table. I've been struggling with a recurring infection for some time. Being that it's a skin infection, Kristi recently mentioned that issues with skin point to boundary issues. Of course they do, our skin is the physical boundary on our bodies that protects us from the outside world. As things escalated with the childcare situation, the infection recurred, even after having taken a round of antibiotics - something I'm strongly averse to doing. As of today, all symptoms of infection are gone. This points to the fact that physical issues are not just physical. I am always in amazement at the miracle of holism. As I addressed and attempted to heal issues as they relate to emotional b0undaries in my life, the physical ailment that energetically related to boundaries resolved itself. 

May we recognize that every "issue" is a multi-layered one and may we seek to explore more than just the physical components of everything we feel challenged by. By this exploration, may we enjoy all the more personal growth and improvement.

3. Flower essences rock. They really do. They are the most subtle and yet the most profound therapeutic method I have EVER had the complete pleasure to work with. They are my favorite healing modality to facilitate for others and to experience personally. As you ingest flower essences, they open up amazing portholes of realization that you may never have dreamed were even possible. I like to refer to them as "counselors in a bottle". This comparison speaks to how a counselor's job is to diplomatically point out blind spots - parts about ourselves that are very real and that may undermine the true and highest expression of who we really are, but that we are consciously unaware of. The difference between a counselor and a flower essence is that flower essences stimulate your having these blind spots revealed to you in and of your own self - with a supporting role from God or the universe, of course. This makes the awareness process more empowering. 

May we open our hearts and our minds to modalities as profound and beautiful as flower essences, that they may enrich our journeys towards discovering and thereby bettering our own selves. And, as you read this, may you allow me the honour of living out my life's passion by sharing your story with me and gifting me with the opportunity to create a flower essences blend JUST FOR YOU.

If you feel you have any blockages you'd like to explore via flower essences, I would be absolutely tickled pink to hear from you. Thank you so much for reading.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic

The Insight Inspired by Henry and the Chipping Cheddar Witch

Lately, my son's favorite DVD to watch is Angelina Ballerina - a young, British mouse wrapped up in her ideals of being a prima ballerina. I pretty much have all 4 stories on the borrowed DVD memorized. One of the stories is a Halloween story centered around an old, local tale about the Chipping Cheddar witch - Chipping Cheddar being the village Angelina and her family live in. Briefly, the tale states that the Chipping Cheddar witch shows up and turns the mice into stinky cheese. Angelina's father is telling the tale to Angelina, her friend Alice, and her cousin, Henry. Henry attaches to the story, later becoming convinced that he sees the witch when, in actual fact, it's Angelina's ballet teacher, Miss Lily, dressed up as a witch for Halloween. Henry becomes very worked up, enlisting the help of their friend William to track down the Chipping Cheddar witch and stop her from turning the village inhabitants to stinky cheese. William becomes convinced when at one point, they go to the village shop and when they don't see the shop keeper but instead see a big chunk of cheese on the counter, they assume the witch has done her nasty deed there, turning the shop keeper into stinky cheese. Of course, at the end of the episode, Henry and William realize that all the while, it's been Miss Lily dressed up as a witch and that the story is just that - a story.

A couple mornings ago, as I was getting ready for work, I listened to this particular episode play out in the living room and it got me to thinking. The Chipping Cheddar witch episode is very reflective of what we all do on a regular basis - make up stories in our heads and then create evidence all around us to prove our stories to be true. We are so much like Henry who, being so taken away by the story, walks out of Angelina's house, sees Miss Lily's witch hat sticking up above the fence posts and assumes that this must be none other than the Chipping Cheddar witch! From there, just like us, Henry fabricates all the more drama, visiting the village shop, seeing a chunk of cheese and no shopkeeper and building on the story all the more. Meanwhile, the shopkeeper was in the back, only to come out after Henry's departure and wonder what the noise had been all about.

I can think of so very many examples of how I've done this in my own life, and I'm sure you can relate too. Here's one: while I have only ever wanted a committed and loving primary relationship, based on some life experiences, I made up a story in my head that men only ever wanted to use me and that "all the good men are taken". What ensued was a barrage of non-committal men in my life who always left me waiting and wanting for more, when they'd never intended to pursue anything permanent with me to begin with! Because I'd established this story in my head, my being proceeded to find evidence of what I was telling myself was true and you can just guess how every single scenario played out as I met men over the years. Amidst this evidence, I also received the grandest of blessings in the form of my gorgeous son, not to mention all the personal growth that has happened as a result of my old, limiting belief. These days, I realize that there are plenty of men out there who are equally deserving of a committed, loving relationship as I am and that my trust in the success of my own life's journey will inevitably bring my belief to fruition...alongside some action, of course (see Calling In The One link below).

My own life is not the point but serves as a great example. The point is that you will always strive to prove yourself right when it comes to that which you believe to be true. If you believe that you always hit all the red lights when driving, then you will. Funny thing is, you might hit 4 out of 7 red lights, but you will be focused on those 4 red lights instead of those 3 green ones because of what you maintain in your thoughts. If you believe that the world is out to get you, then it will be. If you believe that all the good men are taken, then you will surely find a way to show that this is in fact true. If you think you are undeserving, then you will be. If you think that you're fat, then you will be. And if you think that the Chipping Cheddar witch is walking around in YOUR neighborhood, seeking to turn all your friends and family into stinky cheese, then she will be!

Thank you to author Katharine Holabird, creator of Angelina Ballerina and to her character Henry for reminding me of the power of thought and the intensity of what can happen when we so vehemently attach to something we believe to be true. 

I - again - have to cite a few different sources that have helped me to start shifting and changing the stories in my head. If you find that your stories are making for a challenging reality, help is available! Might I suggest that you scope out any or all of the following:

1. Kristi's Goal Ninjas programs
2. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) (which we offer here at Prana Holistic)
3. Flower Essences therapy (which I would be happy to facilitate for you here at Prana Holistic)
4. Kit Furey's work
5. Anything by Byron Katie
6. Calling In The One, by Katherine Woodward Thomas

Thank you for reading.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic

Michael Kalmanovitch: An Inspiration For Change

In April this year, I got to spend some time interviewing Michael Kalmanovitch - owner and founder of Earth's General Store here in Edmonton. While the purpose of the interview was to prepare a piece for print, it never got published, which I always thought was a shame. A shame because it's a good piece but more so because Kalmanovitch is deserving of every bit of publicity he gets. After reading Prana's most recent monthly newsletter in which Earth's General Store was mentioned, I decided that I'd very much like to share my original piece on Kalmanovitch, so here it is:

Michael Kalmanovitch displayed his usual, friendly demeanour when I met with him on an overcast Monday morning, inviting me to sit in the quiet corner of his store that is the library - an impressive collection of books and DVDs on social justice issues. I’ve long been a fan of Kalmanovitch’s establishment, Earth’s General Store, located at 9605 82^nd avenue. I first stumbled upon it at the old location, above Gordon Price Music on 108^th street and 82^nd avenue. I love visiting Earth’s General Store, so much so that in the past, I hauled my son up the many stairs to the old location in his stroller and back down again just to browse. Kalmanovitch was equally friendly back then, once offering to help me down the stairs with the stroller and often engaging in small talk. Modest and unpretentious, you’d never know he was the owner unless he told you so.

Kalmanovitch was born in Sarnia, Ontario, spent his teenage years on the Isle of Wight in England, and moved to Edmonton in 1973 for a summer job. Kalmanovitch doesn’t hesitate to tell me that from then, he worked in the oil sands in Fort MacMurray until 1977, after which he pursued work in the heavy equipment, mining and warehousing industries. His honesty is a reflection of authenticity and testament to what he stands for the most – change. 
Kalmanovitch’s personal movement towards change began when he was about 12 years old and perceived that his house was "lit up like a Christmas tree" - this had a profound affect on him. In 1969, he moved back to England where he contributed to gathering coal for his and his family’s energy needs. His actual change in consciousness really began to take hold when he read Canada as a Conserver Society, a report published by the Science Council of Canada over viewing the importance of implementing more sustainable policies for the future. Throughout the 80s, Kalmanovitch got into composting and bicycling as his primary form of transportation. In 1986, he got involved with the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters. In and around that time, he was doing workshops on a well-rounded approach to a more environmental lifestyle for the Environmental Resource Centre.

This brings us to 1990, a year that Kalmanovitch calls the start of the “second wave of environmentalism”. It was the 20^th anniversary of Earth Day, which drew in record numbers of interested earthlings. Kalmanovitch reflects, “People were hungry for the shift, realizing that we are all consumers and a lot of consumers are looking for better options”. At this point, Kalmanovitch drew up a plan for Earth’s General Store, which he conceptualized as being “a tool to help create change”. Earth’s General Store opened in 1991. The store had “tough times” and Kalmanovitch worked in Nunavut as a mineworker to make ends meet. The tough times have morphed into a flourishing and effective business that has expanded over 3 times its original size.
 
I asked Kalmanovitch how he stays grounded in the midst of city life and within a society driven by consumerism, to which he responded, “I don’t”. He explained that, “if I let it all in – all the sadness – it will kill me”. How then does Kalmanovitch deal with “all the sadness”? Action. Kalmanovitch affirms that “the antidote to sadness is action” and he’s always taking action. These actions don’t have to be huge to have an impact. Kalmanovitch is a firm believer that little changes can collectively affect the whole. He mentions the Hundredth Monkey Effect, a phenomenon that explains the potential for shifting of the collective consciousness once a portion of the population achieves a particular awareness. According to Kalmanovitch, small things we can all do to impart big change are composting, picking up litter, avoiding idling, which he considers to be “crippling”, “pre-thinking” by always carrying your own travel mug and bringing your own plate and cutlery to events like Heritage Days, sharing, so as to reduce consumption, eating organic and buying locally. Most stirring is Kalmanovitch’s suggestion that the greatest small move of all is to, “of course, love lots more. Because with love comes caring, compassion, empathy and nurturing.” 
 
Kalmanovitch speaks passionately on the topic of politics, throwing in a couple expletives to express how mind-boggling he finds politicians’ salaries to be when “they’re not even doing a good job!” On this note, we discuss that if he could rid the world of one thing, it would be avarice, which is defined as insatiable greed. Kalmanovitch is most offended by avarice at the expense of others. He encourages people to vote so as not to perpetuate the disenchanting status of our current political platforms and aspires to adopt a more positive approach, possibly even getting involved one day.
 
Considering Kalmanovitch’s ultimate sense of purpose, to inspire change, he can be proud of the impact he’s had in Edmonton. With many Edmontonians visiting Earth’s General Store and sharing how they’ve changed because of the store, Kalmanovitch will be missed if he decides to relocate to Ottawa where he believes he can influence even more change. Regardless of where he goes, based on the Hundredth Monkey phenomenon, Kalmanovitch’s efforts will be lasting and reverberate throughout the collective consciousness of Edmonton and beyond.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic

Killing Crazy Candida!

I've had quite a few clients recently report that they've struggled with chronic yeast infections over the years. Most recently, when I shared with a client how I eradicated chronic yeast in the past, she reflected on how my methods might be ones she'd be interested in pursuing as she gets really annoyed with taking the over-the-counter remedies, especially since they mess her system up for a few days afterwards. In deed, taking over-the-counter remedies like Canesten, Monistat, and the one-day oral remedy, Diflucan, are all solutions to riding yourself of symptoms of a yeast infection, but none of them relieve the root issue of the infection.

When you're at a point where you're getting frequent yeast infections, it means that the bacterial balance in your body is thrown off. There is an abundance of "bad" bacteria in the system and this "bad" bacteria has overthrown the "good" bacteria, creating a breeding ground for bacterial infections such as yeast. The source of the bacterial imbalance is in the digestive system and, if left untreated over time, the "bad" bacteria becomes systemic in nature, meaning that it's now traveling throughout your system and manifesting itself as a yeast infection, athlete's foot, jock itch, thrush, bladder infections and cystitis (irritation and inflammation of the bladder), skin rashes in skin folds including diaper rash, toe and fingernail fungus. Besides these more obvious manifestations, there are a plethora of symptoms related to systemic bacterial imbalance, commonly called candidiasis. Some of these symptoms include: sensitivity to smells, difficulty concentrating, intense sugar cravings, itchy skin and skin problems like acne and/or eczema, headaches, digestive problems and discomfort such as gas and bloating, chronic exhaustion, irritability, anxiety, rectal itching, depression, low sex drive, sinus problems and sore throats. The reason this bacterial imbalance happens at all is due to overuse of antibiotics and/or corticosteroids, both of which kill off the "good" bacteria in the gut and compromise the immune system, poor diet and lifestyle such as excessive consumption of alcohol, simple sugars and starches. Bacterial imbalance has also been associated with the use of birth control pills.

I'm here to tell 'ya to ditch the quick fix over-the-counter remedies! The only thing that will permanently rectify your chronic yeast problems is a candida cleanse with accompanying herbs and a lifestyle change! Yes, that's right, once again I'm the bearer of challenging news - there is no overnight solution to chronic yeast. The solution is doing some work over time. I did my first candida cleanse about 10 years ago and, knock on wood, I haven't had a single yeast infection since! When I DO get a slight twinge of one or some other symptoms that point to yeast, I alter my diet and use herbs to clear it up.

Here are the basics of a candida eradication program:

1. Only take antibiotics when absolutely necessary.
2. Use probiotics every day. Probiotics are healthy strains of bacteria in capsule format that will help to re-populate the "good" bacteria in the digestive tract.
3. Pursue a strict diet that eliminates all sugars and yeasts, including natural sugars as found in fruits and colored vegetables like carrots (basically any vegetable that's not green or white).
4. Take herbs that are anti-bacterial in nature that will work to kill off the "bad" bacteria.

Here at Prana Holistic, I do cleanse counseling, where I tailor make a cleanse just for you including herbs uniquely suited to your needs. After the cleanse is made up, I also provide guidance for you upon your cleanse program, meeting with you weekly or so in order to answer questions and offer support during your process. I would be happy to help you get rid of a build-up of "bad" bacteria in your system in order that your body function more optimally. If you suspect you have candidiasis, please give us a call today to set up your cleanse consult and/or your cleanse counseling package. 780.454.5299

*Please note - there are a lot of schools of thought on candida cleansing and you will find many on the internet. The cleanse guidelines that I offer each person are based on my own personal research, experience, my education in the field and a collection of opinions from my teachers and other trusted and reputable practitioners.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic