Happy New Year’s!! A New Year for Reaching ALL Your Health and Beauty Goals

Hello Guys,

2010 is upon us, bringing us the promise of a new year, and a new decade to bring in welcome changes and improvements, while releasing old toxic energies. Yay!!!!!!!!!!

This year is particularly special, with the blue moon tonight! This does not happen very often, and I think it is a good omen. The blue moon is the second full moon this month. I take that to mean a time when there is a lot of ripe, FULL potential for the taking, right now!

This evening, with all the support from the universe, it is a powerful time to WRITE OUT your intentions for your health and wellness goals. There is something about writing that helps make everything much more concrete- and helps you solidify your intentions. I highly recommend taking the time to do this today.

If you don’t feel good in your body, in your physical space, and you don’t feel as healthy, beautiful, radiant, etc. as you know you could be, then it affects everything else. Success in other areas in your life won’t matter as much, because you are not feeling great about yourself deep down.

So take some time to write out your goals in the form of a declaration:

–    This year I’m going to lose those extra _______ pounds I’ve been carrying around for the last few years.

–    This year I’m going to bring my energy to the highest levels it has been in _____ years, without have to rely on caffeine.

–    This year I’m going to achieve clear, radiant skin once and for all. I’m going to clear up the (acne, fine lines, undereye circles, etc.).

–    This year I’m going to develop a general meal plan/schedule that I feel good about and stick to it.

Whatever you want! The more clear you are about your intentions, the more the universe will be able to support you in achieving them. I will be writing out some more tangible advice soon, and into the new year to help support you!

Also, quick note to clear up from my last post where I mentioned my nutritional consultations. I got a deluge of emails, and I will be answering them all over the next few days. Thanks for your patience! But I want to be clear that my consultations/eating plans are NOT just for people that want to eat all raw food. I don’t eat all raw food myself. I eat a lot of raw food, but not 100%. And that is not what really matters!

None of the celebrities I work with are raw foodists, or even vegetarians by the way. And very few of my other current clients are either. It is NOT about about labels- vegetarian, vegan, meat-eater, raw foodist, macrobiotic, etc. I look at the person holistically, their lifestyle, state of health, genetic inheritance, tastes, etc. , and we create a healthy and beauty-building eating plan that supports them individually. Health is for everyone, not for certain people in certain categories. Btw, I know many raw foodists who are extremely unbalanced and look awful. Raw food, vegan, whatever, is not an automatic definition of glowing health!

Again, if you are interested in finding out about the cost and format of a consultation, I am opening the door to them at this time.

You can reach me at info@ kimberlysnyder.net.

Happy, Happy New Year!!!

Now make your declarations- come to term with what you really want by writing them out. Then you will start to intentionally manifest them.

May all your goals and dreams come true this year!! I am excited so for you. 🙂

Lots of love, Kimberly

How To REALLY Eat Breakfast

Breakfast can either support our weight loss, beauty, and energy goals, or take us down…

Today I had a very interesting nutritional consultation with a beautiful, super tall ex-model who I’ll call Jillian.* She was super sweet (and far nicer than most of the models I remember from my own modeling days!), and I instantly felt like we were old pals. What is ironic is that she fully expected me to take a look at her diet, say she was doing great, and just recommend a couple of extra recipes.

Weeeeell….. it’s really not that simple. We can mistakenly think we are getting the proper nutrition or doing things “right” just because we are eating all raw food, we are taking a ton of different supplements, eating things we have read about in health and fitness magazines that tell us are healthy, or read in a few books.

The problem with most of these sources of information is that they do not take the biochemistry of the body into account, including the fact that our bodies are a hot 98 degrees, and that our bodies expend a LOT of energy in digestion, and secrete specific gastric juices to break down certain foods. We need to streamline this process so we free up energy to rebuild our skin and hair, detox our bodies on an ongoing basis, and make our bodies function as more efficient machines.

Here is what Jillian was currently eating for breakfast:

7:30 am:  2 cups of coffee, black
1 orange

9:00 am:   1 package of raspberries
1 bio-k soy probiotic drink
A chunk of manna bread with a good portion of cashew butter

My quick thoughts:

Jillian and I were together for 2 hours today, so there is a lot more to it and there was a lot of individualizing to her overall diet based on her exact health at this moment and her specific goals.
But I’ll say, that you can see by this summary there is a SMORGASBORD of food swirling around in poor Jillian’s tummy within her first few waking hours. The fruit, which digests in 20-30 minutes, is mixed in there with a mucus-forming, unfermented soy product, the starch of the manna bread (which by the way, is still heated to over 150 degrees so is definitely not raw, contrary to popular belief), and all the protein of the cashew butter. That is a lot! We don’t get nutrition or energy from our food until it reaches the villi in the small intestines. If it is sitting in the stomach for hours and hours with other foods trying to get out also (!), it will actually take our energy, not add to it.

Let’s keep it simple in the morning, so our bodies do not have to expend all its energy on digesting 50 things.

The best way to get easy assimilated nutrition into the body is my Glowing Green Smoothie. It is already blended, so our body gets the nutrients without all the work. The proper way to drink it is on an empty stomach, as it does contain fruit, and we want to let that pass first. After that, we can add more food on top of it, but I wouldn’t do it all at the exact same time.

Recommendations for Jillian:

7:30 am: 1 cup of coffee (for now!)

1 pint of water with a probiotic supplement

9:00 or whenever she TRULY starts to feel hungry

My Glowing Green Smoothie
Wait 20-30 minutes.

If still hungry, follow with the manna bread or sprouted bread toast OR the best quality unprocessed bread you can find. Toast lightly.
Raw unpasteurized butter is okay because it doesn’t have the casein protein that other dairy products have, and digests okay with starch.

Under this plan, she is separating food groups, and eating foods from fewer food groups. We’ve removed concentrated protein at this meal, since it moves the slowest and Jillian is not active in the morning anyway. She is going to start feeling great and more energized! She will be full enough to get to lunch and won’t feel hungry, or that she needs to snack.

I am trying an experiment. I’ve never announced this publicly, but I want to open the door for nutritional consultations at this time. I find them really rewarding, and there is so much more to say that can’t all be said in general blogs. I also can’t thoroughly answer specific health questions you may have in the comments without knowing your background or diet, etc.

Consultations involve me looking at your goals, and your current diet and lifestyle, including when you are eating and what you are eating. It includes helping you create customized shopping lists and meal plans. If you are interested in finding out about the cost and format of a consultation,contact:

info@kimberlysnyder.net.

Have a great holiday week, and I will write more soon!

Love and Peace, Kimberly

Sally’s Citrus Salad Dressing

I wish I took a picture of the very artistic salad my mom made me last night! This is also made of mixed greens though, and will have to do. 🙂 Photo courtesy of http://www.eating-in.com.

Hi Guys!

I hope you had are having a great holiday season so far, and had a very Merry Christmas for those of you that celebrate Christmas. I just returned from my parents’ house this morning. I had the best, just most relaxing time! And I was not in a huge rush to peel off my old pj’s and leave the house I grew up in to make my way back to the city…but it was a beautiful day in NYC today to welcome me back!

Photo courtesy of herbalextractplus.com

Last night my mom made me a really amazing salad. She is really creative with food, and just whipped something up with mixed greens and a ton of different veggies. The dressing she made was fantastic! I usually make very simple lemon-based dressings when I make my own salads, but this is one I will make again. I wanted to share it with you! But of course I can’t take credit for this recipe- it is my mom’s! Oh yeah, my mom’s name is Sally, so here it is:

Sally’s Citrus Salad Dressing

(Makes 2 Servings)

– 1 seedless clementine orange – squeezed, then scrape out the pulp and pith with a spoon and use that also

– 1 Tbs. fresh lime juice

– 1 heaping Tbs. raw honey (can also use Stevia)

– 1 heaping tsp. Trachlemechis wholegrain mustard

– 1/2 Tbs. Himalayan sea salt

– 1/2 Tbs. organic coarsely ground black pepper

– 1 Tbs. extra virgin oil

Mix all ingredients in a bowl well with a fork or blend them all together in a blender until smooth. My mom does it by hand!

Hope you love this dressing as much as I do!

Lots of love,

Kimberly

Now is an exciting time to be looking towards the beginning of a whole new DECADE! It is time to say goodbye to old habits and energy holding us back, and start thinking of not only the upcoming year, but the upcoming decade and phase in our life. 🙂 We create from our thoughts, so let's create intentionally by directing our thoughts to what we want to manifest in our lives. 2010 is going to be amazing!!

Happy Holidays… and Twisting to Detox From Them! :)

Merry Christmas Guys!! I am a huge fan of twists in yoga to detox, which twist out our liver and kidneys, and old stagnant energy.

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday! I’m at my parents house, wearing my pajamas that I used to wear in high school. 🙂 I promise to write more when I get back to NY.

Lots of love and light,

Kimberly

How to Minimize Getting Brain Cancer from Cell Phones!

Photo courtesy of lpi.usra.edu

Hey Guys!

Today is Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. It has been a landmark day for thousands of years in many different cultures’ calendars, since it has to do with the natural rhythms of nature and is not a manmade date. I believe when there is much darkness on the outside, it is a good reminder to be in touch with the light within. Our inner light is always there, no matter how dark it is on the outside. Today I had my yoga students hold some poses for a while with their eyes closed, to feel the inner light. And as we move through this time, and find the light in unexpected places and where we didn’t think it could be- the light then starts to come back, more and more.

Besides Winter Solstice, the topic of cell phones was on my mind. I saw a story yesterday that a Maine state legislator is pushing to have a warning on cell phones that they may cause brain cancer.

My mother has been preaching to me about cell phone dangers for years, when I first even got a cell phone. She insists on me sticking an anti-radiation button thing on my phone, which is supposed to help reduce the massive amounts of radiation that cell phones emit. Well who knows if it really works or not, but I’ll take all the help I can get! What’s chilling to me is that we have to remember that back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, information that tobacco was extremely harmful was not widely reported. People smoked away, only to learn decades later how carcinogenic smoking really was.

Everyone's gotta have a cell these days.... Photo courtesy of phillyburbs.com

Of course, the Wireless Association claims cell phones are safe. But we do all have to look out for our own health. After all, foods laden with toxic chemicals and additives are also legally considered “safe.”

The fact is that our cell phones are microwave transmitters. Microwave energy oscillates at millions to billions of cycles per second. The Journal of Cellular Biochemistry reports that these frequencies may cause cancer and other diseases by interfering with cellular DNA and its repair mechanisms. Microwave promotes rapid cell aging. Italian scientists have recently demonstrated that cell phone radiation makes cancerous cells grow aggressively. Cordless phones marked 900 megahertz or 2.4 gigahertz emit the same dangerous microwave radiation as cell phones.

Research by University of Washington professor Dr. Henry Lai shows brain cells are clearly damaged by microwave levels far below the U.S. government’s “safety” guidelines. Dr. Lai notes that even tiny doses of radio frequency can accumulate over time and lead to harmful effects. He warns that public exposure to radiation from wireless transmitters “should be limited to minimal.”

Independent tests show that cell phones can also leak huge amounts of radiation from the keypad and mouthpiece. This radiation deeply penetrates brain, ear and eye tissues, which are especially susceptible to microwave damage. Belt clip cases allow cell phones to deliver radiation to the liver or kidney areas.

Recent studies confirm that cell and cordless phone microwave can: Damage nerves in the scalp, cause blood cells to leak hemoglobin, cause memory loss and mental confusion, cause headaches and induce extreme fatigue, create joint pain, muscle spasms and tremors, create burning sensation and rash on the skin, alter the brain’s electrical activity during sleep, induce ringing in the ears, impair sense of smell, precipitate cataracts, retina damage and eye cancer, open the blood-brain barrier to viruses and toxins, reduce the number and efficiency of white blood cells, stimulate asthma by producing histamine in mast cells, cause digestive problems and raise bad cholesterol levels, stress the endocrine system, especially pancreas, thyroid, reproductive organs. GEEZ! ANYTHING ELSE??

There is a lot of research on the cell phone subject in Europe. Spanish researchers have shown that cell phones can alter electrical activity of a child’s brain for hours, causing drastic mood changes and possible behavior and learning disabilities. Insurance studies in England showed that an average driver talking on a cell is actually more impaired in function and reaction time than a drunk. Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority reports that one hour of exposure to mobile phone radiation can cause human cells to shrink. Researchers believe this is due to increased protein activity, an indicator of cell damage. Studies done in Sweden that date back five or six years concluded that there is not an increased brain tumor risk from using cell phones, he says.

Brain cancer rates in USA have increased by 25% since 1975. In 2001, 185,000 Americans were diagnosed with some form of brain cancer. A grade four brain tumor can grow from the size of a grape to tennis ball size in just 4 months.

Scary! Photo courtesy of artpredator.files.com.

Could cell phones today be what tobacco was 70 years ago?

The National Cancer Institute says studies until now have turned up inconsistent results. “Although research has not consistently demonstrated a link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists still caution that further surveillance is needed before conclusions can be drawn,” says the NCI’s Web site. Hmmm….

Well what can we do to protect our own health? Since the reality is that we are all going to use cell phones anyway (including me)!

–    Use a wired headset whenever possible. Avoid using Bluetooth, which will continue to attract radiation. Be sure to get wired headsets for your children, which are especially susceptible to radiation. The other option is to try to use speaker phone in private settings as much as you can (you don’t want to be that annoying person doing that in public of course!).

–    Text when you can instead of making more calls! Texting doesn’t expose you to the same level of radiation, because we obviously aren’t pressing the phone right up to our head!

–    Use your land line when you are home (of course a lot of us New Yorkers, such as myself, don’t even have a land line! So this one doesn’t apply to us).

–    When you’re talking on your cell, periodically switch your phone from ear to ear.

I hope this helps information helps protect you and your family, and that you start to employ some of these precautions!

Something to think about in the new year coming ahead. Happy Holidays!

In health and love,

Kimberly

Good Day LA: Holiday Eating and Raw Pecan Love Pie

Hey Guys! This past Wednesday, the 16th, I was live on Good Day LA. Here is a little clip of me getting my table ready…

And here is the clip! If you want to make the pie for Christmas or around this holiday season, check out the Recipe Here.

See you soon!

Love, Kimberly

My Vegan Vanilla Latte

Photo courtesy of http://www.esquire.com

Hey Guys,

I’m still in LA, but even here it still gets cold at night! I really like hot drinks this time of year. Sometimes a milky hot drink is really special, and extra comforting. If you haven’t already, I suggest you check out my Vegan Almost Raw Hot Chocolate.

Sometimes you either don’t have raw cacao in the house, or don’t want even a tiny bit of caffeine, OR you just want variety! In these cases, for my hot drink lovers, you will love my Vegan Vanilla Latte!! I am excited to share this with you. It is yum!

It contains cinnamon, which has been shown to help regulate our blood sugar levels, and has an anti-clotting effect on the blood. It is even recommended for people with Type 2 diabetes to consume. Cinnamon is even believed to boost boosts cognitive function and memory.

Vegan Vanilla Latte:
For 1 person:

1.    Measure out a mugful of unsweetened vanilla almond milk. You can either make it yourself (Check out my blog on Megan’s Almond Milk for instructions and add an extra tsp. of vanilla extract), or get buy some at the store. The Almond Breeze brand is an okay alternative if you don’t have the time to make your own milk.

2.    Heat your mugful of unsweetened vanilla almond milk in a pot to warm it up. Don’t boil!

3.    Pour the milk back into your mug, then add 1 tsp. of cinnamon and stir.

4.    Sweeten as desired with  Stevia.

5.    Sip slowly and enjoy!!

I hope you love and enjoy this drink. I know I truly do, and it is a great alternative to a desert if you want something sweet after a meal- but still easy to digest.

Lots of love,
Kimberly

Think dairy alternatives! We don't need dairy to clog our bodies, and dairy cows are horribly mistreated as well. Photo courtesy of rlv.zcache.com

Easy Inversion for Beauty (Instant Facelift!), Calmness and Peace

Hey Guys! Inversions are great for mental clarity, stimulating the endocrine system, bringing a beautiful glow to the face, and bringing prana to our upper chakras. The fresh blood flow and oxygen is indeed like getting an instant facelift!

Hare pose (not Hair pose! 🙂 ), is an easy inversion almost everyone can do. If you are more flexible, you can try holding on to your ankles the whole time, and bringing your head down closer to your knees.

Namaste and Shanti!

Kimberly

Quick Yoga Video Tutorials Part 1: Tips for Some Basic Poses

So it was a gorgeous day in Santa Monica today, and I decided to shoot a few quick yoga tutorials for some common issues in form and alignment for a few common poses. There are a bunch more!

Hope this helps you in your practice. PS- The next few videos are easy movements anyone can do at home- whether you have an existing yoga practice or not!

Shanti and Love, Kimberly

More Random Thoughts: Raw Food, Yoga…

Hi My Loves,

Yes, my brain does like to jump around sometimes. Not in a frenetic ADD way, but more in a way where I get really excited about a lot of different thoughts all at the same time that I want to share! While they don’t all really seem interrelated- well, I think everything really is related.

Here are some random thoughts- to give you an idea of that is playing on in my head:

1.  I know it is cold and winter because my coconut oil has turned white and solid. What should I do? In a word- nothing. We love our coconut oil because it is a wonderful and commonly used ingredient in raw deserts, and because when we apply it topically it penetrates and makes our skin smooth and hydrated. It doesn’t matter whether it is a liquid oil or a solid butter- it will still work the same. I actually like it when the jar I keep near my bed to put on my skin gets a bit thicker and more milky. It is a little easier to scoop out how much I put on. When it is liquid it is a bit more unwieldy, and yes I have definitely oiled my sheets up more than once!

You don’t have to worry about refrigerating coconut oil in any form. If you are mixing a recipe by hand (like my Raw Cacao Truffles recipe) and you are worried that your coconut oil is too chunky to mix well, I would just sit your jar on your stove, which is always slightly warm anyway, and it should liquefy quite nicely.

2. I know it is winter because my body is craving warm food and cooked food sometimes. Great! It is important to transition with the seasons. No one said you have to eat 100% raw to get amazing, fantastic results. Some cooked food can be very beneficial in fact, as long as it is placed correctly and is easily digestible food. I do NOT believe in the die-hard 100% raw food philosophy people that promotes if you eat anything cooked you are doing something really “bad.” Please! Who wants to live a life of restriction?? To me, that is sort of like the calorie-counting people, which are also restricted and have to know how many calories are going into their mouth at all times. I reject both of those schools.

This is really a whole blog post which I’ll do soon as it is getting colder- and could really fill a whole book on how to eat, but I will say a few things. Non-cream soups like Miso soup and vegetable soup are fine. If you feel like something heavier, like a grain for dinner, I recommend quinoa, millet or amaranth after you’ve eaten a salad, and along with some lightly steamed vegetables. You can spice it up and make a whole meal out of it. Delicious!

Days when you eat some cooked food I do recommend being sure to have your Green Smoothie that morning, and also be sure to have a nice green salad beforehand. Remember that if we eat very well most of the time, and follow certain rules, such as the ones I just said, you are not being “bad” for eating some cooked food sometimes!

3.    I know it is winter because I can intuitively feel that my yoga practice needs more fire. Of course, this could apply to other forms of movement. In winter, it is easy to want to close ourselves off, burrow ourselves in our homes and apartments, and withdraw. We are wrapped up in layers and layers of clothes, hustling to get from place to place and spending much less time in the fresh air and the outdoors.

With all this happening, we need to be conscious that we are not closing our heart chakras. We need to find ways to stay open and passionate, engaged with what excites us and makes us feel alive and energized and joyous. We have to put out a bit more effort in the winter to ensure we are still living our life to the fullest and not getting sucked into a familiar routine that just rolls along. Where is the fire??

One way I am actively seeking and bringing more fire into my own life is with my yoga practice and the way I teach yoga. After warming up I am bringing a much more a fiery routine with sun salutations, faster and more modern music than I might usually play in my classes, and series where I have my students move one breath per pose. It is really helping me feel the fire right now. I love it! We much naturally adjust to the seasons and the cycles of nature. How can you bring in more fire into your own life right now?

4.    Along those lines, it is a good time to be reminded to remain unattached. With the closing off of the heart chakra and feeling more withdrawn, we tend to get a bit more attached to our routines and the minute components of our life because it makes us feel safe and so we have something to cling to. Have you gotten more upset lately over something that usually wouldn’t bother you? Of course, the upcoming holidays can also add more stress…

Yesterday in fact, I had a few situations that challenged this in me : 1) I was at a crappy airport terminal at JFK with 0 good food selections, and I was truly starving and about to get on a 6 hour flight. I did the best I could- baked rice chips and a not so great salad. Instead of dwelling on being mad at myself for not bringing food, or that I would throw myself off, I focused on letting it go. I also counter balanced it by not eating any peanuts on the airplane- alflatoxin mold! Even if I was near dying I don’t think I would eat those peanuts. 🙂

2 ) I take my friends’ yoga class once in a while and I get really excited when I can make it. And yesterday there was an unexpected sub! I noticed that feeling of frustration rising up, and I immediately took some deep breaths and tried to open up. And you know what? I loved the sub! She had beautiful energy. (And yes, I do think it is important for yoga teachers to keep being students as well!).

3) I was stuck in a cab for 2 hours and missed my flight. I had to pay a $50 change fee and got stuck with a middle seat instead of my original window seat. I am actually sitting in that middle seat as I write to you! I did get a bit put off for a minute, but then I realized, DOES IT REALLY MATTER? What’s the big rush anyways? I’m still breathing, still alive, and ultimately, everything will be okay. So I got to LA a few hours later- it is worth getting upset and secreting a large amount of harmful stress hormones?
Things are never such a big deal when we step back and become unattached to a specific outcome (even if we have to force ourselves to do so sometimes), and realize that in the big scope, 99% of the stuff we are attached to can shift, and it is okay. Being unattached in a very important practice, with our food and our lives. We just have to do our best and go with the flow. Everything does happen for a reason!

Love,
Kimberly