Winter Woes & Worries

I can’t believe it’s already four weeks into the New Year. I also can’t believe it’s snowing – again. So far 10 inches and counting (on top of the 40+ inches so far this season) – then turning to sleet and freezing rain before the storm passes through. Actually, though, I don’t mind this storminess in the mid-20’s. Two weeks ago it was -9 degrees here in upstate NY. That’s NOT a typo – there was actually a negative sign in front of the 9. Nine-degrees-below-zero. Without wind chill. Brrrrrrr. Of course, I guess Minnesotans and other upper-mid-Westerners just shrug at such a puny temperature – they were at -44. Yikes! At least I can write this to you from INSIDE my warm and toasty home.

Winter White

Whether (weather) you live where I do now and it’s freezing cold, or where I used to live in San Diego where it’s been in the mid-70’s and sunny for much of January, like it or not, this is the cold and flu season. The good news is you don’t have to suffer and lose time from work (or play) if you take a few simple precautions.

If You Get Sick
The key to averting both flu and colds is a strong defense (immune) system. The immune system extends well beyond the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, and bone marrow. Your liver, gastrointestinal tract, skin, tonsils, and adenoids, ears, lungs, mucus membranes, acids in your stomach, and saliva and tears are all contributors to your body’s defenses. The specialized white blood cells that recognize and neutralize invaders are also included in your body’s defense system. All of these work as a team with your nervous and endocrine systems to maintain an elaborate system of defense.

No wonder no single remedy can do the job. It takes a balanced body working together in synergy to maintain balance and harmony (Note: Sunrider’s underlying core Philosophy of Regeneration embraces body synergy). Maintaining this balance and harmony requires basics of good health such as nourishing the body well, drinking plenty of liquids, exercising, and getting sufficient rest, and maintaining your stress level.

Nourishing the Body Well
Coix Fruit (the number one ingredient in Sunrider’s NUPLUS) has been found through research by Tokyo University to be an outstanding benefit to the defense system. ALPHA 20C (in packets, powder, capsules, and in the QUINARY formula) is an unique food specifically nourishing to the defense system. CONCO, a ‘concentrate for a cold,’ nourishes the lymph and respiratory systems which are usually overloaded with mucus when you have a cold. Prevent getting sick by taking 1 to 2 each of CONCO and ALPHA 20C every morning. If you haven’t done this and begin to feel sick, take 3 or 4 of CONCO and ALPHA 20C every hour to support those systems and it usually works quickly.

VITAFRUIT is a wonderful concentrated golden liquid antioxidant formula which is a great benefit in supporting the body’s entire cellular system. Too much fat will depress immune function and constrict the circulatory pathways where immune cells travel. A healthy defense system needs good fats, however, the typical American diet is seriously deficient in good fats such as those found in nuts, olive oil, avocados, and cold water fish.

Drink Plenty of Liquids
Drinking purifying liquids every day helps to keep your mucous membranes moist enough to combat viruses they encounter. FORTUNE DELIGHT and CALLI nourish your purification systems which flush the toxins. Drinking these liquids daily will help to prevent a toxic buildup. A nice winter combo I enjoy is mixing a packet of COCO VITASHAKE in a mug of MINT CALLI with a squirt of SUNECTAR. Yummy and nourishing!

Exercise
Exercise can boost the production of immune-defending white blood cells. Walking or any activity that raises your heart rate will suffice. I love to walk, hike, snowshoe & cross country ski in the winter. But on a bitterly cold day like today, it is actually dangerous to go outside. Instead I do body weight exercises indoors like squats, lunges & jumping jacks. It gets your heart rate going & works those large muscle groups. Deep breathing, yoga & pilates are also wonderful choices.

Get Enough Rest
When you’re sleep deprived, your body makes fewer natural-killer cells that destroy infected cells. Your defense system requires sleep for repairs and maintenance (CALLI NIGHT is a great way to help you relax and get to sleep). If you don’t get sufficient sleep, pay special attention to keeping your stress levels under control with relaxation techniques (and taking ESE). Many studies have shown that people show lowered immune responses when they are under stress.

Laugh
Neuroimmunologist Lee S. Berk, at Loma Linda University has found that laughter (or even looking forward to a good time) increases the number of some types of immune cells. Rent a silly movie, read the comics, or go to: http://cleanjoke.com to a good laugh.

Wash Your Hands Frequently
Research and numerous studies have shown that your hands are a primary route for infection. Studies of children in daycare, school children, and Naval recruits have all found that washing hands four or five times a day can cut the risk of getting a cold or other respiratory infection by up to 45 percent from such things as doorknobs or telephones. How easy it is to keep clean hands no matter where you are by just having a little tube of HAND CLEANSING GEL in your purse, pocket or briefcase.

Lower Your Risk
If you want to lower your risk of ending up in bed with a fever, a stuffed-up nose, and aching muscles, try the defense-boosting strategies that we use. Daily, we eat our basic Sunrider regeneration foods: NUPLUS or VITASHAKE, CALLI and/or FORTUNE DELIGHT, and QUINARY. In the winter, we put a packet of ALPHA 20C equal to 10 capsules in our NUPLUS shake every morning. We drink our delicious VITAFRUIT cocktail daily. If we do begin to get sick, which is very rare, we just hit the CONCO and ALPHA 20C in extra amounts. Of course, SUNBREEZE oil or balm to open your sinuses or applied to your throat, chest, under your ears, or wherever your need is, it is a must to feeling better soon!

Don’t Forget Your Skin
Don’t forget to protect & nourish your largest organ – your skin during the winter. Sunrider has a wonderful spa line for pampering at home. KANDESN SPA WARM BODY SCRUB – specially formulated with raw sugar and sea salt that act as beads to massage and exfoliate the skin as they slowly melt away. Effectively removes contaminates with a drawing action that pulls undesirable substances from pores. Shea butter helps soften the skin while botanicals moisturize and condition at the same time. KANDESN SPA BATH OIL – get a burst of foam when you add it to running water. This refreshing tonic moisturizes your skin and protects it from dry weather. KANDESN SPA BATH SALT – features a special blend of ingredients known for their therapeutic and tonic effects – Dead Sea Salt. Unlike ordinary sea salt, which is primarily sodium chloride, Dead Sea Salt contains a broad variety of mineral salts and is rich in magnesium, potassium and bromide. In addition, our enriched Spa Bath Salt also contains a special blend of Sunrider herbal ingredients based on the complex Quinary formulation, designed to keep the body’s five major systems in balance by cleansing. KANDESN SPA MASSAGE OIL – enriched with exotic oils, herbal extracts and vitamins to stimulate and warm the body. Blood flow and lymphatic flow are enhanced, and the body is invigorated the way it is after a good workout. What a great way to relax!

Contact me for info on how to order these amazing products.

Here’s to your health and surviving cold & flu season!

Cindy

Looking Good and Feeling Young at 50

Last week I turned 50. While many men and women dread this milestone, I was excited and had a joyous time celebrating with family & friends. In fact, my husband and I went away for the weekend to enjoy the brilliant foliage and explore Sharon Springs in central, upstate New York.

Not only do I feel better than I did at 30, I look better, too. And if you’re thinking, well Cindy, you’re just kidding yourself – others have noticed as well. The best response was last week when I told one of my dearest friends that it was my 50th birthday – she couldn’t believe it, and said, “50!?? I thought you were at least 15 years younger than me.” (by the way, I’m 3 years younger).

There really is no secret to how I look – I attribute it to the Sunrider foods I eat and drink on a daily basis. I have a steady, sustained energy throughout the day, and my 50-year-old skin still glows. I have personally been aware of the relationship to how I felt and looked based on what I put in my body. When I was not eating so well, I didn’t look so well (or feel very good). But then 10 years ago I found Sunrider and the philosophy of regeneration – that is the body has the ability to regenerate and renew itself if fed the right highly nutritious foods.

Now there is actually scientific proof.

During the past few years more and more studies have come out about the benefits of what you eat versus how you feel. The most recent, however, is very startling. Just last week on the Today Show, Dr. Nancy Snyderman was reporting about the October 23, 2008 Aging Study by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility entitled, “Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging.” They focussed on two diseases associated with aging – Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Their results were that environment is a huge component in health and aging and controlling your environment can slow the aging process dramatically. They identified risk factors as:

Poor nutrition
Lack of exercise
Pollution
Toxic Chemicals, Herbicides & Pesticides

Importantly, the report demonstrates that the risks for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s can be dramatically reduced if you give the body proper nutrition, get regular exercise, control pollution & toxic chemicals. Dr. Snyderman related that your body is like a car. If you let your car rust prematurely – it’s not going to make it to 200,000 miles. If you let your body rust prematurely, you’re not going to make it to 80. Read the full report.

Thank goodness for Sunrider! It’s our Anti-Rust program. By embracing the Regeneration program of Nourish – Balance – Cleanse we are able to take care of three of the four aging risk factors talked about in the doctors’ study – and you’ll have the energy and desire to exercise. When you Nourish (Nuplus & Vitashake), Balance (Quinary’s all-body tonic addressing the 5 major body systems) and Cleanse (Calli tea with Sunectar), you are feeding the body the BEST nutrition, and CLEANSING the body of daily exposure to pollution from the outside & inside environments, as well as toxic chemicals found everywhere.

To learn more about Sunrider’s products for life, email me – and/or sign up for a free newsletter to receive regular, monthly updates and news.

Best wishes for staying young & living “rust-free.”

Cindy
Sunrider Independent Business Owner

The Beauty of Regeneration

It’s a beautiful, sunny, and mild (for upstate New York) March day. It’s the kind of day that makes my heart sing as I feel spring is truly just around the corner. The air smells different. The birds’ songs are sweeter. The chipmunks – who have been hibernating since late November – are peeking their little striped heads out of their burrows and scurrying around with tails high in the air to check out what the squirrels are doing and find something to eat. Best of all, the maple trees have a reddish hue from the leaf buds – though still dormant – that are ready and seemingly eager to make an appearance in a few short weeks.

Having lived in Southern California for the past 21 years, this first real winter in as many years, has been fun (especially being able to ski, sled & snowshoe). As winter winds down, I am vividly reminded of the cycle of life and change of seasons that wasn’t so readily evident in San Diego. Animals, plants, and humans are ready to regenerate, to start anew, be reborn. The brown, nondescript plants and bulbs – forsythia, crocuses, daffodils, and azaleas – are waiting to spring to life – despite being hidden under what’s left of the snow. This regeneration of life that takes place every year at this time is beautiful, magical and amazing.

But we, the humans in the natural equation, don’t need to wait till spring to regenerate or be reborn – although this is as good a time as any to embrace the Philosophy of Regeneration and Nourish, Balance, and Cleanse our bodies. Hippocrates – the so-called father of modern medicine said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” Like Hippocrates, the ancient Chinese believed in a natural healing power. While Hippocrates called it the physis, the Chinese called it the Chi. Their therapeutic goal was to free and strengthen that healing Chi by restoring balance between the many opposing forces in the body. Strengthening the Chi regenerates the body in the sense that it returns control to the source of the body’s health, which is the body itself. Thousands of years of research of ancient Chinese herbal formulas found that if you give the body the right combination of whole foods, the body has the ability to put itself in balance and create harmony.

Every body is different. None of us are genetically the same. However, no matter how different our bodies are, every body has one thing in common – each body is constantly striving for balance – every cell, every system, every organ. No matter where we are, what temperature we’re in, no matter what we are doing, the body is always trying to balance itself. In order for the body to do that, it must have the right combination of whole foods – 1) YIN (nourish); 2) YANG (cleanse); and 3) BALANCE (all five major systems in the body to work as a team).

Fortunately, there is an excellent company that is based on and embraces this philosophy of regeneration – Sunrider. The even better news is that Sunrider has a specific regeneration program I use daily to maintain vibrant health. If you are interested in putting your body in balance, finding out more about the regeneration products and Philosophy of Regeneration, please contact me.

Here’s to your health!

Surviving Cold & Flu Season

I’ve been watching with interest the news reports of cold and flu outbreaks all over the country. Closer to home, I’ve seen – or rather not seen because they were home in bed – quite a few friends, neighbors and acquaintances suffering and feeling miserable. Many had received a flu vaccine, yet they still got sick. Thank goodness my family and I did not. Was it luck? I think not. For the past eight years I’ve been consuming most of Sunrider’s high quality herbal products. My two favorites for helping ward off catching something nasty are Conco (helps support & nourish the respiratory system) and Alpha 20C (boosts the immune system). My 19-year-old son, who was very skeptical when he was younger about taking Conco & Alpha 20C (and anything else Sunrider) during cold and flu season, knows first hand the difference it makes. He has not had a cold or flu for several years, while many of his friends have. I no longer have to prompt him to take anything Sunrider, he simple does because it works. Is there any better testimony to the effectiveness of Sunrider’s products than the sight of a teenager freely consuming them? Contact me for free newsletter on Surviving Cold & Flu Season.