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Golden Milk

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Golden Milk is beautiful, easy, and a delicious introduction to the ancient philosophy of Ayurveda. A taste-bud-tingling alternative to coffee, this comforting drink is perfect for any time of day.

 

 

Golden Milk Recipe

1 cup organic whole milk (preferably unhomogenized) or almond, oat, coconut, hemp milk, etc.

½ cup water

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

2 to 3 cardamom pods, cracked, or ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom

pinch of ground nutmeg

a good grind of black pepper

OPTIONAL:
1 date or 1 teaspoon jaggery to sweeten

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger or ½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon organic ghee (good for vata)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Add the milk, water, spices, and the date, if using, to a pan and season with black pepper and whisk well.

2. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes, being careful not to let it burn or let it bubble over! Add ghee and jaggery if using, mix well, and remove from heat.

3. Allow to cool a little, strain and serve.

Recipe excerpted from East by West. Copyright © 2017 by Jasmine Hemsley. Published by Bluebird Books, an imprint of Pan Macmillan.

Weight loss and wellness, a race not a marathon

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Our amazing Nutritionist, Samantha, is dedicated to delivering personalized care to every one of her clients by providing a non-judgmental and caring service. She understands weight loss can be an intimidating and challenging task for many. Samantha is here to educate and guide you into becoming a healthier version of yourself. Whether you want to lose a significant amount of weight, fit back into your favorite dress, or snap back into shape. She has a solution to help transform yourself. 

Deciding to lose weight is not just about starting a diet; it’s about choosing to embark onwards to a healthy lifestyle. While many of us focus on the physical changes during the time we lose weight, we are also making an impact on our physiology. We change not only the way we manage our weight; we also reduce our risk of developing (or even resolving) illness and disease at the same time.

At Essentials Medispa and Salon, our Nutritionist will assist you through your weight loss progression. Samantha specializes in an alternative approach to weight loss by targeting visceral fat “belly fat.” This dense and highly toxic type of fat causes the release of inflammatory proteins and hormones that put you at risk for developing certain diseases such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and increased cholesterol levels. 

Along with reducing belly fat, healing the gut microbiome is essential to promote better absorption of nutrients and increasing metabolism. A poor diet high in carbohydrates, sugar, and processed foods, like the Western Diet we’ve become accustomed to, will cause the leaky gut syndrome. The leaky gut syndrome is another leading cause of inflammation throughout our entire body, which can make it difficult to lose weight. This disruption in the gut microbiome allows trace amounts of toxins to get into the bloodstream and attacks our cells. This can cause a decrease in energy, memory, metabolism, and malabsorption of nutrients. In extreme cases, an unhealed leaky gut can lead to a variety of autoimmune diseases such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Chron’s disease. 

By working with Essentials Medispa and Salon’s Nutritionist, you will receive the education and guidance necessary to become a happy and healthier person. Samantha will develop and devise a personalized weight loss and wellness plan to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle. 

Essentials Medispa and Salon offer additional tools to help promote weight loss. 

Appetite Suppressant – Clinically proven to reduce weight, it decreases your appetite by increasing your metabolism. Therefore it’s easier to choose healthier foods and control portion size.

Lipotropic Injections – Lipotropic injections contain nutrients that contain fat-burning compounds, amino acids, and vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin. This injection aids in increasing your metabolism, reducing appetite, increasing energy, and helping your body to burn fat.

B12 Injections – B12 is an essential vitamin, improving mood, energy, and cognitive function. It has also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke by promoting an increased red blood cell count. 

*Results may vary from person to person

What is Leptin resistance?

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Leptin resistance may be a leading cause of weight gain and a primary reason why we have difficulty losing weight.

Leptin is a type of hormone produced by our bodies fat cells. This hormone works with the hypothalamus in our brain to tell us when we’ve had enough to eat to allow our bodies to burn excess calories. The more fat we carry inside our cells, the more leptin they produce which signals your brain to eat less. When our fat cells produce lower levels of leptin, our brain signals us to eat more. It is a type of negative feedback loop system similar to how we breathe, regulate blood pressure, and regulate body temperature.

Naturally, people who are overweight and obese have a lot of body fat stored in their cells. Their levels of leptin hormone are very high. It would make sense that an individual who has excess body fat would limit their food intake because they have plenty of excess calories stored. In this case, leptin signaling (through the negative feedback loop) may not be working. The brain sometimes will not recognize high levels of leptin. This is a condition known as leptin resistance. When your brain doesn’t receive the signals given by leptins your body responds oppositely. Your body is telling you to go into “starvation mode” therefore you start to eat more, and your energy level decreases. This leads to reduced calorie expenditure. Some causes of leptin resistance are obesity, chronic inflammation, poor diet, lack of exercise, or lack of sleep.

If you’re concerned you have leptin resistance, here at Essentials Medispa and Salon, our nutritionist can help you focus on an overall healthy lifestyle to reverse diet-induced leptin resistance. Essentials Medispa and Salon offers nutrition visits in conjunction with (BHRT) Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy, our Lypoburn weight loss program, or an overall Wellness plan.

*Results may vary from person to person

Emotional Wellbeing

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Maybe you didn’t stick with your New Year’s Resolution or perhaps gave up chocolate for Lent then ate a whole bowl of Hershey Kisses. Okay that may or may not have been me. It’s fine. It’s spring, a time to start anew. Known as the season of rejuvenation and regrowth, however, I always think of it as a time for new beginnings and experiences. The abundance of lush greenery and active wildlife only match the beautiful weather we start to see. If you live in colder environments like me, you can definitely feel the switching of seasons. Sometimes you hear people say they live somewhere because they like “the seasons” and it sounds corny, but it’s true. I could probably do with a few months less of winter, but it’s a pretty amazing thing to see and feel the changes. If it wasn’t for the cold, dreary months, however, my appreciation of spring might not be as high. Once you learn to appreciate what surrounds you, big and small; you become grateful for everything.

As I write this, I have every window open in my house. It’s only 41 degrees out, and I have a hoodie on, but it feels like a perfect day. The sun is beaming through, and I can hear the birds chatting away. I often wonder what they talk about; they’re probably excited that spring is here too. It can be easy to take things for granted, even something as simple as the sun. We all know what it feels like to go a few cloudy days in a row. You aren’t as happy; it’s something about when it’s sunny that makes us smile and feel better. A lot of experts now believe Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is linked more to lack of sunlight than the temperature dropping. The sun is proving to make you emotionally happier; this is why it’s so important just to get outside. With a lot of our jobs, we’re indoors with artificial lighting, recycled air and sometimes just dirty conditions. Get some fresh air. Spend your breaks outside. On the weekends get out of the malls and off the couch and in the presence of nature.

I went for a walk through this gorgeous park last weekend, and it was incredible. I was covered in mud and walked into a couple of branches but was worth all of it. I saw natural rock foundations that would rival the work of Picasso. I heard beautiful melodies from water running off enchanting waterfalls, the types of sounds they sell on CD to help you relax. Save your money and experience it firsthand. It’s important to get outside and immerse yourself in nature.

You may think you can’t appreciate the seasonal changes if you live in a warm climate but you’re wrong. No matter where you live there’s so much to admire. Florida’s weather is pretty amazing year-round but, it gets even better in the spring. Not only do different flowers and animals come about but farmers go to work. A lot of their fruit and vegetable crops start mass producing this time of year. They supply delicious food to the whole country. A simple little change in the season enables them to provide nourishment to millions of people every day. Think about how amazing that is.

Spring is a time to encompass all things new. They’re new challenges, new journeys, and new growth. Enjoy it all and reflect on the changes and appreciate them. There is so much to experience out there that we often take for granted. Once you realize this, it’s a humbling feeling. Leave the last few months behind and don’t think about what we messed up on or what we didn’t accomplish. Instead, use this opportunity to get excited. It’s about new beginnings and embracing all the beautiful changes that surround us.

Stop Using Expired Makeup

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When talking about spring cleaning we usually think about cleaning out our cars and straightening our closets. How so much stuff ends up in the back of it, I’ll never understand. There’s a lot of things to focus on washing and organizing but, this is also the perfect opportunity to clean out your makeup bag. This is often overlooked and sometimes never done but, it’s essential to our health. We, women, like to hoard makeup. Let’s face it, we send away for every free sample, grab add-on gifts and use coupons on items we probably won’t use just because we have a coupon. We are also always trying to keep up with the latest trends and products. This leaves us with a plethora of makeup. It’s crucial to know that just like food, makeup can go bad and does expire.

It’s not that the color isn’t as vibrant as it once was or the coverage isn’t as good; it’s a much more severe issue. Expired make can cause an array of skin and health problems. Sheena Joslin is an Aesthetician and Nail Technician at ESSENTIALS MEDISPA, she stresses the importance of throwing away expired makeup. She says using expired makeup can lead to problems such as, skin irritation, eye infections, pink eye, staph infection, fungi infections, clogged pores, acne breakouts and can even cause you to lose eyelashes. Yikes! So how do we know when these products expire? Sheena says makeup products have an expiration date usually on the back bottom corner of the product. “you will find a picture of a small jar with a number inside of it, that number is how many months you have until it expires once the product has been opened.” Below are general timelines of when makeup generally expires, natural products may be less time because they use little to no preservatives.

  • Powdered shadows, blushes, and bronzers- 2years.
  • Cream shadows and blushes-12 months.
  • Oil-free foundation-18months.
  • Concealer-12-18 months.
  • Lipstick and liners-1year. (Unless you notice an odor sooner)
  • Lip gloss-18-24 months.
  • Liquid and gel eyeliner- 3months.
  • Mascara-3 months.

Aside from following this timeline another option Sheena notes is trying makeup that includes antimicrobial ingredients. They’re ingredients that protect against the growth of microorganisms like bacteria, fungi. And viruses. “Keeping an eye out for these products are always a plus.” It’s also very beneficial to keep your makeup clean. Sheena says shadows and powders can be wiped down with a tissue after each use to remove the last layer that was used. Lip liners and eyeliner pencils can be sharpened to remove the previously used product. It’s also important to keep your makeup in a cool, dry place. Also, keep the makeup bag itself clean or replace it when you can no longer clean it. This will help prevent your hands from getting dirty before you are about to touch your face and eyes. Maybe you’ve been using expired makeup and didn’t realize it or dirty brushes. It would be a great idea to get a facial and get a deep cleanse to get any unwanted bacteria that may be there out.

Next time you get excited because you found your favorite lip gloss you haven’t seen in forever, check the date. Spending another ten dollars or trying a new shade is a lot better than ending up with a possible infection or an skin irritation. Your makeup’s status shouldn’t be overlooked. Keep your face and makeup clean with these helpful tips from ESSENTIALS.