I’ve spent years teaching people how to tune into their own biology using the Tolman Method, which incorporates ancient practices like face mapping, iridology, sclerology, and tongue diagnosis. These systems are powerful diagnostic tools that can detect imbalances years before a smartwatch ever could. Your body is constantly speaking to you. The question is, are you listening? And do you know how to read the signs?

Face Mapping and How Your Skin Reflects Internal Health

One of the most overlooked indicators of health is the face. The appearance of someone’s skin is often focused on from a beauty perspective, but it’s also a window into your internal health. The ancient method of face mapping, rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda, teaches us that every part of the face corresponds to an internal organ.

If you’re experiencing frequent breakouts, dryness, or puffiness, this is a sign that your body is trying to get your attention. Your forehead is connected to digestion and the small intestine, while the area between your brows is linked to liver health. Dark circles under the eyes? Your kidneys might need some extra support. Acne along the jawline is often tied to hormonal imbalances.

Rather than covering up blemishes with skincare products, I teach people to look deeper. What is your face really trying to tell you? Addressing these imbalances through proper nutrition, detoxification, and hydration can lead to lasting health improvements. I do all this without the need for an expensive face serum or wearable tech.

Iridology and Sclerology: How Your Eyes Reveal Hidden Imbalances

The eyes are more than just the “windows to the soul”, they hold deep insights into your body’s health. Iridology is the study of the iris, where different patterns, colors, and fibers reveal strengths and weaknesses in the body. Meanwhile, sclerology examines the whites of the eyes (sclera), detecting inflammation, toxicity, and organ stress.

I’ve seen time and again how these methods predict health issues long before they show up in conventional tests. A brown discoloration in the iris? That might signal liver stress. Bloodshot sclera? Your body could be overloaded with toxins. If your eyes are consistently yellowish, this may be an early warning sign of liver dysfunction.

People often tell me, “Tyler, my smartwatch doesn’t tell me any of this!” And that’s exactly my point. Your body has its own built-in health tech. It just takes learning how to read it.

Tongue Diagnosis: What the Color, Texture, and Coating of Your Tongue Say About Your Health

If you’ve ever woken up and noticed a white coating on your tongue, cracks, or a bright red tip, your body is trying to communicate with you. In the Tolman Method, I emphasize the importance of tongue diagnosis, a practice used for centuries in Ayurveda and TCM to assess internal health.

A thick white coating often signals excessive mucus and digestive stagnation, while a cracked tongue might indicate malabsorption of nutrients. If your tongue is pale, you may be dealing with poor circulation or anemia. A deep red tip? That’s often a sign of high stress and excessive heat in the body.

Instead of waiting for a wearable device to notify you of an imbalance, take a look in the mirror every morning and check your tongue. It’s one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to stay ahead of your health.

Nail Health and How Fingernails Indicate Nutrient Deficiencies

Your fingernails are another key diagnostic tool that reveal internal imbalances. Many people don’t realize that the shape, texture, and color of their nails are direct reflections of their nutrient status and organ function.

Brittle nails? You could be low in silica or calcium. White spots? That’s often a sign of zinc deficiency. Spoon-shaped nails might indicate iron deficiency, while dark streaks could be linked to adrenal exhaustion or circulatory issues.

Rather than taking a generic supplement and hoping for the best, I teach people to read their nails as a real-time reflection of what’s happening inside and adjust their diet accordingly.

Are Smartwatches Making Us Less Intuitive About Our Health?

There’s no doubt that wearables provide useful data, but can they create a false sense of security? We start to rely on numbers rather than intuition, waiting for an app to tell us how we feel instead of listening to our own body’s signals.

Your smartwatch might measure your heart rate, but it won’t tell you why your heart is under stress. It might track your sleep patterns, but it won’t explain why you’re waking up exhausted every morning. These are things you need to uncover by understanding your body, not just looking at a screen.

The real issue? Tech wearables track symptoms, whereas The Tolman Method that I teach and share helps you find the root cause.

How to Start Listening to Your Body Instead of Relying on Technology

If you feel disconnected from your body, it’s time to relearn its language. You can start here!

The post Body Wisdom | Read the Signs Before Your Smartwatch Does appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

What is a Tolman Emotional Clearing Session?

The Tolman Emotional Clearing technique (EC for short) is a powerful process to release past, suppressed emotions. When we experience an event (usually as a small child) that we’re unable to completely process (aren’t allowed or don’t know how to complete the cry, the scream, the fear etc), we have leftover emotions stored in the body at a cellular level. This, like any form of stress, makes our muscles tight and stressed and put pressure on our organs – leading to physical ailments over time if not addressed. It’s essentially excess cortisol running around the body keeping us on high alert all the time, resulting in the body not getting enough (or in some cases any!) time to return to the parasympathetic nervous system (aka rest and repair) – the ONLY place in which the body can heal.

Every physical ailment you have – whether it’s a rash, acne, sore shoulder, bad back, digestive issues – right through to serious dis-ease in the body like cancer, diabetes, heart issues, autoimmune etc – has a level of emotional stress, trauma, hurt, pain, baggage (whatever word you want to use) contributing to it. There is a whole world of research around this, but we’ll leave that for another day…

Healing needs both physical and emotional support. We won’t heal if we eat Macca’s and sit on the couch all day but we also won’t heal to our full potential if we don’t address and relieve some of the emotional stress our body is holding. In fact, in my personal experience, releasing some of the emotional baggage makes doing the physical easier – it’s not a push or HAVE to but starts to become an intrinsic drive. A WANT rather than a burden.

So, what happens during a session?

The number one thing we do is to ensure you feel safe. We cannot heal (physically or emotionally) if we don’t feel safe within our body and with the facilitator. This can take time and may need a different approach for different people. But it’s absolutely vital. If we’re not feeling safe, we’re in a state of fear – which is a state of stress. And we can’t relieve stress if we feel stressed! And know that not every facilitator is right for every client and that’s ok. Find who works for you and who you feel safe with.

The second thing to understand is that tackling our emotional hurts and pains is scary! It’s why most people choose to ignore it and just do all the “things” instead (eat the right foods, go for a walk, drink the water etc) and ignore the emotional work. So, in understanding that it can be scary, it’s important to also understand that your body isn’t going to throw your entire history of hurt and stress at you in one hit. Its number one priority is keeping you alive and throwing the whole truck at you at once might achieve the opposite!

So, it simply won’t.

Your body is intelligent enough to only ever give you what you can handle in that moment on that day. You may believe that it’s too much, or sometimes believe you’re not doing enough, but it will be exactly as it needs to be. That’s why feeling safe with the facilitator is so important – so you can be reassured that everything is ok and you’re safe.

Once you’re relaxed and are feeling safe, we take you through a process (not hypnosis – you’re conscious the entire time, but you will go deep within) that allows the body to bring forth the stress / hurt / pain / trauma that needs to be addressed on that day, in that moment. In the same way that we don’t get to choose which physical ailment is healed first (we may want to resolve our rash but the body decides to heal the kidney as a priority for example), we don’t always get to choose which emotional hurt needs healing first. We may assume we need to heal from XYZ event, but in fact, a totally different one comes to the forefront. Often, ironically, the events are related – or the feelings and hurts associated within them are anyway.

We then take you through a process of releasing all the stuck stress, hurt, pain, anger, frustration, sadness or whatever it is from that event. And once it’s released, it’s gone forever.

It’s also important to understand that there’s no end goal when it comes to this work. It’s not like we reach a point of “I’m done – no more emotional work for me required!” We aren’t going to heal everything in one session, but it is where we need to start. There are always new layers and more depths to go through. And the deeper we go, the deeper our connection with ourselves becomes, the deeper our solidity in the KNOWING that we’re ok. The deeper our connections with our loved ones and the world around us becomes. The more we’re able to stay balanced through life without turning into the crazy wild woman who flies off the handle at the tiniest little thing (speaking from experience!! )

And, ultimately, our goal as EC Coaches, is to teach you how to truly FEEL. To support you in coming back into alignment within, to find true self-love and to feel your heart. To find true compassion for yourself rather than judgement. We can only heal from a place of love, never from a place of fear.

Healing isn’t about feeling better, it’s about getting better at feeling (a beautiful quote from the brilliant Gabor Maté). Life is always going to throw us stressors and curve balls – it’s not about removing all of those and living a flatline life. It’s about having the ability to respond to those moments rather than to react. To be able to put in appropriate boundaries from a place of love and understanding. And the less past hurts and pains we carry around, the easier dealing with day-to-day stressors becomes.

I hope this helps explain the process we as EC Tolman Coaches use to support you in your healing journey.

Love and healing always,

The post Emotional Healing | The Tolman Emotional Clearing Technique by Coach Britelle Humfrey appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

However, over time this led me to feel burnt out. I’d be full of beans but then crash at 3pm. I’d pick up again at about 6pm, then stay awake until midnight… I needed to find something to help as I started to learn my adrenals were getting hammered! I was burning out. I used caffeine as some form of band-aid to help energy levels. But we know that doing that makes the problem worse.

So I turned to meditation. But you can imagine, for an undiagnosed ADD guy like me, sitting still and looking inwards was challenging. I knew meditation would help improve my scattered attention, nervous system, focus and concentration. But along the way, I also discovered many other benefits like keeping my digestion running smoothly, maintaining a consistent level of energy during the day and improving my relationships by being an active listener. Safe to say I’m investing more time in this expansive practice.

In the beginning, I had no idea what I was supposed to do, let alone if I was doing it correctly (there are apps that teach you “how”, so no worries there). But I set myself a challenge to meditate every day for a week. After a week I noticed I was less reactive and more proactive. I was able to think more clearly and respond more effectively. I also noticed that my sleep was deeper, more restorative and I was changing my habit! I wanted to go to bed earlier (this was HUGE for me).

But the biggest lesson that I’ve taken away – Meditation puts you into the para-sympathetic system. The ‘rest and digest’ state. This is the place you need to be to heal things. To recover from things. To process things. The best part of being in the para-sympathetic nervous system is the feeling of knowing you are still energetic without the ‘Go-Go-Go’ energy from an adrenaline place. To finally have some real earth grounding energy that doesn’t rely on my mind to motivate me or need caffeine to trigger the start of the day. I like to call this the “calm as a Hindu Cow state”.

When should you Meditate?

I like first thing in the morning as you wake up, or when I get home from work in the mid afternoon. The reason to meditate then and not before bed is so you can receive the benefits while still being awake for the day or evening until sleep! Try it!

Keen to give it a ‘Go’? Here are my top tips for getting started:

• Make a “Meditation Happening” sign for your bedroom door or meditation space. This will minimise interruptions!

• Turn that phone OFF!!!! Or at least on silent or vibrate so there are no interruptions. Trust me. You don’t want a random notification interrupting as you go deeper into the time you’ve committed to.

• Sit upright on a chair or bed. Don’t lie down. Sitting on a pillow can help relax into the 20 minutes you are dedicating to yourself, and against something to support your back. My comfortable space is just a couch.

• Use a guided meditation in the beginning. There are so many fantastic apps, I’ve listed some of my favourites below. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you can give it a try on your own – no music, just you and your thoughts.

• Set a timer. When you’re new to meditation, you will be surprised how quick the time goes! And learn to resist the temptation to check how long you’ve got left. After plenty of practice, remove the timer and see where your thoughts take you.

• Remember, it’s a practice, not a perfect! Be kind to yourself, it’s ok not to be great at it. Like everything, you will improve with practice.

Check out this list of some of my favourite meditation and mindfulness apps. If you’re new to meditation, it’s a great place to start.

One Giant Mind
This is the one I’ve most resonated with as it’s consistent with using the same music and teachers. This allows or let’s you know if any big differences in your meditation happens, that it’s not the music or teachers. It’s me. This is a simple easy-to-follow program and you can expand when you are ready. This app really allows you to start slow to become comfortable and then dives deeper into meditation when you are ready.

Headspace

This app teaches the basics of mindfulness and meditation through cute animations. The free version gives you 10 days worth of guided meditations, each of which can be tailored to suit how much time you can spare. You also get some mini meditations and breathing exercises. A monthly subscription will unlock hours of extra content with topics covering everything from productivity to pain management.

Calm

Calm features a range of voice-led meditation exercises and soothing sounds from ocean waves to crackling firewood. A seven-day beginner’s program will get you started, covering basic mindful breathing exercises in short sessions. A subscription features a library of calming music and lulling sleep stories, plus masterclasses for more advanced practitioners.

Aura

Aura features short meditations – no longer than 15 minutes each. The sessions change daily and are delivered by mindfulness teachers and therapists, with the ability to save your favourite ones. The paid version will unlock more than 1000 meditations and additional features such as the “daily reflection” field where you can log your feelings and the things you’re grateful.

Insight Timer

This app fuses meditation and social networking. In addition to an extensive library of guided meditation, a world map shows you how many people are meditating and where they are. You can also add friends and discuss mindfulness topics in the groups feature. The meditation range from beginner to advanced levels, as well as short courses focused on topics such as breathing and anxiety management. The best part? It’s all free.

Smiling Mind

Another free app, Smiling Mind makes mindfulness accessible to everyone. With a simple design, its very user-friendly. It offers introductory sessions for beginners through to tailored programs for various ages (kids included).

Here’s to a new path of health that adds enormous value to yourself and how you go about your life!

The post Why You Should be Meditating by Coach Clint Facey appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

What About if I Have Blockages or Colon Damage?

Firstly, what I would say is if you have a digestive issue that includes any blockages then it is REALLY important to take it slow. Especially if there has been any damage to the colon. In fact, I always recommend people with major digestive issues to do the 30 day colon cleanse process rather than the 4 day process. Taking 1 or 2 tablespoons of the colon cleanse mix every day for 30 days is still going to bulk things up enough to get some really good cleansing going on for you. 

I would also highly recommend eating oatmeal every day. Get yourself some good quality organic oats – I like the steel cut oats but any kind that aren’t “instant oats” are great because they are less processed. Eating a bowl of oatmeal every day will add more good fibre into your system.  And buy yourself some mission figs – oh my god they taste so good! Figs or dates or prunes especially are great – they have very specific fibres and sugars that help the body’s natural digestive action to clean things out. If you want to boost up your protein intake you could add some hemp seeds to your oatmeal as well and if you want it a bit sweeter, add some honey.

Hydrating with Fruit

ANY fruit will be super hydrating to the digestive system. I typically recommend starting the day with fresh fruit first, even before you eat your oatmeal. Maybe even before you have your serve of colon cleanse, because the fruit will hydrate everything and get things “sliding” along and moving! 

Apples are going to be the best choice for digestive function. But ALL fruit will hydrate the digestive system, give you some good enzymes, clean some things out, ferment some things that aren’t meant to be there and just get everything to move along. 

If you can implement some form of intermittent fasting too that would be fantastic because it gives everything a break. So even if that just looks like waiting until 10am to have some fruit. Then have a serving of colon cleanse at 10.30-11am. 

To really amp things up you could do a serve of colon cleanse in the afternoon as well! If you don’t like the taste of the colon cleanse by itself then you could definitely put it into your oatmeal, it will just bulk it up. You probably won’t even notice the taste at all!

Why You Should Make Friends With Salad

During this cleansing process, if you can eat super plant based for the whole 30 days then that would definitely be really helpful. And if you could eat 100% RAW plant based then that would be even better! If you have ever seen some of the videos of the salads I have made – amazing! And just making these salads makes me feel so good; every time I am boosting up greens I feel strong. I can feel the extra energy and power!

If you feel like you need a snack in the afternoon – try things like carrot sticks and celery. Celery is a great broom for the digestive system. When you eat celery you’ve probably noticed you end up with this ball of fibre you are trying to swallow! If you can eat 2-3 sticks of celery then that’s like colon cleansing all by itself.

Fasting for Optimal Healing

If you are dealing with a major digestive issue like a twisted colon, once you finish up your 30 days of colon cleansing, then honestly healing is going to need to include some form of extended water fasting. I know lots of people have healed their digestive conditions, and typically it takes 20-30 days to have a complete healing. That length of water fasting can be pretty full on and I wouldn’t recommend anyone do that without someone with experience monitoring you, such as a Tolman Health Coach.

Without professional assistance I would recommend trying 10-15 days on a water fast and see how you go. If you can make time for that. Water fasting requires 100% commitment so you can’t be going to work, you need to put all your focus on your healing. Once you have done some water fasting, do equal that time with juices and you are probably going to be in a really good place. You can add in things like clear vegetable broths and herbal teas while you are juice fasting too!

Coffee Enemas for the Win!

Throughout this process, whether you are fasting or not, I recommend you do daily enemas – I like to do them in the morning. Coffee enemas are super healing. Doing them in the morning will wake you up and get you going! The coffee detoxifies your liver so you will feel really good. And the whites of your eyes clear up pretty quickly from doing coffee enemas. 

Just make sure you are using good, pristine, organic, fresh roasted coffee. Grind it yourself, brew it yourself and then use it in the enema straight away.The coffee is also going to stimulate the lining of the colon for healing and action and movement.

So my suggested protocol for colon cleansing with digestive issues would look like 30 days of 1-2 servings of colon cleanse, eating lots of (preferably raw) healthy food to just clean everything out and then going into a fast of 10-15 days on water and after that an equal amount of time on juice.

Once you have finished the fasting, break your fast with things like coconut yoghurt, berries and honey. Keeping it fresh with fruits! Keep that up for about a week then you can start incorporating some steamed vegetables and things like that. 

Then moving back into a healthier lifestyle is obviously ideal.

The post How to Colon Cleanse Safely With Digestive Issues appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

We’re an indoor culture of gadget buffs! We trade outdoors for lounge room pursuits of iPad tinkering and staring at SmartTVs. And when we do dare venture outside, we’re told to cover up and avoid that blazing ball in the sky at all costs to save our skin and our health! A far cry from other cultures who revere it, and our ancestors who worked and played long hours under it – with no sunscreen and without so much as a hat.

The Toxins

The market for sunscreens, sunblocks and lotions, whether they spray, squirt or simply roll on is BIG business—a multi-million dollar market that has the Western masses smothering themselves and their family with a ton of chemicals that stop the sun from penetrating the skin. However, now we’re baking ourselves in toxic ingredients that are very detrimental to our health, and missing out on important nutrients the sun naturally provides, such as Vitamin D.

The Controversy

We have been fed a lie. It’s absolutely not the truth that the sun causes cancer. One of the leading dermatologists and scientists in the United States, Dr. Kenneth Nelder, has PROVEN the sun does not cause skin cancer… what causes skin cancer is not eating enough fruit and vegetables and also putting products onto the skin that contain known carcinogens (cause cancer in the genes).

If you look at the statistics of cancer rates and when they started to skyrocket, it happened at the same time that marketing started to come out, telling people to cover up, put petroleum-based products on your skin because the ‘sun causes cancer’—that’s when people started getting cancer.

The Statistics

The message has been heard the loudest in Australia and New Zealand, with Australasians told because our sun is in close proximity to the depleted O-Zone Layer, we need to be more mindful than the rest of the world in order to avoid skin cancer. Staggeringly two in three Australians will suffer from it by age 70, according to The Cancer Council; that’s four times more than people in U.S.A., Canada and the U.K.

And sunscreen sales Down Under reflect the fear with sales booming! Also soaring are the costs to treat skin cancer. The Cancer Council says it’s the “most expensive cancer.” In 2001, it was estimated treatment of the non-melanoma kind cost $264 million, while melanoma reached $30 million.

However, the evidence against wearing sunscreen is mounting. Research shows blocking the body’s absorption of ultraviolet radiation is detrimental to Vitamin D production which is the very vitamin that protects us against 77 percent of all cancers – from breast and colon cancer to cervical and skin cancers.

The Ingredients

Skincare and wellness entrepreneur Annmarie Gianni, who developed an all-natural skincare line under her own name, suggests using organic and natural lotions, gels and creams that contain nourishing ingredients.

“Zinc oxide is considered the safest option for children and adults, as long as it’s not presented in tiny nanoparticles that penetrate the skin,” she says.

Top Tips for Healthy Sun Exposure

The biggest thing you can do is up your fruit and veggie intake. Whole foods are packed with antioxidants, which prevent sun damage. Having a morning smoothie is a great way to pack a lot of vegetables and/or fruit in one sitting. Just make sure you “chew” your smoothie in order to get your digestive juices working and get the most out of all the goodness.

Grounding is also great! And it’s so easy – just put your bare feet on the ground. In the modern world we’ve lost our connection to mother earth thanks to footwear. Walking barefoot in the sunshine is so healing because it allows you to receive Vitamin D from the sun, while getting negative ions from the earth.

Add avocados, berries, tomatoes, watermelon and turmeric root, as well as green tea to your diet. These amazing foods work from within to protect against damage from prolonged sun exposure.

Instead of toxic conventional sunscreen, apply extra virgin coconut oil to your skin instead. It works as a natural sunburn protector with an SPF of approximately 6-8.

Choose commercial sunscreen wisely. If you feel like you must wear a protective cream, just make sure it’s completely natural and organic, such as zinc oxide that sits on top of the skin only.

Have a hat handy. If you’re spending a lot of time in the sun (especially between 10am and 2pm when the sun is hottest), covering up with a hat and long sleeves is a good way to minimise your chances of sunburn.

Stay hydrated. Make sure you’re drinking enough water (I suggest 1 litre per 22kg of body weight) and if you are exercising or sweating, add a bit more or snack on something hydrating like melons.

Avoid wearing sunglasses. These trick the brain into thinking it’s night and that stops the body from producing proper hormones needed for sunlight.

Expose yourself to sunlight regularly. Don’t go more than three days without getting out into the sun for at least 20 minute. If you live somewhere that this is possible.

Dry brush or guasha. Cleaning your skin with a dry brush or using guasha will keep it healthy and able to assimilate Vitamin D better when you are in the sun.

So don’t be scared of the sun! It’s a very natural and important part of a healthy lifestyle – that’s why it’s one of the 7 Principles of Health!

Get out into the sun, build up a healthy tan in summer to make sure you have enough Vitamin D to get you through the winter and you will be healthy and happier for it.

The post Sun Exposure | Safer and Healthier Than You’ve Been Told appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

Heartburn is an issue for many people. It manifests when stomach acid refluxes back into the esophagus. Unlike our stomach, the esophagus does not have a protective mucosal layer, so the acid burns the esophageal lining which lies in front of our chest. Heartburn becomes problematic when it starts to happen on more than an occasional basis. Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is essentially chronic acid reflux and it’s diagnosed through its main symptom – heartburn.

Most people (including doctors) believe heartburn is caused by too much acid, but it’s really just acid winding up in the wrong place (the esophagus). Doctors prescribe acid blockers like Nexium and Prilosec which shut down acid production in the stomach. Though these do provide relief from heartburn, people become dependent upon them because they don’t stop the underlying cause which is so often diet related. Consistently shutting down acid production, which is a totally unnatural thing to do, has consequences!

It never ceases to amaze me how many people today take digestive medications for heartburn. Just take a look at the digestive aide aisle in any drug store. The choices are mind boggling. Really, it’s like standing in the cereal aisle at your supermarket.

It will blow your mind when you see how easy it can be to stop heartburn and GERD with just some simple dietary changes.

Sauerkraut! – For Your Gut

Sauerkraut (as well as other fermented foods like yoghurt, kimchi, kefir and kombucha) is an important component of any digestive health protocol. Properly fermented foods are ALIVE, teeming with billions upon billions of bacteria that populate our digestive tract. 

A properly balanced gut microbiome with plenty of the good bacteria and not too many bad ones is essential for good health. The bacteria in our gut affects to many things in our bodies – digestion, metabolism, inflammation and even out mental health!

So when we eat fermented foods, they act as a raft for the good bacteria to move into our gut and take up residence where they play some remarkable roles in keeping us healthy. Not only do they help control our immune system, they also assist in keeping our blood sugar levels balanced and recent studies have also indicated that they may play a part in influencing our body weight. What’s so great about sauerkraut and other fermented foods is that they good bacteria contained in them lowers the pH levels in our intestines which helps to get rid of the bad bacteria!

Did you know we have ten times as many bacteria in our intestines as we do cells in our body?

Snapshot of Health Benefits

• Very nutritious – contains vitamins C and B5, iron, folate, manganese, copper and potassium
• Improves digestion – high in fibre to help feed the good gut microbes and the probiotics assist with nutrient absorption
• Boosts immune system – good source of probiotics and can boost production of natural antibodies
• Maintains brain health – improves gut absorption of mood-regulating minerals
• May reduce risk of certain cancers – antioxidants may support reduction of DNA damage and prevention of cell mutation
• Promotes a healthy heart – fibre and probiotics can help reduce cholesterol and blood pressure levels
• Builds stronger bones – contains vitamin K which activates proteins that bind to calcium

Sauerkraut Recipe

Sauerkraut is one of the most common fermented vegetables around. Best of all, it’s so easy to make at home! Check out how to make sauerkraut in a mason jar below:

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cabbage (about 1-2kgs / 3-4lbs)
• 1.5 tablespoons of salt (Celtic or Pink Himalayan are the best choices)
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds (optional)

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Clean mason jar/s (about 1 litre / 64oz capacity preferably with a wide mouth)
• Jar lid or a small piece of cheesecloth and rubber band

Instructions:

1. Make sure everything is clean! You only want good bacteria when you are making sauerkraut. 

2. Remove any wilted outer leaves of the cabbage and wash it if it’s not organic.

3. Cut the cabbage into quarters, remove the core and slice into thin strips (about ½ cm wide)

4. Put cabbage into the bowl and sprinkle the salt over

5. Using clean hands, massage the salt into the cabbage leaves for 5-10 minutes until you start to get juice releasing from the cabbage.

6. Sprinkle caraway seeds (if desired) over cabbage and mix through.

7. Place handfuls of cabbage into the mason jar and really press it down to make sure there isn’t any air bubbles left.

8. Continue until your jar is full to about 5cm / 2in from the top. 

9. Pour any remaining juice in to completely cover the cabbage. NOTE: if you find you don’t have enough juice, just add a little bit of salty water – about 1 teaspoon of salt per cup of water will do. Just make sure you use distilled water as tap water will kill the good bacteria you are trying to attract!

10. Weigh the cabbage down so it stays under the liquid – use one of the outside leaves of the cabbage cut to fit inside your jar and then use something to hold it down. There are a few ways you can do this – use a smaller jar that will fit inside your mason jar filled with water or you can also use a clean stone (called a pickling stone). If you can’t find either of those then you can use a piece of the cabbage core to wedge in and hold everything under the brine.

11. If your jar has a lid, place it on but don’t completely tighten it. If you don’t have a lid, use a piece of cheesecloth over the top of the jar and fasten it with a rubber band.

12. Now find a cool, dark place for your sauerkraut to live while it ferments. It’s a good idea to place a small plate or saucer under the jar just in case any liquid escapes.

13. In the first couple of days you will need to check every day to make sure everything has stayed under the brine (and press it down if it hasn’t). 

14. Fermentation will take between 3 and 10 days, depending on your local weather. Try tasting it after 3 days and when it tastes good to you, remove the weight and if you used cheesecloth place the sauerkraut into a glass container with a lid.

15. Place your sauerkraut into the fridge and it is ready to enjoy. It can keep refrigerated for at least 2 months but it tastes so good I’m sure it will not last that long!

Fun Fact: Sauerkraut is so full of vitamins and probiotics that ancient sailors would eat it on long voyages to keep healthy.

The post Sauerkraut | Fermented Food that Restores Gut Flora appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

What’s so good about Dates?

Dates contain a chemical compound called tannins. Tannins have anti-microbial (bacteria and viruses), anti-inflammatory, and anti-hemorrhagic (stops bleeding) properties. They also help the body metabolize carbohydrates, protein and fats.

They are also an excellent source of iron. Just 100g of dates (about 4 medjool dates) contains 0.90 mg of iron. Iron is important because it’s a component of hemoglobin inside the red blood cells and determines the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

Helping with Healing

Some ailments dates can help include sore throats, colds, bronchial catarrh (liquid in the lungs) and they have even been taken to relieve fevers. Dates are very easy for your body to digest and they also help remove waste from the body. They are high in fibre which helps with the growth of probiotics in the gut and prevents pathological organisms.

I often advise pregnant women to eat fresh or dried dates so that the muscles of the uterus are strengthened for an easier delivery. Dates are rich in minerals and contain several phytonutrients which are responsible for providing higher strength and stamina in the body. For this reason many body builders also eat good amounts of dates prior to a workout because they provide them with energy and strength to workout longer.

Dates have great medicinal value for growing children, young girls and pregnant women. Dates boost your immunity and help keep hormones balanced so are great for irregular menstrual cycles.

In certain traditions it’s believed that dates, fresh or dried, help improve your physical stamina as well as libido. Having a smoothie with banana, dates, and nuts (I love a small handful of cashews, almonds and walnuts) daily will make you feel like Superman (or Superwoman)!!

Dates really are Nature’s Candy. Get some today and enjoy!

The post Health Benefits Of Dates | Nature’s Candy appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

High Blood Pressure Explained

A lot of times what happens is we get stressed and dehydrated. Imagine, if I drink an entire litre of water, my blood volume inside of my body (once it goes through my digestive system and absorbed) is one litre. You can’t compress water, so my blood volume inside of every little capillary, blood vessel artery increases with the level of hydration. With the increase in hydration there is less pressure required to push that blood through every nook and cranny of my body. It just makes sense, so hydration is a key factor for high blood pressure. 

Now what happens is we have damage to the arteries due to stress, the types of foods that we’re consuming, and we have an increase in cholesterol, called High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) and Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL). The whole system is really misunderstood, but in general, when we have a ratio that’s out of whack, like high LDL and low HDL, it’s showing us that there’s damage happening to our arteries. 

This can happen from a stressful lifestyle, being angry, frustrated, from drinking alcohol, from smoking, from eating too much trans fat and bad fats, too much processed sugars, and processed carbohydrates…all these types of things that create an acidic condition within the body. 

When we have damage to the arterial walls, keeping the blood volume is key for avoiding a heart attack, a stroke and high blood pressure. The stress is essentially causing a little bit of stress inside of the arteries, or little tears, lesions or an accumulation of actual fat. So when you look at a blood test you see high triglycerides and you see high LDL or low HDL, we know that there’s an accumulation of this plaque that’s starting to build up on the walls of the arteries. And as that stuff is building up, it is harder for the body to get nutrients into the interstitial tissues.

If you can imagine these are all hoses and the hoses all have holes for the nutrients to go into all the cells. If I have an accumulation of this plaque that builds up, typically from bad fats, stress and toxins, then it’s harder to get the nutrients into the interstitial tissues. So the body’s like, ‘okay, well there’s plaque on my arterial walls so I need to pick up the pressure so that I can force these nutrients to go into the cells’. 

So if I have high blood pressure my body’s essentially trying to get more nutrition into the cells whether I’m more active, have more stress, or I have a layer of plaque. There’s many different factors that can cause high blood pressure, such as, adrenals can cause high blood pressure so drinking too many caffeinated beverages, constantly running on a drug adrenaline and not having that balance of rest and relaxation. 

Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure

We want to hydrate, we want to be able to relax, we want to eat good nutrition and the way to really clear the plaque out of our arteries is Whole Foods. It is the antioxidants, fibres, and phytonutrients inside of foods… 

One of the greatest ways to clear our arterial walls is called Resveratrol. It comes from grapes. Red grapes look like the red blood cells. There’s something called grape seed extract which is a major anti-blood cancer killer for leukemia and things like that. A lot of good science on it, but essentially nutrition in general. 

If I drink green juice, if I eat greens, if I eat vegetables, there’s all these amazing phytonutrients, whether you know the names of them or not. It’s just about eating healthy food and cutting out the stuff that’s actually causing the problem.

Fasting

In cases of people that have really high blood pressure, fasting is in my opinion and through observation, the fastest way to heal. 

Take anybody with high blood pressure and put them on an extended water fast. You’re going to watch day after day, week after week, their blood pressure coming down, down, down… And whenever you want it to stop, you can just stop the fast. 

Break the fast very slowly. Everybody’s different though. Some people can just break a fast and start eating fresh fruits right away. Some people need to have just very small amounts, even when it comes to juices, they might need to water it down, 50% water, 50% juice, and take it really slowly and see how their body reacts. 

Side Note about Grapes
It can be hard to source grapes without the sulphites, so do your best to find good organic grapes. I wouldn’t worry about it though. When it comes to drinking wine and stuff like that, obviously there’s potentially sulphites and things added. I’m not really talking about getting grapes from that source, but you know sulphites are not bad. It’s just concentrations and too much can become a problem. Especially things when they’re concentrated and used as a preservative, that’s really where it becomes a problem. But sulphites coming in grapes and nature is not actually an issue.

Ultimately, to help lower and maintain healthy blood pressure, I will always recommend following the 7 Principles of Health – long walks every day and really having that level of balance. Good digestion! I find most people that have high blood pressure also have a backed up colon, so also clearing out the digestive system, with some colon cleansing, walking – taking care of your adrenal health is important.

The post Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

A nut allergy is a very common allergy. Which is a shame because there are highly nutritious. So where can you get the same or similar nutrients that you may be missing out on from nuts?

In the place of nuts, you can always use seeds. Sunflower seeds are super nutritiously dense. Sesame seeds are amazing for high levels of zinc and other sesamen that open up your pituitary gland. 

There are so many other types of seeds – chia seeds, flaxseeds… seeds, seeds, seeds. Amazing.

And I would say, with really clean eating, including a lot of seeds, and mixing them with dried fruit and nuts (other nuts that you may not be allergic to), it’s a perfect ratio that’s really good for digestion and really good for the body. 

Getting Rid of a Nut Allergy

If you can have micro-doses… 

So, let’s say, your child eats a walnut (for example), and what? Gets inflammation of the lips, what happens if it’s anaphylactic response and it’s really bad. What I would recommend is, first of all germinating the nuts. Soak walnuts overnight, chop them up into tiny little pieces after they dry. Then take one of those tiny pieces and rub it on your child’s lips every single day. There’s probably not going to be a reaction, but if there is a reaction, rub just a little bit on the lip every day until eventually the reaction goes away. 

If there is no reaction, or when the reaction does go away, have him chew on a very little bit or put a tiny bit of chopped up, sprouted, germinated walnut into something else. Such as his cereal, or smoothie…. Just a tiny amount. So there is no reaction. 

I can almost guarantee if you put such a tiny amount into some kind of food there’s not going to be any reaction whatsoever. And as you are making the food with the tiny little bit of walnut, say “There will be no reaction”, and “This will be received with love”. 

Say it, speak it. 

Because mothers have the power of word, and as you speak into the food you are preparing, the vibration has a positive effect on the children.

Even if you want children to do certain things or act certain ways, you can speak about how they’re acting that way or doing that thing into the food and the vibration carries over. 

It’s truly powerful. 

Again, what you would do is go from micro-dosing to a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, until there is no reaction. First we need to germinate and soak the nuts overnight. Then rinse and wash them, and then chop them up put them in different things until there is no reaction. Same thing with any kind of nut, especially nuts that have a brown shell.

This is actually really important because if you avoid the thing that they’re reacting to, eventually they’re going to react to then a pecan and then eventually to something else. The thing we need to understand about nuts is they are some of the highest forms of nutrition and they have powerful detoxification pathway nutrients that they deliver to the body. 

In fact, the word NUT-rition respresents a high level of light activator change into a process. Nutrition is a process of light these activating nutrients that come in. So the word nut is the first part of nutrition because there’s such a high density of light and nutrients inside of this little tiny package. If there is something inside of the body that needs to be cleared and detoxified, nuts are something that cause these reactions. 

So yes, that’s what I recommend is little by little by little getting over the nut allergy and then, you know because walnuts are one of the highest antioxidants out of any food on the planet. You know people think oh you know like acai and berries and all these things super high antioxidant. That’s the truth…and walnuts are higher.

How amazing would it be if you could overcome a nut allergy – so you don’t miss out on all the nutrients they have to offer. Especially walnuts, I think, as they really are a powerful food for the brain, really powerful as an antioxidant and for clearing any type of toxicity problem inside of our body. 

The post Tree Nut Allergies | Alternatives and Overcoming the Allergy appeared first on Tyler Tolman.

Did you know…

You have more lymphatic fluid in your body than Blood!! We have the circulatory system for building and feeding the tissues and the lymphatic system for all the waste!! So guess what system most people know nothing about? That’s right, well I promise you if you give this system a good ‘Spring cleaning’ you will be feeling great!!

Mentally clear, physically strong with more energy and vitality.

10 Protocols to Clean it Up and Out

The lymphatic system is basically a garbage removal system so anything the body does not recognize as food, or anything foreign to the body (toxic chemicals) will move through this system for removal. It’s when this system gets overloaded that we run into major problems.

So depending on the severity of the Lymph system here is what I recommend:

#1 Keep it Clean

Cut out all artificial colours, sweeteners, oils, process foods and stick to plant based food. Enzymes and fibre in fresh raw plants act like brushes to clean out this and other systems of the body (fresh fruit, veggies, roots, salads, nuts, seeds, whole soaked grains, smoothies and juices) either raw or gently cooked (steamed, baked, or lightly sautéed).

Only use personal care products that you could literally eat. Chemicals from even shampoo, deodorant, perfumes and many other items get into the blood stream from the skin. Many of these are known carcinogens (cancer causing). This is obvious when you can wear a patch that releases nicotine into the blood through the skin.

#2 Water

If a pipe has more water than sludge then it can flow… Make sense? So drink enough water to maximize the lymphatic flow. I always recommend drinking 1 litre per 22 kgs of body weight of water per day. Drinking more if you exercise and sweat for close to an hour or are in a hot climate. Add a pinch of salt can help in many ways as well (Himalayan or Celtic Sea salt are best).

Always start your day with 1 litre of water first (other than oil pulling) and adding lemon, lime or orange can improve lymphatic flow.

#3 Exercise

This going to be your “best friend”. Nothing gets the Lymph system moving as much as jumping, running, biking, martial arts, sports etc. LIFE IS MOVEMENT!! The more you sweat the better!! This is toxins coming out that the lymph system will no longer have to deal with.

#4 Deep Breathing

This will expand the diaphragm and push the lymphatic fluid through the body. Your circulatory system has the “heart” as a pump and deep breathing is the pump for your lymphatic system. Follow my 7 Rounds of 7 audio, and do this 3x a day.

Not only will you expel loads of acid and oxygenate your body, but your lymphatic system will be loving you!!

#5 Clean your Digestive System

Most of the accumulation of waste is excess toxins from a backed up colon. I have developed a 4 day intensive colon cleanse that will do the trick. It has sold around the world for many years with great success. This recipe does not contain harsh herbs that force peristalsis so you won’t be dependent afterward. Just a clean ya clacker!!

I will say that for most of you, you will need to do this 4 day cleanse 3 times to get the results and have it truly work. If you do the cleanse each month for 3 months you will know what it’s like for the first time, maybe in your life, to have a clean digestive system.

Did you know after every meal you should have a bowel movement within 45 min-1 hour? And if you don’t this is a clear indication of constipation. You will know exactly what I mean after doing this colon cleanse. It’s actually the greatest thing ever to feel a good poop coming on 30 min after every meal. This is because the natural signal of eating makes way for the new material to come through.

#6 Sweating

Getting into a steam room or dry sauna is a great way to clear the lymphatic system as well. I recommend using eucalyptus oil to improve the lungs and doing breathing exercises while sitting. A good 15 minutes of sweating will do wonders.

#7 Clothing

Wear clothes that fit correctly and do not pinch the lymphatic system… Ladies, your bras can be a major contributing factor in developing breast cancer and having other lymphatic issues. Pinching the lymph system off is like pinching a hose that is draining a dirty pond. These toxins will accumulate and lead to issues. Pants, belts, bras, shoes and even gloves that are to tight can cause issues, especially when worn daily.

#8 Other Therapies

Lymphatic massage – Using essential oils and draining the lymph physically.

Chiropractic or Osteopathic Adjustments – Making sure everything is aligned.

Acupuncture – To make sure the energy systems of the body are flowing as well.

Morning Rituals – Following along with me while I go through a series of exercises, such as Shake n Bake, that target the lymphatic system.

#9 Guasha & Skin Brushing

To make Guasha, buy the cheapest bottle of triple distilled vodka and some aluminium free bi-carb soda. Mix them in a jar with a lid until it’s a paste consistency. Have it next to you the next time you shower. Get in and rinse off. Then turn off the shower and scrub your entire body with this paste. I use a scrub brush or a loofah and scrub head, face, arms, legs, everywhere.

You might even get an itch in certain spots. I recommend focusing more on those spots and when your done scrubbing get back into the shower and rinse off. That’s it.

Then I recommend getting into the sun for 20-45 min. Depending on how much sun you can handle at first. Then just build up from there. Either way your skin will be loving how open and clean it is. Cleaner than it has been in years. This will take the workload off your other organs and keep you healthy and beautiful!!

#10 Fasting

Last, but probably the most important thing you can do to clean your lymph system is a fast!! This gives the body time to eliminate a lot of stored up toxins and accumulations of plaque. Supported with breathing exercises, enemas, sunshine and sweating, copious amounts of juices and water will be like putting Drano in your lymphatic system.

I recommend 7-21 days on 3 litres of juice and 3-4 litres of water per day, depending on the severity of your lymphatic system.

While the lymphatic system is not talked about very often, it definitely can’t be underestimated how important it is to our overall health. So start showing the love to your lymphatic system with some, or all of these protocols. Happy cleansing.

The post Natural Ways to Detox Your Lymphatic System appeared first on Tyler Tolman.