I often receive questions from readers via email and I love them - keep 'em coming! Here is a recent question and my answer.

Question: 

"I was hoping you may have some advice for my friend. She recently was told that for two weeks to a month she has to be completely gluten-free, yeast-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free to cleanse her body because she developed a yeast infection in her intestines. That means she cannot have her usual fruit, oatmeal and whole-grain breads, so pretty much she is at a loss for what to eat. She is also taking a host of herbal remedies and acidophilus, but I thought I would try to help as much as possible and do research and ask others for some help. If you have any information or suggestions that may help her, I would so greatly appreciate it."

My change in diet has been so rewarding - I feel great, I've lost weight and have been told I look radiant, and I save money by cooking for myself. Plus, I've been inspired to find more ways to be healthy. Check out what I've accomplished recently in the following video:



Several people have asked if I have cravings or ever cheat, and the answers are sort of and yes. I occasionally get cravings, but find that when I eat a whole foods meal they go away. However, occasionally I'll cheat and eat something with gluten, soy, oil, or sugar. Sometimes when I do this I feel the effects right away - headaches, change in mood, tingly - it depends how much is in it or what kind of ingredient. Overall, I'm sticking to this diet indefinitely because I feel awesome. Trust me, you can do it too if you want to and if you put your mind to it. : )

What have you been doing to keep yourself healthy recently?

A few days ago I made a video about a great trip to the farmers market, and today I made a similar one about my visit to the Santa Monica Co-Opportunity. I felt incredibly empowered after buying spices, grains, and seeds in bulk and fresh organic produce - I barely used any packaging and I saved a ton of money. I invested in some glass jars, which were only $1.69 each, and then filled them up with the amount of organic spices I needed - in total this cost about $2. And of course, none of the items I bought contained gluten, soy, oil, or refined-sugar (with the exception of some flax crackers that had a tad of soy in them).

Here's what I bought:

• Ancient Harvest Organic Quinoa Pasta
• Mary's Gone Crackers
• Grapefruit
• Oranges
• Papaya
• Sweet potato
• Lemon
• Lime
• Almonds
• Quinoa
• Nutritional Yeast
• Dates
• Mustard seed
• Chia seeds
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Flax seeds

I've been writing articles for Healthy Bitch Daily for a few months and they give me the greatest assignments. I love researching the topics, and my most recent contribution is one of my favorites. HBD asked me to write about hexane in veggie burgers, and what I found was shocking. Before you bite into another piece of soy, please read this. I list some companies that make soy-free (and some gluten-free) burgers in the article.

Other pieces I have written for them:

• Great Agave Debate
• Bake Me a Cake
• More to come in June!