Megan Rand

Tag: detox

  • Cellulite & Detox

    Cellulite & Detox

     

    One of the cool side effects of participating in my own Seasonal Detoxes is that my cellulite disappeared!! I always attributed this to the implementation of daily dry skin brushing, but there are so many different ways during the detox that we are helping to remove toxins that are hiding in our fat cells. After the detox, I have kept the majority of the detox tools as a part of my daily routine.

     

    Cellulite is a sign that your lymphatic system is having a hard time getting rid of the excess toxins. If you are ready to cleanse out the liver, ditch the cellulite and regenerate the cells, then try some of these suggestions.

     

    1. Clean up your diet.  The most important aspect of participating in our seasonal detox is that we are eliminating processed foods and foods that you might be sensitive to.

    2. Dry skin brushing. Cellulite is toxins trapped in fat cells. By skin brushing daily, you can reduce cellulite.

    3. Exercise!!  There is not much that needs to be said about this one.  Exercising is one of the best ways to move the lymphatic system and keep things from being stagnant.

    4. Drink away your cellulite!  Make a carrot, beet and cucumber juice to help flush away the cellulite, consume fresh juices daily or add a super green like chlorophyll to your water. Greens support healthy liver flow and support the release of toxins in the body.

    5. Balance excess estrogen by eating cruciferous vegetables. If you have thyroid issues, you can lightly steam your vegetables.

    6. Add sea vegetables such as dulse, nori and kelp to your diet. These may be new foods, but they are powerhouse cellulite reducers and by adding 2 tablespoons 3 or 4 times a week, you will support your thyroid, adrenals and re-mineralize your body. (When adding sea vegetables this is a great source of iodine but make sure to also include selenium in your diet. I like to get mine from 2 brazil nuts a day!)

    7. Add a daily toxin flusher to your diet such as grapefruit, lemon, lime, apple slices and antioxidants like berries.

    8. Eat enough healthy fats like avocado, flax oil, and medium chain fatty acids like coconut oil, as the liver needs fats to flush fat.

    9. Drink tons of water and Natural Gatorade, as minerals and hydration are essential for healthy liver flow and reducing cellulite.

    I hope that these tips and tricks all work as well for you as they did for me!! The true test will be to put them into action after I have my baby 🙂

     

  • Elimination Diet Basics

    Elimination Diet Basics

     

    Unfortunately, intolerances and food sensitivities are common in today’s world. I think this is really obvious when you go to a restaurant. A little over 10 years ago I was a waitress and things were quite different. The menus did not list gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free options. I would have had no idea what to tell someone if they asked for those things…and they never did! The experience of going to a restaurant today has changed dramatically and in just 10 years!

     

    Many children have sensitivities and intolerances to food as well; this is not just a problem for adults. Actually, it seems to me that the younger my client, the more sesitivities they have! (I have a theory about this but won’t get into it here). We learned this lesson very early on with my daughter. When she was 2 she had an eczema rash that wouldn’t go away for months. Once the lightbulb finally went off and I put her on an elimination diet, we quickly discovered gluten and dairy were the culprits. Within 2 days the rash was gone after removing those foods.

     

    When you ingest food to which you are intolerant, the body releases histamines into the bloodstream, causing inflammation. If the body thinks it is under constant attack, then we start to feel sluggish and may experience other health issues including candida, digestive issues, or blood sugar imbalances.

     

    An elimination diet starts with the premise that everybody is different, and as such, there is no one-size-fits-all diet. What works for you may not work for someone else, and vice versa. One person might thrive on grains, for example while they make another person drag.

     

    Food allergy tests are pricey and are not always reliable, as intolerances shift over time. When my clients test their food sensitivities while their gut is still compromised, their tests often show they are sensitive to EVERYTHING! If we retest after a few months of gut healing it seems to me that at that point we are actually seeing the foods they are sensitive to, instead of a list of the whole grocery store. The most inexpensive and accurate way to determine various foods’ effects on you is to do an elimination diet, in which you eliminate common allergens and add them back in one by one to determine your reaction.

     

    You can hear more about Chris Kresser’s opinion on the accuracy of food intolerance tests here.

     

    We all have one or many foods that may be wreaking havoc on our system, but if we’re eating several of the main culprits (wheat, eggs, dairy, corn, soy, sugar, and caffeine), it’s hard to tell exactly what’s triggering the reaction. Sometimes symptoms of intolerance manifest themselves immediately upon eating food, but other times there is a delayed reaction, further complicating matters.

     

    Using a food diary will allow you to systematically and objectively track your physical and emotional reactions to each meal and determine exactly which foods suit you or not. Ironically, it’s often the foods we crave the most that are harming us.

     

    You will be amazed how great you feel when you eliminate your personal culprits from your diet. And the great news is you can use the same technique of the elimination diet if you ever feel tired or have health issues in the future.

     

    Here are the basics. I suggest you remove the list below:

    • Remove the foods that people are most commonly sensitive to as well as foods that are hard on digestion. Ideally you will remove these foods for 3 weeks (this would be ideal if you are dealing with multiple health complaints, autoimmune conditions or severe gut dysfunction) but during the seasonal detoxes that I offer we are only strictly removing the whole list for 1 week. Most people can tell when a foods does not agree with them after eating so cleanly for only 1 week. I also suggest that you remove additives, artificial ingredients, sugar and caffeine. By removing these items you will have a very clean slate to reintroduce foods and see how you feel.

    Foods to remove

    • Coffee
    • Sweeteners (white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, agave or cane juice
    • Eggs
    • Sugar alcohols (often found in chewing gum, like xylitol)
    • Soy milk
    • Yeast
    • Nuts
    • Alcohol
    • Dairy products
    • Corn
    • Cheese
    • Gluten
    • Grains (only low-glycemic grains, soaked, allowed)
    • Soy (except miso)
    • Processed foods
    • Soft drinks
    • Nitrates
    • Artificial sweeteners
    • Potatoes (except for sweet potatoes or yams)
    • Beans (except for lentils, mung, and adzuki)

     

    • Reintroduce slowly and systematically. The most common food sensitivities are to gluten, dairy, soy, corn and eggs. These are good foods to start with and to watch carefully for reactions (if any of these foods are already removed from your diet than there is no need to add them back in).

     

    • Every 2-4 days, add back in foods that are common allergens or hard to digest, giving you the opportunity to see how your body reacts after you have cleansed for at least 7 days.

     

    • Be conscious of how you feel emotionally and physically when you consume food you have not eaten for at least 7 days and take the time to write this down. A journal is really important for this process!

     

    Watch out for any of these signs when adding food back into your diet. These signs can signify a food intolerance:

     

    • White coating on the tongue
    • Acid reflux or heartburn
    • Bad breath
    • Constipation
    • Foul-smelling stool
    • Headaches or migraines
    • Joint pain
    • Sinus issues
    • Clogged ears
    • Rashes or hives
    • Fatigue
    • Poor sleep
    • Water retention
    • Gas and bloating
    • Dry eyes
    • Weight gain or weight loss
    • Racing heart
    • Bags under the eyes
    • Food cravings, sugar or salt
    • Canker sores or a sore tongue
    • Difficulty breathing or cough
    • Poor concentration
    • Swelling of hands/feet


    This is your opportunity to see what fuels your unique body. I always suggest that you first test the food you most suspect is giving you a problem, often the foods that we can’t live without! Note how your body feels in your food diary during this process.

     

    By eliminating the foods from your diet that you are sensitive to, you may notice great improvements in your health without expensive tests! And this process can be used to check back in anytime in the future if you are not feeling your best. You can be a true health detective!!

     

    Is this overwhelming?

     

    If you feel like you wouldn’t know where to start or would have a hard time sticking to these changes, you can join one of our group seasonal online detoxes!!! The group follows a basic elimination diet over 18 days and you will be provided with recipes, what to eat, what to add back in, daily detox tools , daily emails and an amazing Facebook group for support.

     

    Join us!

    collage

  • How to Dry Skin Brush

    How to Dry Skin Brush

     

    This is one of the first and easiest additions that I have my clients and detoxers add to their daily routine. This also turns out to be one of their favorites!

     

    What is the largest organ in the human body and releases over a third of toxins in our body? That’s right! It is our skin. Dry skin brushing is an effective daily practice to help the body detox and remove these harmful toxins, not to mention it opens and unclogs our pores.

     

    Unlike our blood which gets pumped around the body by your heart, the lymphatic system counts on our movement to stay moving.  And guess what?  Many of us aren’t moving as much as we used to.  Who else is tied to a chair at a desk for the majority of the day? When we dry skin brush, we are massaging and helping our lymphatic system cleanse itself. We pull waste from the body as well as remove any lingering toxins from soap, environmental factors, lotions, deodorant, and other things to help improve skin health.

     

    The best part is that skin brushing should only take about 5 minutes per day, so it is easily fit into a busy lifestyle and has great benefits! I personally was able to completely remove the bumpy skin that lived on my thighs and the back of my arms after a month of consistently dry skin brushing. Some of the benefits include:

    • Exfoliation
    • Lymphatic system stimulation
    • Reduce or eliminate cellulite
    • Unclog pores
    • Invigorating; you may feel more energized after brushing

     

    Here are ten simple steps and tips for you to follow to help you get started with dry skin brushing:

    1. Get a long-handled, non-synthetic bristle brush.
    2. Remove your clothes and stand in the bathtub or on a tiled surface. You will want to do this because you are scraping off dead skin, so you don’t want that to get on your carpet or your rugs.
    3. All of your brushing motions should be heart-centered, meaning you will want to have all the motions be moving towards your heart.
    4. Start at your feet and use long flowing motions, again, towards your heart.
    5. You will want to brush several times in the same area, overlapping your strokes as you continue.
    6. For sensitive skin areas, you will want to go easy. Your skin in those areas should become less sensitive with time.
    7. Once you have your whole body brushed, hop into the tub or shower. I find that the benefits of an Epsom salt bath are heightened after dry brushing.
    8. Alternating cold and hot temperatures help bring the blood back to the top of the skin.
    9. Continue this practice daily, but for best results, consider dry brushing twice a day; once in the morning and once before bed.
    10. Remember to clean your brush at least once per week with soap and water.

     

    Although this seems like a very simple daily detox tools, some detoxers report having detox reactions such as headaches just from dry skin brushing.  If you know that your liver and lymphatic system are burdened than start slowly.

     

    Watch this periscope replay if you want more of a visual!

    Screen Shot 2015-10-02 at 9.36.44 AM

    Want to learn more of my favorite tips and have a group for support?  Join our next seasonal detox here!!

     

    What is your favorite daily detox tool?  Leave us a comment below!!

     

  • The Benefits of Seasonal Cleansing

    The Benefits of Seasonal Cleansing

     

    It’s out with the old and in with the new for summer and the same should go for toxin build up in your body. Cleansing should occur at least once a year, but it is also suggested that as the seasons change, a good cleanse can better prepare us for the changes of the seasons. Just like the temperature, the foods we eat during each season changes. Going from spring to summer, the body is working up for some of the busiest months of the year.

     

    Traditionally, cultures all around the world have practiced seasonal cleansing in all types of different ways. Specifically for a liver cleanse, the liver is how the body takes toxins out of the body, and that is how the liver earns the spot of one of the hardest working organs in our bodies! The liver works with many other organs in our body to detox blood, produce bile, hormone breakdowns, and acts as a storage facility for our vitamins and minerals. If the liver is not functioning properly, it affects many other areas of our body.

     

    Some more important functions of the liver include removing old blood cells, helping the intestines process nutrients, chemical production for blood clotting, the breakdown and metabolizing of alcohol and consumed medications, and the production of necessary proteins and cholesterol.

     

    When people hear ‘liver disease’ they typically think of alcoholism, but that is not the only cause of liver disease or liver failure. Some other risk factors associated with liver disease include low potassium levels, drug use, exposure to certain chemicals, obesity, processed foods, viral infections and autoimmune diseases.

     

    Some things you may notice if your liver is not performing at its best include gas or bloating, constipation, heartburn, acid reflux, yellowish tint to skin and eyes, high blood pressure, difficulty losing weight, cognitive difficulties, dark urine, chronic fatigue, poor appetite, and chronic fatigue.

     

    If you want to support your liver there are certain foods you should focus on. These foods include beets, carrots, tomatoes, grapefruit, spinach, citrus fruits, cabbage, turmeric, walnuts, avocados, apples, brussels sprouts, garlic, dandelion root, leafy green vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green tea, artichoke, olive oil, and alternative grains like quinoa, millet and buckwheat.

     

    There are many diets, supplements, and programs available to detox; you need to find the one that is best for you. Consult your doctor if you have concerns or questions. Below are some general tips that have worked for me:

     

    • Hydrate!
    • Eliminate common food sensitivities
    • Eat clean and organic
    • Exercise regularly
    • Eat a diet high in fiber
    • Take a probiotic
    • Eat light meals more frequently
    • Get the proper amount of sleep
    • Avoid alcohol and tobacco products
    • Avoid processed foods and whole grains

     

    You will find that when you are done with your detox, you should notice that you have much more energy, your digestion has improved, and your skin looks younger and brighter. You will also have better mental clarity and cognitive functioning, along with a boost to your immune system and more balanced blood sugar levels.

     

    Interesting in removing toxins naturally? If you’d like to shed unwanted weight than join us for the next Seasonal Detox!

     

    Health Hormones Group Program starts September 15th (some spots available now)

     

    If you have been considering joining our Healthy Hormones Group Program starting September 15th, I highly suggest that you start with the seasonal detox.  My clients who have focused on their detoxification pathways and liver health for a month or two before trying to balance hormones and support adrenals have been much more successful.  One of the liver’s many jobs is to get rid of excess hormones, so this is an important player in the balancing process.

     

     

     

  • Tongue Scraping and Clues to Health

    Tongue Scraping and Clues to Health

     

    Today I have my first guest post on my blog by Alex, founder of Dig Primal. I love Alex’s take of health because she has an amazingly detailed understanding of the body since she is anesthesiologist in training, but also has a passion for looking at health from a holistic standpoint.  By combining her traditional medical training with her own journey to find the root of her chronic health conditions she has the tools to help others really find optimal health. I participated in her Nutrient Bootcamp last month and I LOVE the concept.  We focused on adding in a certain number of diverse nutrients per day instead of focusing on what we couldn’t have.

     

    [image url=”http://gingernewtrition.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Untitled-design-2-860×645.png” raw=”true” alignment=”center” margin_left=”0″ margin_right=”0″ margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”0″ width=”860″ height=”645″]

     

    Check out today’s guest blog post by Alex —>

     

    ————————————————————————–

     

    I got a tongue scraper a while back and I was super excited to use it, but it hasn’t been that satisfying.

     

    How come? I’ll explain that in a minute.

     

    First, I want to talk about why tongue scraping matters.  You can just use a brush, right?  Meh, I guess you can theoretically,  but it’s kind of like using paper towel to push the dirt around on your floors when a good old-fashion mop and pail clean so much better.

     

    What’s the idea behind tongue scraping?  The tongue is another source of toxin removal from the body.  Although this is not commonly discussed, your tongue is simply a part of the digestive tract. As we know, our digestive tract functions to collect and expel waste from the body.  In addition to toxins, the tongue collects food debris, bacteria, and the byproducts of metabolism. (A collective “ew” on the count of 3?)  Whether it’s our gut, kidneys, our armpits, or our feet, our bodies have ingenious ways of collecting expelled waste and getting rid of it in a safe way. The tongue is simply one of the venues.

     

    The problem with the tongue is that in order to rid the body of the toxins that it has collected, often these toxins are re-swallowed in hopes that the gut and liver will get rid of it.  In an ideal world, we would have a minimal toxic load entering the body and a robust GI tract that would make this process smooth like butter…but let’s face it, that’s not most of us.

     

    [image url=”http://gingernewtrition.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/tongue-scraper-10838269_10204285838719070_3412098698392233971_o-300×201.jpg” raw=”true” alignment=”left” margin_left=”0″ margin_right=”10″ margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”10″ width=”300″ height=”201″]

    I’ve recently become some a huge fan of tongue scraping because it is an easy resource to help your body function optimally.  It is a metal or plastic object that costs about $6 on average, takes up virtually no room in your bathroom, and is widely available.

     

    As a bonus, when you’re talking about removing toxins, fighting bad breath (halitosis is one of my top 10 favorite medical words), and promoting good gum and dental health, using a tongue scraper for 1 minute a day seems like a pretty high-yield thing to do for your health.

     

    But this post is about more than just tongue scraping and really about how we can become an amazing health detective by learning to watch for changes and signs.

     

    The very helpful, albeit sometimes frustrating, thing about the body is that no processes are ever without signs.  There is almost always something visible that manifests when an inward process is happening.  If we are paying enough attention we can use that information to intervene and make a difference in our health. The downside to these clues is that it takes effort.  It is so much “easier” to wait until we develop overt diseases and try to band aide a solution together later (of course, this rarely works).

     

    There are many ways that our body can clue us into what is going on inside the body.  A lot of the long-term manifestations are ones that we talk about all the time, things like fatigue, changes in bowel habits, acne, sugar cravings, etc.

     

    What I wanted to touch upon today are the changes in our bodies that we can observe in the short-term.  It’s like getting a quick snapshot into our health right now.

     

    Turns out, our mouths can be a really good source of quick feedback. (Of course, our mouths can tell us a lot in the long term as well as evidenced by the links between gum disease, dental carries, and cardiovascular disease…but that’s for another post.)

     

    [image url=”http://gingernewtrition.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Tonuge-Scraping-and-Clues-to-Health-2.jpg” raw=”true” alignment=”center” margin_left=”0″ margin_right=”0″ margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”0″ width=”744″ height=”438″]

     

    Here are My Top 4 Oral Cues to Monitor for Your Health:

     

    1.) Tongue Coating. First, and in the context of talking about tongue scraping, it makes sense that we address the coating on our tongue.  Traditional Chinese Medicine focuses on this quite heavily (this is a particularly comprehensive article on the subject).

     

    I tend to break it down much more simply: is a coating there or not?

     

    I’ve noticed that when I’m in a healthy state, the coating on my tongue goes (or nearly goes) away. This is why I said above that tongue scraping has been a bit unsatisfying lately. My efforts with maintaining major nutrient support through Nutrient Boot Camp, detoxing, maintaining good gut health, and managing stress levels have all been been paying off.

     

    On the other hand if I get exposure to a little bit of gluten at a restaurant, get majorly stressed out at work, or skimp on sleep a couple nights and drink too much coffee to compensate, my tongue always shows me that something is going on. Since I use my tongue scraper every day, regardless of what my tongue is doing, I’m forced to pay attention to what that coating is telling me.

     

    2) Check Your Tongue Veins. Next, I’ll check out under the hood of the car, so to speak. There are two big veins that run along the underside of the tongue that can often become swollen when there is an acute process happening.  It can mean a myriad of things but traditionally, the engorgement of the veins has been viewed as a sign that the liver isn’t functioning optimally.  Personally, I have found this to be true and I use it as a barometer for my general detoxing efforts.  (Next time you choose to imbibe, if enjoying a few drinks is your thing, check out under your tongue the next morning and see what you find.)

     

    I have also found that allergen exposure in my food will trigger this effect.  This is extra helpful because since I get both acute and delayed reactions from certain foods, checking out under my tongue is a quick way to see that something I’ve recently eaten is bothering me.

     

    3) Tongue Swelling.  This is a less common sign but can still be a good tool to keep in your arsenal.  I check this when I’m tongue scraping so it really isn’t any more work to keep it on my radar.  I’ll notice that my tongue gets swollen because I can see the indentation of my teeth along the edges.

     

    For me, this is usually a sign of stress. Now, most of us know when we’re stressed…but it’s so easy to lie to yourself and ignore what’s going on. A physical manifestation can be a kick in the pants reminder that the stress you’re pretending to ignore is not going unnoticed by your body.  Even if the stressor can’t be removed, a good session of troubleshooting about how I’m dealing with the problem(s) goes a long way for me.

     

    4) Cracks in the corner of the mouth. Lastly, cracks in the lips and corners of the mouth can be a marker of internal health.  For some, this can be a long-term manifestation but I’ve found that when I’m having a problem with malabsorption of nutrients (example: if I had a gluten exposure and it killed off a whole bunch of my intestinal villi), my lips definitely let me know pretty quickly.  When I see this, I jump wholeheartedly into my go-to gut healing protocol, complete with tons of homemade bone broth, l-glutamine, gelatin and probiotics.

    ————————————————————————–
    Let me make clear that this list is just a few signs that that our oral health can show us about our current state.  You may have some, all, or none of the above signs…but it is my hope that by thinking through some of the thing that I’ve noticed for myself, you can begin to pay attention to what your body is signaling to you and use it to improve your health overall.

     

  • Top 10 Reasons Why My Dad is a Health Rockstar at Almost 70 Years old

    Top 10 Reasons Why My Dad is a Health Rockstar at Almost 70 Years old

     

    My dad, Steve Rand, is about to turn 70 next month but you would never guess it. On a recent visit to NH I had an interesting encounter with a family friend. She asked “What has your dad been doing in the last 6-9 months? He looks and acts 10 years younger. I want to know what tricks he has up his sleeve.”

     

    What changes has he made lately?

     

    We started off the summer with a so-called “cross-country cleanse” when he joined me and my 3 yr old on a drive from Arizona to Chicago. This involved a drastic cutback on his coffee intake, no gluten, and a lot of ginger green juice. He ended the summer following the official Ginger Newtrition 15 day elimination plan, finding exactly what foods do and do not work for him.

     

    Is it his diet that makes him so healthy? Nope.

     

    As much as I would love to take credit, the truth of the matter is that the lemon water, coconut oil and green smoothies are really only a small piece of the puzzle. Here are the real reasons that my dad is such a healthy guy at 70 years old.

     

    1) Exercise. When my dad turned 67 he ran his first 10K and now runs consistently 3-4 times a week. When he is not running, he is golfing, hiking or swimming. Finding movement that you love helps maintain a healthy weight, regulate your sleep and gives you some extra endorphins to boost your mood.

     

    [image url=”http://gingernewtrition.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ginger-Newtrition-babysitting-Lily-219×300.jpg” raw=”true” alignment=”left” margin_left=”0″ margin_right=”8″ margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”0″ width=”219″ height=”300″]2) The Power Nap. Want to have enough energy to take on a new project mid afternoon? 20 minutes is all it takes. The trick is to sit upright in a chair so that you aren’t too comfortable, otherwise you might enter deep sleep and end up feeling groggy.

     

    3) Community & Volunteering. Recent research shows a strong correlation between volunteering and health: those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer. My dad is so involved in the local community that some people like to call him the Mayor of Plymouth. He is always working on a new project in town, from the local Rotary, Historical Society, Christmas Parade to raising money for the Youth Center.   I believe, that the strong connection he has to his town and many organizations is the biggest secret to his health.

     

    4) Master of the Tuck and Roll. Being able to fall and not hurt yourself is an important strategy in my dad’s long term health.

     

    5) Laughs a lot. Like father, like daughter. Laughter is fun and infectious but also has deep health benefits such as relieving stress, boosting the immune system and increasing blood flow to help protect the heart.

     

    6) Tries New Things. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Not true here. At 67 my dad started running races and now at 70 he is taking up sculling. How many almost 70 year old men do you know are willing to try their daughter’s hippy new-age detox? Being flexible and adventurous in life keeps the brain active and you feeling and looking young.

     

    7) Eats the whole plant. My dad takes eating the whole plant to the next level. When eating an apple finishes the entire thing off, core and all! (note: I am not suggesting anyone start eating the whole apple!)

     

    8) Social Connection. I am not talking about Facebook. My dad has strong ties with many groups of very different types. Every other Monday you can find him hosting a men’s group at his house, discussing philosophy or religion, and on Sunday he is out bonding with his golfing buddies. Social capital is an important predictor in health and longevity, especially as we enter the senior age. Stay connected, in person.

     

    9) Laid Back Attitude. He is a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Oops, we are driving the wrong way down a one-way street? He won’t let that mess with his mood or cortisol output. Since I routinely check my client’s cortisol levels, I can attest that being uptight and stressed out daily will lead to hormone imbalance and most likely chronic diseases.

     

    10) Family & Love. My dad has a lot of love for his family and his family has a lot of love for him. Having a partner that motivates him to stay healthy, try new things and just be the best that he can be keeps him young and happy daily.

     

    Bonus secret weapon? He had a ginger mother AND has a ginger for a daughter. Being surrounded with that much red-headed love has to be good for you!!

     

    What do you think is the biggest predictor of living a long and healthy life? We would love to hear your ideas!