The new dates have been set for the coming season of Voluntourism Journeys with Shazar.  Here is what two of the past Volunteer Tourism participants of the journeys had to say as they completed their journeys.

For your opportunity to join this wonderful experience – here are the forthcoming dates and to book you can click here, or call Shazar on +61 402 008801 or fill the form below.

• February 7th – February 18th 2013

Its always great to receive feedback on your work.  It happens quite often that we see clients and then they go away and we don’t hear from them for ages.  The human mind is a strange thing.. often thinking.. “oh well perhaps we didn’t help that person and they were not satisfied so they never came back.” Imagine the surprise when you hear either indirectly or some two years later when the person arrives back on your doorstep and says.. ‘last time I came to consult you .. you fixed my problem and I have been well ever since until now.. when….‘

It happens so often!

But this week I had great feedback very quickly after the consultation.. and it was so nice to have that acknowledgement…

I just wanted to let you know that B…’s legs are all better. She still has some purple marks/scars on her legs which I hope will go away in time. We’ll still keep up the Formula Safety mix, vitamin C, etc for a while yet though.

So thank you so much. You are brilliant as always!  MF

I suggested that she try rosehip oil as this is a great remedy for that type of scarring.
And a few days ago this one came in as well….
from a client who suffers breathing difficulty and had a chronic shoulder pain.

Have been really busy this week so have not had time to feed back from the session on Monday. So here goes now!

The shoulder feels great- no pain and I can exercise with ease. Yoga was good on Wednesday evening with no trouble with the seizing of the back muscles. The next day I was sore after yoga, but in the hamstrings, not on the shoulder or back, lol.

Each day my ability to breathe and do the normal things I do without getting breathless is increasing ; yet to see what I am like on a windy day.   JC

So next time you consult a practitioner and have a great result.. do them a favour and take a moment just to acknowledge the success you have had .. it will make their day!!

The Building Site for the new Shiksham Gram Shelter for Homeless Children.

This small video will show you the work that is being done, largely by manual labour, on the new building for the 74 children who currenly live in rented accomodation in a nearby village.  This shelter for homeless children and the new building will accomodate 150 children, and you can see the setting is magical.

They have a fresh clear supply of spring water above the construction site, a space for an extensive vegetable garden, as well as lots and lots of space to play and simply be children.

The New Shelter for Homeless Children

This new shelter will be a far cry from the rubbish dumps, railway platforms and street corners where these children were living prior to being gathered up into the love and nurturing that they are now receiving from Satish, Yogeeta, Nandini and their team of teachers and carers.

For more on-going information about this wonderful project supporting the homeless children, you can join our facebook page here..

Homeless Children still looking happy!

Nestle Scores Heart Ticks on Their Breakfast Cereal

What a relief -  we can rest easy that the cereal we are eating for breakfast is healthy!

Or can we really trust this big red tick that implies that the food we are eating is healthy for us?  I don’t think so. The heart tick has nothing to do with the sugar content in food.

I am not sure how they can justify that the only thing that helps our heart to be healthy is low fat and high fibre and totally ignore the fact that cereals such as the Nestle Milo Cereal have 34.1 grams of sugar per 100 gms cereal!

What?

More than a third of the Nestle product is sugar.

Sugar is known to be a cause of diabetes.  High sugar intake increases insulin resistance in the body.  Insulin resistance  is a known cause of inflammation in the body.  Inflammation is a known underlying cause of cardiovascular disease.  How can anyone justify that much sugar in a product which now has a tick of heart safety approval?

Is there something wrong in this picture?

Nestle Cereal looks like food but is it really?

Nilani Sritharan is the nutrition manager with Cereal Partners Australia, which produces both Nestle and Uncle Toby’s told ABC News that their products were a ‘healthier choice for breakfast”.

I wonder what she was comparing them to?  Bacon and eggs fried – with fried bread on the side.

Yes perhaps heathier than that.. but certainly not healthier than a good quality yogurt with fresh fruit, or perhaps a freshly made vegetable and fruit juice, or even a fruit salad.

Please really examine labels before you buy this rubbish.  Check out the percentage of sugars, sodium, and other additives.. look at the degree of processing this product – which at sometime in its life used to be a grain.. has been through to make it shredded – fluffed, puffed, shaped, sugared preened and prodded to become the fancy little cereal lump in your bowl of milk in the morning.

There are many more healthy choices for your breakfast - that important meal where you break the fast of the night.  Give your body a  chance to start the day with some high quality nutrition.  Your energy levels will thank you for the whole day through.

The heart ticks on the Nestle products are no indication of a healthy meal.

Are you suffering Obesity? Are you looking for effective Weight Loss?

Here are some key points you may not know about being over weight and the need for weight loss:

1. Fat around the waist is dangerous. This area of obesity is the real problem.  If you have this layer of fat around your waist area, (in men the typical beer gut fat) your increased risk of mortality from heart attack is a staggering 46%.    In this case, fat is surrounding your vital organs and increasing your risk not only for heart disease but also for diabetes.  You will have fat around your heart.  ot only that this fat also increases you chances of getting cancer.
2. Fat around your hips however is not dangerous.
3. Inflammation is increased with body fat. It oxidises easily and oxidised fats cause inflammation.  Inflammation is an underlying causative factor in many disease states. Hardening of the arteries, insulin resistance, – the precursor to diabetes – joint pain – these are just some of the symptoms inflammation creates in the body.
4. Overweight people feel the heat more intensely – as overweight people don’t respond well to changes in heat or cold.
5. As our weight increase, our demand for oxygen increases and often our breathing depth decreases. Our metabolic rate decreases and we feel tired all the time. Weight loss will increase your energy levels.
6. Our need for antioxidants increases to prevent the oxidation of fat which will then line the artery walls.
7. If you have liposuction you may look better, however it does not decrease your risk of serious disease as liposuction simply removes the subcutaneous (under skin) fat – it does not do anything about the dangerous fat surrounding your organs.

So what’s the answer for effective weight loss?

Read the rest of this entry

Wheatgrass Juice – for extra energy daily!

Fasting on vegetable and fruit juice is really enhanced if you can add some wheatgrass juice to the mix.

So what is the best source of wheatgrass juice?

You can buy wheatgrass powder but honestly if you have the chance to grow your own wheatgrass juice then you need a great wheatgrass juicer to process it.  Certainly its a more time consuming job than simply adding some powder to your juice, but it is also much better for you.  and there are many that say actually growing the wheatgrass is a satisfying and rewarding task.

In fact it is quite a simple thing to do.  Check our post here on growing your own wheatgrass juice.

Photo from www.thebittenword.com

Wheatgrass Juice contains Vitamins A, B1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 12; C, E and K. A teaspoon contains around 15mg of Calcium, 8mcg Iodine, 3.5mcg Selenium, 870mcg Iron, 62mcg Zinc, and many other minerals. Wheat grass juice boosts your energy levels by supplying all these essential nutrients.  It is a complete food with a nutritional structure is very close to that of our body; it contains all of the necessary vitamins, minerals and protein that our body needs.

Wheatgrass juice is one of the best sources of living chlorophyll available being approxmately 70% crude chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is an excellent detoxification agent and added to the already highly nutritious juice of carrots and other fruits and vegies it will energise your juice.  Research has discovered that the chlorophyll molecule in wheatgrass is almost identical to the haemoglobin molecule in human blood.

The difference is simply that the main element in chlorophyll is magnesium and in haemoglobin it is iron.

Because of this similarity the human body can easily transform chlorophyll into haemoglobin which rapidly increases the red blood cell count as well as the blood’s capacity to deliver oxygen and other nutrients to the body’s cells.  Oxygenated blood is healthy blood and will increase energy levels and raise your vitality.

Chlorophyll is a excellent detoxification agent compared to carrot juice and other fruits and vegetables.

Wheatgrass juice is an energizer, it is nutritional and a blood builder.

So if you really want to enhance your daily juice, then get busy and grow your own wheatgrass – invest in a Compact Juicer – Food Processor – and make your daily wheatgrass juice to boost your health in a natural and energising way.

Day Five of My New Year Juice Fast

Today’s report on the juice fast is here.  Poor sleep in the beginning of the night due to the continuing leg pain when I lay down but I finally managed to get into a position that was comfortable and slept.  Wow what dreams.. I was busy with vivid dreams all night it seemed – although as usual for me .. no memory of them this morning! And also very little of yesterday’s leg pain .. good.

But this juice fast is doing strange things to my brain!

I am very ‘spaced out’ – forgetting what I am doing, walking to one part of the hosue and not remembering why I went there! So perhaps a juice fast of this nature is not necessarily recommended while you are working in an intense job where you need to be really on the ball.

Anyway as a treat this morning I made myself a special cocktail.  Grapefruit juice – a mix of very tart yellow grapefruit and a pink one.. plus some lemon, and half a granny smith.  Here it is..→

As I tasted it I was ready for real sour tartness.. but no it was extra yummy – and unbelievably sweet for the contents.

Or was that just the change I have in my taste buds due to the juice fast?

It was a delicious start to the day.

Sadly I forgot to put the added zing of the ginger into my juice and already dismantled the Compact Juicer before I realised.

Just the same its a good batch and I am contining to drink it out of the special glass to make the last day of the juice fast just that bit more special.

So what is the final conclusion on this five days?  Go for it. Even if you have no idea what the results may be I highly recommend a juice fast and you are certain to be pleased with the results.

Day Four of My New Year Juice Fast

Whew made it this far.. and only one day to go.  Have to say last night was the worst!  I developed lots of discomfort in the back of my legs and it seemed worse when I was lying down.. so not much chance to sleep.

But you have to expect some detox symptoms when you do a juice fast.

Fortunately for me, Sahaja – kinesiologist extraordinaire – was on hand this morning and gave me a kinesiology balance which has definitely helped me through that phase.

So I am much more comfortable this afternoon.

Just to let you know also if you are considering doing a juice fast – some people think it takes half the day to keep making the juice.  But if you are using a Compact Juicer which grinds the juice rather than a centrifugal juicer, then you can make your whole supply of the day’s juice in one go.  If you use the centrifugal type, the juice will quickly oxidise making it unsuitable for storage.

This morning it took me 35 minutes to make enough juice for my whole day’s juice fast.

That is from taking the vegies out of the fridge, washing them, cutting them up, putting them through the Compact Juicer – to completely cleaning the juicer out.  So now you have no excuses.. go for it!!

It is not much time to prepare your full day’s nutrition for your healthy juice fast.

Day Three of My New Year Juice Fast

This morning’s report on my juice fast – my nose is getting very sensitive. Out driving yesterday I smelled every barbeque, every fast food joint, every person’s dinner cooking! Hungry? mmm.. yes I could certainly devour a meal .. no coffee craving, no desire for alcohol, but food is attractive.

I am satisfied with little though.  I have eaten a small peach yesterday – an organic one from my sister’s garden.  I am needing more salt in my water in the morning.  But this morning I woke with a strange stretching sort of pain in the back of my legs. As if I had done too much stretching – or perhaps not enough.  I am sure a good vigorous walk would have helped but I didn’t follow that advice!

I chose to juice my fruit and vegies by colour this morning and this is the cocktails I turned out.  They were yummy – especially the small reddish one.. lots of beetroot and ginger – very sweet.  The green one was interesting – too strong by itself for my liking – kale, parsely, cabbage, celery, comfrey.

Green was a very intense taste for the juice fast.

The carrot alone was too insipid – and the white juice a little strange – this was cucumber, celery, apple, lemon.  So I mixed them all together and am enjoying the combined tastes.

My Compact Juicer is grinding along very well.  I made enough juice for my whole day’s juice fast in under 30 minutes this morning.

This juice fast is an interesting experiment.  I find I am very quiet inside, with little mental chatter going on.  My energy levels are okay – but I also need to take things a little slowly.  I still had some coating on my tongue this morning – detoxing I guess – and the scales say I have dropped a kilo.

Not bad for two days juice fast.

I have clients this morning – it will be interesting to be in a work situation and see how I am responding to that.

But if you are planning a juice fast, then definitely start it when you are having at least two days off so you can rest up during the initial detox period.

Day Two of My New Year Juice Fast

So far so good!  Slept well through the night and woke this morning with no headache. When you juice fast the body starts to detox – and headaches, and other symptoms of letting go of the old rubbish are very common to experience.

The juice fast will trigger the detoxification.

You can think of it in this way – the body has a certain amount of energy to deal with the day to day tasks of repair, regeneration, digestion, elimination, and when we are living our normal life, especially during holiday periods, we may be eating in excess, especially rich foods that we don’t normally eat, as well as drinking more alcohol, and in may case I was eating much more sugar than usual. Read the rest of this entry