Meet Lizzie May!

Hello again, my lovelies! It's officially summer and I know you guys have some amazing plans for these couple of months. I'm excited to say that my practice has been keeping me busy! I'm manifesting plans for upcoming sugar detox teleseminars and classes, as well as some other surprises. Be sure to follow the Get This Glow! Health &Wellness Facebook page for details in the next few weeks.

You know how much I love bringing you all helpful and exciting new information that keep you healthy and sexy. So...I have a treat right now that I know you'll appreciate. I met this amazing woman Lizzie May (owner of Lizzie May Wellness) while in nutrition school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition last year. She is a fellow holistic health care practitioner, as well as an ACE certified personal trainer. Her positive energy and love for a healthy lifestyle is super contagious, and she makes you feel like you're friends after your first conversation. Recently, she expanded her brand to include Ancient Balance bamboo extract. I love bamboo extract for what it does for my hair, skin, and nails...so when I found out I could get it from a peer I admired, I jumped on it! Her story is extremely inspirational. Here's a peek into her world.

Get This Glow! Health & Wellness: Lizzie May! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to me and my readers. Can you share a bit about yourself and your passion for health and wellness?

Lizzie May: Sure! I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, after spending 10 years in Southern California. I have a bachelors in psychology from Occidental College and I am an ACE certified personal trainer and board certified holistic health coach.

My main passions center around eating and supplementation for glowing skin, energy, and longevity.

Even though I'm currently quite healthy and I eat a nutritious diet, this wasn't always the case. I actually "stumbled" into my passions for health and wellness when I was in my 20's. Back then, I was working 80 hours a week, living on energy drinks and processed foods, and my health was beyond terrible. Keep in mind that prior to the decline in my health, I had always been a very fit athlete, competing in cross-country and track all through college. However, after 3 years of burning the candle at both ends in the corporate world, I could barely run a mile, was chronically exhausted, and most upsetting to me, my skin was a mess!

I first decided to turn my nutrition and lifestyle habits around for the purpose of clearing up my skin, but I found that once I cleaned up my diet and cleared my skin, I felt way too good to ever return to my old, unhealthy ways.

The skin is truly a reflection of our internal health: when our skin glows (without wearing luminizer) it reveals that our bodies are truly being nourished from the inside.

I am currently writing an eBook that includes diet tips, recipes, and more in-depth food, supplement, and lifestyle recommendations for clear, radiant skin. It will be sold on my website later this year.

GTG: What a great journey! We'll be looking forward to your eBook for sure. I mentioned our common love for bamboo extract earlier. What exactly is bamboo extract, and why should people incorporate it into their lifestyles?

LM: Bamboo extract is a medicinal food concentrate made from the leaves and stems of the Moso Bamboo grass, an edible grass that has been used medicinally for centuries in China, India, and Tibet. This extract is widely consumed in these areas to promote youthful appearance, energy, and mental clarity.

In addition to these energizing benefits, bamboo, which is anti-bacterial in nature, has been used traditionally to ward off disease, balance hormones, detoxify the body, strengthen bones and teeth, smooth the skin, and avoid infection. It is a true superfood that nourishes the body and reduces the need for stimulants like coffee and energy drinks.

When taken consistently, bamboo extract promotes a feeling of balanced, jitter-free energy. I think everyone I meet these days could use more energy; hence it is a great supplement to incorporate into one’s daily lifestyle.

To expand on the anti-aging properties of bamboo (my favorite part), it contains over 70% organic silica and is 10 times more potent than horsetail silica. If our bodies are deficient in silica, our skin’s elasticity will become impaired, leaving us much more susceptible to wrinkles and sagging skin.

Unfortunately, as we age, the body retains less and less silica, leaving us much more prone to wrinkling and sagging skin. Silica prevents and reverses wrinkling of the skin by supporting collagen production.  Bamboo extract, due to its high silica content, is such an amazing skin rejuvenator and that’s why I love it so much.

When taken internally, bamboo extract not only revitalizes the skin, but other cellular functions within the body, so you’re really achieving smooth, glowing skin from the inside out.

GTG: I love it! It has so many healing properties, and makes us feel AND look good! What is the main mistake you see people making when it comes to eating healthier?

LM: Hmm, that’s a tough one! I would say that the main mistake I see in people who are trying to start “eating healthier” is that they go for the quick fix, and make drastic, unsustainable changes to their diet. That quick fix approach really doesn’t promote long-term results and sometimes does more harm than good.

For example, I know so many people who eat processed junk food for the majority of the year, and then do a very restrictive cleanse or diet that leaves them so weak and famished that they’re barely able to walk or talk when swimsuit season comes around. That’s not sustainable and while doing a restrictive cleanse may be a good “jumpstart” for some people, unless you’re really taking a long term approach to healthy eating, you’re not going to maintain the results you achieved on a 500 calorie a day diet.

Also, I see a lot of people who have really damaged their metabolisms with restrictive and yo-yo dieting: it's no fun to gain weight on 1500 calories a day because of a damaged metabolism!

Eating healthy is a way of life, as cliché as that sounds, and I think it’s important to get out of the “quick fix” mentality and really commit to eating for longevity, energy, and health. Weight loss and beautiful skin are pleasant side effects of a healthy lifestyle. Instead of making drastic changes to their diets, or jumping on some new diet fad bandwagon, I think it’s important for people to focus on simple sustainable changes.

Simple sustainable changes could include something like drinking a large glass of water before your dinner every night for a week, or adding in green vegetables to your lunch for two weeks. When you make simple, doable changes like that, you start to feel more energized without being overwhelmed with a very restrictive diet. Then, it's easier to maintain that healthy momentum and build in more simple, sustainable changes. As the former queen of crash diets, it took me many years to learn this!

 GTG: I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. My clients come to me because they've tried everything...every "quick fix" pill, powder and potion without lasting results. Balance, and sustainable changes are key to a successful healthy journey. Let's switch gears for a second. As entrepreneurs, we tend to forget to take a break sometimes! What do you like to do for fun? Any exciting plans for the summer?

LM: Yes, it's so important to take breaks! This is something that I have really had to learn, as I used to view relaxation and fun as "a waste of time" which is totally ridiculous and couldn't be farther from the truth.

I use a daily planner and many times I actually schedule my "fun days" and "fun hours" because they are so important to my physical and mental well-being. I also turn my phone off or on airplane mode quite frequently: sometimes a "fun hour" is just an hour without any technology or cell phone. My family didn't like me being so inaccessible when I first started turning off my phone, but when they saw how much happier and relaxed I was when I didn’t have my phone on, they got on board.

I realize that turning your phone off isn’t an option for everybody, especially if you have children or a job that requires you to be accessible at all times, but for me, I really cherish my “no phone” times and they really help me to truly relax.

As for fun activities, I love running, hiking, and I really love photography.

I do have exciting plans this summer: I'm going to France! My best friend's family has a chateau in the French countryside, and so I'm going to get some much-needed R&R there while I catch up with old college friends.

GTG: We should all take a page out of your book and schedule "fun hours"! Awesome idea. Lizzie May, it's been great spending time with you, and getting to know you better. Thanks for adding knowledge and insight on how we can all live healthier lives! You have to come back again. Oh, and have a TON of fun in France!! Before you go, can you tell everyone how they can get Ancient Balance bamboo extract in their lives?

LM: Yes! You can order Ancient Balance Bamboo extract online by visiting our website http://www.ancientbalance.com. You can also purchase Ancient Balance Bamboo extract directly from our facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/ancientbalancebotanicals.

We post bamboo extract smoothie recipes and health tips on our facebook page and we love connecting with our customers! Thank you so much and I would love to come back again!

*all photos and video except for Get This Glow! Health & Wellness logo in this post are courtesy of @LizzieMayWellness*

There you have it, lovelies. If that doesn't inspire you to get your Glow! on, I'm not sure what will. This was a lot of fun. So now...what are your plans for the summer again? =)

Until next time,

Love & Happiness

Nikki