Dr.Sachi- Acupuncturist

Dr. Sachi is fit, fabulous, and over 50 years old! (Look at the picture. Can you believe?) She is a practicing Doctor of Chinese Medicine, an Acupuncturist, and Yoga Instructor, in the South Florida Area. She gives many workshops. (Find out more at her website: http://sachispirit.com.

I always found her health, poise, figure and youth amazing, and was eager to follow the same health habits that got her there!

I asked her a few questions in this regard, and she was more than happy to share, of course!

Jade: What are your core healthy habits you have that keep off weight and prevent aging?

Sachi:

Well you can get away with a lot of things when your 20, like staying out late and drinking, but it catches up after certain age and you need to follow some basics for continued health.

Here’s a quick list:

• Really good quality of food
• Eat very little or none at all of already prepared food, like microwavable dinners, or things that have been preserved.
• Eat in a happy environment. Eating should be sacred and not in front of the TV or after or during an argument for example.
• Eat only organic when possible.
• I believe the vibrations of food enter our body so I don’t eat meat as the animal was killed. I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years and I’m strong and healthy.

Jade: What kind of diet do you eat?

Sachi:

Aside from being vegetarian, I listen to my body and it guides me as to what I want and what I need. I’m Italian and sometimes I want pasta. I know gluten isn’t the best or healthiest, but it’s happy food and reminds me of my roots and I greatly enjoy having pasta and bread and wine… and it’s [occasionally] a good thing for me!

Sometimes I just want a salad or just roots such as parsnips, sweet potatoes, and carrots with a few dried Chinese roots tossed in such as ginseng, astragals, and dong quai – they are tasty sautéed with a chunk of ginger or onions and some fresh coriander as a side garnish.

Jade: Do you believe in supplements?

Sachi:

I believe we need supplements to make up for how deficient our soil has become. We no longer get the vitamins and minerals we need from it. So we need to look for ways to get those missing nutrients.

I’m also a fan of supplements that convert fat into lean muscle mass. I recently lost too much weight, and the secret of keeping the body at an ideal weight if you lose a lot of weight is not to gain fat! 100 calories of cake for example is not the same as 100 calories of broccoli! So try to eat healthy! Not unhealthy fats and empty calories.

I’m currently taking alpha lipoic, congeline to help build muscle mass and not store fat. It’s important in this situation to take supplements that convert fat into lean muscle mass and that’s what I’m doing.

Jade: What about Antioxidants and Vitamins?

Sachi:

I start everyday, after tea, with a fruit smoothie with fiber, flax oil, and lecithin.

I also take about 20 vitamins once to twice a day when I remember and I’m constantly rotating. As a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, I’m like a kid in a candy store. I pull off the shelf what I feel like I’m needing.

Jade: What about exercise?

Sachi:

You absolutely need exercise. I once saw somebody walking into a big fancy building and then get in the elevator and take it to the floor of the gym they were going to work out at. Kinda funny.

So many of us lead sedentary lifestyles. You have to make an effort and exercise. You can schedule time and make time to do it but also exercise can be worked into our lifestyles just by using the stairs or parking far from the store.

I like to do some cardio and yoga which stretches rather than bulks.

Jade: I know you do yoga. How often?

I wish I could say everyday. I at least practice a few times a week, even small amounts. I’m currently working on a second yoga video, a morning and afternoon short series.

I don’t like the power yoga; I think the best benefit is the ability to turn inwards. Yoga and tai chi are the only forms of exercise that have the meditative effect of yin and yang balance (mental side) together with exercise.

Jade: What about meditation?

Sachi:

We all need quiet time. Nobody can keep a clear mind unless they are enlightened. In meditation, we are taught to practice viewing all our thoughts that come in, but not to chase them or get involved with them. A lot of people get pissed when I tell them this, and say, “But I get way too many thoughts!” And I say, “Great! Bless them!”

Life is not going to go smoothly. When things come at you, meditation enables you with the experience and training of how not to go after these and get so involved, upset and emotional.

The golden part of meditation is learning how not to allow your thoughts disrupt peace! NOT to completely still the mind.

Jade: You Meditate every day don’t you? How do you stay motivated to wake up every morning and meditate first thing?

Sachi:

Oh I look forward to meditating! First thing I do in the morning is brew a cup of tea, and while it’s brewing, I go meditate. I like a nice Indian chai tea with caffeine cloves and cinnamon. After I meditate, I sip my tea and integrate my morning meditation thoughts. It’s my meeting with myself.

Q; What other advice do you have for us?

Sachi:

Stay positive! Have a good attitude, be nonjudgmental and come form heart. Relate to someone as a soul. You don’t have to like them, but you can love them, and that keeps you from getting involved in their human side. When I get fed up, I say to myself “look at their soul!”

Jade: What do you have to say about people who are afraid of herbal medicine treatments?

Sachi:

I would ask them to look at why. There’s probably a reason. Read a book called “Death by Prescription.” It documents all the deaths by correctly prescribed Western Medicine drugs. My advice? Try gentle first! Try herbs before toxic medicine.

If it doesn’t succeed, you have other options. Thankfully we have them (Western Drugs) if we really need them. But if you start first with the toxic prescriptions, then where do you go from there? You are worse off from the side effects, and the herbal remedy has to take much longer now.

Jade: What is the most important thing to you in keeping a healthy home?

Sachi:

First thing after my tea, I light Japanese incense candles that are free of chemicals and don’t use wood so that no wood is fallen for their production. These are the purest ones. I light 5 and put one in every room, and I go in each room and do a blessing. For example, in the kitchen, I say something like may this food prepared here bring health to everyone that eats it. I also put one at my altar and say a prayer.

When I enter my home, I stand at my front door and consciously drop concerns that I don’t need to think about now, and I take off my shoes. This is a ritual that is preparing to enter home purposefully. I then burn lots of good clean candles made of beeswax and soy for example.

Jade: Finally, What do you have to say about people that think health and weight is all in your genes?

Sachi:

I think we have a genetic predisposition such as blood type or body type. There is a lot of truth in it. If you have blue eyes, you can’t make them brown! If you have a large bone structure then you can’t shrink your bones.

However, you can do so much [with your body], such as reshape and tone. Half of the time it isn’t so much genetic as it is learned behavior! Like eating the same foods as our family raised us on, holding stress the same way.

I deal a lot with learned behavior everyday. It is a proven fact that in cases of people with multiple personality disorder, that in separate blood tests (one done on each persona) the blood tests differed! When in one personality, the blood will be that of a diabetic! And in separate persona, the blood returned to normal. It’s a proven medical fact!

So that said, if you have this disposition that “nothing can be done”, then I say we have no idea of the power of the mind!

Give your belief a try! I’ve been able to change people’s body types. People who were really heavy all their life and so unbalanced, who had assumed this was going to remain unchanged their whole life… and it wasn’t true. But they accepted it and it became part of their belief system and that is a very hard thought pattern to break out of.

Race and religious problems come about the same way: People believe they are in their “box” and that’s what we believe and make others believe. When we see souls all as one, these problems will disappear.

If you enjoyed this interview, you may also enjoy my interview with Dr. Simm

Dr. Simm Gottesman is an Acupuncture Physician from Florida in possession of vibrant health and youth, a great niece (me!), and much wisdom on natural health secrets.

Simm was the first one to influence me to change my eating habits. I have never been the same since she shared her health secrets with me, more than a decade ago. She is over 50 years old chronologically, but physically, much younger. Her face barely has a crease and she’s maintained a perfect weight for her height for years.

Simm received her acupuncture license in 1982, one of the very first people in the USA to become a licensed Acupuncture Physician (#36 to be exact!). Since then, she has inspired many other people to become practitioners, and there are now almost 2,000 licensed Acupuncture Physicians, in Florida alone.

I asked Simm some frequently asked questions …

Q: What are your main healthy habits to keep off weight and prevent aging?

Qi gong

Qi Gong (Ancient Chinese form of exercise involving gentle movements)- It’s a way to keep you in touch with your body and is a kind of moving meditation to calm mind, body and spirit. It moves the energy, or Qi, in your body, improving your metabolism.

Connecting with nature

Every day, take a walk outside. Hug a tree! Stand on soil- not just on concrete.

I am blessed to have wild life in my back yard. Wild Iguanas, along with an array of ducks and water birds, graze through my back yard everyday. Whenever I have leftovers I always share with my animal friends. I grow plants and herbs like rosemary, lavender, and sage. I also grow milkweed, the only plant that monarch butterflies need to stay on the planet, so that I can be mother to the Monarch Butterflies! I’m always checking on their eggs and caterpillars and making sure they have enough to eat.

Some of the new plants I’ve recently met are stevia and the “dragon fruit plant.”

Eating Healthy

I don’t always eat the same way (eg: just vegan or just vegetarian or just omnivore.)
If you eat the same way all the time I believe it just can make you feel bored and crazy! I believe that variety is the spice of life.

• I alternate between eating 60-70% vegetarian and 60-70% raw, and I switch between them.
• I suspect that one of my other health secrets is dark chocolate! at least 70% dark.
• I also make raw smoothies – about 1 a day, or at least 4 times a week. Click here for Dr. Simm’s smoothie recipes
• I love a cup of coffee in the morning! (I drink Organic coffee because I like the idea of supporting the small farmer co-ops.) Research has proven that coffee has many health properties, and 1 cup a day can have medicinal properties such as:
  • excellent antioxidant
  • prevents Parkinson’s
  • prevents Alzheimer’s
  • prevents Bladder Cancer
  • helps Diabetes
  • excellent antioxidant

I also add soy milk and honey! not sugar and milk! I love to see the confused looks on people’s faces when I ask if they have honey for my coffee and the questions I get about that one.

As mentioned above, I like variety. Forgive yourself if you have desert once in awhile. You deserve it, as long as you know how to balance it with the healthy diet I outlined above. Don’t beat yourself up; think of it as an opportunity to practice forgiveness! We have to remember to treat ourselves like our own best friend!

Q: What form of exercise do you do and how often?

I start off every morning with my morning meditation for about 10 minutes. I play my morning meditation music do some ohming chants and some conscious breathing techniques with silent prayers. Then I move on to my Chi machine. This is a way to get the lymphatic system moving. It is a device that lets you rest just your ankles in it and it gently rocks your legs to and fro while you lay on your back relaxing. Then I do a somersault and a headstand.

I also practice Qui Gong (see above) regularly.

Q: What are your core supplements?

I’m actually not a big believer in supplements. Too many supplements can clog the colon. I used to give colonics and actually saw all the gel capsules that didn’t dissolve and were lodged inside people’s colons there! My suggestion is that if there is a supplement that you want to take, test it out by putting it in a glass of water and see how long it takes to dissolve.

Here’s what I do believe in:

• Alkaline water
  (Also called ionized water.) It hydrates you more than regular water. The alkalinity of the water creates an alkaline environment in your body that cancer can’t live in.
• Probiotics
  Not necessarily just those tablets that are from a bottle! You can also get other probiotics that you need, from the food that you eat – such as things like sauerkraut and yogurt.
• “Holy” basil
  This herb has been revered by holy men in india for thousands of years as an outstanding anti-inflammatory.

Those who wish to consult with Simm Gottesman, Acupuncture Physician, may do so by contacting her by email direct: acusimm(at)aol.com. She is available for acupuncture treatments in the South Florida Area.

Read more here on Dr. Simm’s natural healing advice.

I’d like to thank Dr. Simm, Acupuncture Physician, for taking the time to do this interview with me. She is an Inspirational person who is staying young, thin, and disease-free and over 50 too! I thank her for all her wisdom and natural health secrets and sharing it here!

If you enjoyed this interview you may also enjoy my interview with Dr. Sachi