Non-Toxic Products

We also have a hundred percent non-toxic cleaning products. We love

• Branch Basic
• EO
• Bioclean
• Dr. Bronner’s

In the bedroom we’ve curated our mattresses, pillows, linens—everything again is organic and non-toxic. We use Avocado brand green mattresses, pillows, and mattress pads. We have organic cotton sheets and towels—everything including the detergents are fragrance free. There are no artificial smells in the bedrooms or in the communal space.

When a resident arrives, we offer them a welcome basket. It has an organic cotton robe in it. We also have soaps, lotions and toothpaste that is non-toxic. We do all of this because I know how overwhelming it can be to decide what to buy with these different products and labels. We want to relieve all that worry.

Usually again, it’s an adult child, often the daughter, who has the power of attorney, POA and who is doing the decision making. We want to make sure they don’t have to worry about that. We curated the welcome bags as a way to simplify the experience.

Clutter

At Clear Mind Center we are very mindful of the influence of sounds, smells, and visual stimuli on our residents. We can all relate to being a little frazzled by a place that feels very cluttered. We keep the clutter down. We keep the sounds to a minimum, or make sure that we’re using them intentionally as calming music instead of background chatter. The same with smells. Really, I think the only smell that we have at Marama is that amazing aroma coming from the kitchen.

A Typical Menu at Clear Mind Center

8:00 am – Frittata with spinach, onions, asparagus

10:30 am – Green juice with guacamole and veggie chips

12:00 pm – Egg Roll in a bowl

2:30 pm – Fat bombs

5:00 pm – Salmon chowder with keto mint chocolate dessert

We offer three meals a day and two snacks. As Dr. Bredesen recommends, we stop having any food three hours before bedtime. Our team is well trained to make sure if someone asks for a midnight snack, they offer organic herbal tea or water. We want to be sure nothing is going to interfere with digestion at night so they can get a really good restful sleep.

This is a doctor prescribed diet. So again, at Clear Mind Center we are following the orders that your Bredesen-trained doctor gives you when you move in. If your doctor is concerned that you have excess weight, then the goal may be weight loss. For other patients, the goal may be weight gain. We are keeping track of weight every week so we can pick up any concerning changes.

You may gain weight on keto. You’re going to lose fat, and gain muscle. What we want is strength. This is not typically a low calorie diet however it is a fasting mimicking diet. This is a high-calorie, brain-healthy diet. In combination with exercise and hormonal replacement this diet supports a healthy weight balance.

We employ physical trainers, life coaches and lifestyle coaches. We are all about encouraging people and making sure that they are seen and heard, and are participating in activities. A big part of this, in addition to our brain-healing activities, we also exercise and move our bodies.

Walking

So what we do in the morning is after breakfast, we start off with a morning walk and we get our bodies moving. We socialize, we’re talking, we’re looking at the sky, we’re looking at plants, noticing the details. We’re talking about the morning routine and getting excited for the day. This is a really great way to start your morning.

We live in a beautiful, really calm and quiet neighborhood. The residents comment that there is no traffic. They feel safe walking up and down the street and in the neighborhood. It is so important for them to feel safe where they’re walking. We want them to do plenty of it!

Meditation and Daily Chronicles

Every morning we do a 12 minute meditation, after our walk when we come inside. It relieves stress, reduces tension, and supports a healthy mood. It supports healing changes in brain patterns and there is scientific evidence that it supports cognitive function.

At Marama caregivers are on site, awake and available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There is always someone in the building who can help and always someone in charge.

The training at Marama is specific to our expectations. So many times, when a patient moves into a residential care facility, the expectation is that they will get worse. The story that we’ve heard over and over again, is that my loved one moved into an assisted living facility and they immediately went downhill: their cognitive function, their health, their movement, their heart disease.

And part of that is the diet—it’s not a brain healthy diet at typical facilities. The average amount that is spent per day on resident meals in the state of California is seven dollars for an entire day. We spend about $10 per meal, per resident at Marama, or $30 a day. That is because we are committed to getting an organic ketogenic diet with very, very high quality, nutrient dense foods. When there’s king salmon in season it’s on the menu at least twice a week.

So the expectation at Marama is people get better when they move in. When staff expect it, residents will rise to that expectation. When the expectation is that someone will get worse, they will often succumb to that. Our residents and our staff expect to get better, and they do! I think that’s a big part of it.