Archive for Cooking

Moms, How to Feed Your Family and Live Life on Real Whole Food

September 1, 2013 / / Comments Off on Moms, How to Feed Your Family and Live Life on Real Whole Food

kitchen disasterThe longer I do this the more I realize how ingrained NOT cooking/packing/shopping/planning has become in our culture; I think this is saying a lot because I come from a health and fitness world, where it seems like it should be a little more natural, or common.  I know I say this all the time, but Big Food’s done a great job through Big Advertising convincing us that effort on our end isn’t necessary;  the Family Meal from KFC, or the frozen meal from Marie Calendar’s has all our nutritional, emotional, and familial bases covered.  This just couldn’t be further from the truth.  All that processed, refined, pre-made food is killing us, literally.

Effort IS required if you want to be healthy, and you want your kids healthy.  Implementing that effort is only effort – until it becomes normal, then it’s not an effort anymore.  Honestly, I’ve got 4 kids myself, and I know how much busier life is when it’s not just your life that you’re managing, but several others.  It just takes a Planner, and a date with the Planner, to make this Real Whole Foods thing go smoother.

Here’s some ideas (there’s ways than this, this is just how I do it), sit down on Sunday (pick a time and stick to the time – does it need to be super early, before they get up, or super latethinking after bed time?) and get your planner and your calendar out side by side ( hopefully, you’ve written everyone’s schedules on the calendar), now, plan your days in detail: what time you need to leave the house, who has what appointment, consider drive-times and if you have real little ones, consider the extra time it takes to get them out of the house, or in the car.  Do you have days you aren’t home at all?  Do you have days you need to pack everyone lunch for the car ride, or dinner for after a late practice or consecutive practices?  Days you need to put a roast and vegetables in a crock pot early in the morning?  Could you spend 3 hours on the weekend, or one day during the week, Power Cooking (more on that further down)?  Consider all these factors when you think about your grocery list.  For instance, if you’ve got nights where you have back-to-back practices/clubs/meetings etc, think about what foods pack easily.  I’ve always said that while I HATE bread and grains, sometimes with kids, sandwiches are MUCH LESS evil than fast food.  Buy the best ingredients you can.  If your child has attention/stomach problems, pick Gluten Free breads (they have to be stored in the fridge) (remember that G-F means High Carb – they’re not a magic food, nor good for adults or sick kids).  There’s plenty of lunch meats now that have no nitrates, sugars, or fillers, and good cheese is easy to find.   There’s also nut butters, and low sugar jellies, or just nut butters and fruit, what kid doesn’t like apples or celery and nut butter?  Bags of homemade trailmix are good:  buy a mix of nuts, dried fruits,coconut chips,  and dark chocolate chips and mix in a big container, baggy up portions for the road.  Sometimes you’ll be doing this on your own, and sometimes, you can get them to help.

The best thing about packing?  It’s a trait that you’ll pass on to your kids – Honest.  You know that verse, “train a child in the way he should go, and he when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  ?  It’s actually true.  I’ve had the pleasure of seeing my older kids employ healthy habits that have NOTHING to do with me asking, nagging, or initiating.

When I decided about 6 years ago to have a NO JUNK food policy in the house (no pasta, no crackers, no boxes or bags of any kind), my kids were kind of older: high school, middle school, elementary school.  It was bad.  They were furious.  My husband was even mad.  And you all with teenagers know I’m not saying talking about a cute-furious, but a bad-furious.  It lasted for weeks, (“there’s no food in the house, just stuff you like to eat…”)  and then after a few months, the anger started to die down.  After 6 months, it was gone, and we had a new normal.   It was interesting, a few weeks ago one of my college girls had a friend over for the weekend.  The friend commented that our refrigerator and pantry were empty; my daughter replied that we had a TON of food, it’s just stuff you have to cook or make.  My heart melted:)

rachel and guyOh, what about that Power Cooking I mentioned earlier?  I started doing this years ago when Rachel Ray came out with that 5 Meals In a Day show – it’s brilliant!  I get a list together of dishes I want to eat for the week, and cook up the meats, chop up vegetables, and do a BUNCH of prep or actually cook up some of the casseroles, all in a few hours.  This makes a HUGE difference in life.  Some of the food I’d freeze to pull out later, and some things last perfectly for days in the fridge, as a matter of fact, anything with a sauce actually intensifies in flavor when it sits and develops.  Do any of you slow cook your meats?  Or boil and shred 10 or 11 chicken breasts?  Doing a big pan of meatballs is a time saver – make 30!  Bake a spaghetti squash and 8 potatoes in the oven at the same time, refrigerate them.  Chop a giant container of onions, zucchini’s and tomatoes, baggy and refrigerate. And don’t dismiss frozen vegetables:  green beans, peas, corn, broccoli – these things are quick frozen and taste great, especially with Real Butter, or Olive Oil, salt&pepper, or hard grated cheese on top.  Want your kids to like Brussel Sprouts?  Serve them with bacon, butter, and romano.  They’ll eat the whole pan.   Take a few hours to prep, and your whole week will be easier – and healthier.  I like to listen to podcasts or watch a tv show when I’m doing this, it helps pass the time.

My message?  Please don’t assume that because you’re busy, and/or have a bunch of kids, that Good Eating’s going to need to take a back seat.  Food is SO IMPORTANT.  If we’re eating crap, and feeding our kids crap, then health, energy, attention, mood, attitude – it all goeshow to cook old school downhill.  Moms, you can change that .  It was interesting, one of the talks at the Ancestral Health Symposium was on Who’s Paleo?  Biggest group:  mothers/women between 30 and 50.  Wow.  And who buys most of the groceries, packs the lunches, and makes the meals?  Those same women.  We Have The Power to Change The World.  Weight and Disease are SKYROCKETING.  We all know why and we can change that!  Be the one who teaches the next generation to cook, to plan, to pack; be the one who instills the belief that what we eat matters so much.  Your kids will be so much better off for it, right now, while they’re still young, and later, when they’re adults.

I’d love to hear about what you’re going through right now at your house.  Drop me an email if you get the time, but if time’s limited – spend it planning, shopping, chopping, and cooking!  Eat Real Whole Foods.

Category: Cooking, RWF /

Mind Ammo for Clean Eating

June 22, 2013 / / Comments Off on Mind Ammo for Clean Eating

diet coke womanThe foods we eat either  (1) trigger hormones that stimulate hunger, and create energy storage (fill up fat cells);  or (2) trigger hormones that lead to satiety and induce fat cells to give up their contents.

It’s one or the other.

If the foods stimulate hunger, and energy storage,  (this would be starchy, sugary, chemical enhanced, processed foods), they create Bad Health: heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune conditions, and mood disorders.  If you’re eating foods that cause satiety and fat burning, you’re making choices that lead to better health and better moods.

This goes for you and your children.  The foods we eat 100% directly create our health, our moods, and our weight.  If you’re unhappy with your health, your moods, or your weight, then focus on cementing that connection in your mind.  That way when “opportunities” arise, you’ll be able to make good choices that you feel happy with AFTER you’ve eaten.

What if you’re addicted?  What if you truly believe that we’re 100% what we eat, but still give in to chips, cereals, and desserts, as in you just couldn’t say no?cat-remember diet

Then you need to look at your habits and patterns.  Do you go out to a regular happy hour and always indulge because you deserve it after a hard day?  Do you have a group of friends that you regularly indulge with?  Do you have a particular night of the week when you sit down for hours of TV and snack foods?  Do you feel like you “need” a sweet after dinner?  Start eating in the late afternoon and feel unable to stop?

Every time I run a Nutrition Group, I survey everyone’s “worst habits”.  I’ve asked hundreds of people now but it’s always a similar group of answers.  There aren’t a lot of original bad habits.

Identify yours, and then make a plan to eliminate it.  Email me if you need help, because Habits and Patterns are tricky to reverse, but if you Don’t, and nothing changes, then,…. nothing changes.

Here’s a little ammunition:

Cheesecake Factory Oreo Cheesecake, 1 slice: 1204 calories, 90g Carbs

Cheesecake Factory Chinese Chicken Salad: 535 Cals, 63g Carbs

FiberOne 90 Calorie Brownie: 90 Cals, 18g Carbs, 11 sources of sugar and starch, hydrogenated oils, 2 sources of soy(estrogenic and thyroid slowing), several chemical flavors, scents, emulsifiers, thickeners, and preservatives

Tostitos Artisan Southwest Tortilla Chips: 8 chips are 140 Cals, 19g Carbs, 13 sources of starch and sugar, 3 sources of Omega 6 vegetable oils, and brain cell damaging MSG (yeast extract and natural flavors)

Kellogg’s Frosted Blueberry Pop Tarts: 200 Cals, 36g Carbs, 11 sources of starch and sugar, 3 sources of vegetable oil and soybean oil, more chemical flavors, scents, preservative, and emulsifiers than you can count.

Digiornos Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza:  1 slice, 380 Cals, 40g Carbs,  more than 40 ingredients, with numerous sources of starch, sugar, hydrogenated oils, soy, and chemicals.

kid eating junkThis may seem like an eclectic list of foods, but they have a lot in common.  All these foods contain chemicals and enough starches that when you eat them, you want more.  Areas of the brain are triggered that leave you craving more food.  They all also contain ingredients that DAMAGE your body and mind.

Practice looking at foods like these and NOT focusing on the pleasure sensations (yep, I’m comparing them to drugs and alcohol); focus on the AFTER effects of eating these foods.  Think of these foods as poison in the package or on the plate.   Really.  You wouldn’t let your kids smoke, but what’s the difference between the chemicals and damage from cigarettes, and the chemicals and damage from Pop Tarts?  One causes cancer,…. and the other causes cancer.

Want to feel good, look good, and be healthy?  Want your kids to feel good, look good, and be healthy?  Eat Real Whole Foods.  Get in the habit of planning, shopping, cooking, and packing. Schedule cooking, schedule shopping, schedule packing.  Eating Real Foods takes a little effort.  Eating Processed, Refined, or Restaurant foods takes NO EFFORT and the results are disastrous:  70% of America is OVERWEIGHT, and Disease and Poor Health are RAMPANT.

You can make the switch.  You can feel good, you can look good, and you can be healthy.

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Food Additives /

Get Off The Diet Roller Coaster

June 18, 2013 / / Comments Off on Get Off The Diet Roller Coaster

shooting the scaleHere’s an email that I bet will resonate with some of you:

“Hi Debbie,

I started a clean eating plan on June 1, because I have a wedding to attend at the end of the month.    I did okay at first, but now have totally blown it.  Any advice for me, or should I just wait and start again July 1.  I have a dress that will fit either way.”

Here’s my answer:
If you constantly think about food in terms of “calories” and being on or off a diet, you can’t win.  You’re on the cycle of the Diet Roller Coaster.  If you think about food in terms of what it does to your body, you’ll get healthy and lose weight.  To be successful and healthy and a good weight, it’s not about dieting, it’s about eating right, day after day, week after week, month after month; and it’s ALWAYS the right time to start eating right.  There will NEVER be a better time to begin than TODAY, even if it’s the middle of the week or the middle of the month.   Eating right isn’t about dates that correspond to events;  or your mood, or circumstances.  If events, moods, and circumstances rule your eating, you’re in trouble.  Events have finite dates, and moods and circumstances are ever changing.  They can’t be our guides when it comes to eating well.

You also can’t wait til “things are less busy”,  “life gets a little easier”, or you get done with a big project.  Those are excuses that allow you to eat foods that make you sick, depressed, and keep you weighing more than you want.
If you only want to eat well to lose weight, that’s never enough motivation to stay consistent day after day, week after week. Instead, that mindset gets you on the Diet Roller Coaster.   NOTHING CHANGES WHEN YOU’RE ON THE ROLLER COASTER. You might loose a few pounds, but then you’ll gain them back when your diet-mindset wains.    How many years do you want to do that?

Eat well because nutrient dense foods allow your body and mind to FEEL GOOD, and by swim all day and don't losedefault, you’ll look good.  Eat well and if you need to lose weight, you will.  Nutrient dense foods allow you to make nice skin cells, and hair cells, a strong immune system, sufficient hormones, good energy, and brain neurons that make positive connections.  Processed, refined foods full of flour, sugar, and chemicals literally destroy your body and poison your mind: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, auto – immune, mood and behavior disorders – they’re all the product of bad foods.

Did you know that depression and anxiety are HIGHLY linked to poor nutrition in study after study?  Our body builds our brain from the food we eat.

Need more reasons to eat well?  Are you a parent, because if you are, you’re a Role Model.  An eating roll model.  However you eat, you’re TRAINING your kids to eat that way too.  I promise. And they will deal with the same issues, or worse, than you’re dealing with as an adult.   If you don’t have kids, then know that your friends, family, and co-workers will and are influenced by the choices you make.  Ever noticed that if you don’t order dessert at a restaurant, it puts an immediate damper on someone who did want to order dessert?

Back to the wedding.  You were “doing okay til you blew it”, should you wait til July to start again??  Does that mean eat lots of bad foods til July?  Don’t worry about cooking, planning or packing meals to go?   NO don’t wait til July! Eat healthy today, because you always feel better when you eat healthy, because just like not smoking or not taking drugs, IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO FOR YOUR BODY.

If you’re dieting however, you won’t be able to stick to your plan, you’ll be too hungry.  Dieting, low/cal, low/fat meal planning, slows down your thyroid, restricts the amount of nutrients your brain can use to make serotonin and dopamine, and will give you compulsive, obsessive thoughts about food.  NO ONE CAN STAY ON A DIET.  That’s why 95 – 99% of ALL DIETERS GAIN THEIR WEIGHT BACK.  You’ve got to eat plenty of good fats, plenty of good protein, tons of vegetables, and some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy (if all that works for your stomach).

vegetarian diet:grain to fattenHave you checked out my What I Eat Page?  It is possible to live a life without grains, sugar and chemicals, in the Real World, with 4 kids and a job.  It just takes planning, and practice and fore-thought.  Once it’s a habit though, it’s not an effort anymore.

So instead of dieting, work on cutting the junk out of your life.  Eat less and less fake/processed/refined foods, and more and more Real Whole Foods.  Shop, prep, cook, freeze, PLAN.  Cook in batches.  Make 12 chicken breasts instead of 4.  Make 2 meat loafs, and cut and freeze one in single servings for later.  Make a giant salad.  Cook 10 sweet or white potatoes at a time, and then pull them out during the week for breakfast or lunch.  Slow cook a whole roast, pull it, and baggy servings for the week.  Get used to making PB&Js or a meat and cheese sandwich  for your kids to eat after practice instead of putting poison in their bodies at the fast food restaurants.  (yeah, I hate bread, but for kids, it’s a better choice than fast food.   Plus, they can make it themselves.  )

Being healthy and lean is about the every day choices, day after day, week after week, month after month.  It’s not about “being good” for 5 days or 10 days or 2 weeks or a whole month.

If you haven’t been able to stay consistent, I can guarantee it’s the food choices you’re making.  Take a risk, and CHANGE THE CHOICES.  Eat more fat and protein, cover your vegetables with butter or olive oil, and grated cheese, cook your chicken breasts with the FAT ON, eat your egg YOLKS, pop a couple spoonfuls of coconut butter in your mouth, or add some whole cream or coconut oil to your tea or coffee.  These foods have nutrients that nourish your body and trigger SATIETY HORMONES.  You will be able to go HOURS between meals when you eat like this;  you’ll be able to mentally say you’re not hungry.  You’ll be able to stay out of the fridge or the pantry.  And I swear these foods won’t make you fat!  Excess carbs, from flours or sugars, put weight on you!(they also cause disease and poor health) Traditional, Real, Fats are used by our body for thousands of jobs;  carbohydrates are mostly STORED, because they’re ONLY used for energy, not to build us.

Get off the Diet Roller Coaster.  Don’t wait til July.  Eat well today, tomorrow, this weekend, next week, etc, etc, etc.  You’ll feel and look so much better for it.

 

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Psychology of Eating /

Iron Info and Lifestyle Thinking

May 21, 2013 / / Comments Off on Iron Info and Lifestyle Thinking

I’m feeling all motivation this morning, so that’s coming.  First though, I’ve had a few run-ins, in just a few days, with people who are having either iron overload problems, or iron deficiency.   Iron absorption is a pretty big issue, and I just want to touch briefly on a few pointers and guidelines about it.

Iron plays a large part in the amount of oxygen that gets delivered to our muscles, brain, and tissues, but it’s also involved in metabolism, immune function, DNA synthesis, growth, and healing, among other  things.  It’s important.

Deficiency and Over-Sufficiency both come with pretty serious consequences.  Children and menstruating females are most likely to be Deficient, and men and menopausal women are more likely to have too much iron.   It’s important to keep an eye on your levels via regular blood tests.

Moms, kids tend to be iron deficient, as a matter of fact, it’s a fairly common problem with the SAD (standard american diet) that most kids are on.  It will affect their growth, energy and health, so remedying that is important.

Here’s a few tips:  iron comes in two forms,  “heme iron”, which is from animal sources, and “non heme iron”, which is from plant sources, and egg whites. (that’s simplistic, but accurate)  Heme iron is MUCH more absorbable and usable by the body than non heme.  Much more.  For instance, spinach is loaded with iron, but less than 2% of it’s iron is absorbed (the Popeye thing was misleading- he lifted heavy for those forearms!);  soybeans have more iron than red meat, but less than 7% of their iron is absorbed.popeye

If you are iron DEFICIENT, you’re going to need to add some meat protein, as that iron is highly absorbable, and there are other “co-factors” in meat that aid  absorption.   Vitamin C also SERIOUSLY increases iron absorption – by 4X!!

Phytates in grains and nuts, the mineral CALCIUM, and Tannins in teas and coffee INHIBIT iron absorption.

If you’re iron status is normal, just eat well rounded meals and the body takes care of itself.

If you have too much iron, then add the CALCIUM, the phytates from your nuts (you know how I feel about grains), and your coffee or tea to your meals containing iron.  They will all help prevent absorption.

Enough about Iron – on to Food!

Here’s my quote for the day:  “Make your health and your energy your priority, and then if you need to lose weight you will.”

Honestly, it’s not the other way around despite decades of hearing it put that way:  Lose weight and get healthy.  That doesn’t happen because when people try to lose weight, they go on DIETS.  Diets make people GAIN WEIGHT and become LESS HEALTHY.  Don’t believe me?   Statistics say that at least 95% of EVERYONE who goes on ANY kind of diet and loses weight will GAIN IT ALL BACK PLUS SOME.  Some stats say that the real number is 99%.

Diets imply a beginning and an end.  An effort that you’re going to make for a period of time to not eat too many calories, to consume certain foods, to shun other foods, and usually to exercise to “burn calories”.

The average dieter displays an enormous amount of strength to resist their normal routines and habits for a few days, or a few weeks, sometimes even a couple months, and then, whether jumping off ferris wheelthey lost weight or didn’t (which does happen), they get tired of the mental effort required to constantly fight their urges.  They give in/fall off the wagon, gain weight, mess up hormones, and re-ignite negative patterns that keep them on the Diet Ferris Wheel. (let’s not forget the self-hate that comes with the Diet Ferris Wheel.)

Don’t let this happen to you!  If you need to lose weight, put your time and focus on eating Real Whole Foods:  meats, healthy fats, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts, some dairy (if you tolerate them).  Try to skip the snacks, avoid flour and sugar products (blood sugar blues and triglyceride production),  let hours go between meals so that Glucagon(a fat burning hormone) can be released.   Put your mental energy on RWFs being a normal LIFESTYLE for you, not a temporary effort that may or may not result in weight loss that won’t last.

Take steps, do ACTIONS, that will have positive results:  shop, cook, plan your day in writing,  get to bed at a decent hour (the evidence linking lack of sleep and belly fat is HUGE), exercise or at least move – every day, drink tons of water;  in other words, work on your daily habits.  These steps will only sound like an effort until they’re just normal.  Does that make sense?

Work on deleting the Diet Mindset.  Work on habits that make your liver, your hormones, your immune system, your whole body,… run right.    Our body wasn’t made to run on crappy carbs, tons of sugar, and chemicals.  If you’re sick, tired, and overweight, there is a simple solution that’s 100% full proof and long term.  Eat Real Whole Foods.

 

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Psychology of Eating, Uncategorized /

Fat Bullet Points

April 18, 2013 / / Comments Off on Fat Bullet Points

Here’s a post on Fat I did during a 30 Day Real Whole Food Challenge.

janet leigh scared of FatHow’s everyone digesting my (possibly) radical information on fat so far?  Maybe you’re kind of bucking and kicking, and backing up.  Thinking, no way is there actually a good fat out there.  Fat is bad.  Fat is evil.  Fat makes me fat and gives me high cholesterol.
Please, if you feel this way, just hold on and keep reading.  Give me a chance to prove that healthy fats are healthy and necessary for your body.

I’ve got a few more days left in Fat Week, but there’s so much information I want to pass along, that today, I’m going to do bullet points.

  • Your brain is composed of 60% fat.  60%!  Almost half that fat is DHA (that’s one of the fish oils).   Imagine what effect the past several decades of low fat/no fat/bad fats have had on our brains.  Researchers are tying depression, anxiety, learning disorders, cognitive disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer’s to our low-fat / no-fat / bad fat diets.
  • Your brain – if it’s healthy – is full of healthy cholesterol (as opposed to oxidized, damaged cholesterol).   Cholesterol is used to build cell membranes, ALL our sex hormones (want your testosterone, men? ), and  Vitamin D;  our liver uses it to make bile (which emulsifies fats), and it’s a huge component of brain and nervous tissues.  Just like low fat,  low cholesterol is tied to depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, and mood disorders. One of the main effects of cholesterol-lowering meds is memory loss.
  • Have I mentioned the amazing research on Coconut Oil and Alzheimer’s?  There’s a lot of information on this, but if you’re interested, google :  Dr. Mary Newport.  She’s literally reversing her husbands Alzheimers disease.  She has a book out called “Alzheimer’s Disease, What if there is a Cure ?”(Amazon),  and she’s all over the net.  You-tubes, podcasts, news shows.   She’s just the tip of the iceberg in this field, but she’s compelling, and a great place to start if you’re interested.
  • Olive oil.  Olive oil’s a super fat, just make sure you’re buying the right kind, and then house it properly.  Olive oil is  a “mono-unsaturate”.  Mono-unsaturate (MUFA)  fats are more stable than PUFAs (poly-unsaturated fatty acids), and less stable than Saturated fats.  That means they can take a little more heat, a little more light, and a little more air than PUFAs before they turn rancid.  This takes me back to my first sentence.  You want to buy “extra virgin, first cold pressed”(EV/FCP),  that means No Heat was used to extract the oil from the olive.  If heat is used, and it is with lesser qualities oils, then you’ve got a damaged fat in the bottle.  (and your body uses damaged fats if you eat them)  If you buy the EV/FCP varieties, make sure you keep them in a dark bottle, or a dark pantry.  You DON’T want your olive oil sitting on the counter.
  • Olive oil is rich in Vitamin E and other powerful antioxidants called polyphenols; both nutrients prevent heart disease and cancer. ( If you buy heat-extracted oil, the vitamin E and polyphenols are destroyed.)   Olive oil also inhibits blood platelet stickiness, lowers blood pressure, and reduces inflammation.    Monounsaturated fats lower LDL cholesterol.  Studies show that the polyphenols also provide protection against colon, skin, and breast cancer, heart disease, and aging.
  • Don’t buy “light” olive oil.  That’s a joke.  It’s a marketing gimmick to make you think it has fewer calories.  Really, it’s just been refined to remove color, scent, and flavor, and in doing so, the vitamins and antioxidants are removed also.  Then, it’s no longer a health food.
  • Flaxseed oil and walnut oil are polyunsaturates, loaded with Omega 3s.    As such, they should NEVER be heated, or exposed to light.  Both should actually be stored in your refrigerator, not the pantry.  They’re very good in salad dressings, pestos, and mayonaise.
  • And one more bullet point:  if you cook vegetables for your kids, and top them off with delicious butter or olive oil, S&P, and maybe some grated hard cheese, they’ll probably eat them, and like them.  We’ve got a couple generations growing up with either steamed plain jane vegetables, or no vegetables at all.  God made fat for vegetables!! Not only does it make them taste great, but the fat allows all the Fat Soluble Vitamins and all the minerals to be absorbed and used. We want those nutrients!
Category: Cooking, Fats /

What We Eat Always Matters

April 18, 2013 / / Comments Off on What We Eat Always Matters

I can’t repeat enough, your body, your mind, your moods, your weight, and your health, are determined by the foods you eat.  Your lifestyle and your HABITS make who you are.  If you think that eating well, or minimally, for 3 or 4 days, or a week, should fix your issues, and it doesn’t, think again!  We are the product of a LIFETIME of our habits.  Eat well all the time.  Sleep, pray, exercise, spend time with people you love.

Health is everything.  When you lose it, or it’s compromised, it’s a game changer.
Cooking, preparing food, giving attention to meals, these are such important components of a healthy life, and yet they’ve been so downgraded for the last 20 or 30 years.    We can NOT get real sustenance from processed, refined (and most restaurant) foods.  The chemicals in these foods, the way they’re made, cause disease, rob us of energy and vitality, and make us fat and depressed.

If you have children, and you’re feeding them processed, refined foods,  you’re training them, you’re actually developing and passing on dietary and lifestyle habits that last a lifetime.  Conversely, teach them how to cook, be an example – show them how to eat – and you’re developing and passing on those dietary and lifestyle habits.
And that leads me to answer a question / comment I’ve had 100x.  “my husband, my kids, my wife..  just won’t jump on board.”

You can’t beat anyone into submission.  Be an example.  Be a leader, but don’t be a dictator.  Especially with teenagers and spouses.  If you’re the main grocery shopper in your house, you have a lot of control over what goes in your pantry.  You can decide to buy or not to buy boxes and bags of mindless munchie foods, addictive sweets, or pretend meal foods (tostinos pizza rolls!).     You determine what goes on the dinner table.  You can influence what they eat at lunch ( who knows what happens at school ) , you can cook breakfast for them.     Lead by example.  Let your kids or spouse see you eating tons of vegetables, meats, healthy fats, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, some legumes and some dairy.  Don’t snack on processed foods.  Start saying they can hold off til dinner.

Don’t try and create drastic changes in your home, just work on evolving

Category: Cooking /
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