Tag Archive for fats

5 Love Languages, Greens, Chocolate, & 10,000 Steps: The Heart Weekend!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMark and I are on a Healthy Heart Weekend:  paddle-boarding, sight seeing, and a Marriage Conference with Dr. Gary Chapman of the 5 Love Languages.  We’ve slept in 2 different hotels in 2 days, but we packed all our food, so we’ve managed to eat well, move a lot, and do some Positive Thinking.  In other words, we’re traveling healthy.  I get a lot of emails and questions about traveling, and I want to answer them with a leaning towards Heart Health.

Heart Disease is the #1 killer in America, and it’s something we should all be working to prevent.  It’s showing up in children now – moms, here’s where we step in.

Heart disease is a LIFESTYLE DISEASE.  High blood pressure, plaque, heavy-dense cholesterol, high blood sugar, hard arteries….. these are caused by the what we put in our mouth, the exercise we don’t get, and the stress we don’t manage.

No one has heart disease because they’re low in statins.

Whether we’re traveling or home, it’s important to take the steps to make our body healthy.

Let’s start with food.  Our heart primarily runs on fatty acids for fuel.  Surprising? It’s the truth, so feed your heart healthy fats!  Have you read that the new Dietary Guidelines will “un-vilify” cholesterol as a cause of heart disease?  It’s true!

“Previously the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) will not bring forward this recommendation because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol, consistent with the conclusions of the AHA/ACC (American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology report. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

What about the fact that Saturated Fat has NEVER been scientifically proven to cause heart disease?

“Saturated fat has remained the main dietary villain for heart disease for over 50 years. Last year a meta-analysis of 72 studies with more than 600,000 participants determined that there was no association between how much saturated fat people ate and their risk of having a fatal or nonfatal heart attack (Annals of Internal Medicine, March 18, 2014).”

This isn’t carte blanche to eat any thing we want.  Fats are very unique and different; some are great, some are good, and some are horrible.

Stay away from vegetable oils, margarines, and trans fats, they’re always bad, always.

Eat up grass fed butter and ghee, extra virgin olive oil, coconut butter, avocados, and nuts.  Bonus: these fats have anti-fungal/bacterial/viral properties, immune boosting properties, anti-inflammatory properties, and are even healthy for our brain.

The heart also loves amino acids/protein (it is a muscle after all, and needs to rebuild it’s cells), and vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.

You know how I always say “eat a TON of vegetables”?  Herbs and spices too;  Moms, stay strong when it comes to vegetables and picky kids.  You’ve GOT to win this battle.  Here’s why.

The heart (and the arteries in the penis, the neurotransmitters in the brain, the lining of the gut, bone remodeling, and white blood cell function) heavily depends on Nitric Oxide (NO).  NO is a vasodilator that relaxes the lining of the arteries and increases blood flow.  If there’s any damage to the arteries at all, which is where a lot of that NO is made, then there’s NO deficiency.

Here’s a list of foods high in natural nitrates ( which convert to NO):

*Garlic
*Beets
*Greens
*Walnuts
*Cranberries
*Honey
*Black Tea
*Pistachios
*Salmon
*Animal Organs
*Shrimp
*Onions
*Peanut Butter

Cool fact: chew your food well, because it’s the bacteria in our mouth that convert the nitrates to NO – who knew!!!

We want to leverage all the colors of the vegetable (and fruit) kingdom, because they have nutrients, besides their vitamins and minerals which are vital, called phytonutrients, that scientists are really just beginning to discover.  Nutrients called lycopene, lutein, alpha carotene, and beta carotene.

Studies show that bodies with higher levels of these nutrients have less stroke and heart attack.

What’d we pack to eat this weekend?  Chicken (already cooked), eggs, salad greens, zucchinis, cukes, tomatoes, onion, garlic, sea salt, EVOO and balsamic, roasted potatoes (left over from Wednesday- so I just warmed them) dates, peaches, nuts, Jay Robb protein powder, raw milk, raw cream, and kerry gold butter.  Oh, plus organic chocolate and coffee!  We stay in Residence Inns whenever we can because they have kitchens.

Exercise: almost as critical for the heart as food.  Have I told you I LOVE MY FITBIT??  Even on days like yesterday, where we were in a seminar from 9 to 3:30, we managed to get over 10,000 steps in.  We walked on each break, plus lunch, and again after dinner.  Had I not had the Fitbit, we’d never had taken that many steps. Most phones have counters on them if you don’t have a smart watch yet.  Friday we paddle boarded a few miles, and then walked a battlefield and Civil War Park.  Links are attached if you’re looking for fun in Richmond, Va.  Today:  lifting with Macy at the VCU gym!

5 Love Languages – for heart health?  YES!  Have you ever read the book, The Blue Zones?  It’s about the 4 places on earth with the largest populations of centenarians, or people who live past 100.  I’ve been obsessed with it for years, the same with any story I see of a Centenarian, or studies on Centenarians.

What do these people have in common, is it Kale Smoothies or Cross Fit or Veganism?  NOPE!  The biggest common link is community, usefulness, and purpose.  In other words, they’re fulfilled and happy. They have love in their life.

That’s where the 5 Love Languages comes in.  Mark and I are regular pursuers of both Happy Marriage and Happy Minds.  I say “pursuer” because happiness doesn’t just drop on our heads, it’s something we have to focus on and work for.  That’s really what “stress management” is about, right?  It’s how we handle life that matters, and the 5 Love Languages has great advice for communicating and getting along.

On that note, our heart apparently THRIVES on happy hormones and chemicals, and can be destroyed by destructive hormones (cortisol and insulin) and chemicals.  This is a big deal, and an area of growing research.

Meditation is part of progressive heart disease reversal programs because it’s been proven again and again to work.  There’s too much evidence to ignore: if leading with our negative emotions is our normal go-to, then all the good food and exercise in the world could be negated when it comes to heart health.

I’m leaving you with a few really great heart health resources, please check them out.  What we hear in our doctors offices often doesn’t correlate with the latest in the scientific research.

Most research on reversing heart disease, (not merely managing symptoms) is based on Life Style answers, like food, exercise, stress management, and sleep.

NO ONE’S MAKING MONEY OFF THOSE REMEDIES; the likely hood of a stress management rep, or a Real Whole Food rep, walking into our doctors office to sell him/her on the latest and greatest reasons to use these tools isn’t going to happen.

We’re going to have to do this on our own.

Dr. Mercola/fats/heart health.

Dr. Davis/fats/heart health.

Dr. Wortman/fats/heart health.

Podcast/Dr. Kahn/heart health and testing – FASCINATING & INFORMATIVE.

All About Poop, Because Constipation is Epidemic, Abnormal, and Unhealthy.

Did you know that Constipation is the #1 digestive complaint in the US?  In 2010, there were 48,459 hospitalizations for constipation, up from 21,000 in 1997.  Wow!  The medical establishment defines constipation as fewer than 3 bowel movements a week.  Many in the medical and scientific community disagree and consider moving our bowels at least once a day normal.  Put me in that camp.  If I only went 3x a week I’d be miserable!  Besides, I eat 3x a day, I want the left overs out, not packed in my 100 degree colon, rotting.

So many of my clients deal with constipation that I thought I’d devote a whole Post to what normal poop is, and how you too, can be a normal pooper.   For all my clients with diarrhea or any type of Colitis, the situation is different, but the solutions are the same.

What we all need and want is to be NORMAL, right?  Drugs don’t make us normal, drugs often make situations worse in the long term.

Normal poop comes from normal digestion.  Normal digestion comes from Real Whole Food, good sleep, exercise, and stress management.  Same things that cause Normal Weight and great health.  Let’s break that down, but first, a little science about our gut.

We eat food, and it goes to the stomach, where enormous amounts of stomach acid should be present.  That stomach acid, aka HCl, stimulates the protein digesting enzyme Pepsin, kills pathogens, and triggers digestive enzymes and bile.  What depletes the necessary amounts of stomach acid?  OTC and prescription drugs, stress hormones, sugar, grains, and chemicals; aka, the American Diet and Lifestyle.

Next, the food, now known as “chyme”, goes to the Small Intestine to become tiny molecules that can be absorbed somewhere in the 20 or so feet of the small intestinal tract.

Finally, undigested fibers, resistant starch, and sloughed off cells, and a teeny bit of water, move into the Large Intestine.  The first part of the large intestine, the ascending colon, goes “upwards”, then it goes across, then down.  It’s between 5 and 8 feet long. We should have hundreds of trillions of beneficial bacteria in our large intestine, and they have MAJOR jobs to do, here’s a few: make B and K vitamins that go on to nourish other body parts, make fatty acids that go on to nourish other body parts, they make serotonin and dopamine for our brain, and they compromise the largest component of our Immune System.

Those bacteria also, via their fermenting of the fibers, make poop.

Our large intestine, where the constipation ( or diarrhea ) happens, is responsible for our immunity, our mood, our heart health, our metabolism, and I could go on and on. Bottom line (pun intended), it matters that we keep it in great health.

Digestive disorders aren’t a signal to take medications, they’re a shout out from our body that we’re messing up, and need to correct the situation.  Our body wants to be normal, and healthy.

How do we become normal?  The above list: Real Whole Food, Good Sleep, Exercise, and Stress Management.

1) Real Whole Food (RWF)- Our digestive system literally falls apart in the face of the Standard American Diet (SAD).  White flours, sugars, grains, trans / hydrogenated fats, and toxic chemicals wreck havoc from our mouth to our butt. There’s not one thing in that list that promotes or nourishes anything good in our gut, all those substances do the opposite:  ruin stomach acidity, cause leaky gut, destroy beneficial bacteria and feed pathogenic bacteria.

Parents – this is happening to our kids when we let them eat crap.  Skinniness is NOT indicative of health, ever.  Quit telling yourself that a little McD’s or frozen pizza doesn’t matter, because it does.  Every bite matters.

RWF in the context of remedying constipation:  if high fiber and a ton of water ( along with laxatives ) have been your fix, ask yourself this:  How’s that working for you?  Because everyone I work with STILL has constipation despite YEARS of that plan.

It’s time for a new plan.

Back off the fiber supplements; sometimes they work initially, eventually though, they make stool drier and bulkier, which makes them even harder to pass. Just like GERD meds, laxatives are ONLY supposed to be used occasionally, and briefly.  To quote one of the best scientists I know of on this subject ( resource at end of Post ): ..”herbal laxatives are actually contributing to constipation and colorectal damage because they irritate the intestinal mucosa, damage the nerve endings, kill intestinal bacteria, cause painful cramping, and may provoke severe diarrhea.”    and  “Cleansing” with insoluble fiber, such as bran, is even more dangerous, because undigested fiber keeps piling up on top of already impacted, hardened stools. This may lead to obstruction, fecal impaction, and other complications, such as diverticular disease, megacolon, prolapsed hemorrhoids, or colon perforation — which is a mostly lethal condition.”

What does work?  Fat’s essential, here’s why.  Fat is the ONLY nutrient we eat that stimulates the expression of BILE into the small intestine.  Bile not only breaks down fatty acids ( so we can use them – and YES, we need those fatty acids to make ourselves! ), but bile stimulates the intestines to contract and move.  Low fat/no fat diets, or diets that have crappy fat like trans and hydrogenated?  They screw up the process God intended.  It’s that simple.

Cholesterol’s also vitally important.  The cells that line our whole digestive tract, including the large intestine, have incredibly fast turn over times.  Cholesterol is a major component of EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY.  It’s also an anti-oxidant that our body uses to repair damage.  Eat a SAD and there’s a lot of damage.  Good cholesterol from healthy fats is broken down and used to make our digestion normal, as in, a good poop every day.

Finally, you know my RWF list:  a TON of vegetables, clean meats, healthy fats, some fruits, some nuts and seeds ( for constipation and diarrhea: a tablespoon of flax seed, chia seed, and hemp are ideal), and some real, whole fat dairy – if you digest it well.  These foods contain the nutrients that our body uses to be NORMAL.  A normal, healthy body is a body that’s a normal, healthy weight.

2) Good sleep.  Our body is a beehive of activity when we sleep, that’s when Repair and House Cleaning happen best.  It matters that we get to sleep BEFORE midnight; the hours before midnight, and also between 12 and 3 are crucial.  Our body runs on a Circadian Rhythm whether we honor it or not.  If we don’t give our body the sleep it needs, we’ll suffer the consequences.

In addition to repair and upkeep, when we’re lying prone our gut has the best chance at moving our waste UP the first part of the large intestine.  That’s why so many people go to the bathroom in the morning.

3) Exercise.  No, exercise doesn’t make up poop.  Exercise makes us NORMAL.  Our body needs and wants the physical stress that exercise causes.  Exercise doesn’t make us thin either, like I always say in my classes, ” it’s just a few hundred calories, we’d burn the same amount walking, cleaning the house, or working in the garden.”  Our body was created for movement, and not moving is the “new smoking”.  Several recent studies have conclusively linked inactivity and sitting too much with increases in colon, endometrial, and lung cancer.  

4) Stress Management.  Excess flight-fight hormones aren’t good for anything, ever.  While a little jolt of cortisol here and there can cause diarrhea in some, chronic excess cortisol messes everything up.  Here’s why:  if our brain perceives stress-danger, then “living” becomes the priority.  Not pooping, not digesting, not making sex hormones, not all the normal things we’re supposed to be doing.  When excess cortisol or adrenaline or any of the other stress hormones are in the blood, the body is in a survival mode, which is very different from a everyday normal mode.

One more BIG CAUSE of constipation:

5) Drugs.  Both OTC and prescription meds come with a long list of side effects, and “causes constipation” is a common one.  Pain killers, mood drugs, ANTIBIOTICS, cold medications, cholesterol drugs, etc etc, they’re a pill for a symptom that just causes MORE symptoms… constipation ( and diarrhea ) are a symptom that we’re doing something wrong.

If constipation or any gut issue is your problem, get in touch with me.  You’re fixable, no matter how long you’ve been dealing with it.  Here’s some great resources so you can learn more:

http://www.gutsense.org/gutsense/transition.html

http://www.gutsense.org/constipation/main.html#13

http://undergroundwellness.com/podcasts/306-5-steps-to-permanent-gut-healing/

http://undergroundwellness.com/podcasts/286-belly-fat-gut-bacteria-and-obesity/

http://www.brendawatson.com/

Amanda’s Journey; Sleep Deprivation and Carb Cravings

manda me uvaEpilepsy sucks.  Trust me.  I don’t have it, but I’ve watched my #2 daughter struggle with this for almost 15 years.  She somehow gets up most days, goes to class, participates in sports, and clubs, and she (thank God) has a ton of great friends ( who’ve always been very supportive); but it can really knock you down sometimes. She had a really rough weekend that culminated in a middle of the night hospital stay, scary “heart attack like pains”, memory issues, and other symptoms.   We’re changing her meds and prayingmanda w wrap that it works.  Here’s two pictures of Amanda:  on the left is about a month ago on the lawn at her school, and on the right is in December after getting about 25 electrodes glued on her head for a 2 day EEG.  It didn’t last 2 days because she had a middle of the night seizure and “activity” that caused her to get up and take every single electrode out.  That’s from the meds, one of them disrupts her REM sleep, a lot.

Anyway, Mark and I rushed down to Charlottesville around 1 am last night and stayed up the whole night.  It’s a busy, busy hospital and there’s absolutely NO sleeping in the ER.  Checking my email the next day, I got not 1 but 2 emails about lack of sleep and over eating / craving bad foods.  One was a friend who has a puppy, and the other was a lady with a baby.  Sometimes there’s no way you can sleep through the night, right?  And wow, it really does a number on your immune system, your neurotransmitters, and your “hunger hormones”, ghrelin and leptin.

I have good news though:  the “unavoidable munchies because of lack of sleep”??  They can be avoided!!  Lack of sleep is such a hit to the body because GOOD THINGS DON’T HAPPEN when you’re up in the middle of the night (these are different things from what we’re warning our teenagers about, but just as bad).  When we’re asleep, the brain does repairs, the muscles do repairs, the immune system makes particular hormones, our glands make corticosteroids and sex hormones, the body makes Human Growth Hormone, the liver is incredibly busy breaking down hormones and toxins, the skin the lungs the kidneys, EVERYTHING is cleaning and repairing or making things.  Trust me when I say I just seriously condensed what goes on during our sleep.  If your sleep is disrupted, or you don’t go to bed early enough, you can get into real trouble.

Sleep has been a pretty big issue and topic in the news for the past few years, and I’ve often seen advice to “eat more protein” on the days you’ve missed sleep.  I agree with that, but I want to add:  Eat More Fat, on these days and every day.  Your body is CRAVING nutrients; you think it wants junk food, but that’s YOU, not your inner brain talking.  Your deepest smartest brain parts know exactly what it takes to build and repair your body, and it’s not carby cereal, or ice cream, or pizza, or chips, or a trip to Fast Food. Carbs build NOTHING, they’re just an energy source.  What you “hear” are the habits you’ve established as comfort when you’re tired/stressed/happy/sad/etc.  Give your body the fat and protein and vitamins and minerals it really wants, and you’ll see those cravings disappear, I promise.

Add the butter, add the fatty broths, pour on the olive oil, make treats with coconut oil, butter, or milk;  up the good fats with your proteins and vegetables and truly sooth your brain and body.  Also, make sure your Neurotransmitters are full:  the serotonin, dopamine, GABA, catecholamines.  These things make you “normal” feeling.  Amino acid supplements, on a particular timed schedule, do this.  Read the Mood Cure or the Diet Cure by Julia Ross, I swear it’s for real.  I’ve used her protocol on ourselves and several nutrition clients now, IT’S FOR REAL.

Another important factor:  don’t set yourself up for failure by having any thing munchie/quick/junkie in your house.  Nothing.  Quit telling yourself your kids might need a snack.  NO ONE needs crap that sets up life long bad habits or creates a state of terrible health in the body and mind.  NO ONE.  Not you, not your kids.

DO SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS:  have plenty of fats, vegetables, ….INGREDIENTS,.. that you can mix up and genuinely provide your brain and body what it’s actually craving to rebuild, repair, and make hormones and neurotransmitters.  (Remember:  ALL your steroid hormones, and ALL your sex hormones are made from Cholesterol, Saturated Fat, and Minerals.  ALL OF THEM. )

It always comes back to: eat Real Whole Food, doesn’t it?

 

Hop off the Diet Roller Coaster

debbie (43)I don’t know when you’ll be reading this, but I’m writing and posting it right before the weekend hits; it’s supposed to be Weekend Ammunition to Avoid Splurging/Bingeing/Blowing It.  I get a lot of emails about this, but I pull most of my understanding from my own years of weekend-blowing-it experience.  I’d plan my shopping and grocery list to include friday and saturday night treats, and day time treats; I couldn’t wait!  After a whole week of “dieting” / “being good”, I was starving!  Plus, it was a pattern I’d thoroughly established, and nurtured.

Now it’s different.  Now, I just eat well every single day.  My fairly high-fat, high-protein meals have definitely changed the way my brain works.  At 48, I have MORE energy, I’m LESS prone to food whims, and my recovery from workouts kind of amazes me; it’s fast. ( I’ve also added Systemic Enzymes to my supplement routine, which helps a lot.)

I’m finally feeding my body the nutrients it needs to build, repair, and thrive.  Those same nutrients allow my brain to focus on life instead of the next meal.  That’s the opposite of when I lived on high fiber cereal, skim milk, fat free yogurt and bagels, Diet Products, and salads.  Those are the food of death.  (dramatic I know,  but seriously, they’re processed foods loaded with simple carbohydrates, trans fats, and chemicals: the foods of death).

One of the questions I had this week in my Metabolism Class was “can I really lose weight eating high fat foods?”.  My answer:  YES.  Oh My Gosh Yes.  Foods that contain Real, Traditional Fats, i.e clean meats, coconut oils, butter from grass fed cows (Kerry Gold), olive oil, avocados, macadamia nut oil, etc, contain a ZILLION nutrients that make your body and brain run well.  Remember, our brain is 60% fat, our hormones are made from fat and cholesterol, the membrane of EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY is made from fat and cholesterol, our bile acids are made from cholesterol, our immune system, our ability to absorb nutrients, these depend on fat and cholesterol.  Deprive your body of fat and cholesterol and see your health, mental and physical, take a nose dive.

Losing weight, feeling good; it’s not a matter of “low cal/low fat/exercise a ton”, it’s a matter of eat Real Whole Foods loaded with Nutrients, get your sleep, and handle your stress.  Hormones Rule; our hormones determine our weight, our moods, our health.  Diet lifestyles make for a horrible hormonal environment loaded with inflammation and one health problem after another.  Besides that, Diets Don’t Work:  studies show that almost 100% of EVERYONE who loses weight by dieting GAINS IT BACK.   Almost 100%.

I’ve got plenty of meals posted on my What I Eat page, but I still get asked about what I eat or why I eat certain foods.  Here’s yesterday’s meals:

Paul Newman Organic Vanilla Coffee w Raw Cream:  cream is LOADED with vit A/D/K, and healthy fats, and I think organic coffee’s a health food:)

B – Smoothie: chocolate whey protein (amino acids)/beets (good for my liver)/kale(loaded with nutrients)/cultured cream (beneficial bacteria plus more A/D/K, good fats like CLA)/blueberries(antioxidants)cinnamon/ginger(loaded with nutrients) water(can’t get enough) fish oil(Omega 3s-can’t taste this), collagen/gelatin (loaded with amino acids, glucosamine, chondroitin, msm: it’s from bones and joints/good stuff)

L- cod (left over from the night before, probably 4 oz, cooked in butter topped with rosemary, S&P),  coconut oil mixed with a little cocoa and stevia, and then frozen (the fats here are great for my brain and metabolism) All my lunches M-F I pack and eat in the car.

D – Mix: venison sausage/tomatoes/shitake mushrooms/onion/basil;  roasted sweet potatoes w/ butter, S&P

I alternate the whey in my morning smoothie with raw eggs (2) and cocoa/stevia.  Eggs are Nutrient Bombs, which when blended into a smoothie, raw, leaves all the nutrients in perfect condition;  you can’t taste the raw egg (you know, raw eggs are added to most homemade ice cream recipes, it just makes the mix “richer”). (ps: I get my eggs from a farm, not the store. I wouldn’t eat raw commercial eggs.)  I go back and forth between spinach and kale, and have even used  “green powders”.  I make sure I use one or two different spices and alternate between cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. When I’m on my period, I add Blackstrap Molassas for the Iron and minerals.   And of course, I use several different fruits, all frozen:  banana, blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries. Sometimes I use Kombucha (fermented tea) or Keifer (cultured milk) instead of water – you can never get enough good bacteria!

So, after years of riding the Diet Crazy Train, I’ve hopped off.  Now I never count calories, or weigh my food;  I’m rarely EVER hungry between meals ( I love that!), I make Paleo treats and eat them without worrying.  I test my blood sugar to make sure it’s low/healthy, and I plan, shop, cook, and pack.  My stomach’s pretty flat, I don’t PMS, and I don’t castigate myself (anymore) for weekend binges that take 2 or 3 days to undue, because I don’t have weekend binges.  You can feel good too!  You can get off the diet roller coaster, be at a healthy weight, lower inflammation, strengthen your immune system, and have more level moods – HONEST.  Just eat Real Whole Foods: plenty of good fats and proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, some whole dairy (if your stomach likes that).  You can change your health and your weight permanently.  I promise.