Tag Archive for real whole foods

Do You Let Bad Days Throw You Off Your Goals?

September 17, 2015 / / Comments Off on Do You Let Bad Days Throw You Off Your Goals?

051215-UFC--Ronda-Rousey-Sports-Illustrated-AS-IA.vadapt.620.high.92Do you guys know who Ronda Rousey is?  She’s the #1 female athlete in the world, she’s a UFC competitor, and she’s got an awesome book out, Rousey, that’s all about being true to yourself and doing the right thing no matter what you feel like.

I’m so loving it!  Here’s a quote from the book, “My mom always says that to be the best in the world, you have to be good enough to win on a bad day because you never know if the Olympics are going to fall on a bad day.”

I’m not going to the Olympics, but I still love this quote.  For me, I just think of every day as my Olympics; I need to be my best everyday, no matter what.  I’ve got kids and a husband and clients and people who take my classes and they all expect me to bring it; and since I’m being paid (by some of them), I better!

It’s all about a mindset.  We either develop a mindset that powers us along towards our goals, or who we want to be; or we feed the mindset that says we can jump off our path every time we have a bad day, a bad moment, or a bad feeling.

Since I’m all about nutrition and wellness, let’s go there.

Our level of health, our energy, our weight, they’re (mostly) a direct reflection of our every day life style habits and actions.

If we let a bad day be an excuse to eat crap, not workout, and feed the whiny -victim part of our soul, even if it’s just a day or two a week, we’re in trouble.  A healthy, fit body means that we do the right thing on good days and bad days.

Moms and dads, isn’t this what we expect from our kids?  Or at least hope for our kids?  That they still do well on their tests, or with their friends, or in their sports, despite bad days?

We’re they’re primary role models; it’s important that we model being our best on a bad day.

What if you’ve conditioned yourself to roll with your bad days, if it’s a norm for you to allow your bad feelings to dictate your actions and choices? Don’t worry!  People change all the time, you can too.  It takes a plan and a focused effort, but if you start now, you could be a whole new you by Christmas.

Purposely fill your mind with information that reinforces 2 things,

1) The fact that our body needs to move Every. Single. Day. A lot.  We don’t have to “workout”, but we do need to move.  Sitting’s the new smoking.  Our body – and our brain – were created to be strengthened and made normal/healthy/functional through movement.  Can’t get to the gym?  Do a 15 minute yoga workout/HITT workout at home, or a cardio machine w/ plank intervals or sprint up and down your driveway/yard/street 5 times.  Walk the stairs at your office, squat for 1 minute every hour,……. do something.

Remember, the Centenarians in the Blue Zones – the longest lived people in the world – don’t “workout”, they walk, they garden, they ride bikes to work,…  they move.

I know I keep talking about my FitBit, but I’ll tell you, those things work!! I have consciously/unconsciously worked a whole bunch more steps into my every day life, usually without thinking about it.

(Oddly, the classes I teach, HITT and yoga, don’t give me many steps, darn-it!)

Sometimes I do think about it though.  Whenever I water the horses, or walk my little dog Reese, I jog in place.  If it’s getting late and I’m not to 10,000 steps, I jog in place.  But I’m having to do that less and less because I’m hitting 10,000 steps more and more often before dinner.

2) the power of Food as Medicine.  Make this belief as powerful and natural as possible so that Will Power – which is limited – isn’t necessary.

There’s a great saying, ” Food can be the most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison.”  I want you to look at healthy fats and vegetables and clean proteins and fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices and literally be excited.  And I want you to look at processed food like an old, dirty cigarette butt lying on the side walk, smushed onto a piece of old gum.  You’d NEVER put that in your mouth, it’s disgusting!

It’s all about our perspective, right?  Yesterday I was at the Natural Market to have lunch with Shelby. 20150712_101243 While I was waiting, a couple came in and looked around.  They looked in the fridge, they looked at the menu… the guy had such a sour look on his face he looked like he’d sucked on a lemon.  He made disparaging remarks about the green wraps, and how nothing looked good to him.

His wife said, “We’re only here because you said you wanted to get healthy.” And he said, “Yeah, but I didn’t want to eat this kind of stuff.”

They left.  They should have stayed!  The food there is AMAZING and delicious and Real.

Also, everything about him said “heart attack waiting to happen”, but I digress.

Here’s some ammo for the Food Is Medicine part of your brain we’re trying to grow. This is a recent article from the British Medical Journal preaching the science behind food quality when it comes to health, weight, and mortality.

Honestly, this article is fantastic.  It points to study after study proving the positive results of Real Whole Food on heart disease and diabetes.

The 3 co-authoring doctors use a lot of data – data we won’t hear from Main Stream Medicine – to tout the benefits of eating food for it’s nutrients, not it’s calorie count. The research is clear and definitive:  if we want to get healthy/be a normal weight/have less risk of dying from a disease, Real Whole Food trumps medicine and “dieting” by a long shot.

I’m attaching a link to the entire article, but in case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, here’s a few highlights:

*  An energy/calorie unrestricted diet supplemented with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and nuts achieved a 30% reduction in cardiovascular events in over 7,500 high risk individuals – within 3 months.

* In comparison with an American Heart Association “low fat” diet, a Mediterranean diet – post heart attack – is a more powerful coronary intervention tool for mortality than aspirin, statins, or stents.

* The weight loss industry makes $58 BILLION annually in the US, yet all long-term follow up studies reveal that the majority of individuals (almost 100%) regain their lost weight; about 50% gain more than they lost.

I want to end this with a word on Dieting.  Mini meals, special diet foods, diet pills, diet drinks, diet plans…. they make you CRAZY.  It seems like such a great idea:  something that makes you full, takes away your hunger, and still enables you to have your favorite foods ( processed diet food is a multi-billion dollar industry), but dieting doesn’t work in the long run; sometimes it doesn’t work in the short term either.

Weight loss happens when our body becomes NORMAL from eating Real Whole Food.  Diets are anything but Normal.  Diets are ABNORMAL.  Jump off the Diet Roller Coaster!  It’s all been a big hoax and a scheme for companies to make money off us, and it’s worked.  The more we diet, the bigger and more addicted to food we get.

Take back your life and your health and your energy.  Move, eat Real Whole Food, quit being afraid of healthy, real, fats.  Stop counting calories.  Examine the nutrients in foods and relate them to your body and how those nutrients affect you.

You can do this!  I said above, start today, and be a whole new you by Christmas.  It can happen!  If you need help, get in touch with me.  Lots of people change, you can too.

Category: Mind/Body, Psychology of Eating, RWF / Tags: ,

Weight Loss, Heart Disease, Sugar Addiction, Plus, How I Stopped My Cravings.

February 22, 2015 / / Comments Off on Weight Loss, Heart Disease, Sugar Addiction, Plus, How I Stopped My Cravings.

I received some good emails this week that I want to address in the blog.  In one, a 43 year old man described himself as diabetic, overweight, hypertensive ( high blood pressure ), and on a blood thinner (from thick, sticky, blood).  He needs help losing weight, and doesn’t understand why I would say he has Heart Disease.  He’s gained 14 pounds in the past month.

Another email was a plea for help with sugar addiction, from a woman who has chronic fatigue and depression to the point of not being able to get out of bed for 7 weeks.  She’s also gained 28 pounds since September.

While these 2 people seem to present different problems, honestly, their issues are the same:  they’re incredibly nutrient deficient; their cells haven’t received the vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins they need to function normally, and now their bodies are breaking down.

How can you be nutrient deficient and overweight?  Easy.  Just because our fat cells are stuffed, doesn’t mean we’re getting the nutrients our body needs to run correctly.

Imagine putting water in your car’s gas tank.  It’s a liquid.  The tank would be full, but it wouldn’t run. That’s not the right fuel for the car.

Sugar, grains, bad fats, and chemicals aren’t the right fuels for us. Food is medicine, or food is poison.  That stuff is poison and it’ll kill us eventually, after making us sick for years.

Resources and suggestions will be at the end of the Post, but first:

Robert wants to know why I said he has Heart Disease when his doctors have given his heart a clean bill of health.  I’m so glad he asked, because this applies to so many people.

The causes of Heart Disease are being re-identified by modern science.  Inflammation ( anywhere in the body ) that’s persistent or chronic ( i.e., not just a response to a cut or injury ) is damaging, and a huge cause of Heart Disease, the number one killer in the US.

Diabetes causes inflammation from high blood sugar and high insulin, that’s because blood sugar(glucose) and insulin do a lot of damage when they zip too long and too often through the blood stream. Diabetes causes heart disease.  Heart disease and stroke are the #1 cause of death among Type 2 Diabetics.  Think you’re okay because you’re on diabetes meds?  You’re not.  In the studies determining who died of what, the diabetics who died from heart disease were on meds.  Besides that, meds all come with a long and dangerous list of side effects.  Medications address symptoms – not causes.  Diabetes drugs cause pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, kidney problems and more.  These diseases take years to manifest, just like diabetes takes years to manifest, and while it’s “manifesting”, damage is happening.

Other clues to Robert having heart disease:  high blood pressure (HBP) and thick blood.  This means the arteries are either narrowed or stiff, which makes the heart pump harder, and thick blood is also harder for the heart to push around.  HBP is the #1 cause for Cardiovascular Disease.  Thick blood is on that list too.  Medications mask the symptoms, but the REASON for the symptom isn’t solved by meds, so the problems persist all the while the side effects of the medications are building.

Natasha, you ate a healthy diet and ran 20 miles a week before you fell ill.  I thought that I ate a healthy diet, but I still got blood clots, asthma, fatigue, and horrible IBS ( inflammatory bowel syndrome ). That’s because I actually just “dieted”:  low calorie, low fat foods, many of them processed.  Luckily for me, I’ve always eaten a lot of vegetables, and I’m going to assume you did too.  Unluckily for me, thanks to keeping my fat grams to 20 or less a DAY (except for the days I’d binge), I absorbed very little of the vitamins or minerals in those vegetables.  I also consumed an enormous amount of trans fats and hydrogenated oils in all my fake cheese and dairy products, protein bars, and frozen diet meals. To add insult to injury, I was a big “healthy whole grain” believer/ addict, and did my best to get the 6 to 12 daily servings our government recommended.

I was at a lecture yesterday by the Weston A Price foundation, and the speaker – Sally Fallon – called this kind of diet a Diabetes Starter Kit.  I love that!!

Anyway, Natasha’s struggle with fatigue and depression are the result of her brain, her heart, and her mitochondria/ fuel burners in her cells, NOT getting the fuel they need to function optimally.

Luckily, our body wants to be normal, and our cells are constantly renewing themselves.  For most of us, we can fix what’s wrong.  Robert and Natasha can. I did, you can too.  All we have to do is eat a diet that supplies the nutrients our body craves:  healthy fats, good proteins, tons of vegetables, some nuts and seeds, and a little fruit.  Whole fat dairy, preferably raw, if you tolerate it.

Try this:  Buy Kerry Gold Butter, a good Olive Oil, and unrefined Coconut Oil.  Start using these in Every Single Meal.  For me, this is the #1 key to stopping cravings, losing weight, and changing our cells for the better.  What do you have to lose???

Eggs/sausage/bacon/veggies for breakfast?  Fry them in 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter or coconut oil.  Or add Coconut oil to your smoothie.

Cover your lunch meats and veggies and cheeses with olive oil – and I mean cover.

Make sure every dinner is cooked or covered in these fats.

No more tiny meals either, on small plates with baby forks, THAT’S JUST DUMB. Small meals of insufficient calories slow down your thyroid, something NOT conducive to losing weight.  Use a grown up plate and eat a serving size that makes your brain relax and not go into starvation mode.

Make your own salad dressings, again, using those good fats.  Go through your pantry and THROW OUT all your crackers, cereal, breads, cookies, and junk food.  Anything “snackie”;  this might include NUTS.

Here’s my opinion on nuts (which I literally get asked at least once a week):  nuts have a TON of nutrients.  Unfortunately, for so many, they’re a trigger food, and most people, and ALL ADDICTS, can’t stop at a handful.  Trigger foods in your house will ALWAYS rule you, ALWAYS.  This is a fact, so get rid of your trigger foods today.

Make a shopping list, then shop, chop, prep, and do power cooking ( cook in big batches ) if you need too.  Take your weekly schedule into consideration when you make your list and then make a food plan of when and where and what you’re going to eat in the coming week.  Got a bunch of kid’s activities in the evening?  Put food in a crock pot that morning.  Need to pack lunches but know your morning is going to be rushed?  Do it the night before.  Bake 10 potatoes at one time and refrigerate them.  Make a batch of broth ( another great source of fats and nutrients ) and use that like water in your food all week.  Make and refrigerate chili’s or stews or soups, their flavors intensify after a few days.

The more attention you give to making Real Whole Food work in your daily life, the easier it gets, and the healthier – and leaner – you get.  You can do this.  I met a woman yesterday who, at age 55, lost 70 pounds by switching to Real Whole Foods, and she’s kept if off for 8 years.  After years of dieting, she now eats a ton of fat and is thin.

You can be too, I promise.  Please investigate the resources below; fill your mind with the why’s and how-to’s of feeding your body the nutrients it needs to remake and repair itself every single day.

http://www.rocksolidnutritionandwellness.com/want-to-lose-weight-reduce-inflammation-gain-energy-and-look-younger/

http://www.heartmdinstitute.com/health-topics/heart-disease/424-heart-disease-risks-is-your-doctor-covering-your-bases

http://www.rocksolidnutritionandwellness.com/fat-makes-us-lean-fat-makes-us-smart-fat-gives-us-energy-step-out-of-1980-and-into-2015/

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/?s=heart+disease

http://www.drugwatch.com/2014/05/12/increasing-side-effects-diabetes-drugs/

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/

Category: Fats, Food Cravings, Reader Question, RWF, Sugar, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Raw Honey, a Superfood and a Medicine. Make Sure It’s Real!

October 19, 2014 / / Comments Off on Raw Honey, a Superfood and a Medicine. Make Sure It’s Real!

Want a SuperFood with a long list of scientifically proven benefits that tastes delicious?  Real Raw Honey.  If you don’t keep a jar in your kitchen at all times, I hope you will after reading this.

Raw Honey isn’t just a natural sweetener, it’s a medicine. Since I’m working hard to eliminate toxins in our lives, honey’s become a pretty common go-to for all of us, and not just to sweeten tea.

Here’s what we use honey for in our home:

– Cuts, burns, and topical infections.  You can either coat the wound/cut/burn with raw honey and bandage it, or use this product here, which is a combination of raw honey and a natural gel substance that keeps the honey in place.  Scientific proof of honey’s healing abilities to both heal wounds and kill bacteria: Here and Here.

– Coughs.  Study after study shows Honey is JUST as effective as dextromethorphan (DM), with none of the side effects. By the way, DM is used by teens as a means of “getting high”. What the heck does it do to our brains?   Honey alone is incredibly useful against coughs, but combine it with a few other anti-inflammatory and soothing herbs, and you’ve got powerful medicine.  Ginger, lemon, marshmallow root, chamomile, and cinnamon pack a whopper punch when used together.  Check out this HomeMade Cough Syrup from Wellness Mama; it keeps in the fridge for 2 months.  Make this soon so it’s on hand when you need it.

– Herpes – Seriously.  Look at this from Green Med Info: A 2004 study published in the Medical Science Monitor, showed that topical honey was far superior to the drug acyclovir (trade name Zovirax) in treating both labial (lip) and genital herpes lesion.  “For labial herpes, the mean duration of attacks and pain, occurrence of crusting, and mean healing time with honey treatment were 35%, 39%, 28% and 43% better, respectively, than with acyclovir treatment. For genital herpes, the mean duration of attacks and pain, occurrence of crusting, and mean healing time with honey treatment were 53%, 50%, 49% and 59% better, respectively, than with acyclovir.”

– Healing gastric damage from aspirin, alcohol, and other toxins we put in our gut.  Even WebMD – which is about as conventional as you can get, touts the benefits of Honey for killing bacteria and healing cell damage.  

Something I think is amazing?  Honey induces much less of a Glycemic Index rise than plain sugar in Type 1 Diabetics; which means that for all of us, honey raises blood sugar less than regular sugar does.  That’s always a good thing.

And of course, the pollens in Raw Honey, especially if they’re local, pack a powerful punch against allergies. Small amounts of pollen act as an inoculant against large amounts in the air that trigger reactions like the runny nose and itchy eyes of hay fever.  Sounds better than allergy shots!

Convinced?  Go buy some Real Raw Honey, which is absolutely NOTHING like regular honey in your grocery store.  A large study published just this year out of Texas A&M University showed that of the 60 different store brands tested, 76% contained NO pollen, no live enzymes, no live beneficial bacteria, or any of the other dozens of nutrients in Real Raw Honey. As a matter of fact, these 76% contained added sugar, corn syrup, and FLAVORS.  You’re going to have to buy Real Raw Honey from a Natural Food Store, a Farmers Market, a Co-op, or something along those lines.  (By the way, 100% of honey tested at drug stores had NO pollen or other nutrients, 100%.)

For major anti-bacterial/anti-viral action, buy Manuka Honey.  It’s a honey out of Australia made from Manuka Bushes, and this honey’s anti-pathogen action is even stronger than local raw honey.  Check out my Super Duper Germ Killer, garlic and honey, here.

Just as with other Real Foods, you can use the resource www.localharvest.com to find Raw Honey in your area.

Making ourselves, and our family, healthy should be one of our biggest priorities.  Real Whole Foods are at the top of the pyramid when it comes to health, along with sleep, stress management, and good exercise.  The best part about using Real Whole Food as medicine?  No nasty side effects, it’s cheaper than drugs, and it tastes delicious.

Category: Looks Healthy But Isn't, Natural Therapies, RWF, Sugar / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Food: The Good (my Green Smoothie), The Bad(Balance Bar), and The Ugly(Quaker Oats Bar)

April 11, 2014 / / Comments Off on Food: The Good (my Green Smoothie), The Bad(Balance Bar), and The Ugly(Quaker Oats Bar)

I met with a nutrition client this week and our main discussion was gut issues, as in, she has Major Bloat every day, has for years, and it’s affecting her life.  Not a surprise, Bloat is epidemic;  these outward symptoms ( bloat, skin problems, heart burn, allergies, etc) are SIGNALS from our body that “all is not well” inside.  Everyone, listen to your body when it talks to you – seriously, it’s important.

The average disease, from cancer to diabetes to heart disease to an auto-immune condition, takes about 20 years to manifest.  Usually, those 20 years are spent taking either OTC medications to suppress the symptoms, or prescribed medications to suppress the symptoms.  Taking medications for your symptoms allows the REASON for the symptoms to continue on quietly, plus, you get to accumulate all those medication side effects ( for example, Tylenol – #1 cause of liver failure in the US)  Don’t let that be you; the temptation to quickly suppress symptoms so you can continue unbothered is very strong, but the end result of that is never good.

Back to Tina.  This case was easy, she’s a new client, just diving into Real Whole Foods, and she eats a lot of “bars”.  Oh, the lure of the Bar…..  I’ve been there.  Sometimes I still miss my bars…. even though they made my stomach bloat to about a 5 / 6 month pregnant roundness every afternoon.  Actually, that was the bars plus the whole box of Kashi I used to eat in 2 days.  In addition to the Bloat, was excessive farting – which never happens any more Thank God!  ( my family Thanks God too.)

I keep digressing, bars bars bars.  Bars have an undeserved healthy reputation, after all, the weight lifting/fitness industry created them.  Zero Carbs, or Zero Fat, Tastes Like A Snickers!!!!  What’s not to love?  The ingredients – pure poison!

Here’s some of the ingredients for a Carmel Nut Blast Balance Bar: soy protein isolate, fructose, glucose syrup, sugar,fractionated palm kernel oil, maltodextrin, soy lecithin, carrageenan,  artificial colors, artificial flavors, glycerine, soybean oil, and dextrose.  After that there’s a whole slew of synthetic vitamins made in China.  Sound like a solid food for building a healthy body? Not.  Something to pack in your kid’s lunch box so that their brain will focus well?  This is “anti-brain function” food!

What about the Doctors Carb Rite Bar, it has the word Doctors in it, so maybe it’s good?  Nope.  Here’s some of the ingredients:  isolated soy protein, maltitol ( several times), sugar free white coating, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, maltitol syrup, polydextrose, lecithin, natural flavors, and glycerine.  Bring on the Bloat.

Let me finish with Quaker Oats Granola Bites, Chocolate Flavor: WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, WHOLE GRAIN PUFFED CEREAL (WHOLE GRAIN WHITE CORN, WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WHOLE GRAIN BROWN RICE FLOUR, SUGAR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, BHT [A PRESERVATIVE]), SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM KERNEL AND PALM OIL*, NONFAT DRY MILK, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, POLYDEXTROSE, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED WHOLE MILK, SOY LECITHIN, COCOA, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, MOLASSES, HONEY, SODIUM BICARBONATE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS.   This is gross, just like the first two.  They’re all candy bars loaded with artificial and real sugars, grains, and chemicals.  I made this the “ugly” bar because it’s so obviously marketed to kids, so this isn’t just a “diet” gimmick, this bar is supposed to make you believe it tastes like candy but actually has health benefits for your child; in other words, feel good about letting them eat this.  Oh please.

They’re all created in labs by brilliant food scientists who want to addict us, and advertised by brilliant marketing executives who know how to appeal to us.  These fake foods will always cause harm and disease for our body, always.

What to do?  Eat Real Whole Foods.  Need something fast for your kids?  Buy nuts, dried fruit, and dark chocolate chips in the bulk bins and throw together your own mixes.  Make a big batch of homemade cookies or bars, cut up, baggy up, and freeze. Fruit/celery and nut butters; meat and cheese. ( It’s not complicated, just a different way of thinking.) Are there any good bars on the shelves?  Oh yeah! Read the labels and find ingredient lists that contain ONLY Real Whole Foods, like nuts and seeds. If there’s words you can’t pronounce, don’t buy it.  Plan, shop, cook, and pack.  You can do this, honest.

smoothie411On a different note, I get asked about my morning smoothies a lot, so I’m going to post them for the next couple of weeks.  Here’s this mornings:   Raw Milk Keifer, chia seeds, frozen avocado, frozen banana, frozen chard/dandelion greens, carob powder, raw egg, gelatin ( Great Lakes brand), spirulina, ginger, nutmeg, and coconut flakes, and *** something new I just learned last night is great for the liver:  carrot seed oil!!   Have I told you I’m really into Essential Oils?  I’ve been using the Carrot Seed Oil ( along with several others) on my face…wrinkle prevention.  This morning, it’s in our smoothies.

Hey, don’t forget, guest post by Mark coming this Sunday.  He’s turning 50 on Saturday, and he’s promised me he’d write a post on how to stay fit, energetic, and full of Testosterone despite 80 hour work weeks and long commutes.  And being old enough to get an AARP card!

Category: Food Additives, Looks Healthy But Isn't, No Recipe Paleo Meals, RWF, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , , ,

Success Story Inspiration!

January 23, 2014 / / Comments Off on Success Story Inspiration!

debbie (12)I’ve got another Success Story to share with you, from a client who’s 68 and struggled through years of different diets.  She’s helping to illustrate – again – that “diets” don’t work, none of them.  As long as you’re focusing on the perfect meal plan, or the right amount of calories, or even worse, tracking calories in- calories out, all that happens is obsession, craziness, and incredibly powerful backlash-binges.  Remember, almost 100% of everyone who loses weight on a diet gains it back.

The secret to permanent weight loss and ZERO FOOD STRESS?  Start in your mind.  Work on deleting the deeply ingrained notions about dieting that you’ve heard your whole life.  A healthy weight and a healthy body comes from FEEDING it, not starving it.  Starving your body just makes it scream more loudly at you.  That temper tantrum is actually for nutrients:  good fats, quality proteins, carbohydrates from vegetables and fruits, vitamins, minerals, water and phytonutrients that your body needs to make and repair cells.  There are no nutrients in fat free pretzels, low fat Starbucks lattes, or Weight Watchers Frozen Meals.  They’re all crap food, and your body will protest – loudly.

Read Carolyn’s story; think about your own history of health and dieting, and be determined that today is the day you start making permanent changes to your foods, your habits, and your thoughts.  Check out my What I Eat page for ideas, it’s all about Real Whole Foods.

“I’m a sixty-eight year old woman who has been dealing with weight issues since my last child was born in 1977. (Seriously!). I kept on a extra 10 pounds after her birth and then every year or two, I added another pound.  (That doesn’t sound so bad).  Well, adding a pound every year meant that now I was up another 10-15 pounds.  Weight gain in spite of buying all the latest diet books and magazines that were published each year.  I tried low-carb , low -fat, high carb, vegetarian ( which I hated and made me feel horrid),  low calorie, portion sized diets. None of these diets made me feel good and any weight lost was quickly regained.  Plus, an added result of the weight gain was high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  Next came an anti-depressant because I was experiencing a lot of anxiety and didn’t feel so good about myself.
    I’m a strong person, not weak willed, but for some reason couldn’t get a handle on my eating habits. I have an addictive nature so when I got on to something, especially something made with sugar, I was hooked.  I felt like I was fighting myself all the time.
    Because of a very lovely person, Debbie’s Mom, I was introduced to Debbie and her passion for health and fitness.  We hit it off even though we’re long distance. She got me on a road less traveled– common sense.  Everything she taught me made sense-  sugar is addictive! Preservatives are bad! Diet Coke is terrible!  Grains are inflammatory.  She said focus on real food that we evolved eating.  Don’t measure, don’t weigh! 
    Well, I gave it a try.  The worst was no snacking because I evolved snacking.  But I persevered and felt great and lost a few pounds along the way.  I’m off all medication except the antidepressant.  And I don’t obsess about my weight, my body is slowly giving up those extra pounds.
    I feel so good for my age!  I exercise too. Pilates is my passion.  I’m so fortunate to be enjoying good health and I have Debbie to thank for getting me off the diet mentality and unto a much healthier lifestyle.”
Category: Mind/Body, Success Story / Tags: , , , ,

Diet Miracle, or Avoid At All Costs?

January 20, 2014 / / Comments Off on Diet Miracle, or Avoid At All Costs?

ensureEvery now and then I like to rip apart a Food Product that’s somehow attained a healthy status.  We’ve all heard of “Ensure” and “Pediasure”.  These products are actually recommended by doctors and passed out in hospitals, nursing homes, and cancer centers as if they contain Magical Properties.  They don’t.  They’re pure crap, a true “Looks Healthy But Isn’t”.  Last night I saw a commercial for Ensure Protein that compared it with 4 eggs, and the Ensure came out on top.  My head exploded – you’ve got to be kidding me!  Is there NO truth in advertising at all?   Let’s take apart the ingredients in Ensure, compare it with the nutrients in eggs, and then you all can decide if you’d ever give it to someone you care about.

The ingredients in Ensure Protein:
Water, Milk Protein Concentrate, Corn Maltodextrin. Less than 2% of the Following: Calcium Caseinate, Soy Protein Isolate, Sugar (Sucrose), Short-Chain , High Oleic Safflower Oil, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Magnesium Phosphate, Potassium Citrate, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Ascorbate, Sodium Chloride, Carrageenan, Cellulose Gel, Gellan Gum, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose, Zinc Gluconate, dl-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Manganese Gluconate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Chloride Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Chromium Chloride, Folic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin D3, Biotin, Sodium Molybdate, Sodium Selenite, Potassium Iodide, Phytonadione, and Cyanocobalamin.

Ready?

Milk Protein Concentrate:  This is milk that’s been ultra-filtered; that means all liquid and ALL MINERALS and several other nutrients, have been REMOVED.  All of the MPC used in the U.S. ( and it’s in several processed foods) comes from OUT of the U.S.; New Zealand and China are the top suppliers.  There’s very, very little regulation over this product, and because it’s cheaper for Big Food to buy it overseas, it’s having an ENORMOUSLY bad impact on American Dairy Farmers.  You can read more about this here.  By the way, it’s only 40% protein, no fat, no minerals, no vitamins, what’s the other 60%?

Corn Maltodextrin: this is highly refined, super cheap, corn sugar.  It has an incredibly high glycemic index rating of 130.  Table sugar’s rating is 65.  What this means is this sugar is so highly processed and refined that once it’s in the gut it makes it into the blood stream in record time, skyrocketing blood sugar, and spiking insulin. (hello belly fat, heart disease, and diabetes)

Soy Protein Isolate:  Ugh.  Soy definitely got an undeserved reputation as a health food.  It’s not.  Soy protein is loaded with “phyto-estrogens”, that means plant compounds that mimic estrogen.  Men don’t need more estrogen, and neither do women.  Soy is “goitrogenic”.  That means it disrupts Thyroid Function, who wants that?  Soy is incredibly hard to digest and is highly allergenic.  Soy Protein Isolate has had ALL nutrients removed, just like the Milk Protein Concentrate.

Sucralose: aka, Splenda.  The links between Splenda/sucralose and CANCER are huge. Studies show it also destroys beneficial gut bacteria, and raises blood sugar – just like real sugar.

Cellulose Gel: This is not the same cellulose that’s in fiberous veggies.  This is made in a lab from Wood Pulp.  Always.  It’s cheap, it’s gives good “mouth feel”, and like every other ingredient in this gross drink, it’s in soooo many foods.

Okay, see all those long words that are hard to pronounce?  Like Pyridoxine Hydrochloride?  All of those are SYNTHETIC VITAMINS. These are ADDED because there’s NO nutrients in these ingredients; they’re devoid of nutrients, literally.  Synthetic vitamins are mostly made in CHINA, under incredibly lax and unregulated conditions. (PS, it’s important that vitamin supplements you take are made from “Whole Food Sources”) There is NOTHING remotely similar to God’s Vitamin’s that He put in actual Real Whole Food.  Please, please, I’m begging you, click on the link below and read the ingredients that are used to make these SYNTHETIC VITAMINS.  Here’s an example using the above mentioned vitamin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, (vitamin B6):

Natural Vitamin B6 – Like B1, pyridoxine is bound with phosphate in plants to make pyridoxal-phosphate. This is the biologically active form. Any other form of B6 must be converted into this phosphate combination before our body can use it.

Synthetic Vitamin B6 – Pyridoxine hydrochloride comes from petroleum ester, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde. It isn’t readily absorbed or converted and has been shown to actually inhibit the action of natural B6 in the body. It also has side effects not normally found with natural food sources of this vitamin.

You can learn more by clicking on this link.

What about the eggs?  What nutrients are in eggs?  The answer is really more eggslike, what nutrients AREN’T in eggs?  They’re one of natures perfect foods, and that whole cholesterol connection’s been more than put to rest.  Our bodies NEED cholesterol for hormone production, Vitamin D production, cell function and formation, and brain health.  Most of the cholesterol in our blood is from our LIVER, which MAKES cholesterol; actually, EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY MAKES CHOLESTEROL.  It’s that important.  Back to eggs!

Just to name a FEW of the nutrients that eggs contain:  Vit. A, D, E, K, thiamin, riboflavin, B12, B6, Pantothenic Acid, Choline, Biotin, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Selenium, and if you want to see it all, check here.

My real point with this post:  Processed foods are Poison Crap that destroy your body and mind and make you sick, and Real Whole Foods are Loaded with Nutrients that your body needs in forms that are highly “useable”.  Even foods like Ensure, which have an Healthy Aura around them, are Crap.

It really, really matters what we put in our mouth.  It matters what our kids put in their mouths.  What we eat becomes US.  What we eat gets broken down into nutrients that either our body uses to build and repair us, or ANTI-nutrients that harm us.  There is no neutral food.  Honestly.

Feeling overwhelmed because Processed Foods like cereal, frozen meals, and boxed crackers are so easy, fast, and normal seeming?  The billions of advertising dollars spent by Big Food has just hypnotized you, it was supposed to!  Look around though, 70% of the US is overweight and sick.  ADD, ADHD, and Autism have literally infiltrated our children.  Depression and Anxiety are the most common mental illness in the US, affecting at least 20% of the population.   It’s The Food I Swear!  Take control of your life, improve the lives of your children; eat Real Whole Food.  Get in touch with me if you need help; it’s not as scary, or time consuming, or impossible as you think.  Make the change today to being a whole new you.

 

 

Category: Food Additives, Looks Healthy But Isn't, RWF / Tags: , , , , , ,

Lose Weight Without Dieting, and No Recipe Paleo Meals

January 13, 2014 / / 2 comments

I’ve had more emails in the past week than in the past couple of months;  I’ve struck a nerve asserting that you can be slim without dieting.  Some women are asking if it’s actually possible, since we’ve all been brainwashed with Diet Propaganda since birth; and some women are lamenting their Food Addiction. ( They believe it, they just can’t stop eating.)

Two different issues, but the resolution is the same:  Real Whole Foods.  Make your meals comprised of Good Fats, Clean Proteins, and TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and dairy if you can tolerate it. These foods contain the nutrients that make up every single cell in our body.  Glucose/Carbs/Starches/Sugars – they make nothing.  Our body uses a tiny MOLECULE of glucose inside the cells for fuel.  Our cells can also use fat and ketones for fuel.  That’s how people who live in areas with little to no vegetation thrive.  God designed our body to only be able to store a tiny bit of Glucose/Sugar/Carbohydrate, and convert any extra to Fat.

Changing gears here, until the mid 1900s, American’s didn’t have a weight problem. Health problems were horrible diseases like Typhoid or Cholera.   Check out this chart which relates changes in our food supply to how Heart Disease and Cancer went from almost unheard of in 1900,  to being the top two causes of death by 1950.  In 2013 we have a better chance of SURVIVING heart disease and cancer, but a GREATER than ever chance of developing it; despite Modern Medicine and all it’s advice.

What’s the link between our exploding weight and our horrible health?  Food.  By 1950 hydrogenated oils like Crisco and Margarine were household staples; in the 70s/80s, high fructose corn syrup became the predominant sweetener used in packaged/processed foods, in the 80s and 90s, chemically enhanced, fake foods and diet foods became a new norm.  Sugar went from 18 pounds per person in 1800, to 90 pounds per person in 1900, to almost 200 pounds per person in 2010.  Americans have drastically decreased their consumption of fatty meats and saturated fats, and vegetables and fruits.

The Results?  70% overweight, more than 30% obese.  Heart Disease, continually increasing, Diabetes – EXPLODING, Cancer – continually increasing, Depression/Anxiety/Migraines/Alzheimer’s – EXPLODING…. I could go on and on.

The take-away:  Dieting hasn’t worked; it’s actually had the opposite effect! Statistically, almost 100% of EVERYONE who loses weight on a “diet” gains it back. Most people gain MORE than they lost.  Reducing calories lowers Thyroid hormone, and increases Cortisol.  Eat a Low Fat/No Fat Diet, which means carby diet foods, and your Insulin increases. Losing weight becomes more and more difficult with each consecutive diet.  The hormonal effect of dieting is disastrous.  

What’s the latest in this line of research?  The effect dieting has on our Neurotransmitters, like dopamine and serotonin.  It completely depletes them or whacks out their levels.  If our Neurotransmitters aren’t level or normal, we can’t be normal.  This is where food addiction comes into play, along with depression and anxiety.  Want to learn more?  Read the Diet Cure by Julia Ross, it’s fantastic.  Want to work on this?  Get in touch with me.

Think you can’t lose weight by eating meals of Real Whole Foods that contain lots of fat and actually leave you feeling full?  You’re wrong.  The real fact is you can’t lose weight PERMANENTLY on a diet.  Just TRY a Real Whole Foods approach, try and see what happens for a month.  Really, what do you have to lose?

I’m going to close with some No Recipe Paleo Meals that I’ve cooked in the past few days.  (Power Cooking to a Walking Dead Binge!!)

This is Roasted Potatoes:  Put about 1/3 cup of butter (I used KerryGold) in a large baking dish (with sides) and let it totally melt in your oven (450) for a few minutes.  Scrub and chop a 5 pound bag of Russet potatoes.  Put the potatoes in your baking dish and mix/stir around so all the potatoes are covered in butter.  Sprinkle a LOT of salt and pepper, and Italian seasoning on top.  Bake for about 45-55 minutes, stirring/flipping at least twice.  Let these cool and then freeze flat in big ziplocs; you can just “break off pieces” and reheat in the oven or a pan with more butter.

roasted potatoes

 

Here’s Roasted Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Sausage:  I made a huge pot of broth (24 hour simmer of chicken bones in water and 1tbsp white vinegar) earlier this week.   I used 10 cups here, some Malt Vinegar, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, garlic, leeks, sausage, italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  This also freezes well.

broth:cabbage

And last, Mark and I went away this weekend;  here’s what I cooked in our cabin:  brussels and onions in butter, water, salt and pepper,  mixed with ground lamb, and a side of fried plantains.  The next picture is the leftovers mixed with a few eggs for breakfast.

dinner at high view

breakfast leftovers

 

 

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, No Recipe Paleo Meals, Paleo Diet, RWF / Tags: , , , , , ,

Hop off the Diet Roller Coaster

October 18, 2013 / / Comments Off on 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.

Category: Cooking, Fats, RWF, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , ,
 
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