What To Get For Your Valentine!

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and for those of you sticking with your New Years Resolutions you may not know what to give that special loved one. Luckily, I have compiled a list of HEALTHY options for you to be the #1 Sweetheart! There are lots of options out there and it’s important not to get stuck in the unhealthy processed candy aisle. True love means helping your love one stick with their goals and being environmentally aware too!

Chocolate – Let’s face it, most people like chocolate, but few Valentine’s actually put in the effort to make something from the heart and the kitchen. It doesn’t take much work and it is not only more thoughtful but more healthful too! There are lots of Paleo recipes out there that are super easy and are great alternatives to store-bought unhealthy treats. You can make Chili Chocolate Brownies to spice up your love or go simple with Nut Butter Cookies. Either way your Valentine will sure to enjoy!

Flowers – Now here is the totally calorie-free option with no added sugar! Everyone loves beautiful flowers, even if you are like me and have no green thumb whatsoever. For the few days they stay alive, they are still fun to look at. You can even hang them out to dry to keep a memento from the sweetheart who bought them for you!

Homemade Dinner – Instead of going out to an expensive, overly crowded restaurant this year, try cooking something healthy and delicious! Maybe try Coconut Lime Shrimp or a Grass-Fed Filet Mignon with Organic Kale. Whatever your choice, your sweetheart will surely enjoy the effort and the fact you both know exactly what ingredients are in it!

Handmade Cards – By far the least expensive option is always to make your own card. You can use colored paper you have around and cut out cute shapes (like hearts) and decorate with colored pens! You will also get the added satisfaction of knowing that you made it with love, it’s unique and no extra trees were harmed for your Valentine!

Jewelry – Avoid the big corporate stores and checkout your local gift shop or vintage shop for some unique jewelry. Not only will you find your special someone a unique gift but it is also likely to have a story behind it or be made by a local artist instead of a sweatshop far away that uses plenty of fossil fuels to get to your big chain superstore. You will also be supporting small businesses and they will thank you for that!

Whatever your choice this year keep it healthy, unique and environmentally friendly! Your Valentine will be sure to appreciate you more for being thoughtful, healthy and sustainable! Happy Valentines Day!

Healthy Holiday Gift Ideas

Sure there are plenty of baskets of high-fructose corn syrup and aisles of electronic goodies for you to purchase. But here are some ways for you to buy gifts this year that you will actually feel good about purchasing and giving! Certainly those you give to will also appreciate:

1. Shop as local as possible. Those random little shops that sell homemade gifts are fabulous! In fact they are so fabulous, that I can be seen here shopping for just homemade soap on Fox 5 news.Not only are you supporting your local community but you get to be the gift giver with the most unique presents!
2. Make gift baskets full of healthful treats! In fact there are websites that specialize in just that, like http://www.itsonlynaturalgifts.com. Or you can be creative and make your own gift baskets. Go to Michael’s and grab some ribbon and baskets and then shop your local market for produce and organic treats. You can even bake your own Nut Butter Cookies and boom, you have a great gift that everyone will enjoy!
3. Check out the local farmers markets! There are some truly talented artists and designers out there just waiting for you to check out what they have under their tent. So many of the designers and artists are willing to make deals if you buy several items from them. So get the girls in your family some cute jewelry and the men some recycled leather wallets! The farmers market is also a great place to get organic treats for your baskets!
4. There are not too many fitness props that I find absolutely necessary, but the ones I have I love! You can actually find most of these for pretty inexpensive at TJ Maxx instead of the big name sports equipment store:
   

   A strap is a great tool to aid in stretching and strengthening the body. Until you can wrap your peace fingers around your toe and bring your foot to your face, the strap can help you at least bring the foot halfway to your face!

   

   This eco-friendly roller uses fewer materials since the center is hollow. It also helps you to massage the body or play with your balance in your workout.

   

   This eco-friendly medicine ball is made with materials that are Latex, and Phthalates free. It also is a great way to add some weight to your workouts. Try ab twists, sumo squats and lunges with the ball and your muscles will love you!

   

   A really good yoga mat is absolutely essential and here’s why. You need a mat that thick enough to protect the joints, does not slip, is solidly made and lasts forever. I am a Manduka Pro owner and therefore will always be. Why? Because the mats last forever and if it doesn’t, there is a lifetime guarantee to replace it. Why spend money on cheap yoga mats that fall apart, when you spend just under $100 and get one that lasts forever. Cheap mats also hinder your performance.

   

   Eco-Friendly yoga blocks are a great way to enhance your yoga and fitness practice. Everyone should probably have 2 of these in their fitness collection.

   

   Stability balls are really fun and can be extremely challenging. Suitable for every fitness level, these babies will help improve your core and who doesn’t need help with that area?

   

   Weight lifting gloves are perfect for the person who is at the gym all the time. No ones needs to have calluses, yuck!

5. For that wanna-be-chef, here are some amazing kitchen tools that can really add to your life:
   

   The crock pot is essential for any chef. Who doesn’t like to put it all in a pot and press “on”? So easy and everything always comes out amazing.

   

   The Nutribullet is my new favorite tool. It is far less expensive than the glorious Vitamix, but you get the same amazing blend ability. Plus its super fast and easy to clean.

   

   Bamboo accessories are always appreciated by an Eco-friendly chef!

   

   Everyone loves olive oil, and it is so healthy for you. Lots of olive farms are popping up everywhere and so are olive oil makers. Makes great gifts!

   

   Delicious organic herbs are a great way to spice up someones present. For even more freshness, grab some live herbs plants at your Farmer’s Market.

    

6. When you run out of time? Hit up the grocery store and grab the following:
   

   Organic coffee, tea and/or chocolates.

   And there you have it, all the ways to truly be the most healthful and sustainable gift giver. Happy Holidays!

    

    

Skinny vs. Healthy

I love that I found this before and after image to demonstrate the difference between skinny and healthy. The girl is clearly not someone you would see on the street and think “wow that girl needs to get to a gym”. But she is a girl who many overweight women idolize.

There is so much crap out there that the diet industry shoves in your face. There is no quick fix program for anyone. That girl in the above picture ate well and worked out. End of story. I see a lot of women (and men) who lose massive amounts of weight only to look like a skinny-fat person. So what does it mean to be a skinny-fat person?

This term has been used in medical journals and health professionals over the last few years and it identifies an individual who visibly looks thin but has a high body fat percentage. Mark Hyman, MD, discusses this in his article “Are You a Skinny Fat Person? Ten Steps to Cure the Skinny Fat Syndrome”. The scientific term for this is “metabolically obese normal weight” or “MONW”. And it is just as dangerous as being obese. In fact 1 in 4 skinny people are skinny fat.

What is even more startling is that if you are diagnosed with diabetes as a skinny fat person, you have TWICE the risk of death than an overweight obese person. Hyman hypothesizes that this may be due to the fact that obese individuals have more muscle to carry around all that fat.  However the New York Times did an article in 2012 that discussed one researcher who showed that being fat and fit is better than being skinny and not fit because normal aerobic exercise helps clear the liver of fat build-up, where it may do the most damage.

This is all very disturbing but why is this happening? I would venture a guess that the reason is twofold.

1.Most people are getting the wrong information and are not eating. With all those dieting products out there, more people are being fed CRAP and fewer people are eating FOOD. See the image to the left.  It is also difficult for people to shop correctly with advertising on packages selling you on foods they claim will help you lose weight. With titles like “Special K” and “South Beach Diet” trying to sell you their laboratory created, GMO-ridden foods that are lower in calories than the Big Mac you really want. And these systems have not been around long enough to demonstrate the long-term health effects. And those that have been around probably already have lawsuits against them for false advertising (if you know me you know I have done enough research to know the products that are still on the market and have had cases ruled against their companies for being fraudulent).   Most Americans also don’t drink enough water, or eat enough fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. And if your diet was filled with mostly fresh organic fruits, veggies nuts and seeds, you would see that there is little room for the all the CRAP and that fat would fall off your body quicker.

2. Most people are generally lazy. Because they eat poorly and work long hours, most people do not HAVE the energy they would have if they ate well to exercise and work off the calories necessary to maintain a healthy metabolic weight. And people who are already skinny do not feel the need to workout and have those nice genetics that allow them to maintain a low weight on the scale. However, as they age, they will increase their risk for illness to a higher degree than obese individuals.

Another problem is when you lose too much weight too quickly (ie. more than 5 pounds a week), by using one of those fad diets or exercising too much. Unless you are literally 400 pounds, it is physically impossible for your body to let go of that much fat that quickly unless you are literally running all day and night and eating very little. But even then you are burning through muscle too. Keep in mind that an obese individual burns a lot more calories by walking a block than a skinny person does. The reason? It takes more effort to move a large object than a small object. Basic physics for you.

Solution? Read my blog on real shopping for food. Do your own research when you see a company selling something promising to make you lose weight. Understand that companies do not care about the consumer, only the bottom line and there are LOTS of companies out there like this. That local, organic spinach farmer on the other hand, DOES actually care about you. That yoga instructor teaching you how to move your body correctly DOES care about you. That blogger putting up all her paleo recipes online for you to use DOES care about you. And I care too.

So let us try to eliminate skinny fat from the modern world and work toward healthy bodies full of muscle  with organs that work properly. Keep a realistic ideal image of how you want to look in your mind and try to attain it by eating well, being active and keeping stress to a minimum. Remember you have to be comfortable in your own body too. And That skinny fat girl you may envy who eats whatever she wants will likely get diabetes and be no more. 🙂

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies!

How to Cope With Pain

This weekend I experienced 3 different forms of pain. Emotional pain from the mourning of a loved one who recently passed; anger and frustration when a dear friend of mine was a victim of a hate-crime; and physical pain from standing too long at the Pride parade. I know that I am not alone in having pain and it is important to know how to handle pain as it shows up in various forms throughout our lives. So how do we deal with all these kinds of pain?

The first step is to identify the pain. Once you know that you are feeling anger because you were wronged, or depression because you were hurt or physical pain because you moved your body incorrectly (or haven’t moved at all) you can begin to take action.

Once you have identified the source of the pain you can begin by sitting or lying in a comfortable position. If you are like me and have a major injury, that comfortable position may be difficult to find, but try sitting or lying on pillows and cushions to support your posture and allow your muscles to relax. It doesn’t matter what you look like. Then close your eyes.

Take a deep inhale through your nose open your mouth and sigh. Repeat this a few times. Then close your mouth and try to inhale and exhale through your nose deepening each inhale and exhale. This method of elongating the breath helps to calm the mind, and according to Mind Body Green, helps signal your brain to turn up the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls your rest, relaxation and digestion response, while turning down your sympathetic nervous system, which controls your fight or flight responses which increase your stress hormones, heart rate, and breathing. So practicing slow, controlled breathing, or pranayama in yoga, is helpful to teach your brain to be calm.

Once you have established a center of calm and  relaxation you can begin to think about the cause of the pain. This is easier when it is emotional. Recall your feelings of sadness, hurt and/or anger. Then as you continue to breathe deeply, breathe in positivity and light (or anything else that makes you feel good inside) and breathe out the pain you feel inside. Repeat this until the pain begins to subside and you are left feeling “lighter”.

Rest and relaxation are great to calm the mind, but what if that is just not enough? There are other things you can do. You can try letting out your frustration with exercise (a nice hike, bike ride, swim or kickboxing if you really feel the need to “punch” something).  I find that being “one” with nature helps greatly. Going to the ocean, forest or vast field helps me feel like I am small in the universe and that things happen for a reason.

Maybe physical activity is too much to handle and you need to retreat and read a good book, or be creative and paint or even just cry. Sometimes we need to cry and feel our emotions to their fullest extent. If you are like me and suffer from physical pain, sometimes we have to have various movements and postural exercises (see my other post on posture) a part of our daily life to feel less of that pain. And that can be extremely difficult and exhausting when physical pain is present for long periods of time, but you have to keep moving. Movement allows blood to circulate, muscles to stay strong, joints to stay  healthy and organs to move correctly.

In addition, during times of pain we may back away from a normal healthy diet. Do your best to stay healthy and hydrated so that you can aid in your pain subsiding. We may want the immediate satisfaction of that fried chicken or ice-cream sandwich, but it won’t make your internal body feel better. Or we may stray away from eating anything at all because we don’t “feel” hungry. It is important to keep on eating good-for-us fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and meats that give us the energy and nutrition we need to overcome our pain. If you really need your “comfort food”, try making your favorites paleo, google recipes or check out my favorite paleo blogger Juli Bauer who makes some amazing sweet treats. You will feel better and get your craving cured without harming your body further with processed foods, toxins and chemical additives.

It is important to find balance in life. Balancing inactivity with too much activity; stress with carelessness; rest with work. Finding a balance is the most difficult part but once you find it you will find that it is easier to live and handle day-to-day pain that comes into our lives in any form. Life needs to be worth living and some of us have to live with the loss of a dear one, the frustrations of an unjust world or the physical pain that makes it difficult to walk to the bathroom. Being able to work through the pain mentally and physically will help us all live better, healthier lives.

Seated Twist

Supplements : The Importance of a Balanced Perspective

Once of the latest trends in the health and fitness world today are supplements. Supplements come in various forms, from extra vitamin E in a liquid gel casing, to powdered fiber mixed in liquid. Are taking all these supplements really necessary for our bodies?

Keep in mind we all have different bodies with different needs. A proper diet rich in fresh, organic local fruits and vegetables as well as sustainable local meats and fish is going to probably make your need for supplements less.

If your diet is missing a certain plant, you are likely to be deficient in some nutrient. Studies show that diets rich in dark, green leafy vegetables are going to aid your nutritional needs. Dark, green leafy vegetables are common as spinach, kale and chard among others are good candidates to fulfill this need. However, these vegetables alone are not sufficient for your health; You also need good fats and for that, we turn to fish.

Sustainable fish means that the fish/seafood was caught or farmed in ways that consider the well-being of the fish/seafood and the oceans it lives in. Fish that are from sustainable farms means also are likely to have higher nutrient values than fish conventionally farmed. This is because conventionally farmed fish are not just fed various sea plants as would be in the fish’s natural diet, but chicken byproducts, hormones, and some grains. Alternatively, if you are a vegetarian you can go to the main source of what the fish eat and get higher values of essential nutrients from kombu/kelp, wakame and arame. These sea vegetables are extremely rich in nutrients such as Vitamin K (like dark green leafy veggies) calcium, chlorophyll and iron. However, Vitamin K-2 is found exclusively in grass-fed beef, which is where taking it as a supplement may benefit you if you are a vegetarian.

Many doctors recommend staying away from beef if you are overweight and have high cholesterol. However, grass-fed beef is far different from grain-fed beef and it’s important to understand the differences. If your diet consists of mostly corn-fed beef , you are likely to be deficient in most vitamins, antioxidants and healthy fats, but full of bad cholesterol and toxins. Grain-fed cows usually come from meat factories where they are fed a mix of corn, soy, hormones, and antibiotics. When they are processed for human consumption, the meat is treated with ammonia to kill any bacteria that may have occurred during their filthy confines.  If you were to change to grass-fed local beef, you would see not only an immediate increase in your Vitamin’s A, E , Omega-3’s and antioxidants, you also get the Vitamin K-2 which you can only get from a cow that eats grass! There are many reasons to have Vitamin K-2 in your diet including its ability to help calcium move to the proper areas in your body.

The goal remains that you should do your best to get all your nutrients from your foods. If that is not possible, as would be the case for vegetarians/vegans, supplements can be beneficial. Supplements in liquid form are always preferable because they are processed easier by your body. In any event, your supplements should be from organic whole foods to retain the integrity of the nutrients. It is always best to determine what you are lacking in your diet –  a nutritionist or lifestyle coach can help you with that. You may find that just increasing the amount of some mineral or vitamin increases your energy and helps your digestion. Whether increasing that amount comes from the foods themselves or in a pill or liquid form supplement is entirely your choice.

Conquering Stress

Americans are notorious for our fast pace lifestyles that leave little room for relaxation. We get up every morning and pour coffee into our empty stomachs and try to muster up the energy to go to work. We work 8-14 hour days and come home feeling exhausted. We turn on the television, wind down with alcohol, and go to bed only to repeat the same pattern the very next day.

Multiple things are wrong with this picture, yet the majority of Americans spend their lives living this way. Changing your lifestyle is not easy but it’s necessary to live a healthier, longer life which ultimately makes your life easier anyway.

When it comes to our own health, we have to maintain a life of less stress. Stress comes in different forms and can be physical, mental or spiritual. Physical stress affects the physical body, can lead to digestive problems, headaches, body aches and pain. Mental stress affects affects how we think and feel, and can lead to depression, anxiety, or mania. Spiritual stress is characterized by a loss of zest for life and life purpose. All of these forms of stress can be conquered by taking time out of your day for yourself, and no one else.

I talk about yoga a lot because it helps tackle all three of these stresses. You learn to move the body in healthy, detoxifying ways while strengthening and stretching out muscles.  Additionally, you  learn how to breathe deeply, slowly, and with purpose. You also get to focus on being in the present moment in time, which allows you to connect with your own individual spiritual being, whatever that may be.

Additionally, you have to focus on what you put into your body, which is where learning how to eat correctly for your own self is important. Learning to shop for proper foods is also key as well as keeping your body properly hydrated throughout the day.

It takes time to change your lifestyle but it IS worth it. Lower levels of stress help the body get rid of unwanted waste, which means you lose body fat more effectively. Lower stress levels lead to a lower resting heart rate, which greatly reduces your chances of having a heart attack. Learning to reduce the intensity of stress attacks with deep breathing, combined with taking steps to a nutritious lifestyle will help you live a long and happy life.

Shopping for Food

Most of us walk into a grocery store and get overwhelmed. There are bright signs pointing to this “healthy” or “whole grain” food, and that item is “on sale”, and its just hard to know what to do.
Here are some helpful hints to help ANYONE shop at ANY store effectively.

First: Know what you are getting before you go!
Have a list ready, if you go by whats on it you are less likely to get pulled in by all the clever advertising.

Second: Shop Smart!
Avoid the aisles of the supermarket as best as you can. That is where ALL your “Food Biproducts” are going to be. These are marketed to sell you items with clever names like “Whole Grain” and “All Natural”. Don’t be fooled, your body DOES NOT WANT IT! Every store is set up the same, the produce, meats, juices, and other fresh food is on the outer parts of the store, while the thousands of canned, frozen, boxed and bagged items crowd the shelves in the center. These items have a guaranteed shelf life, you want as MINIMAL of it as possible in your diet. Which gets to my next point:

Third: You Are What You Eat!

So…

Fresh Fruits and Veggies!
Increase your produce to the point where MOST of your shopping cart is taken up by them! ORGANIC is best, more nutrients and less toxins, but ask because lots of farms are going organic these days and just can’t call themselves “Organic” yet but may be free from pesticides and grown will nutrient rich soils.

I always have the following fruits and vegetables in my fridge during the week as staples:
Apples (Gala’s and Fuji’s are some of my favorites!)
Oranges or Grapefruit (always good to have citrus in the diet)
Bananas (great for post workout or low sugar drops in the day)
Squashes (easy to cook with and gentle on the stomach)
Kale (so many nutrients!)
Bell Peppers (taste good raw and cooked)
Carrots (also good when craving sweets)
Sweet Potato (better than regular potato, easy on the digestive system, easy to cook)

Always try to have an assortment of COLORS when you shop for food! The more colors = more nutrients!

Nuts and Seeds!
Always good to snack on, however some bodies may not process them as well so try one kind at a time and see what your body prefers. Roasted nuts are always easier on the digestive system but if you can handle raw or sprouted go for it! Get those nutrients!

Beans!
A great source of complex carbohydrates and protein, but they can be difficult on the digestive system, so do as most cultures do, eat with just a little rice. Bam! You have a complete protein complex as well as a good energy source for an upcoming workout!

Meat!
Yes I do advocate eating meat. After all our teeth PROVE that we are suppose to be carnivores! But eat wisely. Humane meat is always preferred, again going back to “You Are What You Eat”. Meat that is treated well, allowed to roam, given good food, is going to have better muscle tissue for YOU to eat and have less TOXINS thus better for your system and the environment!

Here’s a fun fact, ONLY GRASS FED MEAT has Vitamin K2, which you cannot get from any green vegetable. It ONLY comes from cows that eat GRASS! So keep that in mind when you choose your beef.

The difference between “Natural Chicken” and “Organic Chicken” is the feed. Organic chickens get fed organic feed, and Natural Chicken does not. If that does not matter to you than feel free to get the Natural Chicken. Look for key words like “Free Range” and “Hormone Free”. Hormones are a major cause of many of our diseases, so keep it out of your diet.

If you eat pork, which you should do minimally because of its fat content, make SURE it is HUMANE!!! Why you ask? Because Pigs are “feeling” animals. They have the brain capacity of a 3 year old child. So make sure you get your pig from a place that treats them well. Keep in mind MANY ranchers are NOT humane, ( a good 97%) so LOOK for key words in the labels and when in doubt ASK!

Otherwise you are most likely eating trace elements of fecal matter since factory animals are in crowded spaces covered in poop. Yes even those lovely cows you like to eat have ammonia in the meat to kill any fecal bacteria that may occur from the poo covered cow. Now do you really want ammonia in your body too?

Eggs!
Again, “free-range” “cage-free” and “organic” is what you want to look for here. The better the environment the better the egg. So ORGANIC is going to be the best here. “Cage free” does not necessarily mean no antibiotics, so be careful. Organic MEANS organic feed and living conditions, so it guarantees that the chicken was able to roam normally, have access to sunlight and had no pesticides, hormones or antibiotics in their diet.

Fish and Sea Plants
Again I reiterate the importance of knowing WHERE your fish comes from. MOST fish sold is CORN FED. Yes that is correct, Farm-raised = “I ate corn” Fish. Avoid at all costs. The point of eating fish, fresh fish at that is to get all the vital nutrients, Omega-3’s and protein it offers. When you change any animal’s diet (ie. corn fed cows) you get a lesser product. Corn is cheap. It offers very little nutrient value but has calories which is WHY farmers use it. But farmers are NOT nutritionists and overlook the natural environment that the Fish SHOULD be in! All that kelp and seaweed has so many nutrients its ridiculous. When you eat a small piece of Kombu (a seaweed) you eat more calcium than a glass of milk (notice I do not encourage milk products of any kind). So eat your fish from a fresh source and eat your sea plants as well. Toss your seaweed in your soup or in your stir fry and you wont even NOTICE it but your body will!

Things to LIMIT in your diet:

Milk Products
Remember that old food pyramid? The one that said to get your protein from eggs, milk and cheese? Yeah forget that. Most supermarkets carry cheeses and milk from hormone fed cows and our body doesn’t like hormones or milk. Milk is funny because even though it is marketed as a calcium source, too much of it actually puts our body in a state of Acidosis and makes our body have to pull calcium from our bones to bring our body back to PH balance level.

As for Cheese? Well most of what you see in the supermarket is cheese that is not NATURALLY AGED, meaning the milk they use is from rejected sources that cannot sell it fresh. When in doubt avoid Kraft entirely.

Most yogurt and kefir that you see in stores is pasteurized (damages the milk nutrients), homogenized(damages the milk and nutrients) and does not contain live active cultures. So look for Organic, plain and “live culture” on the label if you must eat it, You can get your bacteria from Probiotics, Kombucha and Kevita.

Whole Grains
The old school food pyramid convinced you that breads, pasta and cereal were essential in your diet. And now we know that the Bread, Pasta and Cereal companies lobbied Congress to tell us that! Too much of our grains are not grown the way they used to be and therefore have less nutrients. Today many of us cannot digest grains the way our ancestors were able to. So try to limit your grains as much as necessary. I rarely if ever buy bread, crackers etc. If I do buy grains I look for local and organic sprouted grain bread and I always eat rice based crackers because rice is easiest on the digestive system. But you will see as time goes on more and more studies being published about the hazards of eating wheat and other grains and the benefits of sticking to quinoa and rice. Japan is a clear example of a culture with very little heart disease and breast cancer. They eat LOTS of sea vegetables and fish and only rice as their grain. You take a Japanese woman and put her in America and her chances of breast cancer skyrocket!

Sugar
We all like sweets, but avoid at all costs. If you are craving sweet, have Coconut Sugar on hand to bake with or to sprinkle on a piece of fruit. It is low glycemic and wont cause confusion to the enzymes in your stomach and intestines the way no calorie sweeteners do. Stay away from sugar substitutes. The are usually chemicals your body does not want or like Stevia, our body cannot digest. If you are like me and crave chocolate, look for Fair Trade and Organic labels with Dark Chocolate. The darker the better!

* Special thanks to Free Digital Photos for stock photos *