Really great chocolate is hard to find and even harder to make on your own. Who has the time, right? I'm going to make it easy for you locals of Mt. Washington Valley* to nourish yourself with whole food, plant-based, naturally-sweetened and delicious living chocolate. The Chocolate Club is about meeting your health goals and satisfying your passion for chocolate without denying yourself or polluting your body or the environment with cane sugar, soy products and chemical emulsifiers. It's about supporting your well-being and the community by keeping it local and social. It's about locally-sourced and fair-trade ingredients, handcrafted into creative sweet and savory chocolate that's different and delicious. It's about engagement and benefits. The more shares you buy and refer, the more you save. Click here for a taste of The Chocolate Club. mmmmmmm.......... *So you're not local to Mt. Washington Valley? I'm working out the details on shipping so stay tuned. When you're in the Valley, let me know. I'll hook you up with some sweet chocolate.....
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Trouble sleeping through the night? Feeling exhausted? Running on stress hormones all day? Sleep is this daily thing that we all do and yet we're just beginning to understand all of the ways it helps us and all of the factors that can affect it. The modern science of sleep is fascinating, complicated and growing but sleep has been one of the 5 major tenets of naturopathic healing for centuries. (The other 4 are pure water, sunlight, whole food and fresh air.) Lack of sleep affects just about everything in your body and mind. People who get less sleep tend to be at higher risk for many health issues like diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer, not to mention slower metabolism, weight gain, hormone imbalance, and inflammation. Lack of sleep also affects mood, memory and decision-making skills and may even negate the health benefits of your exercise program. Knowing this it's easy to see the three main purposes of sleep: To restore our body and mind. Our bodies repair, grow and even “detoxify” our brains while we sleep. To improve our brain's ability to learn and remember things, technically known as “synaptic plasticity”. To conserve some energy so we're not on-the-go 24-hours a day, every day. 7- 8 hours of sleep per night goes a long way in supporting adult wellness. You’ve heard all this, right? So, how can you set yourself up for a good night’s sleep? Consistency Make a consistent sleep schedule a priority and you're more likely to achieve it. This means turning off your lights 8 hours before your alarm goes off. Seven. Days. A. Week. Weekends can easily throw this off but by making sleep a priority for a few weeks your body and mind will adjust and thank you for it. This is especially important with sleep patterns that get thrown by Daylight Savings Time. Our internal clock that regulates waking and sleeping, our circadian rhythm, is in tune with sunrise and sunset, not an arbitrary clock. Balance your blood sugar throughout the day. Balanced blood sugar means balanced hormones which means better sleep since sleep is regulated by hormones. As I keep repeating in every blog: eat whole foods. They are full of blood-sugar-balancing fiber. Choose an apple over apple juice, for example. Protein balances blood sugar: avocados, seeds, nuts, hummus are all easy protein choices. Get some sunshine and exercise. These things tell your body it's daytime; time for being productive, active and alert. By doing this during the day it will help you wind down more easily in the evening. Evening exercise makes it hard for your body and mind to prepare for sleep. Again, work with your bodies natural inclination to rise and settle with sunlight. Choose wisely after 12pm. Whole foods like fruits and veggies are fine for late afternoon snacks, it's the added and processed sugar and stimulants that disrupt hormones and in turn, sleep. Yes, this includes your beloved afternoon chai latte. Whole foods such as tomatoes, walnuts, olives, rice, barley, strawberries and cherries contain melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate your daily sleep-wake cycle. When your body absorbs melatonin from these foods, you may begin to feel calm and sleepy so these are good choices to include in your evening meal. Also, there is a melatonin-B vitamin connection when it comes to a good night's sleep. Without B12, the body can’t produce melatonin. Doctors have prescribed B12 to treat insomnia in many patients. Two small clinical trials, published in Sleep, 1990 and Jpn J Psychiatr Neurol, 1991 showed that people suffering from insomnia experienced an improvement in sleep after receiving supplemental B12. Additionally, folic acid (B9), another essential vitamin for healthy sleep cycles, improves in effectiveness when taken alongside B12. B12 also helps folic acid regulate the formation of red blood cells and absorption of iron, a key component in sleep health. Magnesium-rich foods like spinach, Swiss chard and pumpkin seeds help promote the beneficial calm that helps you wind down. Both caffeine and added sugar can keep your mind a bit more active than you want it to be in the evening so forego the afternoon coffee and eat your chocolate at lunch. By the way, chai latte lovers, fear not! Keep on reading. Have a relaxing bedtime routine. Adopt a routine that starts 1 hour before your “lights out” time that is 8 - 10 hours before your alarm is set to go off. This would include dimming your artificial lights, nixing screen time and perhaps reading a “real” book--with paper pages-- or taking a bath or warm shower. Add some pure lavender essential oil to your bath or spritz the essential oil in your shower stall as your shower. Lavender contains linalool, a compound that is shown in clinical studies to help treat insomnia and improve quality of sleep. Rub a few drops of lavender essential oil diluted with a carrier oil such as jojoba oil onto the bottom of each foot or spritz your pillow with lavender. Many women I work with, especially those of a certain--ok,let's just say it: menopausal-- age cite sleep issues as their most disruptive hormonal challenge. The wisdom years are about being wise enough to offer yourself the consistency in taking the actions that will support getting a healthy night’s sleep. You deserve sweet dreams. Here's a little caffeine-free, spicy-sweet Chai Latte to lull you into calm and comfort. Be well. Sleep well. xoxo Beth The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. ~ John F. Kennedy Weight loss advice is so common (and contentious) now. There are differences of opinion everywhere. I say, forget about "who's right" and let's focus on "what's right for you” because what gets results is what I'm focusing on in this post. I respect you too much to make empty promises and try to convince you about something that doesn’t work. There are SO many weight loss myths out there. I’m going to tackle the top ones that I’ve proven wrong in my personal experience and oneI come across with my clients. Myth: Calories cause weight gain, and fewer calories are the path to weight loss Calories are absolutely important for weight loss. If you eat and absorb a ton more than you use, then your body’s wisdom will store some for later. Calories do matter but they are not the “be-all and end-all" of weight loss; they're important, but they're a contributor, a symptom, but not the cause. To understand the reasons people eat more calories we need to keep in perspective the many factors that influence weight gain and loss and one is one of the main drives behind calorie intake. People eat too many calories, not because they're hungry, but because they feel sad, lonely, or bored or maybe because they're tired or stressed; maybe even because they're happy on vacation or celebrating a birthday or a holiday. All these feelings interact with our gastrointestinal, nervous and hormonal systems which influence our calorie intake. Myth: “Eat less, move more” is good advice Daily exercise is absolutely key to a healthy body, a healthy mind and a healthy spirit. But the premise of the above myth that calories in minus calories out equals your weight so you should eat fewer calories and burn off more calories to manage weight. It's not that simple because human physiology is not a simple math equation. Even if people can happily and sustainably follow this advice, which is difficult for most, it completely negates other factors that contribute to weight problems. Things like the causes of overeating we mentioned above. Not to mention any health conditions we're dealing with or our exposure to an obesogenic environment. You can read a scientific study about environmental factors in obesity in this abstract. Myth: A calorie is a calorie This is a paradigm that must change. It’s outdated and inaccurate. Science has confirmed several caloric components of food differ from others. For example, the “thermic effect of food” (TEF) is that some nutrients require calories to be metabolized. They can slightly increase your metabolism, just by eating them. For example, when you metabolize protein you burn more calories than when you metabolize carbohydrates. Proteins and carbohydrates both have 4 calories/gram but the TEF of protein = 15–30%; and the TEF for carbohydrates = 5–10%. Examples of high protein plant based foods are lentils, quinoa, hemp seeds, chia seeds, spiraling, nutritional yeast, chickpeas and most beans. If you choose to eat soy products, ALWAYS CHOOSE ORGANIC. Forget soy milk and go for tempeh, sprouted tofu or edamame. Remember, too, not all carbs are the same. Simple carbs like candy, sweetened drinks, fruit juice, all pasta, including gluten-free pastas, crackers and processed cereals including quick oats have high sugar and low thermic effect. Complex unrefined carbs, especially ones higher in fat like avocado, nuts and seeds have a higher thermic effect. Here’s another example of a calorie not being a calorie. Different fats are burned and stored differently. Medium chain triglycerides (fats) (MCTs) have the same 9 calories/gram that other fats do but, they're metabolized by the liver before getting into the bloodstream and therefore MCFA and MCTs aren't utilized or stored the same way as other fats. Coconut oil is an excellent source of MCTs. Myth: A supplement/tea/food/magic potion will make you lose weight There is no magic pill for weight loss. No supplement, tea, food, or other potion will do the trick. There are products that make these claims, and they're full of garbage. The only thing you will lose is your money and possibly your hope and the will to create positive, perennial behaviors with food and weight loss. So, please don’t believe this myth. There is a reason most people who lose weight can’t keep it off. The real magic is in adopting a sustainable holistic and healthy approach to living your life. What you need is a long-term lifestyle makeover, not a product. Live your truth and you will find the magic. Weight loss is hard! There are too many influences out there trying to make it sound like they have the simplest, or the latest and greatest, solution. Let go of the myths. Understand the principles and get support to put them into practice.
Now check out my magical, myth-free Mediterranean Kale and Cucumber Super Salad recipe. It's filling and nutritious and super-delicious! Take care of that beautiful you. xoxo Beth Last week’s Wellness Wednesday blog post talked about physiological and bacterial gut health and how to promote good flora for good belly and good whole-body health. Now it's time to understand how the gut is equally as governing and intelligent as the brain. This “brain in your belly” is often smarter than the brain in your head. Butterflies in your stomach. Gut-feelings. A lump in your throat. Rarely do we say, “ I had this nose feeling,” or “I am trusting my elbow instincts” when we are moved to describe a feeling of knowing. It’s all about intuition--a word we use that comes from the Latin intueri, meaning ‘consider’ or ‘look on.’ For me, it means, “Look IN TO IT!” Get it? Intuit. In To It? Pun fun for the word nerd. But I really mean it: go inward. Look into what your belly is telling you. Gut feelings have been distinguished as a source of intuitive knowing by ancient world cultures to this day. Fay Bound Alberti, author of This Mortal Coil: The Human Body in History and Culture, writes: ...the gut is also linked to our languages and our experiences of emotion. Intuitive forms of knowledge-’gut feelings’-are part of a much longer history of experiencing extra-sensory knowledge through the body rather than the mind. Our Western culture once devolved the Eastern understanding of intuition as a seat of higher thought, wisdom, soul and Spirit physically located just above the navel to perceiving the belly as a source of strength and labor. Queen Elizabeth I is noted for declaring that though she was a woman, she had “the heart and stomach of a king.” And so our perspective changes. Science always influences. History has taken us from the sentient gut-knowing to the Renaissance's ‘it’s-all-in-the-head’ scientific knowing to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s when our culture got more touchy-feely and the gut-emotion connection was recognized once again, as was Eastern thought and culture. What goes around comes around. So yeah, as it turns out, gut thoughts and feelings are not a fanciful notion but a physiological fact. Rather than the one brain found in our head, scientists have revealed that we have two brains – the other one is located in the digestive tract. The enteric nervous system (ENS), the gut’s brain or the brain in the belly is housed under the mucosal lining and between the muscular layers of the esophagus, the stomach, and the small and large intestines. The enteric nervous system is a rich and complicated network of neurons and neurochemicals that sense and control events in other parts of the body, including the brain. Amazingly, when scientists finally counted the number of nerve cells in the gut-brain, they found it contained over one hundred million neurons – more than the number of nerve cells in the spinal cord. Who knew we such had a super-highway of inner intelligence. Researchers have observed a greater flow of neural traffic from the belly-brain to the head-brain than from the head-brain to the belly. Yep, the belly is telling the brain what’s going on, not the brain telling the belly what to eat and how to metabolize. This is not an excuse to eat the whole bag of chips. Your belly did not make you do it. What is important is that your belly is a wonderful source of intelligence. Listen! Your brain is listening to your belly. Are you? There is a lot more scientific and physiological stuff I can cite and comment on. Super-interesting for the left (analytical) brain, but we are talking right (emotional) brain here. However, this is really interesting: the enteric nervous system (the gut-brain) and the central nervous system (the head-brain) share a very cool similarity. In the sleep state, the head-brain moves through cycles of 90 minutes of slow-wave sleep frequencies, immediately followed by rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in which dreams are produced. The gut-brain also moves through a nightly cycle of 90 minutes of slow-wave muscular contractions followed by brief spurts of rapid muscular movements. Your belly is the seat of feeling. The whole digestive tract is lined with unique cells that produce and receive endorphins and other chemicals and hormones that we feel as joy, satisfaction, and pain relief. These comfortable gut feelings that can be experienced after a satisfying meal or a stimulating encounter are based in the belly-brain and send pleasure chemicals to receptive cells throughout your body. The gut is beautifully engineered to send out the feel-goods. Then there is the flip side. The digestive sensations we are aware of might feel negative: peptic ulcer, irritable bowel syndrome, heartburn, upset stomach, diverticulosis and other digestive upset and discomfort. Sometimes we say we can’t “stomach” a situation, something makes us want to “gag,” or we have “a knot” in our stomach. What we are doing is expressing psychophysiological information from the the brain in our belly. Your belly knows how to handle stress, if you let it. The belly produces substances similar to the active ingredients in the prescription drugs that chill us out. Think: Valium and Xanax without the nasty side effects and cost. Where does food come in? We are physiologically wired to have the gut-brain and the head-brain communicate. Wild animals don’t stress about their nutritional meal choices. Absent from their conversation is the dinner dilemma: What will it be tonight, dear? Elk or moose? I dunno. What do you think? Definitely not bear, it’s too high in fat. And definitely not deer! Instincts tell animals what to eat. And we should listen to our gut instincts, too. Our head-brains just override this knowing. Too often when we make belly decisions it’s about the look, not about nourishment and not about ‘the feel’. Poor quality food, stressed eating and a toxic world environment make it difficult for our belly-brain to function as it is meant to function: intuitively, responsively, in accordance with nature. What we want to see often clouds what we feel. The contemporary preoccupation with “six pack abs” is a distorted yearning to display, rather than actively use, the inherent intelligence of the belly. Trust your gut. Our gut intelligence has been underused, and perhaps even dumbed-down with lack of physical, ideological, social--you name it--nourishment. Nourish the gut brain with wholesome, nutrient-dense food for optimal attunement and energy. Tune in and the tone will follow. Tuning in. Breathe into your belly. Ask it for feedback. What is your belly telling you about what’s happening in your life? Your very sensitive belly-brain is offering your its unique intelligence in the subtle sensations, curious feelings, instincts, and intuitions. Without getting all yogi on you, here’s the energetic take on that place just above your navel that the Japanese call Hara. It is the location of your third chakra. ‘Chakra’ means ‘wheel’ in Sanskrit. (You can look up chakras here.) The third chakra is the energetic location of your personality, identity, and the-knowing -of-who-you-are. It’s the center of willpower, self-esteem and self-discipline. It’s all about the perception of who you are: personal power, confidence, responsibility and reliability. This solar plexus chakra is kin to the life-giving and fiery sun in the center of our planetary solar system. Yes, there is a simile here.... The energy of this chakra allows you to transform inaction into action. It allows you to meet challenges and progress in life. It helps you digest, literally and figuratively. The challenge for this wheel of energy is to use personal power in a balanced manner, consciously harnessing the energy of the belly, being proactive rather than reactive or inactive. It's all about balance. When the belly is balanced with nutrient-dense food, friendly bacteria (pre-biotics and probiotics), supportive lifestyle and positive thoughts, we feel well. The energetic center is balanced. Digestion and elimination are naturally comfortable and work smoothly. When the belly is imbalanced by poor food choices, discomforted by dysbiosis and stressed to the max with emotional eating and negative thoughts, we feel ill. The energetic center is imbalanced. Constipation (inactive energy) and diarrhea (reactive energy) often result. The third chakra is associated with the color yellow. Imagine the fire of hope, positivity, energy, and action in your belly. This energetic center is the sun around which your whole wellness revolves. Shine onward and outward from your nourished soul-center. Here’s a glowing Lovely Lentil and Squash Soup recipe that’s full of fiber, soothing spices and warmth. I know it’s still cold in the North and what better way to conjure Spring. For those of you in the South, here is a cooling Fennel, Cucumber and Mint Salad to balance and support the fire in your belly. Yumminess. I can hear my belly purr. Xoxo Beth Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.” And while this may not be 100% true for every disease in every person, more and more research shows that our gut (digestive system) has a bigger role in many diseases than we used to think. And we're not just talking about heartburn, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, IBD, etc. We're talking about all kinds of issues like allergies, pain, mood disorders, and nutrient deficiencies. There are a lot of reasons for this. Our gut is the portal to the outside world. It's here where we take in disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites. We also take in nutrients (and toxins) through our gut. The nutrients we ingest and absorb are the building blocks of every single part of our body. We're just learning the connections between our gut and other areas of our body, like our brain (have you heard of "the gut-brain axis"). Not just our gut per se; but, its friendly resident microbes too. These guys also have newly discovered roles in our gut health and overall health. Putting it in the positive, I'll say, "All health begins in the gut." So, let's talk about the roles that our gut and our gut microbes play in our overall health and then I'll give you tips to improve your gut health naturally. Our Gut's Role in Our Overall Health Our gut’s main role is as a barrier: to let things in that should get in, and to keep things out that should stay out. Think of “absorption” of nutrients as things we want to let in; and “elimination” of waste as things we want to pass right through and out. This seemingly simple role is super-complex! And it can break down in so many places. For one thing, our guts can "leak." Yes, like a long tube with holes in it, it can allow things to get into our bloodstream/bodies that can wreak havoc (bacteria, undigested food, and toxins). You name it, whatever you put into your mouth can be absorbed by your gut and get into your bloodstream, even if it's not supposed to and when your gut wall gets irritated, it can "leak." When this happens, you get inflammation, which is a starting point for many diseases that don't seem linked to the gut but have a sneaky connection there. Importantly, about 70% of our immune system lives in and around our gut. A healthy gut is not a leaky gut. It maintains its barrier and shuttles things through to be eliminated. Maintaining a healthy gut barrier is the first pillar of gut health. The second main part of your gut are the billions of friendly health-promoting microbes. Gut microbes help us digest and absorb nutrients. They fight off disease-causing microbes, make some vitamins for us, and have all kinds of other health benefits, like mental health benefits, reducing inflammation, and stabilizing blood sugar. Keeping your gut microbes happy is the second pillar of gut health! There are a lot of natural ways to improve gut health. Let’s start with what to stop. It’s always best to eliminate the cause, so let’s stop giving our guts junk to deal with. Try eliminating added sugars, processed foods, and alcohol for a few weeks, and you may be amazed at how much better your body (and gut) feels. Next week's blog post, That Gut Feeling Part Two, will explore how your gut feels is related to your feelings in general. Consider eliminating other gut irritants like dairy and grains which contain common compounds known to irritate some people’s guts. Sometimes you only need to eliminate them for a few weeks to see if it makes a difference for your health. Try a unsweetened coconut or almond yogurt instead of dairy yogurt. Rice, quinoa and oats are all grains. Eat nutrient-dense foods which allow ample macro- and micro-nutrients into our gut to maximize the chance for absorption. These nutrients help our bodies build and repair our gut, and every other body part as well. Some of the most nutrient-dense foods include dark leafy greens, colorful fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds and sea vegetables. Nourish your microbes by ingesting probiotic (friendly bacteria) foods and drinks to help to replenish our gut microbes. These are found in fermented foods like kombucha, coconut kefir, miso, sauerkraut, and kimchi. Make these a part of your daily diet. Check out the easy recipe at the end of this post for Cultured Carrots. Choose whole foods full of gut-friendly fiber. Fiber plays lots of roles in our gut, including whisking away some of those pesky bad bacteria and toxins so they can be eliminated. Fiber also helps to feed our friendly resident microbes that help us absorb and digest our food better. Not eating enough fiber increases the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. What foods have a lot of fiber? Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and even cacao. Foods that are high in fiber are usually high in pre-biotics. Feed the friendlies. Pro-biotics need love, too. Pre-biotic foods like bananas, raw asparagus, raw and cooked onions, raw garlic, and raw dandelion greens all are high in fiber and are usually high in the good pre-biotics that feed the healthy bacteria (probiotics) in your gut. Chew, chew, chew your food! As silly as it sounds, this is the simplest act to help you digest and absorb food. The saliva in your mouth contains enzymes that helps break down food. This begins the digestion process. It's also a way to slow down and de-stress, savor and enjoy. Pay attention to lifestyle factors. Getting enough sleep, stressing less, and getting the right amount (and intensity) of exercise for you are all important factors in maintaining gut health . It’s easy to forget some of the simple, but key links there are between what we do with our bodies and how well they function. Here it is in a nutshell: 1. The function of your gut is key to your overall health. 2. There are two pillars of gut health: maintaining a good barrier and maintaining healthy gut microbes. 3. The main ways to improve both of these naturally is by eating nutrient-dense whole foods: foods filled with nutrition, pre-biotics and probiotics, and fiber. 4. Eliminate common gut irritants like added sugar, processed foods, and alcohol. And here's a quick and easy recipe to get you started with making your microbiome happy with probiotic-rich, homemade Cultured Carrots. Sometimes food is just so…….tasty.
And it's not just the abundance of delicious food but also the people, the ambiance. It is way too easy (and common) to indulge when you’re feeling the ‘food love.’ Sometimes this is at holidays or celebrations. But it doesn't always stop there. Sometimes we overeat. All.The.Time. Here are some suggestions to help overeating at meals and turn these habits into healthy behaviors. Start with some lemon water, bitters or apple cider vinegar. When your stomach is growling and you smell amazingly delicious food it's all too easy to mound a plate and dive into a "see" of food. (I love puns, sorry!) But did you know that it's possible to sometimes confuse the feeling of thirst with that of hunger? You may actually be craving a big glass of water. Some studies have shown that drinking a glass or two of water before a meal can help reduce the amount of food eaten. And this super-simple act of hydration may even help with weight loss (...just sayin'). But here’s the catch: too much water before a meal can dilute the all important stomach acid needed to digest your meal. A couple of tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) or tasty herbal bitters combination like this one from Urban Moonshine mixed into 4 ounces of pure water will help prime your digestive system so that you can properly digest that delicious food. Not only will the lemon, ACV or bitters 'mocktail' start to fill up your stomach before you get to down to your meal and leave less room for your feast, but being properly hydrated has been shown to slightly increase your metabolism. If the concoction is a little too sharp on your tongue you can add about a tablespoon of immune-boosting raw, local honey to make the drink more palatable. Win-win! Whoop-whoop! Eat mindfully. You've heard of mindfulness but have you applied it to your eating habits? I talked a little about this in my last blog post. Intention. Mindfulness. Same thing, different post. Mindfulness can help you avoid overeating as well as having the added bonus of helping your digestion. Just as being mindful when you meditate helps to focus your attention on your breathing and the present moment, being mindful when you eat helps to focus your attention on your meal. Remember: intention is an “inside job.” It’s up to you, not the food. Eat smaller bites. Eat more slowly. Chew more thoroughly. Savour every mouthful. Notice and appreciate the smell, taste and texture. Eat off a small plate, not out of a pan. Turn off your phone and the TV. Eat with a friend, put your fork down, listen and chat. Breathe. Laugh. All these behaviors can help prevent overeating because eating slower often means eating less. When you eat quickly you can easily overeat because it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to know that your stomach is full. So take your time, pay attention to your food and enjoy every bite. Start with a salad. You may be yearning for that rich, creamy main dish but don’t start there. A salad primes your digestion, especially if it has some arugula, mustard greens, celery tops or other bitter greens in it. Veggies are a great way to start any meal because they're full of not only vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and health-promoting phytochemicals (all these equal nutrient density) but they also have some key satiety elements: fiber and water. Fiber and water are known to help fill you up and make you feel fuller. These are great assets not only for nutrition and digestion, but also when you're about to indulge in a large meal. And a note on feeling fuller: Your stomach has 2 ways of sensing fullness: one is by sensing nutrient density, “thanks for giving me the fuel I needed to help your body move and groove efficiently ” or by volume, “you just filled me up like a water balloon and there is no more space.” Nutrient dense foods (raw fruits and veggies, especially) fuel the body. Nutrient deficient foods (junk or other processed foods) leave the body wanting more, even though you feel stuffed, because your body craves optimal functioning. So: Have your glass of lemon water, apple cider vinegar or bitter ‘mocktail.’ Eat mindfully. Start with your salad to stimulate digestion and create fiber and water nutrient dense bulk in your stomach. Recipes Here are some tasty (and beautiful) pre-meal water ideas: If you're not much of a plain water drinker or need your water to be more appealing to your senses here are five delicious (and beautiful looking) fruit combos to add to your large glass of water:
You can buy a bag (or several bags) of frozen chopped fruit and throw those into your cup, thermos, or uber-cool mason jar in the morning. They're already washed and cut and will help keep your water colder longer. I've been editing this blog for about 3 hours. Yikes! Whatever significant thought or sentence I have lost due to my ineptness with computer editing is of no importance. In the words of Michael Pollan, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Shine on, hydrate, breathe and eat your salad first. That European idea of eating a salad after your meal is not what it’s cracked up to be. Happy Valentine's Day from my heart to yours. Beth This is not the post I intended to write today. I think there is a quote that goes something like, "Life is something that happens while you are busy making other plans." More about that later in the post. If you are a client of mine or have attended one of my talks you have probably heard me say, "It's all about the food but it's not about the food." What do I mean by this? Whether your goal is to lose weight or to have more energy or to eat "cleaner," your success in reaching your goal is really predicated on your intention, not on the calories or nutrients or their bioavailability. Yes, nutrient-density, activity, water, absorption, organically grown or conventional--all this and other sh*t matters--to a degree. You can learn to about why these aspects of food and nourishment are essential through seminars, books, videos, shopping lists, meal plans and all the services I offer or whichever 'health guru' that you are resonating with offers. You can buy every time-saving gadget that your local kitchen supply center tempts your crow-eye with or that Amazon can deliver to your door before you can blink. You can assemble every convenient, "healthy" shipped-to-your-cutting-board meal box (what's up with those?) that crosses your Facebook feed. Ask yourself: Are you really reaching your health goals or are these quick fixes and "feel-goods?" Do you reach your goal and maintain it? Are you creating new sustainable habits that become beautiful, life-long behaviors that keep you feeling well inside and out, month after month, year after year? What is the real craving you are trying to satisfy? It's not entirely about the food, the gadgets, the recipes, the cookbooks, the coaching. None of it. Your wellness with food is determined by the intention you bring to it and the actions you consistently--I will repeat for emphasis: consistently--apply to. your wellness. Some real questions: What is your relationship with food? Is it positive? Benevolent? Peaceful? Kind to your body and the planet? Is it stressful? Shrouded with shame? Self-sabotaging? Out-of-control, leaving you feeling unwell? Are you cycling in and out of feelin' good-feeling' bad? Why do your intentions and consistency become sidetracked? What I really do when I work with people is help them reprogram and rewire the old habits, patterns and thoughts that keep sabotaging their best efforts to stay on track with healthy eating. Emotional eating, stress eating, mindless eating, and night-time snacking are just a few of the habits that undermine wellness goals. It's very easy to "eat our feelings" and ignore the imbedded reasons behind disordered eating. Food can be used like a drug to self-sedate, provide distraction, or create false comfort. Food can nourish or food can diminish. The key is to go deep and look inside where these habits and behaviors started and got their foothold. This is very, very hard work, indeed. Here is where one-on-one coaching and the fellowship of peer support helps: to know you are guided and not alone in your challenges with food. I write this with no judgement. The relationship with food is a very personal path. Mine was and is. If I could come up with one ultimate recipe it would be the recipe to love oneself. This is where we begin to make peace with our food choices and habits. The method might be something like this: Look in the mirror and inside your heart and no matter what you see or feel, say out loud, "I'm okay. I am enough. I am loved." Heck, write it on your mirror. The intention of this dream ultimate-lifeforce-sustaining recipe would be to have all the soul-supporting ingredients for perfect nourishment. What would be the ingredients in your own personal soul-supporting recipe? What is it that your soul and spirit is hungry for? What non-food ingredients are in your soul-satisfying recipe? I can guarantee the soul-food ingredients are not coming from a store, a Facebook post, in an Amazon box or even from this blog post. My original post was going to be about fullness and satiety or whatever we think over-eating is but I will post that for the next Wellness Wednesday. My thoughts today had to shift because yesterday morning I got word another friend took his life. That's two friends in 2 f***ing years! Like my friend Kris, Eric struggled with alcohol and self-love. Eric and I were estranged friends for the last 18 years or so, but that does not matter. I will always know Eric as kind, loving, giving, funny and supportive. Eric taught this diehard skier to snowboard when I was 30 and I was a snowboarder ever-after. He helped many, many people of all ages ride the slopes and feel the magic of snowboarding, including my son. He was a good and kind teacher. Eric also helped me with childcare for my son when I needed it and he thoroughly enjoyed being a care-giver. He saved me from mommy-madness more than once. He helped me garden and landscape, transforming our NH property. He was really, really good at it and was an invaluable assistant to his long-time partner and her landscaping and property maintenance business. Eric was a good friend to both my husband and me. We shared meals and a lot of laughs. He was a very patient dog-sitter for our goofball-compost pile-raiding-boy-dog, Porter. It is the light within Eric that we will cherish, remember and be thankful for, estrangement and tender acknowledgement of his challenges with alcohol, aside. I am sharing this because I feel it is important to acknowledge that we all have struggles. Like alcohol, food addiction and/or eating disorders can present real and life-threatening consequences. The affects on loved ones may present differently with food issues than they do with alcohol but the devastating results can be the same. Self-destruction is self-destruction. Self-love, then, may be the greatest challenge of all. The behaviors we exhibit outwardly are not the complete expression of who we are inwardly. It's okay to look inside and not judge oneself. Find help to take the action you need to address your challenges and then begin the baby steps of recovery. There is always someone appreciating you for who you are and can offer fellowship and support. Most importantly, may you find your own Self-appreciation. No food-for-the-body recipe this week. Just this: Just for today, be kind to yourself as you would be kind to others. Know that you are a shining light even in your darkness. Reach out when your darkness gets too heavy. Serve this to yourself this day and every day afterward. Here's a tune to remind all of us that we are eternal light, beautiful beings without boundaries. Blessings of Spirit fro Eric and his loved ones. And to all of you. Shine on always, in all ways. xo Beth Sometimes food is just so…….tasty. And it's not just the abundance of delicious food but also the people, the ambiance.....All the right "stuff." (Yep, pun intended.) It is way too easy--and common--to indulge when you’re feeling the ‘food love.’ Sometimes this is at holidays or celebrations. But it doesn't always stop there. Sometimes we overeat. All.The.Time. Here are some suggestions to help overeating at meals and turn these habits into healthy behaviors. Start with some lemon water, bitters or apple cider vinegar. When your stomach is growling and you smell amazingly delicious food it's all too easy to mound a plate and high-dive into that sea of food. But did you know that it's possible to sometimes confuse the feeling of thirst with that of hunger? You may actually be craving a big glass of water. Some studies have shown that drinking a glass or two of water before a meal can help reduce the amount of food eaten. This super-simple act of hydration may even help with weight loss (...just sayin'). But here’s the catch: Too much water before a meal can dilute the all important stomach acid needed to digest your meal. A couple of tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) or tasty herbal bitters combination like this one of these from Urban Moonshine will help prime your digestive system so that you can properly digest that delicious food. Not only will the lemon water, ACV or bitters start to fill up your stomach before you get to down to your meal and leave less room for your feast, the real gem is that being properly hydrated has been shown to slightly increase your metabolism because all systems are grooving and moving. Water helps conduct the electricity within your body that helps maintain your life-force. Win-win! Whoop-whoop! Eat mindfully. You've heard of mindfulness but have you applied it to your eating habits? I talked a little about this in my last blog post. Intention. Mindfulness. Same thing, different post. Mindfulness can help you avoid overeating as well as having the added bonus of helping your digestion. Just as being mindful when you meditate helps to focus your attention on your breathing and the present moment, being mindful when you eat helps to focus your attention on your meal. Remember: intention is an “inside job.” It’s up to you, not the food. Eat smaller bites. Eat more slowly. Chew more thoroughly. Savour every mouthful. Notice and appreciate the smell, taste and texture. Eat off a small plate, not out of a pan. Turn off your phone and the TV. Eat with a friend, put your fork down, listen and chat. Breathe. Laugh. Repeat. All these behaviors can help prevent overeating because eating slower often means eating less. When you eat quickly you can easily overeat because it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to know that your stomach is full. So take your time, pay attention to your food and enjoy every bite. Start with a salad. You may be yearning for that rich, creamy main dish but don’t start there. A salad primes your digestion, especially if it has some arugula, mustard greens, celery tops or other bitter greens in it. Bitter greens are a whole food form of liquid bitters and the chewing required begins the digestive process. The saliva in your mouth contains enzymes that begin to break down the food to prepare it for digestion and the bitter greens stimulate the stomach acid needed to break down the food even more. Also, veggies are a great way to start any meal because they're full of not only vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and health-promoting phytochemicals (all these equal nutrient density) but they also have some key satiety elements: fiber and water. Fiber and water are known to help fill you up and make you feel fuller. These are great assets not only for nutrition and digestion, but also when you're about to indulge in a large meal. And a note on feeling fuller: Your stomach has 2 ways of sensing fullness: one is by sensing nutrient density, “thanks for giving me the fuel I needed to help your body efficiently ” or by volume, “you just filled me up like a water balloon and there is no more space.” Nutrient dense foods (raw fruits and veggies, especially) fuel the body. Nutrient deficient foods (junk or other processed foods) leave the body wanting more, even though you feel stuffed, because your body craves nutrient density for optimal functioning. So: Have your glass of lemon water, apple cider vinegar or bitter ‘mocktail.’ Eat mindfully. Start with a mixed green salad to stimulate digestion and fill your stomach with nutrient dense bulk (fiber and water). Recipes Here are some tasty (and beautiful) pre-meal water ideas: If you're not much of a plain water drinker or need your water to be more appealing to your senses here are five delicious (and beautiful looking) fruit combos to add to your large glass of water:
You can buy a bag (or several bags) of frozen chopped fruit and throw those into your cup, thermos, or uber-cool mason jar in the morning. They're already washed and cut and will help keep your water colder longer. Shine on, hydrate, breathe and eat your salad first. That European idea of eating a salad after your meal is not what it’s cracked up to be. Xoxo Beth You may feel tired, cold or that you've gained weight. Maybe your digestion seems a bit more “sluggish”. You may be convinced that your metabolism is slow. Why does this happen? Why do metabolic rates slow down? What can slow my metabolism? Why is that snail so curious about these questions? Metabolism includes all of the biochemical reactions in your body that use nutrients and oxygen to create energy. And there are lots of factors that affect how quickly (or slowly) it works, i.e. your “metabolic rate,” which is measured in the dreaded "C" word: Calories. But don't worry – we know that metabolic rate is much more complicated than the old adage “calories in calories out!" In fact it's so complicated I'm only going to list a few of the common things that can slow it down. Examples of common reasons why metabolic rates can slow down:
I'll briefly touch on each one below and I promise to give you better advice than just to “eat less and exercise more”. Low thyroid hormones Your thyroid is the master controller of your metabolism. When it produces fewer hormones your metabolism slows down. The thyroid hormones (T3 & T4) tell the cells in your body when to use more energy and become more metabolically active. Ideally it should work to keep your metabolism just right. But there are several things that can affect it and throw it off course. Things like autoimmune diseases and mineral deficiencies (e.g. iodine or selenium) for example. Take control tip: Talk with your doctor about having your thyroid hormones tested and enjoy thyroid supporting foods like dulse, kelp & other sea vegetables for iodine and Brazil nuts for selenium. Your history of dieting When people lose weight their metabolic rate often slows down. This is because the body senses that food may be scarce and adapts by trying to continue with all the necessary life functions and do it all with less food. While dieting can lead to a reduction in weight and amount of body fat it unfortunately can also lead to a reduction in the amount of muscle you have. More muscle means faster resting metabolic rate. Dieting doesn't work. Nutrient-dense whole food and cultivating a positive relationship with food and your body are the key factors in fueling your body. Take control tip: Make sure you're eating enough nutrient-dense foods without over-consuming so you fuel your body. Whole, plant-based choices like nuts, seeds, fresh fruits and fresh veggies, especially raw ones, fuel and burn the most efficiently. Your size and body composition In general, larger people have faster metabolic rates. This is because it takes more energy to fuel a larger body than a smaller one. However, you already know that gaining weight is rarely the best strategy for increasing your metabolism. Muscles that actively move and do work need energy. Even muscles at rest burn more calories than fat. This means that the amount of energy your body uses depends partly on the amount of lean muscle mass you have. Take control tip: Do some weight training to help increase your muscle mass. A regular routine with some form of resistance like using exercise bands or swimming or any exercise in water can help gently build muscle if you aren't likely to use traditional weights. Which leads us to... Your activity level Aerobic exercise temporarily increases your metabolic rate. Your muscles are burning fuel to move and do “work” and you can tell because you're also getting hotter. Even little things can add up. Walking a bit farther than you usually do, using a standing desk instead of sitting all day, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can all contribute to more activity in your day. Yeah, you know all this, but do you remind yourself to do it? Take control tip: Incorporate movement into your day. Get up and move and stretch after 15-20 minutes of sitting. Throw on a tune and dance for 3 minutes. Exercise your right to exercise regularly. It's like voting: use it or lose it. Kinda. Lack of sleep There is plenty of research that shows the influence that sleep has on your metabolic rate. The general consensus is to get 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Easier said than done, right? Hormonal imbalances caused by stress (emotional, physical or nutritional) can keep us up at night. Excessive caffeine, sugar, heavy meals before bedtime.....they can keep us up, too. Daily exercise will help with reducing stress and burning off stimulants like caffeine. Exposure to bright light and screen time before bed messes with circadian rhythms that modulate sleep and waking and seasonal changes of light can throw us off, as well. Take control tips. There are so many I'll list them:
Okay! Now I'm getting up and away from this screen and moving my body! How about you? And when you've danced or stretched or walked....c'mon back and check out my recipe for this super-yummy, selenium-rich Raw Cacao Brazil Nut Breakfast Blast that is great as a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, too. Shine on, happy people!
xoxo Beth It is now officially Crock Pot season. The lingering Indian Summer blew town like some itinerant guest who left the door open, letting the next wandering chill to walk through and settle itself in at the boarding house table. Though raw foods are always part of my daily menu, I say it's time to bring on the warm comfort foods. Like rice and other slow-cooked foods. I often use my slow cooker to make stock, transforming fresh veggie peelings and end pieces that I've frozen over the summer into a simmering base for soups or stews or a flavor-filled cooking broth for rice or quinoa. This was the case recently--until I discovered that the crockery pot that fits into the heating unit of my slow cooker was cracked-- and then things got interesting. First, I'll tell you that my crock pot is a hand-me-down and it's old. The crock that holds the food is crazed with tiny lines which coalesced into an all-out rebellion of integrity and evolved into a long, divisive crack, placing me and it at odds with its intended use. It's function is now a history of abstract patterns and lines which probably qualifies it as a low form of antique pottery. As it turned out, this finding wasn't just about several quarts of awesome stock potentially leaking out. I soon learned it's all about food safety. I was bummed that I couldn't make my 'set it and forget it' stock so I started searching on the 'Net for a new slow cooker. Hello, Amazon! And thanks to a critical review about one of its cookers: Goodbye, traditional crockery cooker! Here is what I found out: the glaze on the crocks of most slow cookers contains lead and over time leaches that lead into the slow-cooked food, especially if the food has some acidic chemistry or ingredient (think: tomatoes) and even more so if the pot is cracked or crazed. YIKES!! You can read this critical review and lead advisory on Amazon here, The Lead Advisory thread let me to this site where the author shares her investigation into slow cookers and lead leaching. The blog was written in 2012 and it is only my guess that slow cookers are still being produced with crocks that contain lead in the glaze. The FDA sets the "acceptable" levels of lead that a glaze can contain (this is cited in the article hyperlinked earlier in this paragraph) and after reading a bit on FDA lead regulation, it appears to me that FDA testing and regulation is inconsistent. This blows my mind! Not only am I a healing foods chef and teacher, I have been a potter and ceramicist for nearly 30 years. I spent 5 years in the Ceramics Department at Mass. College of Art and part of my studies there included course work in glaze chemistry and studio safety. In 1986, California's Prop 65 set the standard for dinnerware glaze safety for American potters and ceramicists. If a potter in the U.S. is using lead on her pottery, it is for decoration only and should be labeled such. This is not the case with pottery coming from China and some Latin American countries. Prop 65 initiated the labeling you may have seen that warns the buyer of certain foods and goods that some component of the object or food they are considering for purchase may cause cancer. You've probably seen one of these labels at one time or another. If lead is such a danger, why is lead in some glazes? Lead acts like a flux and has a very low melting point. When it melts and is fired to the correct temperature, it creates a very glassy and durable surface. It stabilizes bright colors on pottery like reds, oranges and yellows, colors that are used in Chinese and Mexican pottery. It's also an affordable glaze chemical but it does break down, especially in the presence of anything acidic. There are safer alternatives that are reasonable in price and still produce beautifully intense colors and do not break down as easily. It's important to know your pottery's origins and age. The older the pottery, the brighter the colors, the more suspect it is for lead and other heavy metals. Also, just because an appliance or piece of cookware is being sold in the U. S., doesn't guarantee that the product is lead "safe" or will stay safe, as in the case of my slow cooker's crock. So, what to do? After a few hours of reading and searching, I ended up purchasing a VitaClay slow cooker which slow cooks food in an unglazed crock. The site's description of the benefits of cooking with clay completely resonated with my concern for clean and great tasting food and my sensibilities and knowledge as a potter. Here's what the company says about their product: "Organic unglazed clay activates enzymes and minerals in your foods, enabling you to extract extra flavors and nutrients from your recipes while increasing digestibility. Clay is also alkalizing—everything the ancients prized in healthy cookware, superior taste and perfect texture and synergistic properties—clay working together with your foods and spices to create a synergistic partnership to let food be your medicine—right in your own kitchen." I like what they have to say. I'll let you know what I think of the VitaClay cooker after mine arrives and I try it out. Unfortunately, we're exposed to toxins every day, both obvious and insidious, at acceptable and non-acceptable levels. The best we can do is to try to limit our exposure to known toxins and mitigate the less obvious toxins that accumulate in our bodies through food consumption and environmental exposure with conscious food choices and cleansing protocols. Above all, don't stress about what toxins you may or not be exposed to. Be informed, but not afraid. I invite you to call the company who made your slow cooker, if you have one, and ask them about the glaze they use on their crockery part. Ask them if it contains lead and if the parts-per-million are within U.S. standards and then decide if this standard is acceptable to you. If not, you may want to prepare your cold season warm meals differently or investigate an alternative cooker like the VitaClay line or a piece of handmade lead-free pottery that you can bake in and/or eat out of. You can also check out this great recipe from my dear friend Kris Love who created a Chelation Pesto to help remove toxins from the body. The main ingredient, cilantro, is proven to help remove accumulated heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium. It's an amazingly delicious way to support detoxification. And as these days grow cooler and the nights get longer settle in with this comforting Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Soup and this easy and wickedly delicious Raw Onion and Rosemary Bread. They'll make your body and soul sing with seasonal happiness. Shine on, you lovely, living beings! Be well. All ways. Always. Beth |
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