Tag Archives: benefits

Benefits of Gourmet Salts-Shoud You Be Using the Good Stuff?

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www.fengshuidana.comSalt has always gotten a bad rap, only because we use way too much on everything! “Table” salt really has no nutritional value and we load up on enough sodium throughout the day in all the junk we eat, there’s no reason to salt your food anyway. But gourmet salts may be the way to go instead. Even though they are still high in sodium, using a little to cook with and then a pinch to flavor the meal may be beneficial to your health. Some beg to differ, but I can guarantee that they will flavor your foods, add minerals to your diet that you may other wise not be getting, and gourmet salts are a great way to season all your favorite dishes.

There are over 100′s of different kinds ranging in different textures and tastes. Salt is naturally formed in the earth and range in colors from pink, red, white, even black. They are high in mineral and iron content. Normal table salt usually has the iodine removed which we need for T3 and T4, which are your thyroid hormones. In turn your thyroid hormones effect every cell in your body! This includes giving your energy, stabilizing your body temperature, helps maintain a healthy body weight, brain development and function, emotional health, and keeps your hair, nail, and skin healthy! And because I am a foodie, you’ll never meet a chef that won’t praise a gourmet salt and how well they enhance their dishes or how much they truly love to cook with different kinds.

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Given Half The Chance, The Body Will Heal Itself

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photo credit www.dailyheal.comIt’s been said “what you put in, is what you get out.” I believe this whole-heartedly! If you take care of your body’s needs with good nurturing foods, exercise, adequate sleep, lots of water, rid your body of vices, (smoking, heavy drinking, stress) nurture your soul and truly take care of your mind, body, and soul, it will repair itself from disease, injury, illness, fatigue, malnutrition, and stress.

The body is an incredible machine. You just have to give it a chance. I’ve seen people reverse their diseases, repair injuries, lose excessive weight, fight chronic illness and cancer, and transform their health, lives, future just by what they put into their bodies. Not to say you have to become a radical 100% of the time and give up everything you love, brings your comfort, motivates you, or soothes and relaxes you.

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Mindful Eating

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photo credit: next wave studios

photo credit: next wave studios

With the holidays lurking around the corner and quickly approaching… our schedules begin to fill up and bog us down with stress and a long to do list. Kids activities, church functions, shopping, sending cards, parties, eating, drinking, did I say eating? We tend to load ourselves down with alcohol, lots of sugar, more coffee, and heavy and fatty foods as the holidays blow by us. We reach for the convenient and fast foods because that’s all we have time for. So here are a few tips on how to slow down, enjoy yourself, the food you’re consuming, and really take care of yourself over the next month so that the new year isn’t filled with regret and wonder on how the holidays flew by again and you never got a second to take a breath and actually stop and take them all in.

  1. Only eat sitting down with no distractions. That means turning off the tv, hiding the magazines, catalogs, and cell phones!
  2. Eat only till your 80% full. Eating till your so full and uncomfortable isn’t worth the misery.
  3. Chew your food! We tend to shovel our food down especially when we’re in a hurry. The slower you eat and chew your food, you trick your brain into thinking your full and you’ll eat less! Easy weight-loss plan!
  4. Moderation, moderation. Everything in moderation! As humans we tend to overdo everything. Eat wisely and choose the things you love to eat. Don’t just pile it on the plate because it’s in front of you.
  5. See how your food makes you feel. If eating a whole loaf of rosemary Ciabatta bread makes you feel bloated and not so hot afterwards (which it should!) Don’t eat it! If lots of sugar makes you sluggish, wheat makes you feel weighed down, or alcohol makes for a long recovery-avoid these!
  6. Learn to eat the good for you foods and save the sweets as a treat. You’re guaranteed to enjoy them more when you only consume them once in a while.

New years is right around the corner, where we concentrate on making changes and setting goals for ourselves and our health. Why not start early this year and not have such large and unattainable goals for the new year. We’ve stopped enjoying food and made it a race to see how quickly and how much we can consume. We’re scarfing it down so fast we’re not even tasting it. The purpose of food is to nourish our bodies, nurture our souls, spend time with family and share our days stories and laughs. We’re supposed to smell, taste, touch, savour, and be apart of our food. Some where we lost the meaning of food and now it’s become an epidemic. So spend the holidays enjoying yourselves, eat, drink and be merry but also be mindful and realize what’s important to yourself, your friends, and your loved ones. Take care of your bodies, your mind, and your souls this holiday season!

Herbs for A Healthy Lifestyle

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Herbs are such an important part of our health especially today with our hectic lifestyles. Most of us think they’re only good for flavoring our food but they have so much more to offer our bodies. They are chock-full of antioxidants and flavonoids. They help with weight management, allergies, heart disease, chronic illness, and help to heal the body. Replace sugar, salt, and added fats with dried or fresh herbs. And they are so easy to grow in your backyard, garden, and even small containers.

Rosemary- Rich in folic acid, Vitamin A, C, K. Rosemary reduces inflammation, it’s an anti-allergic, antifungal, and loaded with essential acids. Use rosemary in breads, teas, on fish and poultry, even make your own infused olive oils and vinegars.

Tumeric- An anti-inflammatory, detoxifier, and cancer preventor. Tumeric is great for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Add turmeric to salads, cooked vegetables, rice, stews, and chili.

Ginger- High in anti-oxidants, it’s an anti-inflammatory, and is also great for autoimmune diseases. Ginger helps with nausea and motion sickness. Perfect for pregnant mothers with morning sickness (or in my case 24-7 sickness-it worked wonders!) Add ginger to smoothies, salads, teas, and sauces.

Oregano- Full of antioxidants, omega-3s, iron, fiber, and vitamin K. It is also an antibacterial. Add oregano to sauces, pizzas, chicken, and seafood.

Cinnamon- It regulates blood sugar, lowers cholesterol, and is also a mood booster! Add cinnamon to coffee, oatmeal, smoothies, and desserts.

Simple and easy ways to get the vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay strong and healthy, especially with the hustle and bustle of the holidays and the lurking cold and flu season. Make your food taste that much better and know that a little dash of oregano on Friday night’s pizza is going to do wonders for your total wellness.

Pumpkins and Pepitas!

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It’s Halloween! That means pumpkin season, pumpkin soup, pumpkin beer, pumpkin muffins, smoothies, pie, bread…the possibilities are endless! This time of year we decorate our houses with them, smoother our front porches, and stuff our faces with these fall favorites.

This year after you carve your pumpkin for the big night of trick or treating save your pumpkin seeds or “Pepitas” for a healthy snack when you’ve gotten sore teeth and an upset belly after all that candy. Pepitas are great for topping soups, salads or just snacking on them alone. They are loaded with antioxidants, amino acids, fiber, vitamins and minerals. They are high in protein, good fat, and Vitamin E. They boost your mood, lower bad cholesterol, and help fight free-radicals.

As for all your pumpkins, although the pumpkins you carve aren’t edible you can find edible pumpkins at your local produces stands, farmers markets, and grocery stores. There is so many recipes out there it’s hard to choose just one. The benefits of pumpkins are endless. They are high in fiber, low in calories, loaded with vitamin A, and high in antioxidants. Pumpkins help improve your eye sight, boost your immune system, and fight cancer. They also help you to feel fuller and lose weight.

Ready to try a new recipe with Pepitas or Pumpkins? Check out my recipes for both!

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Figgy Buckwheat Pancakes!

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we all here it all the time. Right? But why? Eating breakfast stabilizes your blood sugar for the day. Breakfast is just as it says breaking the fast from the night before. Studies show skipping breakfast makes weight control more difficult, it’s linked to obesity, you’re more likely to eat more at your next meal as well as snack on higher calorie snacks throughout the day.

I know breakfast is hard during the week, especially a bigger breakfast that takes more time prepare. Who has time when you’re half-dressed and pushing your sleepy-eyed kids out the door for school. It’s easier to stop at Starbucks for a latte and croissant or shove a sugary breakfast bar into your mouth leaving a trail of crumbs on your way out the door. So, as you enjoy your Saturday or Sunday morning this weekend. Enjoy a bigger, more filling, and healthier breakfast with my “Figgy Buckwheat Pancakes!” Figs are still in season so get them while you can!!

Here’s the quick low-down on buckwheat and figs. Buckwheat, despite its name is gluten-free and loaded with antioxidants, fiber, minerals, protein, and Vitamin E. Figs are great for people with diabetes, they are high in potassium to help control blood pressure and prevent cancer. They are full of fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins. They are one of my favorite things to eat because they are so sweet and you don’t have to feel guilty because they’re so good for you! So indulge and enjoy this delicious breakfast! Let me know how yours turn out!

Recipe:

  • 8-10 ripe figs-cut into small pieces
  • 1 C of buckwheat flour pancake mix
  • 1 pasture-raised egg
  • 3/4 C of almond milk
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • raw maple syrup or organic

Mix egg, buckwheat flour, milk and olive oil into a bowl. Heat pan with a little olive oil on medium heat. As the pan heats up pour mixture into pan. You can make smaller or large pancakes totally up to you. Smaller ones cook faster and easier to flip. As the pancake starts to bubble add figs, then flip until pancakes are fully cooked. Stack on your plate add some maple syrup and you’ll be in pure heaven!

Planting Garlic for the Fall

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Garlic is one of my favorite things to grow in the fall. Probably because it is so easy to do and then you can just forget about it for the winter and go on about your business. Then in the spring the stems start shooting up as the soil begins to warm and then by the end of June to the middle of July you can harvest! It’s probably the lowest maintenance vegetable I grow all year. After it’s harvested as long as you hang it to let it dry and store it in a cool dark place you’ll have garlic for up to a year or longer depending on how much you grow and how much you use!

Garlic is packed with anti-inflammatory agents; it’s an anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. It’s great for the skin, helps fight infection, prevents cancer, boosts the immune system, and helps with ear aches, coughs, and sore throats. It’s loaded with Vitamin-C, helps with fatigue and digestive problems, while it detoxifies your entire system.

Garlic is great to naturally add incredible flavors to spice up your food. I think the best way to enjoy it is to roast it with some olive oil until the cloves soften and then spread it across crusty bread. It’s so good you could possibly eat the whole thing! But hopefully the next day you won’t be going anywhere because garlic’s only downfall is that it can leave you smelling pretty ripe! But if you have garlic coming from your pores you know it’s doing what it’s supposed to!

Here’s how to add it to your garden and then forget about it till next spring!

  1. Prepare your soil with some good compost or soil.
  2. Dig 1 ½” or 2” holes and space them about 3” apart.
  3. Take your bulb of garlic, (don’t get it from the grocery store-they’re sprayed so they won’t sprout-so make sure you buy from a seed/plant company-see some companies below.) break the bulb into smaller cloves
  4. Place root down into soil and then cover with soil.
  5. Cover soil with organic or “clean” straw, pine shats, or anything organic to keep the soil as warm as possible throughout the winter.
  6. Water, just to moisten the soil.
  7. In about 2 weeks you should see little green sprouts. Then you can pretty much leave it till the soil warms back up in the spring.

I check on mine once a month to make sure they’re still covered up and if we go through a dry spell and the ground hasn’t frozen I’ll continue to water until we get a freeze. Then in the spring when it’s time to start gardening again just give them some more compost and some organic fertilizer and they should be good to harvest by late June into mid July for zones 6 and 7!

Where to buy garlic:

www.cooksgarden.com

www.burpee.com

www.territorialseed.com

Being Skinny Doesn’t Mean Being Healthy

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There has been a misconception for a long time that being skinny means being healthy. It seems like such a long time ago when we (especially women) were curvy and vivacious. Women were considered beautiful being full-figured. Today, there are so many terms, diets, and food restrictions for being skinny. Vegans, Vegetarians, Lacto-Ovo vegetarians, Gluten-free diets, the list is endless.

Almost all fad diets never work because you’re depriving your body of the things it needs and wants, setting yourself up for immediate failure. What we all need to discover is that we are all built differently, each of our body’s need different things, and what works for me is not going to necessarily work for you. All the food trends these days are leaving us in a whirlwind of confusion. One day eggs are good for you and then the next they’ll put you in an early grave. Then it’s caffeine, meat, carbs, fat, gluten, wheat, soon we’re left with just eating the cardboard surrounding the food our bodies are screaming for.

We all need to realize that skinny doesn’t always mean healthy. We can all say we’ve stared at the waify models trudging down the runway, and at least once in our lives say I wish that was me. But who wants to be bone thin and looking like you’re on the brink of death? Food is supposed to be nurturing to the body and soul, it’s supposed to bring family and friends together, and be enjoyable to prepare, cook, and eat. Food is the center of most cultures, but in the United States it’s become everyone’s nemesis.

So we all need to dig down and stop trying to look like the high-fashion model or mega-red carpet actress that is gorging herself at the nearest doughnut shop. Quit the fad diets, and listen to your body. Give up the added sugars and processed foods, eat more fruits and vegetables, focus on “whole” foods. That’s the only “diet” you will need. Pounds will shed, energy will sky-rocket, sleep will improve, and then you’re ready to take on the world.

Need a little more push? Find someone who you can look up to that has the same body type, illness, or have overcome the same obstacles you have. Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé, Jennifer Anniston, David Beckham, Michael Phelps, and Natalie Portman are just a few that know what works best for their body type. Each one of them live different lifestyles, have different eating and workout habits, and range in body structure. Do some research and find out what worked best for them and try those methods, not to lose massive amounts of weight but to be healthy for yourself. The saying if you don’t have your health then you have nothing is completely true. Take control of yours and remember being skinny doesn’t always mean healthy. You have to find out what healthy means to you, your needs, and your body first!

How to Go Organic Without Overwhelming Yourself

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Walking into the grocery stores these days can be enough to send you into a full- blown anxiety attack. Row and rows of produce, meat, packaged foods, and frozen items can leave your head spinning. Not to mention the confusing marketing, everything from no artificial flavors, all-natural, sugar-free, fat-free, locally supported, no added hormones, no GMO, farm fresh, and of course organic. Today, there seems to be a misconception about “going organic.” Why wouldn’t there be with all this crazy talk and billions of dollars in marketing? Going organic is about making a decision to eat “cleaner” foods and choosing foods with no synthetic chemicals or fertilizers. Becoming organic is about living and obtaining a lifestyle, guaranteed to keep you healthier and living longer while preventing toxic chemicals from being absorbed into your body.

We know how overwhelming it can be, so we’ve teamed up with Isla Magazine and decided to make a personal organic program especially for you, broken down through the next couple of weeks. We will give you a menu, recipes, and even explanations on why choosing organic is the better choice for you and your family.

Here are some ideas to get you started. You don’t have to become 100% organic right away, especially when you’re just starting out, and demographically that may be exceptionally hard for a lot of us. Remember that buying from your local farmer ensures knowing where your food is coming from, it’s fresher, and will have more nutrients since it’s not being trucked across the country, and most local farmers use little to no harmful chemicals or pesticides. Another great thing to keep in mind when grocery shopping if you’re not sure if your produce is organic: check the PLU codes, organic produce will usually be a 4-digit code starting with #9 and genetically modified foods (GMO) will begin with the #8.

First, write out your grocery list. Pick the top 5 produce items your family consumes every week and start buying those organic. Then every time you go to the grocery store incorporate 1 or 2 more produce items. As time continues, you’ll be buying all your produce organic and not even thinking about it. Or you can start with the dirty dozen. The list of top 12 items that are the most contaminated with pesticides includes apples (they are the #1 fruit heavily treated), lettuce, celery, and strawberries. For the full dirty dozen list, visit www.farmfoodieandfitness.com/the-dirty-dozen-fruits-and-vegetables-with-the-most-pesticides.  

Another great place to start buying organic is with animal meats and byproducts. This includes, beef, chicken, pork, eggs, and milk. These are also great to buy local if you can’t find everything organic in your grocery store. Find a local farmer that butchers their own meats. You’ll be able to see their living conditions, what the animals are fed, and even ask the farmer questions. This is great for knowing where your food is coming from and how it’s being handled.

One last place in your grocery store to start buying organic is peanut butter. Choose organic or even try other nut butters like almond, sunflower, cashew, or pumpkin seed butters instead. Fungicides are used on peanut plants to prevent mold; these fungicides are highly toxic to our endocrine systems so choose organic or a variety of nut butters.

These simple ideas should be a great place to start if you’ve decided to go organic. Look for next week’s post for a 5-day menu on organic meals ideas. Feel free to comment with questions or just let us know how your latest trip to the store turned out! And don’t forget to check Monday for the menu!!

Get Moving and Get Outside!

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With the last weeks of summer winding down, now is the time to take advantage of the final dog days of summer and get outside. We spend so much time inside for work, on computers, and watching tv (especially lately with the Olympics, which I totally love!) Enjoy these last weeks of heat and get ready to jump into the gorgeous fall weather that is lurking around the corner! Now is the best time to learn something new, take a stand-up paddleboard lesson or enjoy a fitness class. Check your local area, my small town offers everything from aerial yoga, boot camp in the park, pole dancing, bikes on the boardwalk, surf lessons, golf, beach volleyball, even yoga and Pilates on the beach.

Getting outside can also include taking the dog for walk, gardening, make it a day at the pool with the kids, cut the grass, cook on the grill, find a farm and pick your own produce, the list is endless. The health benefits from exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and your daily dose of vitamin D make it priceless. Sunshine boots your mood and helps you absorb your Vitamin D. Fresh air will keep your feeling motivated and your energy levels up. And exercise always makes you feel that much better! So, here’s a little beak down of how many calories you burn an hour when you get outside and get moving. You’ll be surprised what actually burns the most!

The numbers will vary a little depending on your weight and if you’re male or female. This chart is based on a male or female weighing 145-165 pound range: The more you weight the more you burn and men tend to burn more calories faster. (Of course they would!) :)

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