Tri-Wellness

The Best Online Executive Functioning Coach

Author: Lisa Shanken

Lisa Shanken

Keeping The Holidays Happy

With Thanksgiving and the general holiday season just around the corner, it always reminds me of the complexities of this time of year. Moderately indulging without going overboard with holiday food, feeling excited to see all of your family but then easily getting annoyed with them when you are together, being excited about giving gifts but then exceeding your budget, and trying to stay healthy but then having a few too many glasses of wine, are all things that can add to the stress of the holiday season.

Given that most of us deal with at least one of the above-named stressors, I think it’s a great time of year to look at how to plan accordingly and avoid as much of this stress as possible. In my line of work, and in general, regarding executive functioning, it always comes back to planning and structure, so here are some tips on how to set that up in advance and maximize your holiday enjoyment.

  1. Spending money. The holidays are obviously associated with lots of gift-giving, which can mean extravagant spending not incorporated into your monthly budget. The most important thing is to buy within your means. If you live paycheck to paycheck, this may mean crafting your own gifts at home rather than purchasing things. If you have savings or get a holiday bonus, set aside the total amount you are willing to spend, and then divide that amongst all of the people for whom you plan to buy gifts. If you find yourself impulsively wanting to buy things beyond your budget, use the 5-second pause strategy before making a purchase. Ask yourself over 3-5 seconds, “How will buying this impact my finances?” Just a quick pause before completing that purchase can make a big difference to your bank account.
  2. Indulging in holiday food. The holidays are undoubtedly a time for some indulgence, but the key is not to overindulge. What does that look like for you? Asking yourself these questions before you arrive at a holiday dinner is imperative to avoid giving in too much to temptation. For example, if you generally avoid sugar but can’t live without your Dad’s Thanksgiving pecan pie, plan your meal accordingly. Maybe take an extra serving of vegetables that night and opt for pecan pie as your only dessert. Again, so much balancing your indulgence comes back to controlling your impulses. Rely, once again, on that 5-second pause and ask yourself, “Will I be upset tomorrow if I have a second slice of pie?” There is no right or wrong answer. Sometimes going for that second slice is exactly what you need rather than being too rigid. It’s all about using that pause to rely on good decision-making rather than a quick whim.
  3. Enjoying family time. While hopefully most of us love our families, large family gatherings still mean a mix of several different personalities. It’s normal to feel more tolerant towards some family members than others. To thoroughly enjoy these gatherings, I suggest trying to focus on gratitude with one another, maybe even naming it out loud. Pre-planning an activity like a family football game, a walk, or watching a funny movie together can also be helpful to evade conflict. Most importantly, remember to breathe, especially when you feel yourself getting triggered, as this can help control your reactions.

As you can see, so much of this comes down to impulse control, which is a component of Executive Functioning. When we can learn to control our impulses through pausing, breathing, and understanding our triggers ahead of time, we can control our reactivity and behaviors and be the best version of ourselves. Please reach out if you feel impulse control is something you would like to improve in your life. Wishing you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Should You Be Dairy Free?

Happy autumn! A few issues ago in Don’t Get Your Gut In A Rut, we looked at the benefits of a gluten-free diet. This month we will examine the benefits of a dairy-free diet, what that looks like, and how to decide if it’s right for you. 

First, let's define what falls under “dairy” since it can look like a lot of different things. A dairy-free diet means excluding all foods that contain products derived from animal milk - most commonly cows, sheep, goats, and buffalo in the United States. This means avoiding foods that contain milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, cream, and ice cream. 

Some people are forced to be dairy-free due to an allergy to the proteins (casein and whey) in animal milk products. An allergic reaction can range from rashes to digestive issues to more serious anaphylaxis. Dairy intolerance means a sensitivity to the sugar found in milk, known as lactose intolerance. This sensitivity is more common to cow milk products compared to an intolerance to milk from sheep, goats, and buffalo. These latter animal milk can still cause digestive and skin symptoms but tend to be less severe. 

Dairy can be an excellent source of calcium, needed for bone-building strength. It’s important to consider how to get calcium from other sources if you are dairy-free. This is possible by adding other high-calcium foods to your diet, including dark leafy greens (i.e. kale, broccoli, and collard greens), almonds, sesame seeds, black strap molasses, soy, chia seeds, and white beans. There are also many non-dairy alternatives fortified with calcium like non-dairy milk (oat, soy, coconut, almond) as well as “creamy” alternatives you can easily make at home like cashew cream or coconut cream. Please note these are not pre-packaged foods with lots of additives - they are simple and easy to make from healthy, whole foods. 

Another thing to consider is goat and sheep milk. Because they contain a different protein than cow’s milk (A1 vs A2 proteins, with A2 proteins being more easily digestible), people with dairy allergies and/or sensitivities sometimes better tolerate these milks. This also means they can tolerate products (yogurts, cheeses, etc) made with these animal milks more easily.

A few other benefits of going dairy-free include improved skin and acne conditions, easier weight loss, increased energy levels, and lowering inflammation, which can help decrease candida overgrowth and boost immune strength. 

The decision to go dairy-free, unless you are forced due to a severe allergy, is a personal choice. If you are considering it, try it for 6 weeks to see if it makes a noticeable difference in your body. You may opt to cut out all dairy products at once or try cutting only cow’s milk products if all types of animal milk products feel too challenging. 

Unsure what to do or how to switch to a dairy-free diet while still getting a healthy amount of daily nutrients? We are here to help! Schedule a free phone consultation so we can work together to figure out the customized approach that is best for you!

Back To School Tips for Routine & Focus

It’s hard to believe it’s back to school time already. This time of year is a lot of change for both students and parents, so it’s important to utilize tools and tips that can help everyone get back into their routines with as few challenges as possible.

This may call for reorganizing your entire day compared to your summer routine, which includes shifting sleep habits, planning and preparing healthy meals and snacks, managing time wisely for academics and extracurricular activities, and fitting in self-care.

Let’s break each of these down and focus on tips that can help you ease into the back to school routine.

  1. Shifting sleep habits is a matter of resetting your body clock, which is impacted by hormones, body temperature, and environmental factors like light/darkness and noise/quiet, according to Everyday Health. There are a few simple tips you can follow to reset your body clock, but it takes some time.
    • Begin by sticking with a consistent wakeup time each day, which is easily accomplished if you want to get to work or school on time :-). On the weekends, try not to sleep more than an hour later than your weekday wakeup time.
    • We want to aim for an average of 8 hours of sleep per night, so you will want to slowly adjust your bedtime. Every 2-3 days, go to sleep 15 minutes earlier while maintaining your consistent wakeup time until you have reached a bedtime that allows for a full 8 hours of sleep per night. 
    • Skip the naps. Even if you feel more tired with your earlier wakeup time, slowly backing up your bedtime is better for resetting your body clock than napping and going to sleep later.
    • Turn your screens off an hour before bedtime. Read a book, listen to a podcast, or do some stretching before bed instead.
    • Keep your lights dimmed and turn down any loud music, or other noise, an hour before bedtime to ready your body for sleep.
  2. Planning and preparing healthy meals and snacks is incredibly important and can impact your level of focus and concentration. Some ideas to make eating healthy easier and less time consuming include:
    • Buy your vegetables pre-cut to avoid prep time or use frozen vegetables
    • Choose a day of the week (I like Sunday best) to do a lot of cooking all at once. You can then portion them into single serve containers, making meals easy to grab and go!
    • If cooking is not your thing, purchase pre-cooked chicken (frozen grilled breasts or rotisserie), or nitrate-free deli meats, and a bagged salad for a few easy throw-together lunches!
    • Keep hard boiled eggs on hand for a quick, healthy, protein filled snack!
    • Aim to eat more plant-based foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts. They take less time to prepare and are great for brain health!
  3. Time management can be challenging after drifting along casually in the summer with fewer responsibilities. But once school starts, the responsibilities and schedules start to stack.
    • Limiting “screen/social media/news scrolling” time is incredibly important for more efficient time management. We all spend too much time on our phones and could likely get more done if we limit this. While some of it does come down to will power, another way is to schedule very specific timed-slots for screen time. For example, you can give yourself 15 minutes in the morning that is measured by an alarm, and another 15 minutes at lunch, measured by an alarm, etc.
    • Using a calendar is a great way to manage your time, and it’s never too early to start. Google calendar is my preferred method because you can color code and share it, but there are many other calendar apps or hand written planners that also work. The key is then remembering to look at your calendar on a daily basis (or multiple times per day if you are like me). You can anchor this task to a habit you already do regularly such as brushing your teeth or eating lunch.
    • Using rewards for avoiding procrastination can be effective to manage time more efficiently. For example, you may schedule something for a specific time in your calendar, and reward yourself with time with a friend or watching your favorite show once you complete that task. I strongly recommend working with someone else for accountability in this way.
  4. Self-care can feel much harder to fit in when we are busier, and yet that’s when it is even more important! Self-care can look a lot of different ways:
    • A daily 30 minute walk can improve mood and health. And bonus points if you can find a pretty spot in nature for your walk!
    • Try just a few minutes of relaxation breathing or meditating each day to help you feel more grounded.
    • Keep a gratitude list and remind yourself of it daily!
    • Make plans with a loved one or friend to hang out and connect in person.
    • Do something special and out of the ordinary like getting a massage, going out for a special lunch, or taking on a new hobby.

Don’t hesitate to reach out for help if you find yourself struggling. Transitions can be hard, and no one can do it all on their own. You are not alone, and there is no reason to take on everything yourself. Find a friend, family member, or a coach to help you create new habits to make this year your most successful yet!

Back To Basics – Gut Health<>Mental Health

Sometimes it’s important to get back to basics and revisit the foundational elements of our work. Recently, I read a great article that did exactly this by explaining why the gut has a tremendous impact on the rest of our body.

This article, published in National Geographic, does an excellent job of providing the science behind the gut’s importance, in a very digestible way (all puns intended :-)). If you have any interest in improving and/or preserving the health of your body, this article is a must-read!

Some of the highlights worth emphasizing include:

  • The gut is its own microbiome that is essential to your health and it is similar to its own “mini-ecosystem,” hosting a community of trillions of microorganisms.
  • The microorganisms (aka microbiota) in the gut help breakdown, digest, and process the foods we eat, but an imbalance of these microbiota can lead to various health problems like Diabetes, mood and mental health disorders, and neurodegenerative illnesses such as Parkinson’s, Autism, and Alzheimer’s.
  • A “balanced” gut looks slightly different for everyone, so there is no one size fits all formula.
  • The gut provides 90-95% of the body’s serotonin, which affects mood, sleep, and digestion.
  • The microbiota in the gut are like a self-contained “pharmacy,” that get absorbed into our blood
  • The gut has its own nervous system, “aka the enteric nervous system,” and can function independently of our brain.
  • What you eat and how you treat your body directly impacts your gut microbiome

Read the article to also learn how to maintain and/or improve the health of your gut, which leads to improved mental, physical, and overall health!

Dopamine Detox – Your How To Guide

In today's fast-paced and interconnected world, social media has become an integral part of our lives. While it brings numerous advantages, it's also crucial to recognize the importance of taking a step back and nurturing our well-being. Social media can cause small “dopamine hits” to the brain, which means the constant release of this brain chemical can make people feel more reliant on social media according to Health magazine.

Some of the benefits of taking a break from social media, or taking a “dopamine detox,” include:

A Mental Health Boost: Social media can sometimes lead to feelings of inadequacy, comparison, and stress. Taking a break allows us to distance ourselves from these pressures and focus on our own well-being. It also gives our brains a chance to reset our dopamine levels, as explained in the article referred to above.

Increased Productivity: Social media platforms are designed to be addictive, often leading to time wasted on endless scrolling. By stepping away, we free up time to pursue meaningful activities, hobbies, and spend quality time to connect with people through meaningful conversation.

Improved Relationships: Social media can sometimes give us a false sense of connection, leading to decreased face-to-face interactions. Taking a break allows us to reconnect with our surroundings and strengthen relationships with family and friends. 

Enhanced Focus and Creativity: Social media can be a constant source of distractions, hindering our ability to concentrate and be present in the moment. By taking a break, we reclaim our focus, allowing us to be more attentive, creative, and engaged in our work, studies, and hobbies.

If you do decide to take a social media break, I recommend setting clear goals regarding the timing of it, defining your reasons for taking a break, and then using that break/extra time to create healthier habits like calling a friend or relative each day, getting into nature, or reading a book.

The ultimate goal is to cultivate a healthier relationship with social media, rather than eliminate it entirely. By taking breaks and setting boundaries, you can harness the positive aspects of these platforms while preserving your mental health and overall well-being.

How To Increase Motivation

Motivation is an essential aspect of achieving our goals and making progress in our lives. Whether it is personal or professional, we all need motivation to keep moving forward. However, sometimes we find ourselves lacking the drive and determination to achieve our goals. Today we will discuss some effective ways to increase motivation and achieve our goals. Please note the questions and reply back with your answers as your first step towards improving your overall motivation!

1. Set specific and achievable goals

Research has shown that setting specific and challenging goals leads to higher levels of motivation and performance. A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that setting specific, challenging goals led to higher levels of job performance among salespeople (Locke & Latham, 2002). It can also help to write down your goals. What goals do you want to set for yourself and where can you write them down so that you see them in your daily routine?

2. Create a positive environment

Our environment can greatly affect our motivation levels. Creating a positive environment by surrounding ourselves with supportive people, positive affirmations, and inspiring visuals can help us stay motivated. Eliminating distractions, such as social media or clutter, can also help us focus and increase productivity A study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that positive affirmations can increase self-esteem and motivation (Wood, Perunovic, & Lee, 2009). What people do you generally surround yourself with and what is a positive affirmation you can start saying to yourself?

3. Celebrate small successes

Celebrating small successes can help us stay motivated and increase our confidence. Even the smallest achievements, such as completing a task on time or making progress towards a goal, should be acknowledged and celebrated. What is a recent small success you have had that you can celebrate?

4. Practice self-care

Taking care of ourselves is crucial for maintaining motivation and reducing stress. This includes getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and taking breaks when needed. A study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that employees who engaged in regular physical activity had higher levels of job satisfaction and motivation. What are some of your current self care practices and in what areas do you want to improve self-care?

5. Stay organized

Staying organized can help increase motivation by reducing stress and increasing productivity. This includes keeping track of deadlines, creating to-do lists, and setting priorities. What tools do you currently use to stay organized? What are some areas of your life where you want to be more organized?

6. Practice positive self-talk

The way we talk to ourselves can greatly affect our motivation levels. Practicing positive self-talk, such as reminding ourselves of our strengths and abilities, can help increase motivation and build confidence. Avoiding negative self-talk, such as focusing on our weaknesses or failures, can help to maintain a positive mindset and keep us motivated. What are some negative self-talk topics you say to yourself currently and what positive things can you replace them with?

7. Embrace failure

Studies have found that reframing failure as a learning opportunity can increase motivation and resilience. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that participants who were encouraged to view failure as a learning opportunity were more motivated to improve their performance (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007). What is a failure in your life that led to learning a valuable lesson?

8. Take action

Ultimately, the most effective way to increase motivation is to take action towards our goals. This involves breaking down our goals into smaller, manageable steps and consistently taking action towards them. By taking action and making progress, we can build momentum and stay motivated. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that taking action towards a goal increased motivation and self-efficacy, even if the action was small or unsuccessful (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). So what is a small step towards a bigger goal you can begin with?

I look forward to hearing your answers and seeing how you might work towards improving your motivation towards your life’s goals!

Spring Cleansing

Hooray, spring is officially here! Spring is a time of renewal, growth, and starting over. Our bodies start to adjust to the warming weather, and we shift our diets from hearty warming foods to lighter spring foods such as arugula, asparagus, artichokes, and peas. 

With the season of regrowth and renewal upon us, I also believe it’s a great time of year to cleanse and detoxify. Your body has its own built-in cleansing system in your liver, so consider these food/beverage-based cleanses to be health boosters. There are many different ways to approach a cleanse, so let’s dig in.

First, it’s important to determine your goals for your cleanse before starting. Realistic goals for a cleanse/detox diet include helping to fast track a transition to a healthier lifestyle by reducing inflammation, taking on new, healthier habits, discovering food sensitivities, and exposing yourself to new foods, tastes, and textures. 

Please note that a short-term cleanse is not a healthy and realistic approach to long-term weight loss. The weight that may be lost during a cleanse is mostly water weight rather than losing body fat. But a cleanse can serve as a great way to transition to longer-term, more sustainable healthier eating and lifestyle habits.

After you have determined your goals for your cleanse, it’s time to choose the type of cleanse you want. There are many choices out there, and it can be overwhelming to figure out what will work best for you. Factors to consider include how long you want the cleanse to last, if you want to include foods or strictly consume liquids during your cleanse, how much cooking is required and if you have the budget/time/desire to prepare the necessary foods.

Once you have honed in on these different aspects, it is then time to decide which cleanse best fits your needs. Some types of cleanses I recommend include:

  1. Tri-Wellness 10 Day Challenge (Whole foods based cleanse) - Designed to help people reduce inflammation, figure out suspected food sensitivities, and jumpstart a new healthy eating lifestyle this cleanse is affordable, includes healthy eating, requires some cooking, and is manageable when eating out. For further details, please reply to this email. 
  2. Fasting - Fasting for 1-3 days (maximum), which does include staying hydrated with water and clear liquids and broths, is another way to cleanse. Fasting has been scientifically shown to help reduce inflammation and control blood sugar. Always check with your doctor before embarking on any type of fast since certain medical conditions can worsen with fasting. 
  3. Juice Cleanse - A short-term juice cleanse (which can look many different ways from starting your day with a fresh pressed juice to relying only on fresh pressed, raw juices for a few days) can be full of nutrients and can aid digestion since all the insoluble fiber is removed. However, a few drawbacks of juice cleanses include the large expense (since they require so much organic produce) and the large amount of natural sugar in juices, which can make blood sugars spike.

Cleansing can have not only physical benefits, but mental health benefits as well, like the psychological impact of knowing you are putting in the work to shed excess toxins, expediting the clarity you can get from a healthy gut-brain connection, as well as the positive and productive feelings following a regimented and structured plan, like you are taking control of your health. I encourage you to try a cleanse this spring. As always, please reach out if you have any questions or want to talk through your options.

Supporting Things Close To Your Heart

Happy February (and almost the end of winter!). This month I was lucky enough to be part of the Wellness At Sea program on Jam Cruise, a very special 6 night music festival at sea. Many of you know that some of my greatest passions in life include wellness and live music. I’ve been seeing live music for the past 30+ years, and it has always been a source of true joy, happiness, and community for me.

In more recent years, I have worked to find a way to meld these passions together by teaching yoga, nutrition, and wellness at various music festivals around the country. My most recent experience on Jam Cruise was extra special because I had the opportunity to join a Wellness Panel for an organization close to my heart called Backline (Backline is a nonprofit organization that connects music industry professionals with the mental health and wellness resources they need to remain healthy in what can be a grueling industry and lifestyle.). On the panel (which included the founder of Backline, some amazing musicians, and me) we shared health and wellness tips for musicians and live music fans, alike. 

I have been volunteering my services to Backline for the past 6 months. It has been eye opening and validating to see how support, connection, and healthy lifestyle habits can tremendously benefit people. It has also reminded me that doing work that speaks to your heart makes the work feel like play.

So this month, I would like to devote the Don’t Get Your Gut In A Rut newsletter to two things. First, dig deep to find your passion. Finding your passion is not always obvious and can take some time, so reach out if you would like to discuss this more. Then once you have discovered your passion, let that passion guide you to giving back because it feels so rewarding to give back! 

Second, please consider supporting Backline. They are a wonderful organization supporting the lives of people that provide so much joy and entertainment to this world.  Let’s return the favor by supporting their paths toward better mental health and wellness. Everyone deserves to feel healthy and happy, so let’s work together to help as many people as we can. Spreading health and happiness is healing for both the receivers and the givers. 🙂

How to Easily Transition To A Gluten Free Diet

Switching to a gluten free diet has been pretty trendy over the past few years (especially if you reside in my hometown of Boulder, CO), but for good reason! Celiac Disease, which is an autoimmune disease causing an allergy to wheat, is one reason people may be forced to go gluten free (but that only affects about 1% of the U.S. population). However, many people in recent years, including myself, have found they are sensitive to gluten, which is harder to detect.

Gluten is a protein in wheat, and people with sensitivities report a wide range of symptoms when they eat gluten including digestive upset, joint pain, headaches, and brain fog. To date, no studies have found evidence that gluten is the cause of these symptoms, yet emerging evidence is starting to show gluten can cause gastrointestinal discomfort for some people, especially those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Many people report these symptoms go away once they remove gluten from their diets. A 2017 study showed gluten has inflammatory properties and can negatively impact the gut microbiome and intestinal permeability. A reliable test for gluten-intolerance is yet to exist, so we really have no choice but to rely on what we feel in our bodies plus experimenting with how we feel when we omit gluten. 

Substituting gluten with gluten-free processed and packaged foods can be just as harmful as eating gluten. My goal is to give you some tips on transitioning to a gluten-free diet without making you feel too deprived nor by relying on unhealthy gluten-free substitutes. It is important, if cutting gluten, to ensure you are still including nutritious, whole grains into your diet.

Let’s begin with identifying the most common foods containing gluten. This includes anything with wheat, such as wheat-based (the most common kind) pasta, breads, pastries, pancakes/waffles, processed chips and snacks, wheat-based crackers, soy sauce, plus a few non-wheat grains including barley, farro, couscous (not a whole grain), spelt, kamut, farina, and rye. But don’t panic because there are many naturally gluten-free whole grains and delicious foods you can add into your diet to leave you feeling satisfied with more energy and a healthier gut!

  1. Start adding naturally gluten-free whole grains into your diet. This includes brown rice, quinoa, oats, buckwheat, and amaranth. Try some delicious recipes that contain these whole grains including fried rice, quinoa burrito bowls, and no-bake granola bars.
  2. Try almond-flour bread instead of wheat based-breads. It’s easy to make at home (even for the non-bakers out there, which would be me!) and delicious. You can make healthy sandwiches and toast with this almond flour loaf.
  3. If you love your pancake breakfast in the morning, try these protein pancakes. Also easy to make, they will absolutely satisfy your short-stack craving. Make some extra because they are great to reheat for a quick breakfast.
  4. Granola is another great gluten-free substitute that can add crunch and flavor when you feel like you are starting to miss gluten-filled cold cereals. 
  5. Bread-based sandwich alternatives also can be an easy fix. Try using lettuce or a corn tortilla as a wrap for any sandwich, put a burger between two portobello mushrooms, or make a turkey sandwich using Cauliflower Thins. Getting creative can be fun and still offer convenient, on the go, lunch solutions.
  6. Soy sauce has gluten, but you can use either tamari, a naturally brewed soy sauce without gluten, or coconut aminos, which are naturally gluten free. With both, it’s hard to tell the difference from real soy sauce.
  7. There are many naturally whole foods-based gluten-free snack options including nuts, dips like hummus and Bitchin’ Sauce, all types of fruit and veggies, corn tortilla chips, dried chickpea snacks like Biena Snacks, dried seaweed snacks, popcorn, and rice cakes.
  8. Of course there will be times when you want to turn to packaged foods, and in moderation, this is absolutely fine.  (I usually tell people to try to abide by the 80/20 rule.) Some of my favorite gluten-free brands (and some are just naturally gluten-free, without trying to swap in other ingredients) include Simple Mills almond-flour based crackers and other products, Hippeas chips, Tinkyada (brown rice based) and Banza (chickpea based) pastas, Caulipower pizza, and BFree breads. 

I would love to hear what whole-foods based gluten-free snacks you include in your diet, so feel free to reply here or send any other questions you may have.

Healthy Holiday Cooking Tips – 2022

Happy holidays! I always find this time of year to be a bit complicated. The holidays are joyous but they can also come with their challenges. I believe it’s important to acknowledge that, which can actually help you ease into the holiday season and enjoy it more.

Of course, the holidays are also a time of indulgence, which is fun, but it is important to stay mindful and not overdo it. With that in mind, I would like to offer some ideas on easy ingredient substitutions that taste great but are better for you. They allow you to still make your favorite dishes in healthier versions.

  1. Chocolate! Many holiday recipes call for chocolate, so I suggest swapping out milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips for dark chocolate that contains at least 70% or more cacao. The higher the percentage of cacao, the less sugar in the chocolate. In addition, cacao is a powerful antioxidant that boosts energy and helps burn fat.
  2. Swap out the white sugar listed in so many holiday dessert recipes for other healthier, all-natural, sweeteners such as stevia, coconut sugar, or monk fruit sweetener. All of these sweeteners are all natural and measure much lower on the glycemic index. This means they won’t spike your blood glucose levels the way white sugar does. These alternative sweeteners each have different levels of sweetness, so a quick Google search can guide you on how to measure and replace the white sugar.
  3. Aim for more plant-based foods in your holiday meals this year. You can do this in a variety of ways. For example, you can swap out coconut cream for dishes that call for full-fat dairy products, like creamy soups. You can also use beans and potatoes as thickeners instead of heavy cream, and you can offer cooked fruit as a topping on desserts instead of overly sweet syrups. Also, try vegetable side dishes like seared broccolini and pesto spaghetti squash instead of starchy side dishes like white potatoes and semolina pastas.
  4. Cut down on unhealthy cooking oils like canola and safflower, and instead opt for olive, coconut, and avocado oils. Pay close attention to burn temperatures when using oils because they can release carcinogens if they start to smoke. To be safe, use olive oil for dressings and very low-temperature sautéing, coconut oil for medium-temperature cooking, and avocado oil for higher temperatures and frying. Olive and avocado oils are high in healthy monounsaturated fats, while coconut oil is an excellent source of MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides). 

So get adventurous with your cooking. Most importantly, have fun with it, and be willing to try new things! The only constant is change, so change it up this year! 

At Tri-Wellness, we want to wish the happiest of holidays and ease and joy into the New Year.

Brain Game/Human Connection

This month I would like to share two separate articles I came across, both focused on brain health, albeit different aspects of it. 

First, the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study the impact of socialization on our brains. Humans are, by nature, a social species. According to a meta-analytic review presented in Nature magazine, “In humans, the single best predictor of physical health and well-being, as well as future longevity, is the number and quality of close friendships, with the more conventional suspects (such as diet, obesity, alcohol consumption and air quality) ranking a distant second.”

During the peak of the pandemic, 3.6 billion people were home due to government-imposed quarantines. Research into this showed a wide variety of results, revealing that isolation impacts everything from mood, longevity, cognitive clarity, and cardiovascular health. Read on here to learn more about this fascinating study about the impact of human connection on both our psychological and physical health. 

Second, a recent article published in Prevention studied how memory, one of the key tenets of executive functioning (referred to as working memory), can falter at both younger and older ages. The good news is that there are many things you can do to take control and improve your memory. Things like consistent exercise, learning new skills and new information, mindfulness practices, and high quality and consistent sleep, socialization, and puzzles can all help. Check out the article for more specifics! 

The bottom line this holiday season is to try to connect with family and friends, keep your body moving, try to catch some Zs, and practice mindfulness to keep your brain, mood, and physical health in optimal condition. Please reach out to work on customizing these approaches to live your healthiest, best life.

Behavioral Strategies to help ADHD

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed in people today, according to Psychiatry.org. Symptoms of ADHD include:

  • Inability to focus/concentrate (losing things, forgetful, difficulty organizing)
  • Hyperactivity (fidgeting, moving around a lot)
  • Impulsivity (interrupting, procrastinating)

ADHD can then lead to poor self-esteem, lack of motivation, poor socialization, and a host of other issues if left untreated. This disorder usually begins during childhood but can be missed into adulthood. 

ADHD is categorized into three types. Inattentive ADHD is when people have trouble focusing, concentrating, and organizing/completing tasks. Hyperactive type ADHD looks more like people that have trouble sitting still, controlling impulses, and may talk/blurt out too much. Some people with an ADHD diagnosis can present with all of these symptoms, therefore making it combined ADHD. 

Part of treating ADHD can be with medications, often stimulants. However, medication is generally not enough by itself as a true lifelong treatment for ADHD. Stimulants also do not work for everyone, as they come with many side effects and can also be habit-forming.

There are many behavioral strategies that can help people cope with ADHD, help to stay on task, control impulsivity, and calm the body. If you practice these coping mechanisms consistently, the results can be quite remarkable.

So let’s dig into some of the most effective habits you can start building to manage adult ADHD.

  1. Physical exercise is one of the most important non-medication treatments to help ADHD symptoms subside. According to the National Library of Medicine, exercise can help increase focus, decrease hyperactivity, improve motor skills and academic performance, and help hone executive functioning skills like working memory and cognitive flexibility. 
  2. Mindfulness meditation can be highly effective in treating ADHD symptoms. A 2017 study found that 40% of adults find it helpful. Mindfulness meditation can look like sitting quietly, doing a walking meditation, or practicing yoga. It helps increase your ability to focus and complete tasks as well as decrease anxiety and depression. Meditation may sound intimidating to an ADHD mind that has a lot of quick thoughts running through it, but try to focus on the space between each thought. Start with just a few short minutes daily and slowly increase the duration over time.
  3. Protect yourself from nutrient deficiencies. Deficiencies in magnesium, B vitamins, and essential fatty acids can lead to decreased focus and concentration. A 2016 study found that 72% of kids with ADHD were also deficient in magnesium. A simple blood test from your doctor can determine if you are deficient in magnesium and other vitamins.
  4. Reduce artificial colors from your diet. For over 30 years, artificial colors have been studied and shown to increase hyperactivity in people, even those without ADHD. If you struggle with ADHD - hyperactive type, it is best to eliminate all artificial colors from your diet. 
  5. Eat a high-protein breakfast and a diet generally low in refined sugars/carbohydrates. Starting your day off with a high-sugar breakfast such as a donut, pastry, or high-sugar cereal will not only cause you to crash and burn but will also cause sugar cravings throughout the day, making that sugar high>crash and burn pattern continue through the rest of the day. Instead try some eggs, a smoothie filled with fruits, veggies, and protein powder, or nut butter spread on an apple or banana.
  6. A consistent sleep schedule is vital for people struggling with ADHD to improve focus and concentration, keep motivation high, and avoid procrastination. You can achieve this with good sleep hygiene. Stick to a consistent wake time each day, exposing your eyes to natural light for at least 10 minutes within one hour of your wake time (through a window is not as effective as being directly outside). In addition, turn off all electronics, especially those with blue light, at least 1 hour before bedtime for ease in falling asleep. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you are struggling with ADHD and would like support. There are lots of ways to manage your ADHD symptoms, but it’s about figuring out what works best for you as an individual. Implementing some of these new strategies can be difficult to do on your own, and we are here to help!

Spirituality and Depression

I hope you are enjoying your summer! I recently read a book that completely rocked my world, so I wanted to share it and talk more about the subject. The book is called The Awakened Brain, by Lisa Miller. Lisa Miller is a PhD psychologist that pioneered the research studying how spirituality can actually help improve symptoms of depression. She is also the founder of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Columbia University.

This book resonated so strongly with me for a few reasons. Many people that struggle with depression have treatment challenges such as being medication resistant, others are unable to afford accessible support and care, while still others may look for alternative types of treatment. Spirituality is something that can be accessible to anyone who chooses to seek it out.

I highly recommend reading or listening to the book, but some of my favorite findings include:

  • Her 2012 study found, through MRI imaging, that the area of the brain weakened by depression also strengthens with a consistent spiritual practice, therefore proving a biological basis for spirituality.
  • A spiritual practice that helps decrease anxiety and depression then leads to “more positive psychological traits such as grit, resilience, optimism, and tenacity.”
  • Many examples of Dr. Miller’s own clients’ stories about how spirituality greatly improved their lives and led to many examples of “synchronicity.” (Synchronicity  here refers to things that seem like coincidences, yet may be more as a result of people’s positivity.) While these examples are anecdotal, her research is backed by evidence-based studies that support these anecdotal stories. It also helps the book feel relatable and keeps you wanting to read more and more.
  • Miller’s study also found that people that have spirituality in their lives are 40-80% less likely to develop a dependence on substances. This is quite remarkable. She also notes how 12 step programs have a large spiritual component, which she believes is one of the reasons they can be successful for people in addiction recovery.

Personal spirituality can be found in whatever way it resonates within you.. nature, meditation, connection, music, and religion, are just a few examples. Please reach out if you would like to talk through ways of finding what speaks to you and your spirit. I would love to hear from you.

Summer Essentials For Healthy Gut > Healthy Brain

I love summer! Warm weather, nature in full bloom, and the availability of beautiful fruits and vegetables are all things for which I have immense gratitude!

This month, the title article in Prevention Magazine focused on how the gut acts as the body’s second brain, something we have discussed many times before in this newsletter. But as I was reading this magazine’s information on a topic that is now very well researched, it had me thinking not only how to improve and then maintain the health of your gut, but also how it’s a lot easier in the summer with such a wide variety of fresh produce available.

Plus, in many areas, summer affords people the opportunity to purchase fruits and vegetables, meats, and cheese, and other whole foods more locally at farmer’s markets. This is important because the foods get from the farm to our tables faster, retaining more of their nutrients, plus lessening humans’ carbon footprint.

I thought it might be helpful to offer a list of weekly grocery staples seasonally available in the summer to help you improve and maintain a healthy gut. This can then improve and help maintain better focus, concentration, mood, immune strength, and all the other things a healthy gut-brain connection can offer.

So read on to learn Lisa’s summer staple grocery list of gut-healthy foods (and why they are so important for your gut)!

  1. Greens, greens, and more greens! While greens are actually a cold weather crop, they grow quickly and are readily available at local farmer’s markets from the beginning of the warm season. Plus, so many more varieties are available in the beginning of summer compared to the winter.
  2. Farm fresh eggs. While eggs may be available all year long at the grocery store, local farm fresh eggs, including both chicken and duck eggs, are usually more available in the warmer months since the animals’ reproduction generally goes dormant in the colder weather. Eggs are an excellent source of protein, vitamin D, and choline (which helps liver function).
  3. Berries galore. As you have probably heard by now, berries are considered a super food because of their antioxidant super powers. This includes strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, all widely available, often locally, during the summer.
  4. Melons and stone fruits. Melons and stone fruits are summer seasonal fruits, and they are a great alternative to eating sugary foods. Although naturally sweet, melons usually measure low to medium on the glycemic index (a measure of how fast a food can make your blood sugar spike), helping to curb your overall intake of refined sweeteners.
  5. Seasonal fresh fish. Certain fish are freshly available (compared to flash frozen) in the summer months when the water temperatures increase, and they offer healthy fats that are great for both our brains and our guts. Examples include king salmon, yellow snapper, and a variety of shellfish like mussels, clams, and oysters.
  6. Tomatoes. Tomatoes are the ultimate summer seasonal fruit, available in many varieties, shapes, and sizes. They are a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and lutein (when cooked). They’ve been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer when consumed regularly.
  7. Fresh herbs. Fresh herbs make everything taste better, and during the warmer months they are readily available as well as easy to grow yourself, outdoors or in a window. My favorites to grow and use on fish, throw in salads, or add to grains include parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil, mint, and oregano.

Based on the below list of weekly staples, you can throw together a healthy summer meal in minutes including a salad, grilled fish, grilled veggies, or an omelet any night of the week!

Summer Staples Grocery List
Arugula
Broccoli
Butter lettuce
Farm fresh eggs
Assortment of berries
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Peaches
King salmon
Fresh shellfish (to be used on the day of purchase)
Cherry tomatoes
Beefsteak tomatoes
Cucumbers
Zucchini
String beans
Goat cheese
Olive oil
Brown rice or quinoa
Garlic
Mixture of fresh herbs

Spring Survey Results – The Immense Health Benefits of Gardening

The results are in! Thank you so much for participating in the Tri-Wellness Spring Survey. One of the most overwhelming responses was a desire to incorporate gardening into your lives. Since this is also something close to my heart (above photos are from my very own garden, just getting started this season), I wanted to focus on all the health benefits of gardening, of which there are many!

Gardening is good for both your mental and physical health in several ways. Below are 8 proven health benefits of gardening as well as some resources on how to get started if you are a novice gardener!

  1. Gardening exposes you to sunlight, which is how your body naturally creates vitamin D. Vitamin D increases your calcium levels, which in turn helps maintain strong bones and a strong immune system.
  2. Gardening leads to a healthier diet because you can eat all the vegetables you grow! This also can be a big motivator for eating more of your own cooking compared to restaurant food (often higher in salt, trans fat, and sugar). According to the CDC, gardening and eating your homegrown healthy veggies is one of the best preventative measures to avoid the top 4 causes of deaths in the US: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
  3. Gardening is great for your pocket book. This is especially true during this time of inflation and significantly increased prices at the grocery store! According to the National Gardening Association, the ROI is $8 back for every $1 invested in your garden.
  4. Gardening helps the environment by adding more plants that provide oxygen to our air as well as decreasing your carbon footprint by eating off of your own land.
  5. Gardening is proven to make you feel happier. A study in the Netherlands found that gardening for 30 minutes led to a decrease in cortisol levels in the blood, therefore lowering stress and boosting mood. A Norwegian study found that 50% of people struggling with persistent depression experienced a significant increase in mood after gardening 6 hours per week over a 3 month period.
  6. Gardening is great exercise! Pulling weeds, digging dirt, twisting, and reaching all helps you use muscles you may not normally access. It helps increase flexibility and stamina.
  7. Gardening is rewarding and helps young picky eaters expand their pallets. When kids can see food grow from start to finish by way of their own efforts, they are more inclined to try these new foods compared to buying them at the grocery store.
  8. A 2006 study tracked 28,000 people over 60 years old and found that daily gardening led to a 36% decreased risk of dementia.

If you are new to gardening and not sure where to start, I recommend checking out a few of the below resources.

  1. The most helpful resource I have found has been through Colorado State University’s Master Gardening Program. Master Gardeners are on hand to answer all of your questions, and they are extremely knowledgeable and resourceful.
  2. Of course there are tons of resources online and videos on YouTube as well that are helpful. I like this site, which starts with creating a garden plan, and then walks you through all of the steps.

Every year I learn more and more as I experiment with planting new things and building on the tips I learned from the previous season. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, photos, and gardening successes!

Spring – Rebirth, Renewal, Growth

Happy spring! Spring is a time of rebirth, renewal, and growth. It’s also my very favorite time of year because I get excited about what’s ahead! I love seeing the tiny buds transform into leaves on the trees, planting seeds that I watch germinate and eventually transplant into my vegetable garden, and being outdoors more.

Each month the Tri-Wellness Don’t Get Your Gut In A Rut newsletter tries to bring you valuable, evidence based information to help you live your healthiest, most productive life. I thought it might be fun to change it up a bit this month and instead hear from you. I would love to learn the areas where you would like to grow, change, and renew things this spring!

So please click on the link below to take a 3 minute survey that can direct me on how to provide you with the most useful and informative content! Your answers will be completely anonymous!

Let’s set our intentions this new season, plant the seeds of ideas on how you want to grow (all puns tended) and enjoy the renewal ahead!!

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!

Have a happy, healthy day!

Catch Your Best Zzz’s With Improved Sleep Hygiene

Welcome to this month’s Don’t Get Your Gut In A Rut newsletter, which focuses on sleep hygiene. In this second half of my 2 part newsletter on sleep, we will focus more on research about sleep, how important it is to both mental and physical health, and some new habits you can implement to improve your sleep.

Sleep corresponds directly to psychology. Sleep problems are commonly exacerbated by conditions like anxiety, bipolar, depression, and attention hyperactivity deficit disorder (ADHD), creating a bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental health. Therefore, improving sleep can act as a preventative method of declining mental health. Plus, a lack of sleep contributes to irritability and poor mood, also making it more difficult to cope with stress.

Physically, poor sleep can be linked to diabetes (type 2), heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and kidney disease, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. I am giving you the facts not to scare you, but hopefully to motivate you to improve your sleep hygiene.

According to the Sleep Foundation, the different levels of activity in your brain, during the different phases of sleep, affect the ability to think, learn, and remember things, as well as the brain’s ability to process emotions.

So how much sleep is enough sleep? The answer is that it really depends on your age, and this article shows a nice chart displaying that. The bottom line is that most adults require 7-8 hours of sleep per night for optimal brain health, and sleep debt is how many hours per night you lose below 7-8 hours within a week. Unfortunately, naps can not be a remedy for sleep debt since your sleep phases during a nap don’t generally match the same quality/sleep phases you get during a full night’s sleep.

Since there is such abundant evidence showing how important sleep is, let’s now shift to ways you can improve your sleep to reach a consistent 7-8 hours per night. These may be suggestions you have heard before, but I will add in ways to also implement these suggestions to truly be consistent with them.

  1. The same waking and bedtimes each day are essential, including the weekends. Try to maintain these times within an hour of each other every day. The same wake time is essentially just setting a daily alarm, but the key is to not sleep through it. If you often sleep through your alarm, I strongly recommend a few things.
    1. If you use your phone as your alarm, keep your phone far enough away from your bed so that you have to get up and out of bed to turn it off.
    2. The Sonic Boom alarm clock makes a loud noise and shakes the bed to help wake you up.
    3. Leave a large glass of water next to your bed at night before going to sleep. Drink it as soon as you hear your alarm in the morning and the hydrating effects will help you feel immediately more alert.
  2. According to The Huberman Lab podcast, research shows that one of the most important ways you can set your circadian rhythms, making it easier to fall asleep at night, is to get natural light directly into your eyes within one hour of waking for a minimum of 15 minutes. You can do this by going for a walk or just sitting outside.
  3. Caffeine can last for up to 8 hours, so avoid all caffeine at least 8 hours before bedtime. If you are reliant on caffeine, start cutting down slowly to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Try to switch your drink to half caffeinated and half decaf and slowly start to eliminate the caffeinated beverage over time. Drinking herbal tea and water with lemon may also help withdrawal symptoms.
  4. Exercising daily helps improve sleep quality. The key to being consistent with exercise is to find something that is enjoyable rather than something that feels like a chore. This can be anything that moves your body like yoga, walking, martial arts, pick up team sports, house cleaning, or anything else that elevates your heart rate for 20-30 minutes.
  5. Reduce light exposure as the evening hours begin. You can do this by keeping the lights in your home dim 1-2 hours before bed, shutting down all screens (phones, computers, tablets) at least an hour before bedtime, and possibly wearing blue blocker glasses if you are on screens 3-4 hours before bed.

I realize this is a lot of information to take in as well as several suggested new habits to adopt.
As always, I am here to support, encourage, and help you stay accountable. Please reach out with questions/feedback or schedule your free 15 minute phone call by clicking HERE.

Sleep and Gut Health

Welcome to my two part series on sleep. Sleep is probably the number one most important thing you can do to improve and maintain good overall health, which is why it warrants a 2 part series.

In today’s part I, I will focus on sleep’s relationship with gut health and the microbiome. More and more research points to the gut’s impact on overall physical and mental health.

New research is showing that the health of the gut may affect sleep in multiple ways including circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles, and sleep hormones. In addition, preliminary research in mice from the National Institutes of Health is also showing that sleep apnea can have a significant impact on the flora in the microbiome.

Because studies show that gut health has a direct relationship with depression and anxiety, this is yet another example of how gut health can impact sleep (Given that anxiety and depression often interfere with sleep.). The same can be true for stress as well as hormones and neurotransmitters that get released in the gut such as dopamine, serotonin, melatonin, cortisol, and GABA. The gut microbes work hard to regulate these hormones and neurotransmitters to maintain balance, but under stress, they can get deregulated.

In general, some new fascinating research at the University of Chicago Medical Center is showing that the gut microbiome has its own daily rhythms, which can influence circadian rhythms. These daily gut rhythms are strongly influenced by diet, benefiting from fermented foods and beneficial bacteria like probiotics. Plus, mice in this study fed an unhealthy diet also gained weight, which can lead to obesity, which, in turn, can also negatively affect sleep quality.

Here are a few tips on how to improve sleep:

  1. Improve your gut health by constantly replenishing it with the good microbes that help the gut flourish. You can get these from probiotic supplements, fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut, and grass-fed dairy products like yogurt and kefir.
  2. Help the beneficial bacteria already in your gut flourish even more by feeding them prebiotics – things like garlic, honey, asparagus, whole oats, and avocados. These foods have indigestible fibers that help the flora in your gut multiply.
  3. Avoid things that lead to the detrimental leaky gut like refined sugars, pesticides, overuse of antibiotics, and toxic chemicals found in a range of common everyday products from skincare to household cleaning agents.
  4. Develop a healthy sleep hygiene ritual like avoiding screens an hour before bedtime, keeping your bedroom dark before bedtime, consistent sleep and wake times, and practicing a relaxing ritual before going to sleep.

Implementing these tips as well as staying consistent with them often requires assistance and mentorship. If you think you or anyone you know may benefit from this type of counseling, please feel free to reach out for an appointment.

Stay tuned for part II of our look at sleep, where we’ll focus on strategies directly related to regulating sleep and the benefits that can have on your body.

Addiction Part II

I hope you enjoyed the holidays, got through them safely and had a happy New Year. By now, hopefully you have had a chance to listen to the Huberman Lab podcast I recommended on addiction in last month’s newsletter.

As promised, in part 2 of my focus on addiction this month, I will focus on tools, studies and strategies to help people struggling with addiction. I did reveal one of my favorite strategies explained by Dr. Anna Lembke in my last newsletter (worth repeating), which is truth telling. She explains how neuroscience has shown the importance of addicts being 100% truthful in their recovery process. Doing so ideally strengthens prefrontal cortex circuits that become disconnected during addiction.

Dr. Lembke says “addiction is a progressive narrowing of the things that bring you pleasure,” so people that are predisposed (such as people that have relatives that are addicts) to addiction might benefit from widening the mindset of what can offer pleasure. Thinking outside the box and exploring new activities, habits, and behaviors might be helpful.

She also says that oxytocin, a hormone made in the body when people feel more emotionally connected, is linked to a dopamine release in the brain. Therefore, helping people in recovery connect more to others can provide a similar dopamine release that addicts look to get from substance use.

It’s important to remember that addiction treatment does not look the same for everyone. There are all different approaches, including medications, 12-step programs, cognitive behavioral therapy (help change behavioral patterns and identify triggers), rational emotive behavior therapy (trying to change negative thoughts from stressors to more rational thoughts), contingency management (reinforcing positive behavior patterns), and harm reduction (trying to use a substance less in a structured and scheduled way). Oftentimes a combination of these approaches can be successful.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the following are essential aspects for successful addiction treatment:

  1. Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to an individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to ultimately finding success in returning to productive functioning.
  2. Treatment must be readily available and accessible.
  3. Successful treatment must address all aspects of addiction, including physical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal issues.
  4. Research shows that at least 3 months in treatment is necessary to significantly reduce or stop drug use. Even longer treatment durations have been proven to have the most successful outcomes.
  5. Addiction is a mental health disorder and may co-occur with other mental health disorders. In this case, it is important to address all diagnoses.
  6. Relapsing is part of the addiction illness. Therefore monitoring of drug use can be a helpful motivation to help addicts abstain from using.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction, please reach out for help. You are not alone. You can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) hotline at 800-662-HELP (4357) anytime, open 24 hours for crisis services.

Also feel free to reach out to me for help or to get connected with the right kind of treatment. There is hope and there is help.

Addiction Part 1

This month I would like to focus on the illness of addiction, which can get worse during the holiday season for many people. For part one of my two-part series on addiction, I’ll focus on education and understanding the illness of addiction. Next month, I’ll share specific strategies to help those facing addiction.

First, it’s important to know that addiction is extremely difficult, not only for both the person struggling, but also for those helping that individual.

To understand how addiction works in the brain, I’d like to share this eye-opening and informative podcast episode from the Huberman Lab, hosted by Dr. Andrew Huberman. As a Stanford neurobiology and ophthalmology professor, Dr. Huberman studies and shares many fascinating aspects of neuroscience, which is always backed by evidence-based research. (I highly recommend all of his podcast episodes!)

In this episode, he interviews author, psychiatrist, and addiction specialist Dr. Anna Lembke (also from Stanford). She recently authored a wonderful book I also recommend called Dopamine Nation.

I encourage you to listen to this podcast (found on Apple podcasts and Spotify), and I’d like to highlight some of what I found most fascinating:

  • Pleasure and pain are located in the same place in the brain, and the brain works hard to maintain a balance between the two. However, addiction tries to tip the scale more towards pleasure, which can ultimately lead to more pain.
  • Addictive substances and behaviors release extra dopamine, leading to pleasure, after which the brain compensates by trying to regulate dopamine levels. For single/occasional uses of substances, waiting a short time enables the brain to rebalance its pain-pleasure homeostasis. However, chronic substance use can lead to dopamine deficiency and more pain (e.g. clinical depression).
  • The addictive process in the brain applies to all forms of addictive behavior (e.g. gambling, sex, porn, substance abuse, etc...), which is why addicts often experience cross addictions.
  • Neuroscience has shown the importance of addicts being 100% truthful in their recovery process. Doing so ideally strengthens prefrontal cortex circuits that become disconnected during addiction.

These are just a few of the many fascinating takeaways from this highly educational podcast. I encourage you to listen, and I welcome your thoughts or questions.

Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter when I focus on the second part of the topic of addiction, covering tools and strategies to help recovery.

Until then, wishing you safe, healthy, and happy holidays!

The Power Of Gratitude

Did you know being grateful can actually benefit your mental and physical health? It’s true! The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. According to Harvard University’s psychology researchers, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami ran an interesting experiment to understand the power of gratitude. In this study, during a 10 week period, one group was asked to write a few sentences each week about things that happened during that week and why they felt grateful for them. A second group wrote down things that annoyed them each week, and the third group just wrote down things that happened each week without attaching any emotions to these events. Aside from feeling happier and more positive, after 10 weeks, the group that wrote about their gratitude each week also exercised more and had fewer doctor visits than the other two groups.

Focusing on gratitude also tends to help people stay in the present moment more, therefore reducing anxiety about the future or feeling depressed about something in the past. Philosophers have often said gratitude can lead to other emotions. For example, appreciating someone can lead to a more meaningful relationship, appreciating your work can lead to being more productive, and appreciating the things you already have can give you more satisfaction and save you money on material spending.

I am always most interested in the implementation of new habits, so the next question to ask yourself is, how can we cultivate gratitude? How can we appreciate what we have, even if we feel sad, anxious, or down? It might seem like a conundrum since cultivating gratitude may help those depressing feelings, yet it is hard to cultivate them when feeling down. So follow along, and try these tips to raise your positive vibration and improve your physical health!

  1. Write a thank you note to someone and express the things you are thankful to them about.
  2. Keep a gratitude journal about the things you are grateful for each day or each week.
  3. Visualize for 3-5 minutes per day about things you feel lucky to have in your life.
  4. Have a “no complaints” day each week. It is a great way to realize just how much you have to be grateful for, plus it can help stop negative thinking.
  5. Find a silver lining in at least 3 situations per week. For anything not going the way you want it to go, look for the positive. Something positive usually exists if you seek it out.
  6. Clean out a closet and find things you forgot about but love to renew your appreciation for the things you already have.

Personally, tip # 3, visualizing 3-5 minutes per day, is my go to habit for my daily gratitude practice. I do it each morning (closer to 3 minutes than 5 minutes for full disclosure), and it helps me start my day with a smile. Try all of the above tips and see what resonates most for you. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like support or help creating new healthy habits!

How to Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable to Foster Amazing Life Changes

One of my favorite quotes that I often repeat to my own kids (who are barely kids anymore so they have heard it for many years lol) is “To make progress, you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Sometimes that uncomfortable place is where the magic truly happens.

Of course, no one enjoys being uncomfortable mentally or physically. But oftentimes, making necessary changes to achieve the goals you set requires exactly that - getting out of your comfort zone. This can ring true for many goals related to improving your executive functioning skills.

For example, it could mean putting yourself in social or business situations you would rather avoid. However, by participating in these sometimes awkward situations, you can make friends or grow your business (Executive Functioning Skill - Cognitive Flexibility). Another example that relates to executive functioning is procrastination (Executive Functioning Skill - Inhibitory Control). A student may be failing a class and have to meet with the teacher to get extra help, which may be difficult and uncomfortable to confront. An additional example could be forgetting an important task at work (Executive Functioning Skill - Working Memory) that affects other people and then having to admit your mistake to your boss.

Many people will avoid these uncomfortable situations because avoiding discomfort temporarily feels better. But low and behold, the discomfort will catch up with you one way or another, whether it’s realizing you have not made new personal connections, continuing to fail in your endeavors, or never getting that promotion you want. So how do we get more comfortable with being uncomfortable so that you can accomplish your dreams? Let’s look at strategies that can get you out of your comfort zone and move into your zone of growth and progress, all the while improving various aspects of executive functioning.

  1. Break larger projects that feel overwhelming into smaller tasks. This will help lessen the resistance to starting a big project and make it easier to get going.
  2. Practice doing your daily routine differently in various ways/order. Getting out of your normal routine but seeing that you can still accomplish the same daily tasks using different strategies can help build your confidence in getting out of your comfort zone.
  3. Learn a new skill (try learning an instrument, a new software, or how to cook). Learning new things is hard, but proving to yourself that you can do it will increase self esteem and prove that you can handle other uncomfortable situations that come your way.
  4. Try starting a new exercise regimen (even if you already follow a regular regimen). Exercise can release endorphins, a natural “happiness chemical” that helps relax your nervous system. This can decrease anxiety in situations that are uncomfortable.
  5. Attend a Meetup group or other new event by yourself. Getting out into a group of people where you do not know anyone and will be forced to mingle with strangers is certainly challenging. But it’s also great for personal growth and building character, as well as making new connections.

All of these small ideas can lead to tremendous changes in your life. Feeling supported during this time can make it feel less intimidating to face uncomfortable situations. Please reach out if you are ready to get out of your comfort zone and grow exponentially!

Best Ways to Manage Stress and Implement Stress-Relieving Tools

There are many types of stress and many different ways it can manifest, but one thing is clear: it can absolutely impact a person’s gut health.

Dr.Mercola does an excellent job of explaining the science behind why our bodies start to produce more of the hormone, Cortisol, when we are under stress.

The gut-brain axis, connected by the Vagus nerve, makes the gut and the brain closely related and reactive to one another when a person is under stress. The stress can change the composition of the organisms in the microbiome (aka the gut). A study showed that when mice were under stress for an extended period of time, the mice had an overgrowth of certain bacteria in the gut, reducing microbiota diversity to keep the gut healthy and balanced. This can lead to increased infection, gastrointestinal issues, and inflammation. In other words, stress can actually make you feel physically sick!

Therefore, implementing stress reduction techniques can help maintain a healthy brain>a healthy gut>a healthy body. It's important to find the stress reduction tool that resonates best for you, personally.

Here are some recommendations you can try. It’s important to not only learn these tools but to consistently practice them as well. An accountability partner or coach can help you stay consistent.

Here are 3 recommended stress-relieving tools:

  1. Meditation – Whether it’s Jon Kabat Zinn’s MBSR (The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program is a Buddhist-based approach to meditation. It has been well studied and proven to help decrease stress.), Transcendental Meditation (Founded by Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi, TM is well studied and found to bring inner peace and wellness to people that practice it.), or any other type of meditation practice, quiet meditation is an incredibly powerful way to reduce stress.
  2. Exercise – According to the American Psychological Association, exercise can help reduce stress. Moving and exerting your body produces endorphins, which can make you feel happier and more relaxed, therefore reducing stress. It’s like meditation in motion!
  3. Deep Breathing – Learning to breathe deeply can help slow down your heart rate, lower blood pressure, and lower cortisol levels, making it a great stress-reducer that can be used anytime, anywhere. Teaching and practicing deep breathing during calm times helps you to be more familiar with this tool during a more stressful moment.

The most important part is implementing these practices. I recommend practicing your stress-reducing tool at the same time every day to build it into your new routine and create a new habit. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to talk about getting started with any of these tools. Stress is a powerful emotion, but it is also manageable with the right tools and support.

Retrain Your Brain

If you have ever experienced anxiety, you know that it can balloon out of control quickly and affect you both mentally and physically. The good news is that through the study of neuroscience and technology, scientists and doctors have discovered various ways in which you can retrain your brain to cope better with anxiety before it spirals out of control and leads to panic.

One such approach is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which teaches skills to help change the pattern of anxious thoughts. Studies show that CBT outperforms all other treatments for anxiety disorders.

This month, as post-pandemic life resumes to normal, and many people are experiencing some “re-entry” anxiety, I want to take this opportunity to suggest a wonderful book that helps with anxiety coping mechanisms and CBT tools called Rewire Your Anxious Brain By Catherine M. Pittman, PhD. This book offers wonderful tools and tips on how to reduce your anxiety permanently.

Before purchasing, I want to share an article that summarizes one of my favorite parts of the book in Chapter 2, which you can find by clicking HERE. You’ll find great descriptions of some of my very favorite CBT tools such as how to use your 5 senses in a mindful way to reduce panic and anxiety, visualization techniques, and insight into your own personal anxiety.

I would love to hear your feedback and thoughts on the article. Let me know what’s working for you! As always, I am here to support in any way I can.

Structuring Your Day

As an Executive Functioning Coach, two of the most common reasons clients come to see me are to get more organized, and to better manage time. Neither of these goals are overnight processes, but they are each very doable. Much of it depends on how you structure your day.

Creating a consistently structured day is one of the most important tools you can implement to get more organized and manage your time well. It is also one of those things that is “simple yet not easy.” Creating a consistent schedule takes some time and tweaking, but it is especially helpful for adding in those stubborn habits you may keep resisting yet want to start!

Read on below for 10 tips on how to structure your day so you feel more organized and productive!

  1. Start by waking up at relatively the same time every day. This will help set your sleep schedule and ensure you feel well rested.
  2. Start your day with a consistent mindfulness habit that helps decrease stress. For example, begin your day with some movement like yoga, or try getting consistent with meditation if that has been a goal. Whether it’s movement and/or meditation, beginning your day this way will help you feel centered and ready to take on what’s ahead.
  3. Create a consistent morning routine that you start as soon as you have finished your daily mindfulness practice. Examples may be:
    a) Exercise>Shower/Dress>Breakfast>Check email
    b) Coffee/Tea>Shower>Dress>Breakfast.
  4. If there are old habits that tend to “suck you in” for longer than you want (and then cause you to waste time), like spending time on your phone or watching TV, it doesn’t mean you have to cut these activities out completely. Instead, set a timer and limit these activities to 5-10 minutes only in the morning. Limit the time and make them part of your morning routine.
  5. Set up specific time slots for “productivity time,” whether your productivity is working, parenting, school work, chores, or whatever else comprises your list of responsibilities. I recommend setting a timer for 50 minutes of “productivity time,” followed by a set timer for 10 minute breaks.
  6. Create a daily list of goals to accomplish during your daily “productivity time.” Studies show that taking the extra few minutes to write down a daily list makes you 42% more likely to complete these goals.
  7. Take your lunch break sometime within the same 2 hour window each day. For example, sometime between 12-2pm each day.
  8. Allot a certain amount of daily self-care, and try to keep it at a relatively consistent time each day. It can be as short as 15 minutes as long as 60 minutes per day. Just make sure to build it into your daily structure.
  9. Create a bedtime routine to ensure good sleep. For example: Wash up>Watch a TV program>Dim the lights>Turn off all screens>Read a book (not on an ipad or anything with stimulating blue light)>Listen to a calming meditation>Go to sleep.
  10. Use a planner - digital or handwritten. This can help you stay on track with your daily routine.

As mentioned above, creating a structured daily routine sounds simple, but that does not mean it’s easy. Please reach out so I can help support you during this process. It will be worth your time, which you will start to manage better with your new routine :-).

11 Moves To Help Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental illness in the US. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), 40 million adults (18.1% of adults) in the US suffer from some sort of anxiety and/or depression disorder, while 6.3 million children aged 3-17 years old also suffer (10.3%) with some sort of anxiety or depression diagnosis. And this only accounts for those cases that have been reported! And of course, the pandemic has exacerbated anxiety and depression for so many adults and kids.

Feeling anxious or depressed often hampers your ability and motivation to do things that might be helpful, so it’s important to be selective when choosing things that are simple and accessible yet highly effective. For example, leaving the house to meet a friend might be too difficult when feeling anxious, while taking 3-5 deep breaths might be something more attainable.

As a yoga instructor, avid yogi and innately anxious person, I love sharing my story of how yoga has truly changed my life for the better. I started practicing on an irregular basis nearly 20 years ago. Eight years ago, when my practice became consistent, I started feeling noticeably better. Now the benefits just keep on giving.

Yoga makes me feel calmer and more grounded, both physically and mentally, but disregarding my own bias, numerous studies are proof enough. Research has shown that yoga decreases cortisol levels, the stress-inducing hormone. A separate study focused on anxiety in women, and how practicing yoga helped reduce their symptoms.

In fact, there are certain yoga poses (also called asanas) that can specifically help anxiety and depression. These poses can be done in the comfort of your home, so they are an easily accessible tool to help your mental health. In this article by Healthline, you will find 11 different poses all aimed at reducing anxiety. You can start with just one or you can try all 11, but always remember that yoga is a breathing practice first. It’s the combination of the breath work that helps keep you mentally in the moment as you physically move through and/or hold these postures. Ultimately this helps increase mindfulness and reduces anxiety.

If you are struggling right now, I suggest trying one or two of these poses - maybe start with heroes pose and standing forward bend - and do them daily. It may take just 5-10 minutes of your day and have the long lasting benefit of providing some inner peace. Please reach out if you have any questions, would like private yoga instruction, or just need some extra support during a challenging time.

Spring Self-Inventory

Spring is upon us (yay!), and it’s a time of new beginnings and growth. During this time, I always like to do a self inventory check, so I wanted to share my strategy on this and encourage you to do it as well.

Self

Spring Self-Inventory Check

My spring self-inventory check has 5 components to it, and it helps me to see where I feel satisfied, and where I would like to grow more in both my physical and emotional health. The most important thing when you do this self-inventory check is to NOT judge yourself. This is about rebirth and growth, not negative self-talk. We are all coming out of an extremely challenging year, so be gentle with yourself.

Feedback and Accountability

I strongly encourage you to reply to this email and share your spring self-inventory with me. I would love to hear how you are doing. If you would like any feedback or suggestions on how to improve and grow in certain areas, please let me know. Sharing and connecting in this personal way can be so healing for the rebirth that comes with spring!

Spring Self-Inventory Components:

Below are the 5 components of my spring self-inventory check:

Component #1 - Mood

How have I been feeling lately, compared to 6 months ago. What emotions and feelings pop into my head these days? How have I been doing with regulating my mood and reacting to my surroundings and the people in my life?

Component #2 - Exercise Regiment

Have I been following a consistent exercise regiment, and if not, do I want to start one? Do I want to change my current exercise regiment? What does my exercise regiment do for me - benefits, drawbacks?

Component #3 - Diet/Food Choices

Have I been making healthy food choices? Have I been over indulging? Am I satisfied with my current diet? If not, why am I not satisfied with my diet? Has my diet changed over the past few months, and if so why and how? What changes would I like to make?

Component #4 - Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Have I been making lifestyle choices that promote a healthy and happy life? For instance, balance between work and play, brain-stimulating activities or too much time on screens, connecting with friends and family enough, spending time outside, practicing mindfulness? How is my sleep routine? In what areas am I satisfied in my life and what areas could use improvement?

Component #5 - Executive Function Skills

How am I doing in my life with things like staying organized and tidy? Am I managing my time well, completing all of my tasks, remembering my responsibilities? How am I doing with these skills now compared to 6 months or a year ago?

Remember that no one is perfect and everyone has room for improvement in their lives. Good support, your own desire, and someone else to help with accountability can help you reach new goals. Just keep reaching for them!

Gut Health and Refined Sugars – How to Break The Addiction

Sugar addiction is a common affliction in the United States. According to the USDA, Americans consume 150-170 lbs of refined sugars per year, which equates to ¼ to ½ pound of sugar per day, aka 30-60 teaspoons per day. As a frame of reference, you can find approximately ¼ pound of sugar in 4 servings of soda.

Refined sugar is one of the biggest antagonists for your gut. Studies in mice by the National Institute of Health have shown that too much sugar can lead to an overgrowth of harmful bacteria in the gut. This can then cause a variety of gastrointestinal problems as well as mood fluctuations. If the harmful bacteria start to outnumber the healthy bacteria, this can detrimentally affect the immune system. Refined sugars have also shown to slow down the transit of food in the gut, leading to bloating and constipation.

Because sugar is so highly addictive, it is a very difficult but necessary habit to break. A sugar addiction, because of its negative effects on the microbiome, can also exacerbate mental illness symptoms since there is a strong relationship between gut health and mental health.

Tips To Break A Sugar Addiction:

Often breaking this habit takes time and support. Below are a few tips to get started.

  1. Avoid fat-free products. These products are often flavored with more refined sugars to make up for the richness that fat adds.
  2. Eat more dark-leafy greens. Dark leafy greens like kale, bok choy, broccoli, collards, chard, and dandelion greens have natural sugars. These natural sugars can help our bodies with cravings.
  3. Improve sleep habits. A 2013 study found that sugar cravings are exacerbated by poor circadian rhythms. Fasting at night by sleeping helps control sugar cravings.
  4. Choose sweet foods low on the glycemic index that taste sweet, but are slow to increase blood glucose levels like berries, pears, and boiled sweet potatoes (baking sweet potatoes raises their GI measure).
  5. Drink raw organic apple cider vinegar (ACV) before meals or when a sugar craving hits. Research shows that doing this can help reduce blood sugar levels, which can help control the craving. Plus, it also aids in digestion.
  6. Avoid artificial sweeteners. These actually make your body continue to crave that sweet taste. Plus, artificial sweeteners are also quite unhealthy for your microbiome.

Stay tuned for part two next month - many more details on artificial sweeteners related to gut health!

If you are struggling with sugar addiction, you are not alone. It’s a tough habit to break but you can do it, especially with support. Reach out with any questions or to learn about Tri-Wellness’ customized approach to break the sugar habit once and for all.

EF Skills for Remote Learning and WFH

Last month we focused on being able to identify executive functioning (EF) skill deficits and some tips to overcome them (which you can!). I thought it would be apropos to now focus on how these EF skills can be implemented to improve both remote learning for kids/teens and working from home (WFH) for adults. Let's start the new year off with learning new habits for success!

What Are EF Skills?

Just as a quick review, the 3 main categories of EF skills (which can be a struggle for kids, teens, and adults) are:

  1. ) Working memory – The ability to retain information and utilize it and different times.
  2. ) Inhibitory Control - The ability to control impulses, regulate emotions, manage outside distractions, and resists temptations.
  3. ) Cognitive Flexibility – The ability to go with the flow of changing situations, rules, and demands.

EF Tips For Remote Learning

Let's start with school aged kids, and specific tools they can use to make remote learning more manageable. For many students with learning disabilities and/or mental health struggles and mood disorders, EF skills can be extremely challenging. A school curriculum becomes virtually (no pun intended lol) irrelevant if the student can not stay on task, is easily distracted, and gets frustrated by these things. Helpful tools include:

  1. ) Organize each day with consistent structure. You can do this by simply setting up a white board calendar where the student can write specific times for each class or assignment plus a lunch/recess time built in.
  2. ) Create an organized work space that feels manageable. Set up a labeled storage bin for school supplies, another for each subject (depending on your child's age), and another for homework. If you can also set up a desk in this space and put a white board nearby, this dedicated space will help the student get less distracted by outside sources.
  3. ) Allow for time between tasks, aka “brain breaks.” This allows the student to process starting>working>completing a task before moving onto a new one. It's a good idea to include some sort of movement, even if just for a couple of minutes, during the brain break to reset, such as 3 sets of 20 jumping jacks or some stretching.
  4. ) Ask teachers to try and hold your student accountable, which may be more successful than you trying to hold your own child accountable. For example, maybe the teacher can do a morning and after lunch check-in each day to make sure your student's work space stays tidy and organized or to go over the student's planned assignments for that day.
  5. ) Consider hiring an EF coach for your student to learn EF skills and gain self-confidence.

EF Skills for WFH

EF skills adults can implement for WFH efficiency differ slightly from the student recommendations, but they are strategies that mirror the tips for students. They just relate better to work than school.

  1. ) Create a “work” mindset so that you can feel just as productive at home as you would in an office. This includes getting dressed in work clothes, setting a morning alarm the same time you would as if commuting to the office, and following the same eating schedule you would at an office. All of this will help create structure to your work day.
  2. ) Identify your distractions. Are you going into the kitchen too often to snack, are you clicking over to online shopping sites too often, do you find yourself giving into temptation to turning on the TV too often? Write these distractions out so you are more aware of them getting in your way. Then set an alarm so that you work straight for 50 minutes, and then set another alarm for 10 minutes where you allow yourself a short break to indulge in these distractions. Keep repeating this process every hour, and you will have plenty of productive time.
  3. ) Create consistent structure to your work day by planning it out the night before. The last task of your work day should be planning the following work day (and write it down), including the tasks/goals you intend to finish, a lunch and/or exercise break, phone calls, and anything else you need to prioritize.
  4. ) Consider hiring an EF coach, especially one that has some experience in business and/or work, to help you stay focused and accountable.

Getting The Help You Need To Succeed

Here at Tri-Wellness we want to help you conquer EF struggles by teaching skills that will be customized to your situation and last a lifetime. EF skills are a critical part of managing daily and long-term goals, and they are necessary at all ages. We work with middle school, high school, and college students as well as adults. Give yourself or your child the gift that will make your feel more self-confident and more productive.

Identifying Executive Functioning Deficits

Do you ever find that when you feel sad it's harder to motivate and be productive? Or if you feel anxious, it makes it more difficult to get out of the house and get your day started? Or when you are stressed, do you sometimes feel too overwhelmed to know where to start on your to-do list and end up wasting time rather than being efficient with your day? These are all examples of how your mood can strongly impact your executive functioning skills.

Understanding What Executive Functioning Means

Let's start with a basic understanding of executive functioning skills. A detailed explanation can be found here, but below is a quick summary

  • Working memory: The ability to hold information for later use
  • Cognitive flexibility: The ability to think about things in different ways or use the same information in multiple ways.
  • Inhibitory Control: The ability to ignore distractions and stay focused, as well as the ability to control impulses.

These executive functions impact our abilities to manage time efficiently and avoid procrastinating, organize things in your life, understand different perspectives on things, start and stay on track to finish tasks, and regulate emotions. We use these skills daily. If you struggle with any of these things, it can then affect your self-confidence and your mood, and vice versa. Hopefully, you are now starting to see the mood<-->executive functioning connection.

Tips To Improve Executive Functioning Skills

To improve your executive functioning, think of your brain as a muscle, and new habits as exercises for that muscle. If you choose one new habit to practice at a time and repeat that habit over and over again, your executive functioning will get stronger. Here are some recommend habits to build that executive functioning muscle:

  1. The "Wait 5" strategy is helpful for controlling impulses like blurting things out too quickly or buying unnecessary things too often. This strategy teaches you to simply count to 5 in your head before making a final decision about a choice. Taking that slight pause to think your decision through before saying something or buying something is a great way to make better choices.
  2. Practicing situations where things don't go as expected is a great way to improve the executive function skill of flexible thinking. Work with a coach to role-play or use creative writing in a journal to think of scenarios that may go astray from the original plan, and think about how you can handle them to "go with the flow." For example, the restaurant you planned to go to is closed or a teacher or boss reprimands you for doing something wrong. Out of the actual moment, think about how you could react to these situations calmly and adapt easily.
  3. Self-monitoring strategies are great ways to help improve the executive functioning skill of staying on task. You can monitor yourself or work with an accountability partner/coach to make sure you start, stay on track, and complete your tasks. You can do this by setting alarms to remind yourself where you should be in the task or by having check-in calls to make sure you are staying on point.

Getting Help

If you think you fall into the category of struggling with executive functioning, we are here to help. Remember that asking for help when you need it is a sign of strength! You are not alone, as this is an unidentified problem for many people. One of the amazing things about humans is that with support, coaching, and practice, your brain (no matter how old you are) can form new pathways to learn new habits and skills to correct executive functioning deficits!

Implement Stress Reducing Tools > Improve Your Mood > Boost Immunity

Between the pandemic, a highly polarized political environment and upcoming election, historic fire and hurricane seasons, remote learning, and winter just around corner, many people are feeling intense stress, anxiety and depression right now. Individually we can each do our part to take care of our planet, vote, and follow Covid-19 protocols, but there is still a lot out of our control. Feeling out of control can lead to anxiety, depression, and/or unhealthy behavior, so let’s learn what we can do to cope with these emotions.

Listen to this stat - according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, adults ages 18-25 years old have been more likely to report having depression in the past year than any other age group, yet the least likely age group to receive treatment.

Another survey by the CDC in June 2020 found that 41% of adults surveyed were anxious and/or depressed, a considerably higher percentage than a 2019 survey. Psychiatrists are referring to this year as a “mental health pandemic.”

Stress can manifest in many different ways, but one thing is clear - it can absolutely impact a person’s gut health. Dr. Mercola does an excellent job of explaining the science behind why our bodies start to produce more of the hormone, Cortisol, when we are under stress. Stress can make you unmotivated and isolated, eat out of emotion, and impact your sleep, which can all make your more susceptible to illness.

Therefore, it's essential to your overall health to reduce stress, which you can do using the following tools:

  1. Meditation – Whether it’s Jon Kabat Zinn’s MBSR (The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program is a Buddhist-based approach to meditation. It has been well studied and proven to help decrease stress.), Transcendental Meditation (Founded by Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi, TM is well studied and found to bring inner peace and wellness to people that practice it.), or any other type of meditation practice, meditation is an incredibly powerful way to reduce stress.
  2. Exercise – According to the American Psychological Association, exercise can help reduce stress. Moving and exerting your body, as you know, produces endorphins, which can make you feel happier and more relaxed, therefore reducing stress. It’s like meditation in motion!
  3. Deep Breathing – Learning to breathe deeply can help slow down your heart rate, lower blood pressure, and lower cortisol levels, so it’s a great stress-reducer that can be used anytime, anywhere.

These stress-reducing techniques are probably all things that you are already aware of, but it's the implementation and consistency that make them effective. Consider using these strategies to be consistent with these practices:

  1. Have an accountability partner do these things with you and rely on each other to follow through
  2. Hire an Executive Functioning Coach to help you organize your schedule to work these stress-reducing tools into your routine and hold you accountable
  3. Connect an anchor activity to remind you to do these activities. Here are some examples:

    a. Your anchor for daily meditation can be to first brush your teeth each morning>meditate.

    b. Your anchor to exercise daily can be to call/text your coach or accountability partner to tell them your exercise plan for the day>start your exercise routine.

Reducing stress will give you more energy, make your healthier both physically and mentally, and make your feel happier. Please feel free to reach out if I can assist you with reducing stress or anything else to make you feel better and more organized.

Have a happy, healthy day!

Vitamin Absorption

With fall upon us and cold weather approaching, it's time to start paying extra attention to your supplement regimen as one of your tools to boost your immune system. Of course, supplements can only be as beneficial as the other efforts you make to take care of your body through dietary and lifestyle choices.

People absorb vitamins and minerals at varying rates and in different amounts, so an essential part of taking them is to understand how to maximize your absorption. Because what's the point of swallowing a bunch of pills each day if you are not getting the full benefit, right? Lots of different things can affect the efficiency of vitamin and mineral absorption so let's take a closer look at the best absorption practices several important vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin D3

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, so it should be taken when eating foods heavy in unsaturated fats like avocado, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. One of Vitamin D's essential functions is supporting healthy bones, so pairing it with calcium-rich foods is especially efficient, according to the Journal of Nutrition. Vitamin D also works well when paired with Vitamin K for maximum calcium absorption.

Vitamins C & B12

Vitamin C and iron are another beneficial pairings to help maximize the absorption of iron (which is especially important for vegetarians only getting plant-based iron. Plant-based iron is more difficult to absorb than animal-sourced iron.) This can be as simple as adding some citrus to high-iron plant foods like spinach and kale. The same is true for absorbing B12 since that is also more absorbable from animal-based sources, according to expert registered dietitians.

Vitamin B12 is also paired with Folate (another type of B vitamin) because folate is best absorbed when combined with B12. They work well together to help cell division and growth, but folate is best sourced from leafy greens, so try putting some broccoli or collard greens in your omelet next time!

Vitamin E

Another winning combination is pairing vitamin E (important for vision, blood health, reproduction, and the brain) with Omega-3 (important for heart and brain health, joints, eyes, and bones), because vitamin E helps to protect omega 3 fatty acids, so they can do their best work to support your brain health.

Mineral Supplements

Lastly, according to WebMD, it's important to note that when taking lots of minerals such as calcium, zinc, and magnesium, they should be taken separately. This is because the body can not absorb so many minerals simultaneously, plus they tend to be harder on the stomach. If you supplement with multiple minerals, it's best to take these with food and also to split them up between meals.

**Most importantly, always check with your doctor before beginning any new supplement, especially if you are on other medications that could interact with these supplements.

Please reach out if you have any specific questions about your own supplement regimen or anything else concerning your physical or mental health!

Remote Learning Tips

With so many schools going online this fall, I thought it would be a good idea to look at the pros and cons of remote learning, and also provide tips on how to overcome the challenges that may be giving you (and your child) additional stress.*

* One of which is considering a support pod for your child, which I'm excited to announce we now offer (based on huge demand!).

After scouring many articles and interviews from students' perspectives, I was alarmed by what I found:

  • It is hurting my mental health and making me "feel more mentally exhausted" even though I am less active.
  • I don't feel I am getting the help I need even when I ask questions over Zoom. I have "fewer resources for help."
  • It's very hard to stay motivated and focused to do school work at home.

In addition, other problems with online learning include:

  • Increased screen time
  • Lack of socialization
  • Lack of access to meals and other resources many students depend on
  • Less overall structure
  • Decreased physical fitness

Besides the very obvious benefit of keeping children and teachers safe, there aren't many pros to online learning (unless you count your child's likely enjoyment of sleeping later!).

It's too soon to point to evidence-based studies with conclusions on the long-term impact of remote learning, but we can implement skills and tools to help now.

Here are some ideas you might find helpful:

  1. Time management is often more difficult for teens feeling less motivated and focused at home. I recommend using a timer to help your child focus during periods dedicated to school work, as well for structured breaks. You can use a kitchen timer, or the Time Timer is great!
  2. Take active breaks specifically intended for moving your body, which can greatly improve concentration, focus, attention, and mood by boosting dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin production in the brain. You can find short workouts on YouTube, do a few yoga postures, take a walk, or try this quick little circuit to get your heart pumping: 20 jumping jacks > 20 squats > 10 pushups > repeat twice.
  3. Create a daily structured plan and schedule, which doesn't need to be limited only to school work. For example, wake up > breakfast > go for a walk or exercise > school/homework > break for lunch > school/homework > video chat with friends > chores > dinner > bathe > leisure/social time > read > bed.
  4. Consider enrolling your child into a learning or support pod to maintain a sense of normalcy and structure, provide a more hands-on learning approach, and limit screen time. Pods vary greatly so you can find one that meets your child's needs. For example, they may be led by a teacher who follows your school district's curriculum. Or they may have specific focuses, such as academic support, tutoring, socialization, fitness/wellness, college prep, and more. Pods generally consist of a small group of kids led by a teacher, tutor, coach, or parent and meet a few times per week.

At Tri-Wellness, we specialize in helping teens and adults overcome poor executive functioning skills, learning disabilities, anxiety, depression, and other mental health disabilities. We still offer these services, but we are excited to now offer Tri-Wellness support pods.

Unlike straight academic pods that follow your child's curriculum, Tri-Wellness pods are focused on addressing remote learning challenges, such as managing school work, helping with feelings of isolation, avoiding procrastination, and maintaining good study habits.

Tri-Wellness pods will empower middle school, high school, and college students to thrive academically, socially, mentally, and physically during these unprecedented times.

Have a happy, healthy day!

Lisa Shanken
Certified Health Coach | Certified Personal Trainer | Executive Functioning Coach | Certified Yoga Teacher | Healthy Cooking Instructor | Corporate Wellness Instructor
917-453-3202 | lisa@lisashanken.com | lisashanken.com

Om Brew Event + Benefits of Yoga

I am thrilled to announce a super fun upcoming event on Aug 8th at 11am called Om Brew. Brought to you by Tri-Wellness and Upslope Brewing, please join us in the back of Upslope's Flatiron location for a 1 hour socially distanced outdoor vinyasa flow yoga class, followed by a free pint of your choice from the Upslope tap room. Space is limited! To purchase tickets and get more information, please click HERE.

I am a tremendous advocate of yoga. Aside from being a certified instructor, my own yoga practice is essential for to me to feel physically and mentally healthy and grounded, avoid injury doing other types of exercise, and to stay limber...and those are just my personal anecdotes!

Yoga has been around for thousands of years and has been well studied. The National Institutes of Health published a great study discussing how yoga benefits mental health as a successful complimentary therapy. Yoga also has an enormous amount of physical benefits including lowering blood pressure, improving balance, helping to steady blood sugar, plus 35 other benefits discussed in this article from Yoga Journal.

Whether you have never taken a class or are an avid yogi, the Om Brew event will be a safe space for you to come and do some yoga. You can feel connected (from a safe distance) to community, move your body at your own pace, and have some fun! I hope to see you there!

Have a happy, healthy day!

Lisa Shanken
Certified Health Coach | Certified Personal Trainer | Executive Functioning Coach | Certified Yoga Teacher | Healthy Cooking Instructor | Corporate Wellness instructor
917-453-3202 | lisa@lisashanken.com | lisashanken.com

P.S. The Om Brew event, in partnership with Upslope Brewing, will be held on August 8th at 11am. Space is limited so purchase your tickets HERE for your 1 hour yoga class plus a complimentary beer from Upslope's Flatiron tap room (food available for purchase).

Summer Sizzle

With summer now in full swing (and especially if social distancing is keeping you at home more), it's a great time to dive into seasonal fruits, fresh vegetables, and of course... grilling!

As you enjoy fresh and seasonal cuisine, here are some "natural medicine" bonuses you'll benefit from:

  • Improve or maintain your gut health with gut-healthy foods like lemons and limes; garlic, dark leafy greens, berries and mangos; coconut; wild fish; whole grains, and more!
  • A healthy gut leads to a strong immune system, which is obviously more important now than ever.
  • With quick-prep recipes like those I've shared below (~5 ingredients), you won't have to slave away in the kitchen.

So let's get to it!

Mouth-Watering Appetizers
Delicious Main Courses
Tasty Sides

Consider doubling the recipes so you'll have meals for multiple nights. Just make sure to store the other half before you start eating so you're not doubling up on your intake!

I'd love to hear from you, so please tell me which recipes you liked best, or share some of your own... Perhaps I'll feature them (with credit to you of course) in next month's Don't Get Your Gut In A Rut newsletter.

Have a happy, healthy day!

Lisa Shanken

P.S. Interested in an outdoor, in-person (socially distanced) boot camp class in Boulder, CO? Click HERE for more information and to sign up (space is limited to 10 people per class).

Don’t Get Your Gut In A Rut: Tri-Wellness Challenge

I hope you are faring well as we continue to stay home.

In my last newsletter, I shared a “no-equipment needed” full body strength-training workout.

Watching Ellen Degeneres the other day, I was inspired to create a healthy home challenge to boost your immune strength, avoid stir-craziness, and keep your body moving!

Today I introduce to you the Tri-Wellness Challenge.

Here's how it works:

Your job is to complete the 3 part challenge yourself (shown below), and then challenge 2 other people to do the Tri-Wellness Challenge (one of whom can be your accountability partner – which is always ideal).

Then you’ll encourage both of those people to pass the challenge along to 2 other people.

Spreading the workout to others will spread the gift of health and wellness!

Here are the 3 parts of the Tri-Wellness Challenge:

  1. Complete the workout shown below 3 times per week.
  2. Make 70% of your daily diet come from plant-based foods. Plant based foods are rich in fiber, antioxidants, and other vitamins, all of which reduce inflammation… and therefore boost immune strength.

You don't have to get into heavy calculations to make sure you are following this recommendation. In general, just try to make sure your meals/snacks are about 2/3 full of plant-based foods like vegetables and whole grains.

Anything that grows in the ground and does not require a lot of processing to get it from the ground to your plate qualifies as plant-based.

Feel free to accompany your plant-based foods with a lean protein such as a piece of fish or chicken breast, but avoid highly processed and refined foods like sugar and white breads/pastas.

I'll start you off with some simple, delicious spring recipe ideas that are completely plant-based:

  1. My friends at Bobo's, makers of delicious vegan bars and snacks, can help your plant-based diet with their new delicious Nut Butter Bars.

     

    Bobo’s is also contributing to help our health care practitioners on the frontlines of the pandemic with their Healthcare Heroes program, where every purchase gives food to healthcare workers.

    So please consider purchasing these delicious snacks in your effort to eat healthier and help these heroes at the same time!

Please share the Tri-Wellness Challenge with as many people as you can, which will pass along health, help our amazing frontline healthcare workers, and keep us all connected!

Share in your social media channels with #Triwellnesschallenge, and let's get moving!

Here’s the workout:

Circuit 1:

  • Wide Arm Pushups: 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold half-way down
  • Tricep Dips: 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold half-way down
  • Arm Circles: 10 forward + 10 backward
  • Jumping Jacks: 60 Seconds

Circuit 2:

  • Squats (feet hip distance and weight in heels): 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold
  • Static Lunges (per side): 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold
  • Bridge Hip Lifts: 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold
  • Mountain Climbers: 60 Seconds

Circuit 3:

  • Crunches (chin points up and away from chest at all times): 10 full range + 10 pulses
  • Bicycle Crunches (chin points up and away from chest at all times): 20 full range + 10 pulses to each side
  • Forearm Plank Hold: 60 seconds (take breaks if necessary to work your way up to 60 seconds)

Repeat Each Circuit 3 times through each day (or work your way up to that).

Structuring Your Shelter-In-Place Day

As we all adjust to our isolated and temporary “new normal,” it's sometimes a challenge even knowing what day it is!

As an Executive Functioning (EF) Coach, one of my jobs is to help my clients manage their time, stay organized, and declutter their living and work spaces.

These types of skills are more important than ever, and can be a struggle no matter how organized you may be under normal circumstances.

So I thought it would be timely to share some suggestions to hone your EF skills and create structure to your days. Not only will it bring some much needed sanity, but  you can decipher what day it actually is :-).

Consistent Wake Times

Good sleep hygiene is one of the most effective ways to keep your immune system strong… and even more so during these stressful and uncertain times (more on that later). Getting good sleep and waking up at the same time every day can start your day off on the right note.

Manage Your Stress & Anxiety

Start your day feeling grounded by practicing stress-coping mechanisms. I've talked in the past about the well-studied and anxiety-reducing benefits of meditation and mindfulness. So if you have extra time on your hands, now is an excellent time to start!

Experiment with different types of meditation like guided (using apps like Calm or Headspace), mantra, or breathing meditation. Start slowly with just 5 minutes each morning, and increase by 2 minutes every 2 days until you reach 20 minutes per day.

Energize With Exercise

Exercising to boost your immune system and mood are reasons enough to move your body on a daily basis.

Many people are streaming their favorite exercise classes into their homes, which is amazing, and a great way to support your professional trainers. But if you are having trouble based on budget, or don’t have exercise equipment at home, here’s a great daily 30 minute circuit workout to get your heart pumping and your mood lifted with no props required (if you are unsure how to do these exercises reach out to me for a demo):

Circuit 1:

  • Wide Arm Pushups: 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold half-way down
  • Tricep Dips: 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold half-way down
  • Arm Circles: 10 forward + 10 backward
  • Jumping Jacks: 60 Seconds

Circuit 2:

  • Squats (feet hip distance and weight in heels): 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold
  • Static Lunges (per side): 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold
  • Bridge Hip Lifts: 10 full range + 10 pulses + 10 second hold
  • Mountain Climbers: 60 Seconds

Circuit 3:

  • Crunches (chin points up and away from chest at all times): 10 full range + 10 pulses
  • Bicycle Crunches (chin points up and away from chest at all times): 20 full range + 10 pulses to each side
  • Forearm Plank Hold: 60 seconds (take breaks if necessary to work your way up to 60 seconds)

Repeat Each Circuit 3 times through each day (or work your way up to that).

Shower & Get Dressed

While this sounds simple, it's also very easy to stay in pajamas all day while quarantined at home. Wearing a different outfit every day helps you distinguish which day of the week it actually is, creates the structure we are all looking for right now, and motivates you to be more productive. Pajamas are for bedtime, and we do not want to be spending our days in bed right now. Getting dressed helps define when you should (and should not) be in bed.

Preplan Productive Activities

With extra time on our hands, it's easy to turn to our screens, but at the end of the day, you will feel better by being more productive. I recommend leaving the screens in a separate room to resist temptation.

If you are working from home, maintain a set schedule of work hours, as well as a dedicated work space (especially if you share your living space with others). Try out a great app called Rescue Time to track and measure your productivity.

Some other non-work but productive and/or stimulating activities might include cleaning and decluttering spaces; journaling; doing puzzles; testing new recipes; reading; volunteering; or taking an online course to learn a new skill, language, or musical instrument.

Whatever you do with your scheduled time, I recommend creating your daily plan the day before, and writing it down. Doing so makes your plan visual, making it more likely that you’ll stick to it (vs. just “thinking about it” in your mind).

Eat Healthy

It's more important than ever to focus on healthy eating, so here are a few recipes that are easy to prepare, healthy, and delicious:

Enjoy The Great Outdoors

Even regions and cities mandating Shelter-In-Place still encourage getting outside while adhering to social distancing. The change of scenery will boost your motivation, the fresh air feels great, and the sun is your natural source of vitamin D, a vital nutrient for bone health, gut health, and normal immune functioning. Whether you go for an outdoor walk, sit in your yard or walk your pet… get yourself outside every day!!

Connect With Family & Friends

While social distancing is absolutely necessary to flatten the curve of COVID-19, it can also lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness. Stanford University has studied the benefits of social connection, as well as the detriments of isolation, finding that strong connection increases longevity; strengthens the immune system; helps self-esteem and empathy; and leads to more emotional and physical well-being.

To be clear, social connection is measured by how often you connect with another person, rather than the number of people with whom you connect. Set aside daily time to connect with a friend or family member over the phone, or on a video conference app like Facetime or Zoom!

Relax

It is obviously essential to have relaxation time to watch a show, play an online game, join a group chat or do a virtual online activity. Try to avoid this during your specified “productive” hours, but by all means, indulge once your daily responsibilities are fulfilled. Just be sure to limit your time for these activities and don't get “lost” in them.

Create A Bedtime Routine

The National Sleep Foundation recommends an evening ritual that begins around the same time each night (60-90 minutes going to sleep), does not include electronics or a full belly (try to stop eating at least 2 hours before bedtime), and includes writing down your plans for the next day. It should also include dimmed lighting and calming activities such as reading or listening to music, as well as getting into bed only when you are actually ready to go to sleep.

Make It Happen!

Here’s a sample of a daily structure you can model as you structure your day for maximum productivity, enjoyment, and fulfillment:

  • Wake up at the same time each morning >
  • Mindfulness practice >
  • Exercise >
  • Shower and get dressed >
  • Prepare a healthy meal >
  • Focus on productive non-screen activities/work >
  • Prepare a healthy meal/snack >
  • Get outside >
  • Focus on productive non-screen activities/work >
  • Virtually connect with a family or friend >
  • Have a healthy dinner >
  • Relaxation >
  • Bedtime Routine >
  • Sleep

I urge you to reach out for support during this time, whether it's with questions and motivation about creating structure, for emotional support, or anything else to help you through these challenging times.

We are all in this together, and it's my job to be here for you right now however I can be helpful.

Please reach out with questions, ideas, feedback, or just to chat! Stay safe my friends!

Beyond Good Handwashing – Guarding Against Coronavirus

Happy almost spring!

By now you’ve all seen media coverage of COVID-19, the disease caused by the recent novel coronavirus outbreak. And you’ve likely been bombarded with precautionary tips, most of which are valuable (e.g. “proper hand washing), while others are downright misleading (e.g. “It’s ok to go to work if you’re infected”).

However, Bill Maher voiced the exact thought going through my mind on his recent show (paraphrased):

Why aren't more people talking about building our own immune strength from the inside to help protect ourselves from the illness?

While COVID-10 spreads contagiously through the air and personal contact, we still have our own choices when it comes to building our immune strength to ideally limit the severity of symptoms.

How?

By decreasing your sugar intake, exercising more, making better dietary choices, exploring immunity building supplements, and caring for your gut health.

As you’ve no doubt heard, other tips like 20 second hand washing, coughing and sneezing into your arm, and not touching your face are also vitally important in limiting the virus’ spread.

As one of my readers, you know that our gut, also known as our Enteric Nervous System (aka second brain) is largely responsible for the strength of our immune system and ability to fight off illness.

So today, I bring to you an in-depth article by David Jockers. While not all of his content resonates with me (e.g. his religious demagoguery), he is Functional Nutrition certified and shares good health-centric information.

As you read it, you may recognize his suggestions from other gut health content you’ve seen in the past... which is no coincidence.

So I encourage you to read this richly informative article, and please reply with any questions you may have.

Consistency and proper implementation of your wellness regimen are the keys to your success. But as a health professional who has worked with hundreds of clients, I know they can be very challenging.

I am here to help! I will help you understand these strategies, and then how to gradually and realistically incorporate them into your life until they become habitual.

It's one of those “simple but not easy” life changes. But with support, I know you can do it!

Not only will you be best prepared until we ultimately beat this virus, but you’ll also be setting yourself up for long-term success by incorporating these positive changes in your life now.

Have a happy, healthy day!

How Intermittent Fasting Affects Your Gut

Because I’m so passionate about the health and nutrition of my clients, I love researching and trying the latest diet trends.

So I became curious as I observed the increasing hype about intermittent fasting (IF).

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Exactly what it sounds like, fasting for specifically allotted times, and the most common ways of practicing IF are the “5:2” or “16:8” methods.

In the 5:2 method, you fast for 2 different 24 hour periods over 7 days. The 16:8 method entails fasting for 16 hours every day and eating for an 8 hour window each day, e.g. 12pm-8pm.

Personally, I’ve been doing the 16:8 method for the past month and I’m loving it!

However, one person's anecdotal experience is only an opinion.

So as a mental health professional, I did further research to better understand how IF affects (my favorite topic!) gut health.

So let's look at the science and research findings...

The Gut As An Organ

As I share in almost every newsletter – which is backed by extensive research - the gut is an organ that influences many bodily functions including weight, immune strength, inflammation, energy levels, and metabolism. With 100 trillion bacteria, the gut keeps our bodies healthy… if we properly feed it through diet and lifestyle habits.

IF's Effect On The Gut

According to the National Institutes of Health, fasting helps the body use fat instead of glucose as a main source of energy. IF has also been shown to improve the bacterial (aka gut flora) composition, decrease the risk of obesity, and help maintain our natural circadian rhythms.

While your gut is also affected by other factors including stress, dietary/lifestyle choices, and exercise, IF can be a big contributor in healing your gut. A clinical study on overweight women showed that IF promoted weight loss, reduction in body circumference, and lowering cholesterol. A second study showed that IF helped lower blood pressure and blood sugar.

The good news: All of the above health improvements lead to a healthier gut!

How Should I Successfully Implement Intermittent Fasting?

Follow these suggestions so you can better acclimate to an IF lifestyle:

  1. Hydrate with water and unsweetened herbal teas.
  2. If following the 16:8 fasting method, brush your teeth right after dinner to avoid night eating.
  3. Eat more protein (ideally at least 30% of your calories per meal in protein).
  4. Avoid processed and sugary foods during non-fasting times and opt for healthier, whole food choices instead.
  5. During fasting periods, maintain a regular to mild exercise regimen to boost your energy.

As you have now learned, intermittent fasting delivers many benefits, including improving your gut health.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or support if you decide to try IF to enhance your gut and overall body health!

How To Enjoy Your Holiday Season (While Staying Healthy)

The holiday season is not only an extra busy time of year, but also filled with tempting occasions to overload on unhealthy foods.

But am I suggesting that you deprive yourself while everyone at your office party, family gathering, or celebration with friends is enjoying themselves?

Absolutely not!

However, I would like to share how some thoughtful meal planning and food preparation can be a game changer so you maintain a healthy diet, while also enjoying holiday indulgences in moderation.

1. Plan, Plan, Plan!

  • Even if planning does not come easy to you, my best tip is to plan your meals the week before and during your celebrated holiday. Doing so will not only ensure healthier food choices, but will also ease your stress.
  • If meal planning feels like climbing a mountain, start with just planning a few dinners – maybe 3 per week. It’s less overwhelming than creating a week's worth of meals, but still highly effective in maintaining a healthy diet.
  • Don't just plan “in your head” – actually write it down on your calendar, which will make you more likely to follow it.
  • You can use meal planning and shopping apps like Cooklist and Mealime to plan and create your grocery list.

Below are a few easy, weeknight dinner recipes you can try that are delicious and healthy (I know because I created them myself)!

2. Choose 1 Weekly “Cooking Day”

  • Cooking at the end of your day may be intimidating and tiring. Instead, choose a specific day of the week - ideally a weekend day or day off – during which you can meal prep a few different dishes.
  • Choose easy-prep meals. For example, you can make a soup, a big salad, and a quinoa bowl – three healthy dinners – all in advance. You will then have dinner meals ready to simply heat and eat after your busy day.
  • Try a few more of my easy-prep recipe ideas you can whip up on your “cooking day.”

3. Stock Up On Pantry and & Freezer Staples

With the below listed staples, you can always throw together some sort of grain, bean, and vegetable bowl or soup! Have the following items always stocked in your pantry and freezer so you can throw together a quick meal

  • Canned Beans
  • Avocado & Olive Oils
  • Frozen Vegetables: like spinach, onions, collard greens
  • Whole Grains: like brown rice, and quinoa
  • Nuts and Seeds
  • Canned Tuna/Salmon
  • Canned Goods: like chicken broth, and diced tomatoes
  • Condiments: like vinegar, mustard, and honey
  • Favorite Dried Spices: (my staples are oregano, thyme, chili powder, turmeric, and cumin)

4. Cook Double!

  • Cooking twice the amount you need is a great way to always have an extra meal at the ready.
  • The key is to place each serving into its own separate container before you start eating as soon as you complete preparation so that you do not overeat. Be sure to portion out the meals and store away in the refrigerator or freezer before you start eating.

5. Invest (Just A Little) In “Shortcut Cut Shopping. ”

  • It may cost a few extra bucks to purchase pre-cut fresh vegetables like pre-cut kale, broccoli, peeled carrots, pre-washed lettuce, etc, … but it's well worth it if you have a busy schedule. This can cut down prep time ,leaving you more time for other things, which is also good for your stress level.
  • Another great way to short-cut shop is to pre-order your groceries online for delivery or local pickup.
  • Again, the extra small additional cost here is justifiable when you think about your busy schedule and how much time you can save, leaving you more time for more fun and relaxing activities!it is saving your likely-overbooked schedule.

I want to wish you a happy, healthy, and low-stress holiday season.

Find ways to connect with the people you love, allow yourself to indulge moderately, and most importantly, do something nice for yourself… because you deserve it!

If you are feeling stressed, have questions about meal prep and recipes, or just want some extra support, please reach out. I am here to help!

Have a happy, healthy holiday season!

How Mood Affects Executive Functioning

How does mood affect cognitive functioning?

I’m glad you asked…

And because my company mainly helps people struggling with mental health disorders, I have unique insights and real-world experience to share.

When we help such individuals by practicing better gut health, we see marked improvement in their cognitive and executive functions.

How do we know this?

Because we also coach people with Executive Functioning (EF) skills.

So let’s take a deeper dive…

How Mental Health Disorders Correlate To EF Skills

Conditions such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder have a major impact on cognitive functions. And once cognitive functions are impaired, EF rapidly decreases.

Such cognitive functions may include organization, clear thinking, time management, keeping a calendar, and many other vital day-to-day tasks.

EF deficits may cause problems in the workplace, social situations, school, finance management, relationships, and many other areas.

According to a paper published in Frontiers In Psychology, EF coaching should be given to patients with psychiatric disorders and ADHD, as they are most likely coping with EF
challenges.

Failure to do so may lead to feelings of failure, inadequacy, poor self-esteem… and ultimately increased depression.

Tips To Improve EF Skills

To avoid hurting a patient’s self-esteem, it’s extremely important you explain that EF deficits (as well as ADHD and other learning disabilities) are completely separate from their intelligence and overall self-worth.

While EF needs are highly specific to each individual, here are a few tips that can be very helpful in overcoming such challenges:

  1. Set 5 minute goals. Start by setting smaller and shorter goals instead of larger ones. Start with one per day, then add two per day after you have mastered the first one. For example, if cleaning a messy room is overwhelming, set a timer for 5 minutes and choose a specific section of the room to clean up. After 5 minutes you may choose to continue for another 5 minutes… or call it quits. But you’ve at least made progress… and eventually your entire room will be clean!
  2. Get more consistent with daily tasks and responsibilities by using apps like Nomie or Momentum to create and track “streaks” (especially relatable for kids who use SnapChat, where keeping “streaks” is a trend). Such apps make it easy to create consistency in any area of your life!
  3. Use the “Wait 5” strategy to control impulses. Frequently, people with ADHD struggle with impulse control, which can manifest by purchasing things too quickly, blurting out verbally, or making important decisions without enough thought. The “Wait 5” strategy simply involves taking 5 deep breaths before acting impulsively, which allows you to temporarily pause, relax, and reflect before acting.
  4. Improve “working memory” with brain games. Working memory is like a muscle, and the more you train it, the stronger it will get. People with EF deficits often have poor working memory… but it can be improved! Practice flexing the memory muscle with brain apps like Lumosity and Fit Brains Trainer. However, I strongly encourage starting with the physical game Memory, because it can also help with spatial relations which is harder to simulate on an app.

Many other EF skills like procrastination, organization, and motivation can all be improved through various techniques.

If you feel you need EF improvement, please reach out so we can have a conversation and figure out the best strategy to help you be more efficient, organized, energized, and confident!

You are not alone… and support is the best way to help yourself! Click here to schedule an appointment and start feeling more organized and self-confident.

Controlling Your Diet Through Mindfulness

In this final video in the mindfulness series, I will help you learn to be more aware of how you are eating. Many of us are appestat meaning that we tend to eat when we are distracted by our surrounding, are not paying attention to our food when eating, and not stopping when we are full.I will be giving you a few techniques to assist you in being more mindful by slowing down and relearning how to enjoy food again.

By watching this video and implementing these simple tips, I hope to help lead you down the road to a better, healthier, more conscious lifestyle!

Being Mindful Through Your Eating Habits

In part 2 of this series on mindfulness, you will learn how your mind body connection affects your eating habits.

Just by trying the 4 simple tasks in this video, you will learn how to determine if you are eating due to hunger or out of emotion. Watch to see how pausing for 3-5 seconds before you act can do wonders for you physically and mentally.

Get closer to a better version of yourself through curbing emotional eating to reach the healthier and happier you!

Creating Mindfulness Through Meditation

Learn in this video how you can work meditation into your daily life. This is part 1 of a 3 part series on mindfulness and your health.

Just meditating for 20 minutes a day can do wonders for your mental and physical health. I know that most people are overwhelmed when they hear 20 minutes. I will be showing you how starting with just a few minutes a day can change your outlook.

Watch to learn a variety of techniques you can try until you find the one that works best for you. Start you journey for creating a positive mind body connection through meditation!

Kill The Diet Ab Burner–Get Ready To Feel the Burn!

In this video, you’ll discover a few different ways to work your ab muscles that are not only effective… but also more exciting than traditional crunches. Check it out!

A strong core is so much more than just a toned, slim tummy - it’s the backbone of stability that promotes strength, spinal protection, and overall better fitness.

One of the most well-known groups of core muscles is the abdominals. While many people rely on crunches to work those muscles - they can become BORRRRING! ???? And equally important, crunches should be part of an overall routine to work all of your ab muscles to get the strong and toned midriff you've been wanting to see in the mirror!

Break Free of Your Imperfections

In this video, discover how focusing on your imperfections can lead to your downfall.

We are our own biggest critics, but focusing on your imperfections, trying to change them using unnatural techniques or going to extremes are not healthy ways to fix the problem. To truly find out where the problem lies, first you have to look inward, at yourself.

Often obsession with the physical has to do with an internal struggle. Learning ways to improve yourself and own your imperfections are the best option. Watch my video today to see how I assumed responsibility for my imperfections to improve them, and learn how you can too!

The Best No Rice, No Cheese Burrito Recipe

I love a good burrito, but often the store-bought or restaurant burritos are huge, full of cheese and rice, and overall fat-laden. How can you get the best of both worlds? My solution is two-fold: get rid of the unnecessary fat and carbs by eliminating cheese and rice, and add delicious veggies to up the vitamin and mineral content! Avocado and salsa maintain the authentic Mexican cuisine taste, and black beans give a dose of protein to this yummy wrap. Try my healthy, delicious option tonight!

Ingredients:

  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup onion diced
  • 1/4 cup zucchini quartered and sliced
  • 1/4 cup eggplant skin on, diced
  • 1/4 cup button mushrooms sliced thin
  • 1 whole wheat wrap
  • 1 tbsp canned black beans rinsed and drained
  • 1 tbsp avocado
  • 1 tbsp Cilantro Leaves
  • 1 tbsp Salsa

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the coconut oil in a skillet, and add the onions. Saute for 2 minutes. Add in the zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms, and cook for another 3-5 minutes until all the vegetables have softened.
  2. Spread the whole wheat wrap out on a piece of aluminum foil. Spoon the vegetables into the wrap.
  3. Next add in the black beans.
  4. Add in the avocado and spread it on top of the black beans.
  5. Place the fresh cilantro leaves on top of the avocado.
  6. Lastly, spread the salsa on top.
  7. Begin by rolling one side of the burrito on top of the fillings.
  8. Next fold each side in.
  9. Then wrap the other side on top of the folded sides, and wrap the foil around it to secure the burrito shape.
  10. Bake in the foil for 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Eggplant Pesto Parm Recipe

Eggplant is a versatile vegetable that can be made and served in a variety of ways. Containing no fat, cholesterol, and being only 20 calories per cup, makes eggplant a fantastic vegetable to use as a meat substitute. With our Eggplant Pesto Parm recipe, we show you how easy it is to make that swap from meat to vegetable. Our whole dish provides adequate amount of fiber, potassium, along with vitamins A and D. This recipe makes eating healthy look and taste delicious!

Ingredients:

  • 1 Large eggplant cut in round 1/4 inch discs, skin on
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 4 cups Baby Spinach Leaves
  • 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp Parmesan cheese shredded or grated
  • 1 cup tomato sauce
  • 1/4 cup Low-Fat Mozzarella *I prefer to use goat's milk mozzarella

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Place the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle salt on it, letting it sit for 5-10 minutes. The excess water inside the eggplant will start to condensate to its surface. Wipe it down with a paper towel.
  3. While the eggplant is sitting, place the spinach, olive oil, and the parmesan cheese into a blender (I like to use my hand held immersion blender) and pulse until it has a pesto consistency.
  4. Place a few discs of eggplant along the bottom of a ceramic baking dish. Spoon some of the spinach pesto on top of each disc.
  5. Next spoon some sauce on top of the pesto on each disc. Repeat until you have 3 layers of eggplant.
  6. Bake, covered, for about 35-40minutes. Then sprinkle the mozzarella on top of the cooked eggplant, cook for 5-10 minutes more until it melts, and serve.

Ginger and Spice Rubbed Chicken Tenders Recipe

Few meals are enjoyed by all ages like chicken tenders. Besides being easy to cook, chicken provides a number of health benefits. This poultry is high in protein and load with iron as well as vitamins A and D. Our Ginger and Spice Rubbed Chicken Tenders recipe is a terrific alternative in place of your traditional chicken tenders. Using common spices found in your pantry, this recipe will save you time and money while not skipping on taste. This is a dish that will please everyone in the whole family!

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 lb boneless chicken breast tenders
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped
  • 2 tsp fresh ginger chopped
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine

Instructions:

  1. Mix together all of the dried spices and sea salt. Then rub them onto both side of the chicken tenders.
  2. Heat the coconut oil in a skillet until it melts. Add in the chicken tenders, and cook approximately 3 minutes per side on medium heat. Add in the garlic and ginger and cook one more minute.
  3. Pour the white wine in the skillet, and let the chicken cook in it for another 2 minutes per side. Serve immediately, shown here with a side of burnt broccoli.

13 Bean Pesto Minestrone Soup Recipe

For those of you who have busy schedules, soup is an easy dish that can be made ahead of time. Whether served as the main meal or as a side, our recipe for 13 Bean Minestrone Soup shows how soup can be fulling and nutritious. Our version of this classic soup is packed full of vitamins and minerals from the garlic, tomatoes, carrots, and onions. The beans in the dish, provide fiber and protein which makes this a great option for those of you who are Vegans or Vegetarians. Low on calories and high on flavor, this recipe would be a great addition to any meal plan.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Dried Mixed Beans You can buy them pre-mixed
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped
  • 2 carrots sliced in thin discs
  • 2 stalks celery sliced, plus leaves
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 tbsp Dried Oregano
  • 2 tsp Worcestershire
  • 2 tbsp Pesto jarred
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Pour beans into a large soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and keep at a boil for 10 minutes. Drain beans in a colander and discard water.
  2. In the same large soup pot, heat coconut oil. Cook onion and garlic in oil for about 2 minutes, then add in carrots and celery and cook another 2 minutes.
  3. Add in vegetable broth, water, and canned tomatoes. Then add in the bay leaf and the oregano.
  4. Pour the beans back into the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the light to a simmer and cover. Cook for 1-3 hours, until the beans are tender.
  5. Add in the Worcestershire and pesto, mix well, and cook another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Busy Weeknight Meal Solutions!

Ask anyone on the street and they will tell you that the words "healthy," "great-tasting," and "easy" rarely go together when talking about weeknight dinners.

In fact, the general consensus is that microwaved, frozen meals are the only way to keep your sanity during a busy mid-week supper.

I'm here to prove to you that this is not true!

I have 4 delicious, healthy recipes for you to check out to prove that you CAN be a gourmet cook even on your busiest night.

The Work-Life Mix: Your Answer To Stress

For so long, women in particular have been told to find a balance between work, home life, and attending to our own well-being. That pressure to "balance" attention can be misguided, and  can actually add stress to your daily life! Instead of thinking about "balance," perhaps the best way to optimize all areas of your life is to find your personal life "mix." This idea is the cornerstone of the Women In The Mix organization, who is hosting a seminar in Denver on April 20th on how to find your mix. I am excited to be both an attendee and a sponsor of this event, and even more excited to see your faces in the crowd with me... and learning alongside me!

If you're ready to learn more about my personal de-stressing tactics that help me find a better work-life mix, you're in the right place! Check out my video above for some great tips to tide you over until the Denver seminar.

All You Need to Know About Those Crazy New Chia Seeds

Health stores, clean eating gurus, and diet experts can't stop talking about and touting the great benefits of chia seeds.

Like most of us, I bet your knowledge of chia seeds ends at sprouting them in your Chia Pet kit-not eating them!

Luckily, chia seeds are a delicious, nutritious powerhouse that are versatile in their culinary uses and easy to incorporate into your diet. If you are ready to add these ancient seeds to your weekly menu, now is the time!

Let me explain the benefits chia seeds offer, and show you how to make a few delicious tweaks to your recipes to include them.

Kill The Diet Ab Burner–Get Ready To Feel the Burn!

In this video, I give you a few different ways to work your ab muscles, that are both effective and more exciting than traditional crunches.

A strong core is so much more than just a toned, slim tummy: it is the backbone of stability that promotes strength, spinal protection, and overall better fitness.

One of the most well-known groups of core muscles is the abdominals. While many people rely on crunches to work those muscles, that is a boring and less-effective way to get the strong, toned midriff you've been looking for.

Let Your Seasonal Spring Recipes Bloom!

Seasonal eating is high on my list of priorities to help your body stay healthy and maintain its natural rhythms. The beginning of spring is my favorite time of year because it means we have a nice long period ahead of us where the weather is starting to change and will only get warmer and warmer. I LOVE the warm weather, and I especially love seeing the tree buds starting to grow into leaves and the tulips starting to pop up through the soil! I always find it exciting because I know so much warmth, fun and outdoor activities are all in sight!!

I also love early spring cooking! I’ve been working on some new stuff in my kitchen just for this season. It’s time to ween off some of the warming foods and cooking techniques like roasting root vegetables and bulking up your body with heavier soups and stews. Instead, we can start introducing lighter soups and lighter cooking methods like sautéing and light steaming. We will start to introduce early spring vegetables such as fresh peas, snap peas, artichokes, asparagus, and of course always include dark leafy greens.

So today I want to share my latest creations with you. As always, each of these recipes are super healthy, require less than 30 minutes of prep time, and of course, are absolutely delicious!!! I decided to “healthify” a creamy asparagus soup by creating a dairy free version, substituting the cream with light coconut milk, and adding extra flavor with natural lemon juice. It came out absolutely amazing - restaurant quality - as my husband said. You can find the recipe by clicking this link.

Next up, spring peas! My husband and I were once on vacation, and the hotel served this delicious dish of peas and goat cheese. I decided to change it up a bit and add some mint and lemon, and it is now one of our favorite spring appetizers! I takes less than 10 minutes to make and is a crowd pleaser, so become the star of your own kitchen with this recipe.

And lastly, the other day I was in this big Asian supermarket. It’s a pretty amazing place because they have the most insane produce section with tons of fresh greens and varieties of amazing mushrooms that you can’t find in regular supermarkets or natural grocery stores.

I love going there and always feel inspired after I am done with my shopping. I bought a ton of fresh Chinese broccoli, which is a much darker and leafier green than normal broccoli, full of calcium and vitamins K and C. To me, this simple dish of sautéd Chinese broccoli with garlic is the epitome of early spring. As you sauté the vegetable, it turns from a dull green to a fantastic bright green, it has a crunchy sweet and refreshing taste, and it just makes you feel energized and ready to take on the day. Try cooking it in your kitchen and let me know if you feel the same energy after you eat it! Click here for the full recipe.

Gluten Free Apple Pear Blueberry Crisp

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for an excuse to satisfy that sweet-tooth. Unfortunately, the terms “dessert” and “weight loss” rarely coincide. Luckily, there’s still hope. Fruit offers the (natural) sugar-packed punch of all great desserts while still keeping true to any good diet plan. This apple pear blueberry crisp makes for a nutritious, sweet treat that won’t pile on the calories. With a gluten-free crust made with oats and brown sugar, this crisp will be a family favorite that won’t crash your diet.

What you’ll need (Serves 6):

Pie plate (9 inch), two separate bowls to mix filling and topping

Filling

  • · 4 cups apples sliced, peeled, and cut (about 4 small apples)
  • · 2 cups pears sliced, peeled, and cut (about 2 medium)
  • · 1/2 cup blueberries fresh or defrosted from frozen
  • · 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • · 1/4 cup lemon juice fresh squeezed

For Topping

  • 2 cups GF oats
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened

Let’s get started:

For Filling

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Slice, peel, and cut four cups of apples and two cups of pears.
  3. In one of the bowls, combine your prepped apples, pears, and blueberries. Add ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and toss with ¼ cup lemon juice to prevent browning (Note: toss with your hands to get all fruit covered).
  4. Place in a greased glass pie plate (9 inch plate).

For Topping

  1. Combine 2 cups of gluten-free oats, ½ cup coconut flour, 1 cup brown sgar, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¾ cup unsalted softened butter in a separate bowl from the fruit.
  2. With your fingers, mix in butter gently until it resembles crumbs.
  3. Sprinkle your topping over your filling.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes or until crumbs brown.
  5. Enjoy!

Zucchini Linguine with Dairy-Free Kale-Basil Pesto

Incorporating vegetarian meals into your diet is a great way to lose weight fast. Even substituting a typical dinner recipe for a vegetarian recipe two to three times a week can make a big difference. Initially, the proposition seems daunting, but easing into a more vegetarian-friendly diet could be just what you need to shake your current plateau or start you on a new health plan entirely. This zucchini linguine recipe is so delicious you’ll hardly even realize you’re eating healthy, much less vegetarian! Not interested in making the switch? No problem. Top this dish with shrimp or chicken for an added burst of protein.

What you’ll need (Serves 4):

  • o 1/2 tsp coconut oil
  • o 2 cloves garlic minced
  • o 1/2 tsp ginger grated
  • o 1 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
  • o 1 15 oz can light coconut milk
  • o 3 cups Chopped Kale
  • o 2 cups Fresh Basil Leaves
  • o 1 tsp fine sea salt
  • o 1/2 cup Cashew Meal or 1 cup Whole Cashews
  • o 3 zucchini spiralizer blade C* or store-bought zucchini linguine
  • o 1/4 cup Pine Nuts

Let’s get started:

  1. Heat coconut oil in sauté pan.
  2. Add the lemon juice, ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute.
  3. Add the coconut milk and kale, and cook on medium heat until kale wilts.
  4. Add coconut milk and kale mixture to a blender with the basil, salt, and cashew meal, and blend for a minute on medium speed until all pureed.
  5. Add the zucchini linguine to the now empty sauté pan and cook for 2 minutes just until warmed.
  6. Add the pesto mixture, heat another 2 minutes until warm.
  7. Serve immediately, topped with pine nuts.
  8. Can also add shrimp, chicken, peas, or any other topping you like to this dish!
  9. *The spiralizer is a great kitchen tool for healthy cooking. Find it here: amzn.to/1IFQQBy

Chickpea Burgers

Who doesn’t love a good burger? From the sizzle it makes when it hits the grill (or pan) to the first juicy bite, burgers are a perennial powerhouse when it comes to rocking the taste buds. But as we all know, healthy living demands moderation, especially for red meat. Unfortunately, red meat and portion control don’t exactly go together. However, with this nutritious recipe you can still have your burgers and eat them, too! My quasi-vegetarian (some vegetarian diets allow for egg consumption) chickpea burgers can go toe-to-toe with any traditional burger all the while keeping you and your diet on track.

Chickpea Burgers

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Servings 2 people
Calories 832 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Scallion chopped
  • 1/4 cup Mushrooms chopped
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup Canned Chickpeas (rinsed) (save liquid)
  • 2 tbsp Chickpea Can Liquid
  • 1 tbsp tahini
  • 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 tsp Turmeric
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp oats
  • 1 tsp fresh dill chopped or1/2 tsp dried
  • 1/4 cup sesame seeds
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  • Saute scallion and mushrooms in coconut oil.
  • Combine chickpeas, tahini and chickpea liquid in a blender and blend until smoothe.
  • In a bowl, mix together the scallions and mushrooms, chickpea blend, sunflower seeds and tumeric. Then mix in egg white, oats, and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • With your hands, make burgers/patties, and then place them on a baking sheet.
  • Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Notes

Nutrition

Calories: 832kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 27gFat: 66gSaturated Fat: 12gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gSodium: 309mgPotassium: 374mgFiber: 16gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 300IUVitamin C: 8.3mgCalcium: 160mgIron: 5.9mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

The Vegan Diet: Fad or Fun?

The vegan diet is not a new concept--the roots of veganism can be traced back to ancient Indian and eastern Mediterranean societies, and the term "vegan" was coined in 1944 by the Vegan Society. However, the idea of a completely animal-product free diet has become increasingly popular within the last couple of decades, whether from a weigh loss or animal cruelty prevention standpoint. Vegetarianism and the Paleo Diet, both less extreme versions of the same idea, are prominent as well. But are these diets really healthy?

A vegan diet is based around the idea that all animal products must be cut from one's diet. While meat, cheese, milk, and eggs are all obvious foods to avoid, items such as mayonnaise, gelatin, honey, and whey also make the list. A diet based on fruits and vegetables can be very helpful for different people, but the large diet restrictions may be hiding possible health problems.

The major problem with restricting all animal products from your diet is the lack of nutrients the restriction can cause. Animal products are the only source of many nutrients, such as vitamin B12 and DHA. Concern over a vitamin D and calcium deficiency, low iron levels, and a lack of protein sources is well founded too. Yet, with research and knowledge about your body, these deficiencies can be managed and prevented.

A lack of vitamin B12 can cause general weakness, nerve problems, constipation, depression, and unhealthy weight loss. However, B12 supplements are available, and nutritional yeast (which tastes cheesy and is a great cheese substitute) is also loaded with B12. Both of these are great options to cut the risk of a deficiency.

DHA, the most active form of Omega-3 fatty acids, is primarily found in animal proteins. The plant form of Omega-3s (ALA) is inefficiently converted to DHA in the body, so Omega-3 supplements are necessary if no animal protein is consumed. Omega-3 supplements are fairly accessible and easy to find, so this is not a huge deterrent.

Vegan diets often use dairy substitutes, of which more and more are fortified with vitamin D and calcium. Besides dairy substitutes, calcium can be found in certain vegetables, nuts, and fortified fruit juices (usually orange juice). Vitamin D can be obtained from time in the sun, as well as most fortified foods. If all else fails, vitamin D and calcium supplements can be found very easily.

Lastly, iron deficiency and lack of protein can be a cause for concern as a vegan. Beans, green leafy vegetables, and fortified dairy substitutes all provide adequate iron in a diet. If these foods are incorporated daily, there is minimal risk for iron deficiency. As for protein sources, there are many unexpected vegan-friendly foods that contain decent levels of protein. Legumes; nuts and nut butters; tempeh and tofu; hemp; chia seeds; and chickpeas all surprisingly contain protein! If all else fails, hemp protein powders are great in shakes and oatmeal.

As with any healthy eating program, it seems veganism can be beneficial if done correctly. While the vegan diet does not seem to cut foods based on their weigh loss merits, the absence of animal products generally leads to lower bad cholesterol levels, less bad fats consumed, and less sugar ingested. However, knowledge of how to eat healthily in the absence of animal products is necessary to prevent unhealthy consequences based on a restrictive diet. If you are interested in veganism, make sure you have done your research and understand the changes needed to maintain proper nutrition.

As a side note, many vegan diets rely on soy products for protein and as a dairy substitute. While soy has been a great source of contention in the nutrition community, it is worth noting that the American Cancer Society deems it fairly harmless (although the suggested daily intake is less than 25 grams of soy protein). If you are interested in a vegan lifestyle, it seems that soy inclusion can be up to your personal preference.

Sources:

"Exploring the Vegan Fad: Healthy or Hurting." The Collegian. Kansas State University. 

"14 Best Vegan and Vegetarian Protein Sources." Health.com. http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20718479,00.html

"5 Reasons Why Vegan Diets May Be a Bad Idea." RSS 20. 

"A Brief History of Veganism." Time.

What Not to Do When Losing Weight

Today, we will look at advice from WebMD about losing weight the right way. There are so many people who find themselves unable to lose weight because they chose a diet that was never designed to actually work for them. In an article written by Kathleen Zelman titled, “7 Things Never to Do to Lose Weight” she lists things to avoid actually reduce people’s chances of losing weight. A few of them are the following:

  • Starvation, Fasting, or very low carb diets
  • Supplements that make grand promises
  • Cleanses or Detox plans

When dieting, she encourages people to, “choose a diet that works best for your lifestyle. The best diet is the one you can stick with long-term. Use common sense, listen to your body, be mindful of what you eat, and pass on expensive, risky, and worthless weight loss schemes or products that are unproven.”

I encourage you to read through this article and keep these 7 tips in mind as you move forward toward your weight loss goals and desires. It is important to take care of your body as you lose weight and this article is a great way to do just that! I am excited to hear about your progress in the coming weeks and months!

Female Hormones and Weight Loss: The Top Four

Our bodies, both male and female, produce of many different types of hormones, which serve an array of functions. Yet, when it comes right down to it, Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone and HCG are the main ones we must address when it comes to female pubescent growth, menstrual cycles, pregnancy, menopause and aging.

Estrogen is made in the adrenal glands, fatty tissue and the ovaries. Its primary functions are to promote breast growth in puberty, assist with the growth of the uterus lining in the beginning of the menstrual cycle and maintain bone strength by working with calcium, vitamin D and other minerals to prevent bone loss. Small amounts of estrogen are present within a man's body, also. (livestrong.com)

Progesterone is also produced in the ovaries and adrenal tissue. While estrogen is busy at work at the beginning of the menstrual cycle, progesterone performs in the second half of the cycle. After ovulation, progesterone prepares the lining of the uterus for the egg to be implanted. Production begins to wane in a woman's 40s, and after menopause. Low progesterone levels can cause symptoms such as irritability, mood swings, weight gain, depression, pain and osteoporosis. If progesterone is low, estrogen becomes the primary sex hormone, leading to what is termed "estrogen dominance."(livestrong.com)

Testosterone is considered a male hormone, but just as a small amount of estrogen is produced in men, a small amount of testosterone is produced in women. Testosterone is made by other hormones, DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) and DHEA-S (a type of DHEA), which are steroid hormones produced in the adrenal glands. Testosterone performs the same function in women as it does men, just to a lesser degree. It strengthens a woman's energy level, libido, bones, muscles and sexual responsiveness to stimulation. (livestrong.com)

HCG

HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) is produced in the cells that make up the placenta during pregnancy. It is this hormone that is detected in both blood and urine pregnancy tests. Upon conception, levels of hCG double every three days, but then level off after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The role of hCG in pregnancy is to maintain the production of progesterone, which warms the body and maintains the lining of the uterus in pregnancy. (livestrong.com)

So, as long as these hormones are being produced at appropriate levels and in perfect balance, all is well in terms of our growth, health, weight, menstrual cycles, pregnancies and the normal aging process. However, in today’s stressful society, combined with poor eating habits, lack of exercise and sleep, pollution, chemicals and constant stimulation from the environment (IE: cell phones, computers, television, noise, artificial light), our hormones are rebelling. Specifically, we are designed to eat foods in their natural state, to be active—not sedentary, to have time to rest and enjoy life.

Rather, we are living in an unnatural state, constantly being challenged by daily stressors. This causes a domino effect in our bodies to react in a ‘fight or flight’ mode, producing elevated levels of cortisol, which wreak havoc on our [female] hormone levels, metabolism, weight and sense of physical, mental and emotional well-being. To add insult to injury, we are consuming processed foods and meats infused with antibiotics and hormones—not meant for our systems to assimilate. It is no wonder we are living in an age of epidemic obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, severe PMS, heavy periods, infertility, heart disease, excessive bone loss and osteoporosis, as well as addictive disorders—as a means to cope.

This is why it is so very important for you as a woman and human being, to begin to become aware of what you put in your body, how much exercise and enjoyable activity you are getting and how much rest, for both body and mind, you are allowing yourself to have. Though it is challenging to make lifestyle changes, you must do so in order to feel good again.Your hormones can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Continuing to become overwhelmed and exhausted, is a primary reason for your health problems and why you have hormone imbalances.We were meant to have balance in our lives, but because we don’t, we are effected down to the cellular level. It is easier than you might think, to begin eating healthier foods, drink plenty of water, get your body moving, learn to decompress and to sleep well. You deserve to feel energetic, happy and at peace.

Lemon Thyme Halibut Recipe

Finding recipes that the whole family will enjoy can be challenging, but luckily solutions do exist. When you’re pressed for time and in need of an easy dinner recipe, don’t panic. Our Lemon Thyme Halibut is an easy dinner recipe that will keep you on track to meet your weight loss goals. Naturally high in protein and rich in essential nutrients, like vitamin D and B-12, this recipe delivers a healthy option that takes less than thirty minutes to prepare

For Starters, you’ll need (Serves 4):

You’ll need a basting brush, baking sheet (optional), aluminum foil

4 4 oz Halibut Fillets

1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp garlic minced

2 tbsp fresh thyme

3 tbsp Fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. Begin by preheating oven to 400 degrees. A barbeque grill works just fine as well and should be set to medium-high and allow to preheat.

2. Lay out your halibut fillets and, using a basting brush, brush the halibut fillets with olive oil. Then mince garlic and thyme leaves before spreading them on top of fillets.

3. Take your lemons or lemon juice and squeeze fresh lemon juice over fillets. Next, sprinkle your fillets with fresh sea salt (Himalayan salt is a great, healthy alternative for sea salt if available).

4. Place your fillets directly on your grill or, if using an oven, place them on a baking sheet before popping them in. Cook for 10-15 minutes, depending on thickness of your fillets (halibut is ready when the fish starts to flake).

5. Remove from grill or oven and immediately cover the fillets tightly with aluminum foil for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes of sitting covered with foil, remove, serve, and enjoy.

Stop Wasting Time: 9 Weight Loss Myths Debunked

It is not easy to lose weight. Not only is the process itself difficult, but it is compounded with an ever-increasing wealth of knowledge that can be as suspicious as it is confusing. The large and profitable fitness and health industries take advantage of the conflicting rules, diets, and regimens that proclaim weight loss, muscle gain, and that “perfect” physique. Aside from the so-called “miracle” pills and diets (see our previous posts), there abounds an incredible amount of myths, legends, and fairytales of weight loss “commandments” — and some of them are more than ineffective — they’re counter-effective.

Myth #1: Snacking between meals is a no-no

Dietitians recommend frequent, small meals throughout the day, as opposed to three bulk meals. This prevents you from eating too many calories at once. Frequent meals also prevent cravings for unhealthy foods, especially if snacks are made of more wholesome choices, such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

Myth #2: Avoid fast food

While fast food isn’t an ideal choice as a dietary staple, most restaurants offer a selection of healthier options for those who are conscious about their diet. Smaller portions are always available by choosing to eat less of a meal and salads or fruit can be found at nearly every fast food chain.

Myth #3: Carbs are bad

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that provide energy for the human body. This is extremely important, especially for those who exercise because carbs fuel workouts. All carbs are not created equal — processed carbs are significantly less healthy than natural ones found in whole grains and fruits.

Myth #4: Calorie-torching superfoods

Foods cannot increase the burning of calories because they cannot affect metabolism. Dietitians recommend consuming foods high in fiber and water content instead. They will stay in your system longer, thus reducing hunger.

Myth #5: Constant exercise and dieting deters weight gain

The metabolism slows with age and the body is in a constant state of change. Exercise regimens and diet become stale over time — the body becomes acclimated to routine quickly. The only way to balance acclimation and metabolism changes is with a flexible diet and exercise routine.

Myth #6: Eat less and exercise more

For long-term results, this type of formula isn’t sustainable. While this may work for short-term results, it is much safer and effective to find a balance. Side note: if the goal is to build muscles, caloric intake should increase because building muscles requires more calories.

Myth #7: Realistic weight-loss goals

Research shows that more realistic goals can lead to less achievement. Conversely, when ambitious goals are set, people are more likely to attain them due to their difficulty. Reach for the stars — not the ceiling.

Myth #8: Check with your patient first

There is actually no need to consult with a patient to test readiness before they begin a fitness regimen. Studies show that, measurement of patient readiness has any indicator on weight loss success.

Myth #9: Sex burns a lot of calories

The 100-300 calorie estimate dates back to an old, and very small study. In fact, sex is not the calorie-torcher many would hope it to be. More recent studies estimate that sex burns an average of 14 calories instead.

The sheer volume of information available can make it difficult to decide which “facts” about weight loss are actually myths. While these myths claim to provide fast tips and hard facts to speed up and maintain weight loss, they end up becoming sources of frustration and disappointment when they don’t work as well as they claim — our outright backfire. It is true that some people may have medical/nutritional needs that make some of the above myths viable, but they are in no way the commandments of weight loss.

Sources:

The Grapefruit Diet: An Entire Diet Based On One Fruit?

Studies have shown that the Grapefruit Diet is not only unhealthy but dangerous!

The Grapefruit Diet (a.k.a. the Hollywood Diet), introduced during the 1930s, is one of the oldest fad diets. It's one of those fad diets (like all of them!) that are just too good to be true. Through a combination of fatty meat, grapefruits and grapefruit juice[2], the Grapefruit Diet allegedly burns fat at high rate. The diet also includes limiting grains, fruit and vegetables.  Sound risky? It is... Advocates of the diet claim that it's a "10 day, 10 pounds off diet," but studies have shown it's not only unhealthy, it's also dangerous[2]. Also, can you really picture yourself eating grapefruit all the time, every day of your life? It's just not a realistic regimen for most people.

At least we were able to retrieve a grain of truth from the hysteria. Research by the Scripps team found that obese people who added grapefruit to their diets were able to lose more weight[3] than those who didn't. It was discovered that grapefruit helped people manage their insulin levels, which is good news for diabetics looking for healthy food options. However, it is very important to note that the test group was on a well-balanced diet when they added grapefruit to their meals. They were not on the highly dubious no-vegetable, no-carb diet described above.  Which goes to show you that adding fruit to your diet can sometimes lead to pleasant, unexpected results, and that fad diets can never equal a healthy, balanced diet.

[1] Scott, Jennifer R. (2008-11-10). "What You Need to Know About The Mayo Clinic Diet". About.com: Weight Loss. About.com. Retrieved 2009-03-25.

Diet Companies And What You Should Know About False Advertising

Diet Companies And What You Should Know About False Advertising

Deceptive advertising and weight loss products (unfortunately) go hand in hand. Many products include intentionally misleading testimonials and marketing methods to sell their products, when in truth their products may be dangerous or provide no benefit. Customers flock to products seeking simple solutions, only to find their investment wasted.

But there is hope as diet companies get caught and penalized by the government for their deceptive practices. 

Two such diet companies are Sensa and HGC Diet Direct. Sensa, you may recall, was a diet product comprised of “sprinkles” placed on to food to create feeling fuller after a meal and encouraging weight loss. As it turns out, the weight loss claims touted by the brand in their marketing tactics, as well as the before and after pictures, were not accurate, ultimately leading to a $26.5 million payout by Sensa to its customers.

Not all of these class action lawsuit settlements work in the customer’s favor, however, like in the case of HGC Diet Direct. HGC claimed to market a human hormone supplement that could aid in weight loss, which were later found to be unfounded and misleading. But unlike Sensa, HGC was unable to pay the settlement, causing the judgment to be suspended (and customers being left only with a thinner wallet).

Beware Of Weight Loss "Miracle" Products

False advertising methods are rather common with diet companies, and 99.9% of “miracle” products result in (at best) disappointment and smaller bank accounts and (at worst) bodily damage to their customers.

Is life full of miracles? Yes!

But as a trained health coach with over 14 years of experience, I can tell you there are no miracles when it comes to weight loss.

Your path to losing weight (and more importantly - keeping it off forever) is a realistic approach based on applying proven nutrition, fitness and healthy cooking strategies to live a healthy lifestyle.

Have you or anyone you know fallen prey to a weight loss scam? Please share!

Credits:

  1. "Weight-loss companies charged with false advertising." CNN. January 8, 2014.http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/08/health/weight-loss-companies-fraud/

2. "FTC Orders Weight Loss Companies to Pay $34M to Consumers." Top Class Actions. January 13, 2014. http://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/12884-ftc-order…

Your 3 “Must Have” Kitchen Tools For Healthy Cooking (And Showers Of Praise)!

As a nutritionist, certified personal trainer, and culinary instructor, you bet I LOVE to cook, and on top of that, I love to cook healthy dishes bursting with flavor...

And having the right tools can truly mean the difference between hearing "polite" remarks about your meal... to being showered with "WOWs" and praise from your family and friends!

I have dozens of tools in my kitchen, but if I had to narrow it down to the 3 I rely on most, it would be my chef’s knife, my hand immersion blender, and my Spiralizer.

"Must Have" Healthy Cooking Tool #1

Let's start with the all-important chef's knife, and then move on to the "sexy gadgets" that bring versatility, uniqueness and fun to your cooking. 

Because your your chef’s knife is a very personal choice, I don't recommend relying solely on someone else's recommendation... even if they're an expert chef. But with so many designs, sizes and brands - how do you find "The One?" 

The best way is to be "hands-on" when shopping for your knife. Does it feel evenly balanced from back to front? Does it feel too heavy to hold or too light to cut hard vegetables like spaghetti squash? You'll also need to determine what size you like best because most chef knives come in 6, 8, and 10 inches. 

Also, go to a neighborhood store and talk to a knowledgeable store employee who can explain the various blades, care and sharpening requirements. A good knife will last a lifetime, so allow yourself to splurge. It will make your cooking so much more enjoyable and you deserve it!

"Must Have" Healthy Cooking Tool #2

My next most cherished kitchen tool is my hand immersion blender.

I love this kitchen tool for its versatility. It does almost everything a blender can do (puree soups, chop small foods like garlic and ginger), but it's much smaller, more portable... and can be cleaned in the dishwasher! 

You can see ratings for hand immersion blenders on ConsumerReports.org. Most importantly, I recommend choosing one with different attachments for pureeing, blending, and chopping to really maximize the power of this awesome tool!

"Must Have" Healthy Cooking Tool #3

My newest kitchen tool recommendation is the Spiralizer, which completely transforms the veggie experience!

Imagine turning summer squash, potatoes, turnips, onions, cabbage, parsnips, and more into different sizes of long spiral-shaped pasta-like pieces.

The Spiralizer is fantastic for making making vegetable “noodles,” curly fries, many gluten-free dinners and more! I especially love it because my kids are so much more keen to eat vegetables when they look (and twirl!) like noodles.

I have lots of Spiralizer recipes for you to try: Zucchini Linguine With Dairy-Free Kale-Basil Pesto, Rach's Creamy Mushroom Soup (gluten-free & dairy-free), Zucchini Chowder, and many more.

Once you start Spiralizing you'll never look back! 

Cannellini Salad in Butter Lettuce Cups

This recipe is a great take on a salad- it's an inside out salad, making it a great option for kids and adults-especially because you can eat it with your hands. This low calorie, high protein salad is scrumptious and will cool you down on a warm day. The garlic will help boast your immune system, while the parsley will keep your breath smelling sweet all day!

Cannellini Salad In Butter Lettuce Cups

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Cuisine Salad

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Canned White Cannellini Beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 lemon just the rind with zests grated
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 tsp fresh rosemary minced
  • 2 pieces celery chopped
  • 1-2 tbsp Black Olives pitted and chopped
  • 4-6 leaves Butter Lettuce

Instructions
 

  • Combine all ingredients in a bowl except for lettuce. (If you have time, you can allow the mixture to chill for an hour so it settles more, but not necessary if short on time.)
  • Place spoonful of the mixture into a lettuce leaf and serve.
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Dairy-Free Cream of Asparagus Soup

This delectable soup is a great way to satisfy a craving for a delicious, creamy soup without the dairy (and you won't even know it's missing!). Asparagus is also a great way to welcome spring, eat seasonally, and get a nice dose of Vitamin K, important for blood clotting, and folate, important for reproductive health in men and women.

Dairy Free Cream of Asparagus Soup

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Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 onion diced
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped
  • 1/2 cup celery coarsely chopped
  • 2 lbs asparagus bottoms trimmed, cut into one inch pieces
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp Corn Starch
  • 1 15 oz can light coconut milk
  • 2 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Place the onion, garlic, celery, and asparagus in a large dutch oven, and cover with 2 cups of the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover and simmer for 10 minutes until vegetables are tender.
  • Remove vegetables and broth from heat and puree. Transfer puree to a separate bowl.
  • Add in the remaining 2 cups of vegetable broth, mix, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the puree back in, and mix well, pureeing all together again.
  • Mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup water. Pour mixture into soup, mix well, and let cook for 2 minutes to thicken.
  • Add in the coconut milk, lemon juice, and salt and pepper, and mix well. Heat for 5 more minutes and serve.
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Quinoa Vegetable Pilaf

The beautiful colors from all the veggies in this dish make it look so appealing, you'll to want to dive right in. The delicious taste makes you want to keep eating, and the healthy source of protein, fiber, and antioxidants is a huge bonus!

Quinoa Vegetable Pilaf

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Course Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine Mexican, Quinoa, Vegetarian
Servings 2 people
Calories 1084 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • ½ cup yellow onion diced
  • ½ cup asparagus cut in thin slices (about ¼ inch thick)
  • ½ cup white button mushrooms sliced thin
  • 1 cup quinoa uncooked
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • ½ onion coarsely chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Heat oil in bottom of a sauce pan for a minute.
  • Add onion and cook 2 minutes until slightly translucent.
  • Add asparagus and mushrooms, cook 1 more minute.
  • Add vegetable broth and quinoa to the same pan (keeping vegetables still in it), and bring mixture to a boil.
  • Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer and cover, cooking about 10 minutes or until there is no more water.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot or cold.

Notes

Nutrition

Calories: 1084kcalCarbohydrates: 176gProtein: 36gFat: 29gSaturated Fat: 14gPolyunsaturated Fat: 6gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gSodium: 1336mgPotassium: 2264mgFiber: 17gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 800IUVitamin C: 9.9mgCalcium: 150mgIron: 23.9mg
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Organic Lemon Chicken with Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes, and Spinach

This dish is very low in calories, yet packed with iron, protein, and tons of flavor, so it keeps you feeling sated and satisfied. It's super easy to whip up as a week night dinner, plus make a little extra for a great lunch the next day too!

Organic Lemon Chicken With Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes, And Spinach

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Course Dinner
Cuisine Chicken, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free
Servings 4 people
Calories 272 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 5 cloves garlic chopped
  • 1 lb Organic White Meat Chicken Tenders
  • 1/4 cup Sundried Tomatoes In Olive Oil chopped in 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups Frozen Artichokes quartered, partly or fully thawed
  • 2 cups Baby Spinach Leaves
  • 1 whole lemon juiced

Instructions
 

  • Place coconut oil in a sauté pan and heat on medium heat.
  • Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
  • Add chicken and cook 3-5 minutes per side, until chicken is completely cooked through.
  • Place chicken on a plate lined with a paper towel to rid of excess oil.
  • Add sun dried tomatoes in olive oil and artichokes into warm skillet, and cook for 2 minutes, until artichokes are warm.
  • Add in spanich and cook 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until spinach wilts
  • As soon as spinach has wilted, add the chicken back into the pan and mix well. Heat for 2-3 minutes.
  • Turn off heat, squeeze lemon all over the pan, and serve immediately.

Notes

Nutrition

Calories: 272kcalCarbohydrates: 17gProtein: 35gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 66mgSodium: 282mgPotassium: 1115mgFiber: 7gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 6250IUVitamin C: 61.9mgCalcium: 120mgIron: 3.4mg
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Tumeric-spiced Collard Green Rolls

Ingredients

  • 4 large collard green leaves
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup yellow onion, diced
  • 1 cup orange or yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
  • ½ cup light coconut milk
  • 1 tsp tumeric
  • 4 wooden (non-dyed) toothpicks

Directions

In a medium saucepan, boil water and blanche the collard green leaves. (To blanche means to place leaves into boiling water for one minute, then remove and place under cold water for a minute.) Dry cooked leaves and lay flat to continue to air dry.

Mix the coconut milk and the turmeric in a bowl and set aside.

Heat the coconut oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and cook one minute. Next, add the onion and cook 2-3 minutes until onion starts to turn translucent. Add the bell pepper and continue to cook another 3 minutes just until the bell pepper starts to soften.  Add the quinoa, and mix well.

Add the coconut milk mixture and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Spoon the vegetable quinoa mixture equally into each collard leave, then roll collard into a wrap, securing each one with a toothpick. Serve immediately.

Pan-Fried Swordfish with Kale, Tomatoes, and Olives

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 2 cups kale, chopped
  • ½ cup pitted green olives, thinly sliced
  • 4 six oz. swordfish steaks
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a skillet. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Next add tomatoes, cook another 2 minutes, and then add kale and olives. Cook until kale wilts and becomes bright green.  Place vegetable mixture on a plate and put to the side.

Season swordfish steaks with salt and pepper on both sides. Add remaining coconut oil to the skillet. Cook swordfish steaks n skillet, approximately 3 minutes per side. Place vegetable mixture back into pan on top of fish to reheat for a minute. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on top and serve immediately.

Fish Tacos With Warm Cilantro-Lime Slaw

Ingredients

  • ¼ c extra virgin olive oil
  • 1  Tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • 3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp pepper
  • ½ tsp dry mustard
  • 1 lb of white fish filets, such as snapper, mahi mahi, or cod, skin removed
  • ½ head green cabbage, sliced finely into shreds
  • 1 tsp lemon pepper
  • 2 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (optional)
  • 4 corn tortillas

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix 3 tablespoons of the oil, vinegar, lime juice, garlic, 1 ½ tablespoons of the cilantro, ¼ teaspon of the salt, fresh pepper, and mustard together very well.

Rinse fish filets, pat dry, and marinate in oil mixture for about 15 minutes.

In the mean time, place shredded cabbage into large broil pan and toss with remaining olive oil, remaining salt and lemon pepper. Cover with foil tightly and place immediately into pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.

Transfer marinated fish to baking sheet. Lower oven to 350 degrees (wait until oven lowers all the way down to this temperature and keep cabbage in the oven the entire time) and place fish on lowest oven rack. Cook fish approximately 8-10 minutes, (depending on thickness) until cooked through.

While fish is cooking, combine chopped tomatoes with remaining cilantro, jalapeno, and salt and pepper to taste. Once fish is down, remove fish from oven, as well as cabbage. Keeping cabbage in covered tin, shake well (use pot holders because this will be hot, especially if steam leaks out from the covered tin). Remove the foil covering the cabbage. In center of tortilla, place approximately 4oz of fish and then top with cabbage and with tomato mixture. Fold or roll tortilla with ingredients inside and enjoy.

“Just Like The Real Thing But Vegan” Caesar Salad

Ingredients

  • 2 heads of romaine lettuce, cleaned and coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup kale, coarsely chopped
  • ½ cup baked chickpeas**
  • ¾ cup cashew meal (or can use 1 cup whole cashews soaked in water)
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • ¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 1 tsp agave syrup
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • ¼ cup EVOO

Directions

In a large bowl, toss the lettuce, kale, and chickpeas. Then in a blender, mix all remaining ingredients to prepare the dressing. Dress the salad and enjoy!

**Baked Chickpeas

  • 1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and dried
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ¼ tsp cumin
  • pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place chickpeas on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil. In a small bowl, mix the remaining spices, and then coat onto chickpeas. Bake for 25-30 minutes, moving the chickpeas around on the baking sheet every 10 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and add to salad.

Perfectly Poached Salmon

Ingredients

  • 4 four oz. pieces of wild salmon, skin on
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • 1 celery stalk with leaves
  • ¼ cup dry white wine
  • ½ lemon squeezed into pan, then cut in slices
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • ¼ an onion, sliced thin

Directions

Sprinkle salmon fillets with a little sea salt.  Fill a shallow sauté pan with an inch of water. Add the celery, wine, lemon slices, dill, and onion to the pan and bring to a boil. Place the salmon into the boiling water, cover tightly, and remove from heat. Let the salmon sit in the water off the heat for 7-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the filet. Can serve warm or refrigerate and serve later.

Miso-Glazed Fish

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup mirin (or rice wine vinegar)
  • 1/3 cup miso paste (any variety is fine, I prefer chickpea-miso)
  • 1 Tbsp hot water
  • 1 Tbsp agave syrup
  • 2 Tbsp tamari, low sodium
  • 4 Six oz. filets of any fish of your choice, skin on (I recommend salmon or Chilean sea bass)
  • 3 chopped green onions (aka scallions)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine mirin, miso, water, agave syrup, and tamari and whisk together in a bowl. Using a basting brush, brush fish with miso mixture. Depending on thickness of fish (depends on type of fish used), bake at 375 for 10-12 minute. Then sprinkle green onions on top of the cooked fish and place under the broiler for 2 minutes so scallions become crispy.

**Tastes great when served over gently steamed spinach

Organic Lemon Chicken with Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes, and Spinach

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 lb organic white meat chicken tenders, cut into bite size pieces
  • ¼ cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped
  • 1 ½ cups frozen artichokes, quartered
  • 2 cups fresh organic baby spinach leaves
  • Juice from 1 whole lemon
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

Place coconut oil in a sauté pan and heat on medium heat until melted. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant. Add chicken and cook 3-5 minutes, until chicken pieces are 80% cooked through. Add sundried tomatoes and artichokes, and cook another 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until chicken is fully cooked through. Change heat to low flame, and add spinach leaves. Stir, cooking until leaves just begin to wilt. Turn off heat, squeeze lemon all over the pan, sprinkle with red pepper flakes, and serve immediately.

Pork Marsala Cutlets With Mushrooms and Baby Spinach

Ingredients

  • ½ tsp dried oregano
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • 1 lb very thin pork cutlets
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 2 cups white button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch, mixed with 1 Tbsp chicken broth.
  • 1 cup Marsala wine
  • 2 cups baby spinach leaves

Directions

Mix oregano, thyme, and salt in a bowl with EVOO.  Toss in pork cutlets and coat well.  Heat coconut oil in a skillet and add pork chops to heated coconut oil. Cook 3-5 minutes per side, until each side is browned.

Add in mushrooms and garlic, and cook another 2-4 minutes until mushrooms are cooked through.  Mix the wine and the chicken broth-corn starch mixture together and mix well. Add to the skillet and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken.

On a separate plate, place the baby spinach leaves . Plate the pork cutlets and mushrooms over the spinach, pouring the thickened Marsala sauce as well.  Allow the spinach to wilt from the heat of the sauce and serve immediately.

Warm Arugula Portabella Salad

Ingredients

  • 2 Portabella mushrooms
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • 2 cups arugula
  • ½ cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • ½ cup cucumber, sliced and quartered, skin on
  • ¼ cup slivered almonds
  • 2 Tbsp goat cheese
  • ¼ cup low-fat Balsamic Vinaigrette (can use bottled or see recipe for homemade below)

Directions

Preheat barbecue to medium heat or oven to 425 degrees. Rub Portabellas with olive oil, and place on grill or in oven on cookie sheet. Cook for approximately 5-7 minutes and then remove from grill/oven and let cool.

In the meantime, in a bowl, toss arugula, chickpeas, cucumber, and slivered almonds. Add goat cheese on top, dress and serve.

*** Balsamic Vinaigrette

  • ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 Tbsp water, room temperature
  • 3 Tbsp EVOO

Combine all ingredients in a tightly covered container and shake well to mix.

Quinoa Vegetable Pilaf

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • ½ onion, diced
  • ½ cup asparagus, cut in thin slices (about ¼ inch thick)
  • ½ cup white button mushrooms, coarsely chopped
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup quinoa, uncooked
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat oil in bottom of a saucepan for a minute. Add onion and cook 2 minutes until slightly translucent. Add asparagus and mushrooms, cooking 1 more minute. Add vegetable brother and quinoa to the same pan (keeping vegetables still in it), and bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer and cover, cooking about 10 minutes or until there is no more water. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve or leave at room temperature to serve later. Stores great in the refrigerator for leftovers!

Dairy-Free, Gluten Free Delicious “Cream” of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp olive-oil based, dairy-free butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 shallots chopped
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 lb. assorted mushrooms (1/2 chopped / 1/2 sliced)
  • 3 Tbsp. sherry
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch dissolve in 1 Tbsp water
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1/4 cup chives
  • 3 Tbsp Tofutti sour cream
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Melt the “butter” and oil in a Dutch oven. Sauté shallots, garlic, and mushrooms over moderately high heat; sauté until mushroom liquid evaporates and mush brown lightly.  Add sherry until it evaporates. Add cornstarch mixture, stirring well and cook 3 min.  Stir in broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in chives and sour cream, mix, and then add in almond milk. Season with salt and pepper and enjoy.

Shrimp and Vegetable Stir Fry

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 tsp garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp ginger, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, sliced thin
  • 1 cup broccoli florets
  • 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 cup snap peas
  • 12 raw jumbo frozen shrimp
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp honey
  • ¼ cup tamari, low sodium
  • 2 Tbsp rice vinegar

Directions

In a large skillet or wok, heat coconut oil. Add garlic and ginger, and let cook 1 minute. Add peppers and broccoli, and allow to cook, stirring often, until vegetables are bright and start t soften. Add mushrooms and snap peas, and cook another 5 minutes. Keep vegetables in skillet, but push to side, and add shrimp. Cook shrimp approximately 5 minutes, turning half way through cooking time until they turn pink.

In a bowl, mix sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, and rice vinegar. Add to skillet with shrimp and vegetables, mix well, and let simmer 5 minutes on low light.

Tequila Marinated Pork Chops

Ingredients

  • 4 center cut pork chops, bone in
  • 3 Tbsp favorite tequila
  • ½ c apple cider
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp fresh lime juice
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees or light barbecue to heat. Separate pork chops to the side and combine all ingredients and mix well to make marinade. Place chops in marinade and let sit 10 minutes up to 6 hours in refrigerator in a covered dish. Can either bake pork chops for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees, turning half way through, and then putting under the broiler an additional 3 minutes or grill on barbecue on medium heat about 10-12 minutes, turning half way through (internal temperature for cooked pork chops should be 160 degrees). Remove from grill or oven, cover with foil for 2 minutes, and serve.

**Great served with steamed broccoli or kale topped with a bit of salt and fresh lime juice.

Tofu, Vegetables, & Noodles in an Asian Broth

Ingredients

  • 8 oz uncooked stir-fry rice noodles
  • 1 cup broccoli florets (can also use frozen broccoli florets to save time)
  • ½ cup carrots, ¼ inch thick slices (can also use frozen carrots to save time)
  • 1 cup white button mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 cups baby bok choy, coarsely chopped
  • 3 Tbsp Miso Paste (and kind works-I prefer chickpea Miso)
  • 1 cup tofu, water drained and cut into bite-size cubes (Can also substitute with shrimp)
  • ¼ cup low sodium tamari
  • 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • ½ tsp chili oil (optional)
  • 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Directions

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large pot.  Once boiling, add broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and bok choy to the water. Let cook for 1-2 minute, and then using a slotted spoon, remove all vegetables into a strainer. Keep boiling water in the pot and bring back to a boil after all vegetables have been removed.

Add miso paste to boiling water, lower flame to a simmer, and cover, allowing miso paste to dissolve into a soup broth base. Let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  While broth is simmering, cover noodles with hot water according to package directions to let them soften., and then rinse and drain.

After 10 minutes, add the tofu, vegetables, and noodles all to the miso broth.  Season with the tamari, sesame oil, chili oil, and cilantro. Cook another 2-4 minutes until piping hot, serve, and enjoy.

Greek Salad

Ingredients

For the salad:

  • 2 cups romaine lettuce, coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup red cabbage, coarsely chopped
  • ½ cup cucumber, skin on, sliced
  • ½ cup carrots, sliced
  • ½ cup celery, sliced
  • ¼ cup garbanzos, rinsed and drained
  • ¼ cup cherry tomatoes (optional)
  • ¼ cup kalamata olives (optional)
  • ¼ cup crumbled low-fat feta cheese
  • 2 tsp dried dill

For the Dressing:

  • ¼ cup EVOO
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp orange juice
  • 2 Tbsp water
  • ½ packet Good Seasonings dressing dry spice mix

Directions

In a large bowl, combine all veggies. Then mix all of the ingredients for the dressing in a separate bowl. Toss with the vegetables and chill or serve immediately. (If preparing ahead, don’t add dressing until serving.)

Sizzling Garlic Shrimp over Seared String Beans

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • ½ cup shallots, diced
  • ¼ cup dry white wine
  • 1 lb medium frozen shrimp, uncooked, peeled, and deveined (31-40 count)
  • 2 cups fresh string beans, ends trimmed
  • ¼ tsp fine sea salt
  • ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

In a large skillet, heat coconut oil. Add in half the chopped garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add in the shallots and cook 2-3 minutes until shallots turn translucent. Pour in wine and let it cook off another 2-3 minutes. Next add in shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes, turning half way through so shrimp turn pink. Add in the string beans and remaining garlic, and cook only another minute or two until the string beans turn a bright green. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and enjoy.

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Ingredients

  • 4 Portabella mushrooms caps, stemmed and washed
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 cup baby spinach leaves
  • 1 15 oz can artichoke hearts, chopped
  • ½ cup shredded goat-milk gouda cheese
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 425.  Rub flat surface of Portabellas with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. In a skillet, warm the coconut oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Next add the chopped artichokes and the spinach and cook for 2 minutes, just until the spinach wilts.  Remove from heat and mix in the shredded gouda cheese.

Transfer the artichoke and spinach mixture into the mushroom caps.  Bake for 15 minutes and serve.

Chili Rubbed Snapper

Ingredients

  • 4 6 oz Red Snapper filets (skin on)
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp agave syrup
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together and marinate fish in it for 10 minutes or up to 6 hours. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, and broil for 2 additional minutes at the end.

Chicken Teriyaki With Steamed Broccoli

Ingredients

  • 4 thin chicken cutlets
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
  • ¼ cup tamari, low sodium
  • 1 Tbsp water
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • 1 head of broccoli, washed and cut into florets. (Can save the broccoli stalks to add to a salad or turn into broccoli noodles later)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease glass Pyrex dish with a thing layer of coconut oil and then place chicken cutlets in Pyrex. Heat remaining coconut oil in a skillet and then sauté onion, garlic, and ginger for 2 minutes. Then in separate bowl, mix cooked onion, ginger, garlic, tamari, honey, and water together. Pour over chicken, and bake for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add scallions to top of chicken and broil for the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Place half an inch of water in a large pot with or without a steamer basket. Place the broccoli florets in the water, cover the pot, and cook on medium high for 5 minutes until you see steam start to come out of the pot. Remove broccoli from pot, and serve immediately. Be careful not to let broccoli over cook/steam.

Beef Tenderloin Fajitas

Ingredients

  • 1 lb beef tenderloin tips
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 red pepper, cored and cut into thin slices
  • 1 zucchini, halved and sliced thin
  • 1 cup white button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 cup red cabbage, coarsely chopped
  • 2 cups kale, coarsely chopped
  • ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  • Juice from 1 fresh squeeze lime
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 4 corn tortillas.

Directions

In a bowl, combine EVOO with beef and coat well. Mix in cayenne, paprika, and garlic powder, ½ tsp of salt and mix well so beef is well coated. In a large sauté pan, heat 1 Tbsp of the coconut oil until it liquefies and spreads over pan surface. Add meat to pan and cook 5-7 minutes per side, continuously turning, until meat is cooked throughout but still pink inside. Lay cooked beef on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain excess grease.

Place pan back over medium heat and add remaining 1 Tbsp of coconut oil. Once coconut oil is heated, add red pepper, and cook, stirring regularly, for about 3 minutes. Next add zucchini and cook another 3 minutes, followed by mushrooms, cooking another 3 minutes. Then add red cabbage, cook another 3 minutes, and then add kale and continue cooking until kale is wilted and the rest of the vegetables are cooked through but not mushy.

Next cut beef into bite size pieces and add to pan, stirring all ingredients together and just cooking another 2 minutes until beef is reheated but not cooked more. Remove pan from heat completely, add in cilantro, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and salt, and mix well until cilantro wilts.

Heat corn tortillas in oven at 300 degrees for 2 minutes just until they are warm. Spoon meat and vegetable mixture into warmed tortillas and enjoy. Can season with your favorite hot sauce.

Asian Bean Wraps

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
  • 2 Tbsp tamari, reduced sodium
  • 2 Tbsp hot water
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 8oz can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
  • 3 scallions, chopped
  • 1 15oz can canellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 8 leaves of Romaine lettuce

Directions

Combine peanut butter, tamari, water, honey, garlic, and ginger together in a bowl and whisk.

Heat coconut oil in a skillet. Add pepper, water chestnuts, scallions, and cook until vegetables soften, 3-5 minutes. Add beans and mix well over medium heat, about 1 minute. Add sauce mixture and mix until heated through. Spoon mixture on to lettuce leaves and serve.

Garlic Chicken Over Spinach

Ingredients

  • 4 thin chicken cutlets
  • 2 cups fresh spinach leaves
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 cup sliced white button mushrooms
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup fresh cherry tomatoes, quartered or one 8 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Pour half of olive oil in sauté pan and allow to heat. Add two of chopped garlic cloves and let simmer for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté for three minutes. Add spinach, salt, and pepper, and cook one more minute, and pour vegetable mixture onto plate.

Using same pan (do not have to clean first), add rest of olive oil, allow to heat, and then add remaining 2 chopped garlic cloves. Let simmer for 30 seconds and then put chicken in the pan at medium light. Cook for 3 minutes and then turn and cook another 3 minutes, making sure chicken is cooked through. Remove cooked chicken and place on top of vegetable mixture and serve.

About Lisa

Lisa Shanken is an accredited nutrition counselor, healthy cooking instructor, certified personal trainer, and certified Corporate Wellness Specialist. In addition to publishing several books, she has provided private one-on-one nutrition counseling, private cooking instruction, fitness training, supermarket tours, and healthy cooking classes since 2001. She also helps companies build and enhance their in-house corporate wellness programs to increase employee satisfaction and lower insurance costs.

Lisa believes in customizing health and wellness strategies to fit each individual’s lifestyle. Rather than promoting “quick-fix” diets that inevitably fail, Lisa created the Tri-Wellness philosophy of teaching nutrition, fitness, and healthy cooking to ensure lifelong healthy living and balance.

After receiving a B.S. at Cornell University, she then trained at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Natural Gourmet School, and Pratt Institute in New York City. She earned her personal training certification at the American Fitness Institute, and her Corporate Wellness certification from Vital Advantage Corporate Wellness Consulting. Lisa’s kitchen in Boulder, CO is always stocked because she loves to cook and to share her passion with her friends, husband and two (fussy eater!) children.

My Philosophy

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My passion is to help you live your healthiest and most harmonious life, but in a way that's realistic and practical for you as a unique individual on this planet. My philosophy is all about “balance.” Balance is what leads to harmony, and ultimately to happiness…and isn’t happiness what we’re all seeking? Balance does not mean deprivation and guilt, because you can still indulge if you learn how to avoid over-indulgence.

To discover your natural balance, you need some tools and resources:

  • You need a roadmap so you know where you’re going.
  • You need a blueprint so you know what to do.
  • You need a guide to show you how to do it, hold you accountable…and be your biggest fan and cheerleader during your quest!

Tri-Wellness is all of the above and integrates the three essential pillars of wellness:

  1. Nutrition - Helping you tweak your food choices…so you can still enjoy your favorites without deprivation or guilt.
  2. Fitness - Helping you customize an ideal fitness plan that you actually enjoy.
  3. Healthy Cooking - Helping you learn (or sharpen) healthy cooking skills…that will still have everyone asking for seconds!

I’ve always had a personal passion for all three of these areas, which led to my formal training as an Accredited Health Consultant at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York. However, as I grew my one-on-one nutrition consulting practice, I observed the vital connection among these in forming the core foundation for transformational and lifelong change. On the flipside, when any pillar is missing or incomplete…the entire structure is weakened or destroyed! So I rounded out my culinary skills at the Natural Gourmet School and Pratt Institute, and then obtained my personal training certification from the American Fitness Institute. My foundation was complete…and Tri-Wellness was born!

But it’s not about me – it’s about helping you adopt a balanced approach to wellness so you achieve a harmonious balance in your life. In my fourteen years of experience, I assure you that anyone can learn these skills and strategies. So even if you can’t boil water, or read a nutrition label, or own a pair of running shoes...you can do this. Tri-Wellness works. Tri-Wellness is life-changing. Tri-Wellness is fun! Try wellness the Tri-Wellness way and discover how to build your foundation! You’ll be amazed at the results.

Surfing The Internet To Lose Calories?

Exercises You Can Do At Your Desk
Get Fit And Sexy While Surfing The Internet

After our previous article on how to turn television time into a more stimulating exercise (either physically or mentally), I was inspired to write about how to make computer time more healthy and how to lose calories while sitting. Most people complain that they spent a lot of time chained to their desks and want to know how they can add some fitness to their workdays.

First of all, are you following the rules of healthy computer usage? For every hour you sit down in front of your computer or at your desk, you should spend five minutes stretching your legs, preferably walking outside while thinking calm, gentle thoughts. These exercises you can do at your desk may not seem like much, but that can already add up to 30 minutes of exercise a day or more, while making you more productive at work, since stretching and centering exercises reduce the number of careless mistakes made at work.

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Can Watching Television Help You Lose Weight?

Lose Weight While Watching TV
Yes You Can Turn TV Time Into Workout Time!

Sometimes my son gets furious with my husband and me when we strictly limit his daily TV time because it means he must find other ways of amusing himself, which can range from anything to reading to playing outside. But we are strict about this rule because it keeps him more active and it strengthens his brain!

However, even with our nationwide obesity epidemic, there seems to be no escape from television. How do you reason with a child who desperately wants to watch Hannah Montana or Spongebob? How do you reason with adults, who after a day of work, want to sit down to a brainless activity like television to relax? Unless they want to exercise while watching TV? According to csun.edu, the average American spends a whopping four hours per day in front of the TV. Television appears to be, for most, a necessary evil, but it is eroding away our ability for healthy weight loss both physically and mentally.

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Smoothies: The Real Deal or Just a “Health” Trend?

Drink Smoothies

In today’s busy world, the reality for many of us is that we have to eat on the go. Many busy people trying to stay healthy turn to smoothies as a solution for eating on the go. So the question remains, is this a kind solution for healthy living or not?

There is really no straight answer to this question because it depends where you get the smoothie and what ingredients are used to make it. Smoothies in many retail shops are made with added sugars, pre-sweetened fruit, high-fat yogurt/ice cream and unhealthy toppings.

This means you must be careful and clear about EXACTLY what you want if you are ordering from a shop/restaurant. Try to aim for fresh or frozen fruit, coconut water or dairy free milks (like almond, coconut or hemp), plain yogurt, and nut butters to really stick to clean eating. If you like things a little sweeter, try to avoid refined sugars and juices, and instead opt for honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, or stevia.

Making smoothies at home is a great option too. They can last for up to three days in your refrigerator, so you can make them in large batches. Plus, then you have total control over what you put in them! Below are some more specific tips on making your smoothies awesome!

1)    Only use low-fat plain yogurt in your smoothies. The added sugars in flavored yogurts are unnecessary calories because the natural sweetness from the fruit is enough to make most smoothies sweet. But if it’s still not sweet enough for you, a teaspoon of honey should do the trick!

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Magical Oatmeal: Your Best Breakfast Yet?

Delicious, Underutilized Oatmeal!

In my last post, we discussed how many eggs you should be eating and what your safe levels of cholesterol should be. Now what if I told you there was an actual breakfast food that could reduce cholesterol? Yes, it’s oatmeal! Oatmeal magically reduces the amount of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol in your body.

Oatmeal’s other fun factor is that it makes you feel full a lot longer, making it easy to reduce your calorie intake just by exchanging your normal greasy breakfast with this one-bowl wonder. Plus, it can be easily portable and a quick snap to prepare, making it a great option to bring to work.

But how do you jazz up something that may at times remind you of dismal force-feedings as a child? Lots of different toppings can make your oatmeal more fun, and they all allow you to change it up so you don’t get bored by monotony. A little goes a long way, so here’s a list of the ingredients you could use for your next bowl of oatmeal:

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How Many Eggs Should You Be Eating?

Too much of a good thing?

One of the diets I skimmed through today is called “The Simple Pescatarian Diet” which adheres to some solid health principles, such as eating lots of fish, fresh fruit and dairy (mercury levels and lactose intolerance aside) but I feel its overuse of eggs is a tad questionable. The regimen advises the dieter to eat 6-7 scrambled eggs during the week, which led me to today’s blog question: how many eggs should you be eating?

Eggs sometimes get a bad rap because of their high cholesterol levels (which is only contained in the yolk, measuring at 215 mg, while the recommended daily limit is 300 mg), but in moderation, they are actually an amazing food.  They do contain B vitamins and are a healthy source of protein since they contain all 9 essential amino acids. They are also high in choline, which can help prevent breast cancer.  Eggs have been shown to also help prevent macular degeneration because of their high lutein content. The American Heart Association recommends eating 3-4 eggs a week. But eggs are a hidden ingredient in many foods, such as pastries, certain breads, muffins and other baked goods.  Our nation is one where high cholesterol, which contributes to heart disease, is a problem for many people. Every 34 seconds, somebody in America will die from heart disease [1] and I know my readers have no plans of becoming part of a statistic.

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Control Your Calories With Hari Hachi Bu

Master Yourself, And You Master The World

Through mass media and self-help diatribes, we’ve been bombarded with such tired adages as “Give it 100%!” or “Go all the way!” Lately I’ve been hearing such ridiculous statements such as “Give it 110%!” or even larger figures. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we can give a hundred percent to everything in our lives without becoming overwhelmed. We often divide ourselves up between a variety of roles, and mindless pep talk like that doesn’t really grasp the reality of the human condition. Sometimes you need to give it less than a hundred percent, and today I’d like to encourage you to do just that when you are eating: eat only until you are eighty percent full, a technique known by Japanese as hari hachi bu [1].

Turning Off The Parent Voice

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Does Spicy Food Burn Fat?

Eat Hot Stuff. Become Hot Stuff. Nice!

My husband turned me on to spicy foods after we got married, and now I love turning on the heat!

But I Don’t Like Spicy Food!

If you don’t like spicy food, it may be just because you haven’t tried the right kind. Perhaps the spicy food you tried was far too spicy, or you tried to wash it down with water, which swirls the spiciness around your mouth and makes spicy food even hotter. If you would like to neutralize the spiciness, Isuggest that you eat your spicy dish with a glass of non-fat milk to lessen the sensation. If you still can’t take the heat, you can skip this article. But I warn you - you’re missing out on something delicious, not to mention something very potent for weight loss!

Hand Me The Chili Flakes Now

As you may have already guessed cayenne pepper will increase your core metabolism through the naturally occurring substance known as capsaicin. In an article by the New York Daily News, men who drank coffee and ate red pepper snacks for one day burned about 955 calories more than those who didn’t. The men in the study were given free reign to pick what food they wanted to eat, so this information may help food ‘grazers’ who absent-mindedly pick at foods.. That means you should go for the hot stuff first, or opt to add chili flakes to your food. A lot of dishes can be spiced up, especially dishes which are already tomato based.

How Many Pecks of Pickled Peppers (Did Peter Piper Pick)?

But the question is: how much spicy red pepper should you eat? In order to replicate the study and hopefully achieve similar results, you need to consume a lot of red pepper, namely about 19 grams of red peppers and 200 mg of caffeine [1]. That means a cup of coffee at every meal, something I don’t advocate, as the recommended daily limit is 300 mg of caffeine (two cups of coffee per day). What I can recommend is that you exchange the caffeine for the much safer option of green tea, which also has fat-burning benefits.

In another study published by a Japanese scientist in the eminent British Journal of Nutrition [2], the subjects were fed four different kinds of soup. One of these soups had a strong dose of red pepper and the others had weaker amounts of red pepper or placebos. It was discovered that those who ingested the soup with the strong dose of red pepper significantly lowered their fat intake – not to mention decreased their appetite!

How Do I Start?

You might want to start the hot food nights at your house by hosting Spanish-style tapas nights, where you can serve a variety of small Spanish appetizers that taste great with a lot of heat. Or try cooking an Asian fusion meal for dinner, which often requires spicy ingredients. Take it slow, and try to build up your tolerance over time. Is your mouth watering yet?
Hot Feedback Wanted

So did we light your fire? Let us know by leaving a comment!

Should You Drink Green Tea and Expect to Lose Weight?

Catechins In Green Tea Aids Weight Loss

The Japanese, particularly the ones who live on the island of Okinawa, are amongst the longest-living people in the world. One factor may be because of all the green tea they drink. Today I’m going to discuss green tea…that hot, steamy drink that is commonly served as ‘house tea’ with your sushi and now shows up in markets and bodegas in glass bottles and cans. A lot of people are aware that drinking green tea can help you lose weight, but I’d like to dish out the details so you know exactly how to utilize this weight loss tool for your body.

Green Tea’s Combo Attack on Fat

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How To “Sneak In” That Exercise

Jogging is a good form of exercise, but there are others too!

Exercise is essential to weight loss, health, happiness, strong bones, heart health and preventing disease, so it's time to find one that you enjoy. Don't wait any longer - get started TODAY!

Excuses

It's time to find the time to exercise. It may already feel like your day is too full with so many different things, but your body can't afford to skip exercise. I suggest making a list of all of the things that fill your day, and then numbering them from highest to lowest by priority. Surely something can be cut or at least reduced so you can try and squeeze in some activity. Exercise doesn't have to mean breaking a 60 minute sweat at the gym each day.  Start out with just 20 minutes a day 3 times per week, and increase from there. It can be during your lunch hour at work or early in the morning before anyone else in your household wakes up. Anything you start with is better than the absence of it, so just get your body moving!

Exercise Choices

Start by identifying what you like to do because exercise should be something you look forward to - it can be 20-30 minutes of your own time to think, listen to music, organize your thoughts. Do you like to walk, swim, dance, jog, do yoga, bike, watch videos, roller blade, ice skate, or play any sports? It can also be incorporated into things you probably already do, such as clean the house, walk up stairs, lift groceries, or walk around the mall. These are all different ways you can integrate exercise into your daily routine.  Just be sure that you put good energy into these chores and do them long enough to get a cardiovascular workout, which is a minimum of 20 minutes.

Hope you liked today's article! Tell me how you've started to get your body moving and your heart pumping!

How To Maintain Your Sanity With Cold Salads

Cold Salads: Fast and Delicious

It's hard for anyone to keep sane when juggling work and home life. Somehow the line between those two worlds tends to blur and you're left with more than you can handle and no time to cook. Or someone will come home hungry and you'll have to quickly switch from your working person mode to homemaker mode. Both men and women struggle with this delicate balance, and more often than not, crumble under the weight of fast food take out. Enter the cold salad: one of the most under-used dishes in your diet arsenal.

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Should the “3 Day Diet” See the Light of Day?

Avoid high sodium meat packed with preservatives

I make a point to keep abreast of every fad diet around, and I was alarmed to find yet another terrible diet is on the march: the 3-day diet [1]. This awful diet causes the person to eat small breakfasts and lunches, which is fine, but then tells you to consume a cup of ice cream or two beef franks along with dinner! The portions are just ridiculous, and it looks like anyone on this diet must want to starve during the daytime and then stuff him or herself at night. Which is not the point of a diet, especially with heart disease on the rise, since the last thing we need is more sodium from preserved meat such as beef franks.

The second biggest flaw in the 3-day diet is that it tells you to drink four glasses of water a day [1]. You need more water than that, and it's really too bad that water's role in successful dieting is often neglected. Water is one of the easiest ways to feel full without packing on the pounds - or even becoming sluggish and slow during your workday [2]. Water keeps your system running smoothly, helps prevent headaches and helps keep your kidneys running in tip-top shape, resulting in better fat-burning metabolism.

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What Fad Diet Supporters Don’t Tell You

Examine the psychological side of dieting

Healthy weight loss is the main topic on this blog, and though I always discuss the technical aspects I feel people should know, I think it's important to evaluate the psychological side too. Emotional eating or eating because of stress are often overlooked, but they are just as serious as the foods you choose to eat. As humans, we are wired to eat for survival. But there's a 15-minute delay between actually being full...and our minds reporting to us that we're already full, which is called your appestat. This means your appestat can create a hunger battle within your mind since it has a lag time between your mind and your stomach feeling full.  Today I'd like to discuss two salient points that I feel fad diet supporters have failed to tell you as they relate to the psychological side of dieting.

A Healthy Diet Is Not About Pain!

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Mini Meals – A Weight Loss Wonder

Green salad with apples and walnuts

In recent years, research[1] has showed that eating 5 - 6 mini meals throughout the day, also referred to as grazing, is more beneficial in aiding weight loss than eating 3 larger meals in a day.

Why Mini Meals Work

There are a couple of reasons why mini meals are so great for people trying to lose weight. First, it teaches portion control by default. If you pre-package a mini meal or snack, such as a 100 calorie package of almonds, you will likely eat much less than if you were just snacking on a large bag of almonds. Second, losing weight and changing your dietary habits is very challenging for many people.

Therefore, knowing you will be able to eat something every 2-3 hours by following the grazing strategy for weight loss can help relieve some of the stress and worry that many dieters fear about being hungry, not being able to snack, and having to be so restricted in very limited food choices. Third, eating smaller meals more often can help boost your metabolism, which in turn, helps you burn more calories faster. Plus, smaller meals are easier to digest than larger ones for the obvious reason that there just isn't as much work for the stomach to do, which is helpful for people with sensitive stomachs and sufferers of colitis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

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How to Handle The Big Sloppy Meal

Southern Fried Anchovy: this would qualify as a diet buster

If you want to lose weight when eating out, you should ask for half portions even before the food arrives at your table. This really makes your healthy weight loss efforts count, as you won't be tempted to overeat. But what about situations where you are unable to get half portions, or it's inappropriate or difficult to request them? Situations like attending a business conference where you don't want to take home leftovers or a fine dining restaurant where it's not polite to ask for a doggie bag? Healthy weight loss is important, but so are social graces.

Family Situations

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Bringing Life to Packed Lunches

A salad always adds color to packed lunches

It seems like every day is a rush for the average American family, so packing a lunch each day can be overwhelming and  another "to-do" to add to your inevitably long list.  However, making a packed lunch is simply one of the most significant things you can do for the environment, your wallet and your health.  Packing your own lunch can reduce the styrofoam and other trash from store/restaurant take out lunches.  We all need to do our part to reduce waste, not to mention saving a lot of money that would otherwise be wasted on packaging and food delivery costs.

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Is Frozen Yogurt Bad For You?

Berries go well with frozen yogurt!

Frozen yogurt is all the rage right now [1], especially with so many new types, brands, flavors, and stores being introduced. It's cold, delicious and nutritious, but it can also pack a lot of sugar and hidden calories, as well as artificial ingredients. Today I'd like to discuss the pros and cons of frozen yogurt to help you decide if it's the best dessert for you.

Grocery vs Store-Bought Yogurt: Health Benefits

Not every yogurt is created equal. Grocery or supermarket frozen yogurt is very inferior to most yogurt-shop varieties, as most commercial yogurts are subjected to heat, which kills the beneficial bacteria [2]. Eating the beneficial bacteria in the more tart frozen yogurt brands, such as Pinkberry and Red Mango (called probiotics, also in regular, non-frozen yogurt), helps your digestive system process food. But beware because not all frozen yogurt brands contain these special live bacterias, so if you are not sure, ask the store! More often than not, because live active cultures are such a health benefit, the yogurt store will advertise them in their product.

Fat-Free, Low-Fat or Low Calorie?

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Fruit vs. Vegetables: The“Good”Food War!

Which will triumph in this bizarre turn of events?

One of the most interesting nutritional health questions I've heard these past few weeks was posed to me by my young son. He asked: "What's better for you, fruit or vegetables?"  This is not a simple question to answer, and I love how my son’s inquiry has offered me something new and challenging to think about and now share with you.

Because a lively argument is so much fun, let's do this debate style and hear from each side of the table, point by point. We should also clearly identify what’s considered to be a fruit and what’s a vegetable.

Though tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplants are technically fruit, they are eaten more as vegetables as part of things like salads, cooked dishes, so we'll just eschew any botanical conventions for now and count them in the vegetable group.

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How To Identify A Fad Diet

It was another breezy summer afternoon when I opened up my laptop to find that a fan of my blog had sent me this tiny gem [1] from Wiki on Americans and weight loss:

Fad Diets: Do They Really Work?

"There is a substantial market for products which promise to make weight loss easier, quicker, cheaper, more reliable, or less painful. These include books, CDs, creams, lotions, pills, rings and earrings, body wraps, body belts and other materials, not to mention fitness centers, personal coaches, weight loss groups, and food products and supplements."

It went on...

"Between $33 billion and $55 billion is spent annually on weight loss products and services, including medical procedures and pharmaceuticals, with weight loss centers garnering between 6 percent and 12 percent of total annual expenditure. About 70 percent of Americans' dieting attempts are of a self-help nature.[1]"

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The Zone Diet: Useless Jargon or Solid Weight Loss Plan?

Flipping through Dr. Sears' book, I was alarmed to see that the book was full of 'success stories' while not containing an ounce of independent research I could evaluate. WebMD's latest article on the Zone Diet seconds my concern about the validation of this diet’s success.

The American Heart Association Does Not Recommend The Zone Diet.

If you toss all the pricey meal plan books and glossy guides aside, The Zone Diet offers a relatively simple diet plan for you to follow - eat a balance of proteins, carbohydrates and whole grains, but in a rather strict and unwieldy 40-30-30 ratio[1]. Call me crazy, but I don't want to force my clients to work out their meal ratio to this absolute percentage. Nor did I agree with Sears' evaluation of 'brown rice' as a bad carbohydrate source, and his recommendation that we eat ice cream as it was a 'good fat', as ice cream is an undisputed source of saturated fat.

Some research online also revealed the story of Manuel Uribe, the most famous Zone Diet devotee who lost 400 lbs from his original weight of half a ton [2]. Read on, and you'll discover that the bed-ridden Uribe had a dedicated team of doctors planning his six carefully crafted meals. Is this an option for the average person? Not likely.

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Acai Berries: Feel Like Wasting Your Time (And Money)?

Acai berries...another fad diet that does not work!

An Internet search for acai berries is like browsing a list of spam emails. A majority of these so-called 'balanced reviews' that weigh the 'pros and cons' of acai berries are thinly veiled marketing ploys that involve getting you to give up your credit card details for a free trial of acai berry supplements which you'll find extremely hard to cancel later. Against all of these expert opinions, you may think, what makes my diatribe any different? Well, I work as a nutrition counselor, advising people on wholesome food and fitness. That's my 9 to 5. I'm also a loving mother of two kids, whom I try to teach to think logically about nutrition, and I've never advocated a single fad diet. I am also not trying to sell you anything, and this blog post will not lead to some place where you can purchase some dubious supplements like acai berry or any other product.

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The South Beach Diet: Sounds Compelling – But Does It Work?

The South Beach Diet is expensive to follow.

Despite how popular the South Beach Diet is, I would never recommend it to any of my clients who come in for nutrition consultations. In this article, I've compiled research on why the South Beach Diet is not a replacement for a healthy diet.

The South Beach Diet was developed by cardiologist Dr. Agatston in the 1980s as a strategy to help his patients reduce their risk of heart attack. The diet is based on the idea that good carbohydrates are those that score low on the glycemic index[2] and that the dieter could consequently 'kill' the hunger pangs that accompany high sugar intake. Though some of Dr. Agatston's ideology is sound, like introducing oily fish and nuts, the extreme phases of the diet, i.e. lack of solid exercise and lack of evidence-based research make this diet a poor choice overall.

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Power Food: Soy

Fact: Animal meat is a source of complete protein.

Fact: Soybeans and soy are also a complete source of protein.

Soy is a very healthy superfood

What are complete proteins? Wikipedia defines complete or whole proteins as “a source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of all of the essential amino acids for the dietary needs of humans.” Soy’s complete proteins are similar in composition to egg whites and milk protein and are also easy to digest.

Soy is also low in saturated fat and contains zero cholesterol. It’s important to keep your cholesterol count low as it can clog your arteries and put you at risk for heart disease, a major killer. Soy is also a great source of fiber, which is key for a healthy digestive system and can actually help lower cholesterol.

There is one caveat with soy for certain women. Soy can act like a pseudo-estrogen. If you are a breast cancer survivor or have a history of breast cancer in your family, you have probably already been advised to stay away from any medications containing estrogen or estrogen-like hormones, such as birth control pills, because they can increase the risk for breast cancer in people who are already prone to the disease. Because soy can act like a pseudo estrogen, breast cancer survivors and those with a genetic disposition for breast cancer should avoid eating large amounts of soy for the same reasons they should stay away from hormone pills. That being said, aside from this caveat, soy is a very healthy super food.

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Fact: One Third of all Cancers Are Preventable!

Prevent cancer!

One in every eight deaths worldwide is due to cancer [1]. Most people know someone who has been affected: a friend, sibling, parent or distant relative. This post is all about the simple ways you can help prevent cancer from happening to you and your loved ones.

Genetic Markers

The first rule is to know your enemy. Having family members with a history of cancer put you at a higher risk. Investigate your family tree and list any and all genetic ailments you find, not just cancer, e.g. diabetes, hypertension, depression, high blood pressure, migraines, muscular dystrophy and congenital heart disease, which are also hereditary or at least influenced by genetics. Once you have this list, consult with your doctor about your personal risk. Some doctors may wish to sugarcoat it in order not to cause unnecessary worry; that’s fine, but you should ask him/her to be as realistic with you as possible.

Stop With The Tobacco

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The Atkins Diet: Eating Steak To Lose Weight?

The Atkins diet is a high protein diet that is harmful to the body.

As a nutritionist, it pains me to think that people keep subscribing to fad diets, which can greatly endanger your health and lead to the ballooning effect, i.e. when a person diets and then balloons back to his/her original weight weeks later. Plus, limiting your diet to only a few food groups can even harm your body. This has inspiredme to start a series to explain the real deal behind fad diets. Today, I’ll start with one of most popular fad diets: the Atkins diet.

The entire basis of  Atkins is that a low-carb diet allegedly puts humans into a state of fat-burning ketosis, which Dr. Atkins claimed could help people to burn 950 calories more per day. However, one of the world's leading medical journals, "The Lancet" conducted a study which concluded that there was no such metabolic advantage[1], and that dieters were just eating fewer calories out of boredom [2].

However, some people who start on the diet are greatly encouraged by the fact they suddenly lose 2-4 pounds in the first few weeks. Cause for celebration? No! The weight that dieters lose in those first few weeks is usually water weight. The extreme lack of carbohydrates results in depleting glycogen stores, which releases the reserve water locked in your body[3]. This is not fat, and you will gain it back.

There are several dangers that low-carb diets pose[2]:

- Cholesterol

Studies in 2009[2] have shown that dieters on low-carb diets actually increased their cholesterol levels, and since then twodeaths (by cardiac arrest) of dieters on such low-carb diets have been reported.

- MG, or Methylglyoxal is a glycotoxin that causes blood vessel and tissue damage. In a 2005 study (Beisswenger, et al.) it was shown that MG levels in Atkins dieters doubled shortly after the diet started.

- The Atkins diet is a high protein diet, and Wikipedia contains a harrowing story about such diets:

"High protein diets can cause the loss of calcium and a lowering in urinary citrate levels, which may lead to osteoporosis and kidney stones (Ornish,2004). Ketone bodies are excreted in urine with cations to neutralize the charge, so the body is losing essential cation minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium, which in one case led to the death of a sixteen-year-old girl. She died from ventricular fibrillation arrest two weeks after starting a high protein-low carbohydrate diet. During resuscitation attempts she had hypokalemia (lower than normal amount of potassium in the blood) and also hypocalcemia (lower than normal amount of calcium in the blood)[14] Ornish also wrote that the Atkins diet leads to constipation in 70% of the subjects, 65% had halitosis (bad breath due to exhaled ketones), 54% were experiencing headaches, and 10% reported hearing loss.[14]"

So how does the Atkins Diet compare to a simple reduced calorie diet? According to the New England Journal of Medicine[3], two groups of obese people were tested. One group was on Atkins, and the other was on a reduced calorie diet. The obese group on Atkins showed slightly better weight loss on the low-carb diet after six months, but there was no longer any difference during the 12 months. The verdict? Don't buy into the hype. Once you stop the Atkins diet, with its limiting and exhausting food restrictions, you'll gain those pounds right back.

[1] The Lancet, Volume 364, Issue 9437, Pages 897 - 899, 4 September 2004

How To Get Rid of Belly Fat

Time to lose that belly fat!

"I will lose weight" is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions in the world. It's also the one resolution most of us fail to keep.

Despite the odds, and what the scale may tell you, you are capable of losing that weight! Fat is only a temporary part of you, and you can lose it. In this post I'd like to dispel some weight loss myths as well as give you some essential tips and tricks so you can finally lose that belly flab.

Abandon Hype All Ye Who Come Here

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Maintaining Your Diet at the Buffet Table

Buffet tables make you forget you're on a diet.

If everyone carried little comic thought bubbles above their heads near buffets, I wouldn’t be surprised to find these statements inside them.

“I didn’t eat lunch. That means more room for buffet dinner!”
“I’m on a diet – I guess I’ll eat salad with all that dressing first.”
“They might run out – let me get a big plate!”
“I’ll only eat the expensive stuff. Haha.”
“Oh good, buffet. I’ll diet tomorrow!”

It does seem rather unfair that you need to take 5,000 steps to burn through a single hot dog. Just think of what gorging yourself at the buffet table will do to your diet. Burning off what you ate at the buffet table will take many more times that – it could take hours upon hours of exercise. But how do you maintain your diet faced with a feast of epic proportions?

Slices of Genius

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Foodie On A Budget? Use A Misto Sprayer!

Misto, the gourmet olive oil sprayer

Everyone has those cave man memories. Remember when cable only had a few channels? Remember life before email? Remember when dinosaurs roamed the Earth? Well, I have such a story. I used to pour these great big tablespoons of olive oil onto my dishes when teaspoonfuls were more than enough. I drizzled my salads incoherently with no restraint, making them wilt under the weight of all that oil when I could’ve used much less. There was even a time I used to spend too much on cooking oil sprays. Now there’s a budget-friendly, superior alternative was within grasp: a Misto sprayer.

I am in no way affiliated with the Misto company. In fact, you are welcome to use any number of other brands. I’m reviewing this product because it’s one I’ve tried and am comfortable using.

Why Use A Sprayer?

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How to Cook Vegetables By Color

Color denotes how best to cook your veggies.

Though recipes are the gourmand’s ’safe bet’ in an uncertain world, wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply cook a vegetable based on its color, knowing how to craft culinary morsels with only a swift and assured glance? Trouble yourself no more. By the end of this guide, you will be armed to the teeth with enough knowledge to please any discerning palate.

All vegetables have pigments. Pigments are an indicator of how the vegetable should be cooked or eaten. The golden rule is to preserve a vegetable’s natural color to ensure that its nutritional content stays intact.

Vegetables may be grouped into four color categories (with examples):

White: potatoes, turnips, celery, cauliflower, onions, mushrooms, cucumbers
Yellow or Orange: carrots, yams, squashes/pumpkins, sweet potatoes
Red: beets, red cabbage, red beans
Green: beans, broccoli, peas, spinach, parsley, asparagus, artichokes, okra

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Perfectly Grilled Shrimp

Grilled shrimp is easy to prepare.

The secret to perfect grilled shrimp that would put a top restaurant to shame is in the preparation. Since shrimp shouldn’t be overcooked, a lot of the magic happens before the shrimp even goes on the grill. In this guide I’ll show you just how to put together perfectly grilled shrimp with very little fuss.

Deveining Shrimp

Should you devein shrimp? It really depends. When you remove the vein, you are actually removing the shrimp’s stomach and any filth it may have picked up. However, if your shrimp was farmed in safe waters, deveining is usually not necessary and the veins are edible (don’t be squeamish!). If you want to stay on the safe side, especially for big shrimp where the vein may affect the flavor, use a paring knife to make a slit above the vein and use a toothpick to pick it out. You don’t want to risk using the knife to pick out the vein as people have had far too many accidents that way, and it takes practice.

Shrimp Smells

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Turkey Bacon As A Healthy Alternative

There are now a lot of recipes with turkey bacon as an ingredient.

I once met a vegetarian who told me, with a rapturous expression on her face, that the only meat she missed since going vegan was bacon. For many people bacon represents the best in taste and the worst in health. Sweet, sugary, honeyed and dripping in fat, ordinary bacon is just one recipe for either heart failure or diabetes. But my family still ate it occasionally, until the day I discovered turkey bacon.

Tasty Alternative

Turkey bacon is delicious. It’s lower in fat, but can be found cured, uncured, smoked or made into strips just like your regular pork bacon. Cured turkey bacon made from dark meat can even be 90% fat free. However, if you have a recipe that normally calls for frying bacon in its own drippings, you need to reduce the cooking time as turkey bacon doesn’t contain enough fat to do that, and you may end up drying out your dish.

Fat Content

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Essential Basting Techniques

Basting the turkey

Whether you're into grilling, barbecuing or rotisserie, chances are that you've tried your hand at basting. Basting is a cooking process wherein the meat you're cooking over a long period of time is periodically moistened by way of brushing, pouring or spooning the meat's own juices or marinade, thereby preventing the meat from drying out. Basting not only adds flavor to the meat but also adds a delicious glossy sheen.

A Note of Precaution

Basters beware! Sometimes if you keep opening the oven door, you lower the oven's overall temperature, causing the meat to have to cook longer and ultimately drying it out. Avoid the 'watched pot never boils' cliché and keep that door closed. Always remember that basting works best when the sauces you're working with are sticky, not watery.
Basting Mixes

Different liquids can be used for basting like melted butter, pan drippings, broth or a combination of ingredients. Thick is best, so if using broth, go for a thick stock, not a thin one. The same goes for melted butter or drippings. Feel free to add your own herbs to the basting mix. Rosemary and tarragon go great with chicken, while a mixture of scallions, oregano and parsley can't be beat with beef.

Basting Tools

The proper basting tool should be used when doing a specific recipe.  Bulb basters are good for collecting turkey drippings from the bottom of the pan and squeezing over the turkey. A basting brush achieves an even coat, and are readily available. If barbeque sauce is used to add flavor to meat then a basting brush will do nicely.

When to Baste

Some recipe books will cite basting intervals, which is referring to how many times you should baste during cooking time. Try not to have the liquid drip and put out the fire from the heat source. The less you have to open the oven door, the better. If you're grilling, you're pretty safe. Just baste enough to always keep the meat moist.

Basting Recipes

Here's a mashup of some very popular basting recipes:

•    Mad Annie's Turkey Basting - http://www.thespicehouse.com/recipes/mad-annies-turkey-basting-stuff-recipe

•    Bobby Flay's BBQ Baste - http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/bbq-baste

•    Rice Vinegar Basting Sauce -
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rice-Vinegar-Basting-Sauce/Detail.aspx

•    Beer Basted Turkey -
http://beer.about.com/od/poultry/r/beerbastedturkey.htm

I wouldn't be a nutritionist if I didn't remind you about certain healthy food choices, even while basting. If the sauce asks for white sugar, try to substitute it with brown sugar or molasses. Instead of salt, opt for a triple amount of dry Pecorino cheese. Any oil can be substituted with a heart healthy oil such as virgin olive oil, and avoid margarine as it has trans-fats. And chicken stock can be replaced with vegetable stock.

Baste the Comment Box

How was your brush with basting success?  Are you now dripping with confidence? Don’t be chicken! Leave a comment below.

How Do I Use Herbs and Spices in My Cooking? Lisa Responds…

Dear Lisa,

I just got a spice rack for Easter and I haven’t got a clue what to do with it. I use ‘ Italian’ seasoning for pasta, and I pepper my steaks. That’s about it. Help!

Yours truly,
Waldo

Hi Waldo,

I was really intrigued by your e-mail so I decided to answer it in a blog post. You didn’t say where you were from – so I guess you’re inviting me to play a game of ‘Where’s Waldo?’ but I’ll assume you’re from a location where you have access to a green grocer or farmer’s market. You won’t be able to live without them once you master the fine art of herb-driven flavor. Without much ado, welcome to the wonderful world of gourmet cooking with herbs!

Fresh Herbs vs. Dried Herbs

Nothing beats fresh herbs if you have access to them, but a spice rack can be a great choice for the busy suburbanite. Fresh herbs should have a strong aroma when crumbled or torn, and have a beautiful strong color, not black, too dry or wilting. Dried herbs should be from a reliable provider. Some herbs even show their best side when dried, such as bay leaf, thyme or rosemary. In these cases, the drying process improves the herbs’ flavor.

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The 10 Biggest Benefits of Olive Oil

The benefits of olive oil have been proclaimed far and wide. Even if you are already aware of some of them, this list goes through the most interesting facets of olive oil. If you aren't a fan of olive oil already, I think this post may more than convince you to incorporate olive oil into your diet.

1. There Are 4 Types of Olive Oil

Use olive oil as much as possible.

Olive oil is made by pressing the core of olives to extract the oil, and extra virgin olive oil is made with the first press. Because olive oil is expensive, it's often used sparingly to drizzle over carpaccio, bruschetta and other Italian delicacies or salads where the oil can really be tasted. When looking for quality "E-V-O-O," go for the cold pressed variety, as heat can change the taste.

The second type, virgin olive oil, is a bit more acidic and good for when you want a tart flavor for pomodoro sauces or maybe even a quick pasta with fresh tomatoes, lemon juice and a good Parmigiano Reggano.

Pure olive oil, despite its name, is actually a blend of refined leftovers from the virgin olive oil extraction process and virgin olive oil. It's cheaper, so it's best for frying.

Light olive oil is actually the worst quality, so watch out for bottle labels that say '100% pure olive oil.'

2. Olive Oil is the Only All-Natural Vegetable Oil
Olive oil is the only vegetable oil that can be consumed as is, ready to be consumed fresh and straight from the olive press. No heat or chemicals are required in the extraction process, so if you buy extra virgin or virgin olive oil, you should feel safe with the quality of the final product.

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Food Safety 101: An Essential Guide to Raw Food Handling

Raw meat should be handled properly

A lot of food poisoning cases arise from the improper handling of raw meat or other raw food items. This guide is to help you prevent such cases in your kitchen. Invaluable to any aspiring chef, these easy tips and tricks go beyond simple cleanliness and can easily be learned by anyone. You have probably read about people developing all sorts of illnesses due to bacteria from raw meat. It has been reported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) that 76 million people in the US become ill due to harmful bacteria from food. Bacteria multiplies fast on raw meat at room temperature. It is essential to store meat in the refrigerator or freezer the moment you bring it home. If this is not possible then the meat should be cooked immediately.

Kitchen Cleanliness

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If Your Health is in Question, Could Asparagus Be the Answer?

Asparagus contains many vitamins & minerals.

Today's power food under the microscopic spotlight is the mighty asparagus, the tightrope-balancing, one-act wonder of the nutritional world.

Asparagus is one of the most nutritious, well-balanced vegetables around, containing considerable vitamins and minerals that can supply what the body needs. You might never reach for a supplement again. For one, asparagus is a great source of folic acid. A 5.3 ounce serving of asparagus can provide 60% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for folacin.  Folacin is needed for blood cell formation, growth and the prevention of liver diseases. Folacin has also shown to play an important role in the prevention of neural tube defects like spina befida, which causes paralysis and death for 2,500 babies every year. So if you're expecting children, make a note of this power food.

Asparagus is also low in sodium and calories which makes it ideal for dieters and the health conscious.

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Power Up Your Meals with Tomatoes

Tomatoes are good for the body.

Tomatoes are a wonderful fruit, and are essential to any weight loss regimen. Say you decided to have steak and potatoes for dinner, but you want to lose weight. You eat a half portion of what you were originally planning to eat, but you replace the remainder with insalata caprese, a delightful salad of tomato slices, paper thin mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves. Voila! You're on your way starting your healthy diet!

Tomatoes can't be beat for versatility. You can eat them raw, add them to a salad, put them in your sandwich, make them into pasta sauces and pizza toppings, and toss whole or pureed into soups and stews, or even make them into juice. They're cheap too, and can even be grown at home. Normal garden tomatoes are easy to grow on the vine, but cherry tomatoes are harder to cultivate.

Tomato Nutrition Facts

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Delicious, Nutritious Miso!

If you're not on the miso bandwagon already, jump on! You might remember miso soup from your last trip to a Japanese restaurant. A bowl filled with dashi stock, silky tofu and seaweed is set in front of you. Inside that bowl floats a cloud of flavor, a fog of salty richness that disperses with a gentle stir of your chopsticks. That, my friends, is pure delicious and nutritious miso.

Oh, Okinawa!

Have you heard about how the residents of Okinawa island are the longest-living people in the world? Here are some facts about the Okinawans from About.com[1]. Okinawans have...

- more people over 100 years old per 100,000 population than anywhere else in the world

- the lowest death rates from cancer, heart disease and stroke (the top three killers in the US)

- the highest life expectancy for both males and females over 65

Research has attributed the incredible good health of Okinawans to a positive attitude, not smoking, lots of exercise and a healthy diet rich in soybeans - and miso is made up of fermented soybeans! The typical Japanese breakfast staples include rice and miso soup.

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Should You Buy Pre-Cut Vegetables?

The recession has led a lot of people to reflect about what's important in life, like more time with the family, the benefits of a steady job, time spent on improving oneself. Somehow amongst all the hullaballoo, cutting one's vegetables can take a backseat.

Pre-cut vegetables have the same nutrients like whole vegetables that you buy.

If you have the time and the inclination, you should definitely cut your own vegetables. But if you're the family cook and eking out the living at the same time, buying pre-cut vegetables can take the chore out of sluggishly scraping carrots and dicing potatoes.

The average family doesn't eat out as often as before, but it's actually a bonus as we can now introduce more nutritious fare to our families. If you crunch the numbers, you'll find out that fast food causes you more harm in the long run, as it's detrimental to your health and can cause you to run up hospital bills in the future.

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Essential Cooking Tools

Cooking tools are for everyone! Here’s a no-nonsense guide describing the items a health-oriented cook should have at their disposal.

Use A Non-Stick Aluminum Foil

A quick way to clean up after cooking is by using a non-stick aluminum foil. I use Reynolds Non-Stick Aluminum Foil.  You can place this foil on the baking sheet or tray and cook directly over it. You don’t have to worry since what you’re cooking will not stick to the aluminum foil. When you are done cooking, you can just take out the aluminum foil and throw it away, but I often re-use the foil if it’s not too encrusted with food to be more environmentally friendly. These simple tips with will help you cook fast and clean even faster.

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Mastering Recipes With ‘Too Many’ Ingredients

Don't be afraid of recipes with too many ingredients.

I always cringe a little bit when I read user comments on recipe sites, and I find that the odd user is complaining that a recipe has ‘too many’ ingredients. There are so many delicious recipes out there, and though they make a little more time and an extra trip the grocery store, sometimes too many ingredients in a dish can be just the right amount.

This post is meant for all those people who would love to be aficionados in the kitchen but are a little shy about making that odd leap into the bewildering 5+ ingredient zone. Of course, since this blog is all about healthy weight loss, this post will focus on healthy ways to amp up your fine cooking skills.

How To Get Started Cooking

The main problem with having too many ingredients on your list is that you can feel overwhelmed. What if it’s too much? Too little? What if the recipe doesn’t say exactly how much spice to add? Will it be a disaster?

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How To Make the Switch to Whole Grains

Whole grains have been identified as one of the healthiest foods.

When people consult with me on what to eat for healthy weight loss, I tell them that one of the best health moves they can make is to replace refined food products with whole grains alternatives. Whole grains have been identified as one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Disassembled, whole grain is made up of bran, endosperm and germ. Unlike books, you can actually judge whole grain by its cover, as its outermost layer, bran,is rich in iron, riboflavin, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, thiamine and zinc. When you eat white rice and white flour, the nutritious outer layer has been husked off and all you’re eating is endosperm. What a waste of goodness!

‘Ingrained’ In Your Diet

Eating bran cereal, white cereal, oats, whole wheat bread and whole-wheat flour is one of the most effective ways to lose weight because of the high fiber content. Fiber rich food requires prolonged digestion, which prevents frequent over-eating because you feel full. You’ve probably felt how short-lived fast food sustenance is; you could eat one junk food meal now, but in 2 hours you’d just be looking for more food again.

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How I Fell in Love with Pilates

Pilates mat exercise

Exercise plays an important role in my life. While running (and more recently, swimming) has been my passion since college, I have always tried to also incorporate some type of strength training exercise because it boosts your metabolism and burns fat. Running, as a cardiovascular exercise, is better for burning calories and maintaining a healthy heart.

I have tried many types of strength training exercises over the years such as free weights, yoga, weight machines, circuit training and calisthenics. Over the past eight months I have dropped all of those exercise and fallen in love with Pilates!

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The #1 Most Valuable Tool in The Kitchen

Knives are essential tools in the kitchen.

I am a true believer that if you have a great chef’s knife in your kitchen, then you can prepare anything! A good knife is your secret weapon to cutting, chopping, skinning, dicing, and all other things to prepare your dishes and also make them look appetizing to eat. A good knife will cost you a decent chunk of money, but it’s an invaluable purchase because most of them can be sharpened and reused for years to come. If you’re on a budget, it’s better to allocate as much as you can towards a great knife and forgo other kitchen gadgets since your knife can do it all!

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Make Your Own Frozen Novelty Treats

Kids (and many adults) love ice cream novelty treats, but they tend to be full of processed, artificial ingredients and an over abundance of sugar. Many kids also love to help out in the kitchen and are more likely to try something when they’ve had a hand in creating it. So, for a fun and healthy treat, try making your own frozen novelties at home!

Here’s how:

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Flax: A Marketing Gimmick Or The Real Deal?

Do Tortilla chips with flax seeds have any health benefits?

If you look around in your grocery store these days, you’ll see a wide range of products that tout the fact that they’re healthy because they are fortified with flax and/or flax seeds, such as tortilla chips, cereals, breads, baked goods, and more. The question is, does this really mean all of these products are healthier?

Flax in Two Forms

Let’s start by discussing the actual health benefits of flax. Flax is an excellent source of fiber and Omega 3 fats, a.k.a. “the healthy good-for-you-fat.” These fats actually help you lower your cholesterol, but like all food, should still be eaten in moderation and balance. According to the National Cancer Institute, flax also has potential cancer fighting properties, although further study is needed.

Flax and all of its nutritional benefits can be absorbed in the body in two ways. It can either be ground up or sprinkled into foods, or it can be used as flax seed oil. However, flax seed oil has a very delicate chemical nature. Because of this, it must remain refrigerated and lasts only approximately 90 days. This oil can be used as a topping on vegetables or added to salads and dressings. However, it cannot be cooked.

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The World’s Healthiest Foods

They may not be in the Guinness Book of World Records, but these foods are deserving of accolades and recognition. Be sure to add these to your diet to give yourself a much needed nutrition boost.

1. Salmon

Salmon is a great source of Omega fatty 3 acids.  This health booster is great at lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol while increasing “good” HDL cholesterol. Salmon is also a very versatile protein source and can be a good substitute for meat.

It is recommended that you consume 2 servings of salmon a week. Wild salmon is considered the healthiest, and can be sold canned or frozen too.

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Kick-start Your Day Now: Lisa’s Best Stress-Busting Tips

"I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go by." - Douglas Adams

There are many scientific reasons behind the existence of stress, but I’m only going to talk about how stress applies to you, a real person who doesn’t need talking down to (and is probably getting enough of that already). You start by receiving a problem. It’s not huge, so you plan to address it later. Now certain factors beyond your control have made that problem a bit worse, but in your mind this tiny issue has grown into a huge unconquerable monster. Now all the other things you would’ve could’ve should’ve done are all beating at your door and you don’t know what to do first. You want to oversleep and overeat. You want to do anything but what you actually need to do. That is pure, unadulterated stress.

Stop & Say Yes

Stop. Just stop, really. Acceptance is the number one key to fighting stress. Realizing it’s you who’s making yourself stressed is one part. The other part is simply saying “Yes! I missed the train! Now I can take the other one or take the bus.” Yes my deadlines are coming closer, but I can do nothing but my best at this point, so I’ll do just that! It’s not like you want to miss the train, or be overwhelmed with work, or have too many chores to do – but you can make subtle lifestyle changes, which I’ll outline below. These tips will make an impact on reducing stress in your life, so I do hope you’ll give them a try.

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What To Eat To Avoid Constipation

It’s like giving an award speech only to find yourself in your underwear. It’s like realizing your home looks like a frat house after beer night and your mother in law just rang the doorbell. It’s like a tedious party in your pants where the guests just won’t leave. It’s uncomfortable, embarrassing and internally painful: welcome to the world of constipation.

Oh No!

Constipation is something most people go through once or twice a year. Older people can be more prone to this difficult condition as their bodies change. If this happens to you often, then you need to make drastic changes to your diet and exercise routine, as the main causes of constipation are dehydration, lack of fiber and a sedentary lifestyle.

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Good Fat vs. Bad Fat: Which One Are You Eating?

With all the anti-fat themes present in the media, you might wonder if there is such a thing as good fat. Isn’t all fat bad?

I have good news for you...the answer is no! Fat plays its own role in our as a useful tool to better absorb soluble vitamins and by lining our stomachs, helping us feel full. When we’re feeling lethargic, fat serves as an emergency energy reserve. Fat is also used in nutrient transport and in insulating nerves. We also need fat to build cell membranes, and it’s also a major component in some hormones. Although fat is required in our diets, we need to make an informed choice about which type of fat to eat.

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Saturated Fat: Should You Worry?

Dairy products contain saturated fats.

Today we gently tackle another topic: saturated fat. Found mainly in fatty meats, butter, cheese and whole milk, saturated fats are composed of “saturated” hydrogen atoms, which make them rigid in structure and hard at room temperature. Saturated fat is also found in coconut milk, coconut oil, palm oil and cocoa butter.

Saturated Fat Dangers

Medical experts conclude that saturated fat raises LDL or “bad” cholesterol in the blood. It is damaging to the heart and arteries since LDL accumulates in artery walls and can trigger inflammation, leading to a heart attack or stroke.

The flip side is that saturated fats alone do not cause the condition. There are other factors like sedentary lifestyle, work stress and even other food eaten in conjunction with saturated fats. To minimize intake of “bad” saturated fats, choose lean sources of protein and low-fat or non-fat dairy products. Read labels on packaged foods, such as cookies, crackers and microwave popcorn, to avoid palm and coconut oil

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The Risk Of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Take a sip of soft drink, and you’ve just tasted high fructose corn syrup, one of its main ingredients. High-fructose corn syrup, or HCFS, is a mixture of sucrose and fructose, and is popular in a wide range of sweetened food. Sadly, new research has linked HCFS to an increase in obesity, diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis. HCFS is so common in processed foods and over-consumed by the average person that many health experts believe that it will support increasing rates of metabolic disease in the future.

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Beware of “Enriched” on Food Labels

Beware of Refined,Enriched or Organic on the Labels

It’s impossible to walk through the supermarket without noticing the strange words attached to our food products. Instead of simple milk, flour and sugar, we see products proclaiming that they are ‘refined,’ ‘fortified,’ ‘organic’ and ‘enriched.’ To clear up the confusion, today we’re going to tackle the real meaning behind the word enriched. We need to hold manufacturers responsible for what additives they decide to ‘enrich’ our food with...for our eating pleasure of course.

The Reason Behind Enrichment

One reason manufacturers say their product is enriched is because it adds to the hype. It seems like you’re somehow getting added value. Although it may seem a good idea at first, the enrichment process refers to the adding back of nutrients and/or vitamins that were lost during processing. That means the enriched milk you’re buying for your kids is mostly powdered milk and water, with substances added to bulk it up that are definitely NOT milk. What you’re buying is definitely not a whole, healthy or premium item. The manufacturer has created a product that is cheaper to produce while convincing the average consumer that the product is somehow better than its natural counterparts.

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All About Trans Fat: A Damaging & Harmful Substance

Trans fat has long been a hidden public menace, clogging up our arteries like bad wasteand increasing the incidence of coronary heart disease.

A lot of people think they’re trans fat free, and I hope they are. We’re all learning to buy brands that proclaim ‘no trans fats’ while roaming the shopping aisles. However, not everything the typical person eats boasts a ‘no trans fats’ label, as trans fats are too deeply ingrained into our public consumption cycles for us to simply assume they’re gone. It may surprise you to know that trans fats have been commercially available since the 1910s. That’s one hundred years of trans fats!

Trans Fats are Chemical Preservatives

The main reason why trans fat is used in almost all food products is that it prolongs the shelf life of processed food products. It is also known to enhance the flavor of food, and is a superior baking agent to lard, which was a big deal back in the early 1900s.

Most of the trans fat we eat comes from processing liquid vegetable oil into solid fat.When trans fat travels through the arteries and into the intestines, it turns into sludge, blocking up your blood vessels and seriously damaging your heart. This is when trans fat becomes very dangerous to your health.

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Why Refined Sugar Is Dangerous

In my previous post on how to read food labels, I listed some ingredients to avoid which were bad for your health. Foremost on the list is white or refined sugar, and I’d like to explain why.

Do You Even Know What Refined Sugar Really Is?

Refined sugar is sometimes referred to as "White Death"

White sugar is crystallized sucrose made from beet or cane juice. Sounds safe right? Did you know that during the refinement process, all vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber and water are stripped away? What is left is this chemical product that has no nutritional value, and is a whopping 774 calories per cup. Amazingly, the typical American still consumes two to three pounds of white sugar every week.

Refined Sugar Stunts Growth, Immune System

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Nutrition Basics – A Guide to Reading Food Labels

Greetings readers! I’m sure you all know by now that I’m a licensed nutritionist and devoted mom. Despite what some people believe about nutritionists, I don’t have an underground hydroponic farm where I grow my own organic lettuce and free-range turkey; I have to drive to a supermarket and buy my groceries like any other time-conscious parent. However, I always take the time to read the food labels, because you are what you eat. I invite you to let your eyes travel farther south, beyond the calorie and fat counts on your food labels, and learn the real deal about what you are putting in your mouth.

Ingredient Labels

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How To Keep Fresh Herbs Alive in Your Refrigerator

The crisp, fragrant taste of fresh herbs is pure bliss. I grow my own basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, cilantro, and chives in my garden, and they’re easy to maintain.. If you don’t have the luxury to grow your own, or the green thumb for it,  then you are the perfect candidate to buy fresh herbs from the local grocery or farmer’s market and store them at home. Here’s a quick guide on the best way to store fresh herbs and how best to keep them alive:

Storing Long Stemmed Herbs Like Basil, Parsley & Cilantro

Store herbs in the fridge to keep them fresh.

Always go for herbs which have roots still attached to them. Long stemmed herbs such as basil, parsley and cilantro should be treated like a bouquet of flowers.Put them in a water-filled vase in a warm place, and de-leaf as much as you require[1]. Do NOT freeze these herbs because moisture will make their leaves wilt and blacken.  These varieties don’t do well inside the refrigerator.

Storing Rosemary, Chives & Thyme

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Gain Health by Eating Tofu, The Power Food

What is Tofu?

Tofu is a soft cheese-like food made by compressing curdled soymilk into blocks. It has a very mild taste, absorbing the flavor of anything it is paired with. Silken tofu is smooth and breaks easily like an egg custard Italian panna cotta, while firm tofu is springy and porous, and can substitute for meat in many dishes.

Powerful Food?

Tofu is power food!

Tofu is definitely a  power food because of its nutritional value.  Tofu is high in protein, iron, and several other minerals, while being low in cholesterol and other fats. Tofu also takes a short time to cook. As opposed to roasting meat for an hour or more, tofu can be quickly pan fried in a matter of minutes or even eaten raw in soups or desserts. With these facts in mind, it's simple to see why many people opt for this power food instead of red meat streaked with fat.

Plus, on its owns, tofu has virtually no taste, but it easily absorbs any flavor you pair it with. It can take on any marinade, herb, spice, sauce, or anything else you cook it in, so it can be very diverse across many different types of cuisines.

What Are The Health Benefits of Tofu?

Tofu is a rich source of both high quality protein and B-vitamins, so it’s the natural substitute for meat in vegetarian recipes.  Tofu also contains a high amount of calcium, which originates from the coagulant in the curdling process.  This is when the soy proteins are precipitated with calcium, which is essential to the prevention of osteoporosis.

Like most other soy foods, tofu reduces heart disease by lowering the level of the "bad" LDL cholesterol, and as the result maintaining the level of "good" HDL cholesterol.

Tofu is also rich in isoflavones. Firm tofu contains about 35mg isoflavones per 100g. Isoflavones reduce the risk of osteoporosis,a disease associated with reduced bone density and increased bone fractures. Isoflavones also reduce the risk of breast prostate cancer, and inhibit menopausal symptoms like mood swings and hot flashes.

Turmeric – The Healing Spice

I’ve always been interested in foods that heal, and my blog would not be complete without mentioning the nutritional superstar, turmeric. I don’t think people use enough turmeric in their cooking, probably because it’s not a popular flavor in American food recipes.

What is Turmeric?

Fresh and Powdered Turmeric

A bright yellow spice, turmeric tastes like a peppery mixture of ginger and musky orange. You’ve probably tried it in egg salad and Indian curries, but it might surprise you to learn it’s also an ingredient in ballpark mustard. It also lends itself well to pickles, relish, chutneys, rice dishes, butter and cheese. Exotic and fragrant, turmeric is actually the powdered rhizome (root) of the plant Curcuma longa, a cousin of the ginger plant, and has been used in India for over 2500 years[1]. The yellow coloring substance present in turmeric, called curcumin, appears to be the major active component.

15 Reasons to Love Turmeric

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The Misunderstood Avocado

Avocado is a good source of monounsaturated fats.

The misunderstood avocado is not a force of evil in the dieting world. Most people shy away from this fruit because it’s ‘so fattening,’ only seen next to a bowl ofnachos.. The fad diet books have warned us about its dual nature. “You can eat fruit, but shy away from the avocado or it will make you fat!”

Sure, the avocado is high in fat. It’s almost all fat. One avocado is about 360 calories and 30 grams of fat. However, it’s high in monounsaturated fat, and that kind of fat is good for your heart. –Plus, avocado’s health benefits include helping to control diabetes, fighting inflammation and protecting babies from birth defects.

Avocados for Diabetics

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Goat’s Milk: A Healthy Alternative for Everyone

Got Milk!

Have you heard about the man who went to see his doctor? He said, “Doctor, Doctor I feel like a goat.” The doctor, surprised, said, “How long have you felt like that?” The man replied, “Since I was a kid.”

Jokes aside, I can imagine the average person on the street squirming at the thought of drinking milk that came from a goat. It’s a little unusual in the United States, yes, but goat milk packs so many benefits that I really must challenge you to try it. Chances are you’ve already tried some goat milk products. Goat milk is used in many fine foreign cheeses, such as Greek feta, the Italian Caprino, and a number of French Chèvres[2]. It also makes a popular moisturizer, thought to keep the skin elastic and smooth.

Goat Milk vs. Cow Milk

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How to Roast Bell Peppers (Until They’re Sweet, Soft and Oh-So Perfect)

Peppers are rich in vitamins and minerals.

Roasting a bell pepper seems to break all of the normal rules of cooking. You need to roast the pepper until it’s black and burnt, but once you peel away all the charred skin, a glorious treasure is revealed: sweet, soft and impeccably delicious. Red, orange and yellow peppers are best for this process..

Peppers Roasting on an Open Fire

First, remove the stem and innards of the pepper. Then, take your whole pepper and slice it into halves. You can then cook it directly over a flame or broiler with a pair of tongs. Be sure to turn it over ever so often so both sides are evenly cooked. When the skin chars evenly on all sides, turn off the heat and let it rest in a closed brown paper bag for a few minutes before rinsing it under cold water. The skin will easily slide off. Be careful though, as the pepper is Usually very hot. Too hot for bare hands, so use something to protect yourself when peeling the charred skin.

Storing Your Tasty Jewels

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How To Grill Properly & Have Your Guests Begging For More!

Marinate meat before grilling.

If you haven’t cooked for a BBQ party yet, you’ve missed out. I have such fond memories of afternoons heralded by golden roasted corn on the cob, grilled Portobello mushrooms on spinach and grilled lean meat such as chicken and fish slathered in vegetables and enjoyed outside in the gentle sun. I love how you don’t use a lot of fats to grill food. In fact, during the grilling process, most of it slides right off.

Defrost Furiously

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Add Some Zest To Your Cooking With Citrus

When was the last time you bit into a juicy citrus fruit? Oranges, lemons, grapefruits, kumquats and limes are all part of the citrus family and come in an array of perky rainbow hues: pink, red, green and yellow, all brightly proclaiming their nutritional value even before you cleave these juicy, bursting orbs in half.

In my humble opinion, the citrus fruit is underused. Juicing the citrus fruit is an easy way to get its health benefits, but you miss out on all that good fruit fiber which aids digestion and adds to the feeling of fullness.

However, citrus shouldn’t just be a breakfast or juice item; almost every meal is better with citrus, so I’m here to fill you in with my top citrus picks.

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The 3 Secret Benefits of Eating Yogurt

Eat yogurt for better health.

I love eating yogurt with my kids in the morning, poured over fresh birch muesli or over oatmeal, tangy and sweet with glistening, ripe fruit. I even sneak it into lunch, pairing grilled chicken kebabs with delicious tzatziki, a cold, creamy blend of yogurt, spices, fresh garlic and cucumber. And all the while I’m purring like a cat knowing this 5,400 year old food product is not only rich in calcium, riboflavin, protein and B12, but that it’s also got some hidden benefits up its sleeve.

1. Yogurt for Weight Loss
For one, did you know that yogurt effectively aids weight loss?  A study published in the International Journal of Obesity (11 January 2005) found that obese individuals who ate 3 servings of low fat yogurt a day as part of a low calorie diet lost 22% more weight than the control group who only cut back on calories and did not have extra calcium. They also lost 81% more abdominal fat.[1]” An additional study by the University of Washington in Seattle showed that people who consumed a 200-calorie yogurt snack felt significantly fuller and subsequently ate less than people who consumed other types of 200-calorie snacks [2]. So make yogurt part of your daily diet today - but if you want to lose weight, opt for unsweetened, natural yogurt over ripe fruit, instead of varieties that are higher in sugar and empty calories.

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Eat Leafy Green Vegetables For Good Health

Leafy green vegetables are ideal for losing weight.

Leafy green vegetables are low in calories and therefore ideal for weight management.  In addition, they are also useful in reducing cancer and heart disease because they are low fat, high in dietary fiber, and rich in folic acid, vitamin C, potassium and magnesium.

Leafy green vegetables are rich in phytochemicals, such as lutein, beta-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotene. Studies have shown that a daily serving of green leafy vegetables lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease by 11%.   The frequent consumption of green salads is associated with a lower risk of mortality among Americans.

The high magnesium content and low glycemic index of leafy green vegetables are essential for people with type 2 diabetes.  An increased serving daily of green leafy vegetables was associated with 9% lower risk of diabetes.  These vegetables are also high in vitamin K which is important for osteocalcin, a protein needed for bone health.  Certain leafy green vegetables are good sources of calcium and iron. The rich beta-carotene content is also converted to vitamin A which helps to improve the immune function.  Children should have a daily intake of leafy greens which provides a good source vitamin A in the body.

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Simple & No Cost Ways to Losing Weight Naturally

This may not be what you want to hear, but natural and healthy weight loss is the only way to maintain your weight...period. There are thousands of weight loss pills and diet programs that promise they are the ultimate solution for getting rid of excess weight, but most are short-term solutions and some do not really work at all. Taking pills is not the answer (sorry!).

Losing weight the natural way is the safest solution to weight problems. Here are some natural weight loss methods:

Proper Diet

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables and avoiding fatty foods is a good start.  Such foods clog up your internal system. Fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber and help in the elimination of unwanted toxins from your body.

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What Makes Successful Family Cooking?

Children need a variety of food to include meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables. A balanced diet will make them healthier, more active, and even give them a sharper mental capability which will help them in school.

Their Smiles Show You That You Cooked a Great Meal

Preparing meals for the family is an art.  Variety and balance are keywords here. Experimenting with dishes would make cooking an interesting activity and gives a sense of fulfillment. Successful cooking will have your family enjoying your new dish, while also giving them the proper nutrition.

Always use fresh meat, vegetables and spices when cooking. See to it that natural flavoring is used. Artificial flavors and canned ingredients are not advisable, especially when children are involved.  Follow the measurements and other instructions provided, but make adjustments when there is too much salt or sugar used.

Successful cooking is measured by the smile of satisfaction from your family and their praise after the meal. Children are more appreciative of new dishes and will always give you an honest evaluation!

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Exercise For Good Health…But What If You Hate Exercise?

Healthy nutrition is not the only thing you should focus to maintain good health. Exercise is another factor to consider. A balance between nutrition and exercise will go a long way to maintaining your weight and having the energy to go through your everyday activities. Exercise may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the key is to find a form of exercise that you enjoy. Be open-minded and try as many as you can. The reward? Lifelong health, energy and increased overall wellness!

Try yoga for a unique & spiritual work out.

Going to the gym and doing group exercise can be fun and enjoyable for many people. But the gym may have time and/or financial constraints that may prevent you from doing so.

Walking and running are forms of exercise that can be made during free time. Mothers can take a leisurely walk or jog a couple of blocks, even if it's just to fetch the kids from the bus stop. How about shooting hoops with the kids for a few minutes a day? If the grocery store is walking

distance then you can save on gasoline and exercise as well by walking. A 30 minute walk daily is a excellent daily regimen. Walking or jogging may be more enjoyable if you listen to music or motivational talks. In the cold winter months, you can check if you local mall allows early morning walks.

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Lisa’s Cookbook And Magazine Recommendations

There are thousands of cookbooks and magazines that discuss healthy food, recipes and other topics related to nutrition. There is no single title that provides all the knowledge needed to know about these vast subjects. Different practices and diet consideration will determine which cookbook or magazine is best for you.

Find Cookbooks & Magazines For Your Unique Taste

Take your time when buying a cookbook or magazine and choose those that will be most beneficial for your unique tastes and needs. Review all sections to make sure ingredients are available and that you like the cooking styles of the recipes. Also make sure that you have or intend to purchase the appliances and cooking tools you might need.

For those who are already adept at cooking, cookbooks and magazines may no longer be needed, but can be good references to obtain fresh methods and ideas.

My personal favorites are Vegetarian Times Cook Book and Cooks Country Magazine are recommended sources.

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Eat Smaller Food Portions To Help Lose Weight

As I mentioned in my previous post, moderation and balance is important to maintain in life. You may have resolved to lose weight, but you need to do it safely and naturally. To get started. you obviously need to control the amount of food that you eat. One way of doing this is to eliminate large, heaping portions on your plate during meals. Eating too much at one time will be hard for the stomach to take and digestion problems may result. This rule goes for diet food, too. Smaller amounts are better for the body and can therefore can help speed up the body’s metabolism.

Here are some tips to help change your habit of having big portions of food:

1. Use smaller plates at home. Small plates get easily filled up.

2. When you eat in restaurants where food servings are large, you can place a portion on your plate and have the rest wrapped or shared with your companions. Be conscious of what you are placing on your plate.

3. Never get seconds. This should be part of your resolution when trying to lose weight.

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Welcome To My Blog…And Eat Your Way To Health!

Hi! I’m Lisa and I am a nutritionist. My primary goal is to counsel families, together or individually, about proper nutrition.  I also teach cooking to exemplify how eating well can be easy and delicious. My interest in nutrition started in college, where I started learning and living healthier. When I became pregnant and then had my son, my focus turned to nutrition and families.  I now have 2 healthy children, and I believe my purpose in life is to teach my family and my clients how to live a healthy lifestyle through nutrition, cooking, and staying active.

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Give Thanks
By Lisa Shanken
November 16, 2023
With Thanksgiving and the general holiday season just around the corner, it always reminds me of the complexities of this time of year. Moderately indulging without going overboard with holiday food, feeling excited to see all of your family but then easily getting annoyed with them when you are together,...
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Milk
By Lisa Shanken
October 10, 2023
Happy autumn! A few issues ago in Don’t Get Your Gut In A Rut, we looked at the benefits of a gluten-free diet. This month we will examine the benefits of a dairy-free diet, what that looks like, and how to decide if it’s right for you.  First, let's define...
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Back to School
By Lisa Shanken
August 16, 2023
It’s hard to believe it’s back to school time already. This time of year is a lot of change for both students and parents, so it’s important to utilize tools and tips that can help everyone get back into their routines with as few challenges as possible. This may call...
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Healthy Gut
By Lisa Shanken
July 18, 2023
Sometimes it’s important to get back to basics and revisit the foundational elements of our work. Recently, I read a great article that did exactly this by explaining why the gut has a tremendous impact on the rest of our body. This article, published in National Geographic, does an excellent...
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Social Media Break
By Lisa Shanken
June 7, 2023
In today's fast-paced and interconnected world, social media has become an integral part of our lives. While it brings numerous advantages, it's also crucial to recognize the importance of taking a step back and nurturing our well-being. Social media can cause small “dopamine hits” to the brain, which means the...
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Success
By Lisa Shanken
April 24, 2023
Motivation is an essential aspect of achieving our goals and making progress in our lives. Whether it is personal or professional, we all need motivation to keep moving forward. However, sometimes we find ourselves lacking the drive and determination to achieve our goals. Today we will discuss some effective ways...
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Spring Cleansing
By Lisa Shanken
March 31, 2023
Hooray, spring is officially here! Spring is a time of renewal, growth, and starting over. Our bodies start to adjust to the warming weather, and we shift our diets from hearty warming foods to lighter spring foods such as arugula, asparagus, artichokes, and peas.  With the season of regrowth and...
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Supporting Things Close To Your Heart
By Lisa Shanken
February 24, 2023
Happy February (and almost the end of winter!). This month I was lucky enough to be part of the Wellness At Sea program on Jam Cruise, a very special 6 night music festival at sea. Many of you know that some of my greatest passions in life include wellness and...
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Gluten Free
By Lisa Shanken
January 24, 2023
Switching to a gluten free diet has been pretty trendy over the past few years (especially if you reside in my hometown of Boulder, CO), but for good reason! Celiac Disease, which is an autoimmune disease causing an allergy to wheat, is one reason people may be forced to go...
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Happy Holidays
By Lisa Shanken
December 20, 2022
Happy holidays! I always find this time of year to be a bit complicated. The holidays are joyous but they can also come with their challenges. I believe it’s important to acknowledge that, which can actually help you ease into the holiday season and enjoy it more. Of course, the...
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Brain Colored Sections
By Lisa Shanken
November 29, 2022
This month I would like to share two separate articles I came across, both focused on brain health, albeit different aspects of it.  First, the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to study the impact of socialization on our brains. Humans are, by nature, a social species. According to a meta-analytic...
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ADHD
By Lisa Shanken
October 19, 2022
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders diagnosed in people today, according to Psychiatry.org. Symptoms of ADHD include: Inability to focus/concentrate (losing things, forgetful, difficulty organizing) Hyperactivity (fidgeting, moving around a lot) Impulsivity (interrupting, procrastinating) ADHD can then lead to poor self-esteem, lack of motivation,...
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Yoga
By Lisa Shanken
July 20, 2022
I hope you are enjoying your summer! I recently read a book that completely rocked my world, so I wanted to share it and talk more about the subject. The book is called The Awakened Brain, by Lisa Miller. Lisa Miller is a PhD psychologist that pioneered the research studying...
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By Lisa Shanken
June 17, 2022
I love summer! Warm weather, nature in full bloom, and the availability of beautiful fruits and vegetables are all things for which I have immense gratitude! This month, the title article in Prevention Magazine focused on how the gut acts as the body’s second brain, something we have discussed many...
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