Food

Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

Hydrating with good water is always some thing we should strive for, but summer is soon to be here and hydration is top priority. Water does so many wonderful things for your body, it removes toxins, lubricates your eyes and joints, allows for proper functioning of electrolytes, and helps with digestion.

According to Dr. Mercola,

If your body has lost one to two percent of its entire water content, you will feel thirsty, a sign that you need to replenish the lost liquids.

That’s not much, only 1-2% of the total water amount in your body, and you start to really feel the impact. (Have you reached for your water yet?)

We need to make sure we replenish our water supply, especially in the heat of the summer. I have a few simple tricks that I use during the heat to make sure I am properly hydrated.

1. The first step is to make sure you have an awesome water bottle. My favorite is the Hydro Flask. It is stainless steel and keep drinks super cold when needed.
2. Drink in the morning. I know I have talked about this before. It is a really good practice. If you can’t stomach cold water, then warm works just as well. If you get in a good 16-20oz in the morning then you have set yourself up for success.
3. Keep your awesome water bottle filled. I know that sounds silly, because if you are trying to stay hydrated, you’ll keep it filled. Well, not necessarily. I can’t tell you how many people I see carrying around empty water bottles, what good is that doing you? If you can’t hold a lot of water in your bottle, have more then one available to use.
4. Set a timer. Some times we forget to even drink. I know I get super busy and the day gets to me and before I know it, I haven’t had much water (except my morning cleanse So, set a timer. You probably always have your phone near you. Put a timer on for every 20-30 minutes. When the timer goes off, start chugging!
5. Set a goal. You should drink your body weight divided by 2. That is the number of ounces each day. Make it fun and a goal for you to reach, it’s totally doable if you know what to strive for. Side note: if your pregnant or breastfeeding, you want to have even more water on board.
6. Add flavor. Some times, I don’t like plain water. I love adding lemons, limes, mint, and cucumbers. I’ve even added rosemary and lemons together and it really tastes so refreshing and is a fantastic summer drink!

Have fun staying hydrated!

 

 

Photo by Jennifer Schmidt on Unsplash

We are always trying to eat more vegetables. Some times, I find it to be tougher than I realize. How am I supposed to eat all that good food?! I would just feel like I’m literally eating all the time. Since this has been a little struggle for me, I’ve adopted some ways to really maximize my vegetable intake, as well as sneaking them in for my family to enjoy!

1. Green Smoothie-One of the best tasting and easiest ways you can do this is with a green smoothie. If you are new to the green smoothie game, than start off a little slower. You don’t want to add a pound of kale and than realize you can not stomach it! Get a good base, I like almond milk (minus the carrageenan).  Than you can add a little bit of a green, protein, and citrus fruits. Citrus fruits help to cut the bitterness of the greens. Bananas are well known to go in smoothies, but they are mostly a carb and lots of sugar, so try and stir clear of those. If I want a “treat” at night though, I will some times make a banana and almond butter smoothie, adding in a little green too!
2. Paleo Pasta-I’m not sure if anyone else really calls it this, but I’m sure I got the name from some one. Instead of making regular pasta that is full of carbs, gluten, and other sugars, we make paleo pasta with spaghetti squash. It tastes amazing and you just added a vegetable to your dinner! Another trick I do with paleo pasta is add a soft green in to the sauce. I usually add spinach, and no one can even taste it!
3. Cauliflower bowls o’ Goodness– We love making bowls. You can just add so many good things in it. We add chopped cauliflower as our base instead of rice. Then we pile on pretty much every thing. Some times we do a pineapple type bowl, or more of a salsa bowl with avocados, but whatever you do, you know you have at least one really great vegetable.
4. Soups-Soups are a really great way to easily exchange the carb for the vegetable. If i’m making a bone broth soup, I love adding some type of “noodle”. I usually like carrot noodles over zucchini noodles, because zucchini does tend to be wetter. The “noodles” give you that sense of fullness and I love watching my son take down all those vegetables without knowing it!
5. Loaded peppers/zucchini bites-we’ve all had a loaded baked potato. Instead of using potatoes, lets trade it out for a veggie. I like using zucchini and peppers because they give you that “bowl” you need to add all the other good stuff, life bacon, chicken, chives, and nuts. They can be used as a main course or as a starter.
6. Pizza-​I love pizza, but the nasty oils, wheat, and cheese combo always seem to send me for a loop. So I found this awesome cauliflower crust from Trader Joe’s, not pizza crust, but it still does the job. Then you add on all the veggie toppings. We always have at least 1 green and then add meat and a great organic, bad- oil- free sauce. It does the trick! 

Sneaking vegetables to your food can actually be a lot of fun, I hope you take the challenge and taste the benefits!

 

 

Fasting is kind of a hot topic now. With known benefits like increased growth hormone to weight loss, it’s no wonder people want to know more about it.

So what is fasting?

Fasting is a willing abstinence or reduction from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time.

Ok, why would we want to do this? According to Dr. Pelz, a well respect chiropractor, there are many benefits that come from fasting. We can see increased growth hormone, fat lose, energy boosts, and improved memory! Outstanding!

Dr. Pelz talks about 4 different types of fasting and with each, are different outcomes.

4 types of fasting:

1. Intermittent fasting -usually 12-15 hours (dinner to breakfast-ish)
2. Dinner to dinner – fast dinner Sunday and then don’t eat until dinner Monday
3. Fast mimicking- really restrict calories
4. 4-5 day water fast-nothing but water!

Benefits of the different types of fasting

IMF– Improves GH (growth hormone) helps burn fat, slows the aging process, gives energy, and builds muscle. It makes people less insulin resistant, and improves neuron growth! Women tend to be more sensitive to IMF, so there is some thing called Cresendo Fasting.

Women can see the same benefits, it’s just less of a shock to the system.

Rules of Crescendo Fasting:

1. Fast on 2–3 nonconsecutive days per week (e.g. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
2. On fasting days, do yoga or light cardio.
3. Ideally, fast for 12–16 hours.
4. Eat normally on your strength training/HIIT workouts intense exercise days.
5. Drink plenty of water. (Tea and coffee are okay, too, as long as there is no added milk or sweetener)

D2D-This fast will help cells repair to help keep you insulin sensitive or kick you out of being insulin resistant. We want to be insulin sensitive, meaning you only need a small amount of insulin to keep blood glucose within a healthy range.

Fast mimicking– Great for cancer prevention. You get a surge of stem cells, and stem cells go to any part of your body and repair damage. The traditional fasting mimicking diet is composed of 34 percent carbohydrates, 10 percent protein and 56 percent fat for the first day, followed by 47 percent carbohydrates, 9 percent protein and 44 percent fat for the last four days.

Water fasting or Block fasting– fasting just with water, and only water for 2-7 days. Some thing awesome happens in our body when we water fast, it’s called autophagy. The term autophagy means “self-eating,” and refers to the processes by which your body cleans out various debris, including toxins, and recycles damaged cell components. It’s a cells way of getting rid of the bad guys, or at least those that are no longer healthy. Water fasting can help slow the aging process, detoxes the body, increases GH, normalizes grelin, (the hormone that makes you hungry) improves your immune system, and decreases inflammation!

I hope this little summary on fasting helps you realize how helpful it can be! It isn’t super easy though. I’ve personally been experimenting with IMF. I do a group workout 3 days a week, so on those days, it’s more natural to do IMF. I stop eating after dinner, around 7pm. I try and hold off eating breakfast until around 9-9:30am. So that’s about 14 hours of fasting. By doing that I know I’m helping shed the visceral fat and improving muscle and growth hormone. HOORAY!

Pro-Tips:

1. Start slow
2. Try IMF first and go 12 hours than extend it an hour each time you decide to do it
3. It’s not for every one, so don’t feel bad.
4. Don’t have a SUPER heavy workout on fasting days

All disease starts in the gut” Hippocrates.

The more I learn about overall health, the more I realize that gut health is literally at the core. I believe that to be healthy, you must have a flourishing gut microbiome.

Your gut microbiome is an integral internal ecosystem that benefits our gut health and the immune system. Dr. Axe

In a nutshell, your microbiome are trillons of cells that are living in your gut. They are not all within your gut, but a vast majority of them reside there.

Why do we care about microbiomes?

Although small, they are mighty! Your microbiome is a blueprint for your life! It’s a blueprint, that means it can be changed, either for better or worse. You have the power to let those cells do good or not so good things for you. These trillions of (brilliantly wonderful) bacterial cells interact with every thing you interact with. So, back to the food. If these cells are a blueprint for your life then what you place in your body should make them happy!

The foods you eat, how you sleep, the amount of bacteria you’re exposed to on a daily basis and the level of stress you live with all help establish the state of your microbiota. Your microbiome is home to trillions of microbes, diverse organisms that help govern nearly every function of the human body in some way.

Dr. Axe.

So what are some fun and easy ways to restore your microbiome?

Some of my favorite ways are also delicious! You can enjoy some fermented foods, like kombucha, kiefer, or sauerkraut. There is a product called Mother Dirt Probiotic Skin spray, it’s a probiotic for your skin that helps create a healthy microbiome. Playing in the dirt is also an amazing way to introduce soil-based organisims. So let kids play in the mud, and you should too!

Prebiotics are also a great addition to your health regimen. Prebiotics are basically non-digestible foods. They help fuel the good bacteria. Some awesome prebiotics are garlic, GREEN bananas, and raw potatoes. One of my favorite ways to get in prebiotics is through an awesome smoothie I found in Dr. Davis’s book Undoctored.

So have some fun getting those little guys in a happy place!

Pro-Tips:

• Your Microbiome is a blue print, understanding you can control it is the first step.
• Prebiotic foods are fuel for your microbiome.
• Fermented foods are great for your microbiome.
• Play in the dirt.
• Be gentle with antibiotics, they basically torch your good bacteria too!

Prebiotic Smoothie:

• 1 Green Banana
• 1 cup Almond/Coconut milk
• 1/2 cup raw coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup pineapple

 

 

On our journey to “What does it mean to be healthy” we stopped to learn about the differences in fats. Last week we skimmed the surface on this. We know we NEED fats, but there is such a vast difference among them, that we definitely need to understand this before going any further.

Recap on GOOD fats: Good fats fill you up, they have this amazing satisfying capability that nothing else comes close to. In fact, studies show that the more fat you eat and less carbs, the more weight you can lose! You don’t need “empty” calories, because your body is getting what it needs, amazing! They also help make you look and feel younger and fats help regulate blood sugar. Score!

Great! Eat Fat!

But, now that you are becoming the CFO (Chef Food Officer) of your health, lets learn about healthy fats and the scary, “omg, I can’t believe they make this crap” fats.

Once upon a time, there was a man who proclaimed to America that saturated fat was the cause of cardiovascular disease, (although statistical evidence was sloppy and unrealistic). Margarine companies ran with this idea, knowing that if people thought butter clogged arteries they would turn to them. The man went on to declare that margarine made from vegetable oil was the healthy option and not even a decade after this proclamation, we how found one of the biggest health blunders known to man.

Unfortunately this is not a fairy tale, its true life. One of my all time favorite and life shaking books I’ve ever read is called “Deep Nutrition” by Dr. Cate Shanahan. I have spent countless hours rereading this chapter and making sure I’m really understanding the implications here. Now, I feel it is my job, not only has a health profession, but as a fellow human, to let you know about the fat misconception.

I beg you, I implore you, to stop using bad fats. Bad fats include vegetable oil, canola oil,  soy oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil, safflower oil, and all fake butters.

So why shouldn’t I use them? “Vegetable oils contain mostly heat-sensitive polyunsaturated fats. When heated, these fragile fats turn in to toxic compounds including trans fats” Deep Nutrition.

Another nightmare type aspect of these fats is that they actually reproduce in your body. They come in to contact with normal fatty acids and poof, you’ve doubled your load of bad fats. When you eat these type of fats, free radicals appear, causing destruction every where.

free radicals are high-energy electrons that are involved in every known disease. DN

Trans fats cause heart disease by literally frying the arteries. Saturated fats are natural, nature didn’t create artery tearing fats, humans did, and now we need to fix it!

We have to start being true gate keeps to our bodies. Every thing you eat has an impact on your cells!

Pro tips: Good Fats

• Heat good fats: coconut oil, ghee & avocado oil have excellent heat points
• They don’t cause heart attacks
• Nature makes excellent sources of good fats
• Fats are satiating
• Your brain loves good fats
• Grab the fattier meats

Pro tips: Bad Fats

• Stop eating bad fats. period
• Ok, I’ll give you one more, start with not adding these to any thing, cut them out of cooking, then move on to food labels.

 

 

Last week we discussed this crazy idea of “real food”. We went over tips on how to recognize what real food really is, and how to find it. To recap, the 5 tips are:

1. Food should be recognizable
2. Make sure you read labels: can you pronounce the words?
3. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store
4. Shop at Farmer’s markets when possible
5. Good food should make you feel good!!!

So, let’s go a little deeper and discuss what the macronutrients are. Macronutrients are fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. All of them have an important role in our lives, but the right balance, I believe is what really trips people up. Let’s break them down and see them for what they really are!

Proteins: Proteins are good for you. They help maintain and restructure weight. They help keep blood sugar from rising too much or dropping too fast. They help you concentrate because you won’t feel the spike and dip in that blood sugar. They rebuild and build muscles. They help maintain energy levels.

Carbohydrates: Carbs are tricky. They are so tricky that they often disguise themselves. They hide in fruit and starchy foods, (like sweet potatoes). This is what we know about carbs: they raise blood sugar and carbs, aka grains, cause visceral fat, or fat that resides on organs and around the abdomen, not great. The name of the game is keep blood sugar under control. We want to be fat burners not carb, aka sugar burners.

Fats: We need fat, but we MUST change the way we think about fats. Fats don’t make you fat! We have been created with this amazing little biochemical called a lipoprotein, whose purpose is to transport lipids (fats) throughout the body. Good fats fill you up, they are satstifying, they make your skin look and feel younger, they help with the immune system and concentration and much more!

If weight loss is among your goals, one especially powerful strategy is to purposefully load up on (healthy) fats to induce satiety, thereby reducing your desire to take in more calories.” Dr. William Davis, Undoctored.

5 Tips for Understanding Macronutrients:

1. Don’t be afraid of eating healthy fats!
2. Limit your overall carb load
3. Carbs hide
4. You want to be insulin sensitive, not insulin resistant. (Meaning, you want your body to respond the way it was meant to respond to the release of the hormone insulin.)
5. Proteins build you up, physically and emotionally.