It is amazing what you can accomplish if you put your mind on it. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted growing up, but I was never specific of what I was going be like physically. This is not something you want to leave out. One day, I realized that even though I had everything I wanted, I was going down a bad path. I found myself obese, high blood pressure/cholesterol, thinning hair, going grey, and really in very poor physical condition.
So, why do we feed our kids low quality food? Well, we do it because our kids don't like healthy things - right? That is what we used to tell ourselves, too.
I know what you are saying. I have this backwards, right? It is supposed to be "move more, eat less." This is what we have been told for a long time now, but it is not working. We are not losing the weight and most importantly we are not keeping it off.
On March 12, 2012, a press release by the Harvard School of Public Health called, "Red Meat Consumption Linked to Increased Risk of Total, Cardiovascular, and Cancer Mortality", ruffled a lot of feathers.
If you look back at over the last 30 years, we have become more overweight and more sick than ever before. How can this be? There are more gyms than ever before. There are more diets and diet "foods" than ever before. It just does not seem to add up.
What if I did something different this year? What if I stuck with my New Year’s Resolution? What if I ate healthy all year? What if I did not miss one workout all year? What would happen? What would that feel like? What would I look like?
The answer to this is easy! It is simple math. But, if you think the equation is 'calories in' versus 'calories out', then you are part of the majority of people that will never keep the weight off. It's time for some new math.
If you’re like most of us, you know you need to eat better and what better time to start than at the start of a new year? But, let’s face it, in a world where we are bomb-barded with often conflicting information about food and nutrition, no matter how ‘inspired’ we might be to make better choices, it is easy to find ourselves completely paralyzed when it comes to making changes in how we eat.
It was like World War II to try and get my kids to eat one bite of a vegetable. When I say one bite, I mean ONE bite! We would have chicken, mac-n-cheese (or something from a box) and steamed broccoli or asparagus (at the time, those were the only two veggies I knew how to cook). Most of their food was basically white processed food, dairy, chicken and the occasional apple (and, of course, one bite of broccoli).
I love this time of year! When I drive down the street, I see everyone in their brand new jogging outfits, ipods and water bottles. The gyms are packed full of people that are ready to lose those extra pounds or get into shape
con·sist·en·cy [kuhn-sis-tuhn-see] I like this word and found I have been using it a lot lately with my clients. Why do I like this word? Well, it is fun to say, but that is not the reason. The reason I like this word is, because it is the key to any successful weight loss or fitness goal! Consistency seems like such an innocent little word, but it's not. Most people really do not pay much attention to it. Most likely because we live in a world of instant gratification. We want thi
I am so happy to hear this news! Why? No, not because I think pizza is a vegetable (although my version is made from a ton of veggies). But because the media, everyone on Facebook, Saturday Night Live and pretty much anyone with some common sense is complaining about Congress and the whole pizza as a vegetable fiasco. Sometimes things are so obvious that it makes my job easy! This is one of those times.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful day. It is a time to relax, spend time with family, friends and eat some good wholesome food. Like I have said in the past, if every day was more like Thanksgiving, we would all be better off. The food you eat on Thanksgiving is not going to make or break your weight loss goals. It is what you do the the other 364 days of the year, that is the real problem.
If you're looking for a healthier option for your standard mashed potatoes, this is what we are serving for Thanksgiving this year. This recipe adds some protein, fiber and some additional nutrients compared to the traditional mashed potatoes. We tested this recipe last week and we all enjoyed it (so much so that we forgot to get a picture - will work on that). We had it with a green salad for dinner and it was delicious. You won't even miss it. Enjoy! It makes about 6 servings.
This is what we are serving for Thanksgiving this year instead of the traditional yams with marshmallows on top. We tested this recipe last week and we all enjoyed it. I guess we were hungry again, so we forgot to take a picture of the final product, but snap one during our Thanksgiving feast. In the meantime, I thought you might like a healthier option for your Thanksgiving. Enjoy!
I love nuts! I eat raw almonds and walnuts every morning on my oatmeal. I have also been known to snack on then during the day as well. There is a ton of literature on the benefits of raw nuts with regards to weight loss and a plethora of other health benefits.
A guilt-free Thanksgiving? I can hear you now. You’re probably thinking I’m going to recommend you swap out that big bird for tofurkey and eat raw pumpkin instead of pie. But NO! Surprise! Instead, I’m going to recommend the opposite - You should savor your traditional Thanksgiving recipes and eat up!
My biggest concern with milk and dairy is the way in which this product is produced. I think everyone is aware that the use of growth hormones in dairy cows is not beneficial to human health. In fact, they have been implicated in increased risk of breast cancer, colon and prostate cancer.
Whether you know it or not we are in a war. Look around you next time you go out to eat or in the grocery store. The U.S. is in a war with itself. We are all getting a little bigger and our health is in crisis. But we can win this war on the bulge!
I wrote this blog about 3 hours prior to hearing the news about Steve Jobs - what timing. As sad as that news was, it defiantly motivated me (even more) to move on to my 'next phase'. I have been thinking a lot about my goals lately - goals in relation to both my mission of helping people eat healthier and my own personal health & nutrition goals. When I started out, my main goal was basically to lose weight and feel good when I looked in the mirror.
This month marks the 4-year anniversary of a turning point in my life. Four years ago, I decided once and for all to lose those extra pounds and get into shape. You see, I was facing my 40th birthday and I remembered that on my 30th birthday, I had promised myself, “When I turn 40, I want to be in really good shape.” I figured ‘no problemo’ I have a whole decade to pull it off, but somehow I found myself 60 days before my 40th birthday making a frantic call to a professional for some help.
A report by the World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health called, "The Global Economic Burden of Non-communicable Diseases", was released this month (September 2011). The report states that: "...with respect to cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes and mental health, the macroeconomic simulations suggest a cumulative output loss of US$ 47 trillion over the next two decades"
The Harvard School of Public Health, just released it's Healthy Eating Plate, in a press release this afternoon, Sept 14, 2011. No doubt in response to the USDA MyPlate released earlier this year. I love the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate! Here are the things I like about it:
As I was working today, I started wondering why most of us don't eat healthy. Everyone is different and everyone has their own reasons. I thought it would be fun to come up with a top 10 list of reasons. So here it goes..... The top 10 reasons why we don't eat healthy:
I am a believer that heart disease (and many of the health problems we are facing today) can be solved with proper nutrition and lifestyle. The problem is, these diseases are chronic (meaning we become sick over time) and as humans (for whatever reason) we do not like to address things until it is a serious problem. We stick our head in the sand and say, "I will eat better tomorrow" or "I will start working out tomorrow". Well "tomorrow" may be too late.
One of the things I try to help my clients understand, is that the human body is a very powerful deliberate machine with the simple goal of healing itself. Give your body what it needs to do that and it will. Proper nutrition is obviously critical, but sometimes we underestimate our thoughts. Believe it or not, your thoughts can have a significant effect on the long term success of your fitness goals. I have had a few clients that never thought they could have the body they wanted. If you
This press release from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) came out on Aug 10 2011. This new study shows that there is a "strong" association with eating red meat (particularly processed red meat) and Type 2 Diabetes.
I think we all eat out more often, but even more importantly, it’s usually not to celebrate an occasion, but simply out of convenience. There was a point where my family used to eat out 3-4 times a week and I’d say it was mostly out of convenience.If you are eating out 1 or 2 times per month, you may have some wiggle room, but when you eat out multiple times per week, it is even more important to pay attention to what you order.The most important thing you need to know is this, most restaurants
Breakfast and lunch are the 2 most important meals of the day (for everyone, but especially for our kids). They need to have the proper fuel to maintain a constant energy level at school so they can perform their best. They will be more focused and retain more while at school and will come home in a more relaxed and less famished way. My kids use to come home like hungry bears and the quick fix to that was to give them a quick snack, which as it turns out raises their blood sugar fast and turn
If you eat "food" you need to watch this movie! It will really help you understand that we are living in a time where what we are eating is making us sick and is at the root of most of the major health issues we are dealing with. In addition, you will learn that our "food" is not designed to be healthy for us, but rather for profitability.
Here is a fun little video that makes you think about how crazy things have gotten. This is just one piece to a much larger puzzle. There is a lot of profit in selling "foods" that make us sick. There is also a lot of profit in fixing us when we become sick from the "foods" we ate. From a business perspective, this is an awesome business model, a self propelling money generating machine!
A new report released on June 29th, 2011 called F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future, (from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) says that adult obesity has increased in 28 U.S. states in the last year and only decreased in 1! Jeffrey Levi, PhD (executive director of Trust for America's Health) was quoted in the press release, "Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges the country has ever faced, and troubling disparities exist bas
You mean different foods effect our bodies in different ways? Yes, it really does matter what type of foods you eat. Some types of foods and activities tend to make us fat over time and some types of foods and activities tend to make us lose weight over time. What a concept! A study called "Changes in Diet and Lifestyle and Long-Term Weight Gain in Women and Men" was published in New England Journal of Medicine just last month (June 23, 2011) and shows just this. The study was done over
Oops! Here we go again, thinking we are doing the right thing, but instead it is just making us fatter. Darn! These results suggest that consumption of products containing artificial sweeteners may lead to increased body weight and obesity by interfering with fundamental homeostatic, physiological processes.
Food should be an easy thing to figure out, but in today’s environment, it’s not. In fact, it’s gotten pretty tricky and there’s always some new diet out there promising to give us all the answers. It seems we’re always looking for the perfect ‘diet’ to answer all of our dietary concerns. One of the latest diet trends making a comeback is The Paleolithic (Paleo) Diet. It’s promoted in various fitness centers and is catching on because of its focus on whole foods and ‘getting back to basics’
Ask anyone what they think the benefit of milk is and they will most likely say calcium or strong bones. That is not surprising based on how much the whole "Got Milk?" campaign has been drilled into our heads. It is true, milk is a good source of calcium. But is it the best source of calcium for our health? Where did we get our calcium before milk? Elephants have good sized bones. I have never seen an elephant with one of those milk mustaches. Where do they get their calcium?
I have always questioned the motivation behind the USDA food recommendations. You gotta wonder about any entity who's job it is to sell food and at the same time tell us what is best for us to eat. It just seems there is a conflict of interest there. Remember the "Food Pyramid" that we all learned about in grade school? Well, that is the USDA at work! They update the food recommendations every 5 years and it's made quite a few evolutions in recent years. So much so that it wasn't really like
I am not sure why, but it seems like when we have a problem we always tend to find a solution that addresses the symptom, rather than the cause. If we are overweight, or we are sick, or just feeling down, we typically try to fix the symptom. We exercise more to try to lose weight, or take medications to cover up the symptoms of feeling sick, or drink alcohol when were are feeling down. In all of these cases, we are addressing the symptoms and not the root problem.
Don't get me wrong. I love technology and innovation! But it seems to me whenever we F with Mother Nature, it never seems to work out so well for our health. Our body is a perfectly-designed organism with the sole purpose of continually healing itself. All it asks for in return is the proper fuel to do so. The cool thing is, mother nature also provides the perfect fuel for our bodies and an internal mechanism that tells us what the best fuel is and how much and when to consume that fuel.
EAT LESS AND EXERCISE MORE! This is what we have been told for some time now. But is this true? Does this work? Where is the science to support this? If there were some, we would not still be debating the best approach to weight loss and management today.
If you have kids, you need to watch this video. If you don't have kids, you should watch this video. If you save your children from having cancer, autism, obesity, food allergies, it will be the best 20 min you could spend! Robyn O'Brien discusses the potential connection between genetically modified food and disease.
We are all carrying a few extra pounds these days and it's not our fault! Some people say, well, we eat too much and we don't exercise enough. That may be part of it, but there is way more to it than that.
Do you drink 1 drink diet soda per day? It could be increasing your chances of heart disease by 61%. There is debate around these findings, but if there is even a small chance they are right, do you want to roll the dice while they figure it out? Remember 'zero benefit' and potential of increased health issues down the road!
I was doing my normal exercise, but I found myself up a little on the scale and in body fat (which, needless to say, was not part of my 2011 fitness goals). I realize in the grand scheme of things a pound or two is not a big deal, but if you let it go and do not address it, it will add up to be a big deal. So, I decided to take some action!
My concern is that the cards are stacked against the American people. No one wants to make a bad choice on purpose. No one wants to be unhealthy. We are just mislead by marketing or just are not aware.
We talk a lot about food here, but exercise is half the battle. Here is a little excerpt on exercise I received in my email this morning from Kaiser: "Exercise can help reduce the risk for many chronic conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and depression. It’s even been shown to help improve our ability to concentrate, learn, and maintain our brain power as we age."
Happy St. Patrick's Day! I thought today would be the perfect day to share with you another one of my green smoothies. Here is what I had for my mid-morning snack this very morning, a green smoothie called, the "mr. grinch". I nicknamed it "mr. grinch", because it's a mean one.
Growing up my mom always nagged me, “eat your vegetables” (in that nagging voice). Yeah, well, as much as I hate to admit it, she was right! According to the USDA 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we are not eating enough vegetables and we are “eating too much added sugars, solid fats, refined grains, and sodium.” Looking back, it was funny how many of the things our parents said were right (darn it). Some day I am sure my kids will look back and say the same thing about us.
Planning your dinners in advance can save you time, money and fat! During the week you are busy with work and home life and by the time dinner time rolls around you are hungry and tired. When you are in this type of state you tend to opt for the fast and easy options, which usually means processed and less healthy.
Well according to Uncle Sam, we are. Whew, that was a close call! In fact, we may be getting too much! Here is a quote right out of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans: “Shift food intake patterns to a more plant-based diet that emphasizes vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. In addition, increase the intake of seafood and fat-free and low-fat milk and milk products and consume only moderate amounts of lean meats, poultry, and eggs.”
I hate to be the “Debbie Downer,” the “Stick-In-The-Mud” or the “Every party has a pooper, that’s why we invited you,” but this is something we should all think about as we get ready to get our party on this weekend!
I am sure my mom lost mine (because she sure didn't give it to me when I left home)! It would have been a handy thing to have for all these years for sure! As with any user manual, it is always better (and more fun) to review it and keep up the maintenance of your equipment before it breaks down.
Last time, we talked about how Diets Don’t Work. You’re probably saying to yourself, so if diets don’t work what do I do now? Well, making a temporary change (a diet) is not going to give you the long-term, lasting results you are looking for, but you can’t make drastic changes in your habits overnight (unless you are a very disciplined person and I don’t know about you, but I am NOT one of those people).
One day I found myself watching MTV Cribs, not sure why just channel surfing I guess. Anyway, they were showing a rappers house (I forgot who it was exactly, someone like MC Lil Young Busta Vanilla Hammer or something like that).
If you’re like me, one of your New Year’s resolutions has something to do with: losing weight, getting in shape, exercising more, eating better or something along those lines. These things have been on my list of New Year’s resolutions for YEARS. However, in 2011, for the FIRST TIME EVER, these things are NOT on my list of to-do’s for the year.
