Posts from — May 2009

In the current state of the economy you can’t go many places without the main topic of conversation being MONEY!  People everywhere are getting creative and looking for ways to cut the cost of living.  Retailers and businesses across the country are getting smart and making changes to keep us all buying.  We are all rethinking how we move our money and spend our hard earned paychecks.  Some of us are moving into smaller places, while others are eliminating cars and opting for public trans.  So, how do we continue to invest in our health without breaking the piggy bank?

I like to think of my health as a savings account.  The more deposits I put into it now, the better [and cheaper] my future will be later.  (future meaning: hours, tomorrow, next year and many years from the present meal)

Here are some of my ‘forms of deposit’ that save me money:

1.  Still buy organic.  Whole Food Market is not our only option!  Look into co-ops, CSA and farmers markets.  Here in Chicago, I shop at Stanley’s or local farmer’s markets!

2.  Buy Bulk, brand free.  Skip wasting your money on marketing and packaging.  AND, it’s better for the environment!

3.  Shop often, throw less away.  According to a University of Arizona study, the average household throws away 14% of what they spend on food, adding up to $600 dollars a year!

What forms of deposits are saving you money, but still investing in your health?

The alarm goes off, the snooze button gets pressed and the dog starts barking, it’s a new day.  I roll over and press the snooze button one too many times.  I eventually get up to walk the dog, but it lengthens by a brief chat with a neighbor.  I get into the hot shower and it just felt too good to get out.  Now, I’m running late and eating breakfast is the last thing on my priority list.  I then get to work and surround myself with bagel eating, latte drinking co-workers and the rest of the day is a downward energy spiral.

This is how my life was 2 years ago…before making time for breakfast.

So what was the first step to breaking this deeply molded routine?  Time management, I needed to stop hitting that snooze button and start getting my energy from food rather than 15-30 more minutes of z’s!

The next step was finding foods that I enjoyed eating AND gave me lasting energy until lunch.

My most valuable learning: (basic, but life changing!)

1.  Find recipes that are wholesome and FAST! (see recipe below)

2.  Eat whole grains.  Instant oatmeal..is a jolt of energy that quickly fizzles.  Steal Cut oats is the true energy sustain-er!  Have you ever tried Quinoa?

3.  Protein is a must.  Where do I like to get it from:  eggs, peanut butter, soy milk, beans, lean meat, yogurt, tofu and GREENS!

4.  Sit down. In my kitchen, with my own dishes.  Yes it may seem basic, but how many of us see people sipping their Starbucks and nibbling a muffin out of a brown paper bag on the bus?!?

5.  Keep it Sweet!   You don’t have to let go of the sweet tastes we all love to use to garnish our favorite breakfast items.  Instead of white sugar use raw, or pure sugar cane juice.  Agave nectar in tea or coffee.  Or maybe raw honey or brown rice syrup to sweeten toast.

6.  Eat raw fruit and nuts!  Get vitamins and minerals without spending the money on supplements. Make a smoothly and have your whole breakfast in a glass.

7.  Prepare and eat with loved ones.  Spending time with the people we love nourishes us even more than any food we eat.

My latest favorite breakfast recipe:

Morning Sausage and Kale:

Saute 1/2 sliced onion with one tsp olive oil for 5 min. Add 1 cut precooked chicken apple sausage and 1/2 bunch of chopped Kale.  Cook until Kale becomes soft and sausage is cooked through.  Remove from heat and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar.  Scrambled eggs are also a great addition to this concoction.  (Total time: 10 min!)  From: Integrative Nutrition

When I first started my breakfast experiment (like, a whole meal) my stomach felt queezy…it took almost a month before I really enjoyed food in the morning.  Once I learned to eat breakfast, my life changed.  I think clearer, make sounder decisions, have confidence and feel great!

What challenges do you have with making and enjoying breakfast?

What are some of your favorite breakfast recipes or rituals?

The pendulum: a weight hung from a fixed point so that it can swing freely backward and forward.  Someone very wise once told me to imagine every decision I make in life on a pendulum.  It will swing from one side to the other, but it must come back to the middle to feel balanced.  When balanced true health is achieved.

As I promote education of whole foods and processed foods, I also want to encourage the healthiest ingredient of all, the act of moderation: the avoidance of excess or extremes.

Look further into the importance of moderation:

The New York Times, ‘What’s Eating Our Kids: Fears About Bad Foods’

Moderation looks differently for everyone.  What does it look like for you?

It is amazing to me that stress has become a symptom that is socially acceptable.  Therefore, is it really a symptom or have we evolved stress to being a personality trait?  Think about it.   How many times have you heard a loved one, co-worker or even a sales clerk complain about being stressed?  How about when your interviewed for a job, you are often asked, “how do you handle stress?”  It is scientifically proven that stress lowers our immunity which than welcomes short term illness such as colds, headaches, flu and stomach pain into our bodies.  But, those are just the first signs our body’s are giving us.  Long term, untreated stress can lead to much more serious illness: early aging, ulcers, heart disease and even cancer.

So, here I am with all this conscience knowledge to keep stress levels down.   And last week I still choose to work for 11 days straight and get less than 5 hours of sleep 2-3 nights out of the week.  Sure enough, I got sick.  Not for 2 days, not for 3 days, but 6 days!  Now I don’t know about you…but who has that kind of time?  I spent a lot of the week picturing that ridiculous pharmaceutical commercial where the mom is flipping through her planner telling the doctor she has no time to get the flu.  Meanwhile her son is rolling his eyes.   Well, this time my body was rolling it’s eyes at me.  It was time to TUNE back IN!  So, I did.  I let the dishes go, let someone else walk the dog, forfeited my responsibilities at work and took time to sleep, sip on chicken broth, and be warm.  Sure enough I kicked my bug and got back to my routine.

But, this is the point where most of us (including myself) usually TUNE BACK OUT.  We go right back to navigating life just like we were before getting sick.   Then the pattern continues:  you go-go-go > get sick > loose time getting better > back to the same routine >go-go-go > get sick > loose time > same routine.

What if this time I stayed TUNED IN after feeling better?  That is what I did.  I looked at what I was missing in my life AND what I was doing too much of.  I needed to find balance so I could build a strong stress defense shield.

Here are some things I am working at adding back in:

1. Finding routine by waking up at the same time every day

2. Practicing Yoga

3. Eating more grounded foods for breakfast

4.  Choosing foods loaded with vitamins and minerals

5. Schedule my time wisely for work vs seeing my loved ones

6. Always making time for fun

A great deal of what nourishes our health is more than just the food we eat. It is every energy that surrounds us day in and day out.  From the career we choose, our spiritual practice, moving our body and to being in relationships.  At Integrative Nutrition, we call these primary foods.  Food is truly delivered to us in everything!

I am achieving more balance everyday, but it takes frequent TUNING IN with myself, my loved ones and even my co-workers to gain support.

What choices do you make to to stay TUNED IN and bring balance to your life?

Most of us, especially those who live in the city, are so use to buying our fruits and vegetables from our closest grocery store.  We’ve been trained to chose fruits and vegetables that are plump, shiny and free of bruises or scratches.  Regardless of the weather outside, we are given the luxury of having all types of fruit and vegetables available to us year round.  But, has all of this deprived us from staying in touch with nature?  Are our bodies needing strawberries in winter or kale in the summer?  Does a scratch or bruise really change the nutirents?  Before big box grocery stores, transportation, and the art of visual merchandsing we (country and city folk) were connected to the foods our body needed.  We only had access to foods that could be produced in that particular climate/season.  Nature was naturally taking care of us.

So, how can we get back in touch with nature?  By gardening! It has been proven that even the most stubborn of children will start eating ‘that yucky green stuff’ when they get to play in the garden.  Children love to get dirty and feel great reward from nurturing a seed into a sprout and a sprout into FOOD!  Suddenly, that boring carrot or yucky green bean turns into something exciting to eat, cook and share because they ‘MADE IT’!

But, maybe it is not realistic for us all to have a garden.  Window boxes are a great way to tap into nurturing nature.  You could grow herbs or easy veggies, like tomatoes.  And even if that is too much to think about, you can always enjoy nurtured food by shopping at your local farmer’s market.  Or even easier, get a fresh basket of goodies delivered by CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) every week.

With Spring beginning tomorrow, now is the time to fall back in love with nature and start gobbiling up the nutrients of eating the freshest and most quailty foods available to you!

Need some inspiration to get you started:  Join our First Lady, as she breaks ground on the white house lawn in efforts to help fight our child obesity epidemic through gardening!!!

Living in a world of fast food, take out and microwavable meals we have lost touch with food.  Has nourishing our body become an annoying step through our day, like filling the gas tank or taking out the garbage?  How did we evolve to choosing ‘what to eat’ by the time it takes to prep, instead of nutrients?

Where does food come from, why do we need it, and what really nourishes the human body?