Real Food. Real Conversations.: Recent Episodes
Sophia DeSantis
This is the 100th episode of Real Food Real Conversations and I can't believe it! I published my first episode almost two years ago, so much has changed since then.
Listen in to hear updates of how we are doing and where we are now!
Time can change people, especially after the last two years we have had. It most certainly has changed our family and life.
Starting my podcast was something I decided to do after realizing life was slowing down with all happening in 2020 and business was going to change for me. Brand budgets were tight, the world was unsure of it's future.
I needed something else and my awesome business coach (I interviewed her in the episode about exercise habits) suggested a podcast. I am thinking it's because I like to talk, LOL! She is not wrong.
Starting a podcast helped me express the thoughts and ideas I had without the pressure of social media. I liked having a platform that I didn't have to worry about an algorithm for, I could choose what to say and how I wanted to say it.
It was so freeing and really helped me get through 2020. I loved meeting so many new people, even if it was only online. But that was our new normal at the time, and it gave me avenues to be social when being social in life was harder.
How Our Life Has Changed
The last two years have taught me a lot. My life, my self, and my business have all gone through changes. Some experiences have been good, and some have been rough. But all in all, I am a better person today than I was two years ago.
Changes in my business
When the world shut down, unfortunately so did a lot of my income. I make the bulk of my money partnering with brands to share products I know, use and love with my audience.
Because of the financial breakdowns with all that happened in 2020, many businesses put their budgets on hold. Which meant I my income was also put on hold.
The good part was that my site traffic increased a ton as people now were home learning how to cook and bake, and having more meals at home. This was great and I loved sharing more with everyone!
I even created some pantry meal videos and gave them out for free to my audience, this felt good because I love giving to the community. But overall, we took a hit financially so I had to make some changes.
When you go through struggles, you learn a lot about yourself and are able to step back and see what it is you truly want.
I realized how much I love food photography and the creative aspect in what I do, from the photos to the recipes. Which led me to a year long photography mentorship that I am doing now.
I also learned that I love the health aspect about what I teach and got certified to be an ACE Health and Wellness Coach. I truly enjoy working with clients to help them meet their health and wellness goals! If you are looking for a coach that will guide you towards your goals and be by your side as you succeed, I'm your girl!
Today, I am in a very good place with Veggies Don't Bite. Business is picking up again and I am focusing on partnerships that make me happy and fill me up. One thing that I have learned is that life is too short to be unhappy. Money isn't everything, you can adjust your budget to keep your mental health in a good place.
Why I don't eat gluten
If you have read about our journey with our diet changes, and what led me to start my business, you'll know that it all started with my husband's health. We began eating a plant-based diet for his heart health, and (mostly) haven't made a ton of changes.
About two years ago, I started working with a functional medicine doctor (I had her on the podcast to chat about mental and physical health) after I went into early onset menopause. One of the first things I learned was that I needed to cut out gluten.
Wow, what a life changer. I had dealt with seasonal allergies my entire adult life, being on one form of medication for many years.
With the obsession over protein, we often miss the mark on what we really should focus on, fiber. This is why we are talking all about why fiber is important with our guest expert!
Fiber is a necessary carbohydrate for our body. Everyone needs to include it in their diet in order to maintain physical health.
Nichole Dandrea-Russert, MS, RDN, author of The Fiber Effect, has been a registered dietitian nutritionist for 27 years, specializing in heart disease, diabetes, sports nutrition and women's health.
For the past 13 years, she has focused on plant-based lifestyles through inspiring and educating people about plant-based eating to optimize their health and the health of the planet.
Nichole has been featured in Eating Well, Business Insider and Atlanta Journal Constitution. She is also a media spokesperson for The Weather Channel and local Atlanta television networks.
She shares her passion through her website Purely Planted. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband and rescue dog, Mariposa.
Grab her Free 5 Tasty and Simple-to-Make Plant-Based Dressings ebook here!
What is Fiber?
Fiber is a carbohydrate that is not digested by our body. We don't have enzymes to break down the fibrous components of plants, although chewing does help a bit. But overall, it moves through us undigested and whole.
There are two types, soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber becomes a gel like consistency when we eat it as it absorbs with water. Insoluble is more like roughage that moves through whole.
Why Do We Need Fiber?
Fiber is so important for our body. It impacts us both directly and indirectly. While many people think that fiber is there mainly for your digestive system, it does impact many other things as well.
What fiber does for your body
Soluble fiber helps lower cholesterol and control blood sugar and feeds healthy bacteria in the gut.
There is now newer research coming out that shows how fiber is the foundation for gut health. Gut health is being linked to many things, from digestion to mental health and moods.
Fiber helps lower cholesterol by decreasing the absorption of bad cholesterol and pulling some of it out of our system.
Also helps keep inflammation down by feeding bacteria in our gut and diversifying it. This keeps inflammation down both short term and long term, which helps prevent lifestyle diseases like heart disease, diabetes and also manage weight.
This can also help indirectly by preventing types of dementia and cancers.
Insoluble fiber helps to clear our toxins and carcinogens out of our body and pulls water into the large intestine and colon which helps you poop.
What Happens if You Don’t Get Enough Fiber?
Most of the population are not getting enough fiber, in fact more than 95% are not getting what they need. Women are supposed to get a minimum of 25 grams a day and men 38 grams. This is based on fiber's role in the prevention of heart disease.
When your body isn't getting enough fiber, it can't function
ConstipationStomach painsHeadachesBlood sugar swingsMood swingsCraving carbohydratesNot feeling satisfied with mealsOvereating leading to weight gainNot sleeping well
Sources of Fiber
Whole foods are the best source of getting fiber. You cannot get fiber in animal products. When making any change in your diet, especially with upping your fiber, make sure to up it slowly to minimize GI discomfort.
There are different types of fiber, so eating a variety of foods is important. Some foods that contain fiber are:
Beans (lentils, black beans, pinto beans, etc)Leafy greensWhole grains (brown rice, farro, quinoa, buckwheat, etc)Chia seedsFlaxmeal
Also make sure to drink plenty of water when you are eating lots of fiber!
While supplements can also be helpful, using whole foods to get fiber is best because with supplements you aren't getting the other healing benefits like the phytonutrients that come with fiber.
Is there a connection between diet and menopause? There is a lot we can do as women while we go through this big change in our life!
Join us today as we chat with a triple board satisfied OBGYN all about menopause and how we can tackle this time in our life to make it through in the best way possible!
Having been through menopause myself (I was an early adopter yay me LOL!), this topic is such an important discussion to have. Learning the tools to navigate menopause in a way that works for you is the best thing you can do!
Dr. Anna Cabeca, DO, OBGYN, FACOG, is triple-board certified and a fellow of gynecology and obstetrics, integrative medicine, and anti-aging and regenerative medicine. She has special certifications in functional medicine, sexual health, and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
For the past 20 years, she’s served 10,000+ women in her private practice— and millions more through her books, online videos and articles.
When her own health took a troubling turn during menopause, she sought out the wisdom of healers around the world. She learned that modern medicine and time-tested natural remedies are not at odds. Working together, they create indisputable results and true well being. Using delicious, healing foods and simple lifestyle changes, Dr. Anna reclaimed her health and life.
Fueled by her belief that every woman deserves to be empowered and in control of their health and life, she developed the Keto-Green lifestyle, which has helped thousands of women opt out of menopause misery and experience a joyful transition to the next stage of their lives. With her methods, you, too, can breeze through menopause into your “second spring”, feeling the best you ever have.
What is Menopause?
While many think menopause is a period of time, it actually isn't. Menopause is the actual day that is 12 months from your last period.
There are different stages you go through around the day of menopause, these are known as peri menopause and post menopause.
This is a time of neuroendocrine vulnerability, your glucose uptake increase and your progesterone plummets. This can begin as early as our mid 30's and comes with a multitude of symptoms.
Symptoms
The symptoms during the stages of menopause can vary from person to person and in severity. Because we are all different, we can't pinpoint the exact things we will go through, but here are some common signs:
hot flashesmood swings, depression and anxietyweight gainsleep disturbances and insomniairregular menstrual cycleschanges in hormones as seen through blood work
Stages of Menopause
As we said, the actual name menopause is the day that lies 12 months since your last period. Here are the stages that lie before and after that day:
Pre menopause- this is the period before any symptoms of peri menopause begin. This is the time of main reproductive years for women.
Peri menopause- this is the period of time when you are experience menopausal symptoms. It can be anything mentioned above and on average starts anywhere between 35-55.
Menopause- the day that is exactly 12 months from your last period.
Post menopause- this is the period of time after the day of menopause.
However this all can be tricky because the terminology needs some work. For example, what happens when you've had a hysterectomy? Are you in post menopause even though you haven't naturally entered that stage? More work needs to be done in this area.
How long does menopause last?
The main stage of menopause, which is peri menopause, can last anywhere from 5-15 years.
This again can vary from woman to woman.
What Is the Best Diet for Menopausal Women?
There are a lot of opinions when it comes to women and menopause, especially in the diet area. But according to Dr. Anna and the work she has done, she treats her patients with a keto green diet.
This consists of:
dark green leafy greensno sugarlow carbohydratesfoods t...
Learning how to go dairy free in an easy and doable way is an important part of your success! It doesn't have to be hard or stressful!
There are many ways to love your dairy free diet, whether it's by choice or need going dairy free can be just as delicious.
I don't have the best relationship with dairy. While I am not allergic, my body doesn't love dairy. That being said, I am really picky with my dairy free alternatives. So if I don't find something that tastes great, I won't eat it!
I can't say I am totally dairy free, because if I want something and I don't have a great dairy free version as an option, I will still eat the dairy. But I try and do as dairy free as possible.
If going dairy free is something you're looking to move towards, you can do it! There are lots of options, both store bought and homemade, to make your transition delicious.
What is Dairy?
Dairy is any food that is made of the milk products from an animal. There are many animals that produce milk, cow, sheep, goat are the most common. But there are other countries that use the milk from many other animals.
Foods that have dairy
There are many foods that contain dairy. Milk, yogurt, butter, cream, cheese, kefir and ice cream are some common ones. But milk can be hidden in many other foods so you have to be careful if you cannot eat it.
Knowing the alternative names of dairy is important as there are many you probably wouldn't recognize. Some of the names for ingredients that are considered dairy but don't have the common names listed above are:
caramel colorcaseincaseinatescurdscustardgalactosegheehalf and halfhydrolysateskoumisslactalbuminlactate solidslactitol monohydratelactoglobulinlactoselactuloselactyc yeastNisin preparationnougatpaneerpuddingquarkrecaldentrennetsherbetsimplessewhey
Is Dairy Bad for You?
Some people can tolerate dairy better than others. But just because you can tolerate it, doesn't mean you should be eating it as part of your regular diet.
While I advocate for balance, and I don't think that eating dairy once in a while is a big deal (unless of course you can't tolerate it or have an allergy), it should be something you eat in small amounts.
Dairy is the leading source of saturated fat in foods. Saturated fat contributes to chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease and can increase your risk to things like high cholesterol and cancer.
Dairy can also cause side effects for some people, for me especially I see it affect my skin. Whenever I eat dairy, I always have breakouts.
How Long Does It Take To Get Dairy Out of Your System?
Everyone's bodies are different. When trying to transition away from dairy, it takes months for you to see the full effects. But some sources say that after 2-3 weeks you can feel better with the effects of dairy making their way out.
How Do I Transition to a Dairy Free Diet?
Any time you make a change in something you are used to doing it will be difficult. This is because our daily habits are set in our life and we don't have to think hard about them.
So changing those will take some brain power which takes more of our energy. But this doesn't mean that you can't make it easier, and one day the new habits will take over!
Here are my tips for making the transition to a dairy free life easier:
Start slow. This isn't a race and no one gets a trophy. Begin with foods you love most and find alternatives for those.Transition one food at a time over. No need to do a huge overhaul all at once. Look for store bought versions to start to make it easy, then you can start making your own if you prefer.If something doesn't taste good to you, don't eat it. You won't last with things you don't like.Have fun with it! Life is too short to be stressed!
Best Dairy Free Brands
I am really picky when it comes to my dairy free products. I often make a lot of things, like my vegan ranch dressing,
Many people want to know what a raw food diet is and how it differs from a traditional vegan diet. Our guest today is an expert on all things raw and is dishing out all the facts!
It can get confusing keeping it all straight, and with so much information online it's hard to separate the real info. So we are making it easy!
When it comes to deciding what way of eating is best for you, having up to date information you can trust is important.
At the age of 28, Russell took a life-changing trip to Koh Samui, Thailand to clear up the acne that had plagued him for years. It was there he discovered raw food.
Russell’s mission is to make raw food accessible every day. Whether it’s raw sandwiches or show-stopping dinner parties, your meals can be amazingly healthy.
Today, Russell has had the pleasure of teaching raw food to thousands of people worldwide. Students have learned through his livestreams and online courses at therawchef.com.
Russell also shows other wellness entrepreneurs how to build an audience for their online programs at shareyourwellness.com
Join his FREE recipe of the week club here!
Definition of a Raw Food Diet
A raw food diet focuses on food that is in it's raw state or cooked below 116 degrees Fahrenheit (although that exact number can change depending on who you ask). 116 degress is the temperature that food tends to lose the most delicate of it's enzymes.
Raw chefs use different ingredients that are in their natural state or dehydrated in a dehydrator. With this they can create all types of recipes, from food like pizza, crackers and even bread.
Sauces can also be made in raw form. The secret is using alternative methods like thickening with other raw foods (like sun dried tomatoes for a tomato sauce or cashews for a dip or dressing). Making things like crackers or pizza tortillas requires you to slowly crisp these foods in a dehydrator. It simply just takes longer.
The Theory Behind a Raw Food Diet
As we said before, food tends to lose it's enzymes at around 116 degrees Fahrenheit. So theories behind raw foods diets say that to get the most out of foods you want to keep the enzymes.
While not necessarily backed by science, theorists saw our body has enzyme bank account and if you eat food with all it's enzymes in it, you don't deplete them from you enzyme bank account which allows your body to be in it's best state.
Others will say that enzymes don't make it through stomach acid anyway so it doesn't make a difference. The bottom line is that you need to try and see what works for you.
Everyone needs to do their own research. If you eat something and it makes you feel good, then do it.
Is a Raw Food Diet Healthy?
Whether or now a raw food diet is the best for you depends on your individual body. You need to listen to your body and what works for it. Some people can't digest things that other people can, so while eating some raw food can make you feel amazing, others may not.
Ethically, you can't say a raw diet will solve all problems. What works for one person may not work for another. That being said, raw fruit and vegetables is filled with nutrients that our body loves and needs to function.
Nutritional deficiencies take a long time to show up, so it's hard to base how healthy a raw food diet is on that fact alone.
You also need to think about what satiates you, whether you can feel satisfied with simply fruits and vegetables or if you need other types of foods is purely an individual issue.
Examples of Raw Foods
You'd be surprised how many things you already eat that are raw! Here are some examples of raw food and also raw ingredients you can put together to make something:
JuicesSmoothiesGranola made in a dehydratorChia seed puddingOats (are steamed to preserve shelf life but ok when you are just starting)Nut milksSaladsDairy free cheeses made from raw nutsDressings like my vegan ranch Make a raw "meat" like this one fr...
Having a healthy relationship with food is so important for our mental health, but it also affects our physical health. Tune in to hear our guest expert, a board certified pediatrician, share strategies and tips to keep you feeling amazing!
Keeping a positive food relationship when you are trying to make dietary changes can be challenging, even when you are trying to eat a more plant-based diet. The online diet world is tough to navigate so leaning on experts to guide the way is really important!
Dr. Yami is a board-certified pediatrician, certified lifestyle medicine physician, national board-certified health and wellness coach, author and international speaker. She is a passionate promoter of healthy lifestyles, especially the power of plant-based diets for the prevention of chronic disease.
She founded VeggieFitKids.com where she provides information on plant-based diets for children. She also hosts the popular podcast Veggie Doctor Radio which boasts listeners from 96 countries and nearly half a million downloads to date.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, has a certificate in plant-based nutrition and is a certified Food for Life Instructor.
Dr. Yami owns Nourish Wellness, a pediatric micro-practice in Yakima, Washington where she lives with her husband and two active sons.
Her book is called “A Parent’s Guide to Intuitive Eating: How to Raise Kids Who Love to Eat Healthy”. You can learn more about Dr. Yami at DoctorYami.com and grab some of her free resources here!
Definition of a Healthy Food Relationship
While the meaning of a healthy relationship with food will be different for each person, it's really important that we strive towards having one. According to Dr. Yami, her healthy relationship with food is defined as:
One the supports health and well-being and fuels the body but also fits into ones lifestyle, culture, brings pleasure and is never associated with judgement, guilt or shame.
The journey and end result may morph and change as we go through life, but the main thing to focus on is that you are moving forward and not falling into traps that diet culture can bring.
Why a Healthy Food Relationship is Important
In the US, 70% of children's calories come from ultra processed foods. Let that sink in a bit. Offering a diet rich in all the nutrients is so important for a child's growing body. And doing so in a way that helps guide them into a healthy food relationship is just as important.
By the age of 5 children have already unlearned tuning into their bodies. This is due to many things, but parents trying to get their children to eat more, finish their meal, clean their plates, etc is a big contributer.
If we don't give our children opportunities to be in tune with their own body cues with relation to food is very damaging. They won't be able to tell when they are hungry, full, or even honor their body's cravings (which can be a signal they need a certain nutrient).
If children don't have these self help skills when they become adults, it can lead to a range of disordered eating. Which then moves from generation to generation.
However, if we help guide our children when it comes to food, we allow them to become adults with a positive relationship to food.
What Causes a Bad Relationship with Food?
There are many reasons why one would create a negative relationship with food. It generally stems from the past and their experiences.
One reason could be family environment, meaning how their family growing up viewed food and handled eating. It could be comments about appearance, weight, eating habits, etc.
For example, telling our kids that we can't eat birthday cake, ice cream or candy can trigger a false fear surrounding that food. This restricting of certain foods can affect the brain and trigger binging when they come into contact with that food again.
While there are many things wrong with diet culture, a major issue is its effect on foodways and how it influences people into thinking the food from their culture may be deemed bad or wrong.
There is no reason (other than a medical one) why you can't eat a food that is part of you and your culture. Just because our diet world likes to demonize certain foods, it doesn't mean it's right.
Listen in to hear more about why this shouldn't happen and how to eat what makes you feel good while including all the foods you love!
Dalina Soto MA, RD, LDN is a Spanish speaking registered dietitian. Dalina works as one of the few Spanish speaking RDs in the Philadelphia area and virtually across the country, teaching her clients how to ditch the diet mentality and keep their culture alive.
Check out her Free Workshop: 3 Ways to Ditch Diets!
What are Foodways?
When we talk about foodways we mean what, how and why people eat as related to their culture or traditions. It isn't just about the actual food people eat but also about the reasons behind it, how it gets prepared, etc.
Foodways encompasses the social, cultural and economic practices behind a person or groups of persons food.
How Diet Culture Affects Foodways and Traditions
Much of the science based training behind food (and diet culture), and how food affects health, is based on Eurocentric research (much like the history of BMI).
This research doesn't include people in different countries, so how can we apply this science worldwide? We all know that even people within one culture are different in their bodies, the way they react to certain foods, what they can handle, etc. But yet, we apple the same science to them and to people in all different cultures.
Instead of digging deeper and expanding our research, we apply stereotypes to all. The United States is a melting pot of cultures, it's the foundation of our country. So it's time to start being more culturally aware in many areas, especially when it comes to health and wellness.
It is time to update the science to include things like social determinants of health, not just how food and exercise relate to our bodies.
How to Eat and Keep Your Foodways
One of the main things we need to start focusing on is the mental health aspect behind how we look at food. We need to move away from the diet culture message of what is "right" or "wrong" and away from extremes.
Extremes sell, middle grounds do not. This is why we see extremes in main stream media and social media. But extremes also cause issues with our mental health, so it's up to us to control what we consume.
There is a hierarchy of needs when it comes to our wellbeing: shelter and money are first. Then we can talk about nutrition. However, we often are made to feel like nutrition comes first and if you don't have the means then you are SOL (shit out of luck!).
This is far from the truth. The sooner we can start using that hierarchy to help others guide their wellness, the more success we will have.
First, start with reducing stress. Move away from what diet culture says you can and can't have. Honor what you have access to, and what you eat culturally. White rice is a great carbohydrate, and we need carbohydrates for energy. If you like it eat it, if you like brown rice, eat that. Both will provide carbohydrates.
Try frozen and canned produce. Did you know that produce meant for freezing and canning is picked at peek ripeness? It's a great option for people!
Take the fear away from what is sold as scary. A lot of the fear mongering behind foods isn't based on real data. It's base is sales in nature and while it can have success in making the sale, it wreaks havoc to our mental health.
The bottom line is you get to choose, you don't have to do something that doesn't feel right. Once we can give the education to those that need it, it's up to them to use what they learn to make decisions for what they ...
With all the info out there, it is hard to know what the best vegan, cruelty-free and clean skincare products are. But our guest today is an industry expert and is sharing all the info we need to choose the best products!
Taking care of our skin is so important. It's the largest organ we have! And nothing feels better than high quality products that are good for your body and actually work. Which is why I always turn to OSEA Malibu for all my skin care needs!
Use my link above and code veggies10 for 10% off your first order!
OSEA began in Jenefer’s kitchen sink after a decade working as Spa Director at the historic Murrieta Hot Springs. Paired with her training in various healing modalities including Polarity Therapy, Acupressure, Shiatsu and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Jenefer was a thought leader in the burgeoning wellness space.
Her desire to create active, vegan and clean skincare was revolutionary and what began as a personal passion soon evolved into a fully-fledged beauty brand, manifesting the seed of her idea into reality.
What Does Clean Mean in Skincare?
The term clean skincare doesn't have one set definition because it is not regulated by the government, so it is up to each brand to define what clean skincare means to them.
In general, clean skincare uses products that are from the earth, sustainable and do not contain synthetic chemicals. They are often also vegan and cruelty-free.
OSEA products focus on marine based elements. Most of their products are seaweed based.
What Is the Difference Between Vegan and Cruelty-Free?
When you look at a clean skincare brand, you often also see the labels vegan and cruelty-free. While these most often, and should, go hand in hand, they don't mean the same thing.
Vegan means that they do not contain any animal products in the product itself. While cruelty-free means that the products are not tested on animals.
Products can be cruelty-free but not vegan. But vegan products are also cruelty-free because vegan means that no animals were used at any point in making the product.
Are Vegan, Cruelty-Free and Clean Skincare Products Best?
Everyone has their own opinion on what products they believe are best. But over here, we focus on vegan, cruelty-free and clean skincare brands. They are more sustainable than those that use synthetic chemicals because they use ingredients from the earth.
Typically, clean skincare tends to give people less of a reaction when using them. This is mostly because they don't contain synthetic chemicals and focus on earth based ingredients, however someone can react to ingredients from the earth as well.
Reducing synthetically derived chemicals also makes it so that products can work with so many different skin types. Often times a person who thinks they have sensitive skin finds out it was just the chemicals they were reacting to and their skin is not that sensitive.
Also, clean skincare tends to have sustainable packaging which is also another way to help the earth. OSEA for example packages their products in glass packaging.
A vegan plant-based life is overall the most sustainable way for us to live, there is so much to choose from when it comes from earth!
Ingredients in Clean Skincare Products
Most clean skincare brands use ingredients from the earth.
OSEA stands for Ocean, Sun, Earth and Atmosphere. But they mostly focus on marine based ingredients. Most of their products use seaweed as a base, and some use essential oils.
Seaweed is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that are all amazing for your skin.
Essential oils are another main ingredient used for clean skincare. They come from plants and capture the plants scent.
How Do I Get a Clean Skincare Routine?
First you need to find a product you love. OSEA is my go to!
You also need to be consistent. You can't make progress on anything until you establish a good consistency.
If you're looking for info on how to start a vegan diet, you've come to the right place! Our expert guest is sharing all her best tips and tricks to make it easy and seamless!
Change can be hard, but when you take it slow and commit to learning all you need to know it can be a lot easier than you think. Focusing on what works for you is most important!
Having the info you need to make a change is also very important. We only know what we know!
Monique Koch started her vegan journey in April 2010 because it was a way for her to protest animal & human exploitation, preserve the planet, and improve her health.
Her purpose is to help everyday people learn about the benefits of vegan life with tips, recipes, and encouragement.
After struggling to find easy recipes with accessible ingredients, she decided to start my YouTube channel to share all the creations she was making for herself and her family.
A few years later, she started her podcast to have candid conversations with other vegans (especially other Black vegans) to inspire veganism in the Black community.
Monique believes in “progression over perfection” and this compassionate approach gives everyday people the support they need to stay vegan for life.
Make sure to pick up her free vegan starter kit!
What Is a Vegan Diet?
A vegan diet means you do not eat any products with animals. Veganism as a whole is not just about food though, it actually means that you live a life without any animal products.
Things like leather, wool and even animal products in make up are things vegan people don't use. When the focus is purely on the diet part, it's more accurate to say you eat a plant-based diet.
How Do I Start Going Vegan?
The most important thing to start with is asking yourself why you want to do it in the first place. Is it health? The environment? Animals? There is no wrong answer, only the answer that resonates with you.
As time goes on, you will go through moments that you really need to lean on your why. And your why may change! You need to make the decision for yourself because there is so much power in committing to something you really want!
A great place to start is veganizing your favorite meals, this will give you something familiar that you can still eat.
Focus on what you can eat and not what you can't eat. While many people think that you are eliminating so much, you are in fact adding in so much! There are so many new foods you will be exposed to and try that you may love.
What Should a Beginner Vegan Eat?
Other than focusing on finding vegan versions of your favorite meals, here are some ideas of simple meals you can make. The key is to keep it simple, eat things you love and making sure you are getting all your nutrients. Here are some ideas:
Pasta: Use your favorite sauce or find plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy to make your favorite recipe.Smoothies: A great breakfast or snack and very easy to customize and add your favorite flavors.Soups: There are many options that are vegan, and you can even make your favorite non vegan soups using veggie broth instead of chicken or beef broth and adding veggies or meat alternatives.Find vegan versions of any staples you love like eggs, meat, cheese, ice cream, etc.
Tips for Success
The key to making a vegan diet part of your lifestyle is finding tips that work for long term success. Here are some ideas:
Just because you try one hting you don't like don't give up because there are so many options and other ways to make something you love. This applies to store bought things like cheese or recipes you try to make.Be open minded to try and try again. All things take trial and error, you need to give yourself grace! Start small, it doesn't have to happen over night. Change takes time and there is nothing wrong with that.It's not a one size fits all support. We are all different humans so we can't expect a change like eating a vegan diet ...
The controversy between organic foods being healthier than conventional is ongoing. But what are the facts? Are organic foods healthier for you?
I get this question often. I am unpacking all the details, and sharing my personal opinion about what organic means and making the choice to buy organic.
Organic labels can often be used to spike prices and this is where food inequality comes into play. So does that make health overall an unreachable goal as well? This seems to be a common misconception.
What Does Organic Mean?
Some trains of thought out there say that organic food is no different than conventional food. That it's basically a farce and a sales tactic.
While it can be used to hike prices, there actually is a difference with organically grown food. You can learn more about the details of organic farming in my post all about organic farming, but here are a few key points:
If a farm grows conventional produce, it takes 3 years before it can sell it's produce as organic.Organic farmers focus more on the roots of the plants versus the end product, therefore they need to be more proactive and always stay steps ahead in order to catch an issue before it affects growth.The longer a farm is organic, the richer the soil is because organic farming has a mutually beneficial relationship with the earth as it gives to the soil as the soil gives back to the plants.Organic farmers have an approved list of substances they can use to treat issues that come up, however before they are allowed to use them they must show they tried physical, biological and mechanical solutions first.It takes a lot of time, effort and money to become certified organic so not all farms can make that happen.
Why Is Organic Food So Much More Expensive?
There is definitely a price difference between buying organic food and buying conventional. The main reason is that it costs the farms more money to grow organic food.
While some brands may take advantage of this and hike prices even higher, most simply want to make a living!
Do We Need Organic to Be Healthy?
Overall, you get the same nutrients from conventional produce than organic produce. So on the nutrient level, there is no difference. However you do get less exposure to pesticides with organic produce.
The question remains, does that exposure matter? Does it affect your health and cause issues long term? There isn't a hard and fast answer to this. Studies are not conclusive, even those that show a connection to pesticide exposure and health issues cannot be fully validated because people that tend to buy organic also tend to have healthier overall life styles and access to more health support.
While a person can have allergies to certain chemicals found on conventional produce, this doesn't apply to everyone.
The main overall advice is you should first focus on eating fruits and vegetables. The nutrients you gain far outweigh any risks of conventional produce. Then, if it's affordable and you want to eat organic, do so.
Washing your produce and removing the outer leaves can even remove most of the pesticides used. Some also focus on only buying produce that is known to have higher levels of pesticides organic (such as celery, apples, grapes, tomatoes, strawberries and spinach) and don't worry about the rest.
Benefits of Eating Organic
There are benefits to eating organic when it is affordable and accessible. These benefits are not only focused on you but also the environment and community:
Organic practices give back to the earth so it helps keep the soil rich and better for the animals living around the soil.Organic farms need to try many methods before they are allowed to use chemicals from an approved list so there are less pesticides in the food.Not always, but some organic produce is fresher due to lack of preservatives and since some come from small farms closer to where the produce is sold.
Many health professionals use BMI to judge health and wellness, but is BMI accurate? Learn what we should actually use and what we need to know to make sure we are at optimal health!
Overall wellness is guided by many things, and while weight can be important it isn't necessarily indicative of where we are in our health.
As a country we are weight obsessed, this can lead us to having issues with our mental wellness. Which in turn can affect our overall health.
Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life. Alissa is passionate about advocating for people to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically.
She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive nutrition practice that offers virtual counseling and online programs to help people liberate themselves from dieting, cultivate a peaceful relationship to food and their bodies, and live a more authentic, connected life.
Her expertise has been featured in hundreds of media outlets and she speaks regularly at events, online trainings, and conferences around the country. She calls New York City home and spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene and searching for patches of green space to sunbathe in.
Grab her FREE 5 step guide here!
What is BMI?
BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is a ratio between a persons weight and height.
It is used to categorized people into groups of underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese
So many health professionals use this to evaluate and diagnose health.
How is BMI calculated?
The BMI equation takes a person's weight in kilograms and divides it by the person's height in meters squared.
History of BMI
A man named Adolphe Quetelet developed what was called the Quetelet index in the early 1800's. He was not a medical practitioner, but in fact was a mathematician, astronomer, statistician, sociologist and a eugenicist and had no interest in health.
Adolphe developed this equation to study population models. The data that he used to develop the equation and the categories were taken from white European groups that were mostly male. Which shows how skewed it is.
Meanwhile life insurance companies in the US needed metrics to determine their rates and began using these height and weight tables. Which again were developed using mainly white wealthy men.
Their tables showed higher rate of death for overweight people, and even though later on studies showed the opposite, that they had a lower risk, they never changed it.
Then a researcher in the 1970's was trying to find a different way to evaluate body mass, and he proposed using the Quetelet index which eventually became the body mass index and started being used by health professionals and researchers.
Accuracy of BMI
BMI is not a good indication of whether you are healthy or not healthy. It is simply a plugin of numbers.
It's easy to change categories within the span of your life by small gains or losses in weight due to differences in the stage of life or season of life you are in.
It is also found that when weight related feedback is given to people, they are less likely to make long term health changes.
A study done a few years ago (of about 40,000 people) found that almost 50% of people categorized in the overweight category and 30% in the obese category were all metabolically healthy. This means that all their numbers like blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, etc was normal.
Also about 30% of people in normal category were found to be metabolically unhealthy.
Another issue is that the differences between the BMI categories are largely arbitrary. If you zoom out and look at the bigger picture you can see that a jump in category may not be that big of a jump in the weight...
When it comes to enjoying food it's important to know what overeating is versus feeling full from enjoyment. Our expert today clears it all up so we can learn to enjoy food when we want!
It's so important to know the difference in order to live a lifestyle with both our mental and physical wellness in mind.
I love food and I love eating! It's not bad to feel overly full from time to time when we are enjoying the food we eat. We need to learn to trust our body to do what it needs to do instead of punish ourselves.
Healthy Emmie is a plant-based nutritionist and founder of the Slim on Starch Program. She has helped thousands of people make massive changes to their lives and build a positive mindset around food and health for long-term weight loss. You can learn more at HealthyEmmie.org.
Get her FREE one day meal plan here!
Difference Between Overeating and Being Full
Being hungry or full are not mutually exclusive. The hungry and full feelings are more of a spectrum that individual feelings. On one end you have the you are so hungry you may faint feeling and on the other end you have you are bursting full.
So you can be anywhere along that spectrum throughout the day.
Overeating means that you are ignoring the signals of your body that it's had too much and you keep eating anyway. You can feel full after overeating and be extremely uncomfortable, but you can also feel amply full and not in pain.
Emotions and Overeating
There are many emotions related to food. We gather to eat with those we love through parties and celebrations and holidays. For some people, food also plays a role in comfort.
The food we eat has calories and calories give us dopamine. The more calories a food has, the more dopamine we get. This is why cookies taste better than carrots because they have more calories.
Dopamine is the motivation chemical, it's a survival mechanism. So whenever we do something that promotes our survival we release dopamine. Things like eating, sleeping, sex...these are all linked to our survival.
When we are trying to get that good feeling, it's often we turn to food, and mostly food with those high calorie levels since those have more dopamine. And the more dopamine we get, the more we self soothe.
We are all different when it comes to our emotions and food and it's important to look at the big picture to see why someone may be turning to food and why overeating is occurring.
How Many Calories Are Considered Overeating?
There isn't one set amount of calories that we use for qualifying overeating. It really all depends on each person, their own body (not just body size but how it functions) and how much they are taking in and using.
So focusing on calorie numbers isn't the best approach. If we focus less on numbers and more on feeling, we can better address the issue.
Another factor is exactly what someone is eating. This is because certain foods will help satiate you better than others. Foods with fiber, fat and protein can help you feel full longer so someone eating these may feel more full than someone eating foods without them.
Signs You Are Overeating
First and foremost, always listen to your body. The main reason behind overeating is a disagreement between what your mind is telling you and what your body is telling you. The signs are both physical and mental. Here are some things you may be experiencing:
Sharp painOverall discomfortRemorse and desire to undo what has just been doneRestricting the next dayBeing caught in a cycle between overeating and extreme restriction
How to Stop Overeating
Many people think the issue is the binging, when in fact it's actually the restriction that is the main issue. So if we focus less on the overeating part and more on avoiding restriction, it can help stop the cycle better.
Here are some things you can do to stop overeating:
Follow a drip system eating where you eat every 2-3 hours.
Learn how to lower cholesterol with diet changes as our expert guest takes us through all we need to know to live a healthier and happier life!
Overall wellness depends on so many things, but preventing and dealing with chronic disease is an important one.
Veggies Don't Bite started due to wanting to help improve my husbands heart health and high cholesterol played a role. As we moved to a more plant rich diet we saw dramatic improvements!
Ashley Reaver, MS, RD, CSSD is a registered dietitian with a Master's degree in Nutritional Sciences from Tufts University and an undergraduate degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Cornell University.
Utilizing her years of work experience in clinical nutrition, outpatient counseling, personalized blood analytics, and education, she developed a program to help individuals lower their cholesterol naturally.
In addition to the course, Ashley sees clients in her private practice in Oakland, CA and teaches nutrition and dietetics courses at University of California, Berkeley. Find her on Instagram @lower.cholesterol.nutrition.
Sign up for her FREE class on how to lower cholesterol!
What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is an important compound that our body creates, it is a type of fat that is in the body. All animals create cholesterol.
It is in every single cell in our body. It is part of the membrane, which is the outer layer. We use it to make sex hormones, it goes into our stress hormones, use it to make vitamin D, and use it as a digestive compound to help us break down fats.
95 million adults have what is considered high cholesterol. However, total cholesterol isn't the thing we need to focus on but instead we need to look at the parts that make up high cholesterol.
What is considered high cholesterol?
Cholesterol numbers are combo of High Density Lipoprotein or HDL (known as good cholesterol), Low Density Lipoprotein or LDL (known as bad cholesterol) and triglycerides. Total levels are considered high if they are above 200, but again the combo of the three parts are more important.
LDL is considered high if it is above 130, but is best less than 100. If you have too much LDL for too long it can become dangerous and can cause the build up of plaque in our arteries which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
For HDL, ideally you want it above 50 for men and above 60 for women. If you have more LDL you want more HDL to pick it up and bring it to the liver and repurpose it as something that won't cause damage to your body. HDL can act as an antioxidant preventing LDL from becoming dangerous.
With triglycerides you also want lower levels. It is the primary form of fat in our body, and also 95% of fats that we eat. Our body stores excess energy in the form triglycerides, so that we have extra to use. That is why you can see them circling around in our blood in a blood test.
The reason the total cholesterol numbers can be deceiving is that you can hav high LDL and low HDL but the total numbers can still be below that 200 threshold but overall still not good.
On the other hand you can also have high HDL and low LDL but still be over that 200 mark and be considered high when in reality you are still good.
Also, depending on what is high or low will depend on what you want to do to help as far as nutrition changes and other support.
Why Does Diet Matter?
Cholesterol is made by our body from anything that provides us calories. If you are eating excess calories that you don't utilize, that surplus can lead to a higher production of cholesterol.
However if you are not eating an excess amount of calories, then restricting calories to lose body weight will not have an impact on cholesterol. Unfortunately many doctors tell people to lose weight as a strategy but that may or may not be the issue.
Nutrients we take in when we are eating protein, fat and carbohydrates can impact how long that cholesterol stays in the body.
Diet culture and the social media world is in a constant battle of what "diet" is best, fastest, the answer to all your problems. But in reality, it's an overall healthy balanced diet that wins.
When we set out to better our health, it's easy to fall victim to the diet world and the stringent rules that these diets place upon us. However time and time again, studies show that diets don't work.
Why Do Diets Fail?
The focus with eating should be on an overall lifestyle and habits. It's not about one meal, or even one season. Life changes, it brings ups and downs, crazy non stop and more calm days.
In order to get through, we need to let go a little and realize it's about what we do as a whole, not about one specific moment.
Putting rules on your eating, especially those that make you cut out things you love, will only cause you to crave them more and can end up in binging.
This is why we don't put rules on what we eat, and don't like to label ourselves. While we do focus on a plant rich diet, we also allow things we crave and love. Hence, balance.
A big reason that diets fail is that they don't focus on creating life long habits. The focus on results within a certain set of restrictions, but if those restrictions aren't how you want to live your life forever, then eventually you go back to what you enjoy.
What is a Healthy Balanced Diet
This term can mean something different to everyone. Which is another reason why we need to step away from stringent rules.
To us, this means that our foods consist of plant rich options, including all the macronutrients (fat, carbs and protein) but also allows for things we love that may or may not be nutrient rich.
I really like to listen to my body when it comes to food. If I focus on being present and purposeful, I am able to eat what it is I crave, which leaves me feeling satisfied.
One Size Fits All Doesn't Works
What one person may need is not necessarily what another person needs. Sure, we all can benefit from plant rich diets. However there is space for other foods.
My husband for instance cannot do any, or very little, animal based products in order to feel his best. His heart is affected quickly and his body just doesn't process them well.
I on the other hand cannot do any gluten. My body hates it and I immediately feel the inflammation all over.
So when we go out, I focus on avoiding one thing and he focuses on avoiding the other.
Balance is Key
So the main thing we decided to focus on was balance. Avoid what you know affects you negatively and then let go of the rest.
This also plays a huge role in our mental health. While some people may not have the mental health piece, we do. So avoiding rules and labels allows us to be at our best both physically and mentally.
This is the key to wellness. When your mental health is in balance you are able to reduce stress and approach any stress that comes your way without wreaking havoc in your body.
People tend to forget this part of wellness when focusing in diets and placing rules on themselves. While following a diet may help you achieve things like weight loss goals, the mental health toll and rise of stress will eventually counteract all that.
Follow Advice From Qualified Professionals
My number one piece of advice I can give, is follow the advice of those that are qualified to give it. There are so many people online that try to sell things, advise others and get you to believe what they preach is the answer.
I am not a medical doctor, I am not a dietician. I am an educator with a Master degree in education, and an undergraduate bachelors degree in psychology and biology.
I am qualified to teach you how to create amazing gluten-free and plant-based recipes. I can teach you how to make it simple and create meal systems that work.
However I cannot tell you what food does or doesn't work for your specific body.
Many people don't think about food racism, but the diet world can be a big contributor to making what we buy and how we eat a classist issue.
As we scour the online world for recipes under whatever diet we follow, it's easy to assume that everyone has access to the ingredients so often found. But what happens to people that struggle to obtain those foods?
Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN of Brooklyn-based Maya Feller Nutrition is a registered dietitian nutritionist, nationally recognized nutrition expert and adjunct professor at New York University. In her practice, she provides medical nutrition therapy for the management of and risk reduction of non-communicable diseases.
Maya received her Masters of Science in clinical nutrition at New York University, where she is adjunct faculty. Whether addressing the nation or working one on one and with groups, Maya believes in providing nutrition education from an antibias patient-centered, culturally sensitive approach.
Maya is dedicated to promoting nutrition education that helps the public to make informed food choices that support health and longevity.
Maya shares her approachable, real food-based solutions to millions of people through regular speaking engagements, writing in local and national publications, via her social media account on Instagram, @mayafellerRD, and as a national nutrition expert on Good Morning America, GMA3: What You Need to Know and more. She is the author of The Southern Comfort Food Diabetes Cookbook: Over 100 Recipes for a Healthy Life.
Inequality in The Wellness Space
As a whole, the wellness space struggles when it comes to being a welcome and accessible space to all people. Because of the "look" portrayed, many don't feel represented and therefore they don't believe it is a space they belong in.
But we need to radicalize this space so that it feels more inclusive. This isn't easy as the issues run deep. A few things we can do to help make change are:
Share others in the wellness space that come from all cultures.Share accounts with people who range in size, ability and ethnicity.Recognize your implicit bias and when working with clients don't make assumptions about their diet based on their culture or size. Allow clients to be a part of the process from the beginning.Recognize that foods aren't bad and good, and all foods can have a place in someones diet if planned correctly.Open space to talk about things that may make you uncomfortable.
This issue is seen across diets, whether it's veganism or medical centered diet's like the Mediterranean and DASH diet. The research shows great gains when following these diets so at the core they are great, however they don't translate to race and ethnicity for people that don't eat in those ways.
The bottom line is that there is not just one path to health. There are many ways to reach health goals that can honor the person as a whole. It is possible to support a diagnosed condition with a diet that includes cultural foods.
Food Accessibility
When it comes to wellness, there is an underlying assumption that it needs to be expensive and fit a certain theme. But not only is this not true, it also doesn't recognize that not everyone has access to the same foods.
Depending on where someone lives, whether they have a car, what hours they work and many more other factors, being able to shop for, afford and even find things like fresh produce, specialty ingredients, grains, etc may not happen.
But there are ways to help clients and readers with food accessibility and make wellness more accessible:
Help share ways to look at food costs and determine where people can get the best deals.Encourage eating a combination of fresh foods and prepared foods, including those that are pre cut, canned or frozen to balance time and cost.Help make diet plans that will be sustainable long term.
Keeping social determinants of health in mind when sharing wellness ideas and pract...
It is hard to know how to deal with trauma when you're in the thick of it. Learning strategies you can easily put in place is key!
When we are struggling, it's hard to have the energy to come up with ideas on how to make it through. Which is why having these tools in our back pocket is so important.
Suzanne Falter is a podcaster and the author of multiple self-help titles including The Extremely Busy Woman’s Guide to Self-Care. She also hosts the ever popular Self-Care for Extremely Busy Women podcast and an active Facebook group.
Grab her How's Your Self-Care worksheet here!
What is Trauma?
According to the American Psychological Association, Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster. Trauma can have many forms and range in severity.
Nothing prepares you for traumatic events. It is really important to seek help to navigate life after a traumatic event.
The Stages of Trauma
After a traumatic event, we go through a similar set of stages as we process what happened. Here is a general idea of these stages:
Denial- you question the event and often can't believe it is happening.Anger- feelings of anger, getting upset and asking why this happened.Bargaining- making compromises and promises to do something if XYZ would just stop or go away.Depression- a feeling of doom, loneliness and sadness having to adjust to the truth of what happened.Acceptance- accepting the truth of what happened and starting the process to heal.
Best Ways to Navigate Trauma
With traumatic events comes a lot of emotional and some even physical feelings. Being able to move forward as these pass through you is hard but there are things you can do to help. Here are some ideas:
Read to learn more about the trauma or strategies to help.Be open and willing to make it into a transformational experience.Telling the truth about it, instead of pretending it didn't happen.Meditation or self care practice.Exercise or any movement of the body.Eat nutritious whole foods.Surround yourself by supportive people, family, friends and support groups.Find a way to get your feelings out, like writing or painting, etc.
Does Trauma Ever Go Away?
A traumatic event isn't something that will go away, but it can be navigated so that life can move on and even transform into a better place.
We must allow ourselves to feel each stage we pass through in order for healing to happen. Once we reach acceptance and let ourselves experience all the feelings we will be able to slowly move past them. While the pain maybe always be there in some respect, it can begin to fade.
Always remember that this is not to be taken as medical advice and you should always see a licensed professional for your mental health needs.
Having a baby and knowing about starting solids can be scary, confusing and overwhelming. Our guest today walks us through it all!
Caitlyn Edson is a pediatric registered dietitian specializing in infants, toddlers, and young children. She is sharing all the tips to help parents feel secure and confident to start feeding their baby!
She has a passion for helping people feed their families confidently in a way that feels manageable. Caitlyn works with families of children starting solids (particularly baby led weaning), picky eaters, those with growth struggles, youth athletes, and more!
Grab her free starting solids guide here!
Age to Start Solids
There are certain signs of readiness when it comes to starting solids. Here are the main ones:
Sit unassisted: not necessarily long periods of time but at least a couple seconds or in high chair being able to sit upright.Loss of tongue thrust reflex: when you put something into their mouth you don't want them to push it out of their mouth.Show interest in food: things like them watching you closely when you eat, grabbing for your food, etc.
Traditionally we used to start feeding at 4 months but current research shows these readiness skills happen closer to 6 months. But it really depends on the baby. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends closer to 6 months.
How to Start Feeding Your Baby
There are many correct ways to start feeding your baby, you need to do what works best and feels right for you and your family. While there are things you shouldn't do, like starting too young or feed foods that are not the right consistency for their stage, overall their really isn't a wrong way to get started.
There are two main avenues with starting solids:
Baby led weaning- the premise behind this feeding technique is infant self feeding, giving the baby real whole foods in a safe consistency. While some say you don't do purees at all with Baby Led Weaning, it isn't necessarily true. The idea is you want to get the infant to feed themselves. So you put the puree on the spoon and put it in their hand and they get it in their mouth.Puree feeding- starting with purees can mean making your own or buying premade foods. You can choose foods that are naturally soft like bananas, apple sauce, yogurt or you can create your own by cooking foods and blending them.
Before you start any feeding, it's a good idea to take a cpr class and learn the difference between gagging and choking because gagging is normal. You never want to stick your finger in a gagging baby's mouth because it can cause choking.
What Foods to Introduce First
Overall, you can really start with any foods you prefer. However there are a few things to avoid or think about:
Avoid allergens if you have a family history and your pediatrician recommends it. Avoid honey until they are 12 months old.Better to avoid added salt and sugar until they are older. Not only are their bodies not able to process it well, but the flavors are too strong for them.Things like meat can be hard for babies to eat due to the consistency so you may want to avoid it until they are older.
We use to say to start with rice cereal but that isn't necessarily the case. You can start with anything now!
Starting with softer foods is a good first step. Things like avocado and bananas, or cooked foods like apples, zucchini, sweet potatoes and squash.
You want to cut the foods into long thin strips when first starting because they use their 4 fingers to pick up and it's easier for them.
Once they hit 9-10 months old, they develop a pincer grasp where they are able to pick up smaller pieces.
How Much to Feed Per Meal
Babies are good at instinctively knowing how much to eat, but with new eaters you should start small. It can be overwhelming to have a plate loaded with food so putting a small amount on the plate will make it easier for them.
A teaspoon or a tablespoon of a food or one piec...
Throwing a vegan dinner party can be challenging and stressful. Listen in as our guest expert gives the tips and tricks for party success!
Everybody loves a good dinner party, but how do you make it work so you are not drained, stressed and ready to fall apart by the end of the night? We got your back with all you need to know!
Diana Goldman is a Vegan Caterer, Sierra Club Cooking Show Host and Plant-based Nutrition Educator based in Boston. She received a B.S. from Cornell University in Nutrition Science and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. Her blog Beantown Kitchen was awarded one of the top 100 plant-based blogs by Feedspot.
She loves sharing recipes on her YouTube Channel and Instagram. Sign up to receive a free Healthy Vegan Made Easy ebook on her website Beantown Kitchen.
How to Get Started
Sometimes the hardest part of taking something on is getting started. When it comes to having a dinner party, knowing all that you need to do in an easy step by step format can really help reduce the overwhelm. Here are the basics to get you going:
Find a date.Decide who your guests will be, make sure to take note of kids versus adults.Find out if there are any allergies, dislikes etc with your guests.Decide location, where and also if you will be inside or outside.Plan a theme and menu.
Accommodating All Dietary Needs
There are so many recipes available for us to use for free, so we shouldn't be stopped when we need to accommodate allergies or other foods our guests need or prefer to avoid.
All you need to do is search online and look in cookbooks you have. Google, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook are all great for finding recipes for every diet.
Sometimes the cuisine can guide us too. For example Indian and Thai cuisine use coconut for creaminess so can help if you have a guest that is nut free but can have coconut. While Italian cuisine tends to have a lot of cheese and vegan cheeses are often made from nuts, so it may not be best with nut allergies.
Overall when you are used to making plant-based recipes, accommodating needs and preferences is second nature.
What to Serve
There are many avenues you can take that will help guide you when it comes to narrowing down what to make for your dinner party. Here are a few ideas:
Start with a familiar main meal first and then pick sides that stem off of that main meal. Like if you do burgers, you can do fries, salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, etc.Pick a cuisine and focus your menu around that theme. If you do Italian, you can do lasagna, salad, risotto and tiramisu.Serve food buffet style so you can make a variety of things for people to serve themselves. Salads, and sides do great to get in variety with buffets.Have a build your own theme and allow people to make their own tacos, pizzas, bowls, etc. This is great when feeding people that have a lot of dietary differences so they can pick and choose what to have.
The people coming to your dinner party, where you will eat and your dietary needs can all help guide which direction is best to take.
How to Prep
Prepping ahead can help keep the stress at a minimum. Once you have nailed down your menu, you should use that to find what ingredients you need. Then, check to see what you have at home and what you need to buy, and make a list for the grocery store.
Figure out what you can make ahead. This is what you can do ahead of time:
SaucesDessertsCasserolesDressing for a salad so it's done.Chop and prep the things you can't make ahead so they are ready day of.Cook things like grains, etc so they are ready to use.
You can also set the table ahead of time to have it ready to go. This way the day of you can focus on organizing your space, cleaning, setting up the space more, etc.
Also, if you get things prepared with time left before your guests arrive, you can relax a little so you are rested when the party starts.
Learning how to live with diabetes can feel overwhelming and impossible. Our guest today shares how she not only lives but thrives!
Lynne Bowman has been living with diabetes and enjoying life to the fullest. She loves to share her story to help others do the same!
Lynne has been featured at women's expos throughout the country, speaking on kitchen table culture, community planning and the gift of diabetes. She teamed with actress Deidre Hall to write and publish Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup (2010) and Deidre Hall's How Does She Do It? (2012).
In a previous life, she worked with Silicon Valley companies as a creative director, winning national awards. She was Creative Director at E&J Gallo Winery, Advertising Manager at RedKen Laboratories, and held various other positions with agencies and clients in San Jose, Los Angeles, and on the East Coast.
She has also worked as an actress, makeup artist, screenwriter, illustrator, legal journalist and television Weather Person. She is the mother of three grown children, with one absolutely perfect grandchild, and one more on the way.
Sign up for "Lynne's List" and receive the recipe for Mimi's Badass Brownies, plus The Seven Sugar Substitutes That Will Change Your Life.
Can You Live a Full Life With Diabetes?
Yes! Not only can you live a full life but you can thrive. While we now know that we can do things to prevent chronic disease, there are still instances where no matter what we do, we have to live with it. But this doesn't mean you are destined for an unfulfilled life!
Learning how to manage your diabetes is possible, other than medicine, between what you put into your body, how often you exercise and how you manage your mental health there are so many things you can do.
How to Manage Daily Life
When it comes to day to day life, nourishing your body with lots of plants, whole foods and getting in movement along with any medicine you need, should be part of your routine.
A whole food plant-based diet is so beneficial for chronic disease. Plants give us nourishment we need and help us avoid the saturated fat that animal products contain.
While adding some animal products from time to time is still okay when you want to maintain some balance, making sure they are high quality is important.
It's also important to take care of your mental health. Yoga, meditation and mindfulness can all help control stress. As can doing things like family dinners, movie nights and other ways to connect with those you love. When we keep ourselves in a mostly stress free state this helps our health overall. The mind and body are very connected!
Sleep is another thing our body needs in order to stay at optimum health. Our diets, exercise and mental well being can be so influenced by how rested we are!
It's also very important to check in regularly with your doctor and see your doctor should you feel something is wrong.
Things to consider/watch out for
Learning how to live life with diabetes comes with complications and extra things you need to think about. Here are a few things you want to keep in mind:
Read food labels to check for ingredients you can't haveListen to your body and detect any changes earlyThink about your meals ahead of timeLearn strategies that work for youWatching the glycemic index of food you eatYou should always listen to your medical professional
Can Diabetes Go Away?
Everyone is different, so there isn't a one size fits all approach. In general, diabetes cannot be reversed or go away. However, when it comes to type 2 diabetes people can go into remission and symptoms can get better with lifestyle changes if caught early enough.
Some things people have done when it comes to relieving symptoms are:
Changing their diet to be mostly whole food plant-basedAdd more fiber to your dietIncreasing amount of exerciseLosing weight if needed
Tips For Managing Daily Life
Knowing how to reduce inflammation in the body is important for our health. There are many things we can do to help us along the way!
Inflammation can wreak havoc on your body, and the culprits are many. Join us as we chat with expert Dani Williamson to dive deep on how to deal with it all!
Dani Williamson MSN, FNP owns Integrative Family Medicine in Franklin, TN; focusing on gut, autoimmune thyroid (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is her passion), hormone and adrenal health with her patients. Her approach embodies a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual process to healing.
Dani is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Nurse Midwifery and Family Nurse Practitioner program. She is on the board of Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and believes strongly in addressing issues of adverse childhood trauma and its relation to overall long-term health conditions.
You can check out her course, Inflammation is the Devil, for more info and special discount for readers. Her first book Wild & Well Dani’s Six Commonsense Steps to Radical Healing is being released November 9, 2021 by Morgan James Publishing.
What is Inflammation?
Inflammation is a cellular response in your body to some sort of injury. Cytokines are the proteins in your blood that create the inflammatory response. When you have cellular injury you get capillary dilation, increase in white blood cells, redness and warmth/heat.
You have acute inflammation, which you need to protect you and heal you (like if you cut your hand). But there is also chronic inflammation, which is long lasting inflammation and this is the issue.
Things that end in "-itis" basically are types of inflammation. For example like sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), gastritis (inflammation of the gut) and colitis (inflammation of the colon).
Inflammation can coincide with other conditions like diabetes, hypothyroidism, heart disease, etc
Dani believes that inflammation is your bodies response to a poor diet, lack of exercise, inadequate sleep chronic bowel issues and lack of community connection.
A few other things that can cause inflammation are mold, breast implant illness and viruses.
Classic Signs of Inflammation
Many things can be signs of inflammation. We need to look at the why and the root cause of things versus just treating the symptom because sometimes you don't even have symptoms until you develop a disease.
Here are some things to look out for that may be signs of inflammation:
AcneHeadachesExzcemaJoint pain, back pain, etc that are not injury relatedFatigueMigrainesSeasonal allergiesDepressionAnxietyBleeding gumsSkin conditions like acne and excema
Ways to Reduce Inflammation
While our western medicine seems to treat the symptoms of inflammation versus looking for the root cause, there are things you can do to keep your body less likely to have inflammation.
First, increase fresh whole foods consumption. The more fresh food we eat, like veggies and fruit, the more nutrients we will get to keep us healthy. A mostly plant-based diet is a great way to eat.
There are also foods we want to avoid. The top inflammatory foods are:
GlutenDairySugarEggsPeanutsSoyCorn
This isn't to say that everyone should not eat these at all, but if you are having issues start eliminating these foods to see what may be bothering you.
There is a big connected with our gut health, inflammation and our mental health so making sure to pay attention to what you are eating is so important.
Other things you can do to help fight inflammation is move your body regularly, get enough sleep and practice gratitude! More and more research is showing how much this is all connected.
Natural Anti-Inflammatory Agents
There are also other things you can take to help fight inflammation. While medication can be necessary in some cases, there are natural ways to help support your bo...
Eating healthy meals on the go can be difficult, but our guest today helps us find ways to make it possible without making it stressful!
While it's important to learn to let go and be balanced with what we eat, it can also make us feel better if we have healthy options to incorporate into meals when we are out of the house. Ashley Randall weighs in on this topic!
Ashley has been working out and moving her body before she ever even knew it could be a career. She LOVES fitness and mindset, and knows the two of them are so dependent on each other. She believes that if you want to be strong in life mentally and physically you’ll have to be able to tap into both.
Teaching her clients how to do that is what really lights her up. She believes that being able to watch a client step into their power both mentally and physically is the best part of this line of work. She wants all her clients to feel like the CEO of their life, inside and out. Nobody can take away the confidence you have created.
Grab Ashley's Free 7 Day Shred here!
Importance of Nutritious Food
Stress is one of the biggest wellness killers out there, so when it comes to being on the go and feeding yourself appropriately we need to focus on ways to make that happen without it being stressful.
While balance it important, and making sure you know that eating things that aren't necessarily nutritious is totally ok, when we are on the go and active, our body still needs enough fuel to keep us going.
Making sure you are getting the nutrients you need helps you feel as good as you can and gives your body the energy it needs to stay active and participate in all the activities you want or need to be part of.
Challenges
Making sure you are fueled when out and about can be hard, here are some of the biggest challenges we have found:
It's difficult to find snacks that include all the nutrients we need.Prepackaged snacks tend to have larger amounts of sodium and sugar.It's harder to find protein filled snacks on the go.Finding fresh food on the go that is easy to eat can be challengingYou need to find the balance between spending time packing things and using prepackaged food.If you have dietary needs, or preferences, it can be challenging to find food to fit within your needs
Tips For Snacks on the Go
Here are some things you can do to find nutritious food on the go, whether it's day to day or when you are traveling:
Keep baggies of protein powder with you, pour them in a water bottle and shake it up for a quick protein boost.Protein bars are great ways to get a quick snack to fill you up (but make sure to read the label and look for those with lower sugar and higher protein). Brands like No Cow and Aloha are great.If you eat meat, beef jerky is a great go to snack.Many stores carry precut veggies and fruit that are great on the go.Snack packs with veggies and hummus or apples and nut butter are great for on the go.Individual trail mix and nut packs.
Healthy Snack Ideas You Can Prep
There are also some things you can prep and plan for at home to have them ready to go when you need to grab them:
Chickpea or tuna salad in individual containers with crackers or veggies.PB&J sandwiches are great because they do well without staying cold.Bean, avocado and cheese tortilla roll ups.Cereal "trail mix" in baggies (cereal mixed with nuts).Chickpeas, either raw or baked crispy.
Signs You Need a Snack
There are signs your body gives you to let you know it's time to fuel up. Everybody is different, but here are the most common things to look for when it's time to feed your body:
Stomach growlingIrritability, more than averageFatigue or feeling like you're going to crashBrain fog or hard Shakiness
Overall it's really important to look ahead and stop the crash before they come!
Knowing what's best when it comes to nutrition for kids, let alone plant-based options, is so hard! Today's expert shares all the facts.
There is so much conflicting information out there, weeding through it all can be a full time job. But Whitney Tabaie is here to help make the job a whole lot easier!
Whitney English Tabaie is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Personal Trainer, author, and co-founder of Plant-Based Juniors, a community helping parents raise healthy, conscious children. She is also the founder of the website/YouTube channel, Whitney E. RD. and co-author of The Plant-Based Baby and Toddler.
Whitney's mission is to help people make educated decisions about the food they eat by providing evidence-based information on popular nutrition topics and sharing healthy original recipes that fit her "Predominantly Plant-Based" nutrition philosophy.
She has been featured on outlets like Good Day LA, Bon Appetit, Parents, Wall Street Journal, People, Today's Dietitian, and many more. When she isn't whipping up healthy meals in "Whit's Kitch," she can be found soaking up the California sun with her husband, two children, and pup, Mr. Chow.
Grab her free supplement guide and The PB3 Plate - a visual guide to meal planning to help you on your journey!
Nutritional Needs For Kids
When it comes to kids, the major focus is growth. Both physical growth as it relates to size but also growth of bodily systems like the central nervous system and the brain. The brain grows more in first 2-3 years of life than ever!
We need to make sure that kids are getting enough macronutrients. Macronutrients give kids calories which they need to grow. A main source of these are carbohydrates but they also need the other macronutrients, protein and fat.
Kids also need specific micronutrients, here are a few important ones:
Iron
Iron is the most critical when it comes to nutrient needs. Kids have stores of iron from being in utero, but they eventually get through that so starting at about 6 months until about 12 months, the need for iron peaks. For example, the RDA for a baby is 11 mg versus that for a grown adult male is only 8mg.
Babies at this age can be at risk for iron deficiency especially if they are solely breast fed because breast milk doesn't have much iron. This is why it is important to add fortified foods like fortified baby cereal to their diet. Babies need iron because it is so important for brain development and also for the development of red blood cells which are at a rise during this time.
Choline
Choline is important for retinol development and brain development. While choline is rich in animal based foods, there are also many plant-based foods that have choline such as legumes, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
DHA
DHA is an omega 3 fatty acid. It is commonly found in fish however fish actually get it from the micro algae they eat. So you can get DHA from eating fish, supplements or even consuming a micro algae based oil.
While we can make our own DHA from the alpha-linolenic acid (or ALA) we can get from many plant-based foods, the conversion rate is low so we still need supplementation to fill the gap.
Is a plant-based diet ok for children?
Yes! There are so many misconceptions with plant-based diet and kids. But more and more research is showing how a plant-based diet actually has many benefits for children.
The major organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics all agree that eating plant rich diets are extremely beneficial for kids.
The key however is they must be appropriately planned, meaning that they are rich in whole foods, contain a variety of foods and include the nutrients discussed above. The children that do not thrive eating a plant rich diet are those that are malnourished, do not have an appropriate diet or have parents that are negligen...
It's important to know that fat is good for you and how avoiding it can actually hurt your health. Listen in for types you should focus on!
My guest today is breaking it down for us and giving the true story when it comes to the what, why and how of fats!
Rhyan Geiger is a registered dietitian and vegan author who specializes in vegan nutrition. She is the owner of Phoenix Vegan Dietitian where she helps others easily transition to vegan living. She has many years of experience in vegan nutrition and believes in positively impacting the world one bite at a time.
Rhyan is an expert in this field and has been featured in Women's Health and Business Insider. You can connect with her on her website (where you can join her newsletter to get a free vegan smoothie book!) or on Instagram.
You can also get 10% off her book, A Complete Guide to Grocery Shopping Vegan, with code REALFOOD!
Types of Fats
Fats are one of the macronutrients (protein, carb, fat) and are really important for your body. There are different types of fats:
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are considered healthy fats or heart healthy and are predominately found in foods that come from plants.Trans fat and saturated fats can wreak havoc in your body and are predominately found in foods that come from animals and in fried foods.
Why We Need Healthy Fats
Because trans and saturated fats can raise your triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease, you want to avoid them for the most part. However a little in an otherwise healthy individual isn't the end of the world. But unsaturated fats are needed in order for our bodies to function properly.
Fats do a variety of things. They help build cell membranes and build the surroundings of our nerves, which keep our body moving and functioning.
Also vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble and they need fat in order to be absorbed. Without these vitamins you can experience a variety of health issues.
Omega 3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fats. They are really important for brain function like building brain cells. These types of fat typically come from fish, but fish often get them from algae so there are ways to get Omega 3 fats from plants. Algae being one of them, however you can also get them from plant foods like flax seeds, chia seeds and walnuts.
Unsaturated keep you heart healthy overall and can help prevent heart disease.
But fat also keeps you feeling full, because it takes you longer to digest. This helps regulate your blood sugar, which in turn can help prevention of type 2 diabetes.
How Much Fat You Need
The dietary reference Intake (DRI) is 20-35% of the total calories you are eating. So this will vary with everyone.
Because many of us do not calculate or track our food, another way to visually think about it is through your plate. The MyPlate Guidelines say that half of your plate should be comprised of fruit and/or veggies, one quarter grains and one quarter protein. With fat, you can think about the area in the middle being filled with about two tablespoons of healthy fat.
This is simply a guideline and will vary with each meal.
Food With Healthy Fats
Here are some foods you can include in your diet so you can get in those healthy fats:
AvocadoNuts like walnuts, macadamia and almondsSeeds like chia, hemp and flaxNut buttersBeansDark chocolateOlives
Here are some ideas on how to use these foods for meals:
Adding flax, hemp and chia with fruit into a smoothieMaking a chickpea scramble and adding flax, hemp and chia in with veggiesPutting walnuts in oatmealEating avocado in a sandwich, wrap or tacoEating apples or toast with nut butterMaking dairy free sauces with cashews
Also, if you keep these foods eye level in the fridge and pantry you are more likely to grab for them when making meals.
Signs You May Need More Fats
Fats are so important for our body to function appropri...
As we learn more about our bodies, strategies on how to improve gut health are becoming more and more popular. Listen in for things we can do!
Gut health is coming into the forefront of conversations about our health more and more lately. As the science behind it grows, we are realizing how important it is!
Amanda Sauceda is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist specializing in mindfulness and gut health. Amanda quickly realized that gut health is more than digestion, the microbiome, or the food we eat; it is also about honoring our gut feelings.
This is why she created The Mindful Gut™, it is a holistic way of helping people to find their gut-friendly foods and lifestyle. Amanda has a virtual private practice where she runs group programs. Ps. Her favorite food is pizza!
Grab her free journal here!
What is Gut Health?
Gut health is an overall term that relates to looking at your gut and how it benefits you both mentally and physically. It is multifaceted and includes many areas.
The first thing people think about is digestion, but gut health also includes your microbiome and even honoring that inner wisdom, or what people call your gut feeling.
Symptoms of Struggling Gut Health
There are two P's to look out for when it comes to something being off with your gut:
Persistence- is the pain continuous and not going away?Pain- are your symptoms painful and can't be alleviated?
If your issues resolve or are temporary, it's most likely not a major issue. However if the pain won't go away and lasts over a long period of time, there is a good chance you need to look at your gut health.
Another thing you should look out for is the list of "okay foods" you have. If it is getting smaller in number (meaning you are restricting foods due to a diet of some sort), this can feed into the problem because food diversity is so important.
How to Help Gut Health
Working on better gut health has many pillars that can be involved. Here are some things that Amanda work on with clients:
Looking at trusting your gut, listening to that inner wisdom and your body overall. Resting and recharging. Stress can impact our gut health so much.Eating with intention. Choosing food for why it is good for you, not because someone else told you to eat it.Kitchen confidence. It's one thing to talk about what is nutritious but knowing the how is what helps get it done.Purpose over perfection. There is no such thing as a perfect gut. It's a balancing act and it's okay to not be all or nothing.
Importance of Good Gut Health
First and foremost you want to feel good and happy. But there is more than that when it comes to gut health.
Your gut can impact your entire body, so keeping it in a happy range is so important.
It can affect things like:
Blood sugarBone healthImmunitySkinHeart healthCardiovascular systemMood and mental health
Foods That Heal Your Gut
Your gut loves and needs fiber! Some experts even say that 95% of the people in our country have a fiber problem.
Here are the reasons our gut loves fiber:
It helps feed the gut good bacteria. Fiber acts as a prebiotic, food for our bacteria to grow into a diverse microbiome.It helps move food through our body so we don't have constipation and issues with our bowel movements.It regulates our blood sugar and cholesterol.It helps you stay fuller longer and satisfied with what you eat.It acts like a broom to help clean things out of your digestive system.
It's also important to eat a diverse amount of foods. Food variety is so important so you can get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
Another thing that is great for gut health is fermented foods. Things like kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, etc They act as a probiotic which helps your microbiome.
Foods to Avoid
There is no one food or blanket recommendation when it comes to avoiding food, and in fact this can be a red flag.
What is binge eating and is it something real? Those of us that have never experienced it don't understand this disorder or how it works.
It's really hard to understand things that you have never experienced, especially when it comes to disorders related to mental health and food. Our expert today helps us deep dive into the binge eating phenomenon.
Coach Jon is a weight loss coach and emotional eating expert who has lost 100lbs. From nanotechnology researcher, to Navy marine engineer, to globetrotting nomad, Coach Jon spent most of his life running from his true calling, until one question changed his life. Now he's on a mission to help others lose weight for good and leave BS diets in the rearview mirror.
With Freedom Nutrition Coaching he marries the Science of Metabolism with the Psychology of Behavior Change and the Compassion of Human Connection to create life-changing transformations with his clients.
Grab his free Crush Your Cravings ebook!
Definition of Binge Eating
Binge eating is an eating disorder, meaning eating that we don't normally see as human behavior.
It is defined as episodes of rapid uncontrolled eating in a short window of time. It is a repeated pattern, happening around once a week for probably a few consecutive months.
There is a difference between overeating, emotional eating and binge eating. We overeat and emotionally eat when we binge eat but not all overeating and emotional eating is binge eating.
Binge eating falls more into the extreme end of overeating and binge eating.
Causes
So ultimately we ask ourselves what drives this kind of behavior? This is important so that we can fully understand it.
Some potential causes can be:
Genetics- this is often overlooked because it isn't clearly understood, but there are some things we are starting to understand that can be carried down through our genetic history. Family history- having a parent that had a disordered relationship with food can form patterns we learn as children.Mental health disorders like depression, low self esteem, stress and anxiety- although cause and effect isn't entirely established as we don't know if the mental health caused the binge eating or the other way around. Everyone will be different in how these play a role.
Signs to Look Out For
There are many signs that you can look out for when it comes to binge eating. If any of these define you, it's really important you seek professional help.
Eating in secret.Hoarding food.Eating food when you are already uncomfortably full or feeling the compulsion to keep eating.Disordered eating patterns- things like eating tiny meals in public but large eating episodes in private.Unhealthy emotional patterns- examples are if someone is a people pleaser and suppresses their own emotions to keep others happy and avoid conflict, identifying as needing constant control, and all or nothing type mindsets.Cognitive distortions- a thought pattern that creates an exaggerated view of reality in our head, such as catastrophizing (thinking the worse will happen)Generally feeling out of control around eating
Strategies
There are many strategies you can use to help with binge eating. Binge eating is rarely not associated to an event or cause, so trying different strategies can help connect the cause and bring these behaviors to our conscience awareness.
Here are a few things you can try:
Don't beat yourself up- easier said than done!Keep a food diary- this can be simple and is great to help connect to the cause or event.Eat in a regular rhythm or pattern- this can help stabilize your blood sugar to prevent spikes or crashes and trigger a binge.Put road blocks to the foods that you may binge- you can do things like making it harder to get to them, hiding them behind things so it takes effort to get them, etc . All of this makes you put effort into getting to the food which in turn brings the thought to a conscious level and can help y...
As one of the top killers in our country, it is important to know how to prevent heart disease so that you can live a long healthy life.
While heart disease can run in families, it is still a highly preventable disease. There are so many lifestyle practices you can follow to help you stay away from this deadly disease.
Nichole Dandrea-Russert, MS, RDN, has been a registered dietitian nutritionist for 25 years, specializing in heart disease, diabetes, sports nutrition and women's health. For the past ten years, she has focused on plant-based lifestyles through inspiring and educating people about plant-based eating to optimize their health and the health of the planet.
Nichole has been featured in Eating Well, Business Insider and Atlanta Journal Constitution. She is also a media spokesperson for The Weather Channel and local Atlanta television networks. A former triathlete and current yoga instructor, she shares her passion through her website Purely Planted. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband and rescue dog, Mariposa.
Grab her FREE ebook 5 Tasty and Simple Plant-Based Salad Dressings!
The Science Behind Heart Disease
Heart disease doesn't have just one cause, it can be multi factorial (ie it has many causes).
It can start in your arteries with atherosclerosis, which is a thickening or hardening of the arteries. Plaque can build up through cholesterol and other particles like calcium.
Blood pressure can also be an issue. The whole cardio vascular system from your feet up to your head keeps the blood flowing and pumping and brings it to the heart and lungs.
As plaque start to build up, or your blood pressure is high, and the oxygen isn't brought to your heart and lungs through your blood, you start to develop symptoms of heart disease.
Symptoms
There are many things you can start feeling when your heart and lungs aren't getting the oxygen they need to function at full capacity. You may feel tired, weak, or have a lack of energy.
However you also may feel nothing. Which makes it really important to know your risk factors and get regular blood work because heart disease can build up over time.
Risk factors
Lifestyle is a big part of staying healthy and preventing heart disease in individuals. We know that there are hereditary factors, however this doesn't mean that this is your fate.
Other risk factors include:
SmokingBeing overweightDietHigh cholesterolLack of exercise
Eating a diet high in saturated fat contribute to high cholesterol. This is mainly an animal product based diet.
Also, sugar contributes to high triglycerides so making sure to control added sugars is important as well.
These things cause inflammation and can contribute to plaque build up and arterial hardening leading to heart disease.
Starts at infancy, the risk for heart disease
We need to educate the parents
Hereditary factors
If you have heart disease in your family, this doesn't mean you will have it too. There are many things you can do to help prevent it.
Avoiding all those risk factors above will help, and living a lifestyle that includes a wholesome plant rich diet and some exercise will have a huge impact.
Starting young is big. Being able to start those habits early will help make it easier to stay heart disease free.
Preventing Heart Disease
Heart disease is a chronic condition that you can actually do something about. Here are some things that you can do:
Eat a diet rich in plants. This has the greatest impact. Animal products are full of cholesterol which contributes to heart disease. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing, but when your diet consists mostly of plants you are setting your body up for success.Get regular exercise. Moving your body is important for a healthy lifestyle. It helps keep your cardiovascular system in shape and strong and it can also reduce stress.Get regular check ups and blood work with your doct...
Thinking about travel and food you'll be eating can be stressful especially if you eat a plant-based diet. We've got tips to help!
Eating on the go and sticking to foods you prefer to eat can be difficult, you're not alone!
Going on vacation takes a lot of planning, and meals can be a big part of that. Our guests today are experts in all things plant-based and travel so are here to help!
Adam and Shoshana Chaim are the co-hosts of the popular Plant Trainers Podcast, helping you improve your quality of life through nutrition and fitness. They are both also public speakers and authors of the Yummy Foods Activity Book For Kids. After a major wake-up call with Adam’s health resulting in Shoshana’s PTSD, their family adopted a plant-based lifestyle and now thrive in all areas of their life.
Shoshana is an expert in plant-based nutrition and cellular communication and wellness. She works with health practitioners and individuals to increase cellular health and achieve rockstar wellness. Adam is a plant-based athlete and nutrition & fitness coach with over 20 years of experience and a certificate in plant-based nutrition. He is a 2X Ironman triathlete, completed several marathons and ultra runs and swims and successfully helps individuals with their nutrition and athletic endeavors big or small. They live in Toronto, Canada with their 2 plant-based thriving kids!
Things to Consider About Meals While Traveling
When there are dietary needs to think about and we leave the comfort of our own homes to hit the road, we need to keep a few things in mind with regards to meals so that our enjoyable vacay doesn't turn into stress.
Here are a few things you can do to look ahead for any roadblocks (see what I did there?) that may come your way:
Know where you are going- there is a difference in staying with someone at a home or if you'll be in a hotel when it comes to meals.Decide how much you have access too as far as preparing meals- you can bring easy things like bars and oatmeal packets, etc to keep you full.Figure out how much time you'll have to prepare food- if you'll be busy then you want to bring ready snacks to grab on the go so you don't have to stress.Research the area you are going to- find the grocery stores and restaurants so you can see what you will have access to when you are there.
Can You Stay Plant-Based While You Travel?
Absolutely! It depends on how much effort you want to put into it. You can be prepared before you go and have it run smoothly, or you can go on the fly and take whatever you can get.
Remember that food doesn't have to be elaborate all the time. As long as you realize the way you eat at home won't necessarily be the same as you eat on the road.
What to Bring With You
You can bring things with you as you travel to make it easy! You can decided if you need a whole other piece of luggage or simply want to tuck things into a bag you already have.
Here are a few ideas:
Blender (like our trusty Vitamix) for making smoothies to get in veggies and fiber and keep you full.Air fryer to avoid using shared BBQ's, etcKnife or scissors for whole fruits (carried safely of course).Bake muffins and cookies before you go.Ready packed food like bars, tortilla roll ups, veggies, snack packs.Give kids their own bags with snacks (they can even make their own!).
Tips For Eating Out
When it comes to researching restaurants there are some great tips you can use:
Join a vegan facebook group for the area you are going and ask questions for recommendations in the group.Do a google search for the area and the restaurants to see the reviews from others on what they ordered.Call the restaurants in advance to see what they can do to meet your dietary needs.
What to Watch Out For
While you are on the go and traveling to other areas, things can be different. This makes it important to be aware of what you are getting into so you can avoid any stress.
While it's important to move your body, it's more important to have realistic long term fitness goals so you don't end up burning out!
The problem is that many people don't know how to set these sustainable goals. Our guest today is an expert at keeping things real for ultimate success!
Karina Inkster is your go-to, no-B.S. vegan fitness coach, author, and podcast host. Vegan since 2003 and vegetarian since 1998, she provides a friendly kick in the butt that inspires and motivates you to live your best, healthiest, most plant-strong life. Karina’s award-winning online programs offer vegan fitness and nutrition coaching to clients around the world.
She’s the author of four books with a fifth in the works, a writer for several magazines, and host of the No-B.S. Vegan podcast. She holds a Master’s degree in Gerontology, specializing in health and aging.
When she's not working with her clients, writing, or weight lifting, you'll find Karina playing accordion, piano, and Australian didgeridoo; hanging out with her two cats; or sneaking spinach into her husband's smoothies.
Grab her free guide, Vegan food logging 101: Your guide to calculating calories and macros.
What Fitness Goals Mean
Everyone is human and has an innate need to feel great, look great and feel comfortable with themselves. While not everyone is there yet, ultimately this is what we want to achieve.
So there is no one size fits all approach to fitness however there are fitness goals that are more or less beneficial to us long term. For overall health, both mental health and physical health, we need to make sure we are making appropriate goals.
Anything really can be a fitness goal. You may want to run your first marathon, loose fat, do a pull up, etc. There is not only one type of fitness goal.
What is a Good Fitness Goal?
We are all different, have different bodies and different lifestyles so fitness goals will depend on each individual person.
Karina likes to focus on input versus output goals. Usually we have output goals like lose 10 pounds, deadlift twice my body weight, shrink our waist.
We don't have direct control over these types of things. So instead we want to increase our input goals.
For example, if we want to lose 10 pounds what are the input goals? It can be things like drink enough water, do your steps, strength training, increase cardiovascular activity, eat the right foods, etc. These are things we can track and have direct control over.
An approach like this, is healthier psychologically than stepping on the scale and tracking the weight.
Reasons Why a Fitness Goal Fails
Most of the time when we fail at a goal, it's because our expectations are not appropriate. So the first thing we need to do is check those expectations.
We don't know how long a goal is going to take. So to set a time frame with a goal can be counterproductive.
So instead we can focus on habits. When we bring habits into our life instead of attaching a time frame to a goal, you are making things more realistic and fitting them into your actual life versus trying to race the clock to meet a certain time frame.
How to Set a Fitness Habit
When people see a trainer or any fitness support, they already have an idea of what they want to achieve. There is no one size fits all approach, the focus is a collaborative process between a trainer and client.
Fitness habits need to be client centered because if it doesn't work with your lifestyle then it will be very hard to achieve. Having outside support is also great for accountability, which is important at the beginning until you are able to take it on yourself.
You can also set fitness habits on your own if you are someone that is great at your own accountability. You can even find friends to be workout buddies with, which helps keep you motivated.
Either way, it is important to start with a baseline of what you do already.
It's important to know the best foods for hypothyroidism so that you can keep it under control! Learn all you need to know from our guest RD.
Diet plays an important role for all the medical issues we deal with, often more than we know. Specialist Lisha Knicely helps us with the ins and outs of diet and hypothyroidism!
Lisha Knicely is a Registered Dietitian and Integrative & Functional Practitioner specializing in hypothyroid conditions. Being a Thyroid Warrior herself, Lisha understands what it's like to both live with and treat this common yet complex condition.
Lisha's approach is comprehensive and holistic in nature; taking into consideration the immense positive impact that lifestyle and nutritional changes have for managing endocrine and metabolic disorders, like hypothyroidism.
Being a part of and serving this community is a true passion for Lisha making her work both enjoyable and extremely rewarding. Download her FREE guide today!
Hypothyroidism Definition and Types
Hypothyroidism is a term to describe a low state of thyroid function. There are many conditions that fall under this but the most common cause is Hashimoto's disease.
Hashimoto's is when the immune system is targeting and attacking the thyroid gland and causes the thyroid to be under active. Hashimoto's antibodies can be elevated for years before it causes damage so make sure to get checked if you suspect you have it.
Some symptoms of hypothyroidism are:
Weight loss resistance and weight gain (the thyroid is the master control gland for your metabolism)FatigueHair lossCold extremitiesElevated cholesterolDepression anxietyDigestive issues
Most of the time this is a byproduct of lifestyle.
Tips to Help Manage Hypothyroidism
The first thing we do is look at a person's lifestyle and figure out what needs support. Reasons that can affect the thyroid are:
Poor sleepNot managing stress (one of the biggest culprits and wreak havoc on the immune system)Poor dietNutrition deficiencies
It varies from person to person so an individualized approach is important. We need to be advocates of our own bodies.
Foods Good for Hypothyroidism
In a broad sense, you want to be eating whole foods. Taking a close look at your diet and seeing how many whole foods are you eating can be helpful.
Eating a diet rich in plant foods can offer antioxidants, polyphenols, fiber, etc which can all help.
Make sure you eat high quality protein, whether it's animal or plant based, getting quality is the key.
Also, healthy fats are so important for hormone health as they are needed to absorb certain vitamins.
Overall, wee are each different so our needs of different levels of fat, protein, carbohydrates will vary.
With Hashimoto's, try eliminating certain foods to see how you feel. While dairy, soy and gluten can cause issues for some, it isn't necessarily an issue for all so taking them out to see how you feel is important.
With autoimmunity it's worth to investigate with food to see if you are better off with some over others.
What Foods Can Make Hypothyroidism Worse?
The main foods that cause issues for hypothyroidism are things called Goitrogens. These are foods that cause a goiter, which is the swelling or enlargement of the thyroid gland.
When the thyroid gland is enlarged, it prevents the uptake of iodine. This in turn prevents the thyroid from efficiently making thyroid hormones.
Goitrogenic foods include vegetables in the Cruciferous family, some of which are:
CabbageBroccoliCauliflowerKaleBrussels sproutsRadishes
You want to avoid high amounts of these foods in their raw state, however can cook them to reduce the goitrogenic effect.
Also, make sure you are getting enough iodine overall.
What Should You Drink?
There are some things you can focus on drinking to help as well. Focus on getting plenty of filtered water.
Also, you still need high quality salt so getting in ele...
Eating whole foods is great, but sometimes supplements for immunity can be very helpful. Learn more about creating a wiser immune system!
This post was sponsored by For the Biome but the content and opinions expressed are fully my own.
Our guest today is from the brand For The Biome and is an expert in creating a healthy immune environment.
Paul Schulick is a master herbalist, author and the founder of both New Chapter, and his latest venture, For The Biome. For The Biome’s mission is to deliver solutions for body, mind, and microbiome that build strength and resilience amidst modern health challenges. Schulick is renowned for pioneering whole-food fermented vitamins integrated with science-backed herbals.
He has once again shifted the paradigm by redefining the immune category with time-tested ingredients that are new to market. For The Biome’s three immune products—Immune Therapy Cistus+ Infusion, Stress Therapy, and Gut-Lung Therapy—are formulated in Vermont and launched March 2021.
Learn more about For The Biome through their channels on Instagram and Facebook! Use the code VEGGIES15 for 15% off any order.
Why You Need a Wise Immune System
The immune system is important when aren’t feeling well, but it's also so much more than that. Our immune system is on 24/7 and is always restoring our physiology and clearing and cleaning the debris and cells that need to be removed, those that are not great for our body. It needs to be at work all the time.
This makes our bodies amped up by all it is exposed to, which means our immune system is also amped up. So it often doesn’t get a chance to relax and be quiet so that it can really restore itself. This is why, despite all the hype around “boosting” the immune system, what we all really need is balance within the immune system.
For the Biome’s Immune Therapy contains a unique class of polyphenols called polymeric polyphenols; these are unique because they are able to help regulate the immune response, so that your system can respond to threats appropriately, and then return to balance when the threat has been dealt with .
Research shows that within one hour of taking Immune Therapy, immune cells (called monocytes) move from the bloodstream into the tissue, so that they are in the best position to respond to any immune challenges. After two hours the heavy hitters of the immune system, Natural Killer cells and T cells, are standing at attention and ready to respond if they’re needed. At this point, those monocytes move back into the bloodstream, where they can be on the lookout for new immune threats.
There are proteins within the immune system called cytokines that are important because they help our immune system function. Cytokines respond when something is threatening the immune system. However an overload of cytokines can throw the body out of balance.
But with the right support (like the Immune Therapy Cistus+ Infusion by For The Biome), the immune system can balance its response: immune activation is supported, but so is the return to balance: it’s helping the body to respond more efficiently and effectively.
How to Keep Your Immune System "Strong"
Instead of using the word stronger, it seems more appropriate to use the word wiser. The reason is that you want your immune system to have the wisdom to know when to activate and send out the troops effectively, and to know when to retreat and head to the lookout posts, so that it’s ready for the next attack. A wise immune response is balanced and efficient.
When your body is exposed to things it doesn't like, your body goes into flight or flight response. But when it likes something it goes into the state of rest and digest. So when you support your immune system, you are able to better get into that rest and digest state so you can absorb your nutrients better, rejuvenate, and be in a better state of mind.
Here are some things you can do for your immune system:...
Plant-based protein foods are sometimes hard for people to find. My guest today dishes out all the options and how the help you!
Protein is a subject we are obsessed with in this country. But when trying to eat a mostly plan-based diet, getting what you need is always in question by others. Today we are clearing that up!
Dr. Sunana Sohi is a Harvard educated board-certified gastroenterologist with a focus on wellness, plant-based health. She has all the knowledge about how to get what you need on a plant-based diet!
What Does Protein Do For Our Body?
Protein is an important part of our diet. It is what makes up our tissue structure and necessary for the growth and turning over of our cells. Protein makes up enzymes, hormones, keratin, collagen, etc.
We need it to build muscles and can also provide energy. It is made up of 20 building blocks called amino acids. We can make up 11 of those ourselves, and the other 9 we need to get from external sources like food.
Overall, protein is important, but we do not need to overdo it an we also need all the other macronutrients.
Protein Necessity
The general rule of thumb is you need .6-.8 g of protein per kg of body weight. This however can change depending on your goals.
So if you have physical goals (like body building), then the protein you need will increase. But for the average person, the recommended range is sufficient.
The problem is that many overdo it and think they need more. Some studies have shown that 96% of people do not have a protein issue but 96% have a fiber issue. It's important to keep this in mind, as protein deficiency is not something we see much of in this country.
Another issue us that our bodies can get oversaturated when consuming too much protein at once. They think you can't even absorb more than 20-30 grams at one time.
So if you overdo it and try and take in more than you really need at once, you potentially aren't even absorbing it all.
Can You Get Protein From Plants?
There is a misconception that you need to eat meat in order to get a complete protein source. Meaning meat has all 9 essential amino acids.
The confusion lies in that many think that plants are incomplete sources of protein and do not include all 9 amino acids. We know now that is not true.
All plants actually have all 9 essential amino acids, but some have more of one than another. This is why diversity in a plant-based diet is important. If you are eating a diverse diet, you are getting all the amino acids that you need.
While meat can give you the amino acids as well, with meat you are also getting things that may not benefit you like saturated fat and inflammatory stuff. But when you are eating plant-based sources of protein you get things like fiber which is so important for overall health.
Which Plant Foods Have the Most Protein
There are many great plant sources of protein. We can get protein from many plants, but here are some that have a higher amount:
SeitanSoy and EdamameLentilsBeansNutsSeedsOatsQuinoaPeas,Spinach
You can see a great chart on Dr. Sohi's Instagram page. Overall just be diverse and don't stress about focusing on one thing!
Learn how to throw a party for all eaters with less stress and more fun! Get everything you need from planning to when your guests arrive!
I love a good party, but throwing a bash that everyone will enjoy can be stressful! Alli is a party master and she's dishing out all she knows!
Alli Ward is the head Maker behind Made with Happy. She is a color obsessed creative mom sharing easy crafts, Home DIY Projects, Entertaining Ideas and Travel that the whole family will love! We at Made with HAPPY are all about celebrating the HAPPY everyday!
And while you are doing all your planning and prepping, check out Alli's amazing crafts to keep the kids busy!
Planning a Party
When it comes to entertaining, there are so many aspects. But if you break them down and tackle one thing at a time, it's much easier. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you plan your next party:
Who is coming? Is it kids or adults?How many people will you have? How big is your space?Is there a theme? Is it the holidays, a birthday or just any day kind of party?What is the flow? Is it an open house or a scheduled activity party? Will you be sitting or standing?What are you going to serve?Are you going to decorate? Do you need to tidy up?
Tips for Parties
If you get overwhelmed easily, here are some tips to get you started. Throwing a party can be easy and fun if you go into it with the right tools.
Start small. Plan a small dinner party, invite a few close friends or even one other family. A small kids only party is a good start point too.If you know what guests are coming, you can have an idea of where to go from there with the rest of the party planning.Get everyone's dietary needs. This makes it easier to make sure you are serving something for everyone.Decide on drinks. If you're serving alcohol, make sure you have an option for those that don't drink.If you decorate, keeping it simple can go a long way.Having parties is about getting together and relationships, it's not about keeping busy because people just want to spend time with you. So keep it simple.
Kids Parties
Throwing a party for kids can be a good way to get your feet wet with entertaining. Kids are easy to please and keep happy!
You need to decide if you are just having kids or if you will have the adults as well. This will drive the rest of the decisions.
Also, decide how long the party will be and at what time. If it's in between mealtimes then you do not need many snacks. If the party is only a few hours, you won't need to worry about people being fed too much.
If you have the adults, you'll want a few snacks for them too. But if it's only kids, you can keep it very simple with a few snacks your kids love. You can even buy individual snack bags and put them in a basket for easy grab and go.
Keep the decor simple, kids truly don't care. Heading to your local dollar store is a great way to keep it very inexpensive.
If you have a theme, focus on getting one thing from that theme to save money. Then buy things within that themes color. For example, streamers are lower in cost and can be used in many ways!
Have one section that is theme focused, it can be the food table or even just an entrance decor, and then use pops of color to bring the theme other places. You can keep it simple with one or two banners or get fancier with themed food.
A photo wall can be fun and cheap. Use those streamers by taping them down a wall as the background, add a ballon or two and grab dress up stuff from your kids toys to use.
Prepping Ahead
Making sure you have planned ahead will keep the party much less stressful. Here are things you need to plan:
Food- what to serve and how muchDrinks- alcohol or notSeating- have seats for half the people if it is a flow type of party and not a sit down.Decor- keep it simple and inexpensiveDecide what you can do ahead and what has to be done day of
Drinks
First and foremost,
Eating seasonal produce versus buying things that are not in season can have many benefits. Listen in to learn more about what they are!
Depending on where you live and shop, you may not even realize what produce is in season when. This episode can help you learn the what, how and why of it all!
Benefits of Eating Seasonal Produce
Eating seasonal produce has many benefits. It can help the environment, our own health and wellness, and benefit the community as a whole.
Here are some key benefits of eating seasonally:
Reducing your carbon footprintYou get more nutrient dense foodsThe produce tastes betterThe cost is lowerKeeping your diet more diverseHelping the community
Produce and Carbon Footprint
Back before we had all the technology and access we have today, farmers grew what they were able to for the current season. If it was apple time, they grew apples. If it was peach season, that's what you got.
But as time went on, developments in technology allowed produce to be grown year round. While this can definitely have its benefits for parts of the world where the weather doesn't allow for farming during the freezing cold months, it has also had it's detriment.
Food travels much farther now, not only within the United States but also imported and exported around the world. This leaves a large carbon footprint which greatly affects out environment.
Along with food traveling further than ever before, we have developed other ways to grow food, like inside greenhouses. These alternative growing methods can use more energy than growing the produce traditionally in the outdoors.
Is Seasonal Produce More Nutritious?
Produce that is in season has more nutrients. As produce grows, factors like the soil it is grown in, the amount of sun it gets and other climate related issues all contribute to how nutrient dense the produce is.
For example, the soil of winter seasons give us produce that is rich in vitamin C. So if we grow these things in other seasons, we will not get as much as you would in winter.
Also, in order for the produce to absorb the maximum amount of the nutrients in the soil, it needs to be allowed to reach it's peak ripeness. Out of season produce is picked early so it is not able to get everything from the soil.
Flavor of Produce in Season
Seasonal produce also tastes much better. Since it doesn't have to travel as far, you get a more flavorful result. The longer it is on the shelf, the less the flavor. Flavor can also be reduced when using things to control ripening and freshness on out of season produce.
Cost of Seasonal Produce
It can save you money. When food doesn't have to travel far, or use more expensive methods to grow, the cost can be reduced and sold for less.
Next time you are at the grocery store, take note of the price of fruits and vegetables that are in season and track to see the cost rise as they become out of season.
When the produce is more available, meaning it is the season that they grow in, the costs are much lower.
Eating a Diverse Diet
When you focus on the foods that are in season, you are able to eat a wider range of fruits and vegetables. The reason why you hear a lot about eating the rainbow is because every fruit and vegetable offers us different nutrients.
We get the most nutrients when we eat a variety of foods, and some experts even say eating 30 different foods each week is best. So focusing on seasonal eating allows us to do that with ease!
Helping Local Farmers
When we buy foods that are in season, we are helping the farmers in our community. Visiting farmers markets, participating in local CSA boxes and shopping at stores who sell local produce all helps your local economy.
If we each try and support local, we are helping those that live in our community and as a whole it brings an aura of support to those around us.
What is in Season?
So what is in season when?
Is it possible to change your story? Can we erase all the experiences, especially the trauma, that have shaped who we are? Listen in and see!
How we think about food and our health starts with the experiences we had growing up. But some of those no longer serve us and who we are today, it's especially hard to work through past trauma. Emily Marquis talks about how we can make a change and use it to better our wellness.
Emily is a Clinical Health and Wellness Coach, board certified NBC-HWC. She is an RYT200 Yoga Instructor and Mindfulness Consultant. She works with individuals and groups in support of creating healthy habits for sustainable lifestyle change.
Drawing from her professional training and personal health challenges; she has experience in preventing, reducing, and managing chronic illness from stress to sleep to weight loss to work life balance.
With her combined coaching and corporate HR background, Emily works with organizations in creating cultures of wellness and is NAHU certified. Emily also works with clinics and fellow practitioners to create a village for clients to best support their well-being.
She is an Instructor at Emory University in their graduate Coaching certificate program. Emily lives in Colorado, USA with her family and loves the balance between a good TV show and an outdoor adventure.
Grab her FREE 7 Day Gratitude Challenge here!
And you can also grab her FREE health Quiz here!
Our Personal Stories
Stories can be a sentence, a whole experience and even an identity we attach to. These can affect how we live, the decisions we make.
We are an onion and make of layers that create the human we are today. We experience and tell ourselves things that can pave our future and decisions.
We have both narratives about ourselves and those for others. We even have stories about situations. These form biases that integrate into our every day life.
Sometimes we can pin point where our stories came from, but other times we don't know.
Making sure that the stories we created serve us and our goals is important. Even as parent we want to be an example for our own kid's narratives.
The Meaning of Changing Your Story
When our stories do not benefit us, we can change them. This means that we can make the stories that do not serve us weaker and eventually replace them with new stories that benefit us positively.
The pathways from our negative stories have been created since birth and the more we say things to ourselves they get deeper and stronger. Then they affect every part of our lives.
Neuroplasticity (the ability for the brain to form new connections) tells us that our brain is soft and flexible, which gives us the ability to change our thoughts and behaviors.
The Science Behind Our Personal Narratives
The brain has trillions of connections. When you have a narrative, there is a pathway for it. This is how your command center works.
Your repetitive thought have strong connections because the more you repeat something to yourself, the stronger it gets.
You can even make connections between things like a type of food and a physical symptom. Perhaps you had a bad experience once with something, and when you see it that memory comes back. Making that connection stronger every time.
The less you use the pathway, the weaker it gets. Therefore, by changing the thought you can focus on the pathway you are trying to strengthen.
This is like getting better at sports the more you practice. It's the same for your thoughts. Our brain is so powerful and has so much impact.
Personal Narrative and Trauma
Stories and narratives can have deep impact in fighting and healing. Trauma is trauma, but it's what you do after that matters.
Science is showing that we can battle trauma and even relieve physical symptoms by changing the way we think and talk about our experiences.
This shifting of our story has a great impact in our recovery...
These food hacks for kids are all you need to turn meals from something you dread to something you look forward to!
Getting veggies into your kids can be a nightmare. But there is hope! I'm here to share my best meal hacks to get more plants in without the added stress!
Feeding Kids
Meal times can be, well stressful. Between kids who won't eat anything, to those who only eat one thing depending on the day, having a meal that pleases everyone is tough.
Every kid can be a picky eater, and so can adults. And while I fully encourage exposing kids to all the fruits and veggies in whole form, there are also times when you just want to get them in without a fight and know they have some sort of nutrients in their body.
Nutrition for Kids
The number one thing my pediatrician told me was: They won't starve.
It's something I always keep in mind when one decides they aren't eating what I made. Because I am not a restaurant, I am pretty strict when it comes to catering to each of their individual requests.
We all get to pick something we like during the week, but we also say that they won't love everything. However I always try to have at least one thing on their plate they will eat.
But kids are moody and you never know. As long as they are eating somewhat of a well rounded balanced diet with all the macronutrients, they will survive.
Always check in with your own pediatrician if you have any concerns!
Hacks for Easier Meal Times
If you have a family that has different likes and dislikes, making one meal for everyone can be tricky. But there is hope!
I like to use what's called Component Meals. This is when you make various food parts and then put them together in many ways to create meals.
It can look a little but like a taco bar. Everyone is able to build their own and therefore choose what they like. But it doesn't stop at tacos. You can do this for pasta, grain bowls, pizza, even soup!
If you're looking for a little trick to make a super fast and easy dinner that your family will eat, here is one that is a weekly go-to. Boil pasta. Add a chopped veggie or veggies that your kids will eat at the bottom of a pasta strainer. We usually do a mix of spinach, mushrooms, zucchini and broccoli.
Once the pasta is done, strain it over the veggies hot water and all. Then put the cover of the pot over the top and let it sit for a few minutes. The heat from the water will blanche the veggies so they are cooked just enough and do not get mushy. Serve with parmesan and enjoy!
Sneaking in Veggies
I do think that kids need to see and experience veggies in their whole form. However, sometimes you just need to know they got some nutrients and you don't want to fight about it.
So there are a few things I do to make it easy and stress free!
Add greens to your smoothies and milkshakes. Spinach is a great choice because it is nutrient rich and mild in flavor. It blends well in chocolate especially so next time you want to get in an extra dose of greens, whip up a chocolate milkshake and add some spinach!Blend veggies into pasta sauces. I take the easy route and use our favorite jarred marinaras. Simply add them to a blender, and add in a few mild veggies, then puree and viola! Some great ones are zucchini, carrots and cauliflower. You can even pulse in a few greens if your kids are used to herbs because they look the same.Blended soups. These are a super easy way to get in an extra dose of veggies!Mix cauliflower rice with regular rice. Start with a small amount and slowly increase until you're 50% of each.
These are just a few ideas of things we do to make life easier. If you want more tips and tricks for getting more plants into your school aged kids, you can check out our Plant-Based Parents class that gives loads of amazing info!
Also, don't forget to grab your free guide on getting in more veggies below!
Learning how to be vegan in a non vegan household takes time, patience and compromising. But according to our guest expert it can be done!
It isn't easy being the only one to eat a certain way in your house. I learned this when I began my gluten-free journey. But it is possible!
Stephanie Dreyer is a meal planning expert and the founder of Batch Cooking Club™, a weekly plant-based meal prep membership. She helps busy parents make dinner easier by providing weekly plans and recipes without time consuming prep.
Stephanie is also the award-winning author of the vegan picture books, Not A Nugget and Not A Purse, (both available on Amazon). Stephanie lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children, who are not vegan.
She’s a pro at balancing her vegan lifestyle while feeding her omni family, and loves to help other families juggling the daily challenge of making healthy, homemade meals.
Try her free mini email course, Meal Prep Magic here!
Living with a Non Vegan
Stephanie has been vegan for 11 years. When she changed her diet, the rest of her family (including her kids ages 1, 4, and 6) did not. Her oldest daughter went vegetarian about 5 years after, and then the rest of her family continues to eat a mix of everything.
Stephanie didn't feel good in her body and wanted to change. She made the change overnight and told her family she was going from vegetarian to full vegan.
Even though her husband was very supportive, there was tension due to how Stephanie approached food within the family. It started as a forced lifestyle, but she quickly realized that wasn't working.
Now, she doesn't force her lifestyle on them, but instead educates about her choices.
Over time, her husband has slowly started to eat more plant-based and her daughter has gone vegetarian.
Change can be hard, but having an open conversation with your family will help. Especially with children who may not understand. Different people view things differently, so it may be hard to understand why others may not make the same changes.
Others may also not understand the nutrition behind it and can give advice based on misunderstanding. However judgement can go both ways, others judging you and you judging them.
Differences in Ethical Values
When you transition to eating vegan based on ethical values, it makes it harder. Everyone has different opinions and views, so it can be hard to understand why your family doesn't see things like you do.
Getting together with your family to talk openly without judgment is helpful. Dictating rules can make others defensive and make it harder to live in harmony.
Setting up some ground rules is a good first step, things that help everyone feel comfortable. Showing respect for each others choices is really important, even if you don't agree.
Compromising with Different Diets
Setting up some ground rules and expectations can really help avoid arguments and resentment. Here are a few things that Stephanie and her family do that helps:
Having separate pots and pansSetting separate sponges for cleaningWhen planning dinners make sure everyone feels included"Don't yuck each others yums" meaning do not say negative things about what the other person is eating
If we want to spread our message, we need to step back from the extremist views. This pushes people away and can actually produce the opposite effect.
Leading by example, teaching and showing will help others make their own decisions and perhaps allow them to move more towards a plant-based diet on their own.
Adapting Meals
It is possible to make one meal and satisfy all types of eaters! There are many strategies starting from the planning process that are helpful.
When planning meals, each person can contribute. Making the meal plant-centered and building upon that for those that eat meat or dairy will help.
If the person who doesn't eat animal products isn't comfortable cooking them,
The wellness continuum is a sliding scale with no end. The goal is to move towards wellness, but each moment can take us in any direction.
Wellness isn't simply the absence of disease. It's a multidimensional continuum that encompasses both sides of health. The goal is to move towards optimal wellness, but the reality is we move up and back with every situation.
What is Wellness?
The National Wellness Institute defines wellness as "an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence."
Basically it means you are practicing habits that move you towards better mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing so that you can achieve your full potential.
The illness-wellness continuum shows a visual interpretation that shows how wellness is not simply the absence of disease, in fact there is a neutral point that depicts neither illness or wellness.
The Illness-Wellness Continuum
This visual of the concept of wellbeing was first proposed by John Walton Travis in 1972. People generally associated wellness with the absence of illness. But through his illustration he showed that overall wellness includes many factors.
Not only is there the absence of physical disease, but it takes emotional and mental health into account as well. Just because someone doesn't have physical disease, it doesn't mean they don't suffer from mental disease.
Dimensions of Wellness
There are many factors when it comes to wellness. While many focus on the physical and mental aspects, other areas come into play as well.
Physical Wellness- the state of your physical health meaning how you eat, sleep and move your body affects your overall wellbeing.Emotional Wellness- the state of your feelings and emotions and how you cope with relationships and life in general.Social Wellness- how you interact with others.Spiritual Wellness- using your beliefs and values to live a meaningful life and develop a world view.Intellectual Wellness- keeping your brain stimulated by engaging in activities that are creative and challenge you.Environmental Wellness- making sure your environment allows your well-being to thrive.Occupational Wellness- enriching your life through work that is fulfilling and rewarding.
The Importance of Wellness
Being able to live life to your full potential requires you to be in a positive state of wellness. Our body cannot function at it's best if we are in a state of disease, whether it is physical or emotional.
As we move towards wellness, we start to see many areas of our life improve. From our physical health, to the state of our relationships.
Like Newton's First Law of Motion states that a body in motion remains in motion. This can be applied to the motion towards wellness. If we start with one are and work to improve on it, then we are motivated and able to work on other areas.
This will come together to affect all areas of wellness and will help our overall wellbeing.
Examples of Wellness
There are many ways that you can work on your overall well-being. Here are some examples for all dimensions of wellness.
Focus on eating wholesome nutritious food.Move your body each day.Meditate.Participate in activities that challenge you and make you step out of your comfort zone.Do something nice for a friend to show them that you care.Practice mindfulness.Surround yourself with people who contribute positively to your life.If you belong to a church, attend activities.Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night.Monitor how much social media you take inStart a new hobby.
These are just some examples, there are many things you can do to improve your overall state of health in order to live your best life.
Don't forget to download this healthy habits guide to help you along the way!
While some may love to eat their favorite food over and over, we need to recognize the great benefits that food diversity has for our health.
This post was sponsored by Cool Beans but the content and opinions expressed are fully my own.
I too am a creature of habit. I love to get into a routine of eating the same thing for breakfast, and even lunch, as it makes my day easier. But varying those meals is so important for many reasons.
Tyler Mayoras is giving a glow-up to the world’s most under appreciated superfood: the bean. A passionate impact investor and entrepreneur, he co-founded Cool Beans with a vision of bringing sustainable, whole-food goodness to the frozen foods aisle.
Inspired by his own journey to a plant-based diet, he’s making it easier than ever to eat clean, minimally-processed food that's good for your body, your soul, and the planet.
What is Food Diversity?
Food diversity basically means having a diverse number of plants in your diet. Each have different fibers and nutrients that are beneficial for your gut.
When we eat a wide variety of nutrients, we more easily move toward better wellness. Some experts say we do best when eating up to 30 different types of foods a week!
Cool Beans wraps gives you 24 of those! Between all five flavors, you get 24 different types if food.
The Importance of Food Diversity
The farming industry 200 years ago looks different than it does today. Farmers would grow 7-10 different types of crops and they would rotate each kind.
This is because every plant takes something from soil and gives something to soil. Healthy soil is rich and biodiverse, having a variety of nutrients. So when we have a variety of plants growing, we then get a variety of nutrients from them.
Healthy soil also holds moisture better. The moisture gives back to the environment and helps with getting us more rain. This helps grow plants better overall.
Having a diet diverse in many foods is also really important for your physical health. Our gut is like soil. We are actually more bacteria than we are human.
Bacteria helps tell us what we crave to eat based on what it wants and needs. You can actually replace your entire gut in a week by changing your diet!
Eating more diverse foods helps you crave more nutritious food. Which overall even helps improve your immunity.
How it Affects Health and Wellness
Having a wide range of nutrients helps keep us moving towards optimal wellness. And this isn't just focused on our physical wellness, but it also helps our mental state.
90% of the seratonin in our body is created in the gut lining and comes from high fiber foods. We need serotonin to maintain a happy state of mind.
When we feel our best, this also helps with our self esteem. While eating a diverse amount of food can certainly help us maintain a healthy weight, self esteem is not just focused on the way we look.
When we are happy and filled with energy from all the nutrients we are eating, we are more successful and productive. This helps us feel good about ourselves and raises our self esteem.
This isn't about a certain diet, or limiting one type of food or another, this is about a lifestyle where you bring a diverse amount of foods into your diet, focusing on more plants and less overly processed foods.
Culture and Food Diversity
Culture also plays a role in food diversity. Every region in our world includes different foods as staples. If we exclude ethnic foods, and only focus on our own culture, we are missing out on a many food options.
Cool Beans started their business with a focus on cultural flavors. Both because they do not include sauce in order to avoid a mushy texture in the wraps, but also to have a diverse amount of ingredients in their wraps.
The spices of each flavor of wrap really brings an amazing taste, along with all the incredible nutrients. You can find the following:
These unpopular opinions about food may not be what you want to hear! There are so many trends in the food space, and we're weighing in.
There are SO many opinions in the online food world! Listen in as we tackle many of them and chat about where we stand.
Chelsey Amer, MS, RDN is a New York-based registered dietitian, cookbook author, creative recipe developer, food blogger & photographer, and owner of Chelsey Amer Nutrition.
When she's not playing in the kitchen, dreaming up delicious recipes, or guzzling coffee, she works with clients in 1:1 and group settings to answer the question "What should I eat?" to help eliminate restriction and promote inclusion of the foods that help you feel your best.
Check out her free Balance Your Plate Guide here!
Food Trends
The online space gives us so many things that people take as hard fast rules. It's overloaded with opinions, what you should and shouldn't do.
We have this lens into peoples lives and many think that if it's working for the one person then it must work for all people. But this is far from the truth.
You need to do your own research, and in doing so making sure you are looking at actual peer reviewed studies is important. However many of those are hard to read and understand for the average person, which then leads them to look at sources that are misleading or even untrue.
We need to stop polarizing foods and focus on what works for us to feel our best. We often listen to so many people that we forget to listen to ourselves.
As Chelsey says to her client, our internal cues should be strongest with the external cues coming in secondary. But the problem is that many people have this as the opposite.
Why Do People Jump on the Bandwagon?
In the diet and wellness space, there is not so much room for grey, it seems to be very black and white. However it's that grey that what works for people overall.
But that black and white set of rules can give people a sense of structure and even belonging. So it can be attractive.
Another issue is we apply one person's success to mean it will be successful for all. Many diet trends have started this way.
Take keto for example. It was originally developed for one population, dealing with epilepsy. But now the concept has been spread over a wide group of people.
Overall, even when things may work short term, they are not usually sustainable for long haul, so we find ourselves jumping on the newest trend.
Unpopular Opinions in Top Trends
Here are some of our unpopular opinions and the reasoning behind them:
Eating sweets daily is healthy for you
It is actually good to allow yourself to eat real sweets. Things you crave with added sugar, butter, oil, the whole nine yards!
When we don't allow ourself to eat something we crave, it tends to lead to binging which is a very unhealthy habit. Eventually you'll even see that you adjust and may not even crave sweets often anymore.
You should not have cheat days
Calling something you eat a "cheat" is an unhealthy habit. It's bad for your relationship with food as it attaches morality to your food. Food should be described in facts like delicious, nutritious, hard, soft, crunchy, salty, etc.
Describing food as good, bad, clean, cheat, etc adds emotions to the food and creates an unhealthy relationship. Eating a balanced diet is the best way for you to enjoy eating, and keep your mental wellness at it's best.
There is no food police to answer to. It's important that you sometimes eat for your body, and sometimes you eat for your mind as food can bring comfort and feelings of happiness.
A vegan diet is not necessarily healthier or morally superior
Eating a plant-based diet is not the end all be all. While eating a diet rich in plants can add a lot of nutrition to your diet, there is no reason it needs to be an all or nothing thing.
We are all different and while a plant-based diet can be life changing fo...
Is gluten free healthy or is it just a smoke screen? Listen in to hear the hard truth and how to make sure you aren't falling for tricks!
Marketing on food packages leads you to believe that if something is gluten-free then it's healthy. Unfortunately this isn't always the case, and you can in fact be hurting yourself if you don't actually need to avoid gluten!
Ale Zozos is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and the founder of the Mediterranean Nutrition School - virtual nutrition coaching private practice geared towards helping clients with insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and heart conditions.
In addition, a Mediterranean diet can also be applied as preventative medicine for individuals and their families by learning the importance of good nutrition early on. She wants to empower her clients to ask themselves how their diets can improve by what they can ADD to their plan rather than by restricting foods and food groups.
She also comes from a large Greek family and has lived the Mediterranean way since a young age. She found a love for cooking while watching her Yiayia cook with traditional Mediterranean ingredients growing up.
She's also studied the Mediterranean diet and culture in Italy and has taken many trips abroad to further her knowledge and authenticity in this field. She hopes to show you that good food doesn't have to be sacrificed for health and that food can promote a better quality of life.
What is Gluten?
Gluten is the name for the protein found in some grains like wheat, barley, and rye. Basically it's the glue that holds everything together.
While it is found in many grain products, there are also many grains that don't have gluten. Some gluten-free grains are:
ArrowrootNut floursQuinoaAmaranthBuckwheatCassavaMilletRiceSorghumTapiocaTeff
Also, oats are naturally gluten-free. However while they don't have gluten, cross contamination while they are grown is very high, so you should look for oats labeled as certified gluten-free.
While many people think you have to give up carbs to be gluten-free, it's simply not true. There are many other ways to get carbs other than grains!
Why Some People Can't Eat Gluten
The main reason you cannot eat gluten is if you have a wheat allergy. Essentially, your immune system fires up in response to the gluten protein. This causes inflammation.
Inflammation is the immune systems way of protecting you from things your body doesn't like. So when you have an allergy, that's how your body reacts.
Some people also have a gluten sensitivity. They may not have a full blown allergy, but their body doesn't react great to it, so they avoid it in order to feel their best.
It is also reported that some people that can't eat gluten in the United States, are able to without issue in Europe. So there is some questioning about the processing of gluten containing grains in different countries and whether that has something to do with it.
All our bodies are different, so just because one person reacts to gluten doesn't mean it is bad for everything. If we applied that principle to things, we wouldn't have many things left that are ok to eat.
Benefits of Gluten-Free
For those people that react to gluten, cutting it out can be life changing. I myself have seen miraculous things happen by cutting gluten out of my diet.
The biggest thing that I have seen is less inflammation. I was on allergy meds for seasonal allergies my entire adult life. At times, I had to use 2-3 medications just to breathe.
Once I cut out gluten, within 6 months I was off all of my allergy medications without issue. This was a shock to me and I still can't believe it.
Since gluten can cause inflammation all over the body, things like allergies can go away when cutting it out. But there are other benefits you can see too:
Anxiety lesseningBloating decreasingConstipation clearing upBeing more regular with bowel movementsOverall feeling be...
Exercise habits are important in general, but the other areas of life that they can positively contribute to make them even more critical!
Just because you were a college athlete, it doesn't mean that having exercise as part of your regular routine will be a lifelong simple thing to do. If you lose incorporating movement into your daily life, it is possible to get it back!
Having healthy exercise habits isn't a use it or lose it kind of thing. Life happens, and our wellness goes up and down. Today's guest, Jenny Melrose, shares how she went from college athlete to exercising only when she had time. But has now worked to make movement as part of her daily habit!
Jenny is a former reading specialist who “retired” from her teaching career when her blogging income far exceeded her salary. Through hard work and dedication, her lifestyle blog, The Melrose Family, became regularly sought out by nationally recognized brands such as Neutrogena, Smuckers, Glad, Costco, Stanley Steamer, Sara Lee, and many more.
She is a content strategist that helps entrepreneurs better understand their messaging and unique position in the online space.
Now, she’s combining her passion for teaching with her extensive experience of creating strategic content for online business owners via JennyMelrose.com and her podcast, Influencer Entrepreneurs with Jenny Melrose as well as her first book Influencer Entrepreneurs: The 4-Step Framework to Building Your Audience, Growing Your Business, and Making More Money Online.
If you're feeling stuck and need some support to jumpstart your business, make sure to download Jenny's free guide!
The Fluctuations of Exercise Routines
Your routines for movement can change over your life. Jenny was a multi sport high school athlete and went on to play 2 sports in college. This gave her a routine to count on and made exercise easy.
However after college, that structured routine went away and exercise was harder to keep up with. So just because you excelled at one point in your life, that doesn't mean it's set forever.
Throughout the years your routine can be a roller coaster of ups and downs. If you are a routine oriented person, it makes getting a regular system hard.
So finding something to help get that routine back is important. For Jenny it was deciding to train for a marathon. She had structure again, which made her bring regular exercise back into her life.
After she had kids, it became hard again and it wasn't until she found an exercise program that she connected with that she was able to regularly exercise again.
Lack of Exercise and How We Feel
Moving our body is a very important part of overall wellness. When we don't move our body, we are not able to feel our best.
This is especially true when we go through times of stress, which happens with all of us. As life happens and stress builds, we start to feel things like anxiety and even deperession.
If we step back and listen to our bodies, they are pretty good at letting us know that we need something to help. When I feel things like:
My chest tightenMy stomach being uneasyMy breath getting rapid
All these things let me know that I need to get out and get moving.
Benefits of Exercise Habits
There are so many benefits to exercise, many have nothing to do with how you look! Here are some that both Jenny and I have felt first hand:
Overall feeling betterLower frustration levelsGrounds you overallHelps you feel centered and focus on the tasks you need to doGive endorphins which help in life and businessContributes to overall happinessDecision making are better, they don't come a place of emotion
Physical changes can also be seen. While these should not be the focus, they can help motivate you. Jenny had plenty of muscle memory from her past, so the first thing she started seeing was definition in her shoulders.
I personally don't change much in size,
Learn more about the mindfulness principles, the pillars behind them and how you can start incorporating mindfulness into your daily life!
Mindfulness incorporates a variety of principles specific to attitude. Each of these principles can help you find ways to live a more mindful life.
History of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a concept that goes back to the Buddhist influence of alertness, attention and awareness. It was the monks and nuns who practiced meditation and mindfulness, the broader population didn't take interest until the 1960's.
As immigration to the United States increased, so did the Buddhist culture and it's teachings. By the 1970's, Buddhist influence was on the rise and an interest in mindfulness practices became more prominent.
The Purpose of Mindfulness
The concept of mindfulness is surrounded by the idea of being present. It doesn't have to be complicated, and there are many ways to practice mindfulness.
There isn't really an end goal when it comes to practice. It's simply something to be aware of in your every day life. It's okay for your practice to go up and down, but taking a few moments each day to be present and mindful can have many benefits.
Being present and aware can help strengthen your relationships with not only others but with yourself. Today's technology has our attention on a million things at once, which makes our brains constantly distracted.
Science shows that no matter how much we think we can, multitasking does not allow us to do the things we are doing well. It's always best to give our full focus to one thing at a time.
Therefore, not only can being present help us improve relationships, it can also help us more successfully complete the tasks we are doing.
Mindfulness has also been show to have many other benefits:
Stress reductionConcentration and focusDecreased depressionOverall improved healthConfidenceSuccess at workLess burnout
Pillars
There are 9 main pillars of mindfulness. Each key attribute focuses on attitude.
Non-Judgmental- allowing your thoughts to pass through versus acting on them.Patience- living in the present versus worrying about what's next to come.Beginner's Mind- being open to new experiences.Trust- trusting yourself with the decisions you make.Non-Striving- accepting ourselves for who we are in the present moment.Acceptance- working on the things that you can change instead of focusing on things you cannot.Letting Go- staying present in the moment instead of worrying about things we cannot control.Gratitude- being grateful for each moment and recognizing it.Generosity- helping others.
How to Practice Mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness doesn't have to be a big undertaking. In fact, by trying to do it all at once, you are not practicing mindfulness.
Start small (small habits) and work on one thing at time, keeping the various pillars in mind. It can be a simple act you weave into your day, or an intentional change you make. Here are some ideas:
Start the day with saying something you are grateful for.Put all technology away during a meal.Do something nice for your neighbors.Make a plan for meals for the week.Take a moment each day to be still.When you get anxious, notice the present environment and say things you see, hear, feel, etc to focus on the here and now.Learn a new hobby.Meet someone new and be open to learning more about them
The idea is to stick to being aware and present in life. Instead of sticking with what you are used to and being complacent, try new things and be open to growing.
To learn more grab me FREE mindfulness guide!
If you're looking for weight loss without the stress of dieting, counting calories or tracking what you eat, then this guest is what you need!
Does anyone really like to track all they eat, count their calories and cut out foods they love? I doubt most people do, but many feel they have to to lose the weight they want. Listen in as our guest today tells us otherwise!
Claudia is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Nutrition (CSSD) and a Strength and Conditioning Specialist/Trainer (CSCS) with a master’s degree. Basically she’s an overall health coach.
She created ONE-TWO PUNCH to simplify eating, provide education on nutrition and offer tools to have at your fingertips. The book came together from meeting with thousands of clients and creating a method that is easy, doable and sustainable.
Food touches every aspect of our lives and everyone needs to eat. Because of this, your relationship to food and your body is important, but it doesn’t need to be hard. ONE-TWO PUNCH shows you how!
You can check out the book on Amazon or grab a free copy at ONE-TWO PUNCH (you pay $4 shipping) with code: VEGGIES.
When is Weight Loss Needed?
Weight loss is a very personal subject. Because everyone is different, there are many reasons that it may be an appropriate part of their health journey.
When you are not seeking a particular ideal or focusing on what social media tells you, weightless can be ok and you shouldn't feel bad or ashamed if it's something you want to do.
Some of Claudia's clients are telling her that they feel uncomfortable, they know they are over eating, stress eating, etc and they want help in stopping this habit.
While in essence the focus is working on the habits that are causing the weight gain, losing that weight is part of the process as well for them.
The body positivity and health at every size movement is amazing, however when taken to the extreme, some people may feel like they can't say they want to lose weight even if they want to for good reasons.
The point is that you need to pay attention to your body's signals, not what the outside world is telling you.
Also, there are some medical conditions that can be helped with weight loss. Things like diabetes and pre diabetes, high cholesterol, dislipidemia, etc.
Reasons Why Diets Don't Work
When a diet is creating a calorie deficit, this will work initially but it works until it doesn't. The way most diets go about it isn't sustainable for real life. Which is the main reason people give for stopping the diet.
We need to find a way to eat with how it works for our reality, we want to create a lifestyle not a short term thing.
Also, many diets cut large groups of food or tell you that you can't eat things you actually love. If we love certain things, why would we agree to never eat them again? Which brings us back to stopping the diet.
Our bodies need a balance of nutrients, and cutting out whole groups of them isn't something that is good long term. While we are all different, in general most of us need a balance of everything to function at our best.
Counting Calories
Overall, counting calories for every thing you eat is stressful. It's one more thing to do, and it doesn't allow you to be in the present moment so you can enjoy your food.
As you continue to count calories and bring stress, you create a system of chronic stress which can increase your cortisol. And in turn and increase of cortisol will make you store fat.
This goes back to the caveman days of fight or flight. Your body thinks it is in distress so it stores the fat for future use in order to keep you alive. Also, your other systems shut down in order to help you focus on fighting the stressor.
When certain stress hormones are released, it makes you crave carbohydrates, which then makes you want to eat them and can lead to overeating. And the cycle continues.
While goals are great, small habits are even better. Working in tiny incremental steps will get you big goal success that is sustainable!
We are told to have big goals in life. Reach for the stars! But the reality is that trying to meet those big goals is overwhelming, and when a task feels too big to tackle we give up.
So how do we achieve those big goals? It is possible with the right strategy! My education years getting my regular and special education teaching credentials and my masters degree in education, plus my 14 years as a teacher, taught me that small achievable steps had far greater results.
I then went on to become health coach certified, and my training further strengthened that belief in small steps. We need to create small habits and integrate them into our every day life so that our goals feel natural and not a mountain we must climb.
The Tiny Habits Method
Part of my training to become a certified health coach included a section on the Tiny Habits Method by a man named BJ Fogg. This was one of those boxed out side pieces that we often skip as we study.
But something about it caught my eye and I was fully immersed into this information. It took what I learned through my teaching experience and gave it a name. It all seems like common sense but I realized that many people don't know this.
The idea behind the tiny habits method is to make the behavior changes you want so small that they are easy to do. Not overwhelming. This is exactly what I did with my students when I was teaching.
I now take this method and use it in my health coaching business. I help my audience and clients achieve their wellness goals without overwhelm. When something feels achievable you are more likely to stick with it.
How to Start Small Habits
But where do we start? Actually starting seems to be one of the hardest parts. My free habits guide is a great place to begin if you're looking for a little push. I also work with clients one on one and in groups if you're needing a little something extra.
The first thing I like to focus on is your why. The big reason for making a change. It's really important because it keeps you focused and reminds you why you are doing something.
When things get hard, it's easy to give up if you don't have a why behind it. Your why can be anything that is meaningful to you. Just make sure it is about you and not what you "think" it should be.
Some whys by current and past clients are:
Help reduce my blood pressure and cholesterolReverse my diabetesAvoid diabetesAvoid the obesity some of my family has gotten toFeel strongerBe able to run around with my childrenLive long so I can see my kids get married and have childrenImprove overall wellness
But it can really be anything! There is no wrong answer, unless it is based on what someone else has told you to focus on. Your why must come from within or it won't be meaningful.
Steps for Creating a Small Habit
Once you have your why, it's time to choose a goal and then dissect it into those small habits. This is a very personal process so I can't give specifics but I can give an example of my own journey.
When we changed our diet to help better my husbands health, my own wellness also got better. This helped me realize that I wanted to keep working on my overall wellness. Since wellness encompasses the body and mind, I wrote down goals in both areas:
Bring meditation into my daily habitsBe able to do a handstandCut gluten out of my diet
In the food arena, I felt pretty solid, however I discovered that gluten is a huge issue for me so that is something I needed to work on taking out.
It is really important to work on one small habit at a time, which means you need to pick one goal to start with. For me, making meditation as part of my daily routine was a good starting point because when I have a healthy mind the other goals come easier.
Find out what willpower is and why you actually don't want to rely on it to meet your health and wellness needs!
We've heard a lot about how willpower can help you meet your goals, but what if we addressed it from another angle? Do you know how it can actually hurt you?
Jenn Trepeck is described as a “force of nature" in the wellness space. She is an Optimal Health Coach, Podcaster and Business Consultant. After graduating from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Jenn founded Better Life Now LLC while working full time in hedge funds.
After over a decade of coaching clients, Jenn started Salad with a Side of Fries Podcast to help pay it forward and reach a larger audience to teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know but no one ever taught us.
Jenn implements revenue generating wellness programs in doctors' offices, salons and spas to further expand impact and help change the state of healthcare as a Certified Transitions Lifestyle Coach and Consultant with nutraMetrix Custom Health Solutions.
When not hunkered-down at home during a pandemic, Jenn is typically working out at Physique57, discovering hidden gem restaurants in NYC or traveling to spend time with friends and family.
Click here to book a free wellness discovery call with Jenn!
What is Willpower?
The easiest way to describe willpower is that it is how we make decisions and what motivates those decisions.
It is like self control, and stems from a very complex neurological and hormonal function.
How Willpower Works
Generally our day starts strong. We make our best decisions in regards to our wellness, but as the day goes on it can go "downhill" as people say.
In the course of the day we make many decisions, and as those pile up, so does our ability to make them. This is called decision fatigue.
Willpower is like making a decision and you need a brain in good form in order to make that decision.
Since willpower is based on making decisions, our willpower changes as the day goes on. This is why you may find yourself choosing more wholesome options at the start of the day and turning to those not so wholesome snacks as the day goes on.
The Science Behind Willpower
All of this is very science based. As we wear out, we need to replenish our bodies with it's needed sources of energy. One main source is glucose, which is carbohydrates. Our brain especially needs carbs in order to function at it's best.
Which is why we crave things like sugar or carbs when we are tired or drained. This helps us balance our blood sugar so that our brain can function at it's best.
This goes back to the caveman days when our fight or flight response was triggered as we faced real dangers, like being attacked by a bear. Our body needed that quick burst of energy in order to fight to stay alive, or flee to save ourselves.
However now, most of our stressors are mental versus physical. But our systems are still acting in the same way. It has not changed like our lives have.
We also need to take other factors of brain science into account. When making decisions, are we operating from the emotion center at the back of brain (using fear and stress) or are we using the reasoning center in the front of the brain (using ordered thinking and problem solving).
When it comes to making decisions with food. All the senses are involved (seeing a commercial and billboard or smelling a bakery etc). It isn't as simple as one might think.
By using willpower we can also ignore the sensation coming from our body that help us decide if we are hungry or full.
Is Willpower Needed?
The real question is do we need to rely on willpower in order to make healthy decisions for our wellbeing.
When people reference willpower they are focusing on the act of resisting desires. Studies have shown that people spend almost 20% of their waking hours resisting desires.
By relying on that for our health,
When it comes to vending machines, vegan options are hard to come by. And one that is filled with all vegan treats is unheard of. Until now!
These two women are taking the world by storm with their new product, a fully vegan vending machine! Listen to find out why they are doing it and the barriers they are breaking.
Introducing CEO’s Gabriella Rubin and Aurellia Cammock the Founders of VEGMI LLC. Gabriella is 24 from Staten Island, NY and Aurellia is 25 from Brooklyn, NY.
VEGMI is a vegan vending machine business that is designed to offer snacking options for everyone. They also launched a global vegan market place in April 2021. Their mission is to save animals, stand up for human rights and help bring income to people all over the world.
Vegan Vending Machine Options
The goal of VEGMI is to replace every vending machine out there. To make grab and go snacks accessible for all, regardless of diet, allergy and perference.
Right now there, are not always options in vending machines for a variety of needs. And if there are, trying to figure it out while looking through the glass at something you may or may not be able to read is downright impossible.
VEGMI has the snacks clearly labeled so that you can grab and go without stress.
The snacks encompass foods that are vegan, gluten free, kosher, soy free, non gmo, organic and more!
Reasons to Have a Vegan Vending Machine
The mission for VEGMI is focused on accessible food for all but it's also about giving opportunity to everyone.
They want to make everyone feel included, so when you're needing that easy quick option there is something for you, no matter what diet you must or choose to follow.
What we consume directly corresponds to how we feel, so we need some healthier options out there for those that want them. And currently, most vending machines do not provide that.
Also, we need access to these types of options in all societies, money or not. We can't continue to sit back and watch our lower socioeconomic neighborhoods not have the same accessibility.
VEGMI also wants to create an opportunity for everyone. The VEGMI vending machines are individually owned, so anyone that wants to start their own business has the opportunity.
Gabby and Auri (we're besties now so I feel like I can call them by their nicknames), want to help people creating an income. Be their own boss and have that residual money coming in.
Things Inside a Vegan Vending Machine
There are so many options for what can be inside a vegan vending machine!
The idea is to allow each person to own their own machines, and then they can make up what they want inside themselves. If they want it all healthy options, then great. If they want it all vegan or all kosher or all organic, then they have the choice.
Some of the types of snacks you can find in a VEGMI machine are:
OreosPotato chipsPretzelsProtein barsBada Bean Bada Boom snacksTrail mixYum EarthPumpkin seedsNutsMade Good snacksHippeasVeggie chipsAnd so many more!
Where to Find Vegan Vending Machines
The idea is to replace all vending machines with VEGMI machines. So truly, anywhere you see a vending machine is a great place to find VEGMI.
A few places that you can find them are:
SchoolsShopping MallsOfficesAuto body shopsGyms Apartment complexes Hospitals Nursing homes
Challenges in Creating a Vegan Vending Machine
The biggest issue is first to get people familiar with the snacks. One strategy is to have something they know, like Oreos, in the machine. Oreos are vegan, but many people don't know that.
So if we break the stigma that vegan snacks are everywhere, even things you are used to eating, it will make people feel more comfortable. Vegan and healthy snacks are tasty, it's not all just nuts and fruit.
Once someone is interested, they are able to explore the other options, and may be open to trying new things. Even healthier things that they may have not selec...
We are unpacking the truth behind what intuitive eating really is, clearing up any misconceptions and shedding light on its benefits!
The phrase intuitive eating is thrown around the internet often. But what actually does it mean? There is a lot of misinformation out there and today our guest nutritionist is giving us the truth!
Steph Gaudreau, NTP, is a nutritional therapy, intuitive eating, and strength training expert helping purpose-driven women build stronger bodies and healthier relationships with food.
In her best-selling book, The Core 4, she details a four pillar approach to building health, embracing your body, and owning your power. Steph is trained in biology and human physiology and is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, and USA Weightlifting Sports Performance coach.
Her weekly podcast, the Listen to Your Body Podcast, has 3+ million downloads. She’s an international speaker that has been featured in Outside, MindBodyGreen, SELF, and ESPN Radio.
Make sure to check out her FREE Food Freedom Mini course!
What is Intuitive Eating?
Simply put, intuitive eating is a set of 10 principals that you use to improve your relationship with food, yourself and your body.
It is when what your body is telling you (as in your likes dislikes, etc) merges with the external stuff you are exposed to (like things you should and shouldn't so, what's "bad" or "good," etc).
Th goal is to find overlap between what the external world tells you and your internal world to achieve optimal health for you.
Everything we consume online and in the media has made people more disconnected with our own bodies and it's needs, so it helps bring us home to our body.
Intuitive Eating and Mindful Eating
Intuitive eating and mindful eating have a lot in common. Mindfulness is a component of intuitive eating, but intuitive eating goes a lot further and deeper.
Both are centered around the concept of honoring your body, being present and in tune.
Both have many studies, but one main difference is that the studies associated with mindful eating tend to be centered on weight loss. However intuitive eating is weight neutral.
You can also get certified to be an intuitive eating counselor.
The Basis of Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating was first coined in 1995 by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
It is based on 10 principals:
Reject the Diet MentalityHonor Your HungerMake Peace with FoodChallenge the Food PoliceDiscover the Satisfaction FactorFeel Your FullnessCope with Your Emotions with KindnessRespect Your BodyMovement- Feel the DifferenceHonor Your Health- Gentle Nutrition
While it has been around a while, it's really in the last few years that it has caught on.
There are over 150 studies and growing, going into things like the efficacy of intuitive eating for mental and physiological health.
Weight Loss and Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is a weight neutral practice. Weight is something that is not focused on and can go up, down or stay the same.
Honoring your hunger is one of the principles of intuitive eating. This not only focuses on the idea of eating when you are hungry, but also learning to feel your body's cues of satiety.
Hormone signals for satiety don't happen in the first 5 minutes of eating, so the simple act of slowing down gives your body a chance to catch up and allows you to feel when you are full.
So instead of counting your calories and allowing that to control what you eat, learning to honor your body's natural cues is the focus with intuitive eating.
Diet Culture
In intuitive eating, you work on making health promoting habits that stick and that have potentially no bearing on weight.
Because weight and health has been so connected for so long, it's hard to break the habit of connecting the two.
The goal of intuitive eating is to improve your relationship with food a...
Food accessibility is an area not taken into consideration often enough when we talk about wellness. Healthy can be done in many forms!
The online world makes us feel like if you don't eat fancy products you can't be healthy. From superfoods to super grains, it's a super amount of money!
The Evolution of Healthy Food
Being what they call "an influencer" I see it all online. From people pushing fancy products with the promise of optimal wellness, to the opposite side of simply being able to access food for some populations.
In today's almost post pandemic world, health is of uttermost importance. So why do we focus on creating newer "better" products instead of trying to find ways to get simple wholesome food to all populations?
I consider myself very blessed to afford what we do. Yes, we work hard for it but my families history wasn't an easy road.
I am first generation Greek, my parents were Greek immigrants to this country. When I was little, both of them worked full time in order to get food on the table and give us a good life.
However my mom came from very little. She grew up poor in the mountains of Greece, not knowing if she would have food every day. She was one of the only women to go to high school and the first woman in her village to attend college.
Back then, at 13 the women were brought home and married off. But my grandmother saw a light in her that needed to be fueled. So my mom was pushed to get an education.
My mom is a hero in my eyes. She taught me the concept of hard work, and accomplishing dreams. She worked her ass off to give us an incredible life, and now lives very very comfortably.
She gives a lot to the less fortunate, not only here in San Diego but also to family back in Greece who live on barely anything. She has volunteered and mentored at the homeless schools and basically is an incredible human.
I tell this story, because I was raised on good wholesome healthy food. My mom also grew up eating all whole fresh foods, when they actually had food, because that was what they could grow and trade for.
No superfoods. No fancy products. But here we are in America today where it seems if you can't afford Whole Foods prices, you are screwed. Except, you aren't.
Social Determinants of Health
If we are going to make health something all people can achieve, we need to take certain things into consideration. We need to think about where people are born, work and continue their life.
There are social determinants that must be considered such as socioeconomic status, eduction level, the actual physical environment, their social networks, where they work and access to healthcare.
While this is a deep discussion that could go on for hours, I will touch upon a few of these aspects and why we need to work on changing the narrative.
Economic Access to Food
The most talked about issue with a healthy diet is being able to afford it. If you can't shop at Whole Foods, is there still hope you can live in ultimate health?
There are so many factors with economic access. From the income you bring in, your expenses, the debt you have, your medical bills and other supports. They all play a factor.
Physical environment
While money is a major issue, we also need to think about the fact that some people can't even get to places that offer fresh nutritious food. We take for granted how easy it is for those of us that have cars to get places.
If you cannot afford a car, you rely on public transportation to get around. Not only does that take longer, but it also may not get you close to what you need.
Where you live and what you have around you is an important factor. The grocery stores in your neighborhood, access to public transportation to get to them if walking isn't an option, and even the safety of leaving your home at the hours you have open to get that food should all be considered.
The health of our planet needs our support. Being creative with food waste by reusing, recycling and upcycling is a great first step!
My guest today is a food waste solutions expert! She has all the tricks to help us move closer to saving our planet.
Known as The Plant-Powered Dietitian, Sharon has established an award-winning career in the field of plant-based nutrition and sustainability. One of the most widely recognized registered dietitians in the world, Sharon is an accomplished writer, editor, blogger, author, speaker, professor, advisor, and media expert.
Sharon has authored over 1000 articles in a variety of publications, including Better Homes and Gardens, Oprah Magazine, and LA Times.
Her latest book, California Vegan: Inspiration and Recipes from the People and Places of the Golden State, was published on March 1, 2021. And she’s currently working on her fourth book on plant-based eating due for publication in 2022.
She serves as the nutrition editor for Today’s Dietitian, associate faculty in the MS of Sustainable Food Systems Program at Prescott College, judge for the James Beard Journalism Awards, nutrition consultant for several organizations such as AICR and Oldways, and co-founder of Food and Planet.
Sharon recently completed her Master of Science in Sustainable Food Systems from Green Mountain College in Vermont. And she still has time to blog every day for her popular online community (400 K members strong and growing) at The Plant-Powered Dietitian.
Living in the sustainability mecca of Ojai, California with her husband and two dogs, Sharon enjoys tending to her own organic garden, visiting the local farmers market, volunteering in local environmental organizations, and cooking for friends and family.
What is Food Waste?
Food waste is when you discard edible nutritious healthy food, basically throwing away food that can be eaten. 40% of our food supply is wasted. That's crazy!
This is not just about food going bad, it's about waste happening on many different levels.
A lot of it is happening at the consumer level, in our household, when we shop at the grocery store and when we eat at restaurants. While it also happens at the grocery level and with the restaurants themselves, a lot is a result of what we do.
All of this food is wasted while 12% of our population has food insecurity, meaning they don't know if they will have food to eat.
Why Food Waste is Happening
There are many reasons why food waste happens in our country, but a large issue is our food is relatively inexpensive compared to other countries.
A study was done on the percentage of income we put towards food and when compared to other nations, it's a lot lower. This info is purely statistical and not related to food insecurity or those that cannot afford food.
Since we put a lot less of our salary towards food, we don't value our food as much. Therefore, wasting it isn't something that we think about as an issue.
Also, we don't use the entire plant when it comes to produce. We tend to throw away a lot, things like carrots tops, peeling veggies and fruit when the peels are edible and stalks of broccoli.
Also, here in the US we are disconnected from our food system. Many people have never been to a farm, so we don't stop to think about all that goes into getting our food.
Another issue is our perfection principal. If produce isn't perfect, it isn't good enough to buy or sell. From blemishes to off shapes, we tend to buy the produce that does not have these issues. And grocery stores only display those that are perfect as well.
We also don't understand the expiration dates on packages. What are actually best buy dates, we take as an expiration. But in fact, many things are good well past the best buy date.
Another huge issue in our country is our problem with portion sizes. This is actually factual, if you compare our portion sizes to other countries you can see a ...
Mindfulness practices are not just for yoga! When you take them beyond the mat, you begin to feel better and live a life you thrive in.
While many people think mindfulness is something you do while in yoga class, there are many ways to bring it into your life. It doesn't have to be complicated, but the results are so beneficial!
Donna Jones is a senior leadership executive with nearly twenty years of experience in the healthcare industry. As a registered nurse and community health leader, Donna is intimately familiar with the multitude of concerns associated with a hectic modern lifestyle.
Donna credits her own wellness journey to saving her life during a time of intense personal stress and change. Working her way up the career ladder in a competitive field while obtaining four degrees and multiple certifications, Donna knows exactly how it feels to push yourself to your limits in your life and your career.
Through adopting strategic wellness practices and accumulating a multi-faceted lifestyle toolkit, she was able to not only overcome the odds stacked against her, but to thrive.
Donna’s desire to share her knowledge with others prompted her to begin (R)evolution Healthstyle, a 360-degree approach to wellness and healthcare that strives to prevent the common diseases and illnesses she saw plaguing those around her.
Through plant-based, holistic strategies, Donna helps her clients create stress-free, health-filled lifestyles. With the help of yoga and meditation, the (R)evolution Healthstyle plan allows clients to become more present and to gain clarity wherever they happen to be in their busy lives. Donna is confident that she can help you create the vibrant, energetic life of your dreams. You can reach her at her website above or on Instagram.
You can also grab her free Plant-Based Grocery Shopping Guide!
The Definition of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a broad term. It refers to an awareness that arises from paying attention when living on purpose, being present in the moment and doing it all in a non judgmental way. The root is in compassion, both with others and ourselves.
Overall wellness isn't just about the food we eat, it has to do with the wellness of our mind, body and spirit. We put a lot of emphasis on the food piece and not enough emphasis on the mind and spirit. Mindfulness helps us focus on all areas.
While the mindfulness practice starts on the yoga mat, the practice can be brought into regular life with amazing results. Because the world today is filled with technology and instant access to just about everything, being mindful takes effort.
Pillars of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is not just one thing. There are a variety of characteristics that make up the concept of being mindful. A few of them are:
Being purposefulNon judgmentBeing present in the momentCuriosity and self awareness
These aspects can be woven in to every day actions but can also be part of a meditation practice. Mindfulness is multifaceted and can be done in just about every situation.
Bringing Mindfulness into Life
Many people start with yoga in order to get familiar with a mindful practice. There are so many types of yoga, and something for just about eveyrone.
It can even be as simple as breath work, closing your eyes and just breathing as you pay attention to your breath.
You can also begin with meditation. It can be done with music, just sitting in quiet or simply taking a few minutes to focus on the moment. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Another way to practice mindfulness is journaling. From full journaling or just writing down a few things you are grateful for, it helps you focus on the moment.
You can also just simply be in the moment. Sitting and being. It's that simple. Many people think that you have to rid your mind of all thoughts, This isn't true, it's ok to be aware of them, you simply need bring yourself back.
Mindful eating
Diet culture is the thought that people are worth more or less based on their body size. Find out how we can move beyond this toxic idea!
It is important that we as humans make moves away from the negative environment that is diet culture. With mental health needs on a huge incline, fighting the idea that our worth is tied to our body is so important.
Breanna Danielle is the founder of the lifestyle and wellness site WhereSheBegins.com Breanna combines her love for research and passion for wellness through her online work of creating a safe space for POC to improve their mental, spiritual and physical health.
When Breanna isn’t working on content or teaching classes, you can find her being a foodie at your local vegan bakery. Living a plant-based lifestyle has been a long and rewarding 8-year journey, and she uses her lessons learned along the way to inspire others to change their lifestyle habits. You can connect with her on Instagram via @plantbasedbre.
You can subscribe to her newsletter for awesome info here!
What is Diet Culture?
Diet culture is the overall idea that your worth, value, morality are tied to your body size. It focuses on how we look on the outside, and not who we actually are.
Diet culture exists everywhere, from the infiltrated online world and social media, to places like doctors offices and clothing stores.
Nutrition, workout culture, health and wellness spaces are filled with a particular body type. But food and exercise are really just a small part of overall wellness.
Why is Diet Culture Toxic?
A main problem with diet culture, is that it is everywhere. It affects every size, it affects every race. The idea that you must change your body to look a certain way reaches all people.
We are conditioned to believe these things from a very young age. This creates stories in our subconscious which drive our future actions. If our stories are based in the toxicity of diet culture, then our actions will follow suit.
Diet culture is found in such a wide array of areas in our life, that it is hard to escape. It takes work to undo the harm it has laid. You must put effort into training your mind to think differently.
Another aspect of diet culture is the idea of toxic positivity, the need to be positive all the time. This is not reality When we don't accept and process our negative emotions, we are pushing them down and eventually they will burst.
This toxic positivity is seen online constantly. It's the picture perfect house, mom, relationship, child. A pretty painting that is simply one snapshot of a real life. It's a highlight reel, but the problem is people take it as the whole movie.
Identifying Diet Culture
Bre says that diet culture started affecting her as young as 14 when she started to feel that she needed to lose X amount of weight. She was an active young woman, but still remembers having pediatricians tell her she was overweight.
Many doctors still do this today. Without a full exam and deep dive into a persons life, and simply based on the number on a scale, they turn to weight loss as their go to sugestion.
This is diet culture. It's based on the idea that a bigger body size is not acceptable. Except bigger does not necessarily mean unhealthy. Health can be achieved at all sizes and a deep look into someones life needs to be done before suggestions are given.
Beauty culture is also very infiltrated with diet culture. The standards in beauty do not represent the real population. From the clothes sold in stores, to the products we are pushed to buy. The stereotype we are fed needs to be changed.
Resisting Diet Culture
In order to start chipping away at this idea that we are only worth what our body looks like, we need to make a change in the way we think. We need to ask ourselves the tough questions.
While avoiding all media and online presence could help give us space away from diet culture,
What are the differences between being vegan versus vegetarian versus plant-based? Is one healthier than the other? Listen in to find out!
These diets have become more and more popular in the food world. As people start to think more about the environment and overall health, they turn to things like how they eat to make a bigger impact in the positive direction.
Faith VanderMolen is first and foremost a wife and mother. For the past six years, she and her husband have lived as expats in various countries throughout southeast Asia.
The challenges associated with living overseas forced them to become creative with cooking, and thus her website, The Conscientious Eater, was born. It is a place where she shares her passion for healthy, plant-based recipes, easy meal prep and food photography.
Now with two young kids, her focus has shifted to creating a holistic approach to not only her own diet, but that of her entire family.
Check out her ebook Plant Biased and grab 15% off through this link.
What is Vegan?
Someone who is vegan consumes no animal products, whether it is through food or items in their daily life. They do not eat any animal products like meat, dairy, eggs, honey or gelatin.
They also do not use items made of thing coming from an animal, like leather or wool. The term vegan refers to more of a lifestyle versus simply the way someone eats.
A vegan diet doesn't necessarily mean a healthy nutrient rich diet. There are many foods out there that are vegan but not filled with nutrients.
Raw vegan
A raw vegan is someone who is vegan and eats food in their raw state. This means that they eat anything uncooked, or not cooked at a temp higher than 115 degrees.
What is Plant-based?
Someone who eats plant-based eats a diet made of mostly plants. It is not necessarily a diet that completely eliminates animal products, as some people may occasionally consume some animal products. This is where me and my family fall.
I like to look at a plant-based diet as a continuum that we move along. Where you are on the continuum can change depending on the moment.
Whole food plant-based
When you add the words "whole food" with plant-based, you are referring to a diet than not only is mostly plants, but also is comprised of mostly whole foods. This diet is extremely nutrient dense.
It eliminates or minimally adds foods like oil, added sugar and grains that are not whole grains.
What is a Vegetarian?
A vegetarian is a person that doesn't eat meat (red meat, chicken, pork and sometimes fish). Some vegetarians do consume dairy and eggs. There are many types of diets under this category, each one focusing on eliminating certain things.
Types of vegetarians
Pescatarian: this is someone who eats fish but not other meats.Lacto-vegetarian: this is someone who eats dairy and eggs but no meat.Ovo-vegetarian: this is someone who eats eggs but no dairy or meat.Lacto-ovo-vegetarian: this is someone who eats dairy but no eggs or meat.
Are vegans healthier than vegetarians
When it comes to overall health, we need to look at the entire person. Health is more than physical, it also includes your mental well being.
If the way you choose to eat stresses you out, it may not be the most healthy choice. Eventually that added stress will take a toll on your physical body.
Mental Health and Diet
There are so many factors that go into eating a certain way. The first thing you need to think about, is your why. The reason you choose to eat a specific diet.
There is also a lot of pressure from the outside world, both your family and friends but also the online space. I experienced this myself when we first changed our diet. People can be judgmental and impose their own values on you.
The bottom line is that you don't have to be perfect to make a change or impact on the world. Eating some plants is one step forward toward a healthier and better world.
The food nutrition label makes most people's head spin, but I am here to guide you through understanding it from top to bottom. A must know!
How can we make smart choices in what we buy if we don't even know what the food labels mean? Not anymore! I'm here to help you understand what it all means from top to bottom, and also make sure you know when to beware.
What is a Food Nutrition Label?
Nutrition labels (or food labels) are required for all packaged foods. While I love having whole fresh foods as a big part of my diet, there are many packaged foods that can still be a great addition to a healthy diet.
Food labels were not always a thing. In the 1970's there was a large increase in prepackaged food, which is when the idea of labeling foods was first introduced. The actual label on foods has only existed since 1994.
The most recent update as of today was done in 2016. Knowing how to read a food label is an important building block for understanding overall health and wellness especially if you have food allergies or other health conditions. However, the food label can't help you unless you understand it.
What is on a food label
There are many parts to a food label. In simple terms, a food label tells you the serving information, calories, nutrients, percent daily values and below the label itself you will find the ingredients and allergens in a packaged food.
Within the nutrition area, you will see an array of information from amounts of macronutrients, cholesterol, sodium, vitamins and minerals.
Reading the Parts of a Food Label
When it comes to reading a food label, starting from the top and going down is the easiest approach. Here we will go through each section, information it contains and how to understand it.
Remember that the information given is for each serving of food (and for some they also include how much in the entire package).
Serving Information
At the very top of the food label is information on serving size and how many servings are in a food. Serving size has recently been changed to be the amount that is most common to consume. Also, if the number of servings falls between one and two, the label must show it as one.
If there is more than one serving, then the label needs to have two columns, one with information per serving and one with information for the entire package.
Servings sizes should be similar across foods to make it easy to compare. Just remember that if you are looking at the information given per serving, that this is the amount of the food you are eating. Or adjust if it is not.
Total Calories
The next area on the food label has the total amount of calories. Calories are basically how much energy a food has. Generally speaking, calories are the area focused on most when it comes to weight.
Many people ask how many calories are too many, while there is not right answer, according to the FDA, a very loose guide is:
40 calories = low100 calories = moderate400 or more calories = high
Nutrient Content
The next sections focus on the nutrient content. This is where the bulk of the information lies and there are some key things to pay attention to.
Next to each nutrient in this section you will see a % daily value in each serving. This tells you the percent that nutrient contributes towards the daily diet amount. These are based on a 2,000 calorie diet so the actual amounts you need may change. But looking at the percent will help give you an idea of how much that food contains.
To keep it simple, shoot for high percents for nutrients like fiber, vitamins and minerals, but target low percentages when it comes to saturated fats, sugar and sodium.
Macronutrients
Let's start with the macronutrients. You can read more about what macronutrients are in this episode.
Fat comes first. Fat is a necessary macronutrient that our body needs. However, it is calorie dense and is worth 9 calories per gram.
Is there a healthy sugar? Sugar is one of the most controversial food topics out there. Listen to find out as we dissect the differences!
Sugar is basically a carbohydrate. There are so many types, it's hard to figure out what is what and if some are better than others. Good thing we are chatting with a licensed dietitian to tell us the facts!
Laura Burak is a seasoned OG registered dietitian for more than 17 years, a true foodie, a wannabe chef, a yogi and a mama in the Long Island suburbs outside NYC. GetNaked Nutrition is all about stripping down to the simplicity of food and nutrition and finding joy and pleasure from it. She hopes to inspire you to become the healthiest badass version of yourself at any age!
Grab her FREE Trader Joes Shopping List here!
What are Sugars?
Sugar is essentially two glucose molecules. Glucose is what we use for energy, it is a carbohydrate.
When it comes to sugar, our body processes all sugars the same. Whether you are eating honey or good old white table sugar, our body sees it as the same.
However, there is a difference between natural sugar and added sugar. Lactose (milk) and fructose (fruit) are natural sugars. And the things you typically use to sweeten your foods are added sugar. Added sugars come in a variety of names.
Some of the most common names of added sugar you may see in an ingredient list are: malt/malt syrup, cane juice, cane syrup, carob syrup, glucose, maltose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup and many more.
In the most recent update for food label guidelines, added sugars are now required to be stated on the label. It's important to know how to read food labels so you know what is in the packaged food you buy.
What is the Healthiest Sugar?
When it comes to sugar, your body recognizes them all in the same way. Sugar is not a nutrient dense food, and therefore not something you'd consider nutritious.
This doesn't mean you can't eat it, however when talking about sugar there are things you can look at to decide what is the best one for your needs. Is there a specific flavor you want? Are you looking to keep your blood sugar from spiking? Is there a "look" you need it to have?
When it comes to looks, the differences in the colors are related to the way they are all processed. Molasses is a byproduct of sugar processing, and what gives the browner colored sugars their darker color. Molasses contains the nutrients of the sugar.
While the darker sugars do have more of their nutrients in them, they are still not a nutrient dense food. Sugar does not provide near enough of the nutrients to make it considered nutritious, and if you were to eat the amount you need to gain any nutritional value, you'd probably die of sugar overdose. LOL
Looking at the food overall instead of just the sugar can give you a better picture of how it will react in your body. Protein, fiber and heart healthy fat helps keep you full and satisfied and helps control your blood sugar from spiking.
Glycemic Index (GI)
The glycemic index number of a food tells us how it affects our blood sugar. Meaning how quickly is that food digested and how our blood sugar levels rise. Eating foods with protein, fiber and healthy fats helps slow down digestion and therefore helps keep our blood sugars from rising too rapidly.
The lower GI values mean that food makes your blood sugar rise slower and higher GI means it makes your blood sugar rise faster. Medical conditions like diabetes require you to watch your blood sugar levels.
Sugar alternatives
When people talk about sugar alternatives, they are talking about the sugars that have a zero GI value, or close to it. They are good for people that are very sensitive to sugar or need to control sugar medically, but they can have some negative side effects.
They key when choosing a sugar is to ask yourself:
Do you like the tasteIs it helping you on your health journeyDoes it sat...
Fear mongering on some types of carbohydrates is all over the diet world. Get the real answers on what they are and if we should eat them!
When it comes to carbs, the answer is simple. Our body needs them. But is there a difference in the type you eat and what does your body use them for? Find out the science and facts so you can make an educated decision.
Mary Ellen Valverde is a Certified Nutrition Specialist® and a Licensed Nutritionist who specializes in plant-based nutrition. She is passionate about empowering her clients to feel confident in creating sustainable and healthy habits that align with their values and health goals.
Mary Ellen originally moved to a vegan diet because of her love of animals but, during her transition, she noticed how much better she began to feel. After swapping processed foods and animal products for real, plant-based foods, her health greatly increased. After feeling energized from a plant-powered diet, Mary Ellen decided to pursue a master’s degree in Human Nutrition to truly understand the role food plays in our health.
Mary Ellen supports clients in shifting their relationship with food through one-on-one nutrition coaching as well as online resources which you can find on her website. You can also find her at @v.nutrition on Instagram where she shares recipes and plant-based nutrition tips.
Grab her FREE Vegan Made Easy guide here!
What are carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are one of the macronutrients, nutrients we need in large amounts. You can read more about all the macronutrients in my discussion with Nurse Jenn.
Carbohydrates, or carbs, provide energy to the body. While the other macronutrients can also provide energy, carbs break down faster and are used as a main source of energy by some parts of our body, like the brain.
Unless you have certain health conditions, your body needs carbs in order to function at it's best.
Types of carbohydrates
There are 3 types of carbs: sugar, starches and fiber.
Sugars are short chain carbs and can easily be broken down for energy use, so they are used up quickly.
Starches are long chains of carbs and take longer to break down. This helps with long term energy use.
Fiber cannot be broken down by the body so it passes through undigested. It helps regulates the sugar in our body. Soluble fiber dissolves in water. Things like oatmeal, nuts, beans and fruit are soluble.
Non-soluble fiber can't be dissolved. It moves food through the digestive system and helps push it out. This is things like wheats, whole grains, brown rice, and legumes.
In foods, there are two types of carbs, simple or refined carbs and complex or whole carbs.
Simple carbs are processed to remove the natural fiber and nutrients in the food. Examples are table sugar, white bread, pastries, and fruit juices that have all the pulp taken out.
Complex carbs contain the fiber and nutrients. These are things like whole vegetables and fruits, legumes, and whole grains.
How does your body use carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates provide energy in the form of glucose. The pancreas produces insulin that carries the glucose into our cells to use as energy, then the leftover glucose in the blood is stored for later use.
If there is too much glucose build up, this raises blood glucose levels and may increase the chance of Type 2 diabetes.
Fat can also be used for energy but our bodies break down carbs faster than they break down fats, plus fats don't break down into glucose and glucose is a preferred energy source by many parts of our body.
Weight Loss and Carbohydrates
Everyone is so different, so one approach to weight loss isn't best for everyone. In general, when it comes to low carb diets, often the carbs that are cut are foods that are problematic anyway, such as simple carbs.
Since simple carbs break down quickly, so they spike your glucose levels which leads to a sugar high and then crash.
In turn,
Macros are the talk of the town in the diet world. But what are macronutrients actually? Listen to find out why we need them all!
You know how I feel about macros, and why I don't discriminate. But what about the science behind it? Listen in as we hear from a registered nurse and nutritionist all about why they are so important!
Mama Jenn is a registered nurse, has a dietetics (nutrition) degree and is passionate about empowering others to take ownership of their health. She runs Eating4E, a fun, informative YouTube channel for parents on how to get enough protein, calcium & vitamin D through a plant-based kid & adult diet and so much more in a delicious way. All in 10 minutes or less!
They talk about the 4 E’s: Eating for ETHAN/EVAN, Eating for ENERGY, Eating for ENVIRONMENT and Eating for EMPATHY. They encourage the “5 to stay alive” challenge of eating 5 or more servings of fruits & veggies per day. Join in on the fun & together create a sustainable future!
What are macros?
Macros are a short term for macronutrients. If we break up the word, macro means large and nutrient means nourishments. So basically, macronutrients are nutrients we need in large amounts.
The key to a macronutrient is that it has to provide calories. The three main categories are carbohydrates, protein and fat.
Carbohydrates and protein provide 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram.
There are other things our body needs in larger amount, for example fiber however fiber doesn't provide calories so it isn't considered a macronutrient.
Why our body needs macronutrients and what they do
Without macronutrients our body would not function at it's best, and for some instances it wouldn't function at all. Here are the main functions for each of the macronutrients:
Protein
Protein builds and repairs muscle tissue. When we eat protein, we are getting amino acids. There are 20 total amino acids, eleven are made by body and nine of them we get through food.
We used to think that we had to combine foods in one meal to get complete protein in order to get the amino acids, but research now shows that our body is super smart and can grab what it needs from the different foods throughout the day, so that myth was debunked.
Protein is found in many foods, even plants. Some complete proteins are quinoa, edamame, hemp seeds, chia seeds and buckwheat.
While about 96% of our country does not have a protein issue (and instead a fiber issue), if you're concerned about your protein intake, a good rule of thumb (as stated by the physicians committee for responsible medicine) is take your weight in pounds and multiply by .36 (for kids it would be .45).
Fat
Fats insulate the body and helps with vitamin absorption. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble so they need fat to absorb them.
The brain is 60% fat and therefore also needs fat. Omega 3-fatty acids are important for learning and memory.
However the types of fat you are eating is important. The best fats are mono and poly unsaturated fats, things like nuts, avocado, seeds, etc. Getting fats from whole foods is the goal.
Saturated fats should be avoided or eaten sparingly. They are directly linked to heart disease and promote build up of plaque. The number one food consumed in our country that is filled with saturated fat is cheese!
Most saturated fats come from meat and dairy, but some, like coconut, come from plants. People with heart disease should still avoid, or really limit, their consumption of coconut as it has the same affect in the arteries.
Lastly, trans fats are the worst of them all and should be avoided as much as possible.
Carbohydrates
Carbs are basically fuel for our brain. Our brain breaks them down into glucose to use for all they do. The brain is essentially a muscle and our muscles need a lot of carbs for energy.
The brain does so much, it runs our body and needs a lot of energy to keep us running...
We know that body image and social media aren't the best mix. But what can we do about it? There is help and today's guest is telling us how!
It takes a lot of strength and self confidence to battle the world of social media. From unrealistic body images to diet culture, it's brutal out there. Kourtney Thomas coaches us through the battlefield and helps us find our way!
Kourtney Thomas is on a mission to help women find their own inner Dolly Parton. Through guided self-discovery work and coaching, she helps women see themselves so they can trust themselves in every choice they make for their bodies, lives, and businesses.
On the daily, everyone needs the blunt (but kind) reminder that the only “right” way to do something is the way that works for YOU. With her background in fitness and life coaching, Kourtney has a gift for understanding all kinds of people, building instant rapport, and saying what she means without being mean.
She helps women cut through the fluff to the conversations that matter. There aren’t confetti cannons around here, but there’s a whole lot of grit and growth. When she’s not coaching, Kourtney enjoys bicep curls and hiking fueled by cake in Denver, CO, where she lives with her husband, dog, and two cats.
Make sure to join her email list to get the best info as you work your way towards your own inner Dolly!
Woman and Confidence
Many women struggle with inner confidence, knowing who they are and not caring about what others think. Doing what society thinks is right instead of what we truly want.
Kourtney likes to say that we should un"should" ourselves, don't do what you should do but what you want and enjoy! This is the core reason why she follows the lead from Dolly Parton.
With Dolly, many people only see the big boobs and big hair, but underneath that she is an inspirational, motivational, savvy business woman.
She is worth millions, and gives away much of her money to help those in need (she has a non profit to activate literacy in children). She is one of the few people that has won almost all the music awards out there and many songs in pop culture today are all written by her.
From the time Dolly was 6 years old and was going to Nashville to start her career, she has known who she is and truly doesn't care about what others think. Kourtney lives by her quote "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." This woman was way before her time when she began to pave the way for the future of women.
The Effect of Social Media on Body Image
The connection between self image and media consumption is not new. Even before the internet we had movies and magazines that provided images of women.
When we are constantly exposed to these images, we naturally begin to not only compare ourselves to them, but it leads us to think about our bodies more than we should be.
This in turn leads leads to other negative behaviors like negative body thoughts and other disordered behaviors.
The vast majority of what we see idealizes the thin ideal. It tells us that the thin fit white body is a good body, and anything else is not. This centralized generic message, has been repackaged over and over as new ways to be exposed have come into play.
Social media has given us instant and constant access to a vast array of images. It allows brands to sell products that will help us achieve this unrealistic ideas, basically leading us into a one size fits all approach.
The difference in males and females
While negative body image can in fact affect men too, there is a fundamental difference between men and women when it comes to social media.
This difference is the intent each gender has for going to social media in the first place. To put it simply, men use social media in different ways than women.
Men typically go online to connect with people or to find information. While woman go on to look at others and compare their lives to idealized images of o...
It feels strange to see the words "anti-diet" and "vegan" next to each other. Isn't veganism a diet? Listen to find out why it doesn't have to be.
Just because you choose to eat a certain way, it doesn't mean you have to fall to the hands of the diet world. Today's guest spills all the info on how you can choose to be vegan and also be anti-diet!
Taylor Wolfram, MS, RDN, LDN, is a private practice dietitian, health writer and consultant based in Chicago, Illinois. She has expertise in vegan nutrition, uses a Health At Every Size® approach and believes everyone has a right to body autonomy and respect.
She instructs an online course called Anti-Diet Vegan Nutrition, in which she teaches folks how they can meet their nutrient needs through vegan food, beverages, and dietary supplements, without any diet culture nonsense or restrictive advice.
You can also grab her vegan intuitive eating freebie here! Just sign up in the field at the very top and it's all yours.
What is Anti-Diet?
In simple terms, the word anti-diet means resisting diet culture. The notion of dieting, going on a diet, counting calories, restricting things like carbs, demonization of certain foods, etc.
It fights against the idea that body size determines health, and that thin is healthy and large is not. Basically one look for all of us.
Anti-diet is not just about what you eat, but also the mental health behind it. The why you are eating something, or not eating it.
Weight Loss and Anti-Diet
So what about losing weight, how does that come into play with the anti-diet movement? The short answer is that it doesn't. Weight loss is not a goal when looking to follow an anti-diet process.
It is believed that pursuing intentional weight loss is more likely to cause regain, followed by experiencing both physical and mental health issues. There is actually no evidence based way to lose weight and keep it off in a safe way.
Instead of pursuing weight loss, people can pursue health promoting behaviors. So you are not trying to lose weight, but instead work on your overall wellness.
Research actually shows that over time, yoyo dieting actually raises your weight set range (the range of weight you naturally have).
This is also called happy healthy weight, the weight you have when you're eating and taking care of yourself in a way that has no restrictions or judgments. One example of this is intuitive eating.
Anti-Diet and Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating was created in 1995 by two registered dietitians, but there are now more than 125 research studies on it. In simple terms it is when you use your instinct, emotion and thought to help you make decisions about food. It is based on ten specific principals.
When you engage in intuitive eating, you cannot do so with the intention to lose weight or it will turn into a diet. You look at your weight from a neutral standpoint. Whether you lose it, gain it or it stays the same it is not celebrated or looked down upon.
We are actually born intuitive eaters, but diet culture leads us away from it.
The difference between the anti-diet movement and intuitive eating is that anti-diet is simple a broad movement, where intuitive eating is one framework and one approach within the anti-diet movement itself.
Another way we can focus on our inner selves when it comes to eating is mindful eating. I talked about mindful eating in my chat with Ashley Kitchens.
Veganism and Anti-Diet
Veganism has been promoted as a diet by many, but it's actually an ethical belief system. While food is part of it, overall it is a lifestyle one chooses to live.
You can eat a vary varied vegan eating plan and not feel restricted. Especially in today's world where there are vegan options for almost anything.
The second the intention for being vegan is weight loss, or something to that effect, being vegan will feel restricted.
Have you heard of growing food indoors? You don't need to have a huge yard and ample garden space and today's guest shows us how!
I love growing my own food but am lucky enough to have a garden. But what if you don't? Shouldn't all people have access to amazing home grown food? Not only does it save money, but the nutrients you get are amazing!
Brittney Amey is a wife and mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. She is a former collegiate and professional volleyball player and now a volleyball coach and trainer.
She has become a health advocate, helping busy moms and families grow their own food and eat more plants. She uses her tower garden to show others that you don't need a lot of space or yard to grow your own food!
You can download her free gardening lesson plans here!
Brittney also shows people how to up their plant nutrition with plant concentrates using Juice Plus products, (receive free fruit + veggie chewables for kids up to 4 years old when you order).
Can you grow all your own food?
Unless you have a huge farm with sources for everything you need to eat a well balanced diet, you will probably focus on growing produce.
But even that has many benefits. Plants like lettuce and herbs are the easiest to grow and give you the fastest results. Fruiting plants are the most difficult and take longer to get product. Fruiting plants are things like strawberries, zucchini, broccoli, and tomatoes.
What do you need to grow your own food?
There are many ways you can grow food at home, ranging from planting in soil to using pots and even specialty like gardens like the tower garden.
When growing in soil, you'll need to invest in things like garden beds or grooming an area in your yard or different sized pots. You will also need to buy the actual seeds or seedlings.
You'll need to buy the right soil for what you are growing, along with fertilizers, growing enhancers, gardening tools and even items that will help keep plants tall and sturdy.
Another way you can grow your own food is using a tower garden, which is a vertical growing contraption. The benefit of this is that it can grow in any type of space, from small to large and even inside.
It also comes with everything you need to get started, even seeds so you can start growing right away.
Instead of watering yourself, the tower garden has a reservoir at the bottom that holds all the water and nutrients, and is a self watering system. It's fun to do with your kids, and really easy so great for beginners,
Produce can grow up to three times faster because of the water and nutrients constantly going through the garden, which also leads to it using 98% less water. Also, the inside rock wool cubes (eco friendly rock fiber) gives plants oxygen and constant moisture it needs for rapid growth.
Growing food indoors
Since plants need sun and bees to grow, it can be hard to grow many indoors. But things like the tower garden are starting to make it possible. This is great for people that live in colder climates or those that may not have access to outdoors from their home.
The indoor gardens come with LED lights to act as the sunlight, and some people even prop up a fan to simulate the outdoor wind. While it's best to grow things like lettuce and herbs indoors, you could grow other fruiting plants by using a brush to help spread the pollen like bees would.
Benefits of growing your own food
Growing your own food has so many benefits! Here are a few key ones:
Flavors of the food. The longer the food sits out, the more flavor is lost.Nutrients. Food is most nutrient rich right from picking, and it slowly loses nutrients as time goes.Less spray/chemicals. Even organic food is sprayed with things. While it's still really important to get in fruits and veggies, organic or not, when it is home grown it is at it's purest form.Saving money. You can save money in the long run when you invest in growing food at h...
Overall wellness has a huge impact when living with cancer. For my guest today, it has helped her live well beyond the years she was given.
Wellness is not just the absence of disease, but a whole mind, body and spirit approach to the well being of a person. My guest today, Melanie Kabo, embodies the definition of true wellness.
Cancer Diagnosis
In 2011 Melanie had a seizure in the early morning. The initial diagnoses gave her 14 months to live, since they thought she either had breast cancer that metastasized to her brain or a glioblastoma.
After further investigation, they found out it was another type of brain cancer, which gave her 3-8 years to live with a 34% chance to make it to 5 years. She is in year 9!
Life with Cancer
After her initial diagnosis, Melanie and her husband decided to change their outlook on life and live it to the fullest.
They started with what they put in their body. After watching quite a few documentaries, they began their diet change with juicing. That led them to discover the macrobiotic diet.
After giving it a shot, Melanie realized it was a lot of work. It also includes food rules they couldn't live with. She loves avocados and those are on the no list, it includes a lot of soy and with her family history of breast cancer it didn't feel right, and it had a lot of fermented food which isn't her family's favorite.
From there they went to a mostly pescatarian diet and then moved on to mostly eating plants. She added some raw vegan from time to time as well. But overall, she focuses on how she feels and balanced with what works for her family to make sure her mental and emotional wellness is taken care of.
Diet and Cancer
When Melanie decided to change her diet, her doctors gave her the stamp of approval. In her brain cancer groups, many people follow a keto diet. But her doctor told her that if her goal was to live a long time, then the keto diet isn't the best choice as her cholesterol would go up.
After five surgeries, Melanie still feels amazing. In fact, doctors say that according to her general lab work, she is one of the healthiest people they have ever seen!
She has realized how much food can help heal, and strives to make wholesome food choices as part of her overall wellness plan.
She says that things have healed quicker, she doesn't have headaches, or feel sick anymore. And has an overall feeling of being healthy. You'd never know she is battling brain cancer inside!
Living Life to the Fullest
Living life is Melanie's theme. Her family has ongoing bucket list items that they check off as they live life. Some are done as a family, and some are for her alone.
After her fourth surgery, she celebrated being done with chemo by prepping for and running a half marathon. After she was done with that, her son challenged her to run a full marathon. She took that challenge and then some, and as of today has ran two full marathons and ten half marathons!
One bucket list item they still want to do is travel Europe. Hopefully it will become a reality soon!
Melanie has accepted that her cancer will never go away, she needs to learn to live with it and she truly embodies the essence of success.
Her goal is to dance in her grandchildren's weddings and I fully believe she will be there....
Living with cancer is not easy, but with a positive outlook and care to support overall wellness it can be a success. We should all learn from Melanie and start thinking of health as an interconnected system between the wellness of our body, mind and spirit!
PS- If you liked this episode of Real Food Real Conversations, please subscribe and leave me a review!
And tag me on Instagram whenever you're listening! I reply to all my messages!
When you aren't vegan and living with a vegan partner, it can be tricky. Just because you are a couple, doesn't mean you have to eat the same!
Today's guest knows about this first hand. She is sharing her experience and all the tips and tricks to make it work!
Molly Patrick is from Clean Food Dirty Girl, where her mission is to help people eat more plants while finding joy in doing so.
Molly and her Dirty team custom create weekly Whole Food Plant Based Meal Plans to teach their subscribers how to shop, cook, and eat plants that taste damn good.
Upon signing up for the weekly Meal Plans, subscribers gain access to a personalized and customizable online classroom that Molly and her team built from scratch.
Molly has sent out a Sweary Saturday Love Letter to her email list since January 2014 where she celebrates human imperfections and all the messiness of life.
Couples and Different Diets
When Molly met her partner Luanne, food wasn't something that centered their relationship. Molly was a creative artist and foodie, and Luanne was in the tech world.
From how they eat to their strengths, they are very different people. They don't take themselves too seriously, and like they don't use their areas of expertise to judge the other person, food never entered their minds as something that would be an issue.
Molly is plant-based and has never eaten meat. Luanne is a meat eater who will eat Molly's food when she feels like it will satisfy her. Food is something that they each individually choose for themselves. It's as simple as that.
Can a vegan live with a meat eater?
A vegan can live with a meat eater if they choose to live with a meat eater. When it comes to relationships, you choose what you can accept and what you can't.
You are in charge of your happiness, and your partners food choices, car choices, music choices don't decide whether you are happy. So when you meet someone, you have to make a conscious choice to accept the other person as they are, or not.
How to Be Vegan if Your Partner Is Not
It's pretty simple, you just do it. It's all in how you look at it, like when your partner decides to buy a car you don't love or blasts the country music when you're a rocker.
We are in charge of ourselves and we don't get to be in charge of others. We can control how we think of someone else because we choose our own thoughts.
If you want to eat plants, then do it. If your partner wants to eat meat, then they can do it.
Compromising on Values and Goals
When we look for a partner in life, values come into play. This is why you have to decide what your "why" is for eating a certain way.
If eating a vegan diet is part of a bigger vegan lifestyle and you cannot compromise in that, and must have a partner who shares that same value, then this is something you need to look for when looking for a partner.
It's a similar issue as religion. If your religion means so much to you that you can't live a life with someone who believes in something different, then don't.
Again, we control our thoughts and decisions. We make our own choices.
How to Cook a Meal for Two Diets
If you do end up in a relationship with someone who eats very different then you, the logistics of meals can come into play.
With Molly, she and her partner have a very simple system.
Molly follows the meal plans from her website. Each week, she gives Luanne the menu and Luanne picks what sounds good. These are the meals Molly makes for them both.Molly likes to batch cook, so everything is ready to eat when it's time for that meal.If it is a meal that Luanne doesn't partake in, since she doesn't like to cook she usually will pick up take out of something she prefers.
It's really that simple. But that's not the only way to do it. Sometimes you want to make a meal that everyone can and will eat. I talk more about this in my episode on making one meal for all eaters!
Learning how to smoothly transition to a plant based diet is key for long term success. Many people go into it quickly and with strict rules.
Whenever you take on something new, it's important to break it down into small reachable steps in order for the end result to be sustainable long term.
What is a Plant Based Diet?
A plant based diet is a diet with foods that come from plants. This means you don't eat animal products like meat, dairy, eggs and honey.
Plant based doesn't mean you are necessarily healthy, there are many plant-based foods that are processed and not nutrient rich. If you want to eat a healthier version of a plant based diet, you'll want to stick to a whole foods plant based diet.
A whole foods centered plant based diet is comprised of nutrient rich whole foods that are minimally processed.
How to Start
As a teacher of 14 years that spent a lot my career teaching students with learning disabilities, the number one thing I can teach when it comes to learning something new is take it slow.
Start by figuring out why you want to make this change. Eating a plant based diet is usually because of the following benefits:
HealthEnvironmentEthical (for the animals)Cost
For us, the reason was health. When you have your why, you can always turn back to it if you get to a point where you are struggling or trying to decide if you want to push forward.
Always bring fun into it. Share new recipes with family and friends and make trying new food about community and togetherness. Try new places to eat, get adventurous because you never know when you'll find something new you love!
Most importantly, don't stress. Learn to chill out and not let the pressure from the online world drive your progress. We are all different, and there is not right way to transition to eating a plant based diet, no matter what others want you to think.
Why you need small steps
Starting slow is really important for long term success. When you jump into something too quickly, you tend to add more stress and burn out in the end.
Here are a few ways you can start slow when transitioning to a plant based diet:
Add one new product at a time- start with something easy to make or buy.Think of it like learning a new cuisine- research recipes and pick one new one to try until that seems easy, then slowly add one more until you feel confident to transition fully or as much as you prefer.Seek support from experts- I love working with clients to help them slowly transition to eating more plants in a low stress way.If you feel stress, back off- remember taking small steps backwards doesn't mean you won't take a big step forward, it is not a race.Give yourself grace- food shouldn't be associated with negative feelings, if you didn't make the goal you set for yourself, it's ok!
Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet
There are many different benefits that eating more plants can do for you. For us, we saw a lot of health benefits, from increased energy, better sleep, improving his heart disease and even weight loss for my husband.
You can read more about the health benefits of a plant-based diet in this article by Harvard Health.
But there are also environmental and ethical benefits to eating less animal products. Reducing our carbon footprint is important for the health of our environment and eating more plants helps with that.
It also helps reduce animal cruelty and mistreatment of animals. If we reduce our meat consumption as a whole to occasional, then the big corporations won't have the consumers to drive their unethical practices.
Tips and Tricks For Long Term Success
The thing about a plant based diet, is that it isn't an all or nothing thing, no matter what the online world wants you to think. Not to say that some people can't do it full force, but many of us find that stressful and overwhelming.
Which is why I totally advocate for eating mostly plants,
Unless it is medically necessary, cutting out an entire macronutrient can be dangerous to your health. Our cells need them all to function.
Diet culture tends to push us towards fear of one kind of macronutrient or another. With promises of looking like a model, we blindly follow what is being sold.
What Are Macronutrients?
When we talk about macros, we are referring to macronutrients. Macronutrients are nutrients our body needs in large amounts (hence the prefix "macro").
We also have other nutrients our body needs. And then there are some that we only need in very small amounts, which are called micronutrients ("micro" meaning small).
The three main macronutrients are carbohydrates, fat and protein. Some say that water is also a macronutrient since we need it in very large amounts as well.
Why do we need macronutrients?
Macronutrients are needed in order for our cells to function. Carbs, fat and protein yield energy. Meaning they have calories that they provide to our body.
When it comes to energy, the first macronutrient our cells turn to is carbs. Carbs are stored for energy short term, so our body wants to use them first.
After the energy of carbs is used, our body turns to fat for it's energy. Fat can be stored long term, so any excess calories from carbs are stored as fat.
The last macronutrient that our body turns to for energy is protein. Once the calories from carbs and fat are used, the body turns to protein.
In general, different parts of our body function best using different sources of energy, so eating a diet with all types of macronutrients helps our body perform best. Again, unless you are guided by a medical professional to do something different.
Diet Culture and Macronutrients
The issue with diet culture is that many people that share diet advice are not licensed professionals. Instead of sharing sound information backed by science, they sell products to make money.
Much of the time, these diets cut out an entire macronutrient category all together promising weight loss, muscle toning, etc.
The diet world is loaded with fat free, carb free, high protein, high fat, etc diets. It's dizzying just thinking about it all.
Eating a Balanced Diet
The problem with following these diets, is you stop listening to what your body is telling you and instead listen to an outside source. This tells your body that it isn't important so eventually you stop hearing it's signals.
This is when people get into trouble. If you don't hear your bodies signals then you can't give it what it wants and needs to function at it's best.
While I don't subscribe to one particular diet (read all about me to see how we eat plants but don't put extreme boundaries on our food), I have had times when I overdo it with food that isn't the best nutritionally or drink too much alcohol.
When this happens, I find that I need to reset myself so that I can get connected to my body again. My Refresh and Reset Guide is my favorite way to do this.
This guide isn't a diet or a meal plan. It's simply a guide with ideas on how to almost clear yourself out so you can hear your body again. Because I believe that overall health is taking care of both your body and mind, I even have some self care ideas in it too!
When I am able to connect with my body again, I know that it craves carbs, fat and protein to be at it's best. I feel the moments that it needs the comforting carbs, those that crave the protein and when I need some good fat sources.
Carbs are not the devil, and neither is fat. You can eat both of those things in healthy amounts. While there are definitely times when I crave one or the other, it all balances out.
Just remember that listening to your body is so important, and sometimes we need to take the time to clear out the gunk (diet culture, overly processed foods to often, over-drinking for too long, etc) so we can hear it.
A plant-based diet when you are an athlete is doable and can actually be helpful. Listen to find out why protein isn't your main issue!
We worry so much about protein in our country. It seems to be the main focus in the diet world, especially when it comes to athletes. But Kayla tells us why we should focus on so much more!
Kayla Slater is a plant-based online nutrition and run coach. She is a Registered Dietitian and a plant-based runner. She has been a plant-based vegan for 5 years and runner for 10 years.
You can find all that she offers on her website Plant-Based Performance Nutrition and find her free resources here!
Is a Plant-Based Diet Good for Athletes?
Absolutely! And some evidence is even showing that a plant-based diet can help performance. They are seeing how all the nutrients we get from plants helps recovery and it may help with speed as well.
While different types of athletes need different things, overall a diet rich in plant-based whole foods gives your body great nutritional sources.
Eating for Performance
Overall, it's important to try to incorporate more whole foods, especially when you are active and want to perform well.
Here are some tips and ideas from Kayla:
It's best to eat about 1-2 hours before your run or workout so you have time for it to settle. You should eat something with a low glycemic index like a bagel and avocado. It's hearty but it won't give you belly issues.
Since everyone is different, it's best to experiment with this and see how your own stomach does.
Pre run/workout (about 10-20 minutes before):
You need low glycemic index carbs. Not high or too much fiberFruit is best because easy to digest, it gives you quick energy since it's fructose. Smoothie, piece of fresh fruit, or fruit based bar like a Lara Bar.
During your run/or long workout:
You want quick energy low glycemic index carbs as well. Energy gels, Kayla like Huma gels because they are made from chia seeds. Tailwind electrolyte powder has more carbs than a normal electrolyte drink so some like to use it.Ultra runners also use foods like dates and mashed potatoes. Potatoes are amazing for runners because they have carbs but are not complex carbs plus they are a great source of potassium.
Post run/or long workout:
You want carbs and protein with a ratio of 3 grams of carbs for every 1 gram of protein. Carbs replenish energy by replacing the glycogen stores you used up when you exercised. Protein is important because you are breaking down muscles during your running or work out and protein helps repair them. You want to eat within 1 hour of your workout. Smoothie or a protein bar are good quick choices. Quick.
After that, about 2 hours later sit down and have a well balance meal that includes carbs, protein and fat. Some plant-based meal ideas would be a veggie burger, burrito, taco, hearty salad or soup.
Protein and Athletes
Protein seems to be the main focus when it comes to plant-based diets and with athletic performance overall. When actually, people in the US do not have a protein issue but in fact are lacking in fiber.
While different kinds of athletes need different amounts of protein, depending on whether you are looking to focus on performance or building muscle, it is possible to do so with plants.
There are many sources of protein when eating a plant-based diet:
beans/legumesnuts/seedsvegetablesquinoagrainstofu/tempehstore bought items like protein powders and plant-based mock meats
Kayla has her runners eat around 1.2-1.4 grams of protein per kg of weight, and she finds that they get all they need through their plant-based diet.
In fact she had one client who needed to increase calories to meet her running needs, and she found that she was getting plenty of protein even with only increasing food intake with things like fruits and veggies.
Plant-Based Diet and Supplements
Life experiences can drag us down, or guide us to make a mark on the world. Listen to hear how this mom turned a problem into business!
We all face issues and we go through life, some with solutions and some that leave us feeling empty handed. It's those problems we need to solve that drive us to create solutions of our own!
KidsLuv: A Business Built through Life Experiences
Ashi Jelinek is a Los Angeles-based mother of three who found the market lacked innovative, health conscious children's products. Before becoming a stay-at-home parent, Ashi started her career in theatre in New York and attained her undergraduate degree in theater/communications at California Institute of the Arts.
In launching The Luving Company in 2018, Ashi brings her personal experiences as a mother along with her passion for health and wellness. Focusing on promoting a healthy lifestyle to her kids, Ashi set out to create a new brand for both her own and other families alike.
Ashi developed KidsLuv in 2018 upon realizing all kids' drinks were laden with sugar and little health benefits, and combined with pediatric dentists' recommendation to avoid gummy vitamins, KidsLuv was born.
She intentionally developed the product to meet almost any need: it's Certified Non-GMO, Vegan, Kosher, Gluten-free, and packaged in an 8 oz. recyclable, resealable, straw-free drink carton.
You can find her on Facebook, Instagram and her website www.kidsluv.com.
How Life Experiences Lead Us to Creating Solutions
Like many other parents, Ashi gave her son the gummy and chewable vitamins. After dealing with the multiple cavities he kept getting, and his dentist suggesting she stop giving him those vitamins, she new there had to be a solution.
Along with that, she was finding herself constantly mixing water with the juices her kids wanted to keep the sugar content low. Which is when the idea of a vitamin packed juice came to mind.
Her focus was less on the juice and more the vitamin enhanced drink. She wanted an easy way to get kids vitamins without struggle and cavities.
As an added bonus, she created this drink with a vitamin D calcium source that was vegan, which was inspired by her many friends who had children with dairy allergies.
Not only did she solve the problem she had with getting vitamins into her kids without the cavities, but this drink helps solve the problem for those of us that either have kids that won't eat vitamins or are always forgetting to give them.
How your upbringing leads to success in business
Ashi is the daughter of immigrants. Her mom was the main breadwinner and worked full time. She owned her own interior design business so from the time she was young she was surrounded by a strong woman as a role model.
She watched her mom build her own business, not only as a woman but as a minority. A strong work ethic was part of her life and a big influence in her building her own brand.
Ashi was also very creative, she san opera and danced as a child. Building a brand allowed her to use her creativity as an adult along with solving that problem she had no solution for.
Along with all this, Ashi grew up in a plant-based centered household with a strong focus on homeopathic and eastern medicine, even before it was the in thing. This developed her drive to look at alternative ways to deal with health.
When her son was very young, he got sick often. Because of her upbringing in a homeopathic home, it prompted Ashi to look into alternative ways to help him. This along with the issues she had with cavities, was the catalyst for her business.
Your Past and Life Decisions
How we grow up and the experiences we go through help guide us in our every day decisions. Both the things we go through and the adults we learn from help guide us.
Had Ashi not had a mother who built her own successful business, or been surrounded by alternative medicine,
Mindful eating is a start in the path to overall well being. The simple practice of being present with food builds our inner confidence.
When we ignore our body's natural cues, we are essentially telling ourselves we aren't trustworthy and placing control into outside sources. Being present with food helps start that positive confidence cycle.
Ashley Kitchens is a plant-based registered dietitian and nutrition coach, who works with clients all over the world. She reversed all of her chronic GI issues with a plant-based diet.
Now, she helps people mindfully and confidently choose foods that align with their health, their goals, and their taste buds.
Download her free Guided Mindful Eating Activity here!
You can find more about her and all she does on her website Plant Centered Prep.
You can also follow her on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook and her Private Facebook Group.
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is basically a form of meditation related to food. It's being in the moment with all things food and your body.
Whether it's being present when you eat, listening to your body and honoring what it wants, or being flexible when it comes to changing up what you had planned to eat because it doesn't sound good anymore, mindful eating helps you be in the moment and honor your body.
While it shares some similarities with intuitive eating, intuitive eating is more specific and follows a 10 principal structure.
Mindful eating focuses simply on listening to your inner wisdom, almost like kids. We are born with the ability to listen to our body, but as we grow and outside factors affect us, we slowly lose it.
How to Practice Mindful Eating
Whenever you want to make a change, you should start small. It doesn't happen over night. We are so used to immediate gratification in today's world, but mindfulness takes time and practice.
Ashley works with clients on mindful eating in her practice. She starts by assessing where her clients are with their food relationship. Because you need to know where you are starting.
Mindful eating is a lot of mental and emotional work. It's basically healing a relationship with your body. Much like you'd heal a relationship with another person.
She believes that you need to start by creating awareness, because awareness precedes change. So starting with figuring out triggers, documenting your feelings and emotions and asking yourself why are all things that can help.
Mindful eating isn't something that will happen instantly, especially if you have spent a long time jumping from diet to diet. It takes time and can take many months.
Examples of mindful eating
Some ways you can practice eating mindfully are:
Sitting down to eat away from work, TV, and devices.Focus on the actual eating, the flavors, textures, smells and even the process itself.Take deep breaths and feel relaxed.Ask yourself if what you have in front of you is something you actually want to eat.Be okay if what you had planned to eat, isn't what you crave in the moment and change it up! Honor what your body is telling you.
We aren't aiming for perfection. It isn't something you need to do all of the time. But the more you practice, the more it will come naturally.
Benefits of Mindful Eating
Any time you practice honoring your body, you are bettering yourself. Eating is just one way you can practice self respect.
When your body tells you something and you ignore it, it's like telling yourself what you want isn't good enough. And then giving control to an outside source.
But when you honor your body's natural cues, you are building confidence. You are telling yourself that you are good enough to listen to and that helps build up your inner self trust.
This will spill over to other areas of life. If we are confident inside, that confidence shines. And we are overall more successful with all we do.
Diet Culture and Mindful Eating
Mindfulness is more than just a passing moment. It's a practice that takes time to see results. With work, it can do wonders for your life!
My guest today chats with us about the process of setting up a mindfulness practice, the positive effect it can have in our life, and how it can be woven into our everyday being.
Lisa Druxman is a mom on a mission. She is the founder of FIT4MOM, the country's largest fitness program for moms, a noted speaker, author, podcaster and powerhouse of energy.
A self proclaimed idea monkey and #momboss, Lisa is passionate about helping women get out of overwhelm and in to a life of health and happiness. She shares her life hacks and experiences to help you live a more passionate and purposeful life.
A respected speaker and author, Druxman earned her Master's degree at San Diego State University in psychology with an emphasis in exercise adherence and weight control.
She created the weight management program, L.E.A.N. Mommy® (Learn Eating Awareness and Nutrition) which is also the name of her book, by Hachette Books. Her most recent book, The Empowered Mama is the "how to" guide to empower moms to live their best lives.
A well-published author, Druxman has written on business for Entrepreneur and on motherhood for magazines such as Fit Pregnancy, Shape and more.
Recognizing her entrepreneurship, Druxman has also been nominated for and received numerous honors from organizations such as the National Association of Women Business Owners for her unique and successful business.
Lisa has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNN, Access Hollywood, Hollywood Live Today and Home & Family to name a few. Druxman has been featured in print publications including Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Self, Fit Pregnancy, American Baby, and more.
Druxman lives and relishes the FIT4MOM mission statement every day, “Helping moms make strides in fitness, motherhood and life.” She resides in San Diego with her husband, son and daughter.
You can find her on www.fit4mom.com, www.lisadruxman.com, https://fit4mom.com/on-demand, and Facebook.
Make sure to sign up for the 7 Day Free Trial for FIT4MOM On Demand
What is Mindfulness?
The simple answer to describe mindfulness, is just the state of being. It's learning how to practice being a human and to just be in the moment. Whatever it is you are doing, being present and focusing on that one thing.
Lisa had us do a great activity, for one minute simply pay attention to your thoughts. Whatever comes into your mind. That right there is mindfulness.
Practicing Mindfulness
When you first start, setting a time and regular routine to practice mindfulness will help it become part of your normal routine.
But eventually, being mindful will just happen. It will happen in every day tasks, activities, and just life.
Learning to be mindful and present when doing the simplest things, like chores or tasks you need to get done, will help you bring mindfulness into your everyday being.
Lisa started with a task she hated to do, emptying the dishwasher. She began focusing on what she was doing, putting away plates, cups, forks, etc. And what she saw was that being present in the moment helped with her mental well being overall.
She believes that you can turn these every day mundane things into an opportunity to be in the moment. ROE stands for return on energy. Let these chores and tasks be a time to focus on being in the moment or a time to learn and use it to listen to a podcast.
As you get better at your practice, you will be able to bring it into your every day life.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation is part of mindfulness. When you meditate, you are practicing being in the moment. It's not about clearing your mind of all thoughts as much as it's about allowing those thoughts to pass by.
Meditation has been shown to decrease stress, increase focus, help your immune system,
Learning how to understand food labeling claims is so important for avoiding the marketing traps brands like to put on their products!
It's so easy to fall victim to all the fancy marketing on the front of products. Brands know how to draw you in and get you to think a product is filled with wholesome ingredients when that's not the whole story.
Food Marketing
My husband is the first person to fall for the claims on the front of food labels. I love his desire to bring home amazing wholesome foods, but brands love to use the front of their packages to draw the buyer in.
There are claims that brands are allowed to use that don't necessarily tell the whole truth. Here are a few I see a lot:
All naturalMade with whole grainsSugar freeLow fatNo trans fatUsing things like "gluten-free" as a tactic to make buyers think it's healthy.
There are ways you can check whether these food labeling claims are true and avoid falling for what's not fully true.
Importance of food labels
Labeling food packages are a requirement. They are meant to help consumers but they can also be very confusing if you don't know how to read them.
Which is why many simply look at what claims are put on the front. Many consumers read the claims and labels on food, but you need to know how to read them right.
How to read ingredient lists and what they mean
While it's easy to look at the front of packages, turning the food around and reading the labels on the back along with the ingredients is the only way to truly see what's going on.
Here are some tips with reading ingredient lists (you should also know what the rest of the food label means too):
The ingredients are listed by weight, meaning the first one is found in the highest quantity. Be cautious with foods that have a huge list of ingredients. Unless they are mostly whole foods or things you recognize like spices, etc., they could contain many additives that aren't great for you. If the first three ingredients are real whole foods, its made of mostly real stuff.If something is made with actual whole grains, then the you will see the word whole in the first two ingredients.Whole grains also provide at least three grams of fiber per serving so look at the label.Look for artificial sugars like sucralose, sacharin, aspartame and acesulfame.Preservatives can hide, things like sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate are found in processed meats.Three big ingredient categories that can have a variety of names are sugar, sodium and trans fat.Manufacturers are allowed to say something has no trans fat if it has anything under .5 grams per serving, so they will make the serving size super small to reach that. This is common in things like salad dressings.If you see hydrogenated vegetable oil in the list of ingredients it has trans fat.
How Food Labels Can be Misleading
Manufacturers want to sell products. So they often find loopholes in the way they can label their products so they can draw the consumer in.
Many of these claims are misleading and sometimes not true, like the trans fat example above.
Other examples are when they have high-sugar breakfast cereals claim whole-grains but they omit all the other ingredients that make them high in sugar and other added ingredients.
Manufacturers like to label products with things they do have to imply they are healthy. Like no sugar added, yet the ingredients in there are have plenty of sugar and calories.
There are some health claims that are not allowed on food labels though. These include things for treating, preventing, or curing diseases. These are considered drug claims.
Can you trust food labels?
Overall, throw caution to what's on the front of a food package. It's really important to look at the ingredient list and cross check things with the numbers per serving.
You need to know other names for things, especially when it comes to sugar, fat and sodium.
The need to support teen mental health is on the rise, especially when it comes to body image issues. Listen in for some great tips!
The behavior we model as adults, carries on to our children. The problem with body image, is that many of us adults struggle as well. So where does that leave our kids?
Today I am talking to Julie Pullman from Rise Wellness Coaching, a wellness coaching program that focuses on teens.
As a trained professional with a degree in Child Development and a minor in Psychology, and a decade in the fitness industry as well as mom of two teens, Julie offers an experienced and compassionate perspective in her coaching practice.
She had her own journey to overcome health issues and find wellness. She now coaches because that journey showed her what her true potential is and how good you can feel once you achieve it.
You can find her on her website, Rise Wellness Coaching and on her Instagram account.
Gender Differences in Body Image
Body image issues affect everyone. Adults, teens and even young children. It affects all genders and sexual orientations. It knows no bounds. It especially is prevalent in young women.
While most of the focus is on females, males struggle too. Maybe it's because males don't tend to talk about their emotions as openly, so it's not as common that they admit it, but it affects them.
Statistics from a variety of resources say that somewhere between 15 and 25% of eating disorders are in males. So while it isn't as high as females, it still exists.
Because the movement for support isn't focused on males, their feelings are often brushed under the rug.
Age and Body Image Issues
Some research shows that 40-60% of girls between age 6 and 12 are worried about their weight. That's girls as young as first grade!
So if this is a concern starting at 6, why don't we address this? Schools don't have education and support for issues related to body image in elementary, it seems it's assumed that this is dealt with at home.
But if adults also struggle with this issue, how do we support our kids?
It seems like we should start this education young, build them up before they fall. If we can give them the skills to be confident with themselves, this will transfer to so many other areas of life including school suuccess.
The exposure to social media, diet culture, moms that constantly jump from one diet to another, peers and learned behavior all set the stage for young adults with a spectrum of issues from extreme eating disorders to an unhealthy body image.
Eating Disorders in Teens
Eating disorders in teens is on the rise and very prevalent. Teen mental health is suffering and the statistics are alarming:
By 17 years old, 89% of girls have dieted.15% of young women have disordered eating42% of girls in grades 1-3 want to lose weight45% of boys and girls in grades 3-6 want to be thinner51% of 9 and 10 year old girls say they feel better about themselves when they are dieting81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat9% of nine year olds have vomited to lose weight
All of this can be helped with prevention. By teaching and addressing these issues with kids before the media gets to them will give them a solid background of knowledge.
The issue is that once young children get exposed to the online world, that becomes their source of information. The not only see photos of what they think they need to look like, they are also exposed to the wide range of diets being sold.
Diet culture is a huge precursor to body image issues. Young kids tend to believe what they see online.
Warning signs
If you are concerned about your young adult, teen or child and want to catch the issue before it spirals out of control, there are some red flags you can watch out for:
They are going from diet to diet.You notice they are restricting calories or whole categories of food.They are seeking constant attention based on looks.
Listen to find out why diets don't work for losing weight and for an overall happy relationship with food, while learning tips of what does!
It seems like everywhere you turn, there's a new diet being sold promising results with little effort and in record time. But the truth is, it's all in the name of making money.
My guest today, Randa Derkson from Randa Nutrition, is a mother of two littles and loves all things food. She's a Certified Holistic Nutritionist and Certified Sports Nutrition Consultant and it's her mission to teach nutrition without a deprivation mindset.
She teaches that you can have all the tasty things, you may just have to tweak a few things (bring on the pizza, chocolate, and wine). She doesn't believe in fad diets (been there, failed at that) or calorie deprivation.
Instead, she teaches you REALISTIC nutrition that you can apply to your family. Because no one wants to eat a salad while their family enjoys pizza.
You can find Randa at her website, Randa Nutrition, on her Instagram account and on her podcast The Healthy Mama's Podcast.
Grab the free 3 Days to Get Your Healthy Back on Track Challenge and check out her Real Food Real Life Nutrition Guide.
The Failure of Weight Loss Diets
While it seems like most of humanity is either on or has been on a diet of some sort, they still continue to fail when it comes to long lasting results.
Randa shares her reasons why this is:
There is an end date, you are only doing it for a certain time to lose a certain number.It's restrictive, you must cut out something so it leads a failure theme where you get into a cycle of binging and feeling bad and being obsessive to get back.You feel like you are under a microscope and guided by strict rules.
How long do you keep the weight off after following a diet?
The hard truth is until you stop following the diet and go back to your normal way of eating.
Because you are restricting yourself with a diet and not learning how to eat within your normal eating habits, once you return to those habits, the weight comes back.
Why people say it's impossible to lose weight
Losing weight is hard for many reasons, but most of all, it's because it's hard to change our habits. Habits are formed over many years, and changing something engrained in our life is not easy.
People tend to want quick fix, we don't want to give up our normal way of doing things. So we go extreme with a diet, then get overwhelmed and stop.
How to Lose Weight the Healthy Way
While it is important to have a positive body image, sometimes we do get to a point where we want to lose some weight.
Whether we have fallen into some bad habits or stopped our regular routines, it's okay to feel like you want to shed a few pounds if it's for a good reason.
So what do we do? Randa says the theme is balance. When you balance what you eat, you will be better satiated.
You don't feel like you're missing out, you can not only eat your favorites, like pizza, but if you have a slice you won't feel guilty.
This teaches you control instead of the all or nothing mentality. It's a mental game of learning to allow yourself to enjoy food again.
Tips to lose weight for long term success
Her are some of Randa's key suggestions:
Start with water, drink more!Take small steps towards your goal.Change habits slowly, it took a long time to form them.Make small switches in your choices.Make overall behavior changes, sometimes it's the big behaviors that are our underlying issues.
Losing weight is a mental shift, you may need some deep work. For example things like emotional eating can be based in our upbringing and things we experienced in childhood.
How many pounds is safe to lose a week?
Randa says it is safest to lose no more than 2 a week, but even better to stick to 1 to 1 1/2 pounds
When you lose more it is not fat, it is simple water weight that will come back.
So what's the hype on drinking water anyway? Listen to find out not only why it's so important we do it, but tips for us who struggle.
It's amazing how something so simple like drinking water can be such a challenge for so many of us. However it is one of the most simple ways to help with so many body issues!
My guest today, Meg Carber, is a Registered Dietitian and owner of Nourished & Strong Nutrition Counseling in Huntersville NC and online.
Her and her team use a non-diet approach to help clients reach their health and performance goals.
You can find her @megcarberrdn on Instagram/Facebook/Pinterest and email her at Meg@nourished-strong.com
The Importance of Drinking Water
Drinking water is such a simple goal, most don't drink enough. Me included!
Our bodies are 60% water. Without enough we feel things like headaches, dizziness, fatigue, irritability and we function slowly.
Crazy enough, our brain shrinks when we don't drink water to compensate for not having enough! It's a large organ that needs a lot of water to function so when it doesn't get enough, it starts to compensate.
What happens to your body when you drink water?
Drinking enough water helps with so many things. All of our processes are more efficient and function smoother.
When we are properly hydrated our body is at it's peak and everything functions at it's best. But when we don't have enough water, our systems start to halt.
Here are things that happen when we are properly hydrated:
Brain function- our brain is mostly water and needs it to help us focus, be productive, give us energyDigestion- keeps things moving and regular so that we aren't constipatedLiver function and being able to detoxifyKidneys excrete urine properlyJoints stay cushy and hydrated to prevent aches, pains and injuriesOur blood pressure stays regularOur heart rate is regulatedTemperature regulationOverall homeostasis of cells
How is Drinking water Connected to Losing Weight
We hear a lot about the connection with drinking water and losing weight. So how are they related?
While it's important to drink enough water for our bodies to function well, when you use water as a food replacement in order to try and lose weight, you are creating a further disconnect between you and your body.
You are ignoring hunger and pushing it off by drinking. This does help hydration but it does not help your nutrition.
But water can be used in healthy ways to help with satiating your body. Since it takes 10-15 minutes for your brain to know you are full, it can be helpful to drink some water after you eat a healthy portion of food to allow your brain to catch up.
If you're still hungry after that, then you know you are truly hungry, but more often than not, your brain is able to get the message that you've eaten enough and helps prevent overeating.
Different Types of Water
First off, this is for sure a privileged topic in and of itself. So many struggle to get any water in this world, while others fall victim to the marketing of the "healthiest" type of water.
The biggest one is alkaline water. It claims to help the body neutralize ph. Homeostasis (the state of happy cells) needs a nice neutral ph and alkaline water claims to help achieve that.
Overall, there are no studies to back up these claims. Our body knows how to regulate itself. So if you can afford to spend extra money on fancy water, and you enjoy the taste, then go for it. But don't fall victim to claims that are not supported by evidence.
Can you drink too much water?
Over drinking water isn't a common issue, but not drinking enough is. Starting with half your body weight in ounces is a general rule of thumb, but really everyone is different.
You're going to need more if you exercise or live in dry climate, so it really does depend on a lot.
Meg says start with 75 ounces a day, even a 1-3 % lack of hydration can show symptoms of dehydration!
Having a healthy food relationship is number one in my book. But this can sometimes impact the diet you choose to follow.
While I love the idea of guiding kids towards foods that help them grow and nourish their body, I also cringe when I see people talk about food a certain way.
Different Diets
There are so many kids of diets out there. I can't even keep track anymore! From no meat, to no fat to no carbs. We pretty much have it covered.
As adults, we can choose what we prefer to eat, and what we feel is best for us. But what happens when we bring that into the home and around our kids?
While I do believe we need to be role models for our children, and guide them along the path that we feel is best, I also feel that part of raising a strong healthy child in both body and mind needs room for them to make their own choices.
Healthy food relationship
Having a healthy relationship with food is my number one goal with my boys. It wasn't always this way, I used to believe that I had to choose for them since I was the parent.
I fell into the "well you wouldn't let them play with a knife would you?" camp. Of course I wouldn't! And food must be the same because eating a piece of candy will certainly kill them right?
And same goes with dairy, meat, processed food....all of those things the food world tells us we must stay away from 100% of the time or we are ruining everything from our body to the enviroment.
And then, I took a step back and thought about the big picture. And my vision changed.
Guiding Kids Around Food
When we changed our diet, we were very intentional at not worrying about every little detail all the time. We decided to eat mostly plant-based meals, but to balance out our underlying anxiety we had to let go at times.
Our kids were babies when we made the switch. So they didn't really know anything different and they didn't have a lot of opinions or experience with food on their own.
As they grew and went to school, they became curious about foods we didn't often eat. As I saw their curiosity grow, something inside me told me it wasn't right to block them from it.
I had to learn to let go of control because I wanted my kids to find their own way with food, like they find their own way with other parts of life.
I still continue to teach them about healthy foods, and how unhealthy foods were fine sometimes too. And we talk a lot about how each food makes us feel.
I let them explore non plant-based foods and let them make their own decisions with what to try and what not to try. While they know that at home we eat mostly plant-based for health reasons that started with dad, they also know that they have freedom to explore.
I don't want them to feel like they are doing something wrong, or are bad kids when it comes to food. I have done a lot of reading about food relationships and I definitely pick having my kids have a great relationship with food over my own feelings on what I think is best for them to eat.
This isn't to say I don't say no sometimes, or encourage them to pick nutritious choices.
Is it safe for a child to be vegan?
First, it's important to know that what I choose to do with my family isn't what's right for everyone. This is simply how I feel works best for the personalities in our family.
You can absolutely live a full vegan life and be healthy and safe. Both kids and adults can thrive. But I do believe it isn't right for everyone, including us.
Both the personalities of my husband and I, and those of our kids, don't do well with an all or nothing mentality. We need some gray, some wiggle room, in order to thrive.
Our mental health tends to suffer when we have too many parameters. Even with food. Actually, especially with food.
Knowing how this affects us as adults, we want to make sure we don't let it affect our kids mental health. So it is an easy decision with allowing them to explore foods as they become curious...
Have you been blessed by picky eaters? Do you often wonder if it's revenge? Listen in as we tackle all things kids, food and mealtime!
Kids are fun because they are so easy to feed...said no one ever. At some point in your parenthood, you will tackle struggles with food. Even with the best eaters, and here's why!
Melanie is a stay at home twin mom to 4 kids. She is no stranger to chaos and overwhelm. Her meal planning system and ability to recognize that everyone meal plans differently helps her find solutions for busy, stressed out moms.
You can find her on Instagram and her Etsy shop where she sells solutions for busy moms!
Who is a Picky Eater?
We hear this term a ton, but what does it really mean? Overall, I think that the picky eater label is put on any child that doesn't just eat what is given to them. And much of the time, this doesn't happen.
While this term is generally associated with kids, I think that to some extent, we all have food preferences. So why do we get so stressed out when our kids have them?
The wide spectrum with kids and food
In general, the term picky eater is used when a kid refuses food often, especially new foods, and tends to want to eat the same thing over and over. Adults can be labeled picky as well.
But is there a magic number that crosses the picky eating threshold? The range tends to spread wide, and it's hard to pin point where exactly that is. It also is associated with age, peaking with toddlers and preschool age children, but older kids can be labeled as picky eaters too.
At some point, we need to accept that some thing are just food preferences and not refused to simply be a brat.
Reasons Kids are Picky Eaters
When you are in the depths of feeding your young kids, you get to a point where you think they are simply trying to kill you with their antics. But the truth is, they aren't.
While there is no universal reason for picky eating, the list of causes goes on:
Lack of offering a variety of foodIssues with texturePersonalitySocial influenceParents trying to control meals
The first thing to remember is that it is totally normal for kids to be choosy with food. And showing anxiety over it, and trying to control the situation will just make it worse.
Can you stop your child from being picky?
Unless your child is so picky that they develop nutritional issues (rare but it happens), then freaking out is not warranted.
Most of the time, your child's food preferences aren't necessarily about the food itself, but instead it can be a control issue that starts with being picky about the food.
Kids don't control much in their life. We as parents make so many decisions for them. But food, and eating itself, is something they can actually control because we cannot force them to eat.
As kids grow, they are learning how to control their bodies and world around them. Part of that is eating. We as parents decided when they eat, what they eat, how often they eat, etc.
We have pressure around us to "do it right" and kids can sense this. They quickly realize that eating is important. Which is the trigger for a power struggle.
So learning to step out of that power struggle is the key to helping your picky eater.
Tips to Help Mealtimes Get Easier
Since picky eating tends to center around power struggles, focusing on that is a good start to helping mealtimes be less stressful. Here is a list of all of our strategies that may work (or not because you know, kids):
Allow your kids to help pick out food to buyHave kids help prepare mealsOffer a variety of choices with mealsTalk about the different aspects of foods from color to textureServe the same meals to everyone in the family so they see everyone trying and eating togetherHave mealtime be a happy environment (if there is stress, kids can begin associating stress to food)Keep the emotion out of eating, even the positive emotion (meaning don't celebrate when they try...
I didn't want to believe anxiety and meditation had a close relationship. Sitting still was not my thing, but desperation changes you.
I used to laugh when people told me I should try meditating. It seemed like such a hippy thing to do, definitely not for someone that thrived on cardio and boot camps and was always on the move.
But as I piled on all the things in life, and kept turning to more hard core movement to "help" the building anxiety, I started to realize that I needed something different.
Are Meditation and Anxiety Related?
Meditation is essentially a practice of mindfulness, practicing being in the moment instead of thinking of all the things that can or may happen.
One characteristic of anxiety is focusing on things that may or can happen instead of focusing on the here and now.
So being able to practice letting go of all the "what if's" can greatly help your anxiety. Essentially, mediation is one great practice you can do to help reduce anxiety.
When you are able to focus on what is happening in the current moment, your brain isn't worried about the future. Which helps calm your thoughts and any impending anxiety.
Types of Mediation
Meditation is a practice where you focus your mind for a period of time. This can be done in many different ways. Here are a few I have tried and liked.
Mindfulness meditation is one of the most common forms and one of the easiest to start with. It's when you sit quietly and pay attention to your thoughts.
You don't judge them or start to think about them, you simple let them pass by while you focus on feelings and sensations in your body.
Transcendental meditation is also pretty popular. This is when you repeat a mantra, or series of words, over and over. This can help with ultimate inner relaxation and to get your mindset in the right place.
Guided meditation is the type that you find in many of the apps or online support sites. A teacher will guide you through the practice, which makes it a great place to start for beginners.
Movement meditation is essentially what you think of as yoga. But it can be other things like simple taking a walk in nature. Your mind is focused on the movement and letting it guide you.
How do you meditate properly?
There is no rule as to what is the right way to meditate. You need to find what works for you, but keeping the focus on the here and now and not allowing your mind to actively be involved in thoughts that pass through.
Mediation can even be as simple as starting with brushing your teeth while focusing on brushing your teeth. Starting with small steps to get your mind used to focusing on one thing will help.
Mediation for beginners
When I started, I thought it was bogus. I never thought I could do it. But I followed a great piece of advice, which is start small and start with what you like.
Which is why I started with yoga. Yoga allowed my body to move, while helping focus on how I was moving. From there my brain practiced being in the here and now with something I enjoyed, movement.
While movement was also my issue as I was always on the go, I was still able to use that in a way to help me.
So if you enjoy something like gardening, start there. Focus on what you are doing in the garden and then slowly try other ways to meditate.
How long should you meditate for?
There is no hard fast rule when it comes to time. Start small if your brain has a hard time quieting down. I started with as little as 5 minutes when it came to the sitting down and focusing meditation.
Once you are able to that reasonably well, because you may never be 100%, then slowly add more time.
For me, 15-20 minutes a day is an ideal time. Enough to get my mind quiet and focused, but not so long that I start to worry (hello anxiety) about all the other things going on.
Can meditation reduce anxiety?
Absolutely. When I started to meditate it was a game changer for my anxie...
While many of us live each day without much of it, sleep is important for our everyday functioning and our overall health. It does so much!
I am talking with Karen Shopoff Rooff, a certified women's health coach with more than a decade of experience empowering professional women to build a realistic healthy lifestyle, about all things sleep!
Karen's blog, Well Balanced Women, and health & wellness ecourses combine easy-to-understand science with realistic tips to educate body-wise women, particularly in the transition times of pregnancy and perimenopause.
She is a nationally-known public speaker on women’s health, fitness, and wellness topics. Coach Karen's busy life as an entrepreneur, wife, and mom of three kids shows that you can have balance without having it all together.
Make sure to download her FREE meditation guide so you can get one step closer to restful sleep!
The Importance of Sleep
Many of us run on fumes, the idea os sleep happening one day. We think we can chug along, even if it may not be our idea of amazing, but the reality is that our brains are suffering.
Sleep helps us recharge for the next day. It's when our body is repairing itself to be fit and ready for a new day.
Not sleeping enough causes many issues, like foggy brain, weight gain, anxiety, irritability, and illness. But how do we get the sleep we need?
Having a routine
Creating a routine before sleep, helps set our hormones so that our brain feels safe. It allows our brain to shut down. When we shut down, we are able to fall asleep.
Your routine can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. If you have a harder time falling asleep, you may need a longer routine. Doing it in the same order, helps our brain know sleep is coming.
These are things that can help cue your brain that it's time to calm down and go to sleep:
Turning off the lights, or dimming themNo screensA shower or bathStretching, yoga or meditationReading
Benefits of sleep
Overall, sleep makes you happy. When you are happy, you can handle things better, you are nicer and more productive
While we sleep, our body gets a break physically and mentally. And it needs that. Our muscles repair, our immune system goes to work to fight whatever germs you have, and our brain gets a break.
Our brain lives in a sea of cortisol all day, so while we sleep, it gets a break from it. This helps the hormonal regulation between insulin and cortisol, which is important for us to function well.
It also helps the regulation between leptin and ghrelin, two hormones associated with hunger and feeling full. Lack of sleep makes you want to eat junk food because it didn't get what it needed in a good night's sleep so your body craves the junk.
Not getting sleep once in a while isn't an issue. It's the chronic fatigue that starts to wear you down. Exercise, nutrition, self care...all parts of our life come together with sleep because sleep affects each of them significantly.
The brain and sleep
Sleep reduces the overall inflammation in the body, including the area around the brain. Inflammation causes plaque deposits in our brain. These are associated with things like alzheimer's and dementia.
One thing happening in our brain when we wake up is we get the largest cortisol rush of the day. Back in time, the cortisol rush was important because we were looking for danger, things like bears and being attacked.
But now we don't have these threats. So it's all about making our brain feeling safe so we can sleep through the night. Having that routine down helps this. Routine helps tell our brain, it's safe to go to sleep.
Along with putting us on alert, cortisol balances with insulin in our blood sugar regulation. So if you eat dinner early relative to when you go to bed, you are going to be on the downward trend of the insulin rollercoaster by bedtime. So when you wake up at night, that's your body's cue that it needs to eat agai...
So, what does healthy actually mean? The issue is that healthy has so many facets: physical, mental and even social all play a part.
The word healthy has been hijacked by so many things. It's been overused in marketing, media and the diet world to the point where the true meaning has been lost. Today we are getting into what I believe is the core of health.
Healthy is not a one thing and done kind of word. It encompasses a wide range of areas. And overall, it's a lot of work. It fluctuates with the times and things you go through. And that's ok.
The Meaning of Healthy
If you search online you can find some origination in what it means to be healthy. The World Health Organization actually defined the word back in 1948. They said that healthy is an overall state between physical, mental and social well being.
It isn't just the absence of disease, it's the equilibrium of all of those three areas coming together to form and overall health.
I have been saying this since I started my business. You'll often hear me saying that health means body and mind, which is why I don't preach that following a specific diet completely works for many people.
If something brings you stress, even if it's something considered necessary to be healthy, then you are losing the health of your mind. Conversely, if you are doing something that makes your mind happy, but isn't healthy for your body, you are losing the physical health aspect.
It's the point when you find a happy balance between the two, and are able to maintain that, when you are working towards ultimate health.
The role of healthy eating
So much of what we see as related to health revolves around eating. Eat Keto, Paleo, Vegan, do intermittent fasting....the list goes on with diets and diet programs.
While I am a huge advocate of eating plants, I am also an advocate of finding the balance between getting in all those whole plants and giving your body whatever else it needs.
We are all different, and something that may work amazing for one person may not work for the other. Including the vegan or plant-based diet. Yep, I said it.
I have recently had to become completely gluten-free for my own health. And with age and things my body is going through, I have found that I need some non plant-based foods to be my best me.
My husband on the other hand, the actual reason we changed our diet to being with, needs to eat mostly plants. He can add some dairy and eggs once in a while when he has a craving or we are out, but overall his health needs plants.
It's been a learning curve as we grow and change, and although I still eat mostly plant-based foods (and continue to create them), when I need something different I am finding it very easy to simply add them to our meals.
Accepting this has helped our overall mental health. Which has helped us move towards overall health. It's a continuum and not something I believe is reached and done with.
Health and exercise
Moving your body is another important part of physical health. As it is with our diet, there is so much pressure to move in a certain way.
But like with eating, we are all different and there is no one way that is best for everyone. Move how you feel is best for you.
Some days you may feel like you want to push yourself more than others, some days you feel like resting. Do what works, listen to your body.
Movement not only helps your physical health, but it also helps your mental health. Especially when it's things like yoga. Yoga has helped me so much! You can listen to the episode on how yoga changed my life to learn more.
The Healthy Continuum
I don't believe any of us ever reach ultimate health. I believe that we simply move closer and closer to the end goal.
Every single day we are met with stressors. Decisions, relationships, what we eat, things we do, illness, emergencies. These all affect our overall health.
Healing your body with food is one strategy when dealing with disease. Often times, we want more than just a pill to bring us to full health.
While traditional medicine can give us many answers and help with many things, sometimes we need more. This is where food can come in, looking at all areas of life can help bring information on the bigger picture.
Juli Novotny is a mom to three beautiful kids living in Southern California. She runs the website Pure Kitchen and spends her time cooking for clients, consulting for health food start-ups, journalism, photography and recipe development for other like-minded rad companies.
Last year she finished an intensive course in Plant-Based Nutrition through Cornell University online. And she just launched some incredible sauces that she sells through her site. They are a must try!
Focusing on Our Health
As women, it’s in our nature to power through. We are busy taking care of everyone else, and learn to ignore our own bodies signals. But eventually, when there is something wrong, it will catch up to us.
Juli is a prime example of someone who powered through with autoimmune issues, accepting what doctors told her in that she’d have to simply deal with this her whole life. Until she made an amazing discovery.
Healing our body with food
Accepting her body that was ridden with allergies, asthma, and eczema was tough for her. Her mental health suffered and doctors gave her meds and told her to find a way to deal with it.
Being a chef and into experimenting with food, she started experimenting with raw foods because of a new cookbook she discovered that intrigued her. Not thinking anything about health, she decided to follow this raw food lifestyle for fun because the photos and recipes drew her in.
As a chef, she was always looking at opening her horizons in the food world so this was exciting. 3 days in, she noticed her autoimmune issues start to disappear. Her eczema went away and she felt exceptional.
She was shocked to say the least. Her excitement led her to become a holistic nutritionist and get a job at Whole Food, then start her journey into the world of wholesome food where she is now.
While she doesn’t know if it was allergies to food or simply the detoxing she did to clear her body, her issues never came back. She was able to slowly add in cooked foods with success, focusing on a plant-based diet, and has had no issues since.
While this isn’t the solution for everyone, and you should check in with a licensed professional before you make any changes like this, food truly healed Juli.
Food and our bodies
We are all different when it comes to food. What one person reacts to, another person can include with success.
Even what is considered healthy, like fruits and vegetables, can affect some people in a negative way. So, it’s important to make sure that you know what your body can and can’t have.
But overall, our bodies love getting all the nutrients it needs to function. So when we give it an influx of these, it’s happy. Fresh produce gives us so many amazing nutrients, so it’s no wonder that Juli was able to help her body heal by filling her body with them.
We also need to make sure we are getting everything each of us needs to thrive. Protein, carbs, and fat are important as well. We each need different amounts of these to feel our best, but our cells do need them to function.
The Stigma of Cleanses
The online world of food has taken the word cleanse and run with it. It has used it to draw people in with the promise of losing weight. Which is why it isn’t a word I love.
Our bodies are created to cleanse themselves, our liver and kidneys do a great job overall. However sometimes, when we abuse our bodies and our systems are overworked, it’s helpful to give them a little support.
This is why I advocate more for a restoration or refresh. A time for filling your body with fresh foods full of wholesome ingr...
Is a strict vegan lifestyle possible when navigating life today? Listen to find out how it can be done successfully and with a healthy outlook.
We are all different, and when it comes to our life choices, we should each be doing what is best for us. But choosing to live a vegan lifestyle can work if it's something you want to do!
Brandi Doming is the creator of the vegan blog The Vegan 8 and cookbook author of The Vegan 8 Cookbook. She went vegan to help control her husband's debilitating gout. Their lives and health improved dramatically.
Brandi loves to show that vegan food can be absolutely delicious, comforting and easy! She creates delicious vegan comfort food in a healthier way.
All her recipes are 8 ingredients or less, not counting salt, pepper or water. And she is an expert on oil-free cooking and baking and welcomes any and all eaters!
Check out her 8 Ingredient Vegan Desserts eCookbook and her hard copy The Vegan 8 Cookbook!
Reasons for Diet Choices
Some people choose to eat a certain way for health reason, some choose it for ethical reasons, and some make the decision for environmental reasons.
There are many different diets that claim to be the “healthiest” out there, but the diet choice that people choose for ethical or environmental reasons is the plant-based or vegan diet.
While Brandi started her vegan journey to help her husband’s health, she also evolved to continue that choice for ethical reasons.
What is a Vegan Lifestyle?
A vegan lifestyle is when you abstain from eating or using all animal products. This includes meat, dairy, eggs, honey and even using products that are made of down feathers, leather and wool. If something comes from an animal it isn’t part of a vegan lifestyle.
The difference between living a vegan lifestyle and simply eating plant-based or vegan food, is that you transfer those thoughts into all areas of your life. From the clothes your wear, to the car you buy, to the beauty products you use.
Foods not allowed on a vegan diet
The basis of a vegan diet, is the lacking of any animal based foods. But there are some things that people don’t realize contain animal based ingredients. Here are a list of things that are not included in a vegan diet:
MeatDairy- including milk, cheese, butter, etcEggsHoneyGelatin- in common foods like Jello and gummy candy
Food you can eat while vegan
As we talk about the food that vegans do not eat, there is plenty that they can eat. So many of the things we use in our cooking are naturally vegan. Here is a list of natural things we don’t think about that are vegan:
FruitsVeggiesPastaGrains- rice, farro, etcQuinoa
There are also many other products out there that are naturally vegan. Things like some sauces, dips, chips, snack foods, etc are vegan. They are not made with any animal based products.
There are also many that are made with vegan alternatives like vegan cheese and meat products. These days you can find almost anything vegan if that is what you choose.
Other things to think about in a vegan lifestyle
While food is a big part about being vegan, there are other things you need to keep in mind when you want to live a full vegan lifestyle. Here are a few things to consider:
Leather in things you wear like clothes and shoesLeather in your carWool in clothing, blankets, furniture etcAnimal based ingredients in beauty productsAnimal testing on anythingDown feathers in pillows
Is a Vegan Lifestyle Healthy?
The concept of healthy is different for each person. Because I believe health encompasses both body and mind, you need to take care of both in order to reach overall health.
Vegan food can be highly processed and lacking of essential nutrients. But whole food plant-based food encompasses more of a nutritious angle. So while you can live a vegan lifestyle, this doesn’t mean you are filling your body with wholesome food.
Along with that,
Forming healthy lifestyle habits leads to longterm success, while fad diets can actually hurt your progress to overall health.
While it can be easy to fall into the trap of a fast fix when it comes to our health, we can only reach true health with patience and time working on forming habits to last a lifetime.
My guest Mareya Ibrahim, also known as The Fit Foodie, is an award-winning entrepreneur, holistic nutrition coach, and podcast host helping people make shift happen for good.
As the signature chef and meal plan designer for the million-copy bestseller, “The Daniel Plan,” her #1 new release, “Eat Like You Give A Fork, The Real Dish on Eating to Thrive” (St. Martin’s Press, 2019) is revolutionizing how people ‘undiet’ and eat to thrive with 8 core strategies.
She is the founder of Grow Green Industries, INC. and the creator of the patented eatCleaner line of food wash and wipes. Her back-page column, "The Fit Foodie", has appeared in Edible Orange County Magazine since 2011.
Mareya is also the host of the podcast "Recipes for Your Best Life", and was a featured chef on the Food Network, eHow.com, Livestrong.com and the Emmy-nominated cooking show, Recipe Rehab.
Text fitfoodie to 22828 to get her free 30-recipe ebook and 14 day Clean Eating Reset. You can find her at:
www.eatcleaner.com
www.instagram.com/eatcleaner
What is Healthy Living?
When it comes to living your healthiest lifestyle, you need to think about what your personal why is. We all have different reasons for why we do what we do, and food is no different.
Overall healthy living is honoring what works for you, not what works for XYZ influencer online, or what fad diet is most popular at any given time.
Extremes in food
There are so many messages out there as to what is "right" and "wrong" when it comes to eating. Many of these lie in the extreme ends of the eating spectrum.
When we follow what's popular instead of listening to our own bodies, we aren't honoring what's good for us personally. Learning to listen to ourselves and being intuitive is the key to long term health.
How to Have a Healthy Lifestyle
Following a diet you think is healthy isn't the same as living a healthy lifestyle. Your diet is only one piece of the puzzle, and actually one can argue that following a specific diet with no room for movement is the opposite of healthy.
For many people, putting extreme limits on what you can and can't eat can actually form an unhealthy relationship with food. We are all different so not everyone will have this issue, but for many it can.
Ultimate health is the feeling of homeostasis, balance. This doesn't mean that you can't enjoy things, it just means that you don't have guilt associated with it. When we attach emotions to food, we begin to form the guilt connection to what we eat.
Intuitive Eating, eating for a healthy diet
Intuitive eating is simply put, listening to your body and what it needs. This isn't to say that we eat chocolate cake all the time if that's what you are craving, if this is the case you may need to take a step back and get some support with adding more fresh foods into your diet.
But for many of us that eat balanced and don't restrict ourselves, if we pay attention our bodies tell us what it is we need.
You can actually heal your relationship with food through food. Our body likes to be nourished, and nourished means both fresh nutritious rich foods along with things like pizza and chocolate.
There is room for all things, both things we crave for our comfort and things we need to be strong and nourished.
How lifestyle affects diet
Our lifestyle can affect our diet. When we expose ourselves to the stresses of the world, like social media and politics and all things media, we put our bodies into a state of stress.
This doesn't allow us to live in a place of balance. The stress affects us chemically,
Component cooking is a great strategy for feeding a table of varying dietary needs and preferences. It is possible to make only one meal!
I am not a restaurant, is a mantra I tell myself daily. With three kids who each have opinions (I mean, how dare they LOL) it's hard to please everyone. And then throw in a variety of diet needs, the stress is high!
Different Diets at One Table
Now days it's quite common to see an eclectic group at your dinner table. Whether it's young kids you have picky palates, or a range of food issues, intolerances and allergies.
We often feel like we need to make multiple meals in order to feed everyone. The thing is you don't.
Making multiple meals
While it sounds easiest to just make many meals so that everyone is taken care of, the long term effects of this aren't good for us mentally.
It takes a lot of our energy to create one meal, let alone more than one. So it burns us out quickly. And the last thing we need is to reach burnout faster!
It also creates a bad habit with catering to each and every thing our family wants. Now allergies and other medical needs are one thing, but when it comes to preferences and tastes, creating the bad habit of always getting what you want isn't good long term.
So how do we handle all the needs our families have? Is there a way we can make it work without going crazy?
Component Cooking
Component meals are my new bestie. This is when you essentially make meal parts that can be put together to make one larger meal.
For example, you can make the following:
RiceBeansOther proteins of choiceSautéed or roasted veggiesSalsaGuacamoleLettuceSauce
Then each person can build their own tacos, burritos, bowls, etc. This works for many different things like pizza, pasta, salads, etc.
How it helps
Not only does component cooking take less time (you only really need to prep a few days a week, then use the ingredients in different ways) but it also results in less complaining and allows different dietary needs to eat the same thing.
Meals and kids
The thing with kids, is that they want some control over things. When it comes to food, it's the one area that they can choose to control by refusing to eat. We can't force a child to eat, much like we can't force them to sleep.
When you let go and put some control back into them, food becomes less of a power struggle.
Component meals are a great way to do that because essentially they can choose which of the components they want in their meal. Parents can still have parameters to make sure their kids are getting well rounded meals
I like to prep a variety of veggies and a mix of grains and proteins. We tell them kids they need one thing from each category to make it a whole some meal, but they can choose which one.
Because they feel like they are the ones choosing, it creates less of an issue. Now there will always be kids that still complain, but the key there is to make sure to have at least one thing your child likes in the bunch.
I also like to encourage the kids to try one new thing each time as well. This doesn't always work, but I don't push it and if you keep offering, one day they may take you up on it!
Meeting all diets
The great thing with component meals is that you can have something for everyone. Meat eater? Great, offer the meat in the protein group.
Plant eater only? No problem, plenty of plants. And this goes the same for gluten-free , dairy free, etc etc.
When you build your meals, it's easy for each person to make sure they are following food guidelines for medical reasons, or just simply eating what they prefer.
How to prep component meals
The first thing you need to do is figure out what things you want to make. If it's tacos, you will need to jot down all the different parts of that meal and prep those components.
If it's pizzas, think about all you need to make that. Same goes for pasta meals, salads,
Food allergy anxiety can result from a fear of eating something you aren't able to, or simply the extreme of not being able to eat it at all.
When I found out I had to avoid gluten, the thought of having to take out a certain food group 100% of the time, sent me into an anxious tail spin.
My Gluten Intolerance
My entire business and brand is based around living in the fluidity and balance of wholesome eating, and not falling victim of the perceived extremes the food world has created.
But when I started seeing my functional medicine doctor and she had me cut gluten out for a month, I realized I had a major issue with it.
I felt amazing, and many of my other ailments started going away. It hit me hard that I was going to need to be vigilant in cutting out this food group.
I had a hard time thinking about the extreme of this. My anxiety peaked at the thought of having to do something 100% of the time. I lived in the middle, knowing that extremes affected my mental health.
The difference with Celiac
While I have not been diagnosed with Celiac, at least not currently, gluten does wreak havoc in my body. After I stopped eating it for a while, I feel the effects of an accidental does fairly quickly. And each time this happens they last longer and I feel them more.
Still, I am not ultra crazy about it. I do not eat gluten, I know buy all gluten free items like breads, tamari instead of soy sauce, etc. And through bad experiences, I have learned that when I go out I need to ask for the gluten free items.
With Celiac disease, you need to be extra vigilant. You need to clean pans before using them, or even have separate pans, you need to make sure the plates don't share items with other gluten filled foods, and going out is extremely hard.
I don't plan to get tested for Celiac, maybe because my subconscious doesn't really want to know, but also because to get tested you need to gluten load for a while and the thought of that makes me want to cry.
Removing Foods from Your Diet
When it comes to dealing with food intolerances versus an allergy, it's simpler because you just try and remove those foods from your diet.
You don't have the added issue of an extreme life threatening reaction, so it's definitely an easier issue to deal with.
But this still can affect your mental health. Having to completely avoid certain groups of foods makes it difficult to navigate eating especially when you are at someone else's house or if you are eating out.
Can food allergies cause anxiety?
When you have to always be aware of something, no matter what that thing is, your brain doesn't get to rest. This can keep you in a state of constant worry if you aren't careful.
I have always tried hard to stay away from extremes, in all areas of my life but especially food. The extreme way of eating that are in our food world is something I avoid.
When I learned I had to stay away from gluten, the first thing that peaked was my anxiety. Thinking about how I was going to navigate all the things I loved to do, going to friends houses for parties, going out to eat, having my own dinner parties...brought me worry.
While I didn't have to stress about my life and an extreme allergy, it still brought me anxiety. It's common for people with allergies, or food intolerances, to develop or heighten their anxiety.
But there are things you can do to help!
Tips to Help Food Anxiety
Here are some things I have been doing to help me feel successful in doing all I love to do and navigate my gluten issue:
Fill my home with things I can eat and put them in a special place so I know that I will always have something.Before going to a friends house, ask when they are serving so you can prepare. When in doubt, eat before you go somewhere.Offer to bring something to eat that way you know there will be at least one safe thing available.If eating out, ask to see the gluten-free (or whatever you need)...
These tips for eating out will help you enjoy the experience. Whether it helps you let go a bit or find ways to eat within your needs!
While eating nutritious food is important overall, it's also important to enjoy the moment especially when you are out with family or friends. Sometimes it's okay to let go, and not worry about every little thing.
The Benefits of Eating Out
Throughout history people have shared food with others. Breaking bread with friends and family has been a long tradition celebrating love and bonding together.
While it can be great to cook for those you love at home, going out with others is a perfect break from the kitchen.
Eating out is a fun and important part of life. It allows you to recharge after using all your energy cooking at home. But it can also be stressful if you like to be in control.
When you eat out, you can't handle every little thing that is part of the meal. Even if you ask for certain things to not be part of your meal, you never really know what has touched your plate.
While this can be dangerous if you have a life threatening allergy, or even one that can bring discomfort, it's also a great way to learn to let go a bit.
Can Eating Out be Healthy?
When you eat out, you need to be somewhat flexible. If you follow a certain way of eating, you can certainly order something within those guidelines whether it's an item already on the menu or adapting something.
There are many things you can order at a restaurant that are considered nutritious and wholesome for your body. Whether they will taste good or satisfy you is another thing.
But, sometimes it's also really important to think about your mental health. Overall health is the combination of both physical and mental.
Mental Health is Just As Important
Eating out can be considered stressful for those people that are stringent with their food rules.
This stress can cause anxiety and frustration around an activity that is meant to be relaxing and fun.
This is exactly why I choose to let go when I am enjoying a meal out. I don't worry too much about what I am eating, but instead order what sound good to me in the moment.
Sometimes it's similar to what I eat at home, and sometimes it includes foods I don't often eat.
While I need to make sure to stay away from gluten due to health issues, I let pretty much anything else stay on the table.
How to let go of food rules
If you're looking to step away from the strict food rules you've put on yourself, there are a few things you can do. Eating out is a great way to put these into practice!
Look at the menu and think about what type of food sounds goodDon't let any food rules guide what you look atPick 3 things that sound goodLook over each thing and think about how it may affect you physically, sometimes food sounds good but may not be worth how it makes you feel (aside from an allergy which you need to stay away from)Choose one item to order and don't let the inner "rule follower" take chargeSharing a few items with friends helps you take small bites of things you may be "scared" to try since you are so used to following food rulesRemember that there is NO food police!
Ways to Eat Healthier When Eating Out
While it is really important to make sure we take our mental health into account, and not let the "food rule" boundaries take over when enjoying a meal out, sometimes you really do crave something on the wholesome nutritious side.
If this truly comes from within, and not because you feel you have to, here are some tips on finding something tasty but filled with nutrition:
Salads loaded with lots of toppings are often both satisfying and pack in the nutrition.Ask for dressing on the side as they often make your salad a soup. That way you can put as much on as you prefer.Load up pasta with veggies, pick a dish and then look at all the other veggies on the menu and add more based on what you know they hav...
The problem with clean eating is real. While eating healthy can be good overall, using certain language as related to food can cause harm.
It's hard to keep emotion out of eating with all we are surrounded with, especially online. But it's really important for our overall health, and if you are raising kids, even more so.
April with Foxy Over Forty
April is badass mom from the site Foxy Over 40 (site coming soon)! She is a soon-to-be Registered Dietitian interested in helping people embrace a more sustainable moderation based lifestyle approach to eating.
You can connect with her on her Instagram account where she gives loads of free info and helps others find a life they love long term.
Clean Eating
Clean eating is a term to describe food that is minimally processed and presented in their whole natural state.
It is looked at by many as a fad diet that believes that eating whole foods and avoiding anything processed can offer health benefits.
Criticisms
Many licensed professionals do not support the clean eating fad. They say that it is not backed by scientific evidence and it implies that food carries a moral value.
This can have potential negative mental health effects and lead to malnutrition when entire food groups are cut out. It can also form unhealthy eating practices.
Is clean eating elitist?
Because of the way clean eating is portrayed, it gives off a sense that if you eat certain things, you are bad/wrong/etc. This assumes you can afford it.
When it comes to people in low income areas, money and time is something that isn't readily available. So when you attach things like being a good parent, or providing well for your family to only eating certain things, it tells those that can't do this that they are failing.
The other issue is the disparity in education for what and how eating healthy looks like and how it can be done within the allotment of time and money you have.
It's hard enough to figure it all out for those of us that do have education on the topic, so basically we are setting those people that don't up for failure. And then on top of it pushing the idea that they are failures because they can't do it.
Is clean eating healthy?
There isn't scientific evidence that following the clean eating fad diet has any health benefits. In fact following a diet that is super restrictive can actually result in negative health effects.
The key is to find balance in our overall eating, and actually enjoying what you eat. When we force ourselves
The Vicious Cycle of Restrictive Eating
When you set yourself up for failure, you will fail. And much of the food world today unfortunately sets us up for this. We start with these extreme diets with the promise of the perfect end result.
The issue is that what we are expected to do is not sustainable long term. So when we get to that spot of not being able to continue, instead of looking at the diet itself, we blame ourselves.
We then feel like failures, and tell ourselves we just can't do it. We can't meet the goal we wanted to meet. When in fact, we can. If done correctly and in a way that allows us long term success.
Tips to Sustain a Long Term Healthy Relationship with Food and Diet Goals
Change doesn't happen overnight. It takes work and meeting those goals is a lifestyle not an overnight transformation. Here are some tips to help you along the way:
Separate morals and food.Find a path that is real, one that doesn't promise success short term.Focus on one thing at a time, you can't tackle it all. Add more as you feel comfortable and successful.Make sure to eat a "treat" every day, there is no restriction.Don't look at foods as "bad" or "good," it's just food.Learn to omit the feelings of guilt and focus on the successes.The long term game doesn't just focus on weight loss, it's also the restructuring of your mental health and relationship with food.There is no "cheating,
A kids body image is developed through the example of the adults in their life. When we have a healthy body image, they can too!
Kids see everything. They take our word in as the rules to live by. So making sure what we are putting out there is healthy for their mindset and will help foster their development is so important.
Julie Revelant: Health Journalist
Julie is the founder of JulieRevelant.com, where she teaches parents how to raise healthy kids who crave healthy foods.
Julie has written hundreds of stories for print and digital outlets including FIRST for Women magazine, Woman’s World magazine, Esperanza magazine, EverydayHealth.com, Reader’s Digest (digital), WhatToExpect.com, theBump.com, and Babble.com.
For nearly 6 years, Julie wrote Healthy Mama, a column for FoxNews.com where she covered pregnancy, postpartum, maternal and children’s health and nutrition.
Growing up, food was a center point in life. Every occassion involved food, and loads of it. She was raised to feel that if you didn't eat what was offered it was almost rude.
This led to an aura of overeating and away from listening to body cues for hunger.
Struggling with Body Image as an Adult
One of the things that is hard for us as adults, especially those of us with kids, is paying attention to how we talk about ourselves.
How we were raised around food has a lot to do with that. If we saw our mothers try diet after diet, talk about how they looked in a negative way, and struggled with their own body image it set a precedence that this is normal.
When we pay attention to what we say, take a step back and really listen, it helps us hear how we talk about ourselves better.
While teaching our kids about nutrition is important, it's even more important that we start with us when it comes to teaching our kids body positivity and maintaining a healthy mindset.
Kids Body Image Struggles
While it may seem crazy, kids struggle with body image. Especially in today's world. With all they have access to on social media, it isn't easy. Which is why it is that much more important that we lead by example.
Girls may seem to struggle more than boys, but it is still so important to address these issues with boys too.
Boys don't express it as much but they too struggle. Not only that, but as a mother of three boys I want to raise them to be able to support a woman one day (if they happen to marry a woman) and also be able to raise girls with a healthy body image (if they have daughters).
Helping Kids with Body Image
There was a study done that showed how daughters talked about body image in the same way as their moms. Both in a negative scenario and a positive one.
There are some important things to remember in order to help support your kids when it comes to body positivity:
Lead by example. Don't say things like "I look fat." or "I need to go on a diet."Focus more on how we feel inside, like exercise makes me feel so much better. Or it helps me focus on my work when I get out and am active.Ask them what they like about themselves, focusing on things other than looks.Avoid using words that attach emotion to food or are opinion based.Focus on foods and how they make you feel versus if they are "good" or "bad."Talk about how people come in all shapes and sizes and celebrate all bodies. Don't make comments on other people's bodies, good or bad.
Strategies for a Healthy Body Image
Julie had some great strategies of how she helps maintain a healthy body image. Here are some of her tips:
Focus on strengths, talents and qualities versus how we look.Eating wholesome foods and being active.Environments where self worth is important and celebrated.Finding organizations that support positive self image.Have family dinners, studies show this helps a ton!Don't label food with words like good, bad, etc.Be attuned to the media you consume, this can have a huge influence.
Diet culture creates a system where you need to stay in a box in order to feel success, this hurts your relationship with food and is unhealthy overall.
How we surround ourselves when it comes to food greatly affects how we view it. It's so important to maintain a place of balance and not fall into the black and white extreme of diet boxes.
What is diet culture?
When you use the term diet, you are referring to a certain way a person eats and what they can or cannot have according to that diet's beliefs.
While this can be okay for some, diets often have stringent "rules" that when aren't followed attach emotions to food.
Feeling like a failure for eating something out of the zone of allowed foods is a common issue. As is restricting yourself from eating something you like that is not allowed.
This attaches emotions to food, and can create an unhealthy relationship. While having happiness and joy while you enjoy food is great, making sure that emotions don't define the food is important.
How to Combat Diet Culture
Diet culture can create a system that values weight and size over ones wellness. It can confuse your health with how you look.
In order to negate these issues, we need to start the journey to wellness, with how we feel inside versus how we look.
Asking ourself why we want to lose weight, do a certain exercise routine, eat a certain way is important. And that why needs to focus on an internal goal versus a visual goal.
The negative effects of dieting
While following a specific diet may help us lose the weight we wanted, there is a lot of negative that comes along with that.
The effects can be physical, as with many diets that are not sustainable long term you tend to gain back the weight. And sometimes even more.
This yoyo type fluctuation can take a toll on our bodies. Both physically and mentally. Which is why it's much more important to have a way of eating that is something you can stick to.
Diets don't work
This is kind of a bold statement but the truth of the matter is, when you follow a "diet" that has food rules and makes you feel like a failure, it is not going to work.
This is not sustainable long term. Human nature has us wanting to feel good about ourselves and when we are laden with guilt and failure it wears on us.
Some people are also emotional eaters so in order to feel comfort they turn to food. Then the guilt comes from failing to stay within the rules and it's a vicious cycle.
You gain more success when you don't establish labels on food as good or bad, in the rules or not. While eating a mostly wholesome diet is best for your health, eating things that you love is an important part of that!
Food Relationship
Your relationship with food is like your relationship with people. When it's not going well, when it's filled with negativity and guilt, then it's unhealthy.
Relationships with anything should make you feel happy, confident and non judged. You should feel free to do what works for you at any given time and still maintain the relationship.
So when we do things like give ourselves "rules" and follow stringent guidelines we are forming a relationship with food that isn't healthy for us and is not sustainable long term.
How to improve your relationship with food
In order to improve your relationship with food you need to remember a few things:
There are no rulesThere is no food policeYou need to honor youKeep emotion out of itDon't put labels on food that are opinion based (meaning using words like "good," "bad," or anything that is based on an opinion versus fact like "nutrient rich.")
It's really important to keep reminding yourself that unless you need to avoid foods for medical reasons, you can and are allowed to eat what you want.
I like to focus on how I feel when eating certain things versus the emotion. Listen to your body. It's really good at telling you what it wants,
Crashing after taking on too much is real, especially mom burnout. Working rest and recharge into your regular routine is a lifesaver! But how?
It's possible to live a fulfilled amazing life without living burnout. It takes some planning and effort to focus on what's most important, and letting go of what truly isn't, but it's possible!
Energy Fluctuations
Humans expend and create energy. As we eat, we are able to use that food as an energy source. And as we work, we use that energy.
The issue is, that most of us (especially moms) work at a rate faster than we can recharge. From our jobs, to parenthood, to keeping up with the house and life itself, we tend to run ourselves into the ground.
Our energy fluctuates each day, week, month, year. And today's world makes us feel like we need to push and push and push or we aren't being the best we can be.
Women especially, are positioned to feel like if they aren't doing it all then they aren't good enough. Taking a break paints us in a picture of laziness, or having no ambition.
The result of no breaks
As we continue to push and do all the things faster than we can replenish our energy, it's like taking one step forward, two steps back. Eventually that becomes three steps and then four until eventually you collapse.
The eventual crash is what we call burnout. And mom burnout is especially a huge problem today.
We have so much on our plates, and feel the need to do it all and please everyone. The problem is that we don't include ourselves in that "everyone."
While we try and do it all, we start to burn down the vehicle that we need to do so. Our bodies. And society gives the impression that we should keep going.
Eventually, our bodies begin to break down. Our mental health suffers and our physical health is not far behind. Being overtired and stressed has profound effects.
The cycle then continues that when we go to the doctor, many treat the effects instead of the problem. We are prescribed medications to bandaid the root of the issue.
Rest and Recharge
Today's world is a go go go life. When we are down, let's splint the problem instead of fix it. And that can lead to ultimate breadown.
I have been there, hitting the brick wall. And until I started to work on the main issue, I was doing too much, I wasn't able to truly get better.
We need to incorporate rest and recharge into our lives. For most of us, this means reevaluating everything and focusing on the most important.
While at first you may think that's not possible, if you reframe the thoughts and focus on how you won't be able to do any of it if you burnout completely, then you realize that some is better than none.
Prioritizing what you want in life is a good first step. Starting with the most important things, the things you truly cannot live without. Even within those, taking a step back and looking at what tasks you need to do to make those function.
We often add more to our plate than necessary. Is it really going to be way more memorable if our kids first birthday party looks like an add in a magazine instead of buying some food and decor and focusing the time having fun with those you love?
Most of the time the answer is no. We don't need to do everything to perfection. We are the only ones noticing the details. It's us that needs to take a breath and step back.
How to maintain a regular energy pattern
So how do we do it? How do we beat the burnout? It's actually quite simple. Forced rest. Making rest and recharge part of your schedule.
I'm not talking, I'll take an hour to relax next weekend when "insert whatever" is done. I'm talking scheduling it in as a regular thing.
There are many ways to make this work. I have three young kids, a husband who works full time and then some, I run a business and we have life and school and allllll the things.
But working in time for each of us is essential to functioning.
Decision fatigue is real and can stop productivity in it's tracks! Research shows that when you are surrounded with too many choices, you can't make one!
This was me, always has been. When I am faced with too many options I freeze up and can't make a choice!
Too Many Options
They always tell you it's good to have options, which can be true. However, for many of us having too many can actually be counter productive.
This is a research based phenomenon and 100% real. As the decisions you have to make increases, the quality of the decisions actually decreases .
This is because we get overwhelmed by too many choices. Some of us can navigate it easier than others, but most people can't have too many decisions. It's human nature.
For example, I have the hardest time eating at The Cheesecake Factory. Their menu is like a novel! I end up ordering the same thing every time because looking through the menu makes my head spin.
Meal planning and decisions
So how does this relate to planning meals? Well, there a lot of meals to plan. Which means a lot of decisions. On top of that, in order to decide what to make for all of these meals you need to search.
Searching online for a meal you want to make when you get overwhelmed with decisions is like shoveling snow during a snowstorm.
Basically, we are doomed to fail before we even begin. Which is why so many people just can't sustain meal planning! Me included.
The Exhaustion Result
This is the issue with so many areas of life. Especially one you have kids. The pressure to make the right decision on top of it all is overwhelming! No wonder we are exhausted.
One main issue is our access to the online world. We see snippets of everyone's life and things look so easy. At least on the outside.
So when faced with our own decisions, we think there is something wrong with us when it does not come with the ease we see for others.
But the reality is that we don't see the behind the scenes part. All that we see online is the highlight reel of happy. Even when it is not intended that way.
Take me for example, I try to be as real as I can yet people still focus on the happy parts. While having access to a virtual world is great for many reasons, it creates a false sense that what we see is the whole truth.
How to Stop the Cycle
Is it possible to make choices that are naturally overwhelming easier? If we find the right support, and put in the effort it is!
One main thing to focus on is to stop comparing our real life with the snippets of someone else's life we see online. Just because you see what you think looks easy, doesn't mean it is.
Decision overwhelm is real and it affects most of us.
Another thing we can do is find people that we can lean on for support. This can be a friend, family member or a professional we learn from.
When it comes to professional/expert support, you want to search for someone that others recommend. Make sure you get testimonials from people you know or those you can contact to get feedback.
If it's meal system help you need, then you've come to the right place! My new course, Meal Systems 4 Success was developed to help those that have failed traditional meal planning create a meal system that works.
It helps reduce the decision fatigue that traditional meal planning gives. It teaches you how to create a meal system that is sustainable long term. And simplifies your weekly meals.
It took years to develop and was based on my own failures at meal planning after I realized I was not alone in feeling this way!
For a free preview on what you can learn, make sure you check out the masterclass below!
Putting a meal plan together used to bring so much stress. Wasn't it supposed to make life easier? It took me years to figure out easy meal planning.
We often make things that are supposed to help us much harder than they need to be. A lot of the times we do this because we forget to look at ourselves as individuals, and instead, we follow what everyone else is doing.
Dinner Stress
Unfortunately, feeding our families is not a choice. LOL It's one of the few basic needs we must fulfill as parents, partners, humans. It seems like such an easy concept, but it can be one of the most stressful things for many of us.
When I was a teacher, I often looked at a subject and saw all the things a student had to think about when learning it. It wasn't as simple as learning writing for instance.
To write, you needed to think about not only what you were writing, but also letter formation, letter spacing, word spacing, spelling, organization of your thoughts, spacing of paragraphs...the list goes on.
The same goes with just about anything, including food. We need to think about the meal itself, what we want to eat, the diet we may or may not be following, are we getting in all the nutrients, will it make everyone happy, where will we get the ingredients, what recipe are we following, etc etc.
No wonder it's stressful! And on top of all of that, there is the pressure of kids and keeping us all healthy.
Losing energy
So how is it even possible to plan overall, let alone make sure we are planning meals that are nutritious and wholesome? It's definitely much easier to go through a drive through at the end of the day.
I found that when I made the effort to plan all these healthy recipes for my family, I began to peter out mid week. Even when I spent time prepping everything on Sunday.
Sometimes, I didn't feel like making what I had planned but if I didn't make it, then that stuff all went to waste. Money and perfectly good food down the drain.
So between the guilt of that, and the pressure to stick to a plan I would muster up as much energy as I could and try to get it done. But then, eventually, I would just crash. And stop meal planning altogether for weeks until I could gain back my energy.
Simplifying Meals
I knew there had to be an easier easy. There had to be a happy middle ground between getting wholesome food on the table that my family would eat and not wearing myself into the ground.
I started looking at what it was I was planning. I realized I was trying to make recipes almost every day of the week. Recipes that take time and effort to follow.
So I tried changing things up. I started letting go a lot more and stopped trying to make every day be the best of the best. I also took forced resets, made myself do nothing a few days a week.
What I saw was instead of my energy riding a roller coaster where it crashed and burned, it started to even out. Meals became much less stressful. And my energy was more regular, which allowed me the means to plan better and more consistently.
Letting go of doing it all
I started to write down what I was doing. I started creating systems for how I chose meals and what I chose. I simplified everything I did. And to my surprise, my family actually enjoyed not only the food more, but also me!
I wasn't as crabby or invested in everything I made because it didn't take the time and effort it used to. But they actually enjoyed the simpler things. Good wholesome food does not have to be fancy or complicated.
And, it's okay to not eat healthy and wholesome all of the time. Letting go some actually is healthy for your mental state. Stress wreaks havoc and if healthy eating is causing you stress, then what really is the end result?
I researched the why behind all this stress and found that there is actually real reasons that many of us suck at meal planning! We are not alone, and it isn't just in our head We aren't just lazy,
Guilt is a beast we all deal with at some point, especially when it comes to mom guilt. It can cause mental health turmoil, but with support it can be beat!
We've all been there, even if we don't want to admit it. Or maybe we don't even realize what it is. Either way, it's something we need to tackle head on!
Katy Huie Harrison- Surviving Guilt
Katy runs the website Undefining Motherhood, an education and advocacy website for women at all stages of child bearing and child rearing process.
Katy has battles guilt in all forms throughout her journey. From food guilt to mom guilt, every stage has brought something.
The number of areas in which we feel mom guilt in endless. In trying to conceive, throughout pregnancy, as we raise our baby, toddler, or older child, as an adult in everything from our size, the food we eat, how we exercise or parenting...the list goes on.
Guilt and fertility
After going through many years of fertility, including multiple treatments of IVF, I finally was successful on IVF round 4. The guilt that I encountered throughout my journey came at me at all angles.
Starting with feeling guilty because I couldn't be as thrilled for others I knew getting pregnant without a few tears of my own, to the guilt I felt when I finally did get pregnant because others I knew had not been successful yet.
Guilt knows no irony. And it never settles. At least not for us moms. Once pregnancy came, the guilt of what I ate and the exercise I did (or couldn't do) took front seat.
Will the food we chose affect the growing baby? What if I workout too hard or too little? It never stops, especially when you've been through fertility to get there.
Food guilt
While you are growing a baby, or simply just eating to fuel your own body, guilt associated with food has been deeply grained into our society.
Both from the online world of what it looks like to have the "perfect figure" to the people we surround ourself. Some of us grew up being told we are too this or that. Or maybe it was the friend circle in high school.
It's a learned process and the more we succumb to it, the deeper those connections become.
When we are pregnant, even though we are growing a baby, many of us feel guilty when indulging in the things our body craves. Even though my doctor told me not to worry too much about it, assured me the baby would take what it needed and my body would do what it needed to do.
I still found my self feeling guilt and questioned if living on Hawaiian rolls and Swiss cheese would cause my unborn baby harm.
Some of us use food as a coping mechanism, Katy being one of those people explained how she associates it with comfort. But then the irony of that comfort is that it's followed by guilt.
How is it possible that the thing we turn to for comfort also causes guilt? And what about those of us like me, that lose our desire for food in times of stress? Should I feel more or less guilty?
Guilt and children
Once we finally get our babies safely into this world, the onset of guilt we feel comes in droves.
From the breastmilk versus formula debate, to homemade baby food, when do you start introducing things like nuts, do you let them get dirty or put them in a bubble, and how much to let go when it comes to healthy food. The struggle is real and the guilt is strong.
As we began to move towards a mostly plant-based diet shortly after our second son was born, people asked us how we would feed our kids. It was easy to fall into the trap of feeling guilty no matter what path we chose.
You're dammed if you do and dammed if you don't honestly. There will always be someone giving an opinion lathered with a thick guilt trip.
So it's up to us to stand our ground and work on that mom guilt. I believe our kids need to experience things, especially food, for themselves in order to develop a healthy guilt free relationship with it.
Our mental health affects physical health. Looking at the big picture of how our body reacts to things can be an integral part of our health and wellness.
My life changed for the better when I started opening my mind to other ways of healing. Dr. Nicole Huffman was a huge part of my plan for overall health and wellness.
Dr. Nicole Huffman- Naturopathic Medicine
Dr. Nicole Huffman has been an integral part of my recent healing. She practices functional and naturopathic medicine both in person in Colorado where she lives and also is able to treat some patients remotely.
She uses a combo of western and eastern medicine to treat her patients. She helps people with a variety of issues and believes the body is like an onion, having many layers.
She likes to let the body guide her in what it wants to heal first. As each layer is dealt with, new layers emerge. She says that most people's imbalances are 3 things: infectious burden (like chronic infections), toxic burden or emotional stress.
Her treatments have helped many people achieve their health goals. You can find her on her website and also connect with her on Instagram!
The Relationship Between Physical and Emotional Health
Every time you wake up feeling yuck, doesn't mean you have an actual cold. Sometimes, it's actually emotion playing a roll.
Ever since I started working with Dr. Nicole Huffman, I have had moments when I feel like a cold is coming on. Particularly issues with my right lung. However after a session with her tackling the underlying emotions, it's amazing how I clear up.
Sometimes, things that happen to us now are actually linked to things that happened when we were younger. These current events are triggers to these earlier events.
Once we uncover those root causes and clear them out, we find that these things don't bother us quite as much.
Our mind is a protector
According to Dr. Nicole Huffman, recent research is showing that up until age 8, we don't know how to process things, so experiences are often repressed and emotions can get stuck.
Our mind is there to protect us, so we may go through things at a young age and never deal with them until one day we find that we are having issues and don't know why.
It could be that we aren't ready to deal, and one day our body is finally ready to let go so this creates space for healing (this could come in many forms, read my friend Juli's story about her path to healing with food.)
Root Causes of Symptoms
When we have a physical symptom and jump to medicine or a pill, most of the time it is just covering up the root cause of that issue.
The body can have an innate way of healing if given the right tools and the emotional piece is a huge part that can often be overlooked.
We've all felt the anxiety stomach pains or the rush of a near accident in our heart. But did you know that all emotions have a place in our body?
In Chinese medicine different emotions are paired with different body parts, so you store things in different places based on the emotions that come up. These are all studied phenomena.
Stress creates proteins and these proteins are stored in the body based on this Chinese science. So for instance the lungs are often associated with grief.
You can use different modalities to help release these store proteins. That is what Dr. Nicole Huffman does and how she helps people heal from emotional imbalance.
Different Ways to Dig Deep
To find out what is happening at the core, we often need to look at alternative forms of medicine. While they may seem weird or different, they often give us a huge amount of information.
Muscle testing
Muscle testing is a treatment that uses energy to figure out what's going on with us. It is essentially just communicating with someones nervous system. Since energy knows no bounds, it can be done both in person and remotely.
We are electrical beings,
Food and exercise can be approached in the same way, living in the moment and not taking an all or nothing approach. Balance in both areas is key to health!
Most of us live in a world where all or nothing surrounds us. But learning to live in the moment and finding balance in all we do can help us gain the overall health we strive for.
Not Always Pushing to the Max
I have always been a push to the most effort possible type of person, but eventually that caught up to me and I needed to learn to take a step back. This is when I discovered how yoga could help.
While many may think yoga is not a hard kind of workout, it actually is very challenging when done correctly. However the difference with yoga is that it teaches you to learn when your body needs pushing and when it needs you to take a step back.
Yoga is a great way to learn to live in the moment as it gives you practice inside the studio. The practice is centered around listening to your body and giving it what it needs at that moment. Not what you think it can do or what you usually do.
When we do this, we actually gain strength long term. Unlike when we are always pushing and eventually crash and burn. I have found that ever since I started listening to my body I have started to get stronger, more flexible and can do things I never thought I'd be able to.
The same goes with our diet. The perfect health comes when both your body and mind find a place of balance.
The balance in what we eat
Much like living in the moment with movement, it's also important to find the grey happy place with food.
Listening and honoring your body with what it is craving helps give you what you need. Like I always say, sometime we eat to fuel our body and sometimes we eat to fuel our mind.
There is no rule when it comes to what you want to eat and when. Even though many things out there may make you think otherwise, you can and are allowed to choose the way you eat and it doesn't not have to be one specific diet all of the time.
There are seasons we go through and that is ok. Keeping true to what we crave help us connect more to our inner selves and is the healthiest option for our body and mind long term.
The Importance of Movement
Movement is so good for us. It gets our blood flowing. It releases endorphins. It helps us maintain focus and be productive. But movement is a continuum, and it doesn't need to be hard core any or all of the time.
Starting somewhere is better than not moving at all. Even if it's a short walk outside, that is a start. Like with anything, you need to focus on your end goal, your why. Why do you want to include movement in your life?
For me it's overall health, both mental and physical. So when I have those days when I need to slow down, honoring that without guilt helps me meet my goal.
Listening to your body is super important. We are conditioned by life to constantly be pushing ourselves and we have lost touch with what we each need individually.
Social media shows the perfect picture and not the messy parts. So when we use it to guide our life, we make decisions based on a false reality.
If you're looking for the ways I keep myself grounded and living in the moment, make sure to download my tips guide. And remember, comparison is a thief. Focus on you and the chapter you are in!
If you missed last week's episode, you can listen to it here!
Yoga is more than a type of exercise. It is a practice that takes time to develop, and works on both shaping your body and mind in an amazing way.
I used to think yoga was easy. I would do it on my off days. But as I grew and went through some major life changes, yoga became the center of my workouts.
Chelsea Koehnen: Yoga Teacher Extraordinaire
When I first got back into yoga shortly after I turned 40, I knew that I needed a teacher I could connect with. Someone that was more than the movement. I immediately knew that Chelsea was one of those people.
She starts every class with a thought of the day. Something relevant but also something you can take with you for life. Her passion for helping others love both the movement and mind spirit of yoga is apparent.
If you want to tune in, check her out on her Instagram account.
Life Changing Affects of Yoga
The thing about yoga is that it isn't just an exercise. It's a life reforming, better yourself from the inside out kind of deal.
Through the flow of yoga, you may be moving your body but the practice itself also teaches you how to deal with life. It helps you step out of your comfort zone, work on the parts of you that need some work and gives you a place to practice all of these things for real life.
Yoga as Exercise
I used to think yoga wasn't hard. It was something I thought of as an "off day" in my routine. But the reality was I wasn't doing it right.
We have this thought that if we aren't pumping your arms, jumping up and down and pushing our bodies hard with weights and high impact moves then it isn't a tough workout.
Chelsea taught me the opposite. She showed me how there is such strength in stillness. Holding a move with active muscles can very much increase our strength and cardiovascular ability.
So as it turns out, I was going into yoga with the wrong mindset and therefore not putting into it what I needed. Once I realized this, and stepped out of the comfort of typical gym workouts, started listening to the practice and putting in the work, I quickly realized that it not only helped me get stronger, but I reached one of the strongest points in my life.
As a human race, we are constantly going. So we are drawn to activities that are high energy so that we can feel like we are getting the most out of them.
There for when faced with an activity that slows us down, we naturally resist. And tell ourselves that it isn't for us.
However, when you shift your story, or are forced to shift it, we realize that it's not really the activity that is the issue, but it's us.
For example, if you get hurt and are told you can only do activities that are slower and lower impact, your mind is forced to accept something you previously didn't want to.
Yoga as a life practice
Our life patterns come up in many areas, one being in the yoga room. I am a go getter, always give 100%, so when I first started yoga I was constantly pushing myself to do it to the max.
I slowly realized that the best thing about yoga is that you work in the moment. And that moment changes. Some days, I am twisting my body in all the ways. But other days, my body needs to take the simpler road.
This is a pattern I have changed. I am learning how to live in the moment and take easy day as it comes. Learning to say no when I am not in a place to take on more and keep those yes's when I am at my best.
This is one of my favorite things about yoga, it helps you change the patterns in life that don't suit you best. I gives you a safe place to work on them so that you are ready to attack these changes in the real world
Yoga Teaches Connection
It's so important that we feel connected to ourselves. When we can read our own cues we are able to make better decisions. Yoga is one way we can learn to pay attention to our own bodies.
When in a yoga class, you are constantly reminded about the mind body connection.
While past experiences shape who we are, we have the ability to recreate those stories. It takes effort, patience and time but it is worth the end result.
The experiences that we have growing up help make us who we are. They help shape our personalities, they guide us in making the decisions we make today. But sometimes, those experiences can have negative effects on our lives.
Decision Making
In episode 2 on changing your mindset, I talked about how 80-90 percent of our decision making is done by our subconscious mind. The same subconscious mind that has created stories based on past experiences. And it uses those stories to base those decisions on.
This is actually a protection mechanism. Our brain makes these decisions for us so that we don't get overwhelmed. This is similar to the reading phenomenon.
When children learn to read, we focus on a combination of learning phonetic sounds, and recognizing sight words. Site words are the words that you memorize and automatically read.
When you are reading you don't actually read every word. Your brain fills in words to save energy. This is the same thing it does when making decisions with your subconscious mind.
How are stories affect our decisions
Growing up my mom made everything from scratch. She worked full time, yet found the effort to make all our food. This comes from her childhood growing up in a small poor greek village where they grew everything, traded food to get what they needed and made everything from scratch.
So for her, this was something that moms did. The stories I created from this were a little different. I grew up in America with things like twinkies and slurpies. But I wasn't often allowed to have them as a child.
My mom was simply doing what she knew. But she grew up in a very different environment. My experiences therefore created my own version of stories, which has led me to want to live a more balanced life approach as I raise my kids in a similar environment.
Using Our Stories for Change
Our past experiences definitely shape who we are. But they can also be the catalyst to help us make changes. Growing up with a mom who made many of our treats at home, it taught me the importance of wholesome food fueling out body.
However it also taught me how to let go a little. Stress isn't good for us, I'd argue it's even worse than having unhealthy food in your diet. Because I don't want my kids to have stress associated with their food choices, I have learned to make balance part of our lives.
It's so important that we think about our past stories and use them to guide us to change in a positive way. This came into play when we decided to change to a mostly plant-based diet. We went into it knowing we wanted to maintain balance so that we didn't associate food with stress.
Kids Creating Stories
I am very passionate about letting my kids create stories through their own experiences. I want them to take their childhood eating habits into adulthood, and I believe that in order for them to do that they need to have their own expereinces.
Which means that I have to further let go, and allow them to experience food that I may not choose for them. So we allow our boys to make decisions on what they want to try.
At home, we are mostly plant-centered so I know they are getting plenty of wholesome food into their body. But when we are out, or at a party, we let them guide us.
If they overeat sugar and feel awful, they remember that and we use that as a guide next time they want to shovel candy into their mouth. If they eat a lot of dairy, and they aren't use to that, and their belly hurts then they remember. The experience they have with something shapes their own stories. These stories will stick with them much better than if we told them something without the experience.
Moving Forward with Change
It's so important that we live life with an open mind.
It's hard not to fall victim to social pressure in the online world. But since we only see snippets of reality, it can be dangerous for our mental health.
The problem with small shots of someone's life, is you don't see the whole story. You can easily make assumptions that guide your decisions without knowing the full picture.
Judgement Based on Assumptions
People see a glance of my online presence and assume I am uber healthy all the time and don't ever indulge in anything.
They make this assumption without taking time to read the about me on my website, or watch my Instagram stories consistency. I don't blame them, because we all cruise the online world in a fast moving auto pilot kind of way.
The issue is, that for me especially, that assumption is far from right. I share a lot of my behind the scenes life. I talk a lot about my balance when it comes to food, especially with my kids.
My kids eat junk sometimes. They eat pizza and ice cream and cake. I strive to give them leniency to try foods they are curious about. I make it clear that we are not vegan, we simply eat a mostly whole food plant based diet with room for balance when we choose.
I have multiple issues with these assumptions, even though they seem like a positive characteristic to have.
One, putting me on this pedestal makes others feel like they need to be that way too. That they need to live this perfectly always wholesome food choice life without room for balance. This is dangerous.
Two, when people surround themselves with unrealistic expectations it creates stress. I strive to help people live a stress free food life, and to think I am doing the opposite of that deeply saddens me.
Online Social Pressure
Social media is not real life. Even for those of us that try so hard to be as real as possible, being judged is unavoidable. So we need to move more towards reducing the pressure to be like everyone else.
Comparing ourselves to what we see happens. But when we learn to start listening to our own bodies, and caring for ourselves in the unique way each of us needs, then we are able to live with social media and not let it guide our decisions.
Social media is just part of reality. I try to show my behind the scenes life, but I still don't share everything. There is a line I don't cross and there are things I want to keep private.
You truly don't know what happens in reality, so to judge someone and make assumptions on their character is wrong. This goes for both positive or negative assumptions.
Someone may have something serious going on that they don't want to share. So perhaps they are a little more critical than usual. It's important to remember that we need to give others grace.
Start listening to your own body
One thing you can do to make healthy choices for yourself is to start recognizing when something triggers you.
First, you need to understand that what you see online is just a small snippet of reality for that person. Much like you would go to work with your best self, us online try to show up with our best self as well.
Second, you need to be honest with yourself and who you follow and what you see that may trigger you. Sometimes we need to pause from seeing things in order to gather ourselves. And that's ok.
Once we admit what we can and cannot handle, then we can take time to do what's best for us. It doesn't mean we will always need to stay away from certain things, subjects, people, it just means we need to build our own self before we do.
It's unhealthy for your mind to make your decisions based on what you see online. We're all different, our paths and lives are different, we all have a story to live so we need to do what's best for our own journey. Not someone else's.
Even when you want to make a change, it needs to come from a place of sincere desire and not because you think you should be a certain way or do a certain things based on what you see online.
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Losing weight is currently such a touchy subject. My guest Erica made small changes to lose weight properly and still was attacked! Why all the judgement?
The online world is full of impulsive judgement without seeing the whole picture. Losing weight is a taboo subject that many people don't want to touch. But like other touchy subjects, it's time to address it.
Erica Fraser from Mom Break
Today's guest is mom blogger and professional marketer Erica Fraser. She runs the website Mom Break and is one of the most real people I know.
Erica likes to tell it like it is, without the pressure of feeling the need to sugar coat or hide reality, which is why we get along so well.
Kids change everything
Most of us with kids know how much our lives have changed. And many of us moms know how much our bodies have changed too.
Erica was a college athlete, could squat 200 pounds and was an all around amazing athlete. Fast forward to after two kids, and she found herself having trouble even walking up the stairs.
After seeing how much she was overeating and how awful she felt, she realized that she wanted to make a change. All around the same time she found out she had hypothyroidism.
Making small changes to lose weight
With the help of her doctor, and a certified nutritionist, Erica started the road to losing weight so that she could feel better.
She followed a food plan given by her nutritionist and started to move her body. And slowly the weight came off.
She did it right with the help of professionals, she took small steps and she did it for the right reasons. Erica documented her journey on her Instagram account.
The Taboo of Talking About Weight
Talking about weight is one of the touchiest subjects online right now. On one end of the spectrum you have the magic pills for losing X number of pounds in little time. On the other end, you have the love your body no matter what size you are crowd.
But what if you want to make a change? What if you feel awful inside like Erica did and losing weight is something you want to do? Is there a right reason to want to lose weight?
I'm not talking about trying to be a size 2 when your body was built for a size 8. I'm talking about a situation where you have gained a lot of weight for one reason or another and feel terrible.
Why isn't it okay to say, I want to lose weight, without being dragged over the coals?
Online bullying
As Erica documented her journey, she shared the small wins as she started losing the pounds. Her ability to walk up the stairs without losing her breath, being able to play with her kids, and having her first successful run in years.
She also shared photos of before and afters wearing the same outfit. She talked about the things you couldn't see in the photos, like how she was starting to feel healthier, along with her drop in jean size.
After one particular photo share where she talked about her excitement when she impulsively tried on a pair of jeans at her favorite store and saw that she had gone down to a size 8, the attacks began.
People began to say things like she didn't look any different and calling her a liar. They attacked her for not having body positivity. Started telling her she was a bad mom. And other awful things that just about crushed her.
This was all based on one photo, one caption and without taking time to read the rest of her journey.
Making judgements without all the information
The pressure we feel online to show the happy times and not the real behind the scenes truth is strong. Much of what you see online is only a snippet of what is actually real life.
Many of us, Eric and I included, take extra effort to share the realness of our lives. While we do have lines we don't cross for personal privacy reasons, we try and be as real as possible.
But it sometimes doesn't matter, like in Erica's case. People will judge without reading all the info,
The extreme diet and anti diet ends of the spectrum is not where most of us live. Is it possible to find a place in the happy middle ground of it all?
Most of us struggle living in a confined box. And that box can be seen at both ends of the diet spectrum. Strip away the labels and it's a very similar place.
The Diet Spectrum
When we first started changing our diet to a mostly plant-based centered approach, I had no idea that the food world was filled with such extremes.
On one hand you have the diet side: vegan, keto, paleo, whole 30, the list goes on and on. And on the other end, you have team anti-diet.
The online vegan world
From the very beginning, I felt like I didn't belong. I would cringe at the bully like behavior that some of the online vegan food world portrayed.
The overall aura is very much all or nothing. You either jump in with both feet or you're out. There is not middle ground and they will let you know. Eventually, it started to wear on me and my underlying anxiety.
I started to question myself and if creating plant-based food to share with the world was something I really wanted to do. The thing was that I actually really loved it.
The anti-diet movement
I started to search to find a "place" that I felt more connected with. This is when I found the anti-diet culture corner.
At first glance, I connect with the overall idea of anti-diet culture. I don't like all or nothing things, I believe that food should be a positive experience and celebrated, I think we should be fluid in our food choices.
My issue started when I began to see some of the same extreme language, just packaged differently. I fully understand that those with eating disorders need to be careful when it comes to the details of what they surround themselves with. And if this is you, get professional help.
However, much like how I believe we don't have to be all or nothing with eating plants, we also don't need to be extreme when it comes to the anti-diet movement either.
For example, I think it's okay to use the word healthy. Some people in the anti-diet culture arena, say that we should be using that word when we talk about food. When I talk to my audience about healthy, I talk about the overall health of both body and mind. So when someone talks about how they made an unhealthy choice when they ate that big bowl of ice cream, I actually argue that it was for the health of your mind. It brought comfort which is taking care of your mental health.
The Why Behind Choices
We all have different reasons why we make changes, start new paths, make new goals. While many of us may be going towards the same goal, we may have different reasons for doing so.
This came into play a lot with our choice to eat mostly plant-based. Our why was health. When it comes to health, it is not only the food you put inside your body that matters, but it's keeping things like stress at bay.
For us, having stringent constraints on how and what we must eat brings high anxiety and stress. Having to worry about what we can and can't eat when we go out isn't something that works for us. So we choose not to worry about it because we keep our focus on our why, which is overall health.
However, if someone's why was based on ethical reasons, then stress may be something like accidentally consuming an animal based product. So going out to eat would bring on more stress. We are all different, and that is ok.
Raising Kids with a Healthy Food Relationship
Along with my own mental health, I have my kids to worry about. I want them to grow up with a healthy relationship with food. I don't want them to look at food as taboo. I want them to see it as the happy enjoyable amazing thing it is.
We have always told them our reasons for changing our diet. They know it's because of dad's health, and they know that it may affect their health too. But they also know that they are allowed to try things they want t...
Is there such thing as too healthy? There are signs to watch out for that show your road to health has become an obsession.
It's easy to fall victim on the next best thing when it comes to getting healthy. But overall health includes both a healthy body and a healthy mind. When you're living in extremes the stress that brings doesn't favor either your body or your mind.
Black and White Food World
It seems that so often, our world is portrayed in a black and white way, with no room for fluidity. This is especially true in the food niche.
There are more diets (ways of eating) than I can count. And they all say they are the best. They all also claim to be a lifestyle, but isn't a lifestyle something that can grow with you?
Each one has it's own constraints, own rules, things you can and cannot eat. Each one has explanations why, many make sense. But I ask myself, why is bread okay and even encouraged in one diet but the devil in the other?
It makes your head spin, and often times triggers anxiety. At least it does for me. What happens when you are somewhere and your forbidden food is the only option? Do you starve? Or do you break the rules?
Too healthy can become obsessive
So in that situation above, either choice can lead to negative results. If you choose to starve, you're depriving your body of what it needs. Nourishment. You are telling yourself that it's better to stay hungry, even if that means feeling faint with no energy, than it is to break the "rules."
If you eat something against the diet you are devoted to, you are causing inner turmoil and triggering a stress response. Both scenarios lead to stress.
If you are constantly under stress, your body keeps triggering a stress response and chronic stress can have negative affects on your health. If you want to read more about it, check out this article by Harvard Health.
Recognizing a stressful diet
How do you know if your way of eating is causing you stress? There are signs that can tell you.
Do you go out to eat without worrying about where you are going?Or do you constantly think about where you are eating, what you will order, etc?Do you feel physical symptoms like rapid breath, tightness in chest, palpitations, sweating and nausea when you have to eat somewhere other than home?
Sometimes you need to worry about these things, like when you have a medical reason to watch out for certain foods. Allergies, intolerances, etc to certain foods are real reasons to avoid them.
However, when you are eating a certain way because you think it will change your weight, make you a better person, think you have to because your favorite celebrity says it's the best...you are causing harm when you don't need to.
If you think you may have an eating disorder, get professional help. Not someone you follow online (unless they are a credentialed professional), but a real expert in food disorders.
How I Stopped Being "Too Healthy"
If you look at history, food was a way to bring people together. We go out to eat to see friends we haven't seen in a while, we gather around a feast for holidays, we bake for those experiencing loss or tragedy.
Food is meant to be enjoyed and it brings people together. So when you allow stress into food you are missing out on some of it's joy.
Mindset is key, it can keep help you enjoy food no matter where you are. So first you need to decide why you are choosing to eat like you do. Your reason will help guide a path that avoids the stress.
Following a rigid health plan is fine as long as it's truly what you want and what your body needs. But if the reason isn't coming internally, you will respond with stress.
We eat mostly plants because of my husband's health. Our why is overall health reasons which is why we don't live in constraints and decide to be more fluid when we need it.
We found our perfect balance with gaining to overall health we are looking for and also enjoying e...
It doesn't have to be black and white to make a difference. Plant-based diet benefits are experienced even when you choose to not dive in all the way.
I would actually argue that when you don't have an all or nothing approach to food, you actually benefit more. Stress can cause negative effects on your overall health, so reducing stress with balance is a positive thing.
Our Second Round of Diet Changes
After experiencing success with changing some things in my diet with the help of my holistic nutritionist when I was going through infertility, I knew that making a change can have amazing results.
Fast forward a few years, we just had our second baby and my husband started seeing a new cardiologist. He had been on high blood pressure medication for most of his adult life, but it wasn't helping anymore.
His doc suggested he handle his heart issues with a diet change. He said that plant-based diet benefits can really help issues like his.
And so it began, our second road to better health through food. Being his wife, I wanted to support him in the best way I could, so I set out to learn this new cuisine, plant-based eating.
Plant-Based Diet Benefits
Based on the book, The Quantum Wellness Cleanse by Kathy Freston, (thank you Oprah), we started with a short term goal of 21 days eliminating:
Animal productsSugarCaffeineGlutenAlcohol
So how did it go? Well, for 21 days we were pretty strict. We followed along, because we knew it was 21 days. We could do that. There was an end point.
At the end, we both felt pretty darn great. I was postpartum, which was a very hard time for me, and I began to come out of my cloud.
After 3 months my husband was taken off all of his meds. To this day, he has never had to go back on them.
How I made this new change a business
After a year of learning how to eat our favorite meals in a different way, I decided to start a food blog with the not so subtle prodding from my friends and family.
So Veggies Don't Bite was born, and the rest is history! I am proud to call this my full time business and help people all over the world.
The Bullying of the Online Food World
Trigger warning, you may not like what I have to say. This is not directed at one particular person, this is the overall aura and feeling I personally experienced when I first entered the social media world of food.
We knew from the beginning of our plant-based food journey, that we couldn't place the stress of always eating a certain way on ourselves. We have anxiety and needed to keep things fluid for the sake of our mental health, which is just as important as our physical health.
So when I became this "vegan food blogger" I felt lost. The aura in the social media niche of vegan blogger is overwhelming. There is a lot of pressure. There is a lot of finger pointing. There is a lot of what I now see as bullying.
And I knew, I didn't quite fit there. I create plant-based recipes. Amazing delicious ones. And we eat them and love them and this is the bulk of our diet. However it isn't ALL of our diet. We choose not to stress about it all the time and it has served us very well.
We are uber healthy, our mental health is also doing great. The plant-based diet benefits we feel are serving us well. So we know this is where we need to be. This is our happy place. But how do I fit in?
Creating a space of balance
In August of 2013 I met my business coach, Jenny Melrose. She helped me realize that I didn't need to fit into a box. I could be my own box. This one piece of information changed my life completely. She gave me permission to be me.
So that's what I did. I opened up and shared that it's ok to choose to eat how you want. It's okay to eat mostly plants, but then not stress about it other times.
And the response was amazing. I was giving others permission to not fit in a box. My brand slowly developed into the real me and the people I was mean...
Born type A but trying to live type B, is this a possibility? Listen in for tips on how to change your mindset and how it worked for me.
We often hear, you are who you are. You're just born that way. Is there a way to change your core being? I decided there was.
Choosing Not to Live in a Black and White World
I was born a type A person. Change is hard. When things aren't in control I struggle. These are the stories my brain wrote.
But going through fertility taught me that there are some things you can't control. I needed to learn to accept this if I was going to have a baby. This is where I began to change my stories.
The stories you have created
As you grow up, your brain creates stories based on your life's experiences. Things you go through, how you are raised, and what happens to you, shape the stories that your brain relies on when making decisions to navigate your present life.
I learned a lot about neural pathways when I was in college, I have a psychology degree with a biology emphasis, and studying neurons was my geeky hidden pleasure.
But it recently hit me on how this affects my everyday business when I listened to a podcast episode by Stacy Tuschl that featured Dr. Shannon Irving as the guest.
Dr. Irving talked about how 80-90% of our decisions are made by our subconscious mind. And these decisions are based on the stories our mind has created.
But can you change your stories? Is it possible to un "hard code" the years of experiences your mind has saved?
How to Change Your Mindset
In our brains, we have what are called neural networks. When things are repeated over and over, our mind's job is to make these things automated so that we don't have to think about every little thing we do.
But our brain also has something called neuroplasticity. This is the ability to change the brain based on forming new pathways and making those stronger, as the old ones that aren't used any more die off.
Neuroscientist Tara Stewart talks more about this in her article on the Forbes website. While it is possible to change your brain, it takes time and a lot of work.
You can't change unless you really want to
Up until I experienced infertility, I didn't really feel that need to change the way I was. But going through a time that was so uncontrollable, really made me want to change my mindset.
After I finally got pregnant, I very quickly got pregnant again. It wasn't planned, and we were over the moon, but having two kids one year old and under was the next stage of me realizing I needed to learn to let go even more.
Fast forward three years, and then came our next "OMG WHAT?!" baby. Three kids, a business and a husband who traveled was a lot. Then throw in early onset menopause. My anxiety was peaking and I needed help.
While medication was a short term solution to help me get some air in the crazy, it wasn't something I wanted long term. So I started a lot of internal work to help me change the stories of my past drastically.
Making a change is very personal, and what works for one person may not work for another. Some need medication, some don't. Some need a combo. Here are a few of the things worked for me and continue to help:
YogaMeditationNaturopathic MDA general mindset shift
My personal strategies for changing my mindset
Embracing the yoga practice was something I never thought I would do. It was never "my thing," I never thought I could quiet my mind or get a good workout from it.
But after meeting a few yoga teachers that showed me otherwise, I quickly realized how very wrong I was. It's called a practice for a reason, and now almost 1 1/2 years later, I am still working on it every day, but have made tremendous growth.
Making sure that I get those quiet moments every day, whether in yoga or through meditation, has been essential to keeping my calm. It doesn't have to be long, or look a certain way,
Can infertility and mental health have a positive relationship? Find out how my struggle to have a baby was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Any time you want to make a change or do something, you need to think about your "why." Why do you want to do it? What is the motivation? Your "why" should be guiding you along the way and help keep you on the path toward your goal.
Who am I?
I have always wanted to start a podcast, and finally got my butt in gear to get it done! Even with this podcast, I had to think about my "why" in order to decide on how to build it.
It all started with a baby. A baby that wasn't born. A miscarriage that started our journey down the path of infertility and the start of us seeing how changing our diet for health reasons can have a positive impact.
Including an alternative approach in my plan
Being raised by a mom who made home cooked meals, treats, you name it, I ate a lot of healthy wholesome food. I always considered myself healthy.
But when I began struggling to have a baby, I questioned everything about me and my "healthy" body. The first slew of fertility procedures (which included 3 rounds of IVF, 3 IUI's, a few surgeries, second opinions, and acupuncture) were filled with failure and wore me out.
I heard the words "egg donor" being uttered and decided I just needed a break. That is when I met a holistic nutritionist who was getting a PhD in women's fertility. I decided to try something new, so began working with her to add a natural treatment for infertility to our medical approach.
She did some of her crazy magic (My husband called her my voodoo doc, lol) and found that I had some issues, one of which was my reproductive system. Big surprise, LOL.
How diet changes first helped make a huge change
After putting me on some whole food supplements, and altering my diet to remove gluten, soy and dairy plus lowering the amount of meat I ate, my body began to "heal."
Changing our diet for health back in 2009 was not easy. The many options we have today were not around back then. But I was willing to try anything. And slowly I started to feel different. I wouldn't necessarily say I felt cured or better, just different.
After about 6 months, I decided to try one more trial of IVF. And boy was that eye opening. My doctor told me from the very first blood draw that my body was different. He couldn't quite put a finger on why, but it was.
Well low and behold, adding in that natural treatment for infertility helped the medical approach we were doing. We got ourselves some solid embryos which led to a baby! The joy we felt can't be put into words. This was the start of my realization that all that I knew about health and diet wasn't set in stone.
Infertility and mental health
All of the things I have been through in life have created the stories that my subconscious uses to make my current decisions. Some of those stories have changed, and some remain key to my life.
My experience with fertility struggles helped me learn to let go. I realized that life will throw curveballs and knowing how to adapt quickly and easily will benefit my mental health.
Seeing how altering my diet and trying alternative medicine made such positive changes to my body, I realized that healthy is a relative term and it is not a one size fits all approach.
It's so important to keep the big picture in mind. We are not all the same. Health is a combination between body and mind, and both need to be kept in a happy state.