Deep Breath

Take a deep breath (5+ seconds) and exhale slowly. Do this 3 times!

This little technique is such a wonderful calming tool that can be used in every situtation. It helps reduce stress and allows us to reset our thought process to think clearly.

Got Allergies?

Maybe its the holistic side of me.... but anyone who knows me, knows that I will try anything before resorting to medicine or antibiotics. I personally feel society is to quick to turn to medicine to fix a problem when we are surrounded by hundreds of natural remedies from nature.

Last week my husband was getting all congested from the pollen, so he asked me to buy allergy medicine for him on my way home from work. Instead I did some research on citrus seed extract (you can find this in Whole Foods) as a natural remedy and asked him to give it a try before we got the medicine. He squeezes 9-10 drops into a glass of water (about 2 cups) and drinks it (note- its not the best tasting drink) and guess what his symptons have gone away. YAY for a natural solution!!!! There are many other ways to use citrus seed extract but so far drinking it for us has solved the problem.

If there are any illnesses, pains, discomfort you are looking for a natural remedy for let me know as I would be more than happy to provide suggestions to try.

AntiGravity Yoga

This looks like so much fun but until I read the article below I was way to intimidated to even try. Now I will keep my fingers crossed that my gym adds this new workout class to the schedule and if they do I will be the first to sign up. I will be sure to keep you updated.

Gym Class: AntiGravity Yoga

By KAREN BARROW

Did you ever see an interesting class at the gym that you were too intimidated to try? Or maybe you need to freshen up your current workout routine?

The new Well video series Gym Class is here to help. Each month, I’ll take on the role of fitness guinea pig, trying out new and unusual exercise classes and rating them for difficulty, intimidation factor, intensity and fun — all from the point of view of an easily bored, slightly klutzy treadmill runner.

For my first Gym Class I tried AntiGravity Yoga, a fitness class that adapts the poses of traditional yoga for a large silk hammock raised off the ground. Sometimes called suspension or aerial yoga, AntiGravity Yoga was developed by Christopher Harrison, a former aerial acrobat and gymnast who found traditional yoga too hard on his injured wrists. The weightless poses can be used to strengthen the core as well as relieve aching joints and stretch tight muscles.

“People show up because it’s fun, but they come back because they feel healed afterwards,” he said.

To see what happens during an aerial yoga class, watch the video, taken at the Om Factory Yoga Center in midtown Manhattan, and check out the Gym Class ratings below.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/04/25/health/100000000789079/gym-class-trying-antigravity-yoga.html
What is AntiGravity Yoga? Yoga moves performed in nine feet of silk that is suspended from the ceiling like a swing.

Who’s it for? Moderate thrill-seekers. Bored yogis. Dancers and gymnasts looking for something new.

What’s the benefit? AntiGravity Yoga is great for stretching, working the core muscles and relieving stress — as long as you remember that it’s nearly impossible to fall out of the hammock.

Is there a learning curve? Be brave during class and you’ll be surprised at how you can follow along. After a few classes, you’ll be monkeying around with the pros.

Where does it hurt? The next day, you’ll feel it in your lower abs, upper arms and shoulders. Your upper hip area just plain hurts (or, in my case, is black-and-blue) from dangling upside down.

What should I bring? Wear long pants and a T-shirt with sleeves (to protect your skin from rubbing against the fabric). This is a “no socks necessary” kind of class, but be sure to pack a sense of adventure.

Best in-class review: “Ahhhh,” uttered by someone in the back of the room as she stretched out her lower back. (I was too disoriented hanging upside down to pick out who it was.)

Gym Class Rating (from 1 to 5):
Difficulty: 2
Intimidation factor: 4
Workout intensity: 1
Fun quotient: 5

Strawberry Cucumber Juice

Are you tired of the same glass of orange juice morning after morning? Here is a great new juice recipe that is full of vitamin C and cleansing nutrients. It’s will also provide a boost in energy. Don't forget to purchase organic strawberries. Enjoy!

  

Makes 1 glass

• 3/4 C strawberries
• 3 oz. honeydew melon 
• 1/2 small cucumber
• ice cubes

Hull the strawberries. Remove the skin and the seeds from the melon and chop the flesh into chunks. Juice the fruit with the cucumber. Pour the juice over ice in a tall glass and serve.

Smoothies and Juices (2008). Octopus Publishing Group. London.

Pressure Cooker

(NaturalNews) Pressure cooking is a fast, cost-effective, and healthy way to cook a variety of foods, including dried beans, brown rice and other whole grains, soups, and meats. If you have not yet discovered the benefits of using a pressure cooker, here are 8 reasons to buy and use one.


1. Pressure cooking saves time. Cooking natural foods is often time-consuming, but pressure cooking slashes cooking times. For example, cook brown rice in 15 minutes, dried beans in 12 minutes, and lentils in 7 minutes.

2. Pressure cooking saves money. After the initial purchase, you can buy less-costly dried beans instead of canned, although you might keep canned for emergencies. The energy savings from shorter cooking times means lower gas or electric bills.

3. Pressure-cooked foods taste delicious. Since very little steam escapes during the cooking process, maximum flavor is preserved. Pressure-cooked meat is moist and tender, and dried beans are more flavorful than canned, which sometimes have an aftertaste.

4. Pressure-cooked foods are healthy. Because of the closed environment and shorter cooking times, more nutrients are retained than in open cooking. Dried beans are less processed than canned, and they avoid potential BPA that is sometimes found in canned food.

5. Pressure cooking is safer than you think. Although cooking with one requires a learning curve, pressure cookers today are safer than those used by our parents and grandparents.

6. Pressure cookers are helpful for preparedness. They can be used outdoors over an open flame. So, they can be used camping or in an emergency, and their cooking efficiency is especially helpful if wood or fuel is scarce.

7. Baby food and dog food can be made in a pressure cooker. These typically store-bought foods can be made cheaper and healthier than their pre-packaged counterparts.

8. Pressure cookers have withstood the test of time. Like cast iron cooking, pressure cookers have been used for generations. Unlike cast iron, however, new technology has truly improved pressure cooking's safety and efficiency.

Conclusion:
Pressure cooking has many benefits, but make sure to very carefully read and understand the user's guide before you start. Also, if you are deciding between two different sizes, always buy the bigger one since an under-filled pot poses no risk but an over-filled one can cause problems.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032163_pressure_cooker_kitchen.html#ixzz1KUka13zk

Transfats

There is still a lot of confusion out there around transfats. We all seem to know they are "bad" for us but many are not sure why, so I wanted to share an easy to understand example.

When restaurants order oil for their deep fryer it arrives in a solid block like form (much like butter). When heated to325- 400 degrees the solid becomes a liquid and is used for frying. When we eat the fried items and the oil enters our bodies which are 98.6 degrees the oil returns to its solid state. This leads to increased cholesterol, raised insulin levels and heart attacks.

Always read labels as many companies can claim "no transfat" in their product but if you look at the nutrition label it contains .5% per serving. Well these days an actual serving is so small we usually have two so now your transfat intake is 1%, which may not seem like a lot but it only takes a small amount.

Hope this example helps clarify.

Don't believe everything you hear!

I am sure by now everyone has heard of the new "natural" french fries from Wendy's. Well these fries may win in a taste test but they are not natural. Once cut the french fries are coated with sodium acid pyrophosphate, which is a chemical that prevents the fries from turning brown from two baths in frying oil -- one at the factory and the other at the store. They also sprinkle the fires with a sugar derived from corn, for similar purposes.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112557/wendys-natural-cut-fries-bnet for the rest of the article.

Think again....

A recent Nationwide study shows that meat and poultry found in your local supermarket has an extremely high rate of dangerous disease causing bacterias and has antibiotic resistant super bugs. 47% of the meats tests (almost half) were contaminated. Check out the full article for details:    http://www.naturalnews.com/032099_poultry_superbugs.html

Visit www.localharvest.org to find a local farm in your area where you can purchase free ranged meats and dairy products. My husband and I just found a local bison farm and we can't wait to taste what we got.

**I am not posting this information to scare anyone, I just want to help you to become more aware of what we are putting into our bodies.

Do you get enough sleep?

The New York times just posted a great article about the amount of sleep we need. While we all may think we can adequately function on 4-5 hours of sleep we really need  7-8 hours to be at our full potential.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html

Cook your own Rotisserie chicken

I love rotisserie chickens they are the perfect meal and you can do almost anything with the leftovers.... add it to pasta, rice, make chicken salad, add to soups etc. So over the weekend I attempted to make my own rotisserie chicken without all the added sodium that you get from the store bought ones and it turned out great!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Wash chicken, pat dry and remove insides.
Roll a lemon back and forth on the counter until the lemon becomes softened. Pierce with a fork numerous times.
Place lemon, 3-4 garlic cloves and fresh thyme inside the chicken cavity.
Rub olive oil over the outside skin and season with salt and pepper.
Place chicken on a roasting pan and cook approximately 1 hour and 30 mins, until chicken reaches 180 degrees.

Enjoy!

True Love!

It is possible to be in love with a loaf of bread? As you all know I am a big fan of Ezekiel bread but I am always up for trying something new. On a recent trip to Whole Foods I decided to make my way over to the bakery and see if anything sparked my interest..... that's where I found The Breadery: Grains Galore sandwich loaf. You can literally taste all the grains its delicious!!!!! Add a tablespoon or so of Richards natural peanut butter (the only ingredient is peanuts) and its pure bliss!

I wanted to highlight the ingredient list for Gains Galore because I can understand each one!!! That's a great way to tell if the product you are buying is "clean" or more processed. Just read the ingredient list and see if you can pronounce and know what each item is. If there are items you are not familar with then they are probably additives, chemicals.. etc that you don't want to put into your body.

Ingredients: Fresh Milled Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Honey, Sunflower Seeds, Flax Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Hard Red Wheat, Soft White Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, Millet, Spelt, Durham Wheat, Triticale, Molasses, Yeast, Salt.

They also make a cinnamon raisin walnut that will be on my next shopping list :) Enjoy!

Phone App!

I just got an email from the Center for Science in the Public Interest about a new phone app that I wanted to share with my readers. It sounds really interesting and a great way to help determine which foods are a healthier choice.

Shopping for groceries was a lot easier when more food came from farms, and not factories. And the tens of thousands of packaged foods on supermarket shelves have a bewildering array of chemical additives, designed to variously enhance the taste, texture, color, or shelf life of the product.



We decided to make life a little easier for those of you who want to satisfy your curiosity about some of the most commonly used food additives—from the convenience of your mobile device.

Introducing the Chemical Cuisine app—now available in the iTunes app store and the Android Market:


http://www.cspinet.org/itunes
http://www.cspinet.org/android   


Our staff scientists and I have pored over the literature on 130 of the most common food additives and have ranked their safety. Happily the vast majority is relatively safe—but we’ve flagged those that everybody should avoid, as well as a number of additives most people would do well to cut back on. The app features a randomly selected additive each time you use it—and lets you search for whatever you’re looking for, or browse among categories.


I think you might be surprised by some of what we’ve found. For instance:


POLYGLYCEROL POLYRICINOLEATE. It certainly sounds scary! It’s used in some chocolate candies and margarines. But it’s perfectly safe. You’d be better off worrying about the saturated and trans fat in foods that contain it.

QUORN/MYCOPROTEIN. This is a strange one—and it’s more of a food itself (loosely defined) than an additive. A British food company found a tiny fungus growing in a dirt sample, and then figured out how to grow it in giant vats and process it until it vaguely resembled chicken or other meats. But in some consumers, Quorn products cause vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and, less often, hives and potentially fatal anaphylactic reactions.

CARAMEL COLORING. Finally! A natural ingredient! But not so fast: Much of what goes by this innocent-sounding name is made with ammonia. And that “caramel coloring,” which is used in Coke, Pepsi, and other soft drinks, contains two carcinogens, 2- and 4-methylimidazole.


We’re offering Chemical Cuisine for 99 cents in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market.
http://www.cspinet.org/itunes
http://www.cspinet.org/android

Please consider downloading it today and recommending it to your friends who care about nutrition and the safety of their food. I can’t wait to hear what you think! You can let me know by reviewing the app at either of those stores or writing on our Facebook wall.

As you know, you can trust CSPI because we don’t take any money from the food industry (or any industry, for that matter), nor government agencies. We rely on you not only for financial support but your marketing muscle: Share this message via email, Facebook, and Twitter and urge your friends and colleagues to try the app as well.

Thank you—and I hope you find this application useful.

Sincerely,

Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Protein packed snack!

+

I just tried this new snack today and I think it will quickly become a favorite!! Take dried unsweetened figs and top each piece with a little bit of organic peanut butter. Figs are one of the highest plant sources of fiber and calcium and the peanut butter is an excellent source of protein. What a great snack!

Homemade Applesauce

3 apples cut and cored
1 banana broken into a few pieces
4 soft pitted dates cut in quarters
1/4 cup of water
sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg

Blend all ingredients together in a blender and top with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg. I made this recipe last week and it was great! Even the hubby ate a huge bowl.

Serves - 2 (large portions)

Cut the Fat!

Next time you make tuna salad use Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard instead of mayo. Adding some relish can also enhance the flavor.

Green Tea

Next time you are in the mood for something warm, choose green tea!! This little drink packs a powerful punch of health benefits and is reputed to be helpful with-

•cancer


•rheumatoid arthritis

•high cholesterol levels

•cariovascular disease

•infection

•impaired immune function


Research is also showing that this drink can help dieters burn more calories and help prevent tooth decay.
Just add a few drops of liquid stevia and you have a delicious drink!!

Soy Sauce Alternative

Have you ever heard of Bragg Liquid Aminos? Its a great healthy alternative for soy sauce. Its is actually a liquid protein concentrate, derived from healthy soybeans, that contains the 16 Essential and Non-essential Amino Acids in naturally occurring amounts.




Health Benefits:

•A source of delicious, nutritious, life-renewing protein.
•Taste you'll love - Nutrition you need.
•Great on salads, veggies, dressings, soups, rice, beans, Wok foods, tofu, gravies, jerky, poultry, fish, popcorn, meats, casseroles, potatoes, etc
•Contains 16 important healthy amino acids

Bragg Liquid Aminos contains:
•no chemicals
•no artificial coloring
•no alcohol
•no preservatives
•no Gluten
•Certified NON-GMO

You can find this product at any health food store.

Source- braggs.com

Liquid Stevia

 As I have been reading more and more about the dangers of Splenda I can say I was fooled by the advertising that this was a "healthy" option. Here are a few shocking facts about Splenda that may open your eyes to the potential toxic substance.

1. Splenda was “discovered” accidentally in a lab while trying to create a new insecticide.
2. Sucralose, the made-up name by the manufacturer of Splenda, contains chlorine.

So I have been on the hunt for a new sweetner and have tried agave, raw honey, wildflower honey, pure maple syrup and evaporated cane juice (it comes in a sugar like format) But I am happy to say Liquid Stevia is my new go to sweetner!! At 300 times sweeter than sugar its easily sweetens tea, lemonade, coffee, smoothies, fresh juice etc, with only a few drops. Also since does not impact blood sugar levels so this could be an added bonus for many people.

SAY YES TO.....

SAY YES TO.......

Say Yes to Carrots, Say Yes Tomatoes, Say Yes to Blueberries and Say Yes to Cucumbers are some of my absolute favorite hair and skin products. They combine the nourishment of organic fruits and vegetables with minerals from the Dead Sea. The best part is they are extremely affordable and can be found at Target among many other stores. They even have a product line for babies.

Here are a few products that I used daily....

Say Yes to Tomatoes- is a gentle exfoliating facial scrub

Say Yes to Carrots- is a great hydrating bath gel

Say Yes to Carrots - is a great body lotion



Great workout at home!

You don't need a gym to stay in shape. Here are some great workout classes you can do right from your living room.

Yogis Anonymous Log in at scheduled times for live, expert lead 90-100 minutes classes
Live Exercise  Registar for a gratis membership and you'll get access to weekly kickboxing, sculpting and cardio classes. Plus you can create a personal profile which allows you to connect with other members so you can swap ideas and workout tips.
Pilates Anytime Only $18 per month lets you watch unlimited HD sessions, and new classes are added weekly
TRX TV  This is a site for the unbiquitous suspension -training device. For only $10 per month you can download 12 TRX moves and follow 30 minute instructor lead workouts.

So you no longer can use the excuse of bad weather not to work out :) Happy monday!

Shape Magazine April 2011

Green Tea Lemonade

Happy April Fool's Day everyone!!! Here is a great drink to "fool" yourself into thinking your enjoying a sweet treat but at only 14 calories per serving drink up! Plus its loaded with antioxidants.

Just pour 1 cup of brewed green tea over a glass of ice, add a splash of fresh lemonade and garnish with a mint sprig.

Skinny Girl- Bethenny Frankel