Category Archives: developing healthy eating habits

What is Alkalinity Anyway and Why Should at least 60% of your Diet be Alkaline?

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woman eating plant rich foods
One of the major buzz words in dieting these days is alkalinity.
 
I’m going to boil down to what this means in very simple terms: Eating a high alkaline diet means eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables.
 
There is controversy surrounding whether alkaline diets are really that healthy, but there is no controversy about the benefits of dark leafy greens. Eating a plant rich diet has been shown to improve metabolism/digestion and mental clarity and prevent certain diseases, to name a few. It has also become apparently clear how detrimental acid forming foods, such as coffee, red meat, soda, fried foods and dairy. They promote an environment for parasites and disease to thrive within our bodies.
 
At JOOS, we believe that for maximum health, at least 60% of your diet should consist of plant rich foods. 
 
Here’s a challenge: eat this way for one week and see how much more invigorated, balanced and in control you feel.

To Graze or Not to Graze?

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Should we graze? Should we fast? How many meals should we be eating per day?

The simple answer is: It depends upon your metabolism.

If you have a fast metabolism, then grazing may be appropriate for you. If you have a slow metabolism, you may only need one meal per day.

Generally, it takes 4 hours without food to burn fat; hence, the reason for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If we have fast metabolisms, we process foods faster so we may be able to eat more frequently.

How do you know if you have a fast or slow metabolism? If you gain weight easily, that’s an indication of a slow metabolism.

How can you determine how often you need to eat? It depends on your energy level when you follow a healthy diet. If you follow an unhealthy diet of high levels of dairy, wheat, animal protein processed foods, refined sugars, gum, soda and other caffeinated beverages, you probably will not be able to determine what the right amount of food is for you because your blood sugar is probably out of whack.

 

 

Don’t Starve With Salad

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Tammy eats salad for lunch, but remains 15 lbs over-weight. By mid afternoon, she is craving coffee and sweets. By dinner, she’s starving.

Sound familiar? We are the only country where people eat only salad for lunch. In most countries, people eat meals. In fact, they eat their heaviest meal during lunch time. 

Salads are particularly bad for us during the cold winter months because our bodies need warm foods. Salads, on the other hand, are a cooling food. As a result, our bodies are cold so we reach for something that will give us a boost of energy: a simple sugar, soda or coffee.

Here’s a rule of thumb that many of you have heard me say: If you’re still hungry by dinner time, chances are that your lunch wasn’t big enough.

In last week’s post, I gave a list of foods that will satiate you during the winter so that you remain at your optimal weight. In brief, these include heavier, more oily and fattier foods, including stews, avocados, steamed vegetables, ghee, stir-fries and soups. If you are inclined to eat a salad, then eat a heartier one like the Baby Bok Choy Ramen Salad (recipe below).

Baby Bok Choy Ramen Salad


Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup raw turbinado sugar
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds
  • 1/4 cup sesame seeds
  • 2 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodle pasta, crushed
  • 1 medium head baby bok choy
  • 3 green onions (scallions)
  • Optional, sliced celery and/or fennel
Directions
  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, sugar and soy sauce. Set aside.
  2. Crush the ramen noodles while still in their packaging and sautée over medium heat in a small skillet with the almonds and sesame seeds until everything is golden brown. Remove from heat and drain on a paper towel.
  3. Chop the bok choy and green onions and add to a large bowl. Just before serving, sprinkle with the noodle mixture and dressing, and toss to coat. 

Stay Healthy by Eating Right for The Cold Season

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Here’s a statement you probably thought you’d never hear from me: If you enjoy consuming animal meat, this is the season to eat it.

The optimal way to eat to avoid illness, lose weight and stay healthy is to eat with the seasons.
Winter is the time of hibernation and we need to insulate ourselves from the cold. It’s normal to gain about 5 pounds during the cold, winter months.
Here are 6 suggestions for an optimal winter diet to keep us balanced, warm and healthy:
  1. Eat a high protein/high fat diet (e.g. 40% protein, 30% fat, 30% carb).
  2. Eat sweet, sour and salty foods that nurture and warm us.
  3. Cook with ghee (clarified butter). I love ghee because the casein (one of the proteins in milk) is eliminated and it is fully saturated so that it can not turn into an unhealthy trans fat. Eat warm, unctuous (oily) foods, such as hearty stews, soups, avocados, herbal teas and steamed vegetables.
  4. Avoid fried foods that are hard to digest.
  5. Avoid cold or ice-cold foods, since they douse the digestive fire. 
  6. Drink warm lemon water to cleanse your lymph each morning.

The link below contains a Winter Grocery List by my favorite Ayurvedic practitioner, Dr. John Douillard

http://www.lifespa.com/article.aspx?art_id=57

Eat Smarter, Not Less

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I know many over-weight people who are starving because they are not consuming the right foods.

They go on yo-yo diets, but these diets are not satisfying or satiating because they involve deprivation, which is NOT sustainable.

How do we lose weight and keep it off without feeling deprived or starved? By implementing the 90/10 rule.

Here’s how it works: 90% of the time, we eat whole foods and the remaining 10%, we eat whatever we want.

This means that we can indulge (i.e., over-eat) during Thanksgiving, Christmas and/or whatever holiday we celebrate because they fall within the 10%.

The very important part of this rule is to make certain that 60% of that 90% is alkaline foods (i.e., veggies) because these types of foods are what satiate us, keep us healthy and reduce our cravings for “comfort,” empty calorie foods.

We have moved away from eating veggies for two primary reasons:

1. The food companies do not make money by selling vegetables. They make money by selling processed foods, which is what they push on us through sophisticated marketing schemes.

2. We are so busy and stressed that it is very difficult to take the time to consume even the minimal amount of 9 servings per day.

That’s why fresh, organic juice is soooo important to drink. Just 16 oz gives us approximately 2 times the minimum daily requirement of fruits and veggies.

The best way to get on track is to do the JOOS Reboot Cleanse. As part of the Reboot, our certified Health Coaches can support and guide you so that you can live your most healthy, vibrant life! 

What are you waiting for to feel your absolute best?  Order JOOS today at ORDER JOOS !

Optimize Your Cleanse by Eating Right

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The number one reason I hear that people are afraid of cleanses is because they think they will starve. This is not the case!

I strongly believe that in 98% of the time when people do a raw juice cleanse, they should eat, even if it is only a handful of grains per day. The reason is that we want to pace our metabolism. While we want to give it a break, it still needs to do a little bit of work so that it doesn’t shut down and then have to be revved up again.

Time to debunk a couple raw juice cleanse myths:

Myth: “I just broke my raw juice cleanse because I’ve eaten the wrong foods.”

When I ask someone who tells me what they’ve eaten, they typically respond with a list of foods that are totally acceptable on the type of raw juice cleanse we promote at JOOS, such as Larabars, raw nuts, Mary’s Gone Crackers with hummus, brown rice vegetable sushi, corn tacos loaded with sautéed vegetables and tofu, a falafel sandwich with brown rice tortillas to name a few. Sometimes they’ve even gone out for a glass of red wine. Frankly, so what if ythey’ve snuck in a piece of chicken or a sip of coffee? Just make it the exception and go back to the cleanse the next day. There are so many foods that are acceptable and delicious on the cleanse. This is about experimenting with those foods and building a relationship with them.

Myth: “I only ate one meal and I’m starving.”

I just spoke with a woman who is doing a raw juice cleanse and did a very intense workout. She thought she could only have one meal and was feeling starving and deprived. Ideally, part of the cleanse is having one meal and unlimited fruits and vegetables throughout the day, but some people may need more. If you work out intensively and/or have a busy lifestyle, you may need a bowl of oatmeal in the morning or a Vega shake with a banana and almond milk afterwards.

The type of cleanse we promote at JOOS is NOT about starvation or deprivation; it is about learning mindfulness and how to pace yourself. If you are genuinely hungry, then you need to eat more. If you are not hungry, but eating out of habit or boredom, again your Lifestyle Coach can give you strategies how to deal with that.

I can assure you that a raw juice cleanse is not complicated, unless you allow it to be. In fact, once you get the hang of it, you may find that you will be able to follow the principles of it for months to follow. Sure you will probably fall off track. We all fall off track if we don’t practice anything regularly, such as exercise…and healthy eating habits. So the key is to plan ahead.

Remember, this isn’t about perfection, which is an illusion in our minds; it’s about learning how to incorporate sustainable healthy eating habits into our daily lives.

Do you really believe that synthetic vitamins fortify you?

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Many health professionals tell us to take a multi-vitamin and for good reason. Many of us eat an unhealthy, acidic, processed food diet, which is deplete of vital nutrients. Moreover, the soil in which our vegetables grow is increasingly devoid of minerals.

Most of the vitamins we consume these days are synthetic made from coal tar derivatives. No co-factors are present. As a result, there is a high degree of controversy whether these synthetic vitamins are bio-available in the human body.

There are very few studies to back that show that synthetic vitamins may not be helping us, but my question is: if they were fortifying us, then why are we getting so sick?

Solution: If you really want to get your daily requirement of the highest quality vitamins and minerals, then drink fresh organic juice. That way, you’re consuming concentrated nutrients grown in high quality soil by farmers who care.

As a reminder, if you truly want to feel healthy and balanced, at least 60% of your diet should come from alkaline-forming foods; that is, vegetables and fruit.

You have a right to feel healthy! 

6 Ways to Eat the Right Way for the Winter

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Here’s a statement you probably thought you’d never hear from
me:If you enjoy consuming animal meat, this is the season to eat it.

The optimal way to eat to avoid illness, lose weight and stay healthy is to eat with
the seasons.

Winter is the time of hibernation and we need to insulate ourselves from the cold. It’s normal to gain about 5 pounds during the cold, winter months.

Here are 6 suggestions for an optimal winter diet to keep us balanced, warm and
healthy:
  • Eat a high protein/high fat diet (e.g. 40% protein, 30% fat, 30% carb).
  • Eat sweet, sour and salty foods that nurture and warm us.
  • Cook with ghee (clarified butter). I love ghee because the casein (one of the
    proteins in milk) is eliminated and it is fully saturated so that it can not
    turn into an unhealthy trans fat. Eat warm, unctuous (oily) foods, such as
    hearty stews, soups, avocados, herbal teas and steamed vegetables.
  • Avoid fried foods that are hard to digest.
  • Avoid cold or ice-cold foods, since they douse the digestive fire.
  • Drink warm lemon water to cleanse your lymph each morning.

The link below contains a Winter Grocery List by my favorite Ayurvedic practitioner, Dr. John Douillard

http://www.lifespa.com/article.aspx?art_id=57

5 Suggestions to Control What and How we Eat

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We are all aware that we eat too much sugar and salt and that there is nothing
natural about that! We’re eating approximately seven times more sodium than we
should be eating and 20 teaspoons of sugar daily, which is causing obesity,
illness and a poor quality of life.

Harvard Medical School came out with the 5 suggestions to control what and how we eat, including: 

  1. Modifying your flavor preferences: Appetites for sugar and fat can also be changed, although there’s less experimental evidence for it.
  2. Developing a taste for vegetables: Increase our taste for foods that are certifiably healthful, like vegetables.
  3. Developing a taste for whole grains: If this is a challenge for you and your family, one strategy for making whole grains more appealing is simply to mix in some refined grains.
  4. Giving in to your desire – a little: Research has shown that dieters are more sensitive to food cues than nondieters: when they see an enticing food item, they are less able to stop thinking about it than nondieters are. This holds true even if they are consuming just as many calories as nondieters.
  5. Changing preconceived notions: Although the sensual experience of eating probably has the biggest influence on our gustatory desires, our ideas about food can also shape them. When researchers told college students they were getting an “energy drink” (even though it wasn’t), the students’ pulses rose following ingestion – which did not happen in control subjects.

For more complete information, please click on the following link:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/family-health-guide/updates/controlling-what-and-how-much-we-eat?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=121911-bk1_tw

 

Craving sweets late afternoon?

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Many of you have told me that by mid-afternoon, your energy starts to dip and you have cravings for sweets. When I ask what you eat for lunch, a typical reply is, “I eat healthy. I had a salad.”

All over the world, with the exception of the US, people eat full meals for lunch. Lunch should be your biggest meal. A rule of thumb is if you’re craving sweets or feel very hungry mid-afternoon, chances are that you didn’t eat a big enough lunch.

Another way to reduce and/or eliminate cravings is to drink fresh, organic juice daily. It may also have the added benefit of lowering your cholesterol and a whole other host of healthy benefits.