Monthly Archives: January 2012

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

Part 2: 5 More Easy Tips to Help YOU Eat Healthy Forever

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As I mentioned in Part 1, there are many misconceptions about what it takes to implement a healthy diet plan forever. Here are 5 more tips:

1. You definitely do NOT have to be perfect!

I hear people say constantly, “I’ve been good today.” When I ask them what that means, they say, “I didn’t eat sweets (fried foods, chips, etc.)” This is not sustainable. It is perfectly fine to eat a small dessert after a meal. You just need to make certain that the rest of the way you’re eating is balanced. Please refer to other tips and/or book a session with me or another JOOS Health Coach for what this means for you.

2. We have become disconnected from what real nutrients mean to us.

We have become so disconnected in our society to nature. When we eat whole foods, and mostly vegetables, we feel, energetic and rejuvenated because they’re loaded with vitamins and minerals that are easily absorbable in our bodies. Once we’ve heated and/or processed the foods, we KILL almost all of the nutrients.

3. If you can not read an ingredient on a label, it is NOT food. Don’t eat it.

4. What works for one body may not work for yours.

For example, if you generally have heavy bones, you may be able to eat a diet of 100% raw food. This type of diet would probably not work for someone with a petite frame and fast metabolism who generally requires a diet of more heavy, uncquous foods to ground them.

5. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE drink plenty of water. The rule of thumb is to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces of PURE water.

If you’d like to discuss any of these points in more detail or your general eating plan, I’m happy to discuss with you. Please email me at healthcoach@drinkjoos.com

What are you waiting for to feel your best!

 

 

Get to the Root and Get Healthy!

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At a birthday lunch with two friends this week, one of them was in excruciating back pain. She was also noticeably stressed and worried about her mother’s illness. I started to go through the list of alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, cranial sacral, lymphatic drainage that I thought may help heal her back.

My other friend said, “Wait,  you need to address the root of why your back is hurting before you can heal it. If you’re so stressed, your back is never going to get better.”

This comment made me think of another friend who had been diagnosed with diabetes. He was a chronic overeater, overweight and insomniac. He had done several seesaw diets, but of course none of them worked in the long term because he was treating the symptoms instead of getting to the emotional root of what caused the over eating.

So he decided to do something radical: a raw juice cleanse, which ended up changing his life because it forced him to become more mindful and think about why he had developed these unhealthy eating patterns.

During the course of the cleanse, he learned the reason he over indulged was because, as a child, his two other brothers and he fought for their food at the dinner table because there wasn’t enough. He discovered that his tendency to over eat was a compensation for not feeling like he had enough as a child.

As soon as he learned the root of his problem, he was able to correct it. As a result, he lost 25 lbs in three months, his blood sugars stabilized and he is able to sleep better.

What is it that’s holding you back from feeling your very best?

The Secret to HAVING IT ALL!

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Midori Ito landed the triple axel, but she didn’t  receive the gold. That went to Kristi Yamaguchi, who, despite having the less technical program, skated with unmatched grace, style and artistry.

What struck me most about her unforgettable 1992 Olympic performance was not just the mastery of her moves, but also the deliberateness in which she moved in and out of each one.

I often think of Kristi when I’m practicing yoga. Many of us rush from asana to asana (literally means seat, but we’ll use the definition position) without a conscious thought of how we moved into or out of it. Most importantly, despite the constant reminders from the teachers, how many of us forget to breathe?

The yoga instructors say that the way we practice yoga reflects how we live our lives off of the mat. No wonder that so many of us live mindlessly when we’re rushing from activity to activity and/or are distracted by our handhelds and computers with no yoga instructor reminding us to breathe.

We all know where mindless living leads => to unconscious eating!

With each bite of food, take a moment, even if it is a split second, and reflect on what you are eating. Are you hungry in that moment? Are you enjoying what you are eating?

What are you feeling while you are eating?

How to Succeed with New Year Resolutions!

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Last night before we went a New Year’s Celebration, I asked my four children what their resolution would be. They started with lofty, highly general goals like I’m going to eat healthy or I’m going to bed early every night.

While they brainstormed, I kept directing them to a more specific resolution. Finally, we came up with one that is entirely doable: before we go to bed each night and when we first wake up, we’re going to express gratitude for something. It could be gratitude for just waking up, for the snow that’s falling, or for a friendship. It only takes 30 seconds at most and it’s done.

Did you know that 38% of New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, but within only a few weeks, 55% are broken and back to old patterns?

The reason for the high failure rate is that the diet plan we implement is too ambitious and, therefore, NOT sustainable.

The key is to create a diet that works for our body types and life style and to start off with small, achievable steps.

For example, for people who don’t like their veggies, a good resolution would be: each day I’m going to eat one portion of greens.

For someone who loves animal protein, the resolution may be to cut meat down to two times per week.

What are you waiting for to feel your absolute best!