smoothie

Don't Shake It!

Don’t Shake It!

The human body is designed to eat food. Every time we eat is an opportunity to nourish and heal our bodies. Digestion starts before the food goes into our mouth. The production of saliva means there are digestive juices to chew, to use the muscles of our jaws and teeth to break down food so that we can absorb the nutrients and feel satisfied.

Now hear this: a shake is a processed food. A strawberry, fresh and fragrant is real food. Shakes and the like are just stimulating a dopamine reaction in the brain defying how we are meant to function, survive and thrive. 

Bone broth is a fancy word for soup. My grandmother made soup brimming with vegetables and fragrant herbs. Soup is fun and easy to make, share and eat. Remember talking at the dinner table? Today everyone is busy slogging back shakes and going back to their devices until its time for a manic spin class. Is that fitness? Is that living?

You don’t need a lot of time to make a beautiful delicious meal, it’s quick, easy and not expensive.

Oh go ahead, make a bone broth, or buy a bone broth. There are some great organic meat, chicken, and fish stocks available. Freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays. Take a few cubes, throw em into a pot, add some leftover meat, chicken, fish, or veg, or buy frozen veg and throw in a handful as your soup begins to boil and reduce to a simmer. Squeeze a lemon or lime, add some red pepper flakes, some fresh avocado on top, like the delicious Xochil of Mexico, sprinkle some fresh herbs And you have a beautiful healthy delicious meal. Now that’s living.

Hungry is Good

Hungry is good

The key to maintaining our weight and our health starts by understanding our need for food.

Why we get hungry is a question I hear a lot. We get hungry for many reasons. The bottom line is, the human body is designed to get hungry so that we feed it. We need to eat so our bodies and minds can perform. 

The urge to eat, feel satisfied, get hungry, and eat again is controlled by ghrelin the "hunger hormone“and leptin, the "satiety hormone." Often our emotionscomplicate our food associations. 

Hunger triggers our hormones and jumpstarts our digestive system. So when a client who’s in good physical shape, and all seems right in his world, is constantly wondering why he’s never satisfied much less finding joy, I have to ask, ‘What are you eating?”

He starts his day with a smoothie and vitamins. Chia seeds, flax oil, a turnip, a beet, celery, green powder, turmeric, black pepper, garlic, ginger and stevia in a nut milk base. 

Yuck is what I’m thinking, but everyone’s palate is different. “Does it taste good?“ “Oh no it doesn’t taste good but I know its good for me. It fills me up and I make enough for three days so by the third day it’s like pudding.” Blech!

Juicing and smoothies are great, but those nutrients degrade for every hour we don’t consume them. 

In the time it takes to make a smoothie you could make a beautiful, fragrant bowl with fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, and avocado and spend 10 minutes eating it, you know, chewing, like why humans have teeth. Stimulate your digestive system by absorbing the scents, site and pleasure of eating something delicious and creating a greater connection to our planet by being in touch with your food.

Make friends with your food, find joy and feed your mind, body and soul and chances are, you will feel better.