Monday, 17 December 2012

IS YOUR DIET 'THE BOMB'?

 

Whether or not we believe that our current diet is the bomb or not, we could all benefit from taking a closer look at what we eat, becoming more mindful about how we feel after eating certain foods and making adjustments here and there but for the most part the hard work can be when it comes to knowing what is right for you and then sticking to it. 

We are all unique, not any one of us is the same in this whole massive big world of almost 7 billion people!  If you think about just that for a moment, its quite amazing to say the least.  And because we are all so different, there is no one perfect way of eating that works for everyone.  This is where a concept called bio-individuality comes in.  Each person has very specific needs for his or her own health according to age, constitution, gender, size, lifestyle an ancestry.  We are living in an age of modern nutrition which means that a lot of people are on some kind of diet or another and every day we are bombarded with new ways to lose ten kilos in 60 days or some new discovery of healthy benefits of a certain food that you HAVE to eat if you want to live to a ripe old age and be healthy and happy at the same time.  To think that a certain diet may be right for you just because you have read the book or it sounds easy is bordering on crazy unless you actually take the time to listen to what your body is telling you when you eat and be mindful of how you feel after you have eaten.  Nutrition is the only science where two apposing theories can be proved correct and that is because we are all so different with very different needs.

 

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer ten months ago I felt that I was literally scrambling around trying my very best to feed my body what I thought was right for it based on what I had read and what was supposed to be an 'anti-cancer' diet.  I  had a broad understanding of what the main diet principles were, but suddenly I felt that I needed to be an expert in the field of nutrition if I wanted to give myself the best possible chance of living a long healthy and happy life.  What I didn't know was the concept that we are all individuals with unique requirements and that the very best diet to be on is in fact an anti-cancer diet whether you have cancer or not and this anti-cancer diet can be different for everyone.

I had friends/family contacting me from across the globe telling me that they had read articles about people that had taken a spoonful of asparagus puree every day since they were diagnosed and were now cancer free.  I had someone tell me about a specific type of fruit tree that is only found in deepest darkest Africa which is touted to be a cancer cure.  The problem with all of this was that at the time I was feeling very vunerable and I would have eaten my husband's left toenail if it was supposedly going to cure me of cancer.  I was very grateful that they took the time to tell me about these things that they had come across, but it highlighted to me that people just have no idea what the best way is to approach a healthy diet that is right just for them because they are bombarded every day with new dietary theories and best sellers.  What we need to do is listen to your body!!!!  It knows what foods you need, when it needs them and what is best for you.  Research what foods are best for your blood type, your metabolism and what foods were typical for your ancestry.  Begin by making small changes and pay attention when you eat so you can decide when you're full.  Even though each person is a distinct individual, we all share the same instincts.  Don't ignore the personal messages your body is sending.


There are 6 foods that seem to pop their heads up again and again in my research which promise to be the most nutrient dense, health promoting foods on the plant no matter who you are or what diet you are on.  Whether or not you embrace all 6 of these foods or find that you can only tolerate one or two (remember to listen to your body first), you will be well on your way to eating a diet that is extremely effective at preventing chronic disease and promoting health and longevity.  These 6 foods are called 'G-BOMBS' and they certainly are "the bomb"!

The 'G-Bomb' acronym was cleverly created by Dr Fuhrman who is a board-certified family physician, NY times best-selling author and nutritional researcher who specialises in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods.  If you try and incorporate at least one of these 6 foods into one meal a day you will be doing yourself a massive favour.  The great part about it is that these foods are easily found and you probably have at least two of them sitting in your pantry right now!  For a full explanation of exactly how nutrient dense these specific foods really are, please visit his website.  I encourage you to click on the link and read for yourself the benefits of these foods as my explanations below very limited.  So without further ado, below are these six super sexy nutrient packed super foods of the 'G-Bomb'!! :-

1.  Greens

They only contain about 100 calories per pound and are the most nutrient dense of all foods.  They protect our blood vessels and are associated with reduced risk of diabetes.  They are also packaged with beneficial phytochemicals.

2.  Beans

Beans (and other legumes as well) are a powerhouse of superior nutrition.

3.  Onions

Onions along with leeks, garlic, shallots and scallions make up the Allium family of veggies which have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular and immune systems as well as anti-diabetic and anti-cancer effects.

4.  Mushrooms

Consuming mushrooms regularly is associated with decreased risk of breast, stomach and colorectal cancers.  A Chinese study where women ate at least 10 grams of fresh mushrooms each day (about one mushroom per day) had a 64% decreased risk of breast cancer.

5.  Berries

Blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are true super foods.  They are low in sugar and high in nutrients - they are among the best foods you can eat.

6.  Seeds

Nuts and seeds contain healthy fats and are rich in a spectrum of micronutrients including minerals and antioxidants.

This week I will post a recipe on my blog that incorporates at least 3 ingredients from the 'G-Bomb' acronym.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY:

I only feed my body with food that is nourishing and I do this out of self love.

Friday, 14 December 2012

Cool cucumbers rock


There are many of us in this world that feel like we are the lady in this picture when it comes to the silly season.  The good news is that we don't have to be the stereo typical rushing/frantic woman of the silly season.  There are many things we can do to calm the nerves, feel well, rested and nourished and slide into this period as cool as a cucumber.  Its just a matter of doing a bit of ground work beforehand to ensure that we are the coolest of cucumbers on Christmas day!


There are many things you can do in the build up to Christmas so that you feel that you are well prepared, but the trick is which ones will benefit you most.  I always find that there are many tips and tricks out there in every magazine/blog post/internet site that I lay my eyes on on how you can enter the festive season feeling calm and collected, but instead of feeling overwhelmed with all the advice you are reading and then not doing any of it, rather concentrate on just one, two or even three things that you feel will make you feel grounded and balanced during this period..  Just those few things will go a long way to making you the coolest of cool cucumbers in town!


I have had to think extra long and hard this Christmas about how i was going to remain stress free since I have just completed a years worth of surgery, chemo and radiation for breast cancer.  I have been doing a lot of reading on this subject and have come up with five things that for me I believe will ensure that I start the silly season feeling stress and worry free.  I hope that even just a few of these points resonate with you and you decide to put them into action.  If you do you will be well on your way to a happy, healthy stress free Christmas and holiday period.



1.  Stock up on the basics and know what you've got

This is a big one for me.  If you take 15mins out of your day to check your grocery cupboards and have some sort of plan in your mind about what you will be eating on Christmas and Boxing Day (even if you don't know exactly what you will be eating) then write those things down and go and do a big grocery shop of the essentials.  This will save you running out of things on Christmas day or having to rush off to the shops at the last minute and run the risk of sitting in heavy traffic or getting unduly stressed out.

2.  Get help with the cooking

There is always someone around that can help you with the cooking.  They don't have to be a trained Master Chef like yourself (haa, haa), but there are many ways that your husband, kids, mother in-law etc etc can help you out by doing little things to make your day easier.  I think we all try to be super hero's on Christmas Day, but remember no one likes a stressed out or frazzled super hero! So have a look at who is around you and what needs doing and DELEGATE!

3.  Take time out for yourself

Once again no one likes stressed out super heros, so ensure that you take time out just for you during this busy period.  You will need extra rest because you will be extra busy and extra tired.  I feel that the number one myth that people think at this time of year is "I just don't have the time!"  You do have the time, you just need to make it a priority.  I'm not saying that you need to go off for a few days on you own or even for a day...just half an hour here or there to attend to your own well being will be worth a couple of days in the long run and you will feel like you can take on the world with a renewed sense of purpose, energy and cool cucumberniss!

4.  Breath

For some of your tip number 4 may read very strange...what do you mean 'breath?'.  The breath is something that i have been focusing a lot on lately and i am astounded as to what is actually going on with my breath most of the time.  If you actually take the time to notice your breath in times of anxiousness or perhaps when you feel you have a busy mind you will notice that your breathing can be pretty shallow and erratic.  This in turn gives our subconscious mind the message that we are stressed out and we go into 'fight or flight' mode.  The toll that this 'flight or fight' mode takes on our bodies is immense.  Take the time to monitor your breathing, you can do it anywhere.  Make sure that you are doing nice deep breaths which cause the diaphragm to move up and down.

5.  Move

Yes...MOVE!  Christmas time can be a time of excess in many people's lives.  Even if you a wellness warrior and you are aware of the benefits of nourishing your body with real food you will still find great benefits in getting out there and going for a walk/run/bicycle ride etc etc.  The list of health benefits that exercise has on your mind, body and soul are endless as I'm sure most of you know.  So get out there and make it a priority especially at this busy time of year.

What are your favourite top tips to ensure your own wellness and  creation of balance at this time of year?

POSITIVE AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY:
I feel well organised and rested today

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Why primary food is so important for our wellbeing


You may very well be thinking, what the hell is 'primary food'?...and quite rightly too.  I was just recently introduced to this concept when I was reading an e-book that IIN sent me about nurturing your body and feeding your soul.  Simply put, primary food is any food that can't be served up on a plate and which nourishes you as a whole and which contributes positively to your overall well being.  I hadn't really thought too much about this before.  Yes we are all told that we need to sleep  more, stress less, have more facials/massages and the list goes on...but do we make those things a priority in our lives...most of the time I don't think we do.

I never used to read many books before i was diagnosed with cancer, but since I was diagnosed I have used reading books as a tool to help myself feel more educated and empowered in a situation where I felt quite out of control.  I felt that treatment decisions were being made for me without me knowing much about the pros and cons of the treatment and decisions had to be made in a very short time period.  From what I have learnt I believe that cancer is not caused by one specific thing as such, its a combination of things that happen in your life that lead you to become unbalanced and unwell.  One of the things that I believe contributed to my cancer is the fact that I did not give myself enough primary food.  I thought that I was the the picture of health at the time I was diagnosed...after all I had just completed a half marathon, I was changing the way I ate and was looking and feeling my best.  Anyone that looked at me would have thought 'wow, she looks fit and healthy'...but little did we know that my boobies were ticking time bombs!  Before my diagnosis, I approached my life very much from the angle of 'everything will be alright, just push on no matter how you feel and put your big girls undies on if you're having a bad day'...very rarely did I listen to my body and what it was trying to tell me...for the most part I just ignored it!  Yes we are told to 'listen to your body' give it rest, but do most of us REALLY know why we are told that?  I don't think until now that I really understood why we need to listen to our body's and nourish ourselves by giving ourselves primary food constantly.  Being diagnosed with cancer was a huge wake up call for me and the Universe/God's way of telling me to listen up before its too late!  If I had known what I know now about health and well being (and there is still so much more to know) i would have lived my life differently and treated myself differently.  My life was way out of balance and 'primary food' was severely lacking in my life.  Unfortunately I had to go through a cancer diagnosis before I would listen to my body.  It is my wish and goal of this blog to make people listen up to advice given to them on how to truly nourish ourselves and be the happiest we have ever been BEFORE being given ultimatums by our bodies like cancer diagnosis's.

This past w'end I went with the family over to a spot that we have been trying to get to for a very long time.  This place is a secret little paradise and we are lucky enough to only live 1 hour away from it!  We drove over to Decanter Bay on Friday late afternoon for two blissful nights.  The photos at the start of this blog post are of the view from our holiday home and the actual holiday home that we were lucky enough to stay in.  This place was my 'primary food' for the w'end.  There was no cell phone reception and no TV which was great, no need to get distracted with things like that when you have a beautiful paradise to explore.  How often do we get distracted by whats truly beautiful in life just because we feel the need to update our Facebook status's, check our text messages or watch that TV program that we just can't miss!  I must admit that at first I felt a little uncomfortable that I couldn't check my phone or switch the TV on...but it only took an hour or two and I was truly pleased I had non of those modern conveniences around which was testament to the fact that most of the time we believe that we need certain things in our lives but in reality we probably don't we just think we do!  The entire w'end was spent getting back to grass roots i.e. catching fish for our dinner, soaking in a true kiwi tub under the stars overlooking the ocean, playing in the ocean with the kids and keeping the windows open at night in our bedrooms to listen to the waves lapping the ocean floor...the list goes on.  This was great 'primary food'!

Particularly at this time of year in the lead up to Christmas it is very important to make sure that we look after ourselves and feed ourselves with 'primary food' as much as we can in a season of over overindulgence.

What have you done lately or what have you got planned over the Christmas period to ensure that you are fed your 'primary food' and are truly nourished?  Have a think about it for a moment and if you can't think of anything then put something in place to ensure that you are nourished.  If you start with nourishing yourself first you will be surprised just how many other things fall into place in your life that you may have been struggling with before.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY:  I deserve to nourish myself EVERY day

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Crunchy Bean, Quinoa & Carrot Salad

This morning i had a whole heap of things that i needed to do.  I needed to go grocery shopping, i need to take photographs of things that we'd like to sell on trademe to de-clutter the house and i need to make a much needed start on my Christmas shopping!  It seems that the 1st December pops up on your calendar and you instantly feel panicked that there is not enough time to get everything done by Christmas Day!  Do you feel this way too?  Its strange how we behave as humans...just a week before the 1st December was upon us i felt like there was heaps of time to get things sorted for Christmas but as soon as you see 1st December appear on your calendar you are suddenly filled with 'oh no, do i have enough time to get everything done before Christmas!'.  Why could i not have started preparing for Christmas in November?  Its almost like the 1st December is that fire cracker that you need under your bum to get things organised!  Anyway, my point is that instead of rushing around like a blue arsed fly this morning getting chores done and running myself down, i decided to nourish myself instead and do what i love i.e. listen to some health talks videos on Jessica Ainscough's website and write a blog post!  I can tell you that i'm going to feel MUCH better after doing that than i would have felt rushing around the shops and i'll be setting myself up for the day to feel good about myself which will then show in how i act/behave around my kids and husband.  Yes i know i still need to get my chores done, but i have looked in my diary and i have created space to do them some other time.  One of the many things i have been focusing on at the moment is the need to nourish yourself and create space and time for yourself.  If you do that then you'll find that you feel like you have so much more time in your day even when you felt like you were busy before.  Look after No. 1 aka: YOU and the rest will take care of its self, i promise it works!  We just need to learn how to look after ourselves properly and that is one of the main reasons why having a Health Coach in your life is very beneficial as they can show you how.  Unfortunately in this modern day of age we have forgotten how to look after ourselves because we are too busy looking after everyone elses needs and we tend to neglect our own.  Remember what the airline video says when you get on the plane "always put your own oxygen mask on first before you tend to anyone else"...and that is true for how we should live our lives.

Something else that i have been made aware of through the Nutrition school is 'bio-individuality'.  No one diet works for everyone because none of us are the same, we are all made up differently with different needs so whatever diet may work for one person doesn't necessarily mean it will work for the next person.  I hate using the word 'diet' so for the purpose of this blog i'll refer to diet as 'a healthy eating plan' instead.  There are two important things to remember when you are thinking about scrutinising your healthy eating plan and that is:-
1.  Whichever healthy eating plan you decide is right for you, the number one priority is to ensure that it is REAL food and what i mean by that is make sure its wholesome WHOLE food, nothing genetically modified and be sure that you use only the freshest ingredients where ever possible.
2.  Listen to your body.  Your body requires different nutrients at different stages in your day/life so what may feel right for you today may not feel right for you next month or next year.  We are continually changing from day to day, the seasons are changing and what we do physically today may not be what we do tomorrow, so its important to listen to what your body might be telling you and not to ignore its needs.  When last did you actually listen to what your body was asking to feed it instead of just stuffing a sandwhich down your throat just because the clock said lunchtime...was your body even telling you that it was hungry?

So i have a recipe for you today (hence the heading of this post).  I found it on one of my favourite go to websites called www.greenkitchenstories.com.  Green Kitchen is an inspiring source of organic and tasty vegetarian food, with ingredients  straight from nature, using whole grains and seeds, good fats, unrefined sugars and no meat.  I tried this recipe about about a week ago and as you can see from the picture if looks pretty too (the picture that i took was from the salad that i made, not the picture off the website, impressive for a novice hey!!  It is also packed with so many nutrients it will blow your mind.  Here are some of the nutrients your body will be thriving on if you eat this salad:
Beans:- low in saturated fat and sodium (salt); a good source of Vit B6, Iron, Magnesium, Protein, Vitamin C and Folate.
Quinoa (this grain dates back 3 to 4 thousand years and originates from the Incas): It is a complete protein containing all 9 essential amino acids.  It contains Iron which keeps our red blood cells healthy.  Its rich in Magnesium which helps relax blood vessels and in turn will help alleviate migraines.  There are a heap of other nutrients in quinoa but i can't name them all.  Type 'quinoa benefits' into google and have a read for yourself..you will be astounded.
Carrots: they are nutritional heroes' as they store a goldmine of nutrients.  The main nutrient in carrots is carotene which the body converts to Vit A which is essential for so many bodily functions.

Anyway, before i go on and on about how good this salad is for you, below is what you have all been waiting for, the recipe.  And once again i'd like to thank greenkitchenstories for creating this masterpiece of a recipe and for inspiring me to write about it!  The important thing to remember is not to get bogged down by coming across something in the recipe that you may not have in your pantry.  If you don't have it leave it out or substitute it with something else...make the recipe your own!  For example if you don't have heirloom carrots (I didn't) then use normal carrots instead.  If you don't have lingonberries either leave them out or replace them with cranberries.  Go on use your imagination, you will be surprised at what you come up with and how good it tastes!

Crunchy Bean, Quinoa & Carrot Salad
Serves 4
If you time it right, this salad can be prepared while the quinoa is cooking. Then you won’t only have a quick salad, but it will also be lukewarm, which is how I like it best. If you don’t time it right it will be served cold, but that tastes pretty darn good too.
1 lb (450 g) green and yellow beans, trimmed
2 cups quinoa

8 heirloom carrots, sliced thinly
2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup raisins
1 cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped or halved
1/2 cup lingonberries (can be replaced with red or black currants or fresh cranberries)


Dressing
4 tbsp Dijon mustard, preferably coarse grained
3 tsp honey
juice from 1 medium sized lemon
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
sea salt & black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Trim off the edges of the beans and put them in a large sauce pan with boiling water and a pinch of salt. Remove after only 1 minute, using a sieve. Put the water back on the heat. Rinse the quinoa and then add them to the water. Let boil for about 15 minutes, or until you can see the small tails on the quinoa. Meanwhile, add the carrot slices to a small bowl. Pour about 2 tbsp olive oil over them and toss until all are coated in oil. Spread evenly on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle some salt over and bake for about 7-8 minutes (depending on how thinly sliced they are). Keep an eye on the oven so they don’t burn. Remove when the edges are starting to curl. Now it’s time to make the dressing. Whisk together mustard and honey. Add lemon juice, vinegar and oil and whisk for about 30 seconds. Add salt and pepper according to taste.
Assembling: Add beans, cooked quinoa, roasted carrots, onion and raisins in a large salad bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss, using your hands, until everything is well mixed. Top with toasted hazelnuts and lingonberries and serve immediately.