Favorite vegetables

Just two years ago I was a fan of broccoli (only cooked) and corn but since the integration of a nutritional product I am in LOVE with pretty much any vegetable that is in the green hues. This nutritional product I speak of is backed by over seventeen scientific studies and it provides the nutrients from 25 fruits, veggies, grains and berries. You become what you eat. What are you eating? Or perhaps what's eating you?

Tonight as I prepared an easy but nutritional meal, brown rice, organic stir fry vegetables (steamed) and Gardenburger's Veggie patty (2), I thought about how much I love veggies. This is a testimony in itself. Five years ago I thought I could forever live off of Little Debbie snack cakes or EL Fudge's coconut chocolate chip cookies. Oh yea I have a BIG sweet tooth. That hasn't changed much but I choose better options now - anything I eat that's sweet, I read the label and make sure there is no HFCS or hydrogenated oils or artificial colors. Now the sugar intake may be grand but I'm not going to eat all of it in one sitting. Other things that are sweet that have no labels (such as at a potluck or mom's night out/in), I take a chance and eat a little. Who knows at that point if I've avoided the top 3 ingredients but that's the "in-moderation" for you!

My favorite veggies are: asparagus, avocado (I can make a great guacamole!), bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, cucumbers, eggplant (wow I can't believe I even wrote that, this is a new veggie to my list since Sept 2010), green beans, kale, onions, potatoes, spinach, squash, tomatoes and zucchini.

What are some of your favorites? You can keep it to the Top 5. How do you like to prepare your favorites?

Health & Wellness intro for 2011

May this year find you over and abundantly blessed in the good measures of health, wealth and happiness. 

It's been a few months since writing you and sharing the good news and tips of what my awesome organization helps me provide you. The end of 2010 brought some sadness with the passing of both my grandparents but the ability to see most of our immediate family during this time helped outweigh some of the sadness. 

I pray that you all are doing well with your families, your jobs, and your futures. If there is anything that I can help coach you on with regards to nutrition, do not hesitate contacting me. If I don't have the answer, I will get it for you. I am connected to many health professionals, like Dr. Bill Sears and his wonderful family, and fantastic Dr. Mitra Ray, a woman whose passion lies in bettering women's health, especially pregnancy health. I am passionate about helping others, too. 

I'll be doing some community events this year and would love to help you get started on yours too. Contact me if you wish to have me do a wellness talk for your loved ones.

I hope this post finds you in the best of spirits.

May God Bless You.

2011 with a bang!

Last month I kind of let go of my strict health regimen and enjoyed a little of the sweet life. I most likely overdid it but like so many others, the new year brings in a new start and with that, weight loss goals. For the first time, I'd say I have a weight loss goal and that is 9lbs. I can do this! I think it's a practical weight goal. It will get me to my pre-baby weight plus a few extra pounds for good measure.. ha! I'm a healthy person in general so it's really just about working out extra during the week to pump up the weight loss. I know I can lose it on my own by eating healthy but that takes a little longer than I want to see in the mirror so with 2-3 days of workouts along with parking far from the store and taking the stairs, I will see a change sooner. I wish you all the best in your new year resolutions. What are they may I ask?

What's your grade?

What grade do you give your family for eating the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables daily? Would you say that you eat 7-13 servings every day, or ... every week?!? I'd think half would say every week and even some I could go as far as saying over the course of a month! I'd say for me on good days, I eat between 5-7 servings. That's good I believe but I still fall short of what I should eat but I also take a fruit and veggie supplement that bridges the gap. Check out this article on food politics.

MSG

This evening I was chatting with a friend about my upcoming wellness talk (11/20) after she heard a smidgen about "label reading" she asked about MSG. I told her that I talk about other ingredients to avoid - mainly from a 'baby step' approach and that children 6 and older are encouraged to attend with their parents so that they can help at their next trip to the grocery store. I told her that MSG is one of those ingredients that are bad for you but that I will address the frauds out there, the HFCS, the hydrogenated oils and the artificial colors to start. Once a family can remove these simple bad ingredients from their every day foods then they'll look into the other ingredients that aren't healthy and reduce and eventually remove them as well. 


So when I got home I looked up "MSG and its aliases" and found some shocking articles about this ingredient. I had heard that "natural flavor/ings" was a catch all term for MSG and that's true - MSG is often found in it. Basically anything hydrolyzed, anything that is flavored from a meat product, or a yeast has MSG in it. 


The best way to avoid MSG or any of the other ingredients I will address at my talk is to simply eat whole, raw foods and never eat out and never buy anything or cook anything from a box. Hmm... That's definitely hard to do in today's America. 


What do you do to remove or better yet, reduce your MSG intake? 

Behind the times

Yes, I admit and I am SO behind in blogging. I guess I will never be the typical blogger because I really don't have that much to say.

My friend and I has started a new meetup for the Murrieta Valley titled, Wholistic Health & Wellness Co-op. It also serves as a networking group of like minded people. The co-op is through Azure Standard, a small farm in Oregon. They make once a month trips throughout California. I am responsible for the message board so with this new task and my fan page on Facebook, it has left little time to write here. Soon though, it'll be a great place to share the latest and greatest of what we're learning in the co-op group and what I'm doing through my own personal business regarding nutrition and health and wellness.

I'm gearing up for a wellness talk on the 20th where I will provide an interactive approach to label reading plus I'll do a sugar demonstration on typical foods Americans think are good and healthy. We'll watch a DVD and refreshments will be provided. Some handouts will be given so families can take the information and apply it at home. The DVD has school aged children teaching the steps to properly reading an ingredients list and its accompanying nutritional label. Children ages 6 and older are encouraged to attend the talk. If the kids can 'get it' then I know their parents will too. Getting kids involved in picking out the right foods in the grocery store is a great experience for the entire family. The talk will be held at a children's learning center. It'll be my first one at this venue. Then in December, I'll have a booth there exhibiting my business. I take my son to play at this center at least twice a month. They offer open play a few times a month to all kids. This center is operating in its second year and was founded for children with autism or those with sensory needs.

Oh the other reason I have not had time to blog is because I have been coordinating several businesses for the Toys for Tots toy drive. I am managing 12 business and most of them are family or privately owned. Boxes and posters were delivered before the start of November and the drive for 10 of them will end on the 30th of November. I have already requested publication in the local newspaper and it was printed this past Sunday. Here is the online version. The other two will end on the 3rd and then the 11th. I will be giving one of the businesses a $25 gift card to Toys R Us. They don't know who they are just yet and I'm not saying who it is either. It'll be a nice surprise. Just a small incentive for participating and actually being the first to say yes!

In Moderation

What does "in moderation" mean to you? 


I'm currently polling the members from my Facebook fan page, The HFCS-FREE Challenge, asking them what "in moderation" means to them. I will fill in the summary of their replies in a few days. But for starters, this is what it means to me: If you're reading labels and purchasing things that have no HFCS in them but every blue moon or so you drink a soda or have a piece of candy that has HFCS on the label then that would be considered "in moderation". 


The reason for this post is that there are some bloggers being paid to promote that HFCS "is "harmless in moderation and not any more damaging to health than say, cane sugar or honey" in exchange for a FIFTY dollar gift card as per this recent article under Green Parenting by Harrison Patch. 


I know my blog is small and probably only read a few times a month but if they asked me, I would have definitely said no. 


Plus with them trying to change the nomenclature from High Fructose Corn Syrup to Corn Sugar .. if it's "healthy" then why the proposed name change? Why the need to pay someone (mom bloggers) to claim that it's no different than honey? How can we eat it in moderation if HFCS is found in nearly 90% of all processed foods? 


So back to the topic at hand... My followers - what does "in moderation" mean to you?