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Tag Archives: healthy living
How to Create a Self-Care Plan
Self-care is completely essential to thriving and feeling at your best. Some people think of self-care as selfish, but it really is not. In order for you to be out in the world at your best, and also give to others, you must do that from a full place. Self-care helps us to fill “our well” so that we are not showing up for others from a depleted place, which can lead to resentment and anger. Before we take care of our kids, jobs, work, we must take care of ourselves.
Self-care involves areas such as the need to connect with our tribe or closest friends and family; taking care of our physical and psychological health; managing and reducing stress; intuitively listening for and honoring our emotional and spiritual needs; sustaining healthy relationships; and achieving balance across personal, school, and work commitments.
Each and every one of us is different, so it’s important that our self-care be tailored to our unique needs, wants, and preferences! Below is a template with some sample answers that you can use to create your own self-care plan with a few minutes of reflection. Once you go through this process, schedule into your calendar a few of the tasks you would like to try that will feed your mind, body, or spirit. If you don’t already have a plan I encourage you to sit down and create one today. So much ends up on our to-do list from day-to-day so if you fail to plan, you will fail at taking care of the most important person in your life, YOU. –Xo Raw Girl
SECTION ONE:
Self-Care Dimension
|
Current Practices
(List all that you currently do) |
Frequency |
Physical | · Gym/ Exercise with Trainer
|
· At least three times per week |
Intellectual | · Reading a new book
· Social media fast
|
· Weekly
· Once a week I shut down all social media |
Emotional |
· Meditation |
· Daily meditation |
Spiritual |
· Meditation · Prayer · Church
|
· Daily meditation & prayer, Church once sometimes twice per week
|
Social | · Church Group
|
· Once every two weeks and ongoing |
SECTION TWO:
Self-Care Dimension
|
New Practices
(List all practice you are COMMITTING to doing on a regular basis) |
Frequency
(How often do you commit to doing these) |
Physical | · Try Capoeira as a new form of movement
|
· Once a week |
Intellectual | · Write in my journal
· Listen to my favorite music · Schedule regular thinking time
|
· 2-3 times per week
· at least twice a week · at least once per week |
Emotional | · go for reflective walk
· Connect with a good friend |
· once a week
· at least once a week |
Spiritual | · go for reflective walk
|
· once a week |
Social | · Call one friend and schedule something fun
|
· Once per week |
SECTION THREE: | |
What can you let go of? What is no longer serving you?
|
|
What do you do now for self-care or to manage your stress that no longer serves you? Answer in the space to the right.
|
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SECTION FOUR: |
|
How will you eliminate obstacles to your self-care plan? Answer in the space below.
|
|
|
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Have you checked out my new online classes yet? In my new course, Staying Ageless 30+ you will learn about Diet Basics, Lifestyle Factors, and elements of Longevity that promote an ageless way of life. Over the course of three modules you learn what to eliminate from your diet to stay ageless, how to ensure your body is receiving adequate nutrition, powerful detox rituals you can incorporate to increase your longevity, beauty remedies that will leave you glowing, and how to exercise effectively and get results. In addition you will learn health lessons directly from renowned longevity and health experts that will equip you to transform your lifestyle. You can still enroll! Check out the class HERE to preview the curriculum our save your seat! -Xo
Healthy Action of the Week: Self-Care Ritual
I’m starting a weekly call to healthy action to get you thinking about various aspects of your health. Hoping that these will assist you in not just learning about new nutrients or supplements, but actually start to make changes day-to-day. For the first healthy ritual I challenge you to pick a self-care activity you feel you need the most and do it daily. Whether it be meditation, long walks, or taking a long bath, find a way to take care of you in a way that makes your heart sing. As we prioritize ourselves and establish rituals, we fill up our well of goodness we have to bring to our work, families, and life in general.Next week I will give you a template you can use to make your personally tailored self-care plan. I hope you will complete it or give it some thought! Here’s to loving a lot on YOU this week! -Xo Raw Girl
The Many Reasons to Love Avocado
If I had to profess my undying love to any particular fruit or veggie, it would be a hard call between avocados and coconuts. What is not to love about this amazing creamy fruit that can be combined with both sweet and more bitter meals. Plus I can make yogurt or pudding with it, smoothies, and add it to salads. Since I have long been rescued from the hell that is processed food addiction, I would say avocados do for me what ice cream or yogurt does for die hard dairy lovers. The creamy texture, literally makes my heart sing, and ears perk up when I hear someone say the lovely name avocado. Oh, and the joy of cutting one open and it being completely perfect! I could go on and on. I know I’m tripping, but I really love them that much. They are also on my list of aphrodisiacs, so perhaps (***clears throat and bats eyelashes***), avocados are exciting for me in more ways than one. For grown folks only: the name avocado comes from the Aztec word ‘ahuacatl’ which, um, literally, um, means testicle (I don’t like that word, hence the hesitation). I assume you can guess that avocados got the name from the way they look. So beyond just eating avocados, you also have the option to make some dirty jokes about them. LOL.
So what groovy benefits do you get from eating avocado, which is also known as ‘alligator pear’? Well, they happen to be one of the healthiest foods on the planet! Avocados contain 25 essential nutrients including vitamin A, B, C, E, K, copper, iron, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium, protein, phytochemicals, and fiber. You would actually need to eat at least two bananas to get the amount of potassium in one avocado. Avocados have a large fat content, almost twenty times the amount of fat in other fruits but they are extremely good-for-you monounsaturated fats. People often worry that because of this avocados will make you gain weight. Not the case, I’ll get to that in another post soon. If you eat avocados from Florida which are huge, note that they have 50% LESS fat than the Haas kind, so they are sort of the “low-fat” brand of avocados.
Onto the long list of fabulous things the wonderful fruit named avocado can do for you. Some key benefits include: maintains a healthy heart and reduce risk of heart disease, efficiently lowers bad cholesterol and can boost good cholesterol, helps to regulate blood pressure levels, has anti-inflammatory properties that help ward off inflammation related diseases, promotes eye health and prevents macular degeneration, regulates blood sugar levels, reduces the risk of stroke because of high levels of folate, protects against breast cancer and has been shown to inhibit prostate cancer, contains glutathione which fights free radicals in the body, boosts immune system, slows aging, and encourages a healthy nervous system. If all of those benefits alone were not a mouthful add to that the fact that avocados are known the world over for boosting the health and natural glow of your skin.
My challenge this week is: How many ways can you eat an avocado? While I go off to work on that, I hope you have now been convinced that avocados are an awesome food to add to your diet. As much as I would love to keep my love for them all to myself, I know there’s more than enough love to go around so you can count on me to continue spreading the gospel. -XoXo Raw Girl
AYIBA Magazine Feature!
Thank you so much to @ayibamag for including me in their print issue to chat health and my creative projects Check it out here: http://bit.ly/AyibaPrint
-XO Raw Girl
Dope Homemade Trail Mix That Will Save You $
Please raise your hand in solidarity if you are over buying seven dollar bags of kale chips from health food stores. If your hand is in the air like mine, this trail mix will change your life. If you have a dehydrator it’s always more efficient and cost effective to make your own raw snacks to carry with you on-the-go. I know it seems like it could be time consuming but it really is not. Why? Because you prep, stick it in the dehydrator, let’s say in the evening, and by the time you wake up abra cadabra! You got snacks! Warning: these don’t last long in kitchens so you may need to make more than one batch. Enjoy & Your Welcome! – XO
Ingredients:
1 bunch green kale, 1/2 cup hemp seeds, 3/4 cup walnuts, 6 raw nori sheets, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1 tablespoon agave, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of Braggs liquid Aminos, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon or dash of ginger powder.
Massage everything together into a bowl and dehydrate until crispy at least 3-5 hours or overnight.
Why You Should Soak Your Nuts
As someone who eats a great deal of raw food, for me soaking my nuts before I eat them is imperative. When I get busy, lazy, or careless I sometimes forget, but my digestion always pays for neglecting that essential step. Adopting a high raw diet is about trying to consume foods with as much life force as possible. Nuts and seeds are full of enzymes while in their raw, natural forms but when they are toasted, roasted, fried, or boiled the enzymes are destroyed. Raw nuts and seeds are plant foods which also contain the ingestible substance phytic acid, which acts as an inhibitor developed to form a protective barrier from bugs or insects, but in humans can block enzyme function. Nuts and seeds will not break down into their simplest forms during digestion when protein inhibitors are present. Phytic acid also prevents us from using and maintaining key micronutrients as the molecular structure causes essential minerals (including calcium, zinc, niacin, copper, iron and magnesium) to bind to it, thereby preventing their absorption. Soaking nuts releases phytase, allowing the phytic acid to be neutralized and making the nuts easier for our bodies’ to digest. If you are feeling lazy or pressed for time, soaking your nuts overnight is a great way to prep for the morning especially if you are making nut milk. If you want to take your nuts as a snack on-the-go and want them crunchier, pop them in the dehydrator and go about your business for the day. For extra fun add spices or even maple syrup to your nuts when dehydrating. -XO Raw Girl
References:
Gupta, R. K., Gangoliya, S. S., & Singh, N. K. (2015). Reduction of phytic acid and enhancement of bioavailable micronutrients in food grains. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 52(2), 676–684. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-013-0978-y
Raw Nuts & Seeds High in Enzymes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 02, 2017, from http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/raw-nuts-seeds-high-enzymes-1213.html
Kornfeld, M. (2017). Review of preparing nuts. [Lecture Slides]. Retrieved January 30, 2017 from MUIH NUTR 684 module 2.
Nagel, R. (2010, March 26). Living With Phytic Acid. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/living-with-phytic-acid/
Mineral Monday : Iodine
What mineral is required for thyroid hormone synthesis, regulates cortisol and immune function, and is a powerful antioxidant? Iodine, which may seem like an insignificant mineral is required for all of those things and more. Currently the world is using less and less iodized salt for preparation in food, and this places many of us in danger of becoming iodine deficient. Deficiency in iodine causes abnormal swelling of the neck or goiter, lethargy, fatigue, weakness of the immune system, slow metabolism, autism, weight gain, depression, and in women, iodine is essential for maintaining breast health. Breast cancer incidences in Japan are virtually nonexistent because women consume twenty five times the amount of iodine that American women do. Iodine deficiency is also the most preventable cause of brain damage. Pregnant women who are deficient are at higher risk for having a stillborn child or one with birth defects. For veggie lovers who are vegetarian or vegan, if you are not including seaweed in your diet, you are putting yourself at greater risk for deficiency. Is it me, or did seaweed all of sudden get really sexy? Keep in mind you can add seaweed to soups, make nori wraps or veggie sushi, sprinkle dulse flakes on your salads, and more to ensure you get your iodine in.
The recommended daily allowance for adults over 19 years of age iodine is 150 micrograms daily. It’s important to not consume too much iodine because toxicity can also cause health problems such as gastrointestinal upset, acne, increased salivation, fever, nausea, vomiting, and elevated levels of thyroid hormone. The best way to boost your iodine intake on a vegetarian diet is to incorporate sea vegetables into your diet such as: kelp, dulse, nori, wakame, arame, hiziki, kombu, irish moss. Black eye peas and navy beans also have a decent amount of iodine, strawberries, cranberries, organic yogurt, navy beans, cheese, and potatoes.
Most minerals have inhibitors, or nutrients that can block the proper absorption and uptake by the body. In the case of iodine, goitrogens are substances in chemicals, foods or drugs that can interfere with iron uptake in the thyroid gland. Goitrogens are found in soy products, cassava, sweet potato, peanuts, pine nuts, raw cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, turnips etc. Don’t get spooked about consuming these foods, which have other nutrients that are beneficial to the body; just take care especially if focused on increasing iodine intake to not consume meals with these foods at the same time of iodine supplementation.
Ensuring that your iodine intake is optimal can prevent radiation induced thyroid cancer, decrease the pain of fibrocystic breasts, and also prevent mental retardation, which is a direct result of iodine deficiency. Although it is not always the first mineral that comes to mind are essential, clearly the lack of iodine can have a drastic impact on health. Hope this article inspires you to do a double take when you pass the seaweed in the grocery store! Just make sure that the seaweed you choose to consume is organic and free of heavy metals. -XO Raw Girl
References:
-
7 Foods Rich in Iodine. (2015, February 25). Retrieved January 30, 2017, from http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/iodine-foods/
- National Institute of Health. Iodine. Office of Dietary Supplements. Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
- Gastaldi R, Muraca M, Beltramo A, Poggi E. Iodine deficiency and its consequences for cognitive and psychomotor development of children. Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 2014;40(Suppl 1):A15. doi:10.1186/1824-7288-40-S1-A15.
- Zimmermann MB, Boelaert K. Iodine deficiency and thyroid disorders. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2015 Apr;3(4):286-95. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(14)70225-6. Epub 2015 Jan 13.
- Ross, A. C., Caballero, B. , Cousins, R. J., Tucker, K.L. & Ziegler, T. R. (2014). Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. (11th ed.). Baltimore, MD: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
- Zimmerman, M. (2001). Burgerstein’s Handbook of Nutrition. Micronutrients in the Prevention and Therapy of Disease. New York, NY: Thieme.
Baobab, The Amazing Queen of “Superfruits”
Until my travels to Ghana, I knew nothing about one of Africa’s best-kept secrets, one of the most nutrient dense fruits on the planet, baobab. African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) has been dubbed the “tree of life,” due to it’s exceptional nutritional profile and all parts of the tree being used for food, drinks, to feed animals, medicine, and even fibers used for weaving. Baobab grows on large and strangely gorgeous trees that look like something out of a fairy tale and take up to two hundred years to mature and produce fruit. YEP that’s right, two hundred years! Meaning if you planted a baobab tree today you would not live to see it grow into its full glory. Not only do they take a long time to mature, but they live long. The oldest recorded living baobab tree thus far was one thousand years old. The fruit of baobab is football sized and the pulp of the fruit is white and powdery with a sweet, slightly tangy taste.
This strange but fantastic fruit packs in a jaw-dropping amount of nutrition. It has four times the potassium of bananas, two times the calcium of milk, and twelve times the fiber of an apple. Baobab is made up of almost 50% fiber that is soluble and pre-biotic; meaning ingesting it promotes the growth of good bacteria in the guy. The fruit actually has more soluble fiber than psyllium husk, which is used in laxatives to boost elimination and maintain a healthy digestive tract. You can consume baobab in powder form, adding it to shakes, smoothies, and even use it as a natural sugar replacement. Now that the word is spreading you will find bars and nutritional supplements with baobab as an ingredient as well. I’m sure if you have the chance to try it, you’ll understand why this unique fruit with a funny name is aptly called the “Queen of Superfruits.”
XO Raw Girl
How Taking Your Vitamins Can Change Your Life
One multivitamin a day, may keep the doctor at bay and get you closer to achieving the goal of optimal health if combined with a healthy diet. Yesterday I watched “That Vitamin Movie.” I found the film absolutely riveting and believe it is a must-see for every human being on this planet right now. Most of us in the health world are already of the mind that we should, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food,” as Hippocrates once said. But the inevitable truth is that in our modern times not only is the Standard American Diet horrifying low in any real nutrition, even those of us living on plant-based organic diets can still fall short of the mark because the nutrient density of food is diminishing over time. It’s also really difficult to juggle work, life, school, babies, and whatever else life throws at us and still manage to create a meal plan for ourselves that gives our body the nutrition it needs. Unless you have a fabulous chef named Francisco on call, (which I dream about all the time), you know exactly what I mean. And our body will not function optimally without vitamins, which serve as coenzymes for major chemical reactions. If we don’t get the micronutrients we need, some reactions in the body simply won’t happen and this will leave us running on empty and susceptible to disease.
The great news is vitamin supplementation can save the day! Do you take a daily multivitamin? After watching the vitamin movie you will realize that taking one after every meal may not be a bad idea. In fact, they gave a cheap multivitamin to prisoners after every meal and it significantly altered the mental state of those who partook. Megadose vitamin therapy, which is basically taking seemingly very high dosages of vitamins that can’t necessarily be found over the counter is something many of us have never thought of doing when we get ill. Why do this? Well, people have cured cancers, chronic fatigue and pain problems, depression and even yeast infections by taking high doses of vitamins. The best part? No one has ever died from taking too much of a vitamin, while millions are dying from taking prescription drugs. Vitamins are not only cheaper than drugs, they can also be more effective. There was more than one account in the film of people with cancer who took megadoses of vitamin C and recovered. There was even a young girl who had an adverse reaction to a vaccine and was having convulsions, who was cured by a doctor in Japan, with high doses of vitamin C.
After one year eating 100% raw, I realized that my health was not optimal because I was not supplementing. That is when I started the practice of incorporating superfoods into my diet daily to ensure my body was getting adequate nutrition. Vitamins are just as essential and even more useful especially if you don’t have time to make a superfood smoothie. In the film it’s recommended that EVERYONE take up to 16,000 mg of vitamin C daily, and also ensure vitamin D levels are met in order to boost immunity. Getting enough vitamin C can also improve athletic performance. In the film they told the story of the Puerto Rican basketball team that beat the American Dream Team at the Olympics after taking intravenous vitamin C therapy. Two separate studies conducted on HIV patients, one of which was at Harvard University medical school showed that HIV patients who took vitamins were half as likely to progress to AIDS as those who did not take any vitamins.
Physical health is not the only facet of wellness that can be affected by taking your vitamins. Niacin or vitamin B3 has been shown to dramatically accelerate recovery from alcohol withdrawal related depression. Taking Niacin can also naturally lower cholesterol without the same dangers and potential side effects as taking prescription drugs. Studies have proven that there is a brain-gut connection; and the healthier your gut is, the easier you will be able to deal with stress and more likely you are able to withstand the unexpected with level emotions. In that same vein, certain micronutrients in the right combinations and doses can help treat depression and even severe mental health problems such as dementia and bipolar disorder. Here’s a great example from the film: an older woman diagnosed with dementia was given high doses of vitamin B12 and recovered completely within a few weeks.
Hopefully you are inspired to start popping some vitamins like I was after absorbing this information. Please watch the film online and spread the word. It may seem like a funny thing we’ve all taken for granted, but vitamins can definitely improve the quality of your health.
-XO Raw Girl
How to Make 2017 Resolutions That Stick
Hope you all had a very happy holiday and somehow made it through the weekend without overdosing on refined sugar and booze. Tis’ the season for sweets, apple cider, cocoa, and reflection on whether or not you actually achieved those health goals you set last January. We all know “those people” who get gym memberships at the beginning of the year, start cleanses, and become yoga natzi’s only to fall completely off the wagon come spring. We know them because if we took a good look in the mirror we’d realize that at some point we have fallen way short of the mark when it comes to our health. Here’s four quick ideas for ways to ensure you wrap 2017 a healthy living rockstar:
- Stop Settling. You need a goal that will get you up in the early AM or make you want to put in a workout after a long day at work. Instead of making goals about weight loss or body fat percentage try imagining the kick-ass new and improved version of you at the end of the year. What is he or she doing? Is she entering a body building competition? Running a marathon? An expert fitness pole dancer? Stunting on folks with your catwalk in the office thanks to reformer Pilates? If you can dream it, you can achieve it.
- Track Your Progress. There are so many apps nowadays that can help you keep a food diary, log workouts, or even track your daily steps. No excuses my friend. In order to keep the beginning of the year pep going a great way is to have a tried and true tracking system that works for you. When you start tracking, it helps to have an accountability partner or bff who calls you out on your cheat day.
- Celebrate Your Wins. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our goals that we forget to take a moment a do a happy dance when we’ve hit the mark! As you create a plan for your health in the upcoming year, make sure you give some sort of treat or reward on the road to achieving the goal.
- Invest in a Trainer or Coach. We’ve all done a double take at some point in the gym at the random guy in the corner doing strange exercises with even stranger form. Just like you need a check up with your doctor or dentist every now and then, if you are looking to achieve health or fitness goals it cannot hurt to check-in with a health coach, nutritionist, or trainer. There is power in the meeting of minds and agreement. Not only will having a Sensei egg you on when you want to give up on that last rep, it may propel you much further than you can go on your own, and save you some time in the gym with more effective workouts. If you’ve hit a plateau or are in a food rut diet-wise, a nutritionist or health coach may get you excited about new recipes to spice things up. Make sure you get referrals for health professionals you work with so you can ensure your investment will reap dividends.
-XO Raw Girl