Meatless Monday

I love this old Tibetan adage: “Most people get ill for one of two reasons – overeating or hunger.  We often use forks and spoons to dig our own graves.”

Recently, Oprah had an episode whereby her entire staff went vegan for one month.  This meant no meat, dairy or animal products.  It provided a challenge for many of the participants.  At the outcome, Oprah “suggested” that her employees and her listeners try to eliminate meat every Monday.  I love this idea!  Therefore, I am also recommending to my readers to go meatless on Mondays!

We Americans eat way too much meat!  I have witnessed it firsthand.  Can you guess where in particular?  If you guessed “barbeques,” you would be right!...lol . I’m going to single out men here because I have witnessed men eat enormous amounts of meat at summer barbeques and picnics.  There can be potato salads, pasta salads, green salads, etc., but they only go for the meat.  It’s like they haven’t eaten meat in a month!  What happened to putting ONE hotdog, some beans and a green salad on your plate?  Some of you may be reading this and thinking, "what’s wrong with eating two hamburgers and a hotdog at an outing?"  I’m going to explain to you why it’s wrong for two reasons.  First it is simply not healthy and, second, it has huge negative consequences for our environment. 

Do you remember years ago it was recommended that you eat meat no larger than a deck of cards?  There are reasons for that advice.  It is very hard for our body to digest excess amounts of meats.  Our digestive system needs large amounts of vitamins, microelements and enzymes in order to digest meat.  This is why is it is always recommended to eat a large RAW salad when you eat meat because it will help with the digestive process.  If you are a sedentary person, it takes 24 hours for the digestion of meat to be complete.  If you keep eating meat without allowing for the proper amount of time for digestion, it will putrefy in your stomach.  In addition, consuming large amounts of meat causes constipation and poisoning of the body by lactic, oxalic and uric acids.  This can lead to diseases in the joints, back pain, osteoporosis and immune system disorders.  It is a good idea to give your body a “rest” at least one day a week from eating meat.  It will not only benefit your health, but will help with the environment as well.

I bet you are wondering, why in the world would not eating meat one day a week help with the environment.  I’m going to give you four important reasons.   First, cows have digestive bacteria in their stomach that causes them to belch methane.  Cow flatulence also gives off methane.  This is released into the atmosphere.  Methane is a greenhouse gas which has profound negative effects on the environment and contributes to global warming.  Simply put, if we eat less meat, there will be less cows, less methane, less greenhouse gases.  Second, the United States has over 98 million cows, most of which are in factory farms.  Where do you think all their waste goes?  Over a billion tons of animal waste gets dumped in American waterways.  No wonder why our waters are so polluted and fish unsafe to eat!  Third, more than a third of all raw materials and fossil fuels consumed in the United States are used in animal production.  Do you like paying high rates for oil and gasoline?  Keep loading up your plates with meat!  Lastly, American factory farms are a total disgrace and the animal cruelty is incomprehensible.  If you have nothing to do this weekend, rent the movie Food Inc.  It is certainly an eye-opener on what is happening to the animals in our factory farms.  It is very depressing!

Let’s turn to a more positive discussion.  You have at your fingertips many recipe sites that contain a plethora of vegetarian recipes.  Why not print a new one out each week and make it Monday nights?  It’s a lot of fun trying out new recipes.  You can get the entire family involved in the planning, shopping and preparation of the meal.  Omitting meat one day a week is one of the most effective ways to improve our health and to reduce our personal negative impact on the environment!...:))

I feel like Vanna White. "Would you like to buy a bean?"

**This photo was taken at Wild By Nature in East Setauket.  They have a wonderful assortment of organic vegetarian beans and other healthy items for your recipes!!

References:

Green Living, New York: Penguin, 2005

Tombak, Mikhail, Can We Live 150 Years?, Point Roberts, Washington: Healthy Life Press inc., 2005

The Power of Love - Family, Friends & Connections

The challenge when you have a business named “Inner Beauty Workshops” is that it encompasses so many subject areas.  “Inner Beauty” emanates from a state of health as well as from a state of fulfillment and satisfaction in one’s life.  Therefore, there are a myriad of subject areas for me to pick from when writing this blog.  This week, I decided to try something new.  I picked my topic by shutting my eyes and walking over to my bookcase and selecting a book.  I kept my eyes closed until the book was opened to some random page. 

The book I selected was “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl.  It was a bit surprising, because  I’d just finished reading that book a few months ago.  It’s a small paperback book that was not particularly noticeable on the shelf of 50 books or so.  I then looked at the page.  I had highlighted this in orange, “The truth- is that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.”  So I was stuck writing about love.  Oh boy!  I sat on it a few days then decided to give it a shot.

The emotion of love is very powerful.  It transcends all living beings.  In the animal kingdom, there is great love and connectedness.  Dogs like to roam in packs, birds like to flock together and ducks wade in ponds.  We humans like to be surrounded by family and friends.  It is necessary for our emotional well being.  Our connection and interaction with one another brings great happiness into our lives.  These connections bring strong bonds of love.  We can feel love for our parents and children, love for our friends and love for our significant other.  There aren’t different classifications of love.  It is only one emotion.  We are always searching to love and be loved by others.  For isn’t that the ultimate purpose in life?  Then why is it that so many people turn away from love, especially when being loved brings the greatest joy.

Our connection to family and friends is vital to our sense of self and our well-being.  It is these connections that allow us to show how much we care about others in a give and take format. I will never forget the outpouring of love and support family and friends showed me when my husband was undergoing his first brain surgery.  It really lifted me and helped me get through a very difficult time in my life.  I don’t know what I would have done without these connections.  What would we do without our family and friends?

When we don’t have warm loving relationships with people and we break supportive ties, we feel isolated and lost.  Our outlook becomes more negative and pessimistic.  This loss of connection from loved ones can have a serious impact on our physical and as well as mental health.  Isn’t that enough reason to go, pick up the phone and call the loved one you are estranged from?

We were not put on Earth to just acquire possessions and wealth.  We are here to develop and establish loving relationships and to enjoy them to the fullest.  We should always be seeking new friendships and opening our hearts to new relationships.  As my friend Cindy says, “You can never have too many friends because each one of them enriches your life in some way.  Each person brings something different to the table.” Some you will have a lot in common with, some may make you laugh, some you can really trust and some will be there for you when you truly need it.

We cannot be complete as people nor have inner beauty without love, for it shows on our face.  When you walk into a room with love on your face and your heart on display, you will beam and radiate from within.  You will become like a magnet and love will be attracted to you.  That’s the Law of Attraction!! So open yourself and your heart to finding your ultimate purpose in life, open yourself to love.

**The pictures I am sharing with you are some of my closest and very best friends.  I am a lucky girl!

 

Phewww….It’s done!  Hopefully next time I will pick a different book….lol

It's Winter! What's in Season?

The subject was raised during one of my workshops about eating fruits and vegetables seasonally.  My clients wanted to know what was available for them to purchase during the cold winter months, especially since nothing can be harvested from the snow covered farm fields.  Of course, freshly picked produce offers the most nutrients and enzymes.  Unfortunately, most farms are closed here on Long Island for the winter season.  There are a few farms that do have winter CSA’s that you can join if you remember to sign up during the fall.  I joined Sang Lee Farms winter share program.  I get one 27lb or so box of vegetables and fruit (usually apples) every three weeks.  Most of the items are from cold storage, but what do you expect…it’s the middle of winter!   Cold storage does help retain nutrient levels and is better than the alternative, purchasing everything at a grocery store, most of which has traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles to get there. 

If you have no local farm produce available to you, visit your local health food store or Whole Foods to purchase your produce.  Of course, always look for organic fruits and/or vegetables.  If you look for the winter produce items I have listed below, you will probably find they have the best prices since they are “in season.”  Please put down that $6.00 quart of strawberries.  There is no reason to eat a strawberry in the middle of winter, since it probably came from thousands of miles away and has already lost most of its nutrient content.  You would probably do better buying a bag of frozen strawberries, if you really needed them.  At least, they were frozen directly after being picked and most of the nutrients would still be intact.  Of course, you can preserve your own summer bounty and eat it during the winter season.    Otherwise, stick to locating what is the most fresh.  Here’s what you should look for in the North East this time of the year……

WINTER PRODUCE CHART - NORTHEAST

Apples Beets Broccoli Cranberries Leeks Mushrooms Onions Parsnips Pears Potatoes Winter Squash

***Some fruits and vegetables can be “cold stored” for the winter months.  Some of these include:  apples, beets, cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes.

http://www.sangleefarms.com/

My Before's & After's

Me - Age 42 at my daughter's Sweet 16

Yes….even I had a transformation.  It may not be a large physical transformation, but was one that encompassed my body, mind and spirit.  I was urged by two very close friends for me to share this with you.  They wanted me to show you what I looked like before I changed my eating habits and adopted my healthy lifestyle.   I was only 15lbs heavier, but I think you will agree, eating healthy changed my overall appearance.   These photos were taken at my daughter’s Sweet 16 in 2007, just one month prior to my change in lifestyle.  It is so true when you hear the phrases, “a picture tells a thousand words,” and “in every picture there is a story.”  I am truly saddened when I look at these pictures.  Here is my story why…..

I honestly felt that I was eating healthy at the time.  I cooked my own meals, always ate salad, and baked all my own goods.  I liked to tell people that I modeled how I ate after my grandparents.  However, what I was not completely aware of was the fact that our food is GMO, contains a multitude of chemicals, is grown with a myriad of pesticides and is laden with growth hormones and antibiotics.    Here I was thinking and trying to do the right things and I just wasn’t.  As a result, you can see in my pictures that I am slightly heavy for my size and frame and bloated!   I hardly recognize myself in these pictures.  Is that my older sister??  NOPE….IT’S ME!  It amazes me how different one can look on the exterior as well as feel on the interior just by changing what one eats.

In addition, the only reason I changed my eating habits was to support my husband after he got ill and needed to uptake his nutrient levels.    I did not change my lifestyle for me.  At least…not in the beginning.    Directly after my husband got sick, I remember being completely overwhelmed and just crying and crying because I didn’t know what to do or how to eat.  Especially since I thought I was already eating healthy.  I didn’t give up and tried to learn as much as possible to help my husband fight his illnesses by building up his immune system….The only way to cure disease.  In the process, I started to notice changes in myself;  I was losing weight, I was losing the bloating, I was sleeping better and then everything just clicked.   And it became not just all about my husband anymore but about me too.

I don’t know where I would be today if my husband never got sick.  I truly would be a completely different person.  Since I didn’t take that fork in the road, I won’t guess at the “what ifs”.  Today, I am happy to share my knowledge with others and guide them down a different fork in the road.

Okay…so here they are!  Since I still have the same outfit I wore for the Sweet 16, I thought it would be fun to dress in the exact same dress so you can see the difference – me at age 42, me today at age 45, just three short years of eating healthy.  *These photos have NOT been photo shopped in any way. (Although I wish I knew how to do that!...LOL)



Me - Age 42




Me - Age 42




Me - Age 45




Me - Age 45



Me - Age 45





Book Club List - Living The Law Of Attraction by Rich German and Robin Hoch

Now that we have a plan for a vision board, it’s time to start attracting what we want by thinking positive and good thoughts.  If you are familiar with the laws of attraction or just want to read some inspirational stories, please join me in reading Living the Law of Attraction by Rich German and Robin Hoch, real stories of people manifesting health, wealth and happiness. 

This book is a collection of optimistic stories of people applying the principals of the laws of attraction and obtaining success.  Reading the inspirational stories of others is a great motivator to get us started in obtaining our dreams and goals.  People who approach life with a positive attitude make opportunities for themselves where others may not see them. And people who approach life with a negative attitude shutdown opportunities for themselves that might otherwise exist. There is a lot to be said for "you create your own destiny."  The principals of the Law of Attraction will evoke major changes in all areas of your life including relationships, finance, health, spiritual and career path.

Afterword

I really enjoyed reading this positive and uplifting book.  Living The Law Of Attraction by Rich German and Robin Hoch, consisted of 50 or so short stories on people who were able to manifest their desires through the Law of Attraction.  I love that each story had a happy ending.  I decided to see if the Law of Attraction would work for me, and I asked the Universe for a small goal.  Guess what….it’s coming true!  I will know for sure by the end of this month but, needless to say, I was shocked.  So I upped the ante and have asked for something that I truly desire more than anything else.  We shall see…..

**By the way, if you never read The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, I would highly recommend reading it before you read this book.

 

Valentine's Heart Cookies

Life is not a box of chocolates for me…. literally!  I guess I’ll have to settle for teddy bears & roses.  Oh and I cannot forget about diamonds.  After all, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.  "Yes, Mr. President….diamonds... I don't mean rhinestones... but diamonds... are a girl’s best... best friend.”

Okay, I had my fun.  There are a lot worse things in life than being allergic to sugar cane (see previous blog post http://innerbeautyworkshops.blogspot.com/2011/02/igg-allergy-test-sugar-cane-allergy.html) Since I cannot have any chocolate for Valentine’s Day, I needed to come up with a satisfying alternative.  Fortunately, I’m not allergic to honey so I can use that as a substitute. 

Today, I’m sharing a recipe with you for a Valentine's Heart Cookie with Raspberry Jam.  The cookie is sweetened with honey only.  It has no white flour or refined sugar.  In addition, I have omitted the egg white from the recipe, since I tested high for that as well.  In its place, I used freshly squeezed lemon juice.  My first thought was to use a cookie cutter to give the cookies its shape.  However, that didn’t have the desired effect I wanted so I just free formed the heart shape myself.  I think they came out great and tasted awesome as well.

VALENTINE'S HEART COOKIES

½ cup butter

1/3 cup honey

1 egg yolk

½ tsp. vanilla

1 ¼ whole wheat flour or freshly ground flour

¾ cup finely chopped walnuts

Juice of half a lemon

Fruit filling (raspberry or strawberry)  Look and make sure there is no cane sugar.  It should be fruit sweetened)

Cream together butter, honey, egg yolk and vanilla.  Add freshly ground flour and mix well.  Chill for 1 hour.  Roll dough into balls.  Dip balls into lemon juice then roll in walnuts.  Use your fingers to shape dough into heart shape with indentation. (see photo)

Bake at 375 degrees on greased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.  Cool and fill with fruit filling.

These cookies freeze really well.   I keep them in the freezer and take one out whenever I need to satisfy my sweet tooth. 

The IgG Allergy Test - Sugar Cane Allergy

Oh No!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m allergic to SUGAR!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Okay, I just needed to get that out.  I feel better now.  Actually, it really isn’t that much of a surprise.  It’s something I should have figured out 25 years ago.  I have to say, I’m actually quite glad to have  an answer, something concrete and tangible after so many years of questions.  To that, I owe Dr. Steve Nenninger and his persuasive lecture on IgG testing.  (www.stevenenninger.com)

It all started twenty five years ago, when I was 20, I began suffering from extreme fatigue.  In addition, my body temperature was too low, I was always cold, had weekly headaches and difficulty focusing.  I always had that just woke up in the middle of the night feeling.   I went to the doctor and had a series of tests done.  He checked me for mononucleosis, hypoglycemia and anemia, among other things.  Every single test came back negative.  The diagnosis was that there was nothing wrong with me.  But….why was I so incredibly tired?  The doctor told me to carry around some sugar so whenever I felt tired, I could have a “pick-up.”  Hence began my Starburst stage.  They were ALWAYS in my pocketbook.  I would just pop a few in my mouth whenever I felt tired, which was just about every day.  Of course, we all know what happens when you have a sugar rush,….you have a quick up then a fast down.  Well, my downs were bad.  Driving a car was really scary.  I can recall so many times while driving a car that I had to repeat over and over again to “KEEP MY EYES OPEN.”  After I got home I remember falling on the floor and the room would just spin.

 I had the same symptoms during my 30’s too, except I picked up a few more.  You can add candida, vaginal yeast infections, fibromyalgia and numerous dental cavities to my previous list.  I remember crawling into bed before my kids got home from school, not because I was sleepy because sleep usually eluded me, but just to rest and shut my eyes.  You see, I learned to plug on despite the foggy brain because I had to.  Because as a wife and mother,  things just had to get done.  I learned not to complain or go to the doctors because there were never any answers. 

When I turned 39, I read a book “The 5 Principles of Ageless Living” by Dayle Haddon.  In the book, the author recommends cutting out all refined sugar.  Since I enjoyed the book so much, I decided to give it a try.  I’m sorry to say, it lasted only eight weeks.  The first few weeks, it was really hard and my body felt like it needed hours upon hours of sleep, like up to 10 hours each night.  It was as if my body was sleeping soundly for the first time in a while.  All those symptoms that I wrote about above, were slowly fading away.  I was even more alert during the day and my brain felt less foggy.   However, I found it too hard and didn’t have enough motivation and determination to stay away from sugar so after two months, I went back to eating it. Until this week,  I never connected the dots and figured out that maybe I was allergic to sugar. 

Now all this brings us to three years ago, my husband got sick and had to give up sugar, I decided to join him.  I was 42 years old then.  My new policy would be to cut out all white sugar and white flour except during a birthday or holiday.  There was only one exception to this:  a piece of dark chocolate every day.  Since it was still a dramatic cutback in sugar, I experienced the same detox effects which gave way to a lessening of symptoms and increased energy as I had before.  Whenever I ate sugar, I felt great while eating it, but the very next day there was a return of my symptoms.  Just recently, I made chocolate chip cookies.  Even though I used cane sugar, I still had a reaction after eating only two cookies.  Again, I felt extreme fatigue .  Even after all that, I still never made the connection that I had a sugar allergy.  Was I dense??  Maybe not.  Usually when I think of allergies I think of an immediate cause and effect like a reaction someone has to eating peanuts.  Not the symptoms I was displaying. 

I recently went to a lecture by Dr. Steve Nenninger.  He highly recommends and advocates food allergy testing (IgG test).  I honestly thought that I wouldn’t find anything but, for the sake of it, I decided to take the test.  My results showed I was highly allergic to bananas, asparagus, sesame, egg whites, almonds and very highly allergic to cane sugar.  In fact, I was off the charts!  Again, I cannot say it was a real surprise.  I just feel like hitting myself on the head 100 times.  Boy I am glad I took that test!

The IgG test measures the IgG (Immunoglobulin G) response to 96 specific foods including wheat and dairy.  An allergy is caused when the body mistakenly identifies certain proteins as harmful then reacts to it, resulting in various allergic symptoms, such as mine.  There are studies that show that most of the population can have toxic reactions to common foods that you eat every day.  However, what may produce a reaction in one person, may not produce a reaction in another person.  In other words, the phrase “one man’s food is another man’s poison” is totally applicable in this instance.  Everyone’s systems are different so it is imperative that you find out which ones may be affecting yours.   Testing is easy, it is a simple pin prick in the finger and a few drops of blood are drawn.  The lab will analyze the results and they will be sent back to you via your doctor. 

Dr. Steve Nenninger says this about the IgG testing  as it pertains to a high sugar cane reading , “How can a person be allergic to sugar?  All of the cells of our bodies use sugar as their primary energy source.  So if we were allergic to something so essential to our health then wouldn’t our function be so severely affected that we would be basically dead or dying?  A person needs to restrict sugar when their IgG food allergen panel shows a sugar allergy.  The true reaction to sugar cane has to be proteins or glycoproteins.  In other words, to be allergic to sugar it must be a protein or a sugar connected to a protein.  The most likely culprit for the allergy is a sugar-protein combination that is part of a cell wall.”

For more reading and understanding about IgG testing:  Follow this link to Dr. Nenninger’s blog:  http://drstevenenningerdailyblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/understanding-your-igg-food-allergies.html

What’s the bottom line for me?  No more cane sugar, and the rest of the foods I tested highly for.   Instead, I will sweeten with honey…or as I like to joke…put my birthday candles in a cucumber.  I am excited because I know this will take my health to a new plateau, and I cannot wait to see what I will be able to accomplish as a result of it.   I will write another blog post in a few months and let you know how I feel after eliminating these foods from my diet.