Category Archives: Food

Superfoods for a Super You

If you read a lot about food and nutrition, you’ve probably come across articles on “superfoods”. (One of the best resources for more information on the subject is the Food Matters website.) Superfoods are purported to be the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet, and while I can’t argue with their nutritional prowess, many of them simply haven’t gone mainstream just yet. Foods like goji berries, maca, spirulina, and barley grass, among others, are available in health food stores and are gaining popularity, but for many of us, they’re not the foods upon which we’re basing our daily diet. By all means, you should find ways to fit them into your meals and snacks where you can, but in this article I’m going to stick to a more basic list of power-packed foods to incorporate into your diet on a regular basis.

Fruits and vegetables
No caveats here. Just eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can. Every single day. For the rest of your life. Are there some which are more nutrtionally dense than others? Absolutely. But to keep it simple, think about it like this – if it grew
out of the ground, it’s good for you! If you need to prioritize, focus on greens and berries.

High fiber whole grains
This does not mean you should buy packaged goods that have the words “Good source of whole grains” on the front of the box. That, my friends, is often just marketing. Instead, fill your diet with real, unprocessed, high fiber, whole grains. Foods like quinoa, barley, oats, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, even whole wheat pasta are the ones that should make the cut.

Salmon
Packed with omega-3 (that’s a GOOD kind of fat) and protein, salmon’s health benefits have become widely understood. Choose wild-caught if you can, as the farm-raised varieties can be considerably higher in overall fat and lower in protein than the wild. And that beautiful pink color? In farm raised fish it often is enhanced by dye.

Nuts and seeds
They come from the ground, right? So they make the list of good-for-you foods. Nuts and seeds are calorie dense, though, so if you’re trying to control your weight, you’ll want to exercise caution around portions. 10 almonds have 100 calories. Case in point.

Mono-unsaturated oils
All oils have roughly the same number of calories and grams of fat per tablespoon, but the TYPE of fat varies greatly. For the greatest health benefit, stick with monounsaturated oils like canola, olive, grapeseed, and various nut oils (almond, hazelnut, peanut, etc.). Some of the nut oils have excellent flavor profiles and are terrific in salad dressings or as a finishing drizzle on cooked vegetables.

 

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Chopped Salad with Apple Vinaigrette

It….is….hot! Sooooooo hot! This Tuesday, I took my kiddos to the opening of the local farmer’s market in Loveland and while I was excited to see the initial roster of vendors and to get my hands on some local strawberries and fresh baked bread and a pot of gorgeous rosemary, it….was…hot. I was actually worried about my children’s red cheeks and sweaty heads after only 20 or 30 minutes on the hot blacktop. Yikes. Next week, we’ll be sure to take water bottles. Shame on me.

When it’s this hot, few things sound better than a cooling salad. Especially one with apple vinaigrette! It makes me feel better just thinking about it. This particular one makes a lot of salad and it saves surprisingly well. You might try keeping the salad and dressing separate and dressing each night’s serving just before eating. A good salad takes a little bit of effort to put together so making a big batch at once and eating it multiple times is a real time saver.

 

Chopped Salad with Apple Vinaigrette

Adapted from www.foodandwine.com

 

Serves: 10

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup apple juice

1 cinnamon stick

3 – 1″ strips of lemon zest

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 medium shallot, minced

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup grapeseed or canola oil (I mean really, who keeps grapeseed oil on hand??)

2 large celery stalks, finely diced

1 medium seedless cucumber, peeled and diced

2 large carrots, finely diced or shredded

2 cups red seedless grapes, halved

4 oz. (1 cup) feta cheese, crumbled or diced

5 cups mesclun or other mixed greens

2 romaine lettuce hearts, coarsely chopped


Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the apple juice to a boil with the cinnamon stick and lemon zest. Simmer over moderate heat for 5 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced to 2 tablespoons. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick and lemon zest. Pour the liquid into a small bowl and let cool slightly. Add the cider vinegar and shallot and season with salt and pepper. Whisk in the oil until emulsified.

2. In a large bowl toss together the celery, cucumber, carrots, grapes, feta cheese, mesclun and romaine. Whisk the apple vinaigrette again and add to the salad. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss well to coat.



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Be a Healthy Living Superhero – No Cape Required

Note: This article first appeared in Cincy Chic, an online publication for which I am the monthly Healthy Living columnist.

When it comes to healthy living, sometimes we think we have to be super-heroes or heroines to make the magic happen. Able to work out daily at 5AM without an alarm clock! Able to resist the donuts and birthday cake on every floor of the office! Able to whip up healthy gourmet meals in the blink of an eye! It’s daunting to think that we may be missing some rare gene or bionic chip that is required to live well.

Yet, in my experience, being a superhero is simply not required. Instead, healthy living is all about stringing together small, intuitive, simple practices that together create a rhythm of vibrancy and vitality that will only make you FEEL like you have super powers.

Healthy living is not about extremes – there’s no need for ironclad willpower or a superhuman metabolism. There is no secret formula. It’s not about no carb or no fat or no red meat. It’s not about marathons and triathalons and insane workouts from infomercials. You don’t have to meditate for an hour a day.

Healthy living is far simpler than that. It’s about knowing yourself. It’s about having clear-minded intention and staying focused on how you want to feel and what you want from life. It’s about eating well, and moving your body. It’s about getting adequate rest and making ongoing adjustments to your lifestyle that continually raise your energy level. It’s about learning to be gentle with yourself as you make changes to the way you live.

I am fortunate to spend my days helping people figure out how to integrate healthy living practices into their lives. I’m no superhero and neither are my clients, but together we are able to transform lives, one small step at a time.

If you’re reading this and wondering where to begin, I would suggest you start by choosing one practice you think you can implement with consistency beginning today. Just one.

  • Eat breakfast.
  • Or spend 10 minutes stretching in the morning.
  • Or upgrade your donut to a bowl of oatmeal.
  • Or get 8 hours of sleep.
  • Or drink one fewer soda each day.
  • Or go for a walk at lunchtime.

You probably have a list much longer than this in mind of healthy habits you could do or should do. But remind yourself that you don’t have to do them all at once. Just pick one thing that you believe with all your heart you can do…and see how doing it makes you feel. When you connect your chosen action with the inevitable result of feeling better, you’ll be far more apt to repeat it, and to find the next action, and then the next. On and on you’ll go until before you know it, your life has been transformed. Choose one thing and commit.

You can do it, Wonder Woman.

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