Sometimes you just need to hit the reset button and there's no better time than now (actually, I was going to say the Spring). Spring clean your body! Every once in a while we just need a reminder. We get stuck in a routine, or things come up in life... maybe you've had a hectic week. That's okay. In real life, shit happens. So take care of business and then get back to taking care of you.
The following are suggestive guidelines that help prime the body for handling stress and decreasing anxiety.
1. Eliminate stimulants: caffeine, nicotine and preservatives (like MSG). Although you may feel like your 4 coffees per day keeps you going, in some situations (anxiety being the big one) it can actually be more taxing on your system and cause you to be more anxious! After the first few days of "coffee withdrawal" you'll start feeling a lot better and you'll stop craving it. If you're not as anxious, stick to no more than one cuppa joe per day.
2. Eliminate consumption of refined sugar, sucrose, dextrose and other sweeteners such as corn syrup. This is another substance that can be very addictive and puts more stress on your body and your immune system.
3. Reduce or eliminate refined and processed foods from the diet as much as possible. Replace with whole and fresh foods which will work with your body to provide proper nutrition without added fillers that do nothing for you but weigh you down (figuratively and literally).
4. Avoid foods that you have an allergy or sensitivity to. Easier said than done, as many of us are sensitive to gluten and dairy, but it'll make a huge difference in multiple areas of your well-being (including but not limited to memory, concentration, gut health and function, healthy bowel movements, clearer skin, energy, and so on).
5. Reduce consumption of red meat as well as poultry containing steroid hormones and other chemicals. Replace with organically fed and free-range lean meats and seafood. But remember to avoid big game fish like swordfish, and tuna which have higher levels of mercury.
6. Increase intake of dietary fiber. It'll help clear out your gut and remove anything old that's been lingering. Regular bowel movements make for happy bodies. No one wants to hang onto a bunch of crap. Your body feels the same way.
7. Drink water throughout the day - At least 1L per day, but up to 2L is optimal. Hydration is key. It can help prevent headaches, dry skin and moodiness.
8. Increase vegetables. Okay, so this one is kind of redundant, but I can't stress it enough. Think of veggies are your natural vitamins. At least 1/2 to 2/3 of your plate should be veggies. You'll fill up faster than you would eating something like a bowl of pasta, and the nutrient content is so much higher. Natural vitamins can help correct deficiencies which = happy people.
9. Reduce "bad" fats and increase intake of the "good"/helpful ones. Toss away the corn oil, canola oil, fatty cuts of red meat, and replace them with fish, avocados, olive oil, walnuts, flax and coconut oil. Overall, you should have more omega-3's in your diet than omega-6s. Keep the scale balanced towards omega-3's and your mood will improve, your skin will look better, and inflammation goes down.
10. Do at least one thing per day that brings you joy. Sounds simple, but most of us spend so much time taking care of everyone else, or worrying about different things that we forget to live in the moment and think about what we need. Laugh at something, do something fun, no matter how small. If it makes you smile, laugh or feel warm and fuzzy, it's worth it.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Is organic really worth it? What are you getting for your extra monies?
Hello Fox Friends,
So my partner knows I can be a bit quirky, but a recent discussion had him thinking I was downright insane until I performed an experiment to show him what on earth I was talking about.
Many of you know how much I'm in love with organic celery. It's the best effing celery I've ever had! When I see that my grocery store has organic celery in stock, I go crazy like a kid in Wonka's factory (not that I turn into a blueberry, or a stalk of celery for that fact, but that I want to take home all the organic celery that I can and eat it!).
My partner let this one slide because he knows I can be a little crazy. But then I tried organic cabbage and my world was turned upside down (in the best way possible).
I originally bought the organic one because it's a bit smaller, and for 1-2 people, I don't need a 10lb cabbage head. So the organic variety was the perfect size! Then I cut into it and was amazed...
This didn't look like the cabbage I was used to. The cabbage leaves looked like this intricate pattern of vegetable beauty.
So the other night while making dinner, I start telling him how incredible organic cabbage is and he wouldn't believe the difference! He looked at me like I was crazy, but cute, and I vowed to show him the ways of organic cabbage.
I went to the giant Loblaws in my neck of the woods (north Toronto) and got 2 cabbages: organic (left) and regular (right), and did a side-by-side comparison:
Okay, so my iPhone doesn't take the greatest quality pictures, but you can see the differences. Look at the colours, the pattern, the shape. Those are firm outer cabbage "leaves" on the left.. thick and crisp!
I showed my roommate and she agreed. And then we began to discuss how much better the one on the left probably tastes (and we were right).
So the big question: Is organic worth it?
When you buy produce it's a matter of quality. Looking at the two cabbages above, it probably wouldn't matter which one was organic and not... I would pick the cabbage on the left because it looks better, it looks more natural, it tastes better and the size is more proportionate to my kitchen/cooking needs.
If you can taste and see absolutely no difference between organic carrots and regular carrots, buy whichever is cheaper. But if you look at the two side-by-side and one obviously looks like the "healthier"/better carrot, than get that one.
There's another video out on YouTube with a little girl who shows the difference in sweet potatoes grown traditionally (with pesticides) and organic... the organic one sprouted and the regular one stayed in a type of "stasis" and did nothing. I also tried this... just keeping 2 kinds of sweet potatoes in my pantry, and low-and-behold! the organic one did in fact start sprouting roots while the regular one stayed a boring potato and eventually got soft and went bad.
The moral of the story: Something is worth the extra money if you decide it has that extra value. Stop worrying about what everyone else says... stop listening to the news and the fear that's associated with our food. Try it for yourself. Look at it, feel it, taste it. What is honestly the better quality product to you? Can you afford to buy the better quality?
Don't buy organic for organic's sake. Buy it because you think the product is awesome! because it tastes better, looks better and is more like a real plant. Pick and choose which produce items are worth it, and for everything else, just buy regular (like avocados... the organic vs. regular look and taste the same to me).
Remember that each time you buy something, you're voting for it! You're telling the supplier what you want to buy. And vote for WHERE you want to buy it. If you're super pissed off that a huge Wal-Mart just took over your town, then don't shop there... support your local businesses. Spring is almost here - buy from your local farmer's market!
So my partner knows I can be a bit quirky, but a recent discussion had him thinking I was downright insane until I performed an experiment to show him what on earth I was talking about.
Many of you know how much I'm in love with organic celery. It's the best effing celery I've ever had! When I see that my grocery store has organic celery in stock, I go crazy like a kid in Wonka's factory (not that I turn into a blueberry, or a stalk of celery for that fact, but that I want to take home all the organic celery that I can and eat it!).
My partner let this one slide because he knows I can be a little crazy. But then I tried organic cabbage and my world was turned upside down (in the best way possible).
I originally bought the organic one because it's a bit smaller, and for 1-2 people, I don't need a 10lb cabbage head. So the organic variety was the perfect size! Then I cut into it and was amazed...
This didn't look like the cabbage I was used to. The cabbage leaves looked like this intricate pattern of vegetable beauty.
So the other night while making dinner, I start telling him how incredible organic cabbage is and he wouldn't believe the difference! He looked at me like I was crazy, but cute, and I vowed to show him the ways of organic cabbage.
I went to the giant Loblaws in my neck of the woods (north Toronto) and got 2 cabbages: organic (left) and regular (right), and did a side-by-side comparison:
I showed my roommate and she agreed. And then we began to discuss how much better the one on the left probably tastes (and we were right).
So the big question: Is organic worth it?
When you buy produce it's a matter of quality. Looking at the two cabbages above, it probably wouldn't matter which one was organic and not... I would pick the cabbage on the left because it looks better, it looks more natural, it tastes better and the size is more proportionate to my kitchen/cooking needs.
If you can taste and see absolutely no difference between organic carrots and regular carrots, buy whichever is cheaper. But if you look at the two side-by-side and one obviously looks like the "healthier"/better carrot, than get that one.
There's another video out on YouTube with a little girl who shows the difference in sweet potatoes grown traditionally (with pesticides) and organic... the organic one sprouted and the regular one stayed in a type of "stasis" and did nothing. I also tried this... just keeping 2 kinds of sweet potatoes in my pantry, and low-and-behold! the organic one did in fact start sprouting roots while the regular one stayed a boring potato and eventually got soft and went bad.
The moral of the story: Something is worth the extra money if you decide it has that extra value. Stop worrying about what everyone else says... stop listening to the news and the fear that's associated with our food. Try it for yourself. Look at it, feel it, taste it. What is honestly the better quality product to you? Can you afford to buy the better quality?
Don't buy organic for organic's sake. Buy it because you think the product is awesome! because it tastes better, looks better and is more like a real plant. Pick and choose which produce items are worth it, and for everything else, just buy regular (like avocados... the organic vs. regular look and taste the same to me).
Remember that each time you buy something, you're voting for it! You're telling the supplier what you want to buy. And vote for WHERE you want to buy it. If you're super pissed off that a huge Wal-Mart just took over your town, then don't shop there... support your local businesses. Spring is almost here - buy from your local farmer's market!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)