Those Raging Hormones

I’ll start this blog with a little more honesty than I thought I’d be starting a post. Here it is: I’ve got so many hormones coursing through my body that my body thinks it’s pregnant.

I’m not…. I don’t think. But since Christmas I haven’t gotten myself back into eating as well, as cleanly, and as vegetarian/ vegan as I normally do. And now everything hurts: my stomach, pms pains, my breasts, and due to my ultra-crabby disposition, my relationships. Ask my husband.

I know better than to do this to my body, this being the Eat-what-you-want type without having to think-of the-consequence so since I started following my strong “flush excess hormones from your body” today. And in case you are on the slow side of getting things back to normal this year too, I thought that I would share the list with you:

1. Eat as much fresh vegetables as possible.

2. Eat two portions of cleansing fruit: pineapple, apples, pears, grapes.

3. Take two tablespoons of flaxseed, and/or fish oil supplement.

4. Stay away from all animal proteins including eggs and milk.

5. Eat lentils and other legumes.

6. Drink a lot of water with lemon, preferably warm.

 

In other words, eat as healthy as possible. Hope this helps us both. And I will post if there is a good reason for the rage… Then we’ll have to start a whole new conversation, among a whole new bunch of other things… naw!

Tags: detox, detox diet, diet, family health, food for hormone control, healthy diet, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, healthy living, hormones, new year resulotions, overcoming blues, success, weight loss techniques

The olive oil is on the bathroom counter, next to the avocado.

It started when I became pregnant; the search for more natural, all the time. Not only did I clean exclusively with baking soda and white vinegar, the products that I put on my body and hair were going to be as fragrant and chemical-free as I could find. So I shopped in my kitchen.

What I found was this: olive oil has many uses, all which enhance our beauty (unless, of course, you are allergic to the substance), and although I don’t like eating avocado, a homemade guacamole with honey does wonders to soften skin. Here is my short and very effective list of home products you can use for your beauty products:

1. Olive oil: softens skin and hair. Use it at night and wash it off in the morning. IF you use it in your hair, wrap your hair in a hat, cloth, or Saran wrap throughout the night so that it does not stain your pillow. When used on your face, do not go to sleep immediately after. Wait one hour so that the oil absorbs into your skin.

2. Oats and coarse-ground sea salt: fantastic exfoliant. Use on its own or mix with a liquid soap that you like to use. Use over entire body in bath or shower and rinse thoroughly. The only con is that the oats tend to stick to the bathtub to extra cleaning-time required. Strong enough for elbows and feet (depending on severity).

3. Avocado and honey: for a face mask. Mash avocado and add one tablespoon honey. Apply liberally onto face and neck, watching so that it does not rip. One avocado can do up to three faces. Left-overs can refrigerate for few days.

4. Water. When I admire the skin on a colleague of mine, her secret is inevitably that she doesn’t use anything but water to wash her skin. Water. Drink it, bathe in it, wash with it. As much as you can.

Tags: beauty, beauty products, budget-friendly beauty, diet, family health, health, healthy lifestyle, healthy living, healthy recipes, natural beauty products

No, I am not taking Prozac, I am taking sardines.

Prozac. Viagra. A cocktail of antibiotics our bodies now ignore. What happened to grandma’s natural prevention of all disease: cod liver oil? Chinese and Ayurvedic food philosophies have always believed that food is medicine and can prevent and treat many ailments; and this at a time when colds would kill you!

Grandma knew what she was doing with her spoonful of bad flavor. Something that we should get back to; healing with food sources that are available to us. Our bodies are already rebelling against antibiotics with creating super virus. Here is the list of my favorite “home” remedies to common ailments:

1. Healing wounds: Aloe vera plant ($5-$8.00 at plant store). Cut the plant and apply the gel to your wound.

2. Antivirus/ Antibiotic: Wild oregano oil. Hard to take but works wonders. At all health stores. $30 for small bottle that goes a long way.

3. Stomach ache: Chamomile and/or peppermint tea. $1-$4 at every grocery store. Ideally combine the teas and drink with a touch of honey.

4. Inflammation: walnuts and fish oils (found in sardines, salmon): eat as much as possible and eliminate caffeine, alcohol, sugar

5. Depression: Blueberries, licorice (yum!), and a balanced diet. Reduce sugar, alcohol, and caffeine.

6. Hormonal issues: cruciferous vegetables. broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts will hang onto excess hormones in your body and dispel them. Eat a balanced diet and stay away from animal products.

7. Male infertility: pumpkin seeds. Super high in zinc. Anything high in zinc will work.

 

Next week I want to share with you my favorite beauty products found in your kitchen. Until then, stay well,

 

 

 

Tags: detox, family health, health, healthy diet, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, healthy living, mind over matter, overcoming blues, weight loss techniques

Hold the Cheese and Bacon, I’m a Vegetarian: ways to cheat on a diet without hurting your goals.

I follow a not-so-strict vegetarian diet. Because I have been attracted to vegetarian and vegan foods predominantly for health reasons, the occasional burger slips into my monthly meal planning. So, am I contradicting my own self when I place my lips on a mayo-laden gourmet organic Angus beef burger dressed with veggies and as stated once and yet deserves to be stated again- garlic mayo.

In fact, on any given week day, if you were to visit my home, my toddler son and I tend to snack and feast on a vegan majority diet: lentil soups and dahls, cauliflower and butternut squash stews, home-made hummus and quinoa or rice cakes…. maybe a goat cheese with olive tapenade, and my son’s favorite, Thai red cabbage coleslaw.

So, you can imagine that it hardly pains me to run out to my fave burger palace (yes, I called it a palace) once in a while because I know that going back to my regular diet is just well, a regular thing. And my son likes it too. By the way, I have no desire for the fries, which makes this excursion much easier for me.

So, here are the rules of “cheating” and making cheating on your diet actually work in your favor:

1. Have a strong hold on your everyday diet planning. Plan it, and work it out so that it suits your needs and is as healthy as possible most days of the week. Then, stick with the plan.

2. Choose a day in the week that you can splurge on your favorite food. In my case it is a burger but it can be anything such as pizza, chips, movie popcorn, ice-cream sundae, fried chicken, etc.

3. Do not choose all of the above…

4. Know when to stop. Do not continue to cheat for the entire day. A cheat meal is just that: one meal.

5. Know that having cravings and wanting off-the-diet food is a normal part of eating healthy, especially at first. The more you practice your resistance muscle, the easier the time you will have resisting food between your cheat meals.

So, there you have it: vegetarian or not, if you are on a plan to lose weight or become healthy, never say never to things you cannot live without. Maybe make it a special occasion type of relationship.

good luck with your new goals,

 

Tags: detox diet, dieting, family health, healthy diet, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, healthy living, mind over matter, motivation, staying with your goals, weight loss, weight loss techniques

New Year, Old Resolution

 

It took me these last three days to comfort myself into 2012. I say comfort because the first day started out with a monstrous anxiety that came out of the blue. In past, I have started every year with hopeful thoughts and ideas, dreams of goals to be achieved and places to be ventured and then  a few days later, an entire new biological age. This year, however, I was stuck in wanting to be in 2011. I was stuck in wanting more of last year.

2011 was a good year for me, so my first thought was that maybe I did not want to let it go. My relationship with my husband and my toddler son have developed into relationships that I adore. My work is heading in the exact direction that I want it to go, and my passions, my many extra-curricular hobbies were being met with time, appreciation and good outcomes. All in all 2011 was filled with fun, lots of love and success… and a lot of hope. Was I grieving the year that had passed? Was I wishing there was more? Was I saying good-bye to something that I did not yet know I was going to miss?

And then it hit me. There was one thing that 2011 did not have. One big thing that kept me, my thoughts and my goals in the previous year. There was something, a pattern in my being that was just not good enough to bring into 2012. As it did in every year passed, the one thing that my life lacked again in 2011: completion of goals, tasks, and achievements.

I am quite driven. And I have a lot of passions. And I find time to start anything that I want to. And here is where it falls apart: I have no problem leaving what I start before it is finished. If I look behind me in the path I have walked, the entire journey can be marked by these incomplete projects of varying significance. It is almost like they are waiting in the trails for someone to pick them up and finish them. Actually, they are waiting for me to pick them up and finish them. These projects are like flowers waiting and wanting to be watered after being planted. 

So maybe this is where I need to start 2012. In knowing that as much and as many as possible tasks that I have begun within my thirty-five years, I plan to complete. I need to complete. I suppose that I could continue to ignore them. But then aren’t I ignoring an entire aspect of myself? One that I have yet to get to know?   And enter, my New Year Old Resolution. New endings to old projects. New beginnings to old me.

And in a twist, perhaps this way I am not saying goodbye to a good year gone by, nor a journey of a life that has brought me to here and only here. This is my next step; me with all of my pojects up-to- date. Me, up-to-date.

So, included in this resolution are these posts (notice that last year these posts fell when all resolutions statistically do), tweeting, finishing my books, and moving my work forward with me. Move my work forward with me. Move forward. No sense in missing what I am holding onto.  Finishing is a beginning and one that I have missed through most of my life.

I think I just got it. I need to buy a watering can.

Happy New year. Happy 2012. We’ll talk soon.

Tags: blogging, Coaching, future, Goals, life, New year, New Years Resolutions

Our new site!

We’re excited to introduce you to our new site where I will be continuing with articles that you will find useful on your healthy weight loss journey.
Join us here: http://www.fit2touch.com/blog/?p=1

Warmest Regards,
Pereira

Does a New Relationship and Weight Gain go Together?

This happens a lot. You get into a relationship, go out for dinner dates, eat the snacks that your sweetheart is eating and you’re up ten pounds in no time. Why does this happen? Already are you “letting yourself go”? Does  it not matter to you  to stay the svelte physique that you were? Or is your weight gain a frustrating result of this new relationship?

It doesn’t have to be frustrating, and you don’t have to gain the weight either.  However, if you are eating the same amount of food that your male counterpart is eating, chances are, you will weigh the same as well. This means that a slim, tall 165-pound male wearing size 30-32 pants will eat the same as a rounded 165-pound female, size 10-12. Same weight, big difference.

If you weigh less, you need fewer calories to sustain your frame.

I grew up with two brothers; one younger and one older. With a philosophy that if you are hungry you have to eat and you always have to eat well, my parents were not slim, and consequently, neither was I. Our house was over-flowing with treats and homemade pastries for after school snacks followed my three-course meals that included european sausages and bread dumplings. And of course, dessert… oh, dessert! I was on a diet at the age of fourteen.

Off track a little, I want to state that the calories that you put into your body make up your body. You cannot get away with fooling yourself otherwise. This is a place in life that the proof really is in the pudding. If you eat it, it will show. Certainly some people have a higher metabolism than others which means that they can get away with eating more, but the majority of us have to watch what we eat and watch even closer as we age.

Back to that fantastic new relationship and your swelling hips. You can get back on track and still have fun (I am guessing you may have a little more fun with a lighter and more energetic body!). Stick to eating one-half to two-thirds of what he eats, as long as he is not over-indulging himself.

If he eats a 6 oz. steak, you eat a 3-4 oz. steak. If he eats a cup of brown rice, you will eat 1/2 to 2/3 cup brown rice. If he has two eggs, have one. If he has two glasses of wine…. you get the idea. My husband and I have both trained for fitness competitions. His diet was slim, but if I ate the amount that he did, I would not have been able to get on stage in a bikini, let alone compete. Body size is simple math.

Calories + Calories + Calories  =  Too many calories spilling over your waistband in th form of fat.

Calories -  Activity  + 1/2 Calories  -  More Activity = your 26-inch waist.

I always tell my female clients, especially the ones who are training and dieting with their husbands to be patient. As annoying as it may be, it seems that all a man has to do to lose weight is think about taking the cream out of his coffee. He drops those extra pounds. Not the same for us. Nonetheless, with effort, we can achieve our goals, and more importantly stay on track. For good. Relationship or not, bikini or not, it is certainly nice to have the smaller waist.

Tags: couples, dieting with a partner, dieting with a spouse, family health, healthy diet, healthy eating, healthy living, how to stay slim in a relationship, motivation, new relationships, relationships, spouse support, success, support, weight loss, weight loss techniques

You don’t have to make sweet treats with sugar

My mini-muffin dried fruit bake; no added sugar or fats

You may be like me and feel like the day does not end if you haven’t eaten a treat. This does not mean that you must have sugar or fat or something to blow your hard work at a diet altogether.

I’m always coming up with different “muffin” ideas that do not use added oils or sugar, and these are fantastic for toddlers too (isn’t it funny how we worry more about what our kids eat, how much sugar, etc. than what we eat?).

Okay, so here’s the super easy recipe. You can make them into cookies on a cookie sheet, or bake them in a mini-muffin tin; regardless they’ll taste the same.

 

 

 

Dried fruit mini-muffins

 

2 cups whole wheat, brown rice, chickpeas, spelt  or quinoa flour (or a combination)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3 egg whites (or 1 egg and 1 white)

3/4 cups yogurt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

juice of 1 orange

grated rind of 1 orange

1/2 cup walnuts

1/3 cup cranberries

This is the sugar used in these muffins: dried cranberries and apricots

1/3 cup stewed and cut dried apricots (you can process these to a mash if you don’t want the chunks; ideal for little kids)

 

Put dry ingredients  in a bowl. Combine and whisk wet ingredients, and nuts and dried fruit. Put in muffin tins and make about 12 minutes at 370 degrees. Enjoy.

 

Okay, here’s the thing. They taste good. If you’re expecting a flavour and richness to that of a cheesecake, no, they may not taste good, but if you’re concerned about the sugar you are eating, want to eat healthy AND have a treat, chances are, you’ll like these as much as my family does.

 

 

Tags: healthy eating, healthy recipes, healthy snacks, sugar-free desesrts, sugar-free snacks, toddler recipes

Caught in the Crib!

I don't know who looks more embarrassed about this, me or maybe my son!

My husband shakes his head and laughs. I may have a little attachment issue with my son, my only baby… but I think that it’s all healthy. Frankly, I couldn’t care less if it wasn’t healthy because I don’t know how much of this habit I would care to change.

Here it is: I crawl into my toddler’s crib and sleep with him. Not all night, just enough to cuddle and play for a while and calm him down to sleep time. I am curious about how common this practice really is (I’d love to tell my husband not to worry..)

He (my son) will be sleeping in a full bed soon, so it won’t seem to be such an issue then, but I can honestly say, I will miss the crib. There’s something about it- crunching up in fetal position with a little blanket- I find it very cozy (and creepy to say if there wasn’t a baby there to snuggle up to) and I’m someone who has been considered borderline claustrophobic.

My son slept in his own bed in his own room since he was six days old. It worked for us and most likely we all got a better night’s sleep because of it. And I do not sleep the entire night in the crib, however, since he was about six months old, moving forward, I could not resist crawling into the bed when I put him down to sleep.

I’d stay there for a little while, longer now since he’s so much more receptive to the idea himself, and slowly and reluctantly I’d find my way out.

I cringe at the idea that I will be an overbearing mom. I won’t be. I just can’t be. His poor future wife.. That’s not the issue, here, my son is two years old. I figure if I enjoy the time with him now, chances are, I won’t want to hold onto the idea of “babying” him later on. I will have had my time. And it doesn’t hurt him. He can still fall asleep without me……

Do you find you have funny, possibly embarrassing habits or routines you do with your kids? Do you feel you’ll be judged? I’d like to hear about them, so let me know!

I better get to my son now, he doesn’t seem to be falling asleep…..hmm…

Tags: cribs, family bed, funny mom habuts, mom, parenting, raising children, sleep, sleep habits for toddlers, toddler

Cleanse and Renew; The rules of a Detox Diet Simplified.

You must be smart if you want to detox without herbal pills  and store-bought fiber in a sand-dust texture. And for those who thought that a seven-day once-a-day tablet will cure you of all your ailments, renew your digestion, ignite your bowel movements and clear up your skin, all while shedding oh, say, twenty pounds, take a look at my previous blog that reads “Get Real…”.

All kidding aside, if you want to do a detox it’s not that difficult to follow. Here are the guidelines of what to eliminate and how to set up a plan for you to follow.

1. Eliminate all processed foods (anything that comes in a can, box or bag), sugars, alcohol, caffeine wheat and dairy and other animal products (eggs and meat). Also eliminate peanuts and corn. The reason is that the majority of our diet is made up of these items, and as a nation, we have become sensitive to them.

2. Use fruits and vegetables as your meal baseline. For breakfast, have a smoothie made with fruit. Have an apple with almond butter. Have a breakfast salad! For lunch have a raw salad and sprinkle with raw seeds. For dinner make a bowl of vegetables, steamed or cooked like a soup. When you`re hungry eat raw hazelnuts, walnut or brazil nuts, dried fruit and seeds.

3. For beverages, pour hot water over lemon peel or herbal teas. You will get used to it.

4. Don`t underestimate what a detox can do for you. If you give it one day or one week, ou gave your body a break from the toxins it takes in on a regular basis. Congratulations!

5. If you are unsure whether you should be eating something, chances are, you probably shouldn`t but you want to.

This is the short of it, and rather the truth of it. Simple, and probably everything you knew. Don’t ask if you can go out to dinner while detoxing, because it’s just better if you don’t. Eat a salad, and an apple. Simple.

Tags: detox diet, diet advice, healthy eating, healthy living, motivation, rules of detox, success, weight loss, weight loss techniques