Good Morning World, Shakeology article in May 2011 issue of O Magazine

Good Morning World!   By Susan Casey Apr 05, 2011 O’s editor in chief travels to Peru to experience a trove of life-giving superfoods that just might revolutionize your view of nutrition. Around 4 o’clock on any given morning, Darin Olien will walk into his Malibu, California, kitchen and make himself a smoothie. This will not be an ordinary drink. The other day, for example, he tossed the following into his blender: coconut water, fermented sprouted brown rice, maca, aloe vera juice, barley grass powder, kamut juice powder, almond butter, camu camu, avocado, goji, lucuma powder, noni juice, cacao nibs, MSM, maqui, bee pollen, sacha inchi oil, omega-3-DHA/EPA oil, Hawaiian deepwater salt, chia seeds, nopal, goat yogurt, luo han guo, and a powder called Shakeology. If you’ve never heard of many of these ingredients, you’re not alone. But stay with me here, because they’re among the most powerful nutrients on Earth. Olien’s specialty is what’s known as “formulating,” taking wildly beneficial substances and combining them into something even more potent: a supplement, a snack, a tea, a medicine, a smoothie. Every food in nature contains a mix of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, along with noncaloric vitamins, minerals, fibers-all of which fuel our cells-and each one has unique abilities that we really don’t understand, but it is now clear that some foods pack an extra biochemical punch. Camu camu fruit, for instance, provides the richest source of vitamin C known to exist. Maca, a hearty root that grows only in the high Andes, comes in yellow, red, and black varieties, boosts fertility, is said to balance hormones, and dispenses a day’s worth of kick-ass energy. Sacha inchi is another South American treasure, a protein-rich, metabolism-revving nut that delivers an omega-3 bonanza. Olien’s final ingredient, Shakeology, contains more than 70 components itself, a crazy cornucopia of good. No one understands Shakeology better than Olien, who created it in 2008, after Carl Daikeler, CEO of the fitness company Beachbody, challenged him to come up with a supplement to match the tagline The Healthiest Meal of the Day. His customer was someone who wanted optimum wellness, wanted to lose weight, wanted cholesterol levels to drop-but had no intention of eating a platter of broccoli each day. Daikeler gave Olien no limits on quality, no cost/revenue restrictions; the goal was to shoot the moon, to seek out and combine the most extraordinary plants, fruits, nuts, herbs-nature’s secret weapons. And Olien found them: ashwagandha from China, cordyceps from Bhutan, yacon from Peru. An alphabet of vitamins and minerals from the purest sources. Prebiotics. Probiotics. Green tea and grapeseed extracts, chlorella and spirulina and hydrilla, a spectrum of enzymes. Since hitting the market in March 2009, more than 400,000 bags of Shakeology, at $119.95 each, have been sold. Olien himself is a strapping guy, north of six feet and solid. He looks, in fact, like the steak-fed Midwestern varsity football player that he was, until a back injury derailed his athletic career. From that low point Olien had tried to rehabilitate himself using traditional methods-lots of animal protein, relentless physiotherapy-but it was only when he adopted a radically new diet of superfoods that he was able to regain his strength. This not only improved his health, it revealed his calling. “It was one of the greatest turns in my life,” Olien says, “because it got me into the question, ‘What can I do to fix this?’ I became very curious about the body, switched my major to exercise physiology and nutrition. Then I healed myself.” Over the years he also managed to help many others with their diet and fitness regimens, and Olien’s “concoctions,” his powders and bars and health innovations, began to attract attention. On the first morning I met Olien I watched him doing squat jumps holding 40-pound weights, while holding his breath underwater. Another workout he likes to do involves harnessing himself to a 150-pound railroad tie and dragging it through thick sand. Whatever he eats needs to fuel these exploits, so people are often surprised to hear that his diet consists mostly of plants. Olien consumes no processed foods, no polysyllabic ingredients invented in labs, no high-fructose corn syrup or trans fats, no artificial flavorings, no antibiotic-laced dairy products, nothing that comes out of a drive-thru. In short, he doesn’t eat what’s generally on offer in the modern food world. “When people find out that I don’t eat this or I don’t eat that, I feel a sense of pity coming from them,” he says, “and I think, ‘Wow! You have no idea. I’m not deprived at all. Come to my kitchen! I’ll blow your mind.’” Thing is, science is now catching up to something that nature has known all along: the rich greens, the vibrant yellows, the deep indigos of plants are key to our well-being. That meat we love so much? Proven to clog our arteries. Convenience foods-heavily sweetened and salted, laden with fat and chemicals-wreak havoc on everything from our immune systems to our moods to our weight. Here are the facts and they’re not very pretty: Americans are the fattest people ever in history. Obesity, a body composition topping 30 percent fat, is the most pressing health crisis we face, with 34 percent of the adult population falling into that category (plus 29 percent of all children). If you add in the merely overweight it’s closer to 68 percent. In the past 50 years the weight of the typical American citizen has increased, on average, by 25 pounds. If we continue at this rate, by 2050 every last person will have eaten himself into the danger zone. “Every time you eat processed foods, you exclude from your diet not only the essential nutrients that we are aware of, but hundreds of other undiscovered phytonutrients that are crucial for normal human function,” Joel Fuhrman, MD, writes in his new book, Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, which stresses the importance of a diet full of high-quality produce. Mehmet Oz, MD, who wrote the foreword to Fuhrman’s book, believes that even a slight shift away from meat can improve your health. “What we really want to do is have people nudge themselves in the right direction,” he told me. “If you want to have a few bacon bits on your salad, God bless you, fine. That’s not where we’re losing the battle. We’re losing the battle when you have sausage for breakfast, a big pastrami sandwich for lunch, and pork chops for dinner.” Yet we live in a mass-produced, big-box culture, where economic interests hold sway. Meat, corn, sugar-they come cheap, and we buy them. Plus, we tend to like the taste. But there are steep hidden costs in a food system that makes calories rather than nutrients-from the factory farms that treat animals like parts on an assembly line to the fact that obesity-related ailments like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are skyrocketing and account for approximately $150 billion in healthcare expenses each year. As both Fuhrman and Oz would attest, anyone consuming a steady diet of man-made edibles would benefit even from something as prosaic as lettuce, but far more intriguing foods exist. As Olien began to talk about the vegetables, fruits, grains, herbs, and other plants he was hunting, I realized there was an entire universe out there I didn’t know about. I had never heard of lucuma or sapote or aguaje. What the heck was gac? The list was long. Learning more requires a passport, because in acquiring these superfoods Olien doesn’t simply call up a supplier with his FedEx number, he goes directly to the source. In doing so he often ends up in extreme places, searching out plants that-although they may have been revered by past civilizations-are now largely forgotten. South America, with its jungles and rainforests and mountains, is especially rich. So when I heard that Olien was headed back to Peru, I invited myself along. I wanted to see firsthand what he was up to because it sounded so incredible to me, so mysterious and even magical. I wanted to taste these lost, powerful foods that had fueled warriors and emperors, plants with miraculous properties that had somehow almost vanished, disappearing beneath a sea of fast-food wrappers. Lima From the outside, Nicolaza Mendoza’s warehouse looks like any other drab building on the industrial fringe of a sprawling Latin American city. When I walked through the door, however, that impression was washed away by a wave of earthy scent. Colorful sacks were piled high on wooden palettes, each one stuffed with precious plants. Their names-una de gato, achiote, huasca-were written on the sacks in thick black marker. Mendoza, a small-statured woman with a serious face, is one of Peru’s most respected herbalists. She spoke no English; her daughter Luz Maria, a striking 32-year-old in a short black skirt and lavender eyeshadow, was there to translate. “How do you say, ‘Hit the jackpot’ in Spanish?” Olien asked, smiling. He was carrying a list of substances he wanted to investigate, and it was a good bet that many were on the premises. Standing beside him, Bernd Neugebauer, PhD, surveyed the warehouse and nodded. At 59, with a mane of white hair and vivid blue eyes, Neugebauer has a distinguished air, bolstered by the four languages he speaks fluently and his provenance from one of Germany’s oldest forestry families. Neugebauer’s accomplishments and interests include cultivating organic aloe vera, beekeeping, shamanism training, and studying ancient farming methods. Currently he is restoring an entire Mayan village in the Yucatan. But his primary interest is soil. Only healthy, mineral-rich soil produces healthy, mineral-rich food, and the world’s topsoil is under great stress these days, overused, undernourished, and (due to increasing deforestation) prone to erode into the sea. Though he is an organic farming expert, Neugebauer has gone even beyond that, reaching into history to discover how past agricultural empires-Maya, Aztec, Inca-treated the land, and what we can learn from them. In 2006 Olien read an academic paper by Neugebauer about creating holistic and sustainable agricultural practices, and sought him out as a kindred spirit. Now the two team up often, with Neugebauer helping the farmers who grow Olien’s raw materials get the most out of their crops without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Olien’s relationship to his suppliers is a deeply personal one. He believes in cultivating relationships first, supporting indigenous practices, seeking the highest-quality products and paying generously for them. The farmers he works with have become his close friends. “It’s fair trade on steroids,” he says of his approach. To that end, every last leaf that now sat in Mendoza’s warehouse met this gold standard. The herbs here were locally grown and carefully harvested. Her collection was all the more impressive when you considered Peru’s outlandish biodiversity. Luz explained how her mother traversed the country constantly, from one extreme to another, from the Amazon to the Andes to the Pacific Coast and everywhere in between, seeking out each region’s botanical treasures. The stakes were high: Billion-dollar drugs had been obtained in the rapidly dwindling rainforest-antimicrobial, antipain, anticancer medications, among countless others-and yet scientists agreed that only a small fraction of nature’s pharmacopoeia had ever been studied. “I’m amazed by what she knows,” Luz said, shaking her head. I walked down the aisles behind Mendoza and Olien, leaning over the herbs to examine them. Una de gato, or cat’s claw, was a vine that had been chopped into little shingles; it was adobe red and smelled like the primeval forest. I had seen it referenced in a number of books as an antiaging “superherb.” Recently scientists have discovered that the most prized plants and herbs in native cultures contain high levels of nutrients that contribute ferociously to cellular health in ways we are only beginning to understand; cat’s claw has been shown to fight infection, decrease inflammation, and repair DNA. “This is the real pharmacy,” Olien said, gesturing at the sacks. “Hippocrates said, ‘Let food be your medicine’-and there’s a lot of medicine out there.” There was a row dedicated entirely to teas, lush manzanilla (chamomile), lemony cedron, eucalyptus, and menta blanca-white mint so strong it was as though an entire field had been squeezed into a teacup. Every smell was amplified. “Stand here for three minutes and just breathe deeply,” Neugebauer advised, “and you will be in wonderful condition.” The intensity of these substances was striking, given that we live in a diluted world, willing to eat a tomato that only vaguely tastes like a tomato, or an orange that looks orange only because it’s been shot full of dye. One sack had frayed at the ends and its contents spilled out, revealing a root that looked like a thick, spiral cinnamon stick. I was examining it when Miguel Berumen, another member of Olien’s team, came over. Berumen was a walking superfoods encyclopedia, and the learning had started early. As a boy growing up outside Mexico City, he’d watched his grandmother heal family members with plants from her garden. “I’d get sick,” he recalled, “and she’d come over and brew up some herbs and say some prayers. That was just the logical thing to do.” When Berumen was asked a question about, say, sarsaparilla, the knowledge poured out, streams of words rushing and tumbling over themselves in excitement. “In ancient times they used this herb to make root beer. They also used sassafras. And manioc root to generate the bubbles!” “Can you ask Nicolaza about kaniwa?” Olien asked Berumen. He’d mentioned kaniwa, a grain I’d never heard of, several times today. “Kaniwa is a beautiful plant,” Neugebauer said, with admiration in his voice. “It bounced off the page to me this morning,” Olien said, pointing to his notes. New quinoa, high Andes, he’d written in the margin. “We could sprout it. Make it a little more bioactive.” Olien had explained to me how his formulas come together first by instinct, a gut knowing that eventually leads him into the lab, where everything will be rigorously tested. “I start with a question,” he said. “For Shakeology it was, ‘What do people need to thrive?’” From that point the different ingredients pop into his mind, inspirations bubble up, ideas appear-”and then I back into the science.” Once a product has been fine-tuned, Olien uses himself and his friends as guinea pigs. “That’s the ultimate test,” he said. “In your own body.” The intricate synergies that keep our livers humming and our eyes focused and our brains remembering where we put the car keys are mirrored in the plant world. Each organism contains a universe within itself, countless components working together seamlessly to keep things in perfect balance. When Olien combines his raw materials-all of them functional foods-he’s seeking this same effect, in which the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts. When we supplement our diets with specific vitamins-a vitamin D capsule, a CoQ10 pill-we’re doing the opposite: breaking nature’s systems apart. “The best example of this is the work that’s been done on vitamin A,” Oz had told me. “When you eat vitamin-A-rich foods like carrots, you reduce the risk of lung cancer. When you take vitamin A as a pill you increase the risk of lung cancer. How is that possible? It’s possible because when you take a carrot and put it into your mouth you don’t just get vitamin A, you get all the retinols. The different subtypes of all these different phytonutrients. And they’re in the perfect mix for us. Literally dozens of them in the right combinations-they’re the key that unlocks the cells’ abilities to defend themselves against cancer. If you take only a massive pharmaceutical dose of vitamin A, then you actually block the body’s ability to absorb the other components of the carrot.” The way these things operate, Oz said, is like a band playing in perfect tune: “The true benefit doesn’t come from just having the drum banging. You need the guitar, a little trumpet, a singer. That’s what makes the music.” This vast, emerging alchemy was the most exciting part of his work, Olien agreed, stepping out of Mendoza’s warehouse into the hazy afternoon heat: “I’m not a fan of isolating. Who are we to separate things out? All of these herbs and vitamins have their buddies, and they want to come together.” He walked toward the bus that would take us from Lima into the wild folds of Peru. “It never ceases to amaze me,” he added, “watching the magic.” Tarma Fresh cacao is a strange and wonderful fruit. Outside, it’s a tough vermilion pod the size and shape of a toy football, but inside it contains another set of textures: a mass of wonky-shaped cubes nestled in a 3-D jigsaw puzzle, each with a furry white covering and a chewy bean in the center. When you bite into cacao the sensation is sexy and silky and delicious, kind of bitter and kind of sweet, with a darkly complex flavor that only hints at the chocolate it will eventually become. “They called it the Food of the Gods,” Olien said, handing me another cube. “And it truly is.” He was wearing a pair of black shoes that slipped on like gloves, all five toes outlined, giving his feet the appearance of paws. It was perfect jungle footwear. We stood on the slippery hillside with three men from the small, organic cacao plantation where these fruit trees had been planted. Olien was always on the lookout for good sources of cacao, a key ingredient. Botanists and herbalists-and superfood hunters-tend to get very worked up when describing cacao; its health attributes seem almost too good to be true. Cacao has more protective antioxidants than red wine, pomegranates, and blueberries combined. It’s a huge source of magnesium, a critical mineral for heart health, bone strength, and brainpower that many of us could use more of. These little beans contain a rainbow of minerals, a wallop of vitamin C, many essential fats, and the calming amino acid tryptophan, which in turn elevates levels of the happiness-inducing neurotransmitter serotonin. “Cacao is an absolutely perfect mood stabilizer,” Olien said. And more: The beans are rich in a wonderful substance called phenylethyl-amine (PEA) that our bodies produce when we fall in love; PEA also acts as a natural appetite suppressant. An aphrodisiac that helps you lose weight is so precious, in fact, that the Maya and Aztecs used cacao beans as currency, valuing them above gold. “I want to make a convenient medicinal chocolate,” Olien said, holding up one of the pods. “As pure and raw as possible, all hand grown. It’d be like handing out delicious antidepressants to people!” To be honest, it was quite an idea: What if the foods we loved also happened to be incredibly good for us? What if, instead of doughnuts and nachos, we craved nature’s most exquisite gifts? What would the world look like if everyone functioned at peak energy, tipped the scales at their ideal weight, and ran around in a good mood? What if we didn’t need to take drugs to be happy or keep our hearts running smoothly or get a decent night’s sleep? Neugebauer began to talk to the farmers, giving them some new ideas to fend off a fungus known as Monilia that was reducing their harvest. I watched him speaking to them in Spanish, kneeling down next to the trees and examining the soil. A walnut-skinned man in black rubber boots listened intently, a curved machete hanging from his belt. Standing at the edge of the path, Olien and Berumen were deep in conversation. “It can’t help but propel me into neurotransmitters,” I heard Olien say. His face was still smeared with red achiote dye from a stop we’d made earlier at a lowland jungle village called Pampa Miche, where we’d visited a tribe called the Ashaninka, renowned for their knowledge of local plants. Olien had stood by good-naturedly as a group of village women painted his face with scarlet stripes, looped boa constrictors around his neck, and dressed him in a native outfit consisting of a loose caftan, an elaborate sash of beads, and a jaunty straw hat. Later, on an exploratory walk through the rainforest, he had downed a murky brown drink with a bitter flavor and the texture of phlegm. “What are the medicinals in this?” he asked Nuria, a sturdy woman in a red headscarf. She responded in a gale of Spanish, gesturing at the towering trees. “Five different tree barks,” Neugebauer translated. “Para potencia!” Nuria stressed. The women erupted in giggles. Olien went on to sample wild cashew nut, a reddish fruit shaped like a small bell pepper. The shell of the nut contains a burning acid (something Olien had learned the hard way in Mexico last year, and ended up having the skin of his lips peel off). Stepping off the path, one of the Ashaninka men, who happened to be carrying a small monkey, reached up with a long knife and cut into the trunk of a nearby tree. A thick red sap began to ooze out. “Sangre de grado,” Berumen said, leaning over to examine it. “Dragon’s blood!” This was a sighting: Sangre de grado is a substance so valuable and rare that counterfeit versions often show up in the markets. Used externally as a salve, it acts as a second skin to close wounds and stop infection; taken internally it heals ulcers and other stomach ailments. Dragon’s blood also exhibits antitumor and antiviral activity, qualities that have captured the pharmaceutical industry’s attention. Nuria rubbed a few drops onto Olien’s forearm. The sap first looked red, then quickly turned a shimmery golden, before morphing again to a soapy white. “It’s sticky,” he said, touching it. “That’s how you know it’s really good,” Berumen said. “When it gets creamy like that.” The visual effect was startling. The dark red liquid stood out against the light bark, as though the tree really were bleeding. It looked eerily like a human arm or leg. Olien traced the wound, letting the liquid drip onto his fingers. He was completely transfixed, and he stood there for several minutes, oblivious to anything else around him, even the scampering monkeys. Junin At 14,000 feet in the Andes, not much grows in Junin. There is one noteworthy exception: maca. This windblasted place is the maca capital of the world, and for that Olien loves it. “Ah, yeahhh,” he said as the lunar vistas rolled by, dust-colored barren hillsides dotted with the tiny figures of llamas and vicunas. The more I’d heard about maca, the more fantastic this little tuber seemed: A relative of the radish, it has been cultivated for 2,000 years in these parts. Maca is an adaptogen, Olien said, explaining how the brutal terrain had bred into the plant a kind of survivors’ guile that enabled it to respond to any conditions. In the body it helps balance whatever’s out of whack, particularly hormones. It boosts endurance, allowing people (and animals) to work long days at high altitude. Incan warriors liked to take maca before going into battle. In Junin, the local people ate it roasted, stewed, marinated, dried, fermented, made into tea. But for all its benefits, maca had flirted with extinction. In 1979 only 70 acres of it could be found in Peru. Since then its stock as a superfood has been steadily rising, and small farmers have started planting it again, realizing it’s worth far more in the marketplace than potatoes. We were headed to visit Dina Guere Vega, a maca farmer whom Olien had been working with for six years. She and her family lived in a jumbled compound of low buildings that included a warehouse filled with maca bulbs. Guere Vega was a pocket-size woman with large brown eyes and a brilliant smile, bundled in a hand-knit alpaca sweater, and she greeted Olien, Berumen, and Neugebauer like family. Her husband stood beside her, wearing a wool hat with earflaps. Outside the wind howled, shaking the roof. The smell of maca is intense and unique, like earth meets nuts meets a wood fire with undertones of licorice and wasabi, and it filled the warehouse-sacks of maca lined the walls. On one side of the building two women sorted through a sea of bulbs spread across a tarp. Olien reached into an open bag and pulled out a handful. The root looked like a petrified fig. “Powerful stuff,” he said. “This is dried. Takes about three months.” After that it would be carefully powdered and shipped to the United States. Maca’s strong odor (and that of other pungent herbs) had challenged Olien when it came to perfecting Shakeology’s taste without resorting to artificial ingredients. “I spent a year trying to get it right,” he said, describing the two flavors that resulted, chocolate and greenberry. “Because if I didn’t, no one in Middle America would drink it. You have to meet them in the place where they can receive it.” Dina and her husband reappeared holding trays of a golden liquid. “Liquor de maca!” Neugebauer said, reaching for a glass with a somewhat shaky hand. Since our arrival we’d been chewing coca leaves, the native remedy for altitude sickness, but he was feeling the elevation, and hoped that a little maca toddy would clear that up. We had three rounds of the stuff and later we would drink more maca, blended with dark beer and papaya. Its effect was smooth and kicky, like stepping on the accelerator of a fine sports car. As Olien said, it was an easy plant to love. The locals felt the same way and had even installed a 70-foot-high, shocking purple maca monument in the nearby town of Huayre. But the picture wasn’t entirely rosy. Part of Neugebauer’s task here was to solve a pressing problem: Over the past year Dina’s fields had been producing far less maca, and the plants that were growing had shrunk dramatically in size. Dina thought that climate change was the culprit, erratic weather patterns bringing warmer temperatures and rain out of season. Neugebauer, however, believed a change in planting methods would not only restore her maca yield but double it. The two of them hunkered on a couch in the drafty room with wool caps pulled low over their heads. “He wants her to use a crane rather than a tractor,” Berumen translated. “To reach out and loosen a little area without turning the soil over. And he doesn’t think she’s digging deep enough.” Neugebauer also explained how he had resurrected the chaquitaclla, an Incan maca-planting tool shaped like a spear gun: “I took it into a machine design shop in Germany and told them, ‘Please mechanize this.’” As old as maca’s tradition was, I could see that much of what was happening here was new. “Five years ago, none of this existed,” Olien said, surveying Dina’s compound, where a 2,000-year-old crop was being reintroduced to the world. Though we tend to think of progress as a straight charge ahead-more, new, bigger, faster-in maca’s case, moving forward required going back in time. I recalled a conversation I’d had with William Li, a Harvard-trained MD and the cofounder of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a vanguard group that’s proving how, at the molecular level, the foods we eat have a direct impact on whether our bodies are vulnerable to cancer. “Today we’re at a very awkward moment, I think, in human existence as it relates to food and health,” Li had said, “where we know intrinsically that there’s more to these things than we concretely recognize. And there’s a lot of historical stuff that’s been lost. How do we rediscover that? How do we take ourselves out of this cereal box?” “I mean, why not think about trying to replace wheat with maca, for example,” Neugebauer had mused earlier. “Maca is the absolute superfood. Wheat has all sorts of problems.” On the surface this sounds preposterous-but is it? Considering that we’ve adopted a food system that’s created massive increases in both obesity and hunger, where prices are spiraling out of control, and monoculture and genetic modification work in opposition to nature’s strategy of endless diversity, what these maca fields really represented, I thought, were ancient yet urgent ideas about how to live. Huanco “What does this look like?” Berumen asked, holding up the aguaje fruit in the open-air market. “A hand grenade?” I said. Because it did. “An ovary!” The aguaje is a huge source of phyto-estrogens, Berumen said, and a perfect example of biomimicry in action. In other words, even before there were textbooks and search engines, nature had given us very clear directions. It’s no accident that walnuts, with their squiggly oval hemispheres, are the ultimate brain food. Or that a plant the rainforest natives call chanca piedra (“stone breaker” in English), which produces tiny green balls, is a natural remedy for kidney stones. Or that dragon’s blood, the sap that acts as a coagulant, actually bleeds out of the tree. We stood in an aisle of the Huanuco market, squeezing aside as people bustled past. A short woman in a flouncy skirt walked by with a pig on a leash; another woman crouched on the ground next to a net bag writhing with tiny chicks. Fruits and vegetables were heaped everywhere. A light rain drizzled outside. Huanuco is a midsize city in central Peru, usefully located between the sierra and the high jungle. If you’re a farmer, there’s a lot of business to do here. “The phytoestrogenic property of aguaje is different than soy,” Berumen continued, citing another plant with strong hormonal effects. “It actually assists the body in making estrogen.” He cut into the aguaje and handed me a piece. The fruit was bright orange, with the dry texture of cheese. The vivid colors in fruits and vegetables-created by chemicals called flavonoids-signal power. So far scientists have identified about 6,000 of these compounds-names like peonidin, kaempferol, apigenin, hesperitin, quercetin-but undoubtedly, thousands more exist. Flavonoids have been shown to improve brain function, motor skills, blood flow; they protect cells from inflammation and potential damage that can lead to cancer. Eating a variety of plants is the best way to assure your body a wide array of flavonoids; in Peru, I’d discovered, this wasn’t a problem. Since my arrival I’d been presented with a steady stream of unknown foods. Along with cacao, maca, and aguaje I’d tried granadilla, a fruit that cracks open with a snap, revealing a fist-size mass of seeds, each covered in a translucent membrane. The seeds were crunchy and sour, the membrane was soft and sweet, the combination was sublime. Olien had produced a bag full of dried aguaymanto, raisinlike fruits with a sharp citrusy tang. Berumen had talked about “monster fruit”-a corncob-shaped plant that tasted like a cross between a guava and a pineapple-and declared it “the most delicious thing ever.” But Monstera deliciosa (its Latin name) had to be carefully ripened and prepared, he warned: “If you bite into it fresh, it’s like eating razors. It cuts up your whole mouth.” There was black sapote, a fruit that tasted like chocolate pudding, and the succinctly named peanut butter fruit. In the market we had also come across lucuma, a fruit Olien likes for its mild, butterscotchy taste (in Peru, lucuma-flavored ice cream is as popular as chocolate or vanilla). “It blends well,” he said, slicing the skin off like that of a mango. “Balances out the astringents.” The fruit had a soft, cakey texture. “It’s one of the most mineral-rich foods in the world,” Berumen added. We walked past rows of fish on ice, midsize animal carcasses dangling from hooks, rafts of flowers and sheaves of herbs. A heavyset woman in fuchsia lipstick presided over bushels of coca leaves. In a back corner, a group of older ladies had gathered around two large pots. One of them, an Indian woman with a long braid, ladled something that looked like porridge into a metal bowl. “Medicina!” she said, pointing at Olien and then handing the bowl to him. Then she pointed to her stomach: “Medicina!” she stressed again, flashing a smile that revealed many missing teeth. “Ah, the gringo needs some medicine,” Olien said, raising an eyebrow. “What is this?” he asked Berumen to inquire. The stuff in the bowl smelled acrid, even rotten. Berumen spoke to the women in Spanish and then after a moment he turned to us. “It’s called tocosh,” he said. “A traditional Andean food made from fermented potatoes.” The process, he translated, involved burying the potatoes in river soil for up to two years. Amazingly, this produced a natural penicillin. Olien raised a gloopy spoonful to his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and then bravely swallowed it. Even from three feet away the aroma made my eyes water. “It’s a lot better than it smells,” he said, delivering the verdict. “It’s actually good.” I tried it, and agreed. The tocosh was warm and subtly sweet, with hints of vanilla. There was something comforting about it, and I could feel my body wanting more. Later I would learn that tocosh had been an Incan delicacy, and that even in sophisticated cities like Lima, Peruvian doctors still prescribed it for stomach disorders, and for its overall healthful effects. “Oh my God, would I like to see the nutrient content on this,” Olien said, taking another spoonful. “Because that is not a potato anymore. It’s a completely new structure.” Fermenting a food, he explained, was like turbocharging it. This is the process, of course, that turns grapes into wine, milk into cheese. Essentially you’re letting food go bad in a good way, by creating an oxygen-free environment around it. During fermentation, benevolent armies of bacteria break down starches to sugars; those are converted to health-enhancing alcohols and acids. Whole new vitamins, enzymes, and amino acids can spring up. The result is a food with alchemical potency. This technique is so ancient that we don’t have any records of its origin, but historians believe it goes back at least 9,000 years, to China. “If you look at the history of food, there’s been this tribalism,” William Li had pointed out. “Things are passed down-and there’s so much we don’t know. Space is a frontier. Oceans are a frontier. I think food is a whole other frontier,” he said. “And it’s not something you have to train with NASA for, or put on scuba gear for. It’s sitting in front of us every single day.” Ambo The Yacon farm was perched at the top of a road that zigzagged up the mountainside in a series of hairpin turns. The road was narrow and crumbly with scree, its thin ribbon of shoulder edged by sheer cliffs. There were no guardrails. I watched the bus driver hunch over the wheel in tense concentration, muttering under his breath. The view at the top, however, was worth the white-knuckle ride. The farm was tucked in a pristine valley glowing with more shades of green than the spectrum seemed able to hold, ringed by majestic peaks. “Have I talked to you about yacon?” Olien asked, describing the potato-shaped vegetable that was, improbably, a cousin of the sunflower. “It’s an amazing food, a tuber that has a bunch of different sugars in it.” The most important of these sugars is a rare type known as fructooligosaccharide (FOS), and yacon is the richest known source of it. Although FOS tastes beautifully sweet, it’s not processed in the body like other sugars because we lack the enzymes to digest it (making it perfect for diabetics-and dieters, because few calories are absorbed). But rather than being expelled like some alien substance, on its way through your body yacon does a number of helpful things. It acts as a prebiotic, encouraging healthy bacteria in your intestines and colon, and aids in fat metabolism, cholesterol management, vitamin absorption, blood sugar regulation, even bone density. “It could be a sweetener solution for the entire planet,” Olien said. The farm’s owner was a local man named Luis Alva, known to his friends as Lucho. He was burly, in his 30s with a wide face that looked both tough and kind. Alva had a quiet gravitas, which made sense when you learned what he’d been through on his family land. Twenty years ago, at a house only a mile away, his father was killed by the Shining Path, the leftist guerrillas who brutalized Peru during the ’80s and ’90s (and remain on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist groups). It was not a tragedy that anyone around here had forgotten. But today Lucho was buoyant, glad to see Olien and Berumen again, and to meet the rest of us. In 2006 Berumen had been trolling the Internet and came across an arcane reference to yacon. He sent it to Olien, who was astonished by the “perfect storm of health benefits” the plant seemed to provide. “I thought, ‘This is an amazing product,’” Olien recalled. “You can’t get it anywhere, not even online. And then I was like a pit bull. I just kept saying, ‘We gotta bring it here.’ And maybe I got ahead of myself. ” He laughed, then added: “But that inspired all of what’s growing here.” The next morning we headed to the fields in Alva’s truck, driving up a red dirt road that also served as a thoroughfare for Andean shepherdesses and their flocks. The women wore bright shirts and shawls in magenta, canary, emerald, tangerine, turquoise, along with the traditional pleated wool skirts and black flat-brimmed hats, which they decorated with bits of tinsel. We passed a group of alpacas, shaggy white beasts with unicorn faces and cranky dispositions, and a cow with long eyelashes that was mowing some bushes. Yacon produces large green leaves that gave Alva’s fields a lush appearance, like a vast carpet of salad. “Historically, yacon was called the apple of the Earth,” Berumen noted. After sitting in the sun, apparently, it literally tastes like an apple, though the tuber itself resembles a yam. “You can dehydrate it, extract juice, or make a syrup out of it,” Berumen said. I watched as a field hand pulled up a plant, its roots caked with soil. Alva peeled the brown skin with a knife. Inside, the yacon was crystal white with tiny violet dots around its perimeter. It had an icy, juicy look and a crisp texture and it tasted fresh and light, like highly delicious air or a ghost carrot. I could have eaten it all day. “No applicacion de herbicida,” Lucho said. “Nada, nada, nada.” He used only organic fertilizer in his fields, no chemicals at all. The spectacular valley, the happy workers, the mountain air, the bountiful crops-no one could argue against this as an ideal. Earlier I’d asked Olien what I thought was a key question: Is it possible to mass-produce this kind of quality? “I think we’re proving that you can,” he answered without hesitation. He added, “If you get the highest nutritional value from your food, you need less of it. The vacant foods-we need more of them, because they’re posers. They’re empty.” He was right. It was really that simple: The body with its unknown galaxies of cells, its unseen cogs and wheels, its ropes and coils of DNA, needs to be nourished, and it doesn’t thrive on red dye #40 or propylene glycol or butylated hydroxyanisole with a ciprofloxacin chaser. “These plants you’re writing about have powers that are sacred,” Oz had stressed. “That word belongs in your story.” And these sacred foods do not have to remain in backcountry Peru. They could be available to all if we were willing to think and farm and eat differently. Alva pulled his truck over to the side of the road and pointed to a field where eight varieties of yacon were growing. He wanted to see which type would do best in this environment, and produce the most FOS. The winner would be a kind of superyacon, a super-superfood. Olien opened the passenger door and got out, walking to the edge of the field. Below he could see the blue rooftops of a tiny school, kids playing soccer in front of it. The workers moved among more yacon, small figures bent in the furrows, and the Arischaca River rushed in the background while the Andean women tended their sheep in the peacefulness and fullness that was now here. The valley stretched out before him, green and red, the vertiginous perfection of it all, the terraced fields, the veins of soil. In the gold afternoon light Olien sat down in the yacon field, among the floppy leaves. And then he lay back and closed his eyes, smiling.

Overcoming Overeating

 

Why do we eat? We all know why we should be eating: to supply our bodies with plenty of energy to get through the day; to get nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals which help us to stay healthy and free of disease; and to get useful carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—all of which contribute to running our bodies properly and maintaining good health.

But sometimes we can all be guilty of eating for other reasons. We love food! And that’s great! Eating should be pleasurable, not just nutritious. Food is everywhere: books are devoted to cooking and recipes, we find ourselves daydreaming and even talking about the newest restaurant or our favorite foods.

Many times we eat to celebrate—holidays, job promotions, graduations, weddings…we’ll find just about any achievement ("I raked the yard!", "We sold our house!", "My favorite team won!") to be celebration-worthy, and we’ll eat to commemorate it.

Other times, we let our emotions take over. When we’re stressed out, sad, angry, or lonely, we oftentimes turn to food to comfort us. Even starting (and staying on) a new diet can be stressful, especially when emotions creep in.

In our food-obsessed culture with out-of-control portions always lurking within our grasps, how can we not overeat? It’s hard to break habits and go against the lessons we have always been taught, like cleaning our plates, not being wasteful, or getting the best deal—which usually means ordering up and getting a lot more food for the money.

There are many ways to stop overeating While some may seem silly…silly just may work for you. From the following list, find a few that work best for you, and try several. For example, if you find yourself eating out a lot, experiment with the dining out options more. After finding the strategies that work, stick with them. Over time, you’ll break the habits of overeating and form new habits. Pretty soon, you won’t even need the strategies at all, and you’ll be on your way to a permanent lifestyle change!

Skills for Any Setting
Whether you’re cooking your own meal, eating at work, or snacking at a football game, here are the strategies you can take anywhere:

• Know your portion sizes. Make your own "portion pack" to take with you or keep the following common items in mind when preparing and eating meals.
  • A golf ball is the size of a serving of nuts (including peanut butter) or cheese.
  • A deck of playing cards is equivalent to 3 ounces of any meat.
  • Use a die to estimate a proper serving of oils and fats.
  • For fruit and veggie servings, use a tennis ball.
  • One serving of cooked grains or potatoes is about the size of a computer mouse.
• Divide your plate. When cooking at home, looking at pictures on menus, or shopping ala carte at the work cafeteria, your plate should look like this:
  • Half (or more) of the plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables.
  • Protein-rich foods (meat or legumes) and starches (grains, potatoes, bread) should take up one quarter of the plate each.
  • Fill your "divided plate" only once. If you’re still hungry, have another half-plate of vegetables. It’s that simple.
  • Portion-controlled plates are available to buy as well…although they’re much more expensive than drawing an imaginary line.
• Quench your hunger with water. Instead of high-calorie, low-nutrient drinks like soda, alcohol, or other sugary drinks, choose water. It’s free wherever you go, and most people don’t meet their 8-10 cups-a-day requirement. Drink water before, during, and after a meal to slow yourself down while eating and curb hunger.
• Fill up on Fiber. The healthiest and most filling foods are high in fiber—think fruits and veggies, and whole, unprocessed grains. Adding fiber to your diet will aid in weight loss, and keep you feeling fuller longer, so you may eat less.
• Supportive groups are crucial. Surround yourself with positive people who motivate you to reach your goals, not those who want to sabotage your efforts. When you feel tempted, emotional, or if you have already gotten off-track, turn to your support group. Call a friend, email a family member, or get online to the SparkPeople message boards. Sometimes all you need is a short word of advice from a friendly voice.

Tips at Home
Cooking at home may be the easiest way to control your portions during a meal, but it also presents us with fully-stocked cupboards and refrigerators that can be tempting:

• Bring home Healthy fast food. Try precut, frozen, canned or microwave-in-the-bag vegetables. Automatic portion control.
• Stop the Taste-Testing Habit. If you’re the cook in the family, you may be eating a lot of calories when you taste your foods as you cook. To stop this natural habit, try chewing gum while you prepare you meals. Each time you are tempted to sneak a bite, you’ll have to take the gum out of your mouth. This will make you more conscious of what you’re doing.
• Make fruit your dessert. It’s a great way to get more produce into your diet, and it satisfies the sweet craving many people have after a meal. Experiment with new and exotic fruits. And, when it comes to fruit, eating a little extra isn’t a bad thing.
• Keep your hands busy. Many people want to eat when bored or just out of habit while watching TV. Keep your hands occupied with something else, and you won’t want to eat. Try knitting, painting your nails, shuffling cards, petting your cat—anything that keeps your hands moving will do the trick. Or, keep your whole body busy by doing crunches, squats, lunges or other body exercises while you watch.
• Feeling hungry? Try this first. Try drinking a glass or two of water. Many people mistake what is actually dehydration for hunger.
• When you feel the urge to snack or keep eating, take an exercise break Walk around the block for 5 or 10 minutes, run up and down the stairs, or distract yourself with anything for about 10 minutes. You’ll probably find that you weren’t really hungry, but bored instead.
• Buy snack-size portions. Don’t buy more of your unhealthy snacks just to save a buck or two. If you have trouble controlling yourself—if you eat the whole bag of chips before you realize what you’ve done—then buy snack size items. You can find chips, pretzels, cookies, snack cakes, soda, juice, ice cream, and even cereal in single serving sizes.
• Make a rule that works for you and your family. No eating in front of the TV, in the car, or at your desk. This will help you avoid mindless eating when you’re not hungry.

Tricks for Dining Out
It’s difficult to control your portions—not to mention ingredients and cooking method—when you are at a restaurant. Despite this, there are several things you can control:

• Inquire about portion sizes. If it sounds huge, and it probably is, ask the server to split your entrée in half. Tell them to box up half ahead of time (and maybe even keep it in the kitchen until you’re ready to leave). Or, split the dish with a friend.
• Order ala carte. Many, if not all restaurants are notorious for their enormous portions. When you feel like you can’t win on size, or if even half of an entrée is still way too big, order side items. Most restaurants do offer staples like baked potatoes, steamed fresh veggies, and rice dishes. Or, even if it’s dinnertime, ask for the lunch portion. You may have to pay the dinner price, but you’ll save yourself from eating way too much, and you’ll be much happier about that.
• Decide ahead of time what you’ll order. That way, you won’t be tempted by the less-healthy fare when you look at the menu. If you’re familiar with the menu, don’t even look at it—simply order what you already had in mind.
• Don’t be afraid to make substitutions in ingredients and cooking methods. Many people don’t like to be picky at restaurants, but think of it this way. They’re there to meet your needs and serve you. If they don’t have something you want, ask! Vegetarians and vegans know this scenario all-too-well, because they have to modify almost every dish on the menu to be able to eat it. Waiters and waitresses will want to comply and help out (because it means tips for them), and chefs can easily make modifications. Some things to try:
  • • Different cooking methods. If your dish is fried or high in oil, ask for steamed or stir-fry options.
    • Take something out. Ask for less or complete removal of cheese, sour cream, gravy, special sauces, mayonnaise, etc.
    • Add something new. Ask for extra veggies in your salad, or to add vegetables to a dish (like pizza or pasta) that doesn’t normally contain them.
• Substitute. Get the plain baked potato instead of the mammoth french fries; Ask for grilled chicken on your salad instead of breaded.
• Tell your server you don’t want the free bread, chips, etc. when you first arrive. Or, if you do eat it, let them know that you don’t need another round.
• Ask for dressings, sauces, and condiments on the side. Use just enough to taste. Many "sides" of salad dressings are still 2-5 times as big as the recommended 2-tablespoon servings.
• Don’t pick at the food left on your plate. Put your utensils on your plate so the handles get dirty. You won’t want to pick them up again, and you won’t mindlessly eat more while chatting over dinner. Or, try laying your napkin over top of the remaining food. Out of sight, out of mind.

Resource: SparkPeople.com

Putting yourself first!

You’re a parent, school volunteer, Little League coach, and trusted assistant to your boss. You’ve been up since 6 a.m., made breakfast, packed lunches, cleaned the house, chauffeured the neighborhood kids, helped with homework, read bedtime stories, and finished extra work from the office.It’s 11:30.You’re exhausted.And, in about six-and-a-half hours you’ll begin the whole 24-hour cycle…again.

If you find yourself saying ‘Stop the merry-go-round, I want to get off!’ you’re not alone. Most of us—especially women, but men too (hey, there are reasons that men die younger than women)—have at some time found ourselves at the bottom of the heap when it comes to taking care of our needs.

The problem with that is that if we don’t take care of ourselves, sooner or later we won’t be of much use to anyone else—or to ourselves. Just as the airline attendant tells you to put on your own oxygen mask in an emergency before helping a child with theirs, you must take care of your own basic needs before you can attend to the needs of others. What’s more, being busy is not necessarily the same as being productive with meaningful activity. (Do the workaholics you know really accomplish that much more in proportion to the time they invest?)

If “putting yourself first” (a common admonition) sounds too selfish or too hard, try something simpler: put yourself on an equal footing with those you love and tend to. Do you insist that they get enough sleep? Start making that a priority for yourself too. Do you give them time for fun and socializing with friends? Then you do the same! Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: human beings must meet their basic needs before they can move on to higher-level goals. Since most of us already know that we should take care of ourselves—but often have trouble figuring out how to do it, here are some guidelines for getting there:

• Preserve your physical health with adequate sleep, exercise, and nutrition.
• Value your emotional health as much as the physical, with a support system of friends and a willingness to laugh—especially at yourself.
• Schedule fun activities on a regular basis—it’s just as important to plan pleasure as it is to plan work.
• Identify “busy behaviors” (or people) that drain your time and energy but aren’t really important, then dump ‘em, or at least minimize their hold on you.
• Kill two birds with one stone, combining family time with exercise, for example, which benefits everyone involved.
• Try to look at the problems in your life with new eyes to find solutions. If you’re a new mom, for instance, see if you can trade childcare with another new mom to get some time for yourself.
• Learn to say “No!” Your “yes” is valuable and should not be automatic. Instead, reserve it for the things that are most important to you.
• Don’t try to change every problem area in your life all at once. Start with one or two items, then expand as you get things under control.

Your life should be like a checking account, balancing out on a regular basis so that you always have assets to draw upon. By making even small deposits—taking care of yourself with a 10-minute walk or a nutritious meal—you’ll be amazed at the interest you’ll reap.

What's In Your Fridge?

What's In Your Fridge?

It really is true, If you stock good food, you will eat good food!

Dairy - Low fat Milk, Almond, Rice, Hemp milks--Just be sure there isn’t too much sugar or fat in the kind you prefer.
Cheese - like bleu, goat cheese, or feta are great in salads because you need very little to go a long way. Adding shredded or shaved Parmesan cheese to side dishes, on top of roasted vegetables or as a finish to soups add a nutty flavour and heartiness with few calories. Avoid processed cheeses, waxy, or fat free cheeses. The less flavour, the more inclined you are to add more cheese to the dish.

Eggs - Eggs are the most easily absorbed protein source for our bodies. I keep raw eggs and hard boiled in the fridge, so they are ready for a snack, salad topper, or quick protein to go with my breakfast.

Nuts – In the refrigerator you say? Yes! Nuts are high in fat, which is why you have to be careful about your portions. That fat can turn rancid quickly when left in a pantry. Especially if you buy nuts in bulk, like I do, you should keep them in your refrigerator for freshness.

Lean Meats or Fish – Any raw meats, thawing or fresh, should be on the lowest shelf and in a container to catch any draining liquid. You don’t want that leaking onto your salad greens!

Yogurt – Like many of you, I like Greek yogurt for its lower carbohydrate and high protein amounts.

Salad Fixings – I have found that I dedicate a drawer (or more) to all the ingredients for a salad – salad greens, cucumber, tomato, carrots, or whatever you like. It makes it super easy to throw a salad together when everything is in one place.

Lemons and Limes – A clean eating essential! Lemons and limes are great when cooking, the zest can be used on salads, side dishes, and the juice in salad dressings and marinades. Slices of lemon and lime are a great way to give water a bit of interest.

Fresh Herbs – My dream is to have a massive herb garden.  When you buy herbs, you can wash them and wrap in a damp (not overly wet) paper towel. Place this is a resealable bag and herbs should stay fresh for several days.

Fruit – I like to keep hearty fresh fruit like apples, oranges, and pears in a bowl with bananas on the counter in my kitchen. Statistically, we are more likely to eat what is convenient and what we see. Other, more fragile fruit like berries, grapes, or melons I store in the refrigerator. I line my produce drawers with paper towels for easy clean up in case I should have something go bad or when the drawers need the occasional cleaning.

Other Vegetables – If you are going to have healthy side dishes with your meals, you need to have a variety of vegetables on hand. Of course, you could use frozen (canned is less preferred), but the key is to plan your meals so that good produce doesn’t go to waste.

Prep baggies filled with cut up carrots/celery/cucumber/cherry tomatoes for a quick snack. Pair with hummus and you have a protein and complex carb snack.

Mustard – All kinds! Since mustard is a natural emulsifier (meaning it combines oils and vinegars well), Dijon is great for making your own salad dressings. Mustard can add a lot of flavor when cooking meats or fish and is a great alternative to mayo on sandwiches and wraps.

Hummus, easily substituted for spreads instead of mayo, or dips.

Nut Butter, almond, or natural peanut butter, again easily used to spread on a wrap with banana's or to dip fruit into to.

Breads- wraps, WW English muffins/bagels for the kids, and as a complex carb (slice of bread) to add as a side to a salad.

Water- I buy bottled water, and keep the fridge well stocked so that I always have a cold bottle to add a slice of lemon to or plain to quench my thirst. Some of you may have a water dispenser, or a filtered type like Brita.

What's in your fridge? Make sure its keeping you healthy!!

This will also cut your grocery bill, shop the produce, the meats, and the breads..outside isles!  A few items in the frozen, and a few items in the canned isle.

Stay well! Be well!

6week check in...Making Progress!

Clinical Research has Proven Ultimate Reset Works

Shakeology facts

The one thing that people really should look at before using Shakeology is the Shakeology nutrition facts. Since we’re talking about facts here, I have to be honest with you. When I initially heard about Shakeology I was very skeptical because it sounded like a bunch of hype. I heard a ton of amazing reviews on this product, but I just had a feeling that maybe it was too good to be true. It wasn’t until I took a deep look at the Shakeology nutrition facts that I knew it wasn’t just a bunch of hype…the Shakeology ingredients and shakeology nutrition facts tells the true story on what this stuff can do for you.

The basics of this stuff is that it has 17 grams of carbs, 17 grams of protein, and only 140 calories per serving. It is advertised as a meal replacement that can help you to lose excess weight, reduce food cravings, increase your energy, improve regularity and digestion, as well as to lower cholesterol. Those are some bold claims so let’s dig deeper and go over some of the highlights of what’s inside Shakeology…

The Surprising Facts – Shakeology Nutrition Facts

It Is 100% Natural. One of the things that I personally look at before I start using a supplement is if there is anything in it that is not natural or chemically made. By taking a look at the Shakeology nutrition facts, it is clear that it passes this test. In fact, every single ingredient in it is 100% natural. That means everything comes from mother nature which is VERY impressive. The majority of things we buy from the grocery store today usually are loaded with chemically made ingredients that have little to no nutritional value. That simply means the majority of the foods you eat are doing NOTHING to help maintain/improve your health.

It Has 70 Plus Ingredients From All Around The World. Another very impressive fact about Shakeology is that it has 70 plus ingredients that come from all around the world. The fact of the matter is, that fruit and vegetables today are NOT as nutritious as they used to be due to industrial farming, and the pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and anti-biotics used to boost production. The end result is more calories and less nutrients. Shakeology helps to solve this issue by incorporating exotic superfoods that are LOADED with high concentrations of nutrients to help fight aging and all of the diseases and illnesses our society is plagued with.

Oxygen Women's Fitness | Nutrition | Sugar High: Linking Sugar and Addictive Behavior

Oxygen Women's Fitness | Nutrition | Sugar High: Linking Sugar and Addictive Behavior

Tips to Help your weight

Taken from Oxygen Magazine....

While the science on sugar addiction is still new, researchers have identified several things you can do to break the cravings cycle. Help keep your health and waistline intact with these tips.

1.    Visualize the risks. A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that, during the onset of a craving, picturing the negative consequences of eating something unhealthy (for example, thinking about weight gain or type 2 diabetes while going to town on a cookie) activates parts of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is associated with inhibition and makes you less likely to succumb to cravings. Take this process one step further by imagining how the consequences would actually make you look, feel and behave. Picture the extra weight on your frame, for example, or the way you would react to receiving a type 2 diabetes diagnosis at the doctor’s office.
2.    Think about your goals. Keep a list on your smartphone or create a Pinterest board with images that represent your goals, such as looking and feeling great on vacation. Then, when a craving strikes, turn to your notes or reference your board to keep your health goals in check.

3.    Eat every three to four hours. According to brain scans, high-calorie food appears more rewarding when you’re hungry, reports a not yet published study from Imperial College London. “When you’re hungry, you become even more sensitive to cues in your environment, especially junk food, and they set off a greater rush of dopamine than when you’re satiated,” explains Ashley Gearhardt, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Michigan. Check in with your hunger throughout the day. If level one is starving and 10 is overly full, never drop below a three, she adds.   

4.    Be more mindful. “If you tend to overeat certain foods, get into the habit of writing down how you feel before and after you eat those foods,” advises Nicole Avena, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida. Not only will this help you to notice patterns – for example, you tend to raid the candy jar whenever you feel inadequate at work – it can also derail the cue-eat connection. According to Avena, the greater the time between the cue and the reinforcer, or reward (like that tasty treat you’re craving), the weaker the connection becomes. So while you might give into your sweet craving today, when you get into the habit of pausing and journaling before you eat, that cue will have less power over you down the road. 

5.    Create a healthier environment. Alter your home and workspace to get rid of cues that spark sugar cravings. Take it even further than simply tossing out any junk food. For instance, perhaps a song on your playlist calls to mind a bad breakup, and you suddenly find yourself elbow-deep in caramel popcorn – delete the song. You may not be able to control the environment outside, but you’re in charge of the cues in your personal spaces.

6.    Identify good-for-you distractions. The next time you’re tempted to give into a craving, hit the gym instead for a healthy, feel-good rush. You can also use the information in your journal to identify those times when distractions can save you from sugar, says Gearhardt. For example, if boredom or loneliness set you up for sugar cravings, be proactive with a list of things you can do during those occasions besides eating. Call a friend or family member to catch up; adopt a hobby, like photography or learning to cook healthy foods. When you address the emotions or behaviors with activities besides eating, eventually, they’ll cease to trigger cravings.

7.    Score six to eight hours of sleep per night. “Just like when you’re hungry, your brain is more reactive to cues in the environment when you’re sleep deprived,” says Gearhardt. One reason: a lack of sleep increases hunger hormones that drive you to seek out high-calorie grub.

8.    Surf the craving. “In general, cravings only occur for no more than 20 to 30 minutes,” says Gearhardt. Instead of trying to avoid the sensation of a craving, mindfully notice the physical and mental sensations you feel. Is your heart speeding up? Do you feel a little anxious? Are you obsessing about a certain sweet? “At first, the craving may get worse, but remind yourself that it will eventually go down, then watch the craving decrease,” she advises. Picture the rise, peak and decline like a wave in the ocean, with you along for the ride, surfing it. With some practice, you’ll learn how to avoid giving into the craving when it strikes, so your food urges no longer control your behavior.

Tony Horton Checks Out about Shakeology

Does Ten Minute Trainer Work?

One question I get all the time is ‘Does Ten Minute Trainer Work?’ The answer is a resounding ‘yes!’ But first let’s start with what it is. 10-Minute Trainer® is a time-saving fitness program that lets you build a lean, toned body in as little as 10 minutes a day. Celebrity trainer Tony Horton’s super-efficient workouts combine full-body sculpting with fat-burning cardio, so not a second is wasted. You can get fit, burn fat and build muscle and still have plenty of time left over for the rest of life’s demands.

How Does 10-Minute Trainer Work?

Think of Tony Horton’s Super StackingTM Technique as multitasking for your muscles. Instead of starting with cardio and then working different body parts one at a time, you’ll get fat-burning cardio, total-body toning with resistance bands, and core-flattening ab work stacked together. You can do one 10-minute workout each day, or combine two or three workouts for faster results. And you’ll also get a nutrition plan with quick-to-prepare meals that make fat loss even easier.

Who Will Benefit from 10-Minute Trainer?

If you find your daily routine too hectic to fit in a workout, the 10 minute trainer ensures you are taking a few minutes each day to work towards your health goals. Are you a frequent traveler? The 10-minute trainer is perfect for you as the resistance bands and workout-to-go are incredibly portable – even in your carry-on luggage! Due to a lack of time or motivation many people start skipping workouts that they feel are too daunting. Once a few are missed they are discouraged and give up all together. On the days that you don’t FEEL like exercising the 10-Minute Trainer is PERFECT. You are guaranteed to feel more energized and proud that you dedicated some time (even just 10 minutes) to your health. It’s a great workout when you are feeling unmotivated. It ensures you DON’T fall off the fitness wagon!

The Base Kit Includes

5 workouts, each 10 minutes or less: Firms and tightens your abs and core • Slims and strengthens your lower body • Burns calories and fat with heart-pounding cardio • Uses yoga to stretch and increase flexibility • Builds strength and tones your entire body
Extra bonus workout: Fat-Burning Express (approx. 35 mins.) • Boosts your metabolism with an extended cardio workout for extra fat burning.
Customized Workout Calendar: Plan your workouts around your busy schedule Tony Horton’s 10-Minute Meals • Tony shows you how to make nutritious, tasty, low-calorie meals and snacks in less than 10 minutes
On-the-Go Workout Cards: Work out without a DVD player—put these cards in your purse or pocket and you’ll always have your routines with you
2-Day Jump Start Plan: Shed excess pounds and inches in just 2 days. Get a healthy, energetic head start on reaching your goals

Get Results FASTER

The best way to meet your weight loss and health goals is to combine an effective home workout like 10-Minute Trainer with Shakeology nutrition support (Tony Horton loves it!) and a FREE positive and encouraging accountability partner — a Beachbody Coach. The 10-Minute Trainer Challenge Pack gives you EVERYTHING you need to be successful. When you purchase a challenge pack I will add you to a private facebook challenge group so I can personally support you on your fitness journey. No extra cost! Consider me as your FREE coach. I will provide you with a positive and inspiring environment so you keep pushing play and achieve your goals. I can’t wait to see you in my next challenge group!

About 10-Minute Trainer Creator Tony Horton

After working out with champion bodybuilders, Tony adapted their fitness secrets into exercises anyone could do to get a lean, defined body—without the bulk. He took this knowledge out of the gym and developed it into the nation’s top- selling home fitness programs. A master instructor and motivator, he’ll demonstrate exactly what to do during each workout, and keep you inspired so you’ll want to do them every day.

Ultimate Reset

Here is a phenomenol way to feel so much better in 21 days.

Customer Success with Challenge Groups

See how the challenge has changed lives

Goals

What are your goals? Have you written down 10 things that you want to achieve in the next year?  That's what I have done. They have to be really big. really dream on this one.

When you are done, put a star next to the goal that is really going to make all those other come together.  I have my list I have my starred goal.  Now to FOCUS on that main one and make all those other one's fall into place. 

I used to just dream about specific things I wanted, but never took the time to actually put pen to paper.  If you write it down it somehow becomes more real. I really want changes in my life and I am sure you do.  I have watched the movie "The Secret" and it keeps reflecting on one major task to ensure success in the things you want.  You have to believe it, you have to know it is already true.  You have to put a date, you have to be specific in the EXACT thing you want.

If you can Dream it, then Believe it, and YOU WILL ACHEIVE IT!!!!

Focus friends and Dream Big, Together we will have everything the Universe is capable of giving us.

Poached Eggs Florentine

Excellent way to have your "Eggs benedict" and Keep it Clean.  Follow the link for the recipe. :)



Oxygen Women's Fitness | Nutrition | Poached Eggs Florentine

Making time for you

How many days of the week do you find time for yourself? I know we are all busy. We have families and work and friends and errands to run. Have you thought that with all you do for others when will you find time for you? You will have the strength to give more when you start giving to yourself.

Maybe you wake up an hour earlier to go workout. Maybe you take an hour after dinners done and the kids are tucked in bed. Either way you have to find time to take care of you. Exercise and good nutrition will lead you into feeling good and more confident and increase your energy.

Make the time!! Do something for you!! Your body will love you for it and the calmness you get will in turn radiate toward your friends and family. You should feel proud of your accomplishments.

Now is good as any time to make yourself a priority. What are you waiting for? Get to it!!!!

Pesto Quinoa Salad

What You’ll Need:
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup low sodium vegetable stock (or water!)
7 thin stalks asparagus, sliced diagonally into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup diced sweet bell peppers (any color)
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes
5 artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained, and halved (or quartered if larger)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley (plus additional to garnish, if desired)
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon pesto
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste


What to Do:In a small saucepan, cook the quinoa in the vegetable stock over medium heat, covered, for 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.
Immediately after removing the saucepan from the stove, add the chopped asparagus and cover. Allow the asparagus to steam lightly inside the pot with the quinoa for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare all other veggies and herbs. Toss them together in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, combine the balsamic vinegar with pesto until smooth.
Pour it into the large bowl of veggies, along with the chickpeas, quinoa, and asparagus.
Stir to coat and season with sea salt and black pepper, to taste.
Serve the salad warm or cold.
Enjoy it immediately, or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

3 Day Detox..and you eat real food with it :)

Hey all!!
On March 25th, 2013 I am going to be partaking in a 3 day detox.  No starvation required!!! Easily lose a few pounds, and feel lighter, and more energized.  Great for those of you who have indulged a little too much lately.

I will be drinking my Shakeology shake 2-3 times per day and in-between eating small clean meals, and drinking lots of water.

Here is a sample of the 3 day Detox...I bet every single one of you can do this.
If you need Shakeology, you can order it HERE from Beachbody.

Eat-Clean Dessert? Snack? Quick Pick-me-Up?

Ingredients
•2 large bananas (can be a few days old for easier mashing)
•1 cup quick-cooking oats
•Mix-ins of your choice (I used dark chocolate chips and a pinch of cinnamon)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl. Add the oats and whichever mix-ins you choose (the Burlap Bag recommends a handful of dark chocolate chips, crushed walnut pieces, cinnamon or raisins - I chose dark chocolate chips and cinnamon) and mix.
3. Shape into balls with your hands and place on a baking pan covered with parchment paper (I used parchment instead of greasing the pan). Press down into a disc shape if desired.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes (mine were done after 12).
5. Enjoy!

Yield: 12-16 cookies
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 12-15 minutes