Today is Friday-#1 positive of the moment! I am finding so many people around me that are looking to eat better and take care of themselves; it is truly uplifting and exciting! As I continue to use Myfitnesspal.com I feel myself getting healthier, whether that’s true or not who knows but at least I am conscious of the calories I have been consuming. The next step is to get back to exercising-because as we all know that is not always easy to keep up. So I’m writing today because I felt like jotting down my thoughts on current situations not because I have any profound information J I received a recipe today in my email from Kathy Freston, she’s lovely and an inspiration to all the wanna be healthy eaters out there. She is all about leaning into a healthy lifestyle so if you don’t think going anywhere near plant based is for you she talks about how to do it, one step at a time. The recipe she sent is below; I am determined to make this in the next few weeks as it sounds AMAZING. Let me know if anyone makes it and what they think!

French Toast with Fruit Compote   

Makes 4 servings

For the French Toast:

1 cup soy milk

2 Tbsp. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. vegan butter

8 slices of whole grain bread

Veggie sausage

Maple syrup to taste

·  Whisk together the soy milk, flour, cinnamon, and vanilla.

·  Dip the bread into the soy milk mixture and soak for a few seconds until some of the liquid is absorbed but not mushy.

·  Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a skillet. Cook the bread until golden on both sides. Serve with the compote and a side of veggie sausage.

For the Compote:

2 cups strawberries, sliced

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

2 Tbsp. orange juice or 2 Tbsp agave nectar (optional)

·  Cook the berries in juice over medium-low heat until soft and warm. Season with agave to taste.

Food!

My my my isn’t food just the most complicated thing out there? Besides love, war and you know other assorted things, but really how much does food rule your world? I think about it all the time, I think about what I’m going to eat, what I’m eating, what I should eat, what I shouldn’t eat, why can’t I eat that and all three pounds of it? Over and over throughout the day food circles my mind and takes over any rational thought. I am one of those people that can rationalize any food at any time of day, if I want it, it’s ‘oh I need that, I’ve had a rough week’ or really just a few won’t matter’ or ‘whatever I just WANT it’. This makes keeping my weight in check a very very very difficult thing to do. It does not help that I am often around those that do not eat small portions and therefore I think, ‘well if they can eat it, why can’t I?’ and the answer to that is, I care too much about what goes into my body to be overly cruel to it. I have a love hate relationship with my body as most of us do. I love it for all that it does everyday, all of the breaths I am able to take, all of the different movements I can do, it is a truly magnificent machine. But there are times I don’t understand it, why on earth can’t it behave itself and not gain weight or help me out a little with loosing weight.  But overall like any machine it needs the right fuel and sometimes the mind and the body just don’t agree on what I should be eating! So I started a different approach, an online approach, http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ , it is so helpful! I used to write down my calories before but this is awesome because you can have friends on it, you can log your calories, your workouts and it gives you goals, it’s great. So hopefully with the help of this online program I can get my eating and life back in control!

What inspires us?

I have decided, based on a wonderful friend's recommendation, to write what I am inspired by. I had to think about this though, because unfortunately it's not every day that I am inspired by something. I think it would be great to live a life where something inspires you every single day, maybe that will be my new goal. For now, today what has inspired me are the great workouts I have been having and the idea of Israeli breakfasts twice a month at work! I shall explain.

Well the workouts part is pretty self explanatory; I have been back on track! Not only working out every day as I should be but actually running more than a mile! It is hard to believe that last year at this time I had just run a half marathon, but never mind that, I’m working my way back and training for the 4 mile race I have on June 3^rd and the 10K I have on June 9^th! I can and will run these races!  

As for the Israeli breakfasts twice a month, this was a great idea thought up by my co-worker who has a sister in Tel Aviv (AMAZING!) and brought in this morning Israeli pita straight from the holy land! We were discussing how much we missed the food in Israel, especially the breakfasts! For breakfast it’s usually Israeli salad (pictured below), hummus, pita, other assorted vegetables, chopped salads, shashuka (although that is eggs so I will not be having any of that), Israeli Nutella (can’t remember that name) and other amazing things. So those are my two inspiring things for today, hopefully as the day goes on I will find more and more things to be inspired by.

I should actually post my Passover Seder recipes and of course pictures of the finished products, I will try next week!

Hag Samech! (Happy Holiday)

Hair loss anyone?

Hi everyone!

There have been several people in my life that have requested information about their hair falling out. There can be MANY reasons for this occurrence but the first thing to remember is to NOT worry! Worry and stress are one of the primary causes of hair falling out! Once you start breathing normally again think about what in your life is stressing you out? Your job? Your relationship? Your home? Could be anything but take a moment to think about it and see if you can’t think of something relaxing to do to counter it. After that please read the below information to combat hair loss naturally.

Below is a list of nutrients that can affect hair:

Omega 3's: I get this from eating flax seeds and taking a vegetarian supplement (picture enclosed).
Protein: generally you have to be super deficient for this to happen which in America is pretty rare. I have a previous blog on protein to ensure that we get enough!
http://hotgreenlife.blogspot.com/2011/06/protein-sources-for-vegans.html
Iron: Broccoli and Bok Choy (also have calcium which causes this type of iron to be absorbed nicely), soybeans, lentils, spinach, quinoa, tofu (tofu and broccoli together is another winning combo in terms of calcium absorption), tempeh, lima beans, swiss chard, beans, turnip greens, potato, and chickpeas.
B vitamins: Most Vegans and Vegetarians take a B12 supplement or a B complex so in theory most of us that are doing that should be okay. However, the b vitamins that are mentioned are in regards to hair loss issues are:
B7 or Vitamin H (Biotin): daily dose is 300mcg
B5 Pantothenic acid

These are present, besides in a B complex supplement in the following:
B7 or Biotin: carrots, mushrooms, cauliflower, bananas, and yeast (nutritional yeast is the best! It's amazing on popcorn and as a ‘mac and cheese’ substitute as well as having a lot of b vitamins, including b12)
B5: potatoes, vegetables, and whole grains (quinoa, millet, rice, MAYBE pasta)

Other random ideas:
Apple cider vinegar and sage tea applied directly to the scalp (thought to stimulate hair growth)
Psoralea seeds (a chinese herb applied to the scalp)
Ginger (taken as a tea or applied to the scalp)

One of my Omega 3 sources

Eggs-what do to?

Good morning everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine wasn’t too bad but involved some weird food issues. I think it was from eating too much since it happened after several things, such as this amazing brunch that I had (heavy {compared to my usual consumption} on the tofu and soy), my dinner which was some wheat pasta and green beans and my dinner last night which was white (I know the horrors) pasta with broccoli, olive oil and garlic. So I’m unsure of what it could be, wheat was in everything I ate this weekend, it’s possible my body was just annoyed at the larger than usual quantity of it? It’s also possible I just had too much food at once, a clear possibility on the weekend actually. I think I will try limiting further my consumption of wheat, whenever I have brown rice pasta this stuff never happens; I feel light and happy! I was tested for celiac a few years ago when my sister was diagnosed but that test result was a big fat negative. Basically my stomach got hugely bloated, I was feverish, achy stomach and couldn’t sleep, it was terrible. So I'm thinking, limit the huge weekend eating and watch what happens as it could have just been that and not the gluten issue (I think I'm trained to think of gluten as a serious culprit due to my sister's diagnosis!)

Second topic for today’s blog is eggs! (Hence the title) I have to say there are two things that I miss in regards to being a vegan; eggs and CHEESE. Like honestly cheese is incredible but I have just read too many things about what is really in it and how badly it can effect our bodies that I just couldn’t go back, there would be no way (I never say never but I'm thinking I won't, unless of course I'm raising my own cows and then we can discuss). Not to mention the horrible animal cruelty associated with it all! However, with eggs, I would never eat the conventional eggs, the ones I have no idea where they are coming from or what kind of torture the poor hens endure and what antibiotics/growth hormones the poor animals are fed but I would think about it if I knew where the eggs were coming from, for real, not just trusting the government because as we know they aren’t to be trusted when it comes to our food. So those are my thoughts this morning as I see people eating egg white sandwiches with spinach or an egg white omelet with broccoli, garlic, peppers, oh the list goes on!

As part of my thinking I began some research to see what I could find out about true organic eggs. The first link at the bottom is a great article regarding whether organic eggs are actually organic. The second is a study done by a non-profit that rates different organic eggs based on quite a bit of criteria! I found one brand I could get in Whole Foods that I MIGHT consider, or use when absolutely necessary; Vital Farms in Austin Texas. Take a look at the survey and the results and let me know what you think!

 FYI:

In a 2007 egg-testing project, Mother Earth News compared the official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs with eggs from hens raised on pasture and found that the latter typically contains:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

The dramatically superior nutrient levels are most likely the result of the differences in diet between free ranging, pastured hens and commercially farmed hens.”

http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/organic-eggs-created-equal-new-scorecard/
http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/

Green juice, depression, and love

These last few days have been rough. Not as rough as some people have it obviously but depressing nonetheless. I didn’t get something that I truly wanted and felt that I deserved; I have been working on picking myself back up and focusing on the good things in my life, of which there are many. My current situation can make that difficult but of course necessary. I’m lucky that I can pick myself up out of this, many people cannot. I’ve even been so depressed that I've even thought about the possibility of going back on my depression meds, which is crazy for me in the sense that I believe most things can be fixed by environment and food. My environment is not so hot but I am doing well on the food so that’s great. We’ll focus on that!

Yesterday and today I have purchased two green juices (see picture below) and I can’t tell you how amazing that feels. I need to have them everyday! They are so amazingly delicious. Obviously I will need to cut it to a few times a week as I cannot afford $5 a day! That’s $25 a week! I need to figure out a way to have enough time to make juice instead of buying it!

I also went to the gym this morning instead of sleeping in! I went out last night to celebrate my sister finishing the GRE and of course was feeling a bit hungover this morning but I beat it at the gym! Yay for working out instead of being lazy and I would probably have had a bagel too! I also tried Edamame hummus from Trader Joes, another fantastic purchase! So delicious!



Amazing dark chocolate from Trader Joes!



Green juice heaven!



The card I bought myself!



Edamame Hummus!

 

Oats, Vitamins and Soy Feta

Good afternoon everyone!

Although I'm of course tired this afternoon, I’m fairly upbeat. Had a great lunch with coworkers then bought some amazing new vitamins! I also have been having amazing breakfasts lately, something that excites me as breakfast is my favorite meal of the day! This week I had some of the oats pictured below, they are fantastic! They are hearty, flavorful and filling. Oddly enough I’m not hungry after eating these, which can sometimes happen with oats or even cereals. Just wanted to share the excitement of a new breakfast!

I also tried a soy feta cheese! Now I generally don’t eat a TON of imitation things but sometimes things like this pop up and I just have to try them. It was delicious! Decently like real feta and overall tasty! I enclosed pictures for what it looks like and the ingredients.

Vitamins! I had been meaning to go out and buy some vitamin D as the summer has sadly ended here in NYC as well as some new B12. I ended up buying something called Holy Basil. I laughed at first, “really, holy basil?!” lol but my coworker Terri has been taking it and she said it is doing wonders so we shall see! I bought my vitamin D, Omega 3's wth DHA and EPA, and of course the Holy Basil and B12. Yay for trying to be healthier!



Piece of Soy Feta!

 New amazing oats!

My Vitamin collection!