Essential Oils!

Essential Oils

My friend Jackie and I attended an amazing seminar put on by the Westchester/Rockland Dietetics Association in White Plains, NY the previous Thursday. We were at our wits end between massive amounts of tests, papers, presentations, projects and getting sick. I had not been this sick in well over five years since I overhauled my diet to a mostly plant-based way of eating. I did not know what to do and kept wondering how could this happen to me? How had my body let me down? Or maybe I had let it down by not relaxing at all, by not eating properly and by not exercising. Either way my life was on a sort of hold since I couldn’t keep my eyes open from the sinus pain I was experiencing. I had self-diagnosed myself as having a sinus infection which I used to experience a couple of times a year prior to removing dairy from my life. I rested the whole weekend in hopes that I would be up and running by Monday when I had a test. I was not up and running to say the least, I could barely walk and keep my eyes open so I did not do well on that test, something I hadn’t truly experienced in a nutrition class before. I knew I had to take control of the situation and so I did.

I had read about oil of oregano many times through my alternative medicine research and seeing the headline of its powers as I scrolled my Facebook and peaked at the natural living blogs I followed. I didn’t know just how amazing oil of oregano was until I actually experienced this magnificent oil. 

I clearly am not endorsing any particular kind and as usual when trying something new or looking outside the box for your healthcare it is best to read reviews or speak to a professional.  I picked the brand shown here, went to my local health food store and thankfully picked it up. I followed the directions (2-3 drops either under the tongue or in tea, water or another liquid-I used seltzer!) and within an hour I actually felt better! I felt like my head wasn’t entirely weighed down with huge black bricks, you know those ones in swim classes that you had to pick up and bring to the surface as the “challenge” of the day? 

Well that’s what felt like had been sitting on my face and head. I could finally open my eyes fully without immense pain. I was so thrilled I wanted to shout from the rooftops about just how incredible this product was! I did my version of the rooftop yelling by telling anyone that was sick or asked how I was doing, “well you see this oil of oregano stuff does really work!” I continued taking the oil every day and continued to improve, I wasn’t 100% immediately but the difference was phenomenal. Below is a small list of what this oil can do!:

-free radical crushing antioxidants

-fights infection

-contains magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, and E

-enhancing digestive process

-alleviates sinus and cold issues

 After my experience with oil of oregano I was even more excited to attend the essential oils seminar that Jackie and I had signed up for. I had always wanted to get more interested in essential oils but never felt I had the time, well this illness clearly showed me that I better make the time, my body wasn’t going to just keep going like this, I needed to take an active role in helping my body be the best version possible. The seminar was led by Marie Ruggles, RD, MS CN, CDE who not only was extremely knowledgeable in essential oils but was an RD, she had gone through the same science based education that I was currently working my way through, worked in a hospital with kidney patients, done all of the ‘conventional’ things that RDs can do and then discovered essential oils and how they might not only help those around her but might help those within her practice. 

Needless to say I am working on incorporating more essential oils into my life and finally using that wonderful diffuser I bought a year ago!

Vegan Pizza!

Vegan Pizza!

Pizza is one of my favorite foods! However, pizza ordered from a take-out place is not always the healthiest food so if possible make your own!   

-1 Whole wheat pizza dough (fresh obtained from your local grocery store, Trader Joe’s etc. read the ingredients)

-1/2 glass jar of organic tomato sauce (Trader Joe’s also has this)

-1/2 tbsp olive oil

-1/2 sliced onion

-2-3 bulbs of garlic

-1/2 cup black olives (or more if you're like me and love olives!)

-1 cup of non-dairy Mozzarella (Daiya or other brand)

-1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves

-1/2 tsp oregano (I have also used the Italian spice from Trader Joe’s)

-1 cup of fresh organic broccoli

-1 cup of organic white mushrooms

Preheat the oven according to the dough’s packaging (usually 450˙) and roll out the pizza dough. I also use cornmeal when rolling out the dough to give it a little bit of a crunch when it is done baking. Put onto pizza pan, spread around about the olive oil and tomato sauce.

Sauté onion and garlic for a few minutes and place onto the pizza dough.

Put ½ cup of the Daiya on top, then the broccoli, mushrooms, olives and spices. After this top it off with a little bit more sauce (if you’d like) and the other ½ cup of Daiya.

Cook according to package, usually around 20 minutes depending on how crunchy you like your crust.

Enjoy!

Tofu Scramble Happiness

When I have time to make breakfast I love to make a tofu scramble. For years I have tried to perfect my recipe and although it changes from time to time the below recipe is what I tend to start with. I took the recipe from one of my favorite bloggers the Minimalist Baker and changed it a bit. The picture of my creation is on my website, which you might have seen to get to this recipe! The tofu scramble is a great breakfast to start your day, protein, fiber and vegetables! 

Tofu Scramble Happiness

Serves about 2 or 1 person for two breakfasts!

8 oz extra firm tofu (organic if possible)

1 tbsp olive oil (about)

2-3 cups of organic spinach

½ a purple onion (can sub with white onion)

½ red or yellow bell pepper

2 garlic cloves

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ tsp turmeric

½ tsp mustard powder

 -Take out tofu and dry by putting paper towel around it and putting something heavy on top in order to help liquid drain out

-While the tofu is drying out make a sauce by combining the mustard powder, turmeric and salt and pepper with a little bit of water or oil to make an almost pourable sauce

-After slicing the onion, mincing the garlic cloves and cubing the bell pepper add them to a pan with the olive oil

-While this is going on cut the tofu and use a fork to crumble into small pieces.

-Take the tofu and mix it with the sauce created earlier and then put the tofu into the pan with the onion, garlic cloves and bell pepper

Homemade Vegetable Soup

For my mom’s birthday several years ago my friend and I made an amazing vegetable soup. On my website the beautiful picture of the soup is there which you know if that's how you got to this recipe in the first place! 

Great vegetable soup recipe:

Serves about 8

1 box of low sodium vegetable broth (organic if possible)

8 potatoes cut into cubes

1 bunch of Bok choy ripped or cut into pieces

2 chopped red bell peppers

4 celery stalks 

½ of an onion

4 whole carrots cut

2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast

2-3 bay leaves

2-3 garlic gloves

1tbsp of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

First put the bay leaves and the vegetable broth into large pot on low heat. Next chop up the onions and garlic gloves and sauté in separate pan. After those are cooking cut up the potatoes and the carrots and put into the large pot with the vegetable broth. Once the potatoes and carrots are cooking cut up the rest of the vegetables and add them along with the nutritional yeast. 

Fundraising!

Food. Something I thought I knew so much about until I actually went to school for nutrition. It has been an amazing journey along this path of discovery and one of the most difficult things I have ever done. My goal throughout the application process is to try to document it via this blog or at the very least talk about current nutrition issues.

I have finally gotten some progress made on my website! I actually somehow ended up creating two websites so one will have to go eventually but here are the links so feel free to take a look and comment.
http://hotgreenlife.weebly.com/
https://about.me/negrinleah

I will be using the weebly one for my applications so any constructive criticism would be greatly helpful!

I am going to post again about fundraising for my amazing half marathon. As previously mentioned I am running the NYC half in order to raise money for an amazing charity, Back On My Feet. Below is a quote from one of the members and it just illustrates so well why this program is so important!

 “Before I used to hear people say that they ran 8 miles in the morning, and I didn’t believe them.  I thought that they were making it up; it wasn’t possible.  Now I’m one of those people running 8 miles in the morning.  It makes me realize that there are other things that I can do now that I thought were impossible before.”

Back On My Feet helps inspire so many people to move forward in their lives and see that there is a way to get out of whatever situation they might be in. Hopefully we can all be as successful as the member quoted above.

DONATE!

https://www.crowdrise.com/BackOnMyFeetNYCHalf16/fundraiser/leahnegrin

Training and Applying

It has been a very long while since I have had the time or the motivation to write on my blog. School takes up almost every single moment of my life. Dietetic programs are typically very difficult and LIU’s is no different. This program has taught me quite a bit about our anatomy, why people eat the way they do and how to help them as well as just how hard I can work and succeed, even at things like organic chemistry! It has been a roller coaster year with such highs and such lows it’s hard to remember them all. School will ultimately be worth it, being a Registered Dietitian is a dream of mine that is getting closer and closer to coming true. During this semester we are also applying for our Dietetic Internship which I call a residency as that seems to be the best way to describe it. We have different rotations, often in the hospital for our clinical rounds as well as a food service rotation and a community rotation. 

Another huge part of my life right now besides the application process is the training program that I am starting in order to run the NYC Half Marathon which takes place in March 2016. I am running to raise funds for a great charity called Back on My Feet which “uses running to help individuals experiencing homelessness change the way they see themselves so that they can make real changes resulting in employment and independent living.” 

I am very excited about running this race for an actual cause as I normally simply sign up for a race and run it. There is occasionally a cause that my race entry fee is donated towards but I haven’t yet had the experience of fundraising for an organization in order to race. I find it so refreshing to be doing this activity I love all the while helping others.

My blogs going forward will likely be a mix of my paralal training and application journeys. I hope reading about these massive undertakings will help those out there for next year's dietetic internship application process or those that are training for a half marathon! I am looking forward to sharing in the upcoming months!

If you would like to donate to Back on My Feet to help me reach my fundraising goal, the link to my fundraising page is below.

https://www.crowdrise.com/backonmyfeetnychalf16/fundraiser/leahnegrin

Post Race Food

Hi everyone! It’s been far too long since I've actually posted anything on my blog, life just took over and so many changes occurred! The largest one I guess I would say is that I went back to school for a second bachelors in Nutrition in order to be a Registered Dietitian and help people eat right and live longer, healthier lives! The journey is ridiculously hard as I’m not truly a chemistry person and the first year and a half of the program is a lot of chemistry! More about my journey as I try to keep up with my blogging starting now! I did a wonderful race yesterday, a 5K, nothing insanely difficult but since I broke my foot last September and it still acts up every once and awhile it can make running consistently really difficult.

Now I know we all are thankful for the food post a hard 5k, 10k, half marathon and so on but the last few races I've been privileged to run have had some less than stellar nutritional choices available post run.  First off, and most offensive are pork rinds, that's right they were serving pork rinds at a race supporting funding for cancer research.  This disgusting product shouldn't be a part of anyone's diet, ever, but most especially those receiving treatment or in remission from cancer-very disturbing to me. Second, comes a very common one, Skippy peanut butter, let's be real most of us know there are very few real ingredients in this 'peanut butter'. My parents use it on the rare occasion they have to trap a mouse, they wouldn't actually consume it themselves. The ingredients in the regular fat version are: Roasted peanuts-everyone should attempt to have organic if possible and raw peanuts are best, sugar-as a country we consume far too much of this ingredient, hydrogenated vegetable oils (cottonseed, soybean, and rapeseed)-hydrogenated oils have been shown to cause high cholesterol as they are a form of trans fats and all three of these oils are part of the genetically modified organism (GMO) family, which should be avoided and lastly salt. The scary part isn't even above, which is scary enough for me to never pick up the stuff but when you choose the low fat version of this ‘peanut butter’ you get all sorts of other additives: Roasted peanuts, corn syrup solids, sugar, soy protein, salt, hydrogenated vegetable oils (cottonseed, soybean and rapeseed, mono and diglycerides, minerals (magnesium oxide, zinc oxide, ferric orthophosphate, copper sulfate), vitamins (niacinamide, pyridoxide hydrochloride, folic acid). So as you can see you are getting a whole lot more than you should in your ‘peanut butter’.

I know it might be wrong to complain about free food after a race, I just feel runners know better than to put this junk in their bodies so why not serve us better products? Hell I'd even be willing to pay a couple more dollars for post-race food I'd actually eat. Just felt like sharing this, maybe get some conversation started, and maybe even make a change!