Healthy Habits and Hints
People ask me all the time what I do as far as health goes so the following are all things I personally practice.
Anyone having some health tips you practice and would like to share lets us know and we will add them.
All of the foods mentioned are organic.
Take a probiotic like Jarow-Dolphius every morning an excellent way to start the day. Great product.
Comes in a brown box at most any health food stores.
I make a quart of tea every day in a mason jar. I always put three bags of the Good Earth decaf original blend, sweet and spicy. Then I add a couple of decaf green teas or maybe some Guayaki Yerbe Matte lately some Good Earth decaf Vanilla Chai (black tea is very good for us too). This gives me a good blend of teas and lots of antioxidants and water. I sip it all morning or take it and drink it in my Camelbak on the road.
Make a blender drink every morning. I use almond milk, rice milk or hemp milk. Almond is lower in calories than the other two I have been using that more lately. All are great for blender drinks. I haven’t drank milk since I was about 18. I think milk is poison. I always add frozen bananas, this makes the drink for me. I also add blueberries, strawberries and sometimes peaches, nectarines, and always ginger, flax meal. Maca Magic and of course Blender Culture.
Tip: Get a coffee grinder to grind up your flax seeds into a fine meal. Putting whole flax seeds into your blender drink without grinding them well first you will not get as much omega 3 fatty acids and it is mostly fiber I put about 40 grams which is a lot but I use it as fiber and the omega 3’s. Grinding first gives you both. Try starting out with about a tbs and work up.
Eat one or two apples a day. I find it is easier to cut them into about eight pieces than eating them whole and take them with me and eat that for snack. Make fruit salads with soy yogurt. The pectin in apples is very detoxifying to the colon.
Eat only whole grains. Pasta, brown rice, breads. Lots of fiber is very important.
I eat oatmeal a few times a week generally midmorning and weekends with cinnamon, raisins and sweetened with agave nectar, or pure maple syrup.
I make a molasses drink using Wholesome Sweeteners Blackstrap molasses this is the highest in potassium I have found by far.
I make a stir fry 2-3 times a week with Beets, Broccoli, yellow squash, carrots with Quinoa or Brown Rice. Lots of other wonderful grains to use. Often with crushed garlic and chopped ginger. Spiced with Turmeric and Curry.
Only steam the harder veggies broccoli (stocks too), beets, carrots only about 4-5 minutes max. Yellow squash, zucchini, beet greens, kale only a couple of minutes or put it directly into your stir fry.
Make sweet potato soup with almond milk really great . Sweet potatoes are ranked the highest of all vegetables for nutritional value. Or of course just steam them and eat.
Kombucha made by Synergy. I love the Gingerberry and the Passion Berry Bliss. Expensive at $3 a bottle but you need to drink about ¼ of the bottle a day. Very powerful. Found at major health markets
Take a Garlic pill Garlinase from Enzymatic Therapy is an excellent product I take one a day. No odor! Helps to detoxify the lymph system.
Drink apple cider vinegar with your water once a day or more.
Meat substitutes
These are all very yummy.
Celebration Field Roast. I have been getting it up here at PCC in the Seattle area. It is really great I Love this stuff. Made with Vital wheat gluten but do not use if you have Celiac’s disease or are gluten intolerant.
Quorn is a product that is made from mushroom that is really great they have products like faux chicken patties.
Torfurkey is really good Turkey substitute and they have a wonderful gravy that I use with the Field Roast also.
Nate’s Zesty Italian Meatless Meatballs
Gardenburger blackbean chipotle veggie burgers
Exercise, exercise, exercise.
Find something you enjoy doing and do it a lot. For me it is a Concept2 rowing ergometer. Also ellipticals and treadmills at a 15 degree angle. Lots of wt lifting and stretching, hiking and Mt biking. Love to chop and split wood.
I use a stability balance ball and lie on it everyday usually multiple times. Master the ball and it will improve your balance. Even just lying on it and stretching will cause you to use stabilizing muscles you do not generally use. Great for doing crunches on as it gives great back support. Fill it so it is fairly firm. I rarely go to the chiropractor anymore since I have been doing this.
Bosu balls are also great. Flat side up for doing squats and other exercises like curls, dumb bell laterals or presses. This will take some time to master so hold on at first. All good gyms have stability balls and Bosu balls now. Also will help balance a lot. Even just standing on it will improve stabilizing muscles.
Interval training. I do intervals a couple of days a week. Easy to do even on a treadmill or outdoor trail or on a bike just go faster for a couple minutes and then slower or elevate up hill for a few minutes. Be very warmed up first at least 10 minutes. Fast pace should be difficult to talk. Run walk on a trail. Lots of ways to do intervals.
Never Never Never
I know sometimes we have to do some of the following like getting stuck with friends at a restaurant. Hard to be perfect all the time but as little as possible.
Never drink tap water or water in a plastic bottle. Get a home water filtration system. Tap water can contain thousands of chemicals especially pesticides. Good systems will remove almost everything including lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic. Most do not remove fluoride which many people see as toxic. There are systems that remove everything and fluoride but are expensive. If you are dehydrated and are stuck better to drink tap water than be dehydrated, so planning is important.
If you carry water around with you get a Camelbak which are available at The Container Store’s and REI and other places, Cost about $12-$14
Common plastic bottles have Bi-Phenol A or BPA and this bottle does not. It is the best water bottle I have ever used as it has an ingenious straw like system so you can even be on an ellipitical and not spill. They now have a bigger size than the 24 oz size that I have. You must keep BPA out of your body. I cant believe everyone is running around drinking toxic tap water out of toxic plastic water bottles and then throwing away the bottles it is an environmental disaster.
Never eat anything white, not flour, not rice and most of all no white sugar.
Never drink sugar water as in Coke, Pepsi and all the rest. This is one of the biggest reasons for the current obesity and diabetes epidemic in this country.
Diet cokes or diet anything, poison to the body.
Never eat at a fast food restaurant.
Never hang one of those “air fresheners” (containing formaldehyde) in your car. You're breathing chemicals if you do.
Never drink Ensure or other similar products as this is the same as drinking sugar water with cheap vitamins added.
"Excellent supply of greens and fruits with almost no filler and the price is very compelling."
60 servings for $33.95
Berry flavor tastes great
even in water!
How much do you pay for 300 servings of fruits and vegetables?
