Do You Intentionally get Hot?

Getting hot intentionally

 Do you intentionality get hot through sauna, hot baths, infra red, steam showers?

We hear a lot of talk today about intentionally getting cold, cold plunges, for good reason. There are endless benefits to cold exposure. What about heat, sauna therapy? Are there any health benefits and should you be adding it into your healthy routine?

Here is a run down of some of the health benefits of heat therapy:

Muscle- blood is pumped into your muscles as your core temperature heats up, bringing nutrients, oxygen and takes out damaged parts of the cells, similar to exercise. If you aren't a big fan of exercise, or can't for some reason, heat therapy provides similar benefits to muscles as exercise. Unless you are unable to exercise, heat therapy shouldn't be a replacement for exercise, but an option, a way to get in a "cardio" workout.

Bone- blood is sent to the bones which in turn increases nutrients and the release of stem cells from the bones. These stem cells are able to self-renew and become other cells from muscle to brain to blood to other organs. An increase in the release of stem cells can help the body heal, repair and regenerate itself. Deep levels of healing.

Immune support- important heat shock proteins are released improving the overall immune system. Antioxidants are also increased throughout the body furthering the immune benefits.

Honoring Yourself

 

What is the difference between those who make a decision to change, set a new goal in life, decide to lose weight, change a habit, implement a new virtue into their lives, who succeed and those who do not? 

I believe one of the biggest difference is, those who succeed have committed to themselves, they honor themselves and the commitments they have made to themselves. They have an unbreakable bond with themselves. They also have the courage to continue to struggle, pursue, try, even when it doesn't workout in their favor immediately, takes a long time, even years decades to accomplish what they set out to do. They have a relentlessness deep inside themselves. It is different than motivation. 
 
You can have all the motivation in the world. You can be as motivated as you want. Motivation is fleeting, it has an expiration period. You have this great idea, go to a conference and be all hyped up, be on fire,  you are going to do this no matter what. The speakers were so motivated, high energy, cheer leader you up! You can do this! Go after everything you want! You come away on a motivation high! Then you find yourself at home a several days weeks later and where is that motivation? That fire that was burning so bright it could be seen from outer space? Motivation is a piece to accomplishing our dreams, goals, life changes. We need this motivation to begin the journey, see the possibilities. Once the motivation is gone, we need the commitment of honoring ourselves to see our dreams become the life we live. 

Recipe: Orange, Bourbon, Honey Sauce

Pork brisket 

I picked up a brisket of pork the other day, I have never seen this cut of pork before had to give it a try. Definitely a fan. If you find brisket of pork, pick it up and give this recipe a try. This will work for any cut of pork, loin, chops, rump, it will also be good with chicken. 

Ingredients, these are rough estimates to what I used, always cook to taste 

pork, brisket or any cut you have

kosher salt, preferably, for dry brining 

Sauce

1/4 cup coconut amino

1/2 cup bourbon

1-2 TBPS, to taste honey

1/2 cup worcestershire sauce, I used homemade, it is heavenly

if using store worcestershire, several good shakes 

zest and juice of an orange 

salt to taste, remember your pork has been dry brined, there is already salt on the meat

Compound butter

butter, room temperature, enough butter to cover your roast, begin with 4-5 TBPS 

coriander, 1/2 TBPS per TBPS of butter

This made about two cups of sauce

Time for prep and cooking

Dry brine the meat overnight.

You want to place the butter coriander mixture on the meat for several hours to overnight. 

Cook in the oven at a temperature of 225 degrees for about 4 hours, depending on the size of the pork brisket and cut of meat. This is a low and slow cooked meat dish. If you have a smoker, this would be divine smoked. 

As a Health Coach, I need Nutrition Help

Back in December I began eating carnivore.  This was not for the long term, I am going to be carnivore for the rest of my life because it is the only way to eat. It was to work on some health issues I was experiencing, fatigue and gut issues mainly, to see if this style of eating would have a positive impact. My plan from the beginning, I would eat this way until my body told me otherwise.

Over all I have been feeling great! More energy, most of the fatigue was lifting, leaned out from losing the inflammation especially in my mid section which was good weight to lose and my gut issues are better, work to do still, on the path.

The negative side effects I was beginning to experience: I began not sleeping good, too low in carbs for my Irish, Polish, Russian carb loving genes. several things were going into this, but I know my sleep is impacted when I don't eat enough and I am too low in carbs. My heart rate was higher than it should be. Fatigue, forgetfulness were beginning to come back. 

The other big struggle I was having, back in my day, I struggled with anorexia. It was a response to stress and control of pain during some crazy times in life. I began experiencing the same pain I had in my stomach when I was deep in anorexia. It is not pleasant. It is a deep, empty stomach pain, beyond I am really hungry, it is true pain. Not because I was back in my anorexia struggles, I am not. It was something I was beginning to experience. I was also starving in the mornings. I would coach for several hours and then do my work out in this deep, fasted, stomach pain state, I was experiencing more soreness from workouts than normal and decreasing energy in the gym. No good.

I saw my functional medicine FNP-C, who is helping me with my thyroid and arm, and told him what was going on. That I was eating carnivore, feeling great, but here is some of what I was struggling with. The empty stomach pain, the fatigue coming back, soreness in the gym, not sleeping great. The conversation went something like this: 

5 Habits for Better Health

The beauty, serenity of the early morning

One of mine and Otto's favorite places, the beach

There is this prevailing thought today that health is very complicated. You have to do some crazy things, weigh food, count macros, eat mostly plants, less meat and animal fat, starve, that it has to be extremely difficult, you must suffer, otherwise you aren’t getting “healthy”. I don’t believe any of this. Rediscovering your health does not need to be difficult, a suffering fest that you are miserable and can’t ever enjoy anything. I am not saying that it will be a walk in the park and easy with no sacrifices, struggles, frustrations, because that is not true. Changing your lifestyle involves creating new habits, confronting your own demons, working through things, having the courage to take new steps and take that step over and over until it is a part of who you are.

These 5 steps are simple. Simple does not mean easy, they are not interchangeable. The answers to life’s toughest questions are usually the simplest. Because they are simple, we reject them because simple makes them approachable, doable, we can implement them into our lives. When things are difficult, we can blame our lack of achievement on the fact it is difficult. On the flip side, we view simplicity as too easy, the answer cannot be that simple. If it is that simple, it won’t work. Simplicity scares us.

 

5 Habits for Better Health:

Eat mainly animal protein and fat

Be in the sunlight throughout the day, especially mornings

Move your body frequently, walk, lift heavy, sprint

Sleep

Put down the technology, take it off, be with people you love and those who inspire you to pursue your dreams and become a better version of yourself

Begin implementing these 5 habits into your life and live them for the next several weeks. Notice how your health and life change with these simple habits.

If you are good to go, go forth and be a force of the awesome. If you need some more info on these 5 habits, continue reading.

 

The Nostalgia of Christmas

 

Cookie making with grandma 

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This is an article I wrote as a guest writer for the Beef Initiative. I hope you enjoy! Be sure to check them out, sign up for the substack, order some beef. Go shake a ranchers hand and take control of your health. 

The lights, sounds, songs, smells of Christmas bring us back to our childhoods, memories of your children enjoying the magic of the season, good times had with family and friends, those special moments this season brings. Why is this?

Our sense of smell is connected to our memories. When we smell those fresh baked cookies, cakes, Christmas dinner, we are taken back to those times. This isn’t some trick from our bodies and senses. This is meant to help guide us to what real food is, deeply nourishing our bodies, spirit and heart.

When we take the time to connect to our ancestors through food, we are feeding our genes. Genes are passed down generationally and these genes remember. A part of this memory is to help us know what foods are deeply nourishing and which ones to avoid. When we nourish our genes they will express themselves optimally, creating all aspects of health. We not only need deeply nourishing foods for optimal gene expression, we also need to connect with our past through positive memories or those special treats brought to us by our ancestors. These foods are a connection to our pasts. This is a way to remember those who have gone before us, where we have come from. Holiday meals and traditions go beyond food. By skipping the cookies, cakes, grains, sugar, we are denying ourselves a piece of our past.

What are we to do during the Christmas, holiday season when we are striving to deeply nourish our bodies; maybe we have given up grains and sugar? Be miserable and not have anything at all, deny ourselves any joy and pleasure, forget the nostalgia of Christmas, the connections to our pasts, ancestors, heritage, where we came from, suck it up and push through? I think not. This is denying important aspects to what makes us who we are, where we came from, simple joys and pleasures in life.

Liquid Gold, Bone Broth

Pho, one of my favorite meals

One of my most requested recipes is my bone broth recipe. When friends and other see on my social media feed me posting pictures of drinking bone broth or eating pho, I have multiple requests for my recipe. I have posted it before, it needs to be updated.

Broth isn't difficult to make, it does take time to figure out the spices and combinations you like, cooking times, pressure cook or allow it to simmer on the stove for days. Once you have it figure out, the time you spend actually "making" the broth is minimal. Most of the time is the broth cooking and cooling. It is a labor or love in some ways, but so worth it. Some of the deepest nourishment you can give your body is bone broth. 

There are two ways you can cook bone broth, pressure cooking or long, low and slow on the stove, like 72 hours. I prefer my broth in the pressure cooker, Instant Pot. Once I used the Instant Pot and pressured cooked my broth, I didn't look back. It is more coinvent, safer, and I do truly like the taste better.

Ingredients:

variety of bones, I like to use beef, pork and if I have it on hand, chicken. I use pigs feet, knuckle bones for the collagen and bone with marrow, you can also use chicken feet, any bones work. I like the flavor better with a variety of animal bones.

2 cups white wine vinegar

half a large onion

4-5 cloves of garlic

3-4 inches of ginger

2-3 cinnamon sticks

small handful of whole pepper corns

7-8 whole cloves

2-3 star anise or 2 tsps anise seeds 

2-3 TBSP salt

2-3 TBSP sugar, I use raw sugar

5-7 whole all spice

small handful of fennel seeds

3-4 whole cardamom pods 

3-4 Bay leaves

Several shakes of fish sauce, if you like it saltier, add more

3-4 TBSP raw apple cider vinegar

glass of wine, optional

Into the Deep of Carnivore

                            Mug of bone broth in one of my favorite mugs from my sister-in-law

If you have been spending anytime around nutrition's latest trends, you have been hearing and seeing a lot about the carnivore diet. It is the new trend. Or, is is a new trend? This is how our ancestors ate.

What is the Carnivore diet?

In it's strictest sense, it is eating animal protein and fat, nothing else. 

Everyone who does carnivore is going to do it slightly different. If you are strict with carnivore, you will only eat meat and fat from animals, beef and eggs is pretty typical.

Others will add full fat dairy to their eating. 

Seasonal fruits, berries and melons, raw honey, bone broth, organs 

Some use carnivore as a base of their eating habits, eating 80% meat and fat, then having the other 20% for other foods. 

There are many ways of doing carnivore. To me, it is about what is right and best for your body and going forward with that. 

Some of the reported benefits of those who go carnivore:

• relief from pain, if not all of their pain is gone, there is a significant reduction in pain
• elimination of multiple types of arthritis, especially rheumatoid
• reversal of autoimmune struggles  
• gut issues, constipation, diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's clears up
• reversal of all types of skin issues, eczema, psoriasis, acne, wrinkles, rough skin patches smooth out, skin clears up and is healthier
• Reversal of metabolic health issues, blood sugar, insulin stabilization 
• High blood pressure reversal
• Reduced inflammation throughout the body
• Effortless weight lose
• Improved sleep
• Stabilization of hormones
• Increase in energy
• More clear focus, elimination of brain fog, other mental health benefits 

I have decided to give this eating style a go for a time.

My Food Journey

As a general norm on the anniversary of the snow boarding accident that forever changed my life, I usually go out and do something crazy, PR a lift, try something new with one arm, give it all the middle finger and say, watch me live my life to the fullest despite you trying to destroy me. This year, for the big 13 years, I decided to do something different. Talk about my story and the power of food in my journey. 

To truly understand the power of food in my world, I have to talk about the accident, the CRPS, complex regional pain syndrome, let you into my world. I don't do this. I don't talk about it. I have become good at being able to nonchalantly say I have a disability, CRPS, very little use of my arm and go on. Watch me live my life. You would be hard pressed to know I have what I have by watching me live, that is intentional. Time to change this. I don't talk about my journey or what it has taken to survive these last 13 years. This is so much more difficult than PRing a lift.  

Here is my vulnerability. Putting myself out there, hoping to inspire others.

I went snow boarding 13 years ago trying to save the marriage I was in. In less than a year it had broken down and I set about to rebuild our friendship. This is the only reason I went snow boarding. I fell trying to figure out how to slide and move on the board. I landed on my hand and rolled over my wrist. Once I was no longer going to puke, pass out or both, knowing my wrist broken and I would end up the O.R., I got up and snow boarded the rest of the way down the mountain. NOT a smart choice. I made snow patrol and my doctors day by doing this, while changing my life forever. 

I had four different breaks, shatter my radius into a puzzle and a compressed fracture, put the bone into my joint. On my ulna, I had multiple fractures and a styloid fracture. I was in the O.R. the next day to have the shatter put back together, plated and screwed and the compressed fracture pulled out. It was decided to allow the styloid fracture to heal on it's own. Better idea than more hardware. No fault of anyone, my shattered radius did not heal properly, I lost a lot of bone and it moved because of this. 18 months after the accident, my wrist had to be fully reconstructed again. Bone grafting was taken out of my hip and placed in my radius, I have no clue how much hardware sits in my wrist any longer, enough that it has not moved in the years since, that was the only goal. They also found significant damage to my TFCC, shredded it along with all my joints, tears throughout my arm tissue from the fall, arthritis and other damage from losing so much bone in my radius. Let's just say, it was a big mess. 

Meat Balls, 2 Ways

The meatballs and marinara that made me "Italian"

Meatballs, such a great, simple food to batch cook and keep on hand. A true protein ball. 

Here are two recipes for meatballs. One is more labor intensive and will take longer to make. The other is a more basic recipe and comes together quick, easy and tasty. It is the second recipe. 

What you need:

ground beef

ground pork

eggs

chia seeds, ground, 1/4 cup

onion, diced

garlic, diced

fresh herbs, basil, thyme, oregano 

balsamic vinegar 

salt and pepper

butter

Tools needed:

baking sheet

parchment paper, makes clean up easy

bake at 400 degrees

July's Eye is on How You See Yourself, Body Image

Photo from the vulnerable video I posted

On my social media last week, I put up a post being vulnerable and alluding to my body image issues, struggles with food, some of the dark places I have been in regards to my relationship with myself and my body. If you go back through old posts on my blog, you will read several posts where I talk about my struggles with hating my body and some steps I took in overcoming these struggles. Here is one such post. For the month of July we are going to explore body image issues and the real struggles that exist with eating disorders and body dysmorphia, I am not talking at you, these are roads I have walked. This is a part of my journey. It has helped shape who I am today. Walking the road and being willing to put in the work and overcome these demons is a life's journey for me.  

In many ways, I have removed myself from the influence of social media by doing the work to overcome my demons, I don't notice the body images issues as much these days outside of myself. I know orthorexia is still rampant in the fitness industry, I hope to have a positive influence over this. Are others still pushing a super lean, anorexic model/actress still being used? Maybe we have grown from 10-20 years ago when things seemed to be so crazy? Maybe because I removed myself to such lengths for my recovery, I don't notice what is going on? I have changed what is happening in my own head so things don't impact me the same way as much. I choose to get some help. I put in the work. If you are struggling, you can have a healthier relationship with yourself and your body. It takes work. It takes being willing to see things differently. Face your demons and struggles head on and fight like hell. It is a journey and a long road. Recovery is a lifetime. It is 100% worth the fight. The freedom on the other side is a beautiful thing.

I want to focus this month on how you see yourself. Begin working on loving yourself, not in some self centered, your better than everyone else way or the other end of the spectrum, I love myself just as I am and I don't need to change. True love of yourself is willing to be brutally honest with yourself, your good, faults, failings, what is staring you back in the mirror, stop making excuses for yourself and deciding you want to become the best version of yourself. This is true self love. Until you truly love yourself, you cannot make lasting change. We have to truly love ourselves to make lasting, life long changes to overcome our darkness. These are hard things to hear, but it is the only way to work on yourself, face your demons head on. Facing your demons begins with facing the truth about yourself. It is how I have worked through my struggles. I stopped playing the games, wishful thinking, excuses, mind games, seeing things that weren't really there, all of it. I faced these demons head on. It is hard. You can do hard.  

Wrapping up June's Challenge, Insulin

Cool, refreshing summer drink

To wrap up these last several days of June and begin heading into July I thought I would give you some more ideas of foods that will help keep your insulin stable, deeply nourish your body to celebrate this 4th of July! Are you excited to celebrate America's Birthday?!!!!

Food you can bring and not be the weird one bringing healthy food to a party, is meat. Beef, chicken, pork, fish, lamb, goat, maybe you are the odd one for lamb and goat. The point remains, by bringing meat to a party you have food you can eat that is satisfying, satiating, deeply nourishes your body, doesn't cause much ruckus with your insulin levels, will give you energy to party the night away. Most parties have meat anyway. American food, hamburgers and hot dogs, we are celebrating America after all! Eat an extra hamburger patty and hold the bun and chips.

Fruit. The great thing about fruit is the water and vitamins, minerals in fruit. This will help replenish the water you are loosing from sweating, plus the electrolytes being lost. It isn't only about drinking your water, eating your water brings more nutrients to the party and helps this water get into your cells as well. Watermelon and your other melons are great options. Have you ever been so thirsty but water just didn't quench your thirst? Then you eat some watermelon and your thirst is quenched. That is the benefit of eating your water, you are getting the water plus vitamins and minerals your body needs to rehydrate. Put some salt on it for better results. Who doesn't love seeing a large bowl of watermelon on a hot summer day at a party?! Instead of being the crazy healthy eater, you will be everyone's favorite for bringing cold melon.

Veggies, the thing to be mindful of with veggies is what you are putting on them. Be sure to avoid dressing that have hydrogenated oils, vegetable seed oils. You can slice cucumber and tomatoes and put them in olive oil and vinegar with salt. Grill veggies and put butter, salt and fresh herbs on them. 

There are healthy options for deserts, berries and fresh whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings. Frozen fruit sickles. I will link a few desert recipes for you.

Fresh, cold cantaloupe and full fat yogurt 

Primal Brownies

Keto angel food cake

Real Fruit Popsicles

Marinated Strawberries with Fresh Whipped Cream

Alcohol if you are choosing to drink, don't drive after drinking. Drink responsibly. If you are a beer drinker, go for the micro beers, beers that have been fermented. Use carbonated waters without sugar as a mixer instead of the sugar laden mixers. Freeze fruit and put that in drinks to keep them cold and add flavor. Blend frozen fruit into drinks for a cool treat, these can be alcohol free. Sangrias are another great option. Use fresh fruits and teas made from flowers in place of the sugary juices. Sparkling wine is a thing, use these for the fizz instead of sodas or top off with a spritzer.  

Just because you are eating healthy and minding your insulin doesn't mean you have to sacrifice everything or be the crazy one eating "healthy". You can enjoy, nourish your body, lead others to healthier eating and celebrate.

Obesity is a disease of malnourishment.

Happy 4th of July!

Love you guys

Jenn

A Different Way to Look at Stabilizing Insulin

 With all this talk about insulin and what it does in our bodies, the good and not so good, what can we do? Is there anything we can do to correct the issues? 

Why yes there is! We are not helpless and bound to be stuck in a raging ocean of insulin levels. 

Here are several simple and effective steps you can take. I did say simple, not necessarily easy. It is worth it:

• become fat adapted 
• stop eating so many carbs, they shouldn't make up the largest majority of your food intake
• eat more protein
• move frequently at a slow pace
• lift heavy things
• sprint once in awhile
• supplement smartly, there are some great supplements to help the body through this to better deal with carbs. 

How do you become a fat burning beast? We have to remind the body how to burn fat for fuel again. Remember this is our natural setting as human. The best way to do this is taking the 21 Day Primal Challenge. For 21 days you are going to eat like our ancestors, deeply nourishing fats, proteins and some carbs from seasonal berries and veggies. You want your carb load below 100 grams but probably not far below 50 grams. The majority of your food intake is going to come from animal proteins and fats. Avoid all processed foods. 

Insulin and Our Mitochondria

Inside our cells

We couldn't have a series on insulin without talking about the mighty mitochondria and roles it plays in insulin. Go google this and you will be reading per reviewed medical journals. 

Our mitochondria are absolutely vital to our health. Without them, well we wouldn't be able to survive. They are pretty important. 

What are mitochondria? Simply put they are our energy source, our power plants in our cells. They take nutrients we eat and convert them into ATP, adenosine triphosphate, energy. ATP generates energy for cellular function. We need the energy from ATP for thinking, brain function, sprinting, walking, lifting heavy things, pumping blood through out our bodies, reading this post you are using ATP. We need ATP for pretty much everything. Without this process of our mitochondria producing ATP from our food, we wouldn't be alive. A good reason to be fascinated with them.

Why Insulin is Important for Nutrient Absorption

A recap from last week, when insulin levels are high or low, we are stressing the body, causing it to be in fight or flight. High insulin is fat storage signal to the body. More specifically, when we are consuming more sources of sugar from carbohydrates or other sugar forms than we are able to burn and use in the cells, the excess is converted to fat and stored on the body. Locked and trapped away by these high levels. When insulin is low, our bodies send signals of distress needing to raise those insulin levels causing a host of issues. These are not good times for the body. Who wants to live in a raging ocean all the time?

Today we are going to discuss another role of insulin, signaling the cell to intake nutrients.

Insulin signals our cells to intake amino acids, the basics building blocks of protein, and fat into the liver and muscle cells. These are needed in the cell to do the work of creating you, your body, muscles, organs, energy and so much more. Absolutely important for these nutrients to enter the cell and insulin helps facilitate this. Like I said in last weeks post, we need insulin, can't live without it. It is the excess we have flowing throughout the body because of glucose causing the issues.  

As you can imagine, if one way our nutrients are brought into our cells and our cells cannot hear insulin's signal from our cells being full of glucose or an over whelming amount of insulin constantly knocking on the door of the cells, our cells can't function like they should. You could be hitting your protein goals of eating your body weight in ounces or more every day. If that protein cannot get into the cell and be used for growth and repair your diligence in hitting the protein numbers is diminished. Not waisted but doesn't have the full impact it could have by being insulin sensitive, your cells can hear and respond to insulin's call. Insulin resistance is a source of  cell malnourishment. 

June's Challenge, All About Insulin

Elk burger

For the month of June we are going to spend time learning about some of the roles insulin plays in the body and why having stable insulin and being insulin sensitive is important to our over all health.

Usually when we hear about insulin is it is in regards to diabetes. However, insulin is responsible for many other roles within the body. It is an important hormone that plays a major role in storing or using body fat, nutrients entering the cell, inflammation, and so much more. Insulin is vital for life. Insulin is produced by the pancreas in response to our eating carbohydrates, these turn into sugar in the body referred to as glucose. Insulin's role is to whisk this glucose out of the blood stream because if left in the blood stream, glucose becomes extremely toxic to the body. Let's talk about insulin's other roles.

We are going to discuss insulin's role in the body in regards to energy and fat burning today.

When we follow the norm today, we are told carbs are our primary source of fuel, the body prefers to burn carbs. In my opinion this has had devastating impacts on our health and I disagree. Does this mean you have to agree with me, no. I do hope you are willing to see another side of health and be open to different thoughts and learning.

I prefer to be fat adapted, metabolically flexible. Meaning my body is able to use the glucose it is given through my food and once this is dealt with, it can begin to burn fat for fuel, either from food or my stored body fat. This is the natural setting of the animal, human and otherwise. When we look to our ancestors, animal protein and fat were their main food sources. Think about it, they did not have mass food production facilities, acres of planted crops, no grocery store to pick up all this processed food, grains, fruit and veggies available year round. They ate what they could hunt, gather and preserve. If you need to eat every 2-4 hours to maintain your energy levels you wouldn't last long in the wild. This makes carbs as the main energy source not likely.

May Challenge, Where Do Your Nutrients Come From?

 

It is pretty awesome when you can go back to a post years later and still agree with what you wrote all these years later. I wrote this in May of 2013. I might have a different analogy to say the same thing, but the rest still holds true all these years later. 

"Challenge yourself to eat healthier and healthier because the better your food, the healthier you will be. What we eat, becomes who we are. So, if you are eating, processed, dead, pseudo food that is lacking in vitamins, minerals, nutrients, the building blocks for life, protein, how can you expect your body to function at the best? It cannot. When our food is lacking nutrients, we are lacking those same nutrients and then our bodies begin to fall apart. Disease, fatigue, not sleeping well, hormones not function properly, brain fog, depression, the list goes on.... For the thousands of reactions that take place in our bodies, we have to have the right chemicals to make it happen.

For example, if you were going to build something, we will keep it simple, say a table, and you do not have everything you need to make said table, it is not going to turn out well. What if you were missing nails or screws, something to hold all the boards in place? Maybe you have a few, but not enough to hold the table secure, it is not going to be able to support itself and will fall. How about the tools to build the table, like a hammer, screw driver, sand paper, a tape measure, it will make it very difficult to build that table wont it?

For us, the raw materials and tools to build our bodies, is the food we eat. When something is missing or not there, our bodies have to try and make due with what they have. The results can be devastating. The best way to make sure our bodies have everything they need so we can Thrive is eating a nutrient, dense, rich diet of real, whole food."

Where your mitochondria go, your health goes.

All my love

Jen

May's Challenge, Building a Recipe Box Hacks

                                         

Guilty as charged. I am a junky, reading and collecting recipes. I have hundreds saved in my Pinterest account, magazines, boxes, one might say it is a problem. I call it research. I love sitting down with a glass of wine and going through Bon Appetit! A simple joy and pleasure of mine. There are great benefits to reading recipes, you learn about combinations of seasonings, spices, acid, sweet, heat, new ways of cooking food, new ideas to try. It is fantastic research and learning. If you want to improve your cooking skills I suggest spending some time reading recipes.  

The struggle when you have hundreds, thousands of recipes, too many can be too many. They do begin to run together, sound similar and can overwhelm you. Find recipes you like and read through others to learn.

Two things I do to help with meal time prep and building a recipe box:
weekly menu
have themes for each day:

• Monday- Grill/Bake
• Tuesday- Tacos
• Wednesday- Soup/Salad
• Thursday- International day
• Friday- Fish
• Saturday- Try a New Recipe
• Sunday- Steak

I truly made most of this up, a few of them I do follow. Come up with themes that will work for your needs, this is an idea to get you started. The benefits of this, you have an idea already each each day what you are going to make. It takes less time to prep and make a menu than if you come up with different things each day. Or you don't plan at all and are left going out to eat consistently. 

This will also help you with pantry and freezer items to keep on hand. You are low on taco seasonings, pick some up the next time you are at the store. You will begin to learn what you need to keep on hand. When you have items on hand you cook with and meal ideas already planned, you are less likely to be left with nothing in the fridge or no time because you don't know what you are going to make and have to go to the store because you don't have ingredients on hand. Easier at this point, order pizza.   

Sitting down and making a menu for a week or two, going shopping once saves time in the long run. Yes, it is some work up front, but you save time by already having the menu and ingredients on hand. 

This also helps with batch cooking. Say on Monday when you grill or bake meat, cook extra meat. Use it for leftovers at work but also on your salad/soup, or tacos. This will help make these meals even faster for you. Meat is already cooked, bring out the tacos ingredients and in 15 minutes or less you are eating dinner. Cooking more meat upfront takes some of the load off for other days. You are already baking or have the grill fired up, it doesn't take much more time to cook several extra pieces or add another protein to the cooking for another meal later in the week. Time saver. 

What tips do you have for building a recipe box? Have you tried any of these before, have they worked? 

Where your mitochondria goes, your health goes.

All my love

Jenn

Tuesday Recipe: Primal Granola

Grain free granola, full fat yogurt

Primal Granola
Ingredients:
A variety of nuts and seeds, what you like
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Cashews
Walnuts
Pecans
Flax seeds 
Chia seeds
Sunflower seeds

Seasonings and spices
Cinnamon, couple of teaspoons
Cloves, 1 teaspoon
Ginger, 2 teaspoons
Nutmeg, shake or two, optional
Allspice, shake or two, optional
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Coconut oil, 2-3 tablespoons
Honey, to taste 

Egg

Equipment:

Baking pan, one with an edged

Parchment paper to line the pan with

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375.
Blend the nuts, seeds and spices together. You don't want to grind it into powder, leave junks of the nuts. Place in a bowl.
In either a double bowler or in the microwave, melt the coconut oil, honey and salt together. Once melted, beat in the egg and all spices/seasonings, blend well. Pour over the nuts and seeds and mix well. Spread out on the lined baking pan.

Place in the oven. It needs about 20-30 minutes to bake, depending on how much you have in the pan. If you made a larger batch, you can split it between two pans to bake faster and more even.

Every 10-15 minutes, take the mixture out and stir around. Place back into the oven. Continue to bake until golden brown and crispy. When baked, let cool. Break it up. Store in an airtight container. 

Serve with fruit, full fat yogurt, milk or eat it by itself. 

When I went mostly grain free with Primal eating and realized my body did not tolerate most grains well and I did better on a lower carb lifestyle, I started to miss granola. It is worth the benefits of not eating grains to me to keep it out of my eating though. In my quest to have something similar, nut and seed "granola" came into my world. This is my take on it! I hope you enjoy deeply nourishing your body with this recipe.

Where your mitochondria go your health goes.
All my love

Jenn

May's Challenge: Building a Recipe Box, Dry Brining

Simple meal of wild salmon and mango salsa

I am a fan of May. The bitter cold of winter has loosened it's grip, we can still get snow but spring snow is different than winter snow. Flowers are in bloom! The bees are buzzing and pollenating. It begins to warm up, longer days, cool evenings. The heavier winter foods are being replaced by lighter foods. Grills come out. It is a month of transition in my neck of the woods.

With a new month, brings a new challenge! This month we are going to focus on cooking skills, building a recipe box, finding routines to bring simplicity to our lives.  

One of the struggles I uncovered and have set out to solve, too many today do not know how to cook. The generational skill of cooking has all but been lost. 

When it comes to food and cooking, I think there are some ideas we need to put to rest:

Every meal does not need to be a "foodgams".

Meals do not need to be complicated to be nutritious and give our bodies the basics building blocks they need to create us.

Simple meals with whole foods are amazing and can come together quickly.

As a general norm, items from a box with a long list of ingredients are not food.

Food is about nutrient density, intaking the building blocks for health, growth, repair, life, should be the focus.

When you learn some basic cooking skills, how to put flavors together, recipes aren't as important.

Take for example that piece of salmon in the picture.

I use a technique called dry brining. I use it on all meats, keeps them moist, juicy, tender and naturally flavors the meat with salt.

Dry brining in it's simplest terms is simply salting a piece of meat generously on all sides and allowing it to sit for a time. Simple and oh so tasty.

With the salmon, this day I put it with a simple mango salsa.

Other times I make a ginger, lime and honey mixture or a honey, paprika and lemon mixture and cook it in that.

I cook it on the stove in a hot pan and some butter. Sometimes I put in a splash of wine. Simple.

The base stays the same, dry brining. I bring flavors, added nutrients and fun with other whole foods. Bringing in acid, sour, sweet, spicy, savory, what ever floats your boat. 

This meal can be put together in about 20 minutes, depending on your knife skills which can be improved. The salmon does do better in the brine when it has sat longer, a couple of hours. When time is short, you can do it.

For this weeks challenge, try dry brining some meat, beef, chicken, pork, fish, turkey, they all lend nicely to a dry brine.

What you need:

Choice of protein

Kosher salt, preferably, any salt works

Time

Salt the meat generously, you want to be able to see the salt. Be generous, meat loves salt. 

Allow the meat to sit, preferably on a wire rack until the surface is dry. Large cuts of meat can sit and do best in the fridge, uncovered overnight. Cook your meat to your liking.

This technique takes a few tries to get the hang of and how you like it, play with it. The only way you learn something new is to keep trying. 

Where your mitochondria goes your health goes.

All my best

Jen