Thursday, November 29, 2012

Do Not Think You Can Afford a Health Coach?

As a personal trainer and holistic health coach, one of the things I consistently hear is: I cannot afford your services. It is just too expensive.

I obviously do not know anyone's financial situation. With that being said, I do have to laugh just a little to myself. We spend money on things that are a priority to us. Your health might not be a priority to you so you will think having a coach and trainer is expensive. For others who want to lose weight and have help from someone like me and they still think it is too expensive, here is a little example I like to use. Puts things nicely into perceptive and a good visual.

For this example I will use those RockStar Energy drinks, but you can use whatever you would like, it works the same.

You have no energy, cannot get out of bed or find the energy to face your day. So you drink down a RockStar in the morning. Then come the afternoon and you crash, so you drink another. You do this five days a week, four weeks out of the month.

RockStar: $2.50 a piece, I really have no clue, but I think that is about correct.
Two a day: $5.00 a day
For the week: $25.00. Five dollars times five days equals 25
For a month: $100.00, for a four week month.

You can choose to spend $100.00 a month on energy drinks, that is basically throwing your money away, destroying your health due to the excessive amount of caffeine, all the sugar and other artificial ingredients in them. Or, you could spend that same amount of money each month on a health coach instead. Invest your money in your health, find natural energy, help your body come back into balance so it has the energy to thrive, clear up your skin because you are not eating excess sugar, begin eating real food that will bring your body back to true health, gain confidence, save money, lose weight and the list goes on and on. The real question becomes, how important is your health and where do you want to spend money. Throw it away or invest it with a high interest rate and great returns?

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's peace and blessings,
Jenn  

Friday, November 16, 2012

Women's Health Issues

I am a fan of Sean Croxton, the creator or undergroundwellness.com. About once a week or so, he has a radio pod cast, with a wide range of guest speakers. The last two he did were on women's issues, Female Athlete Triad Syndrome and PCOS, pollycystic ovarian syndrome. With the recent push of women being leaner and stronger, we are seeing a host of issues to our bodies and cycles. Bone lose, infertility, undernourishment, and the list goes on and on. With woman on both ends of the spectrum of working out to much and not enough, under eating and over eating the wrong foods, are causing women to not have the nourishment they need to have a healthy body. With low fat diets, we cannot make our hormones, we have to have enough fat to make our hormones and a low fat diet does not give us enough fat. Stress, environmental and food toxins are wrecking havoc on our bodies. These and many more issues are discussed with Sean's guest regarding women's health.

Female Triad Syndrome

PCOS 

You can also find these pod casts and all of Sean's others by going here.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's many blessings,
Jenn   

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Quest of a Flat Stomach

The envy of all is having the flat stomach, for both men and women alike.


When you look at the statue of Venus de Milo, one of things you will notice is, she has a flat stomach. She is not 15% body fat either. She would be a healthy body percent in the mid 20's. In fact her waist to hip ratio of 0.7, which is what most men prefer and women would like to have, Marilyn Monroe and Jessica Alba also have this ratio. When we look at her, we think health and beauty, at least I do. But, if she is not 15% body fat, how can she have a flat stomach and be a healthy weight?

This is simple. I didn't say easy, but simple. It would be attributed to her nutrition. Today, we all think to have a flat stomach we need to have low body fat, and exercise for hours a day. This simply is not true. A woman can be healthy, between 20-30% body fat and have a flat stomach, Venus proves this. Why else would she be sculpted this way if it is not true?

There are many differences in our diets from Venus' time to today. In the last 100 years or so, our diets have changed in leaps and bounds. One of the biggest differences is, the significant increase in omega-6 fats. In the past, we ate about a 1:1 but no more than 1:4 ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. Which correlates to eating far more omega-3s and much much less omega-6s, which is the opposite of what we do today. It is estimated we eat a 1:20 on the low side to 1:60 plus ratio of omega-3 to 6! This is WAY to much omega-6s. Eating this amount of omega-6 is associated with larger stomachs. This is dangerous fat as well, fat that will cause heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, metabolic syndrome. One of the best things you can do for a flat stomach is drop the omega-6s. These come from eating soy, canola oil, corn oil, excess grains with these oils, processed foods, anything with hydrogenated oils, for some examples. Eat more omega-3s and other healthy fats, like cholesterol and saturated fat. These will help you lose the belly, gain the weight in your hips, thighs and butts lady's and have lasting health.

Foods high in Omega-3s
Pasture feed and finished beef and other grazing animals
Pastured eggs
Salmon
Cod liver oil
Cold water fish
Some nuts and seeds, chia and flax seeds, but do not rely on these.

And of course, you cannot forget about the BUTTER!!!
Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's many blessings,
Jenn 




Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Wednesday Doggie Day: Cold Weather

The Boys had a great time playing in the fresh powder the other day!

Here in Utah, we are having some cold weather and snow, most of it has melted for now. To help Mungo and Otto with the cold weather that will soon be upon us, I have been giving them a little more food. Naturally in the wild, animals will eat more to store up fat for the long, cold winter. So, I have been giving them more to help grow their winter coats to stay warm. I am not feeding so much more that they will put on several pounds, they are inside dogs, but enough for a thick coat. For the amount we spend out side during the cold season, that is enough. If you have an outside dog, you will want them to put on a few pounds of fat to shield them from the cold. Be care that it is not a lot of weight, they need to be able to effortlessly take off the weight during the spring. 

Get out there and have some fun with your dogs in the snow. They can enjoy the snow as much as you do, just help them with a little warmth.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's many blessings,
Jenn

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Tuesday Recipe: My take on Old World Gravy, Spaghetti

If you are to look through a traditional Italian cookbook, eat at restaurant, or go to Italy, one of the things you will find different from us, is they call spaghetti sauce, gravy. The biggest thing to remember with Italian cooking is: fresh ingredients, time and a whole lot of love.



What you need:
Enough fresh tomatoes to fill your crock pot
1 shallot, diced
1 medium onion, diced
About half a bulb of garlic, diced
2 Cups of bone broth
1 cup of a good red wine
2 Small cans of tomato paste, if you like your gravy thicker
Half a bunch of parsley
Basil
Oregano
Thyme
Rosemary
Marjourne
Sea salt and pepper
Beef and liver

Method:
Dice all of the tomatoes and put into the crock pot. Put in some sea salt, this will help to bring the juices out of the tomatoes, 1-2 tsp. Bring this mixture to a simmer and allow to simmer for about 12 hours. Then, put in all the other ingredients expect for the beef/liver. If you like a thicker gravy, add 1 or 2 cans of tomato paste.  Let simmer for a good 12 hours, I said time, remember. Keep an eye on this for the duration of cooking, stirring every so often and watching the fluid levels. If it gets to dry, add more tomatoes, broth or wine. An hour or two before serving, check the flavor and adjust as needed. Just before serving, dice up a few more cloves of garlic and stir them in.
Cook the meat how ever you would like, as ground beef or meat balls. When I cooked my meat, I did season it with all of the seasonings I put into the gravy. You can either put the meat into the gravy or serve it separately.
I served our gravy over spaghetti squash.
For garnish, add some type of cheese if you would like, cheddar, Asiago, Parmesan, our favorites.

This gravy can also be used for lasagna, risotto, pizza/meatzza, whatever suits your fancy or you need a tomato sauce.

Most importantly, enjoy your labor of love with family and friends.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's many blessings,
Jenn