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Plant-Based Diets Get Results

Uncategorized Feb 22, 2021

I coach people on moving towards a lifestyle that includes: a whole food plant-based vegan diet, yoga, and mindfulness. One of my clients just had her yearly bloodwork done. Blew me away!!! Cholesterol down from 289 to 126, triglycerides down from 191 to 100, glucose down from 213 to 102. Weight down by 53 pounds. She called me to say that I have changed her life and helped to save her life. She said her doctors clapped for her. Wow! Such a confirmation and validation that a plant-based diet works.

Here were some of the things that helped her get these dramatic results:

1. Don't buy the vegan junk food (like chips or beyond burgers). Walk on by....

2. Have only fruits (mainly fruit) or veggies as snacks. Portion them out.

3. Stop pouring oil on food. Vegetables taste delicious by themselves without all the extra calories.

4. Practice mindful eating by sitting down and eating quietly and consciously.

5. Be willing to go all in.

 

Our next nutrition workshop starts next week....

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Healthy Fats v. Added Oil

Uncategorized Feb 08, 2021

One really big difference between a vegan diet and a whole food plant-based (wfpb) diet revolves around fats. 

On a wfpb diet, foods with healthy fats such as olives, nuts, nut butters, flax seeds, tahini, avocadoes, and coconut milk can absolutely be a part of our everyday meals. Of course, fats are high in calories, so they should be eaten in moderation when people want to maintain or lose weight. However, eating added oils which are processed and pressed from these original plant foods are highly discouraged on a wfpb diet.

How is it that we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that processed sugars are not healthy but not processed oils? Oil is processed in the same way that sugar is processed. They are both pressed from plants. Oil has more calories per gram than any other food and is 100% fat. All the nutrients, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and fiber have been thrown away. So many calories for something that holds no nutrients other than fat....

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Benefits and Misconceptions of a Plant-Based Diet

A diet high in animal-based and highly processed foods make people sick and overweight. However, many if these sicknesses can be prevented or reversed by eating a whole food plant-based diet. There is abundant medical proof of this claim spanning the last one hundred years. There is also abundant living proof of this. 

As for me, after transitioning to a fully plant-based vegan diet in the fall of 2019, my bloodwork, weight fluctuations, and overall well-being have never been better. I feel like I finally found the secret to harmony with my body and with food.

Some benefits of a WFPB (whole food plant-based) diet are:

  • prevents and reverses chronic ailments
  • helps people to reach their ideal weight
  • improves mental clarity
  • helps people to experience positive effects rather than side-effects of medicines
  • increases our sense of well-being and empowerment
  • saves time and money now and later

One misconception about a WFPB diet is that it is based on eating a ton of vegetables...

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It's all about the veggies and fruits

Dear Friend,

I had to realize that it is ok to be fit, healthy, radiant, and beautiful. Just as a small green plant grows into a flower to fulfill its destiny, so too can I be the beautiful flower that I was created to be.

Having a radiant body is like having money; both can seem unattainable. Sometimes we feel sinful for even wanting them.

We have a brief time on earth. The more we stay small, scared, sad, or in denial, the more we have to clean up later. Let’s not be so afraid to live fully in a strong, radiant body that we put off feeling great.

The Yogic Diet is about staying mindful with our eating habits, getting enough physical movement, and eating a healthy, sustainable, plant-based diet.

After many years, I finally got the food part mostly right. Changing to a plant-based diet helped me to become more stabilized with weight, emotions, energy levels, blood chemistry, iron levels, and emotional eating. 

However, I still found that being sedentary-ish and not being...

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Creamy Miso Pasta with Tofu and Asparagus (Vegan)

Uncategorized Dec 17, 2020
 

We made this dish today from Just One Cookbook. Tasty! We did added sriracha to add a bit more heat and flavor. Here is the full recipe: https://whi.sk/WqS0y

This recipe uses unsweetened soy milk. Next time, we will try it with coconut milk.

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Daily Rituals to Uplift Yourself

We are now in the full swing of the holidays. I hope you are taking time to find moments of peace and solace amid the busyness of life. Happy holidays to YOU and yours. May you find joy in simplicity and sweetness in your everyday life.

 

Eating

Update on the flaxseeds!!! If the words “regular” and “smooth” ring a bell, then you will understand that the flax does wonders for the digestive system. A happy digestive system makes for a good tummy, lighter body, and fog-free brain. I am adding one tablespoon of flaxseeds to my breakfast everyday. According to a Canadian study involving more than 6,000 women, those who eat flax seeds daily are 18% less likely to develop breast cancer. Wondering if you have added them in?  Also, I thought I would share some plant-based tips from my workshop participants. The first tip I want to share comes from Denise. Denise is working on mindful eating. Her rushed meals and snacks used to be taken between phone calls...

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Benefits of Flaxseeds

I hope your holidays are feeling warm and festive despite fewer get-togethers this year. We made a 100% plant-based Thanksgiving and my son, the non-vegan, could not tell the difference in the recipes...except for the deviled potatoes instead of deviled eggs. Ha! He still ate about eight of those smoky little devils. Seems like they passed the test. I wanted to share with you what I am up to this week.

 

Eating

I am making a conscious decision to add more ground flaxseed into my diet. Flaxseeds are a part of Dr. Micheal Greger’s Daily Dozen which are the foods that we should be eating every day for good health. Studies show that adding one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds to your diet each day can improve digestive health, relieve constipation, lower LDL cholesterol, reduce hypertension, and aid weight loss. My plan is to add one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds to WHATEVER I eat for breakfast whether it is breakfast cereal, oatmeal, upma (more on that later), nut butter...

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Yoga and Aging

My husband was listening to a podcast recently in which an older man was speaking to a group of high school kids. He was telling them that he and his wife worked hard all of their lives and did a good job of accumulating wealth. However, they lost most of it due to health care costs as they aged. He shared with them that some of this could have been avoided. The kids wondered how. And he responded, “By staying healthy.” But how could they have done that? He said that he now knew if they had focused on eating inexpensive foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, they could have avoided many of the lifestyle diseases that they now had to endure. 

 

Most younger people want to stay healthy because of beauty goals or energy needs. However, many may not consider how their accumulated lifestyle choices will affect their health and pocketbooks in the future. 

 

In addition to eating a simple, plant-based diet, practicing yoga also supports...

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Blessed Are Ye That Hunger

In the Bible, Jesus says, "Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled." (Luke 6:21) In The Yoga of Jesus, the yoga master Paramahansa Yogananda elucidates this passage saying "Blessed are you who thirst for wisdom and who esteem virtue and righteousness as the real food to appease your inner hunger, for you shall have that lasting happiness brought only by adhering to divine ideals - unparalleled satisfaction of heart and soul." 

 

What does it mean to thirst for wisdom? Wikipedia says, “Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.” These are tall orders to be thirsting for! 

 

We are all thirsting for and hungry for something. Everyone has deep seated hunger and feelings of emptiness and lack. We try to fill this hunger by satisfying our desires and sense pleasures. We eat and drink,...

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Finding Yoga

My entry point into yoga came in 1996 when I was teaching English in Beijing, China. I was teaching Chinese graduate students at a medical school. In general, the students were amazing, hardworking, humble, brilliant, funny, and pure.

 

In my spare time, I was looking for “something.” I studied Tai Chi with a teacher at five in the morning, I took buses for hours to study Chinese medical massage, and I read many, many self-help books. To aid my inner quest, I had almost no distractions. When I turned on the TV in my flat, all I saw was Chinese news or dramas in Mandarin (which I did not understand); it was the time before the internet and cell phones. I was open to new information and experiences to come into my life. 

 

My first yoga teacher was my friend Barrie Risman. Barrie was also teaching English in China. She made a cassette recording of her yoga teaching for me, and I moved my body into yoga postures for the first time in my life, by myself, in my...

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