Health Is Limitless
When I don’t bring lunch to work, I get "Fast Food." Every restaurant has healthier options on the menu and/or the restaurant allows the customer to remove unhealthy ingredients.
You control what is delivered to your office or your table. If you eat out, eat out as well as you can. If you order wings, opt for a side salad instead of fries.
Rule of thumb: add vegetables to every order and eat your vegetables first or contemporaneously.
If you have the room, get the dessert. The choice to get dessert is an empowering one that sometimes requires planning and determination.
If there is a particular dessert that you’ve wanted to try, then go to the restaurant with the dessert in mind. Eat a very light meal and order the dessert. Share the dessert with the table and eat only as much as you need to satisfy your craving. Then, stop and box it or leave it.
Just like that, you had your cake and ate it too…without the guilt. One dessert never sabotaged a diet, but skipping the dessert and rewarding yourself with a hefty entrée is counterproductive and unsatisfying.
A cheesecake recipe usually includes the recipe for the crust. The ingredients for the crust tend to include cookies. However, if you are making a healthier cheesecake, you should opt for a healthier crust.
It was a surprise to find a cheesecake crust recipe that did not require cookies. Because I did not have all of the ingredients on hand, I made some substitutions and created the Coconut Pecan Cheesecake Crust that is available on the THA Recipes page. It is a great recipe and a healthier alternative to the cookie based cheesecake crust. Use it and share it.
Inflammation is the body’s repair mechanism for damaged tissue, the body’s response to an injury, and the body’s defense strategy against viruses and bacteria. An inflammatory response is triggered by the immune system. A defect in the body’s triggering system may result in the development of an autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, the body mistakenly believes that normal tissues are infected and triggers an inflammatory response to fight the normal tissues; the inflammatory response damages the normal tissues.
According to Eat This, Not That!, certain foods can trigger an inflammatory response in the body which over time can lead to weight gain, drowsiness, skin problems, digestive issues, diabetes, obesity, and even cancer. These foods include sugar, vegetable oil, fried foods, refined flour, dairy, artificial sweeteners, artificial additives (processed foods), saturated fats, conventional grain-fed meats (low quality meats), processed meats (including bacon), store-bought bread (gluten), excess alcohol, trans fat foods, and fast food.
While eliminating all of these foods may be unrealistic, limiting them is definitely achievable and may go a long way in preserving your immune system. In addition, there are some anti-inflammatory foods that you may use to balance your day before or after consuming inflammatory foods. According to Dr. Axe, anti-inflammatory foods include: green leafy vegetables, bok choy, celery, beets, broccoli, blueberries, pineapples, salmon, bone broth, walnuts, coconut oil, chia seeds, flax seeds, turmeric, and ginger.
Tip: if you eat a lot of fried foods, you may want to buy some ginger tea to keep on hand.
This is one organic item that I can no longer enjoy; blame it on the trauma from seeing maggots in my blueberries, not the alcohol.
Apparently, when you purchase organic blueberries, you run the risk of getting a batch infected with maggots. These maggots, by all accounts, are harmless if accidentally consumed. However, just seeing them in your blueberry can be a traumatic experience.
When it comes to blueberries, a little bit of pesticide may actually go a long way. The female blueberry fruit fly lays her egg under the skin of the blueberry. The eggs hatch in the blueberry and the maggot/larva emerges. The maggot feeds on the pulp inside of the blueberry. The infested berries are packaged and sold to organic vendors. The vendors sell to consumers and the consumer, well, consumes the infested berries.
If you have never had an issue with blueberry maggots, then there is no need to give up your organic berries; instead, be aware that maggots in organic blueberries is a real possibility and stay alert while consuming your organic blueberries.
