Being healthy is all about the balance and development of the physical, mental and emotional self. This occurs naturally through the practices of a healthy lifestyle; physical exercise, practicing meditation and contemplative thought. This website is devoted entirely to balancing the individual person.
Skin Health
Foods 1 - 6 are basic foods that support healthy skin.
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1. SEA FOODKnown in France as “Fruit de Mer,” or Fruit from the Sea for a good reason, seafood is an ideal food source for many reasons, but in regards to your skin, there’s a big one: It’s full of something very important; omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is an Essential fat that, along with boosting brain powers, enhances the immune system, strengthens cellular replication (fights cancer), and toughens cardiovascular system. And for another tidbit, seafood gives your skin a nice coat, aiding sun absorption and recovery rate after a long time under the Tuscan sun.
Verdict: seafood keeps you strong inside and outside. A Definite Must.
Other omega-3 foods: walnuts
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2. CARROTS
Carrots exemplify the expression; “You are what you eat.” They are packed with petite orange pigments called beta-carotene, and each time you consume those carrot pigments, you’re absorbing them into your skin, which in turn gives you a healthy glow. Even more positively inviting, carrots help defend the skin against sun damage.
Verdict: carrots keep you feeling and looking good. A Definite Must.
Cooking Suggestion: Grate the carrots, finer the better, add a little olive oil and a little balsamic vinaigrette. Bonne Appetit.
Other beta-carotene foods: sweet potatoes, red bell peppers, red grapefruit
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3. AVOCADO
Avocados are fruit? Yes, in fact it is one nutrient packed fruit that grows from trees. Did you say fat? Yes, but have you heard of “Good fat” or “Fat that you need?” Think about it: could you ever get fat from eating fruit? Not possible. Avocados are loaded with potassium, vitamin B, K, and E and have tons of fiber. Lest I forget that they decrease cholesterol incredibly all the while keeping the skin moisturized and the ligaments moving well.
Verdict: avocados are rich in every way. A Definite Must.
Cooking Suggestion: Cut avocado in half, take out the seed, add a little olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette and spoon out the wonderful greenness. Bonne Appetit.
Other Avocado-like foods: olive oil, almonds, peanut butter
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4. BEANS
What is packed with good and has no bad? If you’re thinking beans then you’re right. Beans are associated with one thing and are summed up in a song. “Beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you … the better you feel, so eat your beans at every meal.” Beans are naturally loaded with nutrients and are referred to as a “Nutritional Power House” which is probably why beans are associated with making you… These guys are very high in protein, have nearly 0 fat and have tons of fiber which makes your heart and cells grow strong. With a strong heart your blood flows easily to your skin, generously giving nutrients (which are carried in the blood) long into the golden years. With strong cells, your skin remains toned, elastic, healthy and smooth.
Verdict: A vegetarians heaven food, beans give everything you need. Must, Must and Must.
Cooking Suggestion: bake and serve with rice, add butter, pepper and curcuma.
Other bean-like rich foods: alfalfa, peanuts, lentils, tofu
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5. GRAPES
Grapes improve skin elasticity by strengthening the deeper skin layers. In our middle age years, when our skin starts to fade and sag, grapes add the skin tone and strengthener. Eating them from a young age is obviously quite advantageous. To add the cherry on the cake, grapes are pro-heart and help protect from strokes.
Verdict: Keeps the skin and the heart floating like a butterfly. A Definite Must.
Cooking Suggestion: add whole grapes to fruit salad with sliced kiwis, strawberries and bananas.
Other skin/heart-rich foods: grape juice, blueberries
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6. WATER
Hey, you, don’t forget we humans are made of 70% water. That leaves 30% to cell membranes, nutrients, proteins and waste (and that’s still only 30%)! Think of water as; the most important thing ever and biggest bomb you have to be healthy in every way. Generally speaking, every bodily process relies on hydration, so if you’re dropping some H2O all through the day, you’re likely to have a good metabolism, a clear head, and, yes, healthy skin.
Verdict: It is you, makes you who you are! An Undeniable Definite.
Cooking Suggestion: Make Tea!
Other water-rich foods: watermelon, peaches, celery.
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Foods 7 - 10 augment the skin's resistance to aging
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7. ALMONDSIn the Ayurvedic system of health care the almond is regarded as a nutritive for the nervous system and brain. Ayurveda is an ancient health care system that is native to the Indian subcontinent. Almonds are said to induce longevity and high intellectual levels. Modern studies have shown that almonds have immunity boosting and anti-inflammatory effects
Verdict: EAT as you want; snack, at any meal! A weekly definite.
Cooking suggestions: Spice ‘em up. Chili pepper, Curcuma, Curry
Other Almond-like foods: Beans, Nuts, Avocados
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8. CHICKPEAS
These guys are packed with zinc, folate and protein. They have an excellent level of dietary fibre and are an exquisite carbohydrate source, particularly for people with insulin sensitivity or diabetes. Chickpeas are low in fat.
Verdict: Eat weekly, a definite when you want!
Cooking suggestions: As a native to India, add Indian spices such as Curry, Pepper, Curcuma and chili peppers
Other Chickpea-like foods: Red beans, black beans, pinto beans, lentils
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9. OYSTERS
Wild oysters are prime sources of minerals, ranging from iron and zinc to selenium, which are three minerals tough to get regularly in our modern regimen.
Verdict: A delicatessen, eat plentifully on special occasions
Cooking Suggestions: Eat them fresh, open the shell with a Shucking knife, squirt some fresh lemon and down the hatch.
Other Oyster-like foods: Seafood, fruit de mer, Cuttlefish, Mussels, Squid
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10. PUMPKIN SEEDS
These seeds are a great source of protein and essential minerals like iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium. A nice handful of these seeds provides over 20 per cent of the daily recommended iron intake.
Verdict: to eat when in season, meaning, every Halloween eat until your smiling pumpkins!
Cooking Suggestions: Bake with a little olive oil and season as desired; bbq, Wasabi, chili pepper, curry, tameric, salt
Other pumpkin seed-like foods: We don't care! There's nothing like fresh baked pumpkin seeds!
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Foods 11 - 14 keeps the skin's pigment youthful
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.11. MANGO
This fruit is an amazingly rich fruit with a variety of nutrients. The pulp of the fruit is high in vitamin C, dietary fiber, polyphenols and provitamin A carotenoids. Mangos contain essential antioxidant vitamins and dietary minerals such as A, C, E, vitamin B6, K, other B vitamins, potassium, copper and 17 amino acids that are at proper levels.
Verdict: Incredibly tasty, fun to eat and oh so sweet. As often as you'd like.
Warning: Mango contains Urushiol which is the principle allergen in Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumak. If you are allergic to any of these Do Not Eat Mango!
Cooking Instructions: Cut the mango in half, remove the seed, slice in rows vertically and horizontally, fold the mango inside-out, use a spoon to scoop each square.
Other Mango-like foods: Jack fruit
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12. CANTALOUPE
These bowling ball-like fruits are one of many excellent sources of antioxidants, which boost immensely the cardiovascular and immune systems. This fruit helps promote healthy blood flow and dispersion and gracefully prevents heart attacks. Cantaloupes are a great source of vitamin C.
Verdict: When in season, eat 'em 'till you're canta-loopy!
Cooking Suggestions: Cut in half, scoop out seeds and eat with a spoon. If you're still hungry, eat the other half!
Other Cantaloupe-like foods: Honeydew melon, Canary melon
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13. SPINACH
This veggie has a very high nutritional value and is incredibly rich in antioxidants, especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled. It is a rich source of vitamin A (and especially high in lutein), vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate, betaine, iron, vitamin B2, calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids.
Verdict: You're an idiot if it's in season and you're not eating this veggie!
Cooking Suggestions: Whether you mix fresh leaves with your salad, or steam and butter, or eat it on your burger it will be good
Other Spinach-like foods: Kale, Romaine lettuce, baby Spinach
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14. SWEET POTATOES
Besides starch, sweet potatoes are surprisingly rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. Let us not forget that beta carotene is what nurtures the skin's pigment from the inside, so eat it up and you'll be looking healthy.
Verdict: A seasonal treat, it's still unbelievable that it's a health food!
Cooking Suggestions: Bake in the oven or heat in the microwave ( 8 minutes at 1/2 power on each side), add butter, chives, chili pepper and swiss cheese.
Other Sweet Potato-like foods: Potatoes, Beans, Nuts
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15. TOMATOES
Tomatoes are a global food. Their consumption is believed to benefit the heart and cardiovascular system as well as neurological functioning. Tomatoes decrease the risk of breast cancer, head and neck cancers and might be strongly protective against neurodegenerative diseases.
Verdict: Eat them! A gift disguised in red. They make you smarter!
Cooking Suggestions: Slice or cub fresh tomatoes, pour vinaigrette and olive oil, add some chives and bon appetit
Other Tomato-like foods: Aubergine, Eggplant
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Foods 16 - 18 keep metabolism and oil levels stable
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16. BROWN RICEBrown rice is a whole natural grain which means unmilled or partly milled rice. It has a soft nutty flavor and is chewier and has far more nutrients than white rice
Verdict: A perfect lunch and dinner component, eat as you'd like
Cooking Suggestions: Prepare and season, serve with fish and broccoli or coliflower and melted cheese
Other Brown Rice-like foods: wild rice, whole grain bread, wheat bread, whole grain pasta
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17. WILD RICE
Is generally sold as a dried whole grain. Wild rice has a healthy level of protein, the amino acid lysine and fiber, and is low in fat. Wild rice is an excellent source of minerals and vitamins such as potassium and phosphorus, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.
Verdict: The healthiest rice available on earth, wild rice is what humans ate before industrialization
Cooking Suggestions: Prepare and season, good enough to eat by itself with a little butter
Other Wild Rice-like foods: None! Nothing can take the place of Wild Rice, it's Wild!
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18. WHOLE GRAIN BREAD
This bread is loaded with protein, has almost no fat, a healthy amount of carbohydrates and fiber, is full of iron and made exactly the way nature intended. There is nothing bad about this bread as we don’t add anything nor process it. This is the best bread that exists as far as taste and wholesomeness. It includes vitamins and nutrients thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B6, folate, pantothenic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and manganese. Remove all of the nutrients and you get white bread; made only to last longer on the shelves in stores.
Verdict: If you haven't converted to wheat bread by now hurry, time's running out, and you don't know what you're missing
Cooking Suggestions: Toast it, add a little butter and confiture for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and in an Italian bread basket for dinner
Other Wheat Bread-like foods: Whole grain pasta, Brown rice, wild rice
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Breakfast, Waking up to a Great Day
Choose the most correct statement:
- Logic: eat less = gain less.
- Reality: skip breakfast = gain weight.
- The Truth: eat right breakfast = be right.
Have you ever skipped breakfast thinking that it will help you trim the waistline? You and millions of others… every day.
It is simple, really. Breakfast might be the most important meal of the day but Mornings are the most important time of day. Think about how they shape your day; when you get out of bed groggy and think that you will have a grey day. Now think of the contrary, when you get out of bed happy and you feel like you will have a great day. Breakfast, consequently, falls during this period; the setting of the day.
Making breakfast wonderful is in our best interest. It will not only take part in the shaping of our day but more specifically, each of the following meals. Each meal thereafter has a set “Guideline” of Quality, Quantity and Time Spent. Dodging breakfast however will de-stabilize your whole body, alter your bodily timing and shock the stomach come lunch.
When we go to sleep the stomach goes into “sustenance mode” and shrinks. Missing out on breakfast prolongs this effect until lunch. Then at lunch the stomach is forced from its small and sleepy state to stretched and stuffed, involuntarily. (Imagine being woken up by someone shoving a loaf of bread in your mouth). You are setting your day to be grey, very grey. And that is just one day.
- This same process over the course of a month will stretch the stomach enough that the belly is pushed out appearing like obesity. (Early stage of obesity: stretched stomach, it can contain more food.)
- Concentration, alertness and activity slow because the metabolism is hindered.
- The body wants to sleep longer in the morning and stay awake later because the body views lunch as the start of the day (which is generally breakfast’s role).
- Sleep is restless. The body has energy after dinner and wants to use it.
- This is all after 1 month; imagine after 1 year, 5 years.
Answer to above question:
A.Logic: eat less = gain less.B.Reality: skip breakfast = gain weight.- The Truth: eat right breakfast = be right.
Why? Because it gives your metabolism a standard. And to be Right you must practice Right.
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Health and Fitness Words for Thought
If you are training for something then sure, running will certainly get you there quicker. But if you’re trying to be healthy and in shape throughout your lifetime (and not just for the quick fixer summer vacation) then picking your pleasure is up to you because they do the same. The goal is certainly not to “Do it the Correct Way” but rather to “Just Do It” (not to quote any famous name brands out there) because that morale is right on the money.
Sure, you'll burn a lot more running for the same amount of time as walking but you’re in it for the long haul here folks. Accept the personal investment and get to it, whatever your preference is, just enjoy yourself during or you will get burned out. Let’s not forget De la Fontaine’s story of the Tortoise and the Hare; the rabbit is fast, arrogant and thinks rarely of running whereas the turtle walks but goes at an enjoyable pace (which he maintains the entire story) and eventually wins.
To apply it to you: don’t try to be the best, fastest or most in shape, think of exercise as a “gift to the tomorrow you.”
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2. Exercise does not increase hunger.
Exercise does not increase hunger. If you are using that as an excuse to avoid exercise you’re trying to slip out the back door without anyone knowing, except this door is squeaky and everyone knows the sound of a cheap cop-out.
Anyone who’s ever exercised would know that exercising is an appetite suppressor. The last thing anyone does after a good workout is pummel food, they go straight for a giant glass of water.
Cut the cheap excuses, find something that you can enjoy (and don’t stop until you do) and Just Do It.
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3. It definitely matters where your calories come from!
Every heard of Empty Calories? They are also called Twinkies, Ice Cream, Doughnuts, Coke, Cake, White Bread and Candy Bars, etc. They taste great and are fun to eat but give your body nothing. No matter what you do you cannot turn cake into muscle because the “Fat” in cake is empty. They are called empty calories because they have nothing to give your body, hence, it is viewed as empty to your body (who absorbs everything you ingest, everything). On the other hand, eating Good Calories gives you a lot of things you need even though it too has “Fat”.
Ever heard of Good Calories? They are sometimes known as Peanuts, Nuts, Avocados, Whole Grain Bread, Beans and Peanut Butter. These are examples of Good Calories which are needed by your body. Your body will ingest and absorb every bit of those Good Calories and that Good Fat will help your body do everything it is supposed to do; help digestion, fight disease, pigment and enrich the skin, help the ligaments and organs.
Fat is Good if it comes from a natural source; vegetables (nuts), fruits (avocados), whole grain bread (brown and black bread).
Fat is Bad if it comes from an industrial source; Junk Food (candy bars, coke, cake, ice cream and white bread). Why is white bread bad? Just think that it has been messed with so much that it’s barely bread anymore.
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4. Dieting is not enough for good health and weight loss
Think long term here friends. Dieting is a “Quick Fix” or also referred to as a “Cheap Copout” and always discourages the person much more then encouraging.
Long term: think exercise, or to simplify, think Activity. In our day we say exercise but any kid under 7 years will say “playing, back yard or go outside” which might hint you in the right mental direction here. We view dieting and exercise as a burden or responsibility (like everything in the adult world) whereas exercise (playing) should be fun and active. If you can stick to the old anecdote; Have Fun, then you might just get healthy without any burdens, and all the while smiling.
Lastly, avoid the information. It’s too easy to get caught up with which activity is the healthiest; just pick a thing and start, even if it is a morning or evening walk. Again, this isn’t about short fixes, this is all about General Health, which is the basis for this website; Physical, Mental and Emotional Health!
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5. There is no ideal exercise nor is there an ideal time for it.
This cannot be emphasized enough; being active and having fun is the best possible exercise. If you view activities as a responsibility (saying “I need to get to the gym,” etc.) then you’re in trouble from the start. Going to the pool or the beach and swimming is just as great as taking a walk no matter the time of day so long as it is a pleasure. On one side of the coin you are “Treating” yourself by having fun and on the other side you are “Managing” yourself by giving a task that needs to be done.
Be Active, Eat Natural and Have Fun!
