November 2018 - Inner Connected Wellness

Low-Sugar Christmas

You’ve eaten the turkey, cranberry, and stuffing from Thanksgiving. Now, you’re counting down to the glazed ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls of Christmas. Such high-glycemic choices are why Santa has his belly! So, here are a few delicious alternatives for a low-sugar Christmas.

Low Sugar Christmas Roast

If turkey is your tradition, then try fresh cranberry relish with it and non-traditional stuffing to reduce the strain on your pancreas. Or you might consider prime rib instead. If you like ham, you could serve it with a savory mustard glaze. To avoid unhealthy fats, whip up your own 3-ingredient mayonnaise in just 1 minute to use in the mustard sauce recipe.

Slow Carb Side Dishes

Think colors and fiber when selecting your side dishes. Herbed sweet potatoes, free from marshmallows, are a delightful alternative to mashed potatoes. If you like, you can blend some sour cream with them. Cruciferous vegetables lend color, minerals, and nutrient density to the meal. Caramelized Brussels sprouts and kale are quick and easy to prepare.

Roll Over, Breads

Dinner rolls may be a feature of most American holiday meals. But a low-sugar Christmas should avoid breads made with refined flours. To keep your carbohydrates in balance, use fresh greens to fill your plate. A festive salad is eye-catching and provides necessary enzymes to digest your meal.

What About Dessert?

If you still have room after all that, go ahead and have a treat. Pears drizzled with dark chocolate are a light, refreshing option that won’t spike insulin levels. For a decadent delight that will wow your guests, these chocolate truffles only have 5 grams of carbohydrate.

in Food & Cooking

Dangerous Risk

An iceberg is a dangerous risk because of what you don’t see. Likewise with pre-diabetes. Today, more than 84 million Americans have pre-diabetes, but most of them don’t know it.

Are You Pre-Diabetic?

You can take a one-minute quiz to find out if you have certain risk factors for pre-diabetes. But, the biggest factor – the one not in any assessment – is eating a Standard American Diet.

Setting risk aside, here are some actual symptoms of pre-diabetes:

a waist that bulges over your belt a little
difficulty losing weight
rising triglyceride levels
a high blood pressure reading
inability to free yourself from sugar or carb cravings
chronic tiredness, especially after meals
facial hair or gestational diabetes (female) or low testosterone (male)
irritability, especially if meals are delayed
memory issues

You only have to experience one of two of these symptoms to be pre-diabetic.

Why is Pre-Diabetes a Dangerous Risk?

Pre-Diabetes heightens your risk for heart disease and stroke. Unfortunately, that is not the biggest concern. “Pre-diabetes is not ‘pre’ anything,” says Dr. Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Blood Sugar Solution. “It is a deadly disease.” This disease causes organ damage every second it goes untreated, including injury to the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.

How to Escape This Dangerous Risk

You may hear this advice from a doctor or dietician: first, eat right; second, exercise; and third, lose weight. That sounds great! However, eating the highly-touted low-fat diet in many cases increases triglyceride levels even more. Further, you have difficulty losing weight and are too tired to exercise because you’re pre-diabetic (see symptoms above). Like the Titanic, you seem to be sinking hopelessly.

Luckily, Nutritional Therapy Practitioners work from the inside out. Our focus is to reverse, not just treat, the condition. We make sure you can absorb the nutrients from your food and that you have high quality nutrients available to you. This foundational work gives you energy to exercise. Our therapy also balances your body so that it sheds its excess pounds naturally, even effortlessly.

If you are ready to change your life, I am ready to work with you!

in Education

Be Fabulously Fit by following these four tips

Fabulously Fit This Holiday

Gratitude and cheer can turn to dread and anxiety if you fear that holiday parties will ruin your figure and your health. But by following 4 simple tips, you can still be fabulously fit on January 2nd.

Fresh, Fiber-ful Food

To begin with, scan the table before you pick up your fork. Look for unprocessed foods with minimal ingredients. Fruits and vegetables with lots of color are your best bet. Any offering that is live, real, wild, or fresh is going to be more nourishing than foods that are artificial or processed. Nature’s carbohydrates contain plenty of fiber to help you fill up before you overindulge. So, choose to load up on healthier options first!

Also, keep in mind that balance is vital. Even a meal of whole carbohydrates can leave you craving if you don’t eat adequate proteins. A good rule of thumb is to make half your plate non-starchy vegetables, and one-fourth of your plate protein. You can fill the remaining quarter with fruit, legumes, whole grains, or starchy vegetables. If you have the option, dress your foods with traditional fats, such as butter, olive oil, or avocados.

Finally, beware of triggers. Sugar, alcohol, caffeine, MSG, hydrogenated fats, and refined flours can all stimulate overeating. Stay on the fabulously fit side of life by avoiding sweetened beverages and by limiting desserts, rolls, pastries, and other baked goods.

Focus

No one ever got fabulously fit by accident. Therefore, be deliberate about your objective. For example, you might decide ahead of time whether your purpose is to connect with people, feel the joy of the season, or simply eat your next meal. If you intend to meet your body’s nutritional needs, then set an intention to feel comfortable and energized after the meal, not sluggish and bloated. You can meet this aim with several strategies.

First, eat regular meals throughout the day. The “skip and save” approach to caloric intake only makes you grouchy and starved. Then, you are extremely vulnerable to eating too much of the wrong kinds of foods.

Second, allow yourself a smart snack before the party so that you can keep your portion sizes down. Smart snacks are fruits or vegetables eaten with a little bit of protein or a bit of natural fat. Baby bell peppers filled with cottage cheese, celery spread with nut butter, and carrots dipped in hummus are a few examples.

Third, mind your eating hygiene. Take a deep breath before you begin your meal to set yourself in the present. Avoid gulping your food, savor the flavors, and put your fork down between bites. Notice when you have reached a 6 or 7 on the hunger/fullness scale, with 10 being so stuffed you are sick. Stopping before you reach an 8 or 9 insures that you are satisfied but not miserable.

Lastly, hold yourself accountable. Find a friend, family member, or health mentor to report back to on your success in meeting your intention. We all perform a little better when we know we will be sharing our results.

Family & Friends

If your life were to end tomorrow, what you had for dinner would be immaterial. But how you interfaced with people would be highly significant. While the purpose of a holiday may be to express gratitude or commemorate a special event, that purpose is much more meaningful when shared. So, make the most of the occasion by focusing on loved ones rather than food.

In addition to stimulating and happy conversation, shared activities are a good means of connecting with others. Why not put together a puzzle, do the dishes together, go for a walk, drag out the ice skates, or tell stories around a fire instead of just sitting at the table? Physical activities have the added benefit of revving up your metabolism and keeping you from picking at leftovers.

Fabulously Fit and Free

When you give in to instant gratification at the buffet table, guilt and remorse follow. It does not feel good to have blood sugar swings, to carry excess weight and to lose your health. What does feel good is the freedom that comes from nourishing yourself with nutrient-dense food. However, it is important to remember that we are all human. None of us eats perfectly 100% of the time. As a result, you might occasionally give in to a tempting food that is not part of your plan.

You can stay fabulously fit and free by forgiving yourself and moving on. There’s no sense in flattening the other 3 tires on your car just because one of them got punctured. In other words, don’t allow yourself to make excuses to eat lousy for the rest of the season because you made one un-wise choice. Choose to make the season one of gratitude and cheer.

in Lifestyle