Debbie Ally

The Paces of Life

As we move through our daily lives, we are often moving at different paces - just as we were designed to. Everyone has their own comfortable pace as a baseline and sometimes they'll go faster or slower to fit the situation. This is much like the runners you'd see in a race - they pace themselves so they can accomplish their goals 

Where we get into trouble with our bodies, is when we try to keep a pace that is just too high.

In our society today, many people are trying to 'sprint' for long periods of time. Your body is designed to sprint just fine for very short periods of time (seconds or maybe minutes) but it's certainly NOT designed to keep that pace for long periods (days, weeks, months, years). And just as if you were physically running too fast for too long, your body will fail. 

For many, that physical failure is happening and they aren't even aware that it's going on… yet. 

The body is such an amazing machine that it will keep giving all it can, for as long as it can, until there is nothing left. While it's great to have such a dedicated worker on your side, it's not so great when you realize that you're paying that worker with your life. 

That's right, by forcing your body to work under such insane conditions, you're giving up quality time and experience with everything and everyone you love. Now, I realize that may sound dramatic but it is absolute truth - truth framed in such a way that it's hard to look at.

We need time to stroll, time to linger, time to be...

We need all different paces just not too much of any one - especially if the main one is a frantic one as if you were being chased by a rabid dog or trying to win (or not lose) a race.

If you're moving through your days on autopilot, barely remembering the day's events - or caring to - when you drop into bed at night. If you're always feeling rushed, overbooked and chaotic with no time for activities you'd like to do, quality time with the people you love or just some quiet that you may be craving, you are sprinting through your life (and you're likely not nourishing your body properly either).

I want you to take notice because even if you don't feel your body failing now, I can guaranty you that trouble is brewing beneath the surface and you want to take some corrective action before you are forced to by facing a serious health issue.

If you'd like to explore this a little more, I'd be happy to set up some time to speak with you about it.

Here's to your healthy happiness!

Homemade Almond Milk (no box baby)

I'd heard about nut milks before and just how yummy they are when homemade but I'd not tried them yet even though I've had the mac-daddy blender to do it with for a little while now.

Today, I did it... and it ROCKED so much more than I ever could have imagined - it was so yummy that it could have passed as dessert for me! I wanted to share it with the world... and I'm trying :)

Over the weekend when I was planning my meals, I decided I wanted to give this a try so I went in search of a recipe that struck me as the 'right' one. I found it hanging out on one of the coolest blogs I've seen in a long time. Check out the name of this blog:

G Living The Darker Cooler Side of Green, Created Daily by Twisted Green Juice Guzzling Monkies

The name makes me smile every time I see it. 

They have some amazing (and entertaining) recipes including an enticing one for Raw Homemade Almond Milk. This is the one that I started with.

Here are 2 important notes before you get all psyched up to make this:

1) Make sure to give yourself plenty of time because you do need to soak the almonds 8-12 hours.

2) You need a nut milk bag... not a nut bag but a nut milk bag ;) 

I got a great tip from a clerk at my local Whole Foods - they didn't have nut milk bags but he told me I could run over to Home Depot and pick up a paint strainer bag which would work awesome for a whole lot less money (and he was right - they were $1.49 for 2 bags and I see nut milk bags listed online for $8 - $12 for 1) 

Now on to the milk...

Put 1 ½ cups whole raw almonds in a bowl and add enough water to cover by an inch or two. Set aside for 8-12 hours, then drain and rinse.

Add the nuts, 2 cups of water & a pinch of sea salt to your blender and process (I have a Blendtec and I processed it on the whole juice cycle which I think was about 40 seconds or so but you may need to process it longer for your blender). Add the remaining 2 cups water and blend a little bit longer (10 - 15 seconds maybe).

Strain the nut milk through the nut milk bag (or paint bag). I've read that you can use several layers of cheesecloth but I would not recommend that as it would be incredibly wasteful and messy. You can wash and reuse your bags.

Add your optional ingredients to the strained milk. We added 3 Tbsp of Agave and 1 tsp of vanilla extract (I might try some vanilla bean seeds some time) and blend or stir just to mix. 

Chill (if you can wait) and Enjoy!

 

 

 

Perfectly Imperfect!

This is my late breakfast / early lunch concoction:

It was yummy, yummy, yummy! Brown rice tortilla, carmelized onions (these may well be the food that makes me happiest in the world - at least today it is), some steamed kale, some steamed broccoli and some garbanzos. 

Except...

It didn't turn out how I originally planned. I wanted to have a wrap or burrito-like thing but my brown rice wrap wouldn't wrap. It was too stiff even though I'd moistened and heated it. When I tried to roll it, it broke, so I just smoothed it back out and planned to eat it with a knife and fork. 

Except...

The wrap wasn't behaving well for that either, so I resorted to fingers - THAT worked beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed my perfect meal :-)

Guess there's a moral in there somewhere, eh?

A Case for Organics

When it comes to you body, you want to make sure that you are giving it the highest quality 'fuel' that you can possibly obtain. In most cases, the highest quality food will be organic and unfortunately it's not the cheapest. If you think about it, it does make sense - higher quality goods are usually higher priced, though I do agree that when it comes to our food supply, something just feels wrong about that dynamic.

Lately, whenever I'm speaking with someone about ways to eat better to improve their health, inevitably, as soon as I mention eating organic, I'll hear an objection about the cost of doing so. I could go full into the explanation and break down of short term vs. long term costs and how a little more invested today can make a huge difference in the costs to your health and future health care, etc... but I won't & don't. Because the simple fact is that you have to get food on the table and if you don't have the budget for all organic eating then you have to just do the best you can until things change for you. Just make sure that you do keep evaluating your situation because many times we can afford it but we choose to get by more cheaply out of habit more than necessity.  

So, what't the best you can do? Meaning, where does it matter the most?

I recommend that when it comes to meat, poultry and dairy, you buy only organic even if it means that you have to consume less of these foods. These items have many issues when not organic and they're far too 'major' to overlook. I'll save elaboration on that for another time because today I want to cover produce.

Here's a basic 'rule of thumb': If the fruit or vegetable has a waxy skin or thick rind, it's usually (though not in all cases) lower in pesticides and by proper washing, you can reduce that even more. However, if the food has a porous skin, you can assume that it's far higher in pesticides AND they won't wash off because they've been absorbed and have become a part if the food itself.

So, fruits and veggies such as the ones here, MUST be organic:

• Celery
• Peaches
• Apples (their skin is not naturally waxy - processors add it on)
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Greens like Kale, Spinach, Collards, etc
• Grapes
• Lettuce
• Potatoes
• Blueberries
• Bell Peppers (not normally waxy)
• Cherries (not normally waxy)

While the ones below have been found to have the lowest levels of pesticides:

• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Avocados
• Sweet peas
• Sweet corn
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Eggplant
• Watermelon
• Grapefruit
• Onions
• Cabbage

If you're interested in knowing more about the 'why' this all matters, I encourage you to check out "Toxic America", a CNN series that aired not too long ago. It was very interesting and it may just have you rearranging your budget to make room for those organics after all... and that would be an awesome thing!

Food & Mood

Everyone has heard the saying, "You are what you eat" and while it may sound silly, it's actually quite true. The foods we choose have a profound effect on everything about us including our moods. This may not exactly be 'news' either but I will bet that you'll be surprised just how much.

Today, I'd like to share a very useful 'diagnostic' tool for you to assist you in improving your overall health. It's the Food-Mood Journal and what it does is allow you to gather some valuable information about what you're eating and how it affects you.

There is no set 'right' way to eat that fits everyone and even very healthy foods can be very unhealthy to some people. The only way to really find out is to do some investigating and this is what the Food-Mood Journal is perfect for.

It easy to do but it does take effort; however, it's quite a revealing exercise so certainly worth your while to do.

Here's how you do it:

Each time you eat something, write down the following:

1. What time of day it is
2. What you're eating (with as much detail as you can)
3. How you feel while eating it
4. How you feel immediately after eating it
5. How you feel a couple of hours after eating it
6. When you started to feel hungry again

I recommend that you keep the journal for 2-3 weeks or more. The longer you can keep it, the more you'll reveal about you to you.

Keeping mine led me to discover things like…

• Salad all day does NOT work well for me at all
• Eating meat bogs down my digestion & causes me to skip meals
• Removing meat eliminates sugar cravings completely
• Salmon causes a reaction similar to meat but tilapia does not
• Any amount of dairy will create a wicked craving for lots more
• My body loves, loves, loves greens

I encourage you to keep a food-mood journal for a few weeks and see what you're able to discover.

If you have questions (before, during or after) or need some help getting started, fell free to contact me and we'll talk about it.

No Matter What...

Ok, so we're all pretty clear that life isn't always fun - as it's served up anyway, BUT that doesn't mean that we can't make some fun!

Jobs can stink, we can have a bad day and still find a way to make it at least a little fun. If you think that's a false statement, check out this video:

Now, I'm not thinking that anyone would argue that these men have probably the worst job around right now but by golly, they're fitting in some fun where they can! We can all learn a little lesson here (other than some cool electric slide moves).

What can you do today to make it fun?

Dr Oz Speaks

Welcome!

What's good and new in your life?

One thing I find good and new is that the idea of taking charge of our health and well-being is becoming more mainstream every day.

It is my greatest hope that, as someone worthy of great respect as a medical expert, Dr. Oz can inspire many into proactive action with these wise words:

The education and awareness he's speaking about - taking charge of our own health - is far easier than you might expect. Working with a certified holistic health counselor is a great way to start!

It IS easy to do the right thing!