Mindfulness Meditation Hike

A lot of people think hiking needs to be a strenuous all day endeavor. In fact, it might be damaging for your blood sugar and inflammation to go for a long hike without the proper fuel of water and healthy snacks.

Getting out to nature can be easy and you don't have to be in your best shape -- just get to your local park and walk! (and bring your water bottle and a healthy low-glycemic snack like a nutty trail mix)

What we're doing in our mindfulness meditation hike is we combine the best of a few resources: 1) nature's easy forest bathing 2) mindfulness meditation 3) breathing exercises and 4) yoga stretching all while doing a walk that is good for beginners and all levels.

If you want to know more about our hikes and education workshops for heart health (and other wellness topics), please join our meetup group for Heart Health Hiking!

Beauty of meditation

Meditation Mount in Ojai (https://meditationmount.org)

The beauty of meditation is that you can do it anywhere. And if you can find great gardens and sanctuaries, it is so much easier you to find that quiet peace of mind. So for my birthday get-away, I wanted to visit Meditation Mount in Ojai. You can see more photos on my FB page.

Other great places to enjoy meditation gardens in Los Angeles include:

* Self-realization Fellowship (my favorite is the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades location off Sunset/PCH)

* Peace Labyrinth in the historic West Adams neighborhood

* Any park of the LA Mountains

* Or other urban parks/gardens you might find as little gems in your neighborhood.

Share with us your favorite gardens and sanctuaries! Post your best finds on our FB page.
PS If you don't know how to meditate and want to just get started with breathing out 2x as long: inhaling 1-2 (count), and exhaling long 1-2-3-4 (count). Take the time to relax and exhale slowly -- it helps lower your blood pressure, improve your heart health, and decrease anxiety and stress.

High-protein snacks

So many of the "protein bars" are full of ingredients you can't pronounce or ingredients that have been so processed, they become a glamorous candy bar. Best to stick to foods that you could possibly make at home with an ingredient list you *do* understand and can pronounce!

When I say we want high-protein snacks, what I mean is a flat-belly friendly "low-glycemic" snack -- instead of a granola bar or rice cakes (diet food!) that are "low-fat" but high in simple carbs = simple sugars (not good for your managing your blood sugar or belly inches). The less sugar you eat, the less you crave it. The more you choose high-protein and low-glycemic snacks, the easier it is to feel full and be satisfied -- no more munchies!

Here are some ideas for healthy eating on-the-go.

Make your own trail mix: Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are not as popular as nuts and cost less than my favorite almonds. I take an empty jar and mix up my own trail mix, so that I can stretch my almonds and pistachios and get in the hard-to-grab healthy seeds. When you buy pre-made trail mix, it's pumped full of dried fruit that has extra sugar. If you choose to buy pre-made trail mix, add your own seeds and nuts to decrease the sugar and dried fruit ratio. For example, if you get the individual size mix at Trader Joe's, pair it up with an individual size packet of almonds.

Jerky: You might remember jerky as too dry or too chewy, but there are lots of new foodie flavors and you can even find a vegan jerky. The taste-testers at Women's Health magazine have a list of tasty jerky for you. My favorite so far is KRAVE. Always read the label of any processed food for how many grams of sugar per serving size, so 1) you can monitor your serving size and 2) you can stay under the recommended *maximum* sugar calories per day. For me it's easier to read grams on the label instead of calories and it translates to this guideline from World Health Organization of 6 tsp of sugar = 25g

Protein Bars: Health Warrior Chia Bars have a good amount of natural protein and fiber from the chia seeds. One little Coconut flavor Chia Bar is 110 calories, with 4g of sugar, 3g of Protein and 4g of Fiber.  Keen-wah bars are also tasty, but a lot of chocolate if you're not in the mood for too sweet. If you want a traditional "granola bar" taste, Cascadian Farms offers a pea-protein based granola bar that isn't too sweet.

Protein and Fiber helps you feel full and getting enough fiber helps you detox and maintain a flat belly from inside out.  Most of us are good at getting more protein, and we need a little help on getting more fiber (check out my flat belly post for help). One of my weight loss students ended up getting her veggies (and thus her fiber) by using a dehydrator to make veggie chips. However, you don't need a new gadget to get veggie chips -- simply bake them in your oven or toaster oven (recipes here).

How meditation can be fun

Some people say they want to learn to meditate but worry it's too difficult or they don't like to sit still. There are so many ways to bring meditation into your life, that can be fun and help you tap into other parts of your brain! Here are some ideas below.

I'm excited that my talented friend, architect and art professor Michael Kieley, has asked me to teach meditation as a short segment of a creative Meditation-Drawing workshop that is going to be so much fun! Whether you're an artist or not, it's just great to exercise your creative muscle in a safe learning space, and he's a terrific guide for that. I have two spots reserved for Embody Health students in this special event, so please be sure to click on the event link and see if you want to join in on Sunday March 29th.

Another way to try meditation in a fun and easy way is to join my Meetup group for Heart Health Hiking. It's not just a hiking group, but we explore different parks and integrate yoga stretches, strength training, meditation, and nutrition tips. All things good for your heart health with the help of nature to get you to de-stress and relax. I started this group because I saw people who were interested in getting a good cardio workout get injured or have missing pieces of the formula for their heart health goals (nutrition, good posture, stretching, breathing/meditation techniques). One of my meditation students has inspired me with her beach walks, that we can plan a beach walk + meditation soon, once the weather is reliably not raining.

Here's an easy exercise for developing mindfulness: When you take a walk, start with taking 5 minutes of your walking to truly pay attention to your breath and the small wonders of nature you see along the way. Things like the unusual stream of light coming through the tree branches, the shapes of the clouds, the small weeds poking out between plants, the patterns of ground covers, the vibrant colors. You've now stimulated at least 2 senses (your breathing and your eyesight). As you go along, see if you can tune in to more of your 5 senses, feeling the breeze against your face, hearing more sounds, etc. Finding a curious attitude like a kid first discovering a new park or street is a way to get more present in your body and make that mind+body connection. You might enjoy this so much that 5 minutes of mindfulness becomes 10 or 15 minutes! Just tuning into your breath alone will help calm down any stress or anxiety. Have fun!

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

High fiber (flat belly), less sugar, better protein!

You can have your tasty muffins (foodie approved) and feel good that it is a healthy flat-belly food.

And for those of you who worry that gluten-free or healthy baking is too much work, you'll be happy to know that I got almost all my ingredients from Trader Joe's. The low-sugar magic is cinnamon -- it helps accentuate what sweetness you already have in the recipe. I was able to cut the sugar down to only 1/2 cup of sugar from the original recipe from the Victory Garden Cookbook (Marian Morash). And the coconut oil is heart healthy for you, all those who are avoiding the bad saturated fats, this is a good alternative for cooking and baking.

My new favorite non-wheat flour (and ancient grain) is buckwheat flour (Bob's Red Mill is a brand you can find most grocery stores like Whole Foods or any health food store). Just a 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour gives this recipe a dark molasses taste, again helping to enhance the flavor without extra sugar. I was first introduced to buckwheat from a French cafe that featured buckwheat crepes (from Brittany's cuisine). Then I learned that Japanese soba noodles also use buckwheat for a nutty taste. If you look at Wiki, you'll see that buckwheat has a place from all over the world!

The pairing of almond flour (sneaking in protein in your muffin!) and coconut flour helps give a balance of taste, and both of these gluten-free flours have great fiber. For my friend who has had heart issues, she was delighted to eat something that didn't have butter and was heart-healthy for her. If you don't already know, check out my Heart Health Explorers hiking group where I sometimes teach meditation and other heart-healthy exercises to pair up with exploring great parks in the LA area.

Click on this link to get your health pumpkin muffin recipe. Makes for a great snack, dessert, or breakfast side. And happy heart health month!

Best Seafood to Eat?

What seafood is safe to eat? What is more healthy for you?

If you didn't already download this list on your phone for your shopping convenience, here is Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch List for those who live in California, or go to the main page to find your state's Seafood Watch Guide.  What is tough for those of us who try to eat healthy, is how to make it practical and easy to focus on the best choices (see list for California reprinted below).

In order to succeed in eating healthy, use this strategy -- prepare and stock up in your pantry and freezer. "No one plans to fail, we just fail to plan!" Seafood is a terrific choice for eating more healthy fats (heart healthy!) and getting lean proteins to support healthy weight or your weight loss goals.

You can get things like Arctic Char, Scallops, Tilapia, Alaskan Wild Salmon in the freezer section for budget-friendly shopping and store it in your home freezer. Small fish rich in Omega-3 healthy fats like Sardines and Herring can be found in the canned or jarred food section so you can have it ready in your pantry, for easily less than $2-3 per serving. Clams, Mussels, and Oysters have terrific levels of minerals, especially for women who need iron-rich foods -- there is a great easy way to make your own healthy seafood chowder at home. Whenever you make soups, chowders or chili, these are great foods to make in a bigger batch and save in your freezer for eating at another time. Gotta have strategies to save you time, money and keep your healthy eating at your best! If you're a vegetarian and want to balance your nutrition with vegetarian sources of minerals and Omega-3 healthy fats, there are other strategeis! Anyone you know who wants to improve your nutrition, please email me and we can set up your complimentary phone-consult--you can be anywhere with a phone and we'll get you started!

List of "Best Choices" seafood for California

• Arctic Char (farmed)
• Bass: Striped (US hook & line, farmed)
• Catfish (US)
• Clams, Mussels & Oysters
• Cod: Pacific (US hook & line)
• Halibut: California (US hook & line)
• Lobster: Spiny (Mexico)
• Prawns: Spot (AK)
• Rockfish (US)
• Sablefish/Black Cod (AK & Canada wild)
• Salmon (AK)
• Sanddab (CA, OR & WA)
• Sardines: Pacific (Canada & US)
• Scallops (farmed)
• Seaweed (farmed)
• Shrimp (AK wild, US farmed)
• Sole (CA, OR & WA)
• Tilapia (Ecuador & US)
• Trout: Rainbow (US farmed)
• Tuna: Albacore/White canned
• (Canada & US troll, pole)
• Tuna: Skipjack/Light canned
• (FAD free, US troll, pole)
• Tuna: Yellowfin (US troll, pole)

Flat Belly tips for Heart Health, Detox, Optimal Health, Weight Loss

We had great amount of interest from different people for our FREE health teleseminar on Tuesday - from athletes to heart health hikers to people who want to kick their sugar addiction. Our coaching programs are not just geared for healthy weight loss, it also helps you keep your diabetes and heart risks lower as you learn to eat "low-glycemic impact" with all your snacks and meals. Right click on this link to download the recording or simply click to listen.

As a health coach and healthy foodie chef, I want you to know our programs are about eating smarter and enjoying life more! No calorie counting, simply strategies for a lifetime of wellness!
* Why you might want to consider a 7-day healthy detox to help you kick your sugar cravings and flatten your belly with Coach Jen: "You are what you eat. You are what you don't detox."
* If any of the 5 fat factors aren't balanced and part of your life, you'll want to check out our healthy weight loss program. Do you need help w stress redux, sleep management, mind-body awareness, nutrition or exercise?
* Are you eating a healthy low-glycemic breakfast every day? This helps you keep the sugar cravings away and manage your blood sugar (and lower diabetes risks).
* How can you implement a new healthy habit? (Check the recording or contact me!)

For your free FLAT BELLY worksheet, email me so we can send you the PDF worksheet directly!
Do you want to win over $500 worth of prizes in a local weight loss contest? Schedule your FREE 20-min phone consult now to see how you can qualify before the Sept 24th deadline! Look hot for the holidays and new year! You can live anywhere with a phone and internet -- I can help you with health coaching. Why wait to get your best body and health? Get started now!

Why should I eat clean?

Why should I eat clean? What is a healthy detox week?

To my surprise, one of my students wasn't so grumpy yesterday. In fact, he was sharing his delight in his health changes.

He had just gotten through doing his detox week of eating clean and reported to me that he noticed he didn't want the cookies that were catered to a company lunch. Big victory! That ever since he's been steady about eating breakfast, having a breakfast smoothie full of veggies and fruit, that he notices he doesn't really want sweets the same as before! That people have been commenting that he looks like he's lost weight. This is only after about a month of nutrition coaching. While he's only lost a few pounds, eating cleaner has decreased his inflammation (thus a healthy glow from his skin and face) and improved his health outlook (less stress on his heart health and diabetes issues).

I've had other students improve from issues related to stomach stress like acid reflux or irritable bowel syndrome. I even had a 30-something student, who had his mother's joint pain from gout, who was very limited in his daily activities to graduate to biking, gardening, and doing yoga exercises regularly. Learning to take care of your health can help diminish the late night munchies and improve quality of your sleep. While weight loss and looking great can be a top motivator for people handle their health concerns, ultimately cleaning up your nutrition has long-term and daily benefits of feeling better energy and improving your mood! Contact me (embodyhealth at gmail) to learn more about a healthy detox week or how to work with your health concerns.

More reasons to drink homemade smoothies

When you drink a homemade smoothie, you can be sure what ingredients you have to best improve your health, without the added sugar from a smoothie cafes that use ice cream or sherbets, or the disintegration of nutrients from ones sitting on the shelf at the grocery store.

Most of us don't get enough servings of fruits and veggies in our diet - which why I encourage my nutrition/weight loss students to focus on to get the fiber from fruits and veggies to help flatten their belly from the inside out! Now, I'm excited to share with you more reasons why smoothies can give you ENERGY -- at the cellular level, besides the usual vitamins and antioxidants you might already know about.

Now, I was reading about CoQ10 for getting energy to mitochondria and found that it has an anti-aging buddy PQQ (pyrroloquinoline quinone) that can help build new mitochondria. For the nerds out there, you can click on the Journal link below and I dare you to try to say the full words PQQ and CoQ10 correctly as fast as you can. So from here on, because it's a tongue-twister for me, we'll just refer to it as P-Q-Q. For everyone else, just know that CoQ10 is great for your heart and tissues (helps decrease my chances of bleeding gums when flossing), and PQQ studies can help improve brain function (especially important for those who have family history of Alzheimers, Parkinsons or dementia etc).

So for those with low attention span, I'll give you some recipe ideas here that will help get the energy boosting foods on the PQQ common foods list from the Biochem Journal now.

I promise that uncooked spinach in a smoothie does not have a flavor or the hairy teeth effect of some cooked spinach. Also, using frozen fruit allows you to get the cool taste for a summer smoothie without adding ice or sugary sorbets.

Kiwi Energy smoothie (If you don't mind seedy taste from the kiwis)
1 generous handful of spinach, 2 peeled and cut-up kiwis, 1 cup frozen organic blueberries (berries are less expensive frozen!), 1 tbls coconut oil, 4-8 oz of coconut water or almond milk (place first 5 ingredients to blend) then stir in 1 tbl of chia seeds for added fiber and omega-3. Optional flavors to add: fresh mint leaves. Optional to boost digestive health: blend in flavorless aloe powder (1 packet). You can omit coconut oil (good fats!) if you don't like coconut taste.

Banana Fanatics smoothie (for those who want the creamy tropical taste or don't like seeds)
1 generous handful of spinach, 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen or fresh papaya, 1/2 a medium apple, 1 tbls coconut oil, 4-8 oz of coconut water or almond milk. Blend these 6 ingredients. If you like seeds texture, then add 1tbl of chia seeds for added fiber and omega-3. Optional to boost digestive health: blend in flavorless aloe powder (1 packet). If you like cinnamon, sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon (healthy blood sugar support without added sweet calories) into your smoothie for a hint of banana bread flavor.

Savory side dish energy boost
Slice up sweet potatoes and carrots, mix in bowl with crushed garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Roast in oven or sautee in pan on medium-low until desired texture. Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley when root veggies are ready. This is good to make in a big batch because once made, they sit well in the fridge for quick snacking or adding as a side to a quick meal.

May seasonal fruits

I'm excited to check out upcoming Farmer's Markets here in Los Angeles, the seasonal produce is changing and we'll get some of my favorite fruits that are not found other times of the year:
* apricots
* nectarines
* peaches
* figs
Vegetables like summer squash have been around earlier, and I really like this "What's in season" page for finding out what's around at the farmer's market. I'm a berry fan and often disappointed at what I see at the regular grocery stores, so I'm planning a trip to "pick your own berries" at this family farm.

If you're not able to get your berries everyday or if you're not a fan of berries, this ORAC supplement is a powerful delivery system of berries like cranberries and elderberry I don't get around to eating and can help support healthy vision. I have trouble with my night vision, and if I don't get my berries, I actually have cravings for berries! So I have a back-up of frozen berries in my freezer, and there is also my new favorite frozen Greek yogurt place that has terrific fruit toppings to help quench my cravings and cope with the hot weather. Seasonal fruits make for a quick healthy dessert or a great topping on salads. Hope you'll find or re-discover some favorites in the next few weeks!

Quick skin health for busy people

Our busy lifestyles sometimes leaves some self-care routines short-changed.  Since our skin is our largest organ and I care about my health, I need to take care of it just as much as eating healthy organic foods!

I have sensitive skin and used to have all kinds of eczema and breakouts as a teen, so I'm hesitant to use anything with too many ingredients. My days in college, people raved about witch hazel but it was too drying for my T-zone combination skin. Now, in Los Angeles with some of the desert weather, I need to be on top of cleaning and moisturizing my skin. And why not use a moisturizer with Vitamins C and E to protect my skin from cellular damage from the pollution and sun? I've been delighted to find this discounted kit (save 20%) that matches my healthy lifestyle that has aloe and other gentle natural ingredients for cleansing and toning plus my favorite vitamin anti-aging/antioxidant moisturizer! For busy people, it's a quick 3 steps of cleanse, tone, and moisturize.

A number of my fashionista friends talk about and take a supplement biotin for their skin health. However, with a little research, it's best taken in synergy with other vitamins and antioxidants for your best results for beauty from the inside out. I had an 70-year-old who had tried lots of different supplements for anti-aging, and she really loved this skin health formula! There's even a study about Pycnogenol that shows the impact for post-menopausal women -- which is exactly what my 70-year-old experienced, bringing down some of her puffy eye symptoms and more.

Mayo-free egg salad

Trying to eat fewer processed foods? Here's an egg salad I improvised that you can make without mayo (a processed food usually pumped with flavoring and other junk).

RECIPE
4 boiled eggs and peeled, still warm (free-range organic omega 3 preferred)
1 tsp fresh dill chopped
2 squeezes of fresh lemon (make a circle around the bowl 2x)
1 tsp of coconut oil (room-temp so it spreads easy)
1/4 tsp of smoked paprika
fresh ground pepper, salt
(yields approx 2 servings)

If you like more creamy, you can add more coconut oil or olive oil. If you want more herb flavor, please add more dill. Egg salad is great to have around as a snack or as a topping on gluten-free toast as a healthy breakfast option.

This won't taste like the egg salad you get from the store, but it is tasty and you can taste your food and fresh herbs with this recipe instead of something that is overburdened with sauce. And it uses less than 10 ingredients! When you eat cleaner food, your tastebuds will thank you! You'll taste more of the fresh herbs and you won't crave the junk food as much. Email me to find out more about detoxing and rehabbing your gut. You can still be a foodie while being healthy!

Quality Eggs

Quality eggs are not obvious with all the different labels. Here's a great article from Organic Consumers Association on what words to look for: “Free Range” is better than “Cage Free,” but “Pasture Raised” is best. Avoiding cheap factory farm eggs is not only the right thing to do for your vote on agricultural practices but also for your health. Eggs got a bad rap in the 1980s about their nutrition, but when you get what I call "happy eggs," you'll get Omega-3 good fats and other important vitamins and minerals. Eggs are an inexpensive protein packed full of nutrients if you get the right ones. Egg-xcellent!

Boost your energy in less than 5 minutes

Easy ways to boost your energy in less than 5 minutes!

Some strategies only take 30 seconds of tuning in.

Are you one of those people who go non-stop? Or maybe feel rushed? Try some (or all) of these strategies and see how you get a boost of energy!

* Stop rushing and Tune in: Take breaks from the computer screen or whatever you're focused on. Close your eyes, sit tall and calm, and breath deep belly breaths for 30 seconds. You can do this on your bathroom break--sitting break, or while you're washing your hands.
* If you have a place to lie down quietly in a comfortable place, we call this "active rest," it might even be better than a nap. Our spine is working hard to be in vertical so it is such a relief to allow your spine to rest horizontal! Keep your knees bent to give your low back some support. Breathe deep belly breaths and let your back relax/melt into the mat or floor.
* Sometimes it's just that your body needs more support all around. Did you get enough healthy energizing food or snacks throughout the day? Take these Activated B vitamins that have super absorption (feel the boost within 5 minutes!). Time it either in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the post-lunch lull. B-vitamins helps support your nervous system as you deal with daily stressors and it's good for your heart! And it's great to take it before a workout. Some athletes have reported that the lift stronger weights or have other performance boosts with this vitamin B. And it's safe! Most of us are low on B-vitamins and because it's water soluble, it's safe to take several caps a day bc any extra will simply be disposed of in your urine.
* If you've had long-term stress, whether from a family/life incident or chronic long work hours, you might need some support to bring down your cortisol levels (a stress hormone) and support your adrenals. This supplement helps you improve your health of your stress hormones to a better balance-- why it's called ACTS (adrenals, cortisol, thyroid, and stress).
* Depending on your mood, listen to some happy or relaxing music on your way out of the office to your exercise class or home workout so you have the energy! My favorite diva power songs come from Pink or old school Gloria Gaynor. What are your favorite power songs?

* Have fresh plants at your desk or home. Nature helps change the energy in the area and might even make you smile! I bought these potted tulips before the flowers were in bloom, and apparently they were bursting with so much energy that each stem produced twin flowers! Now, that's extra energy from the flowers for you!

Finding Fitness Anywhere

If you're traveling for the holidays, sometimes we get sidetracked from our regular fitness routine. For me, when I travel, I think of it as a chance to explore more parks or meet new hiking groups or take a fitness class--it's an adventure! How do you find where to go?

There are lots of free resources on the internet from the parks systems or if you want to join a group, look at meetup or facebook. If you're in the LA area, join my Heart Health Hiking group on meetup. Whereever you are, you can go to www.meetup.com and look for the keywords "hikes" or "hiking" OR look up parks under yelp for reviews from other hikers. Yesterday, I found a terrific hike with a local chapter of the Sierra Club, and it was a wonderful group of friendly people. I want to also celebrate for Rachel from yesterday's hike, who recently had her 62nd birthday and qualified for the lifetime senior membership with the National Parks system!

If you are looking for fitness classes, an internet search for your local dance or pilates or yoga studio is easy when you put in your zip code. In general, it's human nature to prefer something convenient (it improves your chance of actually doing it!) and when it's in your neighborhood, you might even find the opportunity to walk to it and get some more footsteps in! And if it's cold or rainy weather, there is always a shopping mall or museum that is big enough for you to get in some walking towards your daily 10,000 steps. You can find fitness anywhere!

Chicken Barley and Pea Soup

Soup is a great way to use up your veggies and get your nutrition all in one bowl! Pre-make the soup so you have something ready-to-eat when you're too busy to cook. Total cooking time was about 30-45 minutes, depending how quickly you chop. Full of vitamins, protein and fiber, and covering the rainbow nutrition with peas, red onions, mushrooms and basil.

Outline of the recipe:
Crimini mushrooms (sliced), chix broth, frozen peas, carrots, sweet potatoes (and parsnops if you like 'em), 10-minute barley (cooks faster!). Put in more of what you like! I like extra mushrooms so I put in more.

Dippy Fun Veggies

Making dips and spreads is a terrific way to get more veggies into your life and have healthy party food. I went to the West Hollywood Book Fair today and I love their culinary stage because I always learn something new. I hadn't figured out a way to work pepitos into my food life and Aida Mollenkamp shared this recipe -- what a terrific way to get pepitos and squash together!

Other veggie dip ideas: roasted bell peppers with hummus, artichoke w hummus, avocado cucumber cilantro salsa. And if you don't have time to cook, you can buy hummus with some kind of veggie flavoring (Trader Joe's has a hummus with olives) and dip with crunchy veggies like carrots, cucumbers, and sweet peas instead of chips to get a double whammy of delicious, easy, and healthy.

Jicama for chipaholics

Jicama is a great substitute for that chip craving! It's a crunchy refreshing white root vegetable that has a great amount of fiber with a slightly sweet taste. If you like cucumbers, you'll really like this veggie that is high in crunch factor. The high water content makes it a refreshing chilled treat on a hot day, also a good substitute for a popsicle craving.

One cup of raw sliced jicama gives you 6 grams of fiber, great in Vitamin C (can't get enough of that!) and it's a great source of inulin to support a happy healthy gut. It's low glycemic and terrific for weight loss and flat belly with its high fiber content. More about it's nutrition profile here.

I find my jicama at the farmer's market. If you're in the LA area, there's a terrific Asian veggie stand (near the salad stand) at the Larchmont market. You can find it at most grocery stores. All you have to do is peel, slice and eat!
I like to eat it just plain, but some people like to pair it up with cucumber and lime to make it a tasty slaw. You can find cool jicama recipes here.

Get started on your weight loss today

Wow, the weight loss challenge from TLS Weight Loss solution has a big jackpot of $100,000 in cash prizes. You've got to register by tonight Thursday Aug 29th! Transform your mind+body in 12 weeks for a leaner healthier you!

You can register to do the weight loss program on your own, but I can help you be more successful if you want a coach. All you have to do assign me as your coach by typing in my email address where it asks if you have a coach (embodyhealth at gmail dot com).

I have 2 spots left for scholarship students where I'm waiving my usual coaching fees. If you want more info, please check out the program from a free recording of the introductory teleseminar or my website to see what my graduates have said about their successes. Whether or not you decide the challenge is for you, the teleseminar is chock-full of information about wellness strategies to improve your stress management, sleep, exercise, low-glycemic nutrition, and helping you be aware of your patterns to get to a healthier you. And feel free to share this FREE teleseminar recording with your friends and family. I want to hear from you even if you don't want to do the weight loss challenge because I want to know your questions to add more material to this blog. And I'm happy to work with anyone who wants to do a version of the program at your own pace because new healthy lifestyle habits stick when we figure out how it best works for you!

Saving the stomach

While I do my best to eat healthy, it's tough to be super clean with my nutrition and there is always room for improvement. So I have to find a way to save the stomach! A number of my friends and I are not good with digesting dairy or wheat products -- and mostly I stay away from it. It's not that I have Celiac's (read more about that here), but I can see my stomach gets bloated and more easily irritated when I eat the offending lactose or gluten. While I mostly cook at home, when going out to parties and restaurants, there is so much processed foods to watch out for. I don't want to ruin the fun by being too much of a picky eater. So when I go to the restaurants, sometimes there is a fried treat or a something with bread I occasionally splurge on. Even sauces are sometimes thickened with wheat. So the safe thing to do is to prevent the damage by taking these digestive enzymes travel packs with me and drinking it with my water before I eat. Tastes like lemonade and it helps with any processed foods. Yes, you can take digestive enzymes after you ate the offending foods, but let's save the stomach from being irritated by taking the digestive enzymes first! Other people are irritated by fructose which digestive enzymes also help break down. Be forewarned that there are hidden sources of bad fructose like in sauces like ketchup which have high fructose corn syrup we should all stay away from.

Probiotics are helpful to give us the "good bacteria" or what I call "good soldiers" to help boost our immune system. When our GI tract is not healthy, we're more prone to getting sick. Easy things to learn about digestive health is found in this article, and if you want to learn more about IBS, there's more here. You can read more about getting a high quality probiotic here, and if you want to save money on digestive health support, here's a great kit that gives you digestive enzymes, probiotics AND aloe juice!

Helping to save your stomach also means managing your stress and getting enough good sleep. Because we have such stress in our lives with this fast-paced world with phones and computer beeping and chirping and lots of interruptions, it really helps to make a daily practice in finding 20-30 minutes of quiet time to focus on breathing, meditation, or restorative yoga. There are surprises and challenges that are beyond our control and some kind of relaxing meditation practice helps. Even if you already know how to meditate, it helps to get new inspiration from different teachers. I'm on Day 9 with a new course and I have felt a little lighter, more able to handle the stresses that come my way (check out this 21-day meditation challenge through the Deepak Chopra meditation center). I hope these tips help you save your stomach and boost your immune system and mood!