Ez, Tasty, Healthy Cooking Workshop

If you're busy and you need some easy, tasty, and healthy foods you can cook at home and use a on-the-go snacks, this is the cooking workshop for you! Want weight loss? Don't know how to eat more veggies in your week? I've got lots of ideas for you! The recipe for these turkey-veggie meatballs shown in the photo here got approved by an anti-veggie teen who is a picky eater.

Click on the event registration link quick so you can reserve your seat. It's a small class size so you can really learn. Tell your friends even if you can't make it, because this is a rare opportunity you get to see this foodie chef in action and teaching you how you can do it yourself!

How to Exercise in Winter

Winter cold or irregular weather or allergy-provoking winds can really discourage us from exercise. Some of us have a block against the word exercise or think of some high-level of exercise perfectionism. What counts is that you get started doing SOMETHING and are physically active--and once you get moving, you want to move more!

IDEAS on how to be more physical and even exercise!
* DANCE BREAK On the TV show 30 Rock, Tina Fey leads her writing team to break down for a "dance break" with her favorite rap music. If you work from home, this is the perfect computer break! Oxygenating your brain will help you think more clearly and productivity rises! OR take this to the next level--make it your cardio workout by dancing to your favorite music mix or videos. As a teen, I used to dance with MTV music videos with my friend--being goofy or having fun is one way to get over that perfectionism.
* WALK AT THE MALL It was raining badly one time I was visiting my friend in Ithaca and I had just got off a 5-hour bus ride. There was no way I could sit more at her house and I needed to walk so I could avoid back and hip pain. My motivator? Pain-prevention and body ache. I asked her to take me to the mall. We did walking, making laps around the aisles of Target while we caught up talking. Yes, you can leave your credit cards at home and safely do brisk walks at the mall if you can't be outside. Make a rule, that if you're going to be on a long phone call with a loved one who doesn't mind your cardio-breathing, you can make that a walk and talk appointment. Some people even have long-distance walking buddies--a great way to catch up with loved ones and encourage each other to get in those brisk walks. Also, join my hiking group for inspiration--we take the opportunity to be local tourists and check out new parks.
* HOME STRENGTH I had a student in New York City with the smallest apt AND we were in the middle of winter with his plan to quit cigarettes (exercise is a great way to help smokers find an alternative to the breathing they miss from smoking). Nothing was going to stop us with his strength and cardio routine. We did so many exercises with JUST his body weight, the floor and a chair. We did martial-arts-inspired lunges (in every direction--side lunges are really great!) and deep squats and if you do enough of them without stopping, these strength training exercises become a cardio workout! Incline push-ups with a chair, legs on a chair with push-up arms on the ground, dips, side planks. Lots of pilates mat exercises can be mixed up with a chair or ball for variety. And on the days we were brave to bundle up and go outside, the cold air was refreshing and when we had enough, we would run back inside.

Keep in mind WHY you care about your health--whether it be your family medical history, your goals for travel, or simply keeping your brain sharp. If you are a smarty who hasn't really been athletic, this bookworm has some science for you! Reasons to do something physical, is not only to protect your physical health, but also your mood and your brain (this is excerpted from a mind-body medicine blog):
* In elderly men with poor physical function, increasing general physical activity may potentially confer a protective effect or delay the onset for dementia. (Taaffe DRet al., J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 2008 and Ahlskog JE et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2011)
* According to an NIH study, regular aerobic exercise can modify the brain environment in such a way that the neurons are protected and may help prevent brain damage from diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease. (Harry GJ et al., Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2011)
* Regular exercise increases mitochondrial numbers in brain cells, a potential cause for exercise’s beneficial mental effects. Mitochondria produce the power for our cells, and have a role in cell growth and death. (Steiner JL et al., American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, 2011)

Get physical and stay smart!

Staying healthy for the year!

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, and we want to be vibrant and in good health as spring blossoms. While it is sometimes rainy or cold during the winter season, we all need to take extra care for good immunity and possibly extra B-vitamins for energy. For my vegetarian and vegan friends, it's extra tough to get enough B-vitamins to have the energy to excel in our fast-paced busy lifestyle. Whether you celebrate the solar or lunar new year, it's never too late to re-commit yourself to staying healthy and being good to your body!

For a new year of better health and better energy:
Activated B-complex offer increased energy, and helps you handle stress and improve your mood. If you're working long days or around people who might be sick, you need this to help protect your health for better immunity. I keep this around for when I need an extra boost.

The basics: a good multivitamin and Omega-3 fatty acids

I say that I see people sometimes take better care of their cars than they do of their body. You would never drive your car with no gas, or bad motor oil. I think of a multivitamin as a good baseline nutrition, to provide a good baseline even if your day goes crazy and you don't eat healthy. The fatty acids serve as your motor oil to help lubricate and keep your brain and heart and joints moving.

A good multivitamin: For all my menstruating or pregnant women, you'll enjoy the benefits of this activated iron in this lemonade-tasting prenatal vitamin. It's just the best women's vitamin around. Being balanced with your iron and not being low on iron, helps keep your energy up and protect you from frequent burger cravings.

For the post-menopause women and guys: This is the best multivitamin, while labeled as a "children's multivitamin," just take 2 caps for adult dosage, and it is excellent for your health because it also has the activated B-complex.

Healthy Omega-3 supplement: You see all kinds of omega-3 being sold at the pharmacy or health-food store. Do you know if they are from small fish (sardines/anchovies) that are more free from exposure to heavy metals? Please stay away from salmon oil--we eat enough big fish and don't need extra exposure to heavy metals. The vegetarian versions of Omega-3 (like flaxseed oil) still require one more step from the body to convert into usable DHA. I recommend a high-quality fish oil, where I only have to take 2 gelcaps instead of 4 or 6 to get to my preferred daily dosage. If you really don't like pills or have kids, there's a great-tasting children's Omega 3 to help support their healthy growth too. You can read about the benefits on the weblink.

May your year be as vibrant and colorful as my Chinese New Year's flowers.

Quick Immune-Booster Soup

Time is precious and you want to eat the good stuff but don't know how to get it in?
My favorite is my "pumped-up miso soup." It's a great way to sneak in mushrooms, ginger, and other healthy immune-booster foods that I don't have time to squeeze into my nutrition elsewhere.

A lot of people don't know what to do with miso paste, and I say, it's just the same as a cube of chicken bouillon--just add to boiling water to your preferred taste. (Depends on the brand--read their instructions. I use 1 tbsp to start and add to possibly 1.5-2 tbsp depending on my taste). If you are still worried about "doing it right," let go of that worry and just get a dry instant miso soup packet (like from Trader Joe's--notice their brand has 2 servings in 1 packet if you're making for one person).


PUMPED-UP MISO SOUP (takes less than 15 minutes, mostly chopping time)
Ingredients
* 2 c water or broth base (depends on how much flavor you want or if you need to use up leftover chix or veggie broth!)
* miso soup base (from paste or instant packet)
* 1-2 slices of ginger, then sliced thinly into strips
* 2-3 dried shitake mushrooms thinly sliced like noodles
* other mushrooms like king oyster mushrooms (slice in rounds like poor man's scallop)
* 1 c chopped up bok choy (about 3 bunches of baby bok choy) or any other leafy greens like chard or chinese broccoli
* 1 c convenient protein (leftover cooked protein like rotisserie chicken (chopped) or wild salmon (heat in soup in tablespoon size chunks), frozen seafood like shrimp or scallops)

To garnish, after hot soup is served into bowl
* fresh ground black pepper
* a small dash of sesame oil (about 1/4 tsp)
* black sesame seeds (or white if you don't have black)
* thinly sliced green onions, cilantro (if you have them--green spices pack a lot of vitamin power!)
* spray of liquid amino acids (optional: to salt my food, instead of soy sauce or salt)

Directions:
Bring to boil about water (or broth) with ginger. If you have dried mushrooms and they needed to re-hydrate, it's ok to be lazy and toss them into the broth or water to hydrate. Cook dry mushrooms first until they look plump and edible. Then add free mushrooms. Heat or cook protein accordingly (depends on what you have). Add bok choy or leafy green veggies last (only cook for 45-60 secs), to cook briefly and keep the bright green colors. Garnish as desired. Make your own variations!

It's Fall! Time for Quick Soups!

Fall weather makes me want warm bowls of soup. And quick soups are a great way to squeeze in lots of veggies and nutrition into a meal, and they can keep in the fridge as easy leftovers for snacks or other meals. Eating Well magazine has a great list of 30-minute Soups, and as your resident foodie chef, I've chosen my favorites for your healthier living:
Sweet Potato Peanut (make sure you have fresh peanut butter, not loaded with preservatives or sweetneers)
Chicken and White Bean (beans have great fiber and we all need more of it!)
Salmon Chowder (wild salmon, yum!)
Vietnamese Beef Noodles (you can swap out the rice noodles and use mung bean noodles for better nutrition -- and they really taste the same to me)

With any of the veggie soups, pair up with a lean protein and you've got a full meal!
Whenever they suggest pairing up their soups with caesar salad (high-fat) or garlic bread (simple carbs), please know that those 2 items are *not* slim-body friendly foods and judge your portions wisely if you eat those items.

Swimming is so good for you

Swimming is so good for you because of these benefits:
* Works your entire body - toning all muscles. Athletes like runners really need to cross-train to get core and upper body toned. Try running in water like you're using an elliptical with your arms under the water. You'll see how it's not easy to run in water and your arms will get tired too!
* Gentle on your joints (you only have 1 pair of knees for life and you don't want to join the growing statistic of increasing knee and hip surgeries). If you have joint pains, consider taking this joint support formula to help improve your recovery. Also contact us or your health professional for appropriate therapeutic stretches as necessary.
* Great for cardio because the more muscles you use, the more your heart is challenged to pump the blood around. You don't need to be a good swimmer--you can just do resisted walking or play with the floaters in the shallow end of the pool.
* Water is calming and helps de-stress your mind-body system. de-stressing is very important for healthy weight loss and optimizing your wellness.
* Pregnant women get relief from feeling heavy -- everyone feels lighter thanks to the buoyancy of the water. If you are overweight or feeling weak (recovering from injury or working on post-partum fitness), this allows you to do more exercises and spend more time progressing in your cardio.
* Play with equipment and floating toys -- it varies your workout and when you have more fun, you're likely to do more! If you're not a strong swimmer, a friend might help keep you moving more and it becomes a social occassion -- also good for de-stressing!

Where to get your Omega-3s

Maybe you don't know why you want to get your regular Omega-3 fatty acids. We need them for our heart health, healthy blood pressure and blood flow, vision health, support for enhanced mood, our good brain health (I want to keep my memory!), and to minimize inflammation. It's part of the "anti-inflammatory diet" and most doctors who pay attention to prevention and wellness tell their patients to take at least these top two suggestions: multivitamin and their omega-3.

Keeping your inflammation risks down also helps with healthy skin and healthy gums/dental health as well as keeping a healthy weight. Imagine your body as a busy ecosystem: if your body is busy putting out lots of wildfires (sending its resources to fight inflammation), it can't focus on growing healthy forests (healthy cells and tissue), right?

Unless you really focus on it, you cannot assume you're getting enough from your regular food, so it's good to have a high-quality supplement to keep up your levels.

These are the best ways to get your omega-3 via the healthier and less polluted fish:
* wild-caught Alaskan salmon (the best prices are in the freezer section at Trader Joe's and at the asian markets)
* small fish such as herring and sardines (I like the canned "smoked herring" from Trader Joe's)
* black cod (the best tasting cod I have picked up are from the Asian markets).
If you are in LA, Von's supermarket has $5-Fridays where there are select frozen meats and seafoods on sale. Getting your Omega-3s can be affordable if you shop around (and check out my suggestions above).

Please limit your consumption of farmed salmon. If the restaurant does not say wild, it is most likely the common cheaper farmed salmon, and you don't want it! There have been reports on how sick these farmed salmon are from being fed corn and other kinds of drugs. Limit your consumption of large predatory fish because they are likely to have higher levels of toxic mercury and contaminants. Also, we get plenty of omega-6 in our diets so we don't need to eat fish like tilapia that have high levels of omega-6. We need to be sure that we have the correct omega-3 to 6 ratios, and as we are chronically short on omega-3, why not keep it simple and just focus on getting more omega-3 in our nutrition?

Good luck with focusing on getting your omega-3, and please send any cool recipes or ideas my way!