“Veganizing”

My mother makes RAWDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS vegan banana bread using a regular old banana bread recipe with vegan ingredients!  Try it sometime!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan

• 2 cups (4-5 very ripe bananas, mashed)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use apple sauce and/or coconut oil)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons ENER-G Egg Replacer with 4 tablespoons water (equivalent to 2 eggs) (necessary? IDK! I think a banana is a great egg replacer so maybe just another banana? Who needs the egg replacer jargin?!
• 3 tablespoons plant based milk (coconut, almond, hemp, soy,)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 2 tbs sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon

Large bowl-mash nananers, add oil, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla, and stir to combine

mix in flours baking soda, baking powder, salt, and walnuts. Scrape bottom to combine thoroughly.

Transfer batter into pan.  Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top.  Bake for about an hour until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then tip out of pan and transfer to cooling rack.

Yield 1 loaf (16 slices)

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Common Barriers to Behavior Change

In my summer course, HK215, health and kinesiology, public health class, i was particularly intrigued by this, check it out:

If you think….      then> try this strategy….

“I don’t have enough time”  Chart your hourly activities for 1 day.  What are your highest priorities?  What can you eliminate?  PLan to make some time for a healthy change next week.

“I’m too stressed”   Asses your major stressors right now.  List those you can control and those you can change or avoid.  Then identify two things you enjoy that can help you reduce stress now.

“I worry about what others may think”  Ask yourself how much others influence your decisions about drinking, sex, eating habits, etc.  What is most important to you?  What actions can you take to act in line with these values?

“I don’t think I can do it”  Just because you haven’t before doesn’t mean you can’t now.  To develop some confidence, take baby steps and break tasks into small pieces.

“It’s a habit I can’t break”  Habits are difficult to break but not impossible.  What triggers your behavior?  List ways you can avoid these triggers.  Ask for support from family and friends.

Cool eh?

Celery Cream Soup

Last night after the 5k, it was hot out and I was seriously craving something refreshing and filling.  My mother was in VT being a superhero getting all the organic fair trade food she could fit in the car, so I scrounged for ingredients in the fridge and managed this recipe:

I used raw agave instead of honey, and I chopped tomato as well as red pepper in, which made a delicious addition!  I couldn’t find the cayenne pepper, and I didn’t put in any salt, and I adored it!  I also put in left over chopped celery for some extra textya!  It was divine!

Beach to Beach 5k

Yesterday morning, I ran my very first 5k!  It was the Beach to Beach 5k benefitting the Junior Aid Society who supports women’s and children’s organizations on Boston’s North Shore!  Signing up for this race on a whim, I didn’t think I would do that well.. came in first in my division though! 😀

That’s me and Holistic Health and Nutritional Counselor Christine Lucas!

Fruit for Breakfast

As the transition to Summer begins, I am getting more and more excited about going raw again!  Don’t know why it seems so impossible when its grey, rainy, and frigid outside!

Anywho, this morning, a beautiful ray of sunshine woke me up: ECSTATIC.  So this apple, orange, banana, and ground flax suited my need for something that would wake me up, and be easily and quickly absorbed to start my day off right with abundant energy and smooth digestion!

Fruit is meant to be eaten alone and on an empty stomach because it is absorbed much more quickly than other foods, so when you eat it with something, it will likely sit waiting in your tummy and cause gas, esp. naners.. idk if the ground flax makes too much of a difference, up to you!  Bon appetite!

Wayne Silva

The ultimate superhero!  Not only is he a health coach and inspirer to many, he also was a superhero to himself!

Wayne Silva at the OG, making his “Monkey Juice!”

Wayne was once fat, sick, and nearly dead!  For those like me who have heard his incredible story, IS THIS MAN NOT RIDICULOUSLY RAWESOME OR WHAT!?

He told me his story one sunny summer day outside while I was on my lunch break.  He was clipping on his bike helmet to go for another intense bike ride.  He said he was once over 400lbs on a hospital table, barely able to move.  He said he was basically dead, and you know what?  He wanted to live to see his son graduate!  He changed his lifestyle to a whole foods plant based diet and juicing, and now he lives with a tremendous “GRATITUDE ATTITUDE” (I’d say that’s his motto/slogan)(and I LOVE IT!)  This guy is incredible.  I hope everyone has a raw Wayne figure in their life that they turn to for that sheer appreciation of life and inspiration!

Oh! and his Monkey Juice:

• 10oz coconut water and meat
• 10 oz water
• 2 bunches of kale
• 2 frozen bananas i think maybe?
• double shot of wheat grass (or more!)
• aanndd something else ridiculously rawesome that i am probably forgetting!

GO WAYNE GO! 😀

Wheatgrass

2 ounces of wheatgrass is the same nutritional value as 12.5 POUNDS of fresh organic vegetables!! >>reference: This Video

Picture of me juicing a double wheatgrass shot for Wayne Silva’s “Monkey Juice ” at Rawbert’s Organic Garden! :

Wheatgrass is incredible!  Watch this short video of Holistic Health and Nutritional Counselor Christine Lucas talk about what wheatgrass is, its benefits and even how to grow it yourself!

Wheatgrass is incredible to name a few benefits, it:

• intense detoxifier
• high chlorophyll=high energy and oxygen-oxygenates blood and cells
• helps blood flow and digestion
• only takes a minute to digest-using very little body energy, where it is the more nutrient dense than almost all vegetables
• rebuilds the bloodstream- builds red blood cells, proven through wheatgrass treatments on anemic people
• Farmers in the midwest who have sterile cows and bulls put them on wheatgrass for its high magnesium count to restore fertility
• purifies the liver
• prevents cancer
• regulates blood sugar problems
• cleanses skin and prevents
• WHEAT GRASS CURES EVERYTHINGGG!  WATCH THAT VIDEO!

Read it and Eat

Woman’s Health May 2012, page 120

This year, the USDA began requiring nutrition labels on meat.  But some of the language can still be confusing.  This guide can help:

Natural:  All fresh meat qualifies as natural, as it doesn’t contain additives and is not more than minimally processed, which is what the USDA requires, so this phrase is useless.

Organic: The USDA’s criteria state that foods cannot contain hormones or antibiotics, and the animals must have been fed a vegetarian, pesticide- and herbicide-free diet without genetically modified sources or animal byproducts, and had continuous access to pasture.

Grass-fed: Nearly all cattle are fed grass at some point in their lives, so this term is virtually meaningless.  If you want beef from cows that grazed exclusively on grass for their entire lives, look for the American Grassfed label, which requires that animals were raised on pasture and have never been confined, fed grain, or given antibiotics or hormones.

Pasture-Raised: While there is no specific pasture-raised certification, animals raised this way can roam freely in their natural environment.  Certified organic meat must come from pasture-raised animals.

Certified Angus Beef: Nearly 65% of cattle are black-hided and receive the Angus stamp, but only 25% of Angus-influenced cattle actually meet Certified Angus Beef standards, which are the criteria that truly make a cut of beef the best quality.

rBGH-free or rBST-free: Signifies that the product came from cows that were not treated with a genetically engineered growth hormone that artificially increases milk production but which may cause health problems in humans.

-Kate Parham, Women’s Health

My cupboard has 2 jars of Teddy’s peanut butter.  One jar says “organic” but it is salted, and to salty for my taste.  Yet the other jar, the unsalted peanut butter, merely has “all natural”.  No organic unsalted peanut butter?!?!  These labels are so confusing, so hopefully this will help me, and you, make more educated purchases in the future!  Still confused about the peanut butter though!  haha

Thrive Eating Live Complete Mind and Body

Sarah Flynn-McCormack

All of my fitness success is a direct result of the amazing Sarah McCormack.  Fitness instructor energetic, entertaining, and enthusiastic~ she is always getting certified to teach new classes, expanding her practice, and increasing her knowledge.  A mother of 4+ children (the + representing people like me who she instinctively takes in as her own, haha) and a rawesome instructor of spin, yoga, zumba, senior magic, boot camp, muscle conditioning, piloxing, the list goes on…

I did my senior project (second semester senior year of high school internship) with her, observing, helping, and learning so much from her!  She helped me get Zumba certified and got me teaching songs during her class to make the transition to teaching my own classes much easier.  Thanks to her, I have enjoyed so many awesome fitness classes, having fun getting in shape and became a confident dance mania instructor at Purdue!

Today, I took her most recent certification, Piloxing. A combination of pilates and boxing, it was RIDICULOUSLY RAWESOME.  I loveeeed it and I hope to maybe teach it at Purdue in the future!  With weight gloves and traditionally taught barefoot, this was a super fun mix of cardio, and strength.  She also taught the best yoga class ever right after which made me oh sososo happy.  Her playlist consisting of my old faves that she always plays, One Day, Addicted to Love, Quelqu’un m’a dit, New Slang, Hide and Seek, and her class of flow and balance and strength and stretch and bird of paradise and crow variations and pidgen and happpy babyyy and a massage during savasana omfg you can’t beat it!

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mentor and instructor!!

Not to mention her spin class I went to yesterday!! AHH BEST SWEAT FEST EVERR  All her classes rock, what can I say?  She talked about reaching your threshold and is so knowledgeable and so fun!!  Funnest (not a word, don’t care) instructor out there!! I wanna teach just like her!