PEERtrainer

How To Quickly Reduce Your Cholesterol Levels

Arguably the most important "modifiable risk factor" for heart disease is one's "blood cholesterol level." This is an EASILY MEASURABLE THING! According to the U.S. National Institute for Health: 

"Your blood cholesterol level has a lot to do with your chances of getting heart disease. High blood cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease. A risk factor is a condition that increases your chance of getting a disease. In fact, the higher your blood cholesterol level, the greater your risk for developing heart disease or having a heart attack. Heart disease is the number one killer of women and men in the United States. Each year, more than a million Americans have heart attacks, and about a half million people die from heart disease."

Green Vegetables Like Kale Can Help To Quickly Bring Down LDL Cholesterol Levels!

Scientists and researchers are just starting to understand how green vegetables like Kale can quickly and measurably bring down blood cholesterol levels. When you consume Kale for some reason your "bile acids" are used in the process of digesting it. The "bile acids" are then excreted.

When bile acids are excreted, the body needs to make more. One of the main uses of cholesterol in the body is in the production (or "synthesis") of new bile acid! So, high daily consumption of leafy greens can speed up the process of bile excretion and production, which can help to directly lower cholesterol levels.

Broccoli functions in the same manner, especially when it is steamed. The fiber in the broccoli binds together with bile acids in your digestive tract. Which causes bile acids to be excreted, which lowers cholesterol. Virtually every other green vegetable has similar properties. Additionally, you are ingesting incredible nutrients, which improve your health, help you lose weight and just feel great.

Pectin-Containing Fruits Like Apples and Pears Function The Same Way...

You have heard the old saying that "An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away." This is literally true. "Pectin" is a fiber that binds to bile acids in the digestive system. So when you eat an apple, or a pear or a pile of green vegetables, you are triggering a process that can literally suck elevated levels of bad cholesterol out of your system!

The Ideal Way To Cook Kale:

According to whfoods.com "Kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you will cook it by steaming. The fiber-related components in kale do a better job of binding together with bile acids in your digestive tract when they've been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it's easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a lowering of your cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability - just not as much."

How Quickly Can One Reduce Their Cholesterol Levels?

This will depend on the person, but one CAN reduce levels significantly in a matter of months if they bring their consumption of greans, beans, salad and lentils up to very high levels. According to a Dr. Fuhrman article on reversing heart disease, the diet that will most quickly reduce cholesterol "takes into account the nutrient-per-calorie density of foods" in a "rigorous" manner.

At PEERtrainer we find that for general weight loss, a less rigorous adherence to the nutrient density can help boost overall compliance. However, if you are in a high risk category, you really want to pay very close attention to the detail of the advice that Dr. Fuhrman is giving out. Please!

In fact, Dr. Fuhrman has objected strongly to our "Diet Fusion" concept, because he views us as "watering down" his important ideas. 

If you have any confusion about how to put his ANDI points system into practice, PLEASE take the time to go to your nearest Whole Foods Market. They are doing an amazing job of putting his ANDI points system into something that you can easily do, in a cost effective manner.

A Simple Plan To Eat High Amounts Of Cholesterol Reducing Foods

At PEERtrainer we have developed a simple list of foods to focus on and foods to move away from, as well as a simple incentive structure that helps you easily eat these foods each day. We call this the "Cheat System" and you can download it for free from this page. 

PEERtrainer Community Member Jennifer S. Posted This On Our Facebook Wall:

"I was doing the Eat to Live (so lots and lots of kale and spinach) about 90% between mid-July and late August and during that time my cholesterol dropped 105 pts overall. My LDL came down significantly, as did my triglycerides. Even though ...I was 3 weeks on a low-dose statin at that time, the doctor said the change in diet is probably what really pushed the numbers. I also dropped 11 lbs in that time frame (continuing to lose, and still on Eat to Live about 75% after that, but back to about 90% for the next few weeks for post-holiday reboot)."

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Immersion Program With Dr. Fuhrman In Princeton, NJ January 14-16

Click the arrow on the following video to learn more about Dr. Fuhrman's Weekend Immersion Program:

We have been asked about getting a discount for Dr. Joel Furhman's upcoming Weekend Immersion Program January 14-16th in Princeton NJ.

There is a 15% percent off discount available until November 30th.

In addition, Dr. Furhman Online is offering PEERtrainer members a $50 off coupon that is good from October 16th to October 31st.

Simply use the coupon code "PEERTRAINER" at the check out page.

Here is the link to learn more:

http://drfuhrman.com/events/princeton_immersion/princeton_weekend_immersion.aspx

 

Is Your Addiction To Normality Killing You?

Hi There-

This is something Habib has wanted to write for a while.....

One of the most important things to understand from the current health care debate (that political and industry insiders are engaged in among themselves) is that no matter what the eventual outcome, people are going to need to have to take responsibility for their health.

We have come to a point where it is no longer a good idea to improve your eating. It is an absolute requirement.

It does not matter whether it is the government, employers or individuals who end up carrying the load. We have built a food delivery system and consumption habits that lead to the highest rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes in the world.

Diabetes alone is larger than the entire US tech industry. You stack Intel, Microsoft, Cisco and Apple up.

Diabetes is bigger.

What most of us think of as “normal” is killing us.

Not only is it killing us, but it seems that we now think of pain and struggle as somehow “normal”. We get the most incredible emails from people, describing to us the sheer agony of the reality of their lives. People are in pain, they feel hopeless and they have for years. And they are in this pain because they have done what everyone else has done.

This pain hurts, it sucks and is totally preventable.

But the change required to prevent these inevitable outcomes (for most) is hard. If most people are doing things one way, it stands to reason that that it takes a deal of effort to do things differently. We continually see that the people with the greatest willingness to go in a different direction have no idea where to turn.

If you have been around PEERtrainer for a while you know we present people that we get to know. People like Stu Mittleman and Joel Fuhrman are now friends of ours, in the same way that the guys I did keg stands in college with are. They are part of the posse.

And we share their ideas because they help guide people to the behaviors and mindsets that will help avoid the diseases that commonly trap the average American engaged in the relentless pursuit of normality.

So what I am going to do here is bullet out some of the key ideas that Dr. Joel Fuhrman puts forth to help people. I have a copy of Eat For Health open on my desk as I write this, and I am going to list out 25 of the key concepts. In no particular order. My thinking is that it takes a long time to process change. As Jackie says over and over, “repetition is the mother of skill.”

1. Greens are king. Green vegetables get the majority of their calories from protein. You need to eat them every day.
2. When you consume greens in the form of soup you retain the nutrients and you can make them taste any way you want. No excuses here- tasty, easy, cheap etc. (Blend with a Cuisinart Smart Stick to make it super easy)
3. Fresh fruits fight cancer. We have a natural sweet tooth designed to direct us to those foods most critical for our survival.
4. Pasta and bread, while cheap and filling are associated with heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
5. Veggies are great but you have to cook, pulverize or blend to get at the health promoting goodies that is locked inside the cell walls. Blended vegetable soup is better than salad for this reason. You can’t chew every plant cell.
6. Not all foods are created equally. Dr. Fuhrman has built an entire food classification system called MANDI that you can learn more about.
7. True hunger is much different than the hunger we commonly experience. We are hungry because we eat the wrong foods. This is not something that can be solved in any pill. It is solved in your grocery store and your kitchen.
8. When you are no longer hungry all the time you are healthy.
9. Cheese and butter are evil. Tasty, but evil.
10. The more high nutrient food (greens esp) you eat on a daily basis, the higher your quality of life.
11. Binge eating is largely a byproduct of toxic hunger. We are literally “addicted to food.”
12. Eat a bowl of vegetable-bean soup daily
13. Eat a pound of fruit and a pound of vegetables a day. (Stu would dissent on the fruit part- he is of the school that fruit is too high in sugar and raises acid levels in the body)
14. You can change your tastes. Americans in particular have a “brute force palate.” You will appreciate the subtlety of food over time.
15. Healthy food does not taste bad.
16. Heart disease is not the inevitable consepuence of aging.
17. Food addiction is a real thing, and a new mode of eating will solve this problem
18. Frequent small meals do NOT aid weight control long term.
19. It is not your genes. The numbers disprove this common assertion.
20. It takes a lot more than milk and yogurt to build healthy bones. The truth is much more complex.
21. You have to get inside your head to make these changes. A list like this is not enough.
22. 85 Percent of Americans will die from heart disease, cancer or diabetes.
23. 90 Percent will get high blood pressure
24. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for 40 percent of US deaths annually
25. You can prevent most diseases through a high nutrient diet.

Sounds easy enough? The problem that we see is that people have a hard time putting these ideas into practice. They also often lack the ability to map the consequences of their current diet to future risk.

Most of us think we eat better than we do. Much better. So if you have found the motivation to jump right into to a new diet and buck the trend of the relentless disbelief that “normal is killing us” then congrats.

Others of us need a much more specific plan and guidelines in the place of simple suggestions. Recently Joel and his team launched a new program called “The Nutrition Prescription” which is an online version of an office visit with him. After you take this survey, you are presented with the specific odds of getting diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

We have seen that this test “scares people straight” and also has the interesting effect of providing ammunition for the people who are often hellbent on disrupting your desire to change. We see that when people say, “hey I have to order the soup and salad- doctors orders”- this shuts people up. If you are at a party or out to dinner or dealing with your parents or friends and you say “right now the odds of me getting heart disease is 65%”- they have to basically keep quiet.

Of course they are dying to make a snide comment. But because a doctor has spoken, the conversation is over. Many of you have bought copies of Eat For Health and Eat To Live. We highly recommend Joel’s work, and have for years. The response has been powerful and consistent. If you are interested in his new program or you have not yet picked up one of his books, you can check out the following link:

Get A Virtual Office Visit With Dr. Fuhrman, Trial Offer

We could not endorse his work more strongly. This is true health care reform from my perspective.

Habib Wicks, PEERtrainer Co-Founder

How To Feel Great Physically and How To Get The Energy To Work Out

(By Habib Wicks, PEERtrainer co-founder)

After a recent workout I was hungry and tired and wanted to find something that could really build upon the good work that I had done. I fired up the frying pan and grabbed 4 cloves of garlic from the fridge. I smashed them with my palm in about 10 seconds and threw them in the pan with some olive oil.

I then grabbed a bag of spinach from the freezer and threw it in the pan. Covered the pan and cooked for maybe 4 minutes? I might have added a few grinds of pepper. The spinach got cooked and steamed pretty good and then I just dumped the contents of the frying pan right into the Cuisinart. Pressed both the buttons getting the blade to go in both directions and pureed the spinach.

I then dumped it on a plate and opened up a bag of Kettle chips to curb my carb cravings. I then ate the entire plate of spinach (a full pound) dipping the chips into them. It tasted really good and it was EASY to make. Today I feel better than I have in a while. 

 

I used to workout when I was single and lived in NYC. I would hit the gym and lift. But I never really felt great because I ate poorly. Of course I did not understand that at the time because I was not overweight. Later on, a business colleague (and former chairman of a big healthcare company) gave me a copy of Eat To Live (and then introduced us to Dr. Fuhrman) and this book totally changed my outlook on eating. If PEERtrainer seems like the Dr. Fuhrman show at times, this is the reason. This is my personal agenda, and it has to do with his advice getting my own health in order.

 

I am not a vegetarian by any stretch, but I do go out of my way to get my greens in especially each day. I also understand the need to really chop up the greens to really get the nutrients out. Dr Fuhrman explains that our body cannot digest the cell wall of a plant, and you can only chew your food so much.

 

Recently I have started to do a lot more strength training, adding this back to my routine. I am not hitting the gym or doing bodybuilding, but just getting the muscles themselves a good workout. The last few years I have just run, played tennis or maybe rollerblade from time to time. Pure cardio. 

 

Running PEERtrainer, companies now often send stuff to us to test, evaluate and then write or blog about.  If we like it or it really captures our attention and we actually make it part of our day to day we do so.

 

For example, Total Gym recently sent us their top of the line model, the Total Gym XLS. And luckily I have Joshua with me who is a fitness nut. We are going through all 80 of their exercises and really pushing ourselves. At the end of the workout yesterday we had the incline at the highest level and I found myself doing inverted bicep curls, pulling my weight up the incline keeping my elbows locked into place. A heck of a workout.

 

But my point here is that for the first time I am combining a high nutrient way of eating with strength and resistance training. And I feel fantastic. I have been doing this for about a month, and yesterdays tweak to the routine prompted this post. Was so easy to do and prepare.

 

This all started last month we were testing and working with resistance band systems. And I started this process of working out the muscles with those bands. Resistance bands work really well to isolate all sorts of muscles quickly. Then I started Total Gym and basically worked out the entire body in a short amount of time.

 

I just wanted to communicate this combo- and suggest that you find a way to get some daily training in where you engage the muscles with some form of resistance. Resistance bands are a great thing to have in your home. Bodylastics is hands down the best product on the market and we have written a review about it here. And also recorded a bunch of videos on how to use it in different ways. But the basic idea is that for less than $100 you get something that essentially functions as full gym in your house. Both men and women can use it, and it really works. 

 

Total Gym is another great option if you have the space. You can watch a video of Joshua using it. It can be a little expensive though. The list price for the top of the line model is about $1500, and there are less expensive options and ways to buy used ones. We talk about it on the page. The Total Gym is also pretty durable and you might be able to find one on Craigslist. As long as the pulleys work nicely and you can get the incline going I highly recommend using one.

 

Or go to the gym. But just get in the habit of working the muscles and then getting your nutrients in, and really work this combo. Carrot juice is another excellent source of concentrated nutrients. One of the things Dr. Fuhrman has done with a new book of his, Eat For Health, is put a "Point System" on different fruits and vegetables. The idea is that you want to hit 100 points a day for optimal nutrition. He sent us a copy of this a year ago and it helped to really focus my eating habits each day. The stuff at the top of his points list are all the greens, and things like Romaine lettuce, red peppers, escarole, broccoli.

 

This book again changed my daily food decisions permanently. I grill red peppers whenever I find them on sale. If I am at an italian restaurant, I order a side of esacarole and beans and a side of broccoli rabe for my entree. The server usually looks at me like I am crazy, and is probably a little tweaked because this meal will cost less than $10 at the best restaurants!

 

But this strategy has given me a lot of energy especially in the last year. Adding the resistance training and bodyweight training to the mix has just stepped up how I feel, and I wanted to share that with you all. Work the muscles and work the high nutrient veggies. And when you do, add a comment to this blog post. Tell us what exercise you did and what you ate afterwards, please!!

 

I also got Joshua to do a piece for us which you can watch below. Just click the arrow to play the video, and he also shows you some simple exercises you can do with just your own body and nothing else:

 

In addition to Joshua being highly entertaining he is also a core part of our Point Of No Return Program, and in this role he essentially takes people on a tour of the thoughts behind the thoughts in their head. He has studied tons of stuff in the area of the mind, and delivers what is some of the best advice available. Stuff that works. 

He is living proof of the idea of "mind-body connection" and is doing a great job with Jackie in giving people an experience that is literally changing the lives of many people. When you make different decisions in your life, you will get different results. I think the real trick is getting to the point of successfully making that shift, and this program does that. 

 

One specific result we see that people experience in this program is a real sense of hope. We keep hearing this word "hope", "I have hope" over and over from participants. I am very excited about the early feedback on this new effort we have undertaken. Please check it out if you have a weight loss or fitness goal you have not met. This will help. 

 

-Habib

Make Your Personal Favorite List Of Fruits And Vegetables For The Kitchen

In our PEERtrainer weight loss/mind training program (click here to bookmark it), we delve into the diet fusion kitchen and what kinds of foods really work well together. 

We ask everyone the following question:  what kinds of fruits and vegetables do you like?  When you picture the word vegetable, do you think of the high school cafeteria version of smushed, tasteless green beans?  Or do you think of freshly topped tomatoes with basil and garlic?  How about sliced mango with a few blueberries sprinkled on top?  Stuffed peppers with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and cilantro (click here for the BEST stuffed pepper recipe!!)

Today I'd like you to make a list of every fruit and vegetable you can think of (or click here for a list of vegetables to start you off) and circle the ones you like.   (Here is a list of culinary fruits from Wikipedia, yum, yum yum!)  Then I want you to post it on your refrigerator.  I don't care if you have a sub zero beautiful see thru one:  then make your list with a Bauhaus look, no excuses! 

Every single time you go into the kitchen, get ready to grocery shop you will see this list of options and suggestions of delicious, high nutrient foods that will give you energy and confidence that you are making the best choices for you.

Suddenly, eating fruits and vegetables becomes as easy and effortless but most importantly, becomes something that you love and crave. 

Jackie

Complete (Well, Almost Complete) List Of Vegetables

We thought we'd list some of our favorites....

• spinach
• kale
• collard greens
• cucumber
• avocado (fruit but sometimes thought of a vegetable)
• onions
• tomatoes (yes it's a fruit but seems culinary speaking, it's served as a vegetable.  Sprinkle with fresh basil and garlic.  Even a little cilantro gives it a nice kick).
• butternut squash
• spaghetti squash (with fresh tomato sauce, soooooo yummy)
• garlic
• carrots
• sweet potatoes
• eggplant
• mushrooms (lots of selenium)
• broccoli
• artichokes
• asparagus
• beets
• cabbage (sauteed with ginger and garlic)
• brussel sprouts:  (the trick to making these taste good is to boil until soft then saute with garlic)
• cauliflower
• swiss chard - (one of our favorites)
• jicama
• corn and corn on the cob - YUM!
• okra (popular in indian cooking)
• pumpkins
• potatoes (diced sweet potatoes sprinkled with cinnamon and then cooked at 350 for 45 minutes.  Children LOVE it)
• radicchio
• peas
• rhubarb
• yams (even sweeter than sweet potatoes)
• turnips
• red peppers (click here for the BEST stuffed pepper recipe ever)
• green peppers
• yellow peppers
• leeks
• water chestnuts
• bamboo shoots
• celery (with cashew butter is a great snack)
• romaine lettuce
• mixed greens
• bok choy
• arugula
• green beans - wonderful in nicoise salad
• parsnips
• zucchini (great breakfast vegetable in an omelet)
• olives
• jalapeno

How To Stop Being So Tired

The other day I received an email from a tip of the day subscriber, a mom of 2 that explained how she would love to find the time to workout but she was just too tired. 

"I wake up at 5:30, make the lunches, make the breakfast for everyone, dash off to bathe, get dressed to head off to my job by 8am.  I finally return home at 6:00 just to help with the homework, settle the kids into the bedtime routine, head back over to the kitchen to make dinner for my husband and I to literally crawl into bed by 10:00 just to do it all over again. 

I am from a culture where the woman carries most of the cooking load but I also have a full time job. I know working out and eating better would help me, but I'm just so tired.  It's everything I can do to just manage the day to day life that frankly, I don't even know where I would find the five minutes to take this delicious walk you speak of, and my breakfast apple fritter gives me the sugar boost I need to carry me through the morning meetings."

You don't need to be a mom of 2 with her exact setup to understand the situation all too well.  I've seen the same tone of emails from university students who have mid-terms, papers and senior thesis and have to deal with foreign food environments, to a man who works double shifts and relies on the vending machines at work. 

The one common thread is this: 

I really want to make a change but I'm just too exhausted.  I can barely keep it together as it is, add one more thing and I'm just going to lose it.

You're in a chicken and egg conundrum.  You're probably tired because you the lack of nutrients and oxygen your body craves but you're not making the right choices because you're so tired. 

You've got to stop the cycle.

How Stop Being So Tired By "Scratching Your CD"

The best way to stop any cycle is to make a small chip in the rhythm. 

Think of it like playing a CD (luckily with mp3's this isn't an issue, but it used to be), the smallest scratch can disrupt the entire song.   I want you to make a scratch on your CD cycle of exhaustion.  I don't want you to do it tomorrow.  I'd like you to do it now, or in the next few hours at your next opportunity.

It can be the slightest change to your rhythm.  It can be literally, eating a tomato at lunch today, something you don't normally do.  Maybe it's taking a walk and deliver the message personally to a colleague on a different floor instead of just clicking send. 

Perhaps you put on your tennis shoes right when you get home from work or class just so you have more of a spring in your step.  Maybe you'll do all three! I don't care what it is, but do something to scratch the CD.  Even one scratch can produce a different song.  One scratch might only mess up one verse, but that one scratch will lead to a few more and scratch up the entire cycle.  

Here's the best part:  I've seen countless people have more energy to change the overwhelm and create a completely different life for themselves, just from taking this one step.   My "CD scratch" was to have a salad at lunch that day. 

My physician friend, mom of 3 with a newborn, made a CD scratch to get a jogging stroller.  Maybe you need some ideas of how to make a change (here's a great article about the 7 ways to make a change).  Whatever you choose, whatever change you decide to make, do it now. 

Scratch The CD Of Your Diet

Another change you can make is to take a look at your diet and over time see if you can identify the foods that give you energy and those that don't. If you are following the PEERtrainer Cheat System, even a little bit, know that the foods on the left side of the list generally help promote energy at a cellular level. The foods on the right tend not to. This is a huge oversimplification, but the net effect of following that system is usually an increase in energy.

We have also written a recent article on some interesting supplements that many health experts agree will help boost your energy.

People really liked the suggestions, as well as the links to the research supporting the suggestions.

Jackie

 

How To Feel Great Right Now

A couple of weeks ago, Isaac Alfandry, a subscriber to the Tip Of The day (click here to sign up for our free daily motivation email) emailed that delicious smoothie recipe which I quickly posted on the blog. 

We chatted back and forth a few times and he mentioned that he would love to write a follow up to our motivation article about 'The 7 Steps Of How To Change Anything'.  I was thrilled.  He is 49, full of energy and inspirational.  I suspected he would write something highly motivating and I was right. Read on...

So how's everybody doing today? I want to encourage all of you (and me), to think really hard about what's motivating you to stay healthy and fit. Do you want to look good in your clothes? Do you want to wake up in the morning all ready and raring to greet the day? Do you want to inspire others and yourself? Think hard about your reasons.

Here's mine: I want every day to be the best day I've ever had. Now, how can that be, you ask? How can your days consistently improve? How can one day ALWAYS be better then the next? Here's how: By keeping this awareness that you are creating your reality every moment through thought, word and deed.

Let's break it down. Think: Today will be the best day I've ever had! Say "Today will be the best day I've ever had". ACT like you're having the best day you've ever had!

If you truly believed that today was the best day you've ever had, you probably would take the time to really nurture yourself. You'd be open to others, open to your emotional intelligence, open to what the world is offering to you. You'd be keenly tuned in to your body's wisdom, reaching for only the healthiest foods, thoughts, and behaviors. You'd want to be embodied, you'd want to stretch out your muscles, maybe run, jump skip or play.

Ever heard of the term jumping for joy?

If you were acting like this was the best day of your life, you'd probably be smiling a whole lot. People would probably smile back. You'd inspire joy and happiness in others, and in turn, without even realizing it, they'd begin to inspire smiles and happiness in all of the people they came into contact with.

You'd be setting off a chain reaction of joy that could go viral.

If today were the best day ever, you'd accept yourself as you are while challenging yourself to be even better, all through thought, word and deed.

When it comes to weight loss, weight loss maintenance, being fit, being healthy, being emotionally, mentally and spiritually vibrant, it's your attitude that gets you there in the first place, your attitude that keeps you there, and your attitude that takes you to ever greater heights and depths of understanding about what this all means for you and everyone all around you.

I'm a huge believer in raw foods these days. Here's why: What you eat is who you are. Literally. And to eat the freshest, most nutrient rich, uncooked, live, super foods that are available on the planet means that my essence, my being, my body, my organs, my brain, liver, pancreas, lungs, heart, stomach, muscle tissue, tendons, bone, skin, eyes, knees, hands, feet and glutes are all getting fed in ways that maybe 2% or less of the general population gets to experience. You cannot believe what eating this way does for your energy levels, your attitude, your spiritual development.

Here's the deal: I encourage everyone of you in the next few days and weeks to seriously investigate the arguments for adding in more and more uncooked, nutrient dense fruits, and super-foods into your diet. The way that I began was with the "morning smoothie". I have done about 400 smoothies over the last 13 months, by my count. Everyone of them has been slightly different. But what they have in common: Rice Dream or filtered water is the base, about 4 cups, because I'm making one for my wife every day too. If it's just for you, then 2 cups is enough.

Then I add organic strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, dark sweet cherries., pineapple, or mango. You only need about a cup and a half of fruit. Most of the fruit I put in is frozen but I often use fresh in season. Organic is the way to go. Use organic as your first choice!

Now the superfoods: You can find most of the following at health food stores:
A TBSP of sprouted flax powder: Has Omega threes
A TBSP of organic hemp powder (high in protein)
A TBSP of Super Green Powder ( A mix of 35 or 40 different dehydrated green vegetables and fruits, super high in chlorophyl, antioxidants, minerals, vitamins)

Recently I started doing raw CACAO powder. Yes, this is what the native Americans call chocolate, and what the Spanish call coco. The cacao fruit's seed pod holds cacao seeds. These seeds are harvested, cold pressed and powdered. This is the most nutrient dense food on the planet. High in Manganese, which is the primary mineral in your heart, Chromium, antioxidants, polysacharrides, it's an incredible food. It's a super-food!

I don't always put Cacao powder in my morning smoothies. Sometimes I just blend it with rice dream and agave at night and cool it down in the freezer for a chocolate sorbet or I'll warm it on the stove for a hot cocoa. But I use it every day. It's an amazing, amazing mood lifter, full of incredible minerals and it's so good for you. Check out David Wolfe's Naked Chocolate or his You Tube Video "David Wolfe on Cacao"

I also put organic coconut flesh into the smoothie. Coconut is also a super-food that has incredible properties.

Lately I"m also adding baby spinach, or kale, or dark romaine. I only put a few leaves, you can't even taste it. But this way I'm getting my dark leafy greens in.

Color in foods is key. The richer, brighter, the more vibrant the color, the more pigmentation and antioxidants in the food. Eat color.

The more antioxidants, the more your will be able to counteract the free radicals in your bloodstream that are trying to damage your cell walls and defeat their functionality. Antioxidants are anti-aging formulas.

This is what you want to be eating if you are trying to look and feel your very best.

If you think about it just for a second, it makes perfect sense. Nature, it it's infinite wisdom, added in color so that we could find these fruits on trees more easily. Color is a natural attractant. Nature is trying to tell you something. Are you listening to your Mother?

My complexion has totally changed in the last few months. My skin is glowing.
Remember, I'm a 49 year old guy. You usually don't see that in 49 year old guys. Fat has burned away, muscle is more defined. ( I do work out a lot), but going raw has really helped me to show the definition that was hiding under the fat.

Here's the deal: You need to stay away from processed grains and sugars. These foods are your enemies. I'm not 100 % raw, and I don't know if I'll ever be. But I rarely if ever eat bread, or other baked grain products. And white, processed sugar is a battle, but I'm doing pretty good with it. The problem is we keep tons of candy around the office and sometimes I succumb during the mid afternoon when my energy dips. You already know I love chocolate, but I shouldn't be eating the processed white sugar kind.

I feel like a million bucks most of the time. The more I've gone raw, the more my energy levels have gone through the roof. There is a lot of intuition being released at this time in my sphere of life. I just know things, I sense them more than ever before. It's hard to explain. But women seem to have this skill. My guess is that Intuition is related to awareness. Awareness is related to our physical senses (smell, taste, touch, hearing) and the sensations that we come into contact with. 

As you clean up your diet and begin gravitating to super-foods, all of your sensory organs are receiving vitality and nourishment like they've never seen before. It only stands to reason that they are going to function more robustly. And that could be the reason that everything just becomes clearer, simpler, more beautiful, and more easily understood.

Here's something I can understand. Clean up your diet, gravitate towards raw, whole, organic, live foods, and the people that grow, deliver, prepare and consume them, and your life will change for the better.

It just so happens that the practices that go into creating this type of food for us happen to be better for our environment, too. So you are contributing to the best plant ever when you eat this way.

Finally, feel love in your heart for yourself at all times, if possible. This self love is what makes me gravitate towards my intuition, which is pushing me towards doing the best thing I do for myself in any given moment. Being the right weight doesn't mean anything if you don't have love in your heart for your self and the people around you. Having love in your heart will help you start the journey, arrive at your destination, and explore new vistas, all while feeling great and having a good time doing so. That's my two cents for now -- Isaac Alfandry

Thank you for sharing!!!

Vegetable Spaghetti: How To Make It, Best Products To Use

One of the Tip Of The Day members emailed me a great tip- make veggie spaghetti. Very good idea, and you can get an inexpensive machine to cut up any vegetable into long strands that you can cook or serve raw. It makes it easy to cook, season and eat. And gives you another tool to increase the amounts of weight loss promoting food in your diet.

I did a search on Amazon and found two products that seemed popular. The first was the World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer. You can get one for about $30. If you read the numerous reviews on the page, the product works well and most importantly is easy to clean. It also slices veggies.

I also found a more expensive wooden slicer that got very good reviews made by Beriner. On a totally aesthetic note, the wood looks really nice! Many people also buy a paperback called 'Raw Food Made Easy" which gives some nice recipes:

How To Make Vegetables Taste Good: How Even The Ones You Don't Like Can Taste Extraordinary

The title of this post should read, "How to Make Vegetables You Don't Like Taste Extraordinary without Butter and Cheese but that was too long.  Butter and Cheese make everything taste extraordinary.  The real challenge is how to make green beans taste good without it.

I was with a friend of mine the other day and she mentioned that her two boys ate an entire plate of green beans. I can't even eat an entire plate of green beans, no matter how good they are for you.  I don't like the taste.  

Then, as I was eating dinner with her family, I watched exactly what she did: She placed a bowl of soy sauce next to the plate for one son and a small bowl of freshly squeezed lemon for the other.  Brilliant. 

She chose the condiment that they loved the most and her boys, with their new "finger" food, started dipping away.  I had never thought of it.  I've always dipped fresh broccoli in mustard; it tastes like you're eating hot dogs.  It does!  Try it and let me know if you agree.  The trouble with mustard is that my daughter still likes it, but when my 5 year old decided that he didn't like mustard, there went my vegetable strategy.  

My friend Laurie helped me rediscover all the ways that you can make food you don't love, taste like food you can love. Since I'm no different than my children, this was a great realization for me - what other condiments do I like so I can eat green beans and like them?  I thought I'd list a few here to give us all some ideas:

- Low sodium soy sauce with wasabi:  I happen to love this stuff in my sushi, but I haven't tried it on it's own.  If you're allergic to wheat, stay away.  My friend's 7 year old loves it.

- Ketchup: They have organic ketchup now, heinz makes it without the corn syrup.  Warning - it doesn't taste as good but if you're children don't know the difference yet, it might be perfect.

- Mustard - my favorite standby:  There are so many varieties now that you can most likely find one you like.  I love the standard Dijon but honey mustard might be a great dip.

- Chutney: my friend used to be addicted to this stuff.  It is an acquired taste.

- Salsa - You can get some great tomatoes and just great taste in general.  There are also some mild kinds without all the onions and peppers for the children.

- Fresh squeezed lemon and wasabi: my husband has a wheat allergy so he invented this.  It tastes amazing and really "fresh". 

- Mashed up avocado with lemon: takes a little more preparation but kids usually love avocado and you're getting a huge extra dose of vitamin C.  If you have an extra 5 minutes, it's totally worth it. 

- Lemon/mustard/garlic dressing: again, takes a little extra time so this isn't necessarily the best standby but you might want to try it when you're having a big sit down dinner.

- Strawberry with soy milk: mix it up in the blender and make sure you use frozen strawberries.  It becomes a strawberry sauce and it's excellent with fruit.

If you have any, please add them! (Here's what other people are doing)  I'm on my way to buy wasabi....

We also have a nice discussion going in our community on how to make vegetables for people who just don't like them. Lots of very practical suggestions there.

March 1, 2011 Update: We probably need to drop the low sodium soy sauce suggestion here, or change it to a wheat free option. Since I wrote this I have discovered that many people will benefit from a serious reduction in wheat in their diets. In fact, all gluten products are on the right side of the new PEERtrainer Cheat System. If you have not yet downloaded your free copy, you can still do so here.