Daily Archives: November 13, 2013

Coaching for Health

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Fruit FaceIn the area of health we are bombarded with information, often competing and contradictory.  There are powerful forces at work to keep us confused, sick and dependent.

Most of us don’t have time to delve into the latest research and make sense of it.  Only when we, or someone we love is faced with a huge health challenge, do we get the motivation necessary to delve into the details and research what is truly healthy.  We also get the motivation needed to follow our new knowledge with action.

I have spent hours researching various aspects of health.  My body is my personal science experiment.  I put what I learn into practice as a part of my research.  I love sharing what I learn with others.

Children’s Health

I am particular passionate about raising healthy children.  I began my healthy parenting journey 31 years ago with reading Adele Davis’ book, Let’s Have Healthy Children and continue to endorse her approach to helping our children reach their unique potential through breastfeeding and providing whole foods in as close to their natural state as possible, while avoiding processed foods.  In our present day, I think Mrs Davis would be shocked by the state of children’s health in our country where childhood cancer, auto-immune diseases, diabetes, behavior disorders, etc are all reaching epidemic proportions.

I raised five children who are making wise nutritional choices as adults and parents themselves.  Feeding a family is a very difficult job in today’s world with so many quick, easy, tasty options tempting us.  Parents today face an enormously difficult task in raising healthy children.  Join me in a Journey of discovering optimal health for every member of the family.

A coach is someone trained and devoted to guiding others into increased competence, commitment, and confidence.  I’d love to help you reach your personal health goals.

How do you implement and encourage healthy nutrition in your family? Please let me know your ideas in the comments section below.

It Starts with the Shopping

Eating Healthy – It Starts With the Shopping

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738926_27892725Imagine if you could hire someone to do all your shopping and healthy food preparation for you!  What a luxury!  What a thrill.

This is the reason we often find ourselves going out for a meal, whether in a restaurant or fast food, because we want someone else to do the work for us.

So, if you could get a real live person to take over this part of your life, what instructions would you give them?

“Just make me healthy food.”

This instruction might not be enough.  We all have different definitions of health. Many distinctively unhealthy fast food outlets promote the health of their products!

Most of us at some point have assumed that the food products available in the grocery store are safe – we do have an organization called the Food and Drug Association, which is there (paid by our tax dollars) to make sure the options are safe and healthy – right?

Every family has their own interpretation of ‘healthy food.’  Every mother teaches her children food preferences.

So, how do we navigate the maze and figure out what healthy food means in 2013? If someone was shopping and preparing food for me, this is what I would instruct them to buy and prepare:

My short list of ‘NO’:

  • GMO products (corn, sugar beets, soy components, unless specified non-GMO);
  • HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) containing products (HFCS is GMO, so it would be excluded anyway);
  • Partially hydrogenated fats;
  • Pork;
  • Most processed foods (or >5 ingredients).

YES:

  • Lots of healthy fats: coconut oil, olive oil (EVOO), avocado, wild fish, clean meat, raw clean nuts and seeds;
  • Organic vegetables (celery, sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, leafy greens, cucumbers, broccoli, green beans, peas, summer squash, zucchini, etc.);
  • Organic fruit (apples, bananas, limes, anything seasonal);
  • Ginger, garlic, turmeric, cilantro, Himalayan salt, other herbs;
  • Superfoods:  cacao powder, maca powder, spirulina, cacao nibs, goji berries, aloe, bee products, hemp seeds, chia seeds, etc.;
  • Limited grains:  oats, rice, quinoa, wheat or wheat flour (all organic if possible);
  • For a treat:  organic corn chips, organic salsa, fresh vegetable juices

Once you get all the good ingredients home, then the fun part of figuring out how you are going to prepare it begins!

Some people say, eating healthy is so expensive, but I remind them that cancer is being expensive; being sick and disabled is VERY expensive.

What principles help you with your grocery shopping?  I’d love to hear from anyone who has transitioned even further on the road to health and is growing some of their own organic foods!

Coaching for a Healthier Family