Suggested Reading: Living Well

Since I've started making smoothies a regular part of my diet I've been on the lookout for books and websites that not only have recipes but also offer guidance on how to improve one's health through diet.  My local Borders was one of the unfortunate locations having a closing sale, so I searched through their shelves and stumbled upon a few health and diet books that might be worth reading. The one that interested me the most was Living Well by Montel Williams. 

Now I grew up with Montel the talk show host but I was never really a devout watcher - school kind of got in the way - so I never knew he was such a health advocate until I started reading his book.  (You can find out more about him on his website, montelwilliams.com.)  The book takes the simple premise of exercising more and eating better and gives you a step by step guide on how to optimize these two things for better health. It's a guide to achieving a balance between what you should do and what you can do.  

As a sufferer of MS, Montel states that "by supercharging your diet and physical fitness, you can reduce the risks and symptoms of chronic disease and vastly improve the way you feel." He calls his approach The Living Well Code.

One of the first components to his approach is what drew me to the book in the first place: smoothies and juices. Not only does the book offer several tasty recipes, but a list of what Montel calls the rainbow fruits, rainbow veggies and superpower greens. These lists you can mix and match to create a 'super-charged' drink that gives your body the nutrients it needs. 

Of course the book doesn't stop at smoothies and juices. Amongst many other things, there are mediterranean-inspired recipes that aren't too complex and exercises that you can do at home - try not to let the six pack on the model intimidate you, many of them are simple movements that most can achieve.   

One of the things that endeared me the most to this book was that even though Montel has his own website, with his own products to pitch (everything from an ab machine to a rotisserie), he does not limit you to his resources.  Throughout the book and especially in the back, there are suggestions on where to get even more information. The most useful, at least for me, was the hint that if you go to AICR.org  and put in a vegetable from the rainbow list, they will generate recipes with the vegetable as an ingredient.

The book overall was an easy read with an equally easy approach to improving your health. Of course the hard part is the implementation, but if you need help with that - there's always the ab machine and rotisserie.  

 

 

Badass Smoothies

I have a confession.  You know those drawers for produce in the fridge?  Up until a little while ago, mine were filled with chocolate candy.  It started when we had leftover Halloween candy that kept melting and sticking together.  I threw the snack sizes in the fridge and forgot about them until my husband stocked up on Cadburys during our last visit to England.  Then came treats from Christmas and I’m sure a chocolate bunny will be added in April.

I’ve managed to condense all that chocolate into one drawer and now my other drawer is filled with fresh greens, bright fruit, and other things that look like the flora and fauna of an alien planet.  

That drawer, along with the increase of frozen fruit in my freezer, makes it official; I’m a smoothie junkie.  On the weekends I’m making them for breakfast and on the weekdays I make them for dessert.  Berry smoothies with a bit of dark chocolate really hits the spot after a savory meal – but it’s not just the taste that appeals to me, it’s the chance to get a lot of nutrients in one glass.  I consume fruits and vegetables that aren’t exactly easy to include with a packed lunch – giving me a chance to load up on iron, magnesium, folate, potassium, antioxidants and numerous vitamins.   

When I was first diagnosed with Celiac Disease my nutritionist gave me some advice that at the time I thought was a bit weird.  She said to chew my food carefully.  Yeah, my second grade lunch lady told us the same thing because she didn’t want us choking on our food.  But it turns out my nutritionist wasn’t worried about choking. She was trying to give my digestive track some help.  The smaller and more broken up your food is, the easier it is to digest, especially for a person whose digestive system has taken a hit.  So doesn’t sticking everything in a blender until it’s a soupy mix seem like a good idea? 

Perhaps the best thing about adding vegetable and fruit smoothies to my diet is that they are so easy to make, and really hard to mess up.  Add kefir, yogurt, avocado, bananas, ice or frozen fruit to make it thicker.  A little fruit juice (100% juice and not the syrup stuff) or a dollop of local honey will make it sweeter.  Throw a cucumber in for a refreshing taste and don’t forget a piece of fresh ginger and a spoonful of flax seeds to give your stomach some aid.  

There's just so much you can do and the preparation takes only a few minutes.  The most time-consuming thing is deciding what to add.  I'm not good with ingredient lists and recipes as I like to feel my way through, but there are countless sites online and books (especially in the bargain priced section of Barnes and Noble - yes I do practically live there) that can give you ideas, as well as the nutritional values.  I picked up a few books and have skimmed some of the sites, garnering inspiration here and there.  If I find a favorite book or site I will let you know.  

In the meantime, I'm also looking for a badass blender so I can make more than a single serving at a time.  I do realize that shopping for a blender instead of some cute shoes means I'm showing my,  shall we say, maturity.  But after consuming a healthy drink like the ones I've been putting together, I have more swagger to my step than I ever have with a pair of death defying stilettos. 

Adrenal Fatigue Jinx

Do you ever read a word for the first time and then hear it being used by everyone around you? How about a song that seems to play whenever you turn the radio on?  I don’t know much about physics but there has to be something that explains how things are pulled toward you at the same time – like a message from the universe, or in my case, a kick in the butt from the cosmos.

This synchronicity is occurring for me with Adrenal Fatigue.  At first it was just something that was briefly mentioned by a friend. Then I saw a book on the topic in the wrong section of the bookstore (reviewed here) and suddenly Twitter is alive with mentions of the syndrome.   Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom had a post that went into detail of her own experience of being tested for Adrenal Fatigue.  It also contained a quote from Dr. Tom O'Bryan on the 2010 Celiac and Gluten Sensitivity Forum DVD: “You cannot put a celiac patient on a gluten-free diet and walk away… because many of them will die.” Now I have not seen the DVD so I cannot vouch for anything contained within, but that one line struck such a chord with me.

After being diagnosed I felt like I was sent away to figure everything out on my own and when there was very little improvement, a few tests were run that came out negative and I was sent on my way with the half-hearted prescription of, “We’ll see how you feel in a year.”

I’ve already played that game before, that’s why it took years to be diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  So I know better now than to just blindly follow my doctor’s every word.  So, with the universe practically shouting at me, I’m trying the suggestions in the book, on the web and keeping my eyes open for any new information.  Perhaps the best thing I have found so far is smoothies.  Not fruit smoothies, which I used to make in abundance – it turns out that much sugar, even natural, can put a huge strain on the adrenal glands. Now I’m making vegetable smoothies with ingredients like kale, avocado, ginger and flax seeds.  The only time I ever had avocado before was in the form of guacamole and nothing could be more alien to me than fresh ginger root.

But I have found that despite my aversion to the kitchen, there is something satisfying about putting everything into a blender and watching it meld together. It’s oddly stress-relieving.

I’ve also put a priority on getting more sleep.  The difference between six hours and eight is the difference between a dull ache and a sharp stabbing pain. 

It’s worth noting that things have not gotten better dramatically overnight and I know that there are a lot more changes I need to try to make.  But I do have something that I didn’t have before… hope.