Sunday, March 22, 2015

Healthy Habits

So I have picked up three new habits in the last six months that along with eating clean and taking barre classes (more on this later), have me feeling the best I have ever felt. So I thought I would share! 

First thing is drinking warm lemon water every Morning:

The very first thing I do when I wake up is squeeze half a fresh lemon into a luke warm cup of water. I drink it fairly quickly then wait 30 minutes before I eat or drink anything else. 

I have noticed my skin is clearer, my breath is fresher and I haven't been sick or even gotten the sniffles this entire cold/flu season. It wakes me up and I feel like I have energy first thing in the morning. I found this chart of the 15 reasons we should all be doing this! 



Drinking Bulletproof Coffee:

So, I am sure you have heard of this trend by now and many people have cringed at the thought but, tons have jumped on board for good reason. I have to tell you it is delicious and I love it! 

I overhauled the way I was eating and feeding my family a couple years back and I am continuing to make small changes as I learn new things. One of my last bad vices that I just couldn't let go of was putting coffee creamer in my morning coffee. When I heard about the bulletproof coffee way I knew I should try it but, I literally go to bed at night dreaming about my morning cup of coffee WITH my creamer - chock full of sugar and artificial flavors and chemicals. The thought of giving that up, that one last thing, even though I knew it was bad. I didn't know if I really wanted to! 

 I had decided that I would give up my Kuerig for waste and health reasons and switch to a Chemex pour over coffee method - so I figured now was the time to just switch it all over! 

I boil a small pot of water and pour it over fresh, low mold, fairly traded organic coffee grounds - which that alone tastes a trillion times better than the coffee sitting in K cups for who knows how long. Then I put one tablespoon of pastured butter - not to be mistaken for pasteurized (that just means heated). 

You want the health benefits of cows munching on grass. Kerrygold is the one I have used a lot. I also get one from the Farmacy (a little jewel, which I will share more on later) at my local Winter Garden Farmers Market that is really delicious, double the size, and cheaper than the Kerrygold. 

First things first, you have to unlearn what you were taught in the past about fats in general and particularly saturated fats.  The myth about saturated fat causing heart disease has been thoroughly debunked. The studies show that there is literally no association between the two. In fact, saturated fats can actually improve the blood lipid profile:

They raise levels of HDL (the good) cholesterol, which is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
They change the LDL from small dense (bad) to Large LDL – which is benign and not associated with heart disease.

High-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows are among the best sources of Vitamin K2 in the diet. Vitamin K2 is a nutrient that most people don’t know about, but it is one of the most important nutrients in the diet for heart and bone health. My kids drink whole grass milk for the exact same reasons. 

Mainstream nutrition gets a lot of things wrong, but the insane advice to replace butter with trans-fat laden margarine and vegetable oils is among the worst. But, trust me I believed them too and did it for a long time! When we replace real, traditional foods like butter and meat with crappy, processed pseudo-foods, we get sick.

Then I add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil.

Coconut oil has been demonized in the past because it also contains saturated fat. Many massive studies that include hundreds of thousands of people prove that the whole “artery-clogging” idea was a myth.  Coconut oil doesn’t contain your average run-of-the-mill saturated fats. It contains Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) – which are fatty acids of a medium length. Most of the fatty acids in the diet are long-chain fatty acids, but the medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil are metabolized completely differently.

Then, I take a hand held frother my friend Leah bought me from Ikea and whip the coffee, coconut oil, and butter together! It comes out a carmel color with a frothy head on it! 



This "fatty" delicious coffee is so good for you, so you have to relearn a lot of things you were taught about fats and calories. Not all fats are bad and not all calories are created equal. 

After I had kids I wanted to lose the baby weight, I strictly counted calories and sure I lost weight but, I was starving and malnutritioned because the integrity of the calories I was eating wasn't there. I used to eat fruit and it didn't even taste sweet to me because I drank things like diet soda because the calorie count was zero. My other trick was 100 calorie packs of cookies to satisfy my sugar addiction. I later switched to eating real food, healthy fats, cutting out processed foods and sugars. I feel better than ever and I am never starving and my weight stays steady. I feel satisfied. Now that I know better,  I feel a thousand times better. 

Just out of curiosity I plugged in a few days of what I ate in the old calorie counter I used to use and it was giving me alerts for high fats, high saturated fats, cholesterol and sugar. The two over easy pastured eggs I cook at home with a little coconut oil that don't even need to be refrigerated because the membrane hasn't been washed off with fresh blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries is alerting me to high sugar - except they are natural sugars my body knows how to break down and eggs a high cholesterol food - however  the fat in egg yolks actually helps to reduce LDL (“bad” cholesterol). The combination of the yolk fat and protein in the white makes real eggs a nutritional powerhouse. Then just to see I plugged in an Egg McMuffin from McDonald's in the same app and it only alerts me to the high sodium intake. If you didn't know better you would eat some food like sandwich product because even the tools available to people who are trying to pay attention and potentially feel better or lose weight are measuring many of the wrong things. 

I didn't know better before either so when people cringe at my "fatty" coffee I know how I feel and what I have learned. 

Last of my new habits is I take raw probiotics daily:

I have given my family probiotics and taken them myself for years, but not all probiotics are created equal. So first things first why a probiotic?!?

Probiotics are a type of living bacteria that actually benefit your health when taken in the appropriate amounts. This friendly bacteria, located in the gastrointestinal tract, comes in a variety of forms. With more than 400 different bacteria living in the human gastrointestinal tract, the most common forms of intestinal probiotics are L. acidophilus and Bifidobacteria bifidum.

These bacteria act as balancing agents for non-friendly, pathogenic, gut-bacteria such as Candida or E. coli. When the “good-guys” are not present enough, a number of bacteria-related health problems such as digestive upset, headaches, sluggishness, irritability, cadidiasis (an overgrowth of the bacteria Candida albicans), and even anxiety can ensue.

Lactobacillus acidophilus is, quite possibly, the strongest of our probiotic fighters. Studies show that L. acidophilus actually creates a natural form of antibiotics in the body. This increases our ability to defend against the pathogens in the food we eat, the air we breath, and the things we come in contact with. Stress, unhealthy lifestyles, and most importantly, unhealthy acidic diets, destroy our natural amounts of probiotics. 

I found a list that outlines the benefits with intake of daily servings of probiotics:

Enhanced immune system response
Alleviates negative affects of taking many types of antibiotics
Calms colon irritation following surgery
Helps to support healthy skin in youth
Increased ability to digest food
Therapeutic for upper respiratory complaints
Reduces lactose intolerance
Reduces incidence of yeast infections, vaginitis and candidiasis
Increases ability to assimilate the nutrients from food
Alleviates many common digestive disorders such as constipation, diarrhea and IBS

It is also important to know that 80-85% of your immune system in located in your gut! 

So why a RAW probiotic?!?

RAW means that all of the RAW Probiotics formulas are uncooked, untreated, unadulterated and contain no binders or fillers and no carriers such as maltodextrin or dextrose. They are all gluten-free and contain no soy allergens. 

The biggest difference between RAW and many other probiotics, is the number of colony forming units. 'Pearls' have only 2 billion CFUs and 2 strains. RAW has 85 billion & 31 strains. That's a huge difference. 

RAW Probiotics are to be kept chilled.  Enzymes die in heat.

We take Garden of Life probiotics and all of our additional supplements from this brand actually.  It is the most potent probiotic I have taken and, so far I feel best taking this one! 


This is the one I give to my kids! It super easy to stir into pretty much anything because it is powder form versus and capsule or tablet.


hope this was helpful to you in some way! Maybe you will pick a new habit or 3 and start feeling amazing! I actually didn't realize how bad I felt until I started changing things in my diet and was astounded at how much better I could feel. Keep in mind being very consistent has been the key with these things to really feeling the changes and feeling better!

I know I will keep learning and researching on this topic of food, natural health, and supplements because I am so passionate about it and I want my family to feel good and stay well! I will keep you updated as I learn new things because I know I don't have it all figured out for sure but I have certainly learned so much! I just started a new book called Whole, Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by T. Colin Cambell, PhD and Howard Jacobson, PhD. It is all about the fact that modern nutritionists focus on single nutrients has led to mass confusion and tragic health consequences. It is about changing the way you think about food and, in doing so, improve our lives and save massive amounts of money in health care costs.   So I will share more info as I learn!

Much Health Love,

Lauren