I am so ready to help you achieve your nutrition & overall health goals. By looking at your very own Genetics, I can create a nutrition & fitness program specific for You. Get to know why you keep getting stuck in rut when it comes to your diet. Learn what foods are the best for you…. is it carbs, is it protein or is it a certain type of fat?! You will also understand what type of activity is best for your body. I will be able to determine if a high intensity training program is best for the types of muscle fibers you have, or if you may do better with your weight loss by incorporating lower intensity activities.
Let’s do this together and get you Living with Vitality!
More info on how to get started with your Nutrition & Performance Genetic Program on my site.
It’s true – there is NO need to count calories to lose weight. Crazy, right?! Research has shown that if you change your Carbohydrate, Protein & Fat ratios, you can lose weight AND that unwanted belly fat!
“It takes 5 minutes to put together and 30 minutes in the oven, and that’s pretty close to instant gratification,” says the fitness fashion founder and Physique 57 instructor. 3 cups almond meal 3 eggs, beaten ½ cup honey 2 mashed ripe bananas 1 tsp baking soda ¼ cup coconut oil Mix together and pour in a pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until cake springs back to the touch. Enjoy!!
Brazil-inspired Cheesy Poofs… Turns out Brazilians eat tons of the starchy tuber yuca (or cassava). But while you’ll usually find it deep fried or used to make crepe-like Brazilian tapioca, why not go with these better-for-you “cheese” puffs by baking with not-that-hard-to-find yuca flour. And they use coconut oil and flax seeds to add healthy fats. The resulting “cheetos” are super light, have an almost cheesy flavor—and are not a bit fluorescent orange. Just don’t make them until your guests arrive, or you’ll eat them all before they arrive. 😉 Coconut Oil Yuca Cheetos 3 eggs 2 cups + 2 Tbsp yuca flour 1 cup whole milk (milk alternatives not recommended) 1 cup coconut oil 1 cup flax seeds 1 teaspoon salt Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat milk in saucepan until it boils. Mix the yuca flour with milk, coconut oil, and salt. Once fully mixed, add the eggs one by one. Mix until the texture is not soft. Put into pastry bag. Draw small rings on your baking sheet, two centimeters apart. Figures will grow
By using the juices from the following foods to achieve a specific color, will ensure you achieve a beautiful (and chemical free) end result!
Green: spinach juice
Orange: pumpkin or carrot juice
Pink: raspberries or beetroot
Blue: blueberries
Purple: red cabbage or grapes
Yellow: yellow carrots, turmeric powder, saffron flowers
Using natural food colors will produce more of a pastel color than the commercially produced dyes so you may need to experiment if you seeking a very specific end result. However, the taste will be better, you won’t experience allergic reactions or side effects and your body will thank you!
Here are the 10 most important things you need to know about your gut microbiome:
1. You are more bacterial than cellular.
Bacteria outnumber your cells by a factor of 9 to 1. And the genes in your microbiome outnumber your own genome by a whopping 150 to 1!
2. You depend on the microbiome for crucial functions.
Humans evolved in a symbiotic relationship with the microbiome, which is why our bodies depend on our bacteria for so many basic biological processes. Friendly bacteria digest our food, govern our appetite, control our metabolism, orchestrate our immune system, influence our mood, promote mental sharpness, determine heart health, support bone development, produce crucial vitamins and other nutrients, manufacture natural antibiotics, and even help to determine our genetic expression!
3. We’re used to thinking of bacteria as our enemies, but most bacteria are allies.
The bacteria in our microbiome don’t just help us perform basic bodily functions, such as digesting our food. They also help us restore gut health and heal symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, depression, headaches, acne, eczema, colds, infections, joint and muscle pain.
4. Keeping the microbiome healthy with a wide variety of friendly bacteria is the key to health and weight loss.
Most bacteria seem to wish us well, organizing themselves into extraordinary arrangements to ensure good digestion and healthy weight. However, some bacteria promote inflammation (a response to stress) and other bacteria create sugar cravings! Too many unfriendly bacteria and we end up overweight, stressed, fatigued, and at risk for a wide variety of disorders, from acne to cancer.
5. The microbiome is the key to weight loss.
One of the most exciting developments is the huge number of research studies showing that when you rebalance your microbiome, you can boost your metabolism and shed fat. This was a discovery I made in my medical practice some years ago, so I was excited to see more evidence emerging to confirm an approach whose success I had already witnessed with thousands of patients.
6. A balanced microbiome is crucial to mental function and emotional health.
Your brain depends on biochemicals known as neurotransmitters to process thought and emotion. If your microbiome is out of balance, you are likely to end up anxious and/or depressed, suffering from fatigue, memory problems, and brain fog.
7. Stress can unbalance the microbiome in just a single day.
The lifespan of a bacterium is about 20 minutes. So 24 hours represent about 1,500 years in bacteria time. In just one day, you can alter your microbiome’s balance by killing off unfriendly bacteria online casino and allowing friendly bacteria to proliferate. Supporting your microbiome with probiotics, prebiotics, and healthy foods can make an enormous difference very quickly.
8. Probiotics are live bacteria that help balance the microbiome by supporting friendly bacteria.
You can take probiotics in capsule form, or you can take natural probiotics in the form of fermented foods: yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchee, and pickled vegetables. Taking a daily probiotic and loading up your diet with fermented foods can help you boost your metabolism and lose unwanted weight.
9. Prebiotics are the foods and nutrients that feed the friendly bacteria in your microbiome.
You can take them as powders and capsules, or you can eat whole foods that are rich in inulin, arabinogalactans, and fiber. In my book, I call these “Microbiome Superfoods.” They include asparagus, carrots, garlic, jicama, leeks, okra, onion, radishes, and tomatoes, as well as the “Microbiome Superspices,” turmeric and cinnamon.
10. The microbiome is the basis for the medicine of the future.
This year, the Mayo Clinic published a primer about how physicians might incorporate research on the microbiome into their clinical practice, proclaiming, “understanding the basic concepts about the interactions between humans and their microbiome will be as important to clinicians as understanding concepts of genetics or germ theory.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The microbiome has been dubbed “the forgotten organ,” but I think it’s high time doctors remembered it! Meanwhile, now that you know about your microbiome, you can start supporting it with probiotics, prebiotics, and “Microbiome Superfoods.” Your whole body will thank you for it.
With a refreshing blend of flavors and textures, this salad can be easily doctored up to suit even the pickiest eater. The coconut curry dressing is sugar-free and D-E-LICIOUS!
Everything you could want for a summer salad.
Ingredients
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 3T sugar-free peanut butter
• 3T fresh lime juice
• 1T yellow curry powder
• ½ tsp salt
• Your choice of leafy green (pictured is dandelion greens & spinach)
• 1 mango, peeled & chopped
• ½ red pepper
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 4 stalks green onion, chopped
• 2/3 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
• fresh cilantro for garnish
Directions
Coconut Curry Dressing:
1. Add all dressing ingredients (coconut milk, peanut butter, lime juice, curry powder, salt) into a blender/food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Refrigerate the dressing until it thickens (about 2 hours)
Salad:
1. Build up the salad bed with your leafy green
2. Arrange additional toppings in such a way that feels right to you (you have full license to get fancy with it)
3. Garnish with cilantro, and squirt a little lime juice over the top
4. Once the dressing has thickened to a consistency to your liking, drizzle over the salad
5. Feverishly consume salad (this one goes pretty fast!) Recipe adapted from The Roasted Root
Vitality Travel Tips… Travel can be brutal on the body due to changes in sleep patterns, time changes, the stress of meeting flight times, getting around a new city, etc. And, on top of it all, add to the mix being off of your normal eating pattern! If you can keep your digestive system healthy while ‘on the go’, you can stay WAY ahead of the game. You will find that your energy will stay up, you won’t be as susceptible to all the sickness floating around and you will be able to keep your antioxidants high so to minimize cell damage (aka: the aging process). A few tips for Vitality Travel: * Take some Greens to Go I like to carry a powdered green drink with me since finding greens out & about is super difficult. One of my favorites is Mighty Maca. http://www.mightymaca.com/ This little green concoction, when taken daily, will give you all the phytonutrients to keep your gut happy, your immune system strong and help minimize any inflammatory affects the stress of travel will have on your body. *Bring your own Bars When you are in a pinch and all that seems to be available is junk, fast food or airplane treats, I say grab a bar to get you thru til you can have some nutritious real food. Bars that I like are Quest, Clif Builder Bars, Elemental Raw Bars *Emergen-C Keep your Vitamin C levels topped-off during travel to ensure electrolyte balance and to minimize risk for catching some random bug floating in the air. *Stay hydrated! Carry a water bottle with you – especially on the plane. *Bag-o-Nuts It may seem silly to cart around a bag of nuts in your bag, but let me tell you, they can be a life saver. Nuts not only travel well due to their durability & extended shelf life, but they will give you the Omega-3’s and vitamins you will most likely be lacking when eating out or eating ‘local’ food. Due to the good fat content of nuts, they will also keep your blood sugar under control for an extended period of time which will allow you to not have to hunt down food as often.
Do you constantly think about food? Are you feeling hungry all the time?! Well, it may be case of the QUALITY of foods you are eating instead of the QUANTITY. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html?_r=0 The good news about shifting the quality of your diet patterns, is that you may not have to rely on that silly ‘willpower’ anymore. Once your body is able to reduce how much insulin it produces – by eating more good fats and less refined carbohydrates – it can get back to supporting you in your weight loss efforts instead of fighting you on it every step of the way. ‘People in the modern food environment seem to have greater control over what they eat than how much. With reduced consumption of refined grains, concentrated sugar and potato products and a few other sensible lifestyle choices, our internal body weight control system should be able to do the rest. Eventually, we could bring the body weight set point back to pre-epidemic levels. Addressing the underlying biological drive to overeat may make for a far more practical and effective solution to obesity than counting calories.’ I say…. Bring ON those good fats!! 😉
Michelle Ricker RDN