Eat more fat! Yes more fat!

   Lets begin with the french.  With a french mother and having spent a good portion of my childhood all over France, I can tell you that the french are much thinner and healthier than we are.   They also eat much more fat than we do!   I watched my french 5 foot 1 100lb grandmother put very large quantities of butter on her bread in the morning at lunch and with dinner, not to mention the cheese. The French actually eat four times as much butter, as americans, 60 percent more cheese and nearly three times as much pork. The French consume much more saturated fats and are healthier and thinner than us.   Americans consume a much larger proportion of fat in the form of vegetable oil, with most of that being soybean oil. However, according to data from the British heart foundation rates of death from coronary heart disease among males aged 35–74 years were 115 per 100,000 people in the U.S. but only 83 per 100,000 in France.    With that said, our fat phobic nation has only gotten fatter with fat free products. It blows my mind that when I go to my local big Y and stand in front of the yogurt section,  I struggle to find full fat yogurts, let alone low fat.  I would say 99% of the hundreds of yogurts in front of me say FAT FREE in bold print.
Most of those fat free yogurts have more sugar and just as many calories as the full fat versions.  When my five year old comes to the grocery store with me,  he begs me for sponge bob yogurts! Do you all know whats in those? To me they are poison! High fructose corn syrup,  artificial flavors, Blue 1, Red 40, are just a few to mention!  Some of them that say Strawberry flavoring don't even have strawberries in them! If they do have strawberries in them and the yogurt is not organic than those strawberries were sprayed with about 15 different pesticides!   So what yogurt do I buy? If I am in a pinch I choose whole milk plain organic yogurt.  Even that to me,  is not good enough.  The yogurt I get delivered from a local farm has whole milk in it from cows who eat only grass!! For those of you who live in the Longmeadow area, Smyth's trinity farm in Enfield delivers milk, yogurt and even butter right to your doorstep, every week. All their cows are grass fed only. In France it is illegal to feed your cows grain so all the milk and butter are from grass fed cows! Meat, eggs, and dairy products from pastured animals (meaning grass fed) are ideal for your health. Grass-fed dairy products offer you more "good" fats, and fewer "bad" fats. They are richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. Furthermore, they do not contain traces of added hormones, antibiotics or other drugs. 
    I have also added, coconut oil, to my diet. Coconuts are a way of life for millions of people around the world. Coconuts are known as the "tree of life," this fruit of the coconut palm is rich in specific fats that have incredible health benefits. Traditional tropical populations that consume a lot of coconut oil are seldom overweight, and traditionally have been free from diseases that afflict most western cultures.

      Today thousands of people testify that Virgin Coconut Oil has tremendous health benefits, related to not only weight loss, but to such things as increased metabolism,helping sluggish thyroids, increased energy levels, killing candida and yeast infections,  improving cholesterol levels, clearing up skin infections, killing viruses, improving digestive health, and more! Go buy some organic virgin coconut oil.  If you like the taste of coconut oil buy the unrefined and if you dont then there is the refined option which is tasteless. I add it to my tea and to my smoothies.  I also cook with it on a regular basis.  According to Ray Peat, a a biologist and expert when it comes to  fat, the best fats for us to be eating are extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed), butter from grass-fed cows, and virgin coconut oil.  So do your kids and your body a favor and enjoy the fat!

Miracles

    I can't believe that in one week I will be the mother
of three.  Motherhood is mind-blowing! Where do these
babies come from anyway? My body is making another
human being? How does that really happen? Of course I
know the science behind it but nobody really knows how
and when the soul of the baby enters it's body.  Does it
happen at conception or does the soul of the baby pop in
when we are giving birth? I think maybe the spirit of my
baby girl has been hanging around me for a while and
when I give birth she pops right into her body. I do
remember looking into both of my sons faces for the
first time and feeling like they really looked familiar.
Like we already knew each other.  Anxious to meet our
little Savanna.
   I feel blessed and privileged to get to experience motherhood.  We are all busy moms and dads  and I think we tend to forget that these babies have chosen us to take care of them and to lead them on their journey. They feel like ours for only a short while and then they are off.   That's why for me, it is so important we put good healthy food into their little bodies and teach them to fuel themselves in the
best possible way.
     A bunch of you asked me what other fruits and vegetables, besides strawberries, need to be organic. Here is my list. The fruits that should ALWAYS be bought organic are strawberries, apples, blueberries, grapes, peaches, pears, cherries,  and nectarines. Apples are chalk full of pesticides. Even if you peel them and cook them you will still be ingesting quite a bit of pesticides. That means you need to buy organic apple juice and applesauce for the kids!  I like to buy the "honest kids" juice packs for school lunches.  They are organic and watered down.
    As far as veggies go, the most contaminated are bell peppers, celery, spinach, kale and lettuce.  Its easy to find organic strawberries, apples, spinach and celery at the local grocery store. I don't have the time to drive to whole foods on a regular basis so I just don't buy cherries, pears, blueberries and grapes anymore unless I happen to be at whole foods.   There are plenty other fruits and veggies that don't need to be bought organically.  My kids love kiwi, pineapple, bananas, oranges, and mangoes.  Hope this helps with the confusion of organic vs non organic.  It doesn't have to be all or nothing.   Just try and steer clear of the fruit and vegetables with the most contamination!

BEWITCHED

     There are days when I wish I could just move my nose in a couple directions and "voila", my
drawers, cabinets, and closets could be in perfect order.  All the clutter in my house gone and
all the toys in the house perfectly organized. Don't get me wrong my house is clean but it's just not perfectly zen yet.   I have two weeks before baby number 3 is here and yes my hormones are a bit out of control. Some call it nesting, I call it being a triple virgo.   I lay in bed thinking about every drawer that needs cleaning, every item I need for the baby, last year's family movies that I have not yet put together and much more.
     More importantly,  did my kids eat well today?  HMMMMM not bad, they both ate fruit and veggies today although I allowed Julien to eat 5 fruit loops because he's almost five and Leo 2 because he's two.  The box got thrown out quickly afterwards.  Why are there fruit loops in my cabinets?   Good question, they were brought home by my loving husband, thinking it would please the kids and did it ever! Nothing like those bright glowing colors! First pet peeve when it comes to food and kids is definitely the conventional strawberries but my second one is FOOD COLORING! Did you know that food colorings are made from petroleum?  Studies have been done on groups of kids and their behavior after they eat sugar compared to kids who have had sugar along with food colorings and the kids who had the sugar with the food coloring went bonkers compared to the kids who just had the sugar.  I mean do we really think it's ok for our kids to drink neon yellow and blue gatorade or anything that is going to turn their tongues a neon color? This is a tough one because the truth is food coloring is in everything.  Everything that is processed that is. Even in the kids vitamins. If you are looking for an alternative to the kids vitamins that are not filled with colorings,  L'il Critters multivitamins are a good choice. They have natural food colorings, meaning the colors are made from beet juice and all sorts of natural colorings and you can find them at Target.  Anyways, if you don't believe me, observe your kids behavior this week-end after they have eaten the candy with the petroleum, I mean food coloring, and decide for yourself!  I'm just going to sit back and keep daydreaming about possessing Samantha's powers.

Strawberries

This is my first blog ever. I am a mom, a life coach and a personal trainer among other things.  My two boys are four and a half, two, and baby Savanna is due to arrive in two weeks!  I have high expectations of myself as a wife and a mom.  I also feel that it is my soul's duty to help others physically and emotionally, somehow making the world a better place one person at a time.  Like my friend Suzi Walton always says, "Peace begins in the home".  The future of our world is in our hands and the hands of our children, so as a mom we have big shoes to fill.  

Our planet is going to shit right now because we are uneducated and complacent as well as money hungry!  We will not be able to live on this planet much longer if we continue the way we have been going, nor can we continue to kill ourselves with the food we are eating.   We have never in history spent as a nation, so little $ on food and so much $ on health care.  Crazy! We are crazy!  I want to begin by talking about food!  Why not start with the absolute number one fruit and or vegetable with the MOST pesticides on them!  Strawberries!  I am a little fanatic when it comes to my kids eating organic strawberries.  I cringe when I see people, especially kids eating conventional strawberries.  I want to shout out you are eating POISON!  Why do you think so many people have allergic reactions to strawberries?  It's not the strawberries they are allergic to; it’s the 15 different kinds of pesticides that are on them!!!

My kids love strawberries!  My fridge almost always contains a carton of organic strawberries.  I put strawberries in my kids yogurt, cereal, smoothies, pancakes, oatmeal, salads and on anything I can think of.  If you are a smoker, (hopefully not) strawberries help clear the lungs.   Whenever my kids have a cough we load up!  They are full of vitamin C, manganese, iodine, potassium, folate, B5, B6, Omega 3, magnesium and copper.  Strawberries have also been shown to reduce liver cancer cells significantly due to ellagic acid!  Studies have also shown that eating strawberries can help combat the cancer cells of the breast, esophagus, skin, colon, prostrate, and pancreas! A pretty impressive fruit I'll say!  Whoops, Leo just woke up from his three hour nap...got to go!