National Fruit and Veggies Month!
Fruits and veggies are amazing for our health! They help our brains and bodies function optimally. What’s even better is they’re a natural source of energy that increases our performance, focus, concentration, and productivity! It is recommended that everyone eat 5-8 servings of fruits and veggies every day! Sometimes it is hard to consume all of the fruits and veggies that our bodies need each day. Check out our creative tips for getting those servings!
Here are 8 Tips to Increase Your Fruits and Veggies:
- Start with the first meal of the day! Eating fruit for breakfast is an easy way to get in a few servings of healthy foods right away. Plan on eating a serving or two of fruit first thing in the morning.
- Snack on fruits or veggies for extra energy! Did you know that carbohydrates in fruit and veggies are sources of fuel. Combine these with some protein like cheese, yogurt, or peanut butter for an extra boost.
- Use fruit and veggies as ingredients. Some different recipes that you can create with veggies are chili, cauliflower pizza crust.
- Get creative! Try a new fruit or veggie recipe each week. Meal plan and think ahead of time of something new that you could try.
- Smoothies are a great way to consume more fruits and veggies. Combine blueberries, spinach, bananas, and some greek yogurt for a delicious and nutritious drink.
- When making your dinner plate double up on your veggie serving.
- One of my favorite things to do is turn vegetables into noodles! Zucchini noodles are delicious with some pasta sauce on top.
- Prep meals ahead of time so you have a plan to consume more veggies. Make a list of meals for the week that have both fruits and veggies so you can make sure you’re getting the nutrients you need.
If you would like more support in finding ways to add fruits & veggies to your diet to increase your performance and productivity, consider private coaching with Kitty! I can help you create custom action plans to help you implement healthy habits that are tailored specifically to your needs. Learn more about private coaching here!
Baked Avocado Eggs with Bacon
Baked Avocado Eggs with Bacon
Avocados are an amazing healthy food because they have lots of healthy fats, which is great for supporting your brain by reducing your blood pressure and may even prevent Alzheimer’s. Avocados are amazing to eat for breakfast as they are full of healthy fats that keep you fueled all day long! Baked avocado eggs with bacon is a favorite breakfast of mine – try it out for yourself!
Ingredients: Serves 2
- 2 avocado
- 4 eggs
- 4 pieces of bacon
- 1 tsp Mrs. Dash seasoning
- 1/2 bundle green onions
- salt & pepper to taste
- Optional: other spices or toppings!
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (ensuring that there is a lip of parchment paper so that it can contain all the bacon grease). Put the bacon on the parchment paper. Bake in the oven for approx 13 – 17 minutes or until desired doneness. When bacon is done, dab with paper towel to remove excess fat.
- While bacon cooks, wash the avocados and eggs.
- Cut avocados in half and remove pits. Scoop out a little of the avocado flesh from each side of the avocado (just enough to fit 1 egg). You can either eat this while you cook or you can save it for a topping on the eggs.
- Crack 1 egg into each half of the avocado. Sprinkle with Mrs. Dash seasoning, salt and pepper.
- Bake avocado eggs in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until egg is desired consistency.
- While the avocado eggs cook, wash and chop green onions.
- When eggs reach desired consistency, pull out of the oven, top with green onion, serve with bacon and enjoy!
Bacon Mushroom Ramen Recipe
Bacon Mushroom Ramen Recipe
Ramen is a favorite food of mine because it’s so delicious! Plus it is so versatile that you can change the toppings and use your typical pantry staples! Treat yourself by testing out this delicious recipe!
Ingredients: Serves 4
- 16 oz. baby bella mushrooms
- 2 tbsp avocado or coconut oil
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2 large shallots (or substitute 1 small onion)
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger or powdered ginger
- 6 cup beef, chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 1/2 tbsp white miso paste (or substitute 2 cup coconut milk)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (gluten free or regular)
- 8 slices of bacon
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 4 packages of rice noodles (can also do ramen noodles with spice packets discarded)
- 2 large carrots
- 4 handfuls of spinach
- 1/2 bunch cilantro (optional for garnish)
- 1/2 bundle green onions (optional for garnish)
- 4 eggs (optional for garnish)
Instructions:
- Heat 1 tbsp avocado or coconut oil in a large stockpot or dutch oven on medium high.
- While the pan heats up, wash & slice baby bella mushrooms, carrots. Wash & chop shallots/onions, garlic and grate fresh ginger.
- Add the bacon to the pan and cook until done.
- When the bacon is cooked, remove the bacon from pan put on cutting board, add shallots/onions and carrots to the stockpot and cook for a 3-5 minutes.
- While the shallots/onions and carrots cook, chop the bacon into large pieces.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan, 1 tbsp avocado or coconut oil, ginger, and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- If you want to add eggs to your ramen, follow these instructions, otherwise skip to Step #9. Start a second medium sized pot half filled with water, add the 4 eggs (in their shell) to the water and put on medium high heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, start timer for 6 minutes (soft boiled eggs) to 12 minutes (hard boiled eggs). Prepare an ice bath and as soon as the timer goes off, scoop up the eggs with a slotted spoon and transfer to the ice bath for 2-3 minutes. The carefully crack the eggs on the wide end where the air pocket is. Peel the eggs and put on plate.
- Add broth, 2 tbsp soy sauce, and white miso paste. Cover and bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a simmer and cook covered for 15-20 minutes.
- Look at instructions for rice noodles and add then noodles with enough time to cook them in the broth (ex: if they take 5 minutes to cook, add them in at 15 minutes so they can cook for 5 minutes and the heat can be turned off at 20 minutes. Add more water (1-4 cups to make sure the noodles are fully submerged).
- Add the 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp sesame oil, bacon.
- While the broth cooks, wash & chop cilantro, green onions.
- When the noodles are cooked, remove from the heat and spoon into 4 bowls. Add the egg (sliced in half carefully) and cilantro and green onions. And enjoy!
Celery Juice Benefits!
Celery Juice Benefits & Recipe
Celery juice has become really popular, so chances are you have heard of it as a new health fad. Although it is coming into greater awareness recently, celery juice has been around for a while and has become popular for good reason as it is helping people restore their health and rejuvenate their bodies!
As with many natural, miraculous food remedies, there are no research studies on the benefits of celery juice. This is simply because there is no big lobby or company behind celery. Since you can just go buy celery at the grocery store, there is no entity willing to pay tens of thousands to millions of dollars to do this research if they’re not going to make any money from it. Thankfully there is still lots of testimonials out there for celery juice as hundreds of thousands of people have shared their life changing benefits. And it’s so simple – just wash a whole head of organic celery, put it through the juicer and drink the celery juice on an empty stomach first thing in the morning.
As a scientist, I decided to give celery juice a chance and for the last 2 months, I have been drinking celery juice everyday. After just a couple weeks I had more energy, mental clarity and focus in the mornings after drinking it. I found myself snacking less, my digestion was great and felt very nourished. My skin got more clear and I even lost a few pounds! I am now a believer in celery juice and will keep drinking it everyday to gain some of the long term benefits!
Here is a complete list of celery juice benefits!
-
- Full of good vitamins, minerals & antioxidants, which strengthens bones, reduces risk of cancer, and improves sleep
- Improves immune system function
- Creates sustained energy
- Boosts brain power, mental acuity and focus
- Reduces inflammation and remedies autoimmune diseases
- Reduces cardiovascular disease risk by lowering blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure
- Supports digestion and liver function
- Improves nutrient absorption and helps with weight loss
- Improves skin by increasing collagen production, purifies our skin and even increases hair growth
- Increases hydration
- Contains sodium cluster salts that fight bacteria, viruses, fungus and neutralizes toxins that cause disease
To learn more about celery juice, check out Anthony William’s website: https://www.medicalmedium.com/medical-medium-about-anthony-william
Optimize Your Post Workout Recovery
Working out is great, but it uses a lot of your energy. In order to have optimum post workout recovery, you should eat the following foods 15 – 30 minutes after your workout:
- WATER
- Banana
- Dark chocolate (70%+ cacao)
- Greek yogurt or cottage cheese
- Eggs
- Tuna or salmon
- Quinoa
- Sweet potatoes
- Lean protein
Pork Fat is Healthy!
A recent research study analyzed and ranked 1,000 foods for nutritional content to rank the top health foods. Surprisingly, PORK FAT RANKED #8 HEALTHIEST FOOD, right after swiss chard and before beet greens!!! This is full of heart healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals!
Abs Are Made in the Kitchen
There is an 80/20 rule to getting results: 80% is nutrition, 20% is exercise.
To maximize your muscle building and fat burning, eat more of these foods:
1) Lean protein: 35% to 40% of your daily food intake should be protein, so eat more chicken, fish, lean beef, pork and eggs
2) Healthy fats: 35% of your daily food intake should be healthy fats, so focus on including more avocado, tree nuts & peanuts, and seeds
3) Plain full fat greek yogurt: an excellent source of lean protein and healthy fat that is rich in calcium
4) Berries: packed full of fiber which helps keep you full and antioxidants which improve blood flow and help you make the most of your workouts
5) Quinoa: whole grain and packed full of fiber, protein and complex carbohydrates that will give you fuel slowly
6) Beans & lentils: an amazing source of protein, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, they’re also full of vitamins which have shown to decrease blood pressure and keep your bones healthy
