I’m so thrilled to be a contributor for the October Unprocessed challenge by food blogger, Andrew Wilder. Here’s a bit of my post:
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Imagine this: You sit down to lunch over a big heaping bowl of salad. Every color in the rainbow is represented, all your favorite goodies from sun-dried tomatoes, some artichoke hearts, maybe an olive or two. Tender greens, fresh herbs, juicy tomatoes. Maybe some leftover wild salmon from last night’s dinner.
Your mouth is watering as you tuck into your delicious, unprocessed lunch and you reach for the bottle of salad dressing.
Just as you’re about to pour, you remember it’s October Unprocessed and maybe you better check out that ingredients. You’re pretty confident it’s got only the good stuff because after all, it’s screaming its health benefits from the label. Low fat! Low sodium! Organic!
What a disappointment to find the list filled with artificial crap you can’t pronounce.
It’s sad but true. I’ve seen many gorgeous, nutritious, absolutely amazing salads get destroyed by this stuff . . . Read the rest of my guest post here!
Written by Margaret Floyd on 06/10/11 pm31 12:58 PM
Let’s start with this: Saturated fat is good for you.
I know, I know, this isn’t what you’ve heard in the media or from many high profile health-types. The basic formula we’ve been taught is saturated fat = bad. This over-simplistic conclusion is based on the following logic: dietary consumption of saturated fat and the cholesterol that often comes with it leads to heart disease.
This argument is the essence of what’s called the Lipid Hypothesis, a theory proposed originally by Ancel Keys in the 1950s and eagerly adopted by nutritionists, the American Heart Association, and the medical community at large.
Trouble is, the theory was wrong. And has been proved wrong in study after study. How this incorrect theory gained such popularity and has been so difficult to shake is a story unto itself, which I’ll let Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig explain in their excellent paper, The Oiling of America.
It turns out that saturated fat – yes, even saturated fat that comes from animal sources – plays many important roles in your body and health. For example:
It’s is a key component of your cell membranes, giving them structure. In fact, 50% of your cell membranes are made up of saturated fat.
It’s your heart’s preferred fuel, which is why the fat around your heart is highly saturated.
Certain types of saturated fats have antimicrobial and antiviral properties, and strengthen your immune system.
Saturated fat decreases lipoprotein (a), a factor strongly correlated to the risk of heart disease. This means saturated fat decreases your risk of heart disease.
Saturated fat protects your liver from damage due to medications and alcohol. Yes, that’s why after a debaucherous night the thought of a fatty meal is so appealing. Your body is protecting itself.
Saturated fats are very stable and thus protect highly unstable unsaturated fatty acids both outside your body (when cooking with heat) and inside your body. Further, saturated fats help your body make use of essential fatty acids.
Let’s not forget that fat makes food taste good, keeps you fuller longer, and is the source of that consistent energy we all want.
The important thing to consider when eating any type of fat, saturated or not, is its quality. Toxins accumulate in fat, so consume only those fats that come from healthy animals fed appropriate diets and living happily outdoors. Butter or meat from grass-fed cows and eggs from pastured chickens are two great examples.
To incorporate healthy saturated fats into your diet, use them for cooking. We use butter, ghee (clarified butter), coconut oil, and occasionally lard for all our cooking. Save the olive oil and the delicate nut/seed oils for salad dressings and sauces put on the food after it’s cooked.
And most of all, enjoy it! What fabulous news that something as tasty as butter isn’t the bane of your healthful existence, but an integral part of it.
If this subject piques your interest and you’re curious to learn more, here’s some further reading I highly recommend:
I love to clean house. My internal house that is. Especially after a summer of less than fabulous self-care, there’s nothing better than a nice, deep, detox.
Let me rephrase: there’s nothing better than the END of a nice, deep, detox. The first part sucks, and yeah, detoxing hurts.
Headaches. Lightheadedness. Fatigue. Strange poops. Strange smells. Nausea. Hunger. I’ve felt them all, and if you’ve done a cleansing regime of any kind, you’ve probably felt them, too.
Today marks day 10 of a 12-day program I’m doing to recalibrate my system. I’m at that point where my body is purring in appreciation. But if you’d talked to me Saturday, well, that’s a whole different story. As I sweat and pooped out my summer sins, I begged my body forgiveness and its accumulated toxins speedy exit.
Here are my top six strategies for surviving a detoxification program.
1) Drink loads and loads of (filtered) water. When you think you can’t drink more, drink more. Now, don’t send yourself into hyponatremia (dangerously low levels of electrolytes due to excess body water), but do some serious rehydration. Most of us are walking around wildly dehydrated without even knowing it and when you’re cleansing, water has an important flushing role. Flush baby flush!
2) Sleep as much as possible. You’ve heard me say it before, but it’s worth repeating: your body only heals when you sleep. Detoxing is tiring on your body – it’s hard work to clean up! – and if you’re on a cleanse with limited food intake this is only more exaggerated. Take advantage of the built-in excuse for extra sleep. Plan for naps, don’t book morning appointments, head to bed an hour early. Your body will thank you. To help you with this:
3) Plan nothing. Most detox programs have a curve to them. A gentle entry (hey, this isn’t so bad after all), a phase of deep detoxification (OMG when will this be over?), and then a gradual shift back to a new, better-feeling better-looking you (yehaw!). During that middle phase, clear your calendar. Trust me. This is when the uglies show up – the headaches, nausea, lightheadedness, interesting odors – and I promise you’ll prefer to be snoozing on the couch with a big vat of lemon water by your side than out and about wondering if you’ll find a toilet in time.
4) Remove temptation. Okay, so you’ve committed to two weeks where no sugar passes your lips. Then why are you tormenting yourself with leftover cheesecake in the fridge? Toss that stuff or find it another home. Removing temptation is one of the most important strategies for success and for your sanity. If it’s not staring you in the face, you’re much less likely to reach for it.
5) Keep moving. This might feel counter-intuitive, but even on a liquid fast movement is beneficial. A nice evening walk. A gentle, short run. A bike ride. Some restorative yoga. Take your pick, there are many options. But remember that one of your primary detoxification systems – your lymphatic system – requires your physical movement for its circulation. It doesn’t have the benefit of a heart to pump its fluids around. When you’re eliminating toxins, it’s all the more important to make sure that lymph is flowing nicely.
6) Get a buddy. Cleansing is much more fun if others are doing it with you. Who wants to go through a healing crisis alone? It’s much easier on the soul if you can compare notes and cheer someone else along. You keep each other accountable, and you have someone to share your victories and miseries along the way. If your buddy is your partner or roommate, all the better. Turn your abode into a sacred cleansing zone.
Got a detox coming up? Try these strategies to ease your way through it. Looking for a program that’s customized to your needs? Write me and let’s see what would make the most sense for you.
It’s 9:30 in the morning and I sit tucked in a corner of a diner, hoping no one recognizes me as I put back a giant plate of commercial eggs, nitrate-filled bacon, and a big cup of cheap coffee. I’ve come from doing a TV slot promoting my book and explaining the importance of naked food. The irony doesn’t escape me. It horrifies me.
The naked lifestyle is all about authenticity and embracing the whole of who we are. Part of that whole is not always pretty. I like to put my best foot forward in everything I do professionally and personally. What happens when that goes awry? Is it possible to make room for the dark as well as the light?
In memoriam: Cynthia G Floyd, 1938-2011
Some context:
This summer has been an intense one for me. Book launch. Learning the media. Around the clock recipe testing to finish the manuscript for the cookbook follow up to Eat Naked. The passing of my mother. My wedding.
How did I arrive at that diner breakfast and why was one breakfast such a big deal? Well, it wasn’t just one. It was most meals most days over the period of several weeks. This wasn’t about comfort food sneaking into my 20%, this was life gone crazy. All of my usual self-care rituals – be they food, movement, or daily practices – went out the window. The fact that my face is on the cover of the book I was launching, a book promoting healthy, naked eating, was a contradiction that haunted me.
The hardest part was giving myself permission to be human, to create space for the intensity of emotions flowing through me. I like to have it all together – especially when the world is watching. How scary to witness myself make mistakes, miss deadlines, and rely on food crutches that are damaging my health.
But then: isn’t this part of the whole in wholeness?
If we’re to embrace a holistic lifestyle – and I do, wholeheartedly – then that means accepting the dark as well as the light. It means coming to peace with that part of ourselves that doesn’t have it all together, that we’d prefer to hide from the world. That side needs to be celebrated as much as the superstar in us does.
Debbie Ford wrote a great book called The Dark Side of the Light Chasers and in it she says, “Our dark side acts as a storehouse for all these unacceptable aspects of ourselves… These are the faces we don’t want to show the world… When we lock away those parts of ourselves we don’t like, unknowingly, we seal away our most valuable treasures.”
So what’s my treasure? Well, it’s still unfolding. Perhaps it’s a new level of understanding and compassion for those really struggling with their diet. Perhaps it’s a new appreciation of our inevitable and beautiful human-ness. Most of all it’s the recognition that an integral part of naked living is to embrace all of who we are – the parts we’re proud of and the parts we want to hide from the world.
I met Trey Teufel while training for the LA marathon last year. He’s the author of Felon Fitness and a personal trainer bases in Los Angeles. I love his training philosophy – which is to keep it simple and back to the basics, no expensive gym memberships or fancy equipment required. Pretty much naked if you ask me. He’s created a special workout just for us naked eaters. Check it out!
Just as Eat Naked is a back-to-basics dietary guide on how to improve your health (and body) through the calories you consume, Felon Fitness is a back-to-basics exercise guide on how to improve your health (and body) through the calories you burn. Margaret uses unprocessed and unpolluted food to help from the inside out; I use unequipped and inexpensive routines to help from the outside-in. Butt and thighs? Arms and abs? Her stripped-down diet and my stripped-down routines will shape them up in no time.
To build a foundation you have to start literally from the ground and work your way up. The same is true with your body. Below is a challenging routine designed to target nearly every muscle group in your body without requiring you to pick up a single weight or use a single piece of equipment. You’ll be performing squats and lunges for “butt and thighs”, cherry pickers and butterflies for leg and shoulder mobility, and push-ups and crunches for “arms and abs.” The exercises are put together in three ways for different levels of fitness: the first is a routine for those new to exercise; the second is a three superset routine for the intermediate fitness enthusiast; the third is a circuit for advanced fitness buffs.
First, here’s a video demonstrating how to perform the exercises:
Routine 1
Routine 2
In the above routines, exercises are grouped into three supersets. You’ll perform the squats immediately followed by the push-ups. You’ll then rest one minute before returning for your second and third sets of squats and push-ups. Do the same for crunches and lunges as well as the cherry pickers and butterflies. Also, the order of the exercises is designed to have you moving up and down from the ground and back to standing in order to give you a bit of an extra challenge.
Routine 3
Routine 3 is a circuit. The only time you rest during a circuit comes after completing the final exercise. You’ll rest one minute after completing the butterflies only to begin the circuit again. Perform the circuit three times.
That’s just one taste of a bodyweight workout. They are simultaneously simple in their components yet challenging to complete. These routines in are affordable because little to no equipment is needed to perform them, and they are time-efficient since you can work out at home and not waste precious minutes going to and from gyms.
Trey Teufel is a Certified Personal Trainer (NASM), lover of baseball and all things fitness related. He has been a personal trainer for nearly a decade in the demanding cities of New York and Los Angeles, and currently resides in Los Angeles. You can connect with Trey on Twitter @felonfitness, on Facebook, or contact him at trey at felonfitness dot com.
I’m so thrilled to be a contributor for the October Unprocessed challenge by food blogger, Andrew Wilder. Here’s a bit of my post:
Just as you’re about to pour, you remember it’s October Unprocessed and maybe you better check out that ingredients. You’re pretty confident it’s got only the good stuff because after all, it’s screaming its health benefits from the label. Low fat! Low sodium! Organic!
I know, I know, this isn’t what you’ve heard in the media or from many high profile health-types. The basic formula we’ve been taught is saturated fat = bad. This over-simplistic conclusion is based on the following logic: dietary consumption of saturated fat and the cholesterol that often comes with it leads to heart disease.
To incorporate healthy saturated fats into your diet, use them for cooking. We use butter, ghee (clarified butter), coconut oil, and occasionally lard for all our cooking. Save the olive oil and the delicate nut/seed oils for salad dressings and sauces put on the food after it’s cooked.
5) Keep moving. This might feel counter-intuitive, but even on a liquid fast movement is beneficial. A nice evening walk. A gentle, short run. A bike ride. Some restorative yoga. Take your pick, there are many options. But remember that one of your primary detoxification systems – your lymphatic system – requires your physical movement for its circulation. It doesn’t have the benefit of a heart to pump its fluids around. When you’re eliminating toxins, it’s all the more important to make sure that lymph is flowing nicely.
