Have a drink!

Water, water everywhere,

Have you a drop to drink?

One the goals of my healthy living program is to drink at least one glass of water every morning before eating or drinking anything else. Your body has been working all night repairing, growing, building, and removing toxins. Replenish it by giving it what it needs most, water. The human body is about 2/3 water, from about 20% in the bones, to up to 95% in the brain. No wonder you get a headache if you don’t drink enough!

Water is involved in vital functions such as transporting nutrients and oxygen, metabolism, regulating body temperature, and detoxification. It also moisturizes the air in the lungs and protects the organs and joints.

Not drinking enough water can lead to tiredness, hunger, headaches and migraines, constipation, dry skin, muscle cramps, and eventually blood pressure and kidney problems, then death.

How much water should you drink? You have probably heard the 6-8 glasses suggestion. How big are the glasses though? Does a 100 pound girl need the same amount as a 250 pound quarterback? A general rule of thumb is to divide your weight (in pounds) in half and drink that many ounces of water. So if you are 120 pounds you should drink 60 ounces of water, or six 10-ounce glasses. If you are 200 pounds you need 100 ounces, or ten 10-ounce glasses. If you are very active, or in a hot environment, you will need more.

Here are some tips for getting enough water:

Start the day with a glass of water. Rinse out your insides and energize yourself while getting a head start on your water intake for the day.

Get a water bottle you like and fill it up each morning. Carry it around with you throughout the day and take sips whenever you think of it. Refill as needed. Stainless steel and glass are the best materials for a water bottle because there is no risk of them leaching chemicals into the water. If you get an aluminum one, check that it doesn’t have a lining that may contain BPA or other chemicals. If you get a plastic one, make sure it doesn’t have BPA or phalates. The label may say if it is BPA free. If it doesn’t, check the recycling number on the bottom. Numbers 1,2, and 5 are generally safe. Avoid 3 and 6 at all costs, and only get number 7 if it explicitly says it is BPA free.

If you think you are hungry, drink some water first. Often the feeling of hunger is actually a sign that your body needs water.

Add a squeeze of lemon or lime.

Take a cue from the fancy gyms and spas and flavor your water with slices of strawberries, melon, mint, and other herbs and fruits.

Sparkling water is fun! You can buy a carbonator and make your own at home. If you want flavor, or need to wean yourself off soda, add some unsweetened juice, or mash up some berries and mix them in.

Unsweetened fruit juice and herbal tea count toward your daily water intake. Watch the amount of juice you drink if you are watching calories though. You can always dilute juice with water.

Juicy fruits and vegetables can help you reach your water goals while also giving you valuable nutrients. Great multi-tasking!

So drink up everyone!

PS. Thank you to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Hope you don’t mind the reference.

Choosing Organic Produce

Let’s talk dirty.

As we embark on our journey to health, there will inevitably be some talk of “eating clean.” What does that mean?

“Eating clean” is often used as a catch-all term to describe unprocessed, whole foods. The way we all know we should be eating but have such a hard time doing. Yet I would also like to suggest it can also mean that your food literally is clean, i.e. free of pesticides.

You may have heard of “organic” food. It’s this thing health food stores invented to sell you products at five times the cost of ones you can buy at your local grocer, mini-mart, what have you. Nothing you should waste your money on.

Or is it?

Pesticides and herbicides are chemicals, natural or man-made, that kill living creatures. You are a living creature. Your kids are living creatures.  The people who work in the fields where your food is grown are living creatures.  Not to mention the damage it does to the environment.

Yes, you wash your fruits and vegetables before you eat them. Not all of the pesticide residues are washed off though. Soft produce can absorb the pesticides and some of them are actually distributed  throughout the plant.  As you work to clean up your diet, I’d hate to see you sabotage yourself by eating produce coated in toxins.

Organic food can get expensive though, and depending on where you live, can be hard to find.  I am lucky enough to live where I can subscribe to a year round CSA and shop farmer’s markets in January, but I know many of you don’t. So what should you do?

The Environmental Working Group has tested common produce for pesticide residue and published a list of “the dirty dozen” and “the clean 15.” In general, you should avoid conventionally grown produce in the dirty dozen and opt instead for the organic version whenever possible. To save you some money and making shopping a bit easier, the clean 15 are relatively safe to buy in the conventional form if you don’t have access to, or can’t afford, the organic ones.

Here is a link to the list: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary

You can print it out and stick it in your wallet, there is an iPhone ap as well.

Dirty Dozen – buy organic whenever possible:

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Strawberries

4. Peaches

5. Spinach

6. imported Nectarines

7. imported Grapes

8. Sweet bell peppers

9. Potatoes

10. domestic Blueberries

11. Lettuce

12. Kale/Collard Greens

Please note that although only imported nectarines and grapes made it in the 12, the domestic versions are not that much better. I would go organic with all grapes and stone fruit.

The Clean 15:

1. Onions

2. Sweet Corn

3. Pineapples

4. Avocado

5. Asparagus

6. Sweet Peas

7. Mangos

8. Eggplant

9. domestic Cantaloupe

10. Kiwi

11. Cabbage

12. Watermelon

13. Sweet Potatoes

14. Grapefruit

15. Mushrooms

If you want to do a bit more investigation, or want to scare yourself into buying organic as much as humanly possible, check out www.whatsonmyfood.org where you can look at individual foods and see what pesticides may be lurking on them and how dangerous they are. They have an iPhone ap as well.

Some suggestions for finding affordable organics:

Shop in season. Right now organic kale is going to be a lot easier to find and cheaper than organic strawberries.

When you are at the farmer’s market ask how the produce was grown. Don’t be afraid of produce that is organically grown, but not certified organic. It costs a lot money to get organic certification, but more and more small farmers are using organic practices.

I’ve noticed that ethnic markets sometimes have great deals on organic produce. When I find them, I’ll stock up.

If you are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe’s near you they have good prices on organics. Their everyday price on frozen fruit for example, is better than all but the best sales at regular grocery stores.

If you have something that you eat a lot of, splurge on the organic version. Go ahead and get the conventional if it’s something you hardly ever eat.

Try growing some of your own organic food. Start with a few herbs on a window sill and go from there. Lettuce and spinach can be grown rather quickly and don’t need much space. And how fun would it be to grow some tomatoes or strawberries?

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2012 – I’m going to ROCK it!

Hello everyone!  Hope you all had a great holiday season.  I drove out to Texas with my son and husband to stay with his family for Christmas.  We drove back Friday and had a quiet New Years at home.  Well, as quiet as it can be with an active 4-year old boy.

I made lentil soup today, having adopted the Mediterranean tradition of eating lentils on New Years Day to bring prosperity and luck.  I ate three bowls, so it should be a good year.  I also launched the healthy living program I am creating with my sister-in-law.  I am very excited about it.  I’ve never done anything as ambitious as this, so I am also very nervous as well.  It’s a good thing I am partnering with Annabelle, or I may be tempted to bail.  I feel this is where I have been headed for a few years now, if not longer, so I am glad to see it coming together.

Everyone is talking resolutions, so I guess I’ll join in.  I don’t do resolutions though, don’t like the word and all it connotes, so I am setting goals instead.  I’ll share them with you, since I’m sure you are anxiously waiting to hear them.

Group goals for my healthy living program:

Set an intention for the day each morning when you wake.

Start each day with a glass of water.  Drink at least one full glass before you eat or drink anything else. You can add a squeeze of lemon if you like.

Have a healthy breakfast. Some choices are a smoothie, fresh juice, fruit salad, whole grain cereal, a homemade breakfast bar or muffin or an egg.

Three sun salutations or gentle stretching morning and night, or any other time you need a break.

Spend at least ten minutes exercising morning and evening.

Write a daily journal entry.

Personal goals:

Have a smoothie everyday, preferably with some greens in it.

Meditate every day, even if only for a few minutes.

Continue to work on being a better wife and mother.

De-clutter my house and keep it that way.  (Did I just say that? Please, someone help me!)

Grow the healthy living program into something meaningful.

Become a Certified Nutritional Consultant.

That’s right, I am going to start school to become a Nutritional Consultant.  Nutrition is something I have always been interested in and researched on my own.  I considered majoring in it in college, but ended up choosing another school that didn’t offer it.  I’ve been debating going back to school to study nutrition for the past few years and am finally taking the plunge.  Got the husband on board and everything.

2012 – Here we go!

Related articles

• Healthy Living with Annabelle and Teresa (teresastips.wordpress.com)
• New Year’s Recipes to Bring Good Fortune (well.blogs.nytimes.com)