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Energy Crisis

Is your body experiencing an energy shortage? Learn how your system creates and uses energy and you’ll have a better shot at ramping up production to meet demand. 

 

By Jennifer Barrett / December 2004 Experience Life Magazine.

 

Popeye made it look so easy. Whenever Olive Oyl sounded the distress cry, he’d grab a can of spinach, rip it open and toss it back. In seconds flat, he’d be bursting with all the energy he needed to save the day.

We might chuckle at Popeye’s exaggerated transformations, but are our own energy-sourcing antics so different? Consider your typical day. Mid-morning, when your energy starts dragging, you probably reach for a quick fix. Maybe it’s a cup of coffee. Maybe it’s a doughnut, a chocolate bar or a soda. By midafternoon you’re likely trying to muscle through another dip – perhaps with a repeat of the morning’s strategies, perhaps employing sheer willpower. Depending on where and when fatigue strikes, you may rely on all sorts of different techniques to help you push through.

The result? Like Popeye, you may get a lot accomplished. But when you repeatedly force your body to work against fatigue – several times a day, for weeks or months at a time – your health pays the price. Over time, most of the stopgap measures we rely on to close our momentary energy lapses wind up opening up even deeper chasms of their own.

Unlike Popeye’s spinach, repeated infusions of caffeine and processed sugar can contribute to blood-sugar imbalances, adrenal fatigue, even pre-diabetes. Working too-long hours and regularly skimping on sleep can lead to weight gain, stress, depression and impaired mental function. Instead of strengthening our systems and helping us become more adept, all of these solutions work against the natural mechanisms that protect and support our health. They deplete our reserves, setting us up for even bigger energy deficits down the road.

Look at it this way: Energy is your capacity to do work, to think, to create, to participate, to contribute, to enjoy, to live. Energy is what gives you physical strength and muscular endurance for physical activity. It’s also what gives you mental alertness for noticing, thinking and problem solving. That’s why good energy management, perhaps even more than good time management, is one of the most essential requirements for a rich, productive and satisfying life.

Clearly, it makes no sense to do major, lasting damage to our valuable energy machinery merely to gain a few brief, temporary bursts of speed. But that is what many of us do each and every day. And then we wonder why life seems so hard, and why we feel so exhausted.

If you’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately, or running on fumes for as long as you can remember, this is your wake-up call. But fear not, overachievers. You don’t have to say goodbye to maximal productivity and success. In fact, by learning to manage your energy intelligently – as opposed to tricking your body into a series of inefficient, forced accelerations – you are likely to find yourself feeling more energetic and productive than you have in years.

Going to the Source
The processes that create energy in your body are extraordinarily complex. At the cellular level, they involve multiple, interacting factors, including nutrients, oxygen, hormones and peptides, all of which work against a backdrop of daily bodily cycles.

Because there are so many factors involved in creating and sustaining energy, there is no one, simple, sure-cure strategy for churning out more of it. But by integrating some key changes to your diet, daily schedule, exercise regimen, sleep pattern and life outlook, you can easily tap into a far more consistent, dependable flow of energy than you ever realized possible. Best of all, you can enjoy your life far more in the process.

Ready to get started? Begin by building your familiarity with the energy-generating know-how in the pages that follow. Then start putting a few of them into practice and see if you notice a difference in how you feel and function. It’s a good bet you’ll never go back!

Energy and Rest Cycles
You may have heard about circadian rhythms, the sleep/wake cycles that occur every 24 hours. They’re important to your body’s energy use, but there’s another type of rhythm – ultradian – that has an even bigger impact on energy generation. “Ultradian” refers to any cycle that repeats itself a number of times within the 24-hour period. Every body system, including heart rate, body temperature, digestion, memory and muscle strength, is governed by its own ultradian cycle and associated peaks and troughs. You experience the high points of ultradian cycles as bursts or flows of physical energy, alertness and creativity. You experience the low points as periods of fatigue, distraction and diminished capacity.

“Most people don’t know they have a natural 90- to 120-minute period of energy,” explains psychobiology researcher and therapist Ernest Rossi, PhD, who explored the influence of ultradian rhythms in his book The 20 Minute Break (Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1991). “Research indicates that all our major mind-body systems of self-regulation, including the autonomic nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system, have rest-activity cycles.”

After 90 to 120 minutes of peak activity, he explains, the human system goes into an energy dip for approximately 20 minutes, during which you may feel physically fatigued, mentally unfocused, hungry or grumpy. It’s during these dips, says Rossi, that each of the body’s systems replenishes its energy supply at the cellular level.

During an active phase, a cell extracts energy from adenosine triphosphate or ATP, changing it to adenosine diphosphate or ADP. During rest, the cell uses oxygen and blood glucose to change the ADP back to ATP.

Giving It a Rest
When you’re on a vacation, you probably live by your cycles and are wonderfully energized as a result. You might play in the waves for 90 minutes, then lounge on your beach towel for 20. But daily life is different. After about 90 minutes of top performance, when our concentration, energy, vigor and creativity are at their peaks, we start to feel a natural dip. We yawn, daydream, get fidgety; our concentration begins to break. At this point, many of us reach for a cup of coffee and a sweet snack to give ourselves a blood-sugar boost, hoping to jump-start our mental focus.

Pumped up with caffeine and sugar, we rally until the next dip, which comes, predictably, 90 to 120 minutes later. Again, we ignore the need for a break, and we continue the cycle throughout the day. By afternoon, we’re not dealing with a little energy dip anymore. We’ve dug a major trench and our cells need a double or triple rest period to fully replenish their energy supply. But they rarely get it.

Continuously ignoring the rest cycle over time leads to the classic symptoms of stress. In the short term, those might include headaches, skin problems, digestive difficulties and irritability. Down the road you may be looking at bigger problems like heart disease and depression. Ignoring your energy cycles is like swimming against the current: You end up with only exhaustion to show for your efforts.

To replenish your energy throughout the day, you need to work with your ultradian cycles, not against them. That means avoiding uninterrupted hours of steady-state activity, whether that’s deskwork, hard labor or wall-to-wall meetings. Ideally, says Rossi, after a period of activity, you should give yourself 20 minutes of complete relaxation.

Best-case scenario: You would lie down, breathe deeply, tune inward and just let your mind wander. But even if you can’t get horizontal and totally check out, you can (and should) find other ways of giving your energy system a rest, even if it’s for 10 minutes, and not the full 20.

“We need these brief periods of rest while every cell of our body makes ATP,” says Rossi. When the body is allowed a break after intense activity, he says, it can “replenish the energy stores in the pituitary and hypothalamus, the adrenal glands, and the endocrine system, so that we can once again perform at our best during the active phase.” Once you’ve had your ATP boost, you can go back to what you were doing, feeling refreshed and productive.

If total rest isn’t possible, take any break you can: Switch activities and downshift to a lower gear, for as close to 20 minutes as you can, given the constraints of your schedule. Do some filing; make a phone call that requires little mental effort; take a bathroom break from a meeting and walk around the floor; clean up your desktop; stare out the window; step outside for a walk around the building and a little sunshine.

You can boost the power of your ultradian cycles by planning for them throughout the day. At the beginning of each day, make a to-do list that’s prioritized from high-energy-consuming tasks to low. Instead of heading straight down your list, cycle through the high- and low-intensity tasks. This way, says Rossi, “you don’t waste precious peak moments of high energy on less important work.” The bonus: You may actually end up getting a lot more done.

Fuel Factor
Food is another huge factor in the energy equation, and it also ties in with your ultradian rhythms. Your digestion is primed for input every 90 to 120 minutes, according to Rossi. So as long as you are fueling intelligently, you can let go of your guilt about “snacking between meals.” By eating when your body is ready for food, you’ll absorb nutrients more readily and maintain a steadier supply of energy. Here’s how to make certain the food you eat results in energy you can use.

• Start with breakfast: You can swing your body’s ultradian rhythms into action by eating breakfast – ideally at the same time every day. “When you eat breakfast, you kick-start your metabolism. With breakfast, the body says, ‘Now I can start revving up,’” says Jon Gordon, MA, author of Become an Energy Addict (Longstreet Press, 2003). Of note if you’re trying to lose weight: “What’s good for your energy levels,” says Gordon, “is good for weight loss, too.”
• Eat often. “The traditional recommendation of three square meals a day is actually out of sync with our underlying ultradian needs,” says Rossi. “If we heeded our ultradian rhythms, we would eat not three times each day, but six.” Multiple smaller meals coincide with your body’s innate readiness for nourishment every 90 minutes. By providing quality food when your body is ready for it, you will feel more satisfied, Rossi says. You never get so hungry as to overeat, and you lessen your chances of reaching the breaking point where all you want is salt, sweets and fat.
• Eat the right combination.The ideal foods will create a slow, steady stream of healthy sugars and nutrients into your blood. The worst foods: Refined carbohydrates that create a sudden spike of blood sugar. Your body counters blasts of blood sugar with high amounts of insulin, which swiftly removes and stores excess blood sugar, leaving you once again low on the fuel you need to think and move.The key: For each of your three main meals and snacks, strive to eat healthy carbs, proteins and fats in fairly balanced caloric proportions. “By always combining your food this way,” explains Darlene Kvist, MS, a nutritionist with Nutritional Weight and Wellness in St. Paul, Minn., “you’ll get a more even blood-sugar response that brings a smoother, more sustained energy delivery. You get weight-control benefits as well, since you’re always eating healthy foods and never getting to the point of extreme hunger.” An added bonus: High-protein foods break down into amino acids, which support the production of neurotransmitters, the chemical communicators between your cells. Many of these, such as dopamine, heighten alertness and energy. (See Related Articles at right.)
• Eat high quality. Consider the quality of what you put in your body. Unhealthy fats, especially, can impair brain function, which reduces your available energy. Your brain is 60 to 80 percent fat, with each cell membrane made of fatty acids, explains Kvist. “If you’ve created your membranes from healthy fats like olive oil, they’re resilient and flexible. Messages can go in and out quickly,” she says. Trans fats from sources like deep-fried foods and hydrogenated fats, however, are structurally different. They contribute to membranes that are harder, more brittle and susceptible to leaks and holes. Messages pass with difficulty, while vital cell structures, including the mitochondria, the cell’s energy factory, can slip out, leading to cell death. Some researchers believe this to be a significant cause of chronic fatigue. At the very least, poor-quality fats impair the production of available energy, says Kvist.

Turbo-Charge Your Bod

Food isn’t the only fuel for energy. Oxygen provides the spark that ignites the fuel. To train your body to use more oxygen, you must exercise, says Richard Cotton, chief exercise physiologist with MyExercisePlan.com. A workout also stimulates the release of hormones in your body that lift your mood and energy level. You can schedule a workout, or even a walk, to give yourself a more energetic afternoon, or you can create a plan to enhance your use of O2 for the long haul. Here’s how.

• For energy today or tomorrow, boost it by exercising within your capacity. When you’re busy and every bit of your energy is in demand, the right dose of exercise can energize you; too much can overwhelm your already-depleted reserves. The solution: Do just enough to stimulate your system. You’ll receive the oxygen and hormonal benefits without the need for increased rest and recovery. Exercise for at least 20 minutes at about 60 percent of your maximum – an exertion level that is hard, but not very hard. For some people, this might mean a walk, for others it might mean three 7-minute miles. You should end the workout feeling energized and as if you could continue, says Cotton. This sort of exercise works well as a stimulating break from steady-state mental work. But if that’s your goal, says Cotton, make sure you really are giving your brain a break. Turn off the TV or talk radio; don’t listen to the news or run stressful scenarios in your mind.
• For the long term, strive to go beyond your current fitness capacity. “Your body adapts to exercise by increasing your blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity as well as your heart’s pumping efficiency,” explains Cotton. A fit body delivers more oxygen. In addition, trained muscle is packed with mitochondria, the factories in each cell that swipe oxygen from blood and turn it into energy. To train your heart and muscles to increase their energy output, you have to exercise regularly at a level more than 60 percent of your heart’s maximum capacity (on an exertion scale, this would be hard or very hard). Incorporating some high-intensity interval training into your regular exercise routine encourages your body to adapt by developing greater capacity, advises Cotton.

Night MovesYour body’s largest cycle is its 24-hour sleep/wake routine, known as the circadian rhythm. While it seems easy to overthrow the shorter ultradian cycles with coffee or a snack, it’s much harder to stop the swing of hormones and body chemistry that govern your sleepiness, alertness and physical performance over the course of a day and night.

“When you’re awake, chemicals accumulate in your brain that promote sluggishness,” says Teo Postolache, PhD, associate professor at the University of Maryland and director of the mood and anxiety program at the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore. During sleep, those chemicals are whisked away, and the brain chemicals responsible for alertness are replenished. Without enough sleep, your efforts to fight fatigue leave you with less energy for everyday tasks.

The entire body gets a chemical and hormonal overhaul while you’re in the Land of Nod. Your ability to metabolize glucose, to secrete thyroid-stimulating hormone and to produce leptin (a hormone that stimulates feelings of fullness after a meal and that discourages unwanted weight gain) are all tuned and boosted during sleep. For these reasons, researchers believe that sleep deprivation contributes to obesity. “The effects of sleep on neurotransmitters and hormones is huge,” says Postolache.

Figure out how much you need by gauging how long you sleep when given the chance (healthy people will find it difficult to sleep more than they need to), then stick to that number as regularly as you can. According to Postolache, the early hours of sleep (10 p.m. to 2 a.m., for example) are most important for the body systems that help with performance.

For those occasions when you still didn’t get enough sleep, there is a possible shortcut – assuming you are one of those lucky folks who can fall asleep quickly, doze briefly and wake feeling refreshed, not drugged. Naps allow your brain and body to “replenish the energy stores in the pituitary and hypothalamus, the adrenal glands, and the endocrine system,” says Rossi, “so you can once again perform at your best.” But for those with nighttime insomnia, Rossi advises against naps because they can further disrupt these individuals’ already-irregular sleep patterns.

Energy on PurposeFinally, any energy approach wouldn’t be complete without honestly assessing how you spend your waking hours. While we tend to think of energy as a physical quality, notes Gordon, there’s a great deal of evidence to suggest that energy flows in the mental, emotional and spiritual realms as well. And all of these energy byways intersect and feed each other, for better or worse.

For example, you might be in great physical shape but stuck in a bad relationship or a dead-end job. Or you might be an emotionally happy person who doesn’t exercise or eat enough healthy foods. Or it might seem like you’re doing just about everything right on the surface but be disconnected from a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. Unless you are caring for and connected to all the energy sources in your life, you’re likely to feel drained.

“Imagine yourself as an energy vending machine,” Gordon suggests. “If you always give energy away, you’ll eventually be sold out. You need to be constantly stocking up.” You can do this through good nutrition, enjoyable forms of activity and movement, relaxation, creative endeavors, love, healing touch, good friendships, sleep, fun, meditation, satisfying work – any pursuit that brings a sense of joy, purpose, accomplishment and healthy pleasure.

Build healthy cycles into your life. Strive to more closely observe and respect your body’s ultradian rhythms. Consciously design your day so that you intersperse energy-demanding tasks and events with experiences that help you replenish your emotional and spiritual reserves.

You may not be ready to incorporate all these suggestions at once. Trust your instincts about which ones are most essential to you. Once you’ve mastered one adjustment, you’ll find the others easier to integrate. By modeling your daily life in a way that respects your body’s natural intelligence, you’ll move beyond a reliance on external power sources – spinach or otherwise. Instead, you’ll tap into your internal energy sources. You’ll feel your vitality growing and your capacity increasing. Over time, you may even notice that your life’s distress calls are fewer and farther between, leaving you with even more high-octane energy for the things you value and enjoy most of all.

Jennifer Barrett is editor of The Herb Quarterly. She lives in Connecticut.

Breaking the Coffee-Break Habit“There’s nothing wrong with one or two cups of caffeine a day, especially if you eat well,” asserts Darlene Kvist, MS, a nutritionist with Nutritional Weight and Wellness in St. Paul, Minn. “But if you’re using coffee as your main source of energy, it won’t work. It has no nutrients to support metabolism, which is where energy really comes from.”

Sweets and carbs raise your blood sugar temporarily, she explains, but when your levels drop, you’re left with less physical energy and mental alertness, and in some cases, cravings for more sugar. Worse than that, you could be doing yourself some long-term damage. “The pancreas secretes insulin to remove excess sugar from your blood to maintain glycemic balance,” explains Kvist. “Insulin is a master hormone, meaning that an excess of it can throw off other hormones like estrogen and progesterone. Years and years of excess insulin production leads to major problems: diabetes, higher cholesterol and high blood pressure.”

Better Breaks:A walk around the block (or the building)
A few moments in the sun
A series of yoga stretches
A handful of nuts and berries; a lettuce/turkey roll-up
Peeling and eating a hard-boiled egg
Peeling and eating an orange
Making and drinking a cup of green or herbal tea
Aromatherapy with essential oils
A foot rub, hand rub or scalp massage
A conversation with a friend or coworker
A brief journaling session
A few pages of inspiring reading
Listening to a favorite song or musical passage
Playing a tune (if you play an instrument and have one handy)
Listening to a comedy skit on your MP3 player
Writing a personal card
Sending a thank-you note
Making rounds to visit staff or fellow team members
Checking in with loved ones
Looking back in your calendar for forgotten or “tickler” items
Five minutes deep breathing
Five minutes meditation
One-minute centering exercise
Visualizations or affirmations
Clipping words or images for a visioning-collage project
Clipping articles or noting book titles for your “pleasure reading” file
Dusting your office, family photos, tchotchkes
Weeding your garden or watering plants
Refilling your water bottle or dispenser
Cleaning out your wallet or purse
Decluttering your desk drawer
Doing some quick research to prepare for weekend or evening plans

The Basics of a Great Salad

Salads seem to always be a staple for weight loss. In fact, many people think that to lose weight you have to exist on bland salads and grilled chicken breasts for months.  While it is true that a green salad and chicken breast for lunch and dinner each day is a "Diet" strategy, the reason is because by eating a green salad and watching your portion of dressing you are reducing calories.  However, the same salad day in and day out can be boring.  A great way to eat salads and enjoy them is to experiment with new ingredients and new salad dressings.  Changing the flavors, textures and ingredients helps rid yourself of boredom from the same thing every day, which is the key to sustaining.  

Here are some salad ideas for mixing it up:

• Use a mixture of green leaf or romaine with a little arugula, spinach or radicchio.
• Use red and green cabbage as your base -  it is crunchy, colorful and filling.
• Add ingredients like dried cranberries, chopped apples, garbanzo beans or black beans, chopped walnuts, feta cheese, olives, artichoke hearts, sunflower seeds or diced cooked yams.
• Use dressings and toppings with healthy fats and flavor - salsa, avocado, homemade dressing and spices.

Here are a few of my favorite salad dressings:

Tahini Goddess Dressing (from Genesis Kitchen)

1/2 cup Water

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

4 Tbl apple cider vinegar

2 Tbl Parsley

1/2 cup sesame tahini

1 Tbl Soy Sauce (or Tamari for wheat free)

Add all the ingredients, except for the oil to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth and creamy. Slowly add oil until well mixed. Dressing will be thick.  Add more water to get desired consistency.  


French Dressing (from Wellness Mama)
   
    1 squirt of mustard
    1 Tablespoon tomato paste (organic)
    1/3 cup olive oil
    1/4 cup white wine vinegar
    1 Tablespoon of honey (optional)
    1/2 tsp onion powder or small chunk of fresh onion


Put all ingredients in a small blender and blend until smooth.

50 Ways to Burn 100 Calories

This is a great post I found on Spark People.  100 calories at a time is a great way to take small steps to reach your overall goal.  If 100 calories at at time seems too much, then go for 50 calories at a time.  A little is better than nothing!  You can do it, just get up and make the choice to move a little more today than you did yesterday.  Have Fun!

Everything you do burns calories—breathing, sleeping, standing, and all of the active pursuits you enjoy. But what does it take to burn just 100 calories? You may be surprised by how little—or how much—activity you have to do to achieve that goal! To put it all in perspective for you, we’ve gathered 50 different ways to burn 100 calories. From standard exercises you do at the gym, to everyday chores around the house, you can burn 100 calories in just a few short minutes of your day.

Keep in mind that not all movement is created equal. In order to classify an activity as a cardio ''exercise,'' you must be working at 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. (You can calculate your target heart rate here.) However, even though periods of less intense activity may not count as part of your workout, they still provide health benefits and burn extra calories. After all, the less sitting you do, the better!

50 Ways to Burn 100 Calories

(Values are approximate and are based on a 150-pound person.)

Workouts:

1. Biking: 23 minutes of casual cycling
2. Cardio dance class: 15 minutes
3. Elliptical: 8 minutes
4. Jumping rope: 9 minutes at a moderate intensity
5. Lifting weights, vigorously: 15 minutes
6. Pilates: 24 minutes
7. Rowing machine: 13 minutes
8. Running stairs: 6 minutes
9. Running: 9 minutes of running at a 6 mph pace
10. Swimming: 15 minutes moderate intensity
11. Walking stairs: 11 minutes
12. Walking: 20 minutes of walking at a 3 mph pace
13. Water aerobics: 23 minutes
14. Yoga: 20 minutes
15. Zumba: 11 minutes
    

Sports and Leisure Activities:

16. Basketball, shooting hoops: 20 minutes
17. Bowling: 30 minutes
18. Dancing around living room: 20 minutes
19. Darts: 35 minutes
20. Golfing, carrying clubs: 15 minutes
21. Ice skating, moderate: 18 minutes
22. Kickball: 13 minutes
23. Mini golf or driving range: 30 minutes
24. Playing catch with a football: 35 minutes
25. Playing Frisbee: 30 minutes
26. Playing soccer, casual: 13 minutes
27. Skiing,downhill: 10 minutes
28. Softball or baseball: 18 minutes
29. Tennis (doubles): 21 minutes
30. Tennis (singles): 15 minutes
31. Treading water, moderate effort: 23 minutes
32. Volleyball, recreational: 26 minutes
33. Water skiing: 15 minutes

Yard Work:

34. Mowing the lawn: 20 minutes
35. Painting house: 18 minutes
36. Raking leaves: 23 minutes
37. Shoveling snow: 15 minutes
38. Washing the car: 20 minutes
39. Weeding the garden: 18 minutes

Everyday Activities:

40. Carrying an infant: 24 minutes
41. Cleaning, moderate effort: 26 minutes
42. Cooking: 34 minutes
43. Doing dishes: 40 minutes
44. Mopping the floor: 20 minutes
45. Playing with children: 23 minutes
46. Pushing a stroller: 35 minutes
47. Rearranging furniture: 14 minutes
48. Shopping: 38 minutes
49. Sweeping: 23 minutes
50. Walking the dog, 26 minutes

Were you surprised by the amount of time it takes to burn 100 calories? Which of these activities can you incorporate into your life to burn an extra 100 calories per day? Pick one that fits into your schedule and go for it!

Comfort Food for Dinner Tonight

This time of year the cold weather gets me in the mood for warm yummy food.  I prepped this on Sunday and will enjoy it for dinner tonight.  I usually pair it with some steamed frozen green beans with a little soy sauce on top and a small red potato.  My family loves this for dinner and it's so easy to stick in the oven at the end of a busy day.  

Meat Loaf 

• Cooking spray
• 2 pounds lean ground beef*
• 1/2 cup oatmeal 
• 1 yellow onion, 1/2 chopped, 1/2 thinly sliced, divided
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 egg, lightly beaten**
• 1 can (15 ounces) low sodium tomato sauce, divided
• 2 teaspoons yellow or Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray; set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine beef, oats, chopped onion, carrots, egg, 1/4 cup tomato sauce, mustard, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to prepared pan. In a small bowl, combine remaining tomato sauce with sugar. Pour sauce over the meatloaf and scatter sliced onions over the top. 
Arrange pan on a small baking sheet and bake until cooked through and deep golden brown, about 1 hour. Set aside to let cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving

* I sometimes use lean ground turkey in place of ground beef.  
**The egg can be substituted with flaxseed - Soak 1 Tbl ground flaxseed in 3 Tbl water for 5 minutes.  This replaces 1 egg in a recipe.  

Hearty Stew for Lunch

So this week for my lunch soup I am going to make a Caribbean Chicken Stew.  This one is hearty enough to have as my main item, however I always like to get in some greens with a big salad to go with it.  Enjoy!

Caribbean Chicken Stew  (6 servings)

1 14.5 oz can black beans, low sodium
2 cup Chicken Broth
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1lb cooked chicken, pulled apart or diced
1 cup onions
1 yam, peeled and cubed
juice of 1 lime
1 Tbl olive or coconut oil
2 tsp cinnamon
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp nutmeg
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cayenne
4 oz can diced green chiles
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes*

In a large pot, heat oil.  Add onion and garlic, saute 3 minutes.  Add spices and bay leaf; continue to saute 3 additional minutes.  Add tomatoes, chicken broth, cooked chicken, cubed yams and undrained can of beans.  Simmer covered for 25 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove bay leaf and squeeze in lime juice before serving.    

*You can omit the tomatoes if you are like me and they aren't your favorite.  Just add a little more chicken broth to get the consistence you enjoy.  

Rebecca Farm fights cancer with $65,000 - Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana

 
The One2One program has received a $7500 gift from Halt Cancer X, an organization started by Sarah Broussard-Kelly in memory of her mother, Becky Broussard.  Thank you to Halt Cancer X for such an amazing gift.  The gift will be used for breast cancer survivors to join the One2One program and receive the support, guidance and accountability needed for maintaining a healthy weight and moving regularly. 

Rebecca Farm fights cancer with $65,000 - Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana

Metabolism Boosting Workouts

We hear alot about our metabolism and it is often blamed for weight gain. It is not our metabolism that causes weight gain, it is the effects our diet, exercise, sleep and hormones  have on our metabolism that causes our metabolic needs to shift.  Metabolism is a chemical process that turns the foods and beverages you consume into energy. Even when you are at rest, your body needs energy to complete functions such as breathing, blood circulation, body temperature control, muscle contraction, food digestion and elimination.  Several factors influence metabolic rate, with body composition being one of them.  The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns at rest.  The good news is that anyone can build muscle at any age and the key to functionality later in life is directly linked to strength. 

Exercising is just one way to increase your metabolism.  Here are some tips to getting the most metabolic boost from your workouts:

 Maximize the weights workout: Researches show around 7 percent increase in resting metabolic rate after several weeks of resistance training. The squat effect does not end here. “Recent studies have revealed similar elevations in resting metabolic rate (5 to 9 percent) for three days following a single session of resistance training,” explains Wayne L. Wescott, Ph.D., in Sports Medicine Reports.
Note that to make the most out of your metabolism, heavy lifting is needed. When you lift a dumbbell and do 8 to 10 reps—struggling at the last two reps—you activate more fast-twitch fiber, which are the ones that have the highest strength and power capabilities and way less endurance. Studies show exercises that rely on these fibers, such as sprint, plyometric moves, heavy lifting, etc., create higher metabolic load compared to the slow-twitch fiber—the ones that work the most in aerobic-endurance exercises.
Your plan: Resistance training increases epinephrine, dopamine, and other catecholomines, which increases fat breakdown. To maximize the sympathetic response and post energy expenditure (the calories that your body burns after the workout ends) experts recommend using high volume (eight multi-joint exercises, such as push-press, pull-ups, dips, deadlift, and weighted squats (see below); 4 to 6 sets, and up to 10 reps each) and short rest intervals (30 to 90 seconds).  Keep in mind it is best to hire a personal trainer when changing to a heavy weight strength routine.  Posture and

2. Mix cardio and weights: Working both your cardiovascular system and muscles in the same session will make you burn more calories during the 30-minute period after your workout. This is due to increased oxygen uptake, and the more oxygen you consume the more calories you burn and thus the more active your metabolism. However, you have to properly mix the two.
In a study, published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, subjects performed six resistance exercises, 3 sets of 10 repetitions, with a 60 second interval rest. They then cycled for 20 minutes (two minutes low intensity, one minute high intensity) before, after, and in the middle of the resistance training. The results showed that doing the cardio in the middle provided the most metabolic impact post-exercise—meaning your metabolism will stay on fire after the exercise session has ended.
Your plan: Choose six multi-joint exercises (squat, bench press, leg press, lat-pull down, abdominals, and back extensions), which you will perform 3 sets of 10 reps with a 60 second rest period. After doing three of the exercises for the numbers of sets and reps described, perform 20 minutes of interval-cardio as explained above, and finish up with the remaining three resistance exercises.

3. Interval training to get more in less time: A study published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism compared sprint-interval training (2 minutes long) to continuous endurance training (30 minutes total) to measure oxygen consumption during the exercise and then again after 24 hours. The results showed that sprint-interval training elicited 24-hour oxygen consumption similar to continuous endurance exercise. In other words, you got more benefits during a shorter period of time.
Your plan: Select your favorite aerobic exercise and do intervals of 30 seconds at high intensity, followed by 1 minute at low intensity for recovery. Do a 5 minute warm-up and a 5 minute cool down for a total of 20 minutes. The key here is for the high intensity intervals to be tough where you can barely sustain the pace for the time suggested.

4. Stretch it out: You may not always have the time to stretch, but will it make a difference before your workout in terms of your total caloric expenditure?
When subjects did different dynamic stretching exercises before running, they increased their caloric burnt significantly compared with those that did nothing beforehand. In addition, their average oxygen consumption and flexibility increased, according to an article published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
Your plan: Before working out, perform five different dynamic stretching exercises, such as toe heel walks, hand walks, different angle lunges, and walking groaners (2 sets, 4 reps). Keep in mind the exercises should be dynamic, which means not holding the stretching position for set time. Static stretching should be reserved at the end of the workout.

As always, talk with your coach, personal trainer or physician before starting an exercise program. 

What's Cooking Today

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Today's cooler, wet weather puts me in the mood for soup.  This time of year I love to make a big batch of soup on the weekends and partake of it all week long.  Today I decided to make Butternut Squash and Apple soup.  This is one of my favorites and very, very simple.  You can spice it two ways for variation.  Today I added cinnamon and ginger, but if you are in the mood for some spice you can omit the cinnamon and add curry powder instead.  This soup is great served along side a large green salad with diced chicken and chopped apples on top.  The beauty of this soup is that it's easy to make, has few ingredients and is gluten and dairy free (for those of you experimenting or needing to omit these.)  Enjoy!

1 small to medium Butternut squash
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 Cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 large carrot
1/2 yellow onion
2 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 Tbl Tamari (wheat free soy sauce)

Spice options:
For a sweeter taste add 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger
For a spicy option:  add 1 Tbl no salt curry powder and 1/2 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.  Place squash, flesh side down in a glass dish and add 1/4" water.  Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes until squash is soft.  When done, let squash sit until it cools off, then scoop out flesh, discarding the skin.  
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, saute garlic, onion, carrot and celery in oil until soft.  Add 1/2 cup applesauce and spices of your choice.  Continue to saute briefly until fragrant.  Add scooped out squash to pan and chicken broth.  Bring to boil, then simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Turn off heat and let cool.  Pour soup into a blender (may have to do in batches depending on the size of your blender) and puree until it reaches your desired consistency.  Return to pan to heat and serve, or place in glass bowl to store in refrigerator.  Makes a relatively thick soup, to thin it, just add more chicken broth.  

Mistakes happen for a reason......

START SMART WITH A GREAT BREAKFAST

Breakfast is an essential component of healthy weight loss.  Starting your day with a breakfast comprised of good protein, carbohydrates and fat will signal your body it is time to get going and start your metabolic engine.  Many cereals and processed breakfast foods are laden with sugar or refined grain products, which are just empty calories and trigger cravings throughout the day.  Here are some of my favorite breakfasts that set you up for weight loss success throughout your day.

• Plain Greek yogurt with berries or dried fruit.  Add a teaspoon of sugar or some stevia to sweeten more if needed
• Scrambled eggs and veggies.  Sautee onion, mushroom, green pepper in pan with 1/2 tsp olive oil.  Add one whole egg and 2 egg whites and scramble for 2-3 minutes.  Add 1/2 c. zucchini.  Top with salsa or season with tamari & Spice Hunter chef shake.
• Smoothie.  The options with smoothies are endless.  Start with 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt, add 1 cup frozen berries and 1/2 banana and as much liquid as you like, starting off small.  You can use any type of milk or water.  Add in a few spinach leaves and a Tbl of flax seeds or chia seeds for some good fat.
• Steel cut oats.  This is a great choice for a hot morning cereal.  Steel cut oats are a whole grain and have gone through minimal processing.  I make a few days worth at once.  Soak 1 cup of oats in a bowl of water over night.  In the morning, rinse oats in a colander and place in a saucepan.  Add 2 cups water and cook on medium heat for approximately 25 minutes.  Add 1/4 of this mixture to a bowl and cover and refrigerate the rest for the next few days.  Flavor your oats in many ways - add berries, dried fruits, a little brown sugar or 1-2 tsp maple syrup.  Mix in some flax seed or chia seed for the good fats component.  

Start smart and enjoy your day!

Pink in Action

                      

 

THIS YEAR DON'T JUST BRING AWARENESS,

BRING ACTION!

 

 

 

RESEARCH SHOWS THAT BEING AT A HEALTHY WEIGHT AND PHYSICALLY ACTIVE CAN REDUCE YOUR RISK OF BREAST CANCER BY 30%.

 

THIS OCTOBER, GRAB A FRIEND OR LOVED ONE

AND PLEDGE TO TAKE ACTION! 

 

 

• SET UP A WEEKLY WALKING DATE WITH A FRIEND OR YOUR DOG
• JOIN A GYM OR YOGA STUDIO
• REMOVE THE JUNK FOOD FROM YOUR PANTRY & FRIDGE
• SET YOUR ALARM FOR 15 MINUTES EARLIER SO YOU CAN FIT IN 20 JUMPING JACKS, 20 SQUATS, 20 PUSHUPS AND 20 LUNGES BEFORE YOUR DAY BEGINS
• SET A TIMER ON YOUR COMPUTER CALENDAR AT WORK TO TAKE A WALK EVERY HOUR TO THE COPY MACHINE, OUTSIDE OR JUST AROUND THE OFFICE.
• SWAP OUT YOUR SWEET/SALTY AFTERNOON SNACK FOR AN APPLE AND HANDFUL OF ALMONDS
• HIRE A PERSONAL TRAINER OR JOIN A SMALL GROUP TRAINING CLASS
• PARK YOUR CAR FURTHER AWAY FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE GOING
• ALWAYS TAKE THE STAIRS
• SPEND AN AFTERNOON CREATING YOUR VISION BOARD AND SET SMALL WEEKLY GOALS TO GET YOU ONE STEP CLOSER TO YOUR VISION.
• MOST OF ALL HAVE FUN, CELEBRATE EACH AND EVERY SUCCESS-NO MATTER HOW SMALL, SPEAK KIND TO YOURSELF AND MAKE EVERY DAY THE BEST IT CAN BE

 

Thyme, Pork Chop and Pineapple Skillet meal in 30 minutes

Thyme, Pork Chop & Pineapple Skillet Supper  from Eating Well

Ingredients

3 tablespoons pineapple or apricot preserves or jam or orange marmalade

2 tablespoons orange juice, plus more if needed

2 teaspoons stone-ground or Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

4 fresh or canned pineapple rings (1/2 inch thick), cut in half, any juice reserved

2 teaspoons butter

4 4- to 5-ounce boneless pork loin chops (1/2 inch thick), trimmed

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme (see Tip), divided

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided

 

Preparation

1. If the preserves are chunky, chop any large pieces. Combine preserves (or jam or marmalade), 2 tablespoons orange juice, mustard, ginger and curry powder in a small bowl; set aside. Pour pineapple juice into a measuring cup; if necessary, add some water to equal 1/3 cup total. Set aside.
2. Heat butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops, sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Immediately turn them over and sprinkle with another 1/2 tablespoon thyme and the remaining salt and pepper. Cook the chops, turning occasionally and adjusting the heat as necessary, until browned, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add the reserved juice to the pan. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking until the chops are cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer to a platter and keep warm.
4. Add pineapple, the reserved sauce and the remaining 1 tablespoon thyme to the pan. Cook, stirring, until hot and bubbling, 1 to 2 minutes. To serve, spoon the sauce onto the chops and pineapple.
5. Serve with a size of steamed green beans topped with a little soy sauce and olive oil.

Tips & Notes

• Tip: To remove thyme leaves from the sprig, hold each sprig at the top with one hand, then run the thumb and finger of the other hand down the stem to strip off the leaves.

Nutrition

Per serving: 257 calories; 8 g fat ( 3 g sat , 3 g mono ); 72 mg cholesterol; 25 g carbohydrates; 8 g added sugars; 22 g protein; 2 g fiber; 388 mg sodium; 434 mg potassium.

Refrigerator and Freezer Basics

A few days ago I posted the makings of a healthy pantry.  Today I have a list of items to stock a healthy refrigerator and freezer.  Remember, more than half the challenge of eating healthy foods is to go grocery shopping and have healthy foods readily available.  Most times when we are hungry if there is a yummy, nutritious meal or snack waiting for us in the fridge, we will choose that.  Be in charge of your success - plan, shop and prepare!

Regrigerator Basics

Low-fat milk or alternative milk of your choice- unsweetened

Plain Greek yogurt 

Low sodium soy sauce or wheat free Tamari

Salsa

Good-quality Parmesan cheese and/or Romano cheese

Sharp Cheddar cheese

Eggs (large). Keep them on hand for fast omelets and frittatas.

Vegetables of your choice:  Broccoli, red and green cabbage, onions, carrots, potatoes and romaine lettuce all last for the week, so they are a good thing to stock on Sunday and use throughout the week.

Fruit - Be sure to stock grab and go pieces of fruit.  Apples, grapes, and oranges are all great to have staring you in the face when you open the refrigerator.

Freezer Basics

• Frozen vegetables: edamame soy beans, peas, spinach, broccoli, bell pepper and onion mix, green beans, chopped onions, small whole onions, uncooked hash browns
• Frozen berries -  no sugar added
• Italian turkey sausage to flavor fast pasta sauces
• Whole wheat or sprouted wheat tortillas
• Frozen meats:  chicken breasts or chicken tenders, pork, shrimp, salmon or whitefish filets. ground turkey and/or grass fed ground beef.
• Frozen orange juice concentrate for sauces

Next I will post a few recipes using mostly these basics with a few added ingredients.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Join One2One and Kalispell Regional Healthcare as we Put Pink in Action!  Research shows that a healthy lifestyle and physical activity helps reduce your risk of cancer by up to 40%.  Join us October 6 at The Summit for these Free activities:

• 5K Run/Walk/Bike begins at 10am.  Registration starts at 9am.
• Free healthy snacks for after the race
• Free Summit access all day (kids under 13 must be accompanied by an adult)

October 10 - Breast Cancer Risk and Weight - a panel discussion.  Join Dr. Melissa Hulvat, One2One coordinator Christy Ewing, Registered Dietitian Pat Dickey and numerous other medical experts for this informative discussion. 

Here is a fun video put together to make you laugh and get some inspiration. Share with friends and amily.  Breast Cancer Healthy Lifestyle video