Featured Food: Kombucha

The other day at Baeslar’s I was so excited to look down and see a bottle of kombucha. In December I had covered fermented beverages, and anyone that knows me knows I’ve been gushing about fermenting the past two months (so far I’ve ventured and fell in love with fermented cabbage), so you can guess how excited I was to raw organic kombucha staring me in the face. But there are three flavors (green, original and ginger), which am I supposed to pick? Green and original, save the ginger for future enjoyment and mouth pleasure. Really this fascination came when I was reading about the nasty world of soda pop, and discovered that fermented drinks were a long-standing tradition around the world with healthful benefits. A much better options for our children to be guzzling down than watered-down milk, pop and sugary sports drinks or juices. While in line though my sister prompts me as to what it is. Good question, hence today’s post and further exploration into the world of

Watch “80 lbs Kettlebell Juggling” on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/v/v1TZuiZrL0E

We of course love swinging for some heart rate training, but we also love some juggling. Besides the heart rate, we get the added benefit of hand-eye-coordination. Here Brennan demonstrates how to juggle 80 pounds, but it is important to work yourself up to this level and to be experienced before pushing heavier weights. Never save the kettlebell or reach for it. Sit back in it and if the toss is bad, never attempt save a kettlebell, just let it go. I recommend practicing on a surface that can handle the impact (grass makes a great juggling playground) and on which the kettlebells won’t roll on. Enjoy!

Craving Control

I’ve been unsure what I wanted to post today, initially I had thought to do Alzheimer’s to go with yesterday’s brain post, but I’ve done that before (I’ll link to that at the end), but today’s post found me.  I came across a wonderful post on cravings= today’s post. This kind of thing I always find fascinating, often wondering where thoughts are coming from. When I look at a piece of food and feel like eating it, why? I’ve talked before (and we’ll look at it more) about hormone balance controlling appetite and hunger (remember Dr. Sharifi’s post on Hormonal Hunger?). While reading this article, I saw ‘refrigeratoritis’, something I instantly identified with. Where you open and stare into the frig even though you’re not really hungry, waiting for something to call your name. Like some other person has taken over control. Most cravings of course come from a poor control of insulin because of the consumption of sugary, starchy, grainy foods. You eat a piece of candy and crave cake or something sweet a little bit later. And the cycle goes round and round. Obviously controlling insulin spikes and eliminating the source of these cravings (hence grains, starches and definitely sugars) will reduce the cravings as well. I can attest to this. I’ll smell or look at something sweet sometimes and think that it seems

Your Brain on Fats

The brain is a pretty stellar organ.  I’ve always had a personal fascination with the brain. It’s development so sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s responsible for making us who we are. It is a sports star, playing a role in: sensory (touch, pain, taste, pressure and temperature), language, hearing, memory, meaning, emotion, learning, interpretation, processing, vision, reasoning, planning, movement, speech, creativity, judgment, problem solving, planning, hormone balance and a whole hell of a lot more, beyond we can fathom or grasp.  With all this going on in that noggin, there’s a lot of room for error and conditions like dementia are definitely on the rise (at the end I’ll connect some related blogs). Naturally as with most systems that we discuss, what you put in your mouth also has an effect on the brain and brain health. Today we will look at different vitamins and fats that your brain loves. Let’s begin with fat shall we, as over 50% of the brain is fat!

• Cholesterol: that often demonized fat that we know is essential, is of course one of the most important nutrients for the brain.

Featured Food: Cinnamon

Sometimes it’s almost like I instinctually know what’s good for me, and what I love is cinnamon. Not only does cinnamon seem to have that alluring warm feeling, that just makes you feel cozy, but it tastes so good. I’ve been using it for years to make my cooky spice profiles, toeing the line of savory/sweet appropriateness. I love it on venison, I love it on salmon, I love it on veggies with macadamia nut oil, I love it with a touch of cayenne with chopped apples and ghee. I think you get the hint that I rather enjoy cinnamon and that this list could continue on nearly indefinitely (virtually whatever food there is out there I’d probably like it with a touch of cinnamon). My current favorite spice mix is Hawaiian Sea Salt (click the link for its benefits), cinnamon, a touch of cayenne or cumin (click) instead of pepper. What’s so great about cinnamon then:

• anti-inflammatory (lowers the release of AA)

Oils for Hair and Skin

I readily admit I can be a bit of an extremist, and tend to take things just above the goal. In reading Extra Virginity last week, I find myself reading about the ancient ways of olive oil use, from bathing by the Greeks to skin. They describe the sheer beauty of Odysseus lying on the beach in oil and naturally I get this mental image of this bronzed Greek god, basically laying on the beach (hence this amazing photo) covered in oil. A little later as I get ready for a shower I decide I want some of that, to be a goddess (Venus pic coming up soon), and I need to incorporate some oil. After I get out of the shower I find myself applying coconut oil to my skin and face. Next I apply a little olive oil to hair (although I’ve realized I put too much and at the wrong time so my hair was just oily). The littlest thing like this can set me then into a researching tizzy. I’d read about pooless movement before and I’d heard of olive oil and coconut oil for hair, but I made up my mind that I needed to know how and why and my own experimentation (my degree is in a branch of science, hence I do like testing and challenging things). What I found is olive oil and coconut oil are both great for the skin. But which oil to use? Tricky question, it’s like trying to decide which one to eat. The solution of course is an equal combination of the two. I used to suffer from acne and my skin will break out randomly, it’s never truly ‘smooth’. I found after my first application of the coconut oil that I

Watch “Single Kettlebell Push Ups” on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/v/bf13LySIrA4

Here our kettlebell video muse, Brennan, shows us his take on a box kettlebell push-up by using only a single bell. As you can tell the closer grip allows for more triceps action. If going from the box is too challenging, start with feet on the ground.