Category Archives: Books

Kale vs. Cow

02 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Books, General, Lifestyle, Nutrition

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I listed to a podcast this week by Balanced Bites called Kale vs. Cow with Diana Rodgers. This is a great podcast, please give it an attentive listen all the way to the end.

  1. Introducing our guest, Diana Rodgers [1:47]
  2. Kale versus Cow documentary [3:00]
  3. Emotion and humanity [10:16]
  4. Biodiversity and greenhouse gases [18:24]
  5. Ethics and intent [25:52]
  6. Food as a religion [34:49]
  7. About the documentary [42:02]

Diana Rodgers has devoted herself to all things that promote sustainability. There have been many one-sided documentaries that have come out as of late that are pure fallacy and biased statistics. Here are my thoughts on one of them in particular. She has taken it upon herself to create a documentary that is based on science and the truth of what animals do for the health of our soil and planet. Here is a link to her Kale vs. Cow the Case for Better Meat page. There are lots of fantastic resource links at the bottom of this page, I highly suggest you check out.

I am so excited about this documentary, as I trust her and know that she will provide accurate and truthful information. As her slogan goes: “It’s Not the COW, It’s the HOW”. Meaning that it isn’t the growing and eating of cows that is the problem it is HOW of the raising of the cows that is the problem.

Diana just put out a new post called: Make America GRAZE Again! It is full of fantastic information and videos.

Diana is on a roll! Her new post called: It’s Not the Cow, it’s the How: New Study Shows Grass-fed Beef Can be a Carbon Sink talks about a new study proving that by using better grazing techniques, farmers are able to “produce healthier cattle and regenerate soils”.

More and more people I know are choosing to eat Vegan. I am greatly concerned about their long-term health, because of this choice. People naively think that eating Vegan is “saving the animals” and is healthy for their body long-term.

Keep in mind that I do believe that eating lots of organic vegetables and fruit, nuts, seed etc. is very healthy for your body. Here are more of my thoughts on this subject.

I also believe that supporting the operations of factory farming practices is not a great choice. You do not have to become Vegan to not support these destructive practices. You just need to source better quality meat. Here is one of many posts that lists Quality Food Sources. The best part is that our bodies don’t need as much high-quality meat to be healthy, which is also more economical. So, you will be eating less meat and still getting the health benefits from it as well as supporting a soil and planet restoration way of growing animals and plants.

What most vegetarians and vegans fail to realize or admit is that not only are they still killing thousands animals and their habitats through the mass factory farming practices of growing vegetables and fruits, but also poising the planet, animals, and ourselves through the herbicides, pesticides, and transportation of these vegetables and fruits. The monocrop (definition: Monocropping is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence of rotation through other crops or growing multiple crops on the same land (polyculture). Corn, soybeans, and wheat are three common crops often grown using monocropping techniques.) growing practice is also a huge issue for the same reasons provided above, plus they are typically GMO products and hugely subsidized by the government.

The majority of vegans and vegetarians, I know, also eat a ton of processed foods, made with products from the monocrops. Eating vegetables and fruits out of season that are transported hundreds if not thousands of miles. Neither of these things are healthy for the planet nor to animals and I think not healthy for our bodies either.

I love Diana Rodger’s book The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook; perhaps this book will help my vegetarian and vegan friends learn to grow their own vegetables and fruits and maybe animals too.

If you are like me and are concerned about animals and the health of our planet, it is up to you to be fully informed to use your discernment and not believe everything that you are fed (pun intended).

Let’s go to the source, quite literally, the Bible (thus God) says that He gave us every moving things that lives to be food, just as He gave us green plants. God’s intention was for us to grow and eat animals. He wouldn’t have told us to do this, if it were unhealthy for us or the plant. While I found some of what is in this book to be a bit extreme, I love the history and ideas behind it; check out The Maker’s Diet.

I wish all my people well regardless of how you choose to eat. I pray each of you to be healthy and have life-long vitality.

The “Healthcare” System

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Books, General

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I believe with all my heart that if people in leadership were focused less on making money and more on doing the right thing the “healthcare” system reform our country so desperately needs would come to fruition. Unfortunately for us…that is not the case.

While once upon a time, I do believe that it was not the intention of people in leadership (aka: government) to screw-up “healthcare”….it now is and has been for a long while.

In my opinion, the federal government has no place and no business regulating and profiting from “healthcare” in this country. I remind you that the federal government was developed to do three things only: 1) govern foreign affairs, 2) conduct war, and 3) regulate currency” (http://www.history.com/topics/constitution). My personal belief is that…we need to break-off “healthcare” and big-pharma from the government placing them into a free enterprise system.

It has been a while since I was in high school….so just as a reminder…”free enterprise is a type of economy where products, prices, and services are determined by the market, not the government. It’s capitalism, not communism……prices go up and down because of supply and demand. Private companies compete for profit without government interference” (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/free%20enterprise).

I do know that while our “healthcare” system, I call it our sick-care system, is fantastic at acute emergency care…it really really sucks at long-term HEALTH care. The word ‘healthcare’ implies that the system promotes and encourages health. In its current model it doesn’t.

The word “doctor” from its Lain root doc(ēre) means “to teach”. It wasn’t too very long ago that doctors would travel around helping people and teaching people….providing care for people. That isn’t the case these days for sure; the government created system won’t allow it! Doctors are forced to spend approximately 10 minutes (if you are lucky) with each patient and prescribe the latest and greatest drugs that the FDA approved for whatever symptom the patient comes in with or run the risk of losing their license to do business (I can’t even say the word ‘practice medicine’ anymore).

The system is broken and the people of this country are suffering for it. Yet all most people do is complain about it, most people don’t actually do anything. It is a large problem…very overwhelming for the average person to take on. What we have is the Federal Government, Medical Insurance Companies, Big Farma, and the FDA calling the shots, making tons of money while holding our doctors hostage and watching the citizens of this country get sicker and sicker. By the way, this is also where food subsidies comes in, but that is a whole other rabbit hole.

Where is the justice? It will take an uprising to change this big money-making-machine! Is this likely? No. Is it possible? Yes.

I am fortunate to have found (through hours and hours of research) a relatively progressive thinking primary care physician that as actually tested me for nutrient deficiencies and “prescribed” vitamins to me. I currently choose to pay a $225.00 annual fee (per person) to my doctor that allows her to provide medical insurance to her staff and it also allows her the ability to spend 30 minutes with me each time I visit her. I also work with a functional medicine doctor who is also a nutritionist and chiropractor. Most of her services are outside of medical insurance coverage, because the medical insurance providers somehow get to dictate to me what services I need for the money I pay them. She is my true health care….identifying the root-cause of the symptoms I have, not just managing or covering-up the symptom. Be aware that making a symptom go away doesn’t make what is causing the symptom go away.

This is where self accountability comes in. Vote with your dollar. Doing what you need to do to make and keep your body healthy so you are not fully dependent on this broken down sick-care system.

I know how difficult it is; I am presently dependent on the system. My body isn’t fully healthy. You can bet I’m working on it. I’m spending my money and effort where it matters most. I’m doing everything I can to give my body what it needs to heal itself. Our bodies are created to heal and regenerate. What a glorious creation we are.

The sick-care system isn’t going to fix itself. I do not think that we can rely on our government to do what is our best interest. We have to take responsibility for our part in the system and our part in our own health or lack thereof. Do what you need to do for your body to be healthy.

Learning Opportunities – Applied Knowledge is Power

Check out these two articles by Chris Kresser

  1. Healthcare vs Disease Management
  2. Two Reasons Conventional Medicine Will Never Solve Chronic Disease

Article: The American Medical Nightmare: Are We Ever Going to Wake Up? by: Steven Wright

Below are a few books you may be interested in reading:

Podcast: Joe Rogan & Chris Kresser on Paleo and the Modern Healthcare System

If you want to make some noise…..here are a couple of links to contact congress men and house representatives. Keep and email template in your ‘drafts’ box and shoot them out an email every week!

Diet – The Short Version….

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Books, Lifestyle, Nutrition

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THEN

Back in the 1990’s and 2000’s I was all about a Low-Fat diet. I thought I had to eat low-fat to be fit and health. Keeping in mind I was in my early 20’s I was fit, but I was not healthy. At all. Then I also became un-fit as well. I yo-yoed back and forth for years.

Side note: Even when I was eating low-fat, I was never really able to eat as low-fat as I thought I “should” be eating. I still don’t know what people eat to maintain super low fat intake.

Enter “The Paleo Solution Diet” by Robb Wolf. This is a great book – I highly recommend it!

I again was not healthy. At all. So, I dove into Paleo face first. Over a few years I became very health and fit again. It was fantastic! I felt great – I preformed great – I looked great!

Somehow I ended up messing around with a super low carbohydrate diet. Between the low carbohydrate diet and poor lifestyle factors, and after some time…I became unhealthy and un-fit yet again.

I’ve been working to flight my way back ever since. This time my body broke down to levels I did not know existed and wish I didn’t know.

NOW

Through all of my diet and health struggles…..this is what I’ve learned.

  • Paleo is not dogmatic (you’re the only person that can impose rules on yourself)
  • Low-fat diets will eventually break you
  • Low-carb diets will eventually break you
  • Excessive exercise will eventually break you
  • It takes longer to heal the broken than it takes to break

I will no longer cut out a whole macro groups (protein, fat, carb) from my diet ever again. It isn’t necessary and in the long run it will break you.

 

Eating protein, fat, and carbs is required.

I know….I know…. everyone is either still in the low-fat camp or all about the ketogenic diet – it is everywhere and I’m sure most people are super confused about it all.

Truth is everyone’s dietary requirements are different from everyone else’s and each person’s dietary requirements change throughout their lifetime.

Recommended Books

Soooo…..I’m not a man…I realistically cannot speak to that….but I can tell you….as a women….while we can adjust our macros (protein, fat, carb) of how much of each we take-in we need to be eating all three. Maybe not at every meal and maybe not every day, but you need all three in your face…in your body if you want to maintain your life, health, well-being, fitness, hormones, sleep….etc.

I find that I personally do not do well with restriction. Restriction in anyway will send me into a tailspin. So, now….I do not tell myself that I cannot have something. I can have anything I want any time I want. It is my responsibility and my choice to eat something or not to eat something that I choose…knowing that it either helps me or hurts me and it either gets me closer to my goals or further away from my goals. I own it and I suffer or reap the consequence of my choice one way or the other (I don’t feel bad about it either way).

UNCOMPLICATED

This whole thing is less complicated than what folks make it out to be.

Eat whole real foods.

If you can answer yes to these three questions, then it is real whole food.

  • Did your food grow out of the ground, fall from a tree, or have a mother?
  • Will it spoil?

There are times when we will eat foods out of a box or a bag; this day in age it is inevitable.

  • Can you pronounce all the ingredient’s names? (if not, find a better quality product with simple/less/pronounceable ingredients)

Go back to basics.

Trust me I get it….while this is a simple approach….it isn’t necessarily easy. BUT there are lots of tools out there to help (including me). I have found that we can and will do anything that we determine is important to us.

The Trifecta

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Books, Fitness, Lifestyle

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They keys to good health, longevity, and being fit is not dependent on one thing. To achieve optimal health, live a long time, and being fit is dependent on three things.

  1. Lifestyle
  2. Nutrition
  3. Movement & Exercise

None of these three factors on their own will result in a long and healthy life.

LifeStyle

This day in age, I think lifestyle factors are the most difficult to be consistent at. The truth is….if you do not achieve this one, the other two will not yield the desired effect.  The lifestyle factors to get in check are: sleep quality and quantity, stress management, socializing with friends and loved-ones, and getting in touch with nature.

Not so long ago our lives looked very different day-to-day than they do now; the majority of the lifestyle factors were built into how our days and lives flowed. Now…we have to work at these things; put forth effort towards making sure we are sleeping well, being aware of our stressors and mitigating them (reframing our perspectives), making and scheduling time with our family and friends frequently, and getting outside in the sun, trees, and animals.

As humans these things are desires built into our DNA. We need them to be healthy and content.

Below are ideas and suggestions to guide you towards incorporating or improving in each area.

Sleep: cool dark room, little or no clothing, white noise, transdermal magnesium oi, use blue blocking glasses, and use flux and the night-shift mode on electronic devices, diffuse and topically apply cedarwood, lavender, and peace & calming essential oils, sublingual CBD oil, have dinner 2 to 3 hours before bed, read a book before bed, use a night-mask, use ear plugs

Stress: be self-aware, step-away, reframe perspective, take a walk, take an Epsom salt bath, take long deep breaths, get a massage, get a mani/pedi (yes, even you men), play with a pet (doesn’t have to be yours), read, use Stress Away essential oil, meditate (use an AP for guided meditations)

Social Time: schedule weekly and monthly meals or activities with friends and family, put your phone down and connect with the people near you, start a weekly or monthly card or domino game, find a new restaurant or activity to do together, start a weekly food-prep day with friends

Nature: take a walk every day outside or every morning and evening when the sun comes up and the sun goes down (this will help with circadian rhythm) walk the dog instead of just letting them outside…you go too, go fishing, go kayaking, sit or stand in the yard barefoot (grounding) and listen to the birds, go feed the ducks (bird seed not bread)….go outside

Nutrition

You get out what you put in. Drink clean water. Think nutrient dense. Vitamins and minerals.  Real whole foods. Organic every time possible.  Grass-fed grass-finished beef and bison, pastured chicken, eggs, pork, and lamb. Wild-caught cold-water fish.

If you can answer yes to these questions, then it is real whole food.

  • Did your food grow out of the ground, fall from a tree, or have a mother?
  • Will it spoil?

There are times when we will eat foods out of a box or a bag; this day in age it is inevitable.

  • Can you pronounce all the ingredient’s names? (if not, find a better quality product with the least ingredients possible)

My thought process on nutrient dense foods are real whole foods (as defined above) that have high nutrient content in a fairly small amount of calories. The goal is to eat as many foods as possible that have lots of nutrients in them throughout every day.

Book Recommendations

Movement & Exercise

You get out what you put in. Walk, walk , walk, walk, walk…..walk as much as you possibly can every day. We were designed to walk. People used to walk, walk, walk, walk….they had to….to get food, to work, to get from point A to point B, and to see other people.

Most of our lives today do not require us to walk, it requires us to sit. I work at a sitting job. I do my best to get-up once every hour or so and at least walk to the bathroom (if I’m drinking the amount of water I should be, I usually have to “go” anyway) do some hip opening stretches in my cube and move on. I take at least a 30 minute walk at lunch every day.

It is important to get in movement every day all day….walking, light stretching, air squats in the bathroom stall or cube, desk or counter push-ups, taking the stairs, park far instead of close, use a pull-up bar in door way every time you see it….whatever you can get in….get it in. I think that movement throughout the day is more important than “exercising” once a day or a few times a week.

Sprint for 10 – 15 minutes once or twice a week.

Lift Weights 1 – 4 times per week for 20+ minutes.  

Side Note: Please be aware – most men lift heavier than they should to keep good and proper form. And most women lift way too light to see the results they really want.

Reminders: Warm-up the muscles you are going to be using for 10-15 minutes prior to lifting. Cool-down by doing mobility work and stretching after your workout.

Book Recommendations

Also, check out the following peeps:

Having the trifecta in-check will result in a long, healthy, and more capable life.

If you need help, guidance, have questions – please feel free to reach out to me by either leaving a comment under this post, hitting me up on Facebook or emailing me directly at bycandace@yahoo.com.

I highly encourage you to Sign-up for Thrive Market. 

Thrive Market allows you to shop for all the healthy food items you know and love at discount prices, because they cut out the middle man, and it gets delivered to your door so it also saves you time. Not only do you save money, but for every paid membership Thrive Gives a membership to a family in need.

Aside from saving money, your groceries will be delivered to your door and you don’t have to go to stores thus also saving time and energy….and who can’t use more of those!?!