The following is the health coach vetted nutrition practice that I try my best to follow every week:
It’s a fact that the oceans have been overfished. Farmed salmon is not OK to eat though. What do I think? I’m going to have baked salmon once a week. There’s a deli counter at a food market that sells this fish.
It’s quick and easy: heat for 20 minutes with Brussel sprouts (also from deli counter) in a baking dish at 350 degrees.
I can also get from the deli counter roasted vegetables which don’t need to be cooked. The deli vegetables are not organic and I’m OK with this. Otherwise I buy online frozen bags of organic broccoli, spinach leaves, cauliflower, and green beans.
As well once a week or every other week I order grilled shrimp from the online grocery delivery service. I also order dry sea scallops with the weekly delivery.
For lunch I order a mixed greens salad with no dressing. Add organic cashews and chickpeas and Cento pitted olives. Toss Boticelli finishing olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress the salad.
This is the standard fare. I have the salad for lunch 3 times a week. I read a while ago that bringing your lunch from home to your job 3x/per week is OK and a viable option. It can be impossible to expect ourselves to bring lunches from home 5 days a week.
The goal as I see it is to have the grace to accept that you and I cannot do the right things 100 percent of the time every day of every week of our lives.
Coming up I’m going to review a food product I found. The origin story of the company might be a come-on. Yet I’ll talk about this food because it shows that there are alternatives to common products laden with chemical additives or questionable kinds of fat.
This is the first post re: the Integrative Health Coach eating plan that I’m going to use as a weekly practice starting this fall.
She recommends consuming 100 grams protein per day or at least at or near 90 grams protein for the ideal RDA. The calculation using your weight only accounts for the average grams of protein that are thought to be acceptable.
On Amazon–yes on Amazon–I found the Truvani protein powder shown. It’s the only protein powder source without a chemical additive called natural flavor. In California–yes in Cali–I think it’s Prop65 that lists Truvani as having a cancer-causing agent.
I’m taking my chances as this product has been on the market for at least a decade. The Mooala almond milk you can order on Fresh Direct online grocery delivery service in New York City.
About a decade ago I bought soy milk and the soy milk tasted awful to me. So I was hopeful when the Health Coach vetted that I could use almond milk. Again, the Mooala almond milk was the only almond milk I found that didn’t have a questionable ingredient.
Inside the Truvani package is a scoop you use to pour the protein powder in the almond milk. I used a 12 ounce ceramic mug that I bought in Starbucks long ago. It might be Venti sized according to the Starbucks system. I have no idea. I used the 12 ounce mug and tossed one scoop of Truvani in the almond milk. Filled the mug with the milk to an inch below the rim.
One scoop of Truvani has 20 grams of protein. It has 2 grams of fiber too if that counts for anything towards your RDA of fiber while you’re at it.
After the awful taste of the soy milk I was reluctant to try the almond milk. To my surprise the protein drink is drinkable because it tastes better than I thought it would.
As the drink is actually drinkable to me I’ll be getting 20 extra grams of protein with breakfast. My said breakfast 3 large organic eggs scrambled with organic shitake mushrooms.
So there I’ll have it–at least 30 grams of protein in my first meal of the day. Like real experts to trust have repeated for years a person should have 20 to 30 grams of protein with each meal starting with breakfast. Not waiting until dinner to load up on protein.
Va bene! A protein drink that is really kind of delicious! With no chemical additives in the form of natural flavor.
The only drawback is that the scoop is big so I envision going through a package of Truvani in one week or so. And the Truvani if I recall costs at least $30/per package.
For those of us who can’t afford Truvani there are other options like having with the eggs a container of Fage plain Greek yogurt. Mix blueberries into the yogurt like I do if you want. Use only a drizzle of honey. As per my Health Coach honey is not really okay to have except in tiny amounts.
Fage plain Greek yogurt doesn’t contain chemical additives in the form of natural flavor. Should you be okay with it you can opt for the Fage full-fat plain yogurt not the 0 fat. I happen to be sensitive to food that contains fat in it.
So having the eggs plus a container of the Fage plain yogurt could bump your grams of protein up to near 30 grams for breakfast.
Forget buying a boxed cereal labeled as a better protein source. A food with only 8 grams of protein per serving for breakfast won’t cut it for optimizing your energy and health throughout the day. Should you really want to go the boxed cereal breakfast route it’s imperative to find a container of yogurt or other protein source that will bump up the grams of protein for the meal.
Also forget the commercial that claims having a round waffle product with added protein is an acceptable food for getting protein. I don’t think so. Not all sources of protein are the best sources.
Though who’s kidding who. I have pasta all the time being Italian. And it’s not really an ideal food even when it’s whole wheat pasta according to my Health Coach.
That’s OK. I plan to stick with my 80 percent rule: having healthy food at least 80 percent of the time.
My life is getting shorter. With life being short I’ll have the pasta. You can have the cheesecake. Enjoying life–and the food you eat–guilt-free is the way to go.
It was not lost on me that the Saturday after the election I woke up with a sore left arm. Since then the PT sessions took only exactly 2 months. Doubt I did that it would be over so quickly.
Not able I was to lift weights then. At the end of this setback I realized things must change. Ordinarily I work out like a madwoman in training for the prizefight of her life. The PT assistants at the rehab center kept telling me to ease up when I first started the sessions whirling into each exercise too intensely. Wise up I did and took it slower and calmer.
My PT therapist cleared me to end my time there. The quandary is: how to recover mentally from a setback after you’ve physically healed. How to begin again your normal fitness routine.
You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I took my fitness for granted. The time had come to rethink my approach not just to lifting but also to living life.
I would practice mindful exercise and pace myself. Say a prayer before I first lifted in the routine thanking my body for being a workhorse that enabled me to achieve my goals.
Today I choose to act in a slow and deliberate fashion. The violent and quick workouts are gone like the dinosaurs. They outlived their usefulness.
Not only is the bigger better more ethic of consumerism an economic trap the bigger better more extreme of fitness is quicksand.
I became fitter after I started working out in my “home gym” (OK–the clear unobstructed hardwood floor in my apartment).
My new approach is going from fast and furious to serene and lean. As I turn 60 soon. Being proactive in our older years will help us stay mentally and physically fit.
Getting infirm is not the guaranteed outcome in old age. It’s the result of poor eating, not enough sleep, and not being active.
Recovery from any injury or illness or any kind of setback at all takes time, patience, hard work, and determination.
My goal is to return to the floor and gradually increase the weight as I begin to lift again.
We each should have the radical grace to change what’s not working and chart a new course. As hard as it is to start all over from square one the alternative is no option: not getting back in the ring.
This time around I want to lift weights to lift my spirits not just get muscle.
Perhaps this blog can be a guidepost for everyone who needs a shot of confidence to embark on a new path after the old route was a dead-end.
The mug in the photo I bought in a museum gift shop. I get a kick out using the coral-and-turquoise green cup. Filling it up with water throughout the day in my apartment.
I cannot abide anything “neutral”–in the color of my clothes nor in the walls and furniture and items in my home.
Why not treat yourself to a mug you’ll feel wonderful using.
Take a stand every day by making each moment stand out for its beauty. There’s no shame in wanting to surround yourself with beautiful objects like a new mug.
Everyone and everything is beautiful.
Making it convenient to do what’s healthy for you is the way to succeed at your wellness goals.
Would a white ceramic mug be as motivational an ally in drinking water. It’s possible a white mug will inspire you. Who knows.
I go against the critics who claim you don’t need to drink plenty of water every day. They assert that “everyone” gets enough water in the food we eat.
Really. What about people chowing down on a Big Mac fries and cola for dinner. Frosted flakes of cereal for breakfast. Fried chicken nuggets for lunch.
You see why I don’t take self-appointed “experts” seriously.
Comparing your needs to what other people are able to do is foolish too. I for one strive to drink 72 ounces of water every day. Even when no one around me is drinking any water at all.
It’s our choice to decide: Are we going to be upset that others can “get away” with munching on Doritos and appear to remain healthy.
Food is fuel for our bodies which are workhorses to achieve our goals. Water is the drink of life.
If you ask me everyone should get a once-yearly checkup with a reputable primary care doctor that you trust and like and who is reputable. This is how to find out what you need to do to remain healthy. I employ an Integrative Health Coach too.
The other thing is to buy a colorful water bottle to fill with water to keep on your night table. Drinking the bottle of water when you wake up has benefits.
I bought a 23-ounce lavender water bottle in a drugstore. I drink the water when I wake up. I have a 27-ounce Kleen Kanteen purple water bottle I use at my job when I have lunch.
Water is the Drink of Life. It truly is. Tests can reveal that you need to drink more water when you get a yearly checkup.
Forget the so-called experts who hang out a shingle. They’re likely selling products. Like Dr. Gundry’s Reds which I’m skeptical of without having bought.
The products might not harm us. Yet we often really don’t benefit from the products like the experts say we will.
Full and Robust Life Hacks 