Angela

Feeding the Soul


The founders of Lost Art Press – Lucy May, Christopher Schwarz and John Hoffman – are trying to restore the balance between hand and machine work by unearthing the lost art of hand skills and explaining how they can be integrated with the machinery in the modern shop to help produce furniture that is crisp, well-proportioned, stout and quickly made.  They do this with  the publication of fine books on the craft of woodworking and through a blog which covers everything from techniques to rising stars in the field.

Christopher Schwarz is the former editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine , where he worked between 1996 and 2011. He is now a contributing editor to that magazine, maintains a popular blog through their website and has produced many instructional online videos and DVDs.  In addition to authoring the successful The Anarchists Toolchest, published by Lost Art Press, he also serves as a contributing editor to The Fine Tool Journal and has produced several DVDs in conjunction with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and on traditional skills.

This week, my husband, Tim is spending the week with Christopher Schwarz at the Mark Adams School of Woodworking.  He is learning the techniques of using hand tools as he builds a 17th century French inspired workbench.  He is having the time of his life.  I added this post to stress the importance of being yourself!  Do things that you enjoy!  Take time to smell the roses!  Remember, doing to please others only leads to heart disease!  By the way, rugged with hand tools is the new sexy!!!

visit http://www.lostartpress.com

http://www.marcadams.com

Posted on by Angela in Family, Humor, Mind, Spirit Leave a comment

The Red Flags of Food Additives

Okay, I’ll admit that only recently I have started reading food labels.  To be honest, I just don’t have the time to read labels while shopping because I’m rushing.  Frankly, the people cluttering the aisles reading ingredients just annoy me.  It’s not worse than the texting driver holding up traffic to complete the text.  I have learned that labels can be deceiving.  Here are a few of the stealth Gluten Red Flags to watch!

Gluten Free does not always mean gluten free.  Definitely avoid wheat, wheat gluten, barley, and rye.  However, malt or hydrolyzed vegetable protein are also enemies!  Be especially careful of cereals, pastas, cakes and cookies.  You can substitute with rice or potato flour.  Substitute rice noodles for traditional pasta. 

“Food Allergy and Food Intolerance” by Dr Jon Brostoff is an excellent resource in understanding food intolerance symptoms and has a large index of buzz words to watch for when reading labels.

Dee had a similar experience yesterday:

Sorry to pick on a brand name, but this is such a perfect example of why we need to read labels. I bought some things for a health fair at my work, and smoothies in a bottle were specifically requested. So I loaded my shopping cart with apples, bananas and Frusion. The first thing that caught my eye was 4% juice. As I was unpacking groceries, I decided to try one. Quickly glanced at the label without my reading glasses and saw 180 calories. My non-dairy coconut and almond milks are about 100 so when you add fruit I thought that sounded normal. Just now, I put on the glasses to see that — sure enough — high fructose corn syrup is item number four on the label, after yogurt, water and sugar. There are 33 grams of sugar. For comparison, Kool-Aid (pure liquid poison) has only 25. Fresh fruit is loaded with fiber but the drink has none. Here is a better smoothie option: 8 oz. rice milk (120 calories + 11 grams sugar) and 1 cup strawberries (65 calories and 12 grams sugar) plus 4 oz. Greek yogurt (65 calories + 4 grams sugar). Even though the calories are higher, the sugar is much lower and it doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup. It also has some great protein from the milk and yogurt and complex carbs from the fresh fruit. One real smoothie starts the day off right, no hunger until lunch. Even though processes and packaged foods are convenient, you always are better off with whole foods in their natural form. Remember that one very helpful website to use for learning about the nutritional benefits of most foods is www.calorie-count.com.

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It’s all about the color

Here are two simple tricks to determining whether or not the foods you are putting in your body are good for you. 1) how close to it’s original state is the food? 2) what color is it? In fruits and vegetables, their original state of raw is the state in which you capture all of the nutrients the produce has to offer. Steam it, and you retain a lot of the benefit. If you over-boil it or cook it out of a can…not so much. And pay attention to color. A general rule is that the more colorful the food, the healthier it is (usually). For example, dark lettuce varieties are healthier than light green iceburg. Many eating plans talk about avoiding the white stuff (sugar, white bread, salt, white rice, white pasta). Switching to other alternatives is definitely a plus. We will talk about this later when we discuss food absorption, but here are your better options:  whole grain bread, brown rice, whole grain pasta and as little sugar as possible.

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Green Bean Delivery

It may be my obsession with Pinterest or my overwhelming desire to believe I actually am Martha Stewart, but I am ecstatic each week when my $35 tub of fresh produce arrives from Green Bean Delivery.  My family members roll their eyes as I rush to pinterest to find recipes that will combine all my new food into fanciful, ingenious masterpieces.  Fresh produce at the supermarket is expensive so I put my sleuth skills to work to find alternatives.  Luckily, when you mix a nutritionist and an environmentalist with integrity, you get the perfect union!

Matt Ewer and Elizabeth Blessing are soul mates.  Drawn together by their passion for developing a healthier community, they combined their experiences to develop a marriage and business that will sustain integrity and value for the future.  They offer online home delivery of fresh,organic produce from local farmers and artisans.  The produce is affordable, convenient, and assessable to Midwest communities.  Thank you both for this service and for being “real” and doing what you believe is right.

Learn about Green Bean Delivery—-http://www.greenbeanindiana.com

Matt Ewer and Elizabeth Blessing, husband and wife, share equal passions for healthy community, nutrition education, sustainable farming and food networks. After a short stint on the West Coast, the pair decided to move back home to Indianapolis and put their experiences to the test by starting their own food delivery business.

In 2007, Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, formerly Farm Fresh Delivery, was founded in Indianapolis by Matt and Elizabeth. John Freeland and Matt attended college together and have remained good friends through the years. After Matt started the company, John, who is now the vice president, saw a need and desire for this type of service in Cincinnati. In early 2009, Green B.E.A.N. Delivery expanded to The Queen City.

 Matt has a degree in Environmental Management from Indiana University. After graduating in 2000, he worked at Stranger’s Hill organic farm in Bloomington, Ind., for two seasons. Enjoying his experience in farming led Matt to Washington State for another learning experience in organics. While in Seattle for four years, Matt was the general manager of Full Circle Farm, which was recently named “one of the most successful small farms in the country” by US News. He has experience in buying, growing and selling large volumes of produce and natural products, as well as marketing and managing a growing company.

Elizabeth has a Master of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University and a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from Indiana University. After graduating from Bastyr, she worked as a nutrition educator for Washington State University King County Extension’s Food $ense Program. While at Food $ense, she co-authored nutrition education curriculum. In 2007, Elizabeth became the on-site nutritionist and food service instructor at The Chef’s Academy, the Indiana Business College’s culinary school. Today, as the full-time staff nutritionist at Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, Beth creates unique recipes and information nutritional pieces for members to enjoy.

 Today, Green B.E.A.N. Delivery is a fast growing online home delivery service that provides organic produce and natural groceries to its members sourced from local farmers and artisans. The company’s goal is to make healthy, local and sustainably grown foods convenient, affordable and accessible to Midwest communities. Green B.E.A.N. Delivery’s focus is on improving the health of Midwest urban communities while strengthening its sustainable food businesses with both rural and urban roots.  

 The company currently serves Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Ind., Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., as well as the greater surrounding areas. Its service provides an avenue for local artisans and farmers to share their crafts and talents with local community members. Green B.E.A.N. Delivery services homes, and recently began delivering to offices in Cincinnati.

 Additionally, Green B.E.A.N. Delivery is focused on several other initiatives, such as Farm to Kitchen Foods, which produces homemade food for members.  Tiny Footprint Distribution by Green B.E.A.N. Delivery distributes all-natural, sustainably produced products to end retailers, and was created to help artisans with the biggest challenge they face—distribution. Garden on the Go, in collaboration with Indiana University Health, is a mobile produce truck that works to provide Indianapolis communities with better access to healthy foods. As others come to fruition, we will make the announcement.

Posted on by Angela in Body, Composting, Diet, Green Living, Nutrition, Organic, Weight Loss, Whole Food 1 Comment

I’m a plastic girl living in a plastic world!

“Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings….

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter? Read on to the end…gets very interesting!

  • Both have the same amount of calories.
  • Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to5 grams for margarine.
  • Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.
  • Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
  • Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!
  • Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.
  • Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.

And here’s the most disturbing fact…Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC… and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny micro-organisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?”

Posted on by Angela in Body, Diet, Guest Blog, Humor, Nutrition, Organic, Uncategorized, Whole Food Leave a comment

Alone together

Christopher Nagy M.D. is a man on a mission. Dr. Nagy has a great deal of medical experience as an Orthopaedic Surgeon over the past 15 years. But, as someone who is passionate about real wellness (rather than merely treating symptoms), he knows that the current practice of medicine does not have all the answers. Dr. Nagy’s goal is to help educate and introduce an important treatment option in medicine, bioidentical hormone optimization. Your Personal Wellness Center was established to offer proactive and interested individuals bioidentical hormone optimization. The purpose of Your Personal Wellness Center includes helping to increase awareness of the options available to help improve one’s quality of life and make possible a healthier, more vibrant life.

Tirelessly studying and reviewing the latest literature and keeping abreast of the newest and most exciting developments allows Dr. Nagy to bring you the most current and efficacious treatments to guide you in the aging process. Patients can rest assured that they have an extremely strong advocate and partner who will guide them where they desire to go on their journey to ultimate wellness.

Dr. Nagy received his medical degree (M.D.) at Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio, in 1990. He is practicing as a Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon in Salisbury, North Carolina. With his passion to help people beyond the scope of Orthopaedics, he has furthered his training as a fellow in the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. His certification in Mastering the Protocols of Hormone Optimization came under the tutelage of Dr. Neal Rouzier, a renown authority on the subject. Click here to watch Dr. Rouzier briefly explain the many benefits of bioidentical hormone optimization.

Dr. Nagy created Your Personal Wellness Center in 2010. His mission is to assist patients in receiving the treatments that will allow them to improve their lives beyond what traditional medicine offers. Proper treatment can help one live life as it was meant to be. This type of medical program requires active participation by both parties to bring about the optimal results that are possible.

Personally, Dr. Nagy is married to a lovely wife and has three beautiful daughters. He loves spending time with family, camping, exercising and relaxing together. He enjoys music, Broadway musicals and is frequently caught singing throughout the day. Dr. Nagy has always been a strong advocate of health and wellness. So much so, that he has competed and won on the natural bodybuilding circuit. These life experiences have taught him the level of commitment necessary to achieve a goal and to discover what it takes to achieve ones dreams.

 

 Dr Nagy writes:

 ALONE TOGETHER:

In an effort to improve the whole person, I am always looking for relevant information that will cater not only to the needs of the body but also the needs of the mind/soul. I recently discovered this TED talk by Sherry Turkle, PhD. that delves into a topic that I believe many of us are aware of but possibly haven’t spent a great deal of time considering. A quote from Dr. Turkle quite nicely explains her premise:

“We’re lonely, but we’re afraid of intimacy. And so from social networks to sociable robots, we’re designing technologies that will give us the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.”

As we embrace the thrill and intelligence of technology we, in many ways, lose the intimacy of relationships. It is the loss of human interaction that may even further lead us into a sense of loneliness. Being ever more connected, we are also ever more alone.

The points Dr. Turkle makes are quite relevant to our modern society. We long for connectivity but cherish control. As a side effect of trying to “control the conversation” we lose the face to face interaction often necessary to truly connect. Are we dumbing down our communication by thinking only in quick thoughts that can be expressed in 140 characters or less (no, I don’t have a twitter account…yet)?

This post has already exceeded the collective attention span so I will leave you with an excellent talk by Dr. Turkle. The information she provides is thought provoking and I hope it will make you re-evaluate the way you communicate and maintain your relationships. Technology is not bad, we just have to evaluate how it can help, how it can hurt and what price we’re paying for the convenience. This talk, sadly caused me to realize that my primary time of solitude pretty much only occurs when I am mowing the lawn. Other than that, I’m connected, on the move and entrenched in the current system. A wake up call to change.

Take time to smell the roses and share yourself with your loved ones,

Chris

 

 

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/371249/january-17-2011/sherry-turkle

 
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2012 at 1:09 am and is filed under Articles, Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
 

 

Posted on by Angela in Family, Guest Blog, Mind, Spirit Leave a comment

Cheat Day!

 

From our friend Kevin Deeth:

A wake up call statement before we get started. The FDA makes no serious effort to control the use of the word “natural” on nutrition labels. Case in point: 7UP boasts that it’s made with “100% Natural Flavors” when, in fact, the soda is sweetened with a decidedly un-natural dose of high fructose corn syrup. Be careful of misleading food labels.

The concept of a cheat meal or cheat day has been around since the inception of diet’s themselves. Staying disciplined for 7-14 days in a row can be both physically and mentally challenging. Whether you are trying to gain muscle or lose weight, eating a disciplined diet that is filled with protein, healthy complex carbohydrates, and adequate caloric intake can be become monotonous. This is where the “cheat meal” or “cheat day” comes into play. Most of the issues people have with dieting are mental and not physical. Cravings are powerful and can be taxing on the physical and mental side of humans. The good thing is cheat days or cheat meals can actually have physical benefits for your metabolism as well as giving you a mental break

Physically

Cheat meals keep the body guessing. Similar to when your muscles adapt to the same exercises and rep range from routine and repetitiveness, your metabolism adjusts based on your calorie levels in the same fashion. Just when your body starts to think it has things figured out you surprise it with a radical change in your diet. If you eat the same thing everyday within a few weeks your body will adapt to the caloric intake. You have to spice things up and keep the body confused.

The Science

Leptin is a protein hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. Leptin signifies a slowing metabolism. Whenever you are on a diet for an extended period of time, your body will begin to adjust its metabolic functions in an effort to ‘make due’ with the amount of fuel that it is being given. Your goal is to periodically kick your leptin levels back up so as to avoid the intense physical hunger and the slowed-to-a-crawl metabolism.

Psychologically

The cheat meal can provide a mental break even more so than as a physical break. Mid-week cravings can be pushed aside knowing that you have an awesome reward in the form of a meal coming on the weekend. Allowing yourself this mental break can inhibit future cravings in the weeks to come. 

Recommendations

Leptin is highly responsive to glucose metabolism. So, when eating a cheat meal,  you will benefit much more if the majority of your excess calories are coming from good sources of carbohydrates that will turn into glucose.  One day a week increase your caloric intake by 25 to 50% in any way you want but preferably in the form of healthy carbohydrates. The sudden spike in your calories will keep the body guessing and force your metabolism to readjust following the meal along with giving you a mental break.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments.

From South Bend,

Kevin
 
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Posted on by Angela in Diet, Exercise, Guest Blog, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Whole Food Leave a comment

Fish Burps!

Dear Dee—

The good thing is that your cholesterol profile isn’t actually that bad.   The fact that your HDL is high is wonderful.  That represents your “good” cholesterol and it will actually give you a negative risk factor for heart disease if it hits the number 65!  Most people need to have an LDL below 130.  You are on the right track and if you keep exercising –that HDL will continue to shoot up.  Fish oil 1000mg three times a day will help bring your triglycerides down.  Put the tabs in the freezer so they will not thaw until they hit your small intestine.  Most people stop the supplements complaining of “fish burps.”

 

Dee writes:

My work had a free health screening today. With a finger-prick blood sample and a ten minute wait, they were able to give me some test results and recommendations. This is exciting because it will be a great baseline for future comparison. As I’ve mentioned, I’m 49 and 50 pounds overweight. That calculates to a BMI (body mass index) of 29.3, right on the borderline of overweight and obese. Blood pressure is just slightly high at 122/84 and triglycerides are high at 225. Glucose is good – 107. And the ratio of good/bad cholesterol is good even though my HDL (good) and LDL (bad) levels are a bit off. HDL should be below 40 and mine is 56, LDL should be below 100 and mine is 123. Here is the great part: everything I need to do to change these numbers for the better are (drumroll) eat right and exercise. That’s the magic formula that everyone wants to take in single-dose pill form for instant results. Can you imagine if it was that easy? What’s that saying about anything worth having is worth working for? I’d take a cheap, black market, shortcut to health if I could. But I can’t. Logging off to go walk on the beach for two miles. Anyone who is joining me, keep up the good work and send me a comment so we can support each other.

 

 

 

Posted on by Angela in Diet, Guest Blog, Humor, Nutrition, Weight Loss 1 Comment

Bring on the Juice!

Well, if Joe Cross can cure his chronic urticaria in 60 days by going on a juice fast, I figured it was time for me to start practicing what I preach.  I went to Georgetown Market (don’t try Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods-they don’t carry them) and bought a juicer.  I assembled it last night;  I started it on high-speed and blew a fuse after refusing to read the directions.    I was up bright and early the next day to begin experimenting.  I started with left over green beans, broccoli, apples and black raspberries.  Tim, Emma, and I loved it!  My dad stopped by for coffee and took one sip and almost threw up.  I made the mistake of telling him the ingredients before he tasted it.  I decided to start looking up some recipes on juicing.  The hodge podge of throwing stuff in the juicer might not be the best path.  I then found Linda Wagner’s site with tons of great recipes.  So tonight we drink our vegetables!  Here  is her site:   http://www.lindawagner.net

Posted on by Angela in Diet, Green Living, Nutrition, Organic, Weight Loss, Whole Food Leave a comment

Getting the Best of Food

A note on weight loss:  Think of metabolism like a wood burning fire, you have to eat something to get it started and then you have to keep feeding it wood all day to keep the fire roaring.

Here is Dee’s guest blog today.  Thanks Dee!

 

For a very long time I skipped breakfast, probably since college when I started drinking coffee. A few years ago, though, I learned why eating breakfast matters so much. I’ve heard people say that when they eat breakfast they are much more hungry before lunchtime than if they don’t eat anything at all. For me, the reason is that some foods sort of wake your stomach up and — if the foods are simple carbs, such as sugary cereals and white bread/bagels — they are so rapidly digested that you ARE hungrier than if you hadn’t eaten at all. Now I try to stick to a couple of basic foods in the morning and they have worked at successfully keeping me full until lunch. Best bets for breakfast: fruit smoothie with 1 C fruit, 1 C non-dairy milk (coconut, soy, almond, rice) and 1/2 C plain yogurt. Two other good options are whole oats, not instant, or an egg. All of these options contain protein and are free from the starch or sugar that causes mid-morning starvation. Oh yeah, and here’s the other very important reason for breakfast: eating breakfast kick starts your metabolism…the sooner you start eating for the day, the sooner your body starts burning. It’s all good!

Posted on by Angela in Body, Diet, Green Living, Guest Blog, Nutrition, Organic, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, Whole Food Leave a comment