Scrumptious Pancakes!

You must must must try these pancakes, they're phenomenal AND healthy.  Notice the gluten-free ingredients.  Many of us have wheat-intolerances and don't even know it, so it's good to go without it for a while and see how you feel.  Then when you reintroduce the wheat, see how your body reacts.  Mine usually FREAKS!

These pancakes are loaded with fiber, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, and the cinnamon helps to stabilize blood sugar.  Power breakfast!! I also like to eat these as a post-workout snack with a little almond butter for protein.

RECIPE
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup fresh ground raw almonds or almond meal
1/3 cup ground flax seeds (or flax meal)
1/4 t salt
3/4 t baking soda
3/4 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
2 organic, free range eggs
2 cups organic milk or any milk substitute
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1 t vanilla


Mix the first 8 ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Mix the remaining wet ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour into the dry mixture. Mix thoroughly. Heat a large fry pan or griddle on medium heat, add butter and/or coconut oil to coat. Add batter to preferred pancake size and cook until the first bubbles pop. Change heat to lowest setting and flip. Cook for about a minute or 2 and serve with drizzles or puddles of your favorite maple syrup.

Optional:  Add blueberries or mixed berries to the batter right before cooking.  OMG they are delicious!  They might turn a funky gray color, as my roommate cheerfully pointed out.  But you won't care about color once you taste them.

Facial time!

After a long day of cleaning and exercising (2 walks and lifting at the gym!), I relaxed on the couch for a couple hours with my roommate, then headed to my room to read before bedtime.  My skin was feeling a bit greasy and yet dead at the same time, so I ran to the bathroom and put a layer of honey on my face.  

Honey? Are you thinking I'm absolutely nuts?  Perhaps.  Just hear me out.

First of all, let's look at the properties of honey  Did you know it's antibacterial AND antimicrobrial?  And what causes blemishes?  Bacteria and dirt clogging pores.  Great.  Plus it's chock full of antioxidants, helping prevent UV and free radical damage from the sun and pollution, and is anti-inflammatory.   

Second, it tastes so freakin delicious, you can lick it right off.  I'm about to go to bed, so I probably won't.

I wouldn't slather it on by itself like I did.  It started to itch my face and drip down towards my chin like drops of sticky rain.  So for a facial mask, mix 2 tablespoons of honey with 2 tablespoons of milk or rice milk.  Spread the mixture over your face and throat, leave it on for 10 minutes, then rinse off with warm water.  

You can also make masks blending avocado and honey, chocolate and honey, olive oil and honey...see what your skin likes! Go crazy! 

Honey also keeps your skin smooth and soft.  Even Cleopatra used it with milk in her baths.  It's a great moisturizer!  Try adding 2 tablespoons of honey to 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice for your own special dry skin remedy!

Laugh your butt off!

No foodie tips today.  Today we focus on fun and laughter as healing mechanisms.  

My friend Hilary and I went to Disneyland for her birthday today.  I had never been there before, and it truly was the happiest place on Earth.  Neither one of us could focus on our worries or insecurities while screaming our heads off in Space Mountain.  Or while we laughed till we cried when Hilary made me sit in the front of the Splash Mountain ride and I got completely SOAKED with freezing cold water.  Or when we sat in tea cups to have our pictures taken.

And if you can't go to Disneyland, here are some Fun Commandments written by Dr. Kuhn, who saw incredible results from bringing laughter into hospitals.   You can easily implement his tips into any lifestyle:

Dr. Kuhn's Fun Commandments

1. Always Go the Extra Smile
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with the most energy. It is the one strategy most effective for increasing the fun in your life. Smiling is a way to open your heart and at the same time touch the hearts of others. We have measured decreased stress, improved immunity, increased tolerance for pain and frustration, and higher levels of creativity - even from a "fake" smile!
2. Tell the Truth
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you keep an inventory of yourself. Our humor natures are open windows to the truth; therefore, if you want your sense of humor to be strong and available, you must make the effort to be true to yourself. This Commandment promotes trust in yourself and keeps you on a steady, forward pace since you will be much more cognizant of what is working in your life and what isn't.
3. Laugh With Yourself First
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you take yourself less seriously. When you make a mistake, laughing with yourself keeps you from beating up on yourself. It is a boost to your self-esteem because it is a vote of confidence in yourself. This Commandment sends a clear message to you that you are okay. You know that your foibles do not form links in an unbreakable chain, because you are learning from them and becoming more effective.
4. Welcome Your Mistakes
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one allows you to stop being so hard on yourself. Jerry Lewis once told me that he is always nervous before he goes on stage, but "the trick is to harness the fear and make it your ally." In other words, don't be afraid of your mistakes - welcome them! In fact, your mistakes can be so helpful to you that I suggest making them on purpose. You're going to make mistakes anyway. Making them on purpose helps you turn your fear into fun.
5. Listen Very Carefully
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one keeps you from being too self-centered. Successful comedians will tell you that the capacity to listen is their number one creative tool. Yet listening is an often overlooked and under taught skill and most of us are very poor at it, preferring to form our next phrases rather than hear what is being said to us. To really listen we must turn the volume down on our own internal chatter and this allows us tocommunicate from our hearts rather than our heads.
6. Let Go Frequently
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with serenity. If you've ever learned to juggle you quickly discovered that we all have a tendency to hold on to objects for too long. The same phenomenon occurs in life and, since we are all jugglers - juggling our family, our work, our community responsibilities, and our own care, letting go is a vital skill that willprevent stress and give peace of mind.
7. Challenge Your Assumptions
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one keeps you open minded and learning. It is also an effective way to bring humor into your life. We make assumptions because it saves us time and energy in our busy lives, but assumptions can keep us from growing and changing if we are not capable or willing to see new perspectives. Get in the habit of seeing things around you in a different way and your sense of humor will become supercharged.
8. Stay Focused, Yet Flexible
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one eases you through changes and transitions. This strategy is about keeping your priorities clear, but keeping your options open. You can't help but become an inspired opportunist when you develop a trait for seeing the victories inherent in what you used to call defeats. As you'll come to find out, this trait is shared by all successful people.
9. Act and Interact with People
   Of all my Fun Commandments, this one gives you a constant and reliable source of amusement. Reaching out and touching someone is often a learned skill, but it pays big dividends. Realize that taking chances means you will make mistakes, but they will happen less often if you are willing to learn from them. You'll also find that a failed action is much more valuable to your health and success than a failure to act.
10. Practice Wanting What You Have, Rather Than Getting What You Want
    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one helps you attract, and hold on to, abundance. One of the great paradoxes of life is that, as long as you try to fill your inner void with things outside yourself, your void only gets bigger. Learning to love what we have and who we are - right now - opens us up to receive so much more, because we want things for the right reason. We're no longer trying to "fix" ourselves.
11. Choose to Motivate Yourself With Fun Rather Than Fear
    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one teaches you how to set goals and achieve them. You really only have the choices of fun or fear when it comes to motivation and they both work well. The problem, however, with choosing fear is that it is impossible to sustain the motivation without harming ourselves through burn-out and stress. Choosing fun to motivate ourselves is the simple difference of striving toward positive goals, rather than escaping negative ones.
12. Celebrate Everything
    Of all my Fun Commandments, this one provides you with abundant joy every day. If you make a practice of celebrating events you normally treated as mundane, you will be filled with an energy and spirit that you haven't felt since childhood. Left to choose between feeling like a jaded pessimist or a naive optimist (of course, I'm using two extremes as examples), why wouldn't you choose the latter? Either way, your life will still unfold around you - but you will see it as a gift.

Taking a break from our serious adult brains today was absolutely rejuvenating.  When was the last time (sorry but without alcohol!  That's not really a true release...), that you did something spontaneous, fun, and laughed till your abs ached?  If you can't remember or it's been even over a month, I BEG you, go do it now now now!

Are you addicted to salt?

If so, you may be sending yourself down the road to high blood pressure, bloating, cellulite, clogged arteries...okay okay I'll stop there. But seriously, let's go over this salt thing briefly.

Our bodies do need sodium for proper transportation of nutrients to cells, and healthy function of blood vessels.  We lose sodium through our sweat and urine, especially athletes, and so some replenishment is needed.  However, our requirements can be met by eating foods naturally containing sodium and therefore we do not need to turn to the highly concentrations in the salt shaker.  These foods include seaweeds, celery, fish, eggs, nuts, pineapple, and even cow's milk.  

Be sure to watch out for hidden sodium in processed, canned and boxed goods.  Salt is used as a preservative to add shelf life to products.  And most restaurants love throwing in the salt "for flavor" rather than other fantastic and healthier spices, so be wary when dining away from home.  

Eating from the organic, whole food source ensures we don't overdose on our sodium levels and put ourselves at risk.  The human body needs the delicate balance between sodium and potassium, and too much of one throws off the other.  Fresh fruits and vegetables will add potassium to your diet.  Hence another reason why you should eat an apple a day!

Spring Cleaning-Part 2

Today we turn to spring nutrition.  This is the season to tend to our livers.  Our bodies have processed and stored Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas cookies, New Years' champagne, and Valentine's Day chocolates, and now it's time to let it all go.  If we don't clean out now, we shall be holding excess fat over summer, and thus become overheated as we literally bake our own fat in the sun.  Not to mention all the toxins floating around in our blood.  Gross.

Think green.  The more green vegetables and salads you can eat, the better.  It would behoove you to eat only the most natural, unprocessed foods you can find.  These are easier for your body to break down, and the less work your liver has to do in terms of digestion, and therefore can work on more important functions.  

Natural and unprocessed means nothing that comes in a box!  Stay away from the inner aisles of the grocery store and instead turn to organic fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, whole grains (brown rice, oats, whole wheat, rye, millet, quinoa), and beans.  Dairy, eggs, fried foods, and meat tend to be acidic and mucus producing.  And we want to clean out the mucus during springtime.  Think again of your fat and mucus baking in the summertime.  Yuck.  You're just asking for weight gain and blemishes.

To support your liver, besides the cleansing food choices, Dr. Elson Haas gives these 5 tips:

1. Avoid toxins such as household and industrial chemicals, alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, and many prescription drugs. 

2. Drink lots of fluids and use fresh lemon in your water for liver cleansing.

3. Fresh organic cold-pressed olive oil is the best for the liver.

4. Exercise and sweat regularly to help with liver detoxification.

5. Milk thistle herb (silymarin) and olive leaf extract support and disinfect the liver.

Also consider fresh vegetable juices, or greens powders.  Cell-nique is a great detoxifying beverage that actually tastes delicious.  Check the fridges at your local Whole Foods or health food store, or check cell-nique.com.  

And always email me if you need more suggestions or help with your spring cleansing!  I'll be back later this week for another posting!

Spring Cleaning

Well tomorrow is April 1st.  There's no avoiding it now: we have definitely entered SPRING!  And whether you live in an adorable apartment like mine, or a house, or perhaps even a beloved cardboard box, it's time to clean out the crud!

When we let go of what we no longer need, new and good things can come into our life.  For example, by going through your closet and getting rid of the ten t-shirts you haven't touched in years, you will now be able to store other things in the free space, or perhaps buy new t-shirts you'll actually wear.  

This goes for our brains as well.  Negativity, fear, doubt...any emotions that are no longer serving you, that you truly have no use for, you need to let go.  Make room for the warm and fuzzy feelings that will give you the confidence and strength you need to accomplish anything you want in your life.  You can practice in the mornings, evenings, or anytime the not-so-good thoughts come up.  

Sitting down in a comfortable position, bring the feeling to focus in your mind.  What images come up for you?  How does your body react to this feeling?  Any tightness, soreness, tears?  Just be with it for a moment, then imagine a stream of fresh, shimmering water falling from the ceiling or sky, and pouring through the top of your head, through your body, and out through the ground.  Keep the water coming, flushing out what no longer serves you, until you feel at peace, clean and free.

Next week I'll bring in the spring foods!

Weekly Yum-Yum = Sunflower Seed Bread from Mestemacher.  This whole grain bread is wheat-free for those with food sensitivities, has 3 grams of fiber per slice, and no preservatives or fillers.  Absolutely delicious with peanut or almond butter! 

Welcome!

This is my very first posting for my very first blog!  How exciting!  

It's been an interesting last couple weeks.  After leaving/losing my job due to a broken leg and sprained knee, I decided that it was a sign and time to commit to my nutrition counseling business once and for all.  So I am now in the process of getting a logo, brand, website, all that good stuff so I can start marketing myself and my amazing skills :-)

What I need right now is a NAME for my business that encompasses what I do, but that is also unique, captures interest, and is FUN.  Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  To see exactly what I do, here's the link for the bare-bones site that my nutrition school set up for me. http://websites.integrativenutrition.com/mbutler/Index.aspx  I also want to throw in the yoga aspect of my business, so keep that in mind as well.  

I'm looking forward to this fabulous opportunity to share myself with others, and to be able to help my clients realize their full potential health and happiness.  I hope to inspire everyone around me to create the life of their dreams, because we all deserve the best.