Marilu Henner's Blog, page 166

3 things to do TODAY to prepare for Booty Camp

Booty Camp for a Beach Bod * A.L.O.H.A. from Paradise starts Monday, May 2, but COUNTDOWN starts Thursday, April 28. Are you ready?

Drink half your weight in ounces of water each day (maximum of 100 oz/day), starting TODAY. If you weigh 200 lbs or more, drink 100 oz of water. If you weigh 150 lbs, drink 75 oz of water.

Clean out all the chips, cookies, and candy from the house. Do not buy more. If you want something sweet, eat a piece of fruit. If you want something salty, have a few nuts (preferably raw).

Break a sweat and sweat for 10. Put some effort and energy into your favorite physical activity (dancing, running, bicycling, basketball, a cardio DVD, jumping rope, kickboxing, etc.) so that you start to sweat; keep moving for 10 minutes. Whew!

Members are automatically enrolled in online classes.

Not a member? Join now, and get started on YOUR hot beach bod!

 

Meatless Monday recipe from Marilu's table * Shepherd's pie

Things we love about Shepherd's Pie – kids love it, it's all familiar flavors, it's a good meal for a day when everyone's in and out on different schedules, and it makes great leftovers.

Things we love about this version – everything in the first list plus – it's vegan.

While it takes a bit of prep time to assemble this dish, it's worth it. The recipe comes from Marilu's book Healthy Life Kitchen. We've rewritten it here with instructions to streamline the preparation.

Tempeh is sold in the refrigerated section of your health food store or natural foods section of your grocery store. It's one of the healthiest ways to eat soy, as it's a fermented soy product. Sometimes it comes as a soy and grain blend, and either way is fine for this recipe.

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Shepherd's Pie

Green * Serves 8

2 pounds peeled potatoes

2 Tablespoons Earth Balance margarine

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup soy milk

1 cup lentils

2 cups water

1 bay leaf

1 package tempeh

1 Tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

1 Tablespoon Bragg's Liquid Aminos

1 Tablespoon oil

2 coarsely chopped carrots

3 coarsely chopped stalks celery

1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped mushrooms

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon marjoram

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Place peeled potatoes in pot of water. Boil until soft when tested with a fork (about 15-20 minutes). Drain potatoes and return to the pot. Add margarine, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Mash until soft, adding soy milk to achieve desired consistency.

After starting potatoes, prepare the lentils. Sort and wash the lentils. Boil the 2 cups of water, add the bay leaf and lentils, cover and cook until lentils are soft (about 25 minutes).

While the potatoes and lentils are cooking, prepare the tempeh. Preheat the oven to 350F. Cube and toss the tempeh with tamari and Bragg's. Place cubes on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Leave the oven on.

Prepare the vegetables. In a saute pan over medium-high heat, add oil and saute onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms, sage, thyme, marjoram, salt, and pepper. Cook until soft (about 8-10 minutes). (It's a good time to mash the potatoes.)

Add the cooked lentils and tempeh to the cooked vegetables; mix well and pour into an 11×7 casserole dish. Top with the mashed potatoes, covering the entire casserole. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

 

Spirit Sunday * Beautiful earth

If you celebrate today's holiday, Happy Easter!

If you don't, happy weekend!

Either way, enjoy reflecting on the beauty of the Earth.

 

 

Do you want a beach bod for summer?

Stay tuned for information about the next online class at Marilu.com….

BOOTY CAMP FOR A BEACH BOD * A.L.O.H.A from Paradise!

Class starts with Countdown on Thursday, April 28.

Photo by Jacinto Correia

Sign up for Booty Camp.

 

Food labels explained

We found this great list of words used on food labels and what they mean. Here's the beginning of the article to explain it more – we encourage you to click the link and read the whole thing, plus the comments.

These days, grocery shopping involves a lot of reading. Food is rarely content to just be, and instead, must include dozens of labels designating it as CAGE-FREE, HIGH IN ANTIOXIDANTS, or the dreaded ORGANIC. And even if you know your PASTURED from your HUMANELY-RAISED chickens, odds are you still need a PhD to decode most of the other language.

So, to make navigating your supermarket a tad easier, here are 26 food labels, defined and explained in terms understandable to humans. I have to be honest – 36 hours ago, I couldn't tell the difference between LOW-FAT, LITE and REDUCED-FAT. Now, I can. And I have this guide to consult when I forget.

~ Cheap, Healthy, Good blog

 

Put your gloves on…

Put your (garden) gloves on, and get gardening!

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to develop a close, personal relationship with the Earth?

Dig in the dirt, figure out what it needs and provide it, put in some plants or seeds, water when it's dry, keep it neat, nurture the plants along, and harvest the fruits of your labor.

Everyone can grow something – vegetables, fruits, herbs, grains, legumes, and flowers. Yes, flowers count. They make the world a more beautiful place.

Everyone can plant seeds somewhere – in a field, in a yard, in a pot on the deck or windowsill.

It's a great hobby for families. Kids can take responsibility for a plant, or they can help with the whole garden. When the peas or cherry tomatoes or strawberries come in, kids love to eat straight from the garden (there is nothing like sun-warmed produce, picked and popped directly into your mouth!).

If you're leery of gardening, start with a few pots of herbs. If you have questions, ask at your local garden center, ask your neighbors, ask your mom. You already know someone who gardens. If it feels scary or intimidating, remember they're just plants, and you won't hurt anyone or anything by trying. If it doesn't work out exactly as you planned, well then, welcome to the world of farming, and say hello to the financial risk that farmers take every year.

Get familiar with the rhythm of the Earth, the cycle of growth, the balance between wet/dry, cold/hot, early/late. Learn the importance of good topsoil and clean water. Connect with your the lifestyle of your ancestors.

Plant a garden. You'll grow, too.

Happy Earth Day!

 

Featured recipe from Marilu's table * Banana ginger pancakes

Something fun for breakfast!

This recipe is from The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook: 125 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Jump-Start Weight Loss and Help You Feel Great, by Dr. Neal Barnard and Robyn Webb.

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Banana Ginger Pancakes

Green * Serves 4

1-1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons agave nectar

1-1/4 cups vanilla soy milk

3 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

vegetable oil cooking spray (or vegetable oil on a paper towel to wipe the pan)

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt. In another bowl, combine the agave nectar, soy milk, applesauce, and vanilla. Add the liquid to the flour mixture. Mix until just combined (the batter will be lumpy). Add the bananas.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, then coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot skillet. The pancake is ready to flip when tiny bubbles appear on the top and burst, and the pancake is lightly browned on the edges. Flip the pancake and cook for about 1-2 minutes, until the underside is lightly browned. Adjust your heat so that the pancakes cook for about 1-2 minutes per side.

 

Put on a smile and get moving

Spring just seems so … violent this year. So many storms, so much action, so little time to be outside and enjoy the day.

Well, my umbrella's tired of the weather wearing me down!

So put on a smile – you should look as good as your outlook; you've got a paradise inside – and get moving.

Let your endorphins bring on the sunshine in your day. Create the attitude you want to enjoy and project, and then share it.

//www.marilu.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/02 - Sunshine Song Live On Earth Version.mp3

 

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Amazon.com Widgets

 

Is sugar toxic?

Well, we think so, and we're in the minority. But there's some evidence that sugar (including high-fructose corn syrup) is more toxic than most people want to know.

This article from The New York Times Magazine is worth a read. We're including a rather lengthy teaser, in the hopes that it gets you to read the whole article. What we've shared here is the tip of the iceberg – if you read to the end, you'll find out what the research is showing and why the researchers have stopped consuming sugar.

On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth," which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology.

The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig's impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes that sugar is a "toxin" or a "poison…."

Lustig's argument, however, is not about the consumption of empty calories — and biochemists have made the same case previously, though not so publicly. It is that sugar has unique characteristics, specifically in the way the human body metabolizes the fructose in it, that may make it singularly harmful, at least if consumed in sufficient quantities.

The phrase Lustig uses when he describes this concept is "isocaloric but not isometabolic." This means we can eat 100 calories of glucose (from a potato or bread or other starch) or 100 calories of sugar (half glucose and half fructose), and they will be metabolized differently and have a different effect on the body. The calories are the same, but the metabolic consequences are quite different.

The fructose component of sugar and H.F.C.S. is metabolized primarily by the liver, while the glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized by every cell in the body. Consuming sugar (fructose and glucose) means more work for the liver than if you consumed the same number of calories of starch (glucose). And if you take that sugar in liquid form — soda or fruit juices — the fructose and glucose will hit the liver more quickly than if you consume them, say, in an apple (or several apples, to get what researchers would call the equivalent dose of sugar). The speed with which the liver has to do its work will also affect how it metabolizes the fructose and glucose.

In animals, or at least in laboratory rats and mice, it's clear that if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers.

If what happens in laboratory rodents also happens in humans, and if we are eating enough sugar to make it happen, then we are in trouble.

~ Gary Taubes in The New York Times Magazine, April 17, 2011

 

Good plan, solid foundation, steady progress

Building a successful financial future is similar to building a solid home.

You have to carefully plan it, and then select the best materials to build it. You need a strong foundation, a solid frame, and every board and brick need to be carefully placed. Each aspect, no matter how small, contributes to the overall construction, just as every dollar of a paycheck contributes toward your financial goals.

It's all about patience and consistency.

Coach CindyR suggests starting by dreaming about what it is you really want. Close your eyes and visualize your financial future and the gifts it will bring you. Write down those dreams. Think about what you can do to make them real – some steps will be big, some will be small; some steps will be in the future, some will be in the present. Do what you can today to make your dreams come true.