Sunday Story...Playtime

Sunday Story…Playtime

Some of us are “play” challenged. We work hard at work, we work out hard, we go home and work some more in the garden or the house or the garage, we get up early to get more work done, we work at keeping the house clean and we just flat out work. But when do we ever just play?

I recently read an article about kids and weight training and exercise and working out. And the bottom line is that we should first make sure they are playing enough. And we should make sure that any “exercise” we have our kids do shows up as play not work.

Here is another interesting fact…people who are active have active kids. Isn’t that amazing! Your kids take their cues from you, their parents! If your idea of play is to sit at the computer, or in front of the television it is very likely that your kids will find their play outlets in the same neighborhoods.

The good news is you can shift your attitude about play. It isn’t that hard. Take your kids to the park and let them do whatever it is they want to do. And then do it with them. Put the phone down, stop texting and emailing, and go do what the kids are doing.

And let them do what they want. If they want to climb a tree, let them. If they want to swing really high, scary high, let them. And climb that tree with them, swing right alongside of them. You might just re-discover a part of you that has been buried for far too long, that you may have imprisoned your inner child behind the bars of work. Your child wants to play with you. Your inner child wants to get out and play as well.

Children run and jump and climb and invent games. This is how we find our place in the world. This is how we discover the joys of movement. Remember swimming? Just swimming? Not to see how many laps you can get, or how fast you can cover those laps, but just frolicking in the water. Getting out and jumping in with a big splash, diving under the water and surfacing like a whale, floating on your back and spitting water, having splash fights and playing “Marco Polo”. Just playing in the water…how long has it been? If you have to think about it it is probably too long.

And what about climbing a tree? Or playing hopscotch? Or jumping rope for fun with friends? Or making a fort of pillows and blankets and then crawling around it? Hide and seek? Kick the can? Tag? A simple game of Tag you’re it? You know where you just run around and try to tag someone or not get tagged? What about dodge ball or kick ball? Just games where the score doesn’t matter and no one remembers anything except how much fun it was and the only concern is when are we going to play again?

Our children get very little free time to just play and explore movement and how their bodies move. Many schools no longer allow tag or other “contact” games. As a result our children don’t discover how to play “nice” with each other. They don’t know where the limits and boundaries are and they are constantly going over them because they have no idea they even exist. The recesses the kids do get are shorter and often lost to incomplete homework or other disciplinary measures. P.E. is pretty much non-existent in today’s educational system. So the burden is going to fall on us…the parents and family members who want to see our kids grow up healthy, strong and fit with a love of play and movement.

The side benefit for us is huge though. We get up and get moving. We start burning some calories that would have just become little bigger love handles, or muffin tops, or saddle bags. We start relieving stress…that is correct...stress is relieved when we play. Have you ever seen a child worried about his grades or the spelling test when he is going down a slide screaming? I didn’t think so. Here’s another little side benefit…when I have less stress I have less of a hormone called cortisol which is one of them main hormones that tells my body to hold onto fat and to keep storing fat. If I play more I will sleep better, also reducing my stress levels. If I play more I will be connected to the people I play with and the world I am playing in. When I am more connected to those things on a playful level I will feel better and guess what? Yep, you got it…less stress.

There is our prescription for the week. Go outside and play for an hour or more. No agenda, no winners or losers, no teaching, no nothing…just pure unadulterated fun play. Go for it…take the kids and just go!

Last week after seeing the video from Dr. Terry Wahls I decided to eat more greens. Here is a simple recipe that anyone can do…
Put some greens…kale, spinach, parsley, cilantro, chard (etc) in a slow cooker (crock pot ---I had to dig one out of my garage) or in a large pot on the stove. Add water or stock. Cook covered all day on low. Eat like soup when the greens are all soft and mushy.
Here are some variables:
Put some chopped up bacon in the pot first and let the bacon (or ham, or hambone , or ?) cook a bit and then put the greens on top.
Throw other veggies in…broccoli was good for me, but carrots, beets, rutabagas would all work. They are all going to end up mushy anyway.
Use spices!!! I used turmeric and cumin, garlic powder, paprika and salt and pepper. My version is pretty spicy which is how I like it.
Make sure you drink/eat the juice. The nutrients from the veggies are infused in that liquid and that is what you want in your body!

Play more, eat your vegetables, and play while you are cooking! Have fun!
By the way I am taking reservations for my first cooking class, gourmet dinner garden fundraiser. If you are reading this and interested let me know…seating the first time around will be very limited so first come first served!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...There is no Magic Pill. Or is there?

Sunday Story…There is No Magic Pill. Or is there?

This is something I have said before…”There is no magic pill”. There is no one thing to take or do that will turn your life around, make things easier, or magically turn your body into the shape you desire. There is no eat this and you will find your perfect weight and never have to struggle with craving and eating the “wrong” stuff again. This is no one workout routine that get you the 20” biceps and 500 pound squat (if that is what you want!). But we all know that. And we all keep searching for “it”. Whatever “it” is? Honestly we have been searching for these things for millennia…the holy grail, the golden city of El Dorado, the fountain of youth, the formula to turn lead into gold, the pill that lets you eat anything you want and lose weight and enjoy perfect health, or the cure for everything that ails you. We haven’t found it yet and we never will.

Or maybe we already have it and we have been ignoring it all these years. Maybe it is too easy, too simple for us to really grasp what the answer is. Maybe we just don’t want to put the effort into making it work and maybe the magic pill isn’t really a pill at all.

This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc details a Doctor’s fight back from the edge of paralysis from a particularly insidious form of MS (multiple sclerosis). If you are not familiar with MS it is a disease where the myelin sheath that protects the nerves is attacked and breaks down. Over time this will result in impaired motor movement and eventually paralysis and death. It is slow, painful and incurable. Except for Dr. Terry Wahls. She has managed to fight back from near paralysis to almost full mobility. Her story is inspiring and remarkable.

Did she find a magic pill? An amazing cure from some previously unknown and exotic source? No and no. She tried every therapy available…physical, pharmaceutical, alternative and nothing had any lasting effect. Finally she did the research and figured out what her brain needed to be healthy and started giving it to it. It didn’t come in the form of a pill, a drug, or a shot.

Her cure: Food. Yes food. The same food that is available to all of us in this country every day. She started eating green stuff. Leafy greens to be more exact. She started eating more sulfur rich vegetables and more colored fruits and vegetable. She eats 9 cups of all that every day. That’s 3 large, heaping dinner plates full of mostly vegetable and fruits. She also eats several times a week grass fed meat, organ meat, and fish. She makes sure she gets plenty of minerals and vitamins from her food.

In 5 months she went from barely being able to walk with 2 canes to being able to make hospital rounds with no assistance! All from eating the right food. You have heard me go on and on and on about this…the “paleo” diet or the “caveman” diet, or the “hunter gatherer” diet…call it what you will…here is the bottom line…eat mostly plants (leafy green ones), add in some other vegetables that are available, a few fruits and berries, some healthy meats and your health will improve.

Lots of people say they don’t like the taste of _______(fill in the blank). They seem to find it a source of pride to not eat any vegetables. If you were faced with the choice of wheel chair for the rest of your life or you had to eat liver and onions twice a week what would you choose? And if you say the wheel chair stop reading now, don’t watch the video, and enjoy your life. There are lots of things that cause you discomfort including learning to like foods you didn’t previously enjoy. That discomfort is nothing compared to the discomfort of poor health. You see, poor health never leaves you. The pain of diabetes never goes away. The awareness of not being able to walk is always there. But if you could turn your poor health around just by eating natural foods…wouldn’t you?

So why aren’t you? I mean what do we have to do to get you off the CRAP (Calorie Rich And Pathetic) you are eating and feeding your children too? You don’t offer your children cigarettes and alcohol do you? Yet you feed them and yourself sugar (as addictive as heroin and cocaine, the main cause of diabetes and obesity, and shown to cause many forms of cancer), artificial sweeteners (cancer, diabetes, obesity), grains (a major source of food allergies, auto immune disorders, diabetes, and obesity), dairy (the 2nd leading source of food allergies, and digestive difficulties) with no compunction.

The evidence is mounting. Clear and present danger is in front of you. You can continue running toward the cliff with all the rest of the lemmings destined to fall into the sea of poor health, chronic disease, diabetes, obesity, dementia, and premature death and a quality of life plagued by Doctors, Hospitals, Pharmacies, and Drugs. Or you can make a different choice. You can choose vital health, nourishing food, a brain that is elastic and healthy until the day you die (naturally), children whose moods are more even, who learn better, and are happier.

The choice is yours. The magic pill is there…in the food you eat. So is the other pill by the way…the one that is going to make you sick and cause you pain and misery…it’s in the food as well.
You are already choosing one or the other…which is it?

Here is the link to Dr. Wahls’ story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc
And here is a link to the article I got her story from: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-you-should-eat-leafy-greens/#axzz1mUXsu6Ye

When I want a treat I eat “Paleo Candy” from my recipe stash (thanks Scott D.!)
Throw about 1 cup of cashews in the processor. Chop to desired size. Put in a different bowl.
Put about 1# of dates in the processor with about ½ cup of almond butter and let the processor mix all that up into a mushy paste.
Put all that in the bowl with the cashews and combine together using your hands.
Spread it over a ¼ sheet cookie pan covered with saran wrap and flatten out. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for an hour or two. Cut into squares.
Nom Nom…Don’t eat too many…lots of calories here.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Poached, Pureed, Sliced, Diced

Sunday Story…Poached, pureed, sliced and diced

As promised this post is a primer on how to cook. I posed a couple questions to a gathering of friends last weekend…where did you learn to cook, and what would be the single motivating factor to learn to do it today or learn to do it better?

Overwhelmingly most of the people said they learned to cook from the kitchens of their homes…watching Mom or Grandma cook, being asked to help do things, learning by observing and doing.
And the single motivating factor? To learn to have a real appreciation for food. Not food as sustenance, mind you but food as a joyful celebration of taste, smell, and sensual experience. And this is not just for the consumer…this is for the one doing the cooking…the joy of preparation, of cutting, chopping, sautéing, reducing, of putting together tastes and flavors in ways you have never thought of and then sitting down and savoring that very first bite. That is the joy I am talking about, that is the appreciation for food that strikes me deep in my core.

Look, cooking is really not that hard. It may seem as if there is some big mystery to it but I am about to debunk most of that…first like anything else you have to learn the language…
Boil…really hot bubbling water (or any liquid) you put things into…not always the best way to cook but it does have its purpose from time to time
Steam…put the food over the boiling water and let the steam cook the food…better than boiling since the good things in the food don’t get lost in the water
Sauté…a way to quickly cook food in a small amount of oil with fairly high heat
Fry…more oil, hotter than Sauté
Broil…under high heat close to the food
Bake…in the oven at a specific temperature
Roast…in the oven like baking but usually covered but not always…think of it like this…I bake cookies, I roast a turkey
Grill…hot fire (gas, wood, charcoal) under the food
Braise…very quickly sautéing the food and just browning it enough to seal the juice in but not to cook through.
Microwave…duh
Raw...duh again
Chop…large chunks (1 inch square or so)
Slice…large thin pieces
Dice…small chunks
Mince…really small chunks
Some tools that are necessary…
Knives…the sharper the better as they are more efficient and safer
A set of pots and pans of varying sizes…pots are deeper, pan are shallower, just like some of your friends
A cutting board to cut stuff on
A set of measuring spoons and cups
A slow cooker or a crock pot
A blender or a food processor or a hand blender or all 3!
There is a bunch of stuff I am sure I am forgetting but if I walked into your kitchen and it had all of the above we would be very good to go!

Things your pantry must contain (these are staples that get used almost constantly):
Salt (sea salt not chemical salt)
Black pepper
Dried basil, oregano, parsley, tarragon, thyme, cumin, turmeric, chili powder, paprika, dried red pepper flakes, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger
Fresh Garlic (you could also have some garlic powder)
Squash...butternut, spaghetti, acorn come to mind
Sweet potatoes and/or yams
Olive Oil (extra virgin is best)
Coconut Oil
Coconut milk in a can
Onion (you could also have some onion powder)
Dijon Mustard
Vinegar (apple cider is a staple but red wine and balsamic have their uses as well)
Tuna (I prefer dark in oil myself)

Things to find in your refrigerator:
Vegetables…use your imagination but…carrots, broccoli, eggplant, zucchini, kale, chard, spinach, lettuce (not iceberg), beets, radishes, and ginger, the list is endless
Meat…grass fed, pastured, free range, wild…whether its chicken, beef, fish or ? it needs to be raised as cleanly as possible
Eggs…vegetarian cage free and local if possible
Butter…grass fed if possible, organic for sure

Got all that? Pretty simple really. So let’s cook something for dinner…maybe some chicken, potatoes and a salad…
Grab a medium pan of water and put on to boil. Peel 4 sweet potatoes or yams and cut into small pieces (the smaller the pieces the faster they will cook.) and place in the pan
While that is cooking…
Get your large sauté pan out and put 2 tablespoons of oil and heat on medium…chop up an onion and throw in the pan…grab your chicken and put in the pan with one clove of minced garlic…btw you can use pretty much any cut of chicken you want…cook for 4 minutes on each side…take the chicken out of the pan and put on a plate…scrape the pan, leaving the oil in the pan and add a diced carrot a teaspoon each of paprika and oregano and cook for 2 minutes on medium and ½ a can of coconut milk…heat to boiling and let boil uncovered to reduce to ½ the amount you started with…maybe 7 or 8 minutes, put the chicken back in reduce heat to med/low and cover for about 10 minutes
Take the pot with the potatoes off the stove and drain the potatoes. Put them in a bowl and mash by hand, in the blender, food processor or hand blender add 2 tablespoons of butter and salt and pepper to taste (that means as much as you like to taste).
About now when you are done with the potatoes grab some broccoli and cut into florets (the little trees) and throw on top of the chicken and put the cover back on for 2 minutes.
Throw some green lettuce in a bowl put some olive oil and your favorite vinegar on it.
Serve the chicken, covered in the sauce on a plate with the potatoes, the salad in a bowl. Your choice of beverage (water, lemon water, glass of wine).

There you have it…from start to finish maybe 45 minutes...a healthy, good, for you meal prepared with love and care, a feast for the senses. Not that hard.
You can do this.
Let’s eat…more later


Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Whatcha going to Eat Willis?

Sunday Story…Whatcha going to eat Willis?

OK…Food…one of my favorite topics as most of you know…so you gave up grains, dairy, legumes, sugar (duh…should have been the first thing btw)…So, what are you going to eat?

I mean this whole food thing sounds like a lot of “No”. No pasta, no bread, no cereal, no beer (gluten), no Boston Baked Beans, no refried beans, no cheese, no Mexican, Chinese, Italian and more restaurants, no sandwiches, no peanut butter, no pancakes, waffles, hot chocolate, no wheaties, no oatmeal, no yogurt, no corn on the cob (corn is a grain), no, no , no, no. That is just the very short list and it feels like a lot of NO. It feels like, when I look at that list, deprivation and despair. So quit looking at that list and start looking at the Yes list.

Yes to all the vegetables I want to eat…broccoli, turnips, parsnips, carrots, lettuce of all kinds, arugula, beets, radishes, plantains, pumpkins, peppers, squash of an infinite variety, tomatoes (technically a fruit but…), eggplant avocado, and on and on and on. Yes to herbs and spices…cilantro, basil, parsley, oregano, cumin, coriander, turmeric, pepper, salt (real salt from the sea or the ground not chemical salt), cayenne, etc. Yes to meat, poultry and fish (sourced from real farms meaning grass fed, pastured animals)…beef, bison, lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, ostrich, elk, venison, pork, boar, quail, salmon, cod, sole, shrimp, octopus, scallops, oysters, and more. And yes you get to eat the whole critter because it hasn’t been created from bad feed using GMOs and franken-animals. Yes to seed and nuts…cashews, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin, sunflower, and my favorite…macadamias. And of course the nut butter from those nuts. Be cautious here though it’s easy to go nuts on those! Yes to fruit in moderation…apples, oranges, berries, bananas, kumquats, kiwis, persimmons, pomegranates, and so on. Best if you can consume these in season by the way (which means not much in February!)

Lots of yeses on that list but that really doesn’t solve a couple of the big big problems. Like what am I supposed to eat for breakfast which is supposedly the most important meal of the day (who made that up anyway?). We are so conditioned to eat certain things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that it seems inhuman to eat a salad for breakfast. Let see if you can channel you Paleolithic ancestors for minute…what would the first meal of the day looked like? Because you haven’t been out foraging and hunting yet. It would have to be whatever you had leftover from yesterdays hunting and gathering forays…if they were successful. And if they weren’t well tough luck…no food for you this morning until you get out there and find some. You are a modern human and missing a meal once in a while is not going to kill you. As a matter of fact, going all day without eating won’t kill you, waste your muscles away, stop your fat burning mechanism or really have any detrimental effect whatsoever. I cannot imagine that there is any one of you reading this who is on the verge of starvation. So think outside of the cereal box for breakfast and eat dinner in the morning once in a while. First problem down.

The next problem is significantly more challenging. I don’t know how to cook. I don’t know how to cook vegetables. I don’t know how to prepare food that doesn’t come with a 3 step instructional list. When I read an ingredient list I have no idea what is healthy and what isn’t (here’s a hint…if there are more than 3 ingredients put it down and back away…real food doesn’t come with an ingredient list). My kids won’t eat ___________(fill in the blank).

Learn to cook. It isn’t that hard. And no, it doesn’t take that much more time. Grab a knife and chop some stuff, throw it in a pan and see what happens. Add some spices and taste it. Use bacon (the good uncured no nitrite, nitrate stuff), use olive oil; use coconut oil to cook with. Throw meat over a fire (aka the bar-b-que grill) without slathering it in commercialized sugar sauce and cook it up…put it on the plate with some of those veggies and a salad and there you are…a meal made with healthy intentions, love and that isn’t killing you slowly. More on the how to cook thing next week by the way.

This Sunday is the day where way too many of you will be overeating really crappy food. Not me…here is my super bowl Sunday menu with links to the recipes and a full recipe for my special dessert bar…
Oysters on the half shell…no recipe necessary…shuck them and eat them raw…protein, in abundance.
Brazilian fish stew…pretty simple and very tasty and if you make it the night before it will be even better on game day… the recipe is here: http://www.radiancenutrition.com/2011/10/04/brazilian-fish-stew-moqueca-de-peixe/
Chorizo (you can use any sausage you want) stuffed sweet potato skins…use the guacamole recipe for other stuff (like the chips below, duh) too…the recipe is here: http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-avocado-chorizo-sweet-potato-skins/

Sweet Potato Chips with Red Pepper dip…Ya gotta have chips and dip…here is the homemade version that is actually good for you:
http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-sweet-potato-chips/
and the dip:
http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-roasted-red-pepper-dip/

Date-licious Dessert bars: This is so simple that you will wonder how this can be so awesome for so little work:
Get a pound or so of pitted dates, about a cup of raw cashews (no salt, no oil), and about a half cup of almond butter. Throw the cashews in a food processor and chop up to the consistency you want (don’t powder them). Put them in a big bowl. Put the dates and the nut butter in the processor and process to a paste. Put that mixture in the bowl with the cashews and using your hands mix it all up together. Put some saran wrap on a cookie sheet (1/4 sheet) and pour the mixture on the cookie sheet. Press it flat with your hands, cover it with another piece of saran wrap and put it in the fridge. Pull it out 3 or 4 hours later and cut into squares. Eat sparingly because these are very addicting and calorie dense.

So…Whatcha going to eat Willis?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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