10 Tips to Lower Coronary Heart Disease

10 Tips to Lower Coronary Heart Disease

Not all signs of an impending heart attack are obvious and the subtle signs which go unnoticed can still result in a deadly outcome, adding to the tragic statistic that makes Coronary heart disease (CHD) the leading cause of death for men and women in America. Numbers don’t lie, and they’re staggering: Every 43 seconds, an American succumbs to coronary heart disease — that’s 2,000 lives a day. Some knew they had unhealthy hearts. Some didn’t recognize the early warning signs. CHD is the number one killer of both men and women in the US.

Here are 10 tips to reduce the risk of developing this deadly disease. Continue reading →

5 Tips for a Healthier Holiday Season

5 Tips for a Healthier Holiday Season

And just like that, the final act of 2020 and its festive holidays are once again upon us. Albeit this is an unusual year for many, for we the fitness community, between our squats, bench presses, and curls, like to celebrate with the best of them. But how can we remain motivated in a year in which much seems upside down and even the tools in which we utilize to forge our physiques remain, for many, closed.

The old adage that nutrition equates to some 90% of results is false. Is that to say that with near perfect eating we would look 90% of how we wish to? Fitness results are akin to the tripod of success in training, recuperation, and nutrition. But come the holiday season, it’s easy to swerve off track and even remain there until the coming new year.

Here are 5 tips that you can implement right now to help remain faithful to health and fitness, yet reasonably enjoy yourself this holiday season. Continue reading →

Everything Cookies Recipe

Everything Cookies Recipe

Plant Based Cooking Made Easy is the exciting new cookbook from Jill and Jeffrey Dalton, the creators and host of The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show on Youtube. Plant Based Cooking Made Easy features over 100 life-saving, whole food plant-based recipes that are gluten-free, refined sugar & oil free, low in sodium, and full of scrumptious flavors. Enjoy a recipe featured in the book below!

 

Like the name implies, these cookies have a little bit of everything from the pantry in them. This recipe is inspired by a recipe my Grandma used to make, which she called “Cowboy Cookies.” They were a basic oatmeal cookie to start, but she then added whatever she had left over in the pantry, like a handful of raisins, the remnants of a bag of shredded coconut, walnuts, and sometimes even potato chip crumbles! I used to absolutely love them when I was young. This version has so many textures and bursts of flavor all while delivering a dense nutritional kick. Continue reading →

Thai Sauce with Zoodles Recipe

Thai Sauce with Zoodles Recipe

Plant Based Cooking Made Easy is the exciting new cookbook from Jill and Jeffrey Dalton, the creators and host of The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show on YouTube. Plant Based Cooking Made Easy features over 100 life-saving, whole food plant-based recipes that are gluten-free, refined sugar & oil free, low in sodium, and full of scrumptious flavors. Enjoy a recipe featured in the book below!

 

Zucchini noodles, known in the plant-based world as Zoodles, are a great alternative to regular pasta, especially if you are looking for a gluten free option. They can be used for all kinds of noodle-based dishes and pack a ton of texture and nutrition into this Thai flavored recipe. The longer the zoodles sit in the sauce the more flavor they absorb, so Zoodle leftovers are always a treat! Continue reading →

How to Combat Emotional Eating During the Holidays

How to Combat Emotional Eating During the Holidays

Since COVID hit in March, many have integrated wine and a medley of chocolate chip cookies into a daily diet. It seems like there is extra time to binge watch Netflix and food. This holiday season, in addition to the stresses of everyday life, there will be even more emotional triggers that may drive us to overindulge. Being with certain family members or being further isolated from family can cause us to have certain visceral reactions and emotions. Many of us turn to food to deal with these added stressors. Often it makes us focus on the pleasure of taste and texture, and lets us detach ourselves from our emotions.

These behaviors can become habitual and we begin to look to food to escape our current stress or feelings. Here are 7 tips on how to head into this holiday season with self-care and self-love. Continue reading →

5 Reasons to Start Training with Gymnastic Rings

5 Reasons to Start Training with Gymnastic Rings

The end of the year is upon us which means getting through the holidays. How we manage our physical and emotional stress will dictate a happy holiday for sure. Here’s a tip: Try Gymnastic Rings! Not only are they a great way to add something new to your workout routine, they have a lot of benefits too. Check out my top 5 reasons everyone needs a set of rings below. Need a set of your own? I also talk about my top two choices at the end. Continue reading →

6 Amazing Benefits of Drinking Coffee

6 Amazing Benefits of Drinking Coffee

You’ve heard it all before. Yes, the slew of nasty comments from those caffeinated-beverage-naysayers. Coffee will give you bad breath! Coffee will stain your teeth! Coffee will give you adrenal fatigue! Coffee will keep you up all night! Pish, posh. Coffee will give us more time to do important tasks that we likely procrastinated during the daytime. Things like clean our houses, do our laundry, do our taxes, or just peruse Pinterest for hours on end. What if we were to say, “Coffee will improve your overall health!”? That got your attention, didn’t it? Perhaps even the attention of non-coffee drinkers alike.

Humor aside, coffee has some serious benefits. The coffee drinker can reap advantages such as: potential diabetes prevention, liver preservation (especially for the alcohol drinker), improved energy levels and brain function, cardiovascular protection, and more! Without further ado, here are some super amazing benefits of drinking coffee, that make us feel a little less guilty for our supercharged habit. Continue reading →

Tips for a Plastic-Free Holiday

Tips for a Plastic-Free Holiday

Did you know that turkey day is actually a very trashy day? But it doesn’t have to be that way. Too much plastic is needlessly purchased for the holidays. Are you ready to say goodbye to needless plastic this holiday season?

My new book called Say Goodbye To Plastic: A Survival Guide To Plastic-Free Living is packed full of tips to help newcomers to the plastic-free lifestyle as well as inspire practiced veterans to continue to dramatically reduce their holiday waste print. Studies have shown that very year Americans needlessly throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than any other time of year.

Let’s bring on the holiday cheer this year (yes, even in a pandemic) and put the brakes on using and discarding plastic. After all, why pay money for plastic packaging that is destined for disposal when you can save money and our planet by opting for biodegradable solutions and reusables instead. Continue reading →

Easy Ratatouille Stew Recipe

Easy Ratatouille Stew Recipe

Providing vegan alternatives to the sorts of delicious comfort foods that everyone craves, The Dirty Vegan Cookbook, Revised Edition by Catherine Gill makes it easier than ever to live the vegan lifestyle. Self-styled as “vegan junk food”–healthy vegan food that doesn’t skimp on taste–The Dirty Vegan Cookbook is a celebration of all the amazing tastes and dishes available to those on vegan diets. Enjoy a recipe featured in the book below!

 

Some people like to get complicated with recipes like ratatouille, but not me. My approach has always been to create recipes and make dishes that taste fancy, while remaining simple to prepare and serve. With culinary shortcuts and by using certain easy techniques in vegan cooking, I am able to create complex flavors without getting too complicated in the kitchen. Let’s face it: eating and savoring the food that you make, with your guests, is a much more enjoyable use of your time than spending way too many hours in food preparation. This ratatouille recipe tastes so flavorful, and better yet, it pretty much makes itself once you let it simmer. It is also one of those recipes that will fill your house with wonderful and delicious scents. Be careful—you might attract the whole neighborhood with this one! Continue reading →