My kids love to test the strength of my vegetarian bond.  I haven’t eaten meat in 15 years and this baffles their carnivore-thinking minds.  Always offering me fictitious amounts of cash, they try to coax me out of my convictions.  “Would you eat a cheeseburger for $10,000?” 

Well the tables recently turned at our house.  While my seventeen year old daughter diligently researched an essay she was writing on the global impact of a Western style diet, she became disturbed by some of the facts.

 “Mom did you know that 80% of the antibiotics in the world go to livestock?” 

“Umm yeah I’d heard that one.” 

“And did you know that a cow can produce as much greenhouse gas in a day as a car?”

 Did she think I only read romance novels?  “Yes I’d heard that too.” 

“I wonder if I could be vegetarian?” she thought out loud.

Ahhh, the opening I’d patiently waited and hoped for, “Why don’t you try it?”

After a few minutes discussing more of the benefits and pitfalls of the veggie lifestyle, I caved. “I’ll give you $200 if you do it for a month!”  I yelled out like a crazy bidder at a Sotheby’s auction.

That was many babysitting jobs just thrown out on the table and she bit.  Two vegetarians now reside in our house.  Well at least for three more weeks. 

It’s a lot of money, but I really wanted her to stick with it.  She has made it a week so far, ate veggie burgers at school, and asked for no bacon on her salad when she went out with friends.  And she ate my black bean butternut squash stew.  I think it’s a win-win.  But she’s already talking about what she’s going to eat on February 1^st.  And it doesn’t include kale. What do you think?  Should I have offered her the money? 

“Aren’t people pretty aware of sweet potatoes?” was the response from an acquaintance when I mentioned it was National Sweet Potato Awareness Month.  Yes, and I think people are generally aware of brussel sprouts, broccoli and kale.  But that doesn’t mean they eat them.

 This month I’ve started a campaign called, The Sweet Potato Extravaganza, because I not only want people to be aware of sweet potatoes, but also inspired to eat them!  Sweet potatoes were voted in the top ten most nutritious vegetables by nationally recognized pediatrician, Dr. Bill Sears and by The Center for Science in the Public Interest and by WebMD.  Okay, so everyone loves sweet potatoes. And unlike brussel sprouts or kale, they are usually an easier sell to families.

 Pureed into a sauce for mac n cheese…no complaints from my kids.  Shredded into quesadillas…they were gobbled up.  And when I made Sweet Potato Apple Muffins, my daughter said, “Please make them again soon!” as she peered into the empty container.  Sweet potatoes are one of the most versatile of the veggies.     

So you want the recipes! Right? Click on over here to sign up for 15 FREE sweet potato recipes and some fun too!  If your kids struggle to eat their veggies, enter them in my contest for a $25 Build A Bear gift card.  All they have to do is tell me in an email how they tried sweet potatoes. And I wouldn’t forget you! All who join the Extravaganza are eligible to win a Williams Sonoma gift card and copies of my eBook: Thirty Day Roadtrip to a Healthier Family.

 So get on it! Join the craze.  It’s a Sweet Potato Extravaganza!

This is also published at Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday

It started with cupcakes.  Next time it was pizza.  And just last week it was Key Lime pie. These aren’t the typical foods I talk about, but really, they’re part of life with kids.  A few years ago, the kids and I cooked up a boredom-busting idea one summer day.  You know the day, it’s about 2/3 of the way through summer when everyone is bored and it is overcast and all friends are on vacation?  We decided to go on a cupcake tour.  We spent two hours traveling around the city of Pittsburgh buying cupcakes.  A blind tasting was done and a grand champion was awarded. We had so much fun we’ve repeated this process many times over.  Sadly, no one has ever asked for a sautéd spinach or veggie burger tour. 

Last week we were in the Florida Keys and every restaurant served Key Lime pie.  The last night we ate in, but the kids couldn’t resist the idea of having a taste off.  Like participants in a road rally, we dashed off to three restaurants and one grocery store picking up our bounty.  After a dinner I cut taste-sized bites and labeled them with numbers.

 “This one is creamy and not too tart.”  “Oh, I can definitely tell this is from the grocery store.  I’m not even finishing it.”  “I think the crust on this one is even better than the one we had the first night.”

As I listened to my children’s comments I realized something.  I am raising food snobs. 

I’m a food snob; I admit it.  But not a, I-only-dine-at-white-table-clothed-establishments food snob.  No, I’m particular about what goes in my body.  I eat real food.  If it is processed, I will put it down as quickly as a teenaged girl critiquing her mother’s outfit.  If Pringles and Doritos and McRib were my classmates, I’d be sent to the principal’s office daily for bullying.  I am unabashed with my criticism of bad food. 

But I rejoice in good food.  My kids laughed at me and rolled their eyes when I bit into a perfect turnip yesterday.  “This is the best turnip ever! Really, please just try a bite.”  They walked away.  Probably dreaming of more pie. 

 We teach our children value.  Helping them see that all foods are not created equal should be part of that lesson.  Some foods are better.  Some taste better and some are better for our bodies.  Our junk foods taste tests are fun.  But it is equally important to help our children discern healthy foods, from those that do nothing.  Not every food is worthy of being eaten.  Helping my children develop discerning palettes is a critical part of them learning to eat well.  But I’m not holding my breath for that spinach taste-off. 

“Why do they call it fun-sized candy? There is nothing fun about less chocolate!”

So I’m quoting one of my kids’ on-line, random humor, websites.  But this is brilliant marketing.  Because the little candy bars are fun, innocent even, nothing as terrible as a big, old horrifying candy bar.  And this makes them so much easier to pop in your mouth.  And if fun-sized are less guilt, well then the adorable (think cute as a kitten here) mini, candy bars are nearly health food.  Those tiny little squares are so lovable. 

When candy companies realized the negative connotations of a big bar on our delicate dieting psyches, they made something less threatening.  But these precious little wonders are dangerous stuff.  Ghoulish even.  They not only play with our health, they mess with our mind.  Like the crazy neighbor who hides in his bushes and scares little kids on Halloween, danger hides in these small packages.

Here’s the break down.  Two fun-sized are just slightly less than a whole candy bar.  Do you find it easier to justify two little treats than to finish off a whole candy bar?  Most people do.  And kids don’t really get it.  They see a small package and think it isn’t much, so they keep opening wrappers.  And the cute minis, well most people can pop those without even thinking.  It only takes about four of those to add up to a full-sized.

If you’re going to eat candy this Halloween, don’t be fooled by the cute costumes that candy manufacturers wrap their scary treats in. Treat yourself to a few bites of a big bar or one fun sized. And then listen…the apples from the bobbing tub are calling your name.

  Under my kitchen sink is a mess. It’s always been cluttered under there. When I was growing up, it was cluttered under the kitchen sink too. Under the kitchen sink is a place for clutter. This is my mind set. It’s what I know.

 But a few weeks ago I dog sat. While looking for paper towels, under my friend’s kitchen sink, I realized there was no clutter. Wait, a cabinet under the sink doesn’t have to be filled with vases, cleaning products, sponges and a Halloween soap dispenser? I could have a clean, orderly space if I wanted? It became very clear what I needed to do. Something I hadn’t done in years. I cleaned out under my sink.

Your weight can be the clutter under the sink. It’s what you’ve known. You look in the mirror every day, and it’s what you expect. Sure you know you could do something about it. Of course every time a SOS pad or random clothes pin (why was that in there?) fell out of my cupboard, I KNEW I could clean. It just wasn’t a priority. My mom’s sink looked this way. We get use to norms. Family norms. Society norms. Neighborhood norms. All these influences paint a picture and soon, those extra twenty pounds are just the norm. But any day of the week, it doesn’t have to be at New Years, you can decide to clean out the cupboard. You can change your mindset. Is this your day?

Mine is sort of shiny, with a big round dial.  I’ve always had one. It’s how I start my day. Mornings after pizza I’m a bit hesitant to engage, and quietly try to sneak one toe at a time on the platform.  But a day after a good workout and a healthful plate of veggies, I’m ready to fully commit.  Like any relationship, attitudes change daily.  But my scale and I have good communication and a degree of intimacy that is healthy. 

A lot of people shun the scale.  Break up with the daily ritual.  And many people are afraid to connect.  Some diet plans encourage their use and some say, “Forget it”.  So do you use a scale?  Should you step on every day?

My ultimate daily goal is to feel well.  I’m a wellness coach, it’s what I do.  And part of feeling well is maintaining my healthy weight.  We shun the scale because we equate the number with self-image or lack of control or disappointment.  Wow, the scale sounds like part of a destructive relationship.  But, while self-image or disappointment can be driving forces in maintaining or losing weight, they shouldn’t be the ultimate reason we care about the number.  Our health is represented by that red needle precariously bouncing higher.  Our health is the goal, not a number on a dial.

But we need the numbers. Our health is defined by numbers.  Your chart at the doctor’s office is really just a series of numbers: cholesterol, heart rate, blood pressure, and the dozens of numbers represented by blood work.  The numbers go up or down depending on how well your body is working.  Same goes for weight.  Our bodies do not work well if we aren’t at a healthy weight. 

Get on the scale.  Okay, be discouraged.  Then get motivated.  This is not about the number. If you must, cover up the numbers and replace them with your own labels.  “Not Too Healthy”, “Working Towards Healthy”, “Starting to Feel Good”, “Ultimate Health!” Do you want to feel well?  Do you want to move easily and keep up with life?  Weight is not just a vanity issue.  It is time to get friendly with the scale.   

Obesity and weight gain are unfortunately too prevalent in our society.  I’ll be examining this fat trend in the next several weeks.

  She’s usually the woman in the back of the room taking notes.  Or maybe he’s the one who has a daily ice-tea habit.  It doesn’t matter who it is, but it is always someone.  In every class I teach, I talk about the negative effects of sugar.  And in every class, someone raises their hand and says, “But can’t I just use a sugar substitute?”  Yep, I saw it coming from a mile away. 

Hey, you CAN do whatever you want.  But I would suggest you shouldn’t add any more additional artificial substances to the chemical soup you’re brewing up inside your cells.  The yellow, pink and blue packets are chemicals.  Their structures were designed in labs.  Our bodies weren’t designed to function off a mix of chemicals.

Other people on the internet write passionately about the nastiness of artificial sweeteners, so I’m not going to give you the details of how their made, what government agency doesn’t regulate them, and how long-term effects are mysteriously absent from studies.  But here’s a quote from Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD (neurosurgeon):

“This particularly nasty substance should have never even been approved for human use. In fact, had it not been for some fancy footwork by those in power in the FDA, it never would have. Early experiments using low, medium and high doses with aspartame all found dramatic tumor increases in test animals. These included brain, pancreas, and breast tumors…”

It gives you something to think about, right?  And I feel your pain.  Remember, I was once a Diet Pepsi addict, and hey, look at me now. No brain tumor.  But you know I’m just no longer comfortable hedging my bets.  As I age, I don’t want my body to fight the constant battle against chemicals.   Eventually, the housecleaning service gets a little lazy and starts to miss some spots.  This happens as we age.  Our cells aren’t as thorough at their jobs.

Of course by this point in the class everyones’ faces are grim.  But then, she asks about it.  Someone always does.  “What about Stevia?”  Ahh…some of you have been doing your research.

Stevia is an herb that is 200 times sweeter than sugar.  Although not the best substance to use in baked goods, stevia is excellent for sweetening drinks.  I have the tiniest dash in my coffee each morning.  It doesn’t act like sugar OR artificial sweeteners.  It is basically benign to your system.

So leave the colorful packets in their cute little table top holders.  (Let your kids play with them, the way they all do!) And concentrate on curbing your need for sweeteners.  But keep asking the questions…I love questions! 

This is also posted at Fight Back Friday and the Upper St. Clair Patch

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I’m an old school Harry Potter fan.  I read the first three books to my kids, but then stopped when my children were old enough to read them on their own.  So I only followed the story to about book four.  The first Harry Potter movie is my favorite. The wonder and awe of wizardry is still new.  Harry, Ron and Hermione stare in complete amazement when each professor demonstrates their particular specialty. The art of transfiguration is by far the coolest.  When Professor McGonagall changes from a cat into her stately teaching presence on the first day of school at Hogwarts, I was hooked.  Wouldn’t it be fun to change objects on a whim?  But magically turning something from one thing to another doesn’t just happen every day…or does it?

The sugar you eat has a transfiguration habit.  And it can be a scary event. Sugar is broken down into simple sugar called glucose.  This glucose circulates in the blood steam, supplying cells with fuel.  If the cells don’t need any more fuel (maybe you’ve just been sitting in your cubical not burning through much cellular energy) the extra glucose magically changes into glycogen.  This substance is then stored in your muscles and liver.  BUT this is not the scariest transformation of sugar.  The creepy music needs to cue in about right here in our sugar story….

If your body is already storing enough glycogen (think of a suitcase that will NOT hold one more pair of shoes!) then the frightening magic begins.  The extra glycogen is transfigured into…FAT. 

The scene in your body turns very dark with this transformation.  Once this fat is stored, it is hard to get rid of.  No magic spell, pill, or fad diet removes it easily.  Your body burns glucose and glycogen before it burns away this fat.  Once the fat from excess sugar is stored, getting rid of it is tough work.  No magic spells to make it disappear. 

When you’re reaching for the sugary treat that you think will magically perk you up or make your afternoon better, picture that sugar transfiguring into FAT.  That feels like a bit of the dark arts to me.

This is also posted at Fight Back Friday.

  “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet”, says Juliet.  She probably wasn’t finishing off a hot fudge sundae with Romeo as she said this, but rather a couple fresh figs would have been more her style.  But I’m swiping a little poetic license from Shakespeare today and rephrasing it: “Sugar by any other name is always just as sweet.”

The brown packet feels like something you’d find in the “health food section”. Or so I thought when I would rip open a package of Sugar in the Raw.  And surely brown sugar can’t be as bad as the evil white stuff, right?  And honey, bees make that, it’s got to be good.  Organic kids’ yogurt uses “organic evaporated cane juice”.  That can’t be bad. And all sugar has to be better than high fructose corn syrup, right?  Even Kool Aid has jumped on that, declaring its sugary drink better than sodas because it uses REAL sugar.

Guess what?  It’s all sugar.  Your cells don’t differentiate the subtle manufacturing nuances in these different forms of sugar.  As consumers we’re starting to get savvy about our sugar.  And baby, the manufacturing companies are listening.  They still want to sell the stuff.  Good old Dominoes Sugar has an organic sugar in the picture above.  They’re listening and giving you a product to help you feel better about what you’re eating.  But, when you ingest any sugar, (not fructose from fruit but manufactured sugar) your body reacts the same. Whether it is in the form of white crystals, brown, cane syrup or honey, your body sees sugar and kicks on the processes needed to deal with it.

And what a process it is.  Multiple organs, enzymes and glands go into hyper drive when sugar hits your tongue.  In my next sugar blog, we’re going to look at exactly HOW your body deals with it.  And if you’re eating a lot, the scene inside isn’t pretty. 

Until then…check out my 50 Names for Sugar.  And remember Juliet next time you read a label.

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  This is amazing.  I had seen Aarti on The Food Network make this kale salad with mangos, and had always wanted to give it a try.  With an overflowing peach basket, I finally had a reason to try it.  My seventeen year old daughter ate two bowls and she’s never been a big kale fan.  My husband remarked, “this lettuce is really good.”  And my boys even didn’t resist!  The acid in the lemon breaks down the kale and gets rid of the bitter flavor.  Enjoy at the height of summer! 

1 bunch kale

1 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

2 tsp. honey

2 peaches, peeled and diced

handful of pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or sunflower seeds

Remove the thick stems from the kale.  Chop the kale leaves into pieces no larger than a dime (but not too small).  Put kale in a medium bowl and toss with the juice from 1/2 of the lemon and a sprinkle of sea salt (I like to use coarse grind) and a drizzle of olive oil.  Allow to sit 15, tossing several times.  In a small bowl, add two teaspoons of honey to the rest of the lemon juice.  Slowly drizzle in the 1/4 cup of olive oil, a bit at a time.  Toss this dressing over the kale. Add two chopped peaches and pepitas.  Toss again and enjoy!

This is also posted at Food Renegade Fight Back Friday