Author: Jill McCauslin (Page 19 of 23)

Pumpkin Pie Spice: How to Make Your Own

September 27, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

So Chris recently gave us a couple of great recipes to use pumpkin pie spice. I read them, thinking these sound great. I’m kind of weird and don’t often buy spice mixtures so I don’t have a jar of pumpkin pie spice sitting around my kitchen.

But hey, I do have jars of spices. When I make pumpkin pie, which is one of my favorite pies, I measure out all the spices. I also make my own taco seasoning, but we’ll save that recipe for another day.

But it does make life easier to have a jar of pumpkin pie spice available, so I sometimes make my own. Making your own blend of pumpkin pie spice is the easiest thing. It really doesn’t get any better than this: fast, easy, and tastes good.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ingredients

3 tablespoons. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. ground ginger

1.5 tsp. ground cloves

2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1.5 tsp ground allspice

Directions

Mix together and pour into a clean unused spice jar. This makes about 5 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice and is enough to make five or six pumpkin pies.

Note:

You can increase the cloves and ginger for a bit more “bite” in your pumpkin pie spice or you can increase the cinnamon for a more “homey” kind of flavor.
If you don’t have all the ingredients, you can probably omit at least the nutmeg and the allspice. The Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe found on the back of the pumpkin puree can only uses cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and I love that pie.

Turmeric

If you decide to make Chris’ recipes, I’m going to suggest a variation.

Smoothie

Sprinkle some turmeric on top for some added zest. Turmeric is a great anti-inflammatory spice. I love to make golden milk (I’ll provide that recipe soon) and it includes turmeric. I think just a slight sprinkle is a good option for this smoothie.

Squash Soup

When you make the soup, add half a teaspoon of turmeric to the soup. It will make the soup color just a bit richer and adds additional anti-inflammatory properties to the soup.

Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss and Health

September 20, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

Everywhere I turn, I run into someone saying that intermittent fasting is the thing to be doing. I’d say it’s just a trend but a number of doctors and medical experts seem to be recommending some version of intermittent fasting.

Intermittent Fasting is not a diet. It does not involve what you choose to eat but when you eat it. Most doctor’s and nutrition experts will recommend that if you’re going to try intermittent fasting, you should still eat in a healthy fashion. Don’t let the fasting make you think that stuffing yourself with cheese curls is a great way to break a fast.

In The End of Alzheimer’s, Dr. Bredesen recommends an intermittent fasting plan. He suggests that you at least have a 12 hour window of fasting, which means you should have a 12 hour period of time each day of not eating. So, if your last meal or snack is at 7 PM, you can have breakfast at 7AM. If you’re snacking at 11 PM, guess what? You’re supposed to wait until 11 AM to eat. To be honest, Dr. Bredesen says you should avoid eating in the 3 hours before going to bed, so you wouldn’t be snacking at 11. He says it might be even better to aim for 14 to 16 hours of fasting. Basically, if your last meal at the end of the day ends at 8 PM, you don’t eat until 10 AM. You can check out my review of this book.

So, all those people who said over the years, I don’t want to eat breakfast were perhaps on to something.

I’ve seen similar recommendations from Dr. Steven Masley, Dr. Mary Hyman, Dr. Perlmutter, and others.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Why should we practice intermittent fasting? What’s the benefit to us? Well, a number of medical studies have shown that fasting helps us:

improve our mental health
lose weight
lower our risk of developing a chronic disease.

It helps with weight loss. There is the basic fact that if you’re omitting a meal each day, you’ll probably eat less. But there’s some evidence that this actually increases your metabolism. Also, intermittent fasting helps your body burn fat as energy which of course leads to weight loss.

Besides weight loss, intermittent fasting reduces the insulin resistance in our bodies which lowers our risk of type 2 diabetes.

Intermittent fasting also helps improve our mood and our memory. It’s supposed to be good for cognitive health.

Types of Intermittent Fasting

The method of intermittent fasting that I described above can also be called a time restricted fast. You eat every day but just limit the hours when you eat.

Related to the time restricted fast is the One Meal a Day plan. You can guess what this is…you eat once a day. Obviously if you’re eating one meal a day, you’d better make sure it’s a good one. I’ve met a number of people who eat this way and they claim to have lost a lot of weight and to like eating this way.

There’s also a 5:2 plan. Two days a week, you eat a restricted diet of about 500 calories and a normal number of calories the remaining 5 days.

There’s also a monthly fasting plan where once a month you reduce calories for 5 consecutive days to about 35 to 50 percent of your normal caloric intake. So, you normally eat 2,000 calories a day, you would reduce that to 700 to 1,000 calories for 5 days in a row.

Finally, some people fast for 24 hours at a time, a couple days a week.

Best Practices with Intermittent Fasting

Before you start fasting, make sure you don’t have health issues to prevent this. Women who are breast feeding should be careful with fasting. Also, if you suffer at all from any eating disorders, you might want to avoid fasting of any kind. If you are under a lot of stress, it’s probably not the time to add a major change in your eating patterns. Why introduce more stress?

If you’re not sure if you’re a candidate for trying intermittent fasting, check with your doctor.

Once you decide that you want to try intermittent fasting, keep a few things in mind.

Remember to drink your fluids. Water, calorie-free drinks, black coffee, and green or herbal tea are probably all fine for you. Be sure you stay hydrated while fasting. Also, sometimes we feel hungry when we’re really thirsty.
Get plenty of sleep. Your body needs sleep to repair itself. Sleep helps with cognitive health as well as physical health. Plus, while you’re sleeping, that fasting time goes by a lot faster.
Be careful with working out when you first start. While your body is adjusting to fasting, you probably don’t want to also decide to take up some heavy duty workout regime. Be patient and let your body adjust. Then you’ll be able to tell how much working out you can handle in a fasted state. If you’re doing the 2:5 method, consider those two days of restricted calories as your rest days.
Make sure you’re eating nutrient-dense foods when it’s time to eat. If you’re not eating for an extended time, you really want to make sure you’re getting your vitamins, minerals, fiber, fat, protein, and so on in your food.

Recording Your Body Measurements

September 13, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

Today I want to talk about the value of recording your body measurements. We’ve talked about weighing ourselves in this blog (To Weigh or Not to Weigh) and I think that’s a useful measurement to track. It’s certainly useful to know that your weight jumped five pounds in the past month.

I gained some weight on my super-duper exciting summer of travel and now I’m trying to take it off. I went to the beach twice and on a ten-day visit to Italy and had a great time. There always comes that moment when you come home and jump on the scale. Sigh. Putting weight on is so much easier than taking it off. It doesn’t seem fair, but I guess it’s also a lot more fun to put the weight on than to take it off.

I’m back to working out and I’m training to run the half marathon at the end of September. That actually made me start thinking about the weight because I figured the running will be a bit harder if I weight more. It’s hard enough running 13 miles without adding extra weight.

I keep a log of my weight. It’s just a paper journal that I use to write the date, my weight and the body fat number that my scale gives me. I flipped back to last year and found that last year in September I weighed 5 pounds less. OK, so I felt a bit better because it feels like I gained more than that. It made me feel a bit more confident about running the half marathon.

Tracking Body Measurements

Besides recording my weight and body fat percentage, I also measure myself about once a month. I weigh my waist, at my navel, the widest part of my hips, and around my right thigh. Once in a great while I measure my neck but it’s difficult and I don’t think that number is very accurate. I don’t measure anything else because it’s hard to do on myself. These numbers work well for me. These body measurements allow me to see my progress or lack of progress.

I write these numbers down in my log too, which allows me to refer back to them when I want.

When I returned from all of my vacationing, not only had I gained weight, my measurements had all gone up by an inch or more. That was alarming to me. So this is what I checked today. I’ve only lost a couple of pounds since I gained the weight over the summer but my measurements have improved. I’m not quite where I was at the beginning of the summer but it’s going in the right direction.

Here’s the interesting thing. I went back to September 2014 in my log. (Yes, I’ve been keeping this log for a while.) My weight is about the same number as it was then BUT my measurements are still consistently less than then. So, I weigh the same but I am thinner. That’s because I obviously have more muscle now and less fat than I did then.

This is why just fixating on what the scale says can be so misleading. Weight only tells you so much. It’s a great indicator of how you’re doing but don’t count on it as the ultimate fitness number.

You can do a similar thing by using a pair of jeans or some other item of clothing and try it on periodically. I like having the actual numbers but you may not like data as much as I do.

Body Measurements at the Gym

Besides the measurements that I do monthly, I get assessments done at my gym where they weigh me, calculate my body fat, and take body measurements. They do more measurements than I can do so that’s also nice. Besides waist, hip, and thigh, they include chest, arm, and calf. I do this approximately every six months or so. It’s also a great way to keep my eye on my progress. Sometimes I’m delighted by the results. Sometimes I’m not so happy and I work on a plan to improve what I’m doing.

Body Fat

I’ll do a separate post about body fat some time because I’ve had this measured in different ways. It’s interesting how those results can vary.

For my own personal log, I just use the number on my Fitbit Aria scale. I know it’s not the most accurate body fat measurement but it’s consistent. I can see how I’m doing on a daily basis. So right now my scale tells me that I have more body fat than I did six months ago. It goes along with tracking my weight.

I don’t know that it’s the most important data in all of this but I track it just because the number is there in front of me.

Recording Body Measurements

Here’s my advice on tracking weight and such. Include measuring some parts of your body. Just grab a measuring tape and weigh what you can. Record it somewhere. If you use a food tracking app, you can usually add it there. I just write it down in my trusty journal because it’s quick and easy. Plus, I use food tracking apps inconsistently so I hesitate to rely on one for this.

I use a Fitbit Aria scale. That means it uses the WiFi in my house to access my Fitbit account and logs my weight and bodyfat percentage whenever I use the scale. Therefore, that data is also available online. I don’t log my body measurements there so that’s not included. I bet I could find a way to include that information if I wanted.

Fitbit probably knows more about my body than my doctor but that’s a discussion for a different day.

I find it helpful in my journey to be fit and strong to keep track of how I’m doing. When I start to feel negative about myself, I go back and see how far I’ve come. If I see that my numbers are backsliding, I can begin to focus a bit more on how I’m eating and making sure that I’m getting in my exercise.

The End of Alzheimer’s by Dr. Bredesen: Book Review

September 6, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 4 Comments

I was reading an article on line and the author mentioned The End of Alzheimer’s by Dale E. Bredesen, MD. I jumped over to Amazon, read the reviews, and ordered the book. I sat down and read it quickly. Given its complex subject, I have gone back and reread sections.

The End of Alzheimer’s

The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline both an exploration of Dr. Bredesen’s research on Alzheimer’s and a guide to how we can prevent or even reverse Alzheimer’s and the beginning phases of dementia.

The first part of the book is an overview of standard thinking about Alzheimer’s and information on Dr. Bredesen’s work on reversing cognitive decline. Some of this gets rather technical though he does a great job of explaining. I’ve worked for many years as a technical writer and know how difficult it is to explain detailed, technical information in a clear, straight-forward way. I think Dr. Bredesen does a good job explaining his work, basic biology, genetics, and pharmacology. A couple of chapters can probably be skimmed if you really don’t want to know why he came to the conclusions he reached and put together his protocol.

Dr. Bredesen says there are three different types of Alzheimer’s and what treatment is needed depends on the type that you have. Also, there are 36 different factors that contribute to Alzheimer’s, which is why this is such a complex program.

ApoE4

Dr. Bredesen does a good job of explaining the genetic component of Alzheimer’s and the risk component of having the ApoE4 gene variant. He does explain how you can find out if you have this gene. We all have to decide for ourselves if we want to know but Dr. Bredesen suggests that it’s better to know and to act than not.

He specifies a lot of testing that you need to do. Much of it is blood work though he does talk about scans as well. What you need is based at least somewhat on the lab results.

ReCODE

The remainder of the book is devoted to describing the protocol he calls ReCODE. This is the program created to prevent or reverse Alzheimer’s. This is a complex program and not for the faint of heart if you were to do everything he describes. The program includes an eating plan based mainly on vegetables with some meat and eggs. It’s a gluten-free and mostly dairy-free way of eating. The eating plan is very similar to other anti-inflammatory diets I’ve read about.

He recommends that those following the protocol practice intermittent fasting of at least a 12 hour fast and to be in a mild Ketogenic state.

This protocol also includes lots of exercise. He recommends combining aerobic exercise with weight training. You want to work out at least four or five days a week for 45 to 60 minutes in total each day. When you read the list of benefits of exercise for cognition, you’ll be more motivated.

Besides diet and exercise, the protocol covers stress reduction, sleep, supplements, cognitive training, and more. As I said, it’s complicated.

Conclusion

I found this book to be enlightening and made me optimistic about our ability to treat Alzheimer’s. We keep hearing how there’s a tsunami of Alzheimer’s patients coming our way and this helps me hope that it’s not as bleak as most news reports sound.

The biggest question I had by the end of the book was how to figure out what you need. It wasn’t really clear to me what I would do next. The appendices list a fair number of resources and it was only when I started poking around online that I figured out that there are ways to get many of these tests done on your own. I also found that the Institute for Functional Medicine will be training medical practitioners in ReCODE (The Bredesen Protocol). There do not appear to be a lot of doctors available right now who have been trained on this so I suspect you’ll have to figure some of this out on your own.

I found this book to be informational, inspiring, and made me hopeful that we can overcome many of the fears of Alzheimer’s. Just what exactly to do next is what has me a bit stumped.
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Disclosure: the photo above links to the Amazon affiliate program, where a portion of your purchase helps to offset the expenses associated with the Becoming Elli podcast and website.

Fermented Food for a Healthy Gut

August 30, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 3 Comments

If you do any online research on healthy eating, I’m sure you’ve run into numerous articles about the value of eating fermented food.

What is fermentation, anyway? Fermentation is a process that humans have used since ancient times to preserve food. Basically, it’s a process of using bacteria or yeast (microorganisms of some kind) to break down carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids without exposing the food to air. You may be more familiar with the production of wine and beer than with the production of food. Fermentation changes the original food and extends its shelf life considerably

The reason why fermented food is so popular right now is that it’s thought they are good for our health. Fermented food contains natural probiotics which our bodies need.

Probiotics

Probiotics are microorganisms that our intestinal tract need. Our intestines are full of bacteria and other microorganisms; this is called the microbiome. Probiotics help boost the number of beneficial bacteria found in our gut.

Increasing the good bacteria is thought to provide a number of benefits to our body and health. These include, weight loss, improved digestive health, Improve allergy symptoms and skin issues, elevate our mood, and help with cholesterol levels. When you start reading, it seems that probiotics solve all of our problems, at least health-related ones.

So, if you eat fermented food, you’re getting naturally created probiotics. And because there are different kinds of fermented food, you get different types of bacteria and vitamins, depending on what you eat.

Fermented Food

I recently read a doctor’s advice in a forum on dementia and Alzheimer’s. He recommends eating fermented food with every meal. I guess if I expand the number of fermented food that I have available in my kitchen, I might be able to do that though it sounds challenging to me.

When you start to look around on the internet about fermented food, you’ll see lots of recipes about how to make your own. I haven’t tried this because I feel nervous about it. Some of the recipes sound pretty easy so I’m not sure why they make me nervous. I think I need to invite someone over to try making some of these things with me.

If you decide to ferment food at home, be sure to use glass or crockery. Don’t use plastic containers for the fermentation. The plastic doesn’t work well apparently, and food poisoning can become an issue.

What are some of the fermented foods we should be eating? I gather just about anything can be fermented but here are some of the most popular. This is not an inclusive list by any means.

Sauerkraut:

This is a traditional fermented cabbage dish. It is especially associated with Germany though apparently sauerkraut is a popular dish in many countries. If you’re going to buy sauerkraut for its probiotics, be aware that you want to make sure that the sauerkraut you buy has the probiotics.

Don’t buy sauerkraut that has been pasteurized. A lot of the sauerkraut sold on the grocery store shelves is pasteurized which kills the beneficial bacteria. That, of course, is the point of pasteurization. Refrigerated sauerkraut is usually a good bet but be sure to check the label. You can see the words “100% naturally fermented” on this picture.

You probably also don’t want to buy sauerkraut that has had preservatives or extra sugar added to it.

Kimchi

Kimchi is a Korean side dish that, like sauerkraut, is made from fermented cabbage. It can be made from other vegetables, such as radishes, but napa cabbage is the traditional ingredient. Kimchi is made with a variety of spices that may include chili powder, red pepper, garlic, and ginger. All kimchi that I have tried has been spicy but I gather it can be mild too.

Pickles and Fermented Vegetables

Most pickles that we buy in the grocery store are not fermented. They’re preserved in vinegar. If you want pickles that are actually fermented and so have the probiotics that we’re looking for, go to the refrigerator section and look there. The jar should say that it’s fermented or a source of probiotic or has live cultures.

We think of pickles as being cucumbers but you can get other vegetables as well. There’s a local company that makes fermented foods that sells fermented green beans, carrots, and a mixture of beets and apples.

I did see some recipes online for fermented apples and for fermented berries. I bet that would be good.

Miso

Miso is fermented soybeans. It’s a traditional ingredient in Japanese food. You can buy the miso paste at many grocery stores. Probably the most common way to eat miso is in soup. Miso soup is made by stirring the miso paste into broth. You can add other ingredients if you want.

I have seen recipes for salad dressings, marinades for meat, and sauces for vegetables that include miso.

I have never seen a recipe for making your own miso so I think I can happily stick to buying it in the store.

Kombucha

Kombucha is a great fermented food. I hear that it’s easy to make but as I said earlier, I’ve never tried to make any of these foods. You can buy kombucha at many grocery stores even though it’s expensive that way. I suspect that this is like buying popcorn. It’s so much cheaper to pop your own at home. You can’t get it everywhere, though. One time I called my son in North Carolina and asked him to buy me some kombucha for my ride home from South Carolina because I couldn’t find any in the local stores.

I don’t drink soda pop any more and kombucha is about the closest I get to it these days. That’s why I wanted to have some in the car.

Kombucha is basically sugar and green or black tea that ferments. Usually, some kind of fruit or flavoring is added to it to make it a flavorful, bubbly drink. Be aware that kombucha is usually tart.

When kombucha is made, there is a clump that forms, similar to what you find in unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. This is call a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) and can be used to start your next back of kombucha.

Kefir

Kefir is similar to yogurt but is drinkable. It’s basically fermented milk. Kefir grains, which are a combination of yeast and bacteria, are added to milk. The resulting beverage is thicker and tangier than milk.

You can find kefir in most grocery stores now. I buy the plain kefir to avoid the sugar and flavorings added to the fruit flavored kefir. I then throw it in my blender with some fruit and make my own, unsweetened kefir to drink.

Kefir can easily be added to smoothies as well.

There’s apparently some evidence that kefir helps strengthen bones.

If you avoid dairy, you’ll have to decide if kefir is for you or not. I’ve read some articles that say even if you’re avoiding dairy, kefir and yogurt are ok.

Yogurt

Go into any grocery store and look in the dairy section. There’s now so much yogurt and in so many varieties, it’s overwhelming. Because the selection of yogurt is so big, make sure that what you’re buying actually has live cultures. That’s the only way you’ll get the probiotics.

Like kefir, yogurt is made from fermented milk. You probably want to avoid the yogurts that have lots of sugar added to it. I tend to buy plain yogurt and add fruit and flavorings to it so that I have control of what’s in it.

There have been a few studies that suggest that yogurt helps you to lose weight. I don’t know if that’s true but it might be worth trying.

Make Your Own

If you make your own fermented food, please let me know and maybe share some photos. I really need some moral support on this one. I have the glass jars though I was tempted to buy a crock recently but then decided I should make something with the jars before I spend money on a crock.

If I become bold enough and decide to ferment something, I’ll be sure to take photos and I’ll post them for you to see.

Let me know which of these you eat or avoid and what fermented foods I overlooked.

Maintain Weight Loss and Health Through Food with Karen Parrott

August 28, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Episode #16 of Becoming Elli – Fit, Strong Women Over 50

In today’s podcast, we talk with Karen Parrott, a popular blogger who writes about her weight loss journey and how to maintain weight loss. You can find her blog at Garden Girl, Weight Maintenance and Food Sobriety by abstaining from sugars, grains (NSNG) using a Paleo, LCHF, modified AIP, mild Ketogenic food template with a Primal Blueprint lifestyle. If you’re wondering what exactly all that means, we get Karen to define this and describe her way of eating in more detail.

How Karen Lost Weight

Karen Parrott is a 52 year old Licensed Medical Technologist living in Carlsbad, CA. She began gaining excess weight as a child and struggled with yo-yo dieting, obesity, morbid obesity, and binge eating until she was 46.

In 1997, Karen was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease and takes synthetic thyroid hormone replacement with great success. She also focuses on her diet to support her health.

In May of 2011, a month after a co-worker died suddenly, Karen decided to lose weight by using a packaged weight loss plan and a health coach. She lost 70 pounds in 40 weeks. She says, “the first thing I did at goal weight was to go into menopause! I transitioned onto Paleo (it fit well with my post-auto immune disease), then onto Low Carb.”

Finally, after an 8 to 10-pound unintentional weight regain, she tried a fasting protocol from The Salk Institute, from Dr. Satchin Panda’s lab. Switching to 16:8 fasting most days (16 hours of fasting with a 8-hour window for eating) helped Karen lose that regained weight slowly over half a year back to maintenance. It also produced the same low levels of ketosis that helped her lose the weight in 2011, without having to buy the packaged food.

Maintain Weight Loss

Karen uses about 20 different weight maintenance tools with abstaining from her binge triggers as the top tool.

She measures and records the following at various times:

glucose
ketones
weight
hemoglobin
A1C,
high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-crp)
triglycerides,
bone density

She wears a Fitbit and tracks her weight and food on My Fitness Pal. www.myfitnesspal.com

For exercise Karen walks 5- 6 miles daily, stair runs 3-4 days a week for intervals, and she goes to the gym to do resistance training one or two times a week. Karen says she often does stretching, pushups and some flexibility movements.

In this episode, we talk with Karen about:

How she lost 70 pounds
How she has kept the 70 pounds off for more than 6 years
The food template she uses to select her daily meals
How she exercises

Chris “met” Karen online in 2012 when Chris hit her goal on Weight Watchers and was looking for resources on maintaining a weight loss. “I feel it is strange when one person knows someone from reading their blog, but they don’t know the other person,” Chris says. This is how we support each other these days. We meet and get to know each other from social media, forums, blogs, and podcasts.

Karen’s Tips

Karen follows a low carb eating plan. She identified foods that cause her problems by following an Autoimmune Protocol (AIP). She describes this in her food discussion with us. Based on the results of this protocol, Karen realized that besides avoiding grains and dairy, she also needed to quit eating nuts.

Karen says that we all need to do the research and figure out what works best for each of us. Some of us can eat a lot of carbs while others cannot. What works for Karen may not work for me and what works for me may not work for you.

Perhaps the best advice that Karen gives is not to be apologetic about what you eat or don’t eat. She suggests that we all need to be methodical about our eating. Nobody can tell us more about what makes us feel the best than ourselves. Don’t let others make you feel embarrassed about how you choose to eat.

Karen is a researcher by training and clearly loves to research the different ways we can support our health. The following are links to the different books and sites that she refers to in our talk:

Links:

Refuse to Regain!: 12 Tough Rules to Maintain the Body You’ve Earned by Barbara Berkley MD Kindle or Softcover

The Paleo Solution Robb Wolf

Paleo resource Sarah Fergoso

AltShift Diet, Jason Sieb

The Four Tendencies Gretchen Rubin –

23andMe DNA Genetic Testing & Analysis – 23andMe is the first and only genetic service available directly to you that includes reports that meet FDA standards. Use your 23andme raw genetic data to learn the environmental and lifestyle contexts research suggests may be best suited to your genetic polymorphisms.

Found My Fitness – A website by Dr. Rhonda Patrick – a Ph.D in biomedical science/expert on nutritional health, brain & aging. The focus is on genetics with a database where you can run your 23andMe report.

Promethease is a computer program developed by the SNPedia team which allows users to compare personal genomics results against the SNPedia database, generating a report with information about a person’s attributes, such as propensity to diseases, based on the presence of specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)

Franziska Spritzler – Low carb dietitian

Cleveland Clinic Function Medicine

Dr. Mark Hyman

Satchin Panda, Ph.D.- Salk Institute

Rhonda Patrick and Satchin Panda, Ph.D. have worked together on the benefits of a Low Carb diet. Watch this interview to learn more.

Gut microbiome may have its own circadian rhythm. Check out My Circadian clock app

Dr. Jason Fung

Ruth E. Patterson – Fasting and Breast Cancer

Valter Longo, Ph.D.

The Salt Fix

AIP – Auto Immune Protocol (elimination diet)

Vinnie Tortorich NSNG – No Sugars No Grains –

Anna Vocino – Eat Happy

Ultra runner NSNG Zack Bitter

Adele Hite Easy Vintage Meals

Definitions:

Hashimoto’s Disease: Auto Immune disease

High sensitivity C reactive protein (CRP)

IRB approved study – Institutional Review Board of the US Food and Drug Administration

Intermittent fasting 12:12 or 18:6. Eating early in the day is referred to as Early Time Restricted Eating

Otto Warburg Effect

BRAF Gene Mutation

How to contact Karen Parrott:

Blog: Garden Girl

Instagram: Karenspaleolife

Twitter: @Gardengirl_kp

Facebook: Garden Girl KP – Weight Maintenance and more

Pinterest: Gardengirlkp

Salmon Veggie Patties with Avocado Lime Sauce

August 23, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

These salmon veggie patties are great. For one reason, they don’t have filler or, at least, no bread crumbs, no ground pork rinds, and no almond flour. Just do a search on salmon patties and you’ll see what I mean. Instead, these patties have vegetables as filler. I think you can make great salmon patties using vegetables in place of the crumbs.

As usual with my recipes, feel free to swap in what you have and leave out what you don’t have.

Salmon Veggie Patties Ingredients

1 can salmon

1 to 2 eggs, depending on consistency

½ cup diced onion

½ cup diced celery

½ cup diced bell pepper

Salt and pepper

Garlic Powder

Oil for frying

Avocado Lime Sauce Ingredients

½ to 1 Avocado

Lime Juice

2 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt or Mayonnaise

1 Clove garlic, crushed

1 Tbs. Parsley or Cilantro

Directions for Salmon Veggie Patties

Drain the salmon and break into chunks in a small mixing bowl.

Whisk the egg and add to the salmon.

Add the vegetables and mix well.

Make the patties and let them sit for a while. if you’re letting them sit more than 5 or 10 minutes, refrigerate them.

When it’s time, heat oil in frying pan.

Gently place patties in pan. After about 5 minutes or when the side is nicely browned, flip and cook the other side.

Directions for Avocado Lime Sauce

Blend the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Add more juice or yogurt/mayo to taste and to get the consistency you want.

Serving

Serve the patties on top of some greens and spoon some of the avocado lime sauce on top.

Notes:

I’m using a 6 oz. can of Wild Alaskan Pink Salmon. If you use the larger can of red salmon, double the other ingredients.

I had red bell pepper on hand. Use green if that’s what’s in your fridge. I think you could easily add different vegetables to these. Just make sure they’re chopped into small enough pieces. I think spinach might be an excellent addition.

You can fry these in olive oil, butter, ghee, coconut oil or avocado oil. If you eat peanuts, peanut oil would also work. Use the oil you prefer. I’m experimenting with avocado oil and it seems to have worked well,

Because there is no filler added to these, the patties will be sloppy. Don’t fret over it, just fry them up.

If you like spice, feel free to add more spice to the patties. Cumin and turmeric might be good choices.

How to Incorporate Fitness into Your Everyday Life

August 16, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Let’s discuss how to incorporate fitness into your everyday life. We all know about those official moments of exercise: we go to the gym, we take a yoga class, we follow along on a Youtube exercise video, and we go running for our scheduled number of miles or minutes.

Sometimes that isn’t enough. For me, I have days where I get busy with work related activities, or family activities, or some other distracting thing. So there are things we can all do that help us get a bit stronger and sure can’t hurt.

I think we all know by now that we’re supposed to park far away from the door of the store. It’s good to get those extra steps. But you can also try using a basket instead of a shopping cart because carrying the basket forces you to use your arm muscles a bit more. Granted, this won’t work if you’re buying a week’s worth of food but it’s great for those quick dashes into the store to buy a few things for dinner.

If you’ve used the shopping cart, be sure to walk it back to a return spot. Again, those extra steps are good.

While waiting in line, try flexing your ab muscles. No one can tell that you’re doing it but it’s a nice little workout.

One more thing about grocery shopping. Use those bags to your advantage. Sometimes when I want to feel strong, I grab as many bags as I can and I carry them all at once into my kitchen. Other times, I take one or two bags at a time and I make many trips back and forth. It depends on what I want to emphasize that day.

Work on your balance by standing on one leg while brushing your teeth. Be sure to alternate legs.

I used to know a woman who did ten squats every time she went to the restroom. That always felt a bit strange to me but perhaps you like that idea.

We also know we’re supposed to take the stairs instead of the elevator but, if you’re doing that, perhaps you try skipping steps. I think that has to be good for your leg muscles.

If you’re shopping in a mall, don’t rest on the escalator. Either take the regular stairs or walk on the escalator. Same thing with the people movers in the airport. Just keep walking.

I used to carry hangers into my laundry room and hang clothing on them and then take all of the hangers to the rack in one go. Now I take one item out of the dryer, walk over to the rack, and hang u the clothing. I then walk back to the dryer and repeat. It’s amazing how much more movement I get in doing laundry this way.

I use my Bluetooth headphones and pace around my house when I talk to someone on the phone. Sometimes, if it’s a lengthy conversation, I get a couple thousand steps in without even realizing it. Since people can’t see you, you can also grab some dumb bells and do some biceps curls.

You can always do some inclined push ups against your kitchen counter while you’re waiting for a pot to boil just like you can do some squats or lunges during a commercial when you’re watching TV. If you’re binging on a Netflix series, use the time between episodes to move around.

I’m sure we could all answer the question of how to incorporate fitness into your everyday life in different ways. I’d love to hear some ideas from you.

Health Coach, Personal Trainer, and All-Around Athlete Stacy Rhea

August 14, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Episode #15 of Becoming Elli – Fit, Strong Women Over 50

In this podcast, Chris and Jill discuss the 150-mile bike ride Chris rode this summer and their training efforts over the summer. They also talk with Stacy Rhea, a health coach and personal trainer, who participates in all kinds of sports.

In her 20’s, Stacy was like many of us. She drank, she ate whatever she wanted, and had no knowledge about healthy living or eating. She also smoked starting at the age of 13. When her father had to have quadruple bypass surgery, Stacy decided to make changes in her own life.

Stacy’s journey into health and fitness began with body building where she began to realize the power of nutrition to change our bodies.

Health Coach Stacy Rhea

Stacy is passionate about health. She has helped hundreds of people make healthy changes in their lives and coach them to success in their athletic endeavors. She helps her clients find what they love to do and she works with them on it, whether it’s running, hiking, or even rock climbing.

Stacy says, “It’s never too early to start working out and it’s never too late.” She works with people of all ages, from teens to people in their 60s. Most of her clients are women though she also works with men. Stacy’s philosophy is:

Education is king
Health and fitness start with the fork
A healthy, fit life takes consistency

As a personal trainer, Stacy works with clients one-on-one to help them improve their fitness. As a health coach, she may work with clients virtually and widens the focus of her services to include all aspects of healthy living.

In this episode, we discuss:

Getting Ohioans Healthy Again
Most important things for women over 50 to know and do
Importance of food in keeping us fit and healthy
Bicycle racing and velodromes
The difference between a health coach and a personal trainer

Links:

Cleveland Velodrome

Fitness Food

Stacy’s contact info

email: healthcoachrhea@gmail.com

Website: www.healthcoachrhea.com

FB: facebook.com/stacyrheacycles

Review: Aftershokz Trekz Air Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

August 9, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 3 Comments

I returned from my trip abroad this summer and apparently my boyfriend missed me because he bought me a pair of Trekz Air Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones by Aftershokz as a welcome home gift. I felt a little guilty because I brought him some souvenir gifts from Italy but I scored the fancy present.

Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

I’ve talked before about my running playlist. I enjoy listening to music or podcasts while I’m running. Last summer I bought a pair of Plantronics Bluetooth headphones for running and I really liked them. They have ear buds though which means that it makes it harder to hear what’s going o around me plus I’m always fiddling with the earbuds. I can deal with the earbuds when running on a treadmill but I like to run on local trails. I began to worry about safety while out running by myself. So, I tried running with just one earbud in and that worked OK but was not the best solution.

Shortly after buying the Bluetooth headphones, I went to a talk held at a local running store and while I was browsing, I saw these wireless bone conductive headphones. They had a sample there to try and I was thrilled by them and then sorry that I had just spent my headphone money on the earbuds version of Bluetooth headphones.

Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

So, what are bone conduction headphones? They are headphones that rest just in front of the ear. The headphones conduct the sound through the bone so you hear while bypassing the eardrum. I thought that was the coolest thing. The advantage of them is that you can hear your music or podcast but also hear everything going on around you because your eardrum is not blocked by the earbuds.

Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

I love these headphones. They’re so light that I have forgotten that I’m wearing them. I realized the other day that I’d been walking around for quite a while with them still on my head.

The sound is good. I can listen to my running playlist at a low to moderate volume and hear it without problems. I think it sounds good with a good range of bass and treble. I’ve checked with a couple people and they have reported that they can’t hear the music so that’s a relief. I hate walking around with everyone being able to hear my sometimes-embarrassing playlist. That happened a lot when I was only wearing one earbud.

I like that I can talk on the phone while wearing them. Again, I’ve checked with a couple people and they say I sound great on their end.

They charge with a mini-USB charger. So, this might be a negative. I’ve noticed that the headphones won’t charge using the cord that I use to charge my phone and everything else I own. I’ve had to use the cable that came with the headphones. That’s fine as long as the cable doesn’t get lost. That’s been known to happen when people come to visit and want to borrow a charging cable.

The controls for these headphones are small buttons on the stem and on the actual piece that rests on the bone. This is my complaint with all Bluetooth headphones. I tend to forget which button does what so I’m often fumbling with the buttons and looking like an idiot. The controls on the Trekz Air seem to be somewhat easier to use but we’ll see what happens when I want to answer the phone while I’m out running.

I’ve worn them running and they were great. While wearing my sunglasses, hat, and headband, I added the wireless bone conduction headphones. They were comfortable and I heard the music without problem. I also conducted a lengthy conversation with someone without having to remove the headphones. I did get sweaty while wearing them and they continued to work fine. I’ve not worn them in rainy weather yet so can’t address that.

The Details

The Trekz Air Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones by Aftershokz cost somewhere between $90 and $120, based on my searches on Amazon. Apparently there are some different models and colors so the price seems to vary. I see that there are other brands of the same kind of the wireless bone conduction headphones but haven’t tried any of them.

The box includes the headphones, the charging cable, a carrying case that zippers, instructions, and ear plugs. The instructions say to use the ear plugs when it is safe to block out ambient noise such as being on a train or airplane.

Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

I highly recommend the Trekz Air wireless bone conduction headphones. They’re lightweight, comfortable, and allow you to listen to your playlist or podcast and still be aware of what’s happening around you.

Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones