Who Has The Time?

Don't have the time to eat healthy?  OK, but the question is, do you have the time to eat at all?  If the answer is yes, then you can eat healthy. 

Some people enjoy a bowl of ice cream every night...I know I do - EVERY NIGHT!  You have to go to the grocery store to buy the ice cream right?  While you are there, breeze into the produce section and pick up those ugly weird fruits call pomegranates.  Next time you sit down to your usual bowl of ice cream, cut a pomegranate in half and squeeze the blood red juice and crunchy pellets over the top of the ice cream.  The pellets offer a slight resistance against your teeth before getting to the surprisingly satisfying crunch in the center.  You'll be surprised at how much your mouth will thank you for the delightful addition to your regular nightly treat.   If you really want to know what this powerful fruit can do for you, here's a good website http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/11-health-benefits-of-pomegranate-juice.html to get a quick at-a-glance read on the benefits.

If you'd like to take this healthy tip a bit further, try changing your regular ice cream brand to one that uses a coconut milk base.  People are always so surprised when I tell them the saturated fat in coconut milk is actually good for you.  At first, when you turn the pint of coconut milk based ice cream around to read the nutritional facts, you may gasp when see the high percentage of saturated fat.  But here's the secret...the fat in coconut is made up of mostly medium-chain fatty acids.  Unlike long or short chain fatty acids, the medium ones cannot be stored as fat - they turn directly into energy.  So eat up..it won't go to your thighs ladies!! 

You'll have to wait until my next blog when I divulge some of coconut's other secrets.  This poor little fruit has been curing people since the beginning of time, yet gets little credit.  Thanks for reading!

A Moment in Time

I suspect this is the first of many blogs - possibly for years to come - so now I feel the pressure to write something that I will enjoy reflecting upon.  It's October of 2010 and I am just beginning my journey towards my degree.  Seriously? Another journey?  I feel like I barely had time to finish the last one and now I'm starting another. 

Two and a half years ago I turned my life upside down in the hopes of saving my life. I had been living with the horrible symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis for 4 years when my arms had gone numb and paralyzed. I should have been scared out of my mind, but as busy as I was in those days with the kids, my job, the house, and everything else, I secretly enjoyed having an excuse as to why I couldn't do anything.  I remember standing in my living room watching my 2 year old daughter play.  She had gotten up to get a toy across the room when she tripped and fell - hard.  She hit her head on the coffee table and cried so hard no sound came out until she caught her breath.  I couldn't pick her up or hold her.  The only thing I could do was get down on the floor and cry with her.  My arms would not move.  I can only imagine what she was thinking.  She couldn't understand why I wasn't picking her up.  The only thing she knew was that I wasn't helping her.  I had never felt so helpless and so useless.  

In that moment, something snapped inside me and I think that was my rock-bottom moment.  When I got the use of my arms back a few days later, I went to the book store and found a book called the MS Recovery Diet.  I read about how people had healed themselves through diet, exercise and overall wellness.  That day was DAY 1 PART 2 of my life.  I quit my job of 11 years, quite smoking, stopped all medication (Beteseron injections), and ate nothing but chicken, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds for an entire year.  In only two weeks, my symptoms subsided and within a month I felt better than I ever had in my life.

Now that Part 2 of my life is complete and I have no signs or symptoms of MS, I can begin Part 3 of my life which involves getting a nutrition degree so I can learn more about the health effects of food and share with the world what I have learned.