In light of Angelina Jolie’s announcement that she underwent a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer, we asked Joi Morris, a woman who went through a similar ordeal, to share what every woman needs to know about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk. Morris is co-author of Positive Results: Making the Best Decisions When You’re at High Risk for Breast or Ovarian Cancer. —BBL Editor

Angelina Jolie has made a career of playing strong women in film. By revealing that she had undergone preventive mastectomies to reduce her breast cancer risk arising from an inherited BRCA1 mutation, she is showing her mettle in real life. She wrote:

“I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.”

Jolie, who is 37 years old, is fortunate to have access to the best medical care available. She could make the many decisions required with the best information available on her cancer risks. I too faced these decisions after learning of my BRCA2 mutation. I too was fortunate to have access to excellent health care and the support of a loving husband. But the choices are nonetheless daunting and emotionally fraught and far from simple or straightforward.

When to Seek Genetic Testing
The first decision is whether to seek genetic testing. It is estimated that more than 750,000 people in the United States carry a mutation on either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, with approximately 90% of them not aware they are at risk. Jolie could act to protect her health because she knew her BRCA1 status. I took the test because my doctor recognized that my family medical history suggested a risk for a BRCA mutation. My mother is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed at the age of 43, one warning sign of a BRCA mutation.

Should you consider genetic testing? Not everyone should be tested, but if you answer yes to any of these questions, then you should seek out a genetics professional to discuss your family history and the appropriateness of genetic testing:

• Do you have two or more relatives with breast cancer?
• Have you or a relative had both breast cancer and ovarian, fallopian tube or peritoneal cancer?
• Have you or a relative had breast cancer in both breasts?
• Have you or a relative had breast cancer before age 50?
• Has any male relative had breast cancer?
• Are you an Ashkenazi Jew with any family history of breast or ovarian cancer?
• Do you have any relatives who have tested positive for a BRCA mutation?

How to Reduce Your Risk
If you do test positive for a BRCA mutation the decisions don’t get any easier. Women have essentially three options to reduce their breast cancer risk:

• Surveillance: MRI alternating with mammography every six months
• Chemoprevention: taking medications such as Tamoxifen to reduce breast cancer risk
• Preventive surgery: removing the breasts

Surveillance does not prevent breast cancer but is designed to detect it early enough that it can be cured. Risk-reducing drugs have side effects. As a result, many women with BRCA mutations consider preventive surgery. But preventive surgery involves decisions about different mastectomy techniques and ways to reconstruct your breasts. Which approach may be right for you is highly personal.

Jolie’s medical journey is far from over. People magazine reported today that the actress is also planning have her ovaries removed to handle her risk of ovarian cancer, which is also associated with the BRCA1 mutation. Her mother died of ovarian cancer, and Jolie is close to the age of 40 when doctors recommend that BRCA1-positive women consider removing their ovaries to reduce this risk. Preventive surgery to reduce ovarian cancer risk, called bilateral salpingo oophorectomy, can plunge young women like Jolie into surgical menopause, with yet another host of medical issues and related decisions.

Get Informed
If you are worried about your BRCA status, know that you are not alone. There are resources available to help you understand and navigate the difficult choices you face. In 2006 when I discovered I had the BRCA2 mutation, the only other person I knew who had it was my mother. I found my way to FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, the national nonprofit dedicated to fighting hereditary breast and ovarian cancer through support, education, advocacy and research. I wrote my book, Positive Results: Making the Best Decisions When You’re at High Risk for Breast or Ovarian Cancer, because I wanted to share the information and resources I discovered with other women in my situation.

Angelina Jolie wrote that her decisions made her feel empowered. Knowledge can do that. I applaud Ms. Jolie’s decision to make public her highly personal, life-affirming decision.

Read more from Joi Morris on her blog or follow her on Twitter at @JoiMorris.

Half of all American women over the age of 45 have high blood pressure. Considering that high blood pressure is a treacherous and silent killer that wreaks havoc on arteries, predisposing us to stroke, a heart attack, kidney failure and blindness, it would behoove all of us to get those millimeters of mercury down to a safe level. (Medical authorities define a healthy normal blood pressure as less than 120/80 mm mercury.) Dr. Janet Brill’s new book, Blood Pressure Down: The 10-Step Plan to Lower Your Blood Pressure in 4 Weeks—Without Prescription Drugs, has all the information you need to do just that, including meal plans and more than 50 recipes that harness blood-pressure-lowering foods. Here, she explains how two of those foods — bananas and chocolate — work to keep your blood pressure in check. —BBL Editor   

Most people know that cutting down on sodium intake is a powerful dietary step one can take to lower blood pressure. But did you also know that there are also a number of healthy (and delicious) foods you can eat that will make a dent in your numbers? It’s time to shift our attention to ingesting much, much more of Mother Nature’s most powerful blood pressure mineral medicine. Lucky for us, foods like bananas and dark chocolate are on the list.

Bananas
Bananas are the most popular fruit in the United States. They are a delicious, portable and relatively inexpensive fruit filled with fiber as well as many vitamins and minerals. Bananas are Mother Nature’s sweet blood-pressure-lowering medicine because of their potassium content — one banana packs at least 450 mg! Potassium is an essential nutrient that lowers blood pressure by balancing out the harmful effects of sodium. It works as a natural diuretic: The more potassium you eat, the more sodium and water you excrete in the urine. Scientists think that potassium also actively relaxes the blood vessels.

Abundant scientific evidence has proven that a shortage of potassium in the diet plays a critical role in elevating blood pressure. Indeed, restricting potassium intake has been proven to cause a substantial rise in blood pressure — even in people with normal blood pressure. A low potassium intake also ups your odds of suffering a stroke. To lower your blood pressure through dietary means, aim for a sodium intake of under 1,500 mg/day in combination with a potassium intake of 4,700 mg. Eating just two bananas a day will help you to reach your daily 4,700 mg potassium goal.

Dark Chocolate
Chocolate lovers, rejoice! Believe it or not, this forbidden fruit is actually a magical blood-pressure-lowering medication. What’s the ingredient in dark chocolate that confers so many blood vessel benefits? “Polyphenols” is the term used to describe a major class of bioactive phytochemicals scientifically proven to protect against heart and vascular disease. Flavonoids are a subclass of polyphenols (flavonoids account for about two-thirds of our polyphenol intake). Indeed, flavonoids are those plentiful and super-heart-healthy plant chemicals found in high concentration in fruits, vegetables and, you guessed it, dark chocolate! And cocoa contains lots of flavonoids. In fact, dark chocolate has such a highly concentrated amount of flavonoids that it beats out red wine.

No need for deprivation when caring for your arteries! Although medication is highly effective at bringing your numbers down, what you eat can also have a dramatic blood-pressure-lowering effect. Remember, it’s all in the balance (of sodium and potassium). Aim for slashing the salt as well as packing your plate with potassium-rich foods such as melon, avocado, cooked spinach, white beans, bananas and dark chocolate, and you will be taking a huge step in keeping your blood pressure numbers where they need to be.

Jason’s Chocolate-Banana Cake
Here’s a tasty, low-sodium, high-potassium recipe for Chocolate-Banana Cake from my book, Blood Pressure Down.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 large ripe banana, mashed (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 egg white
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup semisweet dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 11 x 7-inch brownie pan with nonstick spray. Whisk together flour, sugar blend, cocoa, and baking soda in large bowl. In another bowl whisk together the bananas, soy milk, oil, egg, egg white, lemon juice and vanilla. Make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture and pour on the soy milk mixture and chocolate chips. With a wooden spoon stir the ingredients together until blender. Spoon batter into pan. Bake about 25 minutes until the center of the cakes springs back when pressed lightly with fingertips.

Serves 18

Nutrition per Serving:
Calories: 150 kcal
Sodium: 52 mg
Potassium: 119 mg
Magnesium: 19 mg
Calcium: 23 mg
Fat: 4 g (EPA 0g, DHA 0g, ALA 0g)
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 12 mg
Carbohydrate: 27 g
Dietary fiber: 1 g
Sugars: 9 g
Protein: 3 g

Recipe Source: An excerpt from the book Blood Pressure DOWN by Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N, LDN; Published by Three Rivers Press; May 2013. Copyright © 2013 Janet Brill, Ph.D.

For more information about Dr. Janet Brill, visit drjanet.com.

Charles Moss, M.D., has been practicing holistic medicine since the 1970s and founded The Moss Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, Calif., in 1978. In his second book, The Adaptation Diet: A Three-Step Approach to Control Cortisol, Lose Weight and Prevent Chronic Disease, he focuses on reining in our levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that, when left unchecked, can put us at risk of weight gain, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and immune system suppression. Here, he explains how a group of herbs called adaptogens can help. —Editor   

Mary was a typical patient of mine, who had too many tasks to perform and too little time to do them: her children, her job, caring for her elderly parents and more. She managed to keep all these balls in the air until a viral illness got her down and kept her there. She came to me as a patient concerned with fatigue, depression, low stamina and a very short fuse. My diagnosis? She had become maladapted from the continual stress of her typical modern lifestyle.

Mary needed something that would lower her stress, increase her energy and give her immune system a boost. I recommended that she take a combination of botanicals, called adaptogens, that included rhodiola, eleutherococcus (Siberian ginseng) and cordyceps. These helped her to be less anxious, sleep better and have a greater resilience and energy level.

What are adaptogens? This is a term coined by the Russians in the 1940s to describe botanicals that can improve resistance to physical and emotional stress. Today we think of these powerful herbs as a way of coping with the persistent stress of modern life.

Adaptogens normalize cortisol, the key stress hormone made in the adrenal gland which is controlled by the midbrain (the seat of emotional memory). When we find ourselves in a chronically stressful situation, whether from work, relationships, a noisy neighbor, or the memory of past traumatic events, our cortisol levels increase. What happens with chronically elevated cortisol is not pretty: high blood sugar, weight gain around the middle, poor mental focus, irritability and increased risk for diabetes, heart disease and cancer.   Over time, the finely tuned feedback loop between the brain and the adrenal production of cortisol can go awry, leading in some people to an inadequate cortisol response to additional stress, like what happened to my patient Mary.

Though this term was coined by the Soviets, adaptogens have been used for many centuries in Asia and Europe. The Chinese have employed panax ginseng and cordyceps sinensis as tonic herbs to improve energy and coping skills. Ayurvedic medicine in India has used ashwagandha and holy basil to reduce stress and normalize blood sugar and cortisol levels. The Soviets focused on Siberian ginseng (a different plant than panax ginseng) and rhodiola rosea to improve work performance, resistance to stress and mental acuity. (These botanicals are described in greater detail in The Adaptation Diet.)

The bottom line is that adaptogens can provide that extra help we all need at times to keep our heads above water without paying the price of excess cortisol. (In fact, some of the animal experiments that studied the benefits of adaptogens measured how far mice can swim in cold water before tiring).

Remember, these botanicals are powerful and should be used only when appropriate. Doses of the key herbal adaptogens range from 50-300 mg of Siberian ginseng, panax ginseng, ashwagandha and rhodiola. These herbs are typically used in combination in adrenal support formulas. In addition to the adaptogenic herbs, these formulas often contain nutrient adaptogens like vitamins B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine) and the phospholipid, phosphatidylserine. Many of these herbs should not be used in pregnancy or while nursing and should be used under the supervision of a health care professional if there is any chronic disease.

Even before you reach for one of these potent formulas to help you deal with the stress of today’s lifestyle, remember the key to maintaining a normal cortisol response starts with eating a low inflammatory, low glycemic, Mediterranean style diet (which is explained in detail in The Adaptation Diet) as well as good self care (establishing a quiet and mindful time every day and doing appropriate exercise). The benefits of normal cortisol levels lead to the ability to stay relaxed in a stressed-out world, and to promote healthy aging.

For more information, visit theadaptationdiet.com.

I’ve practiced meditation on and off for the past couple of years and have found it to be the perfect remedy for a stressful work day, relationship issues or any particular problem that needs solving. Recently, I decided to combine meditation with my favorite hobby: running. I’ve been a runner for as long as I remember, and as I trained for my second half marathon this year, I turned to Sakyong Mipham’s Running with the Mind of Meditation for guidance. As it turns out, running and meditation are a perfect match! Here are some of the lessons I learned from the Sakyong, who is head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and an avid runner:

Step 1: Breathe
Combining running and meditation begins with the breath. Regulating your breath is critical to both mental and physical success while running. If you don’t pay attention to your breath, you may forget to breathe, and tire easily. Whereas if you focus on long, even breaths, you can increase your energy levels and stamina. The first step is to pay attention to your breath—when you pay attention to your breath, you bring yourself to the present moment, which clarifies your mental state. The Sakyong writes, “Being with the breath is the most effective way of being in the present. It completely connects us with reality.”

Step 2: Peaceful Abiding and Contemplation
A common meditation term is “peaceful abiding,” which describes the mental state after our breath is regulated and the mind is tame. Learning to abide peacefully is the reason that people engage in meditation—think of peaceful abiding as the ultimate goal. While it is difficult to establish peaceful abiding when running, runners can enter a meditative state by focusing on the breath and directing the mind toward a certain theme. For example, runners can focus on feeling fortunate or grateful, and over time, the mind will calm down while running and remain focused.

Step 3: Just Do It—With Gentleness
Perhaps the most important lesson in combining running and meditation is to just begin. Follow your breath as you run, bring your mind into the present moment, and focus on a particular theme or goal. By following these guidelines you may start to notices changes in your well-being. Your runs will develop a certain clarity that didn’t exist previously. You may find yourself reflecting on a sense of gratitude toward yourself or others. Most importantly, apply the concept of gentleness to your running. This may seem counterintuitive. However, the Sakyong describes how “with aggression, you may accomplish some things, but with gentleness, you can accomplish all things.” Go ahead and try it on your next run—be gentle to your mind while running. You may see that you run a bit farther (or faster) than expected.

So go to it! Apply the principles above to run with the mind of meditation.

Learn more about Sakyong Mipham at sakyong.com or follow him at @SakyonMipham.

Julie Gabriel is a holistic nutritionist who teaches how to “eat yourself beautiful” in her new book, Holistic Beauty from the Inside Out. Here are her tips for maintaining healthy, radiant skin:

Pollutants, dirt, chemicals in water and makeup, a less-than-pure diet and hormonal disorders. All of these contribute to our inner toxic load, and it shows up on our faces with such tell-tale signs as blemishes, redness, dry patches or flakiness. Thankfully, today there are many ways to detox your skin from inside out.

1. Water: Drinking water is an obvious way to achieve a glowing, hydrated complexion. Begin your day with a glass of water mixed with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon honey. During the day drink green tea with lemon or ginger tea, which is bursting with skin-protecting antioxidants.

2. Probiotics: Adding a good probiotic to your diet helps purify your skin from inside out. Regular bowel movements and strong immunity are essential for clear, toxin-free skin and long-term health in general. Instead of buying expensive probiotic yogurts with “live” bacteria, make your own yogurt or invest in a simple yogurt-making machine and experiment with fresh fruit, cereals, honey and even culinary herbs added to your yogurts.

3. Fiber: Increasing the fiber content of your diet not only helps combat bloating, it has a tremendous benefit for your skin. Beware of ready-made fiber supplements which can leave you bloated or even lead to constipation. Eat traditional oatmeal or delicious muesli for breakfast, switch from white bread to whole meal or gluten-free type, eat more nuts, and you will easily meet your daily fiber quota. Adding more fiber in the summer cannot be easier! Make a super-simple cleansing salad with ample amounts of salad greens, grated apples, carrots, radishes and any fresh garden herbs you can find. Fresh nettles and dandelion greens are awesome inner cleansers – splash stinging nettle leaves with boiling water to make them delicious and mild.

4. Home facials: Once a week indulge in a home spa ritual. Choose a quiet evening and get into the mood with nice soothing music and a cup of nettle tea. Make sure you have everything ready for the Green Face Detox below: sea salt, clay, essential oils, activated charcoal (you can buy it in health food shops or online) and apple juice.

Green Face Detox: First, exfoliate your skin with a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon white or green clay. Add a little water or green tea to make a paste, then gently rub into your skin and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes. Rinse with tepid water and pat face dry.

Fill a basin or a pan with very hot water; add skin detoxifying essential oils such as tea tree, eucalyptus or ylang-ylang – no more than three drops each! You can also use fresh or dried lavender, nettle, chamomile, rosemary or any other fragrant herbs and spices to add healing properties to your facial steam bath. Steam your face for 8-10 minutes to thoroughly purify the pores and purge any excess water.

After steaming, make a simple but very effective detoxifying facial mask: Combine contents of 3 capsules of activated charcoal with 1 teaspoon clay of your choice and 1 tablespoon apple juice. Make a paste and stir well. Apply to the whole face avoiding eye area and relax for 7-10 minutes or until the mask dries out. Rinse well with warm water.

5. Clean cosmetics: To seal good results achieved from better hydration and smoother digestion, become a consistently green beauty shopper. Shun cosmetic products containing parabens and other unsafe preservatives, petrochemicals, synthetic fragrances, acrylic polymers and chemicals sunscreens. To boost your daily skincare routine, experiment with homemade facial oils made from thin, non-comedogenic oils such as thistle, chia or jojoba, with added detoxifying essential oils similar to those used in the Green Face Detox. Even if you can afford to buy only a few organic skincare essentials, your skin will look a lot better than if you load it with dozens of expensive, chemical-based, anti-aging serums.

VB6, the title of Mark Bittman’s new book and heathy eating plan, sounds like a futuristic diet involving highly engineered supplements and powders. In reality, it’s inspiration more by our ancestors than laboratories. VB6 stands for “vegan before 6 o’clock,” and it’s more of a set of guidelines than a strict diet. Simply stated, Bittman calls for eating no animal products before 6 o’clock and also limiting—or eliminating, if you can—highly processed foods around the clock.

This is the way Bittman, a food writer for over 25 years, started eating six years ago after getting a warning from his doctor that he was on a path toward diabetes and heart disease. Faced with abandoning a career and lifestyle that revolved around food, he came up with a “part-time vegan” solution that helped him eat more vegetables and fruits and less meat while still very much enjoying his food. After a few months, his test results returned to healthy levels and he was at his lowest weight in 30 years.

So, why 6 o’clock? Here’s how Bittman explains it in the book:

Am I suggesting that 6 p.m. is some kind of magical metabolic witching hour? Not at all. Truthfully, the hour itself doesn’t matter much, and if you habitually eat dinner very early, your plan may be VB5—or VB9, if you live in Spain. The point I was making to myself, and that I’m saying to you, is that dinnertime sets you free. Dinnertime, because that’s when you’re likely to want to eat the most, because that’s when you’re most likely to drink (and lose discipline!), because that’s when you’re most likely to combine eating with socializing, an important and even beneficial thing.

The book lays out six simple steps to putting together your own VB6 plan, a 28-day plan for getting started, plus 60-plus recipes and variations. And, you’ll find more recipe inspiration in Bittman’s new New York Times column, The Flexitarian. You can also read an excerpt from VB6.

Here’s a recipe from VB6 that vegan-izes a classic Italian dish. Enjoy!

Eggplant Un-Parmesan

Makes: 4 servings
Time: about 1 hour

This take on eggplant Parmesan proves that (a) you don’t need a lot of oil to cook eggplant, and (b) you don’t need gobs of cheese to make it delicious. Try using zucchini or portobello mushrooms as variations, or serve the vegetables and tomato sauce over polenta for a more substantial meal. If you can’t find whole-wheat breadcrumbs (panko-style are best), make your own by pulsing lightly toasted whole-grain bread in the food processor or blender.

2½ pounds eggplant
5 tablespoons olive oil
1¼ teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
Black pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs, preferably coarse-ground

1. Heat the oven to 450°F and position two racks so that they’ve got at least 4 inches between them. Cut the eggplant crosswise into ½-inch-thick slices and arrange them on two rimmed baking sheets.

2. Use 2 tablespoons of the oil to brush the top of each eggplant slice and sprinkle them with ½ teaspoon salt and some pepper. Roast the eggplant until the slices brown on the bottom and sides, 10 to 15 minutes; turn and cook the other side until they’re crisp in places and golden, another 5 to 10 minutes. When they finish cooking, remove them from the oven and lower the heat to 400ºF.

3. Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the onion, sprinkle with another ½ teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down and the mixture comes together and thickens, 20 to 25 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

4. Cover the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with about ½ inch of the tomato sauce. Nestle a layer of eggplant into the sauce and top with some of the basil. Cover with a thin layer of tomato sauce and repeat until all the eggplant is used up; reserve some of the basil for serving. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs, the remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and lots of pepper, and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Simmer the remaining sauce (you should have about 2 cups) over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, while the eggplant bakes.

5. Bake until the breadcrumbs are golden and the sauce has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes; let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, garnished with the remaining basil; pass the remaining sauce at the table (or refrigerate or freeze it for another use).

Variations
Zucchini Un-Parmesan: Substitute 2 pounds zucchini (sliced lengthwise, preferably) for the eggplant and proceed with the recipe. Use mint instead of basil, if you like.

Portabella Un-Parmesan: Use 1½ to 2 pounds portabella mushrooms instead of eggplant; remove their stems but leave them whole. Proceed with the recipe, only make one, not two layers. Use parsley instead of basil if you like.

Eggplant Un-Parmesan with Polenta: Make a small batch of polenta and layer the tomato sauce, then the eggplant, the basil, and the polenta in a baking dish. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up. Top with breadcrumbs, if you like (it’s not necessary). Bake as directed.

Nutritional Info (using all the sauce)
Calories: 411  •  Cholesterol: 0mg  •  Fat: 22g  •  Saturated Fat: 3g  •  Protein: 9g  •  Carbohydrates: 53g  •  Sodium: 1221mg  •  Fiber: 16g  •  Trans Fat: 0g  •  Sugars: 17g

The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper has said, “Yoga is the fountain of youth. You’re only as young as your spine is flexible.” Many people tout the positive effects of yoga, and the mind-body discipline has been shown to have a positive effect on scores of health issues, but a new Norwegian study is one of the first to explain why it does all this great stuff. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that after a four-hour yoga practice, the body experiences a significant change in gene expression. Up to 111 genes express differently after yoga, compared to 38 after a relaxing walk with music. What does this mean? It means that yoga can be a more effective than traditional exercise in creating health benefits, especially dealing with stress.

One of the great things about yoga is that anyone can do it—young or old, heavy or thin, flexible or inflexible. Even if you are short on time, 5 minutes is all it takes to do a few poses. Every little bit counts. And most importantly, the only item you really need is yourself.

To help you on your yoga journey, we have collected several resources below. Do you have your own favorite online yoga resources? Let us know in the comments below!

Everything You Need to Know (yoga.com)

A Plethora of Yoga Videos to Do at Home (tarastiles.com)

A Specific List of Benefits (mindbodygreen.com)

Affordable Yoga Retreats (sheknows.com)

To wrap up our coverage of our April Book of the Month, The Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy, we have a new video that explains the basics of the plan and gives a look at the delicious foods you can eat. (We’re giving away 25 copies of The Fast Metabolism Diet and 25 BlenderBottles on our Facebook page. Enter now—the deadline is tomorrow, April 23, at midnight!) —BBL Editor

When was the last time you tried a diet plan that included steak, shrimp, guacamole and sorbet? On the Fast Metabolism Diet, it’s all about the food. Getting savvy in the kitchen is part of my master plan to rev-up your metabolism and get you to ENJOY eating again. This is a plan for real people and real lives — learning how to prepare your meals in a quick, affordable way is the key to making you wildly successful even when life gets crazy. The 40-plus easy recipes included in my book are some of my kids’ and my clients’ favorites.

This video gives a glimpse into just some of the foods you’ll enjoy on this plan. Many of my clients are simply amazed by how much food they get to eat. On the Fast Metabolism Diet, the word “diet” gets a totally new meaning. It means “Did I Eat Today?” Did I eat foods that nourish my body and mind? Did I eat wonderful, delicious whole foods? On the Fast Metabolism Diet, that’s exactly what you’ll do.

Learn more at fastmetabolismdiet.com. For a chance to win a copy of the book and a BlenderBottle, visit our Facebook page.

So far this month nutritionist Haylie Pomroy, author of The Fast Metabolism Diet, has explained how it’s possible to speed up a slow metabolism and shown how eating healthy fats can help us lose weight. Here’s what she says to people who try fasting and skipping meals to lose weight (hint: don’t do it!). (Giveaway alert! We’re giving away 25 copies of The Fast Metabolism Diet and 25 BlenderBottles! Visit our Facebook page by 4/23/13 to enter to for a chance win.) —BBL Editor

“If I could only eat less, I’d be able to lose weight.”

This is a sentence I hear all the time in my clinical practice. And on the surface, it makes sense, right? Less calories in means more calories burned. The problem? It just doesn’t work like that, and I’ve got 20 years of experience to back me up on this one. Deprivation diets just don’t work.

Your metabolism is incredibly sensitive. The metabolic process involves all of your organs, body systems and hormones, reacting at an instant’s notice to your environment. When you start skipping meals, your metabolism raises the alarm. It’s thinking “Whoa, we haven’t had any food coming in for a while. Better store whatever fuel we can in case no more food is coming.”

Your metabolism is just trying to save your life! It’s being super conservative with fuel because it doesn’t know when you’re going to fill up the tank again. So it slows wayyyy down. And what does it do with the little bit of food you’ve eaten? It stores it as fat. That’s right! It sounds cruel, but if you’re not eating enough healthy food, your body will store LETTUCE as fat.

By skipping meals, you body actually goes into starvation mode. I have a clients who skip breakfast and don’t eat until 2:00 p.m. Think about it: When you do this, you’re asking your body to wake up, get dressed, get the kids ready for school, drive, work all day, and sometimes exercise on ZERO fuel. So where does your body turn for energy? It would be great if it just burned all that belly fat for fuel, but it doesn’t work that way. Instead, your body starts “eating” your muscle tissue.

You know that feeling when you skip a meal and get really, really hungry? Then after a while, the hunger goes away? Well, it’s not because you didn’t eat – you DID eat. Your body ate its muscle for fuel. It sounds gross, but it’s true.

The good news? You can turn all this around in a really pleasant way: By EATING. Chow down on the right whole, healthy foods and the right balance of nutrients, and you don’t need to go hungry, skip meals or starve yourself to lose weight. Your body will start burning stored fat right alongside the lean proteins, veggies, grains, fruit and healthy fats you’re eating. That’s what my Fast Metabolism Diet and lifestyle is all about.

So make this resolution today: No more deprivation diets. Not eating does NOT equal weight loss. Plus you can end up losing muscle and making yourself really cranky and miserable. It’s not worth it!

Tim Caulfield is the author of The Cure for Everything, which was released in paperback this week.

We are continually told we are living in the midst of a “genetic revolution.” You hear this from politicians, leading scientists and the popular media. And there are innumerable new, direct-to-consumer companies trying to sell you a genetic test. The companies promise everything from improved mate selection to weight loss to a longer and healthier life.

So what is a person to do? Should we all embrace the revolution and get our genes tested? Can you really improve your dating, waistline and overall health by implementing a high-tech genetic solution?

In short: Nope. Save your money.

I like to break down the currently available tests into three categories: the clearly preposterous, the marginally pertinent, and the vaguely predictive (but still not terribly useful).

The clearly preposterous: These are the tests that are based on very little good science and offer a service for a complex trait, such as the testing companies that promise to find you a perfect and genetically matched romantic partner. I suppose you could pick a mate based on your genes, but it would likely be as random as basing your selection on the “chemistry” you feel when you meet someone at a bar.

All of the cosmetic and anti-aging services also belong in this category. Sorry, genetic testing isn’t going to make our wrinkles go away. Stay out of the sun, don’t smoke, and get lots of sleep.

The marginally pertinent: Some testing companies offer tests that are related to things like diet, exercise and athletic ability. While there is lots of interesting research on the areas — particularly around topics like the genetics of obesity — the science isn’t at a point where you can derive significant benefit from tailoring your workout or food intake to your genetic makeup. This is especially so since very few Americans currently satisfy the existing dietary and exercise recommendation. For most of us, tweaking our diet based on a genetic test is ludicrous. Simply eat better. No test required.

The vaguely predictive (but still not terribly useful): These tests include the services that are more comprehensive, science-based and aimed at the prevention of common diseases. These are also the services that have received the most attention from both the popular press and regulators.

I got my genes tested by the company 23andMe. What did I learn? Turns out that I am at slightly increased risk for a range of diseases (heart disease and colorectal cancer, for example) and at decreased risk for many others. I found the testing experience fun and interesting, and the presentation of the information by 23andMe was both engaging and sophisticated. But did I find out anything of value from a health perspective? Not really.

Don’t get me wrong. The health advice I got from the company was sound. It was, in fact, what we should all be doing already! Exercise, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, drink in moderation, keep my weight down, and don’t smoke. But I didn’t need a genetic test to tell me about this. And neither do you.

This is the problem with the current wave of genetic testing services, at least in the context of common chronic diseases. The information they provide isn’t terribly predictive. More importantly, it doesn’t provide information that is more valuable (despite their claims to the contrary) than the basic preventative strategies we have long known. This is why one recent study on the value of the current consumer tests concluded that they are unlikely to have “any significant impact on the health of the public.”

The bottom line is that many of these companies, particularly the ones that fall into the first two categories, are simply exploiting the legitimate excitement and profile of genetic research to market largely useless test.

Be active, eat well and ignore the high-tech hype.

Tim Caulfield on Twitter: @CaulfieldTim

Curtis Stone is one of the hosts of Bravo’s super-popular series, Top Chef Masters, as well as a host of the channel’s reality show Around the World in 80 Plates. In addition to being a celebrity chef, he’s also a philanthropist and a new dad. As someone who is all too familiar with crazy schedules and how hard it can be to plan dinner when you have a very busy lifestyle, Stone thought it was important to write a cookbook that helped busy people like himself sit down and have dinner with their families.

His newest cookbook, What’s for Dinner? Delicious Recipes for a Busy Life, offers over 50 quick and easy recipes that anyone (from a new cook to a seasoned chef) can whip up every night of the week. The book is organized by themes for each day of the week—Time-Saving Tuesdays, Thrifty Thursdays—so for this Wednesday, we thought we’d share a “One-Pot Wednesday” recipe: Chicken and Chorizo Paella. Below, you can read Stone’s introduction and download this delicious recipe for free.

Bon Appétit!

WHATS FOR DINNER? by Curtis Stone, One-Pot Wednesdays: Chicken and Chorizo Paella by Random House Publishing Group

For more information, visit curtisstone.com.

Spring is finally here, which means it’s the perfect time to get a fresh start on healthy living. Our April book of the month, The Fast Metabolism Diet by nutritionist Haylie Pomroy, will help you do just that. Pomroy is known for helping clients lose weight the healthy way by using food to rev up metabolism. Here, she explains how healthy fats fit into her diet plan. (Giveaway alert! We’re giving away 25 copies of The Fast Metabolism Diet and 25 BlenderBottles! Visit our Facebook page by 4/23/13 to enter to for a chance win.) —BBL Editor

To lose fat, eat fat. It sounds crazy doesn’t it? I’ve had clients look at me like I’m from Mars when I tell them that part of the reason they’re not losing weight is because they aren’t eating enough fat. Of course, I’m talking about good fats — healthy dietary fats.

On the 28-day Fast Metabolism Diet, we use three phases of eating to reboot your metabolism and get your body burning fat like crazy. On the first two phases (the first four days of the week), your body is nourished with muscle-building proteins, adrenal-calming fruits and grains and loads of green alkalizing vegetables. These replenish and restore the organs and glands responsible for fat-burning in the body. And during those four days, your body burns stored fat – the fat you’re trying to lose – for energy.

On the fifth day – Phase 3 – we throw your body another curveball: We add wonderful healthy-fat foods like cold-water fish (salmon, tuna), olives, coconut milk, raw cashew butter, avocados and more. That easy-to-metabolize dietary fat prompts the release of fat-melting enzymes from the gallbladder that go crazy, torching additional stored fat — the fat that’s been stuck on your belly, hips and thighs!

Lots of my clients thought they’d never get to eat guacamole or hummus again, but on The Fast Metabolism Diet, it’s all part of the fat-burning plan. Below is just one of the 50+ recipes you’ll find in my book. This chicken curry gets its wonderful creaminess from coconut milk and olive oil, along with a sweet spiciness from curry powder. If you’d like to spice it up even more, add a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Coconut Curry Chicken
Appropriate for Phase 3 of the Fast Metabolism Diet
Serves 4

1 pound boneless, skinless organic chicken breasts, cut into one-inch cubes
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium diced onion
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. curry powder
1 14-oz. can coconut milk
1 cup canned, diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
3 packed cups baby spinach
2 cups cooked quinoa

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and sea salt. Sauté the onion over medium heat for about 7 minutes, until translucent. Add curry powder and sauté for an additional minute until the spice fully coats the onions.

Incorporate the coconut milk, tomatoes and tomato paste into the mixture. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes until sauce slightly thickens.

Add the pieces of chicken to the skillet and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through. Stir in the spinach and allow to cook for 3 minutes or until wilted.

Add a pinch more salt to taste, if needed. Serve warm with 1/2 cup quinoa.

Spring is finally here, which means it’s the perfect time to get a fresh start on healthy living. Our April book of the month, The Fast Metabolism Diet by nutritionist Haylie Pomroy, will help you do just that. Pomroy is known for helping celebrities, athletes and people with chronic illness lose weight the healthy way by using food to rev up metabolism. Here, she explains the metabolic process and how it’s possible to change how yours works. (Giveaway alert! We’re giving away 25 copies of The Fast Metabolism Diet and 25 BlenderBottles! Visit our Facebook page by 4/23/13 to enter to for a chance win.) —BBL Editor

It seems like everybody is talking about “metabolism” these days—it’s all over the magazine stands and on TV. And I’m so excited that everyone is finally talking about it! Your metabolism couldn’t be more important—it affects every aspect of your life. And in my 20 years as a nutritionist and wellness counselor, understanding metabolism—and helping my clients fine-tune it—has been a huge part of my clinical practice. But what exactly IS metabolism? Geek out with me for a minute while we dive into it!

First of all, your metabolism isn’t an object: It’s a process. The ‘metabolic process’ consists of chemical reactions that occur in the cells of all living creatures to keep them alive. For you, your metabolism is the process that transforms the food you eat into either heat and fuel, or substance: muscle, fat, blood, bone. So your metabolism—which is working 24/7—is always doing one of three things: burning, storing or building.

The percentage of time your metabolism spends doing each of those three things determines whether you have a slow metabolism—one that spends more of its time storing fat—or a fast metabolism, which spends more of its time burning energy and building a strong body. We all know which one we want! The ideal metabolism gives you the perfect amount of available energy, the right amount of stored energy that’s ready to use when you need it, and a solid frame of muscle and bone.

Fast or slow?
We all know people with fast metabolisms. Those are the people who seem to eat anything they want and not gain weight. Their skin glows, they’re strong and toned, and they have energy to spare.

But what about you? If it’s easier for you to gain than lose weight, that’s a major sign you’ve got a slow metabolism. And you probably think you’re stuck with it forever. But I’m here to tell you: It doesn’t have to be that way!

The cool thing about your metabolism is that you can change it. It’s always ready to react to what you eat, what activities you do, your stress level, even your environment. It’s great that we can actually manipulate our metabolisms by changing our diet and habits. The trouble is that it’s too easy to end up with the body you don’t want. How does that happen? By eating lots of processed foods, stuff full of artificial flavorings and colors, or nutrient-void foods like sugar and alcohol. These metabolism-busters tax your liver, throw your adrenal glands into panic mode and send your cortisol levels soaring, bringing your already slow metabolism to a standstill.

The good news? You can turn this whole cycle around! That’s what The Fast Metabolism Diet is all about. By eating the right whole, nutritious proteins, grains, fruits, veggies and healthy fats, you can re-train and rev-up your body’s metabolic process, turning it from a pile of wet, soggy logs to a raging bonfire. What’s more, you can do it with no calorie-counting, without stressing about carbs and without wearing yourself out at the gym two hours a day. And you can do it in as little as 28 days.

Are you ready to get started?

The Fast Metabolism Diet is on sale April 9. In the meantime, you can read an excerpt or learn more at fastmetabolismdiet.com. 

Since I’m not much of a runner, the recent trend of barefoot running didn’t sound like it would be for me. But it never occurred to me that I could get the same foot-strengthening benefits by walking barefoot. Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee explain it all in their new book Barefoot Walking: Free Your Feet to Minimize Impact, Maximize Efficiency, and Discover the Pleasure of Getting in Touch with the Earth. We caught up with the husband-and-wife team to learn more about how something as simple as taking off your shoes can strengthen your mind, body and soul.

Books for Better Living: What are some of the benefits of barefoot walking?

Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee: When you go barefoot, you’re rolling back the clock and waking your body back up to its natural state of health. It’s incredibly rejuvenating, which comes from the grounding or earthing effect and from the feedback we get from the ground. It’s as if the ground gives us a message to flip the on-switch or reboot. By connecting with the earth our circulation improves, our balance improves, muscles grow stronger, our joints feel better, our posture improves, even our immune system gets a boost! At the same time it helps reduce blood pressure and inflammation throughout the body.

As we go barefoot, we’re focused on the ground beneath our feet. This helps us let go of distractions and focus on each individual step. In this way it’s a mindfulness exercise, helping quiet the mind and plant us firmly in the present moment.

As a mindful exercise, and by plugging into the earth, barefoot walking helps us on our spiritual paths as well. For when our minds are quiet, that’s when we can truly hear into the silence, and that’s where many say the magic occurs! In a sense, barefoot walking can be a true meditative or spiritual experience.

BBL: You talk about getting “grounded” in a literal sense—connecting to the ground. What does this do to us?

MS and JL: When you’re grounding, you’ve established an electrical connection between yourself and the earth, similar to the one your computer gets when you plug it into an outlet. Computer plugs typically have a third prong for the purpose of grounding. The third prong plugs into the outlet’s “ground.” By plugging into the ground, you help protect your computer. And when we’re plugged into the earth, we help protect ourselves. Studies show that when we’re grounded, we drain off inflammation and the harmful static electric charge that can build up in our bodies by being out of touch with the earth. When we drain the charge we feel better, our cortisol (stress hormone) levels decrease, our blood pressure decreases, our sleep improves and our immune system gets a huge boost. The great news is, you don’t even need to walk. Standing barefoot, sitting on the ground, laying on the ground — these can all help you get grounded and experience these amazing benefits.

Related: 5 Anti-Aging Benefits of Barefoot Walking

BBL: What should you know before you try barefoot walking?

MS and JL: Going barefoot is an exercise in being gentle and taking your time. Since you’ll be working muscles that have weakened in your shoes, you want to start extra slowly, with only 100 yards (the width of a parking lot or less, or the distance to the end of your block) on the first day, and then take the next day off. Increase by only 100 yards every other day for best results. And like with any other exercise program, always check with your doctor before you begin.

BBL: How do your feet change after getting conditioned to walking barefoot?

MS and JL: Your feet will grow magnificently stronger, better able to support you, with greater balance, and much better circulation (say goodbye to cold feet). Your skin will also grow stronger, making it easier to negotiate pebbly paths or handle any obstacles in your way. Your toes will start to spread apart, no longer squashed together or stacked on top of each other the way they typically are in a shoe. And the more time you spend barefoot, the better your feet will feel, and the more you’ll want to place them directly on the earth.

BBL: You had a “barefoot wedding.” How did your guests respond to being asked to go shoeless?

MS and JL: Initially there were some protests from one or two shorter guests who longed for high heels and some uncertainty among those who rarely go barefoot even at home. But once the guests arrived they all found it liberating and fun. We set up a series of barefoot games, and for the adults it was an excuse to be a kid again. It was hard for anyone to keep their shoes on once they saw how much fun everyone else was having barefoot. And that’s what it’s all about. At its core, with all of the mind, body and spiritual benefits, it ultimately makes us feel young again…when you’re barefoot you feel light and nimble and alive!

Learn more about barefoot walking and running at runbare.com. 

I would consider myself a light runner. I run a few miles a day, a few days a week, and mostly enjoy running with people so we can chat.  I don’t often listen to music when I run, but when I do, I listen to the same playlist that I had put on my iPod when I got it three years ago.  I generally find music to be boring and I end up running a shorter distance when listening to my playlist than I do when I’m involved in a conversation with others.

I’ve recently been hearing a lot about the benefits of running with audiobooks and decided to give it a shot. At first, I thought it wouldn’t be that different from listening to music, but I quickly found it to be a positive distraction. Audiobooks tell a story, and unlike short, nonsequitor songs that make up a playlist, each chapter feeds off the last. As with any good novel, you are hooked before you know it.

I have listened to a few fast-paced thriller novels that have made me want to keep running so I can find out what happens as well as comedies and light reading that keeps me moving without taking my full concentration away from my run. Either way, audiobooks have been a great motivator to get me to go that extra mile so I can finish listening to a chapter.

Here are a few audiobooks I suggest to help get those long runs under your belt, whether training for an upcoming race or just keeping fit. To find more, visit randomhouse.com/audio.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
A suspenseful thriller with so many twists you almost want to finish the book in one run (if it wasn’t 19 hours long)!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling
A lighter, very entertaining comedy about the life of Mindy Kaling – one that will entertain you while going the distance.

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
The reader, Jim Dale, will keep your feet moving with this gripping story of a magical circus mystery.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
There is nothing like a classic to keep you looking for that yellow brick road.  Your run will fly by as you chant with the Scarecrow and Tin Man, “There’s no place like home.”

Star Island, by Carl Hiaasen
This is another great comedy that will entertain you and motivate you as the miles go by.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
A love story and comedy combo to keep you on the move.

Engaging content is what keeps me going, and any good story can give you that. So, go to it! Try running while listening to an audiobook and revolutionize your workout routine. If you have audiobooks suggestions for fellow runners, let us know in the comments below.

The French are on to something with this food thing. It’s nothing new—the bestselling French Women Don’t Get Fat helped crack the “French paradox” for us Americans back in 2004. But a few recent books dig a little deeper into the cultural DNA that helps the French stay slim while taking pleasure in foods we think make us fat (bread! cheese! wine!).

The first is The Parisian Diet: How to Reach Your Right Weight and Stay There. Well known nutrition expert Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen — he’s like the Joy Bauer of France — has put together a guide that helps nudge you toward a more French way of losing and maintaining weight. It includes three phases, a short “Cafe” phase meant to kick-start weight loss, a three-week “Bistro” phase designed to generate rapid weight loss, and the “Gourmet” phase, a less-restrictive phase that is designed for “pure enjoyment” and to “restore the the necessary dimension of pleasure into the diet.”

Wait, the French think we don’t get enough pleasure from our diet? Why else would we eat all those pomme frites?

Well, while indulging in greasy take-out and bags of chips may seem pleasurable to some of us, it doesn’t to a French person. According to Cohen, the French associate pleasure with the quality and “naturalness” of the food, and they take pleasure from the whole experience: meal planning, shopping, cooking and eating with others. What we sometimes see as drudgery or a way to just refuel, they cherish as a daily ritual.

This all made sense to me, especially since I’ve been to France a few times, but I didn’t fully understand how deeply the mealtime ritual is embedded into the culture until I read French Twist: An American Mom’s Experiment in Parisian Parenting by Catherine Crawford. The book is filled with jaw-dropping anecdotes about young French children with impeccible table manners who willingly help plan and prepare meals and peacefully eat the colorful, sophisticated food their parents eat, trying every dish. Eating on the go or in front of the TV is a huge non-non—mealtime is about spending time together. Again, a ritual.

As soon as they’re ready to gum their first bite of banane, French children are taught how to have a healthy relationship to food. One wise thing French parents do, Crawford found, is to sharply limit snacks so they will be good and hungry for meals. Indeed, Cohen writes that French people take in less than 10 percent of their daily calories between meals. Americans, on the other hand, consume more than 20 percent of their calories from snacks.

If you need more evidence that French kids learn how to enjoy food, just compare these actual school lunch menus:

French school lunch: White cabbage salad (rémoulade), sautéed chicken with mustard, shell pasta, Coulommiers (soft cheese), apple compote

American school lunch: Mozzarella sticks with tomato sauce and garlic pasta noodles

Even if you grew up in a family with strong food traditions, the rushed, convenience-oriented American food mentality is hard to escape. Since hiring a French grandmother to teach you how to appreciate food isn’t very practical, here are a few tips from The French Diet for getting more joie de vivre from your food:

• Make meals a ritual.

• Give your meal your undivided attention: Pay attention to what you eat, not the TV or your work.

• Get the senses involved: Savor each mouthful. Really taste every bite.

• Focus on quality ingredients over quantity.

• Include variety.

• Limit snacking between meals.

To learn more about Dr. Michel Cohen, visit theparisiandiet.com.

After conquering homemade lotion and lip balm, I wanted to tackle a project that has caused me abject fear. Making soap.

It was the lye that worried me. And the fact that I Googled lye burns — I don’t recommend this. But I was tired of “body bars” that left my skin dry or filmy or overwhelming artificially scented. In fact, conventional bar “soap” is not soap at all. Pioneer Thinking explains the ingredients in conventional bar soap well. I was also not about to spend $2 or more on good quality soap. Not when I could make a bar for less than $1.

Research makes me brave, and after about 10 hours of it I was feeling confident enough try my hand at making olive oil soap. There are two different types of soap-making processes – hot process and cold process. Hands down, I recommend using hot process. I’m not sure why cold process is so prevalent. It requires more precision and it takes 4-6 weeks to cure before you can use it. You can start washing with hot process soap as soon as it’s done cooking. I’ll stop there before I get on my hot process soap box.

Once you decide on your soap recipe you should gather your ingredients. I used this recipe from About.com because I already had the olive oil and coconut oil. This recipe doesn’t have scent, but I added my own fragrance of lemon and chamomile. I added 40 drops of lemon essential oil and 2 tablespoons dried chamomile. The measurement here doesn’t have to be perfect — whatever you think looks and smells good. Remember that the scent will become lighter as the soap cures.

I’m going to let Suzanne McMinn from the blog Chickens in the Road explain all the details of how to make soap and, specifically, how to make hot process soap. But here are my soap making tips. Hopefully, they’ll help ease any concerns you may have about starting the process yourself!

Soap Tips

• You must have lye – buy your lye from Amazon. Shipping’s expensive because it’s a toxic product, but it’s still cheaper than anywhere else. And buy lye beads. Anything else is too messy to work with.
• It’s all about ratios – As long as the ratios of your ingredients are correct, you can mess around with anything else – including scents, color add-ins and exfoliants. I recommend starting with a pre-determined recipe, but use a lye calculator if you want to create your own.
• Use a kitchen scale – you have to measure your ingredients by weight to make sure the ratios are correct. I found my kitchen scale on Amazon and I love, love, love it.
• Wash and wash again – I reused the utensils that I used to make soap. But I made sure to first rinse them with a solution of vinegar and water to neutralize the lye. And then I washed them twice with soap and water.
• Go fearlessly but cautiously – Make sure you have the proper attire: glasses, long sleeved shirt, gloves, pants and close-toed shoes when working with lye. After you do it once, you’ll be a pro.

Cost Breakdown

Soap Recipes
Check Pinterest for soap recipes – there are tons! Here are a few of my favorites. You can use any of these recipes in hot process soap making. (We also put together a soap making Pinterest board with all the links in this article. Follow us!)

• Lavender Tea Tree Soap from Anayennisi Aromatics
• Homemade Herb Soap from Broke & Healthy
• Peppermint-Rosemary Soap with Green Clay from Little House in the Suburbs

Will you be celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day this Sunday? It’s a fun holiday, but if you’re trying to stay healthy it’s yet another celebration filled with indulgent, fat-laden snacks and desserts. In recent years, the health factor has reached a new low with the trend of artificially dyed green food—everything from green bagels to beer to pancakes.

So, with Saint Patty’s day a few days away, I found myself wondering: What’s with all the green food? And how can we integrate some healthy options into the day? It turns out Saint Patrick’s Day is also known as the “Feast of Saint Patrick” and has been an official feast day since the early seventeenth century. The green theme entered the picture when Saint Patrick started wearing a green shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. And so began the trend of the ubiquitous Saint Patty’s Day green, which eventually made its way into foods, drinks and desserts.

While we can’t always avoid the green, this Saint Patty’s Day we can turn to the healthiest green around: fruits and veggies. Here’s a list of recipes for a healthy and naturally green Saint Patrick’s Day:

Saint Patrick’s Day Green Smoothie (cupcakesandkalechips.com)

Baked Kale Chips (Ellie Krieger)

Green Fruit Skewers (realfoodsmarket.com)

Tyler Florence’s Corned Beef and Cabbage (Food Network)

French Green Bean Salad (jamieoliver.com)

Dairy-Free Avocado Frozen Yogurt (fitsugar.com)

And if you’re avoiding wheat, you can still enjoy classic Irish soda bread with this recipe from Jennifer Katzinger’s book Gluten-Free and Vegan Bread. It may not be green, but it’s all Irish—and delicious.

Holiday Irish Soda Bread
Makes 1 medium loaf

3 cups teff flour
2 teaspoons date sugar
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
1⁄2 cup dark raisins
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup room temperature filtered water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a sheet pan and dust with teff flour.

2. Combine the teff flour, date sugar, xanthan gum, baking soda, caraway seeds, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the raisins. Add the oil and water and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. Gently knead the dough with just a few turns on a work surface dusted with rice flour.

3. Shape into a round loaf and score with a crisscross pattern. Put on the prepared sheet pan and bake for 50 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch.

Hints of spring in an otherwise grey March (Daylight Saving Time! Tiny crocus shoots! An afternoon warm enough to ditch my winter coat!) have me daydreaming about farmers’ market tables that will soon be groaning under heaps of fresh vegetables. A new cookbook arrived on my desk that is feeding those dreams and then some: Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison, chef, gardener and author of 11 books on vegetarian cooking.

In this elegantly photographed, coffee-table-worthy book, Madison shares her intimate knowledge of plant families — from the ubiquitous nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers) to the more obscure knotweed family (rhubarb, sorrel, bitter dock) — and shows how members of the same family complement each other. She emphasizes using parts of the plants that we usually toss aside, like cauliflower and celery leaves or artichoke stems, and includes more than 300 simple yet sophisticated recipes, as well as lists of additional ways to serve every vegetable highlighted.

For this red cabbage recipe, Madison suggests using a mandoline for slicing. And don’t toss the core—it’s edible and mild. “Slice it thinly and include it in the dish that you’re making, or nibble on it while you cook,” she writes.

Wilted Red Cabbage with 
Mint and Goat Feta
For 2 to 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, quartered through the stem end and thinly sliced crosswise
1 garlic clove, finely minced
4 cups packed very finely sliced red cabbage (a scant pound)
Sea salt
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped dill
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Freshly ground pepper
Crumbled goat feta plus whole mint leaves, to finish

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. When hot, add the onion, turn to coat it with the oil, and cook for a minute to sear and soften. Add the garlic, then the cabbage, and season with 1 teaspoon salt. Immediately begin turning it in the pan to wilt it evenly. You don’t want to fully cook it, just wilt it; two minutes should be enough time. Remove the pan from the heat, toss the cabbage with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, then taste and add more if sharpness is desired. Toss with the herbs. Season with more salt, if needed, and plenty of pepper. Transfer the cabbage to a platter, mounding it in a heap, then shower with the crumbled goat feta. Finish with the extra mint leaves and serve.

Wilted Red Cabbage with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce
Make the salad as above, minus the goat feta, but use plenty of dill. Make the Tahini-Yogurt Sauce below and spoon it over the cabbage, or serve it on the side. Optional, but good if you wish to emphasize the sesame element, finish with toasted sesame seeds and a few drops roasted sesame oil. Dukkah is another crunchy, compatible option.

Tahini-Yogurt Sauce
Makes a scant 3/4 cup

1 clove garlic
Sea salt
1/2 cup yogurt
3 tablespoons tahini

Pound the garlic in a mortar with 1/4 teaspoon salt until smooth. Stir the garlic mixture into the yogurt, then stir in the tahini, mixing well. Taste for salt.

Want to try another recipe from Vegetable Literacy? Here’s one: Peas with Baked Ricotta and Bread Crumbs. To learn more, visit deborahmadison.com.

The Mediterranean diet recently made front-page news after the stunning results of a five-year Spanish study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Why all the excitement? It was the first major randomized clinical trial (the gold standard of scientific research proving cause and effect) using meaningful endpoints (heart attack, stroke and death) to show that indeed following a Mediterranean diet significantly protects against heart disease.

The Mediterranean diet is not a fad diet or quick weight-loss scheme, but rather a healthy way of eating and living that will last a lifetime. The Mediterranean diet has long been celebrated for its highly palatable nature and favorable impact on the prevention of chronic diseases, promotion of greater longevity and quality of life.

A single definition of the Mediterranean diet is difficult because of the diverse dietary habits of the more than 18 countries with coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea. There are, however, general food patterns that unify the variable diets of the traditional Mediterranean people. Although it is not clear yet which components of the diet provide the greatest health benefits, likely candidates have emerged in scientific literature that, when consumed collectively, provide a dietary pattern that is highly protective.

So, in a nutshell (yes, nuts are a component of the world’s healthiest diet!), here are some of the foods that comprise the Mediterranean diet, as well as some cooking tips that the diet recommends to benefit your overall health:

1. Make extra virgin olive oil your main fat.
Hippocrates called olive oil “the great therapeutic”…Homer referred to it as “liquid gold.” Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) stands apart from all other types of fat for several reasons: It provides the highest percentage of oleic acid, the extremely cardioprotective monounsaturated fatty acid; it is packed with powerful plant antioxidants called “polyphenols,” known to soothe inflammation and curb oxidative stress; it is also an excellent source of vitamin E, a major dietary antioxidant vitamin.

How to use it: Keep a small opaque herb infused bottle of EVOO on your kitchen counter and use it for any and all types of cooking. (See my recipe below.) Coat vegetables generously before roasting or grilling. Eat salads at lunch and dinner and dress with an olive oil vinaigrette. Pour a liberal amount of olive oil on fish before grilling. Drizzle olive oil over your plant foods to enhance their flavor: potatoes, bean soups, grains and steamed vegetables. Using EVOO as a flavor enhancer also urges you to put away the salt shaker, and instead flavor your foods with a variety of spices, fresh herbs and olive oil.

2. Eat lots of vegetables and fresh fruit at every meal.
Fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables: dark green and leafy; red, ripe and juicy; or bright orange and crunchy. This exquisite rainbow-colored cornucopia is the class of foods that keeps our arteries healthy and clean. Buy them fresh, buy them often and fill your body with a spectrum of healthy colors, nature’s medicine chest. Vegetables are chock full of myriad polyphenols (the major disease battling phytochemical). Daily intake of a variety of different types of fruit is good for the heart. Aim to mix ’n’ match your fruit for health.

How to use them: Routinely eat a dark green salad at lunch and dinner when eating in or out, and remember to dress them simply with extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar and/or fresh lemon juice. Try purchasing prewashed, bagged and prechopped vegetables, toss them on a sheet of tin foil, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and roast (425°F for at least 30 minutes). 

3. Eat plant protein or fish.
Lentils and other plant proteins are nutrition giants, loaded with the heart healthiest of ingredients including fiber, antioxidants, plant protein, vitamins, minerals and iron — and all this for just pennies on the dollar. What’s more, eating legumes such as lentils might just be the dietary secret to longevity. A diet loaded with oily seafood is rich in the superbly heart-healthy marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

How to use them: If you eat out, frequent a steak house, where you can almost always find salmon or tuna on the menu. Just be sure to order it grilled and simply dressed with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Snack on fresh raw veggies dipped in hummus. Hummus is ridiculously easy to make: Simply combine a can of rinsed and drained chickpeas, some tahini, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and garlic in your food processor; whirl away and you’re good to go. Routinely sprinkle a can of rinsed and drained chickpeas or kidney beans into your salad or daily “greens.” Eat legume-based soups such as lentil, split pea, black bean, pasta e fagioli or minestrone. Snack on edamame — delectable baby soybeans often served in the pod — available at Japanese restaurants or frozen at the supermarket.

4. Eat walnuts.
Walnuts are an ancient plant food that has sustained humans since the dawn of civilization. Walnuts are key to the Mediterranean diet and heart health because they are a top source of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). ALA is the omega-3 fatty acid derived from plants which our bodies need in addition to the other omega-3 that comes from salmon and other fish.

How to use them: Keep a bag of shelled walnuts on your kitchen counter and grab some nuts as a quick and healthy snack. Enjoy a fat-free Greek yogurt topped with a little honey, some crushed walnuts and savor a nutritious choice that makes a sensational and satisfying sweet dessert. Sprinkle walnuts on your green salads. Try candied walnuts — bake walnuts sprinkled with a little brown sugar — for a sweet treat.

5. Eat whole grains such as oatmeal.
The Mediterranean diet means emphasizing more fresh and natural, less-processed foods. Whole grains are much less processed than refined. Natural whole grains contain three botanically defined parts: the bran, the endosperm and the germ (or embryo). Eat the whole seed, or “kernel,” with the three parts intact — the entire complex — and you are eating a complete whole grain that packs a powerful nutritional punch.

How to use them: To get in a minimum of three servings of whole grains a day: Snack on popcorn (a bona fide whole grain), a tasty and filling snack that’s good for your heart and your waistline. Nix the theater popcorn or microwave bags and pull out the antique hot-air popper or pop the kernels in a brown paper lunch bag in the microwave. Season with a few sprays of olive oil and a touch of parmesan cheese or brown sugar. Make oatmeal your breakfast of choice on most days of the week. Cook up a large batch of the steel-cut version, which is highest in beta-glucan. Steel-cut oatmeal takes longer to cook but is well worth it for the superior taste, texture and health benefits. Keep a large stash of cooked oatmeal in the refrigerator, portion out and heat daily servings. Substitute 100 percent whole-wheat toast for bagels and 100 percent whole-grain muffins for pastries. Make all your sandwiches with 100 percent whole-grain bread or pita.

6. Drink red wine with dinner.
Why is it that the French routinely indulge in artery-clogging cream sauces, butter, foie gras and other fatty, cholesterol-laden foods yet have only half the rate of heart disease than we do? The secret behind this mystery, dubbed the “French Paradox” by scientists in the early 1990s, is thought to be all the red wine the French wash their food down with. Red wine stands apart from all other types of alcoholic beverages in its ability to neutralize heart attack risk due to its collection of powerful antioxidant polyphenols.

How to use it: To tap into wine’s huge cache of powerful polyphenols, pick red over white. Red wine has ten times the polyphenol content of white wine, because red wine is produced by fermentation of grape juice in the presence of the pulp (skins and seeds), where the polyphenols are produced. (White wine is made by quickly pressing the juice away from the grape solids, hence white wine is merely fermented fruit juice.) Maybe even pair your vino with some dark chocolate with a high content of nonfat cocoa solids — the new guilt-free super food! The scientific evidence is stacking up linking daily consumption of deep, dark chocolate with phenomenal health benefits, especially for the heart and blood vessels.

As to which of these components are most important, scientists concur that it is the whole package that confers the health benefits. Remember, one final suggestion, when you eat like you’re in Crete, imagine yourself sitting down to dinner over a leisurely meal enjoying delicious fresh and artfully prepared food, slowly savoring the joy of your Mediterranean meal — a far cry from mindlessly gobbling down your food behind your steering wheel or in front of the TV. Eating like a Mediterranean is as much lifestyle as it is a diet. I urge you to enjoy a long and healthy life by following the spectacularly delicious and easy-to-follow Mediterranean lifestyle—now scientifically proven to be the world’s healthiest (and tastiest) diet!

Here’s a healthy dressing using extra virgin olive oil from Brill’s book Prevent a Second Heart Attack.

Dr. Janet’s Parsley Chive Dressing
Delicious served on a salad, or a fillet of grilled swordfish or salmon. Serves 12.

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 shallot, peeled and minced
1 bunch flat-leaf Italian parsley, stalks removed
3 stalks fresh chives, cut into small pieces

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until ingredients are well combined, scraping down the sides of the container at least once.

Nutrition per 2-tablespoon serving:
Calories: 123
Fat: 14 g (0 g EPA, 0 g DHA, < 1g ALA)
Saturated Fat: 2 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 18 mg
Carbohydrate: 1 g
Dietary Fiber: < 1 g
Sugars: < 1 g
Protein: < 1 g 

For more information about Dr. Janet Brill, visit drjanet.com.

We here at BBL were just as excited as you probably were to read about the Mediterranean diet study that hit the front page of The New York Times this week. In case you missed it, a recent study of over 7,000 participants (men and women in Spain, aged 55 to 80) at high risk for heart disease found who following a Mediterranean diet lowered their risk for heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease by about 30 percent. Starting in October of 2003, participants were split into two groups: One was given guidance about how to follow a Mediterranean diet (including free olive oil every week!), the other was instructed to follow a low-fat diet. The low-fat group had trouble sticking to their diet, but the participants following the Mediterranean diet had such great success in lowering their heart disease risk that researchers ended the study early, after only five years.

So what’s included in this miracle diet? Extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, fruits, vegetables, fish, legumes, white meat — and a glass of wine with dinner. What’s not to like? (Well, you do need to avoid commercially made sweets and limit dairy and processed meat products, but that’s worth it in our book to take a sizable dent out of your heart disease risk.)

So, now that we have confirmation that these ingredients are great for us, what can we cook with them? Below we’ve rounded up six great Mediterranean cookbooks that will help you answer that question.

The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook
by Nancy Harmon Jenkins
Alice Waters sums up Jenkins’ collection of simple and flavorful recipes best: “This book makes an overwhelming argument that the things that taste the best are good for you.”

The Mediterranean Prescription
by Dr. Angelo Acquista
Meal plans and recipes designed to help you lose weight, from a respected doctor experienced in weight-loss counseling.

A Book of Mediterranean Food
by Elizabeth David
A lovely collection of dishes from the south of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Middle East.

From Tapas to Meze
by Joanne Weir
More than 220 small plate recipes from home cooks and restaurant chefs around the Mediterranean.

Cooking Well: Mediterranean
by Marie-Annick Courtier
Quick and easy Mediterranean favorites with a focus on omega-3s.

Ancient Grains for Modern Meals
By Maria Speck
Mediterranean whole grain recipes, including barley, farro, kamut, polenta, wheat berries and more.

Michael Moss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter known for his in-depth investigations of the food industry. In his new book, Salt Sugar Fat, he takes on our ultimate guilty pleasure: junk food. And his findings will ensure that you never look at a nutrition label the same way again.

First, consider these numbers: The rise of processed foods means that the average American is now eating 33 pounds of cheese and up to 70 pounds of sugar (close to 22 teaspoons every day) a year and double the recommended amount of salt every day — about 8,500 milligrams!

In Salt Sugar Fat, Moss isn’t shy about pulling back the veil of the American food industry. With his eye-opening and sometimes shocking research he shows exactly what’s in the processed food we’ve been eating, how bad it is for us and how food companies engineer it to be practically irresistible. But he doesn’t stop there—he tells you what you can do about it. Armed with illuminating information, this book empowers us to make better decisions by exposing the inner workings of an industry trying to keep us hooked on their delicious and seductive secret weapons: salt, sugar and fat.

In the video below, Moss explains how a deal between the dairy industry and the government resulted in a surplus of cheese that ended up — guess where? — hiding in all kinds of foods, bulking up our fat intake and ultimately leading to the obesity epidemic we’re dealing with today.

All month long, we’ve been kind of obsessed with Rebecca Katz’s new cookbook, The Longevity Kitchen, which combines Katz’s 10-plus years of experience developing body-healing recipes with the results of over 500 studies about how foods affect the body. What we love about this friendly, informative cookbook is that you don’t need a new pantry full of exotic ingredients to make the recipes. In fact, you probably regularly eat many of her “Super Sixteen” foods already. These are foods that contain the highest levels of antioxidents and other life-boosting nutrients—and they’re all packed with flavor and color.

Asparagus
Avocado
Basil
Blueberries
Coffee
Dark chocolate
Garlic
Green tea
Kale
Olive oil
Pomegranates
Sweet potatoes
Thyme
Walnuts
Wild salmon
Yogurt

If you’re not hungry yet, just watch this video Katz just made about the book. In it, she explains more about her approach to food (“It’s not about what you can’t have; it’s about what you can have”), some of the ingredients she loves, and shows off a plate of her Insanely Good Chocolate Brownies (OMG, those look good).

Ready to cook? Try Katz’s Layered Frittata with Leeks, Swiss Chard and Tomatoes recipe. Learn more at rebeccakatz.com.

Fresh herbs make everything better, right? But, seriously, how often to you use a whole bunch of basil? If you’re like me, you buy a bundle of parsley for one recipe then forget about it until you uncover a bag of mushiness at the bottom of your crisper drawer. In my effort to waste less food, I’ve decided to stop the herb abuse and dry what I don’t use. Here are some quick guidelines adapted from the new edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living, a 900-page guide to the modern homesteading lifestyle.

Hanging bunches: Collect the herbs into a bunch, bundle the stems with string, and hang them up with the cut end upward in a shady, airy place. Allow at least 2 weeks for drying. Hanging works well with anise, basil, marigold, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, tarragon and thyme. If you dry your herbs whole like this, crumble them or rub them through a sieve to remove the stems and midribs when you’re ready to use them.

In an oven dehydrator: Spread herbs in shallow pans at 110ºF, with the door ajar if you’re using an oven. Don’t mix different kinds of herbs. It takes an average of 8 hours for them to dry.

Storing dried herbs: Store leaves in an airtight container to help prevent flavor deterioration. The fewer times you open the lid, the better they keep their strength. And try to keep them in a cool, dark, dry place away from heat—not on a shelf over or beside your stove! The cool storage inhibits evaporation of the flavoring oil in the herb, and the darkness protects the color, which fades when exposed to light.

Cooking with dried herbs: They are at least three times as strong as fresh. So figure 1 teaspoon dried herb equals 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herb. Another way to figure it is about 1 tablespoon in a dish for four.

So, go to it! Check your fridge for languishing bunches of herbs and take a minute to hang them up if you’re not planning to use them soon.

To see more tips from The Encyclopedia of Country Living, click here. 

We’re excited to be hosting Haylie Pomroy, author of The Fast Metabolism Diet, for a live chat on our Facebook page tonight at 7 p.m. (ET). Stop by, ask questions and learn how food can heal an out-of-whack metabolism. Here, Pomroy explains more about her approach to revving up a slow metabolism. —BBL Editor

I’m sure you have at least one skinny friend or acquaintance who just seems to shovel in the food and never gain weight. She has a fast metabolism! Then there are people who hardly eat at all and are still stuck with extra weight. Those people have slow metabolisms that just aren’t burning the way they should. Sound familiar? Then this book is for you.

In my 19 years of clinical practice, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients and seen them lose thousands of pounds by following my simple and delicious plan for metabolic rehab. Through real, whole, nutritious food, I can get your metabolism humming again in just 28 days.

The Fast Metabolism Diet is no fad. It’s solid science. And you won’t count calories or carbs, you won’t eat bland, boring diet food, and you won’t go hungry. Instead, we’ll rev-up your sluggish metabolism by rotating the foods you eat in three distinct phases, repeated each week for four weeks.

You’ll come away from this book understanding how the body works and why it responds to your actions the way it does. And you’ll develop habits and knowledge that can sustain you for life.

The Fast Metabolism Diet isn’t a book for first-time dieters. It’s a book for last-time dieters! If you’re a chronic dieter who’s tried every diet out there, your battle is over. It’s time to love food and learn how to use it to bring about real, lasting weight loss, increased energy and lower stress.

Join me tonight at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on the Books for Better Living Facebook page to hear more about the book and learn how food can be the medicine to help get your metabolism back on track! 

There are so many great recipes in our book of the month, The Longevity Kitchen by Rebecca Katz and Mat Edelman, that it was hard to choose just one to share. But we found one that can work for breakfast, lunch or dinner: a veggie-packed frittata that you can make in about a half-hour.

Here’s a breakdown of how ingredients in this frittata recipe contribute to longevity: The leeks protect blood vessels from free radical damage; Swiss chard keeps blood sugar regulated and bones healthy; tomatoes lower cholesterol levels and provide antioxident support for the heart and bones; and eggs help reduce inflammation and support eye health. Not bad for a one-dish meal! Katz recommends buying organic, free range eggs. “Those from hens raised in pastures have less saturated fat and cholesterol, twice the omega-3s and seven times the amount of beta-carotene as eggs from conventionally raised chickens,” she writes in the book.

Layered Frittata with Leeks, Swiss Chard, and Tomatoes
Makes 6 servings

6 organic eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons organic plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Sea salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and green parts
4 cups stemmed and chopped Swiss chard, in bite-size pieces (see note, page 97)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3 tablespoons almond flour, homemade or store-bought
2 tablespoons freshly grated organic Parmesan cheese

Position one oven rack about 6 inches below the broiler and another rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Put the eggs, yogurt, thyme, pepper, nutmeg, and 
1/2 teaspoon of salt in a bowl and whisk until the eggs are frothy and only very small lumps of yogurt remain.

Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and a pinch of salt and sauté until just golden, about 6 minutes. Put the Swiss chard on top of the leeks and sprinkle a pinch of salt over the chard. Cover and let the chard steam just until it begins to wilt, about 2 minutes. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the chard.

Pour the egg mixture over the tomatoes and make sure it seeps through the greens; you may need to gently shift the greens a bit to help with this. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and almond flour over the top.

Bake on the center rack of the oven for 10 to 
15 minutes, until the eggs are set. Turn the oven to broil and move the skillet to the top rack. Broil for 1 minute, until the cheese and almond flours are golden brown. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Variations: Make this frittata dairy-free by substituting 2 tablespoons of water for the yogurt and omitting the cheese. Feel free to substitute spinach or kale for the chard.

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes

Storage: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

PER SERVING: Calories: 170; Total Fat: 12.5 g (3 g saturated, 5 g mono-
unsaturated); Carbohydrates: 8 g; Protein: 10 g; Fiber: 2 g; Sodium: 238 mg

Reprinted with permission from The Longevity Kitchen: Satisfying, Big-Flavor Recipes Featuring the Top 16 Age-Busting Power Foods by Rebecca Katz with Mat Edelson, copyright © 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group. Photo Credit: Leo Gong.

In case you didn’t notice by the candy, flowers and awkward singing telegram at your co-worker’s desk, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. The month of February is both metaphorically and literally a celebration of the heart since it is the month of love’s patron St. Valentine and also American Heart Month. It turns out that a healthy heart is good, and a healthy heart in love is even better. Below we have collected articles that teach you how to keep your heart in tip-top shape and how a heart in love is beneficial to your overall health.

10 Reasons Why It is Good to Have a Significant Other (Huffington Post)

Best Foods for Your Heart (Health.com)

Falling in Love and Staying in Love: A Health Story (The Washington Post)

Heart Healthy Habits to Adopt (SheKnows)

So whether you have a significant other or not, find someone special in your life (mother, brother, sister, aunt, friend) and focus on the love, not lack thereof, in your life. You can even go a step further by enjoying a glass of red wine or dark chocolate together, which will promote heart health all in one quick step!

In Jillian Michaels’ new book, Slim for Life: My Insider Secrets to Simple, Fast, and Lasting Weight Loss, the diet and fitness expert cracks the weight-loss code and shares her secrets, tips and tricks to transforming your body simply, quickly and permanently.

One of Jillian’s tips: Coffee can raise “bad” cholesterol levels and dehydrate you, and if it’s not organic, it can have high levels of pesticides. Jillian suggests a natural caffeine supplement like EBoost. It contains around 160 milligrams of caffeine from green tea, but produces none of the harmful side effects of coffee. Plus, it has electrolytes to help fend off dehydration as well as antioxidants and immunity boosters for overall health. Jillian loves EBoost so much that she is the company’s Chief Energy Officer!

We are very excited to offer 25 winners a copy of Slim for Life, a week’s supply of EBoost and coupons for free PopChips, one of Jillian Michaels’ favorite snacks. Enter to win using the form below.

[THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED]

For more information about Jillian Michaels and her new book Slim for Life, visit JillianMichaels.com.

In her new book, Slim for Life; My Insider Secrets to Simple, Fast, and Lasting Weight Loss, The Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels dispels slim myths and lays waste to dangerous weight-loss ideas that can damage your metabolism and set back your efforts. Michaels offers what she has found works: hundreds of straightforward ideas that are easily implemented and guaranteed to transform your body.

Below is her “Top-Ten Must-Avoid-Whenever-Possible List” of chemical food additives adapted from the first chapter of Slim for Life. What do chemicals have to do with weight? Plenty, it turns out. Read ‘em and see:

1. Trans fat, aka hydrogenated oils. These fats, used to enhance and extend the shelf life of food products, are among the most dangerous substances you can consume. Numerous studies show that trans fats increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels while decreasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol; they increase the risk of heart attacks, heart disease and strokes; and they contribute to increased inflammation, diabetes, and other health problems.
Found in: any vegetable oil that has been hydrogenated, margarine, chips and crackers, baked goods, and most fast foods.

2. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), or corn sugar. Found in almost all processed foods, many believe this highly refined sweetener is the number-one source of calories in America. Based on current research, it’s a safe bet that HFCS packs on the pounds faster than any other ingredient, while it also increases LDL cholesterol levels, and contributes to the development of obesity, diabetes, and tissue damage, among other harmful effects.
Found in: soft drinks, most processed foods, breads, candy, flavored yogurts, salad dressings, canned vegetables, and cereals.

3. Artificial sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame, and saccharin). Pretty much any sweetener you find in a small blue, yellow, or pink packet should be avoided. These chemicals are known to be neuro-toxins and carcinogens. They’re believed to account for more adverse reactions than all other foods and food additives combine. The two main ingredients of aspartame — phenylalanine and aspartic acid — stimulate the release of insulin, a hormone that instructs your body to store fat. A large dose of phenylalanine can decrease serotonin levels. Low levels of serotonin can increase cravings, which can lead to weight gain.
Found in: most diet or sugar-free foods, including soda, desserts, sugar-free gum, beverage mixes, baking goods, sweeteners, cereals, breath mints, even chewable vitamins and toothpaste.

4. Artificial colors (Red no. 40, Yellow no. 6, Blue nos. 1 and 2). Food coloring has been linked to everything from ADHD to chromosomal damage to thyroid cancer. Your thyroid is critical to your metabolic function, and anything that attacks the thyroid is extremely bad for your waistline and, obviously, your overall health.
Found in: candy, beverages, cereal, cheese, bakery products, and ice cream.

5. Sodium nitrites and nitrates. Both these food additives are used as preservatives and flavoring in bacon, ham, hot dogs, luncheon meats, corned beef, smoked fish, and other processed meats. Both ingredients are highly carcinogenic once they enter the human digestive system. There they form nitrosamine compounds that enter the bloodstream and wreak havoc on the internal organs, the liver and pancreas in particular. Sodium nitrite is widely regarded as a toxic ingredient, and the USDA actually tried to ban it in the 1970s, but food manufacturers vetoed it, complaining they had no alternative for preserving packaged meat products. Why does the industry still use this chemical? Simple: it turns meats bright red. It’s a color fixer, and it makes old, dead meats appear fresh and vibrant.
Found in: hot dogs, bacon, ham, luncheon meat, cured meats, corned beef, smoked fish, any other type of processed meat.

6. Growth hormones (rBST, rBGH). Artificial hormones are given to conventionally raised dairy cows and cattle and put in their feed. This is done either to boost their milk production or to fatten them up for slaughter at an extremely accelerated pace. Studies have linked the human consumption of these hormones to both obesity and early puberty.
Found in: nonorganic dairy products and meats.

7. Monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG is an amino acid used as a flavor enhancer in soups, salad dressings, chips, frozen entrees, and many restaurant foods. It’s a known excitotoxin, a substance that overexcites brain cells in the hypothalamus to the point of damage or death. The hypothalamus, located just above the brain stem, is responsible for certain metabolic processes as well as activities of the autonomic nervous system. Studies have shown that MSG affects the neurological pathways of the brain, disengaging the “I’m full” function and causing increased hunger and strong food cravings. In addition, regular consumption of MSG may result in myriad adverse side effects, including depression, disorientation, eye damage, fatigue, headaches, and obesity. Don’t be fooled if you don’t see it as a listed ingredient – MSG is very often camouflaged under the guise of sodium caseinate, hydrolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or autolyzed yeast.
Found in: Chinese takeout and restaurant foods (ask to hold the MSG), many snacks, chips, cookies, seasonings, soup products, canned foods, frozen dinners, and lunch meats.

8. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). BHA and BHT are preservatives commonly found in most nonorganic cereals, chewing gum, potato chips, and vegetable oils. They are oxidants that keep foods from changing color, changing flavor, or becoming rancid. They primarily affect the neurological system of the brain, which can alter behavior, disrupt your endocrine system (hormones), and form cancer-causing reactive compounds in your body, potentially leading to cancer. It may be hard to find packaged products without BHA or BHT, but you can find them – make sure you read the labels carefully.
Found in: potato chips, gum, cereal, frozen sausages, enriched rice, lard, shortening, candy, and Jell-O.

9. Antibiotics. Antibiotics are routinely given to farm animals to fight infections from inhumane feedlot conditions and to cause the animals to grow larger and faster than normal. For all you pescatarians out there who think you’re safe, antibiotics (along with pesticides for sea lice – yuk!) are also given to farm-raised fish for the same reasons.
A number of studies suggest that the overuse of antibiotics may be greatly contributing to our expanding waistlines, causing people to pack on fat like farm animals. Low and steady doses of antibiotics can cause “unusual” activity in genes that are linked to breaking down carbohydrates and regulating cholesterol (blood fat) levels. Antibiotics also kill the “good bacteria” in our gut, which helps us to absorb vitamins and minerals. If we can’t absorb these micro-nutrients, then we can’t effectively synthesize hormones.
You can avoid unintentionally taking antibiotics by going organic with your meat and eating wild-caught fish as often as possible.
Found in: conventionally raised livestock (including poultry) and farm-raised fish.

10. Pesticides. A study conducted by the Mercer University School of Medicine examined whether pesticide exposure plays a role in worldwide childhood obesity. The researchers observed nearly 6,800 subjects aged six to nineteen. They determined individuals’ exposure to environmental pesticides through the use of urine tests, so they could identify the concentrations of pesticide residues. They found a higher prevalence of obesity in the participants with high urinary concentrations of a pesticide known as 2.5-dichlorophenol (2.5-DCP). 2.5-DCP is one of the most widely used pesticides on the planet. Now, this particular study focused on kids, but many other studies have found similar effects with adults. Pesticides disrupt the endocrine system, which in turn causes the metabolism to “malfunction.” And you know where that leads – right to your bottom (or your belly).
Found in: the majority of non-organic fruits and vegetables.

For more information about Jillian Michaels and her new book Slim for Life, visit JillianMichaels.com.

In our February Book of the Month, The Longevity Kitchen, Rebecca Katz and Mat Elelson translate the latest research about how food can help us prevent illnesses like heart disease and live long, healthy lives into 120 delicious, colorful recipes that work hard to nourish both the body and the taste buds. We chatted with Katz recently about everything from the food wisdom of our elders to the exciting frontiers of nutrition research. 

Books for Better Living: How can food help you live longer?

Rebecca Katz: If you have a healthy connection to food, you have a healthy connection to life. If you give your body a really good environment with the foods that you eat, you’re setting yourself up for success because as we age, we lose a lot of our ability to produce certain antioxidants that eradicate the little free radicals that that can change our cell DNA and lead us to chronic diseases. So if you’re putting really good food in your body, what you’re doing is assisting your body to be an environment that is inhospitable to disease.

Here’s an example: If you cut an apple and you leave it out in the air, it will turn brown. If you cut an apple you squeeze lemon on it, which is high in antioxidants, that apple will stay pristine looking. The same thing happens in our bodies. Do you want to be a brown apple inside? When you’re in that kind of shape, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable. If you are putting antioxidants in your body in the form of fruits and vegetables and other nutrients like omega 3 fatty acids, it’s like taking your body to an internal spa. 

If you have in your family a predisposition to diabetes or heart disease or any number of diseases, what you choose to eat can actually shift your gene expression. I think that’s the absolutely coolest thing ever. So what you eat really does make a difference on the cellular level. It doesn’t matter what age you are. Don’t wait until you’re 60, this is the way you should start eating in your 20s and 30s and onward.

BBL: In The Longevity Kitchen, you write about your time cooking with grandmothers in Italy. What did you learn from them? 

RK: One of the things I took away from that experience was that everything was fresh. In Italy, you have a refrigerator the size of a toaster. It’s not like you go to Costco and load up. They went to the market. They make do with what is available. You have to eat within the seasons. The other thing that I learned from talking to many, many of our elders is the reverence they have for food. They don’t take it for granted because it is their sustainable nourishment — without it they wouldn’t survive. When they were growing up, it was like, “This is what we have to survive and thrive on.” They used food in a different way than we use food today.

BBL: With so much new nutrition research coming out every day, how do you make sense of it?

RK: The science is always changing and evolving. Even I look at the latest research or the latest fad and I just want to throw up my hands. I encourage people to not take the science so seriously that it’s going to prevent them from cooking. Maybe you really don’t like kale. Fine! Maybe you like arugula, maybe you like cauliflower, maybe you like broccoli. Great, they’re all from the same family. I would rather people look at the top 16 longevity foods or the other foods we write about in the book and find what resonates with them. What do you enjoy eating? The science is there as an interesting factoid, but at the end of the day, it’s really about what you’re going to enjoy. Because eating is about joy. It’s about a lot more than the science. Trust your wisdom about it. That’s what I do. That’s my philosophy.

BBL: That being said, what new research areas are you excited about?

RK: I think the most exciting area that is just starting is this idea of nutrigenomics or epigenetics, which studies how food affects our genes. When we really start looking at this idea of food being able to shift gene expression, the way we eat will become more and more personalized. It gives us license to eat in a way that’s good for ourselves rather than according to the latest fad or diet. I think there’s a lot of personal empowerment to know that you can shift certain things going on in your body by what you eat versus being frustrated because there’s so much research you don’t know where to begin. You’re starting to see that in the cancer community, but I think we’re going to start seeing it not only when you’re in a disease state but prior too, from a prevention point of view. That’s where it’s going to get exciting and empowering.

BBL: What’s your take on the detox/juicing trend?

RK: Our body is set up to detox 24/7 if we give it the right fuel. The thing about getting too attached to any one way of detoxification, like juicing for example, is that you need fiber, you need protein, you need things to get all the debris out of your body. If you are living in a cold, damp environment, detoxing with juicing is not nourishing your body in the same way. In winter, I recommend eating detoxifying foods from the cruciferous and allium families, like garlic, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli and herbs and spices. Stick with really good, nourishing soups. Save the juicing for when your body is really ready for it in spring and summer, when it’s warm. Cue to the seasons. We’re set up in the spring for a whole new set of vegetables to come in that are unbelievable detoxifiers, like asparagus, arugula, dandelion greens, sugar snap peas and spring garlic. You don’t have to go to extremes is what I’m saying. Also, I think it’s always good to do a detox under supervision.

BBL: What are some foods that can lift our spirits in the cold weather and give us some energy to get through to spring?

RK: This is the time of year when you have to start changing your cooking technique and start getting creative in the kitchen. If you steam your broccoli, start roasting it. You’ll get a whole different feel. Take a new book off your shelf that you haven’t looked at for a while and twist up what you’re doing. Also, this is the time to consider changing your spices. Start adding chopped mint to your food — or parsley or cilantro — it will make everything taste brighter. Start zesting your lemons and oranges and adding it to your food. It’s going to give your food incredible pop. After you roast your broccoli, take your lemon and zest it all over it and toss it. You will feel like you’re eating a little bit of spring.

We all know that eating well has its benefits, but did you know that certain nutrients can do a better job at moisturizing your skin than your daily moisturizer? So if your skin is suffering from this winter from dry indoor heating and cold winds (whose isn’t, right?), try adding foods with these nutrients to bring the moisture back.

Flax seeds, salmon and walnuts: These foods are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which repair your skin cells and have an anti-inflammatory effect.

Coconut: Medium-chain saturated fats and vitamin E make coconut a super skin food coconut. Eating coconut oil gives your skin a boost while lubricating every cell. You can cook with it or scoop it out of the jar and spread like butter on toast.

Fish and eggs: Selenium, a trace mineral that is found in fish and eggs, helps the skin eliminate toxins. (Try this healthy Miso Cod recipe.)

Celery and cucumbers: These crunchy veggies are rich in silica, which moisturizes while boosting the elasticity of your skin. Nibble on them during the day or add them to your salads or smoothies.

Spinach: Spinach is loaded with vitamin A, which has been shown to have skin strengthening compounds, along with other vitamins. So juice it, sauté it, add it in your eggs. By adding a green juice to your daily diet you will keep your skin glowing while detoxing your system.

Berries: Antioxidants and vitamin C protect and repair your skin. Berries are loaded with them!

Now that you’ve got a hang of which foods will plump up your skin, here’s something to consider: Diuretics such as alcohol, coffee, tea, soda and energy drinks have a dehydrating effect. So if you consume any of them, make sure to add an extra glass of water with every cup. Another group of foods that can dry out your skin are dried and processed foods, such as dried fruit, cookies, crackers, chips, etc.

So think moist and grab some salmon, eggs, nuts, flax seed oil and berries on your next shopping trip.

For Valentine’s Day, we’ve rounded up a list of energy-boosting foods… and they happen to be aphrodisiacs. These recipes will benefit your health and your libido. You didn’t think we’d let you cook anything unhealthy or unsexy, did you?

Asparagus: This spring vegetable contains vitamin E. Not only is that good for your skin, but it promotes the production of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, which stimulate sexual response. Try: the Shaved Asparagus Pizza from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman for some hands-on dining.

Beets: Beets boast a high boron content, a mineral believed to influence the production of sexual hormones, as well as improve the immune system. Try: Bring on the borscht! The Soup Sisters Cookbook has a very tasty borscht recipe.

Cardamom: This aromatic spice is high in cineole, a compound that increases blood flow. Try: the Cardamom Ice Cream recipe from Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream.

Figs: Long associated with sensuality and fertility because of their appearance and texture, figs are also are a source of potassium, magnesium, B and K vitamins and iron. Try: the Roasted Mission Figs with Honey recipe from Seasonal Fruit Desserts by Deborah Madison — sure to impress your date.

Ginger: In addition to being a digestive aid, it stimulates the circulatory system. Try: A Spoonful of Ginger‘s Poached Pears in Cinnamon-Ginger Syrup recipe is a warming way to end dinner. (You can find the recipe on page 271 of this excerpt.)

Mustard: Did you expect this one to make the list? Mustard’s selenium, magnesium and omega 3 content make it a good way to maintain sexual health. Research shows that it increases adrenalin levels and circulation, due to its pungency and warming properties. Try: the Mustard-Spanked Chicken recipe from Fifty Shades of Chicken — simple and delicious. (Does Anthropologie sell (expensive) miniature, girlie aprons for inner goddesses?)

Pomegranate: Not only has pomegranate historically been a symbol of sensuality in mythology, art and literature, it’s high in vitamin C and antioxidants. Try: the “Pomiranian” cocktail from Artisanal Cocktails by Scott Beattie, which includes pomegranate juice and Iranian spices. Ooo, exotic… (See the ingredients here.)

Scallops: Yes, raw oysters are the aphrodisiac superstar. (They are rich in zinc, a main nutrient for testosterone production, which stimulates libido in both men and women.) But, scallops can be a good alternative if you don’t own a shucking knife. Scallops not only contain phosphorus, magnesium and potassium, but are also good sources of tryptophan, which elevates mood. Try: the Minted Diver Scallops with Pummelo and Bacon from The Great Ceviche Book for a delicate and uniquely textured dish.

What are your favorite romantic dinner ideas? Share below in the comments!

Jaden Hair helps home cooks overcome their intimidation of Asian cooking every week on her popular Steamy Kitchen blog. Now, 120 of her quick, classic recipes are available in Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites. We can’t wait to get started trying dishes like Mapo Tofu, Sake Steamed Mussels or Miso Cod (see below), but first we asked Hair to for her short list of pantry essentials for cooking healthy Asian dishes. Pick them up on your next grocery trip, then grab a wok and get steamy! —BBL Editor

1. Ginger, Garlic and Green Onions: This is the “Holy Trinity” of Asian cooking. The combination of these aromatics are heavenly and a big flavor boost to any stir-fry or saute. Use a rasp grater to grate the fresh ginger (instead of chopping) — it’s much easier and fast, plus you won’t get any of the tough fibers from the ginger. For garlic, I like “smushing” it with a garlic press — the more the garlic breaks down, the more flavor it releases!

2. Wok: I love using a wok! It’s one of my secret weapons in the kitchen. The wok is the most versatile cooking tool that I have – I can stir fry, steam, saute, grill, simmer, all in a wok. Plus, because of the dome shape, very little cooking oil used. I can stir-fry a meat and vegetable dish to feed four people with just a teaspoon of oil. (Of course, my favorite wok is the Steamy Kitchen Wok that I designed!)

3. Fish Sauce: Fish Sauce is magical. It’s the “salt” of Southeast Asian cooking, combining flavors of salty, sweet and savory. Just half a teaspoon will transform bland stir-fries, fried rice or soup into umami-rich flavor.

4. Miso Paste: Miso Paste is another umami flavor booster. Miso is more than just for soup: Slather some on a fish fillet and bake, or whisk a teaspoon into any dish to add a complex, savory note.

5. Rice Wine or Dry Sherry: Much of Chinese cooking includes a dash of Chinese rice wine. I learned a tip from my mom: Whenever you have odd bits of fresh ginger, just add them to the wine bottle. The ginger will flavor the wine!

Now that you’ve got the basics, try this marinated fish recipe from the book:

Miso Cod
Serves 4

2 tablespoons shiro miso (white miso)
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons mirin (or 1 tablespoon honey mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
4 pieces black cod (about 6 ounces each)

Combine the miso, sake, mirin, and sugar in a resealable bag. Mix well. Add the fish fillets to the bag, seal the bag, removing as much air as possible. Massage the bag a bit, spreading the marinade all over the fillet. Refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the fish from the marinade and use a paper towel to gently wipe off any excess marinade, but don’t rinse the fish. Discard marinade.

Place the fish in the prepared baking sheet and bake until the fish flakes easily, about 10 to 12 minutes. Move the fish to the top rack and place 6 inches from heating element. Turn oven to broil to brown and caramelize the fish, about 1 minute. Keep a close eye on it as it will burn easily. Serve immediately.

For more recipes, join Steamy Kitchen’s virtual book launch party all week long.

We’re really excited about our February Book of the Month, Longevity Kitchen by Rebecca Katz and Mat Elelson. The authors of the award-winning The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen are back with a new cookbook and nutrition guide that sorts through the latest research about how food can help us heal and prevent illness and live long, healthy lives. And don’t be fooled; this is no bland health food book. Katz’s nourishing recipes are packed with flavor and color. In honor of American Heart Month, we asked Katz to give us the lowdown on the best foods to support heart health. —BBL Editor

Among the plethora of findings on the heart, which is perhaps the most researched organ, are some incredible long-term studies that have linked dietary factors with heart disease. The tenets of good heart health are so well-known they can be chanted like a mantra: “HDL good. LDL bad. Triglycerides low. Aerobic exercise high.”

Mantras are great, but action is even better, which is why I always promote foods such as black beans, nuts, seeds and wild salmon, which can help prevent heart disease. (Diet can help with three out of four of the factors in the mantra; you’re on your own when it comes to taking a good walk.)

Below are nine foods from what I call the culinary pharmacy — open 24/7! — that help prevent heart disease.

1. Apples: Apples are their own little medicine cabinet. They have been shown to reduce levels of C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation. High levels of C-reactive protein are related to heart disease.

2. Buckwheat: Buckwheat’s effects on heart health have been fairly well studied. A notable study conducted in a region of China known for high buckwheat intake found an association between buckwheat consumption and lower overall levels cholesterol. It was also linked with a better ratio of good cholesterol (HDL) to bad cholesterol (LDL). Buckwheat is also relatively high in magnesium, a mineral that dilates vessels and can potentially help lower blood pressure.

3. Chocolate (dark): Eat chocolate and live longer. This sounds wonderful, and it may well be true. Animal studies suggest that the flavanols in dark chocolate can prevent coronary artery disease and reduce the impact of heart attacks. Spanish researchers who reviewed numerous studies of chocolate noted that these flavanols can also help reduce blood pressure and insulin resistance and protect red blood cells. And here’s a factoid that probably won’t come as a surprise: Studies also show that dark chocolate is an excellent mood enhancer.

4. Legumes: All beans are rich in fiber, which aids in digestion and elimination and slows the release of sugars into the bloodstream. The soluble fiber found in beans is also linked to lower heart attack rates. Generally, beans are extremely high in antioxidants and minerals, particularly manganese, phosphorus, iron, and magnesium. Lentils are also an outstanding source of potassium, and a huge clinical study found a link between high levels of potassium and lower blood pressure.

5. Olives and olive oil: Renowned for its link to longevity, the Mediterranean diet has put the scientific spotlight on two popular ingredients: olives and olive oil. Long known for its monounsaturated (healthier) fat, extra-virgin olive oil contains large amounts of oleocanthal, a compound that helps protect the heart.

6. Pistachios: In animal studies, pistachios are like a panacea for the cardiovascular system. Greek researchers looking at an extract from pistachio nuts found that it kept the aorta from thickening while also lowering levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and raising levels of good cholesterol (HDL).

7. Salmon (wild): No fish offers higher concentrations of healthful omega-3 fatty acids than wild salmon. Omega-3s are credited with decreasing inflammation throughout the body and thereby improving brain, cardiovascular, skin and joint health.

8. Walnuts: A great source of omega-3s (just 1/4 cup provides nearly 100 percent of the recommended daily intake), walnuts offer tremendous heart health benefits. They reduce inflammation, bad cholesterol (LDL) and risk of blood clots and can help prevent bone loss.

9. Tomatoes: Tomatoes contain abundant lycopene, a phytonutrient that’s been linked with lowering both overall cholesterol and bad cholesterol (LDL) and providing antioxidant support for the heart and bones.

To learn more about The Longevity Kitchen, visit rebeccakatz.com.

No matter who you’re rooting for this Sunday—or if you’re just tuning in for the commercials—chances are there’s one thing everyone can agree on: Super Bowl Sunday is a snacker’s paradise. If you want to add something healthier to the table of nachos, wings, chili-cheese dip and potato chips, we’ve got the answer: kale chips. Crunchy, salty and even a little greasy, they pack a ton of vitamin C and A, as well as fiber, calcium and vitamin B6.

Try the recipe below from Ellie Krieger’s book Small Changes, Big Results, a 12-week plan of small steps that help you live a healthy, balanced life.

And if you’re still afraid you’ll end up stuffing yourself with all the other Super Bowl Sunday fare, Krieger’s book has some mindful eating advice: Don’t start eating until you feel a strong hunger, then quit when you feel the first sign of fullness. “All of us have had the experience of eating a delicious meal and reaching a point where we say to ourselves, ‘I could stop now,’ but the food is so good that we keep on eating. That is precisely the point where we must stop,” she says.

Kale Chips
Serves 4

Cooking spray
1 small bunch kale (about 1/2 pound)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray two baking trays with cooking spray. Remove the center rib and stems from each kale leaf and discard. Tear or cut the leaves into bite-size pieces, about 2 to 3 inches wide. Wash the kale and dry it very well.

2. Place the kale in a large bowl. Drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with the garlic powder and salt, and massage the oil and seasonings into the kale with your hands to distribute evenly. Place the kale in a single layer on the baking sheets, and bake until crisp and the edges are slightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes.

Calories 60; Fat 4 g (Sat .5 g, Mono 2.5 g, Poly .5 g); Protein 2 g; Carb 6 g; Fiber 2 g; Chol 0 mg; Sodium 170 mg

To learn more about Ellie Kreiger, visit elliekrieger.com.

Part pep talk, part practical manual, The Unapologetic Fat Girl’s Guide to Exercise is a manifesto for any “fat girl” who wants to exercise but doesn’t know how to start. Author, movement coach and self-professed “lifelong fat girl” Hanne Blank turns the classic exercise book on its head by emphasizing how exercise makes you feel rather than how it might make you look. There are no weight-loss promises, no detailed plans to follow, just encouraging, often-humorous advice from someone who’s found peace in her plus-size body and hopes others can too.  

Books for Better Living: Why did you write this book?

Hanne Blank: I wrote this book because years ago, I wanted a book like this one and there wasn’t one!

We live in a society that has really unforgiving expectations of women’s bodies and really strict agendas for what women do with their bodies. Figuring out that I didn’t have to do it that way, that it really could all be about what made me feel good in my skin, was a very big deal.

It took me a long time to figure out that it was okay if I wanted to move my body and be physically active, even if my body didn’t look like it was “supposed to.” It took me even longer to figure out that I didn’t have to share the priorities I was “supposed to” when it came to why I was physically active or what my goals were, either.

I wrote this book because I wanted to try to shorten that process for other people. Finally getting to a place where you can move your body happily on your own terms for your own reasons, no matter what you look like or how big your butt is, is a fantastic, liberating thing. I want as many other people as possible to find that out for themselves!

BBL: You encourage readers to shift their focus away from appearance and weight loss and let fitness and the joy of movement be their motivation for exercise. Why did you take this approach?

HB: To me it’s just logical. Anybody, no matter what they look like and no matter what size or shape they are, is better off when they feel good in their own skin. When we feel good in our own skins, we tend to feel more empowered, make better decisions, and enjoy our lives a whole lot more.

By contrast, the only thing that is guaranteed to happen if you obsess about your appearance and your weight is that you’ll be obsessed about your appearance and your weight. Obsessing about your appearance or your weight is no guarantee that you’ll ever be happy with either one, no matter what happens with them.

In fact, the more we tend to focus on our appearance and our size, the less satisfied we tend to be — having our bodies seem “good enough” becomes a moving target, and it seems there is always something that isn’t quite right. The further a person is from the slender, unblemished, symmetrical, young, white, able-bodied “good body” ideal, the more of a losing battle this can be and the worse it can feel.

By contrast, it doesn’t matter what you look like, how old you are or what you weigh, you never have anything to lose by focusing on what makes you feel good in your skin. Deep down, we just want to feel good — to feel robust, to feel healthy, to feel energetic, to feel like we can roll with what life dishes out. We all want to feel that physical sense of well-being, that being in your body is a pleasure! If you ask me, it just makes sense to cut to the chase and let that be your focus.

BBL: What kind of response have you gotten to the book so far?

HB: The response has been enthusiastic and really powerful. I get the feeling I have vastly underestimated the number and kinds of people who have issues and worries about exercise and movement, because the variety of people who’ve reached out to me to say “thank you for telling me it’s okay for me to move my body in my own ways for my own reasons” has been pretty remarkable.

It isn’t just fat girls who wrestle with feeling incompetent or clumsy or weak in front of other people. A lot of people say they are relieved to get permission to just do physical activities because they think might be fun, instead of feeling like they’re doing exercise all wrong if they don’t subject themselves to some rigid schedule of calisthenics and stair machines. And I have been very impressed — but not actually surprised — by the number of people, of so many different physical types and shapes and sizes, who have been relieved to know that locker rooms are terrifying for other people too.

My favorite response to the book so far has been the number of people who have told me the book helped them feel safe and encouraged, sometimes for the first time in their lives, in deciding to try adding some kind of movement to their lives on a regular basis just for the sake of their own subjective well-being. I’ve had so many people mention this that I set up a totally free, open-source, opt-in group experiment for this, actually, through my blog — inviting people to spend 100 days this spring with me, adding a new activity to their lives that they’ll do at least every other day for 100 days. I’ll be doing it too! (Here are the details.)

BBL: Besides “buy this book,” what would you say to the person who wants to start exercising but doesn’t know where to start.

HB: I’d say that you don’t have to “exercise.” You are totally entitled to move your body in ways that you think are worthwhile, or that you’re curious about, or that make you feel good. And you should! It is a great thing to do for lots of reasons.

But really, you don’t have to “exercise.” Your body doesn’t care if you think of your physical movement as “exercise” or not, it just cares that physical movement is taking place.

So start by playing around. Every day or every other day, do something that is physical that you like, or at least don’t mind, doing. Whatever it is that moves your body and that you can find at least a little enthusiasm for doing is fine. Walk your dog. Fire up some song you love and dance and sing along. Get your geek on with your WiiFit or Kinect. Maybe you’re an architecture buff and you find it fun to go for walks and look at buildings. Maybe you’re a budding birdwatcher and want to head to the park with the Audubon guide you got for Christmas and see what there is to see.

Or maybe there’s something you want to do for other reasons that happens to be physical, like scrubbing a floor or reorganizing your linen closet. I am a big fan of doing housecleaning as a way to move my body because I love killing two birds with one stone. It makes me feel super efficient.

Perhaps you have social things going on that have physical aspects. Maybe you’ve been thinking it would be good for your career if you learned how to play golf. Or you know you’ll be going to a themed wedding next summer and you want to learn how to swing dance because that’s what they’ll be doing at the reception.

So long as you’re moving your body for a while every day or every other day, you’re doing fine. As you get used to moving your body regularly, you can go ahead and figure out what you might want to do differently, or what other things you might want to try… and they don’t have to be “exercise” either, unless you want them to be.

BBL: You tell readers to focus on what make them feel fierce. What makes you feel fierce?

HB: Some of the things that work for my body, and make me feel physically fierce:

• If I’m at a gym, sustained moderate-paced walking or elliptical trainer time; an hour or a bit more usually feels right.

• Fitball sit-ups! I don’t know why, I just like them. I think it’s because I’m sitting on a ball, and it’s ridiculous and bouncy.

• Singing. I’m a trained classical singer. It’s a workout all its own.

• Urban/suburban walking. I’m not the outdoorsy woodsy type, but give me sidewalks and I’ll walk for hours.

• Swimming backstroke has good childhood memories associated with it, and I can do it forever.

Hanne Blank is a lifelong fat girl and movement coach. A writer and historian, she is the author of six books, including Big Big Love: A Sex and Relationships Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them) and has taught at Brandeis and Tufts universities. She divides her time between north central Massachusetts and Atlanta, Georgia.

This month, we’ve been featuring Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much by Colette Baron-Reid as our book of the month. Baron-Reid understands the real reason so many of us struggle to lose weight and keep it off. Through her own personal struggles, having gained as much as 80 pounds in three months, she discovered the hidden cause of unwanted weight gain. It isn’t that we don’t know what to eat or don’t have enough willpower, it’s that we are responding to feeling too much!

But enough of what we have to say about it; in the video below, you can hear Baron-Reid herself explain her truly unique guide to the real reason so many people struggle with weight and unhealthy eating habits. Empathetic eaters tend to be highly tuned to the emotions of those around them, she says. They feel more deeply and soak up the feelings of sadness, anger and fear of others, which often leads to mindless eating as a way of coping. Baron-Reid’s four-step, eight-week program helps manage empathy overload — the hidden cause of unwanted weight gain and emotional, empathetic eating. For more on Colette and her book, click below!

Intrigued? Take our quiz to see if empathy is interfering with your weight loss.

Widely criticized after penning a Vogue article describing how she reacted to learning her very young daughter was clinically obese, Dara-Lynn Weiss is back with a memoir that tells the whole story. In The Heavy, Weiss honestly shares what it was like when her 7-year-old daughter was diagnosed with childhood obesity and chronicles the subsequent year of dieting (and ridicule) she and her daughter experienced after the article went public.

Though this book raises bigger, overarching questions of how we as a society are handling childhood obesity, it’s inspiring to see that small changes at home can help slow the epidemic every day. The Heavy not only deals with the story of Weiss’ daughter, but also touches on how our own body image issues, self-esteem and health can affect our children.

Below, we have the first chapter of The Heavy where Weiss explains what it was like to see her healthy, happy, fruit-and-vegetable-loving daughter start to put on weight at an alarming rate. And, we have 10 copies of the book to give away! Enter to win The Heavy here by 11:59 p.m. on January 30, 2013.

THE HEAVY: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet – A Memoir by Dara-Lynn Weiss by Random House Publishing Group

Spurred by the death of his father from preventable infections he got while in the hospital—all of it paid for by Medicare—David Goldhill decided to launch his own investigation into our health care system. The result is Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father—and How We Can Fix It, a businessman’s analysis of what’s wrong with the insurance-based system and his patient-centered ideas for fixing it. Here, Goldhill illustrates how pharmaceutical companies try to convince us we “need” unnecessary treatments:

In the movie Mission: Impossible 2, the Biocyte Corporation creates both the lethal virus Chimera and its antidote, Bellerophon. Tom Cruise’s character spends the entire movie preventing a variety of evildoers from capitalizing on this extraordinary profit opportunity. What better business model than the release of a plague for which only your company has the cure? The film, of course, is absurd.

In 1996, Pfizer, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, patented Sildenafil. The drug had not shown much promise in treating angina, its intended target, but it did demonstrate a remarkable ability to induce erections. So in 1998, Pfizer introduced Viagra—its new brand name for Sildenafil—as a treatment for something the company called erectile dysfunction. To date, Viagra and its competitors, Cialis and Levitra, have accounted for an estimated $35 billion in sales.

Pfizer may have coined the term “erectile dysfunction,” but it didn’t actually cause impotence, which had apparently existed for thousands of years before Pfizer’s formation. But the absurd M:I-2 and the real Viagra both illustrate something important about contemporary health care.

The traditional understanding of health care is that people get sick and medicine provides a cure. Today, that order is often reversed. With society’s willingness to pay for even more care—a willingness demonstrated by the forty-five-year increase of our spending from $42 billion to $2.5 trillion—much of the innovation in health care is now about the simultaneous search for new treatments and new conditions that require these treatments. It’s not that these new conditions are somehow fake illnesses. Rather, illness is increasingly recognized and often only named when a treatment becomes available.

If Pfizer had chosen to market Viagra through sex shops, it’s unlikely it would have been able to consistently raise prices even after it lost market share to competitors. The key to its success—and that of its competitors—is that Viagra is marketed as a medicine. The ED drugs have all the trappings of health care. They require prescriptions written by licensed physicians. They look like any other type of medicine, packaged in the iconic plastic prescription bottles. Medicare (and sometimes Medicaid) and many private insurers will cover ED drugs; Viagra and its competitors can legitimately be expensed against tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts.

Viagra is a classic example of why we seem to need more health care even as we get healthier. Before the treatment was available, most male impotence was seen as a consequence of age. Don’t get me wrong: Improving the sex lives of older males is a clear social good. But in an economic and political landscape where we have decided to subsidize all health care expenses via insurance and government programs, should we be considering this problem a health issue?

As we’ve expanded our willingness to pay for care—through private actions and government support—health care as an industry has met the challenge. It’s proved able to absorb our trillions in additional dollars by charging higher prices, convincing us that more expensive options provide better results and expanding our definitions of “need.” In other words, health care has done what any industry does to increase its market and revenue base in the face of rising consumer demand.

But health care as an industry isn’t quite like consumer products or automobiles or food. Sure, Procter & Gamble, Ford and General Mills try to grow by raising prices, introducing new and improved versions of existing products and extending their product lines. But they must do so in a constant give-and-take with the consumer, overcoming natural consumer resistance to spending more money. As I argued in my new book Catastrophic Care, what makes health care unique is the absence of this consumer in the equation: We’re essentially cut out by the same insurance companies and government programs we rely on to pay for these products. Health care companies can raise prices, introduce “better” products and expand the definition of what your health requires without the typical consumer resistance—without needing to prove that a new product is worth a high price.

The most important strategy of the health care industry has been to endlessly increase our demand for health care. To maintain its continued access to the most generous of customers—private insurers, Medicare and Medicaid—the health care industry must convince us that its services fulfill genuine needs, not merely wants, as all other goods and services do. And once a treatment is considered a need, how can we possibly argue it isn’t worth paying for?

In Catastrophic Care, I argue that we as consumers need to recognize that the health care system won’t function properly—indeed, will continue to be downright dangerous—unless it is accountable to actual consumers rather than the surrogates (private insurers and government programs) we rely upon. And the only way to increase consumers’ role is to shift many of the enormous resources now passing through insurance and government programs back to us. We will need to confine insurance to what it does efficiently (protect us against catastrophe) and remove it from what it does disastrously (serve as the payment system for all care). Only then will we align health care incentives with our interests.

Excerpted from Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill Copyright © 2012 by David Goldhill. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

The unhealthy underbelly of America’s food industry has come under scrutiny over the last decade thanks in part to documentaries such as Food, Inc. and Super Size Me. As a result, the organic food trend has become a mainstream idea, and the government has taken some small steps. First Lady Michelle Obama has made of childhood obesity her main cause, and recently New York City imposed a ban on selling sugary drinks that are over 16 ounces.

Once stable industries have been attacked and now feel the need to defend themselves. This week, in fact, Coca-Cola released a commercial touting all the ways it’s trying to help us consume less calories. It promotes the fact that “all calories count, no matter where they come from.” It is an interesting tactic and one that will probably win many people over. After all, Coca-Cola is a cultural icon. But the truth is that not all calories are the same. The calories from a sugary drink are worse than the calories from a plate of vegetables. Studies from Princeton University and the University of California at Los Angeles show that high-fructose corn syrup—the sweet stuff usually used in soda—increases body fat and can impair memory.

High-fructose corn syrup is a chemically altered substance that has become a staple in many of the foods we eat, so it is difficult to avoid. To help, we have collected articles that present the facts and helpful advice about about soda, high-fructose corn syrup and childhood obesity. Now, I’m off to refill my water bottle.

The Truth About Soda (Huffington Post)

Alternatives to Soda (Everyday Health)

A Mother’s Personal Experience with Her Child’s Weight (USA Today)

Commentary on Coca-Cola’s Campaign (New York Times)

With an especially debilitating flu season sweeping the country, we asked Dr. Randall Neustaedter, OMD, author of Flu: Alternative Treatments and Prevention to give us some holistic advice about preventing and treating the flu.  

Contrary to what you have been told about the flu, there are effective treatments for the symptoms. Emergency rooms are flooded with patients, and their doctors remain helpless in the face of viral illnesses like the flu. They suggest prevention in the form of a flu vaccine that is ineffective and accompanied by dangerous side effects.

Holistic medicine, by contrast, provides effective treatment that can alleviate the symptoms, shorten the course of the illness and prevent complications. And holistic treatments are safe without any side effects.

Not only are there effective treatments, but you can develop a plan to treat the flu yourself. Stock your natural medicine kit with a few important supplements and you will be prepared for the flu if it strikes your family. Here’s the plan.

Nutritional Supplements
Vitamin D is essential for immune function. Most adults need about 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 as a supplement per day. Others may need more if their vitamin D blood level is especially low. Children need about 2,000 IU per day.

Vitamin A is a potent antiviral supplement. Take about 20,000 IU per day during an illness.

Vitamin C treats viral illnesses. Take 6,000 to 20,000 mg per day.

Herbal Treatment
Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) had been shown in several studies to shorten the duration and alleviate symptoms of the flu. Most health food stores sell elderberry extract in liquid form and capsules. Liquids are especially easy for children to take. Often elderberry is combined with Echinacea, which stimulates the body to fight off infections.

Chinese medicine has very effective antiviral formulas. Yin Chiao is an important Chinese herbal formula for the early stages of colds and flu. It expels pathogens and relieves congestion. The popular Airborne formula (and similar preparations) contain the main herbs of Yin Chiao in a fizzy tablet, but in a very dilute form. The primary herbs of this formula are Lonicera and Forsythia.

Gan Mao Ling is a more appropriate formula for stronger flu symptoms with aching muscles, headache, sore throat, and sinus congestion.

Both of these formulas (Yin Chiao and Gan Mao Ling) are available at health food stores and online sites. They are inexpensive and good to keep on hand in case someone you know needs them.

Homeopathic Medicines
The two most commonly indicated homeopathic medicines for flu symptoms are Bryonia and Gelsemium. These two are easily distinguished by their symptoms. The indications for prescribing Bryonia are flu symptoms with a bad headache made much worse by moving. The patient feels warm, wants fresh air, and is very thirsty. By contrast Gelsemium corresponds to flu cases with lack of thirst and chills. The patient feels chilly and is extremely exhausted and lethargic.

Take 2 to 3 pills of the 12 or 30 strength homeopathic preparation every few hours during the illness. These are usually available at larger health food stores as well. And they are safe for children.

Later Stages of the Flu
Although this program is usually adequate to cure the flu, if your symptoms continue into later stages of persistent coughing or prolonged tiredness and congestion then a visit to a holistic practitioner can alleviate these symptoms as well.

This month, we’re featuring Colette Baron-Reid’s Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much as our book of the month. In this book, Baron-Reid explains how being a deeply sensitive and empathetic person can interfere with your ability to lose weight and keep it off. As an empathetic person myself, I have spent a lot of energy over the years learning how to manage my empathy and establish better boundaries with those around me. But, many people don’t have this same struggle. In this excerpt from the book, Colette details what it is like to be a deeply empathic person, and explains the pros and cons of feeling others’ emotions as your own:

Empathy is much underrated. From childhood, we learn that brute strength, toughness, and smarts are what we need to succeed and be happy in life. We rarely celebrate sensitivity, or the beauty of caring deeply. Too often, sensitivity is seen as a weakness, something to be ashamed of (and more so for men than for women, which is why sensitive men have it especially rough).

But being empathetic—feeling others’ emotions as your own—can give you a deeper understanding of others and greater compassion. If you’re highly sensitive and empathetic, your friends probably would say you’re the one person they can always count on to know they’re sad when they’re pretending everything is okay. You can probably sense feelings others don’t pick up on. That sensitivity enables you to “read” situations very well and respond accordingly. Your actions and decisions take into account the hidden reality of people’s emotions. You might find that people seem instinctively drawn to you, and random strangers may even tell you their troubles. I have a friend who is hopeless at directions, but whenever she’s in New York City, strangers push their way through crowds to ask her to point them to Broadway. She just gives off an approachable and kind energy—and then she has to admit that she has no idea whether she and the stranger are facing north, south, east, or west.

Your intuitiveness and sensitivity may make you an excellent healer, teacher, and counselor. You may play that role in your relationships—the “unpaid psychiatrist” of all your friends or the harmony establisher in your family. Or, you may actually work in the helping professions as a therapist, nurse, doctor, social worker, acupuncturist, executive assistant, or in human resources, and so on, or perhaps you work in a creative, artistic field. You probably see other people in shades of gray rather than black or white, and you don’t overidentify with one separate group. Ultimately, feeling “too much” can be quite an asset, personally and professionally. Take a minute to feel how wonderful that is.

And when you feel more intensely than others do, you can truly revel in shared experiences, like concerts, picnics, or spiritual gatherings. You don’t just have fun on these occasions. You feel sheer joy filling every pore in your body, and you soak in the pleasure of everyone around you. Heaven!

But let’s face it, there’s a down side, too. If you feel too much, even happy experiences can quickly make you feel overstimulated or hyper, which can trigger anxiety because that sense of excitement seems out of your control. You start feeling ungrounded and anxious, and begin looking for a sanctuary from all the hoopla. You have to develop coping mechanisms. It’s all too much.

You may even have begun early in life sensing the world too much as unsafe so you spend most of your life isolated from others. I know some empathetic people who completely numb out and shut down, unable to feel anything at all because it’s too scary. To heck with feelings—you might have even developed a very strong personality to ensure that you can control who connects with you and who doesn’t. And guess who needs to always be in control of that dial, more than likely  on the “Don’t come near me unless I say how, when, and exactly for how long” setting? There’s a whole spectrum of coping mechanisms that people who feel too much engage in to avoid the onslaught of feelings picked up like lint floating through the emotional environment. You may cope by having your “radar” constantly on  Alert to ensure that the vibes you pick up are turned right down or off, even if they are wonderful and meant to be comforting. Don’t hug me, don’t touch me, don’t stand so close to me! You’re not having any of that!

On top of that, the vibes you’re feeling aren’t always pleasant, anyway. People’s anger easily rattles you, even when it’s just a shouting match on a reality TV show. When someone is callous or insensitive, you feel uneasy. This is true even if the person’s behavior isn’t directed at you but, rather, at someone else. If you hear about people or animals suffering, you just can’t bear it. Grief or anger settles over you like a dark, heavy blanket and it dampens your mood for hours, even days.

Is it possible that loving and caring for others, being generous and open-hearted, can make you fat? Consider: why are so many nurses overweight? As they take care of the sick, who is taking care of them? How are they processing what they see, experience, and feel all day long as they work their high-stress jobs? In his book Microtrends, Mark Penn points out that African-American women are three times as likely as any other subgroup of Americans to be overweight. The women most likely to be morbidly obese are the caregivers in their communities—the full-time grandmothers, the nurses and nurses aides, the church volunteers, and the teachers. Maybe it’s just a matter of eating too many fattening foods on the go, but maybe it’s also  that these women are taking on the weight of their overburdened communities.

What if, instead of beating yourself up for being overweight, you appreciated your kindness, sensitivity, compassion, and generosity? What if you made a commitment to show yourself and your body the love you show to others? What if you came out of isolation and allowed yourself to feel? What if you stepped back from your emotions and your persistent inner critic,  and instead told yourself, You are a treasure. I am so honored to know you, to actually be you.

Try it.

This is what you need to start doing. It may be uncomfortable at first, but with practice, you are going to become kinder to yourself. That alone will be a strong foundation for bringing your body back to its optimum health and weight. Love thyself. Love thy body. You will be amazed at how much power you have to change what you wish to change when you start with love.

The Korean condiment kimchi is the newest darling of foodies, who like its spicy, pungent kick, and healthy eaters, who appreciate the healthy bacteria produced during kimchi’s fermenting process. If you’ve ever eaten at a Korean restaurant, you’ve surely been served kimchi in small dishes alongside your meal; many Koreans, in fact, eat kimchi with every meal.

Lauryn Chun’s new cookbook, The Kimchi Cookbook, demystifies this centuries-old food tradition by showing how to make kimchi with a variety of vegetables in your own kitchen. If you’re not ready for DIY kimchi, Chun—who sells her own line of kimchi, Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi—devotes half of the book to recipes that include kimchi, whether you’ve made it yourself or bought it at the store. Here’s her simple recipe for winter greens. Enjoy!

Winter Greens with Kimchi

As much as I love soups, stews, and other comfort foods in the winter, I still miss eating greens during those cold months. Kale is a staple vegetable, and when combined with garlic and kimchi, it’s even more delicious. This is a nice diversion from standard winter sautéed vegetables, and it adds a kick to your hearty greens. —Lauryn Chun

Prep: 10 minutes
Makes 4 side-dish servings

1 bunch (12 ounces) Lacinato kale, or another kale or Swiss chard
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, slivered
1/2 cup any cabbage kimchi or Daikon Radish Cube Kimchi [recipe in the book], finely chopped with juice
Squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)

Trim the bottom 2 inches off the kale and slice the leaves into 3/4-inch ribbons. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the garlic and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Add the kimchi and kale and cook, stirring, until the kale is wilted, 3 to 5 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Drizzle lemon juice over the greens and sprinkle with the Parmigiano-Reggiano before serving.

Sounds great, right? For another winter kimchi recipe, check out Chun’s Grilled Kimcheeze Sandwich recipe on therecipeclub.net. 

This spring, celebrity nutritionist Haylie Pomroy will share her weight-loss methods with the world in her book The Fast Metabolism Diet (Harmony, April 2013). In the meantime, here is her take on gluten and tips for eliminating the often-pesky protein from your diet.

Does eating a stack of pancakes leave you lethargic? Does a plate of pasta make you feel bloated? Maybe it’s not you—maybe it’s the gluten.

According to CeliacCenter.org, about 18 million Americans can’t tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Symptoms can range from digestive troubles (bloating, cramping, diarrhea and constipation) to depression, “brain fog” and even signs that mimic attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If you suffer from any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor before you cut gluten out of your diet—he or she will want to run tests to rule out celiac disease, a potentially deadly type of gluten intolerance.

For the rest of us, gluten is just plain hard to digest. It’s a relative newcomer to the human diet (we’ve only been eating grain for about 12,000 years), and the human body simply hasn’t adapted to it yet.

Here are a few simple steps for going gluten-free:

1. Focus on whole foods. You don’t have to worry that an apple or broccoli has gluten. Go for foods with the shortest ingredient lists.

2. Look for the “big five” on labels: Wheat, rye, barley, malt and oats. (Oats don’t contain gluten, but they’re usually contaminated with other grains—look for oats labeled “gluten-free.” And don’t just read labels of obvious stuff like pasta and breads. Soups, gravies, snack foods, frozen meals—all of these frequently contain hidden gluten.

3. Try gluten-free grains. Rice is gluten-free. So are quinoa, buckwheat, teff, millet and amaranth—and these ancient grains are nutritional powerhouses, too. Cook them whole as you would rice or oatmeal, or find them among gluten-free flours at the market. Bob’s Red Mill makes a gluten-free flour blend you can use in recipes as well.

4. Explore the gluten-free section at the market. Even small stores are now offering gluten-free brown-rice pasta and tortillas, lentil or rice crackers, and gluten-free breads.

5. Cook for yourself. There’s no better way to know what’s in your food. Besides, most restaurants are gluten minefields, with their sandwiches, wraps, pizzas and burgers.

6. At restaurants, ask questions. Don’t be shy. At small, family-owned restaurants, the cook usually knows every ingredient that goes into each dish. At chain restaurants, ask which menu items are gluten-free; some chains—like P.F. Chang’s, Outback Steakhouse and Uno Chicago Grill—will hand you an entire gluten-free menu.

7. Keep a gluten-free snack stash. Never force yourself to go hungry! One major key to a fast metabolism is eating every three to four hours, keeping your blood sugar on an even keel. Stash gluten-free snacks like fruit, nuts and beef jerky in your car, office, purse, etc.

8. Tap into the gluten-free community. Here are three great sites to get you started:

• CeliacCentral.org (from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness) packs a wealth of terrific, day-to-day gluten-free survival strategies. Check out the Gluten-Free Recipe of the Week (the Thai Shrimp Skewers have just four ingredients and are perfect for the Fast Metabolism Diet). You’ll find links to 150 gluten-free blogs, too, with helpful descriptions of each one.
• Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free Blogger Amy Green posts delicious recipes for everything from breakfasts to desserts, all free from refined sugars and gluten.
• Gluten-Free Goddess Blogger Karina Allrich, who has celiac disease, shares her beautifully photographed vegetarian recipes. Skip the sugary ones, but there are plenty of metabolism-friendly recipes here, like Easy Chicken and Balsamic Peppers.

9. Monitor your body. How do you feel after avoiding gluten for a while? Has indigestion vanished? Does your skin look clearer? Do you feel happier? If going gluten-free makes you feel healthier, consider making the switch—for good.

To read more about how gluten can affect your health, see Pomroy’s article, “Should You Go Gluten-Free,” on her website.

This month we are featuring Colette Baron-Reid’s Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much as our book of the month. As Baron-Reid describes in the book, “people who feel too much” sense the world beyond their own personal boundaries and become overwhelmed not just by their own feelings, but also by feelings that don’t even belong to them, the feelings of others. Although the ability to connect with others can be a great asset, it can also lead to emotional and empathic eating — and that can pack on the pounds.

Are you a person who is letting empathy overload affect your weight? Baron-Reid has put together a quick quiz to help you better understand if you are a person who feels too much.

THE EMPATHY AND EATING QUIZ

For each question, chose Y for yes or N for no.

1. You feel overwhelmed by your emotions around certain people, and don’t always know if your emotions belong to you. Y/N

2. You feel disconnected and disoriented by strong emotions during family encounters, and you turn to food to calm down. Y/N

3. You turn to food as comfort or reward, and to calm yourself or to escape your feelings, especially from 4:00 p.m. on. Y/N

4. When you feel emotionally unsafe, food is temporarily calming and makes you feel grounded and secure, if only for a few seconds. Y/N

5. There are times when, rather than face a social opportunity, you stay home and eat comfort foods that may be a combination of sugar, flour, and dairy or are processed foods such as chips, cookies, etc. Y/N

6. Sometimes, you can’t stop eating these comfort foods, and you mentally bargain with yourself that you will start again on Monday (or tomorrow). Y/N

7. During stressful times, you can gain weight without eating extra food. Y/N

8. In your experience, fear and excess food go together. Y/N

9. You gain weight as soon as you think about dieting. Y/N

10. You feel afraid that you won’t ever get your eating under control. Y/N

11. You feel powerless when you’re in an emotional eating phase and powerful when you think you’ve got it handled. Y/N

12. Your love/sex life has suffered because of your relationship to food. Y/N

If you answered yes to three or more questions, your empathy is probably interfering with your ability to lose weight and keep it off. Baron-Reid’s four-step, eight-week plan in Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much may be able to help you gain perspective and look at your body, weight loss and health in a way you never have before. Her program teaches empathetic eaters how to manage the “weight of the world” they carry by helping sort through and let go of emotions, create healthy boundaries, learn conscious eating techniques and more.

To learn more about the book, read our Q&A with Colette Baron-Reid or visit colettebaronreid.com.

For some people, losing weight is a mystery. They know what to do, but for some reason can’t follow though. If this is you, counselor and life coach Colette Baron-Reid may have answers in her new book Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much. During her 23-year practice, she found that people who are extremely empathetic or sensitive often have food and weight issues, and she’s developed a program to overcome them. We caught up with Baron-Reid to learn more. (To find out if empathy could be affecting your weight, take our quiz.) 

Books for Better Living: You really have pinpointed the strong connection between managing emotions and weight. Can you talk about how you uncovered it?

Colette Baron-Reid: Over the years, I noticed that I would swell rapidly under times of stress but drop weight as rapidly when I felt peaceful and happy. I would sometimes turn to food to calm myself down, but often times, it would happen even if I would eat clean or relatively clean.

Over the past 23 years, working as an intuitive counselor, coach and life strategist, I would meet many people that had the very same symptoms. I met many others who, like me, feel prey to inevitably falling into a shame and fear spiral from the whole experience. We had some important things in common: We tended to feel agitated from 4 p.m. on and turned to food to calm down when that point hit. We lost weight only when we dieted for positive reasons, but gained it when we dieted to control our bodies (self-hatred, etc.), and we were all empathetic by nature. So I began my search for answers.

BBL: Talk more about empathy: What is it?

CBR: Empathy is the ability to sense one’s environment, to connect with others at a deeper level than what we see on the surface. It is a sign of a highly sensitive person able to intuit the feelings of others, to sense how they feel as if their feelings were your own. You can imagine a person like this to have porous personal boundaries. Its difficult to discern where you end and others begin, and it’s easy for sensitive people to fall into empathy overload when they don’t know what or “who” they are tuned into—especially in the information overload of the modern world. I refer to empathic people as People Who Feel Too Much.

BBL: How big a factor do you think people’s emotions play in their “set points” for weight?

CBR: When we get stressed, we respond from the “fight or flight” part of our brain that reacts as if we were back in prehistoric times and being charged by a T. Rex and perhaps stuck in a cave with no food for a month. Our bodies are designed to survive by storing fat, but this becomes a problem when stress is the constant message being played. I know for myself, until I am relaxed and taking care that I don’t get overstressed, I will have a higher set point for my weight.

BBL: So what are the steps highly sensitive or empathic people can take to start healing their relationship with food and their bodies?

CBR: First, a person needs to identify and accept his or her sensitivity, then it comes time make a commitment to a new way of managing emotions, as outlined in the book: healthy boundaries, self-care and self-kindness, minimizing stressors, and working with the In-Vizion® process, and making better food choices.

BBL: You talk a lot about positive self-talk, positive visualization and the healthy management of emotions in your book? How is that helping people lose weight?

CBR: Fear and shame are the emotions that keep people who feel too much from losing weight, because feeling bad about yourself leads to self-sabotage. One of the ways people maintain their stress is by trying to control their bodies by hating them into being thin—deprivation diets, etc. that they can’t stick to. Fear forces you to find a way to feel safe, but when your thoughts are full of self-anger, you need to protect yourself from your self! It’s a vicious cycle.

Mindfulness, detaching from negative emotions and affirming positive, loving thoughts all are actions that encourage loving, positive behaviors. They relieve stress so the person can stick to healthier choices.

BBL: Much of the book deals with non-food issues in relation to weight. Do you have recommendations in the book on what to eat?

CBR: I don’t believe any food plan is one-size-fits-all, but I do have some suggestions. The people who have the most success with the program stick to three meals and two snacks a day—no grazing. I suggest a mostly plant-based diet, eating organic as much as you can, avoiding all GMOs, excito-toxins such as MSG and artificial sweeteners, and eliminating all processed flour and sugar.

I believe in moderation and empowering the person to want to do the best thing for his or her body. This program is about accountability and conscious, empowered, educated choice-making.

Take our quiz to see if empathy is affecting your weight. For more information, visit colettebaronreid.com.

You can actually resolve to stop going to the gym in 2013 if you follow Mark Lauren’s advice. The author of You Are Your Own Gym, which shows how to get great workouts using only your own body weight, has just released a new book tailored just for women, Body By You: The You Are Your Own Gym’s Guide to Total Women’s Fitness. Here’s a sample total-body exercise that takes just 5 short minutes. We can commit to that.

When it comes to achieving a strong, healthy body, consistency is king! You have to keep showing up. I’m about to show you how to make that easier and more convenient than ever before with a favorite body-weight exercise of mine that works every muscle in your body from your neck to your ankles. And best of all, you don’t need any equipment, so you can work out in the comfort of your home, office or hotel room. In less time than it takes you to drive to the gym, you could be done and get a better work out!

The exercise is called the 4-Count Bodybuilder, and it’s as simple as it is effective. It is a variant of an exercise that I’ve used to train hundreds of Special Operations troops. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Place your hands on the ground just in front of your feet.

2. Jump your feet back so that you land in the starting position of a push-up.

3. Jump your feet forward to your hands again.

4. Stand up. Simple!

Try doing this exercise for 1 minute, then rest for 1 minute. Repeat two more times and call it a day! If that’s easy for you, then try doing 2 minutes straight, rest for 1 minute, and then repeat.

Ready to kick it up a notch?

When you’re in the push-up position, do a push-up and add a jump to the end of the movement as you’re standing back up. You can do the push-up on or off your knees. For the elite athletes out there, try using this variation and going for 5 minutes straight!

For more information, visit marklauren.com.

Books for Better Living is getting into the holiday spirit with Season of Surprises (aka S.O.S.), a month-long celebration of healthy living. We’re bringing you daily book giveaways, exclusive excerpts and inspiring tips that will help you end 2012 with a healthy bang.

Today, we asked Rich Roll, author of Finding Ultra, to introduce his new podcast series. If you’re looking for healthy inspiration for 2013, subscribe and listen to his  free podcast.

When I began training intensely for ultra-endurance triathlons back in 2008, I was in search of some companionship for my very long training runs and rides, which would often last the better part of an entire day — too many hours to always be left with just my thoughts or music alone. Audiobooks on my iPod are great, but I craved something more varied and contemporaneous — like a radio station curated to my specific interests.

That’s when I discovered podcasts. I was an immediate convert.

What I love about podcasts is the freedom — a great long-form conversation between a host and a guest that delves deep into a particular topic; the organic authenticity unwed to a cadre of program directors and advertising interests that at best curtail the depth a conversation can go when left to lead where it wants to venture.

When Finding Ultra was released, I had the pleasure of being a guest on a wide variety of podcasts — extremely popular programs like The Adam Carolla Show and The Joe Rogan Experience. This experience demonstrated the amazing reach and power of this relatively new medium, aiding significantly in the profile of my book, even beyond appearances in traditional national television media like CNN.

With my book came an onslaught of email. Questions from readers on too many health-related subjects to count. It occurred to me the best way to address this need for more and better information, and continue and broaden my relationship with the audience, was to simply launch my own podcast that takes up where my book leaves off and provides in-depth information and insights from high-profile guests I have had the pleasure of learning from along my path.

In an organic and relatively open-ended manner, I share what I have learned and engage my guests — people from all walks of life along the health, wellness, nutrition and fitness spectrum. Future episodes in the works will bring the best and brightest stars in health, nutrition and fitness to help you start the New Year with a refreshing and informative perspective to get you eating right, feeling great and on the path to unlocking the best and most authentic version of yourself for 2013.

I hope you join us!

Peace + Plants,
Rich

You can find the Rich Roll Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher Radio.

Pssst! Come back tomorrow for a free Fodor’s city guide app. Also, sign up for our newsletter to get advanced notice of each week’s list of goodies and a chance to win a Nook Tablet and Barnes & Noble gift cards! (For rules on the Nook sweepstakes, click here.)

If the world of vitamins and supplements has you confused, you’re not alone. With a dizzying number of choices, new studies every month and no federal regulations for the supplement industry, it’s hard to know what to do.

That’s why Dr. Tieraona Low Dog devoted a chapter of her book, Life Is Your Best Medicine: A Woman’s Guide to Health, Healing, and Wholeness at Every Age, to vitamins and minerals. She’s studied dietary supplements for 25 years and, not surprisingly, one of the questions people ask her most frequently is, “So, doctor, what supplements do you take?” Her answer is pretty simple:

I take a daily multivitamin/mineral (MVI), magnesium and fish oil. I have a very good diet, but I know that I don’t get all the nutrients I need every day, so taking an MVI just makes good sense to me. I take extra magnesium because it works like magic in preventing my migraines. The few times I have stopped taking it, I have had a migraine within a few days. It is inexpensive and safe, and it works. I take a fish oil supplement a few times a week, because I do not eat fish on a regular basis, and I am convinced that we need more omega-3 fatty acids than most of us currently get.

Dr. Low Dog goes into more detail in her book about vitamins that are important for women, but overall her advice to take a multivitamin is pretty simple—until you go shopping for one and try to make sense of the labels. Dr. Low Dog is here to rescue you again with a quick video guide to choosing a good multivitamin:

Learn more about Tieraona Low Dog, MD, at drlowdog.com.

With a slow cooker, you can fix a healthy, easy Christmas morning breakfast with almost no work. This recipe from The American Heart Association’s Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook uses protein-rich quinoa in place of oatmeal. Just put the ingredients in your slow cooker when you wake up, then go open presents. When you’re done, steamy bowls of protein-rich quinoa will be waiting. Since peaches are out of season, you can use thawed frozen fruit, or set out a topping bar with your family’s favorite mix-ins (nuts, dried cherries, chocolate chips, maple syrup, banana slices, toasted coconut) and let everyone serve themselves. Mmmm…

Cinnamon Quinoa With Peaches

Serves 6

Cooking spray
2½ cups water
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed well under cold running water and drained
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1½ cups fat-free half-and-half
¼ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups frozen unsweetened
peach slices, thawed and sliced or diced
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped pecans, dry-roasted and coarsely chopped

Lightly spray the slow cooker with cooking spray. Pour in the water. Stir in the quinoa and cinnamon. Cook, covered, on low for 2 hours or on high for 1 hour, or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Just before the quinoa is ready, in a small bowl, stir together the half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla extract until the sugar has dissolved.

Spoon the quinoa into bowls. Top with the peaches. Pour in the half-and-half mixture. Sprinkle with the pecans.

See more slow cooker recipes.

If you or your kids have food allergies, you know all too well that eating at holidays can be tricky. And if you’re doing the cooking, it’s also something important to be aware of. We asked Cybele Pascal, author of the new book Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking: 30-Minute Meals Without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, and Sesame, to share her tips for safe eating and hosting. (Scroll down for a bonus recipe from her book!)

1. Be inclusive, not exclusive: This first tip has been on my mind a lot recently after a friend’s daughter was excluded from a holiday activity at school because of her food allergies. If you are a teacher or parent making something festive for the holidays with a bunch of kids, be sure you choose something that all the kids can participate in. Choose a recipe that’s free of the top eight food allergens—dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish—(I have hundreds!) or do something with crafts, instead of cooking. One out of 13 kids has a food allergy in the United States, so chances are you’re going to have at least two kids who have food allergies in your group. Try to do something inclusive, not exclusive.

2. Find safe treats: Looking for safe stocking stuffers? Luckily there are now many allergy-friendly candies that will let your children feel truly indulged. Look for them on Peanut Free Planet, Divvies, Vermont Nut Free Chocolates or Navan Foods. From candy canes to chocolate Santas, there is no need to avoid holiday treats!

3. Learn about your guests’ allergies: If you are hosting a holiday party or dinner and you know that there will be people with food allergies attending, you need to know what the allergies are and determine the severity. (Conversely, if you have food allergies, or somebody in your family has food allergies, let your host know what they are.) If, for example, you have somebody coming who is anaphylactic (has a life-threatening allergy) to tree nuts, I’d avoid tree nuts altogether. It’s not that hard to find a plethora of alternative ingredients. If you have questions or would like suggestions, please feel free to email me (allergyfriendlycook [at] gmail [dot] com), I’m always happy to answer ingredient substitution questions. Consider making several, if not all, dishes free top-8-free. My cookbook, Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking, is full of many great recipes that nobody would ever know are allergy-free if you didn’t tell them.

4. Bring a dish: If you have food allergies, bring a dish or two to parties that you know are safe for you, that everyone will enjoy, so you are assured something safe and yummy to eat. By doing so, you’re also spreading the word that allergy-free doesn’t mean taste-free. And, trust me, your host will appreciate the additional food!

5. Keep things clean: If you are hosting somebody with food allergies and you’re only doing a few allergy-free dishes rather than a whole allergy-friendly meal, be aware of cross contamination and cross contact while cooking and serving. Sanitize your hands, thoroughly and often. I can’t stress how important this step is. Wash your hands between each step while prepping and cooking, with warm water and soap, and dry them on a clean paper towel or fresh dishtowel. Clean and sanitize food-preparation areas before, during and after the cooking process. Wash down kitchen surfaces. Don’t just wipe or brush them off — clean them thoroughly.

6. Serve safe: Consider labeling dishes with ingredient cards. If the meal is going to be served buffet style, serve the food allergic person first to avoid cross contamination. If you’re doing a sit-down meal, prepare the food-allergic person’s food first and then cover it and set it aside to be sure nothing migrates into it from serving utensils.

7. Carry your epi pens! I can’t stress this enough. I carry my epi pens at all times. When I go to parties, they fit perfectly in a pretty little holiday clutch. There is no need to forsake safety for fashion. For kids, get them one of the new generation carrying cases, perfect for any gear head—check out OneSpot Allergy.

Enjoy this healthy squash recipe from my book, Allergy Free and Easy Cooking. Happy Holidays!

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Millet, 
Spinach, Cranberries, and Hemp Seeds
Serves 4

1/2 cup millet
1 1/2 cups water
2 small acorn squash, halved and seeded
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped sweet or yellow onion
2 large cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 (5- to 6-ounce) bag baby spinach
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds, toasted (see note)
4 heaping teaspoons fine gluten-free 
breadcrumbs (I like Ener-G for this)
4 heaping teaspoons Earth Balance soy-free 
buttery spread or olive oil

Combine the millet and water in a small pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, covered, for 18 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Don’t stir the millet or it will become creamy. You want it to cook up like rice, and refraining from stirring will accomplish this.

Meanwhile, spray the insides of the acorn squash halves with cooking spray or brush lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place face down on a large microwave-safe dish (I just use the microwave tray). Cover (I use a large mixing bowl—it’s okay if the squash halves have to overlap a bit) and cook for 16 minutes, or until the squash is tender.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes, until tender. Add the garlic and cranberries and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the spinach and cook, stirring often, until wilted, 2 minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar, stir, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the hemp seeds.

While the millet is cooking, preheat the broiler on high.

Once the millet is cooked, fluff it lightly with a fork. Combine 1 cup of the millet with the spinach mixture and toss. Put the squash halves cut side up in a broiler-safe pan or on a rimmed baking tray. Divide the filling evenly among the squash halves, mounding it slightly. Top each squash half with 
1 heaping teaspoon breadcrumbs and dot each with 1 heaping teaspoon buttery spread. Broil 
8 inches from the heat source for 4 to 5 minutes, until browned.

* Note: To toast hemp seeds, heat a small frying pan or 
skillet over medium heat. Add the hemp seeds and 
cook, stirring often, for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden 
and aromatic.

Find more tips and recipes for allergy-free cooking at cybelepascal.com.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking: 30-Minute Meals Without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, and Sesame by Cybele Pascal, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group.

Tablets and e-readers are a hot gift this year. Sure, they’re great for reading, Web browsing and Facebook time, but we wanted to see if they could help us live healthier, too. If there’s one waiting for you under the tree, check out these five healthy uses, or if you’re giving one, consider loading it up with healthy apps for the lucky recipient. (For a chance to win your own Nook HD, sign up for our e-newsletter by 12/31/12.)

1. Grocery Shopping: We love grocery shopping with a tablet! Tablets can transform grocery shopping into a quick, fun and relaxed experience. Use your tablet to plan meals and compile your grocery list before heading to the store. While at the grocery store, you can easily look up ingredients, scan barcodes for nutrition information and compare prices.
Try: Grocery IQ (free), Grocery Gadget ($3.99)

2. Cooking. Tablets are also wonderful for cooking. Use your tablet to research recipes and save cooking tips for future use. After you’ve found your recipe and purchased your ingredients, prop up your tablet in the kitchen (somewhere safe and out of food’s way!) and refer to the recipe while cooking.
Try: Whole Foods Market Recipes (free), AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner (free)

3. Working Out. Tablets are great for working out both at home and at the gym. Take your tablet to the gym to follow specific weight-training routines. We also like using the tablet for home workout videos, such as Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred.
Try: Women’s Health workout apps ($1.99), 1000 EXERCISES ($5.99)

4. Crossword Puzzles. Get a mental workout by doing crossword puzzles on your tablet. Download any number of crossword puzzle apps and pull them up easily while waiting in line and commuting. Crossword puzzles are great for refreshing your memory and keeping your brain in shape.
Try: Crosswords app by Stand Alone ($10)

5. Yoga. Tablets are great for studying and practicing yogawithout being confined to a classroom. Whether you want to choose from the endless free yoga videos online or just want to find a few specific stretches for an ailment, tablets are great for practicing yoga with ease, especially while traveling.
Try: Authentic Yoga with Deepak Chopra ($1.99), Hatha Yoga: Your Portable Yoga studio ($9.99)

How do you use your tablet? Share your healthy tips below!

As you might know from reading some of my previous posts, or those by my friend Emily, we at Books for Better Living are on a quest to “detox” our environment and our bodies.

By now you probably have seen the 515 Chemicals Women Put on Their Bodies Every Day infographic and maybe you know that these chemicals—parabens, PEGs, laureth, triethanolamine, etc.—create a toxic burden on our bodies as they impact the hormonal system and brain.

Suzanne Somers writes in her #1 New York Times bestselling book Sexy Forever: “The problem with commercial creams is that the same chemicals that alter the natural characteristics of oil and water, allowing them to stay mixed, also break down the natural oils in our skin. This allows water to evaporate from our skin, and it also causes our cells to put up a shield. At a cellular level the same thing takes place—your cells put up shields to protect themselves from these chemicals. So now your cells are closed off and can’t eliminate waste or take in nutrition. As a result, the cells die prematurely. We get thinner and thinner skin that feels crepey and develops wrinkles…. Anything that lists a PEG in the ingredients has been ethoxylated, or made with ethylene oxide, a very, very toxic chemical…. Almost all ethoxylated chemicals contain trace amounts of 1, 4-dioxane, which can damage the liver and kidneys and may cause cancer.”

In an effort to clean up our beauty routines, Emily, Lisa and I gathered at Emily’s place to create all-natural lotions and lip balms using recipes found online and in the book EcoBeauty by Lauren and Janice Cox. The recipes take no time at all to make and require minimal equipment and space.

We loved the Major Moisture Lip Balms and The Whip lotion we made so much that we reunited a few weeks later to make enough to give our friends, family and colleagues for the holidays.

Ingredients

- Coconut oil
- Castor oil
- Grated beeswax
- Almond oil
- Vitamin E oil
- Olive oil
- Distilled water
- Essential oils of your choice (we used lavender, peppermint and lemon)
(Note: Most of these ingredients are available at mountainroseherbs.com.)

Major Moisture Lip Balm Recipe, adapted from EcoBeauty

- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon castor oil
- 1/2 teaspoon grated beeswax
- 1/2 teaspoon almond oil
- 1/8 teaspoon vitamin E oil
- Lip balm container (source: mountainroseherbs.com)

Put all the ingredients in a small, microwave-safe dish and microwave until the beeswax has melted, stirring occasionally. Pour liquid into the lip balm containers and let cool (approximately 3 hours) before capping. Yield: 1/2 ounce.

The Whip Recipe, adapted from RootSimple.com

- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons grated beeswax
- 1 cup tepid distilled water
- essential oils of your choice

Place wax and oil in a Pyrex measuring cup, sitting in a small saucepan filled with water over a medium heat. Allow wax to melt, stirring occasionally. Once melted, remove Pyrex from the pan and use a hand mixer to blend the oil and wax together while slowly and steadily pouring the water into the mixture. Add approximately 10 drops of your favorite essential oil and incorporate all ingredients until there is no visible liquid. Pour into sanitized containers and let cool before placing the lids on the containers.

A perfect DIY holiday gift!

For more on our quest to learn about chemicals and detoxify our lives, read these articles.

While there are still three more weeks until Christmas, I have already had my fair share of egg nog, mulled wine, pie, cookies and cake. Overindulging during the holidays is easy, especially if you are a stress eater.

That is why it is especially important to exercise during this time of year; it helps battle stress and keeps the holiday bulge to a minimum. But this is a difficult time of year to muster motivation for exercising—it’s cold, it’s dark at 5 p.m., and time is at a premium. Excuses are many; trust me, I have used them all.

So below we have collected some articles from around the Web to help motivate you to exercise and give ideas for optimizing your workouts. The hardest part about exercising is starting. Start with small goals and don’t be too hard on yourself, say the experts. A little bit of something is better than nothing. And if you get into the habit now, your New Year’s resolutions bulge won’t be so insurmountable.

How to Make Your Workout Plan Stick (Huffington Post)

Maintain Your Weight During the Holidays (Fit Sugar)

Quick Tips and Exercises (CBS)

Denise Austin’s Proven Weight-Loss Plan (Philadelphia Daily News)

What’s the secret to Haylie Pomroy’s approach to weight loss that has celebrities lining up at her clinics? She’s an expert at helping clients turn up their inner metabolism furnace to burn calories and lose weight. This spring, she’ll share her methods with the world in her book The Fast Metabolism Diet (Harmony, April 2013). In the meantime, here are her tips for keeping metabolism on track during holiday party season.

If you’re trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and feed your metabolism with fresh, whole foods, an impending holiday office party looms like a little devil on your shoulder. On party day, you’ll be staring down a buffet, with boozy eggnog at one end and rich pumpkin pie at the other. Fortunately, there are some practical steps you can take, and none of them involve skipping the dessert table!

The Annual Party Doesn’t Have to Be a Minefield
Indulging in a fun night with coworkers shouldn’t be a cause for stress, which screws up your metabolism even more than piece of pecan pie now and then. Follow these tips, and your body will be primed, prepped and ready—and you won’t find yourself binging.

• Eat your usual healthy meals and snacks throughout the day of the party. Mistake #1 is starving yourself all day. Instead, eat sensible, regular meals and snacks of whole fruits, lean protein and fresh veggies. This keeps your metabolism stable and your blood sugar normal. You’ll arrive feeling happy, relaxed, and ready to enjoy the party.
• Hydrate with water. As always, drink half your body weight in ounces of water throughout the day. That way, your body will be better prepared to process the extra food you’ll probably eat.
• At the party, first go for a protein appetizer, like deviled eggs, hummus with veggies or shrimp cocktail. This sneaky trick kicks your metabolism into gear, right when you need it most.
• If you have an alcoholic drink, go for the good stuff. Organic, sulfite-free red wine and top-shelf clear liquors are easier for your body to process than the cheap junk. Avoid frat-party-style booze with food coloring, a caffeine jolt, etc. Sip an extra 8 ounces of water for every alcoholic drink. It’s best to stop after just one—alcohol never helps your metabolism, but lots of alcohol really murders it.
• Relax and have fun. This actually helps your body melt fat. Remember, stress and anxiety about anything—including food—make your body think there’s a real emergency going on. Fat-burning screeches to a halt. In fact, your body starts hoarding fat against whatever disaster or famine may strike.

Having a Good Time is GOOD
Happily, pleasure fires up your metabolism too. When you’re happy, you’re flooding your body with endorphins, feel-good hormones that nudge your thyroid gland to crank out more fat-burning hormones. And you’re lowering another hormone, leptin, which makes you feel hungry. So don’t skip the office party. Follow these tips and enjoy!

Get more metabolism-boosting tips from Haylie Pomroy at facebook.com/hayliepomroy.

Looking for holiday gift ideas for book lovers? Here are our picks for books that can help everyone on your list in their quest to eat healthy food, exercise and love their bodies.

The Skinny Rules
Bob Harper
From the trainer and fitness expert best known for his butt-kicking, fat-burning workouts on The Biggest Loser, this book distills Harper’s healthy eating knowledge into 20 straightforward principles. Make them into habits, and he guarantees you’ll never need another diet book again. Read more…

Life Is Your Best Medicine
Tieranona Low Dog, MD 
For the woman who takes a holistic approach to health, this book is an inspiring guide. Dr. Low Dog draws on her diverse background in midwifery, massage therapy, herbal medicine and Western medicine to give advice that touches every aspect of wellness—from food and movement to relationships and meditation. Read more…

The Sprouted Kitchen
Sara Forte
Whole foods, simple techniques, beautiful photos—that’s what makes a great cookbook in our book. This debut collection from popular food blogger Sara Forte is both comforting (Creamy Coconut Barley with Pomegranate Molasses) and sophisticated (Stacked Watermelon with Feta and White Balsamic), and includes a fun mix of dinner recipes, snacks, treats and party food. Read more…

Yoga Cures
Tara Stiles
Ever twist yourself up in a pretzel with pain? Tara Stiles shows you how to ease pain with easy yoga moves which relieve everything from arthritis to depression to runner’s aches. Read more…

Easy Sexy Raw
Carol Alt
In her third book about raw foods, supermodel Carol Alt shares the diet that has helped her feel and look her best for 20 years. Her tips and tricks demystify raw food preparation methods, and 130 easy recipes provide practically endless meal inspiration. Read more…

Need more gift inspiration? Check out our picks for the best Healthy Mind books of 2012.

In his latest cookbook, Tyler Florence Fresh, the celebrity chef shines a spotlight on vibrant vegetables, highlighting their good-for-you properties and demonstrating unexpected ways to prepare them. He turns the conventional cookbook format on its head by organizing chapters by ingredient, from anchovies to zucchini, rather than by courses.

Meats like beef, lamb and pork make appearances too, but Florence’s main focus is how to make the most of the freshest food using minimal ingredients and easy methods. “We are at the dawn of enlightenment; finally understanding that we are what we eat,” he says in the book’s preview video. “The poor quality food that we’ve been consuming in this country for years doesn’t hold a candle to fresh food and the nutrition that our bodies are starving for.”

Here’s a recipe from Tyler Florence Fresh that makes the most of vitamin C-rich cauliflower. Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower with Anchovy, Capers and Fresh Thyme
Serves 4 to 6

Cauliflower
2 heads cauliflower (preferably different colors)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Garlic Chips
Olive oil, for frying
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 oil-packed anchovy fillets, finely minced
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon salt-packed capers, rinsed and drained
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
½ lemon

Freshly cracked black pepper
Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

Roast the cauliflower: Preheat the oven to 450°F. Remove the green leaves from the cauliflower and reserve. Cut the cauliflower heads in half, then into bite-size florets. Cut the stalks into bite-size pieces also. Place the florets and stalk pieces in a roasting pan, and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until golden and tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a platter lined with paper towels to drain.

Make the garlic chips: Pour 1/4 inch of oil into a small saucepan. Add the garlic and set the pan over medium heat. Heat the oil until the chips are golden and crisp, about 1 minute. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Make the anchovy sauce: Set a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and fry the anchovies, garlic, capers and thyme, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up the anchovies and infuse the oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until fragrant. Add the cream and Parmesan, and bring to a simmer. Just before serving, add the roasted cauliflower pieces and fold in the reserved leaves. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice, and top with the fried garlic chips, cracked black pepper and shaved Parmesan.

Follow Tyler Florence on Twitter at @TylerFlorence.

Recipe excerpted from Tyler Florence Fresh by Tyler Florence (Clarkson Potter, $35).

Looking for some new inspiration on your Twitter feed? Here are 10 authors that will add a healthy boost to your day in 140 characters or less.

1. Deepak Chopra
@DeepakChopra
Author of: Super Brain, Spiritual Solutions, War of the Worldviews, and many more
Tweets about: Mind/body healing, spirituality, mediation, peace
Sample tweet: #BeHappyMakeHappy‬ Make at least 2 people happy today by giving them attention, appreciation and affection.

2. Jillian Michaels
@JillianMichaels
Author of: Unlimited: How to Build an Exceptional Life, Master Your Metabolism, Making the Cut
Tweets about: Fitness, health, weight loss
Sample tweet: Try this hardcore exercise — it’s one of 30 BRAND NEW exercises I just added to my online program! ‪http://bit.ly/T5lEwi ‬ Are you up for it?

3. Bob Harper
@MyTrainerBob
Author of: The Skinny Rules, Are You Ready!
Tweets about: Fitness, healthy eating, motivation, weight loss
Sample tweet: Make a ‪#resolution‬ for the day – no more excuses, no more “I can’t” and instead focus on what YOU can do to make YOUR life better!

4. Dr. Daniel Amen
@DocAmen
Author of: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Use Your Brain to Change Your Age, The Amen Solution
Tweets about: Brain health
Sample tweet: “Many people forget to exercise their brain but it’s very important for your overall health! Read why ‪http://ow.ly/f7XUb . ‪#BrainAndBody‬”

5. Gabrielle Bernstein
@GabbyBernstein
Author of: Spirit Junkie, Add More Ing to Your Life, May Cause Miracles (upcoming)
Tweets about: Meditation, spirituality, inner peace
Sample tweet: Dwell in a place of believing you are worthy of your desires & you’ll allow the Universe to catch up with your dreams. ‪http://www.Gabbyb.tv‬

6. Tara Stiles
@TaraStiles
Author of: Yoga Cures
Tweets about: Yoga, healthy living
Sample tweet: Yoga routine for Holiday Meal Digestion! Get things moving ‪http://tmblr.co/ZQx3MxXu0_TN‬

7. Rich Roll
@RichRoll
Author of: Finding Ultra
Tweets about: Fitness, wellness, veganism,
Sample tweet: Start simple. Try: kale + pineapple + chia seeds RT ‪@Jason_Gilliland‬: ‪@richroll‬ finally got a ‪@Vitamix‬ blender. What should I make first?

8. Carol Alt
@ModelCarolAlt
Author of: Easy Sexy Raw, The Raw 50, Eating in the Raw
Tweets about: Raw food, beauty, fashion
Sample tweet: Ladies! I found some pretty great nail polish without formaldehyde! It’s called ‪#MineralFusion‬- seems healthier! Check it out for yourself-

9. Phil Stutz and Barry Michels
@TheToolsBook
Authors of: The Tools
Tweet about: Personal growth
Sample tweet: Growth occurs when a person dares to experiment with his or her own life. ‪#ReversalOfDesire‬.

10. Tim Caulfield
@CaulfieldTim
Author of: The Cure for Everything
Tweets about: Health, fitness and happiness research
Sample tweet: As a slightly neurotic individual, great news! See Study: Being Neurotic Lowers Risk of Chronic Disease ‪http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/11/study-being-a-healthy-degree-of-neurotic-lowers-risk-of-chronic-disease/265179/ …‬

p.s. Don’t forget to follow us while you’re at it: @booksforbetter

Whether you’re a regular Thanksgiving host or have been tapped to contribute a side dish for the first time, Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well by former New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton deserves a spot on your cookbook shelf. He offers up 46 classic, pitch-perfect recipes with no trendy extras—just Thankgiving done “correctly,” as he writes in the introduction. More importantly, Sifton is like the ideal Thanksgiving guest: a little opinionated (“You should make no salad.”) and endlessly reassuring (“Everything will be all right.”). Here’s his take on cranberry sauce.

Basic Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce should be sweet but not cloying, and tart without causing pucker and anguish. It should have a jelly-like quality, but should owe more to the appearance of jam. The key element to making cranberry sauce is to understand that cranberries are high in pectin, a carbohydrate that exists in many fruits and which is released by the berries when they are heated and the cells of the fruit break down. In the presence of sugar, which we add to cranberry sauce to offset its tanginess and acid, which is why the berries are tangy in the first place, the pectin molecules bond to one another, forming a kind of gel. The longer you cook a cranberry sauce, the more pectin is released and liquid is evaporated, and the stiffer the result will be.

Science! Sometimes it’s helpful. So is spice. Some like a clove or two added to their cranberry sauce. (I am not one of them.) Others, a whisper of ginger and a small handful of nuts, for texture. Of this, I approve.

1 12-ounce bag fresh or thawed frozen cranberries
3⁄4 cup sugar
3⁄4 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed
Zest of 1 orange, or to taste

1. Place cranberries in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and pour over these the sugar and orange juice. Stir to combine.

2. Cook until sugar is entirely melted and cranberries begin to burst in the heat, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir again, add zest, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes longer, turn off heat, cover pan, and allow to cool.

3. Put cranberry mixture in a serving bowl, cover, and place in refrigerator until cold, at least 2 hours, or until you need it.

Excerpted from Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well by Sam Sifton. Copyright © 2012 by Sam Sifton. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is the first in a new series of articles we’re calling “Sexy Saturdays,” where we bring you straightforward (but not too serious) talk about sex—how to get creative, make it better, and most of all, enjoy it. Kids: Feel free to plug your ears and sing, “la, la, la, la!”

We seem to be thinking, talking and reading about sex a lot (Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?), but like every learned skill, we need practice to be good at it. A positive side effect of all that practice is that sex is beneficial for your body and your emotional well-being. Sex releases antibodies and hormones (specifically, Immunoglobulin A and oxytocin, aka the “love” hormone) that boost the immune system and speed the healing process. What a brilliant way to heal cuts and bruises faster, am I right?

Further, researchers have found that having sex three times per week for one year burns the equivalent of six Big Macs. (Could it replace Zumba as the latest fitness craze? Get on it, Crunch Gyms.) Plus, the estrogen afterglow makes your skin look fresh and glowy. Who needs NARS’ “Orgasm” blush? Pish to that.

Before you hit the sheets, here are a few simple reminders to put you in a sex-positive zone:

Open and clear your heart chakra: Whether or not you run with the granola-eating, patchouli-wearing set, this is a nice intention. Feeling needy, depressed or fearful of rejection is never a good place to be, but it’s especially true in relation to sex. Prime yourself to give and receive love. According to the authors of Better Sex Through Yoga, a healthy heart chakra encourages you to feel openness and compassion, to love deeply, to be devoted and feel at peace—all really good things to be feeling when you’re not wearing clothes and someone else is near you. To tap into your heart chakra energy, bring awareness to good posture, sink your shoulder blades down your back and take a deep, cleansing breath.

Feel good about yourself: Yes, we all have our body insecurities, but ease up on any self-criticism. Remind yourself that authentic, egoless self-love creates and attracts love. Dressing up like you’re about to walk the Victoria’s Secret runway (or Renaissance faire, Star Trek convention or whatever) can be fun for some, but remember that it’s what’s underneath—your head and your heart—that’s important. Embrace your quirks because the only thing to be critical of is society’s narrow, crazy beauty standards. (Who’s setting these standards? They seem like real jerks.) Years ago, my human sexuality psychology professor said something quite profound: “Every single person in this room has been the object of a sexual fantasy.” The sentiment was so beautiful that it brought a tear to my eye.

Communication is really important: Have you noticed that sometimes people who think they know what they’re doing need the most instruction? Think of your partner as unexplored territory—what floats one person’s boat may make another recoil. Learn each other’s erogenous zones. We’re not mind readers, so get comfortable with talking openly about what you like. Whether you’re with someone new (psst, use a condom) or long-term, it serves everyone to be honest and candid. Being open helps release the emotion and ease tension. Be upfront about your emotions—if you feel nervous, it’s OK to say so. On the other hand, if you’re seeing double rainbows, express that, too. Compliment your partner. Who doesn’t love a stroke (emotionally and physically)?

Have fun and enjoy it: Hollywood seems to depict sex as either a huge letdown (think sex with a stereo salesman in a baseball dugout à la Fast Times at Ridgemont High) or preposterously beautiful with firm yet pliant bodies in a softly lit room that flatters everyone’s skin and physique. Fine. Real life can be those things and everything in-between. You or your partner might not achieve the “big O” every single time. A lot of importance is placed on orgasms. Sex is practically deemed invalid if both people don’t have one (or multiple). Sometimes, it can be just as, if not more, rewarding if you don’t have a “goal” looming ahead of you. If you like the experience as a whole, you’re on the right track. Enjoy yourself and your partner!

If it doesn’t make your face turn bright red, what are some of your favorite sexy tips? What puts you in the right frame of mind?

I am a control freak and an introvert, meaning a lot of situations stress me out. One of the hardest things for me to do is go to the doctor. The needles, the poking and prodding, the 50 questions about my health history are often more than I can take. This all becomes clear to the doctor once she takes my blood pressure.

Since I look like a fit, healthy, young woman, when doctors sees that my blood pressure is somewhere around 153/93 they become visibly confused. I have seen it all–they take their own blood pressure to test the machine, bring in another machine, and may take my blood pressure up to five times during my visit. After all of this, it still reads high. Yet, up to this point, I have been told by different doctors that I obviously have a bad case of white coat syndrome, and no one has diagnosed me with high blood pressure.

Whether or not I have high blood pressure or just stress out easily, a new study by the American Heart Association shows that I might want to pay more attention to my high readings. About 67 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds with high blood pressure are undiagnosed. This is dangerous since high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke. Lead researcher of the study Heather Johnson, M.D., hopes that this information will encourage doctors to pay more attention to high blood pressure in younger patients. Below we have collected articles about high blood pressure and its effects. If you think you have high blood pressure, make an appointment and talk to your doctor.

High Blood Pressure in Young Adults Is Often Undiagnosed (NBCnews.com)

Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure (Huffington Post)

High Blood Pressure Effects on the Brain (Yahoo!)

Learn More about High Blood Pressure (The Cleveland Clinic)

Election Day is finally here! Once you’ve cast your ballot, here’s something presidential—and healthy—to do instead of biting your nails until the returns come in: Take the President’s Challenge Adult Fitness Test.

Sponsored by the same initiative that brought you the Presidential Physical Fitness Award back in grade school gym class (remember those push-ups and sit-ups?), this test assesses aerobic fitness, muscular strength, flexibility and body composition for adults. It involves a 1-mile walk or 1.5-mile run; doing sit-ups, push-ups and a sit-and-reach test; and a body composition test. Enter your results into a form on the website and you get a score for each area, along with suggestions on how to improve your score.

Score lower than average on aerobic fitness? Sign up for a local run or walk for charity to get yourself in training mode. Need help with flexibility? Try these hamstring stretches. Then take the test again later—Inauguration Day sounds fitting—to see how far you’ve come.

And if you’re wondering what happened to that old test from gym class, the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition is phasing it out and replacing it with a new program, the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, that focuses less on comparing students’ performances and more on teaching them how to set goals to improve their fitness levels—a healthy habit that will stay with them as they grow. That gets our vote.

Learn more about all the programs offered by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition at presidentschallenge.org.

Erin Taylor — yoga instructor and author of a book about yoga for athletes to be released in early 2013 — offers up a quick post-run stretching routine.

Hey runners, let’s be real — stretching might be one of the last things you want to do when you’re wiped out after a long run, but it’s one of the best things you can do to help maintain a healthy stride. If you’re serious about your sport, you must acknowledge that recovery is just as important to your training as the work itself.

Yoga is a powerful tool that can help you maintain flexibility and restore range of motion, both of which are critical components of recovery. Scrimp on stretching and you’ll most definitely be hearing from your legs later. Just five minutes of post-workout stretching will help you stay limber, run better and reduce your risk of injury. After all, pliable muscles are more powerful, more efficient and less likely to be injured. Plus, when you limit your flexibility and range of motion, you limit your athleticism. So kick off your shoes and hit reset!

Reclined Hamstring Stretches
You guessed it — this sequence will help you refresh by re-lengthing your hamstrings and the entire back of your body. You’ll need a belt, tie or towel. Hold each stretch for 10 deep breaths.

Tip: If you feel the stretch in the back of your right knee at any point during the sequence, be sure to bend that knee a bit more — this will help ensure that you’re stretching your hamstrings and not straining your knee.

Step 1: Leg Up

• Lie flat on your back.
• Lasso your right foot with your strap and straighten your leg toward the ceiling, finding an angle where you feel a stretch in your right hamstring.
• Flex your right foot and press up through your right heel, without locking the knee.
• Walk your hands up the straps until your arms are nearly straight, shoulders on the floor.
• Straighten your left leg to the floor so that it lines up with the left hip.
• Press your left leg into the floor. Drop your shoulders. Relax your neck.

Step 2: Leg Open

• Take the straps into your right hand and lower your right leg to the right, keeping your left leg heavy on the floor.
• Take your right foot toward your right shoulder.
• Flex your right foot and press out through the heel.
• Place your left hand on left hip as a reminder to keep that hip, leg and shoulder heavy on the floor.

Step 3: Leg Across

• Lift the right leg back up to center and take it across your body to the left — Just a little, until you feel more stretch on the outside of the leg, around the glute/outer hip/IT band area.
• Rotate your right foot to the left and you might also feel it in the outer ankle/calf.
• Keep the right hip heavy on the floor, and move that right hip away from the right shoulder.

Repeat this sequence with your left leg.

Bonus: Legs Up the Wall           

Got three to five extra minutes? This one is just what it sounds like. Lie down and put your legs up the wall to help recirculate your blood and drain excess fluid from the legs. It’s a tired runner’s best friend.

• Get as close to the wall as you comfortably can, and extend your legs straight up the wall.
• If your legs feel like they’re still engaged/working hard, back away from the wall a bit more.
• Bend your knees slightly and let your feet turn out.
• Bring your arms into a goal post shape or reach them all the way overhead so that your chest broadens.

Now get up slowly, shake it off, and enjoy that shower — you earned it!

For more information about Erin Taylor, visit jasyoga.com. Exercise photos: hilarydahlphotography.com

As Halloween creeps upon us, we’ve partnered with our sister sites The Recipe Club, Read It Forward, CrafterNews and Crown, to ask our authors: What five things terrify you most? Here’s a list from ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll, author of Finding Ultra.

1. Regret: I don’t ever want to look back on my life and wonder what might have happened. Never let fear paralyze your hopes and dreams.

2. Packaged Food: Behemoth corporate interests have conspired to prevent all of us from discovering the truth about the unhealthy foods they try to convince us to eat. Due to chemical preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and GMO’s, we suffer unnecessarily from a wide array of diseases and have never been more unhealthy, sick, obese and diseased as a society. Educate yourself. Eat real food. And if you live in California, vote yes on Prop. 37.

3. Faith: Trusting in your path is easy when things are going your way. But having faith – true belief — that you are walking the correct path for yourself, particularly when things are not going your way, is as terrifying as it is comforting. It remains the true test of real faith — the warrior path. Embracing your higher self, trusting in your heart and taking action based on this to unlock your more authentic self is probably the scariest thing you can ever do. And the most important and self-fulfilling.

4. Big Corporate Law Firms: I worked as and attorney at a big firm for years before breaking out. I still have nightmares that I am back working in that environment.

5. Texting Drivers: Cycling is dangerous enough as it is. But the idea that I could bee side swiped by a driver momentarily distracted by his or her Twitter feed is pretty darn scary.

Read more from Rich Roll, and see what terrifies yoga expert Tara Stiles.

What terrifies you? Tell us on Twitter with the hashtag #TerrifyingThings. Happy Halloween!

Whether you pick your own at an orchard or shop at your local farmers’ market, it’s hard to resist bringing home a big bag of crisp apples when they’re at their peak. Here’s one way to use ‘em up: Make applesauce. This recipe is from The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm by Sam Beall, the second cookbook from the award-winning resort in the foothills of Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains known for its farm-to-table focus on cuisine of the region.

Applesauce

(Makes 5 to 6 cups)

At one time, more than 1,500 varieties of apples flourished in the South, many of which were particularly well suited to the growing conditions found in the mountains and foothills. Most apples were grown for a specific purpose, such as for making vinegar, squeezing for juice, fermenting for cider, distilling into brandy, drying for long storage, and cooking into thick sauces and apple butter. Few apples were eaten raw and then only after as many as possible had been transformed into something that would keep or, in the case of vinegar and brandy, that would aid in the preservation of other foods. Apples were relatively easy to grow and were so indispensable that most mountain farm families kept small orchards.

I  prefer chunky applesauce, but instructions are included for a smoother sauce.

• 8 medium, tart apples, such as Stayman Winesap or Jonagold (about 3 pounds total)
• 1 cup unfiltered apple cider
• Juice of 2 lemons

1. Peel, core, and cube the apples and place in a medium saucepan with the cider and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very tender and begin to collapse into a thick stew, about 30 minutes.

2. With a fork, mash the apples into a chunky sauce, or force them through a food mill or puree in a blender for a smooth applesauce. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate until chilled.

Here’s a recipe for Blackberry Farm’s Pecan Brussels Sprouts from our friends at The Recipe Club.

Win a copy of The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm: Tweet your favorite farm-to-table fall dish and use #BBLFallGiveaway. We’ll choose one lucky winner on Friday morning, 10/26/12.

Conventional deodorants and antiperspirants scare me. They contain chemicals and other ingredients that are absorbed into our bodies. While these ingredients have not been conclusively linked to breast cancer or Alzheimer’s, studies have shown that they could possibly have long-term health effects. The problem is that no one seems to know exactly what those heath effects are. (Here’s the National Cancer Institute’s take on the issue.)

I hate being smelly. Briefly, forever ago, I tried the crystal deodorant and the all-natural tea tree oil stuff (which actually has propylene glycol — read why it’s bad for you at The Good Human) without any decent results. But I still cringe every time I roll on Secret thinking about the aluminum, the Alzheimer’s, the chemicals.

Enter fall. As I tend to sweat just a bit less during cooler weather, I thought it was the perfect time for an experiment.

I have tried three different, natural deodorants at the time of this post.

Natural Deodorant 1: Baking Soda
People swear that dusting your pits with baking soda is a great alternative to conventional deodorants. And it’s cheap, another requirement of mine. I just patted it on with a cotton ball.

The Verdict: This worked well for the first two weeks. It combated the smell and left me feeling fairly dry and silky smooth. Then I started itching. And I mean itching — all the time. People looked at me funny. And the more I scratched, the more my underarms burned. A little more research taught me that some people have an adverse reaction to baking soda. I guess I’m one of those people.

Natural Deodorant 2: Tom’s of Maine
This was on sale, which is the only reason I decided to try it. I liked the ingredient list. Other people swear that it works.

The Verdict: Hated it. If I even sweated just a tiny bit, my armpits felt sticky the rest of the day, and the smell did not agree with me.

Natural Deodorant 3: Apple Cider Vinegar
Straight up vinegar, don’t cut with water. I soak a cotton ball and then swipe it on.

The Verdict: I’m still using it, and it works for the light activity days. It doesn’t make me smell like vinegar, and while it does sting a tiny bit after shaving, it hasn’t caused a rash.

Reminder: Your body may very well go through a detox period and actually smell worse for the first week or so. Stick with it – your body’s just ridding itself of all the chemicals that have been sucked in through your lymph nodes for years.

I’m still on the search for the perfect deodorant and am branching out with recipes that include more than one ingredient. I’ll report back on my second batch of experiments.

If you try any of these deodorants, or any other homemade deodorant recipe that looks good to you, report back – I’m still searching the holy grail of deodorants.

No one ever cooks for me any more. (Of course, I’m a chef, which probably explains it — so don’t feel too sorry for me.) But I have vivid childhood memories of coming home from school to a house that smelled delicious — like someone had been cooking dinner, just for me, all day long. It’s a powerful, primal memory of home and of feeling secure and cared for.

Writing The Mexican Slow Cooker brought that feeling back. I was amazed at how versatile and easy to use my slow cookers were. I still use them constantly (guilty secret: I own six!) I love coming home after a long day to a house filled with the aroma of a homemade comida ­— maybe a tasty chicken soup or rich, delicious beef barbacoa or pozole. I often cook tender shredded chicken (easy to make into tacos or burritos) or a batch of chile-spiked beans, perfectly cooked and so delicious they can be a meal in themselves.

Best of all, I am in complete control of what my family eats. We’re big on organic meats and vegetables, healthy fats and just the right amount of seasoning.

Mexican food is uniquely well-suited to slow-cooker adaptation. Many traditional dishes get their succulence and amazing depth of flavor from hours of low, slow simmering on the stove. Inexpensive meats become tender and juicy as they slow-cook in their own juices with chiles, onions, garlic and herbs.

Not many of us have all day to tend a pot on the stove, but by using your slow-cooker, you will achieve the same authentically delicious results with a fraction of the effort, even if you don’t consider yourself a “cook.”

Slow cookers are relatively inexpensive, so you may want to have a couple, perhaps in different sizes. The new models do almost everything but cut up the vegetables for you. If yours is more than a few years old, consider upgrading to a cooker with a digital timer and low, high and automatic warm settings. (The automatic warm setting is a saving grace when you are delayed.) I prefer an earthenware insert. Food cooks evenly, and I like the throwback to the old days when everything was cooked in simple clay pots bubbling away by the side of the fire.

Mole Manchamanteles: Red Mole with Chicken and Fried Plantains

Serves 6

6 chicken breasts or 12 chicken thighs 
(about 4 pounds)
4 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 cup peeled, diced fresh pineapple (see Note)
1/2 apple, peeled and diced
1/4 cup whole shelled almonds
1/4 cup seedless raisins
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 white onion, diced
2 small Roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 dried bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons whole dried Mexican oregano
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 cups chicken stock or water, 
or more as needed

To serve
Toasted sesame seeds
3/4 cup peeled, finely diced fresh pineapple 
(see Note)
Fried Plantains (recipe follows)

Place all the ingredients except the chicken in a 5-quart slow cooker, and set the chicken on top. Cover and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours, or until the chicken is tender but not falling off the bone. Remove the chicken. If you like, you can remove the skin and bones now, or you can serve it as is. Set the chicken on a warm platter covered with aluminum foil to keep warm while you finish the mole.

Transfer the remaining contents of the slow cooker to a blender. Blend on high for several minutes, until perfectly smooth. If the sauce seems too thick, add a little more chicken broth or water and blend again. Taste and add a pinch of salt if necessary, remembering that moles are rich and thick but are never highly seasoned. For the perfect texture, pass the sauce through a food mill, but it is perfectly acceptable straight out of the blender.

To serve, liberally ladle the mole over the chicken. Lightly dust with the sesame seeds and garnish each serving with a few pieces of pineapple and fried plantain.

Note: Canned pineapple may be substituted for fresh as long as it is well drained. If you are using it as a garnish, sauté the pieces quickly in a hot pan until dry and almost caramelized.

Fried Plantains
For the best results, use soft, ripe plantains with black skin.

2 large, ripe plantains
About 1/3 cup vegetable oil
Kosher or sea salt

Peel the plantains and cut into rounds 1 inch thick. Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a small, heavy skillet. Working in batches, fry the plantains on both sides until a light brown crust forms. Remove and let cool slightly, then flatten gently with a spatula to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Return the plantains to the oil and cook until brown. Drain well on paper towels and serve warm, sprinkled with a few grains of salt.

Learn more about Deborah Schneider at chefdeborahschneider.com.

Eating seasonally was one of those ancient traditions that fell to the wayside when modern conveniences came about. It certainly wasn’t a thing when I was growing up on Long Island in the ‘80s. As a fifth grader, I thought English muffin pizzas with Polly-O mozzarella (microwaved) were a delicious snack. Uhhh…yum?

Local, in-season eating has been resuscitated as a movement recently by everyone from health experts and celebrity chefs to parents and urbane locavore foodies. Yes, in-season food is more delicious and nutritious, but living in tune with the seasons also supports health in a big way, as the classic integrative nutrition guide Staying Healthy With the Seasons by Elson M. Haas, MD, illustrated when it was published in 1981. Recently revised for the new millennium and newly available as an ebook, it’s based on the Five Element Theory from traditional Chinese medicine which posits that seasonal changes influence the complex relationship between energies, organs, materials or “elements,” moods, and foods that balance the body and mind.

It makes perfect sense when I think about how I feel during spring and summer—energized, inspired to try new things, practically chomping at the bit for adventure. Whereas in fall and winter I’m more reserved, craving precious, precious sleep, an all-out homebody mesmerized the burning Yule log video. Right now, we’re moving into autumn, a time of year when our energy should be more grounded and inward, according to Haas. It’s the point in the seasonal cycle when we harvest all the growth (food, mentality and energy-wise) that took place during the spring and summer, and we prepare for the rest we need in winter.

So, if this feeling seems familiar to you, here are some tips that will support your well-being during the brisk weather:

Harvest and Nest
Autumn is when we harvest the growth from work, projects, relationships and health. It’s a time for turning within, creating structure, devoting time to ourselves and our families. It’s a great time to nest at home, cultivate inner wisdom and nurture developing ideas and self-expression.

Express Yourself
Contemplation, journaling or creative writing and reading are great activities right now. Take a singing lesson or public speaking class to express yourself. Any home projects like fall house cleaning or DIY crafts are good, too. Make your home a warm, cozy sanctuary. I just recently repainted my bedroom and can’t tell you how satisfying it felt! Why not “put a bird on it” like the Portlandia folks?

Exercise and Exfoliate
Yoga, meditating, dancing, strolling outside, tai chi or other solo exercises mesh well with autumn energy. Even just slow, mindful, quiet breathing is beneficial—pay attention to the breath you take in and put out. Stimulate the clearing of toxins by exfoliating your skin and rinsing with cold water after a shower to close the pores. This improves circulation and prevents heat loss that leads to susceptibility to colds.

Nourish and Balance
In Chinese medicine, the lungs and large intestine are the organs associated with this season, so it’s important to nourish them. The skin is a reflection of their condition. Things like eczema and rashes are a manifestation of an imbalance in the Metal element in our bodies, which represents the minerals and salts of the earth. An imbalance can also be detected by an extreme craving or extreme distaste of pungent, spicy flavors. Coughing, back stiffness, congestion in the morning, sluggishness and headaches are also signs, which can come from a back-up of the large intestine.

Spice It Up
So, how do we keep balanced with foods? Pungent and spicy flavors are the way to go. Not “hot” spicy, but “fall” spices like cloves, cinnamon, fennel seed, anise and nutmeg. These flavors will support the lungs and intestine, keeping them strong and supported.

Choosing natural white foods (d’oh, not refined foods!) are an easy way to eat what’s in season right now. Radish (especially daikon), turnips, tofu, white fish, pears, apples, grapes and cauliflower are on the list. Garlic, ginger, onion, horseradish, wasabi and mustard greens are pungent and help disperse dampness, sluggishness and coldness within our bodies. To keep the large intestine decongested and the energy circulating, try juicing:

3 apples
3 pears
1 inch of peeled ginger

What foods and activities help you feel supported during the fall?

Somatic educator Liz Koch’s Core Awareness: Enhancing Yoga, Pilates, Exercise, and Dance is a guide for getting in touch with your core and tapping into your innate capacity for healing, building strength and increasing flexibility. We asked Koch to explain the value of cultivating core awareness. —BBL Editor

We’ve been hearing about the importance of the “core” for quite a while now. If you think all this core talk is just about flat abs, think again. The human core is at the center of our being, deep within the belly behind those flab or fab abdominals. Focusing attention on our true core can help us become conscious of our somatic (body) intelligence and improve our proprioception (the system that tells us where our body parts are without looking at them). Improved proprioception increases a sense of balance, coordination and speed. This increased awareness helps us feel grounded, centered and calm so we have a better sense of judgment. Proprioception can make the difference between getting injured verses improving our movement and is an important aspect of playing any sport well. Here are three reasons to develop your core awareness, as well as a simple position you can use to expand and improve your core awareness.

1. Enhance the Outcome of Your Workouts: To understand movement from a somatically intelligent perspective, we need to stop asking the question: Is a particular exercise or form of movement good or bad? Will this form of exercise make me strong? Instead, we need to ask: How much body awareness can I maintain in any given position, movement or activity? What sensory cues signal present space and time?

It is our ability to stay present to somatic information that serves as our internal guide, which in turn matures our somatic intelligence. The process becomes a self-regulating feedback loop. The more we pay attention to internal cues, the more we develop internal integrity, and the more we access integrity, the more powerful our expression becomes.

2. Protect Yourself From Injury: Injuries are often a signal of an overburdened system, a direct result of a lack of integrity at the core. Whether experienced as a restriction in the range of motion or interference by a constricted muscle, injury can be traced to imbalances stemming from a lack of core awareness. Shifting our attention to developing core awareness increases proprioception and thus helps to prevent, resolve and heal injuries.

3. Increase Overall Well-Being: Just “going through the motions” when exercising does not increase our capacity to adapt and organize or body in time and space—growing proprioception does. Instead of pushing through the pain or ignoring sensory input, by focusing on core awareness we maintain the integrity of the whole system. When a position is too demanding, it ultimately compensates core integrity. To avoid compensating in any given task or position, it is vital to increase proprioception and modify the position to maximize skeletal support, joint integrity and core awareness.

Constructive Rest Position
Use this Constructive Rest Position as a tool for accessing your core awareness.

Simply rest on your back, knees bent with feet placed parallel to each other, the width apart of the front of your hip sockets. Place your heels approximately 16 inches away from your buttocks.  Do not push your low back to the floor or tuck under your pelvis; allow the spine to be neutral. Keep your arms below shoulder height, resting them over your ribcage, by your sides or on your pelvis. Rest in this position for 10-20 minutes.

When you roll over and get up, notice if you feel more centered and ready for action. Resting in this simple position calms the nervous system while simultaneously awakening awareness for discerning emotions and sensations. With gravity as an ally, the constructive rest position releases the core muscle of the body, the Psoas (so-as) while providing a neutral baseline and reference point for noticing change before or after any exercise activity.

For more information about Liz Koch, visit coreawareness.com.

Adapted excerpt from Core Awareness: Enhancing Yoga, Pilates, Exercise & Dance.

My fiance and I are no strangers to Eastern cuisine. We are devotees to adventurous eating, loyal only to our insatiable taste buds. On some nights, we’re practitioners of the Italian way of life; on others we pay homage to our Chinese food deities. Nomads are we.

Cooking at home, however, is not a religious experience for us despite our obsessive devotion. In truth, we consider every recipe by way of its nutrition facts (does it fit our macronutrients?), cost (are these ingredients less than 10 dollars per plate?), and prep time (can we do this in under an hour?). As working adults on a budget with little time to spare in the evenings, we don’t often venture far from meals consisting of an inexpensive protein accented with fruit or veggies seasoned with a copious mixture of spices accumulated over the years.

So when we were given a copy of Charles Phan’s new cookbook Vietnamese Home Cooking, we poured over the photos of recipes like Shaking Beef and Pork and Shrimp Spring Rolls and wondered if there was anything that would fit our criteria. We soon realized that this book is more than a collection of recipes from The Slanted Door, Phan’s acclaimed modern Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. It’s a manifesto that purports—not unlike Mastering the Art of French Cooking—that Vietnamese cooking can be as accessible to home cooks as any other ethnic style.

In our humble home kitchen, we settled on Phan’s Lemongrass Chicken, which only required a few new-to-us ingredients—lemongrass and fish sauce—and looked delicious. As the sous-chef in the relationship, I chopped up onions, scallions, lemongrass and peanuts. Cutting lemongrass is not unlike cutting asparagus, and is very similarly textured; I suggest using a rocking motion with a chef’s knife, rolling from tip to base on the cutting board while holding the lemongrass steady. This makes tiny ringlets that you then bunch together and slice over and over again until they’re practically granulated. (For more lemongrass tips, see this post from the Recipe Club.)

When all was said and done (just under an hour!), we’d produced more dirty dishes than usual, but it was a small price to pay for a three-dollar-sign-on-Yelp-quality (i.e. “spendy”) meal. Although the fish sauce and lemongrass components were outside of our usual comfort zones, this recipe did not disappoint. As their names suggest, fish sauce does indeed smell fishy, and lemongrass does have the consistency of grass, but, flavor-wise, they fit well with the rest of the dish. The mix of savory wok-fried chicken, salty fish sauce, sweet, crunchy peanuts and fragrant lemongrass is definitely worth experiencing.

Vietnamese Home Cooking is filled with far more than lemongrass and fish sauce recipes, however. Phan’s information and richly detailed photos of the recipes, equipment and individual ingredient guides go to great lengths to fulfill his mission of popularizing Vietnamese cooking in the home. Phan also writes a touching personal history that details his journey from Vietnam refugee to award-winning chef. Here’s the recipe that brought a taste of Vietnam to our kitchen.

Lemongrass Chicken
Lemongrass is used in a lot of Vietnamese cooking, but this recipe is one of the most popular dishes that calls for it. In Vietnam, lemongrass is used in two different ways. It is used as an aromatic, cut into large pieces and smashed for simmering in soups, curries, and stews, like bay leaves. It is also chopped so finely that it looks like granulated sugar and then added to dishes where it contributes an incredible fragrance and a pleasant texture that cannot be achieved by throwing the stalks into a food processor. Chopping lemongrass by hand to the proper consistency takes time, but if you’re patient, you’ll end up with a beautiful finished product. Serves 3 or 4 as a part of a multicourse meal.

2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons chicken stock or water
Pinch of sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken, a mix of breast and thigh meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup finely minced lemongrass
1 jalapeño chile, stemmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal into rings
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon roasted chile paste
2 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon finely chopped roasted peanuts, for garnish

1. In a small bowl, whisk together fish sauce, stock, and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.

2. Heat a wok over high heat until hot; the metal will have a matte appearance and a drop or two of water flicked onto its surface should evaporate on contact. Add the oil and heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes, until lightly browned on both sides.

3. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the oil from the wok (leave the chicken in the wok) and return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes, just until softened. Add the garlic, lemongrass, and jalapeño chile and cook for 30 seconds longer. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, stirring to dislodge any browned bits.

4. Add the fish sauce mixture, chile paste, and scallions to the pan and continue cooking for 1 minute more, until the scallions have softened slightly and the chicken is cooked through.

5. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the peanuts. Serve immediately.

To see more photos from the book, check out this Vietnamese Home Cooking Pinterest board.

This past summer, in an effort to be healthy, I decided to cut sugar out of my diet as much as possible. I braced myself for a difficult task of self-control, but, interestingly, what I found was that it was less about my self-control and more about grocery shopping—everything in the store seems to have sugar in it!

More and more studies are being conducted on the health effects of sugar, and while researchers keep finding that the sweet stuff is root of several diseases, food producers continue to put it into everyday foods such as bread, ketchup, yogurt and even so-called healthy drinks such as Vitamin Water.

In my quest to ditch the sugar habit, I would buy a food I thought was sugar-free only to find out later that there was sugar in it, but it was masquerading as something else, like evaporated cane juice. It turns out I’m not the only one miffed by this sugar deception; a lot has been written about it. Below we have collected articles from around the web that explain the health problems sugar presents how to avoid it in your diet. Also, did you catch the new campaign called “Sugar is Killing Us”? Check out the video below.

Is Sugar By Any Other Name Just As Unhealthy? (Huffington Post)

Why Sugar Is Bad For You (Rodale)

Avoid Sugar in Your Diet (Livestrong)

If you’re like me, the slightest sign of fall – a crisp morning or a few falling leaves – gets me thinking about cozy autumn slow-cooked meals that fill the house with good smells. Well, dust off your slow cooker because the American Heart Association’s new cookbook has readied more than 200 slow-cooker recipes that will fill your fall and winter with warm, heart-healthy meals. The newest addition to its collection of bestselling healthy cookbooks, the American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook, shows how to cook heart-smart whole foods and lean meats low and slow, which makes them tender and juicy. Here’s a sneak peek recipe: easy and flavorful Shrimp Jambalaya.

Shrimp Jambalaya
The word “jambalaya” is thought to come from jambon, the French word for ham. It’s a given, then, that ham is one of the primary ingredients of jambalaya; however, you don’t need much when you use smoked ham and chop it finely to distribute its distinct flavor throughout the dish. Makes four 1 1/2-cup servings.

1 14.5-ounce can no-salt-added tomatoes, undrained
1 cup water (if cooking on low) or 1 1/2 cups water (if cooking on high)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 medium rib of celery, sliced crosswise
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
2 ounces lower-sodium, low-fat smoked ham, all visible fat discarded, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)
2 teaspoons dried parsley, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 medium dried bay leaf
8 ounces raw medium shrimp, thawed if frozen, peeled, rinsed, and patted dry
1 cup frozen cut okra, thawed
1 cup uncooked instant brown rice
1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley

In a 3- to 4 1/4-quart round or oval slow cooker, stir together the tomatoes with liquid, water, onion, celery, bell pepper, ham, parsley, oregano, garlic, thyme, cayenne, and bay leaf. Cook, covered, on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until the vegetables are tender.

If using the low setting, change it to high. Quickly stir in the shrimp, okra, and rice and re-cover the slow cooker. Cook for 30 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Discard the bay leaf. Serve the jambalaya sprinkled with the parsley.

Nutrition information per serving
Calories: 196
Total Fat: 2.0 g
Saturated Fat: 0.5 g
Trans Fat: 0.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 0.5 g
Cholesterol: 78 mg
Sodium: 472 mg
Carbohydrates: 30 g
Fiber: 4 g
Sugars: 7 g
Protein: 14 g

Dietary Exchanges
1 1/2 starch, 2 vegetable, 1 1/2 lean meat

Read more about heart health. 

Visit The Recipe Club to read a Q&A with the American Heart Association about the AHA Healthy Slow-Cooker Cookbook. 

Earlier this year we discovered that the benefits of prostate cancer screenings may not outweigh the risks associated with the test. On Monday, a panel of medical experts came to the same conclusion about a screening for ovarian cancer in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer is the ninth most common cancer among women (1 in 71 women will develop the disease) and the fifth deadliest. Considering these stats you may think screening is a no-brainer, but studies show that ovarian cancer screenings of women with an average risk (women with no family history or suspicious symptoms for the disease) have many false-positive results that can lead to unnecessary operations with high complication rates. Furthermore, doctors are not convinced that detecting the cancer sooner would make a difference in a person’s likelihood of beating the disease. This news comes during Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month — a great time to arm yourself with the latest information and show support to the many women who are battling this deadly disease.

New Findings about Ovarian Cancer Screenings (The New York Times)

Ovarian Cancer Statistics (Ovarian Cancer National Alliance)

Read to Support Women with Ovarian Cancer (Ovarian Cancer National Alliance)

Programs for Women with Ovarian Cancer (Ovations for the Cure)

Healthy, inexpensive, delicious: my recipe trifecta. It has been my quest over the years to find recipes that I can use for entertaining that fit these criteria. Most of what I’ve found capture two of the three, but all three have been outside of my grasp. I had heard about Melissa d’Arabian‘s Ten Dollar Dinners show on the Food Network, but it wasn’t until I found her cookbook by the same name that my interest was piqued.

I invited my four victims…ehem…guests: Alvin, Carlos, Vicki and Jamie. These are the friends that love me no matter what I do, but will also not be shy about giving their honest opinions. I chose a menu of White Bean Tapenade Crostini followed by the Parisian Cafe Salad with Classic Dijon Vinaigrette and the Sole Napoleon with Tomato-Caper Crudo as the main course.

How did it go? D’Arbian focuses on getting the best value on great quality food, and I felt I’d channeled her when I bought a bounty of local produce for half price at my Greenmarket as it was shutting down for the evening. All recipes were easy to follow and easier to prepare.

How was it received? Alvin and Vicki couldn’t stay away from the crostini, and I promised Alvin the recipe as the last bite disappeared. The sole was received with cries of, “It’s beautiful!” and “WOW! It’s plated!” (It sure is…thanks, Melissa!) As for taste, I got, “It tastes so fresh!” and all agreed it was delicious. Was it too healthy tasting? I got a unanimous mouthful of “NO!” It was fresh and delicious, and each clean plate was testament to d’Arabian’s simple, flavorful recipes.

And it was all under $10 per person!

Want to try the sole? Here’s the recipe:

Sole, Zucchini, and Tomato Napoleon with Tomato-Caper Crudo
Serves 4

Ingredients
for the Napoleon
1 large zucchini, trimmed and very thinly sliced
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 4- to 6-ounce sole fillets, halved crosswise (so you have four 2-inch-wide pieces)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
Good-quality olive oil

for the crudo
2 large ripe tomatoes, cored
1 small or 1/2 large shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Fish-buying tip: Unlike beef and chicken, where the best deals are usually prepackaged, the place to find the best deal on fish and seafood is at your supermarket’s fresh fish counter, where on any given day there will be a major deal. See what looks best and is marked down the most to help you decide what to make for dinner. Remember that the fish should be glistening and taut and smell like a fresh ocean, not fishy.

1. To make the napoleon: Place the thinly sliced zucchini rounds in a colander. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and toss to evenly coat, then place in the sink to drain while you prepare the crudo and broil the fish.

2. To make the crudo: Slice the cored tomatoes into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Set the 4 nicest slices aside for the napoleon and chop the remaining slices into small cubes. Place the chopped tomatoes in a medium bowl and add the shallot, capers, balsamic vinegar, and salt. Stir and set aside.

3. Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and preheat the broiler to high. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the sole fillets on top. Season with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper and broil until fillets spring back to light pressure, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

4. Place 1 tomato slice on each plate and sprinkle with a little of the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Arrange the zucchini slices in an overlapping circle on top of the tomatoes. Set a piece of sole on top of each tomato-zucchini stack. Use a slotted spoon to top each serving with the tomato-caper crudo. Sprinkle with basil, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.

Recipe reprinted from the book Ten Dollar Dinners by Melissa d’Arabian.
Copyright © 2012 Melissa d’Arabian.
Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc.

For more recipes from Ten Dollar Dinners, visit The Recipe Club.

Dawn Gallagher, author of Nature’s Beauty Secrets, is a whiz at concocting natural home spa treatments inspired the beauty secrets she learned from different cultures during her travels around the world. Here, she shares a few easy, rejuvenating facials. —BBL Editor

It’s the end of summer (almost) — a great time to renew your skin’s radiant, healthy glow with an all-natural facial at home. After a season of fun in the sun, a facial will soften the skin, unclog the pores and remove impurities. It also helps replace lost moisture and soothe tired skin. But giving yourself a facial will give you more than just a pretty face; it also helps you relax because it requires that you remain quiet and calm while you are having one. It’s amazing how seldom we allow ourselves to do that!

Helen of Troy Almond Cleanser
The women of the Greek aristocracy were well known for their elaborate beauty preparations and made good use of the Mediterranean’s abundance of almonds, which soothe dry skin. Here is a recipe Helen might have used to preserve her charms when she was whisked away to the arid plains of Troy.

1 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tsp almond butter or 1 tsp almond oil

Mix ingredients together and apply to face starting at the base of your neck massaging gently upwards in a circular motion. Remove with dampened cotton pads or clean washcloth.

Tahitian Cocoa Butter Cleanser
The women of Tahiti are known for their gorgeous skin and hair. Cocoa butter, derived from the cocoa bean, is one of their great beauty staples. They use it to counteract the drying effects of salt air and intense sun (it acts as a natural sunscreen). Cocoa butter is nourishing to skin especially during extreme summer weather conditions that are drying to the skin.

1-4 tbsp cocoa butter
1/2 cup avocado oil or almond oil
1-2 tbsp vegan margarine

Place the oil, cocoa butter and margarine in a double boiler. Melt the ingredients, stirring until
they are well blended. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric blender or whisk until
cool. Place in a jar and label. Use the cream as a facial cleanser or apply it all over the body, especially on dry areas.

Last year, acne descended upon my face and took up residence. I’ve always had a pimple here and there, but this was, by far, my worst case yet, and it was not going away.

My first plan of attack was a trip to Sephora to buy an amazingly expensive face regimen. I marked on my calendar the different steps for each day and proceeded to cleanse, scrub, mask, soak, treat and moisturize my face. It didn’t work.

Plan B involved another trip to Sephora to try yet another amazingly expensive regimen promised by many to be the cure for stubborn acne. Cleanse, scrub, mask, soak, treat, moisturize and repeat. It didn’t work either.

Plan C was a trip to the dermatologist, who told me that it was stress-induced acne and berated me for not doing something about it sooner. I left clutching acne prescriptions to my chest meekly. Fast forward a month later and all I had to show was a face battered by harsh chemicals and…acne.

So I did what I do when all other avenues fail me – I searched the internet for hours. Clearly, the chemicals, preservatives and fancy botanicals that made up those face regimens were not for me. I had to start from the basics – the perfect face cleanser would be natural and within my budget. Intensive Google searching led me to something delightfully simple: honey.

The Results
With my new honey regimen, my skin has never looked or felt better. My acne went away, my skin is glowing, I have fewer breakouts, and pimples clear up quickly. And as for budget? A 16 oz. bottle of raw honey runs about $8.99, and it lasts about two months, so it doesn’t hurt my wallet.

How to Use Honey as a Face Wash
Honey is great for your skin even if you don’t suffer from breakouts. It has a rich mineral content, it has the perfect pH level for anti-aging, and it has both antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. Take it a step further to raw honey and you also get the benefit of gluconic acid, which brightens the complexion and evens skin tone, and bits of pollen and honeycomb, which are gentle exfoliants.

Using honey as a face wash is simple, if sticky. Depending on how your honey is packaged – in a jar or in a bear – you may want to transfer your honey to a squeeze bottle.

• Wet hands and face just a bit to help spread the honey but keep the honey fairly sticky.
• Use about a quarter-sized dollop of honey.
• Massage the honey into your face for about a minute and then let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes.
• Rinse with warm water.
• Tone and moisturize as normal.

A lot of people have asked how I remove my makeup. I use a washcloth and warm water. For removing eye makeup I’ve heard good things about olive or coconut oil, which are on my list of natural beauty routines to try.

So, go to it! Give honey a try as a facial cleanser and see what you think. Have you already tried honey? Are you a honey convert and swear never to go back? Let me know in the comments!

Labor Day is one of the most beloved end-of-summer days. It’s the perfect time to soak up the last bit of sun before crisp autumn days begin. It’s also one of the last chances to cook and eat outside with friends. With that in mind, we chose a recipe from Jamie and Bobby Deen that you can enjoy on one of these last beach or backyard evenings.

In The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up, Paula Deen’s sons show us how to barbecue pretty much anything. These fire-roasted clams and mussels are a healthier alternative to the traditional red meat barbecue items, and still just as delicious. Roasting seafood over an open flame adds a smokey flavor you can’t get from a stove.

Fire-Roasted Clams and Mussels
This is the most affordable seafood dish around, with a flavor fit for a king. Clams and mussels done over the open flame are every bit as easy as on the stove top, but taste that much better when roasted outdoors. Make sure there’s plenty of crusty bread to go around. Everyone’s going to want it to sop up all the scrumptious juices. Serves 4

2 dozen littleneck or cherrystone clams, scrubbed and rinsed
2 pounds of mussels, scrubbed and rinsed
1/3 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Crusty bread, for serving

1. Place the clams and mussels in an aluminum roasting pan.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until the mixture is fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Pour the oil mixture over the clams and mussels and toss to combine.

4. Preheat the grill to medium heat. Place the pan of clams and mussels on the grill. Close the cover and cook, stirring occasionally until most of the clams and mussels have opened, 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Discard any unopened clams and mussels. Serve immediately, with bread for sopping up juices.

Sara Forte’s debut cookbook The Sprouted Kitchen is full of the types of colorful, wholesome recipes made famous on her popular blog (Lentil Meatballs with Lemon Pesto! Grapefruit and Crispy Avocado Salad!), but the chapter that screams “Make me!” to us is titled “Snacks to Share.” We asked this whole-foods aficionado to share her smart snacking tips and an easy snack recipe. Pass the nori popcorn! —BBL Editor

Balancing being a lover of both food and wellness takes effort and thought, especially if you think about food and recipes all day long like I do.

Some view snacks as unnecessary calories, but I see snacking as a way to keep my meals more manageable and my metabolism consistent. I eat a moderate-size breakfast and lunch and a smaller dinner with two or three snacks in between. Maybe that sounds like a lot of food, but very little of my day is sedentary. However the pace of your life looks, I would guess you’d like to avoid getting to that starving point where you MUST have food IMMEDIATELY! Having access to a few healthy snacks is the answer to keeping you sane. (I can’t be the only one who goes a teensy bit crazy when hungry.)

My Go-To Snacks
One way that I create balance with snacks is by preparing one or two things on a Sunday, or on an afternoon when I have some extra time for cooking. I’ll make a double batch of the Toasty Nuts from my cookbook, homemade hummus alongside a container full of cut vegetables (such as bell peppers, cucumbers and carrots) and some Protein Granola Bars (also in the cookbook) to wrap up and keep in my car for times when I’m out. It’s also nice to have some lettuce wraps with turkey or veggies and cheese to grab quickly.

More often than not, the moments when I find myself eating junk is when I need something quickly, so having food prepared in advance helps me win that battle. Sure, this takes time and planning, but once I make them, they serve as snacks for my family for the whole week. Worth the investment if you ask me.

Understand my eating habits are far from perfect. I have a nagging sweet tooth and an affinity for ice cream that can’t be rivaled. My good conscience will allow fresh fruit to fill that need, but I’m a sucker for a warm brownie à la mode. Foods with proteins and good fats keep me full longer and prove more satisfying, so I try to avoid snacks that are high in carbohydrates or sodium.

Start with the recipe below for Toasty Nuts and see if a handful between meals keeps your energy up and going through the busy day to day.

Toasty Nuts

Makes about 2 1/2 cups

Toasty nuts are a perfectly portable snack. This recipe can be adapted according to your taste, as it doesn’t veer too far to either side of the sweet-to-savory spectrum. You could add in a bit of turbinado sugar if you like things sweeter, or a teaspoon of red pepper flakes if you like things extra-hot.

1 egg white
2 1/2 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/2 cups raw unsalted nuts mix, such as almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnuts
2 tablespoons flaxseeds
3 tablespoons millet or quinoa
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 300°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy. Whisk in the maple syrup, cayenne, black pepper, and salt. Stir in the nuts, flaxseeds, millet, and rosemary, making sure everything is coated completely.

Spread the nuts on the prepared baking sheet in an even layer and bake until the nuts are browned and fragrant, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.

Read more from Sara Forte at sproutedkitchen.com.

Raised by a single mom who was putting herself through college, Melissa d’Arabian knows a few things about pinching pennies. Her first cookbook Ten Dollar Dinners is packed with healthy, budget-friendly recipes that don’t taste “cheap.” Inspired by her Food Network show of the same name, it’s also loaded with valuable tips that will teach you how to shop smarter, waste less food and plan your own meals that won’t break the bank. We caught up with this busy mom of four to get a few cost-cutting kitchen tips.

Books for Better Living: If you could only have three staples in your pantry, what would they be? Why?
Melissa d’Arabian: Whole grain pasta, quinoa, white beans. I favor shelf-stable proteins that are versatile, satisfying, inexpensive and can take on many different flavor profiles.

BBL: Fish is extremely healthy, but it can be expensive. What are your tips for eating fish on a budget?
MD: Nowhere is it more important that you let supply and demand work in your favor than in the fish department. Fish is incredibly perishable, so when a grocery store receives a bunch of one kind of fish, they lower the prices, often more than 50 percent off! My strategy with fish: I swing by the fish counter every visit to the grocery store and buy what is on sale, and cook it that night or the next. Tip: If the fish counter sign says “previously frozen” ask them if they have some still frozen, and buy yours frozen to thaw when it’s convenient for you, not the grocery store.

BBL: Your kids go back to school soon. What’s one of their favorite brown-bag lunches?
MD: This is the year of the thermos with my kids for some reason! Whole grain pasta topped with whatever is leftover from the night before is a real favorite. Or, I’ll make some Crisper Draw Pasta, using up whatever is about to head south in my fridge. Another option: Chop up leftover chicken or fish and toss with grated veggies, quinoa and a drizzle of salad dressing, and the girls have a protein- and nutrient-filled cold or hot lunch. And, a little note that says, “I love you!” or “You’re special!” of course. It’s super budget-friendly and guaranteed to please.

If you’ve shopped at a farmers’ market lately — or maybe in your own garden — you know that summer tomatoes are ripe and ready. While the drought of 2012 has devastated some crops, tomatoes haven’t been hit as hard. Even better news is that tomatoes are high in antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Below we have collected articles and recipes from around the web that will help you make the most of summer tomatoes, wherever you find them.

Why Homegrown Tomatoes Taste Better Than Supermarket Tomatoes (Science Daily)

A Mediterranean Lunch Recipe (New York Times)

74 Tomato Recipes from Martha Stewart (Martha Stewart)

An Easy Tomato Tarte Tatin (101 Cookbooks)

Do you ever wonder what chefs cook at home? Some admit to doing little to nothing in their own kitchens, but for Elizabeth Falkner, cooking at home helps her unwind after a frenetic day in a busy, professional kitchen. In her new book Cooking Off the Clock: Recipes From My Downtime, the restauranteur and former Top Chef Masters competitor offers up creative takes on old favorites and tips for pulling together delicious meals from pantry staples. Here’s a sneak peek at a colorful salad that makes use of all of those brilliant carrots piled high on farmers’ market tables this time of year. 

I love using baby carrots in assorted colors. Thumbelina carrots, which are little and stubby, are great for roasting. I use red, orange, yellow, and white carrots for the ribbons, which make this salad so vibrant. Even just the orange variety next to the green of the avocado and mizuna makes a beautiful and colorful salad. Toasting whole cumin seeds and then grinding them in a mortar and pestle or an electric spice grinder is essential for the great taste of this vinaigrette. If you don’t have either way of grinding spices, you can substitute cumin powder. This salad rocks from the contrast between the soft texture and caramelized sweetness of the roasted carrots and their raw and crunchy counterparts. –Elizabeth Falkner

Roasted and Raw Carrot Salad with Avocado and Toasted Cumin Vinaigrette

2 bunches (about 10 ounces total) baby carrots in assorted colors, tops trimmed
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 ripe avocado
2 cups mizuna, watercress, ancho cress, or arugula greens

Preheat the oven to 375˚F.

Have an ice bath (a bowl of ice water) ready. Using a vegetable peeler, peel ribbons of carrots from half of the carrots. Place in the ice water to chill (the ribbons will curl after a while in the water).

Place the remaining whole carrots on a baking sheet; drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until the edges start to caramelize, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside at room temperature. Lower the oven temperature to 350˚F.

Toast the pine nuts in the oven for about 10 minutes or in a small pan on the stove top over medium-low heat, shaking constantly, until brown and fragrant; pour into a bowl to cool and set aside. Toast the cumin seeds in a small sauté pan over medium heat, tossing or stirring constantly until fragrant, and then pour quickly into a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and grind into a powder. Alternatively, use ground cumin.

For the dressing, in a medium bowl, whisk the cumin with the lemon and lime juices, salt, and pepper; slowly whisk in the 1/4 cup olive oil.

Remove the carrot ribbons from the ice water and pat dry with paper towels. Peel, pit, and slice the avocado.

Divide the avocado slices and roasted carrots among 4 salad plates. In a bowl, toss the carrot ribbons and greens in the dressing, and divide among the plates.

Sprinkle a few pine nuts on each salad and serve.

Serves 4.

Reprinted with permission from Cooking off the Clock: Recipes from My Downtime by Elizabeth Falkner, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

If you’ve ever wished you had a butt-kicking trainer like Jillian Michaels helping you lose weight, you’re in luck. Michaels—the trainer from The Biggest Loser–has an army of books and DVDs, and even an iPhone app, that serves up her advice and workouts. (We’re giving some away; more on that below.) My friends at work couldn’t stop talking about the 30-Day Shred DVD, which according to Michaels, can help you lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days. They decided to challenge each other to a 30-Day Shred Challenge where they committed to doing the video every day for 30 days—no skipping allowed! So I decided to join them and see what the Shred was all about.

I bought hand weights—the only equipment you need to do the exercises—and told myself I wouldn’t skip a single workout. Did I make it? Well, not exactly. I did great for the first seven days. The video is short–just 20 minutes–and each time I felt like giving up, Michaels kept me interested by switching up the routine. After day seven, my ambitions waned a bit. But I kept at it several times a week for the rest of the month and still integrate it into my workout routine a couple of times a week. The results? I can definitely tell that I’m stronger and I’ve shaved a bit off my abs!

Another way to work out with Michaels is with her Hot Bod in a Box, a deck of workout cards filled with challenging exercises and training tips from her bestselling book Making the Cut. To help you combat the mid-summer slump and get motivated to stay in shape, we’re giving away 15 copies! Enter on our Facebook page, but act fast – the giveaway ends August 19. Easy to use at home or the gym, the cards include Michael’s recommendations for circuit training as well as individual cards with exercises that work abs, arms and legs.

Enter now, and get ready to kick your butt into gear with Jillian!

I love watching the Olympics. I love the otherworldly athleticism, the genetic-freak-show nature of the athletes, and, even, the inevitable soap operas that haunt many of the high-profile athletes. (Is Lo Lo Jones a worthy Olympian or an over-hyped poser? Tune in for the 100m hurdle finals and you can be the judge!) I don’t care that the Olympics has become a crass and commercialized product. It is great TV.

But each time I watch, I am struck by the HD-worthy contrast between the profoundly active Olympians and the coach potato-ness of my viewing experience. The irony is hard to ignore.

So this year I decided to do something different. I watched parts of the games standing up. Of course, there were moments when I couldn’t help myself. (Go Bolt!) But usually I had to force myself to put down the remote and rise off the well-worn leather. I even tried to get my kids to do mini-circuits during the commercials. (That strategy was – surprise, surprise – only moderately successful.)

Why did I decide to make this change? Just a few weeks ago a new series of studies was published highlighting the degree to which inactivity has become a major health problem. One report suggested that inactivity kills 5.3 people million a year. It was also noted that it is the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide, and results show that about 6 percent of the burden of disease is caused by heart disease.

Of course, we have long known that physical activity is good for you. But to see the impact of our sedentary lifestyle on global death rates is uniquely eye-opening.

These are staggering numbers.

Adding to this picture of a species of sloths who are sitting themselves to death is the recent work on how important it is to keep moving all day long. A healthy and active lifestyle must include more than a weekly visit to the gym – though that is a good start. A growing body of literature has revealed that we should strive to constantly be active. In particular, we need to avoid long periods of immobility, especially sitting.

In total, the available evidence tells us that we should both work out (i.e., get in a bit of intense resistance training and aerobic exercise) and to keep moving throughout the day. Strategies to satisfy this latter requirement: Stand while on the phone, use a standing desk, commute to work by bike or on foot, and make TV watching more active… hence my vertical viewing.

The Olympics are drawing to a close. Post-Olympics my TV watching will decrease substantially (but only two more years until the start of the winter Olympics in Russia!). Still, I am going to try to maintain my standing-as-the-norm approach to all my daily activities.  True, there are a few activities that are best done in a horizontal position. But other than sleep, at least a few moments on your feet can usually be worked in to the routine.

Get more tips from Tim Caulfield, or learn more about his book, The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness.

Bob Harper is the trainer and fitness expert best known for his butt-kicking, fat-burning workouts on The Biggest Loser. His new book, The Skinny Rules, distills his healthy eating knowledge into 20 straightforward principles. Here he explains why you should go to bed hungry. —BBL Editor

With “Rule #18: Go to Bed Hungry,” you can get a jump on weight loss tonight. Your body will respond. Denied fuel for more than five hours, your body will start burning its own fat and sugar. That means that if your dinner was at 8 p.m., you’ll be burning fat by 1 a.m. Eat earlier, start burning fat earlier. Either way, you’ll wake up wanting breakfast, which is a good thing: You should eat a proper breakfast instead of grabbing a high-carb bagel or muffin on your way to work! (What’s a proper breakfast? I have some fantastic options in the book).

The absence of carbs in your bloodstream will also let your body produce the hormones it needs for better sleep. And with good sleep comes other benefits—muscle repair, brain-chemical balancing and increased energy during the day. You might almost say that sleep is nature’s ultimate spa treatment. It’s no accident that the connection between sleep and obesity is one of the hottest scientific enterprises going. There are a lot of ways you could comply with this rule: Don’t eat three hours before going to bed. Don’t eat after eight. Don’t eat anything after dinner. You decide. But make the effort and enjoy the weight-loss rewards!

Follow Bob Harper on Twitter at @MyTrainerBob and use the hashtag #skinnyrules to talk about The Skinny Rules.

Even if you’re only vaguely aware of popular health trends, you may have noticed that two dietary enemies have emerged recently: gluten and sugar. A proliferation of food allergies, autoimmune disorders, diabetes and obesity has been linked to gluten, a protein found in most grains. And it’s well known that piling on the sugar piles on unnecessary calories and interferes with blood sugar levels.

As more people steer clear of gluten and sugar, the demand for alternative baked goods has increased, and expert bakers have taken notice. The recipes in the new The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking were developed by three-time James Beard Award winning baker Peter Reinhart and his partner Denene Wallace, a type 2 diabetic who wasn’t satisfied with grain-free foods that tasted like cardboard. A salvation for baked goods fans with celiac disease or diabetes, the recipes are also low in carbohydrates and rich in fiber — in a word, healthy.

The book’s 80 recipes range from savory breads, pizzas and crackers to sweet treats like muffins, pancakes, cookies and pies. The straightforward, easy-to-follow recipes are made with a range of nut and seed flours and sugar-free sweeteners like stevia and Splenda. Reinhart and Wallace include information about setting up a gluten-free, sugar-free kitchen. Our friends at The Recipe Club also created this helpful Pinterest board with essential tips on stocking your pantry.

Forever a fan of fresh fruit (especially in summertime!), I decided to try the Blueberry-Hazelnut Muffins. Keep in mind, I’m not much of a baker, so I was a bit skeptical about diving into a gluten-free, sugar-free baking project. But, like I said, the recipe was straightforward, so I ventured to my local health food store in search of almond flour and stevia – the only two ingredients I didn’t have in my pantry. After assembling all the ingredients, the process was just like traditional baking. The dough mixed together nicely. It felt a bit grainier than traditional muffin dough and clumped up as I filled the muffin liners. I recommend using muffin liners instead of greasing the tins so you can remove them easily. Also, don’t skimp on the blueberries — they provide a flavor boost and pair nicely with the slightly nutty dough.

I popped the tins in the oven and eagerly awaited the results. I worried the muffins might be dry and flavorless – I’d heard stories of lackluster “diet” foods from friends with food allergies – but these were just the opposite: moist with a soft texture and nutty aftertaste, and full of fresh blueberry flavor. Try the recipe below and let us know what you think!

Blueberry-Hazelnut Muffins
3/4 cup (3 oz / 85 g) hazelnut flour
3/4 cup (3 oz / 85 g) almond flour
1/2 cup Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw, or 1/4 cup New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/3 cup (about 1.65 oz / 47 g) almonds or hazelnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs (3.5 oz / 99 g)
1/2 cup (4 oz / 113 g) unsweetened soy milk or other milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
1/2 to 1 cup (2.5 to 5 oz / 71 to 142 g) fresh or frozen blueberries, depending on dietary restrictions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 9 muffin cups with paper or foil liners, then lightly mist them with spray oil (or omit the liners and generously mist the muffin cups with spray oil).

In a medium bowl, combine the hazelnut flour, almond flour, Splenda, almonds, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well mixed. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and liquid stevia together until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes to make a smooth, sticky batter. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Spoon or scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing it evenly among them; the muffin cups should be just about full.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate and bake for 20 more minutes, until golden brown and firm and springy when pressed in the center.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack.

Reprinted with permission from The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking by Peter Reinhart & Denene Wallace, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking will be on sale August 14. For more recipes, check out the excerpt below:

August is here, and the summer heat isn’t letting up; in fact, it’s scorching outside. Last week we threw away our gym membership and have been doing our best to be our own personal gym, but our fitness regimen at the local park is drenching us in sweat. Then, while we were watching the Olympics and ogling the insanely fit bodies of Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, inspiration hit. It’s time to take a dip in the pool. Below are links to incredible pool exercises that will get you in shape just as fast as sweating it out on land. So whether you are at the beach, a hotel or in your own backyard, there is no reason to stop working out simply because it is hot out.

8 Ways to Work Out in the Pool Without Swimming Laps (Fit Sugar)

Dara Torres’ Swimming Workout (Real Simple)

Paddle Board Your Way to Fitness – Great for Yoga Lovers (Chicago Tribune)

And It’s OK If You Look a Little Funny When You Swim (RyanSeacrest.com)

It seems that science is continuing to prove what Bob Harper knows to be true from his years of experience helping people lose weight: What you eat matters more than exercise when you’re trying to lose weight.

Even though he’s a trainer and fitness expert known for his butt-kicking, fat-burning workouts on The Biggest Loser, Harper’s newest book, The Skinny Rules, zeroes in on 20 straightforward healthy-eating principles that he recommends to his clients. Make them into habits, and Harper guarantees you’ll never need another diet book again. He was inspired to compile these rules when one of his Twitter followers lost a substantial amount of weight by eating what Harper tweeted about eating. (Hear the full story in the video above.)

We just can’t get enough of this book, so we’ve decided to give away 15 copies of The Skinny Rules! Enter on our Facebook page by Aug. 13. In the meantime, read about our experiences trying out Harper’s Skinny Rule #3, Rule #6, and Rule #7.

Click here to enter to win The Skinny Rules.

The Skinny Rules is on sale now, wherever books are sold. Follow Bob Harper on Twitter at @MyTrainerBob and use the hashtag #skinnyrules to talk about the book.

You can throw away your gym membership.

[Get] rapid results by working out just thirty minutes a day, four times a week.

These are the promises offered by You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises by Mark Lauren and Joshua Clark, along with others, such as “ingeniously simple” and “do-anywhere program.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a lot of faith in workout books and programs. Not because they don’t work, but because I’m the type of person that flakes out. They either require too much of a time commitment or I get bored – or any other excuse I can think of to justify watching So You Think You Can Dance instead of going to the gym.

Enter this book. I started its 10-week basic program four weeks ago, and I threw out my gym membership yesterday. Well, I let it expire, not to be renewed. The four workout programs in You Are Your Own Gym are made up of exercises that use your body weight – no gym equipment, free weights or gizmos – to build muscle, burn fat and develop balance and stability. I’ve become a YOYOG believer. Here’s why:

• The program takes only 30 minutes a day, four days a week. Say goodbye to the gym commute.
• I saw results after the first week.
• I can do it in whatever outfit I want, including barefoot since I don’t like wearing shoes in the house.
• No free weights are involved, but the authors offer many ways to make a body weight exercise harder.
• I have everything I need in my apartment. I’ve had to rig up a few things but nothing unsafe or too difficult.
• Once I’m done I feel the same way I did when I worked out at the gym for over an hour.
• The program only has one day a week of core-specific exercises yet my abs are flatter than they’ve ever been.
• There’s no cardio so I don’t upset my downstairs neighbor.
• My knees don’t creak anymore, and lunges no longer cause me pain.
• The exercises, number of reps and number of sets change every two weeks so I don’t get bored.
• I can easily do the program while traveling.

Quite simply, this book has changed the way I look at exercise. I’m not going to tell you to throw out your gym membership right now, but I do recommend trying this program. Give it a week and see what you think.

For more information, visit marklauren.com.

I was a fan from the beginning. I lived two blocks from the schoolyard where the first Brooklyn Flea outdoor market assembled in 2008, and my husband and I would stroll through almost every weekend to check out the vendors. As soon as I saw the People’s Pops crew and their chalkboard list of ice pop flavors, I was digging in my purse for dollars. Their combinations of local, in-season fruit with fresh herbs were simple but revolutionary—and immensely refreshing on a hot day in the city.

I wasn’t the only one smitten with People’s Pops’ frosty take on summer fruit. Founders Nathalie Jordi, David Carrell and Joel Horowitz soon grew from that one market stand to a handful of pop-up shops and retail locations, and now supply at least 10 stores with pops. This summer, they released People’s Pops, a cookbook, which means anyone – including me – can recreate cool concoctions like Rhubarb and Elderflower or Apple and Salted Caramel at home.

I’d tried making my own peach yogurt pops for my daughter last summer, but they came out flavorless and too icy, so I was excited to try a few recipes from the ice pop masters. But before we get to that, here are a few of their tips for making great pops:

• Use the best fruit you can find. Juicy and almost overripe specimens pack the most flavor.
• Sweeten pops with simple syrup. Even the sweetest fruit will mellow when frozen – a little liquid sugar will distribute smoothly through the puree and enhance the fruit’s natural sweetness. The amounts in the recipes are suggestions. Since the sweetness of fruits can vary, add a little at a time until the mixture tastes sweet enough.
• Dial down your freezer’s temperature. Freezing the pops fast causes less ice crystals to form resulting in smoother pops.

Corn and Blueberry Pops*
Keeping with the People’s Pops ethos, I went to my farmers’ market to see what looked good and found the first of the summer’s sweet corn. In the book, the authors write that their first corn and blackberry pops sold like gangbusters, so I added a few ears to my bag of peaches and cantaloupe. When I got home and told my two-year-old daughter that I was going to make ice pops, she pulled out an ear and said, “Use this!” So corn pops it is. The blackberries in my area haven’t hit their stride yet, so I substituted plump blueberries. The original recipe calls for cooking the corn, but mine was so sweet and juicy that I skipped that step. What came out of my rocket ship molds was fresh, cool and delicious – a chunky blueberry layer with a hint of tart followed by a sweet-as-cream corn layer – cool! Makes 10 pops.

1/2 pound (2 cups) blueberries
3/4 cup simple syrup (see below)
1 tablespoon (1/2 fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 pounds fresh corn on the cob (about 5 ears), husks and silks removed

Pick out any stems and leaves from the blueberries and puree them in a food processor. Combine the pureed blueberries, 1/4 cup (2 fl oz) simple syrup and lemon juice in a bowl or measuring pitcher with a pouring spout. Divide the mixture equally between your ice pop molds, being careful not to drip down the sides (they should each be about a third full with blueberry mixture). Freeze for 1 to 2 hours, or until solid enough to poke without bursting.

Using a knife, cut the corn kernels from the cobs. Discard the cobs. Transfer the kernels to a food processor and puree until smooth. Transfer the pureed corn to a bowl or measuring pitcher with a pouring spout and add simple syrup to taste, using approximately the remaining 1/2 cup (4 fl oz), until the mixture becomes quite sweet. The amount you use will depend on how sweet the corn was to begin with, so use your judgment and remember that the sweetness will dull when the ingredients are frozen. The book suggests straining the corn through a sieve with big holes, but I wanted a pulp-free pop, so I used cheesecloth.

Pour the corn mixture on top of the frozen blackberry layer in your ice pop molds, leaving a bit of room at the top for the mixture to expand. Insert sticks and freeze until solid, 4 to 5 hours. Unmold and transfer to plastic bags for storage or serve at once.

Simple Syrup
2/3 cup (5 oz) organic cane sugar
2/3 cup (5 fl oz) water

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is transparent. Turn off the heat and let cool. Add any spices before the mixture starts to simmer; add any herbs only after you’ve turned off the heat. Store plain and infused syrups in sealed containers in the fridge.

makes 1 cup (8 fl oz)

*Adapted with permission from Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.