In our family, we’re big on stockings...so I very much had that in mind as I compiled this list:

Chocolate- I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t appreciate a good bar of chocolate in their stocking around the holidays! When I look for chocolate, I personally look for organic, dark (over 70%) and soy free versions. If you happen to live in a town or city that has a local chocolatier, I highly recommend checking in with them to see if they have any quality chocolate bars for purchase. My personal favorites are:

• Black and Green 85% Dark Chocolate
  
• Alter Eco Dark Chocolate Sea Salt
• Beyond Good 92% Chocolate 

Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee and Elixirs- Mushrooms have long been a powerful superfood loaded with tons of nutrients and we certainly don’t eat enough of them! This company has tastefully found a way to blend various beneficial mushrooms with other ingredients (like coffee) to provide you with high levels of antioxidants and other compounds.

Their coffees are ½ the caffeine with more of the focus and energy!

Depending on the blend you choose, they can enhance your focus and thinking capabilities, help you sleep and even lower your anxiety and support your adrenal glands. Perfect for any health focused friend of family member!

These come as bags or individual packets, which are great as stocking stuffers! You can get the mushroom elixir sample pack, latte and hot cocoa sampler, or a pack of lion's mane and chaga & cordyceps and chaga coffee blends (my personal favorites).
 
Clay Facial Masks- self care is a pretty important piece of living a healthy life. And for athletes, health care of the skin can be crucial. We sweat a lot. And most of us spend a lot of time outdoors training. That means we need to take care of our skin! For that, small packs of natural facial clay masks do the trick! This derma e Purifying 2-in-1 Charcoal Face Mask with Activated Charcoal all natural, 100% vegan and cruelty free, and does not contain parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, lanolin, gluten or GMOs.

Books- All health enthusiasts generally have 1 thing in common: they like to eat healthy food. These food-focused books are just a few of my favorites that can be used by anyone interested in being active and healthy (triathletes, runners, hikers, yogis, etc).

• Run Fast Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan 
• Feed Zone Portables by Allen Lim- this is easily the book I’ve personally gifted most. I love it. 
• The Real Food Athlete by Steph Lowe

​
Silicone Popsicle Molds- I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my silicone popsicle molds for any extra post workout smoothie that I might not be consuming in the moment. They can oftentimes get me through the last few minutes of a hard workout in the heat! For any of your active friends of family members that complete hot workouts, these popsicle molds will be much appreciated!!!

Biodegradable Natural Body Wipes- These no-rinse body wash wipes are a perfect gift for an athlete constantly on the go. Bonus that they are biodegradable, so they break down naturally. These wipes will leave an athlete feeling a full-body cleanse while also supporting the planet the planet. 

Coffee- If your loved one is a coffee drinker, specialty coffees make a great gift! Many sustainable coffee growers offer online ordering 

• Peak Performance High Altitude Coffee
• Larry’s Organic Fair Trade Coffee 3 Pack- Larry’s Coffee is an eco-friendly and sustainability-minded company that creates small-batch Fair Trade, Organic, Shade-Grown coffee.
• Ethical Bean Fair Trade Coffee

​

Please note that some of the links are affiliate links.
​Meaning, if you buy someone a gift by using those links, you’re also giving us a gift (a small commission) in return – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support in this way!

​
Please note that some of the links are affiliate links.
Meaning, if you buy someone a gift by using those links, you’re also giving me a gift (a small commission) in return – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support in this way!
​

If your family traditionally eats turkey for your Thanksgiving meal, you're in luck because turkey is already low carb! However, turkey is not high fat! If you're wanting to keep your meal LCHF, I highly advise you reach for the darker cuts of meat and eat the skin, which will provide some added fat to this naturally low fat protein.

However, if you're interested in taking this low-fat protein and make it keto friendly, my advice is to add an herbed butter! This is a very simple thing to do ahead of time and bring to your Thanksgiving feast. You can add it to your turkey, but also to steamed green beans and many other lower fat dishes you might find at your table.

If you're the lucky one who gets to make the turkey this year, consider adding your herbed butter as a rub before you roast it! Maya Krampf of Wholesome Yum has a great blog on the whole process, including a great EASY GARLIC BUTTER HERBED BUTTER recipe that you can check out HERE.

Looking for a nutrient dense stuffing that isn't bread based but still tastes and feels like traditional stuffing?  Heather Dessinger of Mommypotamus has one of the best EASY GLUTEN FREE STUFFING recipes (pictured above) that I've ever tried! Seriously, I didn't think it was possible to make something taste like bread that doesn't actually have bread in it, but this recipe does it.

If you want to stick with a bread based stuffing but still want a low carb option, be prepared to make your own keto bread (unless you can find a quality keto bread in the stores). It can be more time consuming, but it's worth it! One of my favorite recipes for a bread based KETO STUFFING comes from blogger 'Howtodothisandthat.

There really is no way to make a potato low carb. So if mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving favorite of yours, you might want to consider making yourself a side of cauliflower mash. Honestly, if you load up your cauliflower mash with good fats from olive oil and butter, and then add some of your favorite herbs, you won't miss the potatoes! Check out this MASHED CAULIFLOWER WITH GARLIC AND HERBS recipe from Downshiftology. It's a family favorite in my household!

Gravy was one of the last dishes our family converted from a package, to a nutrient dense and absolutely DELICIOUS thanksgiving dish. And I'm always wondering why the heck we waited so long to do it! It's really not hard to make a fantastic gravy from scratch...it just takes a little pre-planning.

Most gravy recipes call for broth. Yes, you can buy this in a can or cardboard box, but trust me, if you make it from scratch ahead of time, it will add a punch of flavor to your gracy that won't go unnoticed. 

I personally have broth on hand at all times which makes the step of the process a little quicker. You can find jars of it in my fridge and if I have extra, you better bet I'm freezing it for later. All week, I collect vegetable ends and bones from our meals. Once I have a pretty good amount of these bits, I'll throw them into my instant pot with a package of chicken paws and water to make a delicious broth! You can find a recipe for CHICKEN BONE BROTH similar to the one I follow (I just use scraps in mine) from Jennifer McGruther from The Nourished Kitchen. If you are going to make this recipe specifically for Thanksgiving, be sure to pull the giblets out of your turkey a few days ahead of time to use in the broth!

Once you have your broth, I really truly believe that the best tasting gravy's come from the turkey drippings. You can find a very easy, low carb and GLUTEN FREE GRAVY recipe from Regina at Leelalicious.

Despite all the talk of avoiding all fruit while eating keto, really what most people are trying to avoid is natural sugar from fruit. Luckily, cranberries are very low in natural sugar which actually makes them keto friendly. That's also why most traditional cranberry recipes call for massive amounts of sugar!

To avoid this traditional sugary side, you can easily swap the table sugar found in most traditional cranberry recipes for an alternative keto sugar like monk fruit or swerve. This CRANBERRY SAUCE recipe from Chad Campbell at That Low Carb Life blog is great and includes a little orange zest for an added kick of flavor.

When I ask clients about traditional thanksgiving vegetable side dishes, it never seems like I get the same answer twice. Each family seems to have their own favorites, and luckily, most of them tend to be pretty keto friendly.

Like the turkey, if your traditional vegetables sides are naturally low fat, consider adding a dollop of herbed butter on top to add both flavor and a good, healthy fat to the dish.

Dessert is where keto can get tricky if you don't plan ahead. Luckily, there are many different alternative sugar options to pick from now-a-days that can help you create a dessert that both tastes amazing and won't spike your blood sugar!

Three of my favorite low carb sweeteners are monk fruit, stevia and swerve. 

Monk fruit is a natural source of sweetness that has been around for centuries (despite many of us only learning about it recently). The name was given to this fruit after the monks who harvested it.  The fruit itself has a very short shelf life which is why it is dried.  The dried fruit is what is then processed into the sweetener we use today. The sweetness of monk fruit comes from mogrosides which are actually antioxidants!  It is about 200-300x sweeter than regular table sugar however, it contains none of the calories and does not impact our blood sugar in the same was as table sugar.   It can be found as liquid, powder, or granules. 


Stevia, another natural sweetener that has been around for a long time, is derived from the plant Stevia rebaudiana ( I grew it in my garden this year!).  Like monk fruit, the compounds that make Stevia sweet are about approximately 200 times sweeter than typical table sugar but without attack on your blood sugar.  In its pure form, stevia has zero carbohydrates, and zero calories. However, most stevia products combine stevia leaf extract with other ingredients such as dextrose, maltodextrin, erythritol or other fillers to help reduce the sweetness and mimic the taste of traditional table sugar. So be sure to choose a brand that doesn't contain these fillers if you're sensitive to sugar alcohols.


Swerve is a blend of three ingredients. Erythritol is the first and most prominent ingredient, and is naturally made by fermenting glucose. Prebiotic fibers called oligosaccharides are added, and then the blend is enhanced with some natural flavor from citrus. Swerve provides a similar level of sweetness to sugar and has the ability to caramelize, which makes it great for many holiday recipes!


Some of my favorite recipes include this CLASSIC PUMPKIN PIE (with crust recipe) from the Paleo Running Momma, this KETO PECAN PIE from Taryn at Joy Filled Eats, and our families personal favorite KETO APPLE CRISP from Vered DeLeeuw at the Healthy Recipes blog.

My hope is that these recipes help you enjoy a Thanksgiving feast while still honoring your health goals this year and beyond! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Sleep is one of four biological needs (the others being: eating, drinking and mating). Sleep has been shown to have a direct impact on overall health, lifespan, productivity, safety and ability to learn. Sleep is one of the top five reasons that patients visit a clinic for care every year and lack of sleep has been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. 

A study performed at the Leiden University Medical Center took 9 healthy individuals, with healthy blood sugar response, and restricted sleep for one night (subjects were allowed to sleep from 1am to 5am). The result was insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in all subjects. 

Additionally, data from large published studies, including: Sleep Heart Health Study; Finnish Type 2 Diabetes Study; Quebec Family study; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; National Health Interview Study; and Isfahan Healthy Heart Program, have all demonstrated that middle-aged to elderly subjects with self- reported short sleep duration are approximately twice as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and are at higher risk for impaired glucose tolerance.

Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Not 7-9 hours in bed with the lights out laying awake. 7-9 hours of actual sleep. If this isn’t your situation, here are the first steps to dial in:

1) Follow a sleep schedule.

2) Eat a diet that promotes quality sleep at the right times:

• Eat a dinner full of melatonin rich foods.
• Avoid caffeine, including chocolate after 12pm.
• Avoid alcohol before bed.
• Avoid large meals and beverages 2 hours before bedtime.

3) Exercise at the time that best suits your chronotype. Avoid intense exercise 2-3 hours before bedtime. If AM blood sugar is higher than ideal, choose 20-30 minutes of a relaxing activity before bed, like gentle walking.

4) Get your daily dose of natural sunlight for a minimum of 30 minutes per day. If you can not get out into the natural sun, consider morning exposure to artificial light for at least 1 hour.

5) Only nap before 3pm.

6) Schedule time for relaxation for at least 20 minutes before bed. Espom salt baths, foot soaks, reading and meditation are all great options.

7) Create a bedroom that is most conducive for proper sleep.

• avoid electronics in the bedroom
• create complete darkness
• The general suggested temperature for an ideal night's sleep is between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit.
• invest in comfortable and non-toxic clothing, pillow, mattress and linens.

​8) Avoid medications that cause stimulation before bed. Some examples of these medications are hypertension, allergy, and thyroid medications. Consult with your doctor about options for taking these medications at earlier times of day in order to optimize your ability to sleep.
​
9) Don’t stay in bed if you haven’t fallen asleep after 30 minutes.

One book I absolutely love that talks about sleep is called Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. If your blood sugar is still high and sleep is an issue, you definitely want to dive down this rabbit hole more deeply!

​If you are consistently following the 9 sleep foundations above, and are still experiencing constant fatigue and irritability during the day after getting 7-9 hours of sleep, waking up several times during the night, staying awake for more than an hour without being capable of falling back to sleep, or taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, and/or higher than normal fasting blood sugar levels,  it might be time to seek out a sleep specialist for help.​

REFERENCES:
1. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30272-2/fulltext
2. ​https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/217011

For many people, the amount of carbohydrates and sugars that have been consumed over the course of their lifetime is excessive. The excess consumption of these carbohydrates has led to irregular blood sugar which can lead to lethargy, excess body fat retention, fatigue, poor sleep, and less than optimal health. If after testing,  you’ve established that your blood sugar is normal, you can complete a carbohydrate tolerance test to learn what life can be like when you consume healthy forms of carbohydrates in the appropriate amounts for your body. (In other words, what it is like to eat balanced.)
                       
In Robb Wolf’s book, Wired To Eat, he details a process he calls ‘the 7 Day Carb Test.’ Your blood glucose levels rise and fall when you eat a meal containing carbohydrates.  How high it rises and how long it stays high depends on: the quality of the carbohydrates; the quantity of carbohydrate; and your own bio-individuality.  In order to learn how your own body responds to the quality and quantity of carbohydrate, you should consider a carbohydrate tolerance test. 

During this test, you use a blood sugar meter to test your body’s personal tolerance to 50g of effective net carbs to a specific food. The point of completing this type of test is to learn more about how your body can properly handle (or not handle) different types of carbohydrates. It might surprise you that some people can tolerate sugary pastries better than a banana, but it is true. This is bio-individuality at its finest. As Robb says in his book, “finding the ‘right’ carbohydrate(s) for your body allows you to dial in your specific carbohydrate tolerance and therefore keep our hormonal profile in a state that is favorable for fat loss while repairing our metabolism.’

How to test

1. Choose a test carb to test. (for example: sweet potato, black beans, or rice).
2. Choose the amount of carbohydrate to test. Aim to consume a reasonable amount of the specific carbohydrate. If you are unsure of a good amount, start with 50g of effective net carbs. Effective net carbs are TOTAL CARBS - FIBER = NET CARBS
3. Prepare your carbohydrate the night before you choose to test.
4. First thing the following morning, take your fasting blood sugar. Then, eat your test carb. You will eat no other food at this time. Allowable beverages are black coffee and water. If you do have a beverage make sure to have that same beverage each morning you are testing.
5. Write down which carbohydrate you are testing and the time you ate it.
6. Set a timer for 2 hours from the time you take your first bite of carbohydrate. Aim to consume your test carbohydrate within 5- 10 minutes.
7. Test your blood glucose and record your blood glucose reading at the 2 hour mark.
   
   

What you are looking for
The most important things to look for (that would indicate that the carb is not the best carb for your body) are:

1. symptoms (foggy head, inability to focus, anger, depression, anxiety, shaky, etc)
2. a large fluctuation in your blood sugar: 

At the 2 hour blood glucose reading, your ideal blood glucose should be ~115 mg/dL.

If your blood sugar goes much above 120 mg/dL at the 2 hour mark of the test, this can be a sign that your blood sugar has “spiked” and this is not an ideal carb for you. It would be expected that your blood sugar would then drop rapidly, causing you to feel poorly.

The opposite is also true. If your blood glucose reading at the 2 hour mark is below your fasting reading, this is just another sign of the wrong carb for your body.

Ideally, you want to find a carb that doesn’t make you feel badly, and that brings your blood glucose level up (no higher than ~115 mg/dL), and has a slow decline over the next 4 hours.

GIVE THE CARB TOLERANCE TEST A TRY!

Using a blood glucose monitor is by far the easiest way to get insight on how your body is handling the sugar that you eat.  And running a carb tolerance test allows you to get even clearer on what specific carbohydrates work for you (and vice versa).

Next week, we’ll dive even deeper into knowing how to use the carbohydrates that are best for your body at the right times of day so you keep stable energy and not store them as fat!

Stay tuned...

We have all heard that eating too much sugar could eventually result in a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes. However, just because you have not been diagnosed with diabetes, does not mean your body is tolerating the amount of sugar in your diet.

In 2017, Outside Magazine published an article titled Are Endurance Athletes More Susceptible to Diabetes? In it, the author introduced an endurance runner who also happened to be an intern at the University of Canterbury Center for Bioengineering, which was researching the clinical potential of continuous glucose monitors (CGM).

After a hard bonk in her last ultra endurance event, she wondered if she could use a CGM to help her better understand her blood sugar levels during a long run, see when her levels started to drop and prevent the bonk all together by using exogenous glucose (aka- a gel). After some self experimentation and seeing some potential for future research, she soon found herself in a PhD program studying the potential uses of glucose monitoring in athletes.

​In 2016 her first initial pilot study on ten runners and cyclists was published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology and the findings were quite a shock. 

“Instead of bonk-inducing blood sugar lows, the more common problem in her subjects, who typically averaged at least six hours of training a week, was high blood sugar throughout the day—an outcome that pointed to an elevated risk of Type 2 Diabetes in these seemingly super-fit athletes. ‘I was incredibly surprised to see the results,’ Thomas says. ‘It seemed contrary to almost everything else in the field.’”

Her initial findings were that 3 out of 10 athletes in the study had fasting blood glucose levels that were by the ADA definition, in the pre-diabetes range. Although the current numbers don’t support the claim that endurance athletes are more susceptible to diabetes, there is certainly a very large range of pre-diabetes that many of us sit in. ​

The body prioritizes blood sugar regulation over other bodily functions to ensure that the brain and other organs have the necessary energy to operate. Our body was designed to use a variety of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) for energy sources.

Each human body has its own specific formula for how much of each of these macronutrients it needs to maintain optimal health and wellness. If the specific formula is off, you become susceptible to disease. There are many factors that play a role in your own specific nutrition formula, such as genetics, stress and activity levels.

Carbohydrates are the fastest burning of the 3 macronutrients. When properly digested, all carbohydrates turn into sugar in the body. Once these sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream, a healthy body will release insulin (a hormone) into the blood to help store these sugars away in the liver and muscles.

The liver and muscles have limited storage for these sugars. If the consumption of carbohydrate (or sugar) is higher than our body’s storage in the liver and muscles, the body will convert the excess sugar into fat and store it in fat cells, in which we have an unlimited storage.  

Since carbohydrates burn faster than fat and protein, a diet that is high in carbohydrates will require frequent consumption of carbohydrate to keep energy levels up. If this cycle of frequent consumption of carbohydrates is repeated day after day, month after month, year after year, the body can become less effective at producing and/or using insulin to store away digested carbohydrates.

Once this process begins, we see levels of sugar in the blood begin to rise. This is the very early stages of Type 2 Diabetes (pre-diabetes) and typically there are little to no symptoms associated with the early stages of pre-diabetes and the rise in blood sugar levels. 

For athletes, we obtain most of our energy from sugar (either exogenously from the foods we eat during training or endogenously from our stored sugar in the muscles and liver). We can obtain some energy from fat, but this can be a slow conversion and is a system that needs to be trained.

The major benefit to undergoing this adaptation process is that it is well known the body can only absorb so much energy per hour. Most endurance athletes are burning much more than they can comfortably consume in the gut and will inevitably hit the notorious “wall” and bonk at some point.

​If you train your body to be able to obtain energy from your own stored body fat in a more efficient way, you can conserve your limited glucose supply for later in your training or race or when you really need it. 

If you’ve never gone through the process of training your body to burn more fat for energy, it’s something to consider. I have a 6 week program specifically for this called the Keto Reset and you can learn more about it by clicking HERE. ​

​Types of sweeteners (from best to worst…):

• NATURAL SUGARS such as unrefined raw honey, raw cane sugar, and fruit, that when unprocessed, maintain some nutrient value to the body.
  
• NATURAL SWEETENERS such as stevia. Usually an herb. It tastes sweet but is not sugar. The more they are processed, the less healthy they are.
  
• REFINED SUGARS such as white cane sugar, processed honey, agave and corn syrup. Natural in origin, but the refining process generally makes them unhealthy.
  
• SUGAR ALCOHOLS such as xylitol, erythritol, sorbitol and mannitol. Real food but highly processed. These sugar alcohols are incompletely structured and are likely to cause digestive upset.
  
• ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS such as splenda and aspartame. These are man made chemicals that are made to taste sweet. Artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, Nutrisweet and Equal, which carry no caloric value,  have been shown to increase your risk of a metabolic syndrome by more than 34%. Additionally, there is a 43% increase of a vascular event (such as stroke and heart attacks) in those that consume artificial sweeteners regularly.

Since athletes need to consume carbohydrates to fuel longer workouts, finding the right sugars in the right balance is key! Stay with me as we explore exactly how to do this over the next few weeks.​

Understanding blood sugar and learning how to balance it takes a bit of time.  That is why, rather than inundating you with information, I have decided to dedicate the entire month of September to teaching you the ins and outs of blood sugar and how balancing it can be crucial to your athletic performance and overall health.

Coming up next, we continue to talk about blood sugar, with a stronger focus on how to find a better balance between carbs, fats and proteins so you can fuel your workouts appropriately and not put yourself at risk for developing disease.

If you have any questions about blood sugar, you can email me!  And, if you’re ready to take the next step by becoming a fat burning machine rather than an exhausted sugar burner, then sign up for the Keto RESET Program waitlist!  This 6 week course is dedicated to teaching you how to transition your body so that it can efficiently burn fat for fuel allowing you to experience vitality and great health.

​

The steroid hormones are one classification of hormones that are secreted by the steroid glands: the adrenals, the testes, the ovaries, and the placenta during pregnancy.

Steroid hormones can be grouped into two classes: corticosteroids (typically made in the adrenal cortex) and sex steroids (typically made in the gonads or placenta). Within those two categories, there are five main steroid hormones secreted by these glands:

• Androgens including testosterone and androstenedione
• Estrogens including estrone, estradiol and estriol
• Progestogens including progesterone
• Mineralocorticoids including aldosterone
• Glucocorticoids including cortisol

Steroid hormones are classified as fat-soluble and can pass through cell membranes, where they bind to their receptor site inside the cell wall (as opposed to water soluble hormones which bind to receptors on the cell wall). Being fat-soluble, it is no surprise that the building block required to create all steroid hormones is also a fat, which is cholesterol.

Approximately 75% of all cholesterol in the body is made within the body (mainly in the liver). The other 25% comes from diet.

When there is a growing demand for higher amounts of the steroid hormones, our liver can respond by producing more cholesterol. If the liver cannot keep up with the demand of cholesterol required to meet the need of all the steroid hormones, the body will be forced to choose which steroid hormones are more important than others.

Typically, this results in a phenomenon known as the “pregnenolone steal”.​

REFERENCES:
1. Lowman, Amy Ancient Stress Response vs Modern Life October 23, 2016. 
2. 5 Key Strategies and Best Supplements for Adrenal Support. 

A full night of sleep is important because the stages are not divided equally throughout the night. In the early hours of sleep, the majority of our sleep is made up of non-REM sleep and very little REM sleep. In the second half of a night's sleep, our cycle shifts to be mostly REM sleep and less non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep is deeper and more restorative than lighter, dream-infused REM sleep. Additionally, the major period of human growth hormone release occurs during the first period of stage 3 non-REM sleep during the night, about an hour after you first fall asleep.

 These are just some of the reasons that Dr. Matthew Walker, head of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, and other sleep experts say that sleeping from midnight until 8am is not the same thing as sleeping from 10pm-6am because the shift from non-REM to REM sleep happens at certain times of the night regardless of when you go to bed. If improved memory and tissue growth/repair isn’t enough of a reason to get to bed early, maybe learning more about the consequences of poor sleep will be.​

To optimize your performance, health, productivity, lifespan, safety and ability to learn, not only do you need to get regular sleep, but that sleep needs to be quality sleep. 

To ensure the right quantity and quality of sleep, there are some sleep foundations you should follow:

Follow a sleep schedule. Every single night at the same time, you should start a series of actions that should stay the same from night to night. The sun setting can be a good trigger to start this routine in the winter, however, in the summer when days are long, setting a standing alarm can help remind you that it’s time to finish eating, put on your blue light blocking glasses, turn off all screens and start winding down.

Eat a diet that promotes quality sleep at the right times.

• Eat a dinner full of melatonin rich foods, such as: tart black cherries, almonds, walnuts, corn, rice and ginger root.
• Avoid caffeine, including chocolate after 12pm
• Avoid alcohol before bed
• Avoid large meals and beverages 2 hours before bedtime

​
Avoid intense exercise 2-3 hours before bedtime. If your fasted morning blood sugar is higher than ideal, choose 20-30 minutes of a relaxing activity before bed, like gentle walking.

Get your daily dose of natural sunlight for a minimum of 30 minutes per day. If you work in front of a computer all day and wear blue light blocking glasses, make sure you take them off periodically throughout the day and allow your eyeballs to see the natural sunlight. If you can not get out into the natural sun, consider morning exposure to artificial light for at least 1 hour.

Only nap before 3pm.

Schedule time for relaxation for at least 20 minutes before bed. Espom salt baths, foot soaks, reading and meditation are all great options.

Create a bedroom that is most conducive for proper sleep.

• Avoid electronics in the bedroom
• Create complete darkness
• The general suggested temperature for an ideal night's sleep is between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Invest in comfortable and non-toxic clothing, pillow, mattress and linens.

Avoid medications that cause stimulation before bed. Some examples of these medications are hypertension, allergy, and thyroid medications. Consult with your doctor about options for taking these medications at earlier times of day in order to optimize your ability to sleep.

Don’t stay in bed if you haven’t fallen asleep after 30 minutes. Instead, move to another room and do something relaxing, like read a paperback book. Avoid jumping onto your phone to check social media, emails or play games. Once you start to feel tired again, move back into bed.

​If you are consistently following the 9 sleep foundations above, and are still experiencing constant fatigue and irritability during the day after getting 7-9 hours of sleep, waking up several times during the night, staying awake for more than an hour without being capable of falling back to sleep, or taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, it might be time to seek out a sleep specialist for help.

​While I am a huge advocate of incorporating lots of plants into your meals, it has been found that those with iron deficiency should reduce their intake of all plant based foods and instead focus their meals around iron-rich foods.

If you are a vegetarian due to ethical reasons, then some of the foods you can focus on to up your iron levels include:

• Sprouted legumes
• Greens
• Seaweed
• Potatoes
  ​

According to Chris Masterjohn, PhD, vegetarians should include 500-1000 mg of vitamin C per meal to help with iron absorption.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of iron for all age groups of men and postmenopausal women is 8 mg/day; the RDA for premenopausal women is 18 mg/day. Here is a list of some iron rich food sources:

• 3.5 ounces of canned clams- 29.45mg (the iron content in canned clams can widely vary, so be sure to check the label before purchasing)
• 6oz beef- 9.3mg
• 3 ounces of oysters- 7.8mg (also high in zinc!)
• 1 cup white beans (soaked)- 6.6mg

Additionally, the level of iron will increase in your foods if you cook them in a cast iron skillet. This is especially true for high-acid foods such as applesauce, eggs, and tomato-based recipes as these foods encourage the leaching of iron out of the pan. The greater the acidity of the food and the longer you cook it, the more iron is transferred. Generally speaking, one cup of acidic foods cooked in a cast iron pan will gain about six to eight milligrams of iron. Note that highly acidic foods, like tomatoes and citrus juices, should not be cooked in a brand new cast iron pan until the cookware has been highly seasoned.

You can achieve a higher bioavailability of dietary iron by increasing the content of food components that enhance iron absorption, such as ascorbic acid, and by decreasing the content of inhibitors, such as phytates and tannins found on unsoaked plant foods. As previously mentioned, aim for 500-1000mg of vitamin C per meal to optimize the absorption of iron.

The body has a remarkable ability to regulate the uptake of iron through the intestines, so overdose with food consumption is rare and usually only occurs when people take supplements. 

One more reason to also optimize your diet before jumping to taking a supplement!

With a growing body of evidence that supports having an adequate level of vitamin D in athletes to not only to sustain normal health, but also to positively impact athletic performance, it is critical that all athletes test their levels. 

Given the evidence of high incidence of vitamin D deficiency, the relatively few sources of vitamin D in the food supply, and the environmental factors that limit an athlete’s ability to synthesize vitamin D, proper supplementation may become one of the most essential parts of an athlete’s nutrition protocol. 

If testing and crunching numbers isn’t your thing, set up a free discovery call to talk to me about how I can help you look at not just your vitamin D status, but how all of your blood markers are working together to create optimal health for you. ​

​
RESOURCES:
1) Role of Vitamin D in Athletes and Their Performance: Current Concepts and New Trends, Nutrients. 2020 Feb; 12(2): 579. Published online 2020 Feb 23

2) Forrest K.Y., Stuhldreher W.L. Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults. Nutr. Res. 2011;31:48–54. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2010.12.001.

For many of us, stress and eating go hand in hand.

Sure, there are the rare few who forget to eat when they get stressed out, but the majority of people tend to turn food during times of stress to help them feel more in control.

Both situations, ‘stress eating’ and ‘stress starving’, are usually pretty undesirable. 
​
If you are a stress eater, you probably wish you were the type of person who forgot to eat when you are stressed out. 

But ask those folks how they feel about forgetting to eat when they’re stressed and they will tell you they hate it!

Forgetting to eat throughout the day has its own consequences like blood sugar drops which inevitably leads to a poor mood (aka “hangry”).

No one wants that. Not the person who's grouchy, and not anyone around them either. 

Eating, or not eating, during a stressful time is not always a bad thing. 

For example, when you eat certain foods, your body can release serotonin, the happy hormone, which can help you temporarily feel better. On the flip side, when you are stressed out, your digestive system is not functioning at optimal capacity, so skipping a meal isn’t horrible either. 

But in both cases, moderation is key. And the only way you are going to be able to moderate these behaviors is if the stress is reduced or eliminated. 

Well...easier said than done, especially over the last 3 months!

2020 seems to be turning into the year of chronic stress. If it’s not a global pandemic driving us into total seclusion, it’s unacceptable human behavior driving people into self reflection on their own behavior and that of those around them. 

For the last 3 months, people have been under non-stop stress to some degree or another and it’s taking a toll on our health. Since some of these stressors are out of our control, it’s time we looked at how we can use nutrition to mitigate the damage until we start to see some change.

Crust Ingredients:
⬢ 1 Cup Halved Pecans
⬢ 2 Tbsp. Coconut Flour
⬢ 2 Tbsp. granulated Swerve
⬢ 2 1/2 Tbsp. Refined Coconut Oil, melted
⬢ 1 Tbsp Creamy Almond Butter or Cashew Butter
⬢ 1/2 tsp. Pure Vanilla
⬢ large pinch Sea Salt

Berry "Cream Cheese" Filling Ingredients:
⬢ 8 ounces cashew cream cheese, softened
⬢ 3/4 cup blueberries, raspberries, or other low sugar berry of choice
⬢ 6 tablespoons salted butter or ghee, softened
⬢ 1/4 cup confectioners swerve
⬢ 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a food processor, process the pecans until they are crumbly. Do not over process. You do not want pecan butter!
2. Add the remaining crust ingredients and process until combined.
3. Spoon the mixture into 12 silicon muffin cups and press the crust evenly into the bottom.
4. Place in the freezer while you make the filling.
5. Meanwhile, place the berries in a blender and pulse until pureed.
6. In a large bowl, combine the berry puree, swerve, and vanilla and stir until mixed well.
7. Add the softened cashew cheese and butter to the berry puree. With a hand mixer, mix until smooth and no chunks of butter or cream cheese remain.
8. Remove the crusts from the freezer. Using a spoon, top each crust with a layer of berry "cream cheese" filling.
9. Optional, but pretty awesome- top each dessert with an edible flower (pansy's are great for this!)
10. Freeze the desserts until hard, approximately 2 hours.

What you'll need for this project:

• 1 or 2 six-packs of lettuce transplants (optional), but this gets you started right away.
• A packet or two of lettuce seeds
• The growing space of your choice:
  • A large pot - You can succession plant into one large pot by dividing it into thirds and following the method below. Try to choose a container that is at least 18" wide or long and 6" deep
  • Three medium-sized pots - Choose three pretty pots, at least 6" deep, that you will plant into at separate times following the method below.
  • Three square feet of growing space in your garden - The three square feet don't have to be right next to each other. You want to make sure you have the room for each succession planting when the time comes.
• Compost - You'll need some to mix with your garden soil or potting soil (if you are planting in pots) to add extra nutrients and water retention and some to lightly cover your seeds with
• Potting soil (if planting in pots)
• Slow-release fertilizer - a granular fertilizer that will slowly release nutrients into the soil for the lettuce roots to absorb
• Liquid Kelp fertilizer - for fertilizing throughout the growing season

A hand trowel or your hands - for planting the transplants and amending your soil

Directions

​Step 1: Prepare Your Soil
If you are planting into pots, fill them 2/3 full of potting soil and 1/3 with compost.  Add your slow-release fertilizer as prescribed by the manufacturer. Mix well.

Step 2: Plant your transplants
Now you'll start your "first succession." Since these plants are usually 3-4 weeks old when you buy them, they are giving you a jump start toward an earlier first salad. Plant your “lettuce starts” 4 inches apart if you can. 

• One big container - Choose 1/3 of your big container to plant your lettuce starts.
• Three Containers - Plant all of your “lettuce starts” in one of your three pots.
• In the garden - Choose 1 square foot and plant your “lettuce starts”.

Step 3: Start your first round of seeds.

• Make sure your soil surface is level by smoothing it with your hands.  
  • One big container - Choose the next 1/3 of your big container to start your seeds.
  • Three Containers - Choose and prepare the second of your three pots
  • In the garden - Choose the next square foot where you will start seeds.
• Open your seed packet and pour some seeds into your hand.
• Sprinkle the seeds onto the soil surface evenly.  It doesn't need to be perfect! Your goal is to make sure you have enough seeds on the soil to create your next lettuce patch.

Gently press your seeds into the soil surface with your hand.  Your goal is to make sure the seeds and soil are making contact. Pressing the seeds into the soil helps tremendously with germination!

• ​Take a handful of compost and gently sprinkle the compost on top of the seeds.  You do not need to cover the seeds with a thick layer of soil. Since they are so tiny, only a little sprinkle of compost or soil is necessary. 
• Water the soil.  Make sure your stream of water is not too strong to dislodge your seeds or bury them. I use a watering can with a rosette spout, so the water flows gently in a shower.

If you have Tiana as your nutritionist as I do, you know a big part of creating a menu for the week is finding any way to make your daily 8-10 cups of veggie servings more interesting. And herbs are THE BEST way to do that.

​I can roast a huge plate of veggies and then use my homegrown herbs to change the flavor profile to be any number of ethnic cuisines. Plus, nothing feels quite so luxurious as walking out to your back door to snip sprigs of fresh herbs from your herb garden.

Tiana asked me to come here to teach you how to grow herbs that are typically more expensive and not as easy to store in the fridge for a week. I don't even want to think of how much cilantro and basil alone I have let wilt in my fridge before using it. I'm going to guess it's in the range of hundreds of dollars worth and drives my husband insane. Oops!

The very first one that came to mind is our beloved basil. Few things make me cringe more than having to go to the grocery store to buy 2 slightly wilted sprigs of basil packed in a tiny plastic container for $5! Don't even get me started about the packaging of some herbs, let alone the cost.

​Once you how to grow basil and you experience just how easy and prolific is it, you will never want to spend money on that sad little container of basil leaves again.

A NOTE ABOUT HARDENING OFF SEEDLINGS

Gardeners call the process of preparing baby seedlings for life outside, "hardening off". I have to admit that this is my least favorite job of starting seeds, but it pays off. When your seedlings live inside they are living a pampered life and will suffer and even die if they are exposed to strong sunlight and wind all of a sudden. So, take your baby seedlings outdoors in the late afternoon for a few days and let them experience the setting sun for a few hours, then bring them inside. After that, if the nighttime lows are above 50 you can leave them outside overnight.

Once they have spent the night outside, you can expose them to a few hours of morning sun before you place them in a shady spot for the heat of the day.

In about a week you'll have seedlings that are ready for full-time life outside.

CAUTION: I've done some serious damage to my seedlings when I've rushed this process, so be patient and take it slow while hardening off your plants.

What if growing seeds isn't for you or you want to plant basil plants now?

No problem! Most garden centers are selling basil transplants (aka basil seedlings) that are ready to be planted right into your garden or a container right now. While you won't have as many options as you do when you buy basil seed packets, you do get the instant gratification of getting a plant in the ground right away.

​I'd suggest buying transplants and starting seeds at the same time! Then you can enjoy your basil plant while the seeds are germinating and growing up.

ONGOING CARE FOR BASIL

Soil: Basil likes moist, fertile soil.

• If you are planting in a container choose a good potting soil blend like Fox Farms Potting Soils.
• Fill the container to 2/3 full of the potting soil and 1/3 compost. Bagged compost is available at most garden centers. Adding compost to your container or garden soil will provide amazing nutrients, beneficial soil microbes, and extra water retention in the heat of summer.
• Add an organic slow-release fertilizer to the manufacturer's specification. I love Espoma's BioTone fertilizer or Down to Earth's BioLive fertilizer.
• If you are growing in a container, you will need to continually feed the potting soil with extra nutrients to keep the soil fertile and your plants actively growing. Once a week I fertilize my pots with a half-strength mixture of liquid kelp meal and fish emulsion.

Water: Basil is not drought tolerant.

• Make sure that you keep your soil evenly moist, but not sopping wet throughout the growing season to keep your plants happy.

Hardiness Zones: Basil is an annual, so it grows from late spring until it is killed by the first frost. For me this is October or November.

Days to Maturity: 68 Days (This means the number of days from when you seed your basil to when it is likely to begin flowering.)

HOW TO HARVEST

A happy basil plant can get BIG, sometimes up to 2' around. It's a sight to behold. You can begin some light-harvesting of your basil plants once they have become pretty established, around 8-12" tall.

Harvest your basil leaves early in the morning, if you can, when its cooler out. This will ensure you won't have wilted leaves.

​If you start to see flower buds begin to form, you'll want to do a full harvest which means cutting the entire plant to 4-6" above the ground. This harsh cutting will encourage the plant to flush out a second growth of leaves.

BASIL FOR CUT FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS

If you don't know me, you must know that I have an undying passion for growing cut flowers and creating arrangements. I grow massive amounts of basil every year because I love to cook with it, but it is also an excellent foliage plant in a flower arrangement.

If you want to try using your basil for flower arrangements, you'll want to harvest when stems feel pretty firm or as soon as flower buds begin to form.

Like I said above, harvesting in the cool of the morning is best for basil, whether you want to eat it or arrange with it because the leaves are prone to wilting in the heat once cut. Take a vase full of cool water with you and place your stems directly into water to rest a few hours before arranging.

Basil has a pretty good vase life. You can count on stems lasting around 7-10 days. I've even had it last long enough to start growing roots, which you can put in a pot with soil and keep well watered to propagate another basil plant. Cool, huh?

​If you choose to let your basil flower for arrangements or just as a flowering bush in the garden, just know that this may shorten it's life span a bit, but to me to worth it. Plus pollinators LOVE basil flowers.

Fresh herbs are a fantastic addition to many dishes, but I especially love them for dressings, marinades and dips.

​One of my favorite recipes comes from Beth Manos Brickey, FNTP of Tasty Yummies. 

FIVE-MINUTE GREEN GODDESS DRESSING
Ingredients

-1 avocado
-1 cup packed fresh basil
-1/2 cup packed fresh parsley
-1/4 cup organic olive oil
-1/4 cup water (or more as needed)
-3 tbsp avocado based mayonnaise
-1 large clove of garlic
-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
-1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-black pepper to taste
-1 jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed, optional

Instructions
1. Add all ingredients to a high speed blender or small food processor. Pulse a few times, then blend until well incorporated and super creamy. Add more water as needed to reach your desired consistency.

This can be served as a salad dressing, dip, sauce or spread! Get creative with it!