Hello Food Athletes!

I hope you enjoyed this beautiful warm month of LOVE! I have had a remarkable journey sharing these powerful themes of love, wellness, and awareness with all of you and especially with my "love collab" partner. It gives us great joy to gift you our final post of Love Month.

Feeding Positivity

After last week you know how to feed your heart so you can, in turn, feed your love and happiness. Similar to the heart, feeding positivity doesn’t necessarily mean just the organ itself (last week the heart, this week the brain) but it also means nutrition and holistic practices that will make you feel great. Let’s take a deeper look right here:

How can food help with positivity and happiness?

Food isn’t just fuel for our body to exist: there are healing properties in every whole food. Food is information for your body. It’s a cause and effect relationship: what you put into your body will affect your mood, digestion and energy levels (not to mention your overall health.) Whole foods with absorbable nutrients will allow for your body to feel great, your brain to be in good health and your mood to soar. If you listen to your body you will continue to seek those foods that make you feel good. And then there are the ones that don’t...

Inflammation is to blame for a slew of preventable diseases and health conditions, including those of the brain. Inflammation in general has been tied to depression and neurological disease as a catalyst and symptom enhancer. Cutting inflammatory foods like sugar, industrial seed oils, processed grains (anything processed in general), dairy, synthetic foods, chemical additives, and preservatives will help cut down on inflammation.

In short, eat lots of veggies and greens; eat organic and local; eat superfoods, and add in some of these extra food stars that will help with brain function (just to name a few…)

Turmeric

While it’s typically known for muscle recovery because of its anti inflammatory properties, the curcumin aids with symptoms of depression and heightens brain function

Rhodiola

This adaptogen helps lessen cortisol levels while also increasing the sensitivity of dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters.

Lion’s mane

No, it’s not hair snipped from an actual lion’s mane but rather a mushroom that looks like Mufasa hair. It’s known to prevent diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's by targeting neurotransmitters.

Green Tea

Great for a healthy caffeine boost but also keeping the part of your brain that serves memory in tact while also stimulating those same beloved dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters.

Omega-3s

Since our brain is made up of mostly, well, fat, omega-3s are a kind of “good” fight that help reduce systemic inflammation. Many studies have reported it to be a mood booster and depression fighter.

What can I do besides eating my way to a more positive state of mind?

All of those ideas are well and good when you’re living in a naturally happy time. Ya know, when things are aligned for you and you feel like you’re in a good flow. But the healthy eating practices tend to go out the window as soon as there are clouds in the proverbial, mental forecast. Especially when you’re a wellness practitioner: how does someone with the good intention to share health in a joyful way cope with a difficult situation and at the same time inspire wellness within yourself and others? Here are some favorite holistic practices that can be used at any time to keep positivity at a high:

Meditate daily
Deep breathe
Have gratitude
Eat breakfast (even if you’re not hungry aka regulate your system)
Keep it moving + active (activity and blood flow helps balance emotions)
Stay hydrated (dehydration can make you emotionally chaotic)
Remain in contact with friends
Do something for someone else
Go to work (an example of adding purpose to the day)
Laugh, in any place you can find it (even if it is just a rerun of I Love Lucy)
Take baths

This doesn’t have to be your exact list, but create your own and then think of these as your non negotiables (along with eating well, of course). If one of these rituals or practices slips up because life gets in the way, at least you have the others to rely on. You won’t skip on them if they become a part of your everyday life.

Do this in the vein of taking care of yourself so you can spread the love and feed positivity. Energy, after all, is contagious.

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Positive energy and love were the goals this month and every month for that matter. We spoke our truths and shared our heartfelt thoughts and wisdom as it relates to wellness, food, health, and love. We wanted to connect, not just with each other but as a team to generate more love power. We hope you felt it.

Much love,

Jessi + Kara

Our heart, this precious organ. We want to protect it from "-ache” we do not want to get "-broken” we put up walls and shield it from pain. Emotionally speaking that is, but how much effort are we putting into keeping this muscle happy, healthy and well, physically? Our tenacious ticker has the heavy responsibility of pumping blood to other vital organs where a process of giving and take and recharge happens in a matter of a heartbeat so oxygen and nutrients aka fuel can continually feed our body and the heart itself. This is the Jessi short version for busy blog readers however I would like to invite you to take a moment of silence after this reading and give thanks for this masterpiece we call the human anatomy.

The Valentine heart box of chocolate began as a marketing strategy, turns out there is something to be said for giving the gift of “a most nourishing food” This is the very quote that Milton Hershey used to advertise his famous chocolate Kisses over 100 years ago. It is interesting how we associate these feelings of the heart with loving sentiments, yet when it comes to nourishment we tend to err on the side of risk rather than caution?

Ever wonder why we feel so happy after indulging in comfort food. Feels like we received a big hug on our insides, downright giddy. Try cozying up with some of these next time you want to be kind to yourself and give your heart the gift of love:

Tea Time: Tea is the second most-consumed beverage next to H2O. Made up of catechins and flavonoids which are some powerful antioxidants making this a "super" drink. Green, black and white varieties all are shown to reduce our LDL, (the bad cholesterol) that can lower risk of heart disease. The bonus is the calming nature drinking tea has on our mood. Perhaps that is why in some countries we set aside time in our day to savor this cup 'o peace along with some quiet time.
Essential Fats: Yes loves you can eat fat. These "essential" fatty acids, not made in our body, are derived from our eating habits. Foods like salmon, walnuts, soybean (tofu) brussels sprouts, spinach, contain omegas. Almonds and avocados provide monosaturated fats, all which act medicinally caring for the vessels and arteries in our heart; they are the nourishment that assists our ticker in tocking smoothly. Smart choices can mean life or death, and the saturated and trans fats are the ones you want to avoid at all costs. If it has a shelf life of ten years stay away!

Greens greens they are good for your heart: The darker and leafier the better. Making our RDA quota for micronutrients is tricky if you are not eating whole foods. You can get pretty close to perfect accuracy in valuable vitamins, particularly the B’s by loading up on your plant intake. There are plenty of studies that speak to the magnitude of heart-related diseases and just as many studies that show us that we have a chance of reducing risks that include artery hardening and plaque (causing our heart to malfunction) by a rise in folic acid.

So load up on:

Spinach
Collard
Brussels
Broccoli
Moreover, of course, Beans beans they are good for your heart.. oh and legumes: It was a cute and funny rhyme back then, and it is still cute and funny now, what rhymes with legumes? What’s not funny is a possible cardiovascular disease. These pod food varieties provide tons of protein and that super fiber content I discuss below. Low glycemic, something you hear rumblings about around the water cooler but perhaps aren’t sure what that means. Ever heard of the DASH diet? Nope, not one of the Kardashians new fitness crazes, it is the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. Foods that lean towards preventing a rise in your blood sugar, therefore, encouraging balance in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which my friends, is happy heart news.

Get Friendly with Fiber: It is this miraculous mineral that most of us do not get enough because once again, here I go, EAT MORE FRUITS VEGGIES, AND DON’T BE AFRAID OF CARBS. One of the fibers roles in heart protection is its ability to keep us balanced or “regular” as we may have experienced. Better yet, bringing more fiber into your body helps to lower cholesterol, and that is directly related to heart disease. A bonus is that fiber helps us feel full which aids in the cause of smart eating in portions. Back to that balance thing, it is challenging for all of us. Obesity is a scary epidemic which puts toxic stress on our heart, eat fibrous foods for weight management, for a less heavy heart so to speak.
Spice it Up: Experiment with different flavor profiles like fresh herbs and spices:
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Dill
Oregano
Tumeric
Cinnamon
Cumin
Sodium is not bad for you per say but if you are unaware of your portions and content of ingredients in meals you may be getting more than necessary. High blood pressure can add stress to your heart, and sodium overload can put you at risk of heart attack. A simple solution to flavoring your food sans salt is herbs, dried or fresh, ground and whole. I throw whole chunks of ginger with lemongrass and whole basil leaves into a broth and cook for hours on the stove. All that goodness just seeps in, creating bowls of heart love that will make you swoon.

You know those some of the foods we call aphrodisiacs, or“love foods?” They are precisely the same ones we can consume to strengthen heart health, do these sound familiar:

Avocados,
Almonds
Asparagus
Chocolate, yes, even chocolate (choose dark at least 70%). It is both a love drug sending warm fuzzies to our brain waves, and it is a flavonoid-filled antioxidant that fights the damaging free radicals that try to get into our cells and harm us.

If it is indeed true that we are what we eat, and the world joined in on this health campaign, can you imagine the abundance of love this human race would embody? Massive love!

Happy Every-Day-Is-Love-Day Food Athletes!

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Love Your Body,

xo Jessi (Your Food Athlete) x0