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You know how frustrating it is when making a recipe and you don’t have all the ingredients? Now what if the ingredients are not your typical eggs, flour or sugar?
Last night I decided to make my “converted” Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. Converted in a sense that I took a previously unhealthy cookie and powered it up resulting in a recipe that requires some atypical ingredients. Unsweetened applesauce, toasted wheat germ and ground flaxseed.
Apparently I should have checked my cupboards better before starting this potentially doomed recipe since I was missing 3 of the ingredients.

Now to plan the replacements.
I replaced my natural applesauce with canola oil. Replaced my toasted wheat germ with whole wheat flour and replaced the 4 Tbsp ground flax with 1 egg.
Mixed it all together, threw them in the oven and hoped for the best.
They turned out delicious and remained a healthier cookie.

1 week ago yesterday, I sat in a room full of chiropractors as we all soaked in the information that Dr. Bob Rakowski brought to us from his state of Texas. Who is this Dr. Rakowski? To me, he’s on my list of those admired…..I have heard him speak on a variety of topics from Cancer to Fueling the Athlete. He has proven to be extremely knowledgeable over and over again. I have his discs, his extensive powerpoint notes, his supplement protocols and the list goes on.

Like I said…I admire this professional. Why admire him? Well….Dr. Bob Rakowski, DC, CCN, DABCN, DIBAK is a chiropractor, clinical nutritionist, kinesiologist, certified biological terrain instructor, AFMCP graduate, and the Clinic Director of the Natural Medicine Center in Houston, Texas. In addition to running his busy practice, he has lectured nationally and internationally to health professionals on various health topics for over 18 years, and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs as an expert in natural medicine. His patient base includes elite professional athletes, critically ill patients, and patients looking to get the most out of life.
So when Dr. Rakowski included my supplement, Dynamic Health Drink in his presentation and raved about it – that made this girl smile! And I’m still smiling about it!

You may have heard me blog or blab about how excited I am about the development of my very own supplement! Super excited that April 2011 has marked the debut of this “drink” I have had in my head for about 4 years. Way back when I started mixing together different ingredients from Nutrition Dynamics to make my very own power breakfast shake. Long story short – I took a leap, pitched my idea to my fabulous sales rep, did some paperwork to keep it all hush hush and let the excitement build as this dream of mine worked it’s way into your hands.

Some of you have caught a glimpse already or maybe even tried a sample but now it’s available on the website for ordering. It even made it to front and center stage with Greg and Jonathon on NutDyn TV. Check this out! www.nut-dyntv.com

Awesome meal replacement drink, gluten free, loaded with high quality whey protein, probiotics, fruits and veggies, fiber, digestive enzymes from a top quality manufacturer. All at around $2 a scoop or I guess I could say around $2 for “a meal”! So here’s the link www.nutritiondynamics.us Click on Register and enter your information in as a patient using account number 530142. Search for Dynamic Health Drink and you will find it in either Chocolate or Strawberry. Both flavors are fab! You should have it on your doorstep in about 3 business days!

Mix one scoop in 1 – 1 ½ cups of skim milk or water and use it to replace your breakfast to give you a great health-promoting way to start your day! If you are working on losing some pounds then do the same for breakfast but add in another shake for lunch along with about 2 cups of “above ground” vegetables! And then eat a supper of lean protein, fruit, veggies and dairy. If you get hungry between meals you may need to increase your protein to 1 ½ scoops, which you will figure out with some trial and error. And don’t forget a small handful of almonds, hard boiled egg, string cheese, veggies & peanut butter make fabulous snacks if you need a snack.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

So let’s get serious for a minute…we have a couple items to cover.

Oxidative Stress?  Too many free radicals, not enough antioxidants and is suspected of being a contributor to many chronic diseases. 

Free Radicals?  Occur when our body uses oxygen in our body and cause damage to our cells.  Occurs naturally during metabolism and from environmental exposure - pollution, smoking, trans fats in processed foods, etc.  This damage from free radicals increases our risk of many chronic diseases.  Heart disease is one example.  When LDL cholesterol is damaged, or oxidized, by free radicals then it causes harm.  It then attaches to the blood vessel lining, increasing inflammation and leading to atherosclerosis. 

So what’s the goal?  Keep oxidative stress down and free radical damage to a minimum, right?  So how do we do that?  First, eat a wholesome diet including more organic fruits and vegetables while minimizing processed food intake.  These processed foods usually contain bad fats, such as trans fats, which cause more free radical damage.  Every day I teach people how essential it is to modify their behavior to lower their health risk.  Second, reduce your exposure to those environmental pollutants.  And third, learn what you can about minimizing oxidative stress within your body.

As a health care professional, I know Oxidative Stress gets a lot of attention in the medical field.  The other day I entered Oxidative Stress into PubMed.gov and got 85,695 results of research abstracts on oxidative stress linked to various health conditions.    PubMed.gov is the premiere search engine used by health professionals to browse research articles on health conditions.  It is a free online resource developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

So where am I going with is?  Well along with the help of another dietitian and a cardiologist, I have found something else to add to my arsenal of good nutrition to fight for good health!  Protandim.  A product that has very promising research on fighting oxidative stress and free radical damage.  A Nrf2 activator.  Activating the bodies “survival genes” to protect us from free radicals, oxidants and inflammation. 

The science and clinical proof behind Protandim is impressive – which has led to my interest! In fact, a peer-reviewed, human clinical study showed that after only 30 days of taking Protandim, free radicals decreased an average of 40 percent, slowing the progressive aging factors to the level of a 20 year old! View the study.

So I’m fired up!  Super excited to be part of this fight against free radicals and the best part?!  You can join me….there are meetings coming up where you can hear the research presented by a preventive cardiologist and learn more about how this can benefit you!  Email me at nikki@yourdietdesigner.com for more details and information.  Upcoming meetings this weekend March 26th and 27th – something you don’t want to miss!

And here’s the link to the news story – just in case you’re as excited about it as I am! 

www.abchealthreport.com

To be honest, I haven’t been a fan of these slimy fungi.  Basically they have been the nuisance that I have had to pick out of spaghetti sauce or move aside on pizza….or sometimes just eat trying not to notice them.  As I look back over my “mushroom avoidance” days, I realized why I didn’t like them – they were slimy, canned mushrooms.

In the last week I found myself meeting up once again with mushrooms, but in a slightly different situation.  Stuffed with cheese.  To my astonishment, I loved them!  But I must remind you they were stuffed with cheese, and to me cheese is close to the top of my favorite food list!    And the best part?  These mushrooms not only lower my cancer risk by boosting my immune system, but they are packed with potassium, riboflavin, niacin and selenium – what is there not to love?!

So here’s the lil’ stuffed mushrooms that I just can’t seem to get enough of:

Wash and remove stems on organic Baby Bella Mushrooms.  Marinate in light Zesty Italian dressing for a couple hours.  Remove from marinade and place on baking sheet.  Sprinkle with Italian blend cheese.  Bake in 250 degree oven until the cheese melts. 

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

There is just something about chocolate…   It’s a rich treat packed with antioxidants for fighting disease, including the power packed, heart disease fighting flavanols.  And what better time to share one of my favorite chocolate treats but on Valentine’s Day!  Try this with your favorite red wine for a sweet elegant dessert.  Oh….and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Dipped Wine Glasses

1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup light corn syrup, 1/4 cup water, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped

In a saucepan, mix corn syrup, sugar, water and cocoa powder.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent burning.  Remove from heat and stir in the baking chocolate.  Let cool.

I have found it works best to then put it in a small crockpot on warm.  This keeps the chocolate barely warm, which is the perfect temperature for dipping the glasses.  The mixture should be thick, but may need to add water.  Dip the rims of glasses into the chocolate.  Let glasses stand, the chocolate should very slowly run down the sides of the glass.

Enjoy!

Have you heard about the mad scientist and the frog experiment?  Keep in mind I said MAD scientist.  Well, here’s the scoop….This scientist placed a frog on his dissecting table, stood behind the frog and shouted, “Jump, frog, jump!” The frog jumped and the scientist measured the distance.  He then carefully removed one of the frog’s legs, stood behind him and yelled, “Jump, frog, jump!” The frog leaped forward at the noise and the scientist carefully measured the distance again.

Caught a bit of the movie ”Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” this weekend.   Right when the town switched from a town eating everything “sardines” to a town where their favorite foods would rain down on them.  This, of course, resulted in overconsumption of everything they could possibly want with basically an unlimited supply.  And one person, the father of the ”food raining” inventor, questioned how good this was for the city.  The rest of the city, including the mayor, just kept indulging.

As I watched that clip, I realized how this sums up our current health crisis.  We are living in a society where we can have everything we want to eat at basically any time of day.  This has increased our disease risk and rate of obesity.  Tragically we are in a stage of overeating and undernourishment.  Even though many in our society are over their ideal body weight, they are malnourished.  Completely overeating foods that have little to no nutritional value the majority of the time.

The ”food tornado” was the last bit I caught of this movie.  The whole city of “ChewandSwallow” was being tormented by a huge food tornado.  And that’s it, I didn’t get to see how it ends.  

My hope for the real world is that soon we will all realize the “food tornado” we are in.  And the real potential for it not to end well if we don’t all become personally responsible for our food and lifestyle choices.

Acceptance.  Accepting who we are, where we came from, our strengths, our weaknesses, our mistakes and our triumphs.  Accepting that what we chose to do on a daily basis affects our wellness, our desire to be healthy and our ability to enjoy life.   Some personal traits may seem like they may never change; like how some are more likely than others to suffer from a variety of diseases or conditions, or to put on excess weight in certain body areas or having to deal with injuries that may affect how active we are. 

It is important to accept the fact that environment plays a substantial part in how healthy we are.  Also accepting that we must change those things that we can change and have the strength to continue on.

Today, as we start out the new year with hope for new beginnings, thankfulness for all we have been given and anticipation of things to come, my goal for you is to not just set random resolutions.  But to take some time to think of where you are in your life and what direction you would like to go.    Knowing that the goals you set today could take you on an excellent path towards better overall wellness. 

Happy New Year!

Just into the prologue of a new book one of my friend’s loaned me.  He just happens to be a cardiologist who really walks the walk for prevention and nutrition.  And only 3 pages in and I’m hooked!  So what’s the book – Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

So far, I think this book really hits home and will be an interesting read.  As I have progressed through years in this profession, I have vowed to continuously learn and to stay ahead of the changes in nutrition.    As a result I have been educating people on the potential harm of processed carbs and trying to change people from thinking that all fats are bad.  This continues to be an ongoing issue because of all the years of people believing that fats and cholesterol are bad and that eating a higher carbohydrate diet is the answer to good health.

From what I can tell…our ongoing health issues with heart disease, diabetes, chronic inflammatory conditions, etc are a direct result of our environment and the processed diet that most are consuming.  And 3 pages in, sounds like Gary is right there with me when he talks of these “diseases of civilization”.  Can’t wait to read the rest!