7 Steps to Fix Your Gut

I have issues with my gut, and so I've been looking for all different, natural ways to strengthen my stomach lining.

So far I've found this to be really good advice from GAIAM:

SEVEN STEPS TO OPTIMAL DIGESTIVE HEALTH

1. Eat whole, unprocessed foods. Make sure to include plenty of fiber from foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
2. Eliminate food allergies. If you think you have food sensitivities, try an elimination diet. Cut out gluten, dairy, yeast, corn, soy, and eggs for a week or two and see how your gut feels and what happens to your other symptoms.
3. Treat any infections or overgrowth of bugs. Parasites, small bowel bacteria, and yeasts can all inhibit proper gut function. You must treat these infections if you want to heal.
4. Replenish your digestive enzymes. When you don’t have enough digestive enzymes in your gut, you can’t properly convert the foods you eat into the raw materials necessary to run your body and brain. Take broad-spectrum digestive enzymes with your food to solve the problem.
5. Rebuild your rain forest of friendly bacteria. Take probiotic supplements. They will help you rebuild the healthy bacteria so essential to good gut health.
6. Get good fat. Take extra omega-3 supplements, which help cool inflammation in the gut.
7. Heal your gut lining. Use gut-healing nutrients such as glutamine and zinc to repair the lining in your gut so it can resume its normal function.

Here's the full article:

https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/how-to-fix-your-gut-7-steps-to-intestinal-health

Tangy beet and chicken salad helps me with anemia.

I'm prone to anemia and hormonal imbalances. But especially anemia.

While it's nice to go out and have a steak, it's also nice to have a vegetable pitch in. And beets do the trick! Beets are known to help with anemia and also help with female hormonal issues. They are pretty sweet, so anyone prone to diabetes or sugar issues should beets sparingly. Once used properly, beets pack a health punch!


Tangy beet and chicken salad:

• Marinate cutlets in olive oil, lemon, salt, paprika, black pepper, fresh parsley, and a teaspoon apple cider vinegar.
• Bake cutlets at 350 degrees until tender. Leave to cool.
• You can peel and boil about three beets or get canned beets. Either way, chop the beets into large slivers.
• Mince the chicken, and mix the beets and chicken together.
• Add lemongrass salad dressing or cut and dice half an orange and throw it in there. Add desired greens - I like chopped spinach and more parsley.

#Ilovefood

Beautiful Waterways of Aventura

Life Needs Whipped Cream

Since I am not a cardio buff, I have become a diet buff. Diet as in cut carbs, eat lime soaked salad, do light walking and wear an iron maiden waist corset. It beats sweating in spinning class. I dislike sweat. It messes up the very well maintained hair. The downside to this plan is the mass cutting of sweets and particularly, of whipped cream on lattes and blended coffee drinks.

I love whipped cream.

For the last three months I have binged on tomato salsa, lean turkey and a sporadic baked potato. While painful, it definitely helped me from a size 5 to a size 3, thus getting rid of holiday pounds that last well past Christmas, possibly into the next Christmas (and the next, and the next). You HAVE to be vigilant or suddenly you will have a permanent position as Santa!

I had no cookies, no pasta, hardly any milk, thousand grain bread only for breakfast, and major salad, lentils and vegetables up to 7 PM. And lots of tea and water. And during it all I wanted to eat everything!!! Chocolate, cookies, donuts, the house, the moon. Not humans, I would NEVER want to eat people – too tough.

Discipline is a bitch, but it does produce results. I look hot. I’ve really stopped smiling though.

Discipline unfortunately is not static. It’s not like I can go forth and slay Dunkin Dounuts and still be okay. I did that up to age 33 and nothing happened. I remained a size 2 forever, until 36 hit and I suddenly became a bit voluptuous. And after eating the house on Christmas 2013 I put on 15 pounds!

WHA!!!!! ME????

Yes. Me.

So it’s all about either getting up and moving to discipline, or constantly sacrificing for discipline to get results. Fine, I accept this.

But life in its totality must include some whipped cream.  Maybe not the entire can, all at once (unfortunately).  But twice a month on a mocha frappuchino is a must. Or why even bother?

You see, before I began to write this, I went to Nordstrom’s café for a mocha blended storm. It’s better, in my humble opinion, than Starbucks. The wonderful young lady looked at me and asked “Would you like the whipped cream?” And at that moment I realized if I said no I’d burst into tears, so I said “Absolutely!” And then upon finding out my name (for the mocha), the two baristas burst into song – Astrud Gilberto’s “Girl from Ipanema” and the world became a better place.

There is discipline, and then there is joie de vivre. And there is the wisdom to find a happy medium.

Love,

Astrid Franchiska

DISCLAIMER – US Size 3 – 4 is my acceptable size for my physique and health. Smaller or larger sizes may well be optimal for others depending on the physique and health of an individual. Do what is right for you!