Mango in a smoothie is one way to start your healthy morning. Learn about the fruit benefits and get ideas for your smoothie.
You’ll learn all about the mango healthy sides here…
First of all, the stone fruit has a good amount of fiber, so it’s a great morning starter to rev up the gut engines… plus the bright taste and sunny color is going to leave you happy. 🌅
You may not have a choice about what side of the bed you woke up on… but you do have a say in turning that wake-up frown, upside down to prepare you for your better day! 🥭
And saying yes to the fruit means adding vitamins and minerals that you may not have without.
For starters, mangos are loaded with Vitamin C that’s a smart morning staple. It’s the vitamin that has stayed constant in health benefits over the centuries. The “C” could stand for “cure” as it has been. And is a great immunity booster.
Plus, it’s water soluble so you can’t take too much.
The fruit is also a good source of Vitamin A good for eyesight and dry eyes if that’s you.
Mangos are inexpensive and found year-round in the U.S so there’s nothing stopping you.
You can get a fresh juice in seconds for less than you would pay for a soda loaded with sugars.
And if you think a mango is loaded with sugar… you’re right. It’s like a pineapple in that way. And mango has more sugar than low-sugar cookies.
…But the 20 or more vitamin and mineral benefits offset the sugar sides as shown in a 12-week study.
The findings include that despite the high sugar amount in a mango, the blood sugar in study participants tested lower as a deemed low-glycemic index food.
That’s what actually counts more than the printed sugar count on a cookie package.
And that news can be a game changer for pre-diabetes, preventing or even managing Diabetes if that’s a concern.
It also is named an anti-inflammatory food… that we like! And is good for everyone to protect against chronic inflammation and diseases.
Because of the polyphenol and fiber counts, eating a mango does good to help offset the gut-inflammatory aspects.
And in my own tests, my skin doesn’t crawl when I eat them… and is probably adding a rainbow glow and erasing lines. 😊
Which btw, you can probably guess what rainbow polyphenols are living in a mango based on its Goldenrod bright orange (paper) color. There was a Vitamin A hint above.
Found in carrots too, mangos have beta-carotene. They also have quercetin (found in apples and onions) as part of the great mango tango.
…And maybe that makes you dance inside a ‘lil 💃🏻 or look at a mango more positively than before.
Or even consider mango as a smoothie starter.
Add a banana and water or milk, and you’ve got a solid mango smoothie!
But you don’t have to stop there…
You can add all the healthy ingredients that help your gut, detox, and provide vitamins and antioxidants on top of mango!
You can pucker up with lemon that’s a winter citrus. It has a summer fruit reputation despite its year-round availability.
And for a third taste dimension, add ginger and turmeric that would make a super mango smoothie, that’s an anti-inflammatory powerhouse.
Tropical smoothie drinks is something we gravitate toward in the hot months. 🥭
A smoothie is one of the easiest meals you can make. You need no cooking skills. A little imperfect chopping and peeling is about all you need.
Oh, and a little clean up skills never hurts.
And with restaurant prices going up, up, and up, you can save money making your own fresh smoothies at home.
The cost of smoothie ingredients is a fraction of the cost. You save money when you’re the smoothie maker.
There is no waiting time.
So let’s begin with… these tropical smoothie treats that are made with an easy blender that’s all you need.
I use a Magic Bullet that’s a small, easy blender. It looks like a capsule. You add your chopped ingredients and pulse.
Then you have a delicious and nutritious smoothie with no added sugar. You can let your imagination go wild.
With a Magic Bullet, it’s important to maintain a good seal. The machine comes with a rubber seal ring, but be sure when you’re cleaning that you don’t accidentally throw it out.
And when you replace, get a good, same size one… otherwise you’ll get leakage.
These are a few tropical smoothie drinks that’ll remind you of being poolside or in the tropics somewhere with blue waters:
Pina Colada Avocado – cream of coconut, pineapple. I find this drink is naturally super sweet, so I ground with a balancing avocado and greener banana. You can also add a layer of greens.
Mango Green Smoothie – a mango smoothie stands on its own. And like a pina colada, it can be sweet so balancing with a kale or spinach layer will tame down the drink.
They are not difficult to spot grocery shopping and easy to incorporate into your daily healthy lifestyle. This article is about anti-inflammatory healthy foods that will give your body and wallet the best bang for the buck, so you can have a healthy year and future.
…And that’s something to get excited about and celebrate. 🎉
…Which btw, I’m all about celebrating. That was how I started my career as a hotel catering sales manager and later for restaurant parties. My job in those roles was to plan event menus with prepared food dishes and desserts that made hosts and guests attending happy. These days, in similar fun festive spirit, I still do this at home weekly.
Party planning is fun, and it’s good to come up with a sweet and savory spread to enjoy in moderation and share on a celebration table of joy!
…But healthy-minded.
And to offset the happy food (that’s not always healthy), I bake in and eat lots of anti-inflammatory healthy foods in between.
Because anti-inflammatory foods help to work against all the foods and bad adds that are not helping our bodies.
Many of the good adds are plant-based foods and their anti-inflammatory properties are meant to protect the plant for survival.
…And as consumers, we benefit. 🎉
When I realized that fact, I never looked at my produce house plants grown from seeds in the same way again. 🌱🥑
Shelling out out the greens 💸for the green healthy foods is an investment in our bodies. And if you’re a green thumb, maybe you grow your own! 🥬
There are endless variety lists of healthy foods (and that’s the exciting part I’m talkin’ about!).
Elevating to the next degree is putting on AI (as in Anti-Inflammatory) glasses 👓 to choose low-glycemic foods and rainbow polyphenol foods 🌈
That’s just another way to finding anti-inflammatory healthy foods all around us.
They prevent free radicals in the body that I learned about in my college days when revealed science was already ahead of its time.
I even hung up a poster from the American Cancer Society that promoted basic whole foods like apples, oranges, and avocados. The colorful poster made me happy, splashed against my wall of poster art that was popular to do in those days.
…Ah, but those were the innocent years when adults didn’t know that healthy Omega-3 fats and nuts would be deemed good one day. How nuts! 🥜
…And those were also the days I educated my vitamin supplement consumers I had on the power of super foods with Vitamins A, C, and E that thankfully hasn’t changed healthy value much over the test of time. If anything, they are even more sought after in these longer living years.
Vitamin C was used to cure scurvy as early as the 1700s and today is a top immunity booster.
These Vit-C anti-inflammatory foods are the same healthy foods found around the world that protect against the common chronic diseases that we know, like: heart diseases, lifestyle born diseases, certain cancers, and even cognitive decline… that’s becoming more common family table talk on the rise.
…But it doesn’t have to be this way.
We can point to people who inherited pretty good or great genes, but now look decades older than their age because of lifestyle choices or causes.
Then there are others who weren’t so gene-blessed, but despite their genes they chose to live a healthy lifestyle and you would never know their unfavorable hidden genes based on their active lifestyle and healthy appearances.
One big difference for either is how they take care of themselves in life. Healthy, they protect their mind, body, and spirit, and they have purpose and community.
Anti-inflammatory foods and beverages also helped carry them into their golden years so they could optimally live.
Anti-inflammatory healthy foods is self-care in action.
The healthy foods can be weaved into daily eating habits and even baking… I know this intimately well because I do it weekly.
You can make delicious and comforting Southern-type meals and bakes with anti-inflammatory ingredients. It’s mindful and can be simple effort tweaks with an anti-inflammatory recipe.
Replacing with anti-inflammatory ingredients instead of the inflammatory, processed ones (that offer little to no nutritional value) makes a world of difference to the body.
Take a Southern dish like collard greens. Instead of loading with butter and bacon (like a stuffed potato), additive choice could be to add capers and olive oil as a healthy version. For a foodie, that tastes great and is comparable in the wallet for a food shopper. 🛒
But ah… there are traditionalists who don’t want to change a generational recipe… or find that style bland.
The challenge benefit is that if you do change it up, your tastes will help change along with you.
And that’s one way where you can improve your health legacy from previous generations. If your ancestors knew better or had better ingredients, they would have used them.
…And we do today. So we have a better choice.
It’s up to us.
Believe me, I know it’s hard to eat skinny, healthy, lean and mean during wintery months when comfort food is calling. This help keep us Vatas warm and cozy.🧶
Plus, winter season is a natural time to bring out our sad or sleepy Kapha body and mind sides. We’re complex beings in our comfort pants 😉.
And that’s when you can bring out the warm, savory healthy foods and anti-inflammatory healthy, delicious bakes to the table.
…And for starting the day and changing journey. 🌅
In mine, I took a sweet tooth cereal breakfast to a healthy savory habit.
That was not an easy path until I made up my mind.
Plus, age is on our side. Our taste buds help us out as we have less sweet taste buds as we get older.
Changing habits and ways to match desires is the challenge that gets to the goal. 🎯
It’s made easier with baby step action, habit changes.
…Like entertaining the idea of dinner leftovers for an easy breakfast or prepared vegetables for starters. And then doing it!
Even if we don’t naturally gravitate toward veggies first. 🙋🏻♀️
…Or we’ve created a habit of cereals and croissants.
I grew up that way along with oatmeal and fruit.
To bridge the wide gap, I made it easy on myself… I found that raw veggies eaten the next day don’t need to be refrigerated or prepared. So they’re easy to grab-n-go.
…They can be left out in plain sight even when feeling morning groggy and waiting to drink a cup of coffee.
The habit can be as easy as drinking a glass of water or brushing your teeth, first thing.
And getting in those few pieces of fiber healthy foods revs up the engine. It gets the gut happy, and that helps us get happy.
Happy gut = happy empowered day. 😊
Water and healthy foods are the gas and oil that makes the car go without hiccups so we can have a healthy life.
And these are a few simple fiber and anti-inflammatory healthy foods you can add to your diet that require little to no prep. They are healthy good if you’re on a keto diet of sorts because of the net carbs factor (in case you’re counting):
Asparagus – it’s a prebiotic fiber food that feeds your gut good food (bacteria) and has Vitamins A, C, and E. The net carbs for 6 spears of asparagus is about 2 grams. That’s pretty darn good!
But, with an anti-inflammatory diet rainbow assortment of foods 🌈, you don’t really need to count the good.
Green lentils – this is a quick cook, protein-filled meal and is a cleanse. It has almost 16 grams of fiber per cup, and sometimes double that of other lentil types. This is where reading labels comes in handy!
Add your alliums like onions or garlic that are fiber and also immunity boosters.
Bug pests hate them as well as viruses like the common cold. You can buy these whole foods in bunches for pennies to the dollar and they last a long time.
Sunflower seeds – are full of protein and Vitamin E, an antioxidant. You can add these for crunch.
And maybe even imagine them instead of chips.
Avocado – is great for breaking a fast (like breakfast). It has Vitamins C and E antioxidants and has all 3 macronutrients.
Red bell peppers – were stuffed peppers in my catering days that became a Vegetarian dish we served. With a little rice, you can make this a meal stuffed with Vitamins A, C, and E.
Squash – like spaghetti squash and butternut squash sauce can be the new tomato sauce (especially if you’re avoiding high acidity). These nutrient-dense healthy foods are polyphenol-rich, anti-inflammatory good.
Spinach – is an easy one to add to a bowl. Spinach doesn’t expire quickly like other salad types… and rather than eating it as a cold salad, try adding a few drops of water and steaming.
Your greens get wilted down into one or two bite-fulls. With a little garlic, sweet pear or apple bits, and crunchy chopped walnuts, this becomes a delicious bite. And, 1 cup of spinach is about 1 net carb gram.
My plan starts with foods winning points for the body keeping score, like the ones described with veggie fiber, healthy oil, protein, and healthy carbs.
Certain protein foods like quinoa and lentils are an efficient cooked starter as they cook fast and fill the body with nutrients and keep you from feeling hungry.
And, quinoa cereal became one of my bridge foods from sweet to savory.
Then on Sunday brunch weekends, I make Greek yogurt parfaits. Almost everything on my brunch recipes table that looks white and creamy is probiotic yogurt healthy. That goes for the tartar sauce, “whipped cream” toppings, and sweet fillings.
Rarely, do I find a need to use the whipped cream that’s stored in my freezer. And these days, I think the tart yogurt tastes better with the paired sweets.
…That’s how your tastes can change!
Greek yogurt topped on a pumpkin trifle. 🧡
And these are 3 ways you can get inspired to add and eat more anti-inflammatory healthy foods:
1.Lean into the seasonal produce foods that interest you. Like squashes, citrus, apples, pumpkin, and winter berries. You can find so many new fruit varieties like jackfruit and dragon fruit on the grocery shelves (and so many others that haven’t even made it from our tropical climate lands to our markets where they are named).
2.Reinvent sides. The stuffing sides can be what gets some of us in trouble, and if the carbs is what you’re worried about, you can reinvent the starchier side carbs to work for your body.
Stick with veggies carbs that are the opposite and with very few calories, and some have great flavors such as mushrooms, asparagus, and onions that you can turn into a Provencal herby-forward experience with a little tarragon, white pepper, vinegar or sherry.
Carrots (raw and cooked) are so versatile for sweet and savory dishes where you can substitute the fun marshmallows with a divine anti-inflammatory diet pairing like ginger and nut or seed textures. Appreciating food textures is a no-calorie add. 💭
3.Make healthy desserts. This is my specialty area and weakness turned into a positive, net gain.
It’s no baking secret that butter and refined sugars add to weight gain. And ingredients like white flour and white sugar are inflammatory foods. Moderation is still the best modern way.
Plus incorporating more healthy foods to add a cushion.
Keeping a balance between tasty and healthy is a dynamic pairing duo.
And the sweet spot is they are usually easy bakes in minutes like a healthy pear or apple pie with cinnamon spice sweetness.
You can make a pumpkin pie from pumpkin puree that’s loaded with antioxidant Vitamin A and beta carotene. Mix in plant-based almond milk. Then add allspice that’s all anti-inflammatory goodness as the sweet five-spice version!
For holiday sweets, you can start with those whole food ingredients like cranberries with oranges or sweet potatoes and honey and holiday spices… and then zhugh up with a few cherries or nuts…
You don’t have to give up the party sides 😉 (I personally wouldn’t want to from all my party planning years).
All this to say, re-branding healthy foods into your daily life is rewarding to your body and food table, enjoyable, and a challenge you can embrace! 🎉
Chai balls are a warming festive sweet snack that energize ✨ any table and that and goes well with tea… well, chai. These are easy NO BAKE. 🫖
These chai balls look like truffles (…yes?) and are as delicious, but are also anti-inflammatory healthy.
They are made from all plant-based ingredients. Recipe below. 🧡
Chai spice or tea is also Ayurvedic healthy and good for balancing Vata body mind type tendencies. You’ll know chai is good for your moods this season if you desire a cup. 😊
That’s Ayurveda in a nutshell as it leans in your natural preferences. And this applies to the modern West that meets traditional East.
Chai usually has cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, that will help warm up Kapha (winter) feelings.
And if you find the kind of chai tea bags or loose tea that has (black) pepper in its ingredients, you get additional health benefits.
Cardamom and pepper are an anti-inflammatory Wonder Twins pairing. Together, they’re activated (and you don’t need a magic ring 💍).
Another idea is I like a dash of cardamom coffee on those sluggish mornings for a little pick-me-up jolt.⚡️
Not to mention, adding cloves that’s at the top of the anti-inflammatory list.
With all those spices in chai, you’re doing yourself a world of good by helping protect against some chronic diseases (that could develop later down the road but take a hike instead).
The healthy molecules are meant to protect the plants they come from, and (us) humans benefit as final consumers.
I like to think of chai balls like a holiday Pfefferneusse cookie you would find at a Christmas Market, but does a world of good for your body. 🎄
…AND, you don’t have to travel anywhere and can make these sweet festive or holiday snacks in seconds.
Gathering the ingredients in your house is where the tasty effort will go if they’re already in your cupboard.
And if not, you can easily find and get them from your grocery source.
They are ingredients that can be used again and have long shelf-life…
They also make for seasonably warm drinks like cocoa and calming chai tea to name a few. And also molasses cake and simple cookie bakes that have worked for generations to bring smiles to faces no matter the situations. 🥮
…Which reminds me, I was near an old-fashioned Moravian baking oven and the simple and wholesome ingredients they used inspired me.
They’re the same healthy ingredients we have around today (maybe a little more pure without sprays).
And we can make these chai cookies with the Moravian baking spirit ✨ for our winter break, Christmas holidays, or daily reading. They’re fun and easy to share.
De-stress is highly called for during the thick of holiday season and looming year-end goal deadlines. Because stress can build up fast any day like a ton of bricks. And can go away just as quickly like a tumbling over Jenga set.
But these types of short-term stressors are different than life long-term stressors that often don’t have a quick ending resolve. You can use the 5 reminders below today to help you through your waiting process.
You can also use short-term de-stress feelings and the useful reminders throughout this article to help you with your long-term stress situations.
…Like for me, I use baking as a way to de-stress and relax after a work week. It keeps me on my toes, literally. I prepare a sweet table of goods and choux.
A healthy Greek yogurt tear-and-share raspberry-pistachio Paris Brest and lemon coconut choux.
…and you too can create your table to help shoo-away stress, and celebrate de-stress.
What isn’t so easy to de-stress restore is undercurrent effects and emotional turmoil stored in the mind-body coming from long-term stress that’s hard to identify.
Those are usually invisible sources which means they’re not as easy to pinpoint and process: like dreams unrealized or deep trauma.
…Or areas of life that haven’t gone the way you wanted.
But unlike long-term stress sources, short-term stresssources are easier to describe with people, things, work deadlines and tasks involved. They are temporary thorns to the side or lasting for a season that has an end (like holiday season end).
Experiencing those temporary stressors mean you’re alive, putting yourself out there, and trying in this life! 🎉
And your gained experiences coming out of stressful situations won’t go wasted in your future as they help you build resilience and adaptability (that make you more productive and joyful, not leaning in on the negative emotions).
Plus, you can productively use the short-term stress situations to de-stress feel-good when they’re immediately over.
Then your heart beats its normal speed again and you do a happy dance inside for your accomplishments. 🫀
…Like when you make a deadline and now the work is out of your hands.
…You feel lighter as the weight is lifted and you get a quick sigh of relief.
Those de-stress happy relief feelings can last for a day or weeks, but they gradually wear off.
But through the process of handling stressful situations and then experiencing them go away, that teaches us for the next time… that things will be okay.
And those lessons carry you to help handle the long-term stress situations that sit as elephants-in-the-room for any season, usually season after season. 🐘 🐘
They’re overhanging in this season of your (and my) life. The problem hasn’t resolved or the dream hasn’t transpired yet.
This can be a few things or big areas in your life…
…And I know how that goes because I started out without balance where I had wheel-of-life (real wheel) problems that felt like I was wrapped around tornadoes. 🌪️
But the problems… no matter what they were, became less problematic as I grew because I gained more experiences and resilience. I also prayed for answers. And my self-care wheel grew.
Eventually coming out of each of those tough situations taught me the most about how to handle stress better and embrace a better life meant for me.
…And your challenging areas in your life have grown you the most. ⛰️
Long-term Stressors are Your Future Dreams
Those long-term stressors from decades ago (that are still around 🐘) are setups for your future dreams realized. ✨
They are what will be your Future Life that has more meaning and purpose than how you started off as an adult.
They will be part of your destiny… and they will lead you away from a ho-hum life that you’re not meant to live.
The sweet spot for you today is to see them as part of a long-term plan and believe they are already yours in the future.
But wisely let them go now if the timing isn’t right.
One day the stars will align in perfect timing for those dreams manifested. Just know they are yours.
In that mindset, you keep going and growing in your life now.
Also, connect-the-dots and remind yourself that your big dreams are in your recurring problems. Yes, they are!
And when you find the blessing in your problems today, you bypass unnecessary stress.
The problems in disguise will deliver you to your dreams on the other side that will change shape, form, and clothes. 😊
Those tough areas of life today that don’t seem to have any resolve in sight can take many twists and turns, heart and headaches, and often many years to come to pass…
They’re the recurring situations that keep showing up as a thorn to your side when you least expect or hope would resolve.
But most likely, they fly in and out of your life and then disappear from view again. But they are not outta the picture, even though they’re not fully visible yet.
They re-appear from time to time as reminders to keep us humble and from doing things and making decisions that we would regret later on.
…And they’re the same thorns that are meant to be turned into victory roses (dreams) later down the destiny road on your designed path.
…No matter what age you are, you have those thorny dreams right now in your life.
You know exactly what your big dream is that has shown up before in some way you know, even if you’re still wondering.
And how you manage your long-term stressor feelings is going to affect your daily life outcomes, physical, and mental health.
…So stay curious, not furious.
The dream triggers and memory reminders are hints for you to keep dreaming about this are, like you do when you’re motivated to fulfill accomplishments.
Except these big dreams blow the little victories away.
Jobs and accolades you acquire will pale in comparison to your dream purpose in this life.
If your dream purpose didn’t show up again occasionally, you wouldn’t know it can be real or leave room for chances.
You wouldn’t be leaving room for the possibilities… where anything is possible in this life.
And this life is meant to be a big adventure (as none of us know the future).
The choice is yours as to whether you embrace that what happens to you is good for you (and not a bad setback).
Enjoy the ride!
I know sometimes that can be easier said than done (or may seem like pie-in-the-sky thinking)… so in those times, simply start by working on stressing less as nothing good comes from stressful feelings.
And, a good de-stress reminder is:
Remember to keep failing forward.
…Especially on your personal growth attempts (to be a better person).
And remember to keep trying because anything worth pursuing won’t be easy.
If it were easy, you’d never appreciate what you got because you didn’t work to get it.
And these are 5 good de-stress reminders to help you through the season and the holidays especially when long-term stressors show up or blow up again…
De-Stress Reminders Around Holidays
1.Get peace.
If it’s meant to be, it will happen.
Find your peace.
Right now, today, and in this moment your life deserves peace.
Both calm inner peace and peace about your decisions.
Use discernment for decisions needed to be made and clarity from baby or micro step actions forward.
You’re meant to live whole, loving, and healed today.
(The opposite of living in fear or feeling something inside you is missing or broken).
You’re not a victim to your circumstances… and you can break out of those feelings and mindset in your journey.
“Let the peace of God rule in your heart.” – Colossians 3:15
2.Congratulate yourself on how far you’ve come in your situation.
Reflect on how far you’ve come with your same and recurring stressful situations that used to be so painful in some way.
When you don’t care so much about the situations causing stress anymore as you once did, that’s a healthy move because you’re letting go (and letting light in).
You’re also naturally learning to de-stress some in the process.
Continue to live celebrating your internal wins daily while life is working things out in your favor for the aligned perfect timing. ✨
3.Believe in good things to come.
Believe that what you’re going through and have gone through (…maybe painfully) will help your situation in the end and on the other side. 🌈
Waiting, setbacks, disappointment, and delays now are purposefully setups for your comeback and life appointments.
You can be a victor now by changing your feelings, relaxing, and de-stressing.
Your waiting and what you’re going through now won’t last, but your dreams will come to pass and they will last!
4.Keep going forward and growing healthy.
Keep growing and learning despite your stressful situations.
Keep changing your thoughts to positive, loving ones.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” -Roman 12:2
Your other life-giving areas of your life are meant for this season. 🌱
Cherish them today, because they will change one day.
Use them to help you de-stress through your worry, thorn situations.
5.Keep a de-stress routine.
Find a way to de-stress every day.
I like a warm cup of tea. 🫖
I also do 4-7-8 breathing: inhaling in the gratitude and exhaling stressful negative energy.
When I felt the weight of my situations, I made sure to re-center myself back on my yoga mat and think about what I would be looking forward to later in the week and at nights.
Daily, I stay grateful for what I have in life as part of my habit stack routine. We all have things to be appreciative of in our lives… shoes and socks, showers, food, roof, lights, tea…
And my peaceful ritual every night is at 5:30 pm while working and I’m waiting for the daily sky show to light up.
Looking up and glancing out my western facing windows from my seat, I see the sky colors gradually change from day to night.
I do a little work and then look back up to see the dark rainbow colors change like an Aurora Borealis display.
Occasionally there are late afternoon storms. I find those cleansing. I appreciate the thunder claps and silvery pitter patter rain drops.
It’s not about the type of show I get, it’s about the day and night showing up for me that I take personally.
Every day like clockwork for a half-hour, I pause and a new painted sky happens, often in shades of purple, orange, blues and whites, and that reminds me that EVERYTHING will be all right as promised.
…the sunset show is my de-stress therapy for this season. 🌅 And maybe that’s something to embrace in your changing season.
