And in that spirit, this week I’m sharing about an American baking tool that I love, that has been tested over the course of baking time.
Keeping them around has sentimental value. Some tools can last a lifetime and are especially worth investing in!… 😀
And some lives last over a century, like Centenarian lives in Blue Zone regions, such as Sardinia where they make weekly sourdough and the starter is passed down from generations.
Some of the greatest baking finds are not new ideas, and get better over time.
That’s the scrapbooker memory keeper in me. And the baker …I’m a long-time Martha fan admirer for all the baking and home making skills she brought to the table.
This was a photo of me sitting in her TV audience back when her Martha show aired. She looks almost exactly the same… and now I’m dating myself. 😊
Martha Stewart Live 2010
Which btw, did you also hear about Martha Stewart’s Great American Tag Sale? If you’re into antiquing and knick knacks, her team setup great big giant tents of original stuff from her homes and collections so others could enjoy while she’s still busy working in her gardens.
… I would have loved to have picked through all that cookware and home decor, and maybe have picked up a cute Grandmillennial mint vase or even her butter knife she uses 😉.
But oh well, next time…
Speaking of big white tents, they aren’t just in America. We can watch TheGreat British Bake Off aired as The Great American Baking Show.
I had my own bake-off time this week for a chilled dessert good for brunch or any low-sugar break time you have a sweet craving.
Here’s what I do on baking day (or baking game day) that for me is weekends.
I start out by pulling out my baking tools in the morning. If there’s a crusty trace of ingredient love from my last baking, I like to take a pick and do a little grooming.
That’s meditation time spent in the kitchen.
Some pans are meant to be better over baking time like stoneware. The more worn, the better the bake taste. And some tools need a little TLC (tender loving crusty bit cleaning).
One is my favorite baking tool that you likely have in your stash. It’s the thick Pyrex measuring glass that many American kitchens have.
It’s great for one-bowl bakes for one person bites or when you have a sweet hankering. Like a giant healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that you can take a bite out of for breakfast.
I used to eat the DoubleTree cookie kind when I worked in catering management there that led to my passion purpose. 🍪 Back when comparing grocery cookies was something I would do.
The measuring glass baking tool has proven its usefulness many times over. It’s labelled for conversions from mL, to ounces and cups.
It’s useful for measuring liquids in bakes. That includes oils for less spills and more thrills.
If you’re thinking of investing in this kitchen tool if you don’t already have one, don’t get the plastic version… get the real deal.
It will stand the test of time.
Glass is eco-friendly, great for heat, dishwashers, and easy cleaning.
Glass is also breakable but the glass Pyrex is durable and thick and can sometimes survive falls to the kitchen floor.
Quality ware is part of the hand-me-down-culture that you don’t want to discredit.
A good Pyrex glass pan makes a good hand me down and a Bundt pan is always a great gift to a new baker.
Baking Organization
Early in my baking years, I didn’t bake often enough to practice good baking habits and organization. There was no method to the madness!
Habits and practice help for easy bakes when you don’t wanna think too much about what you’re making. You want to enjoy your music or what’s going on in the background.
And the Pyrex measuring cup can help you with this.
My Pyrex faux pas (lesson learned) early on was that I was using the measuring glass all wrong.
I used it for measuring baking ounces.
Baking recipes these days are usually in cups, grams, mL and/or teaspoons depending on the recipe (if you’re using one).
I used ounces because I first learned to read in ounces that’s still commonly found in traditional American cookbooks like the red and white tablecloth cover Better Homes New Cookbook.
So… often I was looking at the ounces and wrong measuring line and doing manual conversions in my head.
In baking, that can be a disaster and result in a bake that gets “well, at least it tastes good!” There’s a fine line difference between a creative and tasty bake and well-done bake.
This is a low-sugar dessert treat good for brunch as it has egg whites, Greek yogurt, and ricotta. It has a chewy light and spongy texture that's great served chilled or cool.
Separate eggs. Tip: It's easier to separate eggs when they're cold and then let them sit until room temperature.
Combine yogurt, cheese, and egg yolks by hand.
Mix egg whites for about 5-7 minutes until whipped up. Optional: a few teaspoons of monkfruit or fine sugar. Depending on your baking pan/vessel size, you will have extra and can make meringue cookies with the extra.
In your baking pan, add a layer of black cocoa (or regular cocoa will work).
Add your yogurt dairy mixture layer.
Add your egg whites and spread out evenly on top of the dairy layer.
Bake on 325°F until set or the meringue is not too soft and sides may start browning.
Let cool and serve chilled. This can be paired with ice cream.
Healthy baker recipes can be inspired by shows like The Great British Bake Off. And I share a healthy phyllo dough recipe for baklava below. Yes, you can make your own and have fun! 🤩
It’s no secret that 1) I’m a healthy baker, so I wanted to share some of my tips this week below. And 2) I’m a huge fan of The Great British Bake Off (or Baking Show). I’m loving this season’s debut and I especially love the baker’s use of unusual flavors and creative designs shown off under the big white tent so far.
It’s always fun to laugh along at Noel’s unicorn jokes and rainbow outfits. And to hear the judges pronouncing oregano like origami (I’ll never look at my spices the same again 😁)… or calling tacos like calling a taxi (…wait a New York minute, how did corn flour tortillas get in this past week’s technical challenge?)
Both are a sign that popular international foods and ingredients are making their rounds besides in tortillas. Plus, fruit shortages and inflation have us creatively sourcing foods and collaborating, which are helping to save our planet.
And being able to make your own anything anywhere is helpful, so you don’t feel helpless and rely on the world to produce. Thinking like a creative baker (or cook) is a helpful skill these days.
…And blends well with an anti-inflammatory diet full of healthy food ingredient variety, where you can lean into seasonal plant-based foods spanning the globe.
I look for international food sources that are everywhere and cropping up in leaps and bounds. Daily, the Earth is revolving AND evolving its own sustainable foods that we can appreciate especially in local gardening or farmer markets. So, be expectant for food births of new kinds 🍓
And actually… I picked up my own local international flavor combinations with fresh blackberries, and chokeberry-prune purees, as I work my way into fall (… both my feet aren’t into the pumpkin season just yet 🎃).
I did get some blackberries squirted in my eye… but luckily no black eyes, as that would make it a challenge to make this week’s cinnaroll full of Ceylon and cassia cinnamon for anti-inflammatory sweetness 😊
Fall fruit plate (kiwi, blackberries, and apples) with Ceylon cinnamon rolls
…When I was growing up, kiwifruit was considered an exotic fruit that today is as common as year-round pineapple juices.
And when I come across 2 sticks of butter or a cup of sugar in a cookie or pastry recipe, it reminds me of my younger years. These days, I tend to steer away (…as growing up will do that to you!) and find healthy substitutes for both mind and body.
I’m a sugar lover by nature (most of us Vatas are) and I remember when I was a child and I would reach into the sugar jar (for baking of course!) and help myself to a few daily teaspoons of refined sugar. That set me on the path to an adult sweet tooth where I needed daily sweets to keep me going…
Despite sugar making more than just news feeds… the fact is that it’s also feeding the bad bugs in the gut.😏
And individually we all get body warnings from our skin and health symptoms. Everyone is different. So, for me, I can enjoy a couple of Twizzlers and be better off than a few squares of chocolate. God put the Twizzler makers on the earth for a reason 😉
And for you, it could be something else. And certain fruits or ingredients can throw others off. It’s good to be discerning and a little picky this way.
If you want to know what your body is trying to tell you through its daily symptoms, take the minute-and-a-half Body Balance Quiz and then take it again next season and compare the result.
So now that we got the body squared away, here are my healthy good-mood baking tips this week from me, the healthy baker…
First of all, some of us are messy bakers that can be part of the fun, and others of us are neat bench bakers. Whatever you think you are, it’s all good! 👍
I tend to be a planner and a neat healthy baker cleaning up as I go, so my tips come from that POV and can help you if you want to lean more into that.
Either way, you can still bake up a storm and change your bakes at the last minute. Why? For creativity, and for the purpose of using baking to relax. …That can be a new reason to bake!
Oh, aannd if you’re a baking show addict, I’ve added some highlighted inspo from the Great British Bake Off… and hope I don’t come across too cheeky! 😉
So here we go!
Baking Prep Inspo Tips:
1. Read your recipe and know the ingredients you need before the baking day so you know what you need to get from the store at least a day ahead.
2. Prepare what you will bake in the morning and then bake later in the day. Healthy baker or not, often doughs need time to rest or rise (…sounds a lot like us peeps).
And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten to take the eggs out early enough so they warm up. And if eggs are your way of giving a shine to your bakes, that’s critical because egg whites and yolks mix together better at room temperature.
3. And if you pull out your tools that you’ll need, early in the day, you can rinse off and allow enough time to dry out, so you don’t have to do drying, prepping, and baking together which can feel like a real chore and take the fun out of baking.
And especially if you need to concentrate on counting your layers for lamination and making sure there’s not a drop of moisture that can affect your temperamental meringues.
4. Bring out a convenient bowl or plate for all your used baking tools and baking trash so you don’t have to think so much. Ah, baking can be relaxing (when it’s not in the tent)!
5. Keep a damp towel or a few moist paper towels nearby so you can use them whenever you need to wipe your hands or any fun spills… or when you need to reach for your phone or swipe to your recipe.
6. Read your recipe a second time and then mark the dry ingredients and wet ingredients and write any notes you have. Then pull out the ingredients for baking.
…OR, If you’re not using a recipe, jot down what you need for your bake vision, and bring out the visual ingredients. Visual is also good for illusion bakes that the GBBO contestants often have to whip out! 🪄
When you’re using healthy baker ingredients, you especially want to use the most useful tool you have… your pair of eyes 👀 as a double check. Is the dough or batter too thick, thin or moist, or what do you need to add? If you use gluten-free flours they tend to collapse easily.
7. For many sweet or bread bakes, I like to add the flour first to see how much water, other liquid, or moist ingredients are needed.
After the dry and wet, I add leavening agents last to optimize rise if it’s a cake or bread. Plus then you are less likely to forget, as now that’s Step 3 (e.g. dry, wet, and then leavening agent). That’s just the way this healthy baker found works best for “experimental” bakes.
Baking doesn’t always go as planned in the oven and depending on the weather. Chemistry in the kitchen can be tricky.
8. While a whisk looks fancy and is one of my favorites (good chemistry there), it’s only good to use sometimes, as most of the time it’s not a good tool to use and is more of a hassle than its worth.
When to use a whisk: fluffing or whisking eggs, dry ingredients OR wet ingredients, but not both (like more flour than wet) that can make a sticky mess on your whisk. You can replace with a silverware spoon instead… or you’ll be spending time cleaning your whisk and risk a claggy bake (that Prue would point out and you wouldn’t want to inadvertently glue Paul’s mouth). 😁
9. For multi-layer cakes, weigh your flour in grams (instead of measuring cups if you can) and then you can help prevent uneven lopsided cakes. The Brits have it right and as GBBO Prue and Paul like to say at judgment time, “it’s a bit wonky.” 😉 …or “it’s on the lean” like a Leaning Tower of Pisa cake.
Oh and if it’s a Printzregententorte Cake that most of us can’t pronounce (and barely fits written on one line), you don’t want to leave each layer to chance.
If you’re not a GBBO watcher, that was one of Judge Prue’s technical challenges last season when Judge Paul counted all the missing layers. 🍰 Now you’re up to speed on the show. 📺
10. For recipes that have you separate dry and wet ingredients before mixing, it’s best to keep the salt away from the leavening agent (e.g. bicarbonate/baking soda, baking powder, or yeast). This can be easier to do if you follow tip# 7. Think of the flour as the soil and you want to add your other ingredients to different parts of the soil.
11. Clean your bowls and tools as you wait for your desserts to rest or bake. That way when you’re done, you reward yourself with your dessert like you’re a guest and not the dishwasher.
.12. Use your your oven light and timers to visually see and not forget. Depending on how much time you have (or how patient you are), low and slow can prevent soggy bottoms (that I don’t need to mention are a big no-no in the tent).
13. I like to use long toothpicks to test baked doneness, but like Prue pointed out in one past episode, you could run into a piece of fruit and be deceived. My alternate way to test is to add a sample-size bake appetizer on a (or the) baking tray. And if the sampler isn’t done, then you know the prized bake is not likely to be either.
So… that’s a wrap or the end of the cling film for this healthy baker this week (…sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
I’ll stick to my job of cheering the contestants on! 🎉
And if you want to learn to make your own phyllo dough that was laughed in one GBBO episode, it’s more fun than a hassle.
The baklava phyllo dough is opaque like pantyhose but free of holes.
Make phyllo dough from scratch! It's not as difficult as it sounds... and dare I say fun!
Course Dessert
Cuisine lebanese
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2tbspolive oil
1cupflour
1cupwater
pinch of salt
honey
chopped nuts
dates, orange, and cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
Making phyllo is a lot like making homemade pasta, but much thinner.
Make a mound and a hole in the middlle where you can add the olive oil and slowly add water. Knead for about 5 minutes and then form a dough disc. Let rest.
Roll out as thin as possible and then you can slip into the pasta maker if you have one, adjusting until you get to the thinnest setting (e.g. 1). It will look opaque but the hope is that there will be no holes.
Cut into strips that you will use as layers for the baklava.
For the baklava, you can brush honey and top with chopped dates and nuts (walnuts or pistachios work well) on every other layer if you make 7 layers ending with the top layer with honey and nuts. Sprinkle each layer with cinnamon and orange zest if you like (good for Ayurvedic Vata balancing!).
Wellness morning routines are not easy when you live a busy Western lifestyle.
Cramming in a few minutes to eat healthy, do yoga and get some re-centering quiet time is not usually the routine unless you get up super early as trade off for sleep or staying up late.
I’m exhausted already when I hear how hard charging some people are in their season descriptions… and then I quickly remember that was my life not too long ago when I worked in the corporate world 40+ hours a week and had side hustles.
Matcha sourdough bread and satisfying crunchy chewy bagel 🍵… I couldn’t wait, I had to take a bite! 😋
If you’re of a Vata mind, a structured wellness routine can be challenging as the mind fights against set consistent routines when a routine is what’s needed most. …And heavy Vata minds can’t sit still as obvious signs.
If you carry a Vata mind (that any of us can), you can easily tire from to-do tasks like opening up or pulling out your calendar every day or several times a day. Those simple, but mundane types of activities can be draining.
…Today, living daily aware now years later from what was filtered or partial conscious life, I personally don’t do life without daily checking in on my balanced-imbalanced moods and well… wellness.
Your moods show you what’s going on inside. Your mind-body is intuitive, so it serves you the truth and gives you the information about what you need to restore your health. And, restoring sour moods back to happy and neutral is one way to accomplish more daily.
We all can get affected by external factors that can put us in daily moods. That makes us human. But moods can create more disruption than an external interruption, so it’s better to manage ASAP to nip sour moods in the bud.
As a quick scan, as long as you feel good for stretches of daily moments, and about what you’re doing, you’re probably in good shape. Or you know how to bounce back quickly, so that doesn’t become your season longer than it has to.
One routine I changed up to avoid uninspired moods, is I gave up working on a calendar that I used to color code as a planner. I found better systems that worked for me. And that’s something you can consider for yourself…
To Have A Working Calendar (Or Not?)
On purpose, I avoid having a working calendar these days (and the past few years) as they distract from my productivity.
I do work on other people’s Google and Outlook calendars, but not my own. I’m sure you have examples in your life where you do things differently for yourself than others. I do a much better job and follow through, managing other people’s stuff, as I want to help and serve them the best I can. That helps to keep the balance.
But I found that as pretty colors as my own rainbow calendar looked, I was following it when I didn’t have to. And that was not helpful! So I had to come up with a better way. 🌈
Plus, I also did professional catering management for many years, and all I did was rely on and live off of a calendar religiously year-round, knowing and planning other people’s event dates. And at times, an unhealthy task holding onto dates as though my life depended on it.
So, these days I like to be less reliant on a calendar. If you’re wondering how to live or wean yourself off of a calendar if that’s your want, here are some ideas (and what I do)…
First, I created slightly different weekly goals for each day of the week. And I have deadlines for different tasks on each day, no matter how small.
The thing is, if you don’t apply what it is you’re doing to something meaningful, it becomes meaningless.
On purpose, we’re meant to teach, share, encourage, and use whatever gifts we have, or we lose them. And when we USE them, we get more, and some we may not know we have (e.g. hidden talents) until we get there.
You discover the next talent once you start and develop the first talent. Then you’re ready for more!
And I found calendars got in the way of that as I spent time managing them when I could be working on a talent without working within boxes if you know what I mean.
Like these waffles that can be made healthy.
Healthy chicken and waffle recipe below. 🧇
We all have our special preferences. ❤️
And to make life easy, when I was getting used to the habit of different daily tasks, I set up specific reminders. I’ve learned to let it be easy with no self-imposed struggles or habits. And that takes observation and not being too busy to notice.
It’s also useful to know what day of the week you’re on as the world runs on this time. And if different night TV shows are how you keep it straight, hey that works! 📺
To capture the best of your creative and productive time, find the balance that works for you and where you feel relevant and making good strides. That’s all part of the good wellness journey.
And I found that bi-weekly appointments and schedules can mess that up. So keeping it weekly simple works! 🗓
From experience, I know that building any kind of complicated system is a recipe for disaster in life. 😒
It can build a house of cards that will eventually crumble as there’s too much to manage when the enjoyment factor can disappear one day. Some of the excitement wears off of newness (it always does!).
That’s where the overwhelm and reality feelings can creep in, and easier when you keep it simple from the start.
And after taking a sabbatical in 2016, I realized that sometimes your calendars don’t open up, or they disappear, and then you waste more time trying to backtrack. That’s when I took the hint as a sign, tossed out the calendar and lists, and figured out a more reliable way.
And a way to go digital calendar-less AND paperless.
And to add the internal clock reminders back in… what people in the past probably did before paper was invented.
If you live spirit-led and wellness bound, it’s easier to go to simple ways where you discover your natural internal compass that you learn to trust over time.
And today, you can use digital reminders like alerts or notifications as a backup plan. Those are like a trampoline that ensures you bounce back without falling.
In this way, I haven’t missed a Zoom meeting yet when we were all doing Zoom calls, because my internal clock is wired to the energy around that activity, even if it’s just a one-time event.
And if you’re in a season or work environment where a calendar is expected of you, then you can still do this.
You could go hybrid… using a personal calendar when you have to, and then relaxing the policy when you don’t. 😎
Testing out ways that work for you is a good change to find out what is reliable and helpful for your life now if you want better outcomes, or to improve your life and wellness.
Having been at many jobs, in my wellness balance journey, I realize that none of the tasks are all that significant in the grand scheme of things.
…When you leave a job, you leave the calendar behind. Plus, the next person in your shoes (that you may even train) has their preferred way.
And, the last day of work ends the calendar work cold turkey, and your next day is like the calendar didn’t exist. And then you’re off to your next venture and bigger and brighter things.
When you do this work transition enough times, re-inventing yourself and pivoting, you get the pattern.
You can also can get a-ha’s about your specific past getting you to where you are today. And letting you become who you are today. You can keep moving forward and quicker if you want.
So on that note, I wanted to share 5 quick morning wellness habit stacks that I’ve found useful this season (that may be useful for you).
Habit # 1: Keeping same waking up hours every day even on weekends or days when you don’t have to be somewhere.
This could be what you do today… but also adding a few minutes of intentions time is good for a wellness practice so you’re not just running in the morning.
Intentions could be about what you want from this life, so you can head in that direction and work ON your life, and not just in it.
In the morning, you have the most mind-awakened energy and that can be with or without caffeine.
And you never know what the rest of the day will bring that can change your productivity, moods, or stress level.
Getting up early has a lot to do with the way you’re naturally wired, your environment, and your habits.
Irregular sleep is common with Vata’s (…you too?). In that case, you could challenge yourself to get up earlier than you’re comfortable with, but where you get enough regular 7-8 hours of healthy rest.
Keeping the same getting up hours can calm your Vata. It’s one routine where the instructions are simple.
You can get motivated to naturally get up earlier if you go to bed earlier and if you change up some of your habits like allowing yourself one entertainment show, instead of watching until you’re bored 😊.
Habit # 2: I first drink water and warm water or ginger tea as a primer to get the body running.
And then I work in a preferred green banana, quinoa cereal, lentils, oatmeal, Greek yogurt, OR a fruit smoothie. I mix it up. I may even choose a few from the list.
And then I’m ready for a cuppa joe.
I drink low acidic organic cold brew that I homebrew and drink black or with almond milk (extra calcium) and dilute the acidity further… I don’t have a fancy java machine on purpose.☕️
And my coffee rule is: I don’t drink coffee past 12 noon (…that’s easier than counting cups) or on an empty stomach. This helps with habit #1.
…Oh, and I started coffee late in life, so I’m OK to quit early in the day.
Habit # 3: Ab crunches and yoga wellness
Last time, I talked about losing weight that’s often one struggle aspect of a Kapha imbalance.
And one way I’ve figured out how to incorporate an exercise habit is, I’ve been doing an abdominal crunch challenge (…that may be something to try).
It gets easier as the weeks go by than the first week when it can be a struggle to peel yourself off the mat. But don’t give up!…
In the beginning, all the torso area fat can appear to move to the gut center. But don’t be fooled by the looks as that will eventually turn to muscle if you keep at it. That’s what I plan to do 50 ab crunches per day later. (And if that’s not what you notice if you try, good for you. It doesn’t have to be hard and preferably it’s easy).
The benefit is: strong abs allow your back to strengthen, and each vertebra becomes more flexible. You can roll up more easily like a roly-poly bug (…remember those? I don’t see those around anymore).
And if you start these now (or you take a pilates class), you’ll be better off in your golden years especially when bones get weaker despite the increased calcium and magnesium you may intake.
Falls for women and men are common accidents for seniors. So maybe that gives you a little motivational edge today to start today.
Ab work keeps me grounded, literally. And then while I’m there, I do yoga and exercises. You actually wake up and get happier faster as your endorphins kick in. And you feel more clear-headed because of this, and get excited about your day if that’s what you need this season. That’s well-rounded wellness.
You can get your daily re-centering done on the mat as well. My mat says, “you got this” that’s still my mantra.
Habit # 4: Have a reward activity (or two).
Towards the weekend, I healthy bake in the mornings as part of my wellness routine. This is a reward for me if I’ve met my deadlines earlier in the week. I always have recipes lined up and ingredients on hand, so that’s where the relaxing part comes in. No stress baking.
Another reward is I watch a show for an hour. Usually cooking shows (no surprise there!). One I’m enjoying is about pizzaiolos around the world who’ve opened up wood fire oven pizza parlors. 🍕
Having worked in a pizza shop, I can tell you it’s a lot of fun and one of the easiest bakes to make that brings smiles to faces, young and old.
Habit # 5: Then about an hour after waking up, I start my work that includes the unique daily task goals where I don’t need a calendar (that I mentioned earlier).
I used to reserve the morning for writing because that’s when I could get in my writing zone. But I realized after a couple of years into writing, I can pretty much do it anytime with the same result, as I’ve built up the writing muscles. 💪
And if I had to crank out a quality book in a week, I believe I could. That’s just practice.
And that’s one reason why I think it’s good for anyone to start a daily practice for their creativity and to discover their talents. If you need a quiet environment, a walk-in closet is a good space.
Also, one of the best investments you can make is having an air purifier, not just for the obvious use of better air, but also to cut out distractions with the white noise. And when you’re ready to go to sleep, it’ll help you get good rest and start all over again the next morning. 🌅
And starting with chicken and whole wheat waffles could be protein energy you need to power through your day.
For Southern-style brunches, this is a common dish that you can make super healthy and get your daily protein points.
Course brunch
Cuisine American, southern
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
chicken breast
apple cider vinegar (with the mother)
bread crumbs
Instructions
Cook chicken breast. Bake on 350°F until chicken is safely 165°F cooked or higher. This usually takes 45-55 minutes depending on chicken thickness and oven placement. For a whole chicken, follow the instructions on the packaging that can be 1.5-2 hours for a small chicken. Check 165°F temperature to be sure.
Add apple cider vinegar to cooked chicken. I use an eyedropper but you can use any method that works for you such as dipping chicken in a bowl of ACV.
Toast panko crumbs and stick to ACV dipped chicken. Alternatively if you want to be super healthy, you can crush sunflower seeds or nuts.
Add any spices you would like (e.g. oregano, thyme, black pepper, cayenne for a hot kick, etc.).
Glycemic index is an anti-inflammatory measurement good to find a variety of healthy foods.
You can make these low-glycemic index gooey center chocolate cakes. Recipe below ⬇️
The first time I learned of the concept of a food’s glycemic index, I was intrigued by the idea of lowering blood sugar spikes as a healthy good food consumer, and a sugar lover at the time.
…And learning that dark chocolate (like that used in my baked dessert photo above) has a lower GI score than milk chocolate, puts a smile on my face. 😊
The opposite of… feeling hangry and light-headed energy with low blood sugar, that I’ve felt before too. And make GI talk relevant for so many.
Glycemic Index (GI) measures how food carbs affect blood sugar as a nutrition score indicator. It has been around for decades, but still isn’t a common household food tool used today.
But I DO think it will be a well-known future nutrition trend for 3 big reasons:
-Diabetes rates around the world are on the rise, and most cases we know are preventable through lifestyle changes (where food can have the biggest impact).
-Glycemic Index brings awareness to the order of foods you eat based on blood glucose spikes and glycemic response. And also how foods can impact inflammation.
-The growing mention of gut health in our modern news, and as we approach newfound scientific discoveries on gut-brain health. Progress being fueled by more data and scores.
There’s no shortage of healthy research progress that keeps us on our toes.
And yet, today the Glycemic Index is not even on the daily radar for most of us that consider ourselves health-conscious.
We’ll read the Nutrition Facts label and how many carbs are on a food package. Many of us pay attention to macros and calories. But we don’t consider the Glycemic Index score mostly because it’s not on the label, but is now on your map if it wasn’t before.📍
The tricky part is, GI scoring with accuracy is complicated.
Here are a few examples why…
If you eat unripened green bananas compared to the ripe, mushy ones that are preferred in a smoothie or banana bread recipe, the GI score improves.
Ah… and a banana has no Nutrition Facts label. A banana is a banana, and best to keep it simple.
Or if you eat a salad before the higher Glycemic Index ranked food item like a potato, then you can create a nice fibrous buffer cushion that your body likes. Then, if you eat the potato skin (cushion cover), even more so.
…But like with a bed pillow, people have different responses, so the scoring is different per individual. Each body keeps different scores.
But Glycemic Index info. (that let’s be clear is not available on a food package item today) would help us, consumers, to put relevance to the order in which we eat foods and what we choose to eat.
And bring awareness to us about what’s overall churning good in our gut from our internal healthy body’s perspective.
We’d make some better healthy food choices besides what our minds tell our taste buds we want.
And well… we would be better informed.
And that’s how progress works, as we’ve come a long way…
For me and those in my U.S. generation, the 4 basic food groups literally changed overnight to the Food Pyramid of 23 servings per day by the time we were young adults.
Without the internet, I learned this in school with many others. There was always some undesignated student who casually made big news announcements around the lockers during class breaks.
That was our modern social media news medium (post styrofoam cups with a string era). 😁
And that specific news was a massive dietary recommendation disruptor. The shock was the stark contrast, from basic eating to grazing on food all day like a cow chewing grass.
Adding convenience foods could be a solution just to fit in a serving about every 1.4 hours you were awake. You could eat 23 almonds as one serving… then you would have 22 servings left to go in other food categories. But then the other snag was, back then, nuts and all fats were put in the “eat sparingly” category. That was a ‘lil nuts. 🤪
So with all that stacked up against meeting new dietary goals, the health-conscious supplemented with vitamins. Organic foods weren’t popular yet, so food quality wasn’t as important as type of calories that are still important.
And diets existed back then, and they meant eating less and less fat to lose weight, that’s more or less like today.
And there were new (but different) diet fads coming out similar as today. Here today, gone tomorrow.
The Atkin’s Diet comes to mind as every year there’s a ridiculous hot dog eating contest, that’s anything but healthy.
Many diets in general for losing weight out there are health dangerous long term. They cut off calories and starve the body from essential vitamins needed to function.
And while they’ve changed, they haven’t solved the problem.
And makes you wonder…
Why haven’t diet plans gotten smarter?
The Diet Problem: Modern Diets Are Missed Opportunities
The word “diet” has two meanings regarding meal references in the English language. Going on most diets (eating less to lose weight) is often a missed opportunity for nutrients and healthy food calories. Elimination diets are ways to scale back that are meant for a season or a few weeks.
While eating a healthy diet is a positive way of looking at (enjoying) meals and energizing the body for life. So in one “diet” meaning, it subtracts (e.g. most food is bad); and in the other, it satisfies and sustains life.
The Solution: You can find a happy medium in eating less with a healthy diet and making healthy eating habits.
Because from our decade’s past diet lessons, we know yo-yo diets backfire as we eventually want the foods we tell ourselves we can’t have.
So, choosing one that isn’t long-term restrictive that works for your body and tastes is going to do you best. Like no-rules vitamin-rich antioxidant foods and meals that can be dressed up with anti-inflammatory flavors and spices.
Because even healthy restrictive diets don’t always translate or work well.
Like a Paleo diet today doesn’t suit many of us like it did our ancestor’s generations. We can love a grandmother’s recipe, but their ingredients were processed differently than the same written ones today.
And earlier cavemen’s processes of cooking fresh quality meat over a fire from free-range sources is not the common feedlot mass production we have today.
Despite these lesser quality food process changes, food today is helping our generation’s lifespans because overall the nutrient-dense food options available to us help offset what our ancestors couldn’t get into their bodies.
They lacked sufficient vitamins that come from foods. And one good way to get daily needed vitamins is in complex carbs available comparatively abundantly to us these days.
So, cutting out minimally processed whole grains that come in a bag or box and that carry the most natural vitamins of grain options, is a healthy miss.
The point is, that many of the lose-weight diets today are trying to cut out most carbs.
Kinda like how nuts I mentioned above were once deemed as bad because they’re fat (and there was no healthy fat category), and now starchy carbs are marked as the bad calories.
When actually complex carbs give us energy and essential B vitamins we need for daily life and I think essentially undermentioned in today’s healthy conversations, along with the Glycemic Index ones that I started with.
Keeping foods like sprouted bread, quinoa, barley, tri-color pasta, and rice in the diet are good ideas. And some fit nicely in a pantry.
Plus, they’re good sources of fiber that’s helpful for any diet.
And provide often forgotten about minerals that work with vitamins to make you and I tick.
Vitamins and Minerals Smart Knowledge
If we only read the vitamin and minerals food label section on packages, we miss the opportunity to apply and reap food vitamin-mineral synergies that optimally keep the cylinder wheels turning in the body when they’re purposefully taken together.
If you’re curious about vitamins, minerals, and Glycemic Index and getting quick knowledge in those areas, they’re part of the Anti-Inflammatory Food Guide Lists (that I know you’ll love… and your body will too 🧡)… The researched lists (that you can get your hands on today) come in handy and save you hours when figuring out what to eat or grocery shop buy without having to use too much brain power.
Who doesn’t or wouldn’t love that!?
And speaking of love, a sustainable, life-giving diet is a healthy approach to life (and to keep a consistent, year-round healthy weight if that’s another goal).
The best part is you get to choose from so many diverse and delicious healthy foods… AND they have anti-inflammatory protection benefits.
…So your relationship with food can’t be much better! I’m gonna pop some polyphenol-popcorn over that🍿
Plus, some common healthy foods are anti-inflammatory “super” foods that go beyond antioxidants and polyphenols.
They also have high protein, fiber, vitamins, and/or minerals that help the body function better in more than ways than just one.
To me and you (…maybe?) who is passionate about healthy eating, it’s a no-brainer choice to make anti-inflammatory meals.
And over the past couple of years, as I’ve been contributing to writing food articles for health and wellness publications, I can dig into new research and appreciate healthy food innovations on the horizon, which gives us more to look forward to in our future new world.
Look out for more super at 100 (Centenarian) secrets and evidence in our daily news.
Super Centenarians are living proof and our hope that it’s possible to live optimally in old age and not miss a beat with tasty-nutritional meals, so we can enjoy the moment.
They teach us how to spruce up their anti-inflammatory meals so they’re deliciously prepared and flavored with spices. They do more from their natural lands, with less.
All that’s inspiring food talk for me.
So… for next time, I’ll share some good tips on how to save grocery money with healthy eating, especially with all the grocery food prices and availability changes (yikes!) impacting us all.
I leave you this gooey-center chocolate cake recipe that are inspired by the ones we served at special occasion events in my decadent decade of event planning. You can make this easy version at home in minutes and enjoy for much longer! 😋
This week, I’m breaking down the secrets of Ayurveda and how it can free you from feeling stuck. And how it restores calm, improves mind-body health, and allows for daily creativity which leads to your best life new opportunities, and passions.
…Plus, I’ll clear up the common confusion about Ayurveda if you’re wanting to learn more… and how you can apply simple, but completely effective Ayurveda ways to your lifestyle where you’re at… and with a special invitation offer below.
Today is a good to celebrate with joyful cherry Sherbet. Recipe below. 🍒
Last time, in Part 1 of Ayurveda, I talked about why you want to care about the mind-body connection. If you missed that blog post or aren’t sure, you can go back and read that one too as it could make a game-changing difference in getting your best life today…
I also shared how change and permanence are part of the natural order in this life. They keep us going and growing.
You get to choose whether you want to do this life holding onto anxiety, fears, or worry, or letting them go daily for your emotional freedom and better moods.
…You can restore daily calm even with life chaos happening around you. That’s a healthy choice.
You can change how anxiety, overwhelm, irritations, and triggered situations stick to you when they don’t have to …but, interruptedly rear their ugly head into your system and you just want them to go away!
As humans, we experience these negative emotions to varying degrees. And everyone grows weary and tired at some point.
And, that’s when we want to be vigilant to snap out of those emotions after we purge, process, and know what’s behind them so we can take necessary action, and so that we don’t stay stuck in those places any longer than necessary.
…How?
You step out and sidestep into your daily calm and productivity with the strategy of partnering with your mind-body to soothe and get the most out of the situation and your life… with small effort and adding healthy enhancements.
At some point, you probably figure(d) out that Life is about being in the process. And filled with trying lessons.
Sometimes it can take several similar, but different scenarios to play out to catch onto the lesson and make changes for a better today, tomorrow, and life.
But, when you see your part and role in what happens next, your eyes are open and you can apply wisdom. That takes awareness in the moment or in reflection.
And if you have knowledge or know what to do, you can save yourself from unnecessary pain… and sometimes your life. Like if caught in a rip current wave, you survive by not panicking, calling for help that’s nearby, and swimming parallel to the shore if you can.
You also can survive your daily life situations and undesired moods weighing you down if you know what to do.
Getting through your non-life threatening situations can be challenging for a day or two, as moods can stick like mud, but don’t have to play out and grow into a season!…
And you don’t want them to, because health and stress are on the line, and your moods can worsen and influence you to make poor decisions and miss out on great opportunities.
[In physical health terms, moods are like inflammations… you want them out or on the way out within a few days, or else it could spread like poison ivy inside and become a bigger problem.]
But the really good news here is… you can nip-in-the-bud those less-than moods weighing you down as easily as they entered.
How?…
Co-create the right and comfortable environment that your mind-body wants, and therefore is what you also want!
Remember, you are not your mind-body. Your mind-body runs 24×7 and never shuts off when you’re asleep. Keeping your mind-body in mind (no pun intended), for your optimal life you want to do what will turn things around fastest for you.
That doesn’t mean you need to move or uproot your lifestyle, that just means a few healthy tweaks that your daily mind-body wants.
Ayurveda (the science of life) helps to restore and bring natural balance and order back into our lives despite constantly changing situations… and naturally, the way it’s intended.
In our work-life balance modern world there seems to be a gadget for everything to solve our daily problems and make life easier and help us live longer. But we don’t always use (and sometimes ignore) the most effective tool that’s already built inside us!
In Western world, our health is often seen through the lens of food, fitness, wellness, and self-care. In our healthy efforts, we don’t always get to the root cause and directly restore or heal what our mind-body needs. And that can lead to a long (sometimes painful) season.
…BUT be encouraged, it’s restorable and not your fault!
As you have free will to choose. You do what you feel like doing or think will help based on the (limited) knowledge you have at the time.
And also because…
Our Western Society… The Good and Bad
Conditioning that you and I have received since we were children, that goes like this… Oh, the doctor will fix that…
And as an adult, if you were sent home with a prescription for resting or exercising more, you’d be dissatisfied as most of us know that’s helpful but not what we want from our doctor. We expect a procedure, prescription, or two.
The problem is your body doesn’t want medicines if it can handle the foreign body disruptor on its own. But we don’t know what exactly our body needs because we can’t talk to our body or get inside for those knowing answers.
So, our common Western way is curing with medicines, “just in case,” and because we’re conditioned to expect those protocols.
But, too many antibiotics in the system damage gut health, and surrounding systems that alter your body. Good probiotics can only help so much to reverse effects.
So that’s the bad, but there’s a lot of good in medicine…
Like when used for a disease outbreak where massive chaos in the body has already erupted and medical intervention is needed. Your body needs help.
We can learn from Steve Jobs’ story in more than his genius Apple tech abilities. He passed away too young from cancer. Wisdom leaves clues.
Western medicine doesn’t usually prescribe natural herbs to cure cancer or other diseases.
Anything supernatural can happen in our favor at any time, but that’s not the common or wise protocol. God created doctors and gave us our brains to make good decisions to see doctors when needed.
…So then where does Ayurveda (science of life) fit in?
Ayurveda’s sweet spot is in health prevention, and helping change unwanted common everyday moods and annoying flare-ups.
It’s risky for most conditions that require medical attention. …and I wanted to clear up in case that wasn’t clear and obvious. So good, now you know what Ayurveda is good for…
Ayurveda works for what it’s meant for. But as a practice, not mentioned much in our society partly because prevention can’t be measured. And that’s not where medicine focuses attention.
So, it can get brushed aside or seen as a health fad.
…Even though Ayurveda has been around working as an Ancient healing system for thousands of years.
People smartly use it as part of their daily healthy lifestyle.
They can be part of the routines and habits we stack and track in our day.
When you have a healthy lifestyle and know how to use Ayurveda in your daily life, then you’re better off leaning into your balanced natural essence. There are no downsides to report.
And a decade later… in my opinion, it’s still the “best-kept secret.” And why I’m unpacking it here.
Your mind-body is a direct source that knows what it needs… and Ayurveda cracks that code.
Enter Eastern-Western Ayurveda Awareness
American society tends to lump natural, holistic, alternative medicines, and Ayurveda as mystical and woo-woo, when really what Ayurveda needs is rebranding.
Ayurveda is not just what you see as available products on the market.
Two things that could make people iffy in the beginning about Ayurveda (I know I was!) are:
1.. Messy oils, strange elixirs, and take-time-out routines. They don’t always mesh well in a Western modern society that’s go-go-go where schedules are filled to the brim and even fitting in eating can be trying.
2. Silent practices when you don’t have a door that stays closed or that can shut out the world around you. And without a list of to-do’s or worries for the day running in your head.
Those daily practices are more Eastern (slower-pace life) than Western techniques.
And what works in Ayurveda for Western-style living and restoring mind-body techniques, can be woven into your busy day with very little effort or inconvenience.
You can skip the Eastern-style practices and you won’t be missing a mood-improvement beat… I promise!
And some universal practices you may already be doing sometimes or regularly… like, yoga is a today-popular Western Ayurvedic general practice. Sometimes you have time to fit in, and sometimes you don’t, but it’s not the end-all-be-all to making moment-to-moment restoring changes because yoga reset to feel-good feelings lasts for a 90-minute class, a cup of tea, and maybe a relaxing spa visit, but then you’re back to your life, triggers and interruptions in your mind, and your work.
Even though I love yoga!… maybe you too?
In 2008, there were few studios when I had to search around so I’m glad it has taken root.
Another popular example is eating plant-based anti-inflammatory foods. Yup, that’s part of a healthy Ayurvedic lifestyle. Wherever you are, you have access to markets, online stores, farms, and gardens (…or you can start your own).
…So you may already have a ‘lil Ayurveda in you! 😉
…So, is an Ayurveda lifestyle right for you?
These are questions you can ask yourself and things to think about:
Are you interested in preventative health?
Are you interested in unleashing more daily creativity?
Are you a lifelong learner who is open to the deeper self?
And do you want to live sustainably healthier and longer?
…Like Blue Zone Centenarians who live healthy lifestyles that are part of their culture. They don’t live like most Americans (and not even the Adventist Health Blue Zone community in California).
Some live more simply, slower lives, eating from the land, and need less mood restoring without all the complicated high tech. 😉
And so many countries rank higher in longevity than the States, that’s ranked closer to the bottom. That’s a hard pill to swallow considering all the conveniences we have.
…Even though I can’t imagine my identity with any other culture.
So I added Ayurveda into my lifestyle to make up for the deficit.
And you can too. The thing is… you’re probably already habitually doing Ayurveda to some degree in your healthy every day routine. You’ve been using all your senses since you were born.
…But probably not for balancing moods consistently as you didn’t know what really works with your specific mind-body, type, and imbalance combinations you’re experiencing. That’s really what it boils down to.
And when you do change your moods and imbalances, then you can get to your inner creative self more easily and consistently.
Creativity Inside Us
Sometimes there’s a creative block. And we don’t know what we don’t know could be, or are missing out on our greatest passions that give us joy.
I was creatively mind-blocked in my corporate management work life.
I couldn’t be fully creative beyond short spurts of free time where I delved into hobbies for creative outlets.
In those few moments, I experienced calm, joy, and felt weight off my shoulders. I could get into a creative flow where I lost track of time and those were usually well into the weekend or on a Sunday.
…Have you been there or can relate?
Unleashing the creativity inside feels free-ing. And when I got longer stretches of time away from work, I realized I had creative hidden talents I didn’t even know I had, that were waiting inside me for the right-ready time.
…And you do too. Plus, ones that you haven’t uncovered because you have gotten there yet to take action.
After you remove the anxious, stressful, and overwhelming layers and feelings, you can get a direct path to your creative juices and energy.
That’s your ticket to your happiest and best life. When you feel lighter and good, you feel on top of the world.
You feel empowered at the very least, and maybe even superpowers to take on activities you didn’t know you could perform (like sing or dance… you get the point).
And that’s a time when you get the most out of your life and push the pedal forward and make breakthroughs.
It’s the opposite of these types of common feelings (that keep you uninspired and stagnant):
–Tired: where you don’t want to do much let alone work on a creative pursuit. You lack energy but with a good night’s rest you can be renewed and passion-filled again if you’re re-energized, aren’t triggered, feeling burnout, or are depressed.
–Anxious: where you’re trying to manage your anxiety symptoms to stay afloat… trying to stay relaxed while your body-mind takes over. That’s a bad time to make good decisions, let alone try and be creative.
–Irritated: where you’re trying to get over negative feelings and a critical-judgmental mind that permeate your system when energizing the wrong thoughts. Good creativity doesn’t emerge in non-loving attitudes.
But, you can change the channel or get your relaxed self back as quickly as you got in your tense state. Like in the shower, the ideas can come. Or in a joyful activity where you lose track of time.
And, if you’re feeling balanced and calm throughout the day as the normal way, that changes everything. You can switch to your creative self when you want without losing valuable time.
And those steps take you to your next move in life, passions, and pursuits.
And if that’s where you are ready to go and be your very best today, but maybe feeling off or not quite there yet, start with the body balance quiz that shows symptoms on the body as part of the mind-body connection.
And in creativity, I made this swirly dessert (nostalgic of Cherry Garcia and the tie die T-shirt era…). 🍥
