Hot chocolate is something that everyone one loves, especially during cold sweater weather ❄️ And it’s the liquid chocolate taste that is timeless.
It needs no improvement.
…And what if certain flavors could change or restore your mood to a better one this season? …Even better,yes?
And if you’re feeling heated, your body will like the hot cocoa recipe below.
Even if you can’t drink coffee for reasons, cocoa is usually a good alternative… and raw cacao is anti-inflammatory.
Healthy Tip: Avoid the dutch processed and sweetened cocoa that often comes in packets.
Then you can add your own few marshmallows or fun zhugh at the end where you control the sugar and smile. 😊
These great ingredient tips (below) will activate those better moods.
(And that’s one aspect of Ayurveda that helps you to a healthy self.)
The first ingredient is red chili flakes that’s great if you are feeling cold that’s common for the winter season… or if you’re feeling extra Kapha or Vata, that naturally lean toward cold.
That’s why Kapha moods are typical for winter season when we want to be cozy and hibernate.
Adding a few fiery chili flakes (instead of snowflakes ❄️) will bring out the heat punch in this cocoa. The color is good too for awakening.
You can substitute with cayenne pepper for even more heat.
Tip: Don’t let the camouflage brownish cayenne color fool you… cayenne heat will sneak up on you so don’t add too much at first before taste testing.
And then if you’re feeling hot (and not cold), as in angry or irritated by triggers, then you’re going to want to add a cooling spice or herb like mint. Or no spice at all.
You can still have hot chocolate because it’s cold outside and you’re chilly in your bones. You can feel hot and cold.
A cooling spice will soothe the skin heated-effects that are based on your Pitta mind-body moods.
In those cases, a little cold and hot will be comforting to you in the winter.
Doing these body healthy moves, helps to restore your temporary imbalance or the mood season you’re in… that as pointed out, could be different than the weather outside.
A peppermint chocolate would be good for the heated (see recipe below). I even made mine in my favorite mug (Starbucks!)
Or if your heated season is dialed up way high, a frozen cold cocoa beverage may be called for that you can dream about jumping in!
Hope is what keeps us motivated in any situation that well… seems hopeless. And in hopeful or hope-filled moods, we grow our spirituality… that opposes the outward feelings we have.
This article is about changing your moods back to hope and happy ones where you started and how you find your H.O.P.E…
First of all, our lives are rigged in our favor: we are meant to be blessed.
Often what is unfavorably happening to us in our situations is actually meant to help us in some way.
Finding what that is helps you.
Resetting and looking at your blessed life, as not what it once was peppered with past problems bypasses today’s sour moods.
Your life has grown better.
…And it’s meant to grow even better!
Better requires more experience and to be prepared for what’s ahead so we don’t fall flat on our faces. Challenges are healthy to keep us on the course!
Staying on course helps bring us back to our hope.
No matter the situation (favorable or not), as birthright we are called to hope in our situations if we want to prosper… (even when the stars aren’t exactly aligned 🌠).
You can always find a silver lining in the clouds if you want to. Because you were lucky enough to be born that will transcend this life if you believe.
And that’s where the rubber meets the road… 🛞
That’s the difference between your former younger self and who you are today, more mature in beliefs.
Today, you get to do so much more.
The former problems you had before are no longer in your life.
You have other replaced or new situations that ultimately have created a better life for you.
…Life that maybe is not the way you planned in your mind, but is good when you look back and see the golden nuggets.
Those misalignments helped you out in some way.
And your future will be even better because of these re-routes when you keep your moods from souring your day… or you pause from knee-jerk reactions you once would’ve made and regretted.
Today’s Situations
And today you have situations you are waiting on to pan out.
That’s this life in a nutshell… otherwise, you’d stop trying for your best life if things were so easy and you wanted nothing.
…Well, when you put it that way. 💭
I realized from taking a sabbatical year-off years ago that not having a work schedule or consistent daily purpose is a double-edge sword.
Sleep and physical health nursed and healed me back to life but then gradually a new stress grew from the mental stress (of not having a purpose).
And that eventually became stress on the body in the mind-body connection. As a result, waking up at 3 am every night was enough of a wake-up call for me.
…I also found I didn’t have the same exciting stuff to talk about with friends… I was basically just tagging along to their happenings. And I wasn’t quick on my toes in responses like I had been.
So I plugged back into my optimal life. 🔌
That break was enough for me to believe anti-retirement is the best way… ALWAYS.
We are happiest when we’re sharing about what’s happening in our lives and not living in the shadows of others.
Plus, life is too short to watch life go by.
And even if you’re waiting for a few situations to manifest, you can be an active participant making impact on other areas of your (and others’ lives) that’s not like throwing spaghetti at the wall. 🍝
…You’re actually building something for the future that takes time to build with your gifts and talents.
That’s a good plan if the timing isn’t there yet for what you know or have an inkling will be, and that you’re hoping for most. Take heart. ❤️
And when your doubtful mind takes over your knowing mind, get outside.
Signs of hope can be found daily around us… like the hope reminders below to remind us to Have Open Peace Everyday.
And these flowers don’t need hope. They just bloom for our enjoyment and appreciation.
Earth laughs in flowers.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
We can rely on hope symbols like flowers on earth to find our inner peace (and distract our unproductive mind).
Dialing down our moods and loud thoughts is a healthy habit that we do as smart adults that used to get tossed to and from by our thoughts.
If we lean into hope and conviction in our beliefs, then we won’t fall when we’re in battle with our minds and moods.
Or else we’re back to Square One, tossed around like the daily wind that causes waves 🌊
So if we solidly know at our core what we believe, then we can withstand the tests.
…And if you’re a natural Vata body like I am, you and I need no more wind!
The stronger we make our beliefs for our best life, the stronger we are… and can lasso the moon that has the dreams we want. 🌙
Our belief grows with faith that our dreams will come to pass even when we see no evidence at all.
…Like flowers that haven’t bloomed but we know one day will in ripe season. 🌻
Having firm beliefs and hope inside us keeps us going.
When we listen to our gut whispers, heart feelings, or what is promised to us that we’re aware of, then we are aligned with hope planted in our heart. 🪴
Our heart dreams will come to pass.
These are gentle impressions that only we ultimately know that arrive as passing thoughts and desires.
And yet our hope is that it will happen in our future. And if it doesn’t now or within a foreseeable timeframe, then we can re-route our way of thinking today to a new plan.
There’s only good in looking at hope for our productive life.
And if our flesh feelings or thoughts make us feel hopeless (that’s part of our human moody make up), our job or better way is to find our way back to hope (and NOT give up).
We can focus on the good things and progress that have happened as a result of or despite our situation, or what has happened.
That keeps us hopeful and chin up.
And then in better spirits, we can keep on moving, so that good things continue to happen and grow.
…Focusing on areas that are productive and peaceful in our lives.
H.O.P.E. today so that you keep building what is meant for you (and will actually last when it’s ready)…
Here’s what each letter stands for:
H – Have resilience. When we get certain about what we want in life, we don’t give up easily. And we don’t let others define what our success looks like.
We walk away from our lesser situations that somehow we ended up in (or with) 😱, and we honor ourselves as the only ones we can control.
If we fall weak to a moment of feeling hopeless, we shake it off.
…we can use our stronger motivation to NOT GIVE UP.
For me, that’s looking for answers or doing research, both internal and external. They are proactive and that keeps the wheels going. 🛞
That always provides a new avenue.
It may not be the exact right one, but just by doing something positive, my mood shifts to better and I discover something new… ingredients in food at the grocery store or a new activity that stretches me.
So we commit to do whatever it takes to have our mind and bodies get with our better life program. That’s healthy stress we can challenge ourselves with! 💪
If our goal is to be 100% successful in our unique life however we define those areas, then finding out how we dodge our moods is going to be the game changer. That’s where Ayurveda for restoring moods can help.
…So often it’s not about the number of hours in the day. We all find enough hours to do what we’re excited, motivated or dedicated to.
It’s that we feel defeated in some way.
And if our moods are down, then we spend those hours on the couch binge-watching shows or procrastinating longer and longer.
It was never about the number of hours available.
How we communicate with ourselves (self-talk) and with others will set the tone for our lives.
And if we unknowingly encourage others to keep doing the same unwanted behaviors, then we’re setting ourselves up for more of the same frustration. Where are we unintentionally rewarding others for bad behavior we don’t want repeated?
O – Ourselves is where we can find hope.
Self-sabotage in some way is often where we get stuck.
…When we get out of our own way, then our moods lift.
Getting ourselves aligned to do and think the right and better things, set us up for success.
If your situations don’t look like what you thought you wanted, figure out what you need to do to get back on the path you got off of. What were you last doing when things changed?
Also, be committed to consistency (showing up), and find daily inspiration to stay the course as part of the balance.
Dig deep for answers that are already inside you waiting to emerge if they can get past your moods. 🪷
Then, hope flowers bloom again.
And tapping into hope grows spirituality.
If you take whatever your initial mind-body serves up, you’ll fall for all the irritated triggers du jour.
But when you decide on your better ways despite the bendy course you fall in, then you stay faithful to what you know will be without losing your joy that helps your hope.
P – Prioritize quiet time to your life as life unfolds. What is your mind doing when it’s not going a gazillion miles a minute or sleeping?
There is something stressful in play or as an undercurrent running in your mind if you pay attention… it’s the theme of the week or season.
If you were to sit on a bench or yoga mat quietly and scan your thoughts as they come in, you can intercept the moods and find better answers to your life now.
Prioritizing a shift to your peace mode and letting things go lets the Universe work things out on your behalf.
Your problems mysteriously work themselves out.
But if you let your ego intercept, that boxes in your possibilities because you’ve taken aggressive action.
Your ego doesn’t want your success or peace.
The ego wants you safe from anything new or questionable.
It will trick your perceptions and even attach unfactual information so it can keep running your show.
There’s no hope in ego drama.
E – Ego-free living is the way back to hope.
Your ego will make its way back in without prompting and avoiding ego every time will produce your hopeful results that have a lasting chance.
In metro culture we’re not taught “to be”like a monk.
So finding a daily way to honor your ego without turning it on is a way to grow more aware.
When you do get quiet, you can hear nature outside or building equipment running inside. That’s when you can hear the silence of the ego.
You can observe thoughts.
And for romantics who watch the Hallmark channel, your ego calms because the movie ending is predictable. The girl ends up with the guy. But the plot circumstances are different and the drama in between is what’s going on as life is in play.
What usually makes the difference is that each character pauses or is confronted to take a look at their life and what’s important. And it always points to love.
Love is hope and the opposite of ego-living. And ego-free living helps grow our spirituality. 🧡
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! 🎉
