photo credit: spike874- Bustafish
Want to spruce up your Christmas party or family get together? Sick of the same ol’ spiked eggnog or mulled wine? Here are five great new drinks to take the edge off and make your celebration shine:
1. The Grinch: This will make your heart grow three sizes and make you want to mysteriously carve the roast beast. Light, refreshing, and not boozy enough to make you call out your Aunt Esther for her cheek pinches:
Mix 2 oz. Midori, 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice, and 1tsp simple syrup (made by boiling half a cup of sugar and two cups of water until clear and then cooling) in a shaker with ice, strain into chilled martini glasses and serve with a cherry.
2. The Chamberry: A festive holiday take on the classic mimosa. Perfect for sipping while the turkey is cooking or for that Christmas Brunch. Easy, quick, and light:
Fill a glass 3/4 full of champagne, top off with cranberry juice and if you want more sweetness, just a touch of marachino cherry juice or orange juice.
3. The Toboggan Noggin: This one will give you a headache like you’ve just crashed into a snowbank if you aren’t careful–They are that good, and that addictive:
Heat equal parts chai tea concentrate, eggnog, and bourbon over the stove. Serve in a glass with a cinnamon stir stick.
4. Winter Solstice: For all you pagan’s out there. This is the favorite drink of the French Quarter dancers down in New Orleans. They swear it keeps them from getting sick although it tastes a bit like a Christmas Tree. Chartruese is a liquer made by monks in France. Its secret recipe contains dozens of alpine herbs:
Mix 2oz Chartruese, 1/2oz lime juice, dash of maraschino cherry liquer, and a splash of soda water. Shake over ice and strain into a chilled martini glass or, you know, a hollowed out yule log.
5. Ultimate Ginger Hot Toddy: This is my favorite drink for chilly nights or any time I am coming down with something. It mellows you out, the ginger soothes the stomach, and the high percentage of water absolutely guarantees no hangover the next day:
Combine Four cups water, 1/4 cup grated ginger, 3tbsp honey, and one lemon quartered in heavy sauce pan. Simmer on medium for twenty minutes. Mix in mugs with whiskey (I prefer Jameson) to taste. Serve warm.
And one Extra because the Holidays are a time to give gifts:
Best Ever Chocolate Martini: This recipe comes straight from my father, who is famous for having made the whole neighborhood drunker than skunks at the Christmas party last year. So beware, these taste like there is no alcohol in them, when really, they are pure booze:
mix 2oz. high quality vodka, 1/2 oz Godiva Dark Chocolate liquer, 1/2 oz. Godiva White Chocolate liquer, 1/2oz Frangelico hazelnut liquer. Shake with ice, strain into chilled martini glasses. For a wonderful garnish, add a melon ball sized scoop of dark chocolate ice cream into the bottom of the martini glasses.
photo credit: Francesco Rachello
It always starts out with the best of intentions doesn’t it? The holidays approach and we are filled with the urge to be with our families. We imagine sitting by the fire, drinking eggnog, opening presents, playing games, singing carols…we make plans, buy plane tickets and gifts, make a whole big batch of Christmas cookies or whatever. And then the day arrives. As our legs stick to grandma’s plastic coach covering, we survey the room. There is Aunt Agnes next to us screaming in our ear about a grudge she’s held for over twenty years-toward someone who we don’t even remember and who died ten years ago. Over in the corner our cousins Joey and Sam are getting drunk and in about ten minutes will start making fun of what we looked like when we were thirteen. And then they will start a half-joking fistfight with each other. There’s Mom wth the puffy paint snowman sweatshirt she’ll insist we wear and in the background somewhere three toddlers are hopped up on too much sugar and screaming their heads off….welcome to the holidays. Of course we will swear never to do this again and again we will forget, seduced by the sentiments of the holidays, the closeness of our families…and it is a blessing to have people to share the season with, even if you didn’t get to pick them. So how do we survive with our senses of humor intact and without strangling anyone in the process? Read on…
1. Don’t talk Religion or Politics: One of the oldest but best pieces of advice. We don’t pick our families and we don’t pick their views and we have to remember that. So if sitting there silently while some cousin or other espouses their opinion on why George Bush is the best president we ever had or why women should make less money than men, just smile, stand, breathe, and wonder out loud, “Isn’t there a rule against discussing these things at family get togethers?”. Then high tail it to the kitchen for another hot buttered rum. By the time you come back out, chances are you, or the conversation, will be forgotten.
2. Mom Loves You Best!: Who knows why, maybe stress or being back with the people you’ve known all your life, but holidays have the tendency to bring out all our age old patterns, including sibling rivalry. If a brother or sister is suddenly exhibiting signs of hostility, try not to take it personally. Know that the reasons for their jealousy or anger are probably unknown even to them. Try to steer conversations away from the past by focusing on the present–keep the talk centered on their own family and not on what happened as children. If you are the one feeling jealous–remember that there are many reasons why parents seem to be playing favorites–maybe your sibling lives closer or talks with your parents more. Again try not to take it personally and seek out equal ground in conversations.
3. Organize Activities: So often, the stress of the holidays comes from sitting around just eating too much, talking too much, drinking too much…all of which can lead to conflict. One way of circumventing this is by organizing activities that keep people up and around the house or outside. It doesn’t have to be anything precious or heavily involved like charades—but having card games, scrabble, checkers, touch football games etc. going helps to keep people entertained, moving, and in a positive frame of mind. It also helps kids stay engaged and keeps them from burning out or being bored, which cuts down on the crying, screaming and fighting that disrupts a cheery holiday atmosphere.
4. Some Conflict is Inevitable: Face it–who knows you better than your family and can hit you, therefore, right where it hurts. Realizing that some conflict is inevitable and coming prepared can actually lower our levels of stress. It’s all about being realistic and envisioning the tough scenarios. Be ready with non-aggressive answers for innappropriate comments, such as “I’m sorry you feel that way”, or “I can see your point” or “I will have to think about that and get back to you”. Remember, the purpose is not to be ‘right’ or prove yourself, the purpose is to get through the gathering without wanting to punch someone. Being the bigger person and refusing to engage in hostile arguments is a good way of circumventing the whole problem. If it is impossible to do this (I know I have relatives who can basically fight with themselves), know when to walk away or seek the company of a loved one who can help you blow off the steam by joking around about it. Sometimes having secret allies makes all the difference.
5. Know When to Say No: Sometimes we just have to face facts and realize that no amount of help is going to, well, help. We don’t HAVE to spend the holidays with our families. Sometimes it is enough to switch back and forth between your partner’s family and your own each year, cutting down on the stress involved with seeing so many people. Or plan a getaway with friends instead and visit the family when it is not so stressful and the traveling is easier–spring break is always a good excuse.
Above all remember–Holidays with the family take a good dose of humor and some deep breathes. And if that doesn’t do it, then it’s time to spike the Eggnog!
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As the holiday season approaches I thought it was high time for a tongue in cheek look at the five worst diets of all time:
5. Breatharianism: Practiced by several thousand devotees worldwide,breatharianism  is a diet that consists of nothing but air. That’s right–no solid foods at all, just pure air and sometimes, to some people, the tasty energy of sunshine. While closely related to fruitarianism, a practice of eating only the ‘fruits’ of plants that have fallen to the ground that are then collected by the eater with no harm done to the plant itself, that was adopted at times by Mahatma Gandhi and his followers, breatharianism is much more extreme. Some adherents claim that before the depletion of the ozone and the rise of C02 in our atmosphere, it was possible to live mostly off of high quality air. While a handful of deaths due to starvation have been attributed to this diet, it seems to definitely work to keep of excess pounds.
4. French Legionairre’s Breakfast: Started in the 19th century as a way to entice foreigners to fight around the world for whichever French cause was de rigeur at the time in exchange for a new identity ‘no questions asked’ and French citizenry, the French Foreign Legion became known for  many things such as the motto “pain is just weakness leaving the body”, as well as a reputation as blood–thirsty mercenaries. However, the Legion is perhaps best known for its breakfast, which legend has it, includes a daily 8km run, followed by black coffee and a cigarette. While this might make one ‘tough’, or maybe ‘tuff’, it makes the list as one of the worst diets of all time, probably because it alone has the propensity of making one mean, or even blood-thirsty.
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photo credit: matsukawa1971
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3. Diet Sunglasses: A Japanese manufacturer has come up with these blue tinted sunglasses that work by making food look disgusting while you wear them, thereby making you want to eat less. The glasses also work, they say, because the color blue activates the part of your brain that is responsible for calm feelings, making you uninterested in food. Hmmm.
What’s next, a diet video consisting of up close brain surgery to gore us into not eating?
photo credit: Katelin R.
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2. Horse Pills: A few years ago celebrity stars were showing off rows of ribs in backless dresses and the whispered rumor for their amazing ability to drop weight turned out to be–clenbuterol, an equine asthma pill that promised to make those in the know skinny and svelte. However, whe size zero models literally began dropping dead on the runways this diet dream turned into a diet nightmare. Nothing skinnier than a bag of bones.
And the all time, number one worst diet of all time?…
1. Tapeworms: Yep. We have all heard those horror stories about someone who knew someone who ate all the time and stayed so skinny and then one day went to the doctor and found out that a five foot worm was living in his stomach, eating all of his food and growing bigger and bigger…well, now a company in Mexico has taken that little urban legend and turned it into reality. No need to limit what you eat! Have a friend for life! I plan to name mine, I don’t know about you– The folks at this website make sure to call it ‘All natural weight loss!’. I, for one, am on the lookout for the next big natural weight loss craze–salmonella anyone?
With the cold weather fast approaching, summer already seems so far away. I spent this summer volunteering on a great little organic farm up in the San Juan mountains of Colorado, Shining Mountain Herbs (shiningmountainherbs.com) is the highest altitude medicinal herb farm in the country and besides learning how to make many diffferent herbal tinctures and salves, I was responsible for the half acre organic vegetable garden. I ate out of that garden all summer–beans, peas, radishes, beets, potatoes, lettuce, garlic, basil, and carrots. Now, I have been a devotee of organic food for many years but have always been confused as to whether organics are actually healthier for you. Growing my own food this summer has proven to me that they are. I ate less, felt stronger and more energetic, and my skin and hair were in marvelous shape. But don’t just take my word for it–read a new review here– www.organic-center.org/science.latest.php?action=view&report_id=126″– of over 40 studies that seem to show that organics are indeed healthier for us, with a great introduction by Andrew Weil M.D. And then go out and enjoy the crisp apples and earthy root vegetables of the season!
Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.
–Thich Nhat Han
photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography
Most of us are afflicted with weight gain during the winter months. It seems inevitable, merely the primal need to hibernate in cold weather and the blues that come along with shorter days and less sun. However, most research now shows that winter weight gain has little to nothing to do with the ‘hibernation theory’ and that only a small percentage of people are truly affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Instead, weight gain is primarily due to a change in eating and exercise habits. In the winter we eat more and exercise less. Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have shown that the average weight gain during winter is only about a pound per person, but that most of us don’t actually lose the weight come spring and summer. They have concluded that this weight gain contributes to lifelong obesity and that “these findings suggest that developing ways to avoid holiday weight gain may be extremely important for preventing obesity and the diseases associated with it,” said NICHD Director Duane Alexander, M.D. So how do we avoid gaining weight during the holiday season? The obvious answer is to carefully monitor our eating and exercising habits but that is difficult when we are celebrating the seasons with parties and family gatherings and when snow and cold prevent us from exercising outside. The practical answer to keeping that weight down instead lies in three simple tips that are easy to adopt, healthy, and some of which have the added benefit of keeping our bodies and immune systems in optimum shape as well.
Tip #1: Eating With the Season
Many researchers believe that the urge to eat more and keep weight on in the winter is fairly innate, a biological leftover from our hunter gatherer days, when food was scarce and we needed all the nutrients we could get to make it through the long cold months before spring’s bounty. One way of countering that urge is to eat with the season. What does this mean exactly? It means giving your body the most nutritious and easiest digestible food you can. Winter is hard on our bodies and on our digestion–eating cold foods makes our bodies cold and kills our digestion. This in turn makes it more difficult to digest foods and get the nutrients we need. Our bodies compensate by eating more to get those nutrients. It is easy to replace cold foods with their warm counterparts–steamed salads instead of raw, oatmeal substituted for cold cereal, tea or warm water instead of cold drinks, warm desserts instead of ice cream. And adding soups to our weekly diets is perhaps the most important way to improve our winter health and stabalize our weight. Soup is versatile, nutritious, easy to digest, warming, and above all, fills us up quickly. Eating soup before each meal or before going out to holiday parties is one way to curtail unwanted calories without feeling deprived.
Tip #2: Celebrate!
For many people, exercising during winter is hard. It is too cold to go outside and gyms are expensive, crowded, and unappealing. One way to counter this and get enough exercise is to really embrace the activities that make winter so fun and amazing–celebrate winter by engaging in season specific activities such as snowshoeing, cross country skiing, or ice skating. It is cheap and easy to rent skis and glide around a snowy neighborhood. It’s fun to take the kids or even just yourself ice skating once a week, which burns up to 500 calories an hour. Get into the holiday spirit by building a snowman (burns 250 calories an hour), having a snowball fight (600 calories an hour), or walking around to look at holiday lights (300 calories an hour). When we celebrate the season with activities we are also more aware and in the moment and less likely to eat out of stress or boredom.
Tip#3: Keep Immune Systems Healthy
One of the surest ways to gain weight is to be sedentary. When we suffer from winter colds that drag on and on our energy can be severely sapped, causing us to want to do nothing more than curl up and rest. To protect ourselves from winter illness it is important to rev up the immune system beforehand. One of the best ways to do this is to introduce immune enhancers into our diets–adding garlic to food is a great way to do this as garlic is a natural antibiotic. Cayenne and Ginger are also great additions that keep our digestion and immune system strong. A second important addition is an herb called Astragalus. It has been used as medicine for centuries in China and is finally starting to become popular in the US. Unlike Echinacea, which is meant to be taken only at the first sign of illness and is meant for a short time, Astragalus is a tonic herb and so is meant to be taken every day. It helps to strengthen the immune system gradually and permanently. By taking care of our immune system, we can ensure that our winter is full of vitality and fun.
There is something broken in the war against weight. We are inundated with thousands of diet books, articles, crazy nutrition and exercise fads, and advertisements every day promising the newest weight loss secret. And yet over 60% of us are still overweight or obese. So what gives? With all these tips, with all this knowledge, why haven’t we learned how to be healthy? Could it be that the way we have been trained to THINK and ACT is actually responsible for keeping us fat? And is it possible, therefore, to think your way thin?
STRESS AND THE BODY
According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association (APA), one-third of Americans report living with extreme stress every day and 48 percent believe their stress has increased over the past five years. There are many reasons for this—from longer hours at work to an increase in the cost of medical care, housing and food. What this has to do with weight loss has only recently come to be understood.
Obviously, when we are under emotional stress it is difficult to make healthy choices in what we eat and how much we exercise. Stress makes us burned out, tired, unable to consciously make the best decisions so integral to effective weight loss. The negative effects of stress run much deeper than our conscious decisions, however. Several studies in recent years have shed light on the effect Cortisol, known as the “stress hormone†plays in our inability to lose weight. Cortisol is a critical hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands. It is important for the regulation of blood pressure, stimulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism for fast energy, and help maintain blood sugar levels by stimulating insulin release. When we are physically or emotionally stressed, we secrete excess amounts of Cortisol. The disruption of this hormone has been shown to prohibit weight loss and cause fat deposits in the abdominal area, leading to increased risk of heart disease. According to Melissa Conrad Stoppler, MD, studies of women who reacted to stress with high levels of Cortisol secretion have shown an increase in eating. Other studies have shown that women who stored fat in their abdominal levels had higher levels of Cortisol in their bodies.
THINKING THIN
So now that we know about the roles stress plays in our inability to lose weight, how do we go about thinking thin? The secret is to THINK. Sounds simple, something we do every day, but the problem is that most of us haven’t been taught that THINKING is a tool, and like any tool it can be used well or poorly depending on the discipline and expertise of the user. Just like a novice crushing thumbs with misplaced strikes of a hammer, misplaced thoughts can sabatoge even our best intentioned plans. So, in order to think thin, we need to learn how to THINK.
Step One: Stop Saying No.
Most diets are all about the no. Think about it: we tell ourselves constantly what we can’t eat–No fat, No sugar, No chocolate etc. etc. But look at what this does–it makes us think about the things we can’t have. On the surface we feel cheated because we are denying ourselves, while subconsciously we are telling ourselves that we must have those things. The subconscious doesn’t focus on ‘No’, it focuses on the object itself. So instead of hearing ‘No Chocolate’ all it hears is ‘Chocolate’. So what should we do instead? Stop saying no and instead understand that becoming healthy is a choice. We are responsible for our own health. We can CHOOSE to eat whatever we want. Focus on eating the things we love and eating in moderation. If you love chocolate then eat some–life is short for heaven’s sake–but instead of cookies or milk chocolate, splurge on that beautiful rich dark chocolate that is so full of antioxidants and satisfies you after a few bites. If you love french fries then have them–but make sure to bake them at home or substitute sweet potatoes for additional vitamins and nutrients. When we indulge ourselves in small ways our brain doesn’t feel deprived and we can begin to relax, to know that we are in control of our own diet destiny and we are able to actually think about what it is we are eating. Furthermore, we don’t have to give up our love of food–we can use that love to become curious about new foods–unusual fruits and vegetables we’ve never tried before and ethnic cuisines that marry great taste with healthy nutrition. Instead of fearing food, we can learn to celebrate it in a healthy way.
Step Two: Breathe.
Seriously, just breathe. I don’t know how many times I have come home after a long day at work and sit down to eat without even taking a deep breath. Next thing I know I’ve polished off a whole meal and I didn’t even taste it. I had no memory of even eating it. Either I was so stressed out that I was still back in traffic or at work in my head, or else the TV distracted me or I was just off in my thoughts, thinking about bills or appointments, or whether to get a flu shot or not–you know how it is. When we do this we tend to eat quickly, mindlessly, and in huge amounts. If we begin to treat meals as no stress zones, if we demand awareness of ourselves every time we eat, then we will be more conscious of portion sizes, of nutrition, of fullness. So next time you sit down (and please do sit down) to eat, take a few deep breathes before you pick up that fork. Count to ten. Consciously try to smile. And then begin to eat. Halfway through, put the fork down again. Take another breathe. Ask yourself if you are still hungry and if so to what degree. Ask yourself how much more you might need to eat to be full and if you better eat your veggies first so that you aren’t too stuffed later to eat them…let yourself enjoy your meal. Stay conscious around food always.
Step Three: Food Psychology
Food is not just food in our culture. Growing up we have learned that it represents so much more than sustenance–it is celebration and reward, it soothes us when we are sad or sick, it acts as the social center around which we entertain friends, fall in love, reconnect with family. It is a very powerful part of our lives and sometimes it is hard to understand exactly when the role of food has overtaken our own sense of what is healthy. Keeping a food journal is a great way of learning what our eating patterns are and by linking them with the context in which they happened, it is possible to become more conscious the next time we are in that scenario. For example, I always eat when I am bored. Food helps fill time for me and keeps me from feeling anxious when I am feeling aimless. When I know this, then I can start to be aware of my patterns. When I begin to feel bored I now know not to go into the kitchen or stay in the house. I immediately head outside and go for a walk, go shopping, peruse the newest releases at the bookstore. A friend I know uses food to cheer herself up when she is feeling sad. She learned this from her mother who would always take her out for ice cream as a child to cheer her up. By keeping a food journal she was able to really become aware of this pattern. Now, instead of buying herself treats, she gets a massage, calls a friend, or does some other healthy ‘treat’ instead. She knows that what food gave her was a sense of nurturance that she can get in other ways.
When we start to become conscious in our lives, when we strive to create fulfillment and joy and when we learn how to stop worrying and reduce stress–through meditation, hanging out with friends, creative visualization then we can begin to heal our bodies. We no longer have to ‘hold on’ to unwanted weight and fat but can begin to let it go. Training the mind to stay conscious and present in the here and now, with food and with life in general, is one of the most difficult things we can learn how to do but the rewards are endless–with our minds we can think our way healthy and thin. We can change our lives.
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