health coach » VeggieGirl

Natural Ways of Dealing With Allergies

It’s that time of year again. The air is warming, flowers are blooming and everything is turning green. And also my car is coated with a thick, yellowy dust, my eyes are watering, and I have a hint of a tickle at the back of my nose. Yep, I’m talking about Pollen Season.

My allergies are much, much better than they used to be. As a child I had to take allergy medicine every day (back when Benadryl and Actifed with prescription meds), and I would have to double up if I was visiting a friend with a pet. Springtime was the worst season of the year, and I would often sequester myself to my bedroom with stacks of books and drawing supplies. Blooming flowers and sprouting trees were always my enemies. Thankfully things aren’t nearly as bad as they used to be, and I can survive spring relatively unharmed.

Here are some of tips on how to deal with seasonal allergies without reaching for over the counter allergy medication and dealing with their side effects. (Most of them give me great anxiety and keep me up at night!)

Ditch dairy. Dairy products such as milk and cheese cause excess mucus in the body. Cow’s milk is also a common allergen, so if you’re body is already overloaded with something that irritates it, pollen is going to make things worse.
Eat a clean, whole foods diet. Along the same lines as dealing with dairy, if your body is full of processed foods and chemicals, it’s going to be overtaxed trying to figure out what to do with all of that junk. Adding unavoidable allergens to the mix will just overload your system.
Keep the windows closed. After a long winter, you probably want to throw open all of the windows when the weather is warm and beautiful, but pollen is sneaky and you don’t want it entering your house through your windows. Keep it outside where it belongs. You especially want to keep the windows closed when your lawn is being mowed. (Assuming you have a lawn, of course.)
Supplement. Natural supplements such as stinging nettle, quercetin, zinc and buffered vitamin C can help reduce inflammation, boost immunity and minimize allergic reactions.
Wash your hair at night. Pollen can get trapped in your hair when you go outside, especially if you use styling products. You don’t want to invite pollen into your bed with you, so wash it out before you hit the hay.
Keep your nose clean. Use a neti pot to rinse our your nose. If you’re adverse to neti pots, try over the counter saline sprays.
Spice things up. Spicy foods such as garlic and cayenne pepper have anti-inflammatory properties and can help decrease congestion. Onions and garlic have healing properties as well.
Raw organic apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar helps reduce inflammation and block the body’s reaction to allergens. Drink a spoonful in a glass of water in the morning before going outside.
Essential oils. I’m a big fan of Young Living oils, and there are many that can help with allergies. Lemongrass, lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus and roman chamomile are all wonderful at relieving allergy symptoms. You can add a few drops to bath water, diffuse in a cold air diffuser, or even add to a carrier oil such as almond or coconut and rub onto your feet, neck and chest.

10. Stay inside. It may seem antisocial or even torturous after a long, cold winter, but it’s best to stay inside when the pollen count is really high. Check the pollen count online (I get pollen count emails from Pollen.com) and if it seems bad, stay home and catch up on that book you wanted to read or that DIY you started months ago.

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Six Reasons Go Vegan this Spring!

The temperatures have been warming up and spring is starting to bloom! As I mentioned last week, because this is a time of new beginnings, rebirth and growth, it’s the perfect time for those that have been on the fence to jump headfirst into a vegan diet. Here are six reasons why this is the perfect time for you to say no dairy and meat and go vegan!

Lighten Up After eating heavy, warming foods all winter, it’s time to lighten up, detoxify and maybe shed a few pounds. Plant-based foods will help you do all of that and more. Opt for fresh berries, leafy greens and alliums such as garlic scapes and scallions.

Produce Aplenty Spring harvests have begun to ripen and fresh fruits and vegetables abound. The perfect time to enjoy a plant-based diet is when plants are in bloom. If you’re one of those people who thinks they don’t really like vegetables, now is the time to try new foods and look for produce that you will like. There’s no excuses – get out to the farmer’s market and try something!

More Energy By removing heavy animal products and chemicalized processed junk from your diet, processing meals is less of a burden on your body. That means more energy will be freed up for those fun springtime activities such as hikes through the woods and picnics in the park.

Reduce Allergies A vegan diet won’t make your allergies go away entirely, but ditching dairy will mean that there’s less mucus clogging up your system so you’ll be less miserable this pollen season. Many people are allergic to cows’ milk without realizing it, so removing it from your diet with decrease the overall load of allergens the body is exposed to, and therefore help you feel better.

Less Spoilers The vegan potato salad that you take your best friend’s backyard picnic has less of a chance of spoiling in the sun than it’s dairy-laden counterpart. There’s no salmonella at a vegan barbecue!

Why Not? Veganism has so many benefits, it’s kind of ridiculous not to give it a go. A vegan diet saves animals, helps the environment, improves well-being and keeps the body healthy. Give it a try – the animals will thank you!

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5 Books for New Vegans

Spring has sprung! This is a season of rebirth and growth, and many people use this time to detox, diet to overhaul their diets. With spring fruits and veggies on the verge of ripening, this is the perfect time for people who have been leaning towards veganism to take the plunge. Here’s a list of books that are perfect for new vegans – from cooking and shopping to health and ethics. These books can help answer your questions and keep you motivated.

Main Street Vegan by Victoria Moran This is an excellent book for beginner vegans and people who are “vegan-curious”. VegNews Magazine even called it the “New Vegan Bible”! Victoria covers everything there is to know about veganism, from beans and B12 to shoes and mascara. She squashes all vegan stereotypes and shows how easy vegan living is. Each chapter ends with a recipe, so if you’ve decided to go vegan while reading the book, you can start right away with a delicious, easy to make dish. The chapters in Main Street Vegan are short and easy and they’re all full of wonderful stories and anecdotes from Victoria’s life. She writes with such a warm and friendly voice that I felt as if I was having a conversation with a friend over a cup of tea.

Virgin Vegan by Linda Long Linda wrote Virgin Vegan as a response to be being asked questions about her vegan diet so many times. The book covers the basics on why people go vegan, vegan nutrition, and what vegans do eat. Linda also gives tips on ordering vegan meals in mainstream restaurants and traveling as a vegan. Virgin Vegan is also a cookbook, and it’s jam packed with delicious, easy-to-make recipes and mouthwatering photographs. Even if you’ve been vegan for a while, you’ll probably want to pick this book up to add more yummy dishes to your repertoire.

Quick Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson In my health coaching practice I often hear people say that they don’t have time to cook or they don’t know what to cook to cook as a vegan. Robin solves both of those problems with her book Quick Fix Vegan. All of the recipes in this book take 30 minutes or less to cook and use easy-t0-find ingredients. With dishes like Sloppy Portobellos, Zucchini Frittata and Tempeh with Mellow Mustard Sauce, the recipes in Quick Fix Vegan are creative and flavorful, and will Robin gives tips on how to save time when cooking, and she even includes lists of panty basics and kitchen must-haves. This book is a must-have for those busy weeknights when it seems like there isn’t enough time cook a healthy and delicious meal.

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell If it’s cold hard facts that you’re looking for, The China Study is for you. Now a scientist, T. Colin Campbell was a farm boy who originally set out to find a way to get the most nutrition possible about of the animals we eat. After years of research and study, he concluded that we shouldn’t be eating animals at all. The China Study was the largest nutritional study ever done, and this book is the culmination of it’s findings. T, Colin Campbell explains the connection between nutrition and “diseases of affluence”: heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The report also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and opportunistic scientists.

Eating Animals Jonathan Safran Foer Since I’m a now health coach, it may seem like I’m in this for my health, but I actually went vegan many, many years ago for ethical reasons. is probably the best argument for a vegan diet that I’ve ever read. This book is written as both a memoir and an investigative report. Jonathan talks about food as family tradition and his own memories associated with food and he sets out to explore the origins of many eating customs and the falsehoods that were involved with creating them in the first place. He visits slaughterhouses and factory farms and talks to workers, ranchers and undercover investigators. The book is full of informative facts, common sense statements and Foer’s own personal take on eating animals.

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My Training

I’ve had quite a few emails asking me about my training and what the letters after my name mean lately, so I thought I’d answer the questions with a blog post.

CHHC I’m a certified Holistic Health Counselor. I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2009 when it was still a live school. (Classes are all done remotely now.) I’ve also completed IIN’s optional second “Immersion” year twice and I have additional certification from SUNY Purchase.

As a health coach, I work with people who want to improve their health, learn to eat more nutritious foods and reduce stress. I have several different programs where I guide clients to make gradual, lifelong changes to help them reach their healthy living goals. I also teach nutrition workshops and cooking classes. I offer personalized cooking classes and I can often be found teaching public classes in my community in New Jersey.

AADP You might find the initials AADP after “CHHC”. They stand for American Association of Drugless Practitioners. My health counseling training is through IIN and certification is through the AADP.

VLC I’m also a certified Vegan Lifestyle Coach. I attended Victoria Moran’s Main Street Vegan Academy in the summer of 2012. The Academy takes place in New York City and is a 5 day intensive course about all things vegan. Victoria teaches a lot of the course herself, and guest instructors include such vegan luminaries as Jasmin and Mariann from Our Hen House, Joshua Katcher from The Discerning Brute and the queen of vegan desserts Fran Costigan.

Plant-Based Diet Nutrition Certification I took T Colin Campbell’s Plant-Based Diet Nutrition Certification course through eCornell in 2010. The course consisted of three 2-week long online classes, and the lectures where from vegan nutrition experts such as Pamela Popper, Caldwell Esselstyn and T. Colin Campbell himself. One of my online instructors was The Plant Based Dietician Julieanna Hever.

I’m hoping to add one more certification to my list later this year, but I’ll tell you more about it a few months.

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8 Causes of Cravings

When you crave something, what do you do? Do you give in and have it? Do you chastise yourself for not being stronger? Do you ignore it and hope it goes away? Instead of beating yourself up , use cravings as an opportunity to take time to reflect on what’s going on with your body. Look at the foods, deficits and behaviors in your life that are the underlying causes of your cravings. Many people view cravings as weakness, but really they are important messages meant to assist you in maintaining balance. When you experience a craving, deconstruct it. Ask yourself, what do I really want and why do I want it?

Eight primary causes of cravings are:

Lack of Nourishment to the Soul Being dissatisfied with a relationship or being stressed and uninspired by a job, or can cause emotional eating. Eating can be used as a substitute for entertainment or to fill the void of soul nourishment too. Make a list of things that you love to do and then make a pledge to do something from the list instead of eating something you don’t really want.
Water Lack of water can send the message that you are thirsty and on the verge of dehydration. Dehydration can manifest as a mild hunger, so the first thing to do when you get a craving is drink a full glass of water. Excess water can also cause cravings, so be sure that your water intake is well balanced.
Yin/Yang Imbalance Certain foods have more yin qualities (expansive) while other foods have more yang qualities (contractive). Eating foods that are either extremely yin or extremely yang causes cravings in order to maintain balance. For example, eating a diet too rich in sugar (yin) may cause a craving for meat (yang). Eating too many raw foods (yin) may cause cravings for extremely cooked (dehydrated) foods or vise versa. Aiming for balancing foods such as beans and grains can help keep cravings at bay.
Inside Coming Out Often times, cravings come from foods that we have recently eaten, foods eaten by our ancestors, or foods from our childhood. A clever way to satisfy these cravings is to eat a healthier version of one’s ancestral or childhood foods.
Seasonal Often the body craves foods that balance the elements of the season. In the spring, people crave detoxifying foods like leafy greens or citrus foods. In the summer, people crave cooling foods like fruit, raw foods and ice cream, and in the fall people crave grounding foods like squash, onions and nuts. During winter, many crave hot and heat-producing foods like meat, oil and fat. Cravings can also be associated with the holidays, for foods like turkey, eggnog or sweets, etc. Just as above, satisfy these cravings with healthier versions of what you’re craving.
Lack of nutrients If the body has inadequate nutrients, it will produce odd cravings. For example, inadequate mineral levels produce salt cravings, and overall inadequate nutrition produces cravings for non-nutritional forms of energy, like caffeine. The body usually looks for the fastest and easiest way to obtain missing nutrients, so the food that’s being craved is not always the best way obtain what the body is deficient in. Add more leafy greens and colorful vegetables to your diet to ensure you’re getting adequate nutrition.
Hormonal When women experience menstruation, pregnancy or menopause, fluctuating testosterone and estrogen levels may cause unique cravings.
Self Sabotage When things are going extremely well, sometimes a self-sabotage syndrome happens. We crave foods that throw us off, thus creating more cravings to balance ourselves.

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10 Steps to Eating Mindfully

We often eat mindlessly. We stuff food into our mouths while web-surfing, driving or watching tv. I've even seen people eating meals while walking around the streets of Manhattan. Eating should not be just about fueling our bodies. Studies have shown that how we eat can affect us just as much as what we eat. Have you ever gulped down your lunch and still felt it sitting in your stomach like a rock? It's important to slow down, connect with what we're eating and fully experience all of the elements of food. I always encourage my health coaching clients to slow down and eat mindfully once in a while. Try this experiment with your next meal and notice what happens.

Sight Look at your food and imagine you are from outer space. You just arrived on Earth and have never seen this food before. Look at it carefully without naming it. What do you see?
Smell Bring the food up to your nose. Without naming the scent, experience smelling the food, and then describe what you smell.
Physiological Reaction Without eating anything yet, focus on what is going on in your mouth. Are you salivating? Notice the mind/body phenomenon and how the senses respond to the anticipation of food being eaten.
Touch Now explore how the food feels. Without naming the sensation, just experience touching your food.
Motion and Movement Move the food towards your mouth. How is it that your hand knows how to move the food directly to the lips? As you bring the food up to your mouth, notice what happens next. The mouth receives the food. Observe what the tongue does with it. How does it get the food between the teeth? It's amazing that the tongue is so skilled, and that such a remarkable muscle can actually receive food and then know what to do with it every time.
Taste After becoming aware of the food in your mouth, start biting into it very slowly. Then begin to chew. Give all your attention to your mouth and take a few bites, then stop to experience what's happening. What is happening is invariably an explosion of taste. Describe what's going on. Is it sweet or sour or juicy? There are hundreds of words to describe the experience of tasting.
Texture As you continue to chew the tastes change, as does the consistency. At a certain point you will become aware of the texture of the food because the taste has mostly passed. If the texture causes aversion, you may want to swallow it, but try to keep it in your mouth.
Swallow Don’t swallow it yet. Stay with the impatience and the inborn impulse to swallow. Do not swallow until you detect the impulse to do so. And then observe what is involved in getting the food over to the place where it's going to be swallowed. When you detect the impulse to swallow, follow it down into the stomach, feel your whole body and acknowledge that your body is now exactly one bite heavier.
Breath Pause for a moment or two, and see if you can taste your breath in a similar way. Bring the same quality of attention to the breath that you gave to seeing, feeling, smelling and tasting the food.
Silence Be silent. Take a moment to meditate on your experience.

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My Top 3 Tips for a Healthy Vegan Diet

As a health coach, I hear from a lot of people who worry that they aren't getting enough nutrients on a vegan diet. With so much vegan processed and junk food on the market now, it's pretty easy to eat meat-free and not get enough nutrients. I recommend eating mostly unprocessed plant foods, such as fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and grains for optimal nutrition and saving the processed and packaged stuff for once-in-a-while eating. If you're eating a wide variety of foods, you're probably getting enough nutrients and don't need to worry.

Here are my top 2 tips for being a health vegan:

Always Add Greens Add leafy green vegetables to your meal, even if the recipe doesn't call for it. If it's a soup or stew, add some spinach. If you're making a tofu or tempeh dish, you can serve it over arugula, and the heat from the cooked food will steam it. If you're making a stir-fry, throw in some bok choy. You can always serve your meal with some sautéed greens on a big leafy salad.
Eat the Rainbow Micronutrients are what color fruits and vegetables, so if you have at least four colors on your plate at each meal, you can be sure you're getting a wide variety of nutrients. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. Choose red onions instead of white, throw some purple cabbage onto your salad, add some shredded carrot to your stir-fry. White and black count as colors, so why not start your meal with some garlic and add some black olives to the finished dish?
Supplement Vitamins B12 and D Vitamin B12 is actually a byproduct of bacteria, and it's not very prevalent in plant foods so it's something vegans need to supplement. As we age, B12 becomes difficult to absorb, even for omnivores, so everyone over the age should supplement, regardless of diet. Vitamin D is actually a hormone that the body produces after sun exposure. It's a nutrient that most Americans tend to be deficient in, so supplementing is important. Recommended dosages for both supplements tend to vary, so it's good to research what's best for you.

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My Top 8 Tips for Going Vegan

Veganism has been in the news a lot lately, with articles from such mainstream establishments such as Readers Digest and Business Insider on the benefits of eating a totally plant-based diet. Even the New York Times has been talking about veganism, with several articles on the subject on their website last month. With all of this new-found press, veganism has quite a lot more converts to. Completely changing diets can be a bit tricky in the beginning, but after a while it becomes second nature. I've been vegan for so long now that sometimes I forget that not everyone eats this way!

As a vegan health and lifestyle coach, I help people go vegan every day. Here are my top eight tips for people making the plunge:

Take Your Time You don't need to go totally vegan overnight. When I went vegetarian many years ago I gradually weaned myself off meat, and when I decided to convert to veganism 9 years later I changed my diet pretty slowly. The vegan police aren't goign to come after you if you still have dairy products in your fridge or wool sweaters in your closet. Take your time and go at your own pace.

Get Support Finding a support system is pretty crucial to new vegans, especially those who are switching diets alone. Chances are that your family and friends will think you're a little crazy, so you'll want to find some people who will understand how sane your decision is. It's also good to have someone there who's already made the transition so you can ask questions. Check out MeetUp.com and look for vegan groups in your area, or look for online vegan communities such as ThePPK.com.

Use Transition Foods I don't advocate loading down your vegan plate with soy meats and cheeses, but I do think they are good transition foods. If you're used to eating hamburgers and chicken nuggets, try veggie burgers and soy "chicken". There are quite a lot of tasty meat alternatives on the market now. Gardein is a favorite of mine, and I've heard that Beyond Meat is really close to tasting like the real thing.

Eat Your Veggies I've met vegans who don't eat very many vegetables. It can be pretty easy to make through a day without eating very many if you have a bagle with tofu cream cheese for breakfast, a veggie burger for lunch and spaghetti with marinara for dinner. Yes, all of that food is vegan, but it's not very healthy to eat that way. If you want to go vegan and feel good about what you eat, load your plate up with many brightly colored vegetables and make sure you're consuming lots of leafy greens.

Answer the Protein Question Make peace with "where do you get your protein?" because you're going to hear it a lot. The last time someone asked me I laughed at him because I thought he was joking. (He wasn't.) Try not to get angry when asked, and just answer politely. You can say something like "From beans, tofu, tempeh, seitan, broccoli, kale, brown rice, etc.", or "Protein is prominent in so many foods that I don't worry about it."

Don't Get Angry It's common to get angry at the non-vegan world once your eyes have been opened to the horrors of the factory farming system. Being angry doesn't help the vegan cause and turns omnivores off to our way of living, so try to stay calm when dealing with those outside your vegan circle. Read my tips on how to be a happy, healthy vegan on ChicVegan.com: http://chicvegan.com/tips-for-being-a-happy-healthy-vegan/

Arm Yourself with Cookbooks Don't know how to cook vegan? Just buy a few cookbooks and follow the directions! When feeding omnivores, make sure you cook them something really tasty. I find that good food can be the best way to win others over to veganism.

Chocolate is Vegan Okay, not all chocolate is vegan, but there are a lot of good quality, non-dairy chocolates out there. Veganism isn't about deprevation – it's about compassion and celebration of life. Have some chocolate and enjoy yourself!

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No Excuses Cooking

As a health coach, one of the things I often hear from clients is that they don't have enough time to cook. I understand that people have busy lives, and I myself sometimes find myself scrambling to make dinner, but there really is nothing better than a home cooked meal. Take-out is often full of too much fat and salt, and you never really know what other mystery ingredients could be lurking in the food. When you make a home cooked meal with fresh ingredienst, you know exactly what's in the food and you know you're doing something nourishing for yourself. There really is nothing better!

Here are the top 5 excuses I've heard, and my 5 answers to them:

My kitchen is too small. I hear ya. My kitchen is small too. And my last one was even smaller. All you really need is a stove and a small prep area. I think I had about 12 square inches of work space in my last kitchen and I was able to make many delcious meals in it. Read my small kitchen tips here: http://www.veggiegirl.com/2012/08/01/10-small-kitchen-tips/

I don't have time to chop vegetables. Most vegan dishes are vegetable heavy, and yes, chopping them can take some time. If you know you won't have too much time to chop veggies in the evening, you can buy pre-cut vegetables at the grocery store. They are a little pricier, but sometimes it's worth it. Another thing you can do is to chop all of your produce as soon as you get home from grocery shopping and store it all in containers in your fridge.

I'm not a good cook. You don't have to be a gourmet chef to cook a nourshing meal. Find recipes you like and just follow the directions. Don't be afraid – it's pretty hard to "break" a recipe. If the dish doesn't come out the way you'd like it to, you can always add spices and seasons to tweek it.

I don't have the right ingredients for the recipe I want to make. Recipe swaps are so easy to do. I recently received an eggplant from my co-op and wanted to make my groundnut stew with it, but I didn't have the ingredients my original recipe called for. I used kidney beans instead of chickpeas, canned tomatoes instead of fresh, rice milk instead of coconut milk and red skinned potatoes instead of sweet potatoes. The dish was delcious and there was no way of knowing I had made it "incorrectly".

I don't have a Vitamix (or food processor, or dehydrator, or ice cream maker…). I am a full-fledged kitchen gadget junky, but I haven't always had all of these appliances in my kitchen. You don't need to spend a fortune on gizmos and gadgets to make a good meal. Get creative with what you have and don't worry about not having the largest shiniest blender on the market.

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Last Week of Health Coaching Sale!

It's the last week in January, and this about the time of the year that people beging to give up on their new year's resolutions. Are you having a difficult time sticking to your goals? As a health coach, I can help!

Have you resolved to go vegan? Eat more vegetables? Manage your weight? Reduce stress? I can help you stay on track with your goals by providing you with the right plan, the right support and the right amount of accountability. All of my programs are 25% off, and this is the last week to get this great discount, as the sale ends on January 31st. Gift certificates are available. Contact me today for more information or to schedule a free breakthrough session to discuss your goals.

Six Month Platinum Program

This is a life changing program that integrates nutrition and self care to ensure that body, mind are spirit are all nourished. In this program you will set and accomplish goals, explore new foods, understand and reduce your cravings, increase your energy, feel better in your body, learn to reduce stress, improve personal relationships and more.

Twelve 45-Minute Sessions
Sessions take place every two weeks.
Session take place either over the phone or in person.
Program includes: notes emailed after each session, email support between each session, handouts and food or personal care samples.
Add in-person cooking lessons to the program for a total cost of $1,080 ($90 per session)

90 Day Intensive Wellness Program

This program covers nutrition and food. In this program you discover which foods are right for you, understand and reduce your cravings, increase your energy and feel better in your body.

Six 45-Minute Sessions
Sessions take place over the phone or in person.
Program includes: notes emailed after each session, email support between each session, handouts and food samples.
Add in-person cooking lessons to the program for a total cost of $600 ($100 per session)

Four Week Jump Start Your Health Program

This program covers the basics of healthy eating. In this program you will learn the fundamentals of a healthy diet while discovering which foods work best for you and your unique body type.

Four 45-Minute Sessions
Sessions take place every week.
Sessions take place over the phone or in person.
Program includes: notes emailed after each session, email support between each session, handouts and food samples.

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