Foods to undo some of the holiday bulls#!t

Last night Carolyn and I had a talk to give. If you’re in NYC,  you know that it was an insanely rainy night. So, like the true professionals we are, we emailed our host 10 times saying “are you sure we’re on, it’s so bad out maybe people would like to do another night?” We were on and, as is often the case when you least expect it, it was great. We had a smart/fun group in a small, swanky 51^stfloor room. There was booze we didn’t drink and chandeliers we did NOT swing from (we didn’t know these people yet). The topic was top 10 foods you should eat to undo holiday damage.

Issue: Hangovers

Shockingly over 20% of people do not experience hangovers. Most of us do. Try our 1 for 1 rule and have 1 water for every drink you have or just stick to 1 drink (some people can do this). If you overdo it, think ginger. Most hangover issues stem from inflammation. We like Wakaya ginger Mix it with water after you drink or next morning or be like us and plop some in your clear spirit of choice.

Honorable  hangover mentions:  coconut water, eggs, vitamin B12

Skip: hair of the dog or bacon egg and cheese rituals

Issue: Sweet tooth (or teeth)

Sweets are a big issue this time of year or really every time of year. If sweets are your kryptonite- be ferm! I’m talking fermented foods. Your gut is really the control tower for your body and what’s going on there affects your cravings, especially sweet cravings. The “top shelf” ferm(ented) foods are  fermented  veggies (farmhouse kraut, bubbles pickles and BAO are great brands) & kefir (sort of turbo yogurt when it comes to probiotic count).

Issue- Dry, gross skin

Winter, sugar, booze and too much time inside = parched, sad skin.

If you haven’t started collagening, you have 2 choices:

collagen powder or bone broth. In NYC check out the new brodo shops west village and Bryant park.

Issue: Zero Energy 

First I’ll remind you to sleep more and hydrate (professional obligation). If you want a little metabolism boost, make that water ice cold. If  you’re seekinga more interesting upper, drink matcha. Matcha, because you consume the whole leaf via this pretty powder, puts plain old green tea to shame.

Matcha gives you a push without making you jittery. It revives you and calms you down at once, impressive. If you’re really feeling low, drink matcha with brain octane in it and thank me when you decide to take a break hours later.

Issue: Stress!!!

Once upon a time there was a mineral called magnesium. This super-crucial mineral helps you chill out and keeps your metabolism humming along. However, there’s also a demon called stress that runs around the city scopping up magnesium. I don’t’ know where I’m going with this but most of us are deficient in magnesium which means both our mood and metabolism are subpar.

Don’t freak out. I love magnesium bath flakes (Naturopathica makes amazing ones), you can supplement magnesium (we love pure encapsulations or natural calm packets). And you can eat real, potent dark chocolate, 70% or > and avocado morning, noon and night.

Issue: family 

Solution: I’ll get back to you on this one, Foodtraining can only fix so much.

Happy Holidays! Cheers to not feeling like Santa at the end of this season.

Our best Squeeze program yet and fave new ingredient

 Oh structure we missed you so. We are midway though our Foodtrainers’ September Squeeze fall reset weeks.  Week 1, led by Lauren, concluded Sunday and week 2, my week, is off and running (shout out to our Squeeze achievers doing both weeks).

We design a new program, with new recipes each time (why do less work when you can do more?) but we never really know how it will go until we have a group of all ages, living in all different places, going through it. Many of Lauren’s week 1 squeezers told us it was our best squeeze yet…nice!  We asked our week 1 Squeeze grads to tell us how they felt:

I feel back on track/more confident/able to say no/in control/clear-headed, rested and resolved to continue.

This Squeeze is NO booze, grains, sugar, cheese or scale (yup a full week no weigh ins).  While it sounds like a lot of no’s we have a lot of yes’s too. We select special ingredients and what we call “secret weapons” to spice things up. My favorite this go around is ashwaganda. Ashwagandha is tough to say and tough to drink. Sunpotion politely says it tastes a little “earthy”, we say it tastes like dirt, unless you have it in our OMG Ashwagandha recipe. Why should you “ash”? It’s an Ayurvedic herb, used for over 3000 years, that lowers cortisol, helps body handle stress, balances thyroid hormones and improves body composition and sleep.

Try Ashwaganda and our other new favorites in our Squeeze Bundle 

Squeeze Nightcap: OMG Ashwagandha

We love us some golden milk and this ashwagandha nightcap is a spin on the classic. Don’t stress out about our recipe, if you don’t have all of these it’ll be ok.

And if you are stressing out…all the more reason to try this.

Ingredients:

·      1/4 tsp. Sun Potion Ashwagandha

·      1/2 tsp. Wakaya turmeric

·      1/2 tsp. Wakaya ginger

·      1 cup water

·      Pinch sea salt 

·      Pinch black pepper (pepper increases the effectiveness of turmeric)

·      1 cup almond or coconut milk

·      Optional drops NuStevia (optional)

·      *Add more sea salt or stevia as needed 

Instructions:

1.    Put ashwagandha, turmeric, ginger, pepper and water into a small saucepan, add water and simmer 8-10 minutes or until this mixture reduces and thickens.

2.    Add almond milk and stir, continue until mixture is warm (a few minutes).

3.    Add salt and stevia (if using) and stir again.

4.    Pour into a mug and sip. OMG, you’ve been ashwagandha’d.

If you want a reset, let us know and we’ll put you on the list for January “Whipping Week” info.

So what do you do when you need to reboot? Have you heard of ashwaganda? Any nighttime rituals you’d like to share?

My take on a blue latte AKA the Hillary latte

Yes, not a great photo I'm aware

I recently read about a blue latte created at a Melbourne café. I was intrigued. My intrigue transformed into frustration at the thought that I couldn’t try this concoction. And if I’m being honest, I couldn’t Instagram this pretty drink. Twenty hours later I was drinking a blue latte.

I learned the blue was from a blue green algae E3 Live. I am a fan of E3, I’ve written about it, sold bottles of it at Foodtrainers but there was a problem. E3 live is best in shot form, it tastes like sh!t. I would make a blue latte but I didn’t expect to enjoy it.

The original blue latte was said to contain E3, ginger, lemon and agave (I may be omitting something). I assembled my line up. Out of E3 at home, I bought a shot (and a pack up shot) at Juice Generation. I put my pacific coconut milk in my frother and pulled out a glass cup. I decided on Wakaya ginger, lemon nustevia, peppermint essential oil and coconut oil.

I put about half the shot in my cup and stirred in warm coconut milk (for some reason it didn’t froth). Blue! I added a half teaspoon Artisana coconut oil and stirred it in. Next came the ginger, drops of stevia and peppermint. I ended up frothing organic half and half for a foamy top layer.

I snapped a few photos and took a sip. It was delicious. Peppermint definitely was the key it’s more of a peppermint blue latte than anything but that beats an algae latte, right?

Cheers to the weekend! Speaking of the weekend, maybe this is a Hilary latte.

Have you heard of the blue latte? Would you try it? Who do you think Hil will pick as a VP?

How about a post-weekend metabolism boost? Giveaway too!

Expo West is the capstone of natural food shows. Carolyn and I love a challenge and decided we could cover this massive event in one day. Before every one of these expos we make a pact not to oversample. Let’s just say that at 9am, when Carolyn found me, I had gluten free pizza in one hand and bone broth in the other. The treat train had left the station and mild reflux was already setting in. But how can I know whether to recommend something without tasting it?

By midafternoon we had reached our threshold. At this point, we’d jerkey-ed, dark chocolated, posed for the embarrassing photo du jour and walked over 10 miles (20K steps). 

A booth with props? We're always  in.

We just wanted to be finished. It’s mile 25 of the marathon and the high five supply is exhausted. As we entered an area with newer products, we saw the Fire Cider booth. We know and love the original Fire Cider but as we shuffled by the booth we heard the word unsweetened. Original Fire Cider is sweetened and so not a member of our innermost food circle. Unsweetened? Carolyn and I turned and took a shot. Wow.

If you’re among the uninitiated, Fire Cider is amped up ACV (apple cider vinegar).

There’s ginger, turmeric, habaneros, lemons, here are the ingredients:

It’s good for weight loss and blood sugar; it’s anti-inflammatory and a metabolism booster. And you’ll decide for yourself whether I’m right about this but when I have it I feel a little buzzed (not so bad). I have it first thing in the morning. With ACV I put a Tbsp. in water but with Fire Cider I go straight up. Start with 1 Tbsp., our friend Heather at Fire Cider has it three times a day but we’re still building up our tolerance. In the mean time, try this “secret weapon” shot and let us know what you think.Cheers!
Firecider is giving away 1 bottle of their sensational stuff to 1 of our readers. To be eligible, comment below and tell us why you want to try fire cider AND tweet Need a boost? @Foodtrainers has a @firecider giveaway? OK? Must enter by Friday the 13th.