We’ve mentioned the (USA) Healthy School Meals Act of 2010 in previous posts. This act would provide more school children with healthier, plant-based meal options, and thanks to your support, Congress is on the verge of voting for a new Child Nutrition Act that could finally give kids the food they need.

A recent House bill, H.R. 5504, incorporates provisions of the Healthy School Meals Act and includes an innovative pilot program to introduce more plant-based foods into the school lunch program. The House bill would also provide more funding for farm-to-school programs, nutrition education and wellness promotion activities.

This superior House bill may be rejected for a much weaker Senate version that would make it harder for children to access healthy, plant-based foods.

As Congress prepares to vote, we must take swift action and continue our support of healthier school meals and plant-based options. The House bill would not only promote better eating habits and increased wellness for our kids, but it could also help reduce the devastating effects of animal agriculture on farm animals and the environment.

Please contact key leaders in the House today and urge them to take a stand on child nutrition by passing the House bill, H.R. 5504, and rejecting the Senate’s weaker bill, S. 3307.

Thanks to Farm Sanctuary for the simple summary and easy contact page.

So many people think they can just give up healthy living when it comes to the weekend. Like the weekend is some kind of free pass that cancels out all the fat and sugar and alcohol they consume.

Well, it’s not.

The choices you make on the weekend set you up for success the following week.

Stick with the guidelines you’ve set for yourself. Keep working your plan. Eat well. Exercise (it’s a good time to do something different – maybe something family-friendly – like a bike ride, or a hike, or a dance-a-thon if it’s too wet to be outside). Drink water. Get enough sleep. Plan ahead for next week (it’s already off to a great start with the foundation you’re giving it now).

Keep taking care of yourself. You deserve your best effort, every day.

This exercise is a member favorite for toning the outer thigh – especially that lovely bulge we get from years of sitting. It’s a really effective way to work that muscle and help reduce the size of that bulge. Thanks to Furlara for reminding us of this one!

1. Start on your hands and knees. Make sure your hands are under your shoulders and knees are under your hips, and that your back is flat. Keep your neck in a neutral position (look straight down at the floor).
2. Lift your right leg to the side, keeping the 90-degree bend in your knee. If you do it right, it looks like a male dog is lifting it’s leg on a… fire hydrant. Thus the descriptive name. Tighten up your thigh muscles as you lift. Go slowly, so you’re conscious of using the muscles and not the momentum (no swinging the leg!).
3. Lift 15 times on the right, then 15 times on the left. Then repeat.

Stress can mess with your weight in two ways.

• First, tension and anxiety activate your body’s flight or fight response, raising levels of cortisol, the hormone that encourages your body to store dangerous belly fat.
• Second, you (that is, all of us) seek out high-fat and high-calorie foods for their soothing effects on the brain and the psyche. They call it “comfort food” for a reason, but that’s really only the short-term effect.

Add up both stress responses and mostly you (yeah, that’s “we”) add pounds.

Develop a strategy for the times you’re feeling stressed. Take a walk, do some jumping jacks, practice deep yoga breathing, listen to your favorite playlist (make one called “stressbuster”), call a friend, or watch a funny movie or YouTube video (laughter is a great stress reliever).

Let it out, don’t let it in.

It’s apple season! Apples are the best to-go snack ever, don’t you think? So easy to put one in your purse or backpack and just pull it out when you need something quick and delicious. Good apples are juicy, crisp, and (we think) a little tart.

To make this dessert gluten-free, substitute the flour with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour Mix. Substitute the oatmeal with ground nuts – we like pecans and walnuts. This is a hit with our celiac (gluten-intolerant) relatives.

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Sheri’s Apple Crunch
Yellow * 15 servings

Apples
3/4 cup Sucanat® (a bit less works great; use 1/2 cup Sucanat plus 1/4 cup maple sugar if you have it)
1 Tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 cups sliced tart apples (Haralson, Braeburn, Granny Smith)-peeled or unpeeled, your choice; about 10-12 apples

Crumb Topping
3/4 cup Sucanat®
3/4 cup Earth Balance, really cold
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup quick oats
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix dry ingredients for the apples in a large bowl, add apple slices and mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes or so, to get juicy. Spoon into well-greased 12×8 baking pan.

Mix crumb topping ingredients with pastry blender or 2 forks until it is the consistency of coarse meal. Cover the apples with the crumb topping, gently heaping them on top. Bake 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm or cold with non-dairy vanilla ice “cream” or serve it warm with some cold soy creamer poured around it.

We’ve discovered a lazy new way to make tea, and to have a “fancy” beverage at the same time.

We open a bottle of flavored (no sweeteners added!) sparkling water – we like the sparkling lime water or sparkling lemon water for this.

Then we roll up an herbal tea bag – no strings, staples or tags, please – and drop it in the bottle. Our current favorite is Raspberry Zinger from Celestial Seasonings.

It only takes a couple of minutes for the teabag to start flavoring (and coloring) the water. Drink an inch or two of the water so the carbonation doesn’t float the teabag right out of the bottle. There’s still plenty to be flavored.

This isn’t something to drink all the time. Carbonated/sparkling water isn’t the healthiest choice. But it is fun for a special treat, or as a substitute for a soda.

When you’re done with the bottle of water, give it a good shake upside-down over the sink, and pull the teabag out. Discard the teabag, and rinse and recycle the bottle.

The way you eat is connected to the way you feel. And the way you feel shows in the way you look. The way you look influences the way people respond to you. The way people respond affects how you think of yourself. How you think of yourself is reflected in your behaviors.

Eat well. You may just change the whole scope of your life.
(and you thought food was just fuel…)

It’s been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish… All before making a human. He made and provided what we’d need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw. We’re such slow learners…

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body! God’s Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye… And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

strong>Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female – they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods. Modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them.

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body’s cells. Today’s research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

If you’re eating a healthy diet and working out regularly, the quality of your sleep has probably already improved. (As Marilu says, everything is connected to everything!)

You also want to look at the quantity of your sleep. People who get 5 or fewer hours of sleep per night are 55 percent more likely to be obese than those who log 8 hours a night. Sleep deprivation may increase your output of hunger hormones, turn off your fullness hormones, and bring on cravings for foods like sugary carbs, which perk you up (just before they send you crashing down).

Tuck yourself in 15 minutes early tonight and continue to back up by 15 minutes a night until you’re getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night.

We love the clean, fresh feeling that a bowl of daikon soup gives us. Daikon is one of those veggies that was once strange and new, but has become a great friend. It’s a root veggie, looks kind of like a fat white (or white-ish) carrot. You can find daikon radishes in the produce section of your health food store or Asian market. It can be eaten raw (usually grated or sliced thin) or cooked.

Daikon is very low in calories. A 3-ounce serving contains only 18 calories and provides 34 percent of the RDA for vitamin C. Rich in vitamin C, daikon contains active enzymes that aid digestion, particularly of starchy foods. Select those that feel heavy and have lustrous skin, no cracks and fresh leaves.

Daikon cleanses the blood, promotes energy circulation and increases the metabolic rate. It contains diuretics, decongestants and, in terms of phytochemicals, the digestive enzymes diastase, amylase and esterase. Regular use of daikon helps prevent the common cold, flu and respiratory infections. Daikon treats hangovers, sore throats, colds and edema, and it helps cleanse the kidneys and decongest the lungs. This restorative vegetable also has anticarcinogenic properties.

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Creamy Daikon Soup
from Healthy Life Kitchen
Purple * Serves 6-8

3 Tablespoons soy margarine (we like Earth Balance margarine)
2 cups finely chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup minced shallots
4 cups vegetable stock
2 long, large daikon radishes, peeled or scrubbed and cut in small pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Melt soy margarine in a heavy pot. Add onions and shallots and cook, covered, over low heat until tender. Add vegetable stock and daikon radishes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until daikon is tender, about 20 minutes. Pour soup through a strainer. Reserve the liquid and transfer the solids to a blender or food processor. Puree, adding the reserved broth. Return soup to pot and add more broth or water until you have reached desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.