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THE One Food to Combat Cold and Flu Season

 

Scurvy, the disease that wiped out thousands of sailors is caused by a lack of vitamin C.

The 18th century explorer, James Cook was the first explorer to beat the scurvy epidemic that plagued long ocean voyages.

How did he do it?

Sauerkraut baby!

Nowadays scurvy is pretty low on our radar as far diseases go. However, we’ve all heard of the benefits of vitamin C for the immune system.

The vitamin C content of cabbage is pretty normal but once that cabbage gets fermented, the vitamin C content skyrockets.

The fermentation process that is used to make sauerkraut also brings with it other kinds of magic like:

it contains several strains of beneficial probiotics that do wonders for the immune system
it helps naturally curb sugar cravings
it is AMAZING for digestion
it contains tons of antioxidants
it is antimicrobial and antifungal
it contains isothiocyanates that may help protect against cancer
it is a prebiotic, which means it feeds the good bugs

So hopefully I’ve convinced you that sauerkraut is a serious superfood.

But the taste…

Perhaps you tried it and promptly gave away your jar? I hear that one a lot.

I’ve converted many, many kraut haters.

Here’s what you’ll do:

👉Mix it into salads. This mitigates the strong flavor. You can also blend sauerkraut into salad dressings reducing the amount of vinegar needed. See my Happy Gut Salad Dressing

👉Use it as a soup topper. I love adding kraut to a hearty vegetable soup or even to chowders to give a little zip. It’s a must on French onion soup.

👉Mix it into cream cheese. This is delicious and actually is tasty enough to serve as a hors d’oeuvre on crostini or crackers. My daughter mixes her sauerkraut in cottage cheese and has it for breakfast.

👉Mix it into hummus. This is a favorite breakfast of mine. It’s delicious on crisp bread or toast with some avocado and a bit of sharp mustard.

👉Mix it into ketchup. I particularly like this with eggs, burgers, dogs or tourtière. I also like adding in a little sriracha for some kick. See my Eggs With Greens Recipe.

👉Mix into salsa. The sour flavor of the kraut happily replaces some of the acid in any salsa recipe. I haven’t met a kid that won’t gobble this up with some nachos. I’m talking about my Quick Tasty Salsa Recipe

👉Mix it into tartar sauce to have with fish, poultry, in wraps or even legumes. Have you ever combined mayo and relish to make tartar sauce? Try elevating your tartar sauce by adding in some chopped kraut. See Kim’s Famous Tartar Recipe.

 

The way I see it, you have no more excuses to not incorporate this super food into your diet. particularly when our need for vitamin C is high.

Trust me when I tell you that it is an acquired taste and that in a very short time you will be craving it.

Cheers to making healthy delicious ❤️Consider sharing this with someone you love.

Reach out if you want more.

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Beware!! This Could Change Everything

This year is about alchemy my friend.

Alchemy is defined as turning base metal into gold.

This year, I’m going to challenge you to turn what you perceived as past failures, into gold nuggets of learning.

👉1) What is the story that goes on in your head as you feel yourself going down that all too familiar path that inevitably leads you to slipping up on your health or weight goals?

For example:

Is it: ‘Awww, just one bite/piece/glass won’t hurt’ ?

Is it: ‘F*** – it. I’ve already fallen off the wagon, may as well let loose’?

Is it: ‘Who am I kidding – I know this will never work’ ?

The amount of gloomy, defeating self-talk going on ”under the hood” will have a direct effect on your success and overall health.

👉2) Now get a pad and paper and get clear on how things usually go down for you and write it down. What is your saboteur story?

👉3) Now question the validity of that story.

For example:

Is it really true that one bite won’t hurt? When you know it’ll send you into a tailspin and cost you a week of struggle to get those cravings back under control. Sounds painful and cruel to me.

Is it really true that if you’ve ‘fallen off’, that ALL is lost and that you need to scrap everything only to begin the yoyo rollercoaster again? That’s like a carpenter tearing down the entire house every time she makes a bad cut. Ridiculous right?

Is it really true that you can never achieve your health and weight goals? Or is it just an excuse to feel victimized by life leaving you so low and powerless that any excuse to self-soothe is good instead of doing the work of showing up for yourself? Absurd. You don’t have a genetic defect preventing you from achieving your goal.

Those are just stories that you’ve come to believe. They are not the truth.

👉4) Now have some fun and name the main character in your story.

For example:
The voice in example #1 could be Tammy Temptress or
Indulgent Ingrid.

The voice in example #2 could be All-Or-Nothing-Andy or Black-And-White-Betty.

The voice in example #3 could be Victim Vinny or
Poor-Me-Patty.

 

👉5) Now recognize when that voice comes up and when it does, have a comeback ready.

For example:

”Tammy Temptress thinks I should eat this but I know it won’t end well. I think I’ll pass”

”Black and White Betty is getting really loud right now. I should probably reconsider eating this entire carton of ice cream or selling my treadmill on marketplace.”

”Poor me Patty is trying to convince me that I can’t do this. What a sneaky beeatch.”

Recognizing and naming your saboteurs will weaken their power over you.

 

It’ll take some practice but I promise you, you’ll be blown away by how often they show up once you begin noticing them.

👉6) Every time you notice your story come up, spend one minute focusing on your body, your breathing or on the activity you’re doing. In other words, be fully present for one minute or three breaths.

Your brain is capable of incredible change. This is commonly referred to as neuroplasticity.

Noticing your limiting beliefs (saboteur stories) and then bringing in a few moments of mindfulness is powerful to begin changing your neural circuitry, aka changing habits.

Doing these steps will start to discredit the old stories you’ve been telling yourself that are not serving you.

If you’re interested in taking a deeper dive, you can learn more about your saboteurs HERE and HERE .

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