I have just
returned from a long trip across the country, which actually began with a
wonderful trek over the Pacific to Maui.
From there, after a brief stop in Northern California to repack and refamiliarize
myself with my home, I was off to New England.
I stopped in, again, very briefly, to visit my family, and then was off
to Ireland for two weeks, on business.
After a very
successful stay in Northern Ireland, I returned to New England, where I stayed
at my mom’s house. We hung out, had a
good time, but I complained about how I could not find any decent vegetarian food
while on the Emerald Island (lots of good beer and deep-fried potatoes, but a
dearth of healthy green, leafy types of foods; and very poor Italian recipes).
I informed
my dear old ma that I was dying for some pasta, made with a very healthy
tomato-based sauce. She said that she
had a bunch of jars of spaghetti sauce in her cupboard that I could drizzle
over some pasta. I asked if she felt
like making one of her famous tomato sauces.
She replied, “I have all the ingredients, but don’t have the time nor
desire to make that time-consuming sauce much anymore.”
“Hmmmm,” I replied. “How about I whip up my own marinara sauce,
one that tastes amazing and only takes a mere thirty minutes to create?”
She said, “Only
if I can hold your camera and film it.” (Totally fabricated).
I am now at work on editing an outtakes video from all the film footage I tossed out after creating this wonderful vid. My mom is not only a good sport, but an excellent cook who taught me everything I know about healthy eating and cooking. I hope that this is only the start of many more "cooking with mom" videos.
Okay, so maybe just greetings from the Emerald Island, where this post is being transmitted. Besides my lingering jetlag, my confusuion stems from my desire to be back on Maui...and the size of this amazing avocado.
I could have called this post:
THE ATTACK OF THE KILLER AVOCADO!!
And these babies were killer - killer tasting, that is. I love Maui avocados even more than the California-grown Hass variety, which before encountering the above monster, were once my favorite.
I don't think you really can see from the above pic what I am talking about. Maybe this photo will help demonstrate the size of this beast. And while size is good, the taste is even better.
Is that a Maui avocado, or are you just happy to see me?
All of these fun and delicious recollections have moved me to reprint one of my favorite posts. Please enjoy:
As much as I love eating avocados today, it's hard to imagine that I
didn't taste my first one until I was well into my twenties. I grew up
in a small town in a small New England state. Our foods of choice leaned more toward clam cakes and chowder than tacos and enchiladas. Avocado? I hadn't a clue what one was.
And don't even get me going about guacomole. Guaca...huh?
I
understand that the avocado existed when I was growing up Back East,
and they may even have been available at the local grocery store where
my mother shopped. But mom never purchased one, never brought one of
those green-skinned babies home. Believe it or not, I did not know WHATan avocadoWAS until I relocated to sunny California in the mid-80's. And even then, I wasn't sure what to do with one or how to eat it.
Today,
avocados seem more popular and prevalent in everyday cuisine. In most
restaurants you can find them chopped atop salads, sliced in between
sandwiches, and, in its most popular form, as guacamole, that amazing green nacho-chip-dipping-taste-sensation.
While your mouth is watering, consider these interesting facts about the avocado:
a member of the berry family, avocado is a fruit, not vegetable
the Aztecs named it after the word, ahuacatl, which meant "testicle," because of its shape
they have been around since 900 A.D.
they have been grown in North America since 1856
also known as the alligator pear, Jamaicans call them pears
(for more fascinating information about the avocado, visit this site)
Most
of you by now have tasted avocados, but if you still are like I was,
back in the day, you should give them a try. You don't know what you are
missing. But do you know the best way to cut one open? Here's a video
that will help:
Hey,
next time you have that chip loaded with guac, happily remind yourself
that besides enjoying a delicious snack, you are also getting:
10 grams of dietary fiber
more potassium than one banana
vitamins E and B
10 grams of the good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated)
RED FLAG!
While
very healthy for you, avocados are also high in calories and fats. The
good news: these are the good fats--monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
These are heart-healthy fats and help lower LDL (bad cholesterol).
The
bad news, for those counting calories or watching their weight, is that
an average size avocado has around 300 calories--so tread carefully. I
know that I can eat one all by myself, diced, with a sprinkle of sea
salt.
Try it! In moderation.
It's
hard to imagine that I spent half my life deprived of the succulent
taste of avocado. Maybe that's why I've spent the last twenty-five years
eating more than my share, trying to make up for lost time.
You should too!
Always remember that you can watch hundreds of self-help videos about health and nutrition, and any number of other topics, at livelife365.com.
I have been a green tea advocate for years, ever since I gave up my once addicting and overwhelming Diet coke habit. Searching for a healthier alternative, I discovered green tea and have enjoyed its wonderful taste and amazing health benefits ever since.
Why should you drink green tea every day?
It is loaded with antioxidants, can help reduce the threat of cancer, lowers cholesterol, assists in weight loss, and even fights tooth decay. Cool, huh?
But do you know what's really cool? Turning a successful green tea video (search YouTube for "green tea" and my vid comes up tops out of 45,000) into a cool music video. Please watch and enjoy my newest music video:
Livelife365 is all about eating healthy, losing weight, and motivating yourself to do all that it takes to change your life for the better. All done in a fun and entertaining way. I hope the above videos continue that message and help you become the person you strive to be.
Lastly, I have a new self-help book for sale. Please check it out and tell anyone you know that is looking to change their lives for the better. I'll even toss in 30 of my top videos and 5 original songs. All for only $24.99. Oops, guess again. Special Sale Price now only $19.00. Or you can get just the book for only $14.99! Sweet deal, huh? Check it out and let me know your thoughts...
Aloha from Maui! Please enjoy this helpful and humorous video I created on how to eat a coconut. I picked that baby up yesterday at the local farmer's market. Enjoy!
While researching this post, I encountered so many excellent, usable quotes that I had to stop for a second and further ponder why I desired to write a post about a topic that has already been written about extensively. I mean, the current president of these United States of America, Barrack Obama, practically based his entire candidacy on hope, or better put: on the premise, and promise, of believing in and rediscovering a lost hope. He even penned a best-selling book called “The Audacity of Hope.” One of his heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr., constantly orated about hope:
“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
Men and women throughout history talk of hope, the opposite of despair, which is also a highly quoted subject matter. Hope and despair are forever linked; you can’t think about one without thinking about the other. The great writer, George Bernard Shaw, may have put it best:
“He who has never hoped can never despair.”
And for those who like their hope quotes a bit darker, there’s always that cheery, optimistic philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche:
“Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.”
Although I prefer a softer, kinder hope, as I mentioned earlier, “Ya can’t talk hope without talking about the bad stuff too.” (One of my quotes. Don’t think it will be enshrined into the quote hall of fame anytime soon). To hear me talk more about hope, and why I feel this is a worthwhile topic, I produced this video:
One of the things that continually amazes me is the hope I witness in others who have no business believing in anything, much less hope. It makes little difference what specific hardship or malady, act of violence or bad luck I am referring to, only that these brave, resilient souls somehow find it within themselves to persevere, to go on and rise above whatever tragedy that has befallen them and do something with their lives. Which, as always, brings me to what I’m all about—what livelife365.com is all about: living life every day in every way and not letting anyone or anything stand in your way.
Which also brings me to this amazing email I received from a loyal follower of livelife365. His name is Pierre and he is a lot like you, me, and millions of other people in this world. He is a human being and he’s made mistakes, embraced vices like smoking (cigarettes and marijuana), overeating, and practicing bad nutritional habits, which means he is not perfect, just like you and me. But like those aforementioned folks who refuse to give up even while facing great odds, Pierre wanted to change his life for the better. He began by researching green tea, because he had heard that drinking green tea was a good way to lose weight. He found my green tea video on YouTube, and then, like many others, stumbled upon my site, and began watching my videos on weight loss, diet and nutrition, and motivation. And, according the Pierre, livelife365 helped him lose 18 pounds in three months and changed his life. I was so thrilled by Pierre’s story that I produced a video about it:
Like I said on the above video, and as I say countless times, there are hundreds of thousands of Pierre’s out there that need to change their lives for the better. All they need is a push in the right direction and some common sense advice on how to do it. I strongly feel livelife365, both this blog and my video site, can offer that push and advice.
At the end of my video about hope, I play a short version of my theme song, called “livelife365.”
Gee, Mike, how did you come up with that name?
Ahem, no one likes a wise guy…
Anyway, that song, along with letters like Pierre’s, epitomizes what livelife365 is all about. The lyrics say it all.
Click the below widget to listen to the complete version of the song, “livelife365.”
In closing, I leave you with a quote from one of the most quoted political figures of the last century, Winston Churchill:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Until next time…
What is
angst and why would anyone want to eat it?
Dictionary.com
defines angst this way:
angst:
Spelled[engk-stuh]
a feeling of dread,
anxiety, oranguish.
Per Merriam-Webster:
angst:
a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity
For me,
angst is an emotion, a feeling; and not a very pleasant one. But one that we all encounter every now and
then, and have to deal with.
How do you
deal with your angst?
One way far
too many people deal with anxiety, anguish, apprehension and insecurity is
through emotional eating.
What is
emotional eating?
It is using
something as basic and necessary—like ingesting food for survival—as a crutch
to combat angst, all of those sometimes everyday emotions we must learn to deal
with in a healthy way.
Why not just
ignore your angst?
That’s part
of the problem—angst, or any adversity, when ignored still festers inside us all. In fact, pretending that what’s bugging you
is not really bugging you may lead to having that anxiety present itself in an
unhealthy way—like through an indulgence with food when you are not hungry.
Without eating
we do not live—that’s as basic as breathing, sleeping, and drinking water. And there’s nothing wrong with using food to
celebrate a success, a birthday, anniversary, or any number of wonderful
reasons to take your family, friends, and loved ones out for a night of wining
and dining. We all do it; in fact, it is
quite healthy to do.
But eating
as a celebration should be done only occasionally. Eating to hide or ignore emotional adversity
done oft times daily is another story.
Emotional eating,
or eating ones angst, is not only the wrong approach to what’s ailing you, it
may just kill you.
Overeating,
which leads to being overweight and obesity, is the leading cause of death in
the world. Being overweight leads to:
·Heart
desease
·Diabetes
·Cancer
·Degenerative
joint disease
·Gastrointestinal
distress
·Depression
·Death
What can you
do?
We all have
our share of angst, of distress and anxiety from time to time. The best way to deal with it is to embrace
it, acknowledge it, understand it, and then take action.
If the first
thing you reach for when you feel angst whispering in your ear is a candy bar,
slap that thought out of your head and replace it with:
·A
stick of sugarless gum
·A
handful of healthy almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or peanuts
·A
sugar free hard candy
·A
toothpick
·A
piece of fruit
·A
book
·A
jump rope
Replacing a
bad habit with a good one—in other words, reaching for a jump rope or taking a
walk when I feel anxious, rather than cramming a handful of potato chips into
my mouth—has helped me more times than not.
What else
can you do to help stop eating your angst?
·Take
a walk
·Meditate
·Call
a friend
·Plan
a vacation
·Volunteer
·See
your doctor
·Research
your health options
·Rethink
your lifestyle
·Go
on a healthy diet
·Livelife365
Changing your
life for the better is something most of want to do—who wouldn’t? But taking that first step, understanding
that you are not alone in your struggle, is challenging. The first thing you need to do is to realize
that when you are upset about something and automatically seek refuge in the refrigerator
or cupboard that you must take a moment, suck in a deep breath, and just say
no.
Reach for
help, a friend, another option, an alternative.
And not eat
your angst. Eat to live, to celebrate
occasions and successes, in moderation.
Do all that
you can to try to be the person that you know you want to be, that you deserve
to be, that you will be.
Livelife365
will always be there to help you on your journey to better health, to balancing
your mind, body, and spirit, to living your life to its fullest, every day in
every way.
In honor and in memory of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil ten years ago, I offer this video. To quote Sir Winston Churchill, when standing up to Nazi Germany as they continuously bombed London night and day:
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