8 Tips to Lose Your Gut

Rock Man at Tamarack Lake, CA

Rather than show you an ugly picture of belly fat or the flat stomach of a twenty-year-old... I bring you Rock Man. He spouts wisdom to help you lose that gut you're tired of feeling around your middle. Maybe you're not interested in getting a rock-hard stomach (although it's easy to attain... right, Rock Man?), but you'd like to get rid of that roll. Read on.

Building muscle, losing fat, and improving overall health is dependent on one very important hormone—insulin. Follow these tips to control your insulin and lose that fat!

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Summer Squash & Spinach Salad with Feta Cheese

I tossed this together for my lunch the other day. It's the perfect example of what I do regularly. With plenty of green and yellow summer squash coming out of home gardens, you'll find this one a winner. It fits my simple and quick to prepare requirements.

From now on simple and quick shall be known as SAQ—yes, it's time to give those recipes an identity.

This recipe includes smoked paprika. If you haven's discovered this spice, you better go get some. Once you start adding it to recipes, you can become a revered chef like me (in my own head).

For dressing I used what I had pre-made, which is typically equal amounts of extra-virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar. I might add a bit of balsamic vinegar, honey, lemon or lime, spices or even fruit concentrate. Mix a tiny amount of this and that and you've got yourself a delicious fresh dressing without all the #%*&% added that you find in store-bought dressing—even the organic ones. The additives are just as hard to decipher as #%*&%.

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Wisdom Wednesday

Tip:
To get probiotics into your daily meals there's Kimchi (great with eggs for breakfast), Kombucha tea, plain Yogurt, and Sauerkraut—each giving you different types of bacteria. Add to that Miso, which is commonly used to make miso soup, however the bacteria are likely destroyed in the cooking. Instead add a little miso paste to your salad dressing—it acts as an emulsifier.

Here's a quick dressing recipe from Summer Tomato:
1 Tbsp miso paste, splash of rice vinegar to 1/2 C olive oil, add salt & pepper, fresh chives and some grated ginger to make a nutritious and delicious dressing.

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Why Is Vitamin D So Important?

Vitamin D has been getting some press lately as a growing body of evidence points to the importance of the vitamin. Just how important? It could be a matter of life and death. Let's examine.

#1 Vitamin D is an Essential Vitamin
Essential means we need it for life itself. Good health and disease prevention hangs on it. The US government long ago classified 13 nutrients, it called vitamins, to be essential for normal cell growth, development and function. Vitamin D is one of those nutrients.

#2 Vitamin D Makes Healthy Bones
It is key to helping the body absorb calcium for healthy bones and teeth. In addition, Vitamin D helps maintain proper blood levels of calcium and phosphorus (another component for healthy bones and teeth).

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