4 Roots of Optimum Wellness

There are four essential parts to being healthy: Diet, Exercise, Sleep & Attitude.

Vitae Elixxir Healing Herbs

A proprietary combination of ten disease-fighting herbs used for more than 40 years and helping thousands of people with serious health issues.

Books by Author & Health Coach Chris Pedersen

In a world of adventure and imagination, kids’ books in print and digital that encourage a healthy lifestyle.

6 Tips to Lose Weight

Don’t count calories—take a serious look at the food you want to eat, then ask, ”Is this something that will give my body good health?”

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Wisdom Wednesday

Tip:
Want to increase your efficiency? Add a live plant to your desk or work area. Plants in the work environment increase productivity by 15% study found.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Thai Cabbage & Peanut Salad

Thai Cabbage & Peanut Salad
I visited a high school friend recently and we took a memory-lane drive down Pacific Coast Highway to Laguna Beach. We walked around town reminiscing about the times we rented little cottages at the beach in the summer time. Lathered our bodies with baby oil. Baked in the sun for hours. Ate hamburgers and smoothies. And stayed up late.

Geting hungry for some dinner, I quizzed Siri about vegan restaurants and found one a couple of short blocks from us. She came up with Zinc Cafe and Market—a deli style cafe. I ordered three sides from the deli case. Kathy ordered the same dishes I got. "I should eat healthier," she said.

One of the salads, a Thai-style cabbage salad with peanuts, tasted delicious. Loved it. I studied the ingredients and flavor. "I must recreate this," I said.

So here it is...

Thai Cabbage & Peanut Salad

from Chris Pedersen
yield 8 servings

category Salad
cuisine Vegan

ingredients
1 1/2 C sliced red cabbage
1 1/2  C sliced Napa cabbage
1/2 half sliced yellow bell pepper
1/2 half sliced green bell pepper
3/4 C raw peanuts
Dressing:
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

directions
1. Mix ingredients in a bowl.
2. Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour onto salad. Stir to coat veggeis and peanuts with dressing.
3. Serve.

You'll find this salad refreshing and delicious. A great recipe to add to your healthy lifestyle of clean eating. Remember to choose organic produce when you can.

When was the last time you visited an old... ahem... long-time friend and talked about the good ole days?

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Be My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day, Dear Readers!

Valentine's Day is a day to show our sweethearts we care with gushing cards and gifts of chocolates, roses, teddy bears and even pajama's (or a sexy equivalent). But what about the rest of the days of the year?

I'm always amused when I happen to visit the grocery store on Valentine's Day and see those well-meaning, yet befuddled guys, standing in the quick-check line with the leftover offerings for Valentine's Day.

Yeah... I know. It's the thought that counts.

I'm more of a realist than a romantic. My husband is the romantic. However, I'm more impressed when I see him donning a tool belt to go fix the fence that started leaning after the last rainfall. That kind of action (not in his nature) means more to me than anything he could bring home for Valentine's Day.

I like to think he appreciates that I really don't like to plan, shop and cook meals (yup... that's right!), yet I know he works hard and deserves a healthy meal when he comes home in the evening. So I do that for him.

Of course, the other part of preparing meals is getting to show him I care by making healthy food for him to eat. And ladies, sometimes that's a process that takes time for him to appreciate. Especially if  he just wants a baked potato with sour cream and butter with a medium-rare steak. Give him time. He'll come around. Mine did.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Yes, you might be able to win a man's affections through a good meal. But I'd like to think that Proverb is more about getting to a man's heart to make it strong and healthy through nutritious meals.

Who's your Valentine? What are you planning to get them for Valentine's Day?

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Oppose the DARK Act

Without your help, the entire campaign to label genetically engineered food could be at risk!

Rep. Mike Pompeo is expected to re-introduce the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act any day now. This biotech industry-backed bill would not only preempt state efforts to label GMOs, it would make voluntary labeling the law of the land – permanently. In other words, if the DARK Act passes, the fight for mandatory GMO labeling is over.

That’s why this week Just Label It is participating in a national week of action to call on Congress to oppose the DARK Act and support mandatory GE labeling.

Click here to join the movement, contact your representatives in Congress today and push them to reject the DARK Act!

For the past 13 years, the food industry’s voluntary labeling system has failed us. With the exception of Chipotle Mexican Grill, not a single company has disclosed whether its products contain GMO ingredients. Pompeo’s “DARK Act” would lock in this shocking, anti-consumer approach.

Monsanto and others have already spent millions fighting to keep consumers in the dark about GMOs. And with so much more at their disposal, you can bet that Big Food will be pulling out all the stops to get the DARK Act passed this year.

If you're in the dark about the dangers of GMO, check out my post Why Avoid GMO Foods?

Let’s show them that American consumers are louder than these corporate bullies!
 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Happy Birthday to The Prisoner of Carrot Castle

I can't believe that it has been three years since The Prisoner of Carrot Castle hit the App Store for the iPad. Since then Aiden's adventures have been read to children around the world from Brazil and China to Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Through an interactive story, kids learn that eating vegetables is an action-packed adventure.

The Prisoner of Carrot Castle iPad App


Today through the use of iPads in the classroom, The Prisoner of Carrot Castle is enjoyed on a richer level. Schools across the US are using the story with a curriculum that supports Common Core Standards. Find out how eSpark is using The Prisoner of Carrot Castle and other educational kid's apps on their platform to accentuate learning and track student progress.

Kids reading The Prisoner of Carrot Castle iPad book app
If you are a teacher and wish to learn more, you can download the free curriculum at Purple Carrot Books.

For educational discounts, please contact Apple about their Volume Purchase Program.

Meanwhile if you don't have your copy of The Prisoner of Carrot Castle, you can download the app for only $3.99.

Great Zooks! Did you know over 40,000 people have downloaded The Prisoner of Carrot Castle to their iPad? Grab your cape and get your copy now!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

What Happened to My Bread?

Missing Bread
Shopping list in hand, I flashed my Costco card and made a beeline for the back of the warehouse.  I searched the racks of fresh-baked breads. Hmmmm?

"This one's still warm," said one shopper as she picked up a loaf. Yup. That's what I was hoping for— picking up my favorite fresh baked bread to find it still warm from the oven. Something very appealing about that.

After my second pass by the two short rows of bread, I proceeded to the baking area where employees worked like busy bees to place freshly-baked breads on the waiting shelves.

"I was looking for the double-loaf of whole-grain bread in the paper-wrap."

"It's been discontinued. We stopped making that bread two weeks ago," said the soft-spoken woman. Subliminal message—where have you been the past two weeks?

Whaaaaa! That can't be! I've been buying that bread for years. I send my readers to buy that bread at Costco. How could this be?

That lovely loaf of whole-grain bread was pure. You know what I mean? It had only whole grains peppered with healthy nuts and seeds—it had whole millet seeds for crying out loud. No oil and no SUGAR. What has the world come to?

I lowered my head and walked back out to the rows of bread and picked up a facsimile wrapped in cellophane. It was squishy. Yeah, it had nuts and seeds on top, but you could have wadded it up into a small ball and pitched it across the warehouse. Plus reading the label revealed plenty of added unnecessary ingredients (soy and SUGAR for starters). MY bread would stand still when submitted to the knife for cutting. This one would have smushed flat and likely sprung back only half way—daring to be wadded up into a ball...

Well. I guess that does it. There is no longer any decent bread to buy. Fine! In the post A Word (Or Two) About Bread, I preached we should not eat bread anyway. It turns too quickly to SUGAR.

I guess we all weren't buying enough of the delicious and healthy whole-grain (no SUGAR) bread. After all, the last time I bought... correction... the last double loaf I bought was over a month ago. All I got left is the meager chunk shown in pictures here {sniff}. I'll have to ration it out now that I know it's the last of it's kind. Or perhaps I should enshrine it in the Museum of Extinct Foods That Contain No SUGAR.

FYI, I perused the organic breads at Costco and did not find even one without SUGAR. Proof! The world is about to come to an end.

What's your favorite bread? True confessions. I won't tell.