A Detox Fasting Paradise – Pristine Private Island – Coconut, the Tree of Life and Organic Raw Food

Dedicated to my wonderful island coconut trees, the trees of life.

I am often asked, “What encouraged you to follow your inner child guides to a pristine private island paradise to live the rest of your life surrounded by coconut, the tree of life?” Here is my story.

At age 36, after traveling the globe extensively, I had a strong vision to settle down in my own pristine Shangri-la with many coconut trees. I was then on a 16 year world sojourn, traveling together with my English partner Mark. Our adventures had taken us to some of the world’s most pristine, rugged, serene, remote tropical wilderness and animal reserves, plus canyons, rivers, lakes and island paradises fringed with coconut trees. Though shy and uncomfortable with people since a little girl, I was totally relaxed in Mother Nature, particularly in the tropics near a cleansing sea and eating organic tropical food from the wild.

During my adventures, short-term travelers would often ask questions about my long unusual journeys. Amazed myself that many of my wild dreams came true, I would tell them I was blessed to have among others, Peter Pan and TinkerBell as my mystical spiritual friends. I came to believe it and live by my mystical tropical island dream. Continue reading “A Detox Fasting Paradise – Pristine Private Island – Coconut, the Tree of Life and Organic Raw Food”

Business Plan Tips for a Restaurant Business Plan

We’ve covered the basics of writing a restaurant business plan in another article, but here are some more tips to help you really make your plan pop and create an extremely positive impression on your partners, lenders or investors when you present it for their inspection.

Do add an extensive appendix

You can throw everything in here you can think of- the more there is, the more you give the impression you have been hard at work on gathering info, doing research and generally getting things started as opposed to simply wishing it was going to happen.

You can include things like a sample menu, marketing materials, sample coupons, a supplier list, a staff list, an equipment list, floor plans or blueprints, decorating item photos, uniform samples, a printout of the restaurant website design, the sign design, the restaurant logo, sample printed materials, your incorporation papers, a copy of your health permit, and literally anything else handy. Continue reading “Business Plan Tips for a Restaurant Business Plan”

The Coffee Culture in the USA

It wasn’t until I moved to the US that I started drinking coffee regularly and became what they call in the Netherlands a ‘koffieleut’, which translates literally into ‘coffee socialite.’ Although the average European drinks more coffee per year than the average American, the cultural importance and its effects on the average European seems to me smaller than that on the average American. After all, coffee is a cultural obsession in the United States.

Chains with thousands of branches like Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks dominate US daily street life. Especially in the morning (90% of coffee consumed in the US is in the morning), millions of white foamy cups with boldly imprinted pink and orange logos bob across the streets in morning rush hour and on the train. Coffee drive-ins are a saving grace for the rushing army of helmeted and tattooed construction workers. During lunch break, men and women in savvy business suits duck into coffee shops.

Students chill out from early afternoon till late evening on comfy couches at coffee lounges around campus. Police officers clutch coffee cups while guarding road construction sites on the highway. In short, coffee drinkers in the United States can be found just about anywhere you go. Continue reading “The Coffee Culture in the USA”

3 Ways Your Body Uses Your Diet

We are about to go over 3 ways that your body uses your diet, so then you will have no excuses not to know what carbs, fats and proteins do for you and WHY each of them are important in their own special way. Kind of like siblings… or not. Here we go!

Carbs: carbs are used by your body when you are in motion, especially at higher intensities!

When you are working out you are running on energy, and that energy is mostly carbs. Your body uses carbs to fuel your workouts and your high intensity moving throughout the day, such as sprints to your local food truck before they run out of hot dogs. Yes, protein can be used for energy in this case once carbs are depleted, but they are not as efficient as carbs are at fueling this type of activity. Simply put, carbs are used when you are moving through your day.

Fats: fats are used by your body when you are NOT in motion, or when you are asleep!

Continue reading “3 Ways Your Body Uses Your Diet”

Still Think of Chocolate As Health Food?

This isn’t exactly news because it came to light several years ago, but chocolate isn’t the health food it was proclaimed to be, say, 5 or so years ago.

Yet people still seem to think it is – so they eat it and tell themselves it’s good for them.

Why they do that? Well, they like it; it’s easy to like.

Chocolate also feels like an easy answer to various problems because it’s a mood changer. The mood-changing chemicals include theobromine (similar to caffeine) and phenylethylamine (likened to the feeling of being in love). It also triggers endorphins (beta-endorphin) and serotonin, two brain chemicals associated with mood.

Were You Caught in the Chocolate Trap? Continue reading “Still Think of Chocolate As Health Food?”

A Weight Loss Surgery Journal Marks Progress and Healing

We have heard it all our dieting life: “keep a food journal, it will keep you accountable for what you eat.” That advice always failed me, the best I could ever keep a food journal was through breakfast, I did not want to leave written evidence of my eating behavior.

But there is one time in my life I kept a journal, words and feelings scribed on the page. That journal chronicled the first year following my weight loss surgery. The weight loss surgery experience is profound. It is a physical and emotional Mt. Everest. I dare say there is no other change a morbidly obese person will ever undertake that is as emotionally significant as weight loss surgery.

There are two reasons for keeping a journal: first to have a release for your thoughts and feelings; second, to have a record of your experience. For many people it is less painful to be honest about our feelings when writing them down rather than speaking them. If we write them down we don’t have to hear them aloud. If we write them down we are not vulnerable to sharing with someone else. For me, writing my feelings on paper was like sweeping the floor – I could gather the debris and toss it out – I no longer had it cluttering my mind. Continue reading “A Weight Loss Surgery Journal Marks Progress and Healing”

The Best Tasting Medifast Foods

The other day, I received an email from a reader who was trying to put together a custom medifast order but wasn’t sure which foods to chose. She asked me to give her a list of what were the best tasting foods. I was happy to do that and I’ll share my list with you below, but everyone’s tastes are going to be different. Still, I spend a lot of time on weight loss web sites and many of the folks on there agree with me. So, below I’ll go over, by meal, which of the foods I most often chose and enjoy.

My Favorite Medifast Breakfast Choices: For breakfast, I almost always have the cappuccino. I am a coffee drinker and really could not start my morning without it. The cappuccino is part of the momentum metabolism line and you can get it by either ordering it individually or ordering a momentum package (which includes most of the other popular foods.) I also enjoy the oatmeal and like all the flavors (apple cinnamon, blueberry, and peach) but peach has got to be my favorite.

Mid Morning Snack: I will generally have a protein bar here because 10:00 – 10:30 is a busy time for me. These bars do not have the crumbly texture and bland taste of a lot of protein bars. Most of them are actually chewy and they don’t have a weird after taste. You are only allowed one of these per day. The only flavor that I don’t like on these is the strawberry crunch. My favorites are the peanut butter and the chocolate mint. Continue reading “The Best Tasting Medifast Foods”

What is Astaxanthin? Discover the Benefits, Food Sources and Side-Effects

What is astaxanthin anyway? It is a carotenoid and a powerful antioxidant. Have you ever wondered why flamingos are pink? They get their color from the astaxanthin in their diet. This is also one of the reasons why salmon has a pinkish color.

Astaxanthin originally comes from a microalgae called Haematococcus pluvialis. The reason you can find it in many animals, especially in marine animals is because they eat this plant and then digest it, thereby getting more astaxanthin in their bodies.

Best Food Sources

The best foods for this impressive carotenoid are marine plants, salmon, shrimp, trout and other seafoods. You do not need a lot to take advantage of the health benefits of astaxanthin, but most people are not getting enough, which is where the problem is.

The Benefits Continue reading “What is Astaxanthin? Discover the Benefits, Food Sources and Side-Effects”

Pairing Food and Wine is a Matter of Taste

First off let me say that I am in no way a wine snob. I do not believe that there is an ultimate right and wrong way to pair wine with food. It all boils down to your personal taste and the tastes of your guests. Most people like to pair white wines with white meats and lighter meals like fish, and red wines with red meats and pastas. You can certainly mix it up, however. Experiment and go with what you think tastes good.

That being said, some people are still uncertain and like some general guidelines to follow. Here is a listing of some wines and the foods that go well with them:

With appetizers:

If you are serving appetizers such as crab cakes or oysters on the half shell, try pairing it with a light, fruity Chardonnay. This white wine of North America is a favorite of many people and pairs well with light seafood fare. It is also a nice wine to sip on its own before a meal. Continue reading “Pairing Food and Wine is a Matter of Taste”

The Five CRITICAL Things to Do For Your Health and Weight Loss

I’m often asked what is the best diet, or the best food program, best exercise program and which single best book to recommend to improve your health, fitness or weight loss.

The answer is that there is no best way to do it. There is no best book, and there is no right way or wrong way to do it.

The 5 Critical things you must do to achieve your health are these

1. Continue to learn about health, fitness, nutrition and weight loss from a wide variety of sources

The single most important thing to do right from the start is to take action and begin learning about health, followed very closely by putting what you learn into practice. We are a very diversified bunch of people and what works for you may not work for the next person. You have to find what works for you from a wide variety of sources, expand your knowledge and accept no one thing as being the best for your health. Keep reading, keep learning and keep what works for you and discard what doesn’t. Continue reading “The Five CRITICAL Things to Do For Your Health and Weight Loss”