Author: Michael Devon

No-Churn Avocado Ice Cream

Posted on by Michael Devon

Here’s a follow up to the No Bake Brownie Bites we made last week! Now you can have a scoop of ice cream with your brownie, without all the guilt. This ice cream has only 5 ingredients, all from real foods, making it one of the healthiest alternatives to ice cream you’d eat from the store.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 large Avocados, ripe
  • 1/2 cup Honey
  • 2 cups Coconut cream
  • 2 tbsp Lemon or Lime juice
  • 1/4 tsp Salt (again, we used Pink Himalayan sea salt)

Instructions:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth and creamy
  2. Pour mixture into a loaf pan or other container and freeze for 4 hours (or overnight)
  3. Allow ice cream to set out 5-10 minutes to soften before serving

This recipe is great for a healthy homemade treat, however I’m not advocating that you only eat sweets and desserts, no matter how healthy they are. What I’m saying is that when you do treat yourself, you should try to make it as healthy as you can by choosing natural ingredients that are good for you. If you build your body’s foundation with nutritious foods then it will operate more efficiently leading to a healthier lifestyle, healthy weight management, and a healthy mental state!

Healthy “No Bake” Brownie Bites

Posted on by Michael Devon

Here’s a healthy recipe that I was turned onto by a client- and now I’m hooked! These no bake brownie bites are made with only 5 ingredients and while they aren’t actually brownies, they sure do hit the spot. I bet you just can’t eat one!

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 cups Walnuts

2/3 cups Cacao Nibs

1/4 cup Cacao Powder

1 1/2 cups pitted Dates

Pinch Sea Salt; more or less to taste (we used Pink Himalayan Sea Salt)

Combine the walnuts, cacao nibs, sea salt, and cacao powder in a food processor. Once processed, add dates, a few at a time. If dough needs to be thicker add more dates, one at a time. Once dough is thick enough roll into balls.

Once we rolled our Brownie Bites into balls we stuck them in the refrigerator, because who doesn’t like their chocolate treats a little cold. If you’d prefer, you can certainly eat them as is or leave them out of the fridge when you store them.

These brownie bites can be eaten as a healthy snack, pre workout fuel, or a sinless dessert to get your sweet tooth fix!

End Laziness

Posted on by Michael Devon

Nowadays it’s easier to find healthy meals that are packaged and ready to heat and eat instead of ordering a pizza or going through a drive through. I’m not talking about frozen meals that claim to be healthy but when you read the ingredients there are all sorts of chemicals included- you don’t want to be fueling your body with fake food. I’m referring to meals that are pre packaged and ready to pop in the oven to cook. At my local grocery store I can buy a small dish that comes with raw chicken breast or steak, potatoes, and some type of vegetable like asparagus or broccoli. It does require some effort on my part to go to the store, pick what I want, stand in line, drive home, pre heat the oven, let it cook, and then I can eat it, but that is time well spent because I am taking action that optimizes my health.

I could spend the same amount of time getting in my car, driving to a drive through, sitting in line while I wait for my food, driving home, and then eating but the health outcome of what I eat is going to be different. If I routinely decide to pick up my food at a drive through then there’s very low nutrients (protein, vitamins, minerals, etc.) and very high calories, so at the end of that meal I am overfed and undernourished which leads to an unhealthy life. Sure you could argue that the drive through saves time and I can argue that if you can’t take the extra step to get out of your car and pre heat your oven then you’re just being lazy. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no stranger to a drive though, but they are far and few in between, and the rest of the time my food is coming from natural, whole foods that fuel me with nutrients and balance my caloric intake.

We always have power over what we chose to put in our mouth, so at the end of the day, if you’re feeding yourself from a drive though most of the time then your poor health is because of your decisions. On the other hand if you establish a firm foundation of health by feeding your body real foods the majority of the time you’re setting yourself up for optimal health. Then on those rare occasions when you treat yourself at a party or “get stuck” going through a drive through your body is going to be operating from its foundation of health so the food you eat won’t do as much damage.

Sometimes food is convenient but we can’t let convenience dictate the status of our health, sometimes we have to spend a little extra time making food at home, using ingredients that we know are good for us and contribute to a healthy life. Life is never convenient, if it was then we could all take a pill once a day that satisfied our cravings, filled us with just the right amount of calories, and most importantly supplied us with the nutrients we all need to survive, and then get on with our day. But that hasn’t happened yet, and until it does happen you have the other option, which is you’re going to have to put some effort into what you eat if you want to be a healthy human. That means you can’t be lazy and order take out or go through a drive through because you don’t feel like cooking, you have to wake up a little earlier to make your meals for the day ahead or skip an episode of your favorite Netflix show so you can cook some food for your lunch the next day. Get creative and cook in bulk so that what you have for dinner one night can become your lunch the next day, it could literally be the same meal or you can add a different profile of spices and side dishes to make it something totally different, yet still in line with your nutritional goals. It’s not about having time to be healthy, it’s about making time to be healthy. We all have the same 24 hours in the day so it comes down to how you’re spending your 24 hours and what you’re prioritizing.

Balancing Life

Posted on by Michael Devon

It shouldn’t come as a shock that our lives should be in balance with everything around us to stay healthy. Life get’s rough or busy, or both, and we tend to navigate to one extreme or the other. We’re either walking around the block every morning and eating our fruits and veggies or we’re sleeping in and rushing to work and going out to lunch every day and stopping at a drive through on the way home because we just can’t seem to make time for our health.

What if we tried to do a little bit of everything? Life is never going to lay out the magic carpet for us to walk down and live a perfectly healthy life so we shouldn’t treat our lives as perfectly healthy all of the time. There will be times when you see some of your old friends one weekend and you may choose to drink some alcohol, yes we know alcohol isn’t good for us, but socializing is part of life. I am not advocating that you go out every weekend with your friends and get drunk, but what I am saying is that you should make time to spend time with the people you love and if you choose to have a few drinks as you visit with old friends then enjoy that time spent together. You could balance out the alcohol with healthy eating choices throughout the day and making sure you drink a lot of water to stay hydrated. It’s important to not let the habits of one weekend turn into the habits of the next week, then we’ve lost our ability to stay balanced, and our health will begin to deteriorate.

Maybe drinking isn’t something you enjoy but you love to go out with family and friends and load up on appetizers or dessert because everyone is together and having a good time. A good time doesn’t have to entail eating until you can’t eat any more or sacrificing all of the hard work you’ve spent creating healthier eating habits. You can work to create balance and enjoy some of the foods you don’t normally eat, like nachos at a Mexican restaurant, but instead of eating half of the plate, share it with everyone around the table and enjoy one or two nachos. Most importantly, enjoy the people gathered around the table and take your mind off of the food, you should recognize that you’re at dinner to spend time with the people you care most about, the food may be delicious but it pales in comparison to the joy the people you’re with bring to your life.

Balance is a part of life, and it takes a great deal of effort to practice balance, in my experience you won’t sustain a balanced life over night. It will take some trial and error to start to establish balance and it’s a continuous work in progress because each day is going to be different from the one before it. That means what worked for you one day won’t always work for you the same way the next day, or one weekend to the next weekend. Balance is about being open to new experiences and incorporating your foundation of healthy habits into the adventure that life creates so that you can adapt to life while still living a healthy lifestyle.

Processed vs. Natural foods

Posted on by Michael Devon

When you see the words “fat free” and “sugar free” on a food label this doesn’t always equate to “healthy” because the ingredients in the food are usually heavily processed with chemicals to make it taste good. Let’s be honest, fat and sugar taste good and that’s why most of us enjoy chips and cookies. So if the fat and sugar are removed from chips and cookies then they have to get their taste from somewhere, and thats where the chemicals play their part to make up for the lack of fat or sugar.

When we eat foods that are highly processed (high in chemicals) then our bodies never get the nutrients that we need to function physiologically and that leads to health problems in the long run. More importantly the chemicals we ingest interact with our bodies metabolic processes and can disrupt normal function. Then this makes it hard to lose weight, no matter how hard we try, we find ourselves always getting sick, and blaming it on allergies, and we can’t figure out why we never get a good night of sleep. It’s because the food we eat is composed mostly of chemicals that are foreign to our body and the immune system doesn’t know how to process these chemicals and it’s always in a state of stress.

If we go to the opposite end of the spectrum and eat a diet that is composed of primarily whole foods in their natural state they supply our body with the nutrients it needs to maintain normal metabolic functions and preserve health. If our immune system is in a state of equilibrium with the rest of our body then we are able to function better, we find ourselves not getting sick all of the time, getting a better night’s rest, and having energy throughout the day and not having to depend so much on caffeine to make it through work or school.

I get it, our society makes it hard to eat whole foods 100% of time, most of the food at parties or restaurants are highly processed and don’t supply the body with many of the necessary nutrients. I’m not suggesting that you boycott these parties or restaurants but the next time you go out be mindful of what you’re putting on your plate and limiting how much you choose to eat. If you decide to eat a plate of chips and dips then skip the cake, or if you’re a cake lover then have some cake but skip the beer. It’s all about finding balance between the foods we fuel our body with, other than the parties and restaurants we should be aiming to eat mostly whole foods that are natural or very minimally processed. That way when we do enjoy life, a little, we have established a strong nutritional foundation from our body to operate from and when we do indulge our body can handle the stuff that’s not so good for us, every now and then.

Perks of Meal Prepping

Posted on by Michael Devon

The term meal prepping has a lot of buzz around it yet most people don’t understand what it means to meal prep. It can be different for everyone, some people spend their entire Sunday in the kitchen cooking meals and portioning them out for the rest of the week, others spend time each morning preparing their meals for the rest of the day. For us, it means taking time to set yourself up for success when life gets in the way so you can keep up with your healthy eating habits.

A typical Sunday afternoon in my house is spent washing produce, cooking beans, or preparing proteins like chicken, fish, or grass fed beef. My version of meal prepping is having everything washed, cut, seasoned, and ready to grab and go or grab and cook. For example, today I came home for lunch and was in a hurry so I got out some of my precut veggies (tomatoes, onions, and peppers) sautéed them in a pan with avocado oil and scrambled some eggs with them to create a healthy veggie scramble… then of course, I topped it off with some avocado.

When my produce is already washed it’s as simple as reaching into my refrigerator and pulling out an apple or an orange and adding it to my lunch or just eating it as a snack. I’ve found out that if I don’t wash all of my produce in advance, then when I’m in a hurry I will just reach for something else that’s already cooked and then my body misses out on the vitamins and minerals it needs from the fruits and vegetables I should be eating.

I’ll often prepare a big pot of black beans or lentils, I’m talking several bags worth of beans, so that I can portion out a big bowl for the rest of the week and then portion out the remaining beans into smaller containers that I can put in the freezer. That way they don’t go bad and I can pull them out of the freezer the night before and have them for lunch or dinner the next day. The real benefit is that I don’t have to make beans every week, if I’m going to spend the time making a pot of beans I might as well triple the recipe so that I can have enough leftovers to eat in the coming weeks and then when my stock in the freezer is running low I know it’s time to make another big batch.

Simply having the “staples” ready to go can help me continue making healthy eating choices when I am in a hurry and don’t have time to cook an entire meal from start to finish- in those cases it would be easier to roll through a drive through and pick something up that’s ready to eat. However, through past experiences, it may be easier in the moment but I’ve found that it’s harder in the long run because I don’t have any energy to get me through my day, I start having digestive issues, or I make myself sick because my immune system doesn’t have the nutrients it needs to keep me well.

So for us, meal prepping doesn’t mean we have all of our meals prepared for the entire week but it does allow us to prepare enough food to create healthy meals throughout the week. We wash all of our fruits and vegetables, we even precut the veggies we like to cook with, we prepare beans or lentils in bulk, and we cook our proteins for the week. Taking these steps allows us to eat well balanced meals everyday, for lunch I can take some chicken that is already cooked and chop it up and add it to a salad that I made from my washed and ready to eat produce, or I can sauté some pre cut veggies and add them to my already cooked beef. Eating healthy in our culture is already hard enough, don’t make it harder on yourself by overcomplicating your meal prep, keep it simple and sustainable by preparing food that you can eat a lot of different ways while still making it a healthy meal.

My Dog and The Vet

Posted on by Michael Devon

Obviously we are dog parents, Daisy is the apple of our eye and we want the absolute best for her. A few months ago we noticed she started having some red spots on her stomach from itching; quickly they became raw and concerning. My mother-in-law had taken her dogs to the vet for the same reason and the first thing the vet asked her was “what are your dogs’ eating?” Turned out they were eating a dog food that had a lot of grains and the vet recommended that she change their food to a grain free option and that should clear things up. She changed their food and immediately they were fine. So we took the same approach with Daisy, minus the cost of the vet visit. We called a lady, Ms. Nancy, who had groomed Daisy before and has the heart of a saint, she rescues the sick dogs nobody wants and nurses them back to health through diet and vitamin therapy- her success stories were good enough for us. She recommended we feed Daisy the “Gucci” of dog food and of course, no questions asked, we are at the feed store buying it the next day. We had to slowly transition her food because she has a sensitive stomach but within a few days she was itching less and less and now has no dry spots on her stomach.

So why am I telling you about my dog when this should be about health and fitness? Well let’s start with the doctor. Before I began seeing my current doctor, I don’t think a doctor had ever asked me what I was eating. I had acne, thyroid issues, dry skin, acid reflux and no one ever asked what I was eating. In fact the solution to all those problems was a pill. Thankfully my mom was smart enough to tell the thyroid doctor he could “shove it where the sun don’t shine” when he suggested I start a taking a pill that I would have to take for the rest of my life, at only 15 years old. “Acne- how much dairy are you eating?” “Thyroid- do you eat a lot of grains?” “Dry skin- grains.” “Acid reflux- you could afford to lose some weight, acid reflux and weight gain have a direct correlation.” No one asked me any of these questions or shared how nutrition, or lack thereof, and health issues are directly related!

Now back to Daisy. My first response when she had an issue was to change her food, something must be wrong with her diet. She needed more expensive, natural, organic, grain free food- DONE! So how in the world do we not hold ourselves to the same standard? As soon as I knew my dog might be suffering from a poor diet I was committed to changing her lifestyle and I didn’t care how much it cost. However, in today’s society when you ask someone why they aren’t eating healthy we come up with, “I can’t afford to eat vegetables they go bad too fast, I don’t have time to cook, everyone else eats this way, etc.” Yet you can afford to go to the pharmacy every month and pay for your prescription… just saying.

Honestly it comes down to laziness and how bad you want to improve your health. Modern medicine will always have a solution for you, it is a trillion dollar a year business in the US, and they have no intention of losing your business. I hope one day everyone goes to the doctor and the first thing they ask about is someone’s diet and how to make it better- we do it for our pets with no hesitation, let’s try holding ourselves to the same standards.

So next time you have an ache, a pain or a symptom, ask yourself, “could it be something I am eating?” Our bodies are amazing healing vessels, they just need the right kind of fuel to do their job. If that isn’t enough then I want you to ask yourself…”would I do it for my dog?” 😉

PS: I do believe modern medicine has its place and we are so blessed with technological advancements but I do think it is abused and the easy way out for a lot of people who don’t want to make a healthy lifestyle change that would solve their problem instead of putting a band aid on it.

Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle on Vacation (or Anytime)

Posted on by Michael Devon

People take vacations every year and most find it so hard to maintain healthy nutrition and exercise habits while they’re away from their normal routine. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not easy to eat as healthy as you normally would or to exercise as much as you do while you’re out of your day to day routine. However, it’s not impossible and just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you have a valid excuse to give up the healthy habits you’ve worked hard to establish. It is important to enjoy your time with family or friends while you’re on vacation and it’s even more important to continue making healthy choices while you’re traveling, or anytime. Below are some tips on how you can keep living a healthy lifestyle no matter where you are or what you’re doing.

Go for a walk. You can conveniently walk at any time you choose, it’s simple, all you need is your body, and you can get in some exercise for the day. You can wake up and go for a walk first thing in the morning, so you get it checked off the to-do list or you can schedule a walk in between downtime with friends and family, while everyone is taking a nap you can go for a walk on the beach. Better yet, get everyone involved in the walk, schedule a group hike or guided tour which makes walking even more fun, you get to spend time taking in sights with your friends and family and everyone is getting exercise!

Add more water. Staying hydrated is important because even the slightest dehydration can trick you into thinking your hungry when you really aren’t. Personally, when I’m dehydrated I start craving sweetened beverages, and that’s my sign to go and drink a big glass, or 2, of water. Once I’m properly hydrated I no longer have a craving for soda or something sweet to drink because the water has provided me with what my body actually needs.

Don’t overindulge. Sure when you’re traveling it’s fun to try the different cuisines around the world and you certainly can, just don’t let the fact that you aren’t eating your normal nutrient dense foods be an excuse to eat everything in sight. Don’t deprive yourself of having a good time with everyone but take a step back and recognize that they might not have the same goals as you do. It’s okay to try some pizza when you’re in Italy (or a restaurant), but that doesn’t mean you have to eat an entire pizza, try sharing with your group, so you can have a slice and taste the authentic Italian flavors without over eating. Then when you go back home after your vacation don’t let the vacation eating habits turn into everyday eating habits. Remember, once in a while is okay and if you’re disciplined with the once and while habit your body won’t store the excess weight long term.

Load up on fruits and veggies. Besides being low in calories, adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet is beneficial because it provides you with the energy you need to stay active while you’re away from your normal routine. The vitamins and minerals your body receives from the fruits and vegetables will help control cravings for sugary and fatty foods by making sure you aren’t deficient in any vitamins that may be responsible for causing the craving in the first place. A deficiency in magnesium can cause your body to crave chocolate and a calcium deficiency can cause you to crave salty snacks, so it’s important to make sure your fruit and vegetable intake stays high to prevent any cravings that may lead to overeating. If you do decide that you want to treat yourself to a sugary or salty snack, something you may not normally eat, then be sure to control the portions, try sharing with someone, or only eat half of the serving.

These tips, when used in conjunction with discipline, will help prevent you from sabotaging your health and fitness efforts while you’re enjoying yourself on vacation, or anytime. Look at them, not only as tips, but as principles that you can live your life by. Not only when you’re on vacation but when you get invited to a birthday party and someone offers you cake, or you go out to dinner on Friday night with your friends and everyone is ordering fried food. Life is never going to be perfect, and trying to have a perfect nutrition plan 24/7 in an imperfect life is creating unrealistic expectations. If your friends order an appetizer of fried pickles, and you like fried pickles, then have a serving of fried pickles, following the above principles- don’t overindulge, load up on fruits and vegetables, add more water, and go for a walk. After you had a taste of the appetizer (i.e.; didn’t overindulge) you could order a salad or a veggie dish for your meal, drink water and not a sugary beverage, and go for a walk around the block when you get home from dinner. Living your life with a little more balance, like the example above, will allow you to have fun with your loved ones while still taking action towards reaching your goals.

 

 

Procrast…..Procrastination

Posted on by Michael Devon

I’ve had the idea to write this blog for a long time, so I guess that makes me no expert on the topic, however I have much experience with procrastination and have learned how detrimental it is to overall success. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s easy to keep putting things off for the future and, as we all know, the future is not guaranteed. I could have died yesterday and then this blog would have never been written. See what I mean?

Just as easy as it is to put things off, also known as procrastinating, it’s just as easy to do the thing that you need to do. It comes down to the decision you make in that moment, it’s simple, you either do it or you don’t. When you don’t and you continually repeat that behavior then you never get anything done, and that’s when you become known to your friends and family as a procrastinator. However, in that same moment, if you decide that you are going to do it and then you get to work on whatever it is and you keep repeating that behavior, that’s when all the things you wanted to do start getting done. If I want to start waking up early to exercise but every morning when my alarm goes off I hit snooze, and then hit it 3 more times, eventually I run out of time to workout and I have to leave for work- and as most procrastinators say, “I’ll wake up early tomorrow and workout.” Then they go about their day the same way they have been for the last 5 years. Then what happens? Tomorrow comes and they repeat the same behavior, caught in the vicious cycle of procrastinating and never really advancing with their goals, and they wonder why they feel depressed.

Procrastination isn’t an easy habit to change but it’s important to start recognizing the responsibilities in your life that you tend to put off until “the mood feels right” so in that same scenario you can set yourself up for success. If I’m aware that every time my alarm goes off I automatically hit the snooze button then I could try setting multiple alarms and putting my alarm out of arms reach so I have to physically get out of bed to turn it off, then once I’m up that’s half the battle. I’m a step closer to exercising today than I was yesterday. Whatever it is that you’re trying to do, just start by committing to do it for 5 minutes, research shows that you’re likely to keep going once you get started. Instead of setting out to read an entire chapter in a book just start out with the goal of reading for five minutes, instead of setting out to run a mile just start out with the goal of running for five minutes, instead of setting out to clean your entire house just start out with the goal of cleaning for five minutes.

The 5 minute trick won’t magically solve your problem with procrastination (I got side tracked several times while I was writing this), but what it does do is get you to take action and over time all of those actions start to build on each other and you’re closer to your goals than you were yesterday. Before you know it, you’ve finished the book, started running 2 miles, and your house is always clean. By committing to five minutes, you started building a habit of “taking action” instead of “waiting.” If you’re always waiting, nothing ever gets done so don’t delay anymore, find something today that you need to get done and spend 5 minutes on it… that’s how this blog got finished. 😉

Tastiest Guacamole Recipe

Posted on by Michael Devon

If you enjoy avocados as much as we do then you’ll love this guacamole recipe. All you need is a few simple ingredients, expert mashing skills, and you’re ready to indulge.

Ingredients:

4 ripe avocados

1/2 a red onion

1 large garlic clove, minced (substitute garlic powder)

1 medium tomato, diced

1 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

*Optional ingredients: 

1 jalapeño, diced

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Combine the ingredients you want into a mixing bowl, take a fork, and start mashing and mixing together. It’s okay to leave some avocado chunks as that adds a nice texture to the dish. What you’re left with is a healthy appetizer to take to your next dinner party or, if you scale down the recipe, a healthy snack for yourself!

We know guacamole tastes great with chips but remember that there are other crunchy options to choose from that are healthier. Our favorite is sliced cucumbers, but bell peppers, celery sticks, or carrots all work the same way chips do! If you are intent on eating this dip with chips then we recommend Siete brand Cassava chips. Cassava is a root vegetable that is ground into a flour and substituted for corn and other flours in this brand of chips. The only ingredients are cassava flour, avocado oil, coconut flour, ground chia seeds, and sea salt- healthiest chips we’ve come across so far!

Give this recipe a try and feel free to substitute ingredients you don’t like and add ingredients that you do! Share any tweaks you make to this dip, we’d love to try your healthy version!