People Who Have Inspired Me: Dee McCaffrey

Dee McCaffrey is the author of "The Science Of Skinny".

I have been gleaning nutritional information from a number of sources for a while now but this book has a lot of great information packed into one place!

There are a couple of spots in the book that got a little too scientific on me, but mostly there are very clear explanations of the effect that different foods has on the body making it easy to understand why it's good to eat certain foods and why certain "foods" should be avoided. (When you read the book you will understand why I used quotation marks around the word "foods" here.)

Dee is well qualified to give us this advice. She begins the book by telling her own story of how she fell into emotional eating and wound up being obese, and she explains how she turned that around to lose her excess weight and keep it off for the past twenty years.  She is a qualified chemist, nutritionist, health coach and co-founder of Processed Free America.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, fat, thin or in between, because optimal health is not just about being skinny.  This book teaches how to help your body function the way it was designed to.

The Science of Skinny gives you the inside information on all those strange food additives which will change the way you look at processed foods.  You will learn why refined sugar and refined flour are your enemies.  You will learn why you should avoid unfermented soy products.  You will learn a lot about fats and oils, why we need fats in our diet, which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

The Science of Skinny provides comprehensive information about the health benefits and disease-fighting qualities of a number of foods.  Knowing this information makes eating a healthy diet so much easier because you understand the benefits!

The Science of Skinny also includes an eating plan and recipes to help you get started.

It seems that it often takes a health crisis for people to get serious about overhauling their diet, like me with my migraines and Dee with her obesity. Those of you who know me personally know that I have always been fairly skinny, although there was a time when I weighed 13kg more than I do now. So for me this journey is about inner health, but I do believe that if you get that right then everything else will fall into place, including losing excess weight if that's what you need.  From my own experience it is definitely not only about eating more of the good stuff, but it is about what you don't eat as well.  Forget those "sometimes foods" and find yourself healthier alternatives that you love to indulge in!

The Science of Skinny is available as an ebook from iTunes, Google Books or Kindle. 

The paperback version is harder to find.  None of my local bookstores had it in stock but were willing to order it in.  Or you can order it yourself from their online stores.

~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.

People Who Have Inspired Me: Emily Von Euw

Emily Von Euw
thisrawsomeveganlife.com

Dairy free doesn't have to be boring.  Check out this lady's very inspiring blog.  I have tried Emily's Blueberry Strawberry Banana Ice Cream Cake.
I particularly liked the vanilla ice cream layer so much that I have since made another batch just of that to keep in a container in the freezer for periodic indulgence.  It's all gone now so I need to make another batch, or perhaps try something else.

You do need a really good blender or food processor to make Emily's recipes.  I used a blender because I only have a very small food processor [at the moment that is - maybe Santa will bring me a good food processor for Christmas?].  I found that you also need a fair bit of patience to whizz, and stop, and scrape, and whizz, and stop, and scrape, to blend all the ingredients well.  Maybe not so much with a good food processor?  Anyway it's all worth it!

thisrawsomeveganlife.com

  



Here's the link to the recipe for Blueberry Strawberry Banana Ice Cream Cake.  http://www.thisrawsomeveganlife.com/2013/03/blueberry-strawberry-banana-ice-cream.html
Emily's photo, not mine.   She is not only a creative cook but a talented photographer.   My attempt didn't look nearly that good.

~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.

People Who Have Inspired Me: Dr Joanna McMillan

http://www.drjoanna.com.au/

Meet Dr Joanna McMillan, Nutritionist.  I read her book "Inner Health Outer Beauty" about four years ago and was quite inspired.  On reflection I should have taken much more from this book than I did at the time but I failed to follow through on much of its advice.  Why?  I think that it all seemed a bit too hard to try strange new foods like quinoa and buckwheat knowing that the rest of the family weren't going to be very excited about them.  They still aren't excited about these by the way.  Since I added quinoa to some beef rissoles a couple of times quinoa has become known as "fish eyes" around our house!  Also back then I did not have the strong motivation of trying to find a way to rid myself of migraines, nor did I have any idea that changes to my diet could fix something like that.   At least now I'm eating what I want to be eating and what I know is right for me.  The rest of the family is catching up slowly.

One thing that I did take up from this book when I read it was Dr Joanna's advice to move more.  To build more activity into every day by making the most of every opportunity to walk.  Dr Joanna says:

 "Walking is such a basic activity that I always give it the utmost priority.  Regardless of whatever other activity and exercise you do in the week, walk whenever you can.  This is the cornerstone to being more active in your daily life."

Dr Joanna's Eight Great Reasons to Walk:

1. (Almost) anyone can do it.
2. No special equipment is required, except for a comfortable pair of shoes.
3. You can fit it into your usual schedule by accumulating minutes of walking across the day.
4. It doesn't cost a cent.
5. It's a great stress reliever.
6. It's highly conducive to brain-storming.
7. You can do it on your own, with a friend, as a group, or pushing a pram or wheelchair.
8. You can do it at any suitable time - morning, noon or night!

This changed my attitude.  I love that my job gives me the opportunity to walk everyday.  I've mapped my regular routine on google maps and most days I walk a total of 3 kilometres.  This is me exercising and I'm getting paid to do it!  I no longer begrudge the number of times that I have to hop up to go to the printer, the fax machine or the photocopier, or walk all the way down the other end of the office to the kitchen to make a cuppa.  It's all an opportunity to move which is doing me good.  I deliberately park my car a few blocks from the office so I have to walk.  OK it is free parking there too but I also do it to make myself walk!

~ take every opportunity TO MOVE and to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.

People Who Have Inspired Me: Jessica Ainscough

Meet Jessica Ainscough, aka The Wellness Warrior.  Jessica's story is one of survival from a rare and aggressive form of cancer called Epithelioid Sarcoma.  She was told by doctors that her condition was incurable and that her only hope of prolonging life would be to have her arm amputated.  Jessica began searching for a better option which led her to Gerson Therapy, a strict cancer-fighting regime consisting of consuming hourly juices (13 a day) a vegan diet and regular coffee enemas.  Five years on she is going strongly and spreading the wellness message to everyone who will listen.

People Who Have Inspired Me: Michael Pollan

www.michaelpollan.com
 

Michael Pollan is a Journalist, Professor of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and author of a number of books on the subject of eating.  In his book "In Defense of Food" Pollan says:  "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants".  He explains that we should eat REAL food, not refined or processed foods, and asks us to also consider the origin and quality of our food.  He delves into the history of the commercialisation of food production, discusses what he terms "the age of nutritionism" and the influence of politics and big corporations on the food industry and marketing.  Michael Pollan's approach to the diet and nutrition "puzzle" is the most sensible I have found so far.

People Who Have Inspired Me: Sally Joseph

Sally Joseph is a Clinical Nutritionist, Health and Wellness Coach and author of the "Eat Yourself Healthy in 28 Days" program. Sally has an inspiring story of recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus SLE and Hashimoto's - under active hypothyroiditis, all by changing her diet.