Tips for Health and Wellness:
1. Eat whole foods, mostly plants, not too much.
2. For peak athletic performance, eat enough of the above whole foods to support your workouts (energy requirements) but not excess body fat.
3. Take fish oil every day. I recommend PFO (Pure Fish Oil) in the refrigerator section of Honest Weight Coop.
Here are some sample meals you might consider.
Breakfast: 2-3 egg scramble with spinach and onions, 1 orange, 1 TB. of nut butter or use 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil with your eggs.
Lunch: mixed green salad w/2 tsp. olive oil and vinegar and 3 oz. wild caught canned salmon or a can of sardines. Or stir-fried veggies in coconut oil w/ chunks of chicken breast.
Snack: 5 macadamia nuts, cup of berries, 1 oz. raw milk cheese (if you do dairy)
Dinner: green salad; roasted root vegetables; 4-5 oz. steak, cup of berries for dessert.
Snack: cut up veggies dipped in tahini or deviled eggs with veggies
Some local sources of grassfed/natural meat:
Dines Farms (www.atthewarehouse.net). Call the guy ahead of time and make sure he's there. He can grill you up a great hamburger while you talk meat. You're better off placing an order with him on the phone, it takes about a week to get the order in.
Gem buffalo Farm: Located in Castleton just south on rte. 9/20: http://www.gemfarmsbuffalo.com/ Try buffalo hump pot roast, it's great.
The Carrot Barn in Schoharie:http://www.schoharievalleyfarms.com/the-carrot-barn.php
Heather Ridge Farm: http://www.heather-ridge-farm.com/ These guys have the best tasting eggs I ever ate. Hens that are truly free range are omnivorous: they eat bugs and grubs, and their eggs are high in omega 3 fatty acids from the animal protein they eat.
The Honest Weight Food Coop has a stock of grassfed/natural meats in the freezer case, but honestly, I think the prices are higher than when I buy direct from the farmer.
Shopping List:
Fresh produce: onions, garlic, avocadoes, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, fruits of all sorts, lots of darky leafy greens for cooking and salads.
Nuts and seeds: try to get raw nuts: walnuts, macadamia, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
Oils and Fats: extra virgin olive oil, flazseed oil (don't cook with flaxseed oil, put it on salads or in smoothies), coconut oil
Fish: wild caught fish: salmon, haddock, cod, shellfish--scallops, crab; watch out for shrimp, ask if the shrimp is farmed. Farmed shrimp from China or Thailand has chloramphenicol in it, plus tons of pollutants.
Meat: at least buy the meat that's labeled as being hormone and antibiotic-free if you don't buy the grassfed, organic stuff.
Canned goods: tahini, beets, coconut milk (for curried stir fries), beans (if you do legumes)
Dairy: if you do eat dairy, look for raw milk cheeses. Hannaford carries 2 types: Boggy Meadow swiss and some raw milk gouda. Look at labels. Honest Weight has many raw milk cheeses. Try the milk from Meadow Brook Farms: it's local, lightly pasteurized, hormone-free. Get organic yogurt and kefir, plain. Avoid the yogurts with sugars and artificial sweeteners. Hawthorne Valley is a good source for incredible whole milk, plain, organic yogurt that comes from pastured cows.
Frozen: if you are not a snob---I'm not, I'm married to frugal---stock up on frozen veggies at WalMart. They are tons cheaper than the market and most frozen veggies are more nutritious than "fresh" stuff that comes from California out of season and in ethylene-gassed plastic bags 'cause the frozen veggies are frozen near the point of harvest. Mackenzie's chopped collard greens are amazing.
Some quick tips on getting more veggies:
1. Roast a pan full of veggies you cut up into similar sized chunks: cauliflower, red peppers, onions, garlic cloves, winter squash, turnips, carrots, parsnips. Just cut, toss w/ olive oil, salt and pepper, and herbs--I like rosemary---and roast at 350 degrees until tender and starting to brown.
2. Saute onion, garlic and fresh ginger in olive oil or coconut oil until tender. Add sliced chicken breast or steak and cook until no longer pink, add curry powder, cumin, red pepper flakes (if you like heat) and some coconut milk, add a bag or two of frozen stirfy veggies and cook until it's all heated through.
3. Make a huge green salad and eat it for lunch as above.
4. Any veggies that are losing freshness, cut up and put into a pot of chicken broth and you have a nice first course of clear soup and some veggies!
5. Keep cut up veggies in your fridge for snacks, and dip into tahini.
Click below and print out this shopping list to take grocery shopping with you.
