Bernadette

The beauty of this blog and of the V Well Health program is that it allows me to interact with readers and clients. I love hearing from you! Here are two emails from one of our most faithful readers and a member of the wellness program at HackensackUMC, Bernadette. She writes often and always has useful and interesting input. I thought I would share some of it with you all!

The first is a very funny story she told as a response to the cholesterol blog:

Hi Vicky,

The doctor wanted to put my husband on cholesterol meds. He refused, did cq10, omega 3s’ and plant sterols, the doctor said you will never do it (succeed). Long story short, his cholesterol dropped. (When) he went back to the doctor he wanted to know what my husband used and my husband said “ I am not telling you.”

The next is a recipe for her homemade conditioner! Go ahead and try it for yourself!

Hi Vicky,

When I made this it was so good I was eating it . I love the this saying “ if you can’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin.” Let me know how it works (for you.) I did a little experiment just to see the difference between store products & homemade. Guess which one is the best? Of course, the homemade one.

 

• 1 ripe Banana the riper the better (sometimes I use half an avocado)
• 1 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp of organic cold press coconut oil
• 1 tsp of honey
• Blend in food processor

This batch is good for one use.

So, thank you, Bernadette for always adding your input, and thank you for being such a faithful reader.

If you have tried something recommended in one of the blogs, or if you have something you’d like to add, feel free to write in. We really do look forward to your questions, comments, and success stories!

The Incredible Egg

In the last few decades eggs have gone from being thought of as healthy to unhealthy and back again I don’t know how many times. It seems that the opinion of the medical community on eggs fluctuates wildly, but one thing does not change. They are one of the primary foods of many centenarians. So, that may be some indication of the truth around whether or not the egg is indeed a health food or not.

I generally refer to myself as a vegan as it is the simplest way for me to quickly explain my eating habits. In all actuality this is not entirely the case. You see, it is not that I avoid all animal products, it is simply that I avoid animal products that I do not feel are particularly healthy. Exceptions to this are the animal products that I feel my body simply cannot live well without. This list includes: honey, occasionally fish, and just about daily- eggs.

Eggs, as you may know, are rich in many important nutrients. They are a valuable source of  selenium, B vitamins, protein, iron and calcium, but what I value the egg most as is a fantastic source of both biotin and choline. In fact egg yolks are the best source of these fatty acids in the world. Biotin is a B vitamin that’s great for hair and nails. Choline is the substance that much of our brains are made up of. While our bodies can make choline, it is certainly important to have it in our diets. Eggs are incredibly beneficial for brain development particularly in children. Pregnant women should eat eggs regularly (fully cooked, of course) as choline, biotin and all the omega-3 fatty acids found in eggs have been shown to greatly help with fetal development.

People have argued that the egg is too high in cholesterol for daily consumption. I tell you that that there are many foods with just as much or more cholesterol as the egg without half the health benefits. Additionally the fat type found in eggs is actually good for your heart! Just be sure that if you do like your eggs fried or scrambled, to cook them in extra virgin olive oil to keep all the fats in your breakfast (or really anytime meal) healthy!

Here is the only hesitation I have about the marvelous egg. Eggs themselves are good for you, it’s the stuff that often ends up in eggs that is not.  Always buy organic. Yes, conventional eggs, like so many animal products are chock full of hormones and antibiotics. To avoid these in your omelet, purchase only organic, cage free eggs. The extra cost may seem extravagant, but when you think that only two or three eggs are needed to make up the better part of a meal, even 4 or 5 dollars a dozen is a bargain.

Eggs are an extraordinary food. People who eat eggs daily tend to live longer and look younger, not to mention stay mentally sharp! So, make sure the egg is a part of your day-to-day life.

He said, “Well, you might really be onto something!”

I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it!… No, I will not break out into the song.  Just wanted to convey my extreme excitement.

Our general manager, Mike, called me on Saturday – which, by the way, is quite common, since we tend to work a lot on Saturdays.  What was unique about the phone call this past Saturday was that he began the conversation with, “Well, you might really be onto something!”  When I asked what he meant, he informed me that he had gone back to the doctor for his annual checkup and had just received his lab results.  He informed me that his results were outrageously good.  In fact, his cholesterol was at 144.

Now, of course, not being able to ask questions regarding health when hiring anyone, I did not have any clue what his cholesterol was previously.  He informed me in this phone call that at his last checkup, his cholesterol was 179.

At this point, I should give you a brief history.  When Mike started working for Studio V Health, he was a 33 year old male who jogged a lot, almost daily, I think due to the fact that he has a family history of severe heart disease.  In fact, on his father’s side, most of the males had heart disease issues from a young age because of genetic issues.  Mike ate healthy and jogged quite a bit – or so he thought.

Mike began working for Studio V Health as the general manager in August, 2010.  On October 17, 2010, we launched the online wellness program.  Although I cannot insist, I can strongly advise that all of the employees of Studio V Health to choose a program online from the Cooking Coach and follow it.  To my understanding, Mike chooses the Quick and Yummy and adheres to that program on a weekly basis.  When I quizzed him on what some of the other differences in his life over the past year have been, here is what he stated to me this past weekend.  He has completely given up diet drinks and soda in general.  He has also refrained from eating fast food, which he did not do a lot, but he now does almost never.  He has also informed me that he makes better choices when eating out.  In fact, here is an example in his words, “instead of eating chicken fingers, I will generally order grilled chicken now.”

In my opinion, I think one of the most important issues is that Mike now is extremely aware of ingredients and rarely consumes anything with chemicals.  He was, in fact, quite overjoyed, because his cholesterol, blood pressure, and all of his lab results were extraordinarily great in such a short time.

The reasons why I wanted to write about this – well, number one, since Mike is an employee of Studio V Health, he has allowed me to write about him (most of our members who have seen a significant change in their lab results would not appreciate me writing about them and of course, I keep all of that very private).  So, you could imagine my excitement when it was one of our very own employees.  The second reason why I am so excited about this is because, at least in this instance, it has more to do with changes in food than in exercise.  For instance, Mike as an integral part of the team, works very long hours.  In fact, such long hours, that many days, there is no time for exercise.  So, he went from jogging on a daily basis to much less exercise due to his work schedule.  Of course, I am a huge proponent of exercise.  I point this out merely to make everyone aware that at least in this instance, only a change in food resulted in lowering his cholesterol by 35 points in addition to lowering his blood pressure and everything else.

Now, of course, you can imagine the conversation I am going to have with him regarding exercise and how much more we can do by finding the time to exercise 4 to 5 times per week.  The timing of this is quite extraordinary to me since I spent all weekend researching the areas of the world considered the Blue Zone.  It turns out that the people who live in the Blue Zone live longer due to hard work, positive frame of mind, faith, walking 30 minutes per day and eating mostly plant based foods, but – and here is the most important piece of information – absolutely NO processed foods.  In fact, and yes, you guessed it, I will be blogging about the different parts of the Blue Zone around the world over the next couple of weeks.

In conclusion, congrats to Mike who is definitely more like family than an employee who I had no idea what his cholesterol was – although it was still normal.  You can bet since he has shared his story with me, I will work on getting his cholesterol to 120.  Stay tuned… I’ll let you know when it gets there.