February 7, 2010

Monsanto wants you to think warm, fuzzy thoughts about them|Ensuring you have a voice in the GMO debate

The biggest joke of a marketing campaign is underway now, and if you believe what this marketing campaign is putting out, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Check it out then keep reading because it’s important to your health that you understand what this commercial is trying to get you to believe.

Monsanto is an agriculture company that has the largest piece of the pie in the seed, herbicide & pesticide business. The majority of corn & soybeans in this country (and in much of the world) come from Monsanto, and they also sell seeds for much of the non-organic fruit & vegetables in stores today. They are a veritable monster in the industry & they know it. They’ve also taken some serious heat for their practices since the movie “Food, Inc.” came out. Haven’t seen it yet? Put it on your ‘required-viewing’ list before the end of the month. I’m serious.

They even created a seed that actually already has the pesticide built into it, so that the fruit or vegetable can actually release pesticides from inside itself to fend off bugs. This is one version of genetically modified food (GMOs). Just so it’s clear – tomatoes that produce the pesticide from within the fruit mean that you cannot remove the pesticide from washing it. You will  eat the pesticide. Keep reading →

February 5, 2010

When you’re staring out a window while you run…

I seem to have subconsciously taken on a mental challenge that I’m not sure I really wanted to take on, but yet, here I am. Did you ever get halfway into something before you realized, “well, how did we get here?” Well, that is where this runner stands in the dead of a Midwest winter that includes non-shoveled sidewalks on all city streets, thereby forcing you to run down a 4 lane road…which has the occasional car flying by with driver inside texting away while eating a breakfast sausage sandwich, or something like that.

Since I’d prefer not to be hood ornament, I’ve taken to the treadmill for the bulk of my running this winter. Which is fine when I get to use a treadmill that has a tv by it so I can listen to music and watch a show while I run my little heart out. But that has not been the case lately, and since I’ve decided that I need to run till, I don’t know, I puke(?) at least once a week – for the sake of being somewhat quick this summer (when I’m running a half marathon in Iceland w/ a dear friend & training partner – woo hoo!), it means there is some painful, but “good painful” runs to be had.

There is a method to the puke-y madness each week, specific training runs to be done, and so on.  But there I am, running away, and the treadmill I am lucky enough to use, is facing out a picture window – to a small patch of what is grass 9 months out of the year, and a few trees and bushes. And above the picture window is a quote painted on the wall, “The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.”

So yeah, running hard, harder than you’d like to, and you’ve got the pleasure of enjoying some time alone with your brain, the quote on the wall, and the window. And your brain is not really thrilled you’re running this hard. So here is where I said, ’so yeah, great, time for Kate to get serious about thinking, visualizing – you know – the whole being “present” for your workout thing.’ Keep reading →

February 3, 2010

RK Tip of the Week|You’ve got to practice your craft

Did you wake up one day & find you were automatically ‘good’ at what you do? All the smartasses can put their hands

How sharp are you?

 down now….seriously, did whatever you’re doing in your life right now show up as something that you were already incredibly good at? Or did you find yourself practicing to get to this point?

Your job today may be in a field that you just naturally excel at, but the position you’re in probably was not the one you showed up in when you first discovered your talent in this field. You most likely went through many evolutions of your skill set to arrive at this position you’re in today.

Your husband or wife today was not won by your natural talent for dating….their heart was won after dating & relating to many others before meeting the one who your skills would be good enough to match you forever to “The One.”

Your house is maintained today by your ability to manage chores & dishes and maybe kids & dogs. Most likely, you had a tiny apartment or two to practice in before you got to ‘The Big Show’ that is your home.

The point is, time & again, I hear people become discouraged by their seemingly on-again/off-again relationship with a healthy nutritional profile and/or workout regime. People, you have to practice your craft!! This does not show up overnight as some blessed skill that you simply have to exhale for it to come to fruition!

Living a healthy life means taking each new thing and tucking it into your belt for future use as a healthy human being. The idea of improving anything means taking a God-given skill & nurturing it so it grows & flourishes into more than you could have ever imagined on Day 1 of realizing you have that skill. (And here, if you’re talking about optimal health, that’s something that is always moving just ahead of you – sure, you can be pretty darn close to “optimal” at some point, but by that point, you probably will have set a new, previously-thought-unacheivable goal for yourself which will be the ‘new optimal.’) What you see as healthy today, should look like a shred of how healthy you are in 5 years when you look back on it! Today, you ensure you eat breakfast every day. 2 years from now? You’re gluten free!!….or something like that. :-)

You did not show up on this earth already possessing all the skills you could use to be great, much as your mother would probably disagree. You showed up with the skill set, but you still need to hone that skill set to make it something incredible. So when you have a min-setback (or a major one) on your fitness plan, or you thought eating those ”Special Q” snack items were healthy & then learned they were the furthest thing from it – don’t throw in the towel saying “this is just too hard.” Consider it a lesson learned & hey, now you’ll know that advertisers are out to fool you, not to feed you & you’ll know to do more research as you’re choosing healthy foods!

How to practice your craft in 3 easy steps: Keep reading →

February 1, 2010

What lipstick commercials can teach us about working out

Did you ever notice lipstick commercials? They take very literal pictures to essentially prove to you that you are going to be a plump-lipped, long-color-lasting, sexy goddess with moisture-filled lips if you buy their lipstick. I saw one recently that had honey dripping off of a rose petal in one frame, a super close-up/expanded picture of the glittery shimmer in the lipstick color itself in another frame, and an in-your-face close-up of beautiful, plump, smiling lips bearing the color of the lipstick – in this case, a shimmery bright red. You know, your basic, off- to-run-errands red lipstick…?? Guys, forget it, she’s not going to run errands in red lipstick.

I don’t wear lipstick, and rarely wear colored gloss. To all you women who regularly do, I salute you. But I do work out. I like working out. 97% of the time, I want to go workout & workout hard. The other 3% of the time I’m either fighting something off, beyond sore because I didn’t stretch enough, or overly tired from not finding 8 hours to sleep a night. But I know others don’t always feel quite the same way. Just like I don’t feel like wearing lipstick to go run errands.

But I tell you, every time I see a lipstick commercial, it hits a part of my brain that says, “ooh, I think I might need to get that,” even though, again, I do not wear lipstick. The shimmery lips, the clear pictures of just how moisturized my lips will be, it’s all so enticing, and on more than one occasion in the past, I’ve gone out & bought said lipstick in the thought that “this time, this time!, it will be exactly what I need to complete my beauty routine!”

Working out needs the lipstick marketing team to create an ad campaign hit on those same “need to” parts of a persons’ brain. Should there need to be a commercial motivating someone to go workout? No- it should come from an internal drive to better oneself, but we can all agree that works only so-so for anyone trying to make fitness a part of their life. But, I’m telling you, if the lipstick marketing people made commercials for exercise like they do for lipstick, every person would be venturing off their couch to go after that workout & to see if they really will get all the beautifully pictured benefits of the workout, as displayed by that amazing marketing team.

The only difference would be that while it’s a hit or miss if the lipstick brand and color will ‘complete me & my beauty routine’, it’s a guarantee that once exercising has commenced, the exerciser really will benefit from the effort. So while most women have an abundance of lipsticks long-forgotten in their make-up drawer, commercial promises not fulfilled…exercise will begin to fulfill promises from the very first workout, and will continue to build from there. It just may take a good lipstick marketing team to get a few of you off the couch.

January 30, 2010

Shortest month of the year challenge for you!

I’m thrilled to be back at the compter writing to you! It’s  been a hectic last few weeks, so I’m thrilled to be sitting down to chat with you & catch you up on some motivation, inspiration & workout ‘get-off-your-butt-and-do-it’ thoughts! I’ve got a challenge for you today.

Monday starts February, the shortest month of the year. We’re one month past our New Years Resolution moments, that hopefully have stuck around longer than a moment. We’re going into a month that, at least in Chicago, is quiet & gray. And no matter where you live, it’s the shortest month of the year.

Seems like the perfect time to me to challenge yourself with something fitness & wellness related! One, you’ve got time on your side, so if we’re talking about a new habit or regime you challenge yourself with, it’s only 28 days that you have to make it stick (the goal being that it sticks by nature after the month is up). Two, it’s highly likely that if you don’t put new intentions in place now that match up with that New Years Resolution of yours, you’re not going to do it at all this year. Three, it’s a perfect measurement system for focusing your energy as you can see clearly the start (Mon) and end (4 Sun’s later) points of what you’re trying to accomplish, vs. saying that some random day is “the day” you’re going to get on-point with a new intention.

So what’s the challenge? Well, we’re taking a census this year, and if obesity & fitness rates were measured in that census, I’d bet that we’d see a red line still climbing up & to the right on those measurements. We NEED to take hold of ourselves people – it’s not ok for people of average weight to be the gross minority in this country. That means that most of the country is sick & diseased because of how broken and out of shape their bodies are. We’re better than this!

So here’s my challenge to all of you: Choose a fitness-related intention - I say “intention” rather than ”goal” because we’ve done the “goal-setting” thing before, and hardly anyone is motivated by having a fitness “goal” anymore. But the word “intention” clearly implies that you are intending to go forth on something, and every part of you mind/body/spirit is making purposeful shifts to get there. Read this definition of intention:  an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.

 

 2.

 

 the end or object intended; purpose. When you intend for something to be, you’re already viewing the outcome as being ‘done’. When you have a goal to do something, you may plan to accomplish it, but it leaves some question about whether or not you actually will.

So choose your fitness-related intention that you would like to accomplish by the end of February. It could be to be able to run 4 miles by the end of February. Or to jog your first mile by the end of Febuary! It could be to choose high-quality foods to fuel your exercise & life every day & track it in a food journal. Or to follow workout dvds 5 days a week for the entire month. Anything, as long as it’s fitness related! Then post your intention in the comments section here. Based off your intentions, I’ll post helpful tips & thoughts to help you keep those intentions & by hearing others intentions, we can all share in the community push to ensure we stay true to our intentions.

At the end of the month, we’ll check back in & see how you feel having accomplished your intention & we’ll get to hear about what successes you’ve had in keeping your fitness intentions. So there you have it gang, the Shortest Month of the Year Fitness Challenge! If you’re willing to dedicate yourself to this challenge, post your intentions below & let’s start seeing just what you can accomplish when you intend for it ’to be’!  

January 27, 2010

RK Tip of the Week|How a real person can eat real local

Many of you really want to eat well. Many of you also want to do your small part to leave this Earth nice when you leave it to your grandkids. Many of you also believe in not letting corporate conglomerates rule this world either. The good news is that if you believe in any of these statements, it means a tiny piece (or hopefully a little more than a tiny piece) of you is motivated to do “right” by something. Hooray! Moral integrity & personal commitment! I knew this was a good bunch of people!

This week we dive into how a real person -with a family- can actually eat local food, do it well & make it more cost effective than you’d think. I had the chance to interview Dr. William O’Brien, chiropractic physician/amazing partner of Dr. John D. Turner, who’s incredible interview with us shed plenty of light on living a gluten free life regardless of requirement for it. As I got to know Dr. O’brien, I found out that Dr. O’Brien & his family do something that is exactly the right thing to do when deciding how you’re going to feed your family, and I was so impressed that I asked him to give us an interview about what he’s up to & how it’s working for him. Here’s what he had to say!

K:  Who are you, what is your title, what is your practice/philosophy(s) as relating to the care of a family’s health, including the kids?

 Dr. O: My name is Dr. William O’Brien and I am a licensed Chiropractic Physician in the state of Illinois.  My practice is located in Glendale Heights, Illinois.  I am a Certified Applied Kinesiologist with post-graduate studies in Chiropractic Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology.  Currently, I am also the President and Co-founder of the American Academies of Sports Practitioners (http://www.sportspractitioners.org).

K:  You take an approach to feeding your family that is still somewhat unique in this country. You go right to the source- the farmer- to get your meat. When did you start doing this & what was it that made you make the decision to do this?

 Dr. O: We started going directly to a farmer for our meat a little over 7 years ago.  Although as a family, we do not eat an abundance of red meat, as a husband and parent of two little boys, my wife and I try to provide our children with nutritional choices that are helpful in their development.  Keep reading →

January 26, 2010

Agave Nectar|Is it healthy or not?

The world of food science seems to get thicker and thicker with information – and it’s often hard to sort out what’s real & what’s not. Some things should be fairly obvious. High Fructose Corn Syrup – not good. Organic – good! But the water gets thick when you start taking a look at all these ‘healthy alternatives’ that are battling it out for market share.

Take agave nectar. It’s more natural than sugar, right? It’s got a lower Glycemic Index, so it’s better for diabetics, right? Well I was surprised to learn that it’s not as clear cut as it seemed, even to me. Like you, I initially though agave nectar was a great supplement to sweeteners – like honey’s more chilled out brother. If having to choose between that and table sugar, I thought the answer seemed pretty clear – agave nectar.

I’d like to present you with two different viewpoints & then you can decide for yourself.

According to the Weston A. Price Foundation website, the most  well-respected natural solutions foundation that exists, agave nectar is processed the same way that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is, and contains up to 70% fructose- compared with 55% fructose found in HFCS.

According to a food & beverage development site, agave nectar is highly processed, thus making it not a truly “natural” product, as most agave nectar labels will have you believe with their picture of the agave plant and usually the words ‘natural’ or ‘raw’ on the packaging. Keep reading →

January 23, 2010

Why we are the way we are|The Pollyanna Syndrome

 Oh the humanity. In the last 24 hours, it has become completely clear to me why we, as a people, are sicker, fatter, and less happy than ever before. It’s not that I didn’t know it or see it before….that’s why I started this blog, why I work with personal training clients & why I now work in a Performance Center that is changing the lives of the young & old every single day. So trust me, I knew it before, but the experience I had last night was such a clearly detailed, perfectly shining example of why I do what I do, and why I push you all to learn, do, and share all this optimal wellness stuff with others. So what happened last night to warrant this blog post?

Part of my work in the Performance Center is to go to area golf & home shows to work a booth where we educate people about how they can be healthier & have less pain, sickness & suffering. Part of this booth is offering a scan of the nervous system function & muscular balance to anyone who’d like to do one. It’s painless & takes less than 5 minutes to get valuable information that will truly change the quality of a person’s life.

So I ask anyone walking by, would they like to get this scan done, and I tell them what I just told you. Here’s what some say in return, “Oh, I would rather not know how messed up I am” or ”I already know I’m a mess-that’s not changing!”, as they walk off either limping, or with one shoulder higher than the other, or with terrible posture that is totally fixable (and not that hard to do!), or overweight to the point that its’ killing their low back & knees, or with all of these things along with the disease & dysfunction they’ve racked up from not caring for their bodies. And then they wander over to the $500 drivers where they spend 30 minutes deciding which $500 driver to buy. Sigh.

Here’s my new definition for Pollyanna Syndrome, which normally means to have a foolish or blindly optimistic viewpoint of life. Here, it means to blindly ignore what we are willingly doing to damage our bodies & foolishly ignoring obvious symptoms of failure on our part to care for ourselves.

 Are you ignoring obvious signs that you’re not doing your part to ensure your genes get past down for another millenia? It’s time to take off the Pollyanna glasses gang, and address the reality that we’ve gotten ourselves into our sick & broken bodies, and we can get ourselves out. There are plenty of do-gooders out there who have sickly bodies – but I’m telling you – it’s not possible to live to your highest calling & pass on the best genes possible to future generations if you’re sick or broken. It’s fundamentally impossible. The vibrational energy that comes from the body of someone uncaring toward themselves does not match with the vibrational energy of a person living their ultimate calling in their ultimate life. Keep reading →

January 20, 2010

RK Tip of the Week|Hey baby, what’s cookin’?

Remember that ad jingle, “I feel like chicken tonight…chicken tonight!” I can say that most nights of the week, I do not agree. I rarely feel like chicken tonight & I’d imagine if you’ve been doing the “healthy kick” since Jan 1, you’ve been doing a lot of baked chicken for its’ healthy-ness & may be waning on your interest in that go-to healthy meal.

Side note: Chicken is a go-to healthy meal IF you’re buying pastured, organic birds – which IS possible to do if you go looking around your local Whole Foods or order online from local farmers. If you’re not buying these “better birds,” you’re getting a product that, well, in the interest of not getting sued…watch this:

So this week, I bring you 4 recipes for so healthy and so good dinners! I really enjoy cooking, so much so, that eating at home trumps eating out almost every time, with exception to when it’s just good to go see friends or it’s a special meal that you just don’t as well do at home.

Eating at home saves you money, a lot of money! It can ensure that you get a high-quality meal and correct portion size that will support your optimal wellness & fitness goals! – and it really doesn’t matter if you’re cooking for 1 or for 4- it’s always worth cooking for whoever you’re cooking for!

My take on cooking is simple – let the ingredients stand on their own – just bring their best qualities to the foreground. Here you’ll find simple recipes, easy prep work, and a final product that is free of heavy sauces or a heavy hand of any kind. So get crazy, bust out of your baked chicken rut & get cooking something new! On the menu tonight…

Seasoned Baked Barramundi with Warmed Vegetable Salad &

Seared Sweet & Tangy Salmon with Warmed Kale & Shallot Salad

Seasoned Baked Barramundi with Warmed Vegetable Salad

  •  - The fish: Savory flavor, firm texture, no “fishy” taste, cooks fast from frozen
  • - The salad: Versatile to whatever you’ve got in the fridge, leftover salad stands up well
  • *Time saving tip!* I do not generally wait for the oven to fully heat up- real cooks would probably flip knowing this is about my meal, but when you get home from work at 8:15pm & you’d like to eat by 9 to be in bed by 10…you’re not really interested in waiting for an oven to heat up.

Continue reading for full recipes & pictures… Keep reading →

January 19, 2010

“Nobody ever regrets it”

Thank you Nike for always having something motivational to say on the front of a t-shirt. I’d like to know who the person(s) are who find & come up with all these slogans. I’d be so disappointed if it was a bunch of fat guys who weren’t exercising & living this totally optimal life. I mean, c’mon! My newest Nike shirt, gift from world-famous triathlon client Jen :-) , told me that “Nobody ever regrets it.” I really hope that the creator of this shirt was truly referring to life , your body, & how you care for it, and not some cheeseburger.

Nobody ever regrets it. So…yeah, that’s true….when it comes to fitness/wellness stuff. “Darn, I wish I hadn’t eaten that salmon & roasted veggies- I really regret it. Now I’m going to have leaner, stronger muscles. Bummer!”…nope, pretty sure no one says that. Now, when it comes to not healthy/fitness-y stuff…you can almost always regret the decision if its taking you further from your goal, further from who you intend to be as a person, and further from health/closer to death. Going to an early grave due to cigarette smoking, processed food eating, or lack of movement in daily life – yeah, you can definitely regret that.

(Booming bravado voice) “I don’t regret the way I lived my life, even though I’ve now died from a preventable heart attack at 40.” Yeah, nope, doesn’t work as a true statement. At least not for those who want to have a purpose in life. That’s why it makes me laugh when those contestants on Biggest Loser or whatever life-makeover show happens to be on & they’re on tape saying, “It’s hard to go to the gym when you’re kid is saying, ‘dad please play trucks with me instead,’ how can I leave my kid for an hour or two a day to go exercise?”

First of all, your kid, your spouse, your friend, your mother-in-law….none of them would appreciate you dying early from something totally preventable by exercising regularly. So don’t be an ass & do that to them. Keep reading →