Janice Taylor, Editor: July 2008 Archives

How to Get the Most Antioxidant Bang Out of Your Veggie Buck, written and illustrated by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, author and 50-pound big-time-loser.

While many people are true believers in the power of the raw food, mind-twisting news from researchers in Italy, one of the top culinary capitals of the world, encourages us to boil, steam and even fry our veggies (although, truly, I don't know if I can go there, however heavy in antioxidants).

The study, which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, compared these various cooking methods on zucchini, carrots and broccoli and found that cooking increased certain antioxidants that are crucial to fighting disease.

So, put on your chef's hat and funky apron, get out your steamers and sauté pans, and get ready to cook up some carrots, zucchini and broccoli!

Broccoli
For best antioxidant boost: Boil or Steam
Resulting in a 31 percent increase in gluocosinolates, which prevents certain types of cancer, as well as a 32 percent increase in carotenoids, which boosts Vitamin A production.

Blessed Broccoli (from the book, Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal)
Ingredients:
Lemon herb pepper
1/4 cup white wine vinegar (try white wine fig, my latest obsession)
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:
Steam broccoli.
Toss all ingredients together.
Enjoy!

Carrots
For best antioxidant boost: Fry or Steam
Resulting in a 61 percent increase in caffeic acid, which fights certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.

Spiritual Carrot Stir Fry
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium carrots, cut into strips
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, freshly grated
soy sauce, low-sodium

Directions:
In large skillet or wok, heat oil. Stir fry vegetables until tender, yet crisp; approximately 6 minutes. Add ginger and soy sauce to taste.

Zucchini
For best antioxidant boost: Boil or Steam
Resulting in a 20 percent increase in beta-carotein (a carotenoid), resulting in Vitamin A production.

Zealous Zucchini
Ingredients:
2 medium zucchinis
6 whole gloves of garlic (or more; as many as you like ... if you love garlic, go for it!)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Trim ends from zucchini; cut each zucchini into long 1/8" to 1/4" inch strips; as skinny as you can.
Place zucchini and whole cloves of garlic in steam basket.
Place steam in pot.
Steam until zucchini is semi-soft.
Put zucchini in a bowl.
Mash the garlic.
Place in bowl with zucchini.
Drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Spread the word, NOT the icing!
Janice

Free Our Lady of Weight Loss E-Cards! What better way to spread the fun weight loss word!

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" . . . . kooky genius ~ see if her idiosyncratic diet plan will work for you." ~ O, The Oprah Magazine

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Sleeping Keeps Your Heart Healthy written and illustrated by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, author, 50-pound big-time-loser.

Heart attacks and strokes are more likely to happen during early morning hours.

What's your risk for early morning heart attack? For a period of twenty years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) studied the connection between a poor night's sleep and heart attacks and strokes. During those two decades, 295 heart attacks occurred in the women's group and 85 in the men's.

Women who slept less than 5 hours a night were found to be 3 times more likely to have a heart attack than women who slept 5 to 9 hours. The women who slept MORE than 9 hours were at risk as well. Men showed less significant results.

While You Are Sleeping . . . your brain is hard at work developing new neuro-pathways that are essential to learning, creating memories and a-Ha moments (a.k.a. insights).

Sleep gives your heart and vascular system a much needed and deserved rest. Your heart rate and blood pressure gradually slow down as you enter non-REM sleep, a deeper sleep state. Followed by REM sleep, where your heart rate and blood pressure have elevated spikes of activity. Overall, during a good night's sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure dip by about ten percent.

The All Important Dip. Without the dip, your are more likely to experience strokes, chest pain known as angina, an irregular heartbeat, develop cardiovascular disease and/or heart attacks.

The Stress Hormones. Lack of sleep stresses the body and may stimulate a stress response, resulting in the production of more adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones during waking hours. These hormones add to the likelihood that of your blood pressure not dipping during sleep, thereby increasing heart disease. In addition, cortisol has been linked to that spare tire that you're carrying around your middle!

Having Trouble Sleeping?

• Limit your caffeine intake (coffee, tea and chocolate!).

• Limit alcohol and do not drink right before bedtime. It may make you sleepy, but alcohol interferes with REM sleep.

• Create a relaxing bedtime ritual: aromatherapy, meditate, think healthy thoughts.

• Take a hot bath, breathe deep, listen to restful music. Perhaps the sounds of nature.

• Eliminate nighttime worry. Shelve the negative thoughts for the next day! (Believe me, they will be there, waiting for you!)

• Take your siesta early in the day, not too close to nighttime.

• Add the following fruits to your food plan: papaya, banana, strawberries, sweet cherries, oranges, mangoes, pineapple.

• Sleep on your right side or on your back. It can add years to your life! Sleeping on the left side adds pressure and if you are overweight, that much more!

Tasty Tidbits:

Those who sleep less than four hours a night are 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who sleep seven to nine hours.

In 1910, most people slept 9 hours a night, as compared to today's 7 hours a night. More than one-third of us report daytime sleepiness, so intense that it interferes with work and/or our social lives.

To avoid wrinkles, sleep on your back!

New Point of View: A good night's rest honors the body and helps it to merrily move along during the day!

Spread the word, NOT the icing,
Janice

Free Our Lady of Weight Loss E-Cards!

For more motivation and inspiration, join the Kick in the Tush Club: Beliefnet Chapter.

Pick up a copy of Janice's latest: All Is Forgiven, Move ON ~ Our Lady of Weight Loss's 101 Fat-Burning Steps on Your Journey to Sveltesville!

" . . . . kooky genius ~ see if her idiosyncratic diet plan will work for you." ~ O, The Oprah Magazine

about Janice

Who's Foolin' Who? by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, author, 50 pounds big-time-loser.

Crumbs Count
A bunch of years ago I stumbled upon Nancy, the star of Ernie Bushmiller's comic strip of the same name, "Nancy." As I remember it, Nancy was pictured with a box of cookies in one hand and a hammer in the other. Her aunt was yelling from another room. "Don't spoil your appetite. Dinner will be ready soon." To which Nancy replied, "I'm only eating the crumbs."

I carried this image with me and laughed whenever I was carefully creating crumbs! Crumb cake, being an easy favorite. Cutting slivers of cake so thin that they fall apart. I was really good at the crumb thing!

And then one day ... the truth roundly adhered itself to my thighs! Even if I'm not counting crumbs, my body is! After all, It comes complete with a built-in calorie-calculator - no extra charge!

These 'thoughts' might not hold much power on the page in this moment, but when you are of the mind to eat something, they may seem perfectly rational.

There is an infinite assortment of circumstances in which we encourage ourselves to tell little white lies in the Land of Weight Loss (note I did not say Permanent Fat Removal; because there is no need to lie to oneself in the Land of PFR).

In the face of food, fooling oneself, lying to oneself may seem easier, but in the end you are planting seeds of unhappiness, guilt, and well - fat cells! Fat cells in your mind as well as your body.

Tell the truth! Say what you will, you can't fool your inner calorie-counter!

Spread the word, NOT the icing!
Janice

For more motivation and inspiration, join the Kick in the Tush Club: Beliefnet Chapter.

Pick up a copy of Janice's latest: All Is Forgiven, Move ON ~ Our Lady of Weight Loss's 101 Fat-Burning Steps on Your Journey to Sveltesville!

" . . . . kooky genius ~ see if her idiosyncratic diet plan will work for you." ~ O, The Oprah Magazine

about Janice

How Will YOU Show Up Today? A weighty question from Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, 50-pound big-time-loser.

People want to know, "What's your secret to success? How did you manage to permanently remove (a.k.a. lose weight) over 50 pounds of excess weight? What do you eat?"

Truthfully, while food is a consideration, the secret to my successful weight loss plan is less about my food plan and more about how I show up.

The first thing I do each and every day (ok, after I go to the bathroom and make coffee) is to sit down at my desk with one of my favorite pens in hand and write in my "Showing Up" journal.

I invite you to SHOW UP. Here's how ...

Pull together a variety of fabulous pens, front fat to thin, filled with black, blue and red ink, the colors of the rainbow. And one notebook that feels right; from leather bound to a 99 cent composition notebook.

In the morning, before too much thought has flooded your mind, take a minute or two to find a comfortable place to sit, preferably the same quiet and contemplative place each day.

Take your best pen in hand (varies day to day). Bring your attention to your fingers. Become aware of the feel of the pen, relax your muscles, and carefully write in your 'best' (whatever that means to you) penmanship, connecting to each and every word "How ... WILL ... I ... Show ... Up ... Today?"

How WILL I Show Up Today? is a very powerful question. There's no yes or no in it; there's no right or wrong in it. And on a subconscious level, the words WILL I ... imply that you will yourself to and you will ... show up ... today. The writing of the question taps into your subconscious mind, which then sends the answers straight through your fingers, through the pen, onto the page. Do not think; just be present with the pen and write. Showing Up may look different from day to day and that's okay, because each day is different and brings forth different resources that live within.

From my today's "Showing Up" Journal ...
How WILL I Show Up Today?

Today, I WILL Show Up with ...

1. Energy.
2. The right words.
3. Compassion and patience.
4. Appreciation.
5. Present and mindful.
6. Focused.
7. Fully committed.
8. A discerning pallet.

Let me ask you, if I didn't show up with energy, appreciation, mindfulness, commitment and a discerning pallet, would I be successful at losing and keeping off those extra pounds?

Not a snowball's chance in Hell. I may have mustered up enough energy to lose it, but I would surely have found it (again). Showing up is a valuable tool for your permanent fat removal arsenal. It keeps you focused and motivated.

How will you show up today?

Spread the word, NOT the icing!
Janice

For more motivation and inspiration, join the Kick in the Tush Club: Beliefnet Chapter.

Pick up a copy of Janice's latest: All Is Forgiven, Move ON ~ Our Lady of Weight Loss's 101 Fat-Burning Steps on Your Journey to Sveltesville!

" . . . . kooky genius ~ see if her idiosyncratic diet plan will work for you." ~ O, The Oprah Magazine

about Janice

The Garden of Peace: Where Spirits Pass and We Say Goodbye by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, Certified Hypnotist, 50-pound big-time-loser.

For those of us who have lost a loved one and/or are feeling the loss of Professor Randy Pausch, best known for his "Last Lecture," given to his students in the fall of 2007, nearly one year after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, I offer you "The Final Goodbye" meditation.

Imagine a Garden of Peace...
A place that you might see in your mind's eye; a peaceful place where calm and harmony are natural; a place where spirits pass from this world to the next. Perhaps your Garden of Peace is overgrown with wild flowers or weeping willows. The birds sing songs of love as the bees buzz from one flower to the next.

While we cannot enter the garden, as it is not our time, we are able to see and experience this garden in a real way.

Those who have passed to the other side are no longer inhibited and influenced by the matters of the world - they are free to see the universal truths and wisdoms. And all we need to do to communicate with them is say their name.

They will 'appear' in the Garden of Peace in some way, shape or form. Remember that they are no longer in their bodies; they are in spirit form. I don't know how this person will present himself to you, but you do. Perhaps, he or she may speak to you through your favorite flower, sending a beautiful fragrance your way; or you may mysteriously feel an Angel brushing your cheek, or you could see the person in their old form sitting cross-legged under the weeping willow, or on a bench in the middle of a honeysuckle grove.

Look and listen and when the time is right, offer your prayers, your final goodbyes. This is a time you can be sure that all that you need to say can be said; peace can be yours.

You might want to simply let this person know that you love them, that you will carry them with you, always. I don't know what you need to or want to say, but you do. And when you are finished reach out for a final touch, a hug, and say your last goodbye.

Take a moment to process your feelings, take it in on the deepest level, in every cell, molecule and atom, all that is useful and good from this meditation and carry it with you always.

My Farewell to Rancy Pausch . . .
I see Randy under the weeping willow, doing push ups, smiling and inspiring still and I say to him ... Thank you for living life fully, for being a beacon of light, for going after your dreams and inspiring me through your words.

"Brick walls are not there to keep us out. The Brick Walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The Brick Walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly. They are there to stop OTHER people."~ Randy Pausch

And now, Randy smiles and waves goodbye, leaving with me with feelings of peace, love, a calmness of spirit, a sense of renewed purpose. I take these feelings in on the deepest level.

And I move on ... making this day count, knocking down the brick walls that are surely not meant for me (or you).

Spread the word, NOT the icing!
Janice

For more motivation and inspiration, join the Kick in the Tush Club: Beliefnet Chapter.

Pick up a copy of Janice's latest: All Is Forgiven, Move ON ~ Our Lady of Weight Loss's 101 Fat-Burning Steps on Your Journey to Sveltesville!

" . . . . kooky genius ~ see if her idiosyncratic diet plan will work for you." ~ O, The Oprah Magazine

about Janice

A Perfectly Beautiful Conversation with Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, 50-pound big-time-loser, and Natalie Fournier, photographer and performance artist. Janice: You are bold and brave, in your underwear ... and clearly making a statement about your body, the...

How to Stay Permanently Jazzed? Diet Like an Olympic Swimmer. by Janice Taylor, Hypno-Coach*, Author, 50-pound big-time-loser! As is the case with many of us, we decide to lose weight because we are disgusted, depressed, in self-hating mode and vow...

How much dead weight are you carrying around with you? by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, Author, 50-pound big-time-loser I suspect you are unaware, as was I, that dead weight is heavy, both metaphorically and literally, and that...

Salmonella Sleuthing: It's Not All Bad by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, 50-pound big-time-loser, eternal optimist With all this talk of toxic and noxious tomatoes and jalapeno peppers, as well as Salmonella poisoning, this Beliefnet blogger, determined to unearth...

Unassuming Blueberries: Powerful Little Disease Busters by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, 50 Pound Big-Time-Loser Whether you want to bust a disease, age gracefully, or are simply in need of a tush-kickin' recipe, this yum delicious blog-post is for...

A round of 850 calorie Cinnabons for all! by Janice Taylor, Beliefnet.com blogger and 50 pound big-time-loser. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is doing his best to hold us (individuals and restaurants) accountable for the amount of high-fat, high-calorie foods we...

The Meal: Whose idea was it anyway? by Janice Taylor, Beliefnet Blogger and 50 pound big-time-loser. Did cavemen eat three squares? Whatever its origin, three meals a day - for me - is a thing of the past. I instinctively...

Splash! Sip! & Wash! By Janice Taylor Here are six (count 'em! six!!) mind-twisting, wrinkle-reducing tips that are sure to smooth and soothe. Smelly Fish Parts: I know, it sounds fishy, but no - it's scientific! Word out from the...

In an effort to understand people who insist upon using BIG words, this Beliefnet blogger signed up for Word of The Day from Dictionary.com I LOVE FAT ... words! I am particularly enamored with 'fat' and 'food' words. I find...

Which would you prefer to do today? Beat stress or cultivate inner-peace? Calming words from Janice Taylor. Words have an amazingly strong affect on our bodies and minds. Our unconscious mind (also known as subconscious) processes the words we hear...

GO CRAZY! It's Your Life, is it not? Create It the Way You Want it - Off-the-Menu Salad! This beliefnet blogger has been on the road, promoting the best Permanent Fat Removal book ever (if you LOSE it; you will...

What a Day for a Daydream by Janice Taylor, Health & Happiness Beliefnet Blogger. While waiting for the 6 train on 116th and Lexington Avenue (not the most beautiful subway stop in Manhattan), I took the opportunity to mentally review...

Land of the Lost and Found Pounds by Janice Taylor, Beliefnet Health and Happiness Blogger Once upon a time a chubby young woman was wandering about in the Land of the Lost and Found Pounds thinking self-deprecating thoughts when...

One day, as Janice Taylor, Beliefnet Blogger was negotiating her way along the rocky road to Sveltesville on her 50 pound weight loss journey, she got fed up with measuring her thighs and waist, so she got busy and...

Power of the Compliment by Janice Taylor, Beliefnet Blogger Most everyone appreciates a compliment, a word of encouragement, and a bit of recognition. I know, I do! Someone said something nice to me today and it made all the difference....

Food News from Janice Taylor. There's a New Marshmallow in Town. I happened across a bag of La Nouba (No Sugar/ No Carbs) marshmallows at the check out counter at my local market. I was skeptical. "Hmmmm," I wondered,...

I'm a Nut (source: "The World's Best Funny Songs", Esther J. Nelson, 1988; this song is called "Acorn Brown" in "The Worm Song and Other Tasty Tunes, Janet Wilson, 1993.) I'm a little acorn round (make circle with thumb...

Misha McGlown, author of Manifesting Things: Making Your Way When There Is No Way, shares her thoughts with Janice Taylor on how to free yourself from your self-imposed bondage and move into the light of love through prayer. I prayed...

What???? HUH? Is Janice Taylor, Weight Loss Guru, the voice of Our Lady of Weight Loss, 50-pound big-time-loser, Beliefnet health & happiness blogger extraordinaire telling us that it's okay to pig out? "You have to love a nation that celebrates...

There is no such thing as willpower. If the cake calls your name, who amongst us has the willpower to just say, "no!?" We are more than likely than not to cave in and eat it! Want Power means that...

Rejoice the Mango! from Janice Taylor, Beliefnet Blogger Mangoes have been around for at least 4,000 years. They grow on huge trees and the mango fruit gracefully hangs down like an upside-down lollipop on a very long stem. They...

A number of readers have asked me for more details about my travels on the rocky road to Sveltesville, wanting me to further share my secrets that led me from a size 18 to a size 4, and how I...