healthy and beautiful

At an event last week, Sam Kass (former chef for the White House/Obamas) was a speaker. He explained that there’s a missing piece with most health advice. I’m paraphrasing but he said that we can’t simply say “ginger is healthy” but need to include the HOW. I went back to the office with this truth nugget and we brainstormed a bit. We’re going to add a   “how to” series to the blog. I’d love to declare it’ll be a weekly feature but we’re not so great at that kind of structure. Today, Carolyn kicks things off with a great way to cut your carbs. Like any normal human, I love carbs. Like any good nutritionist, I love fiber too but not enough to ever eat another GG crispbread*. If you can’t consider cardboard, enter your new, best cracker buddy ORGRAN . Orgran fiber crispbreads are our fave crackers on the market because they are gluten free, low cal, and have some fiber. They are the perfect vehicle for pretty much any topping. We usually give two a day to clients as a “non-carb”. The...

Dallas…I can still hum the theme song to my first, lowbrow TV obsession. More recently, this season’s Bachelorette Jojo (finale tonight) hails from Dallas. There’s the Dallas Cowboys oh and some videotape I recall floating around our house (ahem) when I was growing up. Most places live as stereotypes in your head until you actually visit. Let’s be clear, we didn’t have plans to visit Dallas. I have good friends from college in Dallas and    my favorite Joanna Czech opened her skincare mecca there but we were supposed to be just passing through the Dallas Fort Worth airport en route to Cabo. As the “friendly skies” would have it our first American Airlines flight left late due to a mechanical issue. And after a 5K, barefoot sprint through the humungous Dallas airport, our second/connecting flight left EARLY. Wait, it gets better. There were no other flights out that day, it was hours before our bags were located oh and did I mention if was Marc’s birthday? All I can say is it’...

lauren and I are no strangers to airplane rides or adventures. I’m sure our shared history traveling on Semester at Sea and desire to live FULL lives are two of the reasons we work together so well. This past year, I made it a priority to say 'yes' to as many escapes, adventures and retreats as my calendar (and bank account) will allow. Rather than having a Year of Yes (great book by the way), I think of it as only saying YES to things that make my body feel really good. Food, movement, and good people are my priorities. ( yogascapes  Moab with  Kerri Kelly  +  Jason Bowman )  I should share that as an anti-type A person (more type Z), retreats are my favorite way to travel. After showing up in Thailand itinerary-less a few years ago, I’ve realized that planning, or outsourcing the planning, is in fact wonderful and necessary. Interestingly, lauren is a self-confessed type A-person and likes outsourcing the organizing too. This way, she can obsess about somethin...

Most people watching yesterday’s final round of the British Open were likely focused on who would win the Claret Jug (or is it mug). I watched, and although it was as exciting as golf can be, I wasn’t fixated on the jug/mug. Two topics were more interesting to me. The first was that these athletes breaking records and duking it out were both in their forties. And second, Phil trimmed down. It turns out Phil has gone Paleo and upped his fitness game and, as a result, he’s dropped 25-ish pounds (over 2 stones). I’m not sure that Phil got the idea from Lebron. It’s not as though Lebron started the paleo diet but of course “Phil lost weight following the Lebron diet” was a headline I came across more than once. Lebron was hardcore paleo for 67 days. This means their diets consisted of fruit, vegetables, protein, nuts and limited carbs (no dairy, no grains/gluten/sugar). For me, it’s one thing for average people to pursue paleo but quite a shift from old-school “carbing up” for athletes to...

We have an online shop and perhaps you know this already. Last week I mentioned, to a friend, “we have those in our shop” and she said, “shop, since when do you have a Foodtrainers’ shop?” Carolyn and I can add that to the list of under promoted, overthought work-related items but I’ll tell you why we have a shop. It’s not really to make money (I recently read the best way to make money is to do something for free for 10 years….almost there). It’s because some of our “Foodtrainers’ Favorites” are small, difficult to find brands. There’s enough to stress about. We don’t need you annoyed with us because you cannot find the protein bar we recommended.   Speaking of bars, our Monthly Morsels newsletter today featured our top 10 nutrition bars . We didn’t delve too much into flavor specifics but my current loves are the strawberry coconut Yes Bar, peanut butter RX Bar and the chai by Yawp. I will also admit, over the course of a month, I made a good dent in the cranberry Perfect Bars t...