RAW Vitamins In Town: Garden of Life!

 Food, Health, Review, Uncategorized  3 Responses »
Sep 272012
 

A while back I received this interesting little gift: a raw multi-vitamin by Garden of Life. Color me intrigued.

Apart from the occasional calcium- or iron-supplement, I don’t take anything anymore (I tried but I find you can’t say this without sounding like a fomer junkie). I have in the past: I took multivitamins, calcium, Vitamin C, and some herbal things. The works. But as my diet changed, I dropped the pills and decided to pay more attention to getting my nutrients mostly through food.

Because that’s the thing with vitamin supplements. It’s a well known problem that the vitamin supplements are ‘foreign’ to our body, which makes it harder to digest and leaves a lot of the vitamins and minerals unabsorbed. This has to do with bio-availability. It’s very nice that something has a 2313% of the recommended daily dosage but if it just passes through your system it’s not going to do you much good.

These vitamins are supposedly very bio-available because they haven’t been overheated, and they come with enzymes and probiotics, making it easy for your body to process.

When I came back from my holiday, I started taking a Raw Multivitamin everyday. My diet wasn’t as stellar as it was before I went on vacation: I didn’t crave green juice (so didn’t drink it), started drinking coffee again and then my juicer broke (so I couldn’t drink it), and so I basically boosted myself with the vitamin for the time being.

I liked it: It really felt like a boost. I had hardly any negative health effects from more processed foods and I was still energetic without green juice, which is a big deal for me. Usually I notice bad dietary habits in my energy and general well-being fairly quickly but now I felt pretty great. Whereas no vitamin will ever be able to replace the true benefits and power of a healthy diet, the RAW vitamins were definitely more effective than usual vitamins.

I think the RAW Garden of Life Vitamins tick off on all the awesome boxes: Purely plant-based, organic, unheated and packed with enzymes, raw. This way your body can actually process the nutrients.

So for those of you who are still gulping down regular vitamin supplements? Sweethearts, it’s time to ditch the bio-availability zero and get with the bio-availability hero.

The Self Help Hipster Goes Hooping!

 Exercise, Health, Review  24 Responses »
Jul 302012
 

There are a lot of reasons to go hooping. I certainly started hearing more and more people rave about it over the last couple of months. Apparently, it’s a great work-out, it’s super-fun, and some people say it makes you feel more connected to your body and the Universe – like a 95cm diameter three-way call app.

Lin and I decided to give it a shot and did a two-hour workshop by Circe Lubbers in a cute flamingo dance studio. Spoiler alert: The bruised hips are worth it, it’s mega-fun&addictive and Lin & I both got ourselves a hoop.

There were five of us, all dressed in comfy work-out clothes while hooping to a nice loud remix of all sorts of dance hits. Circe taught us the basic techniques as well as some little steps like walking and spinning while hooping (which I can’t do without either getting dizzy or losing my hoop in the process) and spinning the hoop over our heads.

I was absolutely dreadful at first. You just gotta call shit what it’s called: I sucked. I was the worst one of the group. While everyone around me was keeping their hoops up on their waist I was repeatedly watching mine circle down to my ankles after a few seconds. Not good for the Frustration Factor of it all, but I knew I had to push through the ‘ARGH!’s I kept hearing in my head and just go with it. So, deep breaths and hoop it away.

Sure enough, I started to suck a little less with every time I tried. Circe was awesome, giving exactly the right tips and encouragement a newbie-suckie hooper like myself could have hoped for. By the end of class I actually managed to keep the damn thing up. I could also vary a tiny bit with up and down, slow and fast and it was so fun! I couldn’t stop!

 See that? That’s me at the end of class, with my own hoop. I immediately knew I wanted to take a hoop with me on vacation so I can hoop in front of our tent (and thoroughly entertain my boyfriend, probably). Since I’m leaving this Friday, no time to order or go to Amsterdam to buy one. Not that I really wanted that: It was love at first sight for me and the Silver-Blue hoop I got to use during the workshop. I don’t mean to sound slutty, but I took him home.

And even though my hips are a little bruised and my abs are killing me, I’m taking my hoop out for a quick spin  in the park before my yoga class. What can I say? It’s just fun, especially with a few good songs.

So: If you ever want to do anything new and fun in terms of exercise…go hooping. The Self Help Hooping Hipster highly recommends.

Healthy Food Delivery Service ‘Beter’

 Food, Health, Review  7 Responses »
Jun 152012
 

(source - photographer)

(This post is mostly applicable to the Rotterdam Area. Therefore, to make it more applicable to everyone: if you know of an organic healthy food delivery service in your local area, let me know in the comments and maybe you’ll help out someone else!)

It was a droopy Sunday evening when I came home from a day at my family’s, about two weeks back. Boyfriend was at his dad’s for dinner, so apart from a few fruit flies who have taken up residence in my basil plant I would be eating alone. I had absolutely no desire to cook, so I do what I do approximately once every three months: I ordered take out food.

Last time I ordered take out food it turned out to be a heaping pile of grease, which is fine if you’re in the mood for it, but I wanted something healthy this time. Without being the one slaving away in the kitchen for it.

Luckily, I entered my zipcode on thuisbezorgd.nl and next thing you now a little link popped up for a healthy food delivery service called ‘Beter’. Healthy foods, using organic fruits and vegetables, fair trade products and with plenty delicious dishes on the menu. Sounds awesome. Let’s give it a whirl.

I placed my first order, to be delivered at 18:45*: avocado-cucumber soup with shrimp and tomatoes, egg plant lasagna and date-coconut squares for dessert. I’m nothing if not throrough when it comes to food-testing.

At 18:40 the doorbell rang so I ran downstairs like an excited little pup, as the only thing I love more than my food being on time is it being early. They deliver on bike (eco-friendly!) and the girl was very nice. I set it up and dove right in.

The soup was wonderful: I’d never had cold soup before but it was very nice. The avocado made it rich and creamy but the fresh of the cucumber, tomatoes and shrimps complemented it very well.

I’m like a Vegetarian Garfield so I LOVED the lasagna. I’m a sucker for eggplant in anything, but in this lasagna it really worked. It didn’t look like a lot but after my soup entree it was quite enough for one.

Finally, the date-coconut squares were lovely too: five bite-size snacks, sweet but not overly so, I ate while drinking tea and watching Doctor Who.

You’d think that would be the end of it, but my problem is that once I love something, I can’t let it go. Just ask my ex-boyfriends. Kidding – kind of. So last Friday, my boyfriend was working late and I had only two hours to do work, get ready for my high school reunion and make dinner, I decided to give myself a little more time for work and beautifying by ordering here again. I this time ordered just the brocolli soup and the coconut-pumpkin curry.

The brocolli soup has a touch of goat cheese in it, which was lovely. I added some chopped walnuts to the soup for some extra bite: it really suited the dish. They call it “Health in a bowl” & I agree! Unfortunately, my eyes are bigger than my stomach (in my case, maybe even literally) so I couldn’t fit another bite afterwards. So I kept the pumpkin-coconut curry as left-overs, eating it as lunch at work two days later.

Now, I know this is their favorite dish, but it’s definitely not mine (LASAGNA FOREVER!). Not just because I like the lasagna better, but apparently I myself make Curry For Little Girls and Cry Babies, because holy shit that was spicy. After I ate it, I had a runny nose and hot flashes for about two hours. So, if you don’t like super-spicy food, I wouldn’t recommend the curry. If you’re secretly a dragon’s child, this curry is perfect for you and I’d like to hire you for my next birthday party so we can roast marshmallows on your fire breath.

So basically: Good, healthy, freshly prepared foods delivered at my doorstep? I’m a big fan. Although serving smaller dishes, I don’t think they’re more expensive than most other take-out foods and they come with a lot more benefits in terms of health and nutrients. Plus, these dishes leave you satisfied without feeling overly bloated from all the extra fats and salts. I know where my next take-out orders will be coming from.

*I wish hungry & when it comes to food, I’m a total senior. I like eating at Early Bird Special times.