Holiday Tips
Holiday Cooking Just Got Easier
The holiday season is here! The time has come for sumptuous dinners, decadent desserts and the comfort of family to share it all with. Whether you are hosting this year or bringing a dish to a potluck, just searching out the right recipes can take up a lot of time and energy. If you are adjusting traditional dishes to fit a special diet, it can be even more of a headache.
Simple Steps to a Healthy New Year
As the New Year inspires many of us to move toward a healthier lifestyle, small but powerful changes are key to creating consistency and achieving success in our goals. Below are a few simple suggestions, any or all of which can be included in your plan for a healthier life. -Add more fresh fruits and vegetables, including raw varieties, to your meals. Try adding green beans or broccoli the next time you make pasta. Add apple and banana slices to your morning oatmeal, or include a few leafy greens in a morning smoothie.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Every Christmas we're challenged to pick gifts for friends and loved ones. We wrack our brains for the right items, with the right brand names. Sometimes we consider our finances and decide where to sacrifice and where to splurge. “What can I give that really expresses my love and care?”
Thanksgiving in Hawaii
Long before the Pilgrims, native Hawaiians celebrated "Makahiki," the longest thanksgiving in the world, which lasted four months—approximately November through February. During this time, both work and war were forbidden.1, 2 As the most important holiday of the year, Makahiki is the traditional Hawaiian celebration of the harvest and time of personal rest and spiritual and cultural renewal.3 It was a humbling experience.
Need Healthier Desserts this Christmas?
Fall and winter are the seasons of the year when we consume the most desserts. By New Years, we may feel heavier, have less energy, and are more sluggish. Some of us may even have a weaker immune system from all the rich food, high stress, and little sleep. The good news is that there are ways to satisfy your sweet cravings and enjoy your favorite desserts without compromising your health. Try these health tips to creating guilt-free desserts.
Five Thinning Thanksgiving Tips
During all the festivities of Thanksgiving with family and friends, it’s easy to gain a pound or two on this holiday weekend. Try these healthy eating tips on how to avoid putting on weight without depriving yourself of a delicious Thanksgiving meal.
A Time to Give Thanks: The Vegetarian Way
Isn’t it wonderful that Mother Nature has given us all the plants we need to meet our nutritional requirements without having to slaughter animals for food ...and that in doing so, we improve our health and contribute to a cleaner and safer environment! This is one of the most important—and least understood--reasons for which we have to give thanks. It's one of the reasons why a few friends of mine will join together again this year to hold a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast. It’s their way of giving thanks.
Using Meat Substitutes, Made Easy
Who said going meatless means you must give up your favorite dishes? Most long-time vegetarians will tell you that you can convert many of your favorite dishes with vegetarian meat substitutes or replacements. Today, eating meatless has become easier than ever thanks to the availability of meat replacement options on the market. Of course, meat replacements have come a long way since they were first introduced 20 years ago. It’s easy to fool even the biggest meat lover when using today’s meat substitutes.
Move Slowly Towards a Healthy Vegetarian Diet: Best New Year’s Resolution
January is a time of the year when people think about shedding weight and making resolutions to get healthy. However well-meaning, most people who make such resolutions don’t stick with their "new" healthy commitments for very long. For many, it’s too difficult to keep up. Others grow impatient when the results they seek take longer than they want. Unfortunately, becoming truly healthy is not a quick fix. We need to go beyond New Year's resolutions.
Greening Your Holidays through Compassion
The holiday season is all about goodwill – expressing love with gifts, enjoying special time with family and community, demonstrating caring toward others. In a word, it’s about compassion. And what better way to turn compassion into practice than with the kindness of cruelty-free vegetarian holiday meals? Your goodwill in choosing vegetarian fare will bring you a ‘green’ bonus: the compassion you show for other living beings will extend directly into compassionate action and benefit to the Earth!