organic | Wellness With Joanna

All Posts Tagged ‘organic’

Post

Perfectionism

March 5, 2015

The EWG (Environmental Working Group) recently released the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen chart for 2015, and I’m thrilled. For those that don’t know, the Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables that are sprayed with the most pesticides and should be bought organic if at all possible. The Clean Fifteen are the fifteen fruits and vegetables that are sprayed with the least amount of pesticides, which makes them less harmful and at a lower priority for buying organic.

This chart is a practical tool and it represents something that I’m passionate about: you don’t have to have perfect health to be healthy. You don’t need to do it all, buy it all, eat it all, and engage in every single exercise regime. You do need to do the best you can with what you have.

Perfectionism runs rampant in the world of health and fitness and I believe it causes a lot of damage. I follow a lot of popular health bloggers on Instagram and many of them present their world as perfectly healthy. Their Instagram feeds are filled with photos of perfect meals, perfect abs (more on why you won’t find that on my Instagram feed later), and a perfect life. There is nothing wrong with presenting the best parts of your life to the world of social media, and I do appreciate the positive messages they are sending out to the world. I appreciate them as role models. But I want to present something different here, in my space that I’m creating for you.

In my space, my blog, my sessions with clients and my Instagram feed, I want you to find inspiration for living a healthy, balanced life. I want to show you and my clients that you can have a healthy lifestyle with work, family, and all the stress life throws at us. I want to prove to you that my way of living doesn’t have to be difficult or tedious, and that I don’t miss out on things. It doesn’t have to be everything and it doesn’t have to swallow up things you enjoy. It doesn’t need to be all consuming. If it is all consuming, you are striving too hard for perfectionism, and that is a dangerous path. It doesn’t need to be perfect.

Don’t look to me for perfection, because you will not find it. I gave up that goal years ago, after torturing myself to get there and never quite making it.

Food

I’ll be very honest with you. It is a struggle for me to let go of not always eating perfect food. For awhile, I would often want to avoid certain situations where the food wasn’t deemed “perfect” in my mind. If it were up to me, if I lived alone, and if I had all the time and money in the world, then I would probably strive to eat perfectly, all the time. I naturally gravitate to that, from years of disordered eating. But you know what? I wasn’t created to live that way and you weren’t either.

Sometimes moments in our lives are more important than the food that goes into our mouths. We are hardwired to connect with each other. We crave it and we need it in our lives. And often, these connections happen around food. Family get togethers, birthdays, inviting people over to your house to share a meal, famous recipes handed down through generations. These all have food involved, and if you want to be part of it, you’re going to have to give up your goal of perfection.

I have a small group of really really really close girl friends. We’ve been friends our entire lives and we share everything with each other. Every couple of months we get together for an evening and we drink wine, eat chocolate and talk for hours. One of us is a fabulous baker and she often brings something delicious for us to nibble on. This is a really important ritual of ours and one that brings us closer and closer every time. I participate wholeheartedly and treasure our time together. I certainly don’t consume alcohol, chocolate and fresh baking every day, therefore I enjoy it when I do have it. I do the best I can in my every day life to feed my body all the nutrients it needs to run at it’s best, and then, when certain situations arise like those times with my close friends, I relax and value my real life connection with them over the food I am putting in my mouth and over my ideas of perfection in food. I honour the fact that food is not first in my life. (By the way, I didn’t wake up one day and just figure out how to do this. Finding that balance took years and part of what I do is help my clients find their balance.)

I have an incredible daughter. She’s almost 4, full of life and ice cream brings her so much joy. I often opt out of ice cream as it’s not a favourite of mine. But this past summer we escaped for a family trip to Whistler and when she looked at me and asked me to have some ice cream with her, I could see in her eyes that this moment was important to her. She wanted to have a special moment with her mommy, sitting outside, licking our melting and dripping ice cream and giggling together. I really didn’t want any, but you bet I said yes and enjoyed every bit of it with her. No, I won’t do that every weekend. I won’t say yes every time she wants ice cream. But that day, I honoured the moment with my daughter over my idea of perfect food and perfect health.

Back to the EWG list. I appreciate lists like the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen because it leaves room for differences in priority, lifestyle, income, etc. Yes, we would all love to be able to buy everything fresh, perfect and organic, but some of us cannot. This list represents a movement toward doing the best you can, but leaving room for imperfection.

Exercise

I love working out. I really do. I’m one of those weirdos that loves the feeling of sore muscles and I love challenging my body to do things I never thought it could do. I love feeling strong and I love being able to keep up with my energetic kids. However, my workouts are not everything. They do not come first and they do not take priority over my sanity and my overall health. Because I have two children and a part time job, right now my only option for gym time is to wake up and leave my house at 5:30 AM to be home in time for my husband to leave for work. Because that is SO early (and I’m not a morning person!), I have a rule that I only go if I have had adequate sleep the night before. If I’m not asleep by 10 PM the night before, then I will most often skip the early morning gym time. I believe proper sleep is one of the most important factors in our overall health, so therefore it takes priority over my early morning gym time. I have a “perfect” workout schedule that I aim for each week, but LIFE happens and I just do my best.

Struggling to force yourself into a perfect exercise routine can be daunting, frustrating, and make you feel like you want to quit. I enjoy working with my clients to find a way to incorporate exercise into their lives regularly without it needing to be perfect and without it having it completely take over their lives. We are aiming for practical, enjoyable, sustainable exercise. We are not aiming for extreme and all consuming.

Exceptions

I want to be clear that I believe there are some limited times when perfection can be attained and can be a positive thing. For example, the Whole 30 program. Following the program requires a very strict way of eating for thirty days, so you can empty your body of all the junk in it, give your hormones a chance to balance out, and kick some strong cravings to the curb. In this case, relaxing on the rules is not beneficial and is actually quite detrimental to your progress and outcome. However, this program is limited to thirty days. It is not promoted as a way to eat forever without any room for special events or special moments in our lives where food is often the common thread bringing us together with our loved ones.

In a similar way, some people find that following a strict and “perfect” program for a certain amount of time (often thirty days) is very beneficial to them. Often this can help someone create a good habit and then they are able to eventually make exercise a priority in their life, but not necessarily the top priority, taking over everything else.

If this is the kind of lifestyle you’re looking for, then I’m here for you. Find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, or send me an email. I promise to share my positive but imperfect lifestyle with you, and that includes the good, bad and in-between. If you’re looking for individual coaching, please contact me and I would love to help you find a way to live a life that is full of health and wellness; exercise and good food, but also sleep, stress management, enjoyment and balance. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Post

Q&A: Organic and Other Labels

January 14, 2015

Leave a reply

I posted on my Facebook page last week, asking for people to leave any questions they have that they would like answered in a blog post. I’ll be working on answering these questions as they come up. Please feel free to shoot me an email (joanna@wellnesswithjoanna.com) or leave a comment at any time with questions!

Here’s a great one that I think a lot of people get confused about.

Question: What is the difference in “terms” you see in your grocery store? Organic, grass fed, grass finished etc. They all sound healthy but I’m sure some of it is marketing and you aren’t getting what you think you’re buying.

Answer: Yes, a lot of it is marketing! Here’s a list of some common terms and labels and my simplified definitions.

Organic: If a food is labeled organic, then it means that no synthetic chemicals have been used to grow it or make it. That means no GMO ingredients, food additives, antibiotics, sewage sludge (yes, this is used in conventional food!), or pesticides. Animals must be fed organic feed without animal byproducts.

Natural: In the USA, this term really has no meaning. It is not regulated at all, and so can be used by anyone on any product. Of course the term implies minimal processing, but because it is not regulated, it cannot be trusted and is often used to trick consumers into paying more money for a less than desirable product.

However, in Canada, the term is regulated and can only be used as a label on foods that do not contain any food additives, artificial flavouring, and have not been significantly altered by processing.

Cage Free: This means that the animals were not raised in cages, but does not tell you what the animals were fed or describe any other living conditions. These animals could still be packed into barns with no room to move and no access to pasture.

Pastured: This indicates that the animal has been raised outside, but it does not tell you the amount of time spent outside. (It could be outside for a very limited time each day, making the term misleading).

Free Range: Free range hens must have access to the outdoors for the majority of the year. Their feed cannot contain antibiotics or hormones. (These are the eggs I insist on buying.)

Free Run: Free run hens are not confined to life in a cage, but are allowed to only roam on the barn floor. They are not required to be allowed access to outdoors, and they eat the same feed as conventional hens, including antibiotics and hormones.

Grass Fed: Grass Fed is a term that is quickly becoming over used and misused. Originally, grass fed implied that the cow was raised on grass exclusively, and allowed to range free. Recently, because of the increasing demand for grass fed beef, the term has sometimes now been used to describe cows that have been only partially grass fed. Often, farmers will feed the cow grain to sweeten and fatten the cow for a few months before it is butchered. This alters the nutrition immensely (negatively). This is one example of the importance of knowing where your food comes from. Get to know your local farmers and the people you buy your food from!

Grass Finished: This means that the cow has been grass fed for the entire duration of it’s life. No grain, no corn and no antibiotics or hormones.

Hormone Free: This means that no synthetic hormones were administered to the animal at all. This one is tricky and often used to mislead consumers into paying a higher price for food than is necessary. Federal Law permits the use of hormones in poultry or hogs, but the meat is often labeled ‘Hormone Free’ anyway. Do not pay more for chicken labeled hormone free, as it is no different than chicken without the label. However, keep in mind that ‘hormone free’ still does not tell you what the chicken has been fed or how it was raised (humanely or squished into horrible cages).

Antibiotic Free: This means that no antibiotics were used over the animal’s lifetime. Again, this is a good thing, but still does not tell you how the animal was raised or what it was fed.

Farmed (referring to seafood): This means that the fish have been raised in tanks or enclosures. They are often contaminated, given antibiotics, and have two to three times less Omega 3’s than wild fish.

Wild Caught (referring to seafood): This means the seafood has been caught by fishermen in the open water, in their natural habitat.

Any more labels you’ve been seeing in your grocery store that are confusing? Leave a comment and I’ll add it to this list.

Post

Holiday Gift Guide

December 5, 2014

2 comments

The holidays are here and gift buying is in full force. Let’s hold off on the boxes of Purdy’s chocolates and look at some healthier and more constructive gifts for this Christmas. Here’s a list of some of my favourite wellness related gifts that any health conscious person on your list is sure to love!

Cookbooks

1) Against All Grain and Against All Grain Meals Made Simple by Danielle Walker.

These cookbooks have quickly become my absolute favourite paleo cookbooks. I’ve been working my way through them and so far I have been wowed by every recipe. Aside from just the awesome recipes, Danielle Walker herself is a wonderful and inspirational women. I’ve read her personal story on her blog and met her in person and she really is beautiful, inside and out.

Click here to order Against All Grain from Amazon.

2) Well Fed 1 and Well Fed 2 by Melissa Joulwan.

These two cookbooks are a must have for anyone on your list interested in doing the Whole30 challenge. These cookbooks are Whole30 approved and full of delicious, flavourful recipes. I have used my copies so much that the pages are now curling at the edges and my favourite recipes have some food splatters on them…oops.

Click here to order Well Fed from Amazon.

3) The Paleo Kitchen by Juli Bauer and George Bryant.

My favourite thing about this cookbook is the simplicity of the recipes. They don’t have long lists of rare ingredients or a ton of steps, yet they turn out tasting like you’ve spent hours in the kitchen. They are simple enough to allow my 3 year old, Charley, to feel like she’s doing most of the work when she helps me make dinner. One of our favourites is the Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread. Mmmm!

Click here to order The Paleo Kitchen from Amazon.

4) Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfillipo.

This book is a must for anyone new to the paleo lifestyle. It’s full of shopping lists, guides, meal plans, recipe lists and everything you need to get started. It’s one of the first paleo cookbooks I owned and really got me excited about cooking and eating this way.

Click here to order Practical Paleo from Amazon.

Edibles

1) Vanilla Pecan Coconut Butter by Caveman Grocer.

Oh my goodness. This stuff is a real treat. I met Caveman Grocer at a farmer’s market in Whistler BC and really liked her right off the bat. She makes this delicious coconut butter herself which is extra awesome because I really like to meet the people who actually make the food I eat. My favourite way to eat this is with apple slices but it’s really versatile, and I wouldn’t judge you if you ate it right off the spoon.

Click here to order Vanilla Pecan Coconut Butter.

2) Green and Black’s Organic Chocolate.

There’s always at least one odd person on your list that you can’t find a unique gift for so you end up giving them chocolate. I encourage you to be ethically conscious this year and consider ordering from a fair trade chocolate company like this one or many others you can find.

Click here to order Green and Black’s Chocolate or find some in any ethically conscious grocery store around you.

3) Level Ground Direct Trade Coffee.

This is a great brand to purchase from for the coffee snob on your list (aka ME). Direct trade is always your most ethical choice for coffee and this company does not lack in full, robust flavour. Even the decaf is fantastic, and that’s saying a lot coming from me!

Click here to order Level Ground Direct Trade Coffee.

Kitchen Gadgets

1) Paderno Spiralizer.

You already know how much I love zoodles (zucchini noodles) and I’ve had lots of people ask what kind of tool I use to make them. This is the tool I would use if we had enough kitchen space to store it.

Click here to order the Paderno Spiralizer from Amazon.

2) Veggetti Spiralizer.

THIS is the tool that I actually use. It works well for now but I’ve still got dreamy eyes for the Paderno.

Click here to order the Veggetti Spiralizer from Amazon.

3) Silicone Baking Cups.

Both of my kids love paleo baking and we were going through muffin tin liners like crazy. I hated seeing all that waste and so recently invested in some cute silicon baking cups. My kids love the bright colours, and they are BPA free, easy to clean and of course reusable.

Click here to order some Silicone Baking Cups.