Shira Turkl-Rubin

With spring in the air and everyone coming out of hibernation, our wedding is quickly approaching and so is my bridal shower! With that being said, we already got an amazing gift – a crock-pot! We received it yesterday from my friend Jaci and used it last night for dinner! Talk about being excited about a cooking tool!

Let me just say that it was super easy to make a really tasty and delicious dinner. We made chicken with carrots, dates and dried apritcots. YUM!

The dish was a tad on the sweet side but that wasn’t due to any added sugar – the dates and apricots were bursting with flavor! I highly recommend investing in one of these – you definitely won’t be disappointed. If you don’t like to cook and think that you have to spend hours in the kitchen for something to taste good, then this is the right tool for you!

All you have to do is throw everything in the pot and turn it on – you can leave it for hours! Whoever invented this is a serious genius!

I will post the recipe below – we paired this dish with quinoa and were pleasantly satisfied.

1 yellow onion, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 chicken breasts or thighs, your choice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped

½ cup dried pitted dates, chopped

¾ cup veggie broth, low sodium

¼ cup water

¼ cup orange juice

Put the chicken at the bottom of the slow cooker and place all other ingredients on top. Cover and turn on low for 6 hours. For the last hour, turn on high so that the carrots cook all the way through. This will make a yummy broth to pour over your quinoa. Enjoy!

I want to express how grateful I am for my loving, supportive family. This weekend at my Integrative Nutrition course I encountered more people then I had liked who said that their families thought of them as the “odd one” or the “weird one” in the family. I kept thinking to myself how grateful I was that my family never made me feel that way.

See, at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition we are learning how to heal ourselves through food. To many people this seems like a strange concept, but to all of us students it seems just right. We’ve been living and learning from our food and how it affects our bodies, but now we are learning WHY it affects us the way that it does.

We are also learning how important it is to have our “primary foods” in order, not meaning the literal food that we eat, but the relationships that we digest on a daily basis.

Personally, I’ve had a pretty great support system, sure it took some explaining of what I was doing for them to fully understand me, but they’ve always been on my side.

Last night I was truly blown away – let me explain the events that unfolded:

We celebrated my grandfathers 93^rd birthday – I know, he’s an amazing man! – In any case, last week my mother explained that we would be going to my grandparents house in Fort Lee, NJ on Sunday and that there really wouldn’t be anything healthy that I would be able to eat, let alone everyone else. We decided that we would order from our favorite restaurant in NYC and bring it over to their house. First off, she didn’t have to do this! She could have said: “it’s one night and you can deal with eating what everyone else eats” but she didn’t! She understands the importance of eating healthy food on a daily basis and to that I am grateful!

This wasn’t the only amazing event to unfold – yesterday when I spoke to my mother she explained that we were bringing Babycakes cupcakes from the gluten free shop on the lower east side. What an incredible woman she is – not only could she have gone to the local supermarket to pick up any cake or cupcake filled with gluten and sugar, she chose to stick with the health kick and go all the way with the most amazing cupcakes on the planet!

My point here is this: for those of you who don’t feel like your family is supportive of whatever it is that you’re doing – have you tried explaining it to them – and I mean sitting them down and having a nice long talk for a good hour or two? If not, you should probably get on that if you feel that you need the support.

If this just simply isn’t possible then use your friends as your support network. I believe your key to success is to have the backbone to carry you through. It’s too hard to do it alone – so please, don’t try.

The act of giving up certain foods is such a hard thing to do. I completely understand all those people out there who know they shouldn’t be eating something but they do it anyway because they think, eh what the hell… I’ll deal with the stomachache, or the bathroom situation later.

Well I’m here to say that it’s NOT a good idea to be doing that. If you don’t take care of your body NOW then later you may end up with a diseased body, which could have been completely avoided if you had just listened to your body and said no when you knew you should have.

I’m writing this because recently I have been noticing that when I eat foods with garlic my body bottles up so much gas that it doesn’t know what to do with it! I know… not something that you probably want to know about, but this is a serious problem. Do I really have to give up ANOTHER food item?! I already gave up gluten, dairy and refined sugar, am I really going to commit to not eating garlic too?

I haven’t fully decided this answer yet, but I’m going to try it out. That’s really all I can do at this point because I know that I need to take care of myself now and not later. Trying to eat garlic free along with all my other food choices will be quite challenging, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

If I know that I will feel better then that is what will keep me going. If you can relate to me then we should go through this together… we’re all in it together. Keep your health now and later on you will be so thankful that you did.

Wish me luck!

P.S. tonight we ate garlic free and so far so good!

I’ve come to realize that there are MANY people out there who have stomach issues every minute of everyday. Here I am thinking that I was the only one! PHEW! It seems like everyone has aches but chooses not to talk about them. I can understand that, especially when it has to do with our bathroom habits and what goes on in the toilet… it’s not such a comfortable topic.

I get it!

The problem is that if no one talks about it then we all think we are alone. I’m here to let you know that you’re NOT alone and that the person sitting next to you on the bus or train is probably feeling somewhat of an ache just like you… they just aren’t as open about it as me!

Personally, I’ve had stomach issues for my entire life (not something to be proud of!) and I figure that the more open I am about them, the more information I can learn from others about their experiences on the matter.

Believe me, it helps a whole lot to know that I’m not the only one who feels the pain. For those of you who have that constant ache or bloating I encourage you to be a little bit more open about talking about it with others. Maybe it won’t be the random person sitting next to you on the bus, but I would start with friends.

Find out what they feel and how they are dealing with it. Maybe they have a wonderful doctor that they can recommend or an eastern form of medicine that they have tried. Once you start being honest that you yourself don’t feel well, others will begin to open up.

I wish you luck on your journey to health. Remember, opening up about your problem is your first step to feeling better.

Today I officially became a yoga instructor! Sure I was a teacher on Feb 12^th but today I received my certificate! WOOHOO!!

For those of you out there who would like to learn yoga I’m your lady! I’ve learned lots of skills to be able to work with beginner students as well as advanced.

If you have any interest in picking up this wonderful, feel good practice then please contact me and we can set up a time to work together.

I will be sure to let you know when I will be holding yoga classes – it will be in the very near future.

There has been a lot going on in my life at the present time… I just finished an intensive yoga teacher training course on February 12^th and the week after I began attending courses at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition (IIN). I’m planning a wedding, figuring out a business for myself and am all around tired!

I’m sure you have all experienced busy lives but personally, I’m not used to such chaos! My belly has taken a toll because of all the running around that I’ve been doing. I am currently working on bringing myself back to health – today I took my first steps.

I went on a one-day liquid and soft foods detox. I drank smoothies, juices and water. I steamed sweet potatoes and beets. Drank more smoothies with greens, I made a green soup and ate a squash for dinner.

I wanted to eat as clean and simple as possible and I think I succeeded in doing so. I still have a bit of a tummy ache but I think it’s getting better! Tomorrow I will pump up the protein and eat lots of nutrients.

It’s always hard the day after a detox to jump back into eating “normal” again… It’s really important to not overload the body. I will eat small portions, clean food and make sure to exercise.

I know this plan will make me feel better and I can’t wait to cross back over into the wonderful world of feeling healthy.

Staying positive is essential to heal. So here I am, Ms. Positivity!

I will feel better tomorrow and so will you if you have any pains.

Hi blog friends! I’m back to my blogging habits, I missed it for a few weeks but I’m officially back!

I just walked in the door from a bit of a shopping spree at Williams Sonoma! I always have so much fun in there even if I’m not buying anything. BUT lucky me… I DID buy something – cake pans! Yes, I am moving on to cakes. I’ve always wanted to perfect the gluten free, no sugar, cake creation and now’s the time. Not to worry, I’ll be sure to post when I come up with some recipes that taste delicious. Stay tuned!!

If you haven’t been to Williams Sonoma, I suggest you take a mini field trip. All of their cooking utensils are top notch and it’s definitely worth the price. Enjoy!

Recently I’ve put a great deal of emphasis on my morning routine since it’s the only real time I have to do what I want and need to do. Every morning I eat breakfast and relax a bit before the start of my long day but I figured out that I need something more to keep me focused and happy throughout the morning. I began to realize that all I wanted during class was a nice hot cup of tea. SO I started a new ritual of boiling the water in the morning and bringing the tea with me! It sounds sort of silly but tea really makes me happy. Now I have the ability to bring the wonderful, comforting, soothing herbal remedy with me to class.

I bought a fantastic travel mug that does NOT spill at all. It’s really special and I recommend it for all you tea/coffee drinkers who want to bring your special comfort with you without the spillage (which I’m sure we all know about!)

I don’t exactly know what my obsession is with tea – but I do know that it makes me feel warm on the inside and I like the comfort it brings me. If you don’t have this fond liking for tea then I hope you have the feeling towards something else.

We all know it’s the small things in life that make us happy.

Even if it is just a simple cup of tea, if it makes your day just a tiny bit better, it’s worth it!

I hope you can find that one tiny bit of happiness to brighten your day – we all need it sometimes.

“Digest your life, food wise AND mind wise” – William Duprey, my wonderful yoga teacher. There was a whole discussion this week about food, diets and scheduling in my yoga training course this week. This obviously struck my attention and made me realize that most people in my class do not have a proper eating schedule.

To me, this is not a way to live. Carving out 3 time slots per day to sit down and digest a meal is more important then any other obligation you may have. If you don’t eat breakfast in the morning, I suggest you wake up a few minutes earlier to make sure you can squeeze in that bowl of cereal, toast or any other nutritious meal.

Sit down and pay attention to your eating habits. You may realize that the reason you’re feeling sluggish throughout the day is because your body isn’t getting the proper nourishment. Digest your life and feed your body and soul – you deserve it!

It’s also important to digest your mind but that’s a whole other blog post! Stay tuned…

I have found my gluten free baking savior! Yes, it’s true, I, like many of you are not always in the mood to whip up my dessert or meal for that matter. You can imagine that having a gluten free, dairy free and no refined sugar lifestyle that it may be quite difficult for me to eat out. Well you’re absolutely right! I find it almost impossible to eat out at restaurants because I’m constantly battling with eating too much and getting a stomachache from the ingredients that they use – so most of the time you will find me cooking in my own home.

When I find that one place to run to each time my belly craves something sweet (and I’m not making it myself) then I am so so so so thankful!

Babycakes is the name of the bakery.

It’s located in NYC on Broome Street between Ludlow and Orchard.

Not only do they have gluten free, soy free, unrefined sugar baked goods but they are also vegan!

You would never even know that their goods lack gluten, eggs, dairy, soy and unrefined sugar. Everything and I mean everything tastes absolutely delicious.

If you’re down in the lower east side, I definitely recommend this place over any other bakery you may pass along the way – hold your crave for a babycakes treat.

Even if you don’t have a food sensitivity this place is STILL better then your typical bakery. Their ingredients are what you should be eating for a snack instead of the gluten bloating, sugar filled cupcake from any other store.

Give it a whirl, I guarantee you will be impressed.