Shira Turkl-Rubin

I’ve been spending some time in suburbia recently – only because that’s where my family lives. I’ve noticed a huge difference between city life and suburban life and it’s not just the large city buildings. It’s very rare that people will walk to their destination in suburbia and yes, I understand it’s because things are further away, but if something is 10 blocks away in the city you better believe I’m going to walk there and back – but 10 blocks in suburbia seems like a lifetime away! Why is this the case? I simply don’t understand.

I started thinking of reasons and I decided that suburbia is just not walker friendly. Most people ride in cars because it’s the easiest thing to do. Here’s the problem with this – if suburbanites drive their cars to work, sit all day and drive back home, then maybe they’ve walked a total of 100 steps around the office… NOT what I call a healthy lifestyle.

If you are one of these people I suggest you definitely make time in your day to get to the gym, exercise outside, or take a nice brisk walk during your day around the neighborhood.

You have control over your health so make sure you are making the right choices for YOU. If you have questions you can always contact me.

Recently I’ve been watching a substantial amount of the Food Network. I love seeing all the chefs’ techniques and the little tips that they throw in, but the one draw back is that I don’t like any of their food! I watch the Food Network and I don’t cook any of their recipes… it seems like there’s something wrong with that picture.

Well here’s why – they don’t cook ANYTHING healthy. Rachael Ray has a few recipes that may be a bit healthier then the rest of the other chefs, but for the most part they all cook with lots of butter, sugar, oil and eggs. Giada De Laurentiis is so meticulous and has such a specific way of talking to us viewers that watching her in the kitchen is mesmerizing but, again, her recipes are full of butter, sugar and are just plain unhealthy. The Food channel has lots of programs ranging from 30 minute meals, to recipes that use a very small amount of money, as well as using only a few ingredients – all of these programs help to quicken the cooking process but my question is: where’s the healthy food??

There’s not much more I can say except that I hope this changes – BUT if it doesn’t, well then maybe one day you’ll see me on the Food Network channel with my own healthy cooking show! If we don’t teach the deliciousness of healthy food then how will people know that it’s better then junk food AND nutritious at the same time!

I will be cooking some new recipes in the next few days and IF they go well I will blog about them!

Try watching the food network, their technique really is fantastic. Enjoy!

Last weekend I had the honor of cheering on my mother as she walked in the New York City Avon 2 day breast cancer walk – It was completely emotional seeing so many women and men come together to fight for one cause. Right after the closing ceremony, which was held on the pier right by the circle line cruises, we were all SO hungry and decided that it would be a good idea to make our way to 9th avenue to find a yummy restaurant.

Of course I was crossing my fingers that I would be able to eat something at the restaurant since I really don’t enjoy being the odd one out. We were headed to one restaurant in particular only to find that they weren’t serving food until 5:00 p.m… very strange! We stumbled upon a cute little restaurant called Hummus Kitchen instead. What a gem! If you are searching for good food in the hell’s kitchen area OR the upper east side you should definitely find yourself here.

Quality food at Hummus Kitchen

I ordered the soup of the day, which was a mix of all the orange vegetables pureed together – it was phenomenal and I am definitely going to try to recreate it. We ordered a hummus sampler for the table, which was to die for! I also had the super healthy salad, which is a plate of quinoa with butternut squash, apricot, walnuts and yogurt sauce but I opted for tahini sauce instead. What an amazing meal. I felt full, clean and just downright great. I can’t recall the last time I felt this way from eating at a restaurant! I’m so thrilled and excited to have this new place to run to when I’m not in the mood to cook.

I definitely recommend trying this delicious restaurant! Please let me know your thoughts and if you have any restaurant recommendations that you think thehealthymix blog community would enjoy.

Have a splendid day.

This past weekend I did something completely out of character… I baked a pie! Yep, you heard it here – I baked a sweet potato pie out of scratch. I was so proud of this pie that I barely ate any myself because I was too busy giving everyone else a piece to see how they liked it. Let me tell you something, it isn’t even hard to do and I’ll explain all the steps below. First I want to tell you that the hardest part wasn’t even making the pie, it was figuring out which pan I needed to bake it in – there were non-stick options, ceramic and all sorts of different pans.

Finally I chose a non-stick pan but have decided that I will buy a ceramic one as well so that I can have a choice as to how the pie will look in the end.

I also want to express how much I love sweet potato pie but haven’t been able to eat it with my new eating habits. Here is a much healthier version of the pie AND it still tastes SO delicious.

Sweet Potato Pie adapted from the Clean Food by Terry Walters cookbook.

Scrumptious sweet potato pie

CRUST:

1 ½ cup pecans

¼ cup chickpea flour

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

pinch of salt

FILLING:

3 medium sweet potatoes

¼ cup maple syrup (or a little bit less – depending on how sweet you like it)

¼ cup rice milk or almond milk

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon arrowroot (found in the health food store near the gluten free flour)

1 teaspoon agar powder (found in the health food store)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Setup your steamer with water and cut up the sweet potatoes so they fit nicely in the pot. Steam potatoes until they are soft all the way through – may take about 15 to 20 minutes given the size of the potato. While they are steaming start preparing the crust.

Chop pecans in food processor until they resemble fine meal. Add chickpea flour and process briefly to combine ingredients. Add oil, syrup and salt and process until it forms dough. Lightly grease pie pan, add dough and press to form even crust – about ¼ in. thick. Pierce several times with a fork and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the sweet potatoes are soft and have cooled down begin to remove the skins. Place in cleaned food processor and add maple syrup, rice milk (or almond milk), vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, arrowroot and agar powder. Process until smooth.

Pour filling into the cooled pie crust for about 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven. The top should be lightly browned but be careful not to burn the crust! Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack and serve at room temperature.

If you follow these directions you will definitely have an amazing pie. I wish you luck and please write any comments if you have any.

“Be nourished by the fruits and beauty of nature and make every day a celebration of the rhythms of the seasons.” This is such a wonderful quote taken from Terry Walters book Clean Food. This book, which I have newly discovered by perusing the aisles of Barnes and Noble as well as remembering that a friend had mentioned the name a few weeks back, has become a new love of mine.

Clean Food is a wonderful book filled with insight into the world of eating whole foods that nourish your body and soul. This is right up my alley! And, in fact, Ms. Walters attended the Integrative Institute of Nutrition, which is the school that I am now attending! I’m so excited that this information is becoming more and more available as people’s eyes become wider and they begin to realize that they’ve been exposed to chemically changed food that has been poured into their bodies for many years.

That’s why us health counselors are here to help! We want to help break your unhealthy habit and not just for a month but for your lifetime.

Look for Clean Food by Terry Walters at your nearest book store – you won’t be disappointed. There are some amazing recipes that I will definitely be blogging about in the near future – check back often!

Have a wonderful day

After a pretty crazy couple of weeks of preparing for me and my fiance’s engagement party – I’m finally ready to sit down and write a blog! All of our hard work in planning and preparing produced a wonderful, heartfelt party and I’m so glad that everything went as planned.

Moving right along… I’d like to talk about Omega-3 fish oil. It’s been known that fish oil helps our bodies in many ways but it especially aids with inflammation – especially for people with IBD (irritable bowel disease). I’ve taken many different forms of fish oil and have hated it for so long because it always comes back on me (meaning that I taste it throughout the day…gross!)

In passing, I was talking to a woman who was explaining the benefits of enteric-coated vitamins. This is the most amazing invention – let me explain. Enteric-coating resists attack by stomach acid, so the capsules pass into the intestines intact and release their contents there. This is truly wonderful! The fish taste doesn’t come back up anymore and I can finally benefit from this wonderful healing oil.

Fish oil definitely can’t harm you unless you have an allergy to it – so, personally, I think everyone can benefit from this and should at least try taking it. It aids in your cardiovascular health, (which is enough reason to take it right there) as well as your mental and physical health in general. Fish oil is easy to take, especially the enteric-coated form.

I just started taking Fisol from Nature’s Way and that is the brand that I’m recommending. I hope this works for you and please share your experience if you can.

I hope your stomach feels great today and if it doesn’t, pay attention to it and give it some love – in other words, give yourself some love. It’s a gorgeous day today and I hope you can take a few minutes to soak up the sun and it’s vitamin D.

When I started my new diet people kept wondering where I was getting protein from and if I was eating enough of it. What our culture doesn’t understand is that we are getting TOO much protein and our bodies don’t need so much to survive. Eating protein at every meal is not necessarily a great idea. What happens when we eat protein is that all of our digestive organs are working really hard at digesting this food – if they are working so hard to digest then they are not helping the body to heal.

In my case, my ulcerative colitis causes inflammation and it’s very important to have my organs working to help heal my inflamed colon. I’ve cut down the amount of animal protein that I consume because it’s known that it causes mucus and it’s not an easily digested form of food. I try to take it easy on my digestive system by eating foods such as whole grains, starches, and vegetarian proteins. Occasionally I eat fish and chicken but only if they are organic and raised humanely.

It’s interesting to see how much emphasis our society puts on eating protein – I’ve been guilty of it for many years and have just slowly started realizing that I get plenty of it by eating quinoa, tofu, tempeh, rice and beans and many other forms of vegetarian protein.

Try paying attention to how much protein you eat and think about possibly cutting down. I’m not saying not to eat any protein at all because we need it for energy but you can try cutting back a little bit. Most importantly try to be aware of what you’re putting into your body and understand the effects that it has on your digestive system.

Have a nice day.

Last night I happened to be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and stumbled upon a hidden gem. The restaurant was called Rockin’ Raw and serves “live-vegan-raw-organic-peruvian-new-orleanian-creole-cuisine-with-soul.” The owners are both graduates from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (the school that I’m enrolled in) and everything we ordered from the menu was simply fantastic. The flavors were bursting in my mouth and I was SO impressed. This was my first adventure with raw food and it was a great experience.

I will definitely return and suggest that you give raw food a try – you may be pleasantly surprised!

I wish I could explain more – but the thought of the outside garden where we sat and the smells coming from the kitchen make me so hungry that I think I’ll just tell you to check it out for yourself and leave it at that.

Don’t forget to be adventurous in your day today. Life is too short to live monotonously. Bring some color into your workspace whether it’s with interesting food, flowers, or anything else you like.

Last night I made it a point to head to the gym. As I was on the elliptical I thought back to the last time that I’d been to the gym and realized it was more then a few weeks ago! Recently I’ve had a lot going on in my life but I need to remind myself that it’s no excuse.

Taking care of my body is SO important – especially when I’m going through a hard time. I need to let my feelings and emotions out through sweating – not just through a yoga class but also through cardio exercise.

I’m a bit mad that I let myself go for this long but I decided to use that anger and write about it. I hope you can all relate to this and remember that there’s nothing more important then taking care of yourself – even if your grandmother is on so much pain medication that she doesn’t recognize you and your family – you STILL need to take care of yourself.

Clearly that last line pertains to myself and it’s been a difficult few weeks watching my grandmother go through a really hard time. As we all know, life is just like a roller coaster and if you don’t take the ride, you’ll never learn, feel or grow.

Please try your hardest to make time for yourself today – whether that means taking a jog through the park or laughing with friends.

Enjoy!

I’m reading a book called Spontaneous Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil. I’ve been so enthralled by this book that I haven’t blogged in a few days but am just now realizing that I want to share the effect that I’ve had from reading it.

Dr. Weil shares people’s stories of survival using alternative ways of medicine. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are – these stories happened to real people. He focuses on learning how to heal yourself and he explains that our bodies are healing beings – we were meant to heal ourselves – it’s just a matter of learning how and changing certain routines that we’ve gotten so deeply used to.

He talks about the importance of loving your disease. Whether you have IBS, cancer, ulcerative colitis or any other disease – he says that accepting what you have is the first step and learning to heal yourself is your next step.

This year my life has gone through a huge transformation just by changing the way I thought from being a victim to actually taking control of my situation and reminding myself that my body needs a little bit more help then the average person – and I can’t ignore that. I’ve been ignoring it for so long that my body began yelling at me by having lots of flare-ups from my ulcerative colitis. Now that I’ve learned to accept myself for who I am, I feel so much better! My belly has calmed down and I’ve learned the act of deep belly breathing that I practice throughout each day.

I’m sharing this with you because I feel that you can learn from my “AHA” moment! I get it now… I have to take care of myself now because this is the one chance I get to live in this life and I want to be here for a long time.

I hope you can take a moment to take some deep breaths and enjoy yourself for who you are.

Have a wonderful evening. I definitely recommend this book so pick it up if you can – read the summary and see if you’re interested – It never hurts to think/read outside of the box.