Cardio and resistance aerobics

         This week has been a fun and educational experience. We have learned a lot about the food we put in our bodies and the possible harmful effects they have on us. if we never learn about how our food is produced or where it comes from we will have no idea what we are really eating. This week has made me realize how bad a lot of things that most people, eating the american diet, eat on a regular basis are for our bodies. we also spent time doing yoga, step aerobics, and Ms. J's aerobics, thinking about the importance of exercise and movement in our lives. I personally know I learned a lot this week.

Replacement for Gatorade

This is a healthy DIY recipe for an electrolyte drink that will refuel you after a workout and is much better than Gatorade.  It was given to us by the nutritionalist that we met with at Sacred Waters, Kelly Lange.  http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-sports-drink/

Food Links

1. Food you should eat: http://www.businessinsider.com/50-foods-you-should-be-eating-2013-12

2. Meat and Dairy affecting health: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meat-dairy-may-be-as-detrimental-to-your-health-as-smoking-cigarettes/

3. You'll Stop Eating Sugar: http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/25-things-about-sugar-that-will-terrify-you/

4. Foods banned in other countries: http://www.kitchendaily.com/read/banned-foods-still-allowed-us

I have learned that there is a healthy alternative to eating meat and that is becoming vegan. GMO's are bad. After this week I will still eat meat and dairy products but I will probably be more cautious with the ingredients that are put into the products.

This week I have learned a lot more about healthy ways to eat in a vegan or vegetarian diet. I was already a vegetarian, but this week I have learned a lot about things such as GMOs and what is in food that we should avoid. Two years ago I watched the forks over knives movie we watched and learned about this stuff but over time I think I kind of forgot about some of the details, hearing them again has reminded me why I chose to be a vegetarian and I am still glad I chose to eat this way.

This week has been very benificial for understanding of overall health and happiness. We have heard from multiple nutritionists the importance of food and nutrition on the human body. For example, we heard from a woman who changed her sons diet in order to help his ADHD and OCD symptoms. She discussed how certain chemicals and other ingredients in processed food often lead to food sensitivities that affect peoples health. This was a common theme throughout the week for the topics covered.

    I learned a lot this week about every aspect of health, but more so about nutrition and how nutrition affects your life in negative, and extremely positive ways. When we skyped with the nutritionist from California we learned a lot about nutrition and protein intake from plant based sources. That was a great thing to learn about.

For the past few days we have been learning about different ways to eat healthy through a whole plant based diet. There are many benefits I've learned but the things that have stuck out were facts about things that are massed produced. Also something that I thought was interesting was learning about the yellow-5 and how bad it is for you.

Over the past few days I have learned a lot about healthy eating and exercise. For starters, I will be doing yoga regularly, it's one of the most relaxing things I've done and it is great for flexibility. In terms of the food I eat, I will be extra cautious of eating overly processed food. The chemicals in them outweigh the little nutrients they provide, not to mention the ethical and environmental consequences they bring forth. This week has been fun and informative so far, I look forward to what we do tomorrow on our last day.

The last couple days, I've learned that an easy way to get healthier is to have a healthy eating program in your life. I've heard many stories about people who have had serious problems in their life, which have been solved through switching their eating ways. Also I've learned that to eat healthier doesn't mean that you have to take away all the non healthy stuff, you could begin to eat healthy by just adding a few more healthy foods to your meals such as more green foods. Also a big thing that I've learned is staying away from yellow-5. Yellow-5 causes ADD.

And the winner is...

 We ended our day with the food competition. Everyone chipped in and made some delicious items! In the end, Neal Shartar acting as our judge, chose the yummy vegan pumpkin spice doughnuts as the winner.

Homemade Natural Sports Drink

One of the many great tips we got out of our meeting with Kelly Lang, the Holistic Health Coach was finding alternatives to the typical electrolyte replacements such as Gatorade due to their unnatural and possibly harmful additives. Here is one of her recommendations:

Homemade Sports Drink

Now who is going to whip up a batch to share post "Insanity" tomorrow?!

Yoga on the lake

Here are some pictures from today's visit to Sacred Waters in Meredith, NH. Our instructor, Lori Card got us moving with some fun and challenging poses. What a treat!

Mid Week Fun

Today we went to a class at Sacred Waters Yoga in Meredith, NH to experience a full length yoga session.  We had a great instructor, Laurie (Lori?) and also met with a nutrition specialist Kelly who told us about the importance of eating protein in the morning and being aware of what you eat.

We also went shopping in the grocery store for ingredients for our VEGAN COOK OFF!
Groups made spring rolls, peanut butter smoothies, berry smoothies, strawberry shortcake, and pumpkin spice doughnuts.  Deliciousness.  Images to come!

Is it VEGAN?

Video Awareness

Group 1:
The Meatrix- Shows the difference between the old fashioned farms and the new factory farms.
The old fashioned farms used people, but now the factory farms are all cramped and on top of each other and the jobs use machines.  There are a lot more diseases.  "I found it disgusting that the newborn baby cows are fed stuff that is mixed with the blood of the dead cows."  The factories affect our water, the chemicals and feces running off into the rivers.
"I think [a take away] is just an awareness thing, about what you eat.  Not enough people know that if you eat like that it can help you."

Group 2:
TED talk- A biochemist mother changed her autistic daughter's diet in hopes of affecting her behavior.
They changed to a whole foods diet and removed gluten and dairy from their diet.  The removal of MSG really helped the little girl's responses to her environment and her interactions with her peers and family.  She was more aware of where she was, and was even allowed to leave her special needs school.  It really proved that we are what we eat, and the food we consume really does effect us.
"I took away that I should be more careful about looking out for foods with MSG because it can have a lot of harmful effects on the body."
MSG, mono sodium glutamate, is listed on the labels of processed food as seasoning, natural flavoring, gelatin, yeast extract.... It's a flavor enhancer.

Group 3:
TED talk- Jamie Oliver went around in America and England studying obesity.
Four generations from now, the children will live 10 years less than their parents.  He talked about how 2/3 of his audience was technically obese.  He also talked about how schools don't provide the right kinds of food to their students, and some of the students didn't even know what some kinds of fruits and vegetables were.  Oliver said that the milk in schools from a whole year for a student who drinks it daily is a wheel barrow full of sugar cubes.
"It made me feel lucky about the food we have here at the car."

Projects Week at NHS

Follow the link below to check out what other projects are doing and what Project Week is at New Hampton!

New Hampton Project Week Blog