Get more vital vitamins, minerals and beneficial enzymes. If you haven't tried juicing yet, now is a great time to start. I was reminded about how wonderful this habit can be when I saw Joe Cross on Dr. Oz the other day. He made the documentary, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and it's definitely worth a viewing. As he said on Dr. Oz, "We spend the first 40 years of our life trying to kill ourselves and the next 40 trying to stay alive." That might be true for some of you. And, it certainly was for Joe. He was a mess, but watch his inspiring documentary to see how juicing got him on the right track and how he helped others, too. You can see it free here.
    You may not want to fast for 60 days, like Joe, but if your just getting started on a plant-based diet, this is a good way to quickly ingest delicious nutrients while getting off any toxic foods. It's quick and easy on your digestive system. Try this delicious carrot, beet, kale juice today.
    Consumer Reports recommended juicers are... Second highest rating and best buy, Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Po 676650 at $80, #1 rated at $200, the Juiceman Pro JM503. #3, Dr. Weil Healthy Kitchen by Spring 9816 at $200, #4, L'EquipXL Juicer 1215 at $120.  

Try this Carrot, Beet, Kale Juice today, 2 apples, cored, 3 medium sized beets, sliced, 2 stalks celery, 4 leaves kale.

Every once in a while I'll post a video from Dr. Michael Greger's website, nutritionfacts.org. His videos are easy to understand and a quick way to get information from nutritional studies. You can get his newsletter or join him on Facebook to get updates. He leans toward a plant-based diet and the information almost always bolsters my resolve to continue on that path. There are several new books in the market on the advantages of eating plant-based for easing type 2 diabetes, including Dr. Fuhrman's, The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plant to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes and Dr. Neal Barnard's, Program for Reversing Diabetes. Books, books, there are so many of them. I hope something might spark your interest. In the meantime, this video is a look at how just one food can make a difference.

    I just returned from a trip to Boulder, Colorado, for a few days to see my son and out to the plains of Nebraska, about 4-5 hours northeast of Boulder. The visit to North Platte, Nebraska, was to see the annual stop-over migration of the Sandhill Cranes. What a sight to behold! Thousands of cranes descending on left-over corn stalks to feed and just hang out. It was really one of the most exciting nature / animal experiences I've had. And, here are a few photos my husband took. We had a great time, but one thing I was most struck with while we were in Nebraska was just how many overweight and obese people we saw. And, that was everywhere we went and everywhere we stopped - young and old. I know that it's a complicated problem and it's not all their fault. If you read about the science of it, you'll see that we are programed to want to eat fat and sugar and, you can add salt to that, too. No wonder the U.S. has some of the worst health statistics in the developed world. You can read more about that in an article at businessinsider.com, if you're interested. 
     It took some patience, but we were able to make pretty good choices from the menus at hand during our travels - choosing the salad bar when possible, (although half of it was made with fatty sauces) and steamed veggies instead of fat and cheese-laden ones. And, we'd eat oatmeal at the breakfast bar. The "bad" can be tempting, though. It really does take resolve not to choose the pastries when stopping for a coffee at Starbucks - so I am recommending a new book called, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. It goes into depth about why we have such trouble resisting and if you have patience to get through this part, you will find very helpful guidelines for building your resistance muscles. I'll start with a few tidbits from the book here and in the meantime, you may also want to refer to a previous post I wrote entitle, "Working on Resistance." 
     Here are a couple of quotes from the section of The End of Overeating book that begins the "treatment":
     "Every time we act on our desire for fat, sugar and salt, and earn a reward as a result, it becomes harder for us to act       differently the next time. Effective treatment breaks the cue-urge-reward-habit cycle at the core of conditioned hypereating." 
     "Eventually, we can begin to think differently about food, recognizing its value to sustain us and protect us from hunger, and denying it the authority to govern our lives."  
     Stay tuned for more ways to pump up your resolve to keep eating a healthy, plant-based diet. We all need to stick together and find tools like this! Thank you Healthy Girl's Kitchen for bringing this book to my attention.
     I also found a book written by Dr. Neal Barnard entitled, Breaking the Food Seduction, that you might find interesting. I haven't read that one, yet. 

Start your morning off right with this yummy plant-based smoothie. So quick and easy - no excuses :)

I'm so excited to try out the recipes from a new cookbook I received for a gift this holiday. Thank you very much to my very talented jewelry designer neighbor Nathalie Sherman from Sophia and Chloe and her husband, Ken. Some of the recipes have dairy and eggs, but is otherwise it's vegetarian although the restaurant menu in London does have meat. 

The photos in the book are amazing and the recipes looks awesome. They'll be plant-strong - according to the rules of the Engine2Diet.com - no oil, no dairy, no eggs - in no time with a few adjustments to the ingredients and method. So here are a few photos of the recipes to pique your interest. And, look for a recipe post soon. 

Happy New Year! Here's our first plant-based meal of 2013, Acorn Squash Stuffed with Quinoa. And, If you're still on the fence about switching up your diet to include more plants or if you've had a hard time getting started, now is a great time to give it a go since it's the 1st of January! Don't set yourself up for failure by making a strict New Year's resolution, however. You'll have the best success if you change your habits a bit slowly and sandwich healthy vegetarian meals between your regular meals. If you're already eating a vegetarian or vegan diet, that great! But if you're not, that might mean, going meatless several days of the week, but not all or perhaps eating a meat substitute, like a vegetarian version deli meat. 

If you haven't tried it, I would suggest signing up for a food diary website that allows you to keep track of what you eat. You may have heard that this is a great tool and it often helps lead to weight loss. If you're like me, you put on a few pounds this holiday season. It may seem like a bit of work at first, but once you've set up several of your meals, it usually a snap to add to the diary. And, it can keep you from going over your recommended calories for the day. Here are three diary websites that I've had experience with, but if you do a search, you'll find several others. Most offer easy-to-add foods, calorie counting, charts and reporting features, and a community of members that can be supportive. The free website usually have ads.

I tried myfooddiary.com for quite a while and I did like it. It offers a refrigerator section that will hold your most used items and that makes keeping track a lot faster. It's $9 / month after a 7-day trial period, no ads. 

Another website that offers a food diary option is fitday.com. It has a free option and you can also upgrade to "premium" for $4.16 / month where you can experience ad-free tracking and reporting.

The one I'm using now is myfitnesspal.com. It is free. You can actually set up a personal blog and interface with other members easily here. You can add your own personal recipes, copy and paste previous day's meals and once you get it going, it takes much less time. 

I'm rooting for you and wishing you luck wherever you are in your journey to health and I'll be posting soon about other options for getting off to a good start in 2013 including ideas on doing a diet "challenge" and if a cleanse or fast might be a good thing. 

Have you been thinking about vegetables and fruit? I've found that if I remind myself to have veggies and/or fruit at EVERY meal, I'm more likely to stick with a plant-strong diet. Before I was aware of this way of eating, I could go for days without having many vegetables to speak of. What about you? Can you say that you're making an effort to have three plant-based meals every day? This morning's breakfast - it's a variation on a recipe that's already been posted here, Zucchini Banana Pancakes. Just add a small shredded yam to the recipe. Because you've shredded the vegetables, these cook relatively fast and turn out so creamy and delicious. Serve with cinnamon applesauce and a little maple syrup. How are you making your meals full of nutrient-rich plants? 

How are you doing with your eating habits? Is it a daily struggle or are you getting a handle on eating a diet that will help you gain optimal health? I'm rooting for your success, but I know that cravings, mood swings and, well, just life can get in the way. I was reminded recently about a program that I purchased to help with my eating and weight loss. It's been recommended by two doctors that I respect, Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Joel Fuhrman. And, although eating a diet high in nutrients and low in meat, dairy and refined oils can lead to permanent weight loss, some of you may find that a program like this can assist with your goals. With this hypnosis program, your habits will be shaped by subtle suggestions such as "you will crave vegetables" or "you have no interest in junk food." And, hypnosis will help you feel motivated, get rid of cravings, and replace unhealthy eating habits with healthy ones. Dr. Andrew Weil recommends it too. Read his post on hypnosis here, and if you'd like a little help, here is a link to Dr. Hyman's special offer for  that I received in my email. It's time that I listen again to jump start my way to loosing a few more.

If you received way too many blog posts from me recently, I'm not really sure why that happened. I apologize if your inbox was clogged up. But, it probably had something to do with what's new. Did you notice anything new here at Plant-Strong Meals? Drum roll please .... The website has a new name. It was external forces that nudged this change, but sometimes, the unknown enters, things change and new doors can open. It's not easy choosing a new website name and I've been through many iterations of ideas. Many were taken, but it's good to see so many wanting to adapt a healthier diet. So, don't be concerned. I'm committed, more than ever, to living a healthy, plant-based life. I think the new name says it all - PLANT-BASED COOKING and, a quote from Dr. McDougall's site drives home the point, "Only plants contain powerful substances called phytochemicals, which scientists are now discovering protect us from cancer, heart disease, and an array of other serious illnesses." 

I'm also committed to helping you to make the transition to plant-based cooking. I know it can be hard. Habits are hard to break. Which leads me to tell you about a book I read recently, The Power of Habit. It's an interesting and insightful book and in the next few weeks, I'll share some of the ideas from the book about habits so you can learn to work with them to build your healthier, happier life. 

If you haven't read my post, What it Means to be a Nutritariain, Plant-Strong or Plant-Based, you might want to read it now to understand the terms.

Oh, and, maybe you noticed the new header photo that's on the site, too. Look forward to more delicious, healthy, meat-free, mostly fat-free recipes and tips here soon as I get back to doing what I love.