Fall Food & Music Bonus!

Hey hey Barrebabes!

With the change of the seasons comes changes in our bodies, and I don't just mean the outfits (although I am pretty stoked to see my old friends Leather Jacket and Ankle Boots). With the cooler temperatures and shorter days come different foods in season and different ways you'll want to eat them. Here's my take on how to handle the shift (sans pumpkin spice lattes, thank you very much):

Summer is a great time for raw foods. Fresh salads, ice-cold smoothies, chilled stuff. In the fall & winter, it's usually best to focus on warm, cooked things. Duh. So roast your veggies before tossing them into a salad, drink warm tea/broth/soup if you grab a smoothie, cook your kale... you get the picture.

If you're anything like me, around this time of year I seem to find myself feeling hungrier than usual and my cravings for warm, spicy & mushy foods are in full force. It stands to reason that as the temperatures outside get colder, we need to eat warmer, more nourishing meals, things that are both nutritionally dense and easy to digest. Veggie-based soups, stews and purées are perfect for healthfully satisfying both the cravings of your comfort-seeking hungry self as well as your nutritional requirements without saying to hell with it and overeating green chile mac and cheese or pizza bagels until Thanksgiving. For me, I love butternut squash soup, sweet potato purée, and gumbo, to name a few, and homemade mashed potatoes as my kinda-guilty pleasure. Holler for the recipes.

If I'm eating a bunch of yummy orange food like the squashfest mentioned above, I try to skip other starchier sides like rice or pasta, except maybe on my heaviest training/teaching days when I might need the extra carbs. It's important and can be kinda tricky not to overdo it, so make sure to truly savor & enjoy whatever you're eating and don't actually dive headfirst into the chili.

New seasons also mean new habits, and fall is a particularly good time for habit-making with all the back-to-school vibes and decrease of summer distractions. I myself am starting some new eating/life habits to help me stay balanced, aware and in control. After a failed attempt at the end of summer in trying to make "healthier" choices (specifically, eating more fish and legumes instead of meat) and increasing carbs to help balance the energy demands of my job (not inherently a bad thing, but a slippery slope nonetheless), I basically ended up more bloated, itchy and hungry than anything else. So, in addition to eating all the butternut squash and warm spicy stuff I know and love, I resumed my ongoing search for a guideline to help me find balance and better read my body's signals.

Because every body is different, and because I think diets are counterproductive, I wanted something that would help me figure out what works for me, and not what the latest advice is on carb cycling or kale chips or the glycemic index of onions. Enter Ditch Your Nutritionist, a grassroots protocol on eating from Austin, TX. Basically, through a series of online video lessons and workbooks and meal guidelines, you learn how to eat optimally for your own body and adjust for energy expenditure, food sensitivities, etc. The instructor, Anne Marie, is a friendly and accessible certified nutritionist and lays everything out in a simple, no-frills kind of way, and you get to learn a whole world of stuff beyond the old "calories in vs. calories out" fallacy.

Now, I'm not doing this to lose weight. I love my shape and could give a hoot about the number on the scale. Rather, my goals are for more energy, less confusion about what works for me and what doesn't, amazing health, nice skin, balanced hormones and a beautiful belly both inside and out. Just sayin'.

I'm sharing this with you in case you seek the same kind of peaceful, uncomplicated relationship with food that I do. But because transparency is key, I must also note that if you sign up for the program and tell them I sent you, they send me money. And they'd do the same for you (which doesn't suck). And it's really kinda cool, when you think about it, because you're receiving money back on an investment you made in your health just for spreading the word. But I'm here to share, not sell, so no worries from me if it ain't your thing.

EXTRA MUSIC LOVE!

Music

I LOVE music. I also love that many of you seem love the music I play in class. In fact, I would love to hear more of what gets your toes tapping and makes your heart beat faster and am always listening for new favorite songs. So indulge your ears here with weekly playlists from me from my barre & dance classes and share links to your favorite songs in the comments or over email. Woohoo music party time!
BodyRhythm Playlist
Barre Playlist

Thanks for reading, babes. Keep being awesome and I'll see you at the barre