The Dirty Dozen 2025

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Dirty Dozen 2025

We can’t eat absolutely everything organic to avoid the Dirty Dozen. Not all foods are readily available organically grown, plus the cost is much great than for conventional foods.

However, we can selectively eat organic foods where the conventional versions have the most pesticides and chemicals on them. There is a list available called The Dirty Dozen list that shows which fruits and veggies have the highest concentration of pesticides. The list changes from year to year, although I have noticed that the majority of foods appear over and over each year. Read more

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The Real Deal About Restaurant Food

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The Real Deal About Restaurant Food

If you’re a senior citizen now, you may remember a time growing up when restaurant food was an occasional family treat. If you are younger, then you grew up in an era where eating out of the home was and is a regular, and maybe daily (or more than once a day) occurrence. A recent study reveals how alarming this trend has become, even outside our country. Read more

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Habit Change With Baby Steps

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Habit Change With Baby Steps

Habit change can be frustrating, especially around weight loss. When we’ve done the same thing over and over it forms a strong mental and behavioral groove that can be hard to break out of. The more we do it, the more engrained it gets. So, how can we take this deep groove and turn it around?

We formed the groove by doing the same thing over and over. Therefore we can start a new habit and form a new groove. By doing this new behavior over and over, it gets more and more entrenched in the mind.  We start by doing it once. The next day we repeat this small step. Every day we repeat Eventually we can do it without thinking about it. Read more

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All About Apples

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Use your apples in a pie.

Remember the old expression, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” There’s a lot of truth to this when you look at the health benefits of apples.

Benefits of Apples

According to the Cleveland Heart Clinic  apples stabilize blood sugar, lower cholesterol levels, reduce blood pressure, and helps reduce inflammation. They are high in antioxidants, fiber (so they help you feel fuller longer), and water (therefore good for a hydrating snack). Read more

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Eat Your Greens!

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Eat Your Greens!

If you’re like my husband and me, you just can’t live without eating leafy greens. But if you’re not like this, please read on to see why they are so important to us.

A good portion of our veggie garden is taken up with leafy greens. The picture in this blog is from our garden. We grow all varieties of kale, collards, Swiss Chard, and a few kinds of Asian greens like senposai. We cook them almost every day of the week and they are the first thing we go for when we’ve been traveling and need to rebalance our systems. Read more

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The Most Toxic and Cleanest Produce

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Dirty Dozen & Clean 15 Produce

Every year, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out two produce lists – The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15. The Dirty Dozen is a list of produce to only eat organic because they are so laden with chemical pesticides. The Clean 15 is a list of foods to eat more safely in convention form, because testing on them has shown that they have little or no chemical pesticide residues in them when tested.

The Dirty Dozen

This list includes: strawberries, spinach, kale/collard/mustard greens, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, grapes, hot and bell peppers, cherries, blueberries, green beans (new to the list).

Read more

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What Triggers Anxiety?

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What triggers anxiety and how to release it.

Who doesn’t experience anxiety at least some of the time? Our modern lifestyle is not conducive to rest, relaxation, and balance. So we need to recognize what triggers anxiety in us and form habits to counter these triggers and keep us balanced.

Step One is to identify which triggers apply to you. Step Two is to plan what you will do when triggered. Then Step Three is to put Step Two into practice and develop anti-anxiety habits that work for you. Remember, without Step Three, your plan will stay in your head! It is important to start with one intervention on your list and practice that. Then add a second intervention, and so on. If you try to do too much all at once, you will be more likely to give up before you have a chance to succeed. Commend yourself for small steps of progress! Read more

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When To Eat

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Tips on When To Eat

Did you ever pay attention to ‘when to eat’? To be healthy and at the right weight, we often focus on ‘what to eat’. But timing is everything!

In Ayurveda (the ancient Indian science of longevity), eating is key to good health. And one aspect of healthy eating is the time of day when we eat. There are a couple of considerations here.

Eating With The Sun

The sun is at its zenith in the middle of the day, around noon. This is also when our digestive fire is strongest. There’s a reason this area is called solar plexus. When our digestive fire is at its strongest, we digest food the best, and assimilate the nutrients more effectively. Read more

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7 Ways To Have Abundant Energy

Ways To Have Abundant Energy

Who doesn’t want abundant energy? With abundant energy, you can get things done that you really want to do. Without this energy, you will fizzle out after work or after taking care of essential tasks during the day. The other things you want to do keep getting put off over and over. Read more

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Flower Essences Part 1: What Are Flower Essences?

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Flower essences aid weight loss.

Along with tapping, food journaling, and other useful tools for weight loss, flower essences can really add a boost to the process.  Read more

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