Matcha Green Tea

The best Matcha Green Tea comes from Japan where it is the staple ingredient upon which traditional Japanese tea ceremonies were built in the 12th century. Matcha has many health benefits, and a beautiful, distinct flavor. Matcha is essentially processed green tea leaves that have been stone-ground into a delicate powder. The powder is then sifted and whisked with hot water. .

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What most distinguishes Matcha from other Green Teas is that matcha bushes are covered for up to 20 days prior to harvest to shade the leaves from direct sunlight. This is done to boost the plants' chlorophyll levels, which turns the leaves a darker, more vibrant shade of green, and increases the production of L-Theanine, an amino acid that occurs naturally in the tea plant.  Thanks to the L-Theanine in the tea it will give you both a calming and stimulant affect! .

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Matcha is high in antioxidants, And contains a specific set of organic compounds known as catechins. Among antioxidants, catechins are the most potent and beneficial. One specific catechin called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) makes up 60% of the catechins in Matcha Green Tea. Out of all the antioxidants, EGCg is the most widely recognized for its cancer fighting properties. Scientists have found that Matcha Green Tea contains over 100 times more EGCg than any other tea! .

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Matcha is a traditional delight in Japanese ceremonies while also adding a lot of health benefits. You can make delicious Matcha teas or bake with it as well and your body and mind will thank you! .

5 Essentials Daily Habits

Here are 5 Essentials Daily Habits to include in your lifestyle to get your health going in the right direction:

1. Exercise: A body in motion stays in motion. Get yourself moving with 30 minutes of exercise at least 3 times a week to start. The more you get moving the more exercise your body will crave and the more energy you will have! 

2. Water: Since our bodies are made up of mostly water and we use water to do many functions like detox and fuel our cells, it's important to replenish and hydrate daily to keep ourselves from getting dehydrated and storing toxins! 

3. Anti-inflammatory: Most pain issues and diseases stem from inflammation. Instead of reaching for the Advil start including a Turmeric based natural Anti-inflammatory into your daily routine. If done daily you will see a continual drop in pain symptoms from inflammatory diseases like arthritis and you will prevent the body from future inflammatory issues! 

4. Daily Elixir: Add an extra line of defense to your nutrition by having a tonic, probiotic or elixir every day.  They add water, vitamins, minerals, good bacteria and boost immunity while feeding your body what it needs to function in good health.

5. Juice: Cold Pressed Fruit and Vegetable juices help make sure that you get the proper amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals daily.  They can help regulate all of your bodies systems and help support optimum health! 

Changing your habits takes time. By slowing incorporating one of these into your lifestyle you will see improved health and a boost in your energy levels. Take it one at time until you develop the good habits you can maintain and then keep adding more until you've developed a lifestyle you can live with! 

(This is an excerpt from: Eat Well Live Well: Transitioning to an Unprocessed Lifestyle by Amy Michelle Weiss) 

6 Beneficial Chinese Teas

In the Chinese Culture they use different teas at different times to help them through their day. Jasmine Tea in the morning to help get going and Lychee Black Tea as they start their work day for focus. There are many teas that are used for their medicinal purposes as well. Here are 6 Beneficial Chinese Teas: 

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1. Milk Oolong Tea: Getting its name from its rich milky taste, Milk Oolong Tea supply's iron to the body and can enrich the blood. It's beneficial for our joints. It contains minerals such as manganese, magnesium, calcium, and potassium that are all essential to important health functions within the body 
2. Ginseng Oolong Tea:The tea is derived from a perennial plant root. The major health benefits of tea are due to the naturally occurring chemicals called  ‘ginsenosides’ that are present in this root. The health benefits include a reduced risk of developing cancer, PMS relief, weight loss , improvement of digestive disorders, and a boosted immune system, as well as improving signs of mental distress, asthma, arthritis, and sexual dysfunction. 
3. Jasmine Green Tea: Packed with antioxidants, Jasmine green tea carries numerous health benefits ranging from clearing skin and improving digestion to aiding in weight loss and cancer prevention
4. Lychee Rose Black Tea: Infused with the fresh nectar of lychee fruit and blended with roses this Tea brews a sweet and fragrant cup  Lychee Rose Black Tea is high in vitamin C and trace minerals which improves facial complexion, relieves stomach bloatedness and eases menstrual pain. It's good for circulation, helps with anemia and memory issues. 
5. Pu'er Tea: Although Pu'er Tea has a lower level of antioxidants than Green Tea, Chinese people credit it with many health benefits, especially weight loss, reduction of serum cholesterol, and cardiovascular protection. Unlike other teas, which get stale over time, pu-erh can mellow and improve with age like fine wine. Some pu-erh teas are more than 50 years old.
6. Fruit Tea: There are many benefits of drinking Fruit tea as it is jam-packed with assorted vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It is specifically high in vitamin C which makes Fruit teas ideal for warding off colds and other illnesses by keeping the immune system strong and healthy.

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Through out the centuries Chinese Medicine has long used teas for helping to cure disease as well as prevent it. In Chinese Culture teas have long be used for ceremonial purposes as some teas carry long ancestral roots. Tea can add many benefits to your health so as our days get longer its nice to take a moment to enjoy a delicious and relaxing cup of tea knowing your body and mind will benefit. 

The Benefits of Orange Juice

The Benefits of Orange Juice

1. Weight Loss: the antioxidants in citrus effectively aid in weight loss. 

2. Vitamin C- boosts the immune system and helps prevent and treat colds and the flu. In Europe, the standard cancer treatment is high doses of Vitamin C which kills free radicals and cancer. 

3. Contains D – limonene - an effective agent against skin cancer, breast cancer, 

mouth cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer. 

4. Maintains Blood Pressure levels: contains magnesium which brings blood pressure levels to normal range.

5. Prevents and treats Ulcer: Aids in digestive health 

6. Prevents and treats Kidney Stones: citrate in orange juice lowers urine acidity 

7.  Promotes healing: contains flavonoids that reduce inflammation and regenerate cells 

8. Reduces Risk of Heart Attack: Oranges contain hesperidin which protects the arteries from being clogged by improving the health of nearby cell.  Consumption of one glass freshly squeezed orange juice ensures lower risks of heart attacks 

9. Treats Anemia: vitamin C promotes the absorption of iron into blood stream

10. Skin Health: the antioxidants with the combination of vitamin C protect the skin cells from getting effected by free radicals. Giving your skin a fresh and glowing look!

Orange juice is the healthiest way to start your day! 

"Eat Well Live Well: Transitioning to an Unprocessed Lifestyle" by Amy Michelle is available on Amazon for Kindle and Itunes!

Through my experiences in life I have found the path with my nutrition that is leading me to create a lifestyle that I can "live" with.  My journey is not complete and I have a long way to go but I know I'm headed in the right direction:

A note from the Author: 

"After succeeding to achieve my “dream body” by having every eating disorder, going from fad diet to fad diet, “clean eating" and over training, it wasn't until I was struck by a car while riding my bike, that my real nutrition journey began. The physical disabilities and internal affects of the accident left me unable to rely on my old habits and tricks of the fitness world. As I slowly learned the affects that the foods I was eating and drinking had on my mobility, inflammation, mental well being and all around general health, I started to really learn how to eat to feed my body for optimum health. Once I learned how to eat properly, my body started to reshape itself and I could no longer deny what I already knew, everything I ever learned about fitness, nutrition and health was not correct. This lifestyle will teach you how to eat and feed your body so that 80% of your food is for your health and 20% is to fully enjoy all the pleasures this world has for your palette, guilt free. By learning how to eat instead of following a rigid “diet” , we take control over our decisions and put our health back into our own hands, without any excuses except you want to live a long and healthy life. You can’t control everything around you but you can control what you eat, your health and your lifestyle!” 

Amy Michelle 
Live Well ~ Love Much~Laugh Often



The book is available at the links below

AMAZON:

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Well-Live-Transitioning-Unprocessed-ebook/dp/B014X8T3OS

iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/eat-well-live-well/id1061149786?ls=1&mt=11

Facebook commenting. Screen grabs.

I often comment on Facebook articles. Sometimes I'm really well spoken and sometimes not. 

Today there was an article about the top 10 issues a sex marriage councilor sees. I have the solution to all the issues.  Check it out. 

 

Yesterday there was a horrid article written by a new mother directed at people who don't have children who should be more understanding to how miserable she is since having kids. Here's my reaction: 

In a country like America where the slogan is land of the free, apparently everyone has forgot it includes their minds. Be Free from social stigma so you can be happy. 

Time is of the essence, choose your battles wisely!

            

As we develop in childhood thoughts of fairy tales of the life and timeline we should live are planted in our minds.  Growing up in the 80's there was still a sense of 1950's American values with girls being super girly, guys being super jocks, meeting your Prince in High School, going to prom together, going to college and then getting married. You buy a house and have 2 kids, work your butt off to go on a vacation each year and so on and so forth. The ideal life.  The rules for boys and girls still on the divide but being pushed for change. Movies like "Working Girl" and "9 to 5" showing young women that equality was on the horizon, if you continue to fight for it. The good hard working girl can have it all and men and women will be equals but then as life goes on you wonder but can we ever really be equals? How can we be equals, if we can't even be friends?   

Like the saying goes, Reality Bites!  There is one thing that will always be the road block for equality between man and woman and that is Sex!  When Harry turns to Sally and says "Men and Women can not be friends because the sex part always gets in the way!"  It's a fact! Sally says absolutely they can and in fact her and Harry will just be friends.... Fast forward to Sally and Harry in bed together. Its human nature. Why do we fight it?

I never wanted to believe it because as a young girl I was friends will so many guys but we were kids which means no sex which is why it was so easy.  Throughout my life I've tried to push this envelop in every which way, I've had great guy friends that were completely platonic but without fail, they find a girlfriend and suddenly it's frowned upon to go out with me solo. Why? because of sex!  It's simple. The girl whom my guy friend is having sex with said she's not comfortable with her boyfriend hanging out with a girl. So what happens to our friendship?  It becomes an acquaintance type relationship and I'm invited to group events where she is there. It's not because of anything other than its a better life choice for my guy friend to avoid the drama of trying to hang out solo.  

There comes a time in life where we realize how we want to spend our time. Do we want to spend it proving to our girlfriend who has self esteem issues and is jealous that we have every right to hang out with a girlfriend or do we pick our battles? 

We can choose to make our decisions based on our ideals of the world we wish we lived in or based on reality. When we choose reality we are not letting go of the change we want to see in the world, what we are doing is choosing to avoid the negative that comes with going against the reality of a situation. There is a time and place to prove your point and sometimes it's better to just be happy with what you are given.

Like me and my guy friends. Sure I miss our solo adventures and it's really not as much fun only seeing them at group events but we still have funny text sessions and I still get to see them. They are happy in their relationships and that is more important to me then making them prove some notion about men and women being friends. 

The fact that seems to always fall between the cracks is that Men and Woman have two completely different make ups both physically and mentally which means that the reality of the situation is that we will never be equal because we will always have different needs.  We can try our best to make things as fair as possible but it will never be perfect. The only thing we can do is  try to see the positive in every situation, push for change when the right opportunity arises and choose our battles wisely because we don't have that much time here and not everything has to be about proving a point. Remember, you're not losing your stance or ideals, if sometimes you choose to abide by the reality in life to avoid the drama of it! 

2013 - Me with a group of guys who will always be my friends- because they're all gay! Problem Solved! 

(*Ps. My best advice to the girls who can't grasp reality, get a gay bestie, they'll still want to play with your boobs but it's definetly a guy you can 100% just be friends with!)