I had some coupons to a local grocery chain that expired today. The five dollars off of a purchase of $30 or more was worth my stopping twice. Unfortunately (or fortunately maybe) I used my second $5 on the purchase of Prevention magazine. They caught me with the EXCLUSIVE: Heal Your Gut, Cure Your Blues. The wonderful Health Honey has been working with me to do just that. I'm still having trouble finding varied fermented foods, but I digress.

During my shopping trip I couldn't help but notice I opted for gluten free foods at every turn. Special K now has a gluten free version, and I even found a pasta that fit the bill. Unfortunately, there still is no viable bread solution so it is corn tortillas for me. Interestingly, on page 52 of the magazine is a page dedicated to the new (old) wheat which we already know is called eincorn. (note to SL. Check out the GAPS diet). They also include Kamut and Farro. The most encouraging thing though for me is that there are more sources of gluten free(ish) grain foods. It is almost too bad that this is a Sabbath Year.

After six brutal months of Hypertrophy Max, we have gone (briefly) back to Roman Fitness Systems. He gave me a program that resembles P90x in that even on weight days… it's still cardio. The upshot is that it is over pretty quick and we are left feeling like we did something. Just for our own edification, we upped the weight on the military press to 2x 40 + 2.5. So that's two forty pound dumbbells with 4 1.25 lb magnets attached. We also upped the weight a little on the one arm press to 40 each. Everything else stayed pretty much the same.

Much love to the Health Honey, Trish Terry for guiding me through the process. Trish is my

Health Coach

Why do I need a health coach? At first I just wanted help navigating the never ending and often contradictory world of medical studies. For me it started in 2000 with the death of my father and the ensuing realization that my cholesterol numbers necessitated my taking three different medications for the rest of my life. I went on to lower my cholesterol naturally using the guidance of a great book on the subject… only to realize that the cost of lowering cholesterol (even naturally) is rarely discussed. Now it seems the lipid hypothesis is something of a sham.
So I was excited when my company, as an attempt to deal with the ever increasing cost of medical insurance, started providing health coaches.
It wasn't long into the discussion before I realized that these particular coaches really didn't even know as much as I did on these subjects. It was the same old screed: Eat at least six times a day, lower your fat intake, lower LDL, raise HDL, blah, blah, blah. That's when I met Terry and after a long conversation decided to hire her as my personal health coach, at my own expense, and I tell you, this woman is worth ten times the pittance that I paid her.

She taught me many valuable nuggets on health that I hadn't considered before such as how stress may be affecting my health and the absolute necessity for cooking one's own meals (at least a little).

On her recommendation, I purchased a Nutribullet. That this is amazing and smaller than a juicer, plus you incorporate all of the pulp. Just throw some greens in it along with a lemon (yes peel and all) and go to town. It is also much, much easier to clean. This makes it possible to juice every morning instead of just special occasions. Next step is to blow the dust off of the crock pot!