Monthly Wrap-up January 2023

Lots of fun ways to start off the new year!
CREATE	7-Jan	Walnut Woods Soap - preorder now
		Sweet Potato Hummus
		
MOVE	11-Jan	Why Bend Knees While Exercising?
		
SING	4-Jan	Lotta Love, recorded live
	15-Jan	Come Rock with Us!
		Momentum at Dirigible Brewery

Sweet Potato Hummus

Sweet and lemony, packed with nutrients.
  • 1 sweet potato
  • 28 oz can chickpeas
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Scrub sweet potato and prick with fork in multiple places. Bake at 400 for 1.5 hours until very soft. Cool, cut, and place in blender. Rinse and drain chickpeas, then add to blender. Add lemon juice, water, and spices. Blend until mixed. Add olive oil and blend until creamy, scraping sides often. Adjust seasonings. Use as a dip, in sandwiches or rollups, or in lieu of salad dressing. Enjoy!

Why Keep Knees Bent While Exercising?

Protect your knees from damage by keeping them slightly bent when you exercise. Elbows too. Here’s why:

More on Patreon.com/CarolWing

Monthly Wrap-up December 2022

Read about staying younger longer, make some delicious tofu meatballs and launch into the new year!
CREATE	1-Dec	2022 Holiday Soap Menu
	14-Dec	Tofu Lentil Balls
		
MOVE	19-Dec	Younger Next Year book
		
SING	21-Dec	Hangin Around the Fitness Room

Younger Next Year

A great book for the new year!

LEARN ABOUT:
  • Three primary components to staying young:  Exercise, Good Nutrition, Social Commitment.
  • How to make your long life a quality life.  Reduce risk of illness and injury up to 70% with positive lifestyle changes.
  • Why your body craves the daily chemistry of exercise!  Make it a priority.  Create a routine.  Find a friend.  Strain and sweat.  Build up the heart, capillaries, muscles, tendons, bones, joints, coordination, flexibility, balance, etc.
  • Why you need to challenge your body to make improvements, and the master chemicals (cytokines) that trigger growth through exercise but can get out of balance from loneliness, boredom, apathy, and worry.
  • Cholesterol, foam cells, and plaque, and how to minimize them.  Learn how consistent aerobic training builds vast new networks of capillaries to burn more fat as fuel in your muscles and increases metabolism.
  • Strenuous exercise as a powerful tool in preventing or slowing cognitive decline.  Brain scans of people who exercise show increases in brain volume and function, focus, memory, and processing. 
  • How “aerobics exercise saves your life and strength training makes it worth living!”
  • Realize that it’s not about struggling; it’s about doing something every day, whatever you can manage.

Maybe you can read it while you’re on the stationary bike or treadmill – haha! I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions….

Tofu Lentil Balls

An amazing meatball replacement, packed with flavor and nutrients. Makes a large batch so you can freeze some for later.
  • 1.5 cups dried lentils
  • 2 cakes extra firm tofu
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp basil
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 8 oz tomato sauce
  • 6 oz tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup (barley) flour

Soak lentils in cold water at least 15 minutes. Drain, rinse, then cover with 1″ of water in pot. Boil, then simmer 20 minutes. Meanwhile, press 2 tofu cakes under a heavy weight for at least 10 minutes. When lentils are done, strain excess liquid.

Drain water from tofu and mash with lentils until mixed. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Preheat oven to 400. Scoop into balls and set on oiled sheets. Bake for 30 minutes. Freeze leftovers in a thick plastic bag.

Monthly Wrap-up November 2022

Fish Tacos for a delicious, healthy dinner! Just eat slowly if you have them with friends (haha)….
CREATE	13-Nov	Best Fish Tacos
		
MOVE	18-Nov	Eating with Others Makes You Eat More!
		
SING	2-Nov	Booking Solo Gigs!

Eating with Others Makes You Eat More!

Researchers set up a series of lunches where the people who were invited were asked to eat alone first, then placed in groups on subsequent visits.

When people ate alone, some ate very little and others ate quite a lot.  When eating in groups, those same people did the opposite – light eaters ate more and heavy eaters ate less.  Large groups create their own norms, so if everyone else is having a second plate, you probably will too.  But if you were going to eat a third plate and most people stopped after two, then you probably will as well.

What does this mean?  If you’re trying to control your weight, sit with the slow eaters or the light eaters.  They will help you pace yourself and resist the temptation to gorge. Eat slowly and savor your meal and the company!

  • Excerpted from Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, Ph.D., an insightful and entertaining book on the psychology of eating