Foodtrainers’ Favorites from the Bulletproof Conference

We’ve been busy. Yesterday, we launched our pretty, newonline shop. Unexpectedly, our curated products have become popular and so we needed to give them a spiffed-up home. There were no major tech issues and orders surpassed our predictions, phew.

And, over the weekend, Carolyn and I attended the Bulletproof Conference. We pride ourselves on being seekers or guinea pigs, if you’re a Bulletproofer it’s called biohacking. When we walked into the conference we felt as though we had found our people (“tribe” is so annoying but maybe it applies). If anything, these people made us look unaccomplished in our experimentation. There was some weird shit.

Clients and commenters were curious about some of the things we posted so I thought I’d do a round-up of top 10 things we learned or heard about:

Bulletproof coffee- this isn’t new to us but we were treated to Bulletproof coffee throughout the conference. The first morning’s coffee kept us focused and full for many hours despite a red eye the night before. If you haven’t tried it, Bulletproof coffee is coffee plus oil (MCTs or coconut oil) + grass-fed butter blended with collagen optional. We add cinnamon to ours as well.

 IV nutrition- Yes, this is controversial, yes you must be SUPER careful about who gives you needles and yes our client, an ER MD, doesn’t agree with me on this one but I’m a fan. It’s an efficient way to get a large dose of nutrients for immunity, energy and cognition. The speakers at Bulletproof got IV’s before their talks,

Dig Deeper-Mastin Kipp (one of the speakers) provided a good reminder that all of this biohacking is just busy work if we aren’t getting to the root of our pain, stressors etc. I emailed my therapist stat. 

The healthiest wine-I’m usually a mezcal/tequila girl, So, I’m not a big wine drinker but I am a drink-only-the-best-er. Dry Farm Wines was an exhibitor at Bulletproof and I just signed up for their healthy wine delivery. Low/no sulfites, organic and the “cleanest” wines I’ve found.

And from the sleep doc, red wine (not dry farm wines but the sulfitey kind) is worse for your sleep than white. If you’re on the fence about prioritizing sleep, Dr Mercola called it the #1 thing we can do for your health.

Cell phones are scary. I know he’s beloved but I didn’t enjoy Mercola’s talk simply because it terrified me. He focused on radiation from cell phones and Wi-Fi. There just aren’t many legit solutions. I mean, I told my kids not to put phones in their pockets/touching their bodies and they told me where to go (“so everyone in the world is going to get cancer then Mom”). One way to combat the damage to our cells from radiation is taking magnesium, a lot of magnesium One form I like is this. I have no suggestions for mitigating the damage of teenagers.

Molecular Hydrogen is something to keep an eye out for. I’m talking to one of the companies today, more on that soon but I think it’s going to be big.

Esther Perel. I really believe relationships and sex are the next frontier when it comes to our wellness. Check out Esther’s amazing podcast on audible or her books. I took copious notes at her talk but one thing that resonated was that people, entrepreneurs especially, often give their passion, love and energy to their work and then save “the crumbs” for their partners. I was guilty of this, when I opened, Foodtrainers. Marc has his own business too. I’m happy to report we give each other large crumbs, maybe bites, at this point.

It’s invigorating to learn new things. I seriously get a high from hearing about new ideas, technology and the such. Whatever you’re interested in, seek out information, preferably in person versus on the computer. “Gathering” is good for your health.

Malibu is worth it and Carolyn is the best. Our conference was in Pasadena, we took an Uber to Malibu (about an hour, female drivers both ways, go Cali). We sat at the bar at Nobu, looking out at the ocean, eating, drinking and catching up. Esther Perel said work partnerships were marriages. You need to think about them. Well we thought about it, over margaritas, and our “marriage” is solid.

If you have any questions about this list, comment below. Or, have you tried anything I mentioned?

Belated Happy National Coffee Day Wishes, Shoot.

pretty picture, right? Of course I didn't take it

You know those dreams where you get to the final exam only you forgot it was the day of the exam? It’s bad enough in dreams, when those lapses occur in real life it’s way worse. Forgetting it’s picture day for your kids? I’ve done that but now almost purposely do that. First, who orders those horrid photos and also when I look back the unbrushed hair will make me smile. I have a another one, I forgot jury duty. Yup, this summer it didn’t make it into my calendar. Then I  had that “I know I had something on this day” and a week later in a pile, oh shit. So I felt that same pit in my stomach feeling when I started to see National Coffee Day emails and posts yesterday.  How did I forget? So a day late and a dollar (but never a coffee) short, our coffee roundup or “ground up”

Blog (4 years old and still stand by it) on whether you should give up coffee, guess the answer? And whether coffee is good or bad for you…

Carolyn and I like this for our afternoon coffee, did you see our shroom coffee video?

My first foray into bulletproof coffee andsome more pro-coffee information

http://foodtrainers.blogspot.com/2013/04/you-should-drink-coffee-and-best-coffee.html

My latest bulletproof iteration, Pumpkin Spice Bulletproof

Cold brew Cubes? Yup, turns out Carolyn is “OneSmartBrownie” she freezes cold brew coffee for her smoothies.

And our new favorite office coffee contraption (pictured above) the Chemex that we purchased while drinking coffee at Joe’s coffee conveniently steps from the Foodtrainers' offices.

 Phew- I need a coffee.

What’s your fave coffee? Did you know it was National Coffee Day? Did you “give coffee up” if so please list a good reason. 

I whipped myself

You may have read about our Whipping Week we launched for the New Year. Clients have been "whipped" in our offices and via our Foodstalking program people are getting a virtual whipping in Chicago, Texas and Florida. See what happened when Carolyn (@onesmartbrownie) whipped herself.

For the most part, I am fine with my vices and believe you should love what you eat and drink. But after a little too much “love” over the holidays it was time to rein it in. I enjoy a challenge but have to admit I’m always hesitant to go super strict. After all, I am the girl who creates my own juice/soup cleanse rules (why would I live without coffee?).  But we launched our Whipping Week and I was ready to give it a try. And so I “whipped” myself.

If you’ve read our newsletter or blog posts, you know this entailed NO booze, NO grains, NO meat and NO dairy and limited fruit. Some people have a last supper before they start a new regime, I had to have a last “sipper”.  One flute of champagne with berries and I was ready for whipping.

And here you have a day in the life of Whipping.

Breakfast

Bulletproof-ish style coffee with a little almond milk and tsp coconut butter and blended.

 ½ cup serving of homemade chia . No fruit at breakfast was the hardest part for me, but this was all about keeping it simple.

Mid morning: Wakaya turmeric tea  

Lunch- making lunch the biggest meal of the day is a challenge for me but works best. Here is my lunch deconstructed (pink is salmon). It was more of a “dunch” or dinner for lunch as we like to call it.

Mid afternoon: our new obsession from FoodMatters, was honestly my favorite daily ritual. Bone broth (made from grassfed beef) is so warming and filling. This pic doesn’t so it justice but it’s flavored with herbs and spices and lots of ginger and is so delish.  Half a bottle and I was good to go until my (early bird) dinner.

Winner winner no chicken dinner. Dinner was basically veggie heaven, tons of vegetables, my favorite way to do this is with the spiralizer. I added a tbsp of olive oil and lots of garlic and a bit of miso too.

After dinner one of the first nights of Whipping Week I had a hot date which was now going to be hot tea (instead of a drink). I’m sure he was excited about this, nothing like mint tea to really set the mood. Luckily the man in question handled it very well and tea’d it up too. (+10 points for him).

Over a solid  Whipping days  and a whipping-ish, weekend,  I felt SO good and light My snacky tendencies and  carby/sweet extras  that had been sneaking in were nipped in the bud. Of all my workouts, I only had one less-than-stellar spin class the whole week which I blame on not drinking enough water versus whipping. So this week was really neither like 50 shades nor the hunger games, much to my delight.

Have you gotten whipped or tried our whipping tenants? Tell us how it’s going, what have been your favorite meals? Does this look difficult?

Top 5 Healthy Movie Theater snacks (if it were up to me)

As I sat through the worst half hour of movie previews yesterday, my mind wandered. My mind has a few favorite places it wanders to but this time it went to food. I thought about movie theatre food. While my kids will get something from time to time, either when I’m not there or when I choose to ignore everything I know, I don’t really think about it. For my book, I tackled sports arenas and airports and many places that trip people up with food choices. I contemplated the movies and ran the idea by a friend who said, “I think if people want to lose weight part of that means saying no from time to time.” I’m pretty sure her wording was a little meaner but it was a good point.  Just for kicks though (interrupted by my son saying, “who is that guy, I have never seen him before?” Sean Penn) I contemplated my dream movie concession stand.

I know some theatres have real food now but I’m not a fan. First, I am against anything in a theatre that smells. And let’s face it, it’s total darkness and the ultimate in mindless eating, you don’t need a full meal. I’m sticking with snacks and beverages.

• Popcorn- movies and popcorn seem to make sense and Quinnpopcorn is amazing. The Foodtrainers’ theatre would have their popcorn popped in coconut oil even though my heart belongs to smoky cheddar. I just worry about the scent issue (I have a thing about smells).  Ignore the blue bowl, there would be tubs (recycled) but in normal sizes.

• If you’re not a popcorn person but like some crunch, I’d try these Snip Chips. I’ve always loved parsnips and these come in fun flavors. 
  
• Chocolate- of course there has to be a chocolate component. There are a ton of healthy chocolates but I don’t like the idea of a chocolate bar here. My movie chocolate needs to be more snacky. I’d have Sweet RiotChocolate covered cacao nibs. It’s ok to eat the whole tin.

• Beverages- I’m sure it’s no surprise that there’s no soda happening if I’m making decisions. There are also no plastic water bottles either (something I’m almost as against as soda…almost). If you want those monster-sized cups I suppose we can have filtered water in them (and Strawesome straws). I’m really thinking kombucha. As much as I like a cocktail, I think I’d be asleep before the movie starts.

• Since we’re talking sleep, we may as well have a coffee bar. Almond milk cappuccino or some bulletproof action?
  

And I can’t be the only one who contemplates the “cleaning” of the theatre. If you’re like me I’d spritz a little Clean Well (available for purchase before you take your seats).

In case you’re wondering we saw American Sniper. My son had a crepe and I had a Sin-o-bun from Juice press before we went to the theatre.

What’s your favorite movie snack if life had no rules? What would be served at your dream concession stand? Have you seen American Sniper? Did you watch the Golden Globes?