The best way to drink

TGIF! I don’t know about you but my week was super busy and today isn’t any exception.

Monday night I attended a launch party for Bobbi Brown’s new book Beauty From the Inside Out. I contributed a section to this beautiful book, “About Alcohol”. Bobbi, like us at Foodtrainers, enjoys a cocktail but also likes sorting out the best way to incorporate alcohol and still feel (and look) good.

She had a pretty coconut water, seltzer and vodka mason jar mixture at the party.

Oddly enough, also this week, Men’s Journal wanted a nutritionist to chime in on hangover helpers. Now I personally do not encounter hangovers very often. For the most part I’m a one and done drinker but I also follow our 1:1 rule. More on that here. I know there are some health experts who do not drink and others who do not wish to publicize if they do. We're all for transparency in life (and with (clear) cocktails too.

Are you someone who likes a drink or prefers to pass? What do you drink? Do you think alcohol can be part of an otherwise healthy lifestyle?

Foods to undo some of the holiday bulls#!t

Last night Carolyn and I had a talk to give. If you’re in NYC,  you know that it was an insanely rainy night. So, like the true professionals we are, we emailed our host 10 times saying “are you sure we’re on, it’s so bad out maybe people would like to do another night?” We were on and, as is often the case when you least expect it, it was great. We had a smart/fun group in a small, swanky 51^st floor room. There was booze we didn’t drink and chandeliers we did NOT swing from (we didn’t know these people yet). The topic was top 10 foods you should eat to undo holiday damage.

Issue: Hangovers

Shockingly over 20% of people do not experience hangovers. Most of us do. Try our 1 for 1 rule and have 1 water for every drink you have or just stick to 1 drink (some people can do this). If you overdo it, think ginger. Most hangover issues stem from inflammation. We like Wakaya ginger Mix it with water after you drink or next morning or be like us and plop some in your clear spirit of choice.

Honorable  hangover mentions:  coconut water, eggs, vitamin B12

Skip: hair of the dog or bacon egg and cheese rituals

Issue: Sweet tooth (or teeth)

Sweets are a big issue this time of year or really every time of year. If sweets are your kryptonite- be ferm! I’m talking fermented foods. Your gut is really the control tower for your body and what’s going on there affects your cravings, especially sweet cravings. The “top shelf” ferm(ented) foods are  fermented  veggies (farmhouse kraut, bubbles pickles and BAO are great brands) & kefir (sort of turbo yogurt when it comes to probiotic count).

Issue- Dry, gross skin

Winter, sugar, booze and too much time inside = parched, sad skin.

If you haven’t started collagening, you have 2 choices:

collagen powder or bone broth. In NYC check out the new brodo shops west village and Bryant park.

Issue: Zero Energy 

First I’ll remind you to sleep more and hydrate (professional obligation). If you want a little metabolism boost, make that water ice cold. If  you’re seekinga more interesting upper, drink matcha. Matcha, because you consume the whole leaf via this pretty powder, puts plain old green tea to shame.

Matcha gives you a push without making you jittery. It revives you and calms you down at once, impressive. If you’re really feeling low, drink matcha with brain octane in it and thank me when you decide to take a break hours later.

Issue: Stress!!!

Once upon a time there was a mineral called magnesium. This super-crucial mineral helps you chill out and keeps your metabolism humming along. However, there’s also a demon called stress that runs around the city scopping up magnesium. I don’t’ know where I’m going with this but most of us are deficient in magnesium which means both our mood and metabolism are subpar.

Don’t freak out. I love magnesium bath flakes (Naturopathica makes amazing ones), you can supplement magnesium (we love pure encapsulations or natural calm packets). And you can eat real, potent dark chocolate, 70% or > and avocado morning, noon and night.

Issue: family 

Solution: I’ll get back to you on this one, Foodtraining can only fix so much.

Happy Holidays! Cheers to not feeling like Santa at the end of this season.

Coconut Water: Yay or Step Away

You may not have noticed but this poor blog was neglected over the summer. Neglect leads to guilt, which sucks, and anyway I’m back and it feels refreshing…sort of like the YOSA (Yay? OR Step away?) topic today... coconut water (corny transition, I’m a little rusty).

 

Yesterday I spoke to CBS about coconut water. I must admit I haven’t been pounding the coconut stuff as much lately. Partially it’s because I spend all my beverage bucks on kombucha (and some Tito’s martinis) and also because I am fickle, sort of like a toddler, and go on benders with certain foods (and workouts) and then lose interest. So the segment got me thinking and here are my 2 coco cents.

The basics

Coconut water is the liquid from a coconut. If you think you dislike coconut water it may be because you’ve had the bottom of the barrel versions that often have a milky appearance and very little taste. I’d describe them as phlegm-like, agree? The best coconut water is organic, unpasteurized, straight from the coconut and a personal preference-ice cold. I was super psyched that juice generation has these adorable coco to go offerings. They’re 50 calories, fun (put the straw on the dot), and idiot proof- just saying I was worried about my coco abilities and first time got it right. If you're concerned you can also have them use a large coconut and open it for you. Carolyn and I were sent a cocojack tool and it wasn’t pretty. Coconut wrestling is a workout. If you’re not up for it, Harmless Harvest is also good stuff, our bottled go to.

The pros

Coconut water has way less sugar than sports drinks, sodas and fruit juices. It also has an impressive potassium content. If your retort is bananas, potatoes and avocados do too, I’ll ask when the last time you drank a potato was… This potassium content makes coconut water great post workout, after imbibing (or during) and good for blood pressure. Coconut water also has magnesium; potassium and magnesium make it a great PMS drink (debloat and de-stress-YES).

The cons

So yes, coconut water has sugar. I will say my least favorite of the sugar family is fructose and coconut water isn’t loaded with fructose. There are about 6g of sugar per cup of coconut water. Again, this isn’t a ton but I’d keep liquid snacks (coconut water OR kombucha OR green juices) to 1 per day max.

Uses

Coconut water is great in smoothies; I freeze coconut water in ice cube trays for this purpose. If I am not having a smoothie, 1 cococube makes water more interesting. And as you can see in the link above coconut water is superior to many cocktail mixers.

Yesterday I was asked if I could see a time when people would be walking down the street with coconuts? One can dream. Oh and I have to answer Yay or Step Away. If forced to choose I'd say Yay but needs to be quality coco and once per day is perfect/max. 

Do you drink coconut water? Straight up or in other ways? Do you want to walk down the street with a coconut?