It's Raining Mangoes!

Not sure what to do with all the mangoes that are in season this time of year that seem to be endlessly falling off of the trees?

You can certainly throw them in the blender for a fruit smoothie, but one of my favorite recipes is Mango Salsa. It’s a colorful, cool, sweet, (and optionally spicy) dish to serve with grilled fish, but also delicious as an appetizer or snack just for dipping crackers or chips (baked, “healthy” chips of course!) I strongly suggest you double the recipe because it’ll go quickly!

What you’ll need: 

-1 mango – peeled, seeded, and chopped
-2 ripe peaches or nectarines -chopped
-1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
-Several cherry tomatoes, halved
-1 green onion, chopped
-1 tablespoon lime juice
-1 tablespoon lemon juice

Once everything is mixed together, cover and refrigerate for a half hour. Serve and enjoy!

Although the above is my favorite combination, there...

Juicing: What’s the Big Squeeze? Part Dos

In the first part of Juicing: What’s the Big Squeeze, I addressed the benefits of juicing and what the big deal about it is. In this part, I’m going to go over actual health benefits of certain fruits, veggies, and herbs to help to direct you as to what to juice, and also some of my favorite combinations.

Let me first preface all of this with the fact that there have been amazing advances in the medical field: improved medications, improved administration of medications, advances in surgery, etc. BUT, there is some truth to the quote in the image above.

I’m not saying that juicing is definitely going to get you off the medications you’re taking for hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc – juicing is not a replacement for the medications that have been previously prescribed by your physician, but juicing certain fruits, vegetables, and herbs with “known” health benefits can’t...

Take charge of your health! 

One of my jobs is as a physical therapist in a hospital where patients are constantly dependent upon a long list of individuals who are in charge of their health care plan.

The respiratory therapist to give them their breathing treatment, the nurse to give them their medications, the doctors to diagnose them, the surgeons to operate on them, and the physical and occupational therapist to help get them out of bed- just to name a few! Yes, there are many many more people involved! Hard to imagine it would take so many people to manage the health care of one person.

I had a fellow therapist, a teacher at the time, pose a question to me while I was in graduate school that resonated with me and never left my mind. “What would you do if there were no doctors, pharmacists, surgeons, etc. to take care of you and manage your health? How would you treat your body differently?” It was such a profound question that got me to thinking, who is...

The early bird gets the workout

No time for exercise? Here’s a no excuse way to fit in a workout everyday.

Simple math is all it takes to schedule exercise time: cut out one hour of evening TV and set your alarm to wake up 30 min earlier. Presto! You’ve just accomplished two great things for your body; 30 minutes more sleep and 30 minutes available for morning exercise. If you don’t need more sleep you can just adjust the formula. Voila! You now have a full hour to exercise.  But why exercise in the A.M?

“Top Ten Reasons” for getting up with the early birds to get moving:

1. Exercising early in the morning “jump starts” your metabolism, keeping it elevated for hours, sometimes for up to 24 hours! As a result, you’ll be burning more calories all day long—just because you exercised in the morning.
2. Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing...