everywomanover29 blog

Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

Antianxiety Food Solution: great questions at Avid Reader

By 9 Comments

trudy at avid bookstore to present antianxiety food solution

I’ve had a busy few weeks doing fun book promo stuff and some fun local book signings at Avid Reader books http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/.  It was so cool (and very humbling) to finish my talk and have folks line up to get a signed copy of my new book The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings!

It was also very exciting to see my book on display and on the shelves in the book store. Of course we took a ton of pictures and savored the moment!  I hope you enjoy these pictures and that I see you at the next live event I do.

I had a great turnout at the Avid Reader in Davis and some great questions were asked.

Here are just some of the questions and my answers:

From someone I spoke to before the talk: “I have bad moods (anxiety and depression) and really bad sugar and bread cravings and I’m hoping this book will address all of this.”
My answer: “Great question, because often mood problems go hand-in hand with cravings and addictive behaviors.  For example low endorphins can make you feel sad and also lead to comfort eating – so you address the low endorphins and both sadness and comfort eating is resolved.  A similar case can be made for feeling anxious and eating to calm down – address the low GABA and both will resolve! You’ll love this book!”

And another question after the talk: “I do get anxious, but I really love my coffee. Do I really have to give up coffee or can I drink decaf?”
My answer: “This is a great question too, and one I get a lot. I see so many of my clients benefit from quitting coffee altogether that I really think it’s worth a try for you. Also, keep in mind that decaf does contain a small amount of caffeine and a subset of anxious people are just more sensitive to the effects of caffeine. I suggest trying some delicious Dandybend and see how you feel”.

You can read more about my book and these topics at www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com and read a book review by Mira Dessy that was featured in a recent edition of Nourishing Bytes, the ezine produced by the National Association of Nutrition Professionals http://grainsandmore.blogspot.com/2011/06/antianxiety-food-solution.html

Recipe for sprouted GABA rice

By 4 Comments

Planet Rice brown rice

I recently received a few bags of sprouted GABA rice from Planet Rice (www.planetricefoods.com) – thank you Planet Rice!  I used a modified recipe that I usually use for cooking brown rice and it was delicious!

The rice is sprouted or germinated, making it more digestible and nutrient-dense, resulting in a quicker cooking time and resulting in higher levels of GABA (gamma amino butyric acid).  According to their website: “Germinated / sprouted brown rice has four times the GABA content of regular rice, and over ten times the GABA of white rice!” I’m very intrigued by this last fact because I’m a big fan of GABA, the major calming neurotransmitter and excellent for anxiety.  I’ll be doing more research on this GABA connection and you’ll be hearing more from me on this very interesting topic!  It’s not mentioned in my new book The Antianxiety Food Solution but I’m adding this to the list for the second edition.

I’m also a big fan of local and if you’re in Northern California, this is local! It’s grown just “up the road” from Sacramento.  It’s also gluten-free of course. Planet Rice assured me that all California rice is free of GMOs (more on GMOS here). This particular brand is not organic (more on organic here) but rice typically uses less than other grains in the way of chemicals. But they do offer sprouted organic GABA rice in 25kg bags for commercial use and will hopefully make this available to us discerning and savvy consumers too!

My recipe for this sprouted GABA rice is so simple:

1 cup rice
2 cups boiling water

Add the above to a casserole dish with your choice of spices and optional chopped onion and garlic. Cover and cook for 40 minutes and enjoy with a curry dish, cold with veggies and salad dressing for a summer salad or however you like your rice!
(For regular brown rice, just cook for 60 minutes.)

Recipe: Speedy Spinach Dip

By 8 Comments

1-2 cloves crushed garlic
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1T butter

1 cup water
1 ¼ cups frozen spinach or 5 cups fresh spinach

1t sea salt
3T lemon juice
¼ cup broth
½ cup tahini (sesame butter)
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
4T flax oil or olive oil
1/8 t cayenne pepper
½ t dill weed

Saute the garlic, onion and mushrooms in the butter over low heat, until soft.
Cook the frozen spinach as per directions or steam the fresh spinach until wilted (about 5 minutes). Combine the all ingredients in a blender and puree until creamy.

Chill and serve as a dip – delicious for summer barbecues or braais (if you’re South African too!). Also delicious hot, as a topping for veggies or baked potato.

For a super-speedy version, just cook the chopped garlic, onion and mushrooms with the spinach and then add the rest of the ingredients and blend.

(Makes about 4 cups)

Monaco wedding jitters and tips for Charlene’s wedding to her prince

By 9 Comments

For someone with wedding anxiety, nerves and jitters, here are some great calming tips:

  • Drink less coffee. It’s probably best not to stop completely right before the wedding because of withdrawal headaches. And try a calming herbal tea like chamomile
  • Get outside in the sunshine and do some exercise, which will raise serotonin levels and help with worry and anxiety
  • Get a massage, meditate and/or do some yoga, which are all very relaxing. Studies have shown that yoga actually raises GABA levels and GABA is very calming
  • And if none of these tips help, the amino acid GABA in the form of a sublingual supplement will have immediate relaxing results (if you are low in GABA)

I’m drawn to do this blog post because of the newest royal wedding: this weekend in Monaco, Charlene Wittstock is marrying her prince, Prince Albert II in a lavish 3 day ceremony! And of course there are always plenty of summer weddings.

I’m especially intrigued by this wedding and have been following their story for a few reasons:

  • Charlene Wittstock, who is quite stunning, and a former national swimming champion, comes from South Africa, which is where I grew up!
  • I just love the area around Monaco. In my late 20s while backpacking through Europe I spent some time nearby. And then I had an amazing climbing trip in the south of France a few years ago! And I’m a big romantic at heart so I wish them all the best!

Unfortunately earlier this week there were rumors that Charlene tried to skip town on a one-way flight to South Africa. If it is just wedding jitters and anxiety, the above tips should help. If there is more to it, and Charlene has a serious reason for wanting to back out, I say don’t marry your prince!

Anxiety and mood disorders higher in cities, so get outdoors!

By 16 Comments

Just because the risk for anxiety and mood disorders is higher for city-dwellers does not mean you have to be resigned to it. There are some powerful things you can do to prevent this happening to you: make some pretty basic food changes, consider supplementation for your specific needs and biochemistry, and make some simple lifestyle changes (read more here https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/antianxiety-food-solution-what-you-eat-makes-difference/).

A new international study, published in Nature, is the first to show that living in a city affects the two distinct brain regions that regulate emotion and stress.

This from Science Daily, June 22, 2011

“Previous findings have shown that the risk for anxiety disorders is 21 percent higher for people from the city, who also have a 39 percent increase for mood disorders,” says co-author Jens Pruessner, a Douglas researcher. “In addition, the incidence for schizophrenia is almost doubled for individuals who are born and brought up in cities.”  You can read the whole report here.

So here is one lifestyle change that is just perfect for city-dwellers and perfect as we move into beautiful summer weather – get out into the great outdoors and into nature!

“An interesting study from the Netherlands found a strong relationship between being outdoors in nature and lower rates of anxiety and depression especially in children and in poorer communities.”  (The Antianxiety Food Solution, www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com)

So I recommend that you go bike-riding with your family along some urban trails (this picture was taken on the bike path near where I live), go down to the lake and have a picnic, go for a nice walk with a friend, go camping, go hiking in the mountains, go surfing or go windsurfing (this is my all-time summer favorite!).

Exercising has tons of other benefits too, such as weight-loss and cancer-prevention (https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/have-fun-exercising-and-prevent-cancer/) and is just a lot of fun!  Happy summer exercising to you, whether you’re in the city or countryside!

Antianxiety food talk and book signing at Avid Reader

By Leave a Comment

avid reader antianxiety foodI’m a big fan of supporting local businesses, so I am thrilled that the Avid Reader book stores (http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/) in Sacramento and Davis are hosting me for a talk and book signing on Saturday and Sunday.  It will also be terribly exciting to see MY book on display and on the shelves!

The Sacramento store is very impressive, with so many wonderful books, beautiful displays and a really good vibe. I’ve always loved reading and I can happily lose myself in there for hours.  We were told that it is the largest independent book store between Redding and Bakersfield.  And it’s a great place for some interesting book talks.

I’ll be talking about Food and Mood: 9 Steps to Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve your Mood and End Cravings. These are the 9 steps that are covered in my new book. In case you missed it, the official launch of my book The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings was June 2.  I am just thrilled to be able to share this important information with those who have anxiety and are looking for natural solutions. You can read more here https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/antianxiety-food-solution-what-you-eat-makes-difference/

Here are the details:

Local Book Talk and Signing in Davis, CA – at The Avid Reader store

617 Second Street, Davis, CA, 95616     Tel: (530) 758-4040

Saturday June 25th, 7:30pm – 8:30pm

Local Book Talk & Signing in Sacramento, CA – at The Avid Reader store

1600 Broadway, Sacramento, CA, 95818    Tel: (916) 441-4400

Sunday June 26th, 2:00pm – 3:00pm

Hope to see you there to get a signed copy of my new book. It will be signed with a beautiful new pen my darling sister Wendy gave me earlier this month!

If you can’t make it, I look forward to seeing you at another talk.  You can sign up to get my newsletter and talk notifications here www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com.  And if you are looking for a speaker, either live in-person or via teleseminar, for a group or organization you belong to, please contact me at trudy@everywomanover29.com