For this blog, I partnered with the North American Meat Institute, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff.  All opinions are my own.

Just a few short weeks ago I hosted a surprise party for Kara at one of our favorite restaurants in Louisville, which is a butcher shop that doubles as a fantastic restaurant.

 Without going into details, the food talk of the night was the charcuterie, which was one of the passed appetizers. But more than that, it was dubbed a “Meat Cone” which included, in house prepared beef, some local cheeses and a few other tasty delights. 

Prepared beef, you say?  Isn’t that bad for you? 

The truth is – well, the truth is distorted – like so much of nutrition. Prepared beef gets such a bad rap!  In fact, prepared beef offers taste, convenience and nutrition that delivers value and satisfaction when you need it the most. Admittedly, in the case of the birthday, we weren’t talking nutrition but rather...

Pistachios may be small, but they pack a big nutritional punch. Recently published studies have added to the reams of existing evidence that further prove how healthy these tiny green nuts are for the body. Here are five little known facts about the health and nutritional benefits of pistachios that may surprise you.

Pistachios are a Complete Protein

The latest  research reveals that pistachios contain all 9 essential amino acids, making them a “complete” protein similar to eggs, dairy and meats. Even more impressive, one  ounce of pistachios contains  6 grams of protein — that’s as much protein as an egg!

Compared to other complete proteins that need to be cooked or refrigerated (like fish, beef or cheese), pistachios are more convenient for a grab-n-go post-exercise snack since they contain the amino acids required to build and maintain muscle mass and lean body tissue. Plus, being a complete plant-based protein,...

There is certainly a lot of discussion, confusion and often misinformation when it comes to the foods we eat.  However, when it comes to fish, the benefits are undeniable. Fish is one of the healthiest foods when balanced, of course, with other foods..  As a dietitian, that makes me smile ear to ear. Cold water fish is high in omega 3 fats and protein, and has plenty of other vitamins and minerals as well.

Unfortunately with a rapidly growing population, the popularity of many fish, like salmon, cod (and others) is at risk of overfishing. According to a United Nations report, humans consumed an estimated 333 billion pounds of fish in 2016. For years, the message around seafood has often been “wild is better” and farmed is dangerous.

But that message no longer rings true across the board. Seafood raised on farms - AKA aquaculture – is the wave of the future and will be essential if we want to continue to make salmon and other fish a regular part of our...

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We’ve partnered with Life Extension for this post. Opinions are our own.

The days of “no pain, no gain” and “rise and grind” seem to be a thing of the past; much like the short, polyester shorts my football coaches wore in the 90’s. More recently the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction and recovery is the “it” topic of the last several years, with TED talks on the subject, strength coaches measuring heart rate variability, to program workouts and companies pushing every gadget and product possible to capitalize on this latest trend.

In fact, many strength coaches are now focusing even more on recovery than simply training itself. 

“Early in my career I focused all my attention on training; now when I get a new client, I map out recovery strategies first because I realized a workout is only effective if the athlete is able to adequately recover from it” says strength coach Joe DeFranco, host of...

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We’ve partnered with Life Extension for this post. Opinions are our own.

I was playing tennis with a friend the other day. It was the day before Father’s Day and he had mentioned he needed to go to the doctor for a basic check-up since it had been a few years and he just recently celebrated his 40^thbirthday. He asked me if there was anything unique he should be asking his doctor about or checking into now that he’s entered the 4^thdecade.

Why yes, yes there is.  Typical checkups include a simple lipid panel.  Good start, but what else is going on – there’s more to your body and blood than just cholesterol and other lipids.

“Can my doctor do all these tests and are they covered by insurance– she usually just tells me about a lipid panel?” 

Sure can, but it will probably be out of pocket, depending on your insurance and what you want to look at.

I’m hesitant to offer recommendations unless...

<sub>The other morning I was driving the kids to school.  Each day in the car I ask the girls to create an intention for the day. As I got to that time in the morning drive, I said to Ella, "Ooh, It's Intention time. Okay, what are you thinking? What's your intention for today?"  Ella, sitting in the backseat, head down, was reading and I could tell she wasn't that interested in answering me.  She absently responded, "To pick a good book in library today."

I looked at her in the rearview mirror: "E.  You can't make that your intention.  You're going to do that anyway.  Let's think of something that stretches you a bit.  That you have to be - I don't know - Intentional about."  She put her book down and thought for a second before saying, "My intention is to not fight with Sophia."

Yessss. That's more like it I thought.
I responded with a smile and said, "That certainly is a good stretch goal."  I was about to move on to Sophia when a minute...</sub>

Today I want to start by introducing you to your roommate. Not necessarily the person you live with in your home.  Though you do live with them.  Constantly.  Do you know who they are?  They are the voice within your head.  Constantly narrating, describing and telling you what you should do.  And they definitely have an opinion about today’s topic.

Self-care. It’s an interesting word.  Although it sounds self-explanatory, many of us have no idea what it looks like.  Or, our “roommate” holds judgment about it.  We say things like self-care is selfish.  Self-care is for the weak or the indulgent.  Or perhaps we associate it with experiences that are removed from our daily lives, things like spa appointments and vacations, so it feels inaccessible.

So  we don’t take care of ourselves. We don’t give ourselves the very things we need to thrive.  Things like rest, healthy food, water, real...

I’m at the Louisville International Airport.  As a professional speaker who travels to most of my clients, this place and the way I move through it feels almost as familiar as my routines at home.

After I leave security, I stop and fill my water bottle at the same water fountain I always do.  I use the same restroom: the one right past security because the ones by the gates tend to be so busy.  I walk next to the moving sidewalk - not on it. At the end of the walkway, the airport divides into 2 Terminals: A or B.

I choose the opposite terminal of the one my flight leaves from.  My routine is to do a full lap at the opposite terminal before doing a lap at the other terminal.  Depending on the time and delays, I may do more laps.

This wasn’t always the case.  For a year or so I almost forgot that travel was the rule and not the exception in my life. Which means that any trip had the power to derail my choices and even my health.

Crappy weather...

The other day we were traveling to speak to a group of executives.

While grabbing breakfast, we were waiting to get some eggs, smoked salmon and some bacon.

We were in line behind someone and it seemed to be taking longer than it should. But we were talking and weren't rushed so it wasn't a concern.

As he got to the bottom of the bacon holding tray he turned around and said, "sorry about that, but I really enjoy bacon but they're bringing more" as I noticed the entire side of his to go container (imagine the biggest of the 3 sections) was completely overflowing with bacon. 

To estimate it was easily 1 pound on the side of his scrambled eggs. 

Wait?!  EGGS?!

But the headlines are out. Eating eggs causes heart disease. Yup, there it is again. While we wouldn't recommend adding raw eggs to a glass and drinking them like Rocky did in his first movie, eating eggs shouldn't quite cause the concerns it does. In fact, no food has probably caused more concern than eggs...

Reprinted with Permission from Men's Health https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a26882200/pesticides-in-kale/

Today the Environmental Working Group released this year’s update to their Shopper’s Guide to Produce. Their "Dirty Dozen" list ranks the pieces of produce that, according to their analysis, turn up with the highest concentration of pesticides and/or the the greatest number of different pesticides.

The screaming headline from this year's Dirty Dozen: After strawberries and spinach, kale comes in as the third "dirtiest" fruit or vegetable.

Kale.

KALE!

America’s beloved leafy green superfood—found everywhere from farmers' markets to Chick-Fil-A—is a newcomer to the Dirty Dozen list this year. According to EWG, the USDA hadn’t tested kale in a decade. What they discovered is that more than 90 percent of tested samples of kale had two or more pesticide residues—and multiple kale samples had 18 different pesticides.

Does this mean...