You've Come A Long Way Baby!

He ain't heavy, he's my son

Here we are. A year later. Boy am I grateful that Gino has returned to work, got back on the bike and is able to carry our son if he wanted to, among so many other things that we took for granted before the accident.

I'm so curious to see just how his lumbar spine fracture has healed. CT scan this week.

In hindsight, so many good things came out of this that it outweighs the bad.

1. It sure gave Gino a break from work. I definitely would have preferred us to go away on holiday for 6 months but hey! it takes something this serious to force him to take a breather.

2. All that time at home gave our son precious time with his dad. Their relationship has evolved to a whole new level since.

3. It made me read voraciously on how to help Gino heal as best as possible. And this made us change our eating habits and we are still improving it as we learn new things about food.

4. Gino has been a patient before with numerous knee procedures. But never at this level where his spine and his skull were fractured. We may have become the best physiotherapists in recovery after a spinal fracture!

5. We emerged stronger as a family. Getting through a difficult situation almost always does that.

At the end of the day. I am thankful. So very thankful. For health, for family, for good friends.

Green Juice

Sorry Gino, the bigger glass is all mine

Have you had your green juice today? 
I'd like to share what went into our green juice this morning. 
Bok Choy, brocolli, cucumber, 1 lemon, 1 lime and mint leaves.

Can you eat all these raw?

I always feel so satisfied just looking at the amount of greens that I could
consume so easily. If you drink your green juice on a empty stomach, your body 
just absorbs the micro nutrients like a sponge! Just imagine, all your cells getting the
goodness it needs to be healthy just like that!

We have not always been this watchful about our nutritional habits. It went to a whole new level after Gino's accident in April this year.

Incidentally because of his accident we also found out that Gino has osteopenia. This means that he has a lower bone density than a male his age. It is a level better than osteoporosis but hey we were still concerned because Gino had been very active all his life.

After numerous tests to ascertain the cause of lowered bone density, his endocrinologist concluded that his was due to genetics as everything else came back negative.

At first all I wanted was to ensure that Gino got good nutrition to give his body the best chance of healing well. This got me reading and cooking and watching many documentaries on food, sparking an interest in good eating practises. 

I had adopted a gluten and dairy free diet for almost 2 years now. Besides green juice, we eat very little refined and processed food. We make an effort to eat less meat. Gino has stopped drinking Coke and other soft drinks. Caffeine reduces bone density so Coke was the first thing to go! Plus too much sugar can also cause diabetes.

It is work in progress. We take it one meal at a time. In the end it is rewarding to feel better in our bodies and to see our son adopt some of our good eating practises :)

Eat Real Food

This is basically what the book Salt Sugar Fat is about......

Yes, eat real food, as close to nature as possible. It is what WE do to our food that is a real problem.
Processing, refining, reducing and altering food in general.

Forget about reduced fat and skim milk. The less processed the food the better it is. And if you are gonna eat fat, choose the best quality fat and go full-fat.

Try eating avocados, using olive oil or even coconut oil (yes, coconut oil is unfairly blamed for being unhealthy) for your cooking. Eat more nuts, wild salmon, grass fed butter and pastured fed cows if possible.

Take note of reduced fat food like skim milk and non fat yoghurt etc. When the fat content is removed from a cup of milk, you lose a significant volume of it, which then means it's replaced with milk that will have a higher concentration of sugar to fat ratio. And as you've read it's not the fat in milk which makes us fat, it's the sugar.

Not many of the major executives at major food companies eat their own products. Doesn't that tell you something? Also see food rules.

*Picture from Flickr.com
Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss

Fruits And Veggies Prescription From Your Doctor

What a wonderful idea. New York City is launching a pilot program at 2 hospitals - Harlem Hospital and Lincoln Medical Center to get New Yorkers to eat healthier. New Yorkers receive "prescriptions" to enable them to buy fruits and veggies at farmers markets.

This is part of a national campaign to help doctors change eating habits of their patients, especially high risk patients who really need to change their diet.

Patients will receive Health Bucks, $2 coupons than can be used at 142 farmers markets across the city. The patients will be monitored by the doctors for 4 months in this pilot program and also get their weight and body mass index evaluated.

Now that is a a good campaign to have here too.

*Picture from Gothamist.com