Love.
Can I share with you a wee little secret? Well. It's not a little... it's a huge God-sized dream in my heart.  But it may explain why I spend endless hours working on my craft... Can you even call Brain + Gut Health exploration a craft?

Anywho.
Focus Amber.

VIEW OF OUR LAKE PROPERTY

The thing is... I love it.  Honestly I spend hours pouring myself into my work because I love it and I love making YOU (my tribe) happy + helping other women tweak their daily habits to live a more vibrant + productive life.

However, here's the secret... it's not the only dream in my heart.   YIKES!  My God-sized dream is to own/operate an equine therapy ranch or a resort of sorts on our lake property.  A place where kids who need a wee bit more attention receive equine therapy... and while therapy is in session, their parents + I chat about nutrition - about household products - about mindset - about, well, Brain + Gut Health and steps they can do at home for their...

Take a beat to unplug from social media... the tele... what have you + spend a few moments in silence.  Reflecting on the day... and the good which came to be.

Did you grab groceries... bump into an old friend... get a letter in the mail which made you smile... stumbled upon a hilarious quote... wore two socks without holes in the toes... progressed in your handstand project... able to spend a few minutes coloring with your littles... got told "I love you"...

some thing GOOD happened... no matter how big or small

Trust me, I have had some pretty shy-tee days with a lot of roadblocks and mountains to climb... but the point is to shift your focus to the good... see the good.  There's something there.

Which brings me to this HEALTH HACK: End the day with gratitude!

In the book, “The Better Brain Solution” it mentions eating a cup of green leafy vegetables every day will make you (on average) 11 years physiologically younger than someone who doesn’t!

{ did you hear that... someone just shut the front door }

Some leafy greens include: spinach, kale, brussels, swiss chard, etc.  Now, I like to sneak spinach/kale into smoothies... toss them into scrambled eggs... serve as a big sass salad with a droopy egg on top. DELICIOUS!!!

Anywho. 
Leafy greens are loaded with fiber. vitamin K. folate. potassium. antioxidants. anti-inflammatory props and so much more.

How do you sneak leafy greens into YOUR plate? Need ideas, love.  Just ask belowor drop me an email...

NOTE:  one of my superpowers is getting my kids to eat veggies (the other superpower is speaking pig Latin fluently.) ightra?!?

Which brings me to this HEALTH HACK: Aim for at least 1 cup of leafy greens a day!

In a 2014 commencement speech at University of Texas at Austin, Admiral McRaven said:

“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.
By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.”

Anywho.  This brings me to the HEALTH HACK: Make Your Bed Each Morning

Powerful words, love. The simple task of making your bed first thing in the morning also has been linked to increased productivity, lowering one's stress level and improving one's mood as well as better quality of sleep.

It's a small task. Why not try... for a week to see how making your bed FIRST thing in the morning helps you! You in?  If you want to watch the video... here you go!

alright.

we are going to get the huge elephant out of the room FIRST... this recipe calls for dairy.  { GASP OF HORROR }.  it's true.  I said it... there.  in our household, we strive to keep dairy off our plates, but it happens.  we are human + before the Gillies, our 5yr old twins entered our world... mama + daddy loved them some dairy, particularly cheese.  

it wasn't until our journey into optimal brain + gut health, I realized MY belly doesn't tolerate dairy products well.  um... Amber, let's be real.  I knew my body didn't tolerate dairy well early on in life... for instance: 

1.  unfortunate incident at boyfriend (now hubster) family's fishing cabin... where I was meeting everyone for the first time + they served me homemade vanilla ice cream by the GALLON.  it may not be a gallon size but it took a toll on my gut + there is a hilarious story which developed from there.

2.  at a veterinary job interview, I met my...

dudes + dudettes.

there's a lot of questions popping up in my inbox about how I sneak vegetables into our Gillies, now 5yr old twins, menu.  and one way is through something we call, "emerald sunshine" in our house.  

it's basically a green juice we stumbled across on Kris Carr's website yet made a few tweaks based on mama's tastebuds + trial n' error.  isn't that how MOST good things are discovered?!?  

anywho. 

it's also important to note, that while we have been using this juice for prolly four years now... I recently came across an article which stated the following:  

by the year 2050, the United States will have 14 million people needing full-time care for Alzheimer's disease?
 

shut your face, right?!?  

just to be it into perspective: that number is roughly the entire current populations of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago put together.

I had to read this somewhere, it wasn't common knowledge for me... I'll try to source it,...

dudes + dudettes.

one question I tend to get DAILY is how do I typically break my fast!  well.  let's pump the breaks love.  first.  if you want to know why I tend to skip breakfast, you can score the details HERE! 

otherwise, let's move on.... shall we?  

now.  I love a good breakfast which includes:  eggs, avocado and leafy greens... it's one of my FAVORITE ways to kick off my nutrition; however, with this summer's schedule.  I am finding it a wee bit challenging to travel with my droopy eggs in a bowl.  and avocado doesn't really keep well in the ice-chest.  

that being said, I needed something to keep me FUELED UP with our fast-paced summer routine + energized to throughout the mid-morning/afternoon until I could hanker down for lunch... and lunch is typically around 2-3pm and is a BIG SASS COBB SALAD!  

anywho. 

I wanted to make sure the smoothie contained a few key things for optimal brain health... blueberries,...

as y'all prolly know... we try to limit dairy in this household for optimal gut health!
 
and ONE thing the hubster truly misses is ICE CREAM, I mean, we are from the South... so homemade vanilla ice cream from Blue Bell was kinda a staple growing up!
 
however, we learned how to whip up a delicious "ice" cream recipe while staying true to our nutritional plan and keeping everyone's gut happy
 
((( plus it's loaded with superfoodies, so that's an added bonus for this mama-bear! )))

GROCERIES:

• 5 medium bananas, cut into 1" pieces and FROZEN (tip: don't freeze with peel on, that's a hassle you don't want)
• 1-2 tbsp of cacao powder (superfoods)
• toppings... which we opt for crushed walnuts
• 1 tsp of almond butter

 
NOW WHAT?

1. place frozen bananas in the food processor... cover and blend
2. add cacao powder and almond butter...
3. cover and blend for 3-4 minutes or until smooth and fluffy!
4. serve with desired toppings and eat immediately!

if you try it, tag me and let me see!!!

How this health hack came to me was in a series of threes, that's how it happens doesn't it?  We joke in the veterinary ER world how things typically come in clusters of threes... three hit by car patients... three heart failures... three, well, you get the gist.  Anywho.  Here were my THREES: 

1. Chalene Johnson brought it up at a Marketing Impact Academy weekend conference in February.  I was blessed to be attending as a guest for a dear friend (love you, D!)
2. Once I got home, a video was popped up on my social media feed... thanks Big Brother... as a video I may be interested in.  It was Mel Robbins and you can read the article here, I couldn't find the darn video again.
3. Finally, with the excitement of a five-year old on Christmas morning... I run up to the hubster to tell him this revelation... Chalene Johnson + Mel Robbins said, first thing in the morning for me to put down the phone + to focus on ME!!!  His response... "I have been telling...

Now.  Let's be real, love... this was something I actually wasn't doing!  YIKES!!!  And it wasn't because I didn't have access to water.   Dude.  The water was right there on my nightstand - how freaking blessed am I, right?  BUT this habit of drinking first thing in the morning wasn't happening.  What would happen is a staggering-zombie walk down the hallway throughout the house to get to the bubbling coffee pot for some liquid caffeine.  

UGH!!! 

I was drinking caffeine... and pouring coffee straight into my gut + bloodstream BEFORE I hydrated myself.   It's not like I was consuming water during my sleep, so I was mostly likely a tad bit dehydrated in the morning.  No wonder my gut was angry shortly afterwards... TMI.  

Anywho.  This brings me to the HEALTH HACK: Start your day with 8oz of Water

Here's the Health Hack low-down... drink 8 oz of water FIRST thing in the morning!  I typically aim for 12...