Eat FAT, Stay SKINNY

I'm a breakfast girl.  I loooove breakfast.  The picture below was taken maybe a month ago and big deal, right?  A bunch of eggs and bacon -- well, these are not just any eggs and bacon-- these are grass fed, pasture raised organic eggs and bacon that literally fueled me 'til dinner while hiking and running over 10 miles in the High Sierra Nevada Mountains. Now that's a breakfast of champions.

Since then, I've actually been fairly fascinated with the concept of eating fat, because I literally had so much energy that day. Now, I'm talking about high quality fat, mind you, not the trans fats that are in packaged, processed foods or unstable cooking oils.

The fat of the matter is (eh? anyone?), I eat a fairly high fat diet. Fat does not spike your blood sugar, like at all, it's a slow burning source of fuel.  It's the lowest of the low on the glycemic index scale.  So, that's why when we eat cereal or even oatmeal for breakfast, we get hungry just an hour or two later, but when we eat eggs and bacon (hopefully, really cleanly sourced) we can just keep going like the energizer bunny.  Literally, the less you spike your blood sugar, the less your cortisol has to manage your insulin, which means the less your body produces fat. 

Making breakfast before the 10 miler up and down a mountain.  I had no idea what I was in for when I started the day.

So, what about heart disease and all that good stuff, you ask.  Well, recent studies are all proving that fat, even saturated fat, does not cause heart disease or clog your arteries.  It's actually all the sugar and processed foods.  (For more info on these studies go here and here.)  This is one of the reasons why the Mediterranean diet is revered as so healthy.

Plus, eating fat is awesome for your brain.  I remember a cleanse I did a year or so ago, where I juice fasted for about 10 days and man, my body and my brain just craved eggs.  Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs. That was my brain. On a juice fast. Eggs.

Eating low fat or avoiding fat for a while is actually what convinced me that it is so vitally healthy for our bodies.  

Anyway, here is a list of fatty foods that I enjoy often:

-avocado, nuts and seeds, coconut, coconut oil, olives, olive oil, grass fed butter, fish, meat (yes, usually dark meat and red meats - preferably grass fed or at least organic, although I'm not always great at this.). I even make my pancakes and cakes with almond flour or coconut flour . . . and I cook with butter and coconut oil instead of vegetable oils.

Here are the list of fatty foods that I try to avoid:

-vegetable oil, canola oil, deep fried foods from restaurants, processed foods and packaged foods like crackers, pastries, cereals, chips . . . ehhh, you get the point . . . 

What a Riot

Being an actress definitely has its ups and downs.  These past two weeks have been pretty up as I’ve been able to attend a couple screenings of two films I’ve been in in the past year.

Usually, when I book a project people ask me, “When can we watch it?” and my answer usually is, “I have no idea”.

Some of my films never come out of the woodworks.  And then other times I get surprised, like when I got off my day job one evening and my phone had exploded with texts from people who had seen me on ABC’s ‘What Would You Do’ where I had played an abused girlfriend.  (While filming this episode, the host John Quinones called me “Remy” to which, I promptly interrupted him as he was talking to the camera and was like, “--it’s Renny”). Usually, I don’t bother to correct people because they get my name wrong every day, but hey, if my name is going to be mentioned on national television, it better be right!

Or the time, a near perfect stranger walked up to me and said, “Hey, were you in ‘Vamp U’?” Totally taken aback, I replied, “Yes”, and he proceeded to tell me that he and his buddies have a habit of renting the most obscure movies off of Redbox and that one happened to be one of them.  

Well, this week, I was able to watch Riot where I played a district attorney working to expose corruption within the local prison and government. Let me just say, that seeing one of my films for the first time is terrifying.  I always resolve to put a smile on my face, but the anxiety that I experience from watching myself usually makes me quite short of breath, over heated and a little nauseous, (panic attack anyone)?

The funny thing about “Riot” is, it had the MMA fighter Chuck Liddell in it, whom I didn’t even get to meet until the screening, as well as Dolph Lundgren from Rocky 4 whom I barely met on the last day of shooting.  (Fun tidbit about Dolph: his partner was giggling at the fact that he was taking more selfies than his teenage daughter - it was even funnier to hear him explain in his accent that it was for ‘social media’.)

So, where can you watch "Riot"? I have no idea.  The good news is, it's been purchased by Universal which means it will be available somewhere, sometime. You might even find it on TV one day, before I do =)

Watch the trailer for Riot below!

How to NOT get sick this Winter

My superhuman immune system has been compromised.  

Several years ago, I got through a winter living with 4 other people who all got some form of narly flu or cold not once, but TWICE, yet, I stayed healthy the entire winter.

I’m not really sure why I didn’t get sick back then. I wasn’t pro-actively trying to prevent sickness. I’ve never been one to take echinacea or even get a flu shot. So, when I realized I made it through the winter unscathed, I actually, believed that I was kind of, sort, awesomely, invincible -- and that maybe my immune system had superpowers or something.  Since then, my mentality has simply been: I don’t get sick.  

Literally, I wrote this post last week at 1 am with these words:

I am declaring a goal, a decree - to NOT GET SICK this winter.  In fact, I refuse…

and then woke up at 4 am vomiting my guts out. Obviously, my superhuman immune system has its kryptonite.

So, here’s my new goal: to get healthy again and remain healthy all winter long. And here is my plan to do so:

1. Take On-Guard.

Like I said, I’ve never been a big echinacea girl, or Air-Borne taker, but my hubby and I felt a little tickle in our throats a couple times last year and knocked it out with On-Guard. I’ve been a believer ever since. I've been taking it since my little episode this past week and believe the symptoms have been shortened significantly.

2.Take a healthy dose of probes.  

(Haha, “probiotics” that’s an inside joke to myself.)  I take capsules, usually Garden of Life brand, as well as rotate my fermented veggies like sauerkraut and kimchee.  And of course, my obsession with kombucha is still alive and well.  

3.  Take Shark Oil.  

Ok. I haven’t tried this one yet. I’m fairly loyal to fermented cod liver oil, but one of my good friends swears she didn’t get sick last year due to Shark Oil. Definitely worth a try.

4. Get enough sleep.

This one is tough for me, I’m naturally a night owl and insomnia creeps into my brain now and again.  But, I know that when I don’t get enough sleep, life just sucks. 

5. Drink bone broth.

I know, this sounds like a weird one, but there’s a reason why Chicken Noodle Soup is not just for the soul.  The age-old remedy of boiling the Sunday roast’s bones and making a soup out of  happens to be incredibly healing and full of trace minerals, calcium, phosphorus, silicon and sulphur. Also, an incredible source of collagen for those of us who care about hair, skin and nails.  This remedy is making it's comeback.  I've heard about it all over the blog-o-sphere (and podcast-o-sphere).  There is even a new book out called The Bone Broth Miracle by Chef Ariane that is one of the next books to read on my list.

So there it is, my decree.  Despite my kryptonite, I invite you to join me.

*I would LOVE to hear your strategies or what you swear by to remain healthy, all winter long.

Just Let Go

Posing with Henry Ian Cusick, also known as Desmond from "Lost".

About a year ago, I received a call from my agent saying that I had been cast in a film called "Just Let Go". Based on the book by Chris Williams, it's the true story of his family who was killed in a car accident by a teenage drunk driver and how Chris, ultimately made the decision to forgive the young man who was driving.

My character, Jillian was a co-worker with not only advice for Chris, but also had romantic interest in him.  I prepared my character and walked on to set on the film's last day of shooting.  I was told the energy on set so far had been intense and quite somber because of the content of the film, but since my scenes were a bit less serious I was able to see the cast and crew get quite goofy, as weeks of filming were coming to a close.

Posing with Annie, Henry Ian Cusick's wife, who was on set with her son during filming process. Such a doll. Killer fashion, killer figure and killer advice for one young padawan like me.

When we filmed my scene with Henry Ian Cusick who played Chris Williams, we were able to improvise and play a little . . . usually, there's not enough time for such antics =)  Film is funny in that if you're a day player, you usually meet your co-workers that day and then get down to business.  So, we had to figure out our 'relationship' right on set, pretty much while the camera was rolling.  How much was I going to come on to him?  In what way?  What was too much, and what wasn't enough? 

Brenda Vaccaro! One of the most hilarious women I've met. I true actor's actor and hilarious in the film as Chris's mom.

I have to admit, I wish I had had more scenes just so I could've hung out more with Brenda Vaccaro! While I didn't get to meet her on set, I met her at the screening - and man, she is as full of life on screen as she is off!  She played Chris's mother and was the perfect amount of comic relief for a film so serious.

This is Chris William's himself!  His story of forgiveness is quite incredible and heart wrenching. I was not only moved by his capability to forgive but also about the notion of what forgiveness actually is.  

It was mentioned the night of the screening in a question and answer session afterwards that forgiveness is not a feeling.  It's a decision.  It's a decision that often requires action and that most times, needs to be made over and over, until there is enough healing that can take the place of the pain.  I have often thought that forgiveness is what happens once there's has already been healing.  

Chris Clark, co-director. So generous and giving on set.  He and Patrick Henry Parker, his co-director had Ian and me play with our scene and try it several different ways.  An actor's dream.

I want to give props to Chris Clark as well as Patrick Henry Parker, the directors of this film.  They had such amazing drive and fortitude to get the movie finished and were completely gracious with everyone involved.  Thank you for choosing to make this story come to life and for bringing me on to participate in such a small way!

How the Mind-Body Connection is for Reals

I have always been fascinated with healing.

I’m also a Gemini.  I used to hate being a Gemini - people would always say, “oh, so you have a dark side” or “so, you’re flakey”.  Right.

Until, I met Angela Nelson.  

We are both Gemini’s and I learned from her that we are incredibly smart (true), witty (also true), sociable (sometimes true), adventurous (true!) and love to travel (very true!).  Yes, we can also be indecisive, anxious and stray from our desired path, but that’s beside the point.

I was fascinated with Angie.  First, of all, she’s gorgeous.  She has a modern elegance that is rare in a woman these days.  And second of all, she’s a healer. She’s a massage therapist who specializes Structural Integration which is type of massage that is known for getting the body proper in alignment as well as a Reiki Master.

Plus, she’s a pole dancer. Like a legit, won 2nd place at the most recent National Championships, type pole dancer.  

Like I said: Fascinating and elegant.

Years ago, Angie and I used to stand for hours in the mall selling makeup to people.  We were “Beauty Ambassadors” trying to spread the good word of beauty in the form of mineral makeup.  Really, we were just trying to make a buck supporting our true passions: being artists.

What I never considered before was the artistic, creative process of being a healer.

Angie, explained to me recently that with each client who comes to her with a certain issue, she has the opportunity to be creative in how she navigates her treatment.  

For instance, when she meets a client she knows how each type of massage technique will affect a person’s body but that there is also an intuition in knowing what someone's body will need that she has developed over the years.

She explained to me that “everything is a form of energy” and as a Reiki Master she is able to pull “more universal light energy through [her] body, through [her] hands” and that a “person’s body will respond to that energy and know what to do”.  She further explained that it’s similar to a loving mother comforting her child, but as a trained Reiki Master she has more awareness and more access to that energy.

Angie told me that one of the most profound things she learned while becoming a therapist was that “our bodies, our emotions, our minds are not separate.  They’re 100% integrated with each other”.  

This resonates so deeply with me because as an actor, I use my body to access my emotions and vice versa I also use my emotions to create a physical reality in my body.

This mind-body connection goes even deeper than we think.  She said, “Brain nervous tissue is found throughout your whole body even if it’s microscopic. And it’s very concentrated in a sac around your heart called the pericardeum and also in your solar plexus.  So, when you have very real feelings in your heart, or knowings in your heart, there’s brain tissue talking to you.” Mind. Blown.

Finally, I wanted to know how her work made her happier in everyday life.  She quoted Dr. Ida Rolf who said, “Movement is Life."

She continued, "I grew up dancing. I still dance. It’s how I best express myself, how I honestly express who I am. Anytime I’m not dancing or moving, I get grouchy.  With my work doing massage, people come in and they have pain - [I'm] moving the actual energy through their body, increasing that blood and circulation through their body.  If you’re body is moving you’ll always be processing your emotions and working through things and so that’s what I do--- I want people to be able to move and function so that they can live more life."

So dance, move, get massaged . . . for Movement is Life.

Angela Nelson, LMT can be contacted at:

801-864-2814 or nelson.angie@hotmail.com or at:

https://www.facebook.com/nelsonalignmenttherapy?fref=ts