By Dana Shultz of My Little Celebration

Question: How do you make Valentine’s Day even sexier than it already is? Easy. Make it vegan. Because nothing says sexy like healthy, and vegans know all about that.  

Vegans not only enjoy countless health benefits from their diet – like lowered risk of heart disease and a trim figure – but they also save cows left and right and promote fair treatment of all animals in the process. Does it get any sexier than that? I think not.

And the best part? Going vegan doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s as simple as finding ingredients that don’t contain animal products to substitute into your favorite recipes, like flaxseed for eggs, soy milk for cow milk, and vegan butter for real butter.

Needing some recipe inspiration to get you started? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered for Valentine’s Day – morning, noon and night.

View our slideshow to see recipes for Vegan Black Bean Brownie Pancakes, Vegan Peanut Stew, and more!

Have you ever pictured yourself doing a happy dance in the grocery store because you could afford oranges? No? Me neither, but that’s what happened during my 30-day challenge to feed my family of three at or near the poverty level. There were also moments of frustration and a few tears shed. Here’s how it all started …

I was roaming around a section of the USDA website where they keep track of over 8,000 families and what they spend every month for groceries. This helps them set four different budget levels: Thrifty (near the poverty level), Low, Medium, and Liberal.  Amounts are broken down by gender and age; kids and the elderly account for less money than 20-something guys, for instance. 

If you think this is a futile exercise and a waste of taxpayer money, you’d be wrong. If you’re going through a divorce, it’s likely that the courts will assess child support at the “Low” level, no matter your income. The food that our servicemen and women are served is budgeted at the Liberal level. So this monthly assessment by the government has a bigger effect than you might realize.

When I looked at the numbers, I realized my family was living at the “Low” level, but that wasn’t taking into account how often we eat out (two to three meals per week between lunches and dinner). The amount we spend does reflect us eating a lot of organic foods. Plus, we can sometimes be too wasteful; I cringe some weeks at what we throw away. It’s not just a waste of money, but a waste of resources for the planet.

Could our family live at the Thrifty level? What would it take? And what if I tried doing this while only shopping at Whole Foods, aka “Whole Paycheck”? And then what if I also threw a dinner party for eight as the very last meal?

I contacted Whole Foods and suggested a bet. If I could feed my family of three for 30 days exclusively from items purchased at Whole Foods for $491.10 they would reimburse me for my food. If I didn’t make it, they’d owe me nothing. The budget worked out to $16.31 cents per day total for all three of us. In case you’re wondering, here’s what we bought for the month.

Whole Foods said yes, my family was gung ho, and we were off on January 1st, shopping for over 90 minutes, trying to figure out what we could afford.   
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By Dr. Wayne Andersen, co-founder of Take Shape for Life

Type 2 diabetes is the most common kind of diabetes, accounting for more than 90% of cases. People are at the highest risk if they are overweight or obese. In addition, advancing age, smoking, and inactive lifestyles increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Complications of this common illness can be serious. Chonically high blood sugar can damage nerves and blood vessels, affecting your eyes, kidneys, and heart. You can develop hardening of your arteries, which in turn can lead to heart attack or stroke.

Type 2 diabetes is on the rise, mirroring our increasing rate of weight gain. It’s important to understand that our obesigenic (fat-producing) environment is taking a toll on our health through type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions that are the result of poor diet, insufficient sleep, and a sedentary lifestyle. Prescription medications treat the symptoms of the disease instead of creating health. Though we cannot change our world overnight, we can change how we respond to it. Changing our focus from reacting to what is wrong to creating what we want in terms of our health is critical. We make over a 1,000 small choices a day, which either contribute to, or erode, our overall physical health. We CAN create health—and here’s how.
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By Lauren O’Connor, MS, RD for Nutri-Savvy.

You may tread on it, wear it, and yes, even ingest it! The same chemical used in making tires and the make-up you wear may be found in a wide variety of common, everyday food products.

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is a synthetic chemical found in petroleum, rubber, cosmetics, animal feed, and food packaging. Because it prevents oxidation, it is also used to “preserve freshness” in food products. It works by retarding rancidity and eliminating odors in fat and oil-containing foods. Though an “antioxidant,” this widely-used substance may be cause for concern.

The exposure to BHA in foods increased nearly two-fold from the 1970s to the early eighties, with US annual usage rising from 170,000 kg to 300,000 kg. The additive may be found in butter, meats, cereals, chewing gum, baked goods, snacks, nut products, dry beverage mixes, active dry yeast, dehydrated potatoes and beer! And let’s not forget the environment: If you work around livestock or in the cosmetics, rubber or petroleum industries, you have increased exposure. Fast-food employees who cook and serve fried, oily foods are also more exposed.
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By Kelly Canull, an online soul and life coach at KellyCanull.com.

Every year, heart disease claims more and more lives. Countless people have had their journeys needlessly cut short. Even more people have been unable to receive the mindful and soulful benefits of having those people in their lives. Heart disease and other violent matters of the physical body are working against us, keeping us from fulfilling our destinies, and from touching the lives of those we know and love.

The Holistic Approach to a Healthy Heart

Your health is the most important tool you have in your pursuit of a higher purpose in life. And I’m not just talking about your body. Your mind, body, and spirit all require a healthy prognosis in order to reach their full potential.

The holistic student is one who understands that everything is connected. A symptom cannot be treated on its own in the holistic setting, because its mal-effects are able to travel across borders and infect every facet of your life, even if that doesn’t seem quite possible.

For instance, when you get a stomach bug, your physical body becomes worn down, which in turn darkens your mind, and even corrupts the light of your spirit. One cannot have the body treated and ignore the mind and spirit.

Your heart is a special place. Each of us is born with a guide, a Divine Guide, which helps conduct us through life in a purposeful manner and leads us ever on to the glories of inner peace. This Divine Guide lives in our soul, moves throughout our bodies, and uses our hearts as its voice.
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