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Fuel Up!

Calling all Paddle Board Racers! The race is only a few days away and the most important thing you can do now is fuel your body with the right nutrition.

Remember carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of fuel. In the next two days you want to stock up on the complex carbs. These are things like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, oats, quinoa and vegetables. Complex whole-food carbs provide the most sustaining long-term energy. Refined carbohydrates are a big no if you want to give yourself the best chance; they are empty calories with minimal nutrition that spike your insulin levels. That means stay away from the white sugar, white flour and white pasta!

To assist you in your race preparations Help Yourself is offering all race participants a 10% discount at the café for the next three days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). And because everything is organic and we don’t use any refined carbohydrates in the restaurant you can rest assured all the food will be the right fuel for the race! Check out our website for the menu – www.helpyourselfcafe.com. Just give your race registration number to receive your discount.

Race Day Breakfast – It is important to fuel up with proper nutrition several hours before the race allowing your body time to digest the food. Pre-order your race day breakfast at Help Yourself on Friday so it’s ready for an early morning pick-up on Saturday.

We recommend the Power Bowl or The Super Food Smoothie (specially designed for the race) as a great pre-race breakfast.

Super Food Smoothie – Strawberry , Banana , Oats, Hemp seed, Spirulina, Goji berries, Acai powder, Maca Powder blended with house made coconut milk- $12.00

This is a thick carbohydrate rich 16 oz smoothie with plenty of calories and packed full of nutrition. Because it is blended it is already pre-digested, therefore requires less work on our digestive system so the nutrients can be easily assimilated.

Power Bowl – Whole oat groats, Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Goji Berries, Hemp Seeds – $7.00

This is a warm oatmeal bowl made from whole oat groats. Oats are a complex carbohydrate, with a low glycemic index and provide a slow release of energy.

Fresh Local Coconut Water – $4.50 – Natures best energy drink packed full of minerals and electrolytes and great for staying hydrated.

On April 22^nd millions of people around the world unite to celebrate, appreciate and inspire awareness for the Earths unique place in the Universe.

Realizing that widespread environmental destruction was happening Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, founded the Earth Day celebration hoping to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda. On April 22, 1970, over 20 million people joined together to participate in the first ever Earth Day. Earth Day is now observed on April 22 each year by over a billion people in 190 countries.

That first year saw massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

This year, the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. Individuals and organizations the world over are taking environmental action to a new level. The core of this anniversary year is the Billion Acts of Green campaign. “The goal of the campaign is to aggregate the millions of environmental service commitments that individuals and organizations around the world make each year – thereby sending a powerful message that people from all walks of life are committed to solving climate change.” You can go onto their website www.earthday.org and add your act of green to be part of the change.

Earth Day reminds us we all share the same planet. Our Key West philosophy of One Human Family is crucial here. Sharing the Earth means taking responsibility for what we use and how we use it. It doesn’t take much to change something in your life that will make the earth a better place.

On Earth Day we are giving away FREE organic coffee to anyone that brings their own reusable coffee mug. We will also be donating 5% of our sales to Eco Week.

After Earth Day we will continue to reward customers that bring their own coffee mugs by giving back 15 cents from each coffee as a start to our ‘pre-cycle’ program.

We should all make a concerted effort to make Earth Day part of our every day lifestyle.

This week:

We were very sad to cancel our Friday night Valentine’s Event, but are bouncing with excitement because the Farmers’ Market on Sunday will be even better – we’re moving some of Friday’s event over to Sunday! … We have all the usual wonderful organic produce (see below for more details!), and also some wonderful Valentine’s Day tips:

• At 10:30am, Charlie will be demonstrating some good-for-you-chocolate Valentine’s Day treats that are super easy to make at home for your family or loved ones
• At 12:30pm, motivational speaker Kevin Gianni from The Renegade Health Show will be talking about Food Cravings and teach us how we can overcome them.

Your Shopping Lists:

New potatoes are in season – yippee! And we’re delighted to see so many heirloom varieties making their way to market – the beautiful colors of Carrots and Tomatoes have been a joy, and quite a talking point these past few weeks! This week the heirloom carrots are back, as is rainbow chard. We’re also very pleased to see the arrival of Spinach in amongst our more regular greens.

• Greens: Green and Heirloom Rainbow Chard, Savoy Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, Asian Mix
• Veggies:  Grape Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Heirloom Carrots, Cauliflowers, White and Portabella Mushrooms, Radishes, New Potatoes, Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Herbs: Dill, Garlic Chives, Flat Italian Parsley
• Extras: Eggs … and lots of Valentine’s treats for you to buy and take home

p.s. Have you watched our Valentine’s video, yet?

See you on Sunday!

Let’s face it, it’s gotten cold again! And thunderstorms are forecast for Friday night. So we’ve taken the sad decision to cancel our Valentine’s Event.

BUT DO NOT WORRY … we’re moving it all to Sunday -Valentine’s Day! …

Check out the Farmers’ Market post for details!

We have had such a great response from our Raw Detox programs, almost 80 people that have either completed it or signed up for it, that we decided to throw a party! And with Valentine’s Day just around the corner it makes it a double celebration!

So come and join us on Friday 12th February between 6pm and 8pm at Help Yourself and “Fall in Love with Real Food”! (We even made a Valentines video for you!)

We will have our tents set up outside the restaurant where:

• Charlie will be demonstrating some healthy valentines treats that are super easy to make at home for your family or loved ones.
• Motivational speaker Kevin Gianni from The Renegade Health Show will be speaking about Food Cravings and teach us how we can overcome them.
• We will have a raw tapas bar so you can sample some of our tasty raw dishes!

And of course it will be a great way meet and catch up with other people that are passionate about healthy living and real food!

Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased at Help Yourself, 829 Fleming Street (corner of Fleming and Margret) or call 305 296 7766 to reserve a ticket.

Hope to see you there!

We love hearing from all of you – our fabulous friends and customers.  And when we start to hear a theme from you all, we absolutely cannot ignore it!!

It seems that while we are are able to inspire you with real food from the restaurant, you seem to be looking for a little extra help and inspiration in your own kitchens, and when buying your own groceries.

So we’re planning classes to help you to help yourselves!

But which class to start with?!

Well, we looked back at the 30 Days to Help Yourself challenge to remind ourselves what had been most useful in helping kick-start Leigh into action … and we came to the conclusion that what everyone needs most is a little:

Kitchen Therapy

Real strategies for

Losing Weight, Increasing Energy & Preventing Disease

With:

Donna Shields, MS, RD, LD

Registered Dietitian, Integrative Nutritionist

&

Charlie Wilson

Whole Foods Chef, (our very own) Owner of Help Yourself Organic Restaurant!

Learn simple steps to make 2010 the

Healthiest Year of Your Life

• Detoxify Your Diet
• Straight Talk about Supplements
• The Whole Foods Pantry without Barcodes
• Intelligent Grocery Shopping
• Cooking Demos, Product Sampling & Lunch
  

Saturday, February 6^th, 11am – 1pm

$100 per person (lunch included)

Unity Church, 1011 Virginia St

Please register and pay in advance at Help Yourself

829 Fleming St (corner of Margaret & Fleming) (305) 296-7766

Space is limited for a personalized experience

3-Day Raw Food Detox

For the ultimate boost in your nutrition, join us this week

Wednesday 20th, Thursday 21st, Friday 22nd January

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner + daily juice and coconut water

Supercharge your body for the New Year!

Eating raw gives you the nutrients your body’s been craving: the enzymes, the vitamins and the minerals. They’re not destroyed by cooking so your body gets a super-boost.

You’ll have more energy and you’ll feel great!

Add a 1-day juice fast on Saturday 23rd for an even greater boost!
for just $25 extra, receive 5 freshly pressed juices and 2 fresh coconut waters

We want to thank all of our fabulous customers for your amazing support

Please join us at the restaurant to celebrate at our

BIRTHDAY PARTY

Wednesday 21st Oct, between 6:30pm and 8:30pm

We’re serving up FREE music, snacks and sangria (organic of course!)

We’ll also be announcing the WINNER of the “30 Days to Help Yourself” challenge

See you there!

We’re looking for Superstar Smoothie Makers and Fabulously Passionate Cooks.

Are you passionate about real food?
Excited by serving customers?
Amazing at multi-tasking?
Experienced in Food Service?

Stop by the restaurant with your resume, or call and ask for Charlie.

The Help Yourself Team

We send our kids to school to learn. Sometimes we forget that education is more than just about passing tests.

We love that so many schools around the country are trying to start their own gardens for teaching, as well as for eating. It’s amazing what can be learnt from growing a garden. There’s the science around growing: weather, plants, nutrition; there’s the sociology and history of how we used to live and how others live; there’s geography, the environment and sustainability; and there are also wonderful life skills around planning, organization and problem solving.

In our rushed lives it is often taken for granted that if we want something, we should get it immediately. How often are we frustrated when we don’t get what we want, NOW? Growing food is an amazing opportunity for the kids to learn patience, and find that the reward for their efforts is all the sweeter when they experience the thrill of eating something delicious that they have personally taken the time to create.

At Help Yourself, we also find ourselves super-excited about the opportunity of re-education in real food. We are very excited about the next generation reconnecting with where their food comes from and learning the importance of real food.

Getting the kids excited about their food is a joy to see. And even better that natural, organic, freshly prepared food, tastes delicious!