Both Feet on the Ground Shares Profoundly Therapeutic Benefits Of Immersion In The Natural World
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You’re stressed out, tired of looking at the same four walls, drained by the negativity on social media, and exhausted from juggling work with homeschooling and entertaining your kids. No matter your age, location, or financial standing, there is a simple, effective therapy that is abundantly available, and it’s right outside your door.
“Get out and stay out—as often and for as long as you can,” champions Marshall Ulrich in his latest release, Both Feet on the Ground: Reflections from the Outside.
Ulrich, an ultrarunner who has also scaled the Seven Summits and competed in multi-day adventure races, shares stories of his expeditions in such far-flung places as Borneo, Tibet, and South Africa, as well as his lifelong commitment to farming his land in Colorado. Ulrich has climbed Mount Everest, run through the searing heat of the Gobi Desert, and ridden the huge waves off Morocco. But there’s no need to be an extreme athlete to reap the benefits of forming physical connections with the natural world.
Ulrich urges readers to simply unplug, plant their feet firmly in the earth, fill their lungs with clean air, and dream of bold and personally compelling outdoor adventures.
“Your adventures in natural places—even if, for now, it’s just sitting outside or walking around your neighborhood—can put you back in touch with who you are; how resilient, resourceful and hardy you can be,” Ulrich says.
Throughout Both Feet on the Ground, Ulrich shares valuable insights from his endeavors, along with useful findings and recommendations from other experts, all organized around themes of earth, air, fire and water. His hope is that you’ll be inspired to find new ways of engaging with these natural elements yourself to experience the healing powers of the outside world.
Author Marshall Ulrich is an extreme endurance athlete—ultrarunning icon, Seven Summits mountaineer, and adventure racer—who loves sharing his exploits to entertain and help mo-tivate others to reach their goals. He’s raced, led expeditions, or climbed mountains in nearly 30 countries, and visited 30 more, so his stories are about more than just physical accom-plishments. Cutting his teeth running across Death Valley, he’s also climbed Mount Everest, run in the jungles of Fiji, and completed a record-setting run across America. Dubbed the Endurance King, he defies the ideas of “too far,” “too old” and “not possible.” Revered among athletes, Marshall is also the author of Running on Empty. An acclaimed speaker, he’s lec-tured on various elite cruise lines, and given talks at businesses, schools, race expos, and professional conferences, including the Royal Geographic Society, Morgan Stanley, and Wilderness Medicine.
Both Feet on the Ground: Reflections from the Outside Publisher: DNA Books Released: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-950349-02-9 hardcover ISBN: 978-1-950349-04-3 paperback Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other online retailers
Trish Stevens Anna Lee Simpson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Short On Inspiration While Dining In? My Pinewood Kitchen Dishes Out Some Quarantine Cuisine Tips
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With COVID-19 keeping us at home more and shopping less, home chefs need to get creative while cooking tasty, healthy meals for their entire family. Chef and author Mee McCormick is an expert: she healed herself of Crohn’s disease, gut issues, and other immune system challenges with whole food recipes when doctors couldn’t help her.
The mom/rancher/restaurateur can share tips for “quarantine cuisine” when you’re hankering for variety in your meals but you’re short on ingredients and inspiration. Perfect for social distancing, many of her recipes are made with items you probably already have in your pantry (for example, her Black Bean Chicken Chili and Immune-Boosting Chicken & Quinoa Soup); she can teach home cooks how to repurpose items to reduce food waste (cilantro pickles, anyone?), and reveal the healthiest foods you need in your pandemic pantry.
My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure offers more than 100 gluten-free, whole foods recipes that can be customized for Keto, Paleo, or vegans, making it a truly “all-inclusive” eating plan for the entire family. From smoothies, soups and salads, to dinners and desserts, every recipe is gluten-free and gut-friendly. • Curb Your COVID Anxiety with healthy chocolate with Mee’s Chocolate Avocado Mousse & Five-Ingredient Fudge Cups • Soups for Social Distancing – Black Bean Chicken Chili and Immune-Boosting Chicken & Quinoa Soup (nutritious, delicious, and they use what you likely have in your home already!) • Plenty of plant-based offerings • Reduce Waste: Learn how to make cilantro pickles from cucumbers, sweet potato chips from sweet potatoes, a falafel burger from canned chickpeas, and how to make your own healthier ketchup and mayonnaise if you run out • 10 Gut-Friendly Foods for your Pandemic Pantry
Mee McCormick is a rising Southern culinary and wellness innovator, restaurateur, author, TV cooking personality, farmer, rancher, wife and mother. She splits her time between Nashville and nearby Nunnelly, Tennessee; a tiny, unincorporated community in Hickman County, which is also home to her biodynamic farm and restaurant Pinewood Kitchen & Mercantile.
Mee authored her first cookbook My Kitchen Cure, which led to wild success and a book deal with HCI for her second cookbook My Pinewood Kitchen, published on April 14, 2020. She frequently appears on Today in Nashville, and she participates in nationally-recognized food festivals and events, spreading the same level of care and hospitality to audiences everywhere that she has become known for throughout the state of Tennessee. Visit: www.meemccormick.com or www.pinewoodkitchenandmercantile.com.
My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure/130+ Crazy Delicious, Gluten-Free Recipes to Reduce Inflammation and Make Your Gut Happy By Mee McCormick HCI BOOKS Release Date: April 14, 2020/ $26.95 ISBN: 9780757323522 Available wherever books are sold
Trish Stevens Kim Weiss Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Emotional Brain Training – A New Antidote To Pandemic Stress
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Stress is overwhelming our nation. We are all in the same situation and need to unlock our brain’s natural powers to process stress back to health, happiness and purpose. New York Times bestselling author and health psychologist Laurel Mellin delivers a unique, proven way to switch off that stress with “What’s my number?” One Simple Question that Unlocks Your Brain’s Power for Health, Happiness & Purpose.
“We are entering the Age of the Emotional Brain, a time when the overwhelming chaos, shrinking resources, gaslighting and gridlock cause so much brain stress, that we have outstripped the thinking brain’s capacity to cope,” Dr. Mellin writes. “We need to reset our approach to play by the rules of the emotional brain. By doing that one thing solutions to life’s challenges appear. We unlock the amazing power of the brain.”
“What’s my number?” offers a profoundly effective way to alter how we process daily life to meet the high-stress demands of our times. Through emotional brain training (EBT), we can use the power of our own emotions to crush cravings and regain control; clear away ineffective beliefs; deal with workplace stress; relieve anxiety, depression and hostility; resolve conflicts in relationships; boost our sense of purpose; and create joy in our lives.
Consider the following: • Traditional methods for stress reduction were developed 50 to 100 years ago and are no longer relevant to today’s overwhelming stress levels. • Before 1990, stress was low enough that we could think and do our way out of problems. With far more stress, the emotional brain takes charge. This brain does not change by thoughts or actions, but by emotions, so we need a new system for processing daily life. • This system is easy, fast and can switch off stress and activate positive emotions in about four minutes. • Stress is the number one epidemic worldwide and the physiological root cause of common diseases (diabetes, cancer and heart disease) and causes or exacer-bates all emotional, behavioral and relationship problems. • We have cracked the code on emotions and developed a simple system for pro-cessing emotional stress and switching off stress overload that anyone can use.
“What’s my number?” offers the keys to unlocking the brain’s power to turn off stress so that we can stem the negative cascade of emotions, resolve conflicts, boost our sense of purpose and create more joy in our lives.
Dr. Laurel Mellin is the founder of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a neuroscience-based solution to stress. She is a health psychologist and Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Mellin is a New York Times bestselling author and researcher, speaker and clinical trainer. EBT is the only method that maps the emotional brain; the seat of health, happiness, spirituality, relationships and productivity in a structured way that empowers people to self-direct their own emotional health and well-being.
“What’s my number?” One Simple Question that Unlocks Your Brain’s Power for Health, Happiness & Purpose Release Date: April 2020 Publisher: EBT Books ISBN-10: 1893265013 ISBN-13: 978-1893265011 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Teresa Hinojosa Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 832.569.5773 Direct 281.333.3507 Phone 832.569.5539 Fax [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Chocolate: A (Healthy) Anxiety Cure For COVID-19 Stress
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In this virulent climate of self-isolation and serious immune system compromises, author/chef, Mee McCormick is mindful of how a rise in anxiety can find us craving snacks. Instead of a quick fix, she goes straight to her kitchen with the intent to shift her gut bacteria – important for keeping our immune systems strong – as addressed in her new book, My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure. An expert whose personal experience healing her Crohn’s disease, gut issues and immune system challenges makes her well equipped to share the whole food recipes doctors couldn’t prescribe to help her.
Enter one of our favorite snacking foods, chocolate. Says McCormick, “Cocoa is a pre-biotic plant food – this means it feeds the good probiotic bacteria or, as I like to call them, The Good Gut Homies. These Gut Homies live in our intestines.”
McCormick says the consumption of dark chocolate has been found to lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease, protect our DNA and improve gut bacteria. She points to research at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research where they designed a study to test whether eating chocolate could mitigate the stress-related effects on the microbiome. Dividing participants into two groups – high anxiety and low anxiety and testing their urine and blood for stress markers – each participant ate one chocolate bar (containing 74% cocoa) a day for 2 weeks. The study found cortisol and adrenaline decreased as well as their p-cresol and Hippurate; metabolites created from the Good Gut Homies. High anxiety group levels dropped down to the levels of the low anxiety group – all within a 2-week period, thus the importance of cooking with cocoa.
Take, for instance, how combining cocoa with black beans takes our gut health to another level as they also have a profound influence on our microbiome by feeding the probiotic bacteria that support the mucosal lining of the intestines. Bean eaters have been found to have an 81% decrease in the harmful gut bacteria that break down the protective mucosal lining. Supporting our intestinal lining is key in preventing leaky gut. Mee McCormick has a Chocolate and Black Bean Hummus that will surprise you with its nutritiously delicious taste and texture. Shown below is an example of another chocolate -centered dish, a super easy recipe to whip up during COVID cabin fever.
This chocolate recipe is mixed with avocado in a delicious mousse (found on page 277 of Mee’s book, My Pinewood Kitchen):
Chocolate-Avocado Mousse (Makes 4 servings) In the bowl of a food processor, blend 4 ripe avocados until smooth. Add 1/3 cup local honey or coconut nectar*; 1 ripe banana; 1/2 cup raw cacao powder; 2 tbsp. organic coconut milk; 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt. Blend until the mixture is uniform. Pour into a dish and chill for 2 hours in a refrigerator or 30 minutes in a freezer.
If watching sugar, use an equivalent amount of stevia; however, coconut nectar is low glycemic.
Mee McCormick is a real food maven, community food advocate, a restaurateur, a rancher, a mother, and the author of My Kitchen Cure: How I Cooked My Way Out of Chronic Autoimmune Disease with Whole Foods and Healing Recipes. When Mee isn’t running her restaurant or working on her biodynamic farm, she is touring the country as a speaker and community kitchen organizer. She has appeared on national and local TV, on radio and in print nationwide. She is a regular on-air contributor to Today In Nashville and a vital part of the Nashville restaurant scene. Visit: www.meemccormick.com or www.pinewoodkitchenandmercantile.com.
My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure/130+ Crazy Delicious, Gluten-Free Recipes to Reduce Inflammation and Make Your Gut Happy HCI BOOKS – April 14, 2020 — $26.95 ISBN: 9780757323522 Available wherever books are sold
Trish Stevens Kim Weiss Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Trish Stevens Claire Downing Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
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Code-At-Home Tech Toys Keep Girls Engaged, Away From Computer Screens, During COVID-19 School Closures
Are you looking for constructive ways to keep your children stimulated and engaged during the COVID-19 school shutdown? SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen beat out 40,000 other entrepreneurs on ABC’s Shark Tank and negotiated with guest “shark” Richard Branson, before closing a deal with Daymond John on her line of groundbreaking toys that use an award-winning robotics platform to teach basic coding skills to girls as young as 6.
“Many girls’ toys lag behind in the development of spatial skills, hands-on problem solving skills, and confidence with coding and computer science,” explains SmartGurlz founder Sharmi Albrechtsen. “These are exactly the skills that SmartGurlz aims to develop.”
The SmartGurlz line of unique, interactive, self-balancing robots and dolls are controlled with the SugarCoded™ App than can be downloaded onto an IOS or android phone or tablet that once downloaded requires no Wi-Fi, just Bluetooth.
A full, step-by-step tutorial teaches basic coding strategies so young girls can maneuver the toys around obstacle courses of their own design. With several levels of learning and chal-lenges, the toy keeps kids occupied several hours a week for 4-6 months.
The company is also offering a free weekly webinar for parents and kids affected by COVID- 19 that includes getting started, tips and tricks, and weekly home assignments.
Girls playing with SmartGurlz products learn three key concepts:
Spatial Reasoning. Girls learn how to direct/orient their robots in new environments and in-terpret maps.
Computer Programming. Girls learn to program their robots using our kid-friendly coding App called SugarCodedTM.
Storytelling & Problem Solving. Girls learn to tell stories and solve missions via coding.
The SmartGurlz product line also includes an e-book series available through the App that focuses on the everyday adventures of four talented young women studying at the fictional New York Institute of Technology — N.I.T.
We’re all adjusting to a new normal. You can use this extra time at home to inspire the female tech leaders of tomorrow with toys that integrate the power of play with the power of technology.
SmartGurlz CEO Sharmi Albrechtsen is a robotics aficionado, educator, author and mom with a passion for closing the diversity gap in technology.
In 2015, Sharmi started SmartGurlz after becoming frustrated with the lack of STEM toys available for her daughter. The SmartGurlz flagship product, Siggy, was the first robotics product designed specifically for girls. More than 30,000 girls have been educated with SmartGurlz. SmartGurlz partners include BlackGirlsCode, Girl Scouts of America and Morrison Mentors.
SmartGurlz recently expanded its product line to include Smart Buddies (a joint-venture with Pitsco Education), which features a diverse set of characters suitable for both girls and boys, targeted towards schools.
Sharmi was recently given AdWeek’s Disruptor Award in Championing Gender Diversity in Advertising and Tech. She has also been named Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 by the Asian Chamber of Commerce as well as named a Morgan Stanley Multi-Cultural Innovation Lab fellow. Sharmi has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Fox Business News, Fox and Friends and CNN. She is also a featured TEDx speaker.
Trish Stevens Julia Vaughn Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
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Let Go Of Anxiety And Negativity, Embrace A Positive Path Forward With The Process Way Of Life
Self-care and emotional health are more important than ever. In the face of unprecedented uncertainty, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. What can we do right now, as individuals, to begin a journey toward a brighter future?
The Fix Yourself Handbook from clinical therapist Faust Ruggiero presents a step-by-step program he calls the Process Way of Life, which aims to help readers achieve physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual balance. Ruggiero has used the Process Way of Life successfully for more than 20 years and has helped thousands of clients.
“Human beings are a product of nature. As such, we are governed by natural rules. These are called processes: deliberate and natural actions or steps that must be performed so that we can live in tune with our own natural flow,” Ruggiero writes.
Between the covers of The Fix Yourself Handbook, Ruggiero presents 52 of these internal processes and explains in easy-to-follow language how these processes can be applied to any life situation. He offers straightforward action plans to address issues methodically — prioritizing practical intellect over emotion — to empower readers to tackle problems, resolve conflicts, embrace change and rise above anger.
By understanding and learning to live according to the Process Way of Life, readers can become active players in their lives and transform anger to love and sadness to joy. The result is a much happier, healthier, more productive life.
Author Faust A. Ruggiero’s professional career spans almost 40 years. He has consistently established cutting-edge counseling programs in pursuit of professional excellence and personal life enhancement. He is a published research author, clinical trainer and a therapist who has worked in settings that have included clinics for deaf children, prisons, nursing homes, substance abuse centers and inpatient facilities. He continues to provide counseling services for veterans, first responders, law enforcement and other emergency personnel. During his tenure as the President of the Community Psychological Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania, he developed the Process Way of Life counseling program, and has adapted it into the formal text presented in The Fix Yourself Handbook. In February 2020, The Fix Yourself Handbook received the Silver Award from The Nonfiction Authors Association.
The Fix Yourself Handbook
Publisher: FYHB Publications
Release Date: December 2019
ISBN-10: 1734383003
ISBN-13: 978-1734383003
Available from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
Trish Stevens Kim Weiss Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure
In this virulent climate of serious strains of illness and immune system compromises, gut health and balancing the microbiome are more important than ever. Mee McCormick nails these issues in her new book My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure, as an expert with personal experience healing her Crohn’s disease, gut issues and other immune system challenges with whole food recipes when doctors couldn’t help her. Part mini-memoir, mostly cookbook, McCormick’s book offers more than 100 gluten-free whole foods recipes that can be customized for Keto, Paleo, or vegans, making it a truly “all-inclusive” eating plan. Mee McCormick’s story of healing inspires us to make smarter food choices and offers practical tips from someone who has been there; all packaged with full-color photos of recipes and the author’s working ranch, her family’s farm, and Southern lifestyle.
My Pinewood Kitchen is microbiome-friendly meals with a Southern spin that follows up McCormick’s life-enhancing cookbook My Kitchen Cure. From immune-boosting smoothies to gut-friendly soups, salads, dinners, and desserts, this cookbook will become your go-to kitchen resource, freeing you from bland-tasting healthy food and the nightly question: “What’s for dinner?”
Mee first started cooking when Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and Hashimoto’s brought her debilitating daily pain. When conventional treatments couldn’t help, Mee found relief in a surprising place: her kitchen. Through relentless recipe testing, she put her condition into remission and completely restored her health with gut-friendly whole foods, most of which she grew and harvested on her family’s farm outside of Nashville, TN.
Once Mee was well, she opened a farm-to-table restaurant, sharing locally grown and seasonal foods with her community—some of whom drive hours to get a taste of Pine-wood’s Grain-Free Fried Chicken. Pinewood Kitchen is unique in that every meal is created with the intention to serve everyone with the same deliciousness regardless of dietary restrictions. Whether you want to eat healthier or you have diabetes, lupus, celiac, Crohn’s, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or another autoimmune issue, you’ll find a wealth of delicious, nutritious recipes. You’ll also discover:
· The importance of intestinal health and how to improve your own gut microbiome
· Which foods are nutritional powerhouses and which you must avoid
· How to eat real food every day without breaking the bank
Mee McCormick is a real food maven, community food advocate, a restaurateur, a rancher, a mother, and the author of My Kitchen Cure: How I Cooked My Way Out of Chronic Autoimmune Disease with Whole Foods and Healing Recipes. When Mee isn’t running her restaurant, Pinewood Kitchen & Mercantile, or working on her biodynamic farm outside of Nashville, she is touring the country as a speaker and community kitchen organizer. She has appeared on national and local TV, on radio and in print nationwide. She is a regular on-air contributor to Today In Nashville and a vital part of the Nashville restaurant scene. Visit: meemccormick.com or pinewoodkitchenandmercantile.com.
My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure/130+ Crazy Delicious, Gluten-Free Recipes to Reduce Inflammation and Make Your Gut Happy
By Mee McCormick
HCI BOOKS – April 14, 2020 — $26.95
ISBN: 9780757323522
Available wherever books are sold
