Unless you wake up in the morning with flawless bouncy Cindy Crawford commercial looking hair, you might want to take notes on the below. What does our hair want? What are the top nutrients for ultimate shine? Come on make it bounce baby!

You won’t catch me writing about the best organic mascara or natural lip shade, cause I’m simply not a make-up girl, but my locks… oh you beat I nurture every strand. So here is what it needs…

Protein. More than 90 percent of your hair is made up of protein, so you need to have enough protein in your diet to support hair growth.

Beta-carotene. This antioxidant can help your body synthesize protein, may encourage hair growth, and may help prevent hair loss. Look for it in lots of fruits and vegetables, especially orange ones.

Vitamin A. Vitamin A fosters scalp health. Many orange fruits and vegetables — cantaloupe, apricots, squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots — are good sources of vitamin A, as is broccoli.

The B vitamins. The nutrients in this family of vitamins, often called B-complex vitamins, may help promote hair growth and prevent hair loss and breakage. Vitamin B3 (niacin) may nourish hair follicles, while vitamins B5, B6, and B12 may prevent both hair loss and premature graying. B vitamins can be found in poultry, beef, fish, eggs, whole grains, beans, sunflower seeds, peas, nuts, leafy green vegetables, and fortified breads and cereals.

Biotin. A biotin deficiency can leave your scalp itchy and scaly. To help keep your scalp healthy, choose biotin-rich nuts, whole grains, and molasses.

Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron. It also helps keep your blood vessels healthy, helps prevent hair breakage, and promotes hair growth. All the citrus fruits — grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, and so on — are high in vitamin C, as are berries and melons.

Vitamin E. This antioxidant vitamin helps your cells repair themselves and facilitates your body’s synthesis of protein; it also encourages hair growth and aids in circulation. It is plentiful in green vegetables, olive oil, whole grains, beans, nuts, and avocados.

Para-aminobenzoic acid. This nutrient might help stave off gray hair. Look for it in whole grains.

Minerals. A range of minerals, including trace minerals, can help promote hair growth and protect against hair breakage. Key among them are silica, calcium, iron, copper, and zinc. These minerals are found in a broad range of unprocessed foods, including nuts, seeds, rice, oats, whole-grain cereals, sunflower seeds, lettuce, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, bean sprouts, leafy green vegetables, strawberries, dates, and raisins. Organic foods frequently have higher concentrations of trace minerals than conventionally grown foods.

(Source: http://www.dailyglow.com/hair-care-products/hair-vitamins.html)

Recommend this kale & bean salad at Gemma located at The Bowery Hotel.

Here is the thing, we need both solubale and insoluble fiber since they serve different purposes for the body.

So first of all, fiber cannot be digested by human enzymes and ends up in the colon. So why do we need it? It promotes healthy gut function by stimulating peristalsis (muscles of the colon), it increases transit time (get it out quick), promotes healthy gut flora, reduces cholesterol & colon cancer, and helps maintain weight.

Soluble Fiber: absorbs water and helps build the feces. Found in oats, fruits, beans, seaweed, pectin.

Insoluble Fiber: does not absorb water, increases bulk of stool and speeds it up so it gets out of the body fast. Found in wheat, rye, vegetables.

Erica Palmcrantz Aziz is in New York this week shooting for her new book that comes out in October/November. So excited that she is finally doing one on green smoothies! You’ve heard me say this before, but it’s the number one thing you can add to your daily diet. It’s like a natural vitamin boost.

Anyways… yesterday she swung by my office with a few handsome models, an amazing photographer named Anna Hult, and some delicious green cocktails. We chatted and cheered, clinging our nutritious drinks, and had a lovely Friday afternoon together.

Look out for this photo in The Green Smoothie Miracle this fall.

Lots of changes are taking place in my life at the moment. All for the better, but despite the positive outcomes to come, it can still be difficult to accept them all – especially at once. To get some clarity, I went to see my beautiful spiritual teacher Meggan Watterson yesterday and boy am I happy I did… She pointed me the in the direction of surrender. I’m such a ”perfectionist,” typical Virgo, and love to control everything. She told me it was time to let go, and surrender to what is to come. The universe has my back, it has your back too and wants the best of intentions for us all.

With this post I wanted us all to surrender to thoughts and behaviors that do not serve us, that no longer contribute to our highest putrpose, and to trust that it will all work out, work out better than we could imagine.

I will use the tool of mediation to let go of the past, still my mind, and receive messages that are meant to guide me in the now.

Had such an inspirational lunch with my girl Paula today at Pure Wine & Food in Gramercy. She hopped on a plan this morning from Miami just to see me (thank you…) and we spent the last hours munching on fresh salads, discussing the raw food movement in Sweden, and exchanging ideas/thoughts on everything from yoga to spirituality, favorite breakfast recipes to how to deal with our boyfriend’s eating habits (hehe). Can’t stress how important a supportive network is on this journey… together we can move forward and start making some changes for the better.

I’ve said it before, but look out for this girl. She’s got fire and passion for this and will go far.

Thank you for today Paula. Have a safe flight back down to Florida. Hopefully the sun will come out and play soon…. And go to Glaser Farms on Saturday!!

xx

Our friend Martin served up an amazing Mexican (vegan) meal for us last week… which included this fantastic bean & corn dish. Perfect for raw flax seed cracker dipping… Along side we made a out-of-this-world guacamole and spicy salsa. Fiesta, fiesta!

To make his recipe you need to mix the following ingredients and let them soak together for 30 minutes before you begin munching.

• 2 fresh corn (buy the whole thing, and just cut of the sides with a knife)
• coriander (chopped)
• salt & pepper
• Small red onion (chopped)
• 4 delicious tomatoes (chopped)
• 1 cup beans (whatever kind tickles your fancy)

So Snookie and ”The Situation” have portrayed New Jersey to be this crazy gringo party state…. but we took a little road trip there this weekend and I feel like I should set the record straight. It was absolutely beautiful… offered breathtaking historic sites and a variety of natural locally grown foods.

Packed the fruit salad above JUST in case burgers and beer would be my only options… to my surprise there were gorgeous salads on every menu.