Feel Good Day (Much needed)

(This photo is not me, just to get my point across)

Its finally spring, and today the sun was shining and I decided to do what I felt like doing and what was good for my body. I was certainly in need of a day where I was commitment free. It is finally spring break and I still have been busy... every once in awhile we just need a break. REST is IMPORTANT!

After waking up and eating an egg on a spinach-potato pancake, I decided to be productive and straighten up the kitchen a bit, and do a little organizing. That simple task along with the inspiring fresh spring sunshine made me feel like I wanted to accomplish something for myself so I decided to go on a bike ride from my house to the local coffee shop on the water. I started off calling friends to see if someone would go with me, but decided I would just go enjoy the weather on my own. After relaxing and drinking my coffee I continued to ride on to the grocery store and then just did a big loop back towards my house. It felt good to get grocery shopping done (although for some reason I enjoy wandering through the store), get some exercise and fresh air, and just have a day to enjoy my own company being out and about.


I got home and made some light calamari marinara, it was delicious. I spent a few minutes relaxing and eventually got back on my bike and headed for the gym. After a workout with my good friend, I rode home and made a tofu and veggie satay with a lightened up version of peanut sauce. I finished my day with a relaxing bath.

The point of my narrative of my activities today isn't to give you a play by play of my day, but just wanting to emphasize that every once in awhile you should dedicate a day to doing things that make you feel good about yourself. While the things I did today may seem simple and none of it was overly exciting, I was able to reflect on my day and feel like I was healthy and happy. Right now I feel relaxed and good about my health! After spending a week forcing myself to go to the gym and dreading my workouts, a refreshing new angle to help me enjoy fitness once again was miraculous.

Different things work for different people, some people (which may even include myself on the right days...) would doing most of the things in the day I just described. It goes to show that having a positive attitude and where you focus your attention has a major impact on how your daily life can go! Find something that makes you feel positive and have an optimistic outlook on the day. I blame the newly appearing spring sunshine for my relaxed positivity :)

I tracked my fitness and food on sparkpeople.com and was able to feel even better being in the healthy range for everything! Coincidentally after writing this I got this article sent to my email: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=66.

Also heres a great compliment of ideas of new fitness things to do this month. (I tried the most random... geocaching with a friend... it was actually lots of fun!) http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/calendar_2009_fun_fitness_ideas.pdf

Eat Smart, Save Time- Prep Ahead

It seems that a likely overused excuse as to why many of us don't eat healthy is that we don't have time. People say things like  "I didn't have time to cook... so I went through the drive-thru". I'm glad these people aren't starving themselves, but I have found the best way to keep on track to reaching your nutritional goals is to plan ahead.
Ideally you should make yourself a bunch of small meals all at once that will last you the next few days. Tupperware is probably one of my favorite kitchen gadgets and makes it easy to bring things anywhere and pre-portion them, though there are a variety of coolers and containers that serve the same purpose.

Another benefit of prepping meals ahead of time is that you always have food with you right when you feel hungry.

Also, you will likely be saving money due to the fact that you aren't eating take-out all the time.

Here are ideas of some healthy options you could make meals out of, some meet individual needs differently than others:

• Grill chicken breast or tofu in batches you can measure out portions and combine to make a meal (here are some examples:
• put on salad (with balsamic, salsa, or other light healthy dressing)
• mix with rice and veggies
• Make a large batch of rice, quinoa, etc that you can take portions from for the week
• Chop veggies ahead of time and store them in containers for easy prep or for snacks
• Fruit is a good portable snack, just don't overdo it
• Dry oatmeal with raisins and pumpkin pie spice- if you have a way to get hot water/cook it where you are going
• Protein bars and shakes
• Hard boiled eggs/egg whites
• Try my easy Jazzy Bean Salad Recipe

Jazzy Bean Salad

This quick and easy salad is great for a pot luck, or just a snack. Its full of protein and contains some good fats.

• 1 15oz. can garbanzo beans
• ½-1 can black beans
• ½ can kidney beans (optional)
• 1 cup cooked, shelled edamame
• ½ cup corn kernels removed from cob or cooked from frozen
• 1/3 cup diced red onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Allow ingredient flavors to combine for a few hours more flavor.

These options are just a few of the many ways to bring "clean eating" food with you wherever you go. Remember: "Failure to prepare, is preparing to fail"...

New Recipe: Spicy Couscous Tuna Burgers

So I just came up with a recipe I feel is slightly out of the box, and it has a good balance of complex carbohydrates, lean protein, and a small amount of fat. The seasonings and spices can certainly be changed up, but these Tuna burgers with whole wheat couscous are very flavorful and don't even need a bun! Hope you like them.

Spicy Couscous Tuna Burgers

• ·         5 oz can of tuna (canned in water, drained)
• ·         1 egg white
• ·         2 tbsp dry whole wheat couscous
• ·         3 tbsp boiling water
• ·         1 tsp garlic powder
• ·         ½ tsp spicy curry powder
• ·         Red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste
• ·         ½ cup spinach
• ·         1 oz low fat white cheese
• ·         ¼ cup minced onion

Boil water and prepare dry couscous with garlic in bowl ready to cover. Once water comes to a boil pour over couscous and cover. Let sit for about 3-5 minutes and fluff with a fork.

Meanwhile, mix can of drained tuna with curry powder, pepper flakes, pepper, 1 tsp of grated cheese, onion, and egg white.  Combine mixture with couscous once couscous is done.

Heat a skillet (sprayed) over med-high heat.  Form 4 patties out of tuna mix and grill until browned on both sides.  Finish the patty by melting the cheese on top. Serve on a bed of spinach. Enjoy!

*Note this photo is not actual recipe, just an idea of what a plate of these may look like.

Don't Drink Away Your Daily Intake

Many of us out there like to drink things. Whether it be something comforting and warm, something cool and refreshing, something sweet, something bubbly, or something with a little extra strong kick in it, most of these things are unfortunately full of empty calories. Alcohol suppresses fat oxidation and adds unnecessary calories to the diet.

 Drinking a giant glass of juice, a liter of soda, or even a mocha is something many people do without thinking each and every day, not realizing that even if what they are drinking isn't filling them up, its still adding on the calories. Even if you are one of those people who doesn't care about calories and isn't concerned about gaining weight etc, many of these beverages are actually full of sugar and not exactly healthy for us. 

Speaking of unhealthy habits...

     This is the last thing you probably want to hear, and being a college student, I realize it is somewhat hard to avoid, but drinking alcohol really overall isn't going to help your health. Obviously no one thinks of alcohol as a healthy thing, but people out there tend to not take the effects into long term consideration. The other day someone asked me why I don't just drink vodka instead of passing on alcohol, because "vodka is clear" it has no calories".... yeah clearly they were uneducated, because vodka has roughly 100 calories per shot. Like I said before those are empty calories, because they don't provide your body with nutrients to use, and don't fill you up. I am not suggesting that you go become antisocial and never have a drink again, be realistic about your life, but keep your health in perspective, even if you are at an age where it seems like you are invincible. If I had to choose an alcoholic beverage that is "better" when dieting, I would probably say some form of a red wine lower in sugars. Obviously moderation is key as well here. If you aren't a wine drinker, try calorie free seltzer with a little vodka or something, maybe with a twist of a citrus fruit in it. Dark beers, mixed drinks, and dessert drinks are probably the worst for you often loaded with sugar, syrup, and artificial ingredients. Here's a corny video of a lady making a "healthy cocktail" but you get the point from it...:

Regularly drinking soft drinks may not be the cause of obesity alone, but it is definitely a contributing factor to an unhealthy diet. I get it, soda is sweet, gives you the idea of being thirst quenching, generally inexpensive and conveniently located just about everywhere. However keep in mind, one bottle of soda from the vending machine has about 180 calories in it. Sugary ones that damage your teeth, weaken your bones, lead to diseases (such as diabetes), kidney/liver/digestive system damage, heartburn, increased blood pressure, dehydration, toxin chemicals etc. There are so many healthy alternatives out there to soda, so it might be a good resolution to try to kick the habit if you are a regular soda drinker. 

Another thing people may not realize is how much sugar other beverages contain. Many chocolate milks seem like a healthier option, yet some of them contain the same sugar content and more fat than the soda just discussed. It is nice that milk actually has some nutritional value, but as an alternative, I would recommend adding your own bittersweet dark chocolate to milk without all the sugar. On a similar level, 100 percent fruit juice isn't bad for you, its definitely got its vitamins and nutritional value, but it is much more beneficial to eat a piece of fruit than drink a glass of juice. Not only do you feel more satisfied, but the fruit is in a purer form and has less calories and more fiber. 

As far as many of the no-calorie drinks go, it is nice that they don't have calories obviously, and there is some benefit to that if you are trying to watch calories. The biggest issue here is that almost all of these types of beverages  are made with the chemical aspartame, which is an artificial sweetener like you might find in those little pink sweet-n-low packets you see when getting coffee at a diner. If you must have artificial/chemical sweeteners, I would recommend looking for things made with splenda, which is made with sucrolose a less harmful chemical, or better yet something more natural like stevia.

Your best bet is to stick to good old H20! You can and should always load up on plenty of water every day because there is tonsss of benefits and not too many risks of water drinking here in the US. Drinking plenty of water may actually have side effect to aid you in weight loss. Herbal tea is a good alternative if you want something warm, and as I previously said nonfat milk and 100 percent juice are good as long as you are watching your serving sizes. Obviously not everyone can follow this, some of us like myself are coffee drinkers (try switching to black coffee and only using a small splash of nonfat to save some calories!) and some have other vices. The message here is just be informed of what you are drinking and think about the effects on your body. Doing this and cutting out many unnecessary beverages and calories in them may save you pounds! 

Community Benefit- A Peek Inside What Others Are Doing

       Lets take a look at some things people are doing out there that truly are inspired, and inspiring people by nutrition! First here are a few overviews of some things I have seen in the media.
      Jamie Oliver's food revolution: Jamie saw a problem in public school with the cafeterias feeding the students what essentially was a bunch of junk. The schools had some pretty messed up idea of standards for nutrition that may as well have been non-existent. Oliver worked very hard to petition these school as well as individual families he saw that had a problem. He was interested in getting people in the community to restore their health starting at a young age! To see his dedication and hard pushing of his changes was amazing to me, because some people out there really just don't recognize how to improve their nutrition! The people in the unhealthiest city in America (Huntington, West Virginia) were collectively originally fairly resistant to his attempts to change. People get comfortable in their routines it seems and don't want to be told they live in a town of people living their lives wrong. They view eating healthy as "eating lettuce" for a meal, something that is boring, awful, and painful. They don't realize how dynamic and variable eating well really can be.
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Episode 1(preview without Hulu Plus)
ABC Show Website

     Another one of my heroes for the same reason is Jillian Michaels. She has created an entire industry off helping people change their lives to become more active and healthy. Between training contestants on Biggest Loser, and her own workouts among the other side projects she has including her website with personalized plans and informational articles, she also ran a show called "Losing It With Jillian" that spoke to me. She came into the homes of families who really needed her help. They might have been disease candidates, lost their job due to lack of motivation, or have otherwise extreme circumstances. Jillian would come raid their kitchens, teach them how to eat better and then proceed to train them like a drill sergeant, and work them physically and mentally in a week inspiring them to the point where they could change their mentality and open up the things that were mentally blocking them from success in becoming healthy. In a week she was able to make some changes that showed to have a lifetime of beneficial value with some crazy impressive results for the individuals.
Loosing it Episode 1 (preview without Hulu Plus)
Losing It- NBC Show website

     More recently, at University of Washington, the following video describes re-implementing home economics classes in order to help fight obesity rates. One of the key problems they see with the youth of this "time-starved" generation is that they don't know how to cook. Without cooking knowledge, the diet of eating out and microwave dinners definitely puts them at risk. UW wants to modernize home economics so it isn't just geared towards preparing women for home duties. The following link has the video article from King 5 news.

http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Home-economics-classes-are-making-a-comeback-116715334.html

     The message: You don't have to have a big name like Jillian or Jamie to make a difference. Take their dedication and serving as key examples. Think of things you can do to help out your own community, or maybe just someone you know. Don't stop just because there is someone who is resistant to your ideas! Chances are, they are simply afraid to admit they themselves have a problem. Be a supportive individual and be a role model. Anything you can do helps, and while many Americans are finally starting to become more health informed, not everyone has enough resources or motivation to make those crucial life changes.

Marketing and Perception of Nutrition Facts and Food Labels

Marketing plays a huge role in the way food is now accepted, eaten, and perceived by people. As body image becomes more important to people, and health knowledge is more available, many are looking for additional healthy alternatives.
    Smart (food) marketers, see this as a valuable opportunity to promote the products they are working with as "healthy", but what is healthy has essentially become subjective. Does healthy mean low calorie? Low fat? Nutrient Rich? Green? It might be different depending on the individual needs of the "dieter".

A lot of words on a small wrapper is a lot to sort through!

    The problem is there is an extraordinary amount of vast information for people to sort through to find out what they want as a nutritious option that fits them. We are a "time pressed" society and the last thing people want to do is sort through first the initial advertising, then the food labels, then the nutrition facts, ingredients, unknown chemicals... the list goes on. One piece of packaged food may contain tonnnss of text, and if we can't even identify what half the ingredients are, how can we tell if they are good for us, and how much does someone have to care in order to actually find out what they are putting in their body? At what point does the value of nutrition overrule the value of time/energy for someone?

     So many claims are made when it comes to food marketing. One example is Sugar Free Coffee Mate Creamer,  or the fat free version applies here as well. This creamer may have low sugar or low fat accordingly, but the sugar free version contains tons of fat, the fat free contains tons of sugar! Both creamers are full of chemicals and artificial ingredients that create empty calories with very very little nutritional value! Also the serving size is a mere tablespoon, so according to the label, there isn't much of anything in it as far as negative nutrients go. 30 calories of the SF Vanilla-Caramel Creamer don't sound like much, but it can be misleading for the type of food it is and how it is affecting your body. Corn syrup is one negative thing, then there are things like dipotassium phosphate, and acesulfame potassium that are extremely unfamiliar to most, so out of the large number of buyers, the chances that those who regularly purchase the product actually knowing the purpose of the ingredients is slim.Serving size is another thing people take for granted, and when they don't measure, their evaluation of the nutrition facts is generally off. This creamer is just a mere example of the extensive amount of items out there with similar issues.

The harsh reality is that many people are drawn to diet type products like "the cookie diet" pictured above and don't even bother to think about the fact that it might not be optimally nutritional. They are thinking that a bunch of chemicals and preservatives are something that is going to help them be healthy and loose weight. It might in the short-run, but they need to be able to maintain healthy diets, because in general quick fix treatments are ineffective. They generally result in the dieter falling back to their old weight, possibly gaining more. Special K may promise that you will loose weight in just 2 weeks with their challenge; but of course anyone who is eating 2 very low nutrient low calorie meals a day is going to loose weight. They probably aren't going to want to be hungry and their body craves other nutrients in the long term, so 2-weeks is unlikely to be effective.

So what can we do to remedy this issue and know what we are eating? For starters, you can always start with fresh whole food ingredients especially  those that you know the source of. Beyond this, if people do have the free time, do some research. Figure out what you want out of your food, and find the foods that meet your criteria. Make small changes. Instead of buying Yoplait light yogurt, try buying plain nonfat yogurt and adding fresh fruit and agave if necessary to sweeten it. For the same calories you are getting more protein, more calcium, MUCH LESS SUGAR, and more satisfying and healthful ingredients.
I truly hope this helps raise awareness so people do start paying more attention to what they are actually eating vs. what they thought they were.

Why Do I Care?

(This entry is somewhat of a response/continuation of yesterday's post)

    When it comes to your nutrition and diet (as in what you eat not diet as in restriction necessarily) what motivates you to eat the way you do? Is it friends/family-- Do you just eat whatever is around you or what they are eating? Does doing this help your health or hurt it? Or do you have a different approach and eat healthy because you want to live longer or be healthy in general? Or... do societal standards motivate you? Do you strive for that perfect beach body? What I would really like to know is why we care so much! The weird thing is that many people say they want this body, yet just complain about it and don't put in the effort with nutrition and exercise to execute. Extrinsic motivation seems apparent in this case. Extrinsic motivation alone is rarely enough to drive people to reach a goal. They have to also want something intrinsically bad enough to push themselves  for a long term time period.

MANY OF US DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY WE ARE EATING SOMETIMES! For these instances it is best to stop and think about the food we are eating and how we are being satisfied by it. Checking in with how your body is feeling, and asking yourself if you are really hungry, and do you really need that is helpful.

     Another difficulty of mental nutrition is when you are so consumed with food and your intakes that you focus on food and keep eating it because you are thinking about it even if you are trying to cut back. From personal experience I would say that it is easier to not be consumed in you diet because when you eat naturally and listen to what your body wants, it is much left of a mental struggle. The issue with this is, you can't just stop thinking about food because someone tells you to. Just like the Ironic process theory posed by Wegner explains... when someone tells you not to think of a white bear, it is the first thing you actually think of. So a question  I can't tell you the answer to is how to not let thoughts of food, diet, body image etc. take over.

     The book Feed Your Eagles, by Derek Newton describes the motivation chips theory. There are two types of chips. First is gold which are chips that make you feel loved and give you self-worth like being hugged, having someone tell you I love you, you are valuable to me etc. The other type of chip is silver; these chips promote feelings of capability and describe self-confidence through things such as rewards and recognition. Different types of people have and respond to different types of chips in multiple ways. Having good amounts of both types of chips usually leads to individuals having lots of self-confidence. Without any support from any types of chips from others, people may feel worthless and unloved. Does this drive them to work harder towards their nutritional goals so they will be accepted or does it push them away because they don't care? Another group of people is those who have many silver chips and few gold ones. These people may be strong at work or school, but have sacrificed their personal lives. Last there is also a small group of people who has a lot of gold chips, but few silver ones. I feel like these people would be the most susceptible to laziness given that they felt extrinsically motivated when it comes to their health because they feel like they are well loved why work towards something they feel no pressure to do?