No excuses!

            This is just going to be a quick blog post, so it won’t be like the others, but I was watching TV the other day and this commercial came on and I really liked it.

           I really like this commercial because whether you know it or not, most people do make excuses to work out. I do it all the time! I will say “oh I have to finish this big project by tomorrow; I can’t go to the gym!” When in reality, I definitely could have put aside an hour to get in a good workout. Don’t make excuses like these and find time to work out because it will make you feel and look better.

Comfort Food

               Last week I was really in the mood for comfort foods, like mac and cheese, pizza, brownies, cookies etc. I decided that I would try to find a healthier way to make pizza and cookies. So instead of making regular pizza that has dough loaded with calories and tons of unhealthy cheese on top, I decided that English muffin pizzas would be a much better option. Don’t get me wrong, not all pizzas are unhealthy. You need to make sure you use a thin crust or use less dough because it is a lot of calories and use less cheese and low fat cheese. To make my pizza healthier, I bought whole wheat English muffins, cut them in half, spread a little pizza sauce on top and just sprinkled it with cheese. I only used two English muffins to make dinner for myself and they mostly filled me up. I don’t like vegetables on my pizza so I ate it on the side and that really filled me up. Vegetables will give you more fiber so you will feel fuller. 

                Later that night, I decided to use a cookie recipe that has less calories and sugar than most cookies that were also filling! I found this recipe in Good Housekeeping’s Drop 5 Pounds book. These chocolate chip cookies were VERY easy to make and did not take long at all. They actually called for more oats, like the quick oats used for oatmeal, than flour! Surprisingly, these are now my new favorite cookies. I loved the taste and I would prefer these cookies over any other kind. My dad, who is really picky and usually doesn’t like anything healthy, loved them! Remember though, even though these cookies are supposed to be healthier than most, you still need to limit yourself to one. If you have multiple cookies because you know they are healthier, then you will end up consuming a lot more calories than you think! The good thing about these cookies is that they do fill you up more than other cookies so you will hopefully feel satisfied after eating one.

Below is the recipe: Thank you to Good Housekeeping for this delicious recipe!

Ingredients:

-          ½ cup (packed) of brown sugar

-          ½ cup granulated sugar

-          ½ cup trans-fat-free vegetable oil spread (60% to 70% oil)

-          1 large egg

-          1 large egg white

-          2 teaspoons vanilla extract

-          1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

-          1 teaspoon baking soda

-          ½ teaspoon salt

-          2 ½ cups quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats, uncooked

-          1 cup bittersweet (62 % cacao) or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.       In large bowl, with mixer on medium-low speed, beat sugars and vegetable spread until well blended occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Add egg, egg white, and vanilla; beat until smooth. Beat in flour, baking soda, and salt until mixed.

3.       With wooden spoon, stir in oats and chocolate chips until well combined. Drop dough by rounded measuring tablespoons, 2 inches apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 13 minutes or until golden. With wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat until all batter is used.

Nutrition facts:

(1 cookie)

-80 calories

-1g protein

-11g carbohydrates

-4g total fat (1g saturated)

-4 mg cholesterol

-70mg sodium

-1g fiber

Tips for eating less without feeling hungry

 

18 Helpful Tips

-       -Chew slowly! I like to chew every bite 40 times (unless it is a really small bite).

-       -Limit yourself. Go get a piece of gum instead of getting more food.

-       - Put your fork or spoon down after every bite so you don’t have more food already on your utensil waiting for you. I like to take sips of my drink between bites.

-       -Drink a lot of water. If you drink two glasses of water a half hour before you eat, you will feel fuller when you go to eat.

-        -Eat foods with a high water content (Nutrition Diva).

-        -Eat foods with more fiber.

-        -Replace some of the starches in your diet with protein because carbohydrates are broken down into glucose much more quickly than protein. The more quickly your food is converted into glucose, the more quickly you are going to feel hungry again (Nutrition Diva).

-        -When you feel like you are hungry, ask yourself if you are hungry enough to eat an apple. If you aren’t, you probably aren’t hungry so grab a piece of gum! Unless you just don’t like apples.

-        -Portion out snacks. Don’t just keep grabbing handfuls from a bag of goldfish or you will end up eating a lot more than you think you are.

-       - Don’t watch TV or be on the computer while eating because you won’t realize how much you have actually eaten.

-        -Avoid artificial sweeteners in drinks. Read the previous blog “What not to drink” for reasons why.

-        -Eat smaller, but more meals a day.

-        -When eating out, since portion sizes are typically huge, try boxing up half of your food before you stop eating or share a meal with someone. This stops you from eating just because the food is on your plate.

-        -If you are serving yourself, put less on your plate. If you are really hungry you can go back for more, but wait 20 minutes before you get more so your stomach has time to realize it has food in it. Try not to have seconds.

-       - Serve food on a smaller plate because it makes it look like you are eating more food when in reality you are probably eating a lot less.

-        -This doesn’t have much to do with eating less, but avoid eating late at night because it causes weight gain.

-        -Try eating a small, healthy and filling snack 30 minutes before you eat a meal. Then, you are less likely to over eat at lunch or dinner time with foods that are most likely less healthy.

-        -Start meal with a healthy water-based soup, a salad, or fruit. If you fill up on that, you will eat less of the food that is most likely less healthy and you will feel full longer.

*These tips might help for the holidays, especially Thanksgiving!

What Not to Drink

         

     So the other day I realized that I have talked a lot about different foods that are healthy and foods that are unhealthy, but I really haven’t talked much about healthy and unhealthy drinks. Many people focus too much on eating foods that are healthier and don’t realize that they drink a lot of the calories they consume on a day to day basis. In order to maintain a healthy diet, you need to eat healthy foods and consume drinks that don’t have too much sugar in calories. One drink that is terrible for you is soda. Soda is full of sugar, caffeine and empty calories. It has no nutritional value whatsoever. If you look at a typical can of soda, you will see that it has 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar. That is a lot of sugar and calories for one small drink. Even Diet Coke isn’t good for you because it contains artificial sweeteners. According to UnitedHealthCare.com, artificial sweeteners increase your sugar cravings. This is because your insulin response is generated when sweetness hits the tongue. Your body craves sugar when you consume drinks with sweetener, but the sweetener does not satisfy the sugar cravings, therefore you are more likely to consume more sugar later on.

 

Energy drinks and sports drinks (like Gatorade) can also be linked to weight gain because of the large amounts of caffeine and sugar. Vitamin water is also a drink that deceives many people. People think that because it contains a lot of vitamins, it is automatically healthy. In reality, Vitamin Water is loaded with sugar and calories. Vitamin water has about 33 grams of sugar per bottle and 125 calories. This is almost as much sugar and calories as a 12 OZ can of soda! Be careful with fruit juices as well because most contain a lot of sugar! If you are going to have fruit juice, make sure it is 100 percent fruit juice and even then, only drink it in moderation because it still has a good amount of sugar. 

My favorite juice is Ocean Spray’s cranberry-raspberry juice, but it contains a lot of sugar! What I do instead of drinking a full glass of that juice, I add a little bit to a glass of water which gives the water a little bit of that flavor that I love. Whenever I crave soda, I replace it with seltzer water and a little bit of that same cranberry juice to give me the satisfaction of having a carbonated drink. One last thing to stay away from is Alcohol because it contains a lot of calories. The amount of calories depends on which drink you have, but the majority of alcoholic beverages do contain a lot of calories. For example, a 12 OZ serving of Budweiser has 143 calories. Remember, you don’t have to completely cut these drinks out of your life, just have them in moderation. If you often drink soda or some of the other drinks on this list, try limiting yourself to having it on a certain day only, like Friday.

****On a side note, if you like my blog I would love if you showed your support by becoming a follower and spreading the word of my blog!

Other Ways to Exercise

        Since it is beginning to be told cold to run outside and I HATE running on the treadmill, I knew that I needed to find another way of doing cardio workouts. I heard of this workout video called “Insanity” and I thought I might as well give it a shot. Personally, I am not good at workout videos. When I am working out at my house, I have no motivation to actually go through with the workouts and find that I give up very easily. If you are going to do this work out, push yourself. Don’t let yourself give up as easily as I did or else you won’t see any results. To solve my problem, I found a friend to do the workout with me because I have more motivation when other people are around me that are also trying to get in shape. “Insanity” is very convenient because you can get a good work out right at your house and not have to go anywhere. Also, you don’t need to buy anything besides the video- no weights, no resistance bands, etc. If you are interested in trying Insanity, make sure you have a decent amount of space near your TV before you buy the video. Be ready to give it your all because even the warm up is very difficult! This video will provide you with an extreme cardio workout and will make you more toned and fit in only 60 days as long as you stick to it.

      If you don’t like working out in front of TVs or if “Insanity” just doesn’t seem like the right workout for you, try getting a membership at a local gym. Some gyms are very cheap, like Planet Fitness which is only ten dollars a month. I go to Planet Fitness and I love the judgement-free environment. Yesterday I went to the gym for the first time in forever. What I love about the gym is that it gives you a variety of things to do. If you hate running on the treadmill, then you can use the elliptical or the bikes. Also, you can do cardio, do weights, or use strengthening machines. For example, yesterday I stretched, worked out on the elliptical for 20 minutes with some resistance, did machines that work your arm like the chest press and the rowing machine. I also used the abs and back machine. Then, I ran for about 15 minutes and walked for 5 to cool down. My goal is to work different muscles everyday so while I might do a lot of arm strengthening one day, I might do leg strengthening the next day and switch off every day to give my muscles a break. It is important to give your muscles a break so you don’t run the risk of an over training injury. Your body won’t be able to build new muscle if you don’t give it time to heal. If you keep overdoing the same muscles, they won’t be able to keep up with the workouts. I used to never go to the gym because I would convince myself that I had no time. If you think about, all the time you most likely spend procrastinating, you could be spending it by working out.  What is great about the gym is that it gives you a break from your work and it is a good time to think about everything on your mind while getting your blood flowing. Some people listen to music and some even read a book on certain machines like the bike. If you feel like you have limited time, don’t go for long. Going for a short amount of time is better than not going at all. While working out, make sure you stretch, push yourself and NEVER give up.

What foods should I eat?

When I first wanted to eat healthy foods, I found that it was hard to think of foods to eat that are healthy. I could think of things that were really unhealthy, like fried foods, but I could only think of fruits and vegetables for healthy foods. Day after day I would eat fruit as a snack, but I got tired of that easily and resorted to unhealthy foods just because I didn’t know what else to eat. For people that want to be a vegetarian or a vegan, it is hard to start because you really don’t know many recipes that don’t contain meat. This compares to eating healthy. To solve this problem, I made a list of certain foods that I always have in my house or that I should keep in my house that are healthy, so when I am hungry I can quickly find something healthy to eat. I also wrote a list of foods that I would eat often that were not healthy at all and that I should only eat once in a while.

Here is my list that I started when I first started being healthy: 

EAT THIS

Kombucha

Green Tea

The honest tea

Shake station

DRINK LOTS OF WATER…it fills you up

Tea (without sugar/ milk)

Eat fruit for a snack         

Chicken

Fish

Lara bars/ Kind Bars

Brown rice (don’t eat too much, but it is a lot better than white rice!)

Healthy Smoothies (do not use much sugar)

Need fruit with skin (eat skin because it is filling)
Light Balsamic Vinaigrette (Margetti)

Herbal Tea

Sweet Potatoes-->no butter

Wheat Germ (goes great with 1 minute eggs!)

Lentil Soup

Oatmeal

Veggies-->Broccoli has lots of Vitamin C (more than oranges)

Beans

Yogurt

Hummus

Whole wheat pita bread…not multi grain (unless made with whole grains, multi grain bread has the same nutritional value as white bread. Without the whole grains, there is not as much bran and germ, therefore there isn't a lot of fiber and nutrients.)

Dark Chocolate (only if you are really craving chocolate)

Walnuts

Almonds

Boiled Eggs

Apples + Peanut Butter

Mustard instead of mayonnaise

Saladà spinach mixed in

Miso Soup

Greek Yogurt or light Activia

Spicy food fills you up

Pickles

Peanut butter (in moderation because it has a lot of fat, it is just very filling)

Canned tuna- no mayo- sub balsamic vinaigrette

Kidney Beans (beans have a lot of fiber)

Tomatoes

Fiber 1 cereal

Wheat Chex

DON’T EAT THIS

Chips

Don’t drink anything over 10g of sugar per serving

Beef/Pork/Hamburg (can have in moderation)

French Fries

Dairy (can have in moderation)

High fructose corn syrup

Corn (very sugary and starchy grain)

Mac and Cheese

Goldfish, Cheez-its, Cheese Nips

Chocolate animal crackers

Cookies

Candy

Caesar dressing-->anything white and creamy

Cheddar cheese

Muffins

Bagels

Jelly

White bread

White chocolate

Ketchup (get the natural one)

Cream cheese

Buttery Popcorn (if you need to have butter on it try lightly buttered)

* Remember that you don’t need to cut out these foods completely, just eat them once in a while and eat them in moderation. Also, this is an exclusive list- there are many other foods that are healthy and many that are unhealthy. If you want, write a comment about foods you know are unhealthy or healthy and I will consider adding them to my list.

Sometimes people eat without realizing how much they eat or how bad the foods are that they are eating. I advise everyone to read labels before eating so you know the nutrition facts. Make sure you don’t skip over the part that says “serving size” because something might seem healthy because there aren’t that many calories, but the serving size might be so small that you eat multiple servings and consume more calories than you thought. For example, say your favorite cereal says 100 calories, that seems healthy, but if the serving size is ¼ a cup and you are eating a cup or more, then that is at least 400 calories that you would be consuming without even realizing it. A good strategy to making sure this doesn’t happen is measuring out how much you eat before you eat it. This stops you from over eating and consuming multiple servings without realizing it. Some people even find it helpful to keep a food diary. This is great because it allows you to see how much food you ate, what you ate and where you went wrong. When you have this written in front of you, then you might realize that you had too many snacks throughout the day or you ate too much of one thing. If you know that information, then you can fix what you did wrong the next day. 

Attack on Fast Food French Fries

(Shortened Version Below)

Longer Version Below

(Part 1)

       

               After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, I learned a lot of information on how McDonald’s French fries are made and how most people don’t actually know the ingredients in the food the foods they eat. First, the process by which these French fries are made is unbelievable. Machines turn thousands of potatoes into French fries each day. Here is the process: First conveyor belts blast the potatoes with steam then they boil water underneath the skins causing the skins to explode off. Then the potatoes are pumped into a preheat tank and are shot through a gun knife that uses a high pressure hose to shoot potatoes at a speed of 117 feet per second through a grid of sharpened steel blades. They are fried in boiling oil (SO BAD FOR YOU!) and frozen by air compressed ammonia gas. Robots package and stack the fries then put them into freezers. The crazy part is that after this entire process, the fries don’t have much flavor. They get their flavor from the oil that they are reheated in. McDonald's used to fry the French fries in 7 percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow, but switched to vegetable oil when people found out that there was more beef fat in the fries than there was per ounce in a McDonald’s burger. Since the vegetable oil doesn’t give the fries the beef flavor, McDonald's relies on a company called International Flavors and Fragrances to give the fries their flavor. 

They use natural flavors in the oil that they cook the fries in. (The difference between natural flavors and artificial flavors is that natural flavors are just derived from a natural source and artificial flavors aren't-->natural flavors are NOT healthier) These flavors are made from many different chemicals and what’s weird is that you can smell the exact flavors of typical foods you eat without even having any substance in front of you! McDonald's will not say their exact flavor that they put into the fries, but they did say that it derives from some flavor of animal product. Before reading this book, I would have thought that the McDonald's French fries that I was eating were just skinned and cut up potatoes that were deep fried, but this book just proves how much I didn’t know about what I was eating. This entire process is so unhealthy and made me want to never eat McDonald’s fries again.

Now whenever I crave French fries, I will cut up potatoes, skin them, and make the fries myself in a frying pan with a little bit of vegetable oil or olive oil and then I will bake them in the oven for a couple of minutes and add a little bit of salt. This is the much healthier option and by making fries yourself, you actually know what the French fries are made of. One last thing: don't use too much ketchup with the fries because ketchup contains a lot of sugar!

Here is a healthy French fry recipe from Women's Health Magazine

olive oil spray
2 pounds baking potatoes
1/4 tsp salt, plus more to taste, if desired
1 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Lightly mist a medium nonstick baking sheet with olive oil spray.
3. Use a crinkle cutter to peel potatoes by cutting close to the edges on each side and end. Discard peels. Then use crinkle cutter to cut peeled potatoes into 1/3-inch thick sticks (they will vary in length).
4. Toss potato sticks with salt and extra virgin olive oil. Spread them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake for another 16 to 18 minutes or until just crisp on the outside and tender inside. Season with additional salt to taste and serve.

Makes 4 portions. Per portion: 105 calories, 2 g fat (trace saturated fat), 20 g carbs, 2 g protein, 2 g fiber, 152 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol

**If you ate this instead of traditional fries with these healthy french fries, you'd save 201 calories, 24 g fat, and 5 g saturated fat.

Snacking. My Weakness

After a long and busy day, the first thing most people do is grab a snack. After a being in school or working all day, it is normal to be hungry. Eating an apple or having a yogurt just isn’t enough sometimes. Some days I would start by eating chicken nuggets, then I would eat a yogurt, and after I would continue to eat goldfish. That was a very bad habit that I knew I needed to break right away. I was consuming more calories than I would at dinner time and I would still eat dinner later in the day. So now instead of eating snacks that have empty calories and won’t fill me up, I try to eat foods that are filling and have a lot of fiber. One good snack idea is almonds. Almonds are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and protein that will fill you up. I really like Blue Diamond’s 100 Calorie Almond Packs because they have good flavors like cinnamon brown sugar and they also control your portion sizes. Another type of food that will fill you up is eggs because they have a lot of protein. At the beginning of a week, I hard boil a bunch of eggs because they are perfect for snacks and you can keep them in your refrigerator until the end of the week. Bananas also make good snacks because out of every other fruit, they are the most filling. When I am really hungry, I will have a brown rice cake with either almond butter or peanut butter on top.

                Make sure you are not mindlessly eating when you go to grab a snack. A lot of people will snack because they are bored, stressed, or they are mistaking hunger for dehydration. When I get home, I always try to drink a full glass of water and then wait to see if I am still hungry. Another strategy is to ask yourself “Am I hungry enough to eat an apple?” This usually works for me because a lot of times I just crave fatty foods or foods with a lot of carbohydrates when I am not actually hungry. Say you finish one snack and you still feel hungry, try waiting twenty minutes before you grab something else to eat so your stomach has enough time to realize that there is food in it. If you are still hungry after the twenty minutes is up, find something to eat that isn’t loaded with calories, like fruit. 

Do you dread running?

How many of you have tried running, but gave up because it was too hard? I know I have. When I first tried running, I just expected to be able to run a couple of miles without a problem. Well, I ended up struggling to run a half a mile straight. I hated running after that; it was just too difficult. One day my friend asked me if I would start running with her. I was very hesitant at first because I knew how difficult running was, but then she explained to me that she found this running plan that would enable us to easily run three miles over the course of nine weeks. This plan is called the Couch to 5k running plan. The plan consists of walking and running intervals that increase in intensity each week. So many people are turned off by running because they overwork themselves, just like I did. What is great about this running plan is that it starts you off easy but works to improve your endurance by making it harder every week. Once the running intervals are greater, you begin to realize that the smaller running interval you did the week before is now easy to you. For example, one week has you run 90 seconds and walk two minutes. That 90 second interval seems easy when you have to do three minute intervals. Then when you have to do five minute intervals, the three minutes seems easy. Right now I am on the fourth week (out of nine) of the running plan and I love it! Running has now become a stress reliever for me. Although it can be challenging at times, I never feel overworked to the point that I would give up. The best part about doing this running plan is that I feel so energized afterwards and I feel good about myself because I am improving at something that was so difficult to me. I can already run a lot longer than I could at the beginning of the plan and it hasn’t even been four weeks yet. This running plan was made for all ages, and I know of many people that finished the plan successfully. 

                One very common problem about exercising is that people tend to over eat afterwards. They use the excuse that they had just exercised and lost calories so now they can eat bad foods. Not only do most people eat poorly after, but they also eat big portion sizes and think that it is okay because they had just exercised. This is bad because it undoes everything you just worked for. Also, a lot of times people consume way more calories than they previously burned off. I used to make this same problem after soccer practices. Now, in attempt to change those bad habits, I will have some sort of protein shake after I exercise. I love the Shake Station. They use Herbalife products and not only do you get a shake, but you also get energy building tea and a shot of aloe-vera juice. These shakes are complete meals that are loaded with protein and fiber and are only a little over 200 calories. My favorite flavor is wedding cake. These Herbalife products can be order online at http://www.shopherbalife.com/.

Breakfast and Fiber

For those that skip breakfast, think again! Studies have proven that skipping breakfast can lead to obesity. The Harvard Men’s Health Watch reported that “missing breakfast is associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of obesity”. Your body needs to be refueled many times throughout the day, so when you skip breakfast, you are more likely to overindulge on your next meal because you feel so hungry. Be careful of breakfasts with too much sugar, sodium, fat and calories. I try to avoid sugary cereals or foods with a lot of carbs like pancakes, waffles and bagels. Many times people add even more calories and sugar to pancakes and waffles by adding in chocolate chips or putting syrup or whip cream on top. Cream cheese and butter also add unwanted calories to bagels. I know avoiding these foods is easier said than done, but a good step to avoiding them is just to not buy them. You are more likely to just grab something in your house when you are hungry rather than take a trip to the grocery store. If these unhealthy foods aren’t in your house, then you will find something else to eat that is in your house! Personally, I am more tempted by bad foods when they are in my house more than I am tempted to buy them at the grocery store. So what foods should you eat for breakfast? Personally I am a big fan of oatmeal. I buy the Quakers Quick oatmeal. It takes no more than a couple of minutes to make and only a half a cup of oatmeal fills me up! I usually add a teaspoon of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon to give it more flavor. Be careful not to put too much sugar! Also, fruit goes really well with oatmeal. I sometimes put blueberries or strawberries on top of it. Whenever I crave bagels (which is a lot), I will substitute a mini bagel or a bagel thin for a regular bagel since the portion size is controlled. Instead of adding cream cheese which is very high in saturated fat and calories, I will use a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, which is only 35 calories per wedge! My favorite kind of cheese wedge is the light garlic and herb. 

For those who don’t like oatmeal, I would recommend high fiber cereals. Fiber is awesome! Fiber not only helps you have soft regular bowel movements, it also makes your intestines move faster. Since fiber moves quickly through your intestines, it can help signal that you are full so you won’t over eat. It also cleans your colon, which is pretty cool because it cleans out bacteria or other buildup in your intestines. Foods with fiber also are absorbed into your bloodstream slower. This keeps your blood glucose levels from rising too fast. Spikes in glucose fall quickly, which can cause you to be hungry not long after you eat. Other foods with fiber include beans, whole grain breads (good for toast!), fruits, vegetables, etc. Thank you Benioff Children’s Hospital for this great information on fiber!