Eat during the holidays like a boss

Hey everyone!

I'm back to save your holiday eating habits. If they are anything like mine were, that means lots of sugar and second helpings to everything! I probably should have done this post before Thanksgiving so you could eat right for the whole holiday season. But this technique is one that you can use all year round. And it's a great trick so you won't easily forget it!

Often the holidays are used as an excuse to eat crappy-like. And then we get to New Years and make our resolutions to lose all that weight we gained from Christmas and Thanksgiving. That's a ton of work. I'd rather eat the good stuff and not gain a ton of weight, wouldn't you? So the key to this is to plan your indulgence.

You know that there are going to be certain meals that you'll overeat at. I mean, are you seriously going to go to Thanksgiving dinner and NOT stuff yourself silly? Yeah right. So you need to plan "splurge days". These splurge days are days that you plan to overindulge yourself in food. For example, Super Bowl Sunday is a big splurge day for me. But don't think for a second that you can get away with eating all that food and not have to make up for it.

The day after splurge days is when you make up it. Not the day before!! Don't starve yourself the day before a big eating event. That's a dieting mistake that too many people make. If you starve yourself the day before, your stomach will shrink. The next day, when you want to eat a ton of food, your stomach won't be able to handle it because its the size of a dime. The excess eating will make you incredibly sick. And the whole point of eating all that food is to enjoy it, not puke it! But if you have your normal stomach size on splurge days, you can more fully enjoy all the food and your body will be able to handle it.

So now let's talk about the day after splurge days. Here is where you need discipline. This day is all about eating extremely healthy and exercising to make up for your food transgression :-) To give you an example of how your eating should be, I'll tell you what I usually do on these days- smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, and a reduced sized dinner. And all I have for snacks are produce and water. As for exercise, I do more that day than usual. I either increase the length of my run or I go for an extra walk. It's not a ton of fun, but I always remember how it's totally worth it for 2 servings of turkey and rolls the day before.

Now these splurge days are not to be very often. I would say to have one less than once a month. You don't want to make a habit of stretching and shrinking your stomach every other week. Just picture you treating your stomach like a rubber band. Not a pretty picture right? So don't do that to your body! My splurge days are usually Super Bowl Sunday, my birthday, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Often there is a special day in there somewhere that I hadn't planned on. So thats about 5-6 splurge days per year. And as a rule, these splurges are few and far between and usually on holidays.

As human beings, we are going to have days when we want to give into our carnal eating desires. And those days are ok, as long as you plan for it and then make up for it. It's a smart foolproof technique, as long as you don't abuse it. Happy Holdiays!

Color it appetizing like a boss

Time for Q&A: Which of the pictures below is more attractive? 

or

If you were thinking what I was thinking, the bottom one looks way more appetizing and attractive to me. Why? The plates contain mostly the same things- chicken, grain, and a vegetable. What is the primary difference between the two? *cough* color! Say color!

Another tip I learned from *FWDGF is to make your food look appealing! If something doesn't look good, you don't want to eat it. Isn't this what Dr. Seuss was trying to tell us with Green Eggs and Ham? Even if it's good for you and may taste allright, the appearance of a dish can make or break it. So the best way to make food look more appetizing is to add color to it! I mean, look at the first dish. It's so...bland...and yellow. When I look at it, I think blah and boring.

If my husband read this, he would probably laugh out loud because my taste in food was the epitome of bland and boring when we got married. I would never eat a vegetable and I always ate my food plain. When I went to get a hamburger, I ordered just the patty and the bun! But after reading FWDGF, my whole perspective on eating changed. I started to dress my dishes, add color, even throw little garnishes on the side! If you give enough attention to making your dinner, how much happier will you eating it?

In general, adding more color is always a good rule, because most of the colors in the the grocery store come from produce. So again, it's all about getting those fruits and veggies on your plate. When it comes to the meat and grain section of your plate, I have a rule of opposites. If my chicken has a red sauce, I try to give my pasta a white or cheesy sauce. Or if my chicken has a white sauce, I try to spice up the pasta by adding red or green (like topping it with fresh green beans, asparagus, or tomatoes). And sometimes I just do spaghetti, so my meatballs and pasta are both covered in red. But if I do that, I make sure to have a bright green salad on the side.

So it's really simple. Make your food look attractive. Now go color your life healthy!
*French Women Don't Get Fat

Boring scientific note: Plants are pretty much helpless when it comes to predators. Lets be honest, there's a lot of things that can go wrong when you're a plant. Scorched by the sun, eaten by insects and infected with bacteria are just a few. Therefore, since a plants lacks legs to run away from these hazards, it produces it's own defensive system with phytonutrients. These are chemicals of nature that protect the plant from UV rays, bacteria, and sometimes ward off insects. When humans eat plants, we call those phytonutrients antioxidants! Think about it. The UV rays from the sun are damaging to a plant because it creates free radicals. And inside us, we know that free radicals exist from the natural process of metabolism. So that is why phytonutrients (aka antioxidants) battle free radicals inside of us- because they already had practice from inside the plant! 

Enjoy the journey like a boss

Who's ready for Halloween?!?!?! I am so excited! We always do little family themed costumes and since there's only 3 of us, it's usually pretty easy. This year Dave and I are going to be bank robbers and Cage will be a money bag. It's going to turn out super cute and I'll be sure to post a picture or two. Last year we were fishermen and Cage was the fish. What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

Another exciting event for us in October is called General Conference. Twice a year, the prophet and his apostles (our church leaders) broadcast a two day conference, in which they give inspiring talks. In one of these talks, an apostle told a story about bicycle riding with his wife. This particular guy and wife were avid bike riders and quite enjoyed the sport. They were never in a hurry, they never entered into races, they never tried to see how fast they could go- they always just enjoyed the ride. One time, he made the mistake of suggesting to his wife that if they pushed themselves harder, they could go faster and make great time. His wife, gently but sternly turned around and said to him (I paraphrase), "It's not a race. Just enjoy the journey."

Well I don't know about you, but I can think of DOZENS of situations that applies to. But in this post, I'll be applying it to exercise. In the words of this great apostle's wife: It is not a race. Enjoy the journey. A big part of being happy and healthy is enjoying what you're doing to be healthy. I meet a lot of people that say, "I hate exercise so I don't do it" ...what? No no no no no no no no no no no- I could insert a lot more "no's" here, but I think I've made my point. Find some sort of exercise that you don't hate and I promise there will be at least one. So if you hate running, then don't run (this should be common sense). Do something else! Try swimming, walking, zumba, yoga, bike riding, weight lifting, dancing, roller blading, basketball, tennis etc. Go to Google and search "different types of exercise activities" and there will be enough ideas there to send your brain into over-stimulation mode. Now, don't get me wrong, all exercise requires work, so you don't get out of doing that. You can't be lazy and healthy at the same time. But at least get some enjoyment out of what your doing. At the end of an exercise activity, you should be saying, "I'm GLAD I did that"!

Now I turn the time over to Mr. Sean T for some words of advice about intense workouts.

Actually I decided he's a little biased and unrealistic, so I'll give the words of advice. When I say intense workouts, I mean things like P90X, Insanity, and any other programs similar to those. And you need to know that what I'm about to say is opinionated (so don't get mad!) but it comes from actually participating in the Insanity program.

I am going to preface this by saying that I know many people who have tried these programs and truly do love it. That is really great for them, I mean it. They have found an exercise activity that they enjoy. But if you are swayed by the "quick fix to weight loss" thought or by the killer abs on the people in those videos, then please listen to what I have to say! If you are the kind of person who usually struggles in discipline and motivation with exercise, has a significant amount of weight to lose, or hates to workout, think very carefully before wasting your $200 on this. These are very high-powered, high energy (and high sweat volume!) workouts. They. are. HARD. And this is coming from someone who ran for 5 hours straight. You may get excited when you first purchase it and promise to do all 60 days. But after the first week, I was so ready to quit. It's not a workout I enjoyed. Unless you've actually done these workouts, it will be impossible to tell you how incredibly difficult they are. But they are evil. And like I said, some people really enjoy constantly pushing themselves, having that sore muscle feeling, and dripping pools of sweat (that is no exaggeration). It's like adrenaline for some people, the best kind of adrenaline. :-) But be honest with yourself. If that doesn't sound like you, chances are you won't want to continue once you start.

Now, don't get me wrong. These programs work. I loved the results (I couldn't stop staring at my arms!). But I was so excited to just be done with it. I disliked every minute of those workouts and it wasn't worth my unhappiness, when I would rather run anyway. Also, these workouts are not for someone who has never exercised and wants to start. Please please please ask a doctor about this program before you dive into it. The workouts are all about constantly increasing your heart rate and if you've never exercised before, that's something your body will not be able to handle. Honestly, the ads may make it seem like this workout is perfect for quick weight loss, but that is false. These workouts are usually for people who are already fit and want to be more fit.

I do have some advice for those people who will enjoy these types of programs:
1) Listen to your body. If it's telling you it can't do anymore, PLEASE take a break. If you push your body way past it's limits, you're not being healthy, you're being harmful. I made the mistake of pushing myself too hard during one of the cardio workouts (when I knew I had low blood pressure) and passed out. What good did that do my body? Absolutely nothing.
2) Do it with a partner. Even for people who are incredibly self-motivated, you will at times want to quit. That's just how hard it is. So get someone to join you, who will encourage you (even make you) get up the next day and do it again. Partners are the best for any type of exercise. Chances are, the day you don't feel like exercising, he/she will. And vice versa. Get yourself a team and work together!

So overall, do what you love. Don't try to convince yourself into an activity that you'll hate and eventually will quit. Now that doesn't mean sit on the couch and get your enjoyment from watching TV. Get up, try different types of activities until you find one you like and want to stick with. Just freakin' ENJOY yourself and ENJOY the journey- the journey to a happier, healthier you.
By the way, no comments about how I'm a freak of nature because I love to run. Thank you ;-)

Boring scientific note: Your heart is a very special muscle and you have to take care of it. It is constantly working to pump blood to the rest of your body. And the reason it needs to pump blood is because your red blood cells carry oxygen, which your cells need to live. Without oxygen, cells die (and that's painful!) Your heart muscle also pumps blood and oxygen to itself, that's how cool it is! Because even if the heart can pump blood to other organs, if it doesn't get oxygen itself, it's cells will die. When you start any type of exercise, your heart requires more oxygen. Why? Because it's doing more work, so those heart cells need to stay kicking. If you begin exercising at a vigorous level that you are not used to, your brain tells your heart, "You need more oxygen!" The brain is kind of a bully that way. The heart freaks out, because it doesn't want to make the boss mad. So it starts pumping faster. But even though it pumps faster, that doesn't mean its pumping better. The insanely fast heartbeat, means that the heart is pumping too fast for it to efficiently get enough blood out to the body, and to itself. It's like when you're under pressure and you try to do a task quickly, but it ends up being sloppy. So that's why if your heart suddenly is thrown into a high-intensity workout, it can't keep up. Eventually, it can't pump the blood right, so oxygen doesn't get to the heart cells, and that causes chest pain. By the way, that's a signal to STOP! So it is really important to start workouts at a low or moderate intensity, before you try a vigorous activity. It will build up your heart muscle so that it can pump fast, but efficiently. Nobody just woke up and decided to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. They had to work up to it. And so do you.

Snack like a boss, part 2

Ok, so to finish off this subject, I'm going to make a list of some of my favorite snacks. With fruit, I just eat it straight, since they taste so sweet anyways. But I've never been a big veggie eater, especially since the time my parents nearly force fed me green beans (but now in adulthood, I'm a big fan of green beans). So I had to figure out how to not only eat them, but eat them 3 times a day! I figured out different ways to season the vegetables so that they appealed to me. In my opinion, it was better to eat veggies with a few added calories from the seasoning than to not eat them at all. In time, I began to need less and less added flavor, and now I eat most veggies like I do fruit- plain and straight up.

So here's a list of common snacks that I recommend:
-Fruit with yogurt
-Banana muffins (see recipe below)
-Carrots with a little ranch on the side
-Celery with peanut butter
-Bean salad (see recipe below)
-Avocado/Tomato salad (aka the best veggie snack ever. Click for recipe)
-Chili Cucumbers (see recipe below)
-Cheese and crackers (careful on the amount of cheese you use. It may be more fat and calories than you need)
-Raisins with yogurt
-Cooked green beans with a little garlic salt
-Cooked carrots with a little honey

If that's not enough to get you started, I don't know what will be!


Banana Muffin recipe

These are the best because they are made of mostly fruit! No flour, and most of the sugar is from the fruit itself! Cage and I either make these for breakfast or munch on them for an afternoon snack. This recipe will make seven regular sized muffins.

Ingredients
-1 1/2 mashed banana
-1/2 cup milk
-1 egg
-1/2 tbsp baking powder
-1 1/2 cups oats
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 tbsp sugar
-raisins

Heat oven to 375. Mix all the ingredients together, throw in muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges turn brown and the middle of the muffin is firm.

This recipe adapted from http://greenlitebites.com/2009/03/07/banana-oatmeal-cups-with-chocolate-chips/


Bean Salad

Dave's mom is a fabulous southern cook. One day she made this salad for dinner and I ate it for the next three days! It was so flavorful and I couldn't get enough of it!

Ingredients
-1 can of black beans
-1 can of pinto beans
-1 can of corn
-1/4 cup onion finely diced
-1 tsp cumin
-Italian dressing
-cilantro, finely chopped

Rinse and drain the cans of beans and corn. Mix with the onions and cilantro (I don't know the exact amount of cilantro. I just add enough til it looks right, probably about 1/4 cup). Add the cumin. At the end, I pour Italian dressing into the salad. Just enough to cover all the ingredients and give it a bit of flavor. This salad is so yummy!



Chili Cucumbers

This is super simple and I eat this on a day where I don't want to put much effort into my snacks. Essentially, slice a cucumber up. Mix together 2 tbsp of olive oil with a few drops of lime juice. Brush the cucumber slices with it. Sprinkle with garlic salt, pepper, and chili powder. Delicious and simple!

Boring scientific note: There are two types of vitamins. Fat soluble and water soluble. Fat soluble vitamins are vitamins K, D, A and E. All the others, like C and B, make up the water soluble category. So...why do you care? Well, fat soluble vitamins can be stored in your body because they move into fatty tissues. Remember, we all have fatty tissues so this is not a bad thing necessarily. Water soluble vitamins do not stay in your body for more than a few days, so they are not stored. This means that your dietary intake of water-soluble vitamins needs to be more frequent than your intake of fat soluble vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins (boy, I am sick of typing the word "soluble") are found mostly in your animal meats and fats, though they can also be found in produce as well. However, water soluble vitamins are found MOSTLY in produce and not very often in meats and fats. So it's what I've been saying all along- you need plenty of produce every day. Otherwise, those water soluble vitamins get flushed out of your system and don't get replenished as often as they need to be. Although fat soluble vitamins are important, the daily intake is not as essential compared to the others. It's funny, in my religion there is a revelation called the "Word of Wisdom" and we use it as a guide to keeping our bodies clean and strong. Well I always thought it was strange that the WoW said to consume meats sparingly. But now as science is revealing more and more about the human body and the food that goes in it, it's all starting to make a lot of sense. Turns out God knows what he's talking about! 

Snack like a boss

 If you've messed up your healthy lifestyle lately, here is something to make yourself feel better-- everyone does at some point. But that doesn't mean that it's over for you and you failed! Last week was a bad week for me. I feeling a bit depressed and sick due to some bad news. It was hard for me to get up off the couch, so I did zero running. And even though I know that my body needs nutrition even more when I'm feeling crappy, I didn't give it that. In fact, I think for the first half of the week I didn't eat anything. And the second half, when I actually felt like eating, it was cookies I wanted. Not a great week. But we get back up on that health-horse and keep going! You have to know that even the healthiest of us are going to have bad days/weeks. So when we mess up, we acknowledge we did and make the next week ten times better! No pouting allowed, that just makes you feel more depressed and then you want to eat more cookies (take it from someone who knows). And interestingly enough, I am craving vegetables like crazy right now! My body is so not used to 3 straight days of cookie eating and I think it is just crying out for something green and beautiful.

Speaking of green and beautiful, let's talk about healthy snacks. We all know that every human being needs to snack, especially between those long hours between lunch and dinner. If you deny your hungry body food for that long, you feel like a shark in a feeding frenzy by the time dinner is served. You will overeat and be stuffed, instead of feeling satisfied with a good meal. So if you think that snacking is bad for you, to NOT snack can be worse! On the flip side, if you are snacking on... let's say... cookies for example, you're not doing your body any favors. So the key to snacking is putting the right food in your body to satisfy it.

My rule for snacking is mostly this- choose the produce before anything else. Now everybody is a little different, but the average person needs 2-3 servings of fruit per day and 2-3 servings of vegetables per day. I know that seems like a lot, but I'll show you what I do and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to incorporate that much produce into your diet!

The picture above represents a typical grocery shopping trip for me and I do it about 3-4 times a week. So if you've read my meal blog, you know that you should be eating fruit with your breakfast meal and vegetables with lunch and dinner meals. Ok, so that's 1 fruit and 2 vegetable servings out of the way! Mid-morning I have another serving of fruit for my snack. Mid-afternoon I have another serving of vegetables for a snack. And then before bed, I have another serving of fruit before bed (usually with yogurt). That's 3 fruit and 3 vegetable servings in less than 24 hours! You can dooooooooo it! If you're a bullet-point person, I put the schedule down below.

- 7 am: Breakfast (w/ fruit serving)
- 10 am: Snack (fruit)
-12:30 pm: Lunch (w/ veggie serving)
- 2 pm: Snack (veggie)
-4 pm: Another snack (can be produce or something else healthy)
-6 pm: Dinner (w/ veggie serving)
-8 pm: Bedtime snack (fruit)

Obviously, I switch up the schedule based on how that day goes for me. Sometimes I really want something avocado-y for a bedtime snack. Sometimes I want an apple mid-day. But you get the point- make your snacks about produce and you'll get in your daily servings of fruits and veggies. You'll notice that in the schedule at about 4 pm, there is a scheduled time for another snack. I usually need about two snacks in the afternoon, because that stretch to dinner is so freakin' long some days. So this extra snack doesn't need to be produce (though it usually is), but it should be healthy and somewhat unprocessed. Sometimes it's a yogurt with a bit of granola. Other times it's a few crackers with cheese. Don't eat the cookies here (sorry for all the cookie references, it's just fresh on my mind right now) and don't break out the ice cream. Keep it simple, keep it healthy. Chances are, if you think it's unhealthy, don't eat it. If you think it is healthy, go for it.

Oh my servings. When I was studying nutrition, I remember looking at all my textbooks and them saying things like "1/3 cup of fruit juice is a serving of fruit", but only "1/4 cup dried fruit is a serving". Oh my heck, why do people in the health industry think eating needs to be so complicated? It was ridiculous. So, once again, I went for simplification. 1 cup of fruit or vegetable is one serving. And this means that if you're eating a fruit/veggie that is the size of small apple, that's a whole serving by itself. See, not too bad.

I prefer not to use fruit and veggie juices as my servings, because they have so many added ingredients to them. Also juices are less likely to fill you than the actual fruit it represents. Juices really ruin produce for me. When it comes to your eating, fresh is always always always better (that's not just my opinion, it's science). And don't forget that water is a filler! So if you're already munching quite a bit, supplement water for the snack.

I have so much more to tell you guys, but this post is already quite long! I have a few snack ideas and recipes that I will share with you next time.

Boring scientific note: So here's the really cool thing about produce- they are so PACKED full of vitamins and minerals that your body spends more energy using those vitamins to break down other foods. For example, a couple of the B vitamins are a necessity for metabolism. You see, all food gets broken down into glucose and then that glucose must be somehow turned into energy. The way this usually works is that the glucose molecule kind-of gets bumped and kicked around by other molecules until it's molecular shape has completely changed. While it's getting beat up by these other molecules, the glucose is emitting ATP, and if you remember high school biology, ATP is what the body uses for energy. And some of the molecules in charge of kicking around glucose are the B vitamins! Without these vitamins, metabolism cannot be completed. It's like an assembly line. If you are making a car, you put it on the assembly line and everybody is in charge of adding something to the car. If the person in charge of adding an engine to the car isn't there, the car-making cannot continue. Same with metabolism. Each molecule on the assembly line is in charge of changing the glucose into ATP in some special way. And if the B vitamins aren't there to do their job, the metabolism process CANNOT go forward and you will not get ATP (energy) in the end. It's a really complicated process and I tried to explain it the best I know how. But I did score a 97% on my biochemistry final, so just trust that I know what I'm talking about. 

Get tropical like a boss

Wow. Doesn't that look amazing? I promised you guys the recipe for a tropical salad, so here it is! My only regret is that I waited until the end of summer to try this deliciousness. Fresh pineapples were so expensive that I had to buy canned pineapple slices, NOT my preference. But it still tasted so wonderful and summer fresh!

Ingredients:
-Spinach (I always substitute spinach for lettuce, but naturally you can use romaine or whatever you want. Spinach is just packed with tons of nutrients, while most other lettuces are mostly water)
-Pineapple slices
-Mango slices
-Tomatoes
-Grilled chicken
-Vinaigrette dressing (optional, I didn't use any)

Grill the pineapple and mango slices either on a grill, in the oven (broil for 2 minutes on each side), or I did it using our George Foreman. Grill up some chicken. My sister Robin taught me to buy pre-made grilled chicken strips that you just throw on the stove for a few minutes. It's one of the best tricks in cooking that I've learned! Once everything is grilled, dice some tomatoes, spinach and throw the salad together. You could use a dressing but I prefer not to because it's just added calories, plus the juices from all the fruits and tomatoes are more than enough to compensate for vinaigrette.

Enjoy eating tropically!

Boring scientific note: Everyone knows that tropical fruits carry lots of Vitamin C. That much is fact. But there has been a rumor for a few decades that vitamin C boosts your immune system and prevents you from getting sick, especially with a cough or cold. The man who originally said this actually had very little scientific proof and few proven studies on that topic. Now there are actual well-drafted studies and tests proving that increasing your Vitamin C intake will NOT help prevent illness and will not boost your immune system. The most this vitamin can do is cut down on the amount of time your cold lasts, but only by a few days. So don't let vitamin companies try to trick you on that little rumor. But Vitamin C does do some awesome things! It's another antioxidant, which I talked in detail about in my smoothie post. Also, one form of vitamin C is called ascorbic acid. This type acts as a kind of glue that holds the tissues of your body together. That's why as nurses, we tell people with wounds to increase their vitamin C intake. Because we are trying to "glue" together their wounded tissues and the ascorbic acid is a huge help in doing that! 

Don't sweat it, like a boss

Not a few times have people told me, "I would like to exercise, but I just don't like sweating." And sometimes I think to myself, What?! How can you not love the perspiration dripping down your face letting you know that you've successful kicked butt at a workout? Then I realize, sweating is kinda gross. But exercise is so important! Each and every one of us needs some sort of exercise for our health. So here is some advice for people who aren't going to exercise for sweaty reasons. Just keep moving.

I got this advice from *FWDGF. The author actually makes fun of gym rats and people who sweat, which I don't like. As I stated before, sweat lets me know I pushed my body and that feeling is awesome!!! But what this author suggests is to just move your butt. And I have to agree with her. If hard core workouts aren't your style, that's fine. But don't be content with just sitting on the couch. Get up and move, no matter what it is. 

My favorite thing to "keep moving" is walk! Not only is it my favorite thing to do, but Cage absolutely loves it. I put him in his little umbrella stroller and we just go go go. By the way, has anyone noticed how umbrella stroller handles are ALWAYS too low and you have to hunch over just slightly? Seriously, it's annoying. You'd think someone out there would have figured a way to fix that by now. Anyway, we try to go on a walk almost every day. Walking is actually a cardio workout, just on a very mild level. But you don't sweat when you're just strolling along. 

In the picture above, Cage and I had just gone to the grocery store. Our store is about 1/2 mile away, so a trip there and back is 1 mile that we walked. I need fresh produce a few times a week, so quite often that's where we walk to. I have a general rule that if anything is within a 1 mile radius, I walk there (2 miles roundtrip!) This goes for the store, the park, the CVS- you name it, I walk it. If the weather is great outside, I may walk further than 1 mile to get somewhere. Cage would let me walk for hours before he'd complained, so it's a great activity for us.

Even though walking is a cardio exercise, that doesn't mean you can just walk around the block and you're done. If you're going to walk for exercise, you need to do it for at least 30 minutes a day. But, if you can't do 30 minutes a day, it's ok. Just do 10 minutes at a time. Three 10-minute walks a day and you're set to go! By the way, the walks do need to be at least 10 minutes of straight walking. You can't just walk around your house for 5 minutes at six different times and call it good. Just think, the average person walks about half a mile in 10 minutes. So if you walk for 30 minutes, you just walked 1.5 miles. That's huge! 

With walking, I suggest that you do it with someone. That way you can talk, chitchat, gossip and hopefully time will fly! Take anyone- your grandkids, your friends, your significant other. Take your kids, take your wife, take your husband- oh wait, sorry I thought I was Antoine Dodson for a moment. The point is enjoy your walk :-) Now, generally walking isn't going to make you break out in sweat- unless it's summertime and you're suffering from a toasty 102 degrees during the day (can you tell I'm suffering this right now?) In that case, you have two options. One is walk early in the morning or walk at night. Night is probably better if you want to walk with your spouse or significant other anyway. The other option is go walk inside, like a mall. I used to do this all the time when I was pregnant, although it was more to induce labor than for exercise! But you get what I'm saying- don't let excuses drag you down. Beat 'em, get up and walk! I really admired Dave's grandma because every night she would go for a walk. Without fail. Every single night. That's a woman who is trying to do the right thing for her health! 

The other thing I have to say about "keep moving" is to implement this in your home. You still need to walk daily because that will be your main source of exercise. But in addition, you should also be moving plenty around your house.That mostly means turn off the freakin TV. I grew up in a house where the TV was rarely on. I was kicked outside most of the time to play in our cul-de-sac. So therefore, I don't watch a lot of TV today. I won't even let my husband get cable because I know I'll never use it. But if you are someone that has your TV on constantly, it's time to think about giving it a vacation. If you are going to keep moving, it requires you to get up and do things. Some things I do to keep momentum throughout the day are play with my kid (especially hide and seek where we have to move around a lot) and household chores. Oh my lands, all the sweeping and mopping and vacuuming and scrubbing and ironing and dishes are enough to give anyone a workout. But you don't sweat doing normal housework. See how clever this plan is? I know a lot of people who like yard work and gardening and that's a great way to move it! But guess what- you gotta walk away from that black box. I've noticed that the only time I get sucked into TV is when I actually start watching it. So before settling down for a few hours to see your new shows (which I know you all will do because the fall shows are coming back soon,. And I am excited about that!), remind yourself that there must be moderation in all things- television included. I'm not saying don't ever watch it again. I'm just saying severely limit how much it's on and how much time you spend on the couch per day. KEEP MOVING. 

Ok, I'm off my TV soap box now. Sorry, that one topic just kinda hits a nerve with me. So basically, you don't need to sweat, but you DO need to move. Just tell yourself, I like to move it, move it, I like to move it, move it. You will be surprised how much your health will improve just from a 30 minute walk every day. And when you're not walking, keep the movement going inside your house. All right people, go have fun and don't sweat it! 

* French Women Don't Get Fat book

Boring scientific note: In some basic chemistry or physical science class, I learned that molecules moving faster create heat more than molecules just standing still. This can be applied to us, since our entire body is made up of molecules! And, metabolism requires a ton of molecules moving around to create energy. It's pretty much a movement factory. So when your body's molecules are moving faster, through vacuuming or walking or playing catch, that means that your metabolism HAS to speed up as well. If it doesn't speed up, you won't get the energy you need and will crash. So really, metabolism has no choice but to keep up with your body's activity level. When your metabolism speeds up, everything in your body starts moving faster. And since everything is moving faster, heat is created. The heat moves things around even faster. So just vacuuming for you is a workout for your molecules! When the heat builds up too much, like in a workout, your body needs to release it in some way to keep your body at a normal temperature. One of those ways is through sweating.  But if you just increase how much you move, your metabolism kicks up, everything inside you starts moving, heat builds and wallah- you are literally burning calories! But not moving around, decreases your metabolism. So when you're just sitting still, so is your metabolism. 

Get inspired like a boss

Oh. My. Gosh. I don't care who you are or what your goals are in life, PLEASE watch this movie. If this doesn't inspire or motivate you, then nothing will! I cried watching this movie and you probably will too (depending on the amount of estrogen in your system right now)

Also, if you feel the urge to yell, "You GO Arthur, you GO!" you're not alone. I actually yelled it out loud through my bursts of sobs.

This is all I'm posting today. Watch it.

Control yourself like a boss

Today, it's all about control. Portion control.

I had once had a nutrition professor tell me her personal story on this topic. She had flown to Europe with her husband on business. After several hours of being stuck on a plane, then dealing with foreign authorities and airports, she was hardly feeling perky. Her husband's European partners offered to take them to dinner, which lifted her mood quite a bit. When the waitress at the restaurant delivered their food, she took one look at the plate and was shocked. The size of the meal was fit for child. Having had a long day and not feeling her best, she blurted out, "That's it?!" The European businessman looked at her for a minute and then said, "That, that is the amount you are supposed to have. But you Americans are used to eating bigger portions than you need." Needless to say, she felt ashamed and realized that he was absolutely right. And the European meal did indeed end up being enough.

So yes, American portions have become extravagant, verging on absolutely ridiculous. But what's so sad is that we are used to eating that much, so to cut back makes us feel like we are STARVING! When I was trying to lose weight and tried some portion control, I did not feel good the first couple of days. But afterwards, my stomach got used to it. And I am much better off.

At first, I didn't know how to do portion control at all! But then I researched the government's "Choose Your Plate" and that helped me figure out what my meals should look like. Also, taking a few nutrition classes in my nursing program helped too ;-). So the Choose Your Plate program shows how much of certain foods you need in your meals. But they make it sound really complex, like, "At dinner, protein should make up 40% of your meal". Yeah right, like I'm gonna measure my chicken to make sure it's exactly 40% of my meal. Please. Eating does not need to be rocket science people. I simplified their program into a meal plan that anyone can do, while still keeping all the key principles! However, if you still want to look at the program, here's the link: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

So here's the basis for meal planning. You take a plate and cut it in half (with your mind, not a knife). Then you take one of those halves and cut it in half again. So you should have 3 areas consisting of 2 quarter pieces and one half piece. One of those quarters is for carbs, the other is for protein. The other half of the plate is designated entirely for....Vegetables! YAY! Oh come on, get excited. So your plate should look like the one below.

Your carbs can be anything from pasta to bread to oatmeal. Most of your grains will qualify for the carbs section. So essentially, if you're going to have the spaghetti, you're going to have to give up the garlic bread. Remember, it's all about moderation and portion control! It only gets one quarter of a plate for a reason.

Proteins are mostly going to be your meats, but eggs, beans, and peanut butter are also in the protein category. I learned something mind-blowing about meat in one of my nursing classes. Ready? Your meat portion should only be the size of your palm. Not the whole hand including fingers. Just the palm of your hand. When I told my steak-loving husband about this, I almost feared for my life (sarcasm there). 

And the vegetables. Well, they take up half the plate for a reason. First of all, they are really really good for you. Packed with tons of vitamins and not so many calories. I try to eat the vegetables on my plate before moving on to the other areas. That way, if I end up getting full halfway through the meal, at least I ate the quality, less caloric, less fatty item.  Half a plate of vegetables is much better than a 11 oz steak. Please understand, I'm not harping on carbs and meats. I love them just as much as the next guy. Your body needs them too, just in much smaller portions.

Your dairy should be included in some meals, but you don't need so much that it gets its own area. It generally gets incorporated into the meal somehow. Usually this will be the cheese in your salad or a side of yogurt with your lunch. If you need, pour yourself a small glass of milk (I don't like this option though, because water is sooooo much better).

I am putting a picture of an ideally portioned meal, one that I served just recently at my house.
Notice how the veggies take up half the plate. I used salad for my vegetable item. The pasta takes up the upper quarter of the plate, and the chicken parmesan takes up the lower quarter. There is cheese covering the chicken, so that's my dairy. Like I said, this type of dinner is fairly common at my house, so you don't need to spend hours and dollars at the store trying to find super healthy food. And it can be something that tastes oh so delicious too! Just use portion control and you're set to go. By the way, sorry for the crappy picture. I was using paper plates that night, as I neglected to do dishes that day. Hey, no one's perfect. Also, you don't have to always separate your meats and pasta. I mean, are you seriously going to do that when you have meatballs and spaghetti? Just make sure that if you DID separate the items, they wouldn't take up more than a quarter plate each. 

So anyway, that is your plan for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is different only in the sense that you have half a plate of fruit instead of veggies. Say it with me...YAY! Here is what an ideal breakfast would look like. Eggs for protein, one slice of toast for carbs (I know it looks like more than a quarter of a plate, but the rule with bread is that one slice=a quarter of a plate), and yummy strawberries. The yogurt is the dairy here. Also, remember my smoothies (click here if you don't: http://healthylikeaboss.blogspot.com/2012/08/make-smoothies-like-boss.html)? They are the perfect breakfast, as they have tons of fruit, oats for the carbs, peanut butter for protein, yogurt and milk for dairy. Bingo!

And if you are still hungry after these perfectly portioned meals? I suggest that you wait at least half an hour, to see if you are actually still hungry. Sometimes waiting gives your stomach a chance to catch up with all the food you ate and it realizes that you actually are quite satisfied. If after half an hour you still feel like you are starving, load up on two things: more produce (try fruit if you just had veggies and vice versa. Variety does wonders for your diet), or more water. These things are low in calories, but will expand your stomach and trick your mind into thinking you're full.

Allright friends, go start meal planning! Speaking of fruits and veggies, I have a delicious tropical salad that I'm dying to try for dinner tonight. If I like it, I'll post the recipe :-)

 Boring scientific note: There is this wonderful thing called peristalsis. On a very basic level, it moves the food from our stomach to our intestines. Let me explain further what it is. Your stomach is made of muscles. When these muscles sense food in the stomach, they contract and puuuuuuuuullll the food in different directions to break it up. Once the food is in smaller pieces, it can move to the small intestine. Now you know that all your muscles are controlled by nerves in your brain right? Well there is this one nerve called the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is stimulated by food in the digestive system and then it tells the stomach muscles to contract. However, if there is a lot of fatty food in the stomach, a hormone is released that actually keeps the vagus nerve from being stimulated. If the vagus nerve can't be stimulated, peristalsis can't start. So fatty foods actually slow down your digestion, which can cause all sorts of bloating, digestion problems, and constipation. And that is only one of many reasons to keep your meats and animal proteins to only a quarter plate. 

Add-vocado like a boss

Have you jumped on the avocado bandwagon yet? If not, better hurry because the avocado movement is sweeping the country! I've heard more about avocados this year than I have in my whole life. Maybe it's because they were never present in my house while growing up. Or maybe it's because America really is going crazy for those deliciously tasty vegetables! I recently took a roadtrip to see my family in Arizona and saw a couple of these signs on the way there.

Like I said, it's sweeping the nation. I love those little delectable veggies! They are so filling and if you know how to use them, you never regret buying them. A few weeks ago I spent FOUR HOURS up and down the coast of California looking for a great deal from the local avocado growers. My dad called me during those four hours and when I told him what I was doing, he said, "You know what, I love avocados. But I just don't know what to use them in." And that my friends, is what I am here to help with!

Avocados are full of healthy components and they taste fantastic! I'm going to show you my favorite recipes for avocados. I hope you try and enjoy them as much as I have.

Avocado Salad

Essentially, you can add avocados to ANY salad and I promise you, it will only improve the flavor. But here is one of my favorite salads to throw a little avocado on.

Salad Ingredients:
Spinach (as replacement for lettuce)
Diced tomatoes
Chickpeas
Zucchini (sliced and broiled for 2 minutes)
1 avocado diced
Feta cheese

Dressing:
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

I always go very light on the dressing, as this salad just has SO much flavor, it really doesn't need much help. 

Many of you kitchen experts probably know how to cut and dice an avocado, but I didn't and had to look it up on Google. For those of you who were like me, let me save you the Google search. Cut an avocado lengthwise and twist. It should pop open. Remove the seed (I usually stick a knife in it and pop it out). Cut the avocado in several strips, first horizontally and then vertically, so you should end up with a grid pattern. Then scoop out the avocado insides! I put a picture up of how the avocado grid should look. Wallah! It sounds harder than it actually is. Still I'm pretty sure I'm asking Santa Claus for an avocado slicer for Christmas...

Ok, so my second recipe is a newfound love of mine. I know, I have so many newfound loves when it comes to produce. But this is seriously good guys! Welcome my love, avocado chicken salad.

Avocado Chicken Salad

1 avocado
1 thing of canned chickenSliced green onionsCilantro (finely cut)
Lime juice to taste
Garlic salt to taste
--Mush all the ingredients together until the chicken salad looks smooth. Add to toast or make a sandwich.

Um, notice anything fantastic about this chicken salad? NO MAYO! That's one way for sure to eat better. The mushed avocado provides a taste very similar to mayo, but none of the processed fat!


The last recipe I am recommending is a simple blend of vegetables. But the flavors are so perfectly matched and blended, it's like these guys were made for each other!

The Best Veggie Snack Ever

Half an avocado
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
Cilantro (finely cut)
1/4 cup cucumber
Lime juice and garlic salt to taste
--Mix all the ingredients together until you can't stand it another minute and just have to gobble it up!

The picture isn't a great one, but if any of you have worked with avocado before, you know that when it's mixed around, it doesn't look pretty. But I really really really want you to try this whenever you're in a snacking mood. The avocado is a filling vegetable and the others are simply too good to pass up! This has been my afternoon snack several times and it never disappoints. Your taste buds will thank me, I promise.

So that's all for my avocado lecture. But basically, add avocado to almost anything and it the dish will improve. It's a vegetable you're adding, but a very filling and satisfying one. And don't judge it by it's weird green appearance either. I'm pretty sure that the green egg from Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" was actually a misjudged avocado.

Boring scientific note: You may think all fat is bad, but guess what? It's not! That's one of the reasons why avocados are so healthy and so filling! Because they are filled with polyunsaturated fats. Why is this better for you? Well the negative things you hear about fat are talking about saturated fats. These are fats from animals, like steaks, beefs, and cheese. In the MOST BASIC sense, the saturated fats have a chemical structure, where all the atoms are lined up nice and steady. This makes saturated fats pretty solid and stable, making it harder for the body to break it down. If the body can't break it down, chances are it will stay and clot your systems. However, unsaturated fats are great because there are kinks in it's chemical structure. The kinks make the fat molecule unstable, so it's a breeze for the body to digest and break those down! In fact, these unsaturated fats are so awesome that they help decrease blood cholesterol, which always means a healthier heart and less chance for heart disease. If I were you, I would become best friends with avocados too. (Note that there must be moderation in all things. Eating tons and tons of unsaturated fats, like eating too much of anything, will have a negative effect)

Make smoothies like a boss

I am going craaaazy right now. My kid is turning 2 this weekend! Not only am I weirded out by how old he is (and how old I am!), but I am attempting a mad dash to get everything ready for his party. I have this absurd tendency to go above and beyond when it comes to throwing parties. Things are about to get a little nuts around here.

But I am taking a break from my party planning to talk about something delicious- breakfast! And I love  breakfast cereal. I loved to wake up and pour myself a bowl of sugary goodness with a splash of cool milk. It was hardly any work and it tasted great every single morning. I didn't think anyone could love cereal as much as I did until I met my husband. WOW. This is how bad it is- every now and then I would take a break from the cereal routine and make a breakfast of melt-in-your-mouth pancakes, with sizzling bacon, and hot scrambled eggs. And he would look at it and say (in a very gentle, timid manner), "Honey...I would kinda just rather have cereal."

So with our combined love of cereal and milk, we spent quite a bit in those isles of the grocery store. And then when I tried to start eating better, cereal didn't seem to be the healthiest option. Sure, I tried to justify it for a while- I mean, there's milk, so that's a serving of dairy right? And there has to be some sort of grain in Lucky Charms- but in the end I knew I needed to change my ways. But the best thing about cereal is how EASY it is. I mean you wake up, throw a couple of things in a bowl and you're done! Is any healthy breakfast going to be easier than that?

But guys, I gotta tell you, my skepticism was all for naught! I discovered smoothies and I now declare them my official favorite breakfast food! No more sugary cereal! Smoothies taste super yummy, are so easy to make (throw a few things in a blender, I mean, come on) and they are not full of processed junk. And, you know how after you eat cereal you're hungry like 30 minutes later? Smoothies keep me satisfied for most of the morning. And the smoothies I make have grain, fruit, dairy, and protein in them (and sometimes *gasp* the occasional vegetable. But don't freak out, I'll explain later), so they are the perfect healthy food.

It's taken trying many smoothie recipes, and tweaking most of them, but I have found a few smoothie flavors that you can't go wrong with (unless you don't like fruit...is that possible?). Since I promised recipes, I have included my 3 favorites below. I don't really have specific measurements for the ingredients. I just "eye it" and throw it all together. Don't you just hate it when people say that? But I have tried to be as specific as possible for you. Also most of the fruit I bought at the store, cut up and froze them myself. No need to spend $500,000 on frozen fruit from the store. I also use oatmeal in the smoothies which really helps to keep me full. Ever heard about how oatmeal sticks to your ribs? It's so true! Anyway, enjoy and be sure to try your own twist!

Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie
-half filled bowl of strawberries
-half a banana (frozen)
-half a peach (frozen)
-1/2 cup of oats
-spoonful of peanut butter (protein!)
-spoonful of vanilla greek yogurt
-enough milk to blend ingredients (I start with a little and add more until the blender is mixing everything smoothly)





Blueberry Oatmeal Smoothie
-a cup of blueberries
-half a peach (frozen)
-half a mango (frozen)
-spoonful of greek yogurt
-1/2 cup of oats
-milk





Ok, so remember my little comment about having the occasional veggie in my smoothie? That's where my green smoothie comes in! A green smoothie is basically any smoothie that you add spinach to and I am in LOVE with them. I know, I know, it sounds gross. But I finally got up the guts to try it and guess what-- I couldn't taste the spinach at all! There's so many other strong flavors (especially if you add yogurt or peanut butter) that you wouldn't even know the spinach was there. A veggie that you can't taste? Perfect for me! Although you can add spinach to the smoothies above (and I have!), I put my favorite green smoothie recipe here.

Strawberry Green Smoothie

-1/2 cup of oats
-half bowl of strawberries (frozen)
-half peach (frozen)
-spoonful of greek yogurt
-handful of spinach
-orange juice

If the taste of this smoothie is too bitter for you, add peanut butter or honey to sweeten it up a bit. I've also used kale in my green smoothies. I am obsessed with these things!


Little side note- Being a former Jamba Juice employee, I think I already had a built in love for smoothies. But after working there for some time, I quickly realized that they are not very healthy (imagine me looking very sad when I discovered this). Most of them are chalked full of froyo (their frozen yogurt) or sorbet. If you are going to Jamba Juice for a healthy option, choose one of the all-fruit smoothies. That's the healthy way to go! If you're going for a treat- by all means, indulge in a Chocolate Moo'd   :-)

Cage wishes you good smoothie eatin'!

Boring scientific note- All the main ingredients of my smoothies (strawberries, blueberries, spinach) are antioxidants. That word is becoming quite popular nowadays. I swear I see it everywhere on the newest "health" foods, but I have to wonder if people actually know what it means. When your body is busy breaking down substances (like glucose, remember that?) by metabolism, it is creating energy. One of the processes of metabolism is called oxidation. And while oxidation is good, in the sense that it helps create energy, it is bad in the sense that it creates harmful waste products. These substances can cause damage to our cells and some people think that they are the main reason for aging. I don't know if that's true or not. What I do know is that there are some foods, superfoods (I love saying that), that will fight off those waste products for us, so that they cannot damage our cells. Talk about heroes! So now that you know what antioxidants are, try including them in your diet. Here is a list of superfoods that I found- http://foodmatters.tv/content/superfoods

Eat dessert like a boss

Sorry for the longish absence! I was busy enjoying my vacation in the Smoky Mountains with family. Be jealous. 70 degrees, sunny days, and plenty of tanning on the lake. There cannot be a more heavenly place on earth.

But now I am back in California, where it is 100 degrees and miserable. And I thought So Cal was supposed to be the model for perfect weather. Lies I tell you, lies! So while I'm sitting here complaining, I thought it might be time we have a little heart-to-heart. You see, I have somewhat of a confession to make. I am cursed. Cursed with the desire to eat healthy, but the love of baking. Brownies, cookies, cupcakes, you name it, I bake it. Seriously, you should see my desserts board on Pinterest. Over 400 dessert recipes and still going strong! I love to bring my creations to parties, get-togethers, etc. and watch them rapidly disappear. It's a strange, addicting satisfaction. Check out the Reese's peanut butter trifle that I brought to my husband's work party a few months ago.

What a beauty! See that smile on my face? That's my "this is going to taste really good and everybody is going to love it" smile. But...baking has it's downfall. Mostly in the sense that I usually eat what I bake. I mean, who couldn't?! So for a long time, I struggled in knowing how to satisfy my passion for desserts, yet implement a healthy, weight-losing lifestyle. And that's when I met "French Women Don't Get Fat", the book that change my whole perspective on eating.

The author of FWDGF is all about enjoying food. She basically states that food is there for us to enjoy, not torment ourselves over! And I completely agree with her. I think one of the biggest reasons why people give up eating healthy is because they're not finding pleasure in their food. How awful! :-( And when those people get sick of having salad after salad for 3 weeks and their aching sweet tooth finally crushes their desire to be healthy, they splurge on a whole gallon of ice cream. That's why FWDGF was such a breath of fresh air for my weight loss journey. Because it taught me that although eating salads and more produce are good things, I shouldn't have to completely give up chocolate. Allright all you doubters out there- don't believe me? Allow me to blow your minds.

Moderation in all things. Yes, you can have desserts, but in small doses. FWDGF said to save eating sweets for weekends and holidays. I agree with the holidays part, but I had trouble adhering to the weekend policy. See, if I had dessert on Saturday and Sunday, about mid-way through the week, my sweet tooth ache started to kick in. And I would have to drag myself another 3-4 days before I could have something sweet again, IF I made it that far. So I changed the policy to work in my favor. I would have one dessert on the weekend and one dessert mid-way through the week. It usually worked out that I had something sweet on Sunday night (that was the night we ate with Dave's family) and then Wednesday or Thursday, when I started to crave sweetness (usually in the form of chocolate), I would have dessert again. Twice a week and it didn't hurt my waistline. It actually helped because it kept me from splurging on a whole box of Nutter-butters or brownies.

Twice a week not enough for you? In the beginning, I'll admit, it was NOT enough for me. I was used to feeding my pregnant body ice cream or cookies every night, and that was a hard habit to change. Here's are a couple of foods that helped satisfy the cravings so that I would make it to my next designated "dessert day".
-yogurt (preferably Greek0
-fruit (talk about sugar in it's healthiest form! Love me some strawberries)
-dark dark dark chocolate. I'm talking about 80% or more cocoa. It's much less fatty than milk chocolate. I usually bought a bar of Ghiradelli's and on the days that I had cravings, I would eat one small square of it. It was enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied and I began to really like the taste!

After a while, I didn't have the sweet cravings anymore. Twice a week became enough. But then came another challenge. You see, in my church, we have these wonderful people called visiting teachers. They come and check on you every month to see how you are doing, and they usually bring some form of cookies. Also, teachers in Sunday School almost always have a treat and church activities involve dozens of people baking in the kitchen. Seriously, they should call us "the eating church". So what did I do with all these desserts coming my way? I didn't want to offend people who had baked for me, because I know what a pleasure it is to make food for others.

I came up with a rule that I call "give or pitch". The first option is "give"- you pass on your desserts to others. This especially works well when I have made a dessert that my little family of 3 cannot finish by ourselves. Say, for example, it's a 9x13 pan of brownies. If it stays in my house, I will pick at those brownies all week long until I've eaten the whole pan. So I package it up and give it to a neighbor, friend, someone I visit, etc. Most often, the desserts go to Dave's work, where I know they will get taken care of!

The other option is "pitch". Dave hates this option. He grew up in a family where they were very careful not to waste anything, especially food. Even for me, it seemed terrible to throw perfectly good brownies away. But heed these words- it is better for those brownies to waste in the trash, than to waste in your body. Like I said, I don't prefer this option, but sometimes it is necessary and I just close my eyes and do it. Actually, I kind of get a kick out of it now. It's like saying, "Hasta la vista suckers! You're not going to torture me!"

One more lesson about sweet treats from FWDGF: do NOT stock sweet treats. Exhibit A: Oreos. I have a particular weakness for Oreos. And by weakness, I mean that if I buy a pack of Oreos, it will be gone in 24 hours (and I'm not talking about gone in the trashcan). So I don't buy them when I grocery shop. I stopped buying all of those junk food items and keeping them around my house. That way, when I'm looking for something to eat, I'm not tempted by them. If they aren't there, I can't eat them. And if I can't eat them, I eat something that's better for me (again, yay for fruit!).

So all you doubters, did I turn you into believers? I hope so! I have implemented these little rules into my life and I don't regret it one little bit. I'm at a healthy weight and still eating chocolate. Can't get any better than that!

Boring scientific note: You know that metabolism is taking ingredients and turning it into energy, right? Those ingredients are basically sugar, fat, or protein. Sugar, called glucose, is what your body needs to create energy. And essentially the more energy you need and spend, the more weight you're losing. But what happens when you have lots of glucose and you're not spending the energy? Well your body learns pretty quickly that you're not spending that energy, so it starts sending the sugar to be stored, instead of used and metabolized. The body is an amazing wonderful thing. It can actually take sugar and turn it into another ingredient. What an incredible feat!! So when you continue to store all this glucose/sugar that you're eating, your body says, "Well, we need to make room for all this glucose. Let's turn it into fat". So that's why too much sugar is harmful to your body. Because it turns into fat that just sits there, instead of being used to create energy. 

Run like a boss- part 2

Remember how in my last post I got crazy and ran a 5K? Well, I got crazier.

If you're from a big family, you know that nothing stays a secret for very long. So with Dave having a family of 10, word spread fast that we were running a 5K. And not too long after I finished the race, one of Dave's sisters, Casi messaged me asking if I wanted to train for a marathon with her.

To be completely honest with you, I didn't know how far a marathon was, so I googled it. 26.2 miles. Twenty-six point two miles!!! And I actually AGREED to it after receiving this information. Sigh, sometimes I still wonder what the heck I was thinking.

If any of you are training for half-marathon or marathon, I strongly suggest that you use halhigdon.com. It's written by a guy who has run dozens of races. There are tons of training schedules on that site, each based on how far you want to run and what level of running you are at. So naturally, I used the schedule for super new beginning runners. I also love his schedules because he is completely realistic about marathon expectations. For example, he talks about the importance of walking during your long runs to build your muscles. Because in actuality he knows that you're not really gonna run 26.2 miles without taking a walking break now and then. He says that he actually ran a 2 and 1/2 hour marathon while walking through every water station!

Our training schedules had us running shorter runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We rested Friday and then had a long run on Saturday. Originally, the schedules had us doing cross-training on Sundays, but we moved it to Mondays so that we could avoid running on our Sabbath. That's the fun thing about these schedules is that you make them work for you. And to be honest once again, I think I may have cross-trained one time during the whole 18-weeks. I usually just used that as an extra day of rest. Once again, this is where having a training partner definitely came in handy. Every Saturday, I knew I was going to get a text from Casi asking how my long run had been.

The way the training schedule worked is that it had us run up to 20 miles straight, two weeks before the race. Those last two weeks were used to run shorter distances so that we wouldn't burn out before the big day. And the big day finally came! It was 40 degrees outside and winds were blowing at 40 mph, but we finished! The whole 26.2 miles, we did it! It was such a huge adrenaline rush. When I crossed the finish line, I cried for a whole 5 minutes. I was so emotional and completely blown away that I had actually run for 5 hours straight.That's how overwhelming it was to finish such a huge feat.

See? That's me! Bawling like a baby. Casi is the one in the blanket, she finished an hour before I did.

Now do you have to run a marathon to be healthy? Absolutely not! But this experience showed me that I could push my body to do what I wanted. And that's also what losing weight means- to push your body to be what you need it to be. For me, being healthy means the ability to be able to do whatever I want. Sometimes that's being able running a ridiculous distance, something that's just being able to have energy to play with my kid.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! The training was super difficult and really just sucked sometimes. The first time I ran seven miles, I thought my body was either going to die or kill me. But that feeling when I crossed the finish line on race day is one that I will never forget. Anything that is worth doing is always going to be hard. Whether it's losing weight or just eating healthier, it's going to suck at first (hopefully not too much!) and it's going to take effort. But in the end, crossing that finish line or stepping on the scale, it's totally worth it and you would absolutely do it again.

Boring scientific note: You may have heard lots about cholesterol. Like, how bad it is for you. Well, to be honest, your body actually needs cholesterol. However, it doesn't need you to eat cholesterol. Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs on its own. When you eat large amounts of cholesterol in your diet, that's what it gets bad and clogs up your arteries. There are two types of cholesterol- one is good (the LDL type) and one is bad (the HDL type). LDL cholesterol is what you would get from dietary fats in your diet, a lot of it from meat. But, HDL is our hero cholesterol! It actually takes the LDL cholesterol from clotting the blood!!! Yay for HDL cholesterol! There is only one way that you can get more HDL and it's not through eating. It's through...drum roll...exercise! Exercise is THE only way to increase your HDL levels. I'm not even kidding. Interesting, isn't it? 

Run like a boss- part 1

I can't continue this blog for much longer without mentioning the one major contributor to my weight loss success- running. I still can't believe I'm saying this because I use to HATE running. I mean, HATE running. During my high school and college days, I ran one time and probably got 100 yards before I wanted to die (I was skinny then, but out of shape). But when I finally determined that I needed some sort of exercise to lose those extra pounds, running was the one thing I knew how to do and it didn't require a gym.

Before I go much farther, I want to emphasize how much I truly believe exercise and nutrition go hand in hand with healthy living. While nutrition puts things into your body that exercise cannot, exercise does things for your body that nutrition cannot. Nutrition will not make your heart stronger like exercise does. But exercise will not lower your cholesterol like healthy eating does. Neither is more important than the other. And when you have one, you must have the other.

So back to running. I use to hate it. And now I actually love it! It's grown into a passion of mine. But it took me a looooooong while to get there. I also understand that running is not meant for everyone. I have a sister in law that runs marathons and she's told me that running doesn't help her lose weight much. Yet I have a brother in law who you can almost see the weight fall off when he runs. It's just different body types and there is not much you can do about it.

Every one does running a little differently, but I can tell you what I did and it may work for you. To get serious about running regularly, I first had to figure out how far I could run. So I went outside, ran for as long as I could and looked at how far I had gone (I used Google maps to check my distances. Now I use RunKeeper with my iPhone that tracks the distance for me). The first time I did this, I ran about half a mile without stopping.

Once I had this distance, I next needed to decide how often and when I would run. I started out running every other day. I know myself very well and knew that if I ran every single day, it would be too hard and I would lose my desire to exercise. See? doing a little at a time is how you should start anything. I also chose a time every day that I would do it. I wrote it in my schedule, on my mirror, so that I saw it every day. I also told other people, so they could help remind and motivate me to run. This especially worked with Dave because he knew that every other day at 7, I would go run. And if it was 6:55 and I wasn't in tennis shoes yet, he would look at me and say, "Honey, do you need to run today?" It was a great motivator to have that constant reminder around!

I knew that I could run 0.5 miles (half a mile) without stopping. So my first week of running, I did half a mile for all 3 of my runs. The next week, I ran 0.6 miles for all my runs. It was a little bit farther, but not so much that it was ridiculously hard. Week by week, I added 0.10 miles to my runs and before I knew it, I could run a whole mile without stopping! It was about this time that I was beginning to enjoy myself and the fact that I was losing about a pound a week. I was so excited about this, that I mistakenly put "Dana Eyerly loves running!" as my Facebook status. My sister in law, Robin, saw this and said, "You know, me too! Let's train for a 5K together." I must have been delusional with endorphins because I agreed.

If you want to begin running, the best way I know to motivate yourself is to enter a race. It kinda forces you to commit *evil laugh here*. I use www.runningintheusa.com to find local races, whether they are 1 mile or a marathon. So Robin and I picked a race a few months away and made our training schedules. This kept me motivated because I had an end goal I was working towards and I could see myself getting a little closer every day. Another great tip for running is get someone else to do it with you. That way when you need a little kick in the butt, they are there to give you it. Robin and I checked up on each other frequently throughout our training and often ran side by side.

A 5K is 3.1 miles. I could already do 1 mile, so I looked up "5K training schedules" online and found one that fit my level. If you search this, there are tons of results that will come up, so sift through them and find the one that works best for you. Mine involved running 3 shorter runs during the week and a longer run on Saturday. I slowly increased the length of my weekday runs and my Saturday runs. Here's what a couple of weeks from my schedule would have looked like. 

Week 1: Monday- 1 mile, Tuesday- 1 mile, Thursday- 1 mile, Saturday- 1.5 mile

Week 2: Monday- 1.25 mile, Tuesday- 1 mile, Thursday- 1.25 mile, Saturday- 1.75 mile

Week 3: Monday- 1.5 mile, Tuesday- 1.25 mile, Thursday- 1.5 mile, Saturday- 2 mile

I kept this kind of schedule up until I could run 3 miles. It was important to have those rest days right before the longer run so that my muscles wouldn't be too worn out to finish the long distance. The next week it was race time and I ran the entire 3.1 miles without stopping! Wooooohooooo!!! 

Check out that group of good looking runners. Robin and I got quite a few more other people to train with us and this is the fantastic pink group we ran with. Robin is in the solid pink on the right and I'm at the very end on the left.

You want to hear the best part about the race? By the time training was over, I was back to pre-pregnancy weight. Imagine a super giant smiley face right here. :-)

But hold on folks! This isn't the end of my running story, stayed tuned for more.

Boring scientific note- Ever wonder why you always hear that you need 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per day? It's because that is the way to a healthy heart. When you run or swim or walk, your muscles need a ton more oxygen to function than they normally do. Oxygen gets to the muscles through blood. So cardio exercises force your heart to pump that blood faster and harder than they normally do to get that O2 to your screaming muscles. When your heart works this hard, it's actually building up it's OWN muscle too! Pretty soon, your heart is this buff blood-pumping machine that is almost unstoppable. This is why doing cardiovascular exercise is the number one way to prevent heart attacks and other heart diseases. Keeping your heart healthy is saving your life.