Eating healthy on vacation

Here's one of the things I hate about taking a vacation (actually, it's probably the only thing. Seriously, who hates a good vacation?)- missing my refrigerator. Whether I'm at a relative's house or at a hotel, it seems that there is no good substitution for all the healthy foods I have stored back home. And normally taking vacations means long road trips or airports, which means lots of fast food stops. So somehow, this vacation that was supposed to make me feel great turned into a long period where I'm feeling icky from all of the fatty and sweet food. Well, the good thing is that my family travels A LOT. When I say a lot, I mean that if we haven't been out of town in a month, we start getting antsy. So with all of this traveling that we do, I have found lots of ways to keep healthy during our vacations and would love to share them with you. So I invite you to take a journey with me to the Land of Healthy Habits While on Vacation.

Let's begin with the traveling portion of our journey, shall we? Planning and preparing is essential to eating healthy on the road. Who says that you need that you need junk food to make traveling worth while? Well, I guess I said that in college. In fact, that's often what made a road trip fun for me- seeing all the gummy worms, energy drinks, Doritos, and chocolate you could fit into one car. But when I started living healthier, all those items weren't fun for me anymore. In fact, they made me sick because I wasn't used to eating them anymore. And raise your hand if you like being sick in a car. So I decided that I would need to pack healthier snacks when traveling. Now, it's hard to pack a ton of produce when you're going to be traveling for several hours- it will often go bad before you can get around to eating it. But never fear! I have found many healthy snacks that will last you many hours in an airport or in a car. Here are some of my family's favorites:
- Craisins or raisins
- Apples and oranges (they last forever and don't need to stay cold)
- Nuts, trail mix
- Fruit leather (I prefer the homemade kind!)
- Bananas
- Any other kind of dried fruit
- Air popped popcorn
- Whole grain crackers or breakfast cereals

When it comes to mealtime though, your selection gets a lot trickier. Sure, you can pack a healthy sandwich for your first traveling meal, but if you're going to be on the road for days it's not exactly realistic. And I am all about being realistic when it comes to eating healthy. So yes, you are probably going to need to stop at a McDonald's or Taco Bell, especially if you're going through the Midwest where there are very limited options for eating. But, here is the good news and it won't be a surprise to you- there are healthy options on fast food menus. So opt for the salad instead of the burger, the apples instead of the fries, and the yogurt and fruit instead of the milkshake. I know you all have seen these items at your favorite fast food restaurant. But speaking of being realistic, you can't expect to eat a salad every meal of the traveling day. BORING! I certainly wouldn't expect that of myself even. You're going to get a hamburger now and then, and it's ok! But be choosy and try limiting the amount of unhealthy things you eat. For example, if you get a cheeseburger, then don't get the fries with it.

The other thing I can suggest to bring for long traveling days is lots and lots and lots and lots of water. It will keep you from being tempted to order sodas and juices. And when you have water, you certainly don't need energy drinks. Your bladder's warning signs will be enough to keep you plenty awake!

Now what about when you arrive at your destination? Things can get a little tricky. If you're staying at a hotel, you are probably going to eat out a lot. What I say to this is "make smart choices." I know it sounds cliche, but its as blunt as I can get. Eat out where you know there is a healthier menu. And once again, if your options are few, limit the portions of unhealthy foods you eat. And if you can, find a grocery store and pack that mini fridge full of fruits, veggies, and other healthy snacks for you to munch on during the day.

If you are staying with a relative or friend, it could get a little awkward. You don't always want to go out and buy a bunch of healthy groceries and risk offending them. So what I do is that I offer to help with meal making. And after all, it's the least I can do for free room and board, right? I can put together a nice side of vegetables, fruit salad for dessert, or even make the whole dang meal healthy. And I have never once offended or heard complaint from my friends when I do this. And the great thing is that when I plan to help with the cooking, I usually have to go out and buy a bunch of ingredients anyway. So if I'm making salad, I usually buy a few more vegetables than I need. That way I can eat the veggies I didn't use in my salad later on in the week. I also slip a few healthy snacks into the grocery cart while I'm there. I know, you all are jealous of my stealthiness...

The one healthy thing we haven't talked about for vacationing is exercise. I feel like this habit is actually easier to keep when you're staying at a hotel. Most of them have gyms. But if you dont' have this luxury on your trip, here is the best advice I can give- just keep moving. If you're at a beach, go swimming or try surfing. If you're at a national park, you know you're going to do a lot of hiking! If you're at a lake, break out the kayaks and canoes. And if you're at a place like Disneyland, chances are you'll do more walking than you realize. But what if you're just visiting relatives in North Dakota where there is NOTHING around? Keep moving and get them moving. My husband's family loves to play board games when they get together, which can be fun. But it's not very active. But my family is a younger crowd (my littlest brother is only 10), so we often have to plan outdoor activities to keep everyone from getting bored. We usually end up playing capture the flag, hide and go seek, or football. If you plan an activity like this once a day, you'll be golden and keep yourself in shape. I always seem to run a little faster and play a little harder when it's with family anyway. And whenever we play these outdoor games with Dave's family, it feels like we're bonding a little more than we would if we'd kept sitting around the table.

So you should feel all set to go on vacation now! Speaking of which, I have my own family coming to visit this week to get ready for... See all you fellow travelers later!

Special feature: Why those Pinterest workouts might not work for you

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a fantastic summer so far. I am, well...8 1/2 months pregnant, so I'm just trying to get through it. But hopefully you are all taking advantage of the beautiful weather, going outside, and being active!

This health blog has some pretty big news: we are moving! Kind of. My sister, who is an Exercise and Wellness major from BYU, has agreed to partner with me on a health website that we'll be launching at the end of the summer. We will let you know when we have a more specific start date. This website will be all about us helping you to be a healthier individual. We will have workout videos, recipes, more candid blog posts, and tons of helpful tips to get you started living better...get excited!!! It's going to be rad! Wait, does anybody say "rad" anymore? Ok, it's going to be FANTASTIC!

So today, this blog post will feature an article written by my sister, Kelly Matsunaga. I love her funny writing style and blunt honesty. I think you will too. Not only that, but she is an expert when it comes to exercise and definitely has the background experience to talk about it. In this article, she talks about the myth of spot reduction, which is the idea that you work out a certain part of your body to lose fat there. So, for example, doing arm exercises to lose flabby arms. I see those kind of things on Pinterest all the time and it drives me c-r-a-z-y. Allow me to allow Kelly to explain why. Enjoy her wisdom, I always do!

"I always crack up when I see workout videos on youtube titled “Four ab exercises to burn belly fat” or “get rid of flabby arms with these arm exercises”. HA!......HA! I never click on these videos because the instructors have no idea what they are talking about. But let me educate you so that you will be wise to their ways. Today, we are talking spot reduction. Spot reduction is the idea that you can burn the fat on one part of your body (hips, butt, under arms) by doing specific exercises that target that body part. For example, to burn belly fat you do sit-ups/crunches, to get rid of jiggly arms you workout your triceps (muscle in back of arm). I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but spot reduction is a myth. Don’t feel bad. I fell for it in high school too. I remember I would always do butt exercises when I thought it looked too big. I would think “It’s exercise so it must work”, right? WRONG!!!!!!! Doing target exercises on a specific part of the body like this will NOT reduce any amount of the fat there. What you are doing with these exercises is building muscle, which is good. Strong muscles are important for optimal health and functionality. However, people who solely rely on these toning exercises are simply building muscle under their fatty tissue. I know, I know. This can be depressing news. It was to me. But guess what?! There IS a type of exercise to burn that body fat and the answer is....

CARDIO!

I am guessing that most of you aren’t jumping up and down in your chair right now. This may be because you know that cardio exercise, at least in my opinion, is way harder than toning exercise. Then again, some of you might not know the difference, and some of you might not even know what cardio is. Here is your exercise 101 crash course:

There are two types of exercises. One is cardio (aerobic) and the other is strength training (anaerobic or toning). Strength training is the stuff I mentioned above such as lifting weights, doing calf raises, squats, ab exercises, etc. It is exercise that is designed to build strong muscles by putting them under stress and making them lift weight (actual weights or body weight). Cardio, on the other hand, is strenuous on your heart and lungs. It is the type of exercise that makes you breathe hard and gets your heart pumping a lot. Usually, cardio will make you sweaty, and it will be hard to talk and breathe comfortably. Some examples of cardio exercises are running, jump rope, swimming, dancing, and cycling.  (Click here for more cardio exercises)

The great thing about cardio is that it is great for weight loss, because this is the type of exercise that burns calories. Calories are basically energy from food that can be stored in our body as fat, which is a good thing unless you store too much. Burning these calories is the key to weight loss, and cardio exercise is the BOMB for burning calories. Toning exercises, not so much.  I know what some of you are thinking. Yes, strengthening exercise burns some calories, but not nearly as much as cardio. For example, you would have to do 100 crunches just to burn 5-10 puny calories, whereas you can burn 100 calories by running for 9 minutes! See my point?

So, back to spot reduction, the only way to burn that belly fat, (through exercise) is by doing cardio. If you are trying to lose weight on any part of your body, this is the answer. Unfortunately, this means that we can’t be choosy about which part of our body will lose the fat. We can’t declare “Today, I will use cardio to burn my booty!”, even though that would be totally awesome. Some parts of your body will just lose the weight faster than others, and this is mostly determined by genetics. You may notice your tummy, hips, thighs, or butt getting smaller sooner than other body parts as you begin to lose weight. But don’t despair, if you commit to a good workout plan and stick with it, you will eventually lose weight throughout your whole body.

Just a side note, this does not mean that strength training is not important! It’s still great for your body to do the squats and bicep curls. I actually recommend strength training twice a week. That way you will have strong, toned muscles to show off after losing weight.

One last thing.

You should love your body. No matter your shape, color, or size, you should love it. It is such a beautiful gift that we have and allows us to do so many things and have wonderful experiences. In society today we always wish we could nip & tuck certain parts of our body because we compare ourselves to airbrushed models and computer images that aren’t real. I guess this is why people advertise the “spot reduction” so much. But there is no need for this. If I could change one thing in this world, it would be to help people see how truly beautiful they are, no matter what they look like. With this said, it’s important to exercise and its ok to want to look your best, but don’t be a perfectionist with your body. My body has inherited genetic traits that the world says aren’t attractive, and it used to really get me down because I felt like I never looked right. But we are all different. Some of us have bigger butts, some have flat chests, some have long arms, some are short, and some have wider hips. We just can’t control a lot of these things. So take a deep breath, enjoy that amazing body you have, and love it because its yours :)

Also, you should put this quote in your bathroom like I did, “They say that you are what you eat. That’s funny. I don’t remember eating any sexy beasts this morning.” "

Overcoming (food) addiction like a boss

We all know him when we see him- that devilish imp that practically leaps at us from the shelf at the grocery store or in the check-out line. He comes in the form of potato chips, snickerdoodles, root beer, Skittles, danishes, and extra-buttery popcorn. He is... your food addiction.

For me, this devilish imp came in the form of Diet Coke. More about that in a minute. Let me get back to the topic of food addiction. Don't be ashamed to admit if you have one. In fact, maybe we should call it a food weakness instead of addiction. Because we all have a weakness for at least one food item that isn't healthy for us. If you don't, you may not be human. Your food weakness is one that is particularly hard for you, as an individual, to resist. It keeps ending up in your grocery cart and in your home, even when you know it's not good for you.

It's ok to have this food weakness. It means you're normal. But like all good addictions, they must be curbed and limited. Let me tell you how I did that with Diet Coke.

The beginning of my story features a very pregnant me job hunting. I wound up working for Chick-fil-A where I quickly learned that all employees get a free meal and free drinks during a shift. Haha, that was so not good for me. I knew that I already had a weakness for Diet Coke. In fact, in high school it was a huge joke that I was so in love with this drink. I even bought a Diet Coke ornament for my Christmas tree. And so my new unlimited supply at work was like a dream come true. But it had me quickly addicted. Every day I was drinking at least two 24 oz Diet Coke. And the sad thing is that I couldn't get enough of it at work. I started bringing it home from my grocery shopping trips.

This was NOT the kind of habit that I wanted in my pregnancy. I hate being addicted to things. It makes me feel so weak that I need a certain item to be happy. I like having the freedom of saying, "No!" But with Diet Coke, I just couldn't sum up that two-letter word.

Hopefully by now you can all relate to my situation. So what do you do when you're stuck with a food addiction or food weakness? There are 2 options to choose from.

1) The Little-by-Little Elimination Option
This is the option I chose when I decided to break up with Diet Coke. It is the one I would recommend you trying first. In this option, you look at how much of your food weakness you are consuming and cut back little by little. So I knew that I was drinking at least 2 Diet Coke drinks every shift at work. So I decided to cut back to one per shift. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was still a little sacrifice every day. The next week I cut back to half a drink per shift. Soon I was going every other shift without needing the soda. And eventually I was able to break the bad habit and go completely without Diet Coke in my life!

2) The Cold Turkey Option
This is the option for you if you're tried and tried and tried to break up with your food love, but it keeps coming back for more. Here you give up your food weakness all in one go. Instead of cutting back slowly, you cut it off entirely. It's like ripping off a band-aid! It may hurt, it may really suck at first, but in a few weeks the cravings will stop and you will be addiction free.

So now you have to decide, based on your personality and mentality, which option is the best for you. Most people prefer the little-by-little because it's hard to handle the cravings that come with the cold turkey option. I mean, if you're been eating rocky road ice cream every night for the past year, after giving it up for a few nights, the cravings tend to drive you a little crazy, you give into them and eat a whole gallon. With little-by-little you still have cravings, but not as intense because you're still giving your body that food. I guess it's like a nicotine patch. But I have heard great things from those who try the cold turkey option. It works great for people who need that finality, that closure of getting rid of their weakness for good. For example, I have a family member that gave up processed sugar overnight. She said she knew herself well enough, that she couldn't just limit herself to one brownie or cookie. One taste of it and she had to have the whole pan. So cold turkey was the best option to stop herself completely.

Keep in mind that once you break your bad habit, it's ok to indulge in your food weakness every once in a while. Even I had the occasional drink of Diet Coke, especially when we would eat out on special occasions. Just don't let yourself get back to that point where it's constantly in your cupboards and in your stomach. Make it a treat, something to really savor when you have it.

Now we come to the close of my Diet Coke story (no, it's not ended yet). It's 3 years later, I'm pregnant with my second child, and I'm sitting on my computer doing school work. I haven't had a Diet Coke in quite a while, but I was starting to fall asleep and needed a little something to wake me up. I ran to the store, grabbed my former love, drank it while I finished the assignment, then promptly went to bed. About 5 hours later, in the wee morning hours, I awoke with such a horrible stomach pain, I thought I was going into early labor. It took a few hours, but finally subsided. It felt like I had died and come back from the dead. A few months later, this same sickness came again, only this time it was a result of drinking Diet Coke at a restaurant the night before. My system can no longer handle the drink because I've gone for so long without it. It's a little bitter sweet knowing that my previously favorite drink will no longer be in my life. But you know what? I'm ok with it because I know that it's better not to have it anyway, even if only on occasion. And if something is making you that sick, you KNOW it's your body telling you, "That's disgusting, we really didn't need that by the way!"

If one particular food has kept popping into your mind while reading this post, making you feel guilty, you know what you need to do. There is just one decision to make: Little-by-little or cold turkey? The answer to that question will get you to a healthier place and give you blissful freedom from food addiction. Break the bond! Go in peace my friend.