The Wellness Without Pity Blog

Mona Lisa's Yoga Smile

2013-05-20T06:51:00.002-07:00

I've been taking a yoga class on Tuesdays after the recommendation okay order of my doctor. I went to her very stressed out and hyper-focused, and she suggested I learn to quiet my mind through yoga. "But not a yoga DVD in your living room surrounded by reminders of your busy life!" she wagged her finger at me. "A yoga class. Real yoga!"

I agreed. I'd always wanted to learn yoga - not just take yoga, but really learn it - and what better time than now, when my doctor was literally ordering me to do it? As luck would have it, there is a free yoga class at my church, less than a mile from my house, every Tuesday morning. Jackpot!

Well I don't have to go on and on about how much I love it. I knew I would, and I do. I'm learning a lot, and pulling those lessons into the rest of my life as well. One of my favorite parts of the class is the end, when we're quieting our minds in corpse pose, and our instructor Catherine invites us to let the ends of our mouths turn up into a slight smile. I've found, happily, that it is absolutely impossible for me to be stressed out, worried, pent-up, or annoyed when I am smiling.

When I was a kid I used to play a little game with myself. When I saw someone with a distinct expression on their face, usually when they didn't realize anyone was looking at them and they looked just how they look, I would try to mimic it. I'd do my best to make the same expression, and when I nailed it, I'd notice how my mood changed as a result. I would almost feel like I could feel their thoughts, mood, and disposition, and it helped me feel like I understood them more. As a result, I was able to be more empathetic towards them if we should ever interact.

Every walk through wellness is unique, but rarely are they on completely new paths. We all know someone who has been in our shoes, or someone in whose shoes we have been. Listening to them tell about their journey is like yoga for our brains - we can reminisce similar times, anticipate experiencing the same thing, and be inspired by the achievements of our friends.

This week, get out there and get healthy by tapping into the inspirational community of wellness around you. Listen to a weekend warrior story, cheer on a friend, support someone else, and allow the ends of your mouth turn up into a slight smile. The results are 100% guaranteed.

Now get out there and get healthy!

Does the Scale Matter?

2013-05-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard someone say that if you want to ruin a perfectly good day, step on the scale? I can relate! Sometimes those three little numbers can shatter the highest of highs and leave you feeling betrayed and confused. I know I have felt that way many times, and that's why I stopped weighing myself.

The battery in my scale has been dead for a while now, and I'm not all that concerned about it. I'm tempted every now and then step on and let it run its little diagnostics on me, finally flashing my self worth in little red numbers and either confirming that yes, I am justified in my happiness or no, I was kidding myself and am actually quite miserable.

I used to live by the scale. I weighed myself every day, and even brought it on vacation. Yes. I took my body fat religiously, and if I didn't see a change in the numbers at the exact moment that I expected them, it didn't matter if I had just run a PR or lifted a new weight or cleared a building in a single bound: I was a failure.

Over time, I started eliminating things from my life that made me feel like a failure, when in fact I had lots of evidence to the contrary. Negative people, jobs, habits, and eventually the scale, made their exit. But sometimes I still wonder.

Last week I wondered.

And then I asked myself, does it really matter?

I can fit into my clothes.
I can run for a long time.
I can finish an Insanity workout without too much trouble.
I can lift heavy things.
I like my legs and arms and back and shoulders.
Does it really matter what I weigh?

Well, a little bit. It is true that people who weigh themselves regularly experience higher success at losing weight, maintaining that weight loss, and sustaining a high level of fitness. Just as tracking food and exercise helps build awareness and lead to healthier behaviors overall, being aware of your weight is useful information. And, if you are actively working on losing weight, then yes, weighing yourself is one of the ways you can gauge whether your efforts are working.

But, if stepping on the scale fills you with anxiety, if the result dictates your mood for the day, or if you are simply happy with how you feel and how your clothes fit, then there is no reason why you need to know.

I remember as a teenager reading a story about the volleyball player, Gabrielle Reece, and seeing her weight of 160 pounds. I was astounded. The lean, muscular, athletic woman I saw surely didn't match my perception of what 160 pounds looked like. That's when I learned about the difference in fat versus muscle, and began to understand that the number on the scale is just one part of a larger picture of health.

What say you? Do you weigh yourself religiously? Do you find your mood being dictated by the result? Get out there and get healthy today, even if the batteries in your scale are dead!

Stop Fat Talk in its Tracks!

2013-04-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

What would you call a week when on Wednesday you fit into some goal jeans from way back when that you found in the back of your closet left over from some fad diet attempt, and on Friday you're out running and catch yourself thinking, "I'm so fat"?

Crazy, that's what. But, that's what happened to me last week.

On Monday, I got into a convo with a friend about the difference between cropped pants, ankle pants, and capri pants, and what Stacy and Clinton would say about whether we should be wearing them considering our respective body types. This is what women talk about. The next day, she sent me a picture of herself in her ankle pants and we agreed she should not wear them. The day after that, I found a pair of pants in my closet that were somewhere between cropped and capri, and which also happened to be some goal pants from about five years ago, back when I started eating clean. So I put them on and to my shock and awe, they fit! Woot! Happy dance for me.

So after I texted her a picture of myself wearing the pants (we never did decide whether they were capri or cropped, but I should not wear them either), I spent the day being quite satisfied with myself that I could get these jeans on and zip them up, even though I had the impression of the seam on my leg for about an hour after I mercifully took them off at the end of the day. Whew!

On Thursday I wore stretchy pants because a girl's gotta breathe once in a while.

On Friday, I went out for my 9 mile run, and around mile 4 I caught myself thinking, "ugh, I have really gotten fat."

Hold on a minute. What?!?

Luckily, I caught this temporary moment of insanity before it turned into full-blown fat talk, because that is just bananas. So like the good wellness coach that I am, I asked myself what was making me feel fat.

Click here to read about the impact of fat talk on your body image.

And after a little soul-searching, I realized that I feel "fat" because my stomach isn't in the best shape it could be. Whew that was close! Here I was being all mean to myself when actually, I'm just a little soft in the middle. But the rest of my life is so hard!

Fat talk is something we all do: women, men, and kids too. Girls as young as 5 are known now to go on diets, and young boys compare muscles on elementary school playgrounds. And, it doesn't change as we get older.

Read how "fat talk" turns into "old talk" as we age, and what that means.

"Feeling fat," usually isn't about being fat. Research shows that "fat" is a word commonly used to describe any feeling of unhappiness that can't be named. When we're off, we're "fat."

Often, we don't even see ourselves accurately. This video from the Dove Real Beauty campaign shows just how different our own perceptions of ourselves can be from how others see us.

I know why I was feeling fat last week - I've been traveling, socializing, and beer sampling a little more often than usual, and its catching up with me. Literally stopping in my tracks during Mile 4 and pinpointing where that feeling was coming from helped me see that. I'm glad I was in-tune enough with myself to stop the fat talk before it turned into something really crazy.

Like capri pants.

If you're fat talking, here's how you can stop:

1. Become aware of your fat talk, and if you don't think you can, then ask a kind and trusted friend to make you aware of it. When you catch yourself, acknowledge it and apologize to yourself.

2. Become aware of the physical things your body can do, and the physical aspects of your body that you like. Make a list and post it in a prominent place so you see it frequently.

3. For every negative thing you say to yourself, list three positive. They don't have to be about your physical self. You have a brain, too!

Get out there and get healthy....even if you felt fat yesterday.

The Power Hour: Advanced Food Prep Made Simple

2013-04-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

I've updated this post because I keep finding myself sending it around to people, but it needs some more oomph. So, if you think you've already read this one, read it again!

I hear this a lot: "Sure, it would be awesome if I could reach into my bag and pull out a healthy snack on the go! And when the elves who also clean my house while I sleep and fold all of my laundry get around to putting said snacks into said bag, I will definitely be all over that."

Sound like you? Well guess what, you DO have the time. You know how long it takes to get snacks and lunches ready for the next week? About as long as it takes to look at your friend's cousin's wedding pictures on Facebook. Uh huh. Busted.

Now look - this is what I call my Power Hour: the 60 minutes or so I spend on the weekend chopping fruit and veggies, putting oatmeal into little bags, counting out almonds, and generally getting my you-know-what together because come Monday morning, everything gets started whether I am ready or not. The Power Hour makes sure that 3:30 on Thursday is just as healthy as 7:00 on Monday.

Yes, this takes organization and work. But once you get a little routine going, it takes less of that. And, even if it didn't get easier, you're worth the trouble so turn on some HGTV and get to work!

Here's just a sample of what your Power Hour could look like this weekend:

Put a boneless turkey breast or chicken in the oven to bake (350 degrees for about an hour, depending on what you're cooking). Then…

Prep five egg scrambles and put them in with the turkey. They need to bake for 40 minutes. Then...

Put a pot of whole wheat pasta or brown rice on the stove for lunches or dinner later in the week. Here's how to cook brown rice so it doesn't have all of that GMO arsenic in it.

If you're making a salad that requires baked apples (like this one), chop 'em up! Then...

Chop bell peppers, pears, and peaches, peel oranges, slice strawberries, chop carrots, etc. and put them in containers for snacks later in the week. Then…

Portion almonds (16 is about 100 calories) and raisins in baggies for on-the-go snacks. Then…

Portion oatmeal and raisins in baggies for breakfast each day. Then…

Line up containers for salads, and put three handfuls of spinach in each one. Add a snack-size baggie of with feta cheese and chopped fruit to each one to add to your salad (keeping the salad ingredients separate prevents the salad from getting mushy). I use strawberries for my Change Your Life salad and baked apples for my Fall Harvest Salad.

Take out the egg scrambles and stash them in the fridge for breakfast each day. Then…

Take out the turkey, slice it up, and portion it where it needs to go (salads, in a container for pasta later in the week, or in a pot of soup).

Store it all in the fridge to create your own little grocery store at home!

Reaching for something healthy is as easy as making sure it is there for you when you're ready. This hour is packed, but worth it. At the end, you'll have breakfast, lunch, and snacks (and maybe even the makings of some dinner if you also boil some pasta and make a pot of rice!) ready to go.

I'm feeling healthier already.

Fuel and Cool: How to Make Your Own Sports Drink

2013-04-12T10:12:00.001-07:00

www.freedigitalimages.net

Sports drinks like ... um ... a couple that end in "ade" are popular on soccer fields, at race water stations, and unfortunately, in kids lunchboxes. But, at about 300 calories a bottle and including ingredients like flame retardants, they aren't exactly the healthiest thing to toss back after a workout. Yes, we do need to replenish our bodies with liquids and electrolytes after a tough workout or a long run, but there are clean and natural ways to do it without all the sugar and chemicals.

Read why flame retardant is allowed in your food.

The whole point of energy drinks is to replace the sodium and potassium that we lose when we sweat. Its important that we do this so we don't get muscle cramps or get dehydrated, and so we have enough energy for our next workout. Some foods that are naturally high in sodium and potassium, and therefore great options for a real-food alternative to sports drinks, are:

Potassium and Sodium-Rich Foods

yogurt
orange juice
bananas
raisins
potatoes
pretzels
kiwi
iron-fortified cereal and milk

To assess how much sodium you lose in sweat, weigh yourself without clothes before and after an hour of exercise and note the difference. Each pound lost is about 700-1,000 mg sodium, and you can easily replace those losses with one of the snacks listed above. If you want to have a sports drink to accomplish that, keep in mind that most sports drinks are simply water, sugar, and salt. Remember, the goal of companies that make miracle gels and potions is to to sell them to you, not necessarily make you healthier.

Workout recovery is as simple as diluting some orange juice with water and eating a banana, or creating this recipe from Web MD:

Homemade Sports Drink

1 quart (950 mL) water
½ teaspoon (2.5 g) baking soda
½ teaspoon (2.5 g) table salt
¼ teaspoon (1.25 g) salt substitute (potassium-based), such as Lite Salt or Morton Salt Substitute
2 tablespoons (30 g) sugar

It's not neon colored, but it'll get the job done.

Click here for more homemade sports drink recipes.

The key to pre and post-workout nutrition is to keep it real: real foods and water are what athletes relied on before the wonders of food technology, and they are still our best bet for a sustainably healthy life. Get out there and get healthy today, even if you don't sweat neon.

I'm Too Old for This $#^%: Metabolism and Aging

2013-04-09T11:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm not actually old. But when I turn 37 in June, I will be the oldest I have ever been! And while age is just a number and we're only as old as we feel...let me tell you my friends, I am feeling old.

Mostly because its come to my attention in the past six months or so that as I approach my 40s, everything that I have heard about aging and metabolism, all of those things that I know and understand but have doggedly assumed would not actually happen to moi, are in fact happening.

It's taking my body longer to snap back into shape after a vacation. I'm having to work a lot harder at maintaining my weight, much less trying to shave off a few pounds when I want to. And, I am starting to see wrinkles on my face! The wrinkles I could actually not care much less about. But the waistline is another story.

Is middle-aged weight gain inevitable? Is it something we have to accept? Well, as in most things the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Hopefully not my middle.

But yes, we do lose muscle cells as we age. And yes, those muscle cells do get tired and less efficient. That's why strength training is important at any age, but especially as we age.

Listen to: Why We Gain Weight As We Age on NPR

But does our metabolism slow down as we age? Yes and no. Metabolism is determined by how effective our bodies are at burning calories. And since we lose muscle cells as we age, and more muscle means more calorie burning, we often see a decrease in our calorie-burning potential because of that decreased muscle. Not necessarily age.

But you know, when it comes to a slower metabolism, I'm not all that concerned with the "why?" as with the "how do I fix this?"

The answer is what you probably think I am going to say: keep building muscle!

What this means for me is a few things:

1. Stop expecting to be able to fudge my calories on the weekend or on vacation and then snap back into shape a week later. That rubber band has lost its spring.

2. Keep workouts focused on building muscle, not burning calories. Include strength training - challenging strength training - in your workout no matter how old you are.

3. Watch this video frequently and laugh about the whole stupid thing!

Wherever you are in the aging process, no matter how springy your rubber band is, and even if you are just getting started in this health thing, just get out there and get healthy!

Got a cold? This Immunity Blasting Juice made me a believer!

2013-04-05T07:47:00.001-07:00

It's good, I promise.

I am a juicing skeptic. Its not so much that I don't believe in the power of juicing because I do. I just believe more strongly in the power of chewing. I call it the Chew Factor: that human need to, well, CHEW things periodically throughout the day. The few times that I have tried to replace actual meals with liquid calories, I end up cranky and frustrated. Slurping down 300 calories simply whets my appetite for more. No, I want to chew, and I want to do it a lot. You can read more about the Chew Factor here:

Juicing: Is it worth the squeeze?

But, my friend Joyous Health convinced me that juicing has its place in the world of immunity-building, and explained to me that she uses juices for their therapeutic benefits. When we're sick or getting sick, that fast infusion of nutrients in liquid form gets into our blood stream faster so it can get to work on making us better. That made sense to me, and I remembered her advice about a month ago when I felt a cold coming on. I had 13 miles to run the next day so I really wanted to be in top form. So I got to Googling and found a recipe that sounded like I could actually swallow it.

And dang it if I didn't feel better. I was seriously surprised! I woke up the next day to drastically diminished symptoms and made another batch to squash it for good. I began to feel even better, and my 13 mile run was cold-free. I made a superstitious third dose of it to replace the energy I had burned while running, and I never did get that cold.

A few weeks later, I got a cold while out of town. I made the juice when I came home, and began to feel better. Sure, there was likely a placebo effect at play, but it made me a believer in the power of juicing when my immune system is compromised.

Juices are healthy, but they still contain calories. This recipe is about 250 calories. Yes, I entered it into MyFitnessPal and logged it, because it had to count as a snack. Just be aware of that when you consider juicing - healthy food has calories too.

Okay, here's the recipe. You will need a juicer.

Immunity Blaster
2 carrots
2 oranges, peeled
1 ounce lemon juice
4 cloves of garlic. I started with two and worked my way up!

Put them all into the juicer and belly up!

Why all that garlic? It is a natural infection fighter!

If you don't have a juicer, look for a juice bar near you or head to your local Earth Fare. They'll juice whatever you buy in the produce department!

Get out there and get healthy today with a blast of immunity!

Is it Time to Eat? Listening to Hunger Cues for Weight Success

2013-04-01T08:28:00.002-07:00

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Hunger: it's a tricky thing! Striking that balance and eating the "just right" amount of food is one of the most challenging parts of eating. You'd think that, as evolved humans, we would have mastered feeding ourselves by now. But no, we all struggle with figuring out what, how much, and when to eat.

I cringe when I hear people say that a diet plan worked for them because they "never feel hungry." If they are never hungry, how do they know when to eat?

And I wipe away a tear when someone tells me that they hardly eat because they never get hungry. Their mind/body connection is so severed that their body has completely given up trying to communicate and gone into survival mode by slowing their metabolism down to a crawl to compensate for the lack of fuel. That is just a damn shame.

Then we have the flip side: allowing ourselves to get so hungry that we'll eat anything in sight. As a chronic "go go go" gal, I used to fall victim to this one a lot. I would stall on eating, trying to hold out until my next meal because I was counting calories, and enter my house a starved maniac at 5:45 PM. Then I'd eat an entire meal's worth of calories while I was preparing dinner, and sit down no longer feeling hungry but eating a meal anyway because I had just prepared it. That's just plain stupid.

So over time, a few valuable lessons about eating managed to get through my thick skull:

1. My body will tell me when it needs food, and I need to respond even if it's not "time to eat."

2. Not having healthy food prepped ahead of time to eat when I get hungry is a bad, bad situation.

3. Eating food actually helps me lose and maintain weight, and not eating food keeps me fat. Or "fat," whichever applies at the time.

And then over some more time, I actually started implementing these lessons into my life! The result: I more easily manage my weight when I respond to hunger signals, and I feel annoyed and irritable and "fat" when I don't. That happened enough times in a row to convince my brain that the first plan is better and we should just stick to that.

Hunger is our body's way of trying to be our partner in health. It's saying, "hey, I could use some more food." Instead of pushing it away, its our job to respond by giving it some food. Actual food, not processed junk posing as food. But that's another soapbox for another day.

Today, the trick is listening for that signal and answering back. If its been a long time since you have felt hungry, that signal may be a whisper. Hunger should feel like a definite rumble in your stomach. Not quite burning, but distinct. When that feeling strikes, its time for part two: eating food.

Success happens here when you have taken the time to prepare a snack or meal just for this kind of situation. An example might be some raw almonds and a sliced apple. Or, some unflavored yogurt with a chopped up peach and some walnuts mixed in. Maybe a chopped bell pepper and some cherry tomatoes with hummus. Whatever. Just have it handy and eat it. Then when the feeling hits again in a couple of hours, do it again.

I know, its not quite that simple. Waiting to get hungry can be scary, and sometimes we really aren't sure if we're hungry. If you haven't felt hungry in a long time, start eating breakfast. You should feel hungry again in a few hours. That's not a signal that eating breakfast is bad because it makes you hungry. That's a signal that eating breakfast is good because it makes you hungry! And being hungry means that your body is burning fuel, not storing it. That's a good thing.

Decoding (and sometimes, getting to) hunger can be tricky work, and developing a trusting relationship between you and your hunger cues can be difficult. If you feel like you need help, seek a Certified Wellness Coach. It just so happens that I am one. How convenient! A coach can guide you through the process of becoming a partner with your body again. How nice!

Get out there and get healthy today...even - and especially - when you get hungry.

Easter Baskets Healthy Heather Style

2013-03-26T14:54:00.003-07:00

I have a very distinct memory of a childhood Easter spent eating jelly beans and chocolate cream eggs until I was sick. My sister and I would take inventory of our Easter haul (lots of jelly beans, chocolate kisses, peanut butter eggs, and those terrible malt chocolate eggs), digging our fingers into the green plastic grass to find the little bits of sugar that had escaped us. We would sneak it into church and munch on it all day. She would always make her candy last at least a week or more. Mine was gone in a day. I had absolutely no self-control when it came to candy, which is part of the reason I am sugar-free now. I know my limits, and life is too short to spend my time fighting them.

Now I have my own two kids, one of which is completely oblivious to holidays and their associated candy, and one who is all too aware and has already listed out everything he hopes to find on Sunday morning. But as a mother who knows well the affect of all that sugar, I have the responsibility of striking a balance between the two.

Chocolate is not taboo in my house, but it does come with a rule: it must be good chocolate. If I'm going to give my kids sweets, its going to be a real treat, something they can learn to appreciate. So, yes, there will be candy on Easter morning. But instead of loading up your kids with jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, and (shudder) that horrible travesty of food technology, Dippin' Sticks, give these sugar-free ideas a try. They'll last a lot longer than the sugar rush that will drive you crazy by 10:00 am.

If you fill eggs and hide them around the house why not fill them with...

pennies and other small change (and if you are really pious, they can put it in the collection plate at church!)
temporary tattoos
stickers
confetti
balloons

If you want to give your kids a sweet treat, how about...

Annie's Homegrown Chocolate Chipper granola bars
Their favorite fruit in a fun way - freeze dried is always good for a laugh!
A small high-quality chocolate bunny. Its never too early to teach the value of good chocolate!

If you want to give a gift but don't want a bunch of dollar-bin stuff cluttering up your house, maybe try...

seed packets and kid-sized gardening tools
punching balloons
art supplies and a new sketch pad (always a hit at my house!)
coupons for trips to their favorite playground, museum, or time spent playing a video game. Minecraft, anyone?

Easter is a beautiful holiday, but I'd rather spend it admiring my children as they play and laugh together, not sending people to time out because all the candy I gave them turned them into little monsters. I can't say my house will be a candy-free zone on Sunday morning, but I'm looking forward to the Easter bunny filling our baskets with more substance than sugar.

Get out there and get healthy this weekend...even if that means your kids don't have the same Easter morning that you did (they'll thank you later).

Sunbutter Sandwiches

2013-03-16T03:29:00.001-07:00

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to get nutritious food into my kids, and this week its been Sunbutter sandwiches! I discovered it when dropping my son off at daycare and seeing that another parent had jotted down a note that their child had a "sunbutter" sandwich in their lunch and that it was allergen-free. Since so many kids are allergic to nuts, peanut butter is a no-no at many schools.

I got to Googling, and there it was: sunflower seed butter! It was pricey at $6 for a jar about the size of a jar of peanut butter but I was so curious that I bought it anyway. Visions of my children happily eating something new (and finally be able to make pb&j...or sb&j, rather....sandwiches again was a blessed relief).

The verdict: I love it! My older son loves it. And thinks its hilarious for some reason. The baby is skeptical and hasn't tried it yet. But, sunbutter and banana sandwiches have become my go-to pre-Insanity workout snack.

www.sunbutter.com

Sunbutter is actually a brand name product, but you can find other sunflower seed butters online. The only downside to Sunbutter is that there is added sugar. I bought it because I was too impatient to order anything, but I have ordered some organic sunflower seed butter that doesn't have added sugar and will let you know what I think when it comes in!

Sunflower seeds are an excellent source of vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant with anti-inflammatory effects that result in the reduction of symptoms in asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. They are also rich in magnesium and selenium.

Have you tried sunflower seed butter? Do you recommend any particular brands? Share your experiences and recipes in a comment!

Get out there and get healthy today...with a sunbutter sandwich and an Insanity workout. :)

10 Calorie-Free Celebration Ideas

2013-02-22T10:19:00.001-08:00

You can celebrate without the cake!

I'm always on the prowl for great resources to share with friends and clients that might help with achieving their health goals. Usually, a quick search online brings up a hefty bundle of inspiration, info, and great ideas that I wish I had thought of first. But lately my clients have been throwing a few curve balls, and I'm coming up short. So, after searching high and low for the just-right list of ideas for celebrating a birthday without indulging in a lot of calories, I decided that maybe I just needed to create it myself!

A few people in my life are coming up on the big 5-0. A milestone for sure! But, as they are aging and their metabolisms are slowing down, managing weight is a priority so indulging in a big calorie-fest that will just create more work later isn't looking like a super-fun idea. So I present 10 ways to celebrate your birthday without taking three steps back in your wellness plan. In fact, some of them are a step forward!

1. Pamper yourself with spa treatments. The woman's go-to solution for the daily grind, right?

2. Walk, bike, or run a significant number. When I turned 36, I ran a total of 36 miles during the week of my birthday. If your age is a number more like 50, focus on the decades rather than the years! Walk a mile for every decade of your life!

3. Buy that thing you've been wanting forever. Those shoes, that pretty sweater, the bracelet that reminds you of your vacation to a special destination...get it! I am thrifty to a fault, so to spend money on myself a huge indulgence. But when I finally do treat myself to something, I treasure it. Find your treasure.

4. Write a thank-you letter to yourself. Many times we focus on our own inadequacies, our shortcomings, and our regrets. How often do we celebrate the wonderful things we do for ourselves? When we reach a milestone birthday, its a great opportunity to reflect on the positive decisions we have made in our lives to get us to that point. So say thanks to yourself!

5. Write a thank-you letter to someone else. You didn't make it to 50 on your own. Let the people who have supported and helped you become such an awesome individual know how much you appreciate them!

6. Make a vision board. I celebrate every birthday with a vision board! Take time to daydream about the next year, five years, or decade ahead and bring that bucket list into focus with a powerful visual tool. For ideas and help, click here.

7. Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care. Go dancing! Not only will you burn calories, dancing helps us stay young!

8. Become a mentor or volunteer for a cause. What is your passion? What can you pay forward? Ask yourself how you can celebrate your own life by helping others improve theirs. We reap what we sow. Plant a seed and start a legacy!

9. Spend time with people who make you laugh. Laughter is a proven mood-booster and is great for our health. Take in a comedy show, watch a funny movie, or call a friend you can always laugh with.

10. Learn something new. Hey, you may be a wise owl but you still have a lot of life ahead of you! That photography class you always wanted to take? Sign up. The weekend pottery group your friend keeps inviting you to? Go! Learn to dance, learn to homebrew, learn to sew...stretch your brain to new places and make the next year even better.

Okay, so you might still want to go out for a rich meal and deal with the calories later. And that is okay, too! Those occasional splurges are good for us when in a healthy context and balanced with other sustainable habits. Congratulations on whatever you are celebrating! I hope these ideas inspire you to find even more ways to keep your joyous times healthy and positive.

Get out there and get healthy...even if you eat a big piece of cake anyway. :)

Goal-Talk: Reaching Goals as a D Student

2013-02-08T05:55:00.002-08:00

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As a wellness coach, I talk about goals a lot. I help people set goals, celebrate goals, reach goals, and sometimes even abandon goals. And thanks to all of this goal-talk, I often find myself mentally developing goals for people in the course of innocent, daily conversations. I'm a goal addict, its true.

Over the years, I've started to notice patterns among those who reach goals and those who struggle with them. There are definitely ingrained personality traits that make some of us more goal-driven than others, but even laid-back folks can achieve aggressive goals without being, well, aggressive. Its all in how you use the Three Ds That Make the Difference.

I also like alliteration and anything in threes. :)

When it comes to reaching goals, there are three elements that I've found to be consistently necessary: Deserving, Determination, and Discipline.

They deserve it! People who reach their goals feel that they deserve to. I don't mean this in a selfish way, I mean this in a self-care way. And, there are two elements here: feeling that you deserve the outcome, and also feeling like you deserve to do the things that it takes to achieve the goal. If you want to get in shape and you decide that time at the gym is one of the steps to reach that goal, then you have to believe that you deserve time at the gym. That you deserve time to yourself to take care of you. For busy and guilt-stricken moms, this can be tough. But, you do deserve a healthy body and you do deserve to do the reasonable things it takes to get there.

They're determined! People who reach their goals are determined to do it. Let's face it - doing the things it takes to reach a goal is downright difficult sometimes! Work, kids schedules, weekend events, travel, and any number of things can get in our way. But my clients who reach their goals find a way to work around or with those things. They are determined, and they make it happen. Its not always ideal or convenient, but it is always a priority and they get it done.

They're Disciplined! Many times the hardest part of achieving a goal is maintaining it once you reach it. Losing weight is relatively easy once you get the math and routine down. Maintaining it much trickier! My clients who successfully maintain and build on their goals do it because they have developed habits that are now part of their lives, not just a means to an end. Many times, its the discipline to make themselves a priority (because they deserve it and are determined to do it) that is the real secret.

Whether you're a fierce and focused goal-driven machine who barrels through goals like a superhero or a laid-back traveler who wants to make some changes without ruffling too many feathers, the Three Ds can fit into your day. Are you using them? Would you add anything to the list? Let me know if you use the Three Ds that Make a Difference in your life!

Till then, keep getting out there and getting healthy!

Is a calorie really just a calorie? (We need to talk about soda.)

2013-01-28T06:11:00.003-08:00

Okay guys. We all know that in order to lose or maintain weight, its simple addition and subtraction:

calories eaten in food - calories burned through exercise = net calories for body function

Click here to learn how to calculate your body's calorie needs.

If we burn more than we eat, our body begins to lose weight. If we eat more than we burn, our body begins to gain weight. Simple, right?

Except there are all sorts of ways to make it complicated. Some experts say that a calorie is a calorie, and a net deficit in calories leads to weight loss regardless of whether those calories are in apples and spinach or in candy bars and ice cream. Technically, that is true.

Then there are experts that tell us that all calories are not created equal, and that some foods are better for weight loss than others. This is also true.

And still more experts argue that on top of eating nutritionally superior calories, we need to pay attention to what foods we eat when, and with what other foods we eat them, and at what point in relation to exercise. And yes, this is true as well.

Before we know it, this very simple math problem turns into a Master's program in nutrition, becoming so confusing and frustrating that many of us don't even try to eat right because the sheer magnitude of figuring out what to eat is too overwhelming.

Well, I don't have a Master's degree in nutrition, but I know this much is true:

I've lost weight eating crap and gained it all back.
I've lost weight eating clean and maintained it easily for going on five years.

While all calories may be created equally for weight loss, all calories are not created equally when it comes to health. Yes, I'm talking about sugar. Advertising companies will tell us that we can have sugar as part of a healthy lifestyle, but leading research is showing just about every day that this is not true. Sugar calories are not only completely void of nutrients, but they are direct contributors to obesity and impaired brain function that leads to overeating.

A Sip of Soda: What's the Fuss?

Sugar hides in many of our foods, but one place where it is loud and proud is in soda. Just ditching your soda habit can help you lose weight, reduce your sweet tooth, and put a stop to a myriad of other health complications waiting in the wings. Like these:

Via: Term Life Insurance

Losing weight is just one part of the whole-health picture. Calories are precious and should be working for you, not against.

Get out there and get healthy, and make it as complicated or simple as you want it to be! You don't need an advanced degree to figure out the simple formula of good health: eat real food, get exercise every day, and your body will take care of the rest.

The Bread Revolution (I'm losing it btw)

2013-01-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

www.freedigitalphotos.net

Bread. I am having a serious love/hate relationship with bread. It's not a carb thing, it's a quality thing. For a clean eater who wants to buy simple, healthy food, the bread aisle is one of the most frustrating sections of the grocery store. As one of my dear friends vented to me recently, bread just gets more and more confusing. Soda, candy, and other junk food we know is bad for us. That's easy to spot. Not always easy to resist, but easy to identify as junk.

Bread, not so much. No, it masquerades as health food all day long! Just look at the packaging: brown, pictures of shafts of wheat alongside healthy-looking nuts, oats, seeds, and more. Humble farmers and old-timey font add to the message that this bread is just like the kind your grandma made.

Except I'm thinking your sweet grandma didn't go around to the local barbershops, sweep up the hair lying on the floors, boil it down in acid, and pour it into her bread. And I'm guessing she didn't stop at the market and pick up some Azodicarbonamide, either. Especially if she lives in Australia, Europe, or Singapore, since its been outlawed there and use of it will result in 15 years of imprisonment and $450,000 in fines. Bread just ain't what it used to be.

It's gotten downright ridiculous. Preservatives and dough conditioners give bread a longer shelf life and predictable mouth-feel, but at what cost? Personally, I feel less and less comfortable buying commercial bread as I read more about the potential side effects of chemicals that are added for the convenience and profitability of the company that made it. Bread should be bread. Pure and simple.

Do we really need this stuff in our bread?

So, I've launched a bread revolution in my house. I'm taking back bread! I am so committed. I'm a bread-baking fool these days, and my home is filled with that wonderful aroma of yeast and dough. Its just great! Except for one thing. My family ain't buying it. Or eating it. They want their store-bought bread.

So the revolution, well, it's a little of a David and Goliath thing, with me holding a puny little slingshot and a nice warm loaf of bread as my rock. "Plenty of people would kill for homemade bread," I exclaim to my loving family. They understand. I try the martyr angle: "I guess I'll bring it to the homeless shelter, where people may appreciate it more." They nod sympathetically. I am stumped. Who on EARTH would not want homemade bread??? It's delicious! Seriously.

Okay, so not all of my loaves have been masterpieces. And maybe I shouldn't have thrown out all of the bread in the house and provided only my experiments for sustenance. But I'm getting better, and I'm not giving up. This year, I will become good at baking bread, and more importantly, I will find at least one recipe that my family will eat for sandwiches.

And yeah, I'm totally going to tell you all about it the whole time. Read here about one of my attempts - successful, yay! - at hamburger buns.

So, tell me - do you have any tried-and-true bread recipes for me to try? Post them in the comments! I'd love to give them a shot, try them out on the natives, and let you know how they like it!

Get out there and get healthy today, even if your family wants store-bought bread.

Can you really be healthy at any size?

2013-01-11T08:24:00.006-08:00

www.freedigitalphotos.net

January is a great time to make new healthy goals for the year ahead. Apparently, its also a great time to make lots of excuses. Each January brings articles about how all those health goals are really just a waste because - great news! - you can be healthy and a couch potato, too! Articles like this one published last week:

Big Deal: You can be fit and fat

So can we really be healthy at any size? Fit and fat? Well, that depends on your definition of healthy.

The Healthy At Any Size campaign gets a lot of attention in January. Their website says:

"Health at Every Size is based on the simple premise that the best way to improve health is to honor your body. It supports people in adopting health habits for the sake of health and well-being (rather than weight control). Health at Every Size encourages:

Accepting and respecting the natural diversity of body sizes and shapes.
Eating in a flexible manner that values pleasure and honors internal cues of hunger, satiety, and appetite.
Finding the joy in moving one’s body and becoming more physically vital."

This is absolutely wonderful! Emotional health at any size is incredibly important, and as a wellness coach I get to help people achieve it every day. Learning how to follow internal hunger cues is vital to lifelong wellness. And enjoying exercise is a big part of making it a daily habit. But, often times this campaign is misinterpreted to mean abandoning attempts to lose and manage weight, and instead only focus on self-esteem, and this is where I start to get off board.

But did you notice my key word? Emotional health at any size is the key. Because here's the thing: yes, dieting is a problem, but fat is also a problem.

I recently conducted a wellness program with a group where health as social responsibility came up as a conversation topic more than once. As I listened to a spontaneous discussion on the role we each have as members of society to maintain a healthy weight and body, I thought of our over-burdened health care system. So many of the health issues we face each day are related to diet and lifestyle. If those things changed, and we became healthier as a society, and we had less need for health care, how would that change our nation?

I've read many, many, many success stories of people who have lost tremendous amounts of weight. I've not found any that cited doing nothing as their strategy. No, there are plenty of accounts of starting daily walking routines, learning about nutrition, counting calories and measuring portions, finding supportive networks, making determined lifestyle changes, and putting a lot of hard work into changing their bodies.

Yes, you can be overweight and strong. And yes, you can be overweight and aerobically fit. And, yes, you can be skinny as a rail and very unhealthy. Size is not the whole picture of health, but obesity is more than just the size of your body. Despite what some fat acceptance advocates say, obesity leads to heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, fertility issues, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, some cancers, and more. It is a problem, and you can deal with that and love yourself.

I've been overweight, and I've dealt with the intense emotional issues that come with it. I've failed I don't know how many times at managing my weight; so many times that it became my life's work to succeed at it and help others do the same. But I am on the other side now because I didn't accept an unhealthy and unfit body as my 24/7.

It was not easy. At times, it still isn't.

But managing my weight is about more than not being fat. I loved myself (myself, not my size) when I was a size 16, but that didn't make me healthy. I love myself at a size 4, too. And, I get the absolute joy of living in a hard-won healthy body every day. One that I shaped because I had the courage to admit that there was something better out there for me.

Let January be a month of positive steps towards a healthier body - physically and emotionally. Get out there and get healthy. You can love yourself at any size, but your health might still need some work. The good news is you can totally do it.

The Sugar Shake-up: How much do you really eat?

2013-01-02T09:43:00.001-08:00

We all know by now that we as a nation need to reduce our sugar consumption. It's making us fat, giving us diabetes, raising our cholesterol, raising our blood pressure, and causing who knows what else that we'll learn about later!

Read here about why to reduce sugar in your diet today!

But, sugar is cheap and lobbyists are good at their jobs so its not likely that we'll see sugar making an exit on its own. To get rid of it, you have to take matters into your own hands. You also need to get a teaspoon, a bag of sugar, a ziplock bag, and a calculator.

What's that, you say? You stopped eating candy and dumped soda? That's great! But I'm willing to bet you are still eating lots of sugar. Its hiding everywhere. Here's a quick way to find out just how much of it is making its way into your metabolism.

On the Nutrition Facts label of a food package, it will sometimes (not always) list the grams of sugar per serving. Four grams is about 1 teaspoon of sugar. One teaspoon of sugar is about 16 calories. So, if a product has 12 grams of sugar you can divide that by 4 to realize it is 3 teaspoons in each serving. If you're worried about calories, that's 48 calories.

Read this long but well-researched New York Times article, "Is Sugar Toxic?"

Here's how to drive that home a little more. Get that teaspoon and spoon out three teaspoons of sugar into a ziplock bag. Would you eat that? Or pour it into your child's mouth? Of course not. But, that's what you do when you give your child one of these:

Which, I should admit, was in my pantry. My kid loves these, and they used to be a once-a-day habit for him. Now we're down to two or three a week and he has to eat fruit and drink some water first. He knows now that even though they taste really good (to him, they are way too sweet for me), they are a "sometimes food." Not a treat, not a reward. They're junk food that we only eat once in a while because its bad for our bodies. Even though it says organic. Organic sugar is still sugar.

Now, in all fairness, most foods also contain fiber, protein, and other nutrients that help your body absorb that sugar better than if you just poured it into your mouth. But the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends the following limits for sugar in our diets:

Women: no more than 100 calories, about 6 teaspoons.
Men: no more than 150 calories of added sugar, about 9 teaspoons.
Preschoolers: no more 4 teaspoons a day.
Children ages 4-8: no more than 3 teaspoons a day.
Pre-teens: maximum 5 to 8 teaspoons.

And keep in mind that the AHA is likely heavily lobbied by sugar producers.

So go through your pantry and fridge and do the math. Start with cereal and yogurt. Then, if you really want to remember this lesson, tape that little bag of sugar to the front of the package and leave it there so you can see it the next time you reach in for a snack. Is that where you want to spend your sugar budget?

Sugar is not all bad. But, the impact of too much of it is. Get out there and get healthy today, even if you have to spend a lot of time standing in your pantry with a calculator and getting really ticked off.

Homemade Hamburger Buns (Great taste, no cancer!)

2012-12-28T19:23:00.001-08:00

One of my goals for 2013 is to find some bread recipes that my family will actually eat on a regular basis so I can stop buying the terrible bread currently offered in grocery stores. Even the "good" bread has dough conditioners and preservatives that include ingredients like human hair and substances known to cause cancer. How can I cook my sweet little boy a grilled cheese sandwich on cancer bread?!? I can't. That's why I bake bread.

Tonight was experiment numero uno: hamburger buns. I am so happy with how they came out. I used a Betty Crocker Bread Machine Cookbook recipe and it's pretty simple. Now that I know the recipe works, I can start tinkering with different types of flour, adding seasoning, etc.

Here's the recipe for your bread machine:

My buns straight from the oven!

Ingredients
1 cup water
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
3 1/4 cups bread flour (I had to use all-purpose, which was fine, but bread flour would be best)
1/4 cup sugar (I'll be tinkering with lowering the sugar content)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp quick active dry yeast

Instructions: Place all ingredients into bread machine pan in order listed. Select the "dough" or "manual" setting on your bread machine and let it run. Mine took about 90 minutes to knead the dough. After it is done, remove the dough from the machine and let it rest on a lightly floured surface, covered with a towel, for 10 minutes. Then, shape into 15 small rolls, place on a greased cookie sheet, and allow to rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes or until doubled in size. I flattened mine a little so they would be more like buns than rolls and put them in a warm oven. Once they have risen, bake them at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven, slice, and serve! Put unused buns in the freezer.

The result? They were really, really good. I had four taste testers and they all loved them! I doubt I will ever buy hamburger buns again. Give these a try! They are easy and well worth the time to bake them, especially since the bread machine does all the hard work!

Good bread is a real treat, and you deserve good bread. Get out there and get healthy! Skip the bread aisle and make your own!

5 Ways to Make Resolutions that Stick!

2012-12-27T10:40:00.004-08:00

Image bykibsri www.freedigitalphotos.net

Ah, the week between Christmas and New Year's is here. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. Pretty much anything we do this week is under the grace of being forgiven on New Year's Day, so if you're going to be bad, this is the week to do it!

This is also a great time to make New Year goals. Do you make resolutions? I do, and over time I've come to learn that when I put a little muscle into my daydreaming, amazing things can happen. Here are five easy ways to make sure your resolutions hit the bulls eye!

1. Give yourself time. It takes about 90 days to cement a new behavior as a lifestyle change, so expecting your entire life to change in the first week of January might be pushing it a little. To create some instant gratification, create a visual reward center where you can record your progress every day. I like to put smiley face stickers on a calendar for good days, others use programs like MyFitnessPal or DailyMile to track their habits (and brag about them).

2. Be specific. Vowing to lose weight or exercise more are great goals, but to make it achievable, you need to be a little more specific. A goal to, say, lose 10 pounds by the first day of Spring or complete a 5k race on a certain day are more likely to happen.

3. Be proud! Tell people about your goals, seek support and camaraderie online, and (kooky as you may feel) say them out loud to yourself! Hearing them in your own voice helps your brain believe that you really will do it. I'm serious. It works.

4. Fast forward. Get out your 2013 Healthiest Year Ever Calendar (I know you ordered one, right?) and flip to February. Write a little note of encouragement to yourself on any day you choose. Do the same for April. You can be your own accountability and keep yourself on track!

5. Have fun! Go on, go for what you really, really want! It's your life, take it! Waiting around for permission to live the life you want wastes time and is no fun at all. When you set goals for 2013, ask yourself what you want to be celebrating in December of next year. Then, work backwards to you goal!

I'm thinking about my goals for the year ahead, and fine-tuning them to make sure they are precisely what I want. Next I'll go about figuring out what it will take to turn them into reality. Then the real fun starts: actually doing the stuff.

2013 is just around the bend. Get out there and get healthy: take time today to think about what you want to be celebrating this time next year!

The 12 Days of Fitness: Healthy and Fun Kids Activity

2012-12-22T06:26:00.006-08:00

My son came home from school this week and told me that in PE, they did the 12 Days of Fitness. Oh realllly? Do tell, young lad! I got so tickled seeing him try to recreate the song and he was definitely getting his heart rate up! I love this idea - try it with your kids, your friends, your walking group, or just by yourself. :)

*ahem* All together now:

On the first day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 1 snowman standing on a hill (balance on one leg)
On the second day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 2 snow angels (jumping jack) and 1 snowman standing on a hill...
On the third day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 3 arm circles…you know the rest!
On the fourth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 4 toe touches…
On the fifth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 5 big lunges…
On the sixth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 6 torso twisters…
On the seventh day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 7 windmills…
On the eighth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 8 legs a’lifting…
On the ninth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 9 hops forward
On the tenth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 10 arms a’swimming
On the eleventh day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 11 bicycle pedals
On the twelfth day of fitness, my teacher gave to me: 12 stomach crunches, 11 bicycle pedals, 10 arms a’swimming, 9 hops forward, 8 legs a’lifting, 7 windmills, and 6 torso twisters…. and a snowman standing on a hill.

Get out there and get healthy today - lead everyone in a rousing chorus of the 12 Days of Fitness!

Recipe! Sweet and Spicy Nuts

2012-12-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

I made these sweet and spicy nuts for teacher gifts this year and seriously, I had to give them away quickly lest I eat them all. They are really easy to make and really tasty too so either make a lot or not very much, depending on how skilled you are at self control. :)

Ingredients

Four cups total of nuts of your choice. I used raw natural almonds, walnuts, and pecans.
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, cayanne pepper, and salt. You may want more or less of these depending on your tastes.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 Farenheit
2. Mix the nuts with the spices and seasonings.
3. Pour the honey over the mixture and stir it all up.
4. Spread it on a greased cookie sheet in one layer.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes, checking a few times to stir them around.

The honey will melt all over and make an enormous mess, so be prepared for that. Once you take them out of the oven, let them cool before messing with them. But not too long, or it will all stick to your cookie sheet like mine did and you'll spend 45 minutes with a spatula trying to get them off (and eating the pieces that are not pretty enough to give as a gift)!

The nuts will be sticky, but they are really good and I was very glad to get them out of my house and into the hands of someone else. :)

Get out there and get healthy today, even if you decide to keep these for yourself. :)

Veggie-Packed Muffin Recipes (and they're delicious!)

2012-12-14T10:44:00.001-08:00

As I've said before, it always tickles me when people want my "recipes." If you could see what I use to cook, you'd quickly realize that there is absolutely no magic going on in my kitchen. Oh wait! You can see! Hold on.

See? Here you go. My magic tricks revealed. One sure-fire way to keep your food simple is to not use any recipes that cannot fit on a teeny tiny post-it and then taped to the inside of an altogether different cookbook that you rarely use.

But, I have become a bit of a muffin connoisseur over the past few months as I have discovered that my baby will eat just about anything as long as it comes in the form of a muffin. I'm not a huge fan of him eating so much flour, but I also hate throwing away food and picking it up from the floor all day so hey. Bring on the muffins.

I am a very lazy cook prone to just throwing everything in a bowl and mixing it up, but there are a few personal policies I like to follow: 1) Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately. I don't always do this but they come out better when I do. 2) Don't over-stir. Your muffins will be too dense and not fluffy. And 3) I bake everything for 20 minutes at 350 no matter what the recipe says. Seriously y'all. I am not a chef.

But here are the muffins I made this week. So far they are pretty popular!

Zucchini Muffins
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup grated zucchini (about 1 medium)

Mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls, except the zucchini. Combine the two bowls, stir in the zucchini. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Another variation of this is to take out the cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla and stir in shredded cheddar cheese, pepper, and cajun seasoning. Less sweet, more kicky.

Pizza Muffins
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 package dry active yeast (the quick rise kind)
1 cup hot water (110-120 degrees)
1 tbsp olive oil
tomato sauce
spinach
onion
Boar's Head pepperoni
mozzarella cheese
italian seasoning, garlic, that kind of thing

Combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a big bowl. Add the hot water. Stir by hand until it is all combined and let it rise in a warm oven for about 2 hours. Come back, punch it down, roll it around a little in your Italian seasoning and garlic and olive oil, and then break the dough into little balls. These balls are going to be your muffins. Spray a muffin pan and press each ball into the pan making a little bowl in the middle for your toppings. Chop the onion, spinach, and a few pieces of pepperoni until it is very fine. Mix it in with the tomato sauce, and spoon the mixture into the little dough bowl. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until they are bubbly. These are great for school lunches!

Carrot Apple Muffins
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup anise seeds (optional, leave this out if you don't like licorice)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lowfat milk
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup raisins

Mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Combine the two bowls and mix just until blended. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Banana Cauliflower Muffins
This recipe is adapted from the Banana Bread recipe in Deceptively Delicious.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup mashed banana
3/4 cup pureed cauliflower
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts if your kid is not allergic

Mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Combine the two bowls and mix just until blended. Pour into muffin tins and bake at ...you guessed it...350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

When I look for muffin recipes, I always follow the same scientific procedure: I Google "_____ muffin recipe" with the name of the food I want to make muffins with filling in the blank. Sometimes I type, "healthy ____ muffin recipe" if the search results pop up with too many pictures of Paula Deen. But really, any muffin recipe can be healthified by reducing the sugar and using half whole wheat flour. Using all whole wheat is admirable, but I think a half and half mix makes better muffins.

I'm not a great chef and you don't have to be either. Tinker with these recipes, try a few variations, and let me know what you come up with. Get out there out there and get healthy, even if your kid will only eat muffins.

Those Sneaky Calorie-burners!

2012-12-11T10:40:00.001-08:00

Sometimes people tell me that they "can't" run 10 miles a day to get into shape. I put "can't" in quotes because of course they can, they are just choosing not to for whatever reason. There are perfectly legitimate reasons why exercise is inconvenient at times, I get that. I'm just saying that you likely can do it, you're just deciding to do something else instead. That's cool.

But I digress. Back to what I was saying.

During the week, I run 5 miles three mornings or so and do the elliptical and weights on non-running days. Then on Saturday I do my long run of between 8 and 10 miles. So naturally I consider Saturday to be my "big burn" because, duh, running 10 miles in one day is going to burn way more than just 5, right?

But check this out: the other day I ran my 5 miles, and then I walked almost everywhere I went. I took the baby for a 30-minute walk in the backpack that morning, and then I walked another hour in the afternoon when I could have driven instead. When I added all that exercise into MyFitnessPal, it came to about 900 calories of exercise. Dang. That's a lot!

Then the next day I went out and ran 9 miles. I entered that into MyFitnessPal and it came to 868 calories.

What? I burned more calories with a 5 mile run and then just walking around than I did on the day I ran 9 miles?? I was pretty shocked!

And inspired. Research has shown that you don't necessarily have to get all of your cardiovascular exercise at one time. Even small bursts of exercise are beneficial and provide health benefits. Excuses begone!

Imagine this: if you got up and did a workout in the morning like you were going to do anyway, and then you looked for opportunities all day long to be active in other ways, you could very well rack up enough calories to be the equivalent of 10 miles run. Okay, maybe 8. Still, that's a lot!

Here are some ideas for where those opportunities may be hiding:

1. Designate one meeting at work that would typically be held sitting around a conference table and take it outside as a walking meeting. There's likely 30 minutes right there.

2. If you're meeting a friend for lunch, choose a restaurant that you can walk to. Round trip could be 20 minutes!

3. Get up and walk 3 minutes for every 60 that you spend sitting at your desk. Over the course of an 8-hour work day, that adds up to 24 minutes of exercise!

So, hmmmm....maybe you can "run" 10 miles a day after all. Just sayin'. :)

Get out there and get healthy today, even if you think you can't run 10 miles.

Smart for the Heart Beat the Bulge Holiday Challenge

2012-11-30T10:17:00.003-08:00

Let me guess: you're hoping to put on some weight this holiday season so you can feel nice and jolly on New Year's Day.

No? Good! I would have to come and give you a discouraging look if you did. Well, since you don't want to gain weight this month, you should check out the Heart Healthy for the Holidays Beat the Bulge Weight Management Challenge over at Smart for the Heart. Its a free 4-week, results-based weight management program designed to help you stay healthy all season long.

www.smartfortheheart.org

I like this program because it goes beyond just challenging you to be healthier. It's a comprehensive approach to health that takes into consideration your personal health risks. Once you sign up, you can complete an assessment so the program is customized for you.

After that, you'll get access to all the free, interactive diet and health planning tools on the site, be able to talk to fitness and nutrition experts, enroll in the challenge workshops, and join a community where you'll have all the support you need to get heart healthy.

The holidays don't have to mean indulging (and the subsequent regret afterwards). You can be healthy, you can feel great, and you can do it all while still having a cookie here and there.

Just not a lot.

And only after you workout.

Get out there and get healthy today - join me in the challenge!

Cold(ish) Running Gear for Cheap People

2012-11-27T11:01:00.001-08:00

A friend recently asked for my advice about running gear for cold weather. And when I say cold, I mean mid-50s. I live in the South, so I'm used to being mocked by my northern friends when I talk about winter. It's okay. We have the distinction of having the word, "oppressive" written over our section of country by the Weather Channel in August, so I mock them back when they talk about being hot in the summer.

Anyhoo. Back to running. I replied to my friend that I might not be the best person to ask because, while you can go out and spend lots of money on snazzy winter running gear, I am extremely cheap and therefore buy most of my stuff at TJ Maxx and Target. Luckily, that's just the kind of advice she was looking for.

But there are a few running items that I have received as gifts - since I am too cheap to buy them for myself - that are quite lovely. Here they are:

1. Convertible Globes. I don't know if that is the technical term for these little gems, but I love my mittens that fold back so I can mess with my iPod or just to have my hands free if they get a little too warm. Mine have a little button on them to hold them back but the elastic for the button snapped when I was being a little too impatient with them. Cheap and demanding, that's me. I'm a real catch, I'll tell ya!

2. Hat with headphones. What will they think of next? My ears are too small for ear buds so I wear big clunky headphones that I've had for eons (and because I am too cheap to get new ones). They work just fine. But in the winter its hard to get my stocking cap over them, which combined with the earpieces of my glasses results in a few too many accessories for such a small space. So this hat with headphones built in is pretty super awesome in my book!

3. Zipper tights. I thought I would look a fool when I ranaround in these running tights with the zippers on the side. I didn't care anymore when I was able to stop, unzip them, and turn them into capris. I probably looked way cooler that way (not). But in the south, where "cold" can turn to "muggy with a side of humid" in the course of one workout, these are pretty darn handy.
The rest of my cold-weather gear consists of long-sleeved tech shirts that wick the moisture away and a thin fleece jacket that I can take off and tie around my waist if I need to. 'Cause a jacket tied around my waist is the perfect complement to my zipped-up capri leggings and old broken down headphones. Yes siree, I'm a keeper!

Get out there and get healthy today, even if your running gear isn't as super-fly as mine.

Great News for My Mom: Microwave Popcorn No Longer Needed!

2012-11-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have two adorable, sweet, precious nieces whom I love. I'm sure they love me too, but they also love popcorn. Maybe even more than me. And they really love it when my mom makes them popcorn in the microwave.

The last time I was home, there was a news story on television about how FDA has found that chemicals in packaged popcorn - like the chemicals in many processed foods - are really bad for us. I'm telling you, this clean eating thing, it's kinda a good idea.

Anyway, I had just been getting on my mom's case about the popcorn, and she was all rolling her eyes at me, and then the news came on and I was all, "see? I'm not crazy!" And she was all, "then what the heck are we supposed to do? We can't eat anything anymore! Not even popcorn!" And she poured herself a glass of wine because as far as she knows, wine is still good for her.

What my mom doesn't remember is back in the day, when I was a kid, she would make us popcorn every Sunday for dinner. Yes. Popcorn for dinner. We would all line up on the couch, put a paper towel in our lap, get our scoops of popcorn, and watch "Murder, She Wrote." And she made that popcorn in an air popper, not the microwave. Interesting. How soon we forget.

Anyway, I was recently strong-armed into buying popcorn from my son to support his scout troop. As I browsed the catalog of caramel corn, chocolate-covered popcorn, and yes, microwave popcorn, I came across something a little more up my alley: popcorn kernels! "Buddy, we are going to make popcorn on the stove," I told him. He was skeptical, but we tried it and it was pretty awesome.

Then I was bragging about my popcorn at the next scout meeting when one of the moms told me she makes popcorn in the microwave in a paper bag. Really? Do tell!

I came home and got straight to Googling. Sure enough, there were instructions for making microwave popcorn without all the cancer. Here's how.

Supplies:

1/4 cup popcorn kernels

2 tsp olive oil

Scotch tape

Paper bag

Salt

Instructions:

Pour the popcorn kernels into the bag.
Pour the olive oil into the bag.
Fold over the top and seal with tape.
Shake the bag to distribute the oil.
Put into the microwave for 2 minutes (your microwave may take longer, I found that it burned if I went any longer).
Add salt or whatever seasoning you like.
Enjoy!

It is so easy that I've been making microwave popcorn almost every day for a week! So, my mom's problems are solved. Well, her popcorn-related problems anyway. And, my two precious nieces can eat popcorn without Aunt Heather feeling all bad for giving them cancer and stuff. Everyone wins!

Get out there and get healthy, even if you like microwave popcorn!