Since giving birth to an infant, I've really found myself without too much time to do anything, including exercise. One late night before Christmas I succumbed to the siren's call of an info-mercial for the 10 Minute Trainer. It promised to send me a series of DVDs to help get me in shape for only 10 minutes per day. It promised to be easy, effective and fun. And it's all true. In fact, it's better than I could have imagined.
I believe that what you put into your body is critically important to your health. Exercise is also very important for improving health. When most people these days are so busy, it can be very difficult to fit exercise into their schedules. I think that Tony Horton's exercise programs offer busy people fun, safe, and effective ways to exercise at home and get in great shape.
I've seen many exercise-at-home programs before and it's very hard for trainers to demonstrate complicated exercises to people who are new to physical activity. Many trainers do not show modifications for people of differing ability or their explanations leave out key safety tips. But these videos manage to do all this and also get viewers moving and working out multiple parts of their bodies at the same time. I'm a very happy customer!
The website Horton uses to promote his many exercise videos such as Hip Hop Abs, P90 and P90X also offer a nutrition section that features recipes, tips, and demos ensuring that folks don't rely only on physical exercise to lose weight and become healthier. It's a well-thought-out program, compelling and easy-to-follow. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to start exercising safely and effectively from home. Now if I could just find those ten minutes for exercising every day...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Healthy Lunch To Go
I've made the jump back into the "real world" and I've been test-driving my new bento boxes, with moderate success. It does require extra effort to pack and carry your lunch from home, but it's manageable. Since my going to work means that the Bug has to go to daycare, I'm already required to pack her lunch, so it's only a tiny bit more work to make a larger version for myself.
I've been keeping the bentos on the counter and ready to fill while I make dinner. As each dinner dish becomes ready I take a small portion and place it in Bug's or my bento. Of course, some dinner dishes aren't easily ported to lunch the next day, such as tonight's Japanese noodle soup. But I have enough scraps around the house to piece together a lunch menu for the two of us. I'll be giving us bread and cheese, whole wheat crackers, some Barbara's Blueberry Fig Newton's, leftover broccoli, avocado, grapes, oranges, tofu, and a tin of fish spread just for me.
My biggest challenge has been remembering to buy enough food for 6 meals, instead of the regular 4 (for me, husband, Bug and her sister). Although I'm sure each week will take an extra shot of effort in planning my menus, grocery shopping strategically and cooking and storing, it's become easier with the help of this lovely blogger, Biggie and her Lunch in a Box website. I suspect she's one of those women with time management skills coming out the ying-yang, but I must politely envy her cook's skills.
I've been keeping the bentos on the counter and ready to fill while I make dinner. As each dinner dish becomes ready I take a small portion and place it in Bug's or my bento. Of course, some dinner dishes aren't easily ported to lunch the next day, such as tonight's Japanese noodle soup. But I have enough scraps around the house to piece together a lunch menu for the two of us. I'll be giving us bread and cheese, whole wheat crackers, some Barbara's Blueberry Fig Newton's, leftover broccoli, avocado, grapes, oranges, tofu, and a tin of fish spread just for me.
My biggest challenge has been remembering to buy enough food for 6 meals, instead of the regular 4 (for me, husband, Bug and her sister). Although I'm sure each week will take an extra shot of effort in planning my menus, grocery shopping strategically and cooking and storing, it's become easier with the help of this lovely blogger, Biggie and her Lunch in a Box website. I suspect she's one of those women with time management skills coming out the ying-yang, but I must politely envy her cook's skills.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Not All Vegetables Are Created Equal(ly)
Ah 'tis sad but true, just like not all men are created equally. Some of you may be interested to know which vegetables pack the most bang for your buck. Thankfully the intrepid folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have published an article in this month's Nutrition Action Newsletter where they rank veggies by how much they offer in the way of nutrients, fibre and a few other targets. Read the whole article: Rating Rutabagas.
The top winners are, not surprisingly, leafy greens, squashes and root vegetables with skin on. Here are the Top Ten:
1. Kale
2. Cooked Spinach
3. Collard greens
4. Turnip greens
5. Swiss chard
6. Raw Spinach
7. Canned Pumpkin
8. Mustard greens
9. Sweet potato (with skin)
10. Raw Radicchio
11. Raw Broccoli (almost a 10!)
If you're wondering why cooked vegetables are higher on the list than raw, it's because cooking (as well as other methods of preparation such as fermentation) eliminates or kills off some of the enzymes that inhibit your body's ability to digest the vegetable's nutrients. That's always been the argument for me against going raw more than 30% of the time, apologies to the Raw Foodies out there. My poor digestive tract can't handle a lot of raw foods, and I know I'm not alone.
Now there are Raw chefs out there like the wonderfully talented Aaron Ash at Gorilla Foods who can take a humble kale leaf and turn it into a tantalising dish, and I try to get down to this restaurant as often as I can. But, I can also make do with a more ordinary way to pack my diet full of nutrients. Just cook me some leafy greens with a bit of butter and mmm-mmm, yum, I'm happy inside and out.
The top winners are, not surprisingly, leafy greens, squashes and root vegetables with skin on. Here are the Top Ten:
1. Kale
2. Cooked Spinach
3. Collard greens
4. Turnip greens
5. Swiss chard
6. Raw Spinach
7. Canned Pumpkin
8. Mustard greens
9. Sweet potato (with skin)
10. Raw Radicchio
11. Raw Broccoli (almost a 10!)
If you're wondering why cooked vegetables are higher on the list than raw, it's because cooking (as well as other methods of preparation such as fermentation) eliminates or kills off some of the enzymes that inhibit your body's ability to digest the vegetable's nutrients. That's always been the argument for me against going raw more than 30% of the time, apologies to the Raw Foodies out there. My poor digestive tract can't handle a lot of raw foods, and I know I'm not alone.
Now there are Raw chefs out there like the wonderfully talented Aaron Ash at Gorilla Foods who can take a humble kale leaf and turn it into a tantalising dish, and I try to get down to this restaurant as often as I can. But, I can also make do with a more ordinary way to pack my diet full of nutrients. Just cook me some leafy greens with a bit of butter and mmm-mmm, yum, I'm happy inside and out.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Blissful Bento Box Beneficiary
Today a dear friend who knows I'm returning to work soon gifted me with the cutest, sweetest, little bento box, above. Apparently, there is a growing movement of folks who are taking homemade lunches to work in these tidy containers, thereby ensuring they have a healthy lunch to eat each day.
Being a Japanese phenomenon originally, the contents are supposed to be aesthetically-pleasing and small, and I'm not sure I'll be able to equal some folks out there. However, the concept of last night's healthy dinner repackaged in a cute and cheerful lunchbox sounds like a great way to get inspired about eating leftovers. There's not much inspiration in sitting down to a scratchy old Tupperware container that holds day-old sloppy pasta.
Many folks find that taking a "bagged" lunch to work is a cheaper way to get through the week, but it can also be a way to ensure you're eating the type of food you'd prefer to ingest each day. My workplace has a cafeteria which while subsidised, tends to offer food that's mostly processed, frozen, breaded, or fried. If only I could eat at Electronic Arts' lovely EA Cafe where my husband gets to eat healthy, delicious food each day. Yep, I'm soooo happy for him.
So this cute little bento is going to be an attractive and very practical kitchen accessory. I want to thank my dear friend for this wonderful and encouraging gift, and I pledge to fill my pretty bento with an array of delicious and nutritious goodies in the weeks to come. I'll keep you updated on the results, especially if it might help others spice up their own workday lunches.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Eating for Optimal Health
A friend has requested some posts on gluten-free diets but before I do that I need to step back and talk about optimal nutrition, of which being gluten-free is an important part. Thus begins a series of posts on eliminating processed foods and sugars, and we will then specifically deal with the issue of gluten.
My mother was diagnosed with Celiac disease years ago which is an inability to digest food because the small intestine has been damaged by gluten, a protein formed when wheat flours come into contact with water. When people with Celiac go "gluten-free" or stop eating gluten, their intestines can begin to heal and they can start digesting their food properly. This requires the elimination of breads, pastas and anything made with processed grains, i.e. flour.
Another remedy for intestinal problems that emerged in the 1960s is called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which eliminates complex sugars and starches from the diet. The only allowable sugars are those naturally occurring in honey, fruits or milk. The SCD has been found to cure or aid a number of diseases such as Crohn's, IBS and Colitis.
A similar way of eating for health is Dr. Atkins "Revolutionary" Diet which calls for the elimination of complex carbohydrates (flours, sugars, starches) from the diet until maximum weight loss is achieved. Then certain carbs can be consumed until weight gain recurs and this demonstrates the allowable amount of carbs in that person's diet for the perfect balance.
Is this starting to sound repetitive? The common culprit in all the above dietary solutions is processed foods and sugars. If you were to live in a bountiful place just outside of "civilisation" where there were no grocery stores or food manufacturers, you might eat some grains you grew in a field. But the majority of your diet would come from meat and dairy from animals you farmed or caught and fruits and vegetables you grew or picked yourself. You would very likely not be overweight and would not have diabetes, cardiovascular disease or other diseases plaguing most people in the developed world.
This is not just my subjective opinion, because many scientists have catalogued the health of indigenous people all over the world who were free of diseases until people from developed nations moved in and brought with them their processed foods and drinks. Shortly thereafter, the indigenous people became ill and started to suffer from new diseases. This is the case with Canada's First Nations people who are now hugely at risk for diabetes, also for the Sioux and Pima Indians in the Southern US. Many medical experts are still muddling about trying to determine why these indigenous people became so fat and theorising that they're now sedentary since we pushed them onto reservations. But the most impactful change they've undergone is a drastic change to their diet. Read more about how the introduction of processed foods to indigenous peoples' diets has desecrated their health as documented by Dr. Weston Price in the 1930s, the studies discussed in Uffe Ravnskov's Cholesterol Myths, and many other studies can be found in medical journals.
While most of the medical profession is still fixated on telling us to eliminate saturated fats from our diet, they all must concede that elimination of processed carbohydrates from the diet (not green vegetables) leads to weight and fat loss. And while fat loss may not be everyone's goal, good health certainly should be. The most popular diseases today generally present alongside individuals who are overweight. Doctors are recommending weight loss to reduce their risk of disease and so obesity and overweight themselves seem to be predictors of disease.
They are looking at the problem backwards. What is causing us to be overweight is what's also causing these diseases: diabetes, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome and more. What helps us to reduce weight also helps us regain our health, and our #1 enemy should be processed foods. We've existed for millions of years eating foods from animals, and plants, and we've only recently begun turning plant and grass seeds into the bulk of our diet (as flours) and our health has suffered drastically in this same period. I think it will only be a matter of time before doctors will start to shift their focus to the real source of the problem.
My mother was diagnosed with Celiac disease years ago which is an inability to digest food because the small intestine has been damaged by gluten, a protein formed when wheat flours come into contact with water. When people with Celiac go "gluten-free" or stop eating gluten, their intestines can begin to heal and they can start digesting their food properly. This requires the elimination of breads, pastas and anything made with processed grains, i.e. flour.
Another remedy for intestinal problems that emerged in the 1960s is called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which eliminates complex sugars and starches from the diet. The only allowable sugars are those naturally occurring in honey, fruits or milk. The SCD has been found to cure or aid a number of diseases such as Crohn's, IBS and Colitis.
A similar way of eating for health is Dr. Atkins "Revolutionary" Diet which calls for the elimination of complex carbohydrates (flours, sugars, starches) from the diet until maximum weight loss is achieved. Then certain carbs can be consumed until weight gain recurs and this demonstrates the allowable amount of carbs in that person's diet for the perfect balance.
Is this starting to sound repetitive? The common culprit in all the above dietary solutions is processed foods and sugars. If you were to live in a bountiful place just outside of "civilisation" where there were no grocery stores or food manufacturers, you might eat some grains you grew in a field. But the majority of your diet would come from meat and dairy from animals you farmed or caught and fruits and vegetables you grew or picked yourself. You would very likely not be overweight and would not have diabetes, cardiovascular disease or other diseases plaguing most people in the developed world.
This is not just my subjective opinion, because many scientists have catalogued the health of indigenous people all over the world who were free of diseases until people from developed nations moved in and brought with them their processed foods and drinks. Shortly thereafter, the indigenous people became ill and started to suffer from new diseases. This is the case with Canada's First Nations people who are now hugely at risk for diabetes, also for the Sioux and Pima Indians in the Southern US. Many medical experts are still muddling about trying to determine why these indigenous people became so fat and theorising that they're now sedentary since we pushed them onto reservations. But the most impactful change they've undergone is a drastic change to their diet. Read more about how the introduction of processed foods to indigenous peoples' diets has desecrated their health as documented by Dr. Weston Price in the 1930s, the studies discussed in Uffe Ravnskov's Cholesterol Myths, and many other studies can be found in medical journals.
While most of the medical profession is still fixated on telling us to eliminate saturated fats from our diet, they all must concede that elimination of processed carbohydrates from the diet (not green vegetables) leads to weight and fat loss. And while fat loss may not be everyone's goal, good health certainly should be. The most popular diseases today generally present alongside individuals who are overweight. Doctors are recommending weight loss to reduce their risk of disease and so obesity and overweight themselves seem to be predictors of disease.
They are looking at the problem backwards. What is causing us to be overweight is what's also causing these diseases: diabetes, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome and more. What helps us to reduce weight also helps us regain our health, and our #1 enemy should be processed foods. We've existed for millions of years eating foods from animals, and plants, and we've only recently begun turning plant and grass seeds into the bulk of our diet (as flours) and our health has suffered drastically in this same period. I think it will only be a matter of time before doctors will start to shift their focus to the real source of the problem.
Monday, January 26, 2009
More Hate On Boxed Cereal
I've gotten a good response to my last post on healthy breakfast options which do not include cold cereal. Yesterday I was directed to a site that summarises a great article called "Drop That Spoon" published in the Guardian back in June. Unfortunately the copyright expired so the article is no longer on the Guardian's website. However, here's a blogger who has posted a link and some excerpts.
It's always nice to find you're not the most extreme person in your milieu. Thank god, for the Internet, where one's milieu stretches as far as the Internet signals can pulse. There are far worse things to say about puffed, flakey cereal than what I've written and the above article steps right into the muck. A worthwhile read.
It's always nice to find you're not the most extreme person in your milieu. Thank god, for the Internet, where one's milieu stretches as far as the Internet signals can pulse. There are far worse things to say about puffed, flakey cereal than what I've written and the above article steps right into the muck. A worthwhile read.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Dish of the Day: Healthy Breakfast
This one goes out to my mom friend Kim who commented how difficult it is to have a breakfast that is free of processed or refined foods. This is very true when we think of the traditional breakfast of cereal with milk, which so many of us opt for each morning. However, there are lots of other, better choices. WARNING: I'm going to veer off into serious holistic nutrition territory now, but I promise to return to reality.
Cold cereal as a typical breakfast choice is a modern invention thanks to the last century's focus on the mass production of foodstuffs. Before this, people would make breakfast from whatever raw materials they had at home. And in many parts of the world, this is still the case. In Asia, people often eat rice, fish and eggs for breakfast. But in North America we tend to eat processed cereal, like Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Special K, and so many more. These flakey cereals are made by taking refined flour and mixing it with sugar, salt and then vitamins and minerals are added. This paste is then heated up and shot through an extruder that squishes the batter into puffy, crunchy bits that are then dried and placed in a box and shipped off to grocery stores. Knowing this, it's easy to see that this might not be the most nutritious way to start off your day.
What it is, is a quick and easy way to eat before rushing of to work. Convenience and efficiency have defined our eating habits in the recent past, much to the detriment of our health. Since the the second World War when many women joined the workforce, industry found a highly profitable new market in selling fast foods to busy homemakers who still wanted to serve home-cooked meals to their families, but who had less time on their hands. This spawned the era of cakes in a box, TV dinners and canned, processed foods. Flash forward 60 years and now we don't even question buying foods in a box or a can. We rarely look at the long list of ingredients that help preserve this food in its container, nor do we think about the many things that were done to this food before it arrived on the grocery store's shelf.
We were designed to eat fresh food, not dead, dried foods, and I strongly believe in trying to eat foods that closely resemble the way they came off the plant or animal that produced them. Doing so can often stand in opposition to a fast-paced lifestyle but there are still many ways to eat fresh food and not spend hours in the kitchen.
In the morning, a better option than boxed cereal would be to eat whole grains or even non-grain foods for breakfast. Porridge made from grains such as millet, rice, oats, wheat can take a bit more time to make but will naturally have more nutrients. One way to speed up the process of making porridge is to soak it overnight and this can even include a bit of fermentation that occurs when leaving grains out and in contact with water and a bit of salt, vinegar or yogurt. The fermentation process will start to break down the food, making it faster to cook, but also unlocking more of the proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Most granolas are made from whole oats and dried fruits and eaten with yogurt and fresh or frozen fruit, this becomes a balanced start to the day. Those who like to bake can make nutritious muffins in advance which are convenient to eat in the morning but you'd need to have a glass of milk and a fruit to balance this out. I've blogged before about taking last night's starch and turning it into a yummy porridge which is a quick easy meal.
Of course, you could always cook up an egg, some wholemeal toast, have some meat on the side, if you like your animal proteins. This choice of meal - low in carbohydrates - will keep you from feeling hungry for many hours since it avoids a huge insulin rush to store away these sugars, and the subsequent blood sugar drop which revs up your hunger once again.
It turns out there are a number of options for a non-processed breakfast meal that may require a bit more work and a new way of thinking. But it's your health we're talking about. Aren't you worth it?
Cold cereal as a typical breakfast choice is a modern invention thanks to the last century's focus on the mass production of foodstuffs. Before this, people would make breakfast from whatever raw materials they had at home. And in many parts of the world, this is still the case. In Asia, people often eat rice, fish and eggs for breakfast. But in North America we tend to eat processed cereal, like Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Special K, and so many more. These flakey cereals are made by taking refined flour and mixing it with sugar, salt and then vitamins and minerals are added. This paste is then heated up and shot through an extruder that squishes the batter into puffy, crunchy bits that are then dried and placed in a box and shipped off to grocery stores. Knowing this, it's easy to see that this might not be the most nutritious way to start off your day.
What it is, is a quick and easy way to eat before rushing of to work. Convenience and efficiency have defined our eating habits in the recent past, much to the detriment of our health. Since the the second World War when many women joined the workforce, industry found a highly profitable new market in selling fast foods to busy homemakers who still wanted to serve home-cooked meals to their families, but who had less time on their hands. This spawned the era of cakes in a box, TV dinners and canned, processed foods. Flash forward 60 years and now we don't even question buying foods in a box or a can. We rarely look at the long list of ingredients that help preserve this food in its container, nor do we think about the many things that were done to this food before it arrived on the grocery store's shelf.
We were designed to eat fresh food, not dead, dried foods, and I strongly believe in trying to eat foods that closely resemble the way they came off the plant or animal that produced them. Doing so can often stand in opposition to a fast-paced lifestyle but there are still many ways to eat fresh food and not spend hours in the kitchen.
In the morning, a better option than boxed cereal would be to eat whole grains or even non-grain foods for breakfast. Porridge made from grains such as millet, rice, oats, wheat can take a bit more time to make but will naturally have more nutrients. One way to speed up the process of making porridge is to soak it overnight and this can even include a bit of fermentation that occurs when leaving grains out and in contact with water and a bit of salt, vinegar or yogurt. The fermentation process will start to break down the food, making it faster to cook, but also unlocking more of the proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Most granolas are made from whole oats and dried fruits and eaten with yogurt and fresh or frozen fruit, this becomes a balanced start to the day. Those who like to bake can make nutritious muffins in advance which are convenient to eat in the morning but you'd need to have a glass of milk and a fruit to balance this out. I've blogged before about taking last night's starch and turning it into a yummy porridge which is a quick easy meal.
Of course, you could always cook up an egg, some wholemeal toast, have some meat on the side, if you like your animal proteins. This choice of meal - low in carbohydrates - will keep you from feeling hungry for many hours since it avoids a huge insulin rush to store away these sugars, and the subsequent blood sugar drop which revs up your hunger once again.
It turns out there are a number of options for a non-processed breakfast meal that may require a bit more work and a new way of thinking. But it's your health we're talking about. Aren't you worth it?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Dish of the Day: Cauliflower Mac n' Cheese
File this one under "Stealth Method" because this is sort of a cheaty way of getting veggies into little mouth: mask them by incorporating them into their favourite food. Luckily my babes like cauli already but this would be a great way to introduce cauliflower skeptics to the mild vegetable, assuming they like macaroni and cheese.
Now, this is different from hiding veggies by pureeing them into foods like soups or stews. These vegetables are in plain view. But from the perspective of taste, cauliflower goes very well with cheese sauce; we often eat it that way at home. And to put it in with the macaroni simply boosts the vegetable quotient of your side dish and thus the entire meal.
I bought President's Choice Blue Menu Mac n' Cheese for a number of reasons. The pasta has whole wheat in it, the cheese is real, there's no tartrazine (a food dye I avoid) and it's lower in sodium. I LOVE PC's Blue Menu. Anyway, I used 2/3 of the pasta from the box, put in a cup of cauliflower and added in 1 TBsp of aged white cheddar of my own when making the sauce. I also let it sit for five minutes so the cauli could get completely coated with cheese. The family approved, because there it's all gone!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
My Omega 3 Baby
I used to be the only one in this family who appreciates sardines but now the Bug is on my side. Thanks to my Dad's Italian background, I acquired a taste for sardines on toast. Today I decided to give some to the Bug to see if she'd like them and true to her carnivorous nature, she gobbled them down.
I served them to her on bits of dry whole wheat toast. If you'd like to get your kids to try this omega 3-rich fish, you may want to serve them on their own, or on toast, or you may want to add something to enliven their strong flavour a bit. Try making a toasted sandwich with mayonnaise and relish or mustard and putting some mashed sardines inside. I don't recommend ketchup - ever - as I believe it really smothers any food it contacts, whereas other condiments tend to add and enhance flavour.
Not every child is going to like sardines but it's definitely worth trying if only to broaden their palate with a variety of different tastes. And if someone else in the house (i.e. an adult) doesn't appreciate these lovely small fish, make sure to ask him or her to remove themselves from the table or remain poker-faced during any tasting. That way they won't negatively influence a young eater's experience.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Dish of the Day: Butternut Squash Surprise
The surprise here is that the squash is for breakfast. I do love a warm, savoury sweet meal for my first meal of the day during the cool months. This is a great way to use leftover squash from last night's dinner in a new delicious way.
Fill a saucepan with about 2/3 cup of squash and add 1/2 cup of whole milk. Also add in your spices: 1/4 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom are good choices, and raisins. Warm on the stove (or use a microwave to do this in the bowl if you are so inclined) and place in your bowl when it's the desired temperature.
I like to add in pumpkin seeds or a nut at this stage too. Drizzle with honey for the perfect sweet finish.
For babies under one year, you mustn't use honey and you probably will not want to add in milk. You can warm the squash and then add in breast milk to the baby's bowl. Also, no raisin or nuts due to choking hazard or possible allergies.
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