I love this video of this little hamster just chowing down on the tiniest piece of broccoli.
The next time you’re dreading adding vegetables to your meal, remember this little guy and eagerly get some broccoli into your cheek pouches.
I love this advertisement. It was for Best Foods Light Mayo, but it brings to mind a very important concept about food. It reads:
Not all love notes are written. Some are made.
Many times food gets all tangled up with love. This can be a very powerful concept that you can harness to your own benefit.
Many times food becomes so embroiled in the idea of love, that it feels completely impossible to distinguish the two. This idea can be harmful and it can undermine my eating so quickly that I have to keep vigilant. Whenever I visit my mom and she pushes me to eat more, I have to consciously remind myself that she is only trying to tell me that she loves me. Sometimes I DO eat more and then compensate with exercise or good planning. Other times, I ask her to pack me up leftovers so that I can eat it later. Whether I eat it later in the privacy of my own home doesn’t matter, but I give her the chance to do something special for me.
I’ve talked before about the concept of making food with love. You can read the entire thing here:
Back then, I said:
Food made with anger and bitterness doesn’t quite taste as good as food made with love and joy. That’s why home cooking tastes so good. It was made for us with love. That’s why some restaurants just make mediocre food. It was made with indifference.
The next time you’re choking down a healthy meal that just doesn’t taste right, think to yourself, “Did I make this with love and joy? Did I just throw the ingredients together haphazardly?†Next time you make a meal, really think about who is going to eat it and the benefits that you hope they will receive from the meal. It will truly make a difference in how the meal will taste (at least to you, if not the others).
Food has become so mixed up with love and family that at times it is difficult to separate the two. When you are able to accept the love without the food, you make one step toward healthy living. When you are able to eat food made with love with the reverence it deserves, you make another step toward healthy living. Keep on making these baby steps and you will get to your goal weight with the power of love.
I had a strange incident the other day. I was reading a book. I had already eaten an unhealthy breakfast and I wanted to munch on something else. I walked to the kitchen and I KNEW that I wasn’t hungry. I tried to think of something healthy to eat while I was reading and then I remembered that I could chew a piece of gum. Mike ALWAYS has gum in the treat cupboard, so I pulled out a packet. I was feeling greedy, so I took out two pieces. I chewed them for over an hour and I didn’t feel like eating anymore. It helped me get past that.
I remember chewing gum when I was in high school. I chewed it EVERY day. I ALWAYS had gum. I rationed out the pieces to last all week until I had money to buy more. I wasn’t allowed to chew it in Spanish class and I remember furtively hiding it under my tongue so that Mrs. Linares wouldn’t be able to tell. To this day, I can talk flawlessly (in two languages) with a stick of gum under my tongue.
I stopped chewing gum when I married Mike. He doesn’t really like the habit, especially because I pop it and blow bubbles continually. He considers it noisy and disgusting, so I got out of the habit. The thing is, however, is that gum is REALLY good at distracting me from eating. It gives my mouth something to chew. It makes my teeth feel clean. It makes me not want to eat, because I’d have to throw my gum away. I should have never given it up and now I’m fully intending to start chewing again. I used to chew gum ALL the time. I would ALWAYS have a pack in my purse. After every meal, I would start chewing again. Quite frankly, I miss it. It might even be the reason I keep eating past the point of fullness. I want to keep on chewing, not eating.
Jennifer Hudson did all the work, but she was following the Weight Watchers plan to lose it. She went from a size 16 to a size 6 so that she could play the part of Nelson Mandela’s wife in a bio-pic of her life. She honestly looks awesome and she deserves all the credit. Losing weight is difficult and I hope it was made a little easier for her by using Weight Watchers.
I literally thought the KFC Double Down was a joke when I saw the commercial for it.
It reminded me too much of this 30 Rock sketch with Tracy Morgan.
Meat is the new bread? Maybe they have a point there…
Is the KFC Double Down any less healthy than any other fast food chicken sandwich?
The Double Down Original Recipe is 540 Calories and 32 grams of fat. Compared to the Big Mac nutrition facts of 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, it’s very similar.
When you look at the Grilled Double Down, it’s 460 calories and 23 grams of fat. The McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Classic is 420 calories and 10 grams of fat.
Bread DOES take a lot of calories and doesn’t fill you up much compared to protein. Maybe the calories are similar with a Double Down and other fast food options, but it just might keep you feeling full longer. Is it healthy? I wouldn’t say so, but if you’re going to eat a fast food sandwich, maybe meat IS the new bread…
I was haunting one of my favorite antique stores when this soda bottle jumped right out at me.
The soda was called Like and the tagline was, “Diets Like Like.”
What was even more interesting was the subtitle:
Artificially sweetened special dietary carbonated beverage
Nothing says delicious like the words “special dietary.”
It took me a while to track down exactly WHAT Like Soda was, but I finally found a footnote on Wikipedia:
Diet 7 Up: Originally introduced in 1963 as Like (not to be confused with 7 Up’s Like Cola from the 1980s), it was discontinued in 1969 due to the U.S. government ban of cyclamate sweetener.
The history for cyclamate is interesting as well:
Controversy developed when in 1966, a study reported that some intestinal bacteria could desulfonate cyclamate to produce cyclohexylamine, a compound suspected to have some chronic toxicity in animals. Further research resulted in a 1969 study which found the common 10:1 cyclamate:saccharin mixture to increase the incidence of bladder cancer in rats. The released study was showing that eight out of 240 rats fed a mixture of saccharin and cyclamates, at levels of humans ingesting 350 cans of diet soda per day, developed bladder tumors. Other studies implicated cyclohexylamine in testicular atrophy in mice. On October 18, 1969, the Food and Drug Administration banned its sale in the United States with citation of the Delaney Amendment.
Abbott Laboratories claimed that its own studies were unable to reproduce the 1969 study’s results, and in 1973, Abbott petitioned the FDA to lift the ban on cyclamate. This petition was eventually denied in 1980 by FDA Commissioner Jere Goyan. Abbott Labs, together with the Calorie Control Council (a political lobby representing the diet foods industry), filed a second petition in 1982. Although the FDA has stated that a review of all available evidence does not implicate cyclamate as a carcinogen in mice or rats, cyclamate remains banned from food products in the United States.
Apparently, Diets DON’T like Like…
Fitness Magazine provided me with a complimentary subscription in exchange for a monthly review of their magazine.
Once again the cover of the magazine seems incredibly inappropriate for the current weather. This is what it looked like outside my house the first day of April. Do they really expect you to “Walk Your Way Slim” in a bikini when the weather is like this?
That bikini is a FAR cry from the exercise clothing I wore this morning on my run. I find it strange that Fitness Magazine is perpetually in a state of sunshine and summer when the majority of their readership is still suffering with snow storms and icy wind pushing against them on their morning runs. It’s as if they aren’t connected to the earth the way the rest of us are.
They did have one good article about eating healthy when you’re eating out called “Fast Food Lite?”
Aryen Jackson-Cannady, a Fitness Magazine writer, tried eating out every day at lunch and she found a great selection of healthy things to eat. It IS possible to lose weight and eat out every day as long as you choose wisely. I love that they were willing to admit that amid this war on fast food.
I also liked Caroline Hwang’s Fit Test article about the TrekDesk, which is a big desk that fits around your treadmill and allows you to work while you exercise.
This month’s FitnessFix was about a woman who LOVED spinning class, but was afraid to get on a real bike. It is the best article in the magazine this month, highlighting that you should get a bike that fits you. I can’t stress how important this is. My bike is a 13 inch frame, which is usually a size for kids, but it is the only bike that has fit me. No matter what you need, make sure you get a bike that fits your body.
This month’s Fitness Magazine is definitely worth the money. Pick up a copy and tell me what you think!
When I saw this image from the movie, Repo Man, I was surprised at how easily my mind translated the word DRINK to SODA. I had to look at it three times to make sure it said DRINK instead of SODA. Those cans are just props used in a movie, but they seem like so much more to me.
Is soda bad for you?
I honestly don’t know. There are studies that say even diet sodas can cause an insulin response. There are people out there saying that soda is rotting my teeth and making me fat. I even have a friend who says that carbonated beverages (even unsweetened ones) make me fat because they expand my stomach and make me unable to tell when I’m full.
The only facts that I have are how my body responds to soda. When I keep my diet drinks to one or two cans a day, I have an easier time following my program. When I drink a 32 ounce monster of Coke Zero, I get an energy boost from the caffeine that just doesn’t feel the same as two cups of coffee. When I feel deprived, a diet root beer and a small scoop of low calorie vanilla ice cream tastes like a extravagant indulgence.
Is soda bad for you? That’s something you have to decide for yourself. Is it bad for me? I’m still trying to decide.
Animated GIF via: three frames – Repo Man 3
Sometimes I forget how long diet soda has been around. Here are some commercials from the sixties and seventies for Diet Pepsi.
I have been drinking diet soda my whole life. It has never given me the “figure that girl watchers watch” or made me “come alive.” Maybe I should concentrate on drinking water instead.
This morning, I was disappointed with my cereal. I measured out a serving and the bowl looked so empty that I felt deprived. I knew that I needed a fruit serving, so I cut up my apple into bite-sized pieces and threw it in the bowl. Suddenly, I had a large bowl of food and I felt so happy to eat my meal!
What I didn’t count on, however, is that my half a cup of skim milk, which usually is enough for one serving of cereal wasn’t enough for this tremendous bowl of apple cereal. I didn’t want to spend the points on another half cup. I didn’t want to skimp on the milk for my coffee (man that stuff is bitter without some milk!).
Then I remembered a trick from when I was a kid.
A couple of times when I was a child, we were close to running out of milk. Mom hadn’t gone to the store to get more and we needed to make a little bit of milk last for both Stacey and me (my mom was a saint and didn’t eat that morning). Mom took the milk jug and added some water to the milk. She swished it around, mixing in the water and suddenly there was enough milk for the both of us! It was like magic to my eight-year-old eyes!
I tried the magic this morning. After pouring in my half cup, I poured in a half cup of water into my measuring cup. I swished it around to get every last drop of skim milk clinging to the sides and poured it into my bowl. Just like when I was a child, suddenly I had enough milk to last my whole bowl of apple and cereal.
After eating so many cereals with the word “apple” in their title, NOTHING can compare to the taste of fresh apple with cereal. I didn’t notice the watered down milk, but I certainly noticed the crisp squirt of apple between my teeth with each bite. Next time you’re feeling deprived by your small serving of cereal (make sure you measure, because cereal is one of those foods that you’ll accidentally serve yourself more of), add an apple. For only one WW Point, it makes a depressing bowl a full-fledged MEAL.
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