A Practical Guide To Healthy Living

Do you know the Hungry Girl?  She’s Lisa Lillien and she has a great web site and daily email about nutrition and weight loss that you can subscribe to for free (“tips and tricks for hungry chicks!”).  Although I’ve been a subscriber for years, I definitely pick and choose what I take from the Hungry Girl’s emails.  She gives lots of good advice about counting calories and food awareness, and she highlights new diet-friendly foods and all the time, but a lot of those foods have loads of artificial ingredients, which I try to avoid.

The fabulous Hungry Girl also often gives up the 411 on nutritional information for restaurants and “fast casual” places – she is correct that knowledge is power when it comes to taking charge of your waistline and your health.  A lot of places have made this information available on-line (try Googling “Bruegger’s nutrition information” or “Panera nutrition information,” etc.), but many places have been loathe to disclose.

Well, because so many cities and states are requiring restaurants to post their nutritional data, more information is becoming available every day . . . including (finally) info. on Friendly’s, a place that I actually eat sometimes with my daughter.  There is this Honey BBQ Chicken Supermelt sandwich that I dream about, and, well, after checking the stats just now, I don’t think I’ll ever order it again.  Even I, a dyed-in-the-wool calorie-counter and health-conscious consumer, never anticipated the disaster that is that sandwich . . . . check it all out for yourself here, (scroll down to the second reader question) and also find info. on food at the Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, IHOP, T.G.I. Fridays & Applebee’s – places I know for sure some of you eat.  ‘Fess up.

Next time you’re going to one of these places, take a peek at their nutrition info. before you leave, and try to choose something that’ll fit into your daily budget for fat and calories.  Even if you’re not counting calories, etc., you can think about how you’ve been eating in a given week – if there’s been a lot of junk or rich food and not a lot of greens and fiber, you might want to try easing up a bit at, say, Friendly’s.  And if you want to damn-it-all and enjoy that Supermelt, well, you know what you’ll have to do to make up for it afterwards. 

Belly up!

Print This!

Tried it mixed with a huge tomato, which I cubed.  Although it was better (lending credibility to my too-much-pesto-hypothesis), I still wasn’t a huge fan.  Don’t know what I’m going to do with all these remaining leftovers!

Print This!

I’m usually tired when I arrive at the gym in the morning.  And if I’m not tired, I’m often bored – I am there an awful lot, and even though I have strategies to beat machine-boredom, it happens.  But more often than not, once I get in the building I can motivate myself to exercise hard, despite my boredom and/or fatigue.  So what’s my “secret?”   Music.  Nothing psyches me up more than a high-energy workout mix.  Music will inspire you, and research shows that music can distract you from fatigue so that you can exercise longer and harder.

It turns out that even some serious athletes use music as a source of inspiration to aid their performance in both training and competition.  The British tennis player, Barry Cowen, listened to a personal stereo system during his match with Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001.  And Cowen later partly attributed his excellent performance to the inspirational music he was listening to during the change of ends. Ethiopia’s Haile Gebreselassie set an indoor world record for 2,000 metres while his favorite song was playing in the Birmingham arena. He later suggested that the music gave him a rhythm that matched the required pace of the run. And in a longitudinal study of Russian weightlifters, participants found that their training quality, volume and intensity improved substantially when music accompanied weightlifting sessions.

There are all sorts of things mere mortals like us can do to harness the motivational power of music in our workouts.  I often do intervals to songs – if I’m on the bike, I’ll cycle at 70 RPM as a base, and then rev it up to 80+ during each chorus.  Or if you have songs of differing beats per minute (BPM) in your mix, you can do longer intervals – speed it up for the high BPM songs, slow it down for the lower.  If you’re in the treadmill, do hills for the slow songs, and then bring your incline down to 1 or 2 and run or speed walk for the fast songs.  If you want to get really fancy, iTunes will show you the BPM of your downloaded music, and you can make a mix tailored to your gym activity – you can make up a classic warm up, high intensity, then cool-down mix.

I suppose you want suggestions?  I have eclectic music taste, and although I’d rarely listen to it outside the gym, I have a lot of cotton-candy pop, hip-hop and house music in my workout mixes.  If you’re interested, I’ll see if I can make some of my workout mixes public on iTunes. 

Another tip – for variety, I also listen to the PodRunner/PodRunner: Intervals mixes – they’re organized by BPM, but a warning:  they’re geared more toward the high BPM activities (running, for instance).   You can download these directly from the site, but if you do have an iPod, you can subscribe to the PodRunner podcasts on iTunes and you will have a continuous stream of new material. 

For even more ideas, take a peek at this Boston Globe article from last April – I can attest to the fact that the majority of these’ll get your heart pumpin’ and your fitness level up.

Go for it!

Print This!

This just in from Reuter’s Health – so if you were choking down green tea in an effort to stave off the big C, you can stop.  But if you drink it ’cause it tastes great and makes you feel good, keep it up . . . .

Print This!

I think it was my sister-in-law who turned me on to green salads with fruit in them.  Until I’d had her spinach salad with strawberries, I’d always been a salad-traditionalist of sorts – salads were savory, and for me, eaten after my main course (unless, of course, a salad was my main course, which it often is).

But there is something interesting and tempting about a salad loaded with both greens and fruit, and maybe some nuts and dried fruits too, with a slightly sweet dressing.  For me, they’re always slightly unexpected, but enjoyable.

I tried this on Saturday night, and we liked it.  It incorporates fresh figs, which we “discovered” last summer.  I ate dried figs as a kid, but as a grownup I hadn’t regularly eaten fresh figs, and certainly never cooked with them.  If they are ripe, they can be very tasty.  If they aren’t (they’ll be very firm), they won’t be.  And sometimes they’re really mushy and over-ripe, in which case they’re awful.  So see if you can man-handle your figs a bit before you commit to a basket.  I also try to find organic ones, and then I just wash them and slice them with the peel intact.

Green Salad With Figs, Grapes & Pine Nuts

Dressing

*To toast your pine nuts, put them into a small, dry skillet and stir them constantly over low heat – they’ll toast quickly, so watch them!  Let them cool before you add them to your salad.

For dressing:  combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine (or use an old spaghetti sauce jar – add all ingredients and shake vigorously – this is my fool-proof method).  This makes about twice as much dressing as you will need for the salad – so you can either halve the recipe, or keep the leftovers in the fridge for about a week).

For salad:  toss all ingredients in a large bowl, dress with prepared dressing to taste.

Serves 4 as a side-salad.

Some tips:  Pine nuts are expensive, and because of their high oil content, they spoil more quickly than your other nuts.  Trader Joe’s has great prices on nuts generally, and also on dried fruits.  Buy a large bag of nuts and use what you need – keep the rest in the refrigerator and they won’t go rancid as quickly.

Turned on by sweet dressings?  Newman’s Own makes a good light raspberry walnut vinaigrette that is a staple at our house – try tossing it with mixed greens, crumbled blue cheese, dried cranberries and then topping it with a sliced grilled chicken breast (here again, TJ’s can be a time-saver – their already-grilled chicken breasts are pretty darn good (no weird texture) and don’t have any crazy sauces on them.  The balsamic ones are my favorite, but lemon-pepper and plain grilled are great, too.  Voila!  If you used bagged salad greens and the pre-cooked chicken, you now have a healthy and summery main-course in less time than it takes to order take-out!

Print This!

Tonight I made Heidi Swanson’s Arugula Pesto Wheat Berryrecipe and my verdict is “meh.”  My husband’s verdict is two-thumbs-down with a pouty face.  That’s pretty bad.

There’re a few things that were going on here.  I absolutely do not think that this recipe was a dog.  I think I put too much pesto on my wheat berries, for starters.  So if you do make this, go easy at first and add more, which Heidi does encourage you to do.  I just thought the pesto was delicious and so I was in a “if some if good, hell, more is better!” place, and, well, I overdid it.

Second.  I did add the fried seitan, and although I’ve been wanting to like seitan forever now, I just don’t.  The texture is too weird for me – if you’re a seitan lover, put it in and you’ll have a tasty, protein-packed meal.

Third.  Wheat berries are chewy.  They have a great, sort of nutty flavor, but they are work.  I like this, actually, but they are not for everyone – for instance, my poor husband.  I think these pushed him over the edge of his whole-foods tolerance.  He said “I like quinoa soooo much better.”

Fourth.  The pesto.  I love arugula – it’s peppery and fresh.  This pesto is an electric green color, toasty from the pine nuts, zesty from the fresh Parmesan.  I thought it was great.  Husband pronounced it “too green,” both in color and flavor.  I tried some on our daughter’s plain udon noodles and it was terrific.

I’m not giving up on this!  I have the leftovers in the fridge and tomorrow for lunch I’m going to try them again – the flavors will have melded well by then, and if it’s still too much, I might put a mound of wheat berries, etc. on a bed of arugula and eat it that way.  Some chopped tomato might be great with it too. 

I’ll let you know.

Print This!

For those of you who’ve followed me on Facebook until now, you might remember that my 6-year-old daughter is in love with Giada De Laurentiis.  She will watch “Everyday Italian” with rapt attention, and comment on everything from the food Giada is making (“oooh, I could eat the t.v.!”) to her outfit (“I like Giada’s clothes mom, and her jewelry, and her eye makeup is sparkly today!”).  It’s really very funny.

When I’m not watching with her, L. will often pause the t.v. and run from the room yelling “mom! mom!  you have to come here and SEE this, it’s amazing!”  In which case I have to run in to witness the tasty-looking vittles for myself.

Anyway.  We were watching the “Bake Sale” episode at the end of last week, and amongst the many sweets Giada showcased were these Marscapone Mini Cupcakes- replete with a pink strawberry glaze.  What six-year-old could resist those?

We whipped them up yesterday and they are terrific.  So easy to make (cake mix is easy), light, cute and yes, very pink.  Perfect for a fairy tea party or a princess-palooza of some kind, or just to eat with friends on what was a gorgeous summer Saturday.

Enjoy!

Print This!

I like a quick lunch.  I’ve got stuff to accomplish, and not much time.  And then there are those days when I want something fancier for lunch, but I don’t want to take the time to go out.  Nothing in the fridge appeals, and I don’t want to make something from scratch – I do a lot of cooking later in the day, right?

This week I found a new solution at Trader Joe’s.  Their frozen Mini Cilantro Chicken Wontons and Chicken Shumai are tasty and not crazy for calories. To prepare them, I put a damp paper towel on a microwave safe plate, add the dumplings and the shumai, and then cover them with another damp paper towel – microwave for 2-3 minutes.  The wetter your towel, the less chance of the wrappers on the wontons getting dry and chewy.

Now folks, I realize that frozen mass-marketed dumplings are a poor cousin of homemade.  But the TJ’s  dumplings are pretty good, and compared to other convenience foods that are loaded with artificial preservatives and ingredients, these are made from relatively wholesome ingredients.  And when you’re feeling lazy but in need of an Asian fix, they’ll meet the need.

There is dipping sauce included with the shumai, but I’ve never tried it – I make my own, very easy sauce and use it on both the shumai and the wontons:

Stir.  Dip.

I also steam up some edamame (did you know you can microwave the shelled beans?  Yes – put them in a Pyrex bowl with a lid, and zap ‘em for a minute.  Stir, zap until tender).  The sauce is good on these, too.

Enjoy!

Print This!