Don’t Blow Your Diet on the 4th of July
The 4th of July brings wonderful barbecues with families and friends. It’s a time to laugh, celebrate and enjoy the Independence that our country declared more than 200 years ago.
But with those barbecues comes a plethora of food, some healthy and some very much not. So, how can you navigate the party without blowing your diet?
- Avoid fried foods - From potato chips to fried chicken, these foods pack on the calories. They can certainly add up quickly too. Plus, those few chips mindlessly munched can turn into way too much eating.
- Choose one or the other - Somehow, when we have barbecues, people can lose their minds and suddenly find themselves having a hot dog and a hamburger or two hamburgers — this is too much. Choose one or the other and just have one! That will save you half the calories and keep you from overindulging.
- Skip the mayo-based salads - Potato salad, macaroni salad, cole slaw, oh my! The addition of mayo can really up the fat and calories of a dish so skip these danger zones and go for the tossed salad instead!
- Watch your portions - Ultimately, anything is okay in moderation. So be sure that you keep moderation in mind as you fill up your plate.
Superfoods Save Your Healthy Day
The July/August 2009 issue of Health magazine features a list of nine superfoods for women that provide alternatives to common nutrient-rich foods like blueberries and broccoli. Check out these options:
1. Kiwifruit: Instead of oranges, try these fruits also packed with vitamin C.
2. Mushrooms: If your attitude toward broccoli is similar to the first President Bush’s, you can get nutritious phytochemicals from this meaty vegetable instead.
Ice Cream Without The Guilt
Oh, the simple joys of summer. A day spent laying on the beach. A swim in the pool. A walk at dusk. An ice cream cone. Everything seems so much easier and so much more joyful in the summer …
But if you want your waistline to be joyful, then you’d better be mindful of what you put on that ice cream cone.
Nutrition expert Gloria Tsang, founder of HealthCastle.com, says that a trip to the ice cream shop can be devastating for the waistline if you choose the wrong toppings. “There are so many delicious-sounding toppings and treats at the ice cream parlor,” Gloria said. “It’s fine to enjoy your summer ice cream, but you need to make sure you choose wisely if you want to be able to indulge all summer long.”
Cilantro Lime Sorbet
This is the first summer in 6 years that my fiancé, Dan, has had air conditioning. I was lucky enough to have an air-conditioned apartment while I lived in Baltimore. Our first apartment in D.C. was not air-conditioned and we spent last summer sweltering in the muggy Washington heat. I’ll admit that, being from the south, I didn’t mind it half as much as Dan, who hails from Pennsylvania. It was still not pleasant; we spent most of our not working hours laying around in shorts inches from strategically placed fans.
The kitchen was sweltering, and beyond drinking our weight in Fresca, we struggled to find ways to alleviate the misery. That is, until we discovered Dolcezza, a local gelateria. When we first stumbled across Dolcezza in Georgetown, I had their cilantro lime sorbet. They use only seasonal ingredients, which means that their flavors compliment the season year round, which is incredible. Since that first muggy June day, I’ve wanted to try and recreate the cilantro lime, and so recently I tried.
Even though our current apartment does have air conditioning (something our basil plants are not too pleased about), I still love this sorbet, and have been making it weekly since I first experimented a few weeks ago. What finally drove me to make it was a new exercise regime that left me totally pooped, cranky, and in need of a serious reward. So, using limes and cilantro leftover from taco salad, we pulled out the ice cream maker and a new favorite dessert was born!
The New BodyBugg vs. The Old BodyBugg
Big changes have come to the BodyBugg, making it better than ever.
Longtime readers will remember that I tried out and reviewed a BodyBugg late last year and early this year. That model, which was grey and white and used a AAA battery, has been replaced with a new slim, light black model. BodyBugg was nice enough to send me the new version of the Bugg to give it a try and tell you all about it. I will be updating you on my progress and how the BodyBugg is working over the coming weeks.
First, a recap: I have lost about 10 lbs since New Years thanks to BodyBugg. Although I had lost weight during my initial run, the holidays were a big challenge for me. However, when 2008 turned to 2009, I started the year with a new commitment to losing. Since then, I have stumbled a bit, particularly during illness and stress. But overall, my weight has been on a downward trend.
So, what’s the difference between the new BodyBugg and the old BodyBugg?
Army of Women: The Power of Breast Cancer Research
At first, I thought my friend was just signing up for another breast cancer fundraising site when I got her e-mail regarding Army of Women. As I sat and read through the website, however, I realized how important it is to be a part of this site.
Army of Women, a joint venture of the Avon Foundation and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, matches women from all socioeconomic backgrounds to the latest breast cancer research trials. Some of these trials only involve a questionnaire, while others measure the effectiveness of treatment and prevention methods. Current projects include the benefits of yoga on post-treatment breast cancer survivors and investigating why more African-American women end up dying from breast cancer.
Whether or not you have a family history of breast cancer, the Army of Women could use your help to advance research in hopes of a cure.
A Vegan Version of Atkins Lowers Weight and LDL
Years ago, I got interested in the Atkins diet. It sounded so perfect: you eat as much as you want and the pounds just melt away. All that was required of you was that you stop eating carbs. I did. I had virtually no carbs for months and the pounds really did just melt away … until my friends said that I began to look gaunt.
I didn’t think so then. Now I do.
As a former vegetarian, the hardest part of the diet was taking on a meat-centric stance at meals. But now researchers are saying you can really have it all: the success of a diet like Atkins with a vegetarian diet. Is it too good to be true?
Apparently not. In fact, the study found that a vegetarian … or, even better, a vegan … diet can find great success using the methods of Atkins and also lower their LDL cholesterol in the process.
It really does sound too good to be true … But it’s not. Check out the report in the New York Times.
Review: R.W. Knudsen Sparkling Essence
It was almost 10 years ago when I first sipped cucumber water and fell in love. I was living at the Biosphere 2 facility in Arizona as part of a college research program and my neighbor (we lived in two-unit dwellings quaintly called Arroyos) had made a pitcher - just water, ice, and cucumber slices. I was skeptical to see vegetables floating in the water, but he assured me that it was delish. I took an apprehensive sip (truth be told, I wasn’t that adventurous an eater back then), and then another and another. It was shockingly refreshing.
For awhile after I would make my own pitchers of cucumber water because I loved it so much. But as time went on, cucumber water just became a fond memory … until I cracked open a can of the new R.W. Knudsen Sparkling Essence water in - you guessed it - Cucumber flavor.
This new beverage from R.W. Knudsen (a company that makes a line of Spritzers that are amazing and remind me of my early days in New York) is crisp and just as refreshing as the water I tasted back in Arizona. What’s more is that it’s lightly sparkling, so it gives a touch of zing too … but just the right, small touch. Amazingly, cucumber water is made even better when it’s sparkling.
Next on Oprah: A Grain of Salt
The big cover story in this week’s Newsweek is a look at the health information — apparently in most cases, misinformation — propagated by Oprah Winfrey’s signature television talk show:
In January, Oprah Winfrey invited Suzanne Somers on her show to share her unusual secrets to staying young. Each morning, the 62-year-old actress and self-help author rubs a potent estrogen cream into the skin on her arm. . . . According to Somers, the hormones, which are synthesized from plants instead of the usual mare’s urine (disgusting but true), are all natural and, unlike conventional hormones, virtually risk-free (not even close to true, but we’ll get to that in a minute).
Next come the pills. She swallows 60 vitamins and other preparations every day. . . . She believes [hormones] block disease and will double her life span. “I know I look like some kind of freak and fanatic,” she said. “But I want to be there until I’m 110, and I’m going to do what I have to do to get there.”
That was apparently good enough for Oprah. “Many people write Suzanne off as a quackadoo,” she said. “But she just might be a pioneer.” Oprah acknowledged that Somers’s claims “have been met with relentless criticism” from doctors. . . .
That would be a lot of doctors. Outside Oprah’s world, there isn’t a raging debate about replacing hormones. Somers “is simply repackaging the old, discredited idea that menopause is some kind of hormone-deficiency disease, and that restoring them will bring back youth,” says Dr. Nanette Santoro, director of reproductive endocrinology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and head of the Reproductive Medicine Clinic at Montefiore Medical Center.
Oprah responded the article in a story posted Wednesday on Entertainment Tonight’s site (hat tip to Newsweek for providing that link), telling them that she believed her viewers would consult their doctors before relying on information presented on her show. But is it sufficient for someone with such reach to pass the buck to viewers? Should Oprah perhaps take more responsibility for the information she disseminates, much like when she confronted a woman who planned to use “The Secret” to cure her cancer instead of conventional treatments?
Berries!
This month the farmers market will be overflowing with berries. Everywhere I look there are plump strawberries, and shortly they’ll be joined by blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. And I could not be happier. Not only does this mean that a world of pie is opened up to me, it means that I can afford to incorporate berries in my day-to-day meals again. Here are my favorite ways to dress up berries in my everyday eating:
- Blueberries and cottage cheese
- Sliced strawberries and blueberries tossed in honey
- Berries in salad, especially with toasted pine nuts
- Blackberries mixed with chipotle and honey for a marinade
- Vanilla frozen yogurt with berries
- Raspberry ice cubes- freeze a raspberry in a cube of ice (or juice) to spice up any beverage
How do you like to use berries?
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