This little video will help you determine if something is a good choice pretty quickly.
I'd cut the sodium guideline to half the number of calories but this is still a good video.
Don't forget that the best foods are in the produce aisle and you don't have to worry about labels there :)
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Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
February Blues? What are you eating?
I don’t know about you but I’m tired of winter already…and we’ve had it pretty good so far this season. No huge snowfalls but still too dull, grey and cold for my taste. I love the carefree days of spring and summer. This time of year seems to bring out sad feelings in even the most chipper people I know. Although many don’t suffer from depression we might all get a mild case of the blues by the time February rolls in.
This too shall pass but I do want to highlight some interesting information about how your eating can help or hinder you right now. I know from personal experience if my eating, exercise or sleeping is off then I feel less “with it”. In order to perform my best I need all three. Right now I’m a little sleep deprived and I can feel it.
If you’ve embarked on a new diet or you’re still celebrating like it’s the holidays then you need to make sure that your diet is as whole, unprocessed and nutrient rich as possible. If you have a tendency to get sad or depressed check out this quote:
Three recent studies document that consumption of processed foods increase odds of depression, and not only that, but those high protein, high fat diets (high in animal products) are also linked with more depression.
You can get the full story here
I often tell my kids that when they get their first car they are going to be so proud and so careful. They won’t pour just anything into the tank; they’ll want high-quality fuel to ensure their new baby will run smoothly. Why do we treat our bodies with lower standards? (Note to self: Remember this when a strong Doritos craving hits)
I highly recommend Eat for Health or Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman as a mini nutrition education. You'll be amazed at how much you'll learn about the relationship between eating and your health.
Take care of yourself....if you don't, who will?
This too shall pass but I do want to highlight some interesting information about how your eating can help or hinder you right now. I know from personal experience if my eating, exercise or sleeping is off then I feel less “with it”. In order to perform my best I need all three. Right now I’m a little sleep deprived and I can feel it.
If you’ve embarked on a new diet or you’re still celebrating like it’s the holidays then you need to make sure that your diet is as whole, unprocessed and nutrient rich as possible. If you have a tendency to get sad or depressed check out this quote:
Three recent studies document that consumption of processed foods increase odds of depression, and not only that, but those high protein, high fat diets (high in animal products) are also linked with more depression.
You can get the full story here
I often tell my kids that when they get their first car they are going to be so proud and so careful. They won’t pour just anything into the tank; they’ll want high-quality fuel to ensure their new baby will run smoothly. Why do we treat our bodies with lower standards? (Note to self: Remember this when a strong Doritos craving hits)
I highly recommend Eat for Health or Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman as a mini nutrition education. You'll be amazed at how much you'll learn about the relationship between eating and your health.
Take care of yourself....if you don't, who will?
Monday, January 25, 2010
the whole family wants to eat healthy?...that's an adventure!!
Many times over the past seven years many have asked me if my whole family eats like me and sadly many times I have said..."No, not regularly." Over the years we have modified a lot...we have no cookies, chips, ice-cream, juice boxes, pudding cups, snacky-type things in the house for regular consumption. However, the guys still have lots of opportunities to eat stuff that I don't eat.
I eat a diet based primarily on fruits, veggies, beans and nuts with a few whole grains thrown in for good measure. Low sodium and no added oils too! I learned about this way of eating from Dr. Joel Fuhrman in his book Eat to Live. His most recent book Eat for Health is also very good and provides a more gradual approach to eating this way....more on that another day.
I have tried to share my knowledge with them over the years in a non-threatening way but I don't want to sugar-coat the facts. Well on Saturday night I told my son (mr. picky) that many kids his age (12) have the start of heart disease and he quickly exclaimed "I don't!" and when I said that chances are he does he was shocked.
When I advised the boys that daddy was considering eating better and that they would all have to no one seemed too bothered by the news. Folks...I'm trying not to get too excited...this has happened before.
So I quickly tried to figure out what to make on Sunday so that they'd start off the week enjoying the predominantly plant-based diet I had planned for them. What did I make? Here's what I made and what I had planned for it.
Ful Mesdames is a lovely fava bean dip/spread that goes well with pitas, served with veggie sticks or even in a tortilla wrap. I made a batch of this for lunches.
I made a carrot/chickpea salad for me - 4 big carrots grated or in thin match sticks, 1 can of chick peas (drained and rinsed) 1 tsp cumin, a few shakes of freshly ground pepper and juice of 1 1/2 lemons. I'll probably eat this with some of the fava beans on the side. I had some today with some left over coleslow too.
I threw together a soup with crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, mixed beans, celery, carrots, mushrooms, a pkg of frozen spinach....kind of like an ad hoc minestrone soup. This will be dinner on Wednesday and maybe Thursday along with a huge salad.
Black bean, corn and sweet potato burritos - Stir two cans of black beans, a can of corn and your favourite jar of salsa along with 1 to 2 tsp of chili powder. Set this aside. Steam and mash 3 large sweet pototoes. When they're done spread onto a whole wheat tortilla along with the bean mix. Roll it...Enclose it...or fold in half and put it under the broiler like a quessadila...everyone loved this for dinner after our 32 oz romaine lettuce salad.
Dinner for today and tomorrow for the guys was a Vegan Lasagne...it was shaped like one so I'm calling it that.
Isa's Vegan Lasagne
Saute - 1 onion, 1 stalk of celery, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 3 cloves of garlic chopped. When it's getting soft....
Add - 1 big zucchini chopped, 1 big carrot chopped, 4 or 5 mushrooms chopped (I love my Pampered Chef Chopper). Stir it around a bit then...
Add - 1 cup dried red lentils and 2 cups water.
Cook until the lentils are soft and mushy. The key here was to give the filling a kind of creamy texture that would give it some body rather than being just veggies.
When that's ready add a large can of your favourite spaghetti sauce or add a large can of crushed tomatoes along with one pkg of defrosted frozen, chopped spinach....or add it frozen...it's up to you.
Simmer this and add basil, oregano, rosemary, chili sauce or pepper depending on your preference. I added more garlic and some onion powder to make it tasty without added salt.
Cook a box of whole wheat lasagne noodles. I used 16 in total.
Then assemble like you would a regular lasagne with 3 layers of filling.
I baked it in the oven covered for about 20 mins then let it cool because we were planning on baking it a bit more today.
This was served with another huge salad and everyone was satisfied with one or two pieces...hence the leftovers will be for dinner tomorrow.
My dinner was just salad. I don't eat processed grains very often but I'm trying to make it as enjoyable as possible while increasing their veggie intake and decreasing their animal product intake.
If you're still with me...let me know what Eat to Live or Eat for Health type foods your family enjoys.
I eat a diet based primarily on fruits, veggies, beans and nuts with a few whole grains thrown in for good measure. Low sodium and no added oils too! I learned about this way of eating from Dr. Joel Fuhrman in his book Eat to Live. His most recent book Eat for Health is also very good and provides a more gradual approach to eating this way....more on that another day.
I have tried to share my knowledge with them over the years in a non-threatening way but I don't want to sugar-coat the facts. Well on Saturday night I told my son (mr. picky) that many kids his age (12) have the start of heart disease and he quickly exclaimed "I don't!" and when I said that chances are he does he was shocked.
When I advised the boys that daddy was considering eating better and that they would all have to no one seemed too bothered by the news. Folks...I'm trying not to get too excited...this has happened before.
So I quickly tried to figure out what to make on Sunday so that they'd start off the week enjoying the predominantly plant-based diet I had planned for them. What did I make? Here's what I made and what I had planned for it.
Ful Mesdames is a lovely fava bean dip/spread that goes well with pitas, served with veggie sticks or even in a tortilla wrap. I made a batch of this for lunches.
I made a carrot/chickpea salad for me - 4 big carrots grated or in thin match sticks, 1 can of chick peas (drained and rinsed) 1 tsp cumin, a few shakes of freshly ground pepper and juice of 1 1/2 lemons. I'll probably eat this with some of the fava beans on the side. I had some today with some left over coleslow too.
I threw together a soup with crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, mixed beans, celery, carrots, mushrooms, a pkg of frozen spinach....kind of like an ad hoc minestrone soup. This will be dinner on Wednesday and maybe Thursday along with a huge salad.
Black bean, corn and sweet potato burritos - Stir two cans of black beans, a can of corn and your favourite jar of salsa along with 1 to 2 tsp of chili powder. Set this aside. Steam and mash 3 large sweet pototoes. When they're done spread onto a whole wheat tortilla along with the bean mix. Roll it...Enclose it...or fold in half and put it under the broiler like a quessadila...everyone loved this for dinner after our 32 oz romaine lettuce salad.
Dinner for today and tomorrow for the guys was a Vegan Lasagne...it was shaped like one so I'm calling it that.
Isa's Vegan Lasagne
Saute - 1 onion, 1 stalk of celery, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 3 cloves of garlic chopped. When it's getting soft....
Add - 1 big zucchini chopped, 1 big carrot chopped, 4 or 5 mushrooms chopped (I love my Pampered Chef Chopper). Stir it around a bit then...
Add - 1 cup dried red lentils and 2 cups water.
Cook until the lentils are soft and mushy. The key here was to give the filling a kind of creamy texture that would give it some body rather than being just veggies.
When that's ready add a large can of your favourite spaghetti sauce or add a large can of crushed tomatoes along with one pkg of defrosted frozen, chopped spinach....or add it frozen...it's up to you.
Simmer this and add basil, oregano, rosemary, chili sauce or pepper depending on your preference. I added more garlic and some onion powder to make it tasty without added salt.
Cook a box of whole wheat lasagne noodles. I used 16 in total.
Then assemble like you would a regular lasagne with 3 layers of filling.
I baked it in the oven covered for about 20 mins then let it cool because we were planning on baking it a bit more today.
This was served with another huge salad and everyone was satisfied with one or two pieces...hence the leftovers will be for dinner tomorrow.
My dinner was just salad. I don't eat processed grains very often but I'm trying to make it as enjoyable as possible while increasing their veggie intake and decreasing their animal product intake.
If you're still with me...let me know what Eat to Live or Eat for Health type foods your family enjoys.
Monday, November 2, 2009
What do I have in common with Alanis Morissette?
The beginning of my transformation journey began with a wonderful book called "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
Once I began eating according to the advice he offered in his book I was thrilled to have lost 19lbs in the first 6 weeks. I happily ate this way because I knew I was getting healthy and losing weight at the same time.
That is a big change from other "diets" where you starve, eat very little or remove complete macro-nutrient categories in order to quickly reach your goal but then struggle to keep it off once you start to eat normally.
Dr. Fuhrman's advice helped to me to have a more normal relationship with food and to learn what was best for my body. One big thing that I also did not do was I did not set any deadlines for the weight loss. I let myself relax and trusted that my body would do what it needed to do in order to lose weight. No crazy 20lbs in 20 days schedule...just eat and let my body do it's thing.
Well I'm not the only one who eats this way...Alanis Morissette does too!
Check out her article in People Magazine's November 9th issue. I've attached a link at the bottom.
Pretty neat!
Eating this way gave me the energy and the desire to move my body and a few years later I added T-Tapp to my life and BOOM it was like magic.
Eat to Live and T-Tapp are my magic formula!
Dr. Fuhrman has another book that breaks things down and makes it even easier to follow. Eat for Health is a two book set. One teaches you why you should eat this way and the other is a recipe book.
I highly recommend that everyone increase fruits and veggies in their daily diet as a first step. When was the last time you ate kale or collard greens?
Take care of yourself!
Here's the link to the article http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/People_Mag_Nov-09_Alanis_Morissette.pdf
Once I began eating according to the advice he offered in his book I was thrilled to have lost 19lbs in the first 6 weeks. I happily ate this way because I knew I was getting healthy and losing weight at the same time.
That is a big change from other "diets" where you starve, eat very little or remove complete macro-nutrient categories in order to quickly reach your goal but then struggle to keep it off once you start to eat normally.
Dr. Fuhrman's advice helped to me to have a more normal relationship with food and to learn what was best for my body. One big thing that I also did not do was I did not set any deadlines for the weight loss. I let myself relax and trusted that my body would do what it needed to do in order to lose weight. No crazy 20lbs in 20 days schedule...just eat and let my body do it's thing.
Well I'm not the only one who eats this way...Alanis Morissette does too!
Check out her article in People Magazine's November 9th issue. I've attached a link at the bottom.
Pretty neat!
Eating this way gave me the energy and the desire to move my body and a few years later I added T-Tapp to my life and BOOM it was like magic.
Eat to Live and T-Tapp are my magic formula!
Dr. Fuhrman has another book that breaks things down and makes it even easier to follow. Eat for Health is a two book set. One teaches you why you should eat this way and the other is a recipe book.
I highly recommend that everyone increase fruits and veggies in their daily diet as a first step. When was the last time you ate kale or collard greens?
Take care of yourself!
Here's the link to the article http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/People_Mag_Nov-09_Alanis_Morissette.pdf
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