I’m loving it!

Enough said.

Researchers Link Chemicals to Obesity in Adulthood

I read an article this morning about common chemicals that are consumed during pregnancy leading to obesity as an adult. One of the chemicals has been found in common plastic water bottles; a movement has recently begun to move people away from plastic water bottles to steel bottles due to Bisphenol A.

I just thought this was an interesting article and I’m still thinking about what it means. Obviously, to me, it means that obesity is not only genetic and that there are environmental factors that trigger the propensity to hold on to weight.

In other news, I got cleared to bike again (no running yet)! I rode my bike around campus yesterday and powered my way up a pretty steep hill, but was busted by the time I got to the top. I have a month’s worth of training to catch up on

Messages and Obesity

Today I had a nice, thought-provoking meeting with my thesis adviser, Dr. Forestiere. I am writing my undergraduate honors thesis on the rhetoric used by President Bush regarding Iran and its impact on American public opinion. I am finishing up the “results” section, and was having trouble expanding beyond the obvious results I got from my study.

Dr. Forestiere explained to me to think about the broader implications of what I found (that what the President says is a significant factor in forming people’s opinions about foreign events), and connected it to my interest in fitness. She said something along the lines of, “What you found out in your study can even be applied to the messages formed about obesity,” which got me thinking about how we have gotten to where we are today in America.

I thought about how obesity became such an epidemic, and how it finally has become so unacceptable in America that organizations such as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance are being formed, yet it’s still acceptable to eat poorly and live a sedentary lifestyle. The conflicting messages that we receive are interesting; it’s funny how there’s a commercial encouraging the viewers to pick up a sport and adopt healthier habits, and then right after that one goes off, there’s a McDonald’s commercial talking about how great you will feel if you bought and consumed its Big Mac with Super Size fries.

The messages we receive strongly shape not only how we view and comprehend society, but also how we view ourselves. These messages don’t only come from the media. Dr. Forestiere sent me a link to an article from CNN discussing the impact of the relationship mother’s have with food and body image with their daughters’ health. How many times have you said (or heard someone say) around a little kid “Oh, I can’t wear that, it makes me look fat” or “I’m not going to eat today, I don’t want to get fat.” Now little kids refuse to wear certain clothes or eat a cookie because they’re worried about getting fat.

Messages are powerful, and I want to know the role of messages in determining how people view and feel about obesity. That would be a fun master’s thesis, don’t you think?

You know I want your two cents; leave a comment!

Shopping at the Grocery Store

Not everyone can go to the fresh market every day; for most Americans, shopping at a grocery store is the reality. How can you shop at a grocery store and still maximize your hard-earned health gains?

My number 1 rule for shopping at the grocery store: Stay in the periphery! The middle of the store has nothing but processed foods.

Rule number 2: If the food you’re looking at has a shelf life longer than the average pet’s, then it’s bad for you!

Rule number 3: NO SODA (period) Try to buy drinks that say 100% juice (but even then, be careful to make sure there isn’t sugar added, or artificial flavors, things like that).

Rule number 4: Avoid foods that say “enriched.” Go for whole grain foods. At Giant, they sell “Nature’s Promise” whole grain wheat bread and it’s the best bread I’ve ever tasted that came from a bag.

Rule number 5: Buy fresh fruits and vegetables!!! If you can’t buy fresh, then buy frozen.

Rule number 6: Avoid sugars, especially refined sugars and things that say high-fructose corn syrup.

Rule number 7: Buy lean meats. I like to buy my meat in big packages, and then place the unused meat in freezer bags to cook later.

To help you stick to healthy foods, make a list before you go. And don’t ever go to the grocery store hungry; that’s waist-line disaster waiting to happen.

What are my essentials when I shop?

bell peppers

chicken breast

nice cut of porterhouse steak (not every time though)

squash

zucchini

juice

eggs with omega-3 fatty acids

brown rice (not that instant kind…eww)

salad stuff

fresh fruit (especially blackberries, apples, oranges)

What are your tips for shopping healthy at a grocery store? Share!

Tasty Tuesday!

This recipe comes from my Polish roommate/best friend. Here’s how to make Catie B Kielbasa!

What you need:

1 package Healthy Ones smoked sausage

1 red bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 cup water

What you do

1. Cut up the smoked sausage into slices about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

2. Cut the peppers into 1/4 inch thick slices.

3. Pour some water into a skillet, enough water to cover the bottom of the skillet.

4. Warm up the skillet on medium-high heat.

5. Place the sausage into the pan.

6. Once the sausage is brown, place the peppers in the pan.

7. Cover and turn to low heat. When the peppers are too your liking in terms of firmness, turn off heat and serve!

If you want to use what we do for the side, buy a Lipton Sides Rice Pilaf packet. That rice is so good! We also eat this meal with salad. This was an excellent way to end my day

Monday Motivation

This is a time of the year that is particularly hard for students; it’s tough to concentrate on doing well on final exams and papers when graduation and summer is literally right around the corner. This is also a time of anxiety about what the future holds (personally I’m feeling a bit anxious about getting my first clients so I can be ready to go once I graduate, but I’m not worrying about it–I’m trusting that something will pull through for me).

The same can apply to fitness. You know that you need to eat healthier, or that you want to look your best in your summer clothes, but concentrating on what you need to do can be difficult when there are a million other things going on in your life. This can lead to frustration and even quitting, perpetuating the unhealthy cycle that got you where you are today.

The following quote fits into the theme of this month for me: the law of attraction. My other two posts on this topic featured videos about this principle, but now I want to share a quote with you to think about and apply to your day.

“Your mental attitude is something you can control outright, and you must use self-discipline until you create a positive mental attitude–your mental attitude attracts to you everything that makes you what you are.” Napoleon Hill

Sit-Down restaurants aren’t always better

As I continue to procrastinate on this rainy day, when I should be doing my final papers, I came upon a statement about sit-down restaurant meals having more calories than fast-food joints. The statement was found on Men’s Health online, and said that the “average entree at a sit-down restaurant contains 867 calories, compared with 522 calories in the average fast-food entree.” At first I was a bit surprised; my initial thought was of surprise because it is usually the fast-food restaurants that are constantly assaulted in the media about its waistline-busting junk mistakenly called food.

Then I thought more about it. These figures are calculated without appetizers, deserts, sides, and probably without drinks too. Why do people tend to think that sit-down restaurant food is healthier than fast-food? Like I alluded to earlier, fast-food restaurants are usually the focus on “bad food reports” in the media, but there must be another reason why people think that going to Outback and ordering a meal is healthier than going to Burger King. Regardless of the reason, it makes absolute sense that sit-down places tend to have more unhealthy meals.

One: The size of the meals tend to be larger because they are not designed to be portable, and are often designed to resemble family meals with the larger portions.

Two:Because restaurants want to emulate family-style eating, not only are the portions larger, but the types of food resemble the comfort foods many people eat at home (large portions of mashed potatoes served as the side is the example that comes first to me).

Three: You don’t usually get desert and other extras with fast-food meals. How many pieces of free breadsticks do you eat at Olive Garden, for example?

So the next time you’re trying to stay on track on the road to a healthy lifestyle and you want to take your family out to eat, remember that sit-down places are not always the best choices. The informed consumer will be the healthiest one as well

Go for Bloat

I remember reading this article in February when it came out in Portfolio, but it isn’t until now that I am giving it a second thought after reading a reader’s reaction in the April issue of the magazine.

This article is called “Fat Profits” and it chronicles the Go for Bloat mentality prevalent in fast food companies meaning the more meat, the better. This article shows, despite the trend in a lot of restaurants and the media to offer healthy options and make it easier for Americans to live a healthy lifestyle, profits in the form of larger, fatter, and increasingly more ridiculous menu choices. But what makes it more ridiculous is that Americans choose to accept these choices; as DR said in one of my earlier posts, people choose with their wallets.

One of the statements that stood out to me was “CKE continues to target the aforementioned ‘young, hungry guys’” with their bigger and more meaty wares, and other restaurants follow that example. If it sells, why not copy it? That’s business, after all. And the people that such companies target aren’t really hungry; they just have disposable income and feed into the perception that they must eat that is created by advertising. More about the manufactured perception of hunger in a later post.

Anyway, read or skim the article and leave your comments!

Law of Attraction, pt. 2

Here’s a visualization tool to help you implement the law of attraction in terms of generating wealth. This is also a framework for you to use regardless of your goals; instead of focusing on money, use affirmations about health, weight loss, education, etc.

I will be using this to keep my mind on a positive track.

Eat Your Salad

Don’t throw your salad; eat it for a healthier life! (and to not make hippos mad…just saying.)