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!

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!

Real Weapons of Mass Destruction

The WMDs that Americans should be concerned about are not hidden missile caches in the Middle East or nuclear weapons testing by North Korea. The real WMDs we should be worried about are those that we put inside our bodies every day.

Those people who eat out on a consistent basis instead of fixing natural, homemade meals, often end up eating as much as twice or three times as much of their daily caloric requirements. Sure, when you’re working out you need to refuel, but, unless you’re an elite athlete working out 6 or 7 hours a day, you should not be eating this much. Even the foods touted as “healthy” can greatly compromise your fitness efforts.

For example, take the Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. Seems healthy from the name, right? Don’t make assumptions until you see the facts. (You know what they say about assuming, right? It makes an ass out of you and me, and in this case, assumptions may lead to an unwanted increase in ass.)  Check it out:

1,145 calories
71 g fat
56 g carbs

1100+ calories in one sitting!

What about this food, which has “guiltless” in the name, implying that you can eat it without being concerned about your diet:

Chili’s Guiltless Grill Chicken Platter
2,780 mg sodium
590 calories
85 g carbohydrates

That amount of sodium is more than the recommended serving for an entire day (2300 mg)!

There are many more unhealthy foods listed here and here. However, you can find what is good for you to eat when you have to eat out. I personally stick to salads without too many toppings, such as bacon bits (sodium is insane) and too much dressing. Remember, you’re eating a salad, don’t make it into a soup with dressing!

Without diligence and discipline, we will destroy ourselves from the inside out. This does not affect only a select few number of people; an unprecedented 2/3 of Americans are reported to be overweight and obese. We all know that unhealthy habits lead to preventable diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease. Too many people are facing skyrocketing medical bills and even death due to the habits that characterize the average American (fast food eating, sedentary lifestyles, working too many hours at work). Because of these numbers, Americans will be destroyed by the weapons of mass destruction fed to us by the food industry.

*Disclaimer: Not all restaurants are bad; I just want you who are working towards a healthy lifestyle to be careful and know the facts before ordering your food

Tasty Tuesdays

I’ve decided to share my love of food and healthy cooking with my readers, so beginning tomorrow, I will have a weekly segment called “Tasty Tuesdays.” I will share my personal recipes, as well as those sent to me by you!

If you are interested in this idea, leave a comment. You will be able to share your recipes with me via email (jlyoung23@gmail.com). I will try them out, take pictures, share my feedback, and all that good stuff.

Remember to keep your recipes simple (we’re not all world-class chefs) and healthy!

Oh, and check out this site: World’s Healthiest Foods. Very informative and easy to understand! Plus there are good, healthy recipes on this site

Mmmmm…Recipe I stole

I got this recipe from my best friend/teammate/roomie last night and decided do give it a shot tonight. For dinner, I made pita pizzas. There was another posting on this recipe earlier today here.

I used whole wheat pita bread, Newman’s Own marinara sauce, pepperonis, chopped red and green peppers, and a few pinches of mixed cheese. I spread a thin layer of sauce on the pita, topped it with a few pinches of cheese, chopped peppers, and 4 pepperonis. I baked it for about 10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet at 400 degrees.

It was delicious!

On another note, I went to the doctor today and I won’t be running for a while, and I won’t be able to cycle for about 2 weeks Hamstring injuries are no fun.