Weighing in on the New Year

So you’re a resolutionist. You’ve resolved to eat right this year and get regular exercise, right? Slimming down and getting healthier are common New Year’s resolutions, but following through on the commitment is an uncommon accomplishment.

There are many pieces in the weight management puzzle. Emotions, appetite, will-power, self-image, and confidence all play a part. The road towards healthier eating usually starts with some simple lifestyle changes. Make healthy eating and regular exercise part of your everyday life. Sound easy? It’s not. You have to work at it.

In terms of exercise, the most important thing is to choose activities that are fun and that you can do on a regular basis. Instead of watching TV after dinner, go out for a brisk walk around the neighborhood. Recruit a friend or family member to keep you company.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Snow Fun!

Build a Snowman	285 calories burned per hour
Have a Snowball Fight	319 calories burned per hour
Make Snow Angels	214 calories burned per hour
Shovel the Driveway	428 calories burned per hour
Go Ice Skating	476 calories burned per hour

PT Tips that can help lead to a healthier New Year:

• Eat three meals a day that are low in saturated fat. Meals should include a variety of fruits, vegetables, fish, lean meats, grains, cereals and low-fat  dairy products.
• It’s okay to snack if you snack smart. Include fruits and veggies with fun dipping sauces. Fruits and veggies are low in fat, packed with nutrients. Smart Snacks
• Choose a variety of foods to get enough carbs, protein and other nutrients.
• Eat only enough calories to maintain a healthy weight for your height and build. If you’re training, take into account the extra calories you’re burning.

Here’s to a healthy, happy 2010!

Talkin’ Turkey – Holiday Game Plan

The holidays are a time to reflect on the bounty of nature and, more importantly, pig out with family and friends. For many athletes, the holidays are also a time to compete in a special tournament or competition. Whether soccer, basketball, running or some other sport, you want to enjoy the great spread, especially the desserts, without giving up your game. What’s a player to do?

If you’re trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, don’t feel like you need to be deprived of your holiday favorites. Fitting all the yummies into a healthy eating plan is easy. Try to eat smaller portions, replace high calorie foods for lowfat options or slightly alter your recipes. For example, replace two egg whites for one egg or used dried fruits intead of nuts, or try evaporated skim milk in place of cream or whipping cream. You can also snack on foods that are high in soluble fiber such as fruits, veggies, and legumes – they actually slow down food digestion and make you feel full longer.

Roast turkey, a holiday staple, gets high marks from most dietitians for overall nutrition. It’s low in fat and high in protein. It’s also a good source of iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, potassium and B vitamins. A 3-ounce serving of boneless, skinless turkey breast contains 26 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat and 0 grams of saturated fat. To keep it healthy, you may want to forgo the skin and choose white over dark meat. Also, try to buy a wild or farm-raised bird without hormones and antibiotics. If you’ve got a holiday sports event you’ll be burning plenty of calories so for this one day, it’s probably okay to “have it your way.”

Side dishes can be traditional or creative but chances are there will be some potatoes on the table. You can add butter and sour cream, or you can make them lower in fat by using broth as a liquid or 2% milk instead of cream. Another way to add a lot of flavor without adding extra calories is to mash them with a few cloves of roasted garlic, which adds a mellow flavor. However you eat ‘em, they’re a great source of vitamin B6.

Stuffing can also get a holiday makeover and added nutrition by using whole-wheat bread and adding ingredients such as:

• Chopped vegetables (onion, celery, mushrooms, and eggplant)
• Nuts (toasted walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
• Fruits (fresh or dried cranberries, apples, apricots, or pears)
• Wild rice

Cranberry Sauce, always a staple, is rich in antioxidants which help protect your body from free radical damage. Cranberries also contain salicyclic acid, the same anti-inflammatory found in aspirin. Less inflammation means faster recovery so eat up!

Freshly picked pumpkins from the pumpkin patch are ideal for decoration, but the canned version wins for ease of preparation as well as for its nutrient score. In terms of both dietary fiber and beta-carotene, canned pumpkin’s nutritional profile far surpasses that of fresh. If you’re concerned about carbs and calories, consider:

• Pumpkin mousse or soufflé as an alternative to pumpkin pie.
• One-crust or no-crust pies rather than two-crust pies.
• Nonfat or reduced-fat whipped topping rather than full-fat whipped cream.
• Replace refined sugar with whole-grain sweeteners such as barley malt syrup.

Most experts say you shouldn’t view a holiday dinner as a meal of extreme excess or extreme restriction. To support the rigors of training, you need to eat well, but don’t forget a dose of good, sound common sense. The best game plan is to eat small portions of a variety of protein, fat, and carbohydrates throughout the day. And most important, take time to enjoy your friends, teammates and family.

Cheers, and happy, healthy holidays to all.

Student athlete spearheads healthy food fundraiser

Yogavive, a leading producer of organic foods, understands the needs faced by girls’ athletic programs across the country. Many are often underfunded and sometimes, completely ignored.

According to one study, lack of funds and support means girls  receive 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than do male students, which translates to fewer chances for athletic scholarships.

Jordyn Lambert, a Yogavive summer intern and athlete herself  (Varsity soccer captain, JV softball) brought these issues to the attention of Beau Giannini, Yogavive President. Together, they developed a unique program that allowed girls to raise the necessary funds for their team, while offering their communities a healthy alternative to candy bars or tubs of cookie dough.

Yogavive’s organic baked and popped apple chips are vegan, gluten-free, fat free, with only 35 calories and no added sugars.  Jordyn thought they were perfect for team  fundraisers.

Says Jordyn in a recent interview with the Weekly Reader:

I know some programs sell granola bars or baked chips but really, those are not much better because of the refined sugars and artificial ingredients. I knew my team and I couldn’t go around the community selling junk food, but I also knew we couldn’t sell “healthy” snacks that weren’t even technically that healthy.

Now Yogavive offers other teams and clubs the same healthier option. Selling the Apple Chips as a fundraiser for a soccer or sports team can be a huge opportunity to both help finance the team‘s needs, and encourage a healthy diet and lifestyle. Yogavive currently offers their organic apple chips at a low price, so that student athletes can sell them and make as much profit as possible.

Yogavive’s apple chips usually cost $1.49 in stores but with their fundraising program, they offer all 5 flavors for only 50 cents a bag to teams and clubs, allowing them to make 100% in profits. On top of that, athletes know that they’re selling genuinely healthy snacks that aren’t adding to their community’s health and obesity problem so this is a great opportunity all around!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Jordyn directly at jordie@yogavive.com.

Pretty Smart!

Dinner Impossible: X Food at the X Games

What do cooking and and the Winter X Games have in common?

Tonight it’s a show called “Dinner Impossible” courtesy of the Food Network.  Host Robert Irvine serves stunningly creative dishes both for intimate gatherings and for huge crowds, all without warning and at a moment’s notice. In January, the producers sent their crew and chef Robert to the hills of beautiful Aspen, Colo. as the Winter X Games 13 were underway.

At Buttermilk Mountain Robert’s mission was to cook for 200 Extreme Athletes. Working in extreme outdoor conditions, he was whisked away to the grocery store for all his ingredients and had just 7 hours to make his most Extreme Menu ever.

Olympic Snowboarder and local Aspenite, Gretchen Bleiler,  jumped in with part of the menu asking for some extreme cookies. Chef Robert also had the help of a couple sous chefs you may recognize: BMX Champion Kevin Robinson – and ESPN’s very own Dana Jacobson – who apparently ate something so good and nutritious off the menu that gave her great energy and poise as she hosted ESPN’s X Center that night.

Even cooler than the Food Network showing up to the Winter X Games, is the premiere episode featuring your fave action sports stars that kicks off the series tonight, Wednesday, April 8th at 10 p.m. ET.

What was in that entree that made Shaun White win Gold? Or how much sugar was in the extreme dessert that made Levi Lavallee attempt a double backflip on a snowmobile? Watch tonight and find out.

Sample recipes include:

• Cheesy Soup
• Extremely Potent Chocolate Espresso Drink
• Fruity Tuna and Halibut
• Macadamia Nut and Yogurt Crusted Salmon
• Rocky Mountain Oyster Stew
• Spicy Red Curry Chicken and Rice
• Spicy Warm Pineapple Watermelon Salad
• Sweet and Sour Ski Pole Pork

(h/t to Fuel TV)

The Award for Best Water in the World Goes to…

This year, the long-running Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting welcomed more than one hundred waters from across the country and around the globe. Held in the historic spa town of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, it is the largest water tasting competition in the world.

Municipal waters compete for the coveted honor of best tasting tap water. Bottled waters, both still and sparkling, are also judged along with waters in a new category, purified drinking water.  

It’s unclear how much of the day is a pr/media event and how much is true competition but eleven judges spent hours tasting nearly one hundred waters from sixteen states and eight foreign countries. Bottled water came from all over the globe to compete, including for the first time water from Japan and Ecuador. Other international waters included those from New Zealand, Macedonia, Israel, Canada, and Bosnia.

The Gold Medal, and prestigious honor of being named, “The Best Water in the World” was awarded to Los Angeles based company, H2Om Water with Intention, an eco friendly, and award winning company whose natural spring water emanates from the pristine Palomar Mountains of Southern California.

Judges were instructed to look at, sniff and taste each water under guidelines like those in a wine tasting. The waters were rated for attributes including appearance (it should be clear – or slightly opaque for glacial waters), aroma (there should be none), taste (it should taste clean), mouth feel (it should feel light), and aftertaste (it should leave you feeling refreshed with no aftertaste). Hundreds of waters were tasted in four separate flights over two full days.

In 2010 the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Event will celebrate its twentieth year. The Saturday evening tasting and reception, billed as black tie/bib overalls optional, is free to the public by invitation from the area’s innkeepers.

For more information on the event and a complete list of awarded waters visit http://www.berkeleysprings.com/water/awards2.htm.
 

It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time

It’s that time of year again. But if it seems easier than ever to finish off a box of Girl Scout cookies, it may not just be in your head. The lousy economy is taking a bite out of even the venerable Girl Scout cookie which has found itself downsized this year.

To offset the cost increases of cookie ingredients, Girl Scouts USA made the decision to shrink its cookie boxes, package fewer cookies into boxes of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos, and Tagalongs, and reduce the size of its Lemon Chalet Crèmes.

According to the organization, the cost of flour rose by 30 percent, assorted cooking oils by 40 percent, and cocoa by at least 20 percent. The company felt this was the best method of dealing with increasing raw material prices. Alternatively, Girl Scouts could have used cheaper ingredients, or raised cookie prices from their current price of $3.50 per box.

Even though some boxes contain fewer cookies, and some cookies lost some heft in the redesign, it is still a good idea to know the caloric content and serving size of your favorite cookie. There are currently two bakers that make the cookies, ABC and Little Brownie, but the calorie count is similar. Average serving size? 2.5 cookies. Average calories? 150. Calories per box of Thin Mints? 1120 calories.

By the way, the Girl Scouts have issued a press release recently stating that their cookies are not affected by the current peanut butter warning.

Girl Scout Cookie History

•The earliest record of Girl Scouts selling cookies was of a 1917 service project by the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Okla.

•In 1933, 44 Girl Scout cookies cost a mere 23 cents.

•The words “Girl Scout Cookies” first appeared on a box of cookies in 1935, for the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York.

•Thin Mints, or Chocolate Mints as they were called then, officially made the scene in 1951, along with sandwich and shortbread cookies.

•Girl Scout cookies free of trans-fatty acids went on sale in 2007.

Diana Taurasi Launches “got milk?” Ad

Vermont called healthiest state, Louisiana last

December 4, 2008 – If you live in Vermont, chances are you’re healthier than most, particularly those living in the South. For the second year in a row Vermont has been ranked number one as the healthiest state according to America’s Health Rankings.

Vermont’s strengths include ranking in the top five states for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low percentage of children in poverty, high per capita public health funding, ready access to primary care, low geographic disparity of mortality rates within the state and a low premature death rate. In addition, Vermont had a smoking rate that was 17.6% less than the national average of 20%.

Vermont was followed by Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Idaho and Maine.

At the bottom of the list at # 50 was Louisiana. It ranks in the bottom five states based on a high prevalence of obesity, a high percentage of children in poverty, a high rate of uninsured population, a high incidence of infectious disease, a low rate of high school graduation and many preventable hospitalizations.

The report also states that after a decade of robust gains, America’s health has leveled off and may be poised to take a plunge. Not great news – but as individuals you can do a lot to maintain your own health so start by eating healthy, exercising, and not smoking.

Where do you live? Check your state’s health ranking as well as others.  The entire report is available online.

The First Thanksgiving Meal

November 24, 2008 – With the big turkey meal on tap this week (which can average more than 2,000 calories girls so watch out) we got to thinking about the first Thanksgiving dinner. Ever wonder what the pilgrims and their Native American guests ate at the first feast?

In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is now known as the first Thanksgiving. The truth about the first meal may surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t sit down to a meal featuring turkey,corn, cranberries, and pumpkin pie (in fact, they didn’t even eat with forks!).

What Was Actually on the Menu?

Historians aren’t completely certain about the full bounty, but it’s safe to say the pilgrims weren’t gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists  at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl.

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu:

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster

Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles

Meat: Venison, Seal

Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn

Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots

Fruit: Plums, Grapes

Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns

Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

What Was Not on the Menu

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving  meal, didn’t appear on the pilgrims’s first feast table:

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.

Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.

Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.

Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.

Pumpkin Pie: Wasn’t a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.

Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it’s unknown how many they had left or whether the hens were still laying.

Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it’s possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Talkin’ Turkey

Today, the holidays are a time to reflect on the bounty of nature and, more importantly, pig out with family and friends. How do you enjoy the great spread, especially the desserts, without giving up your game? [+]

Breakfast of Champions honors Nastia Liukin

September 2, 2008 – At the Olympics in Beijing last month, Nastia Liukin followed in the footsteps of Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson, the two other American gynmasts who have won Olympic gold in the all-around competition. Now she follows them onto the Wheaties cereal box.

Wheaties, known as the “Breakfast of Champions,” will give Liukin her own special edition Wheaties boxes, General Mills Inc. announced Thursday.

Liukin, who is from Parker, Texas, won five medals in the Beijing Olympics, including helping the U.S. win silver in the team competition.

The special-edition boxes will be sold starting in September.

Not every Olympian is jumping on the Wheaties bandwagon however. Swimmer Michael Phelps, who stole the spotlight after winning a record number of Olympic medals, signed with Kellog’s, who will print pictures of Phelps on boxes of its Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes cereals.

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