Smoothies

Having trouble getting enough fruits/ veggies and low fat dairy into your day?

Try a Smoothie!

Add in lots of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. Mix in non fat milk/ soymilk, yogurt or ice and water to help boost calcium and hydration.

Be sure to leave on the skin of the fruits and veggies for added fiber and nutrients! Unlike juice, which removes the fiber, smoothies are great because it is just a blenderized version of the foods so you are still getting all of the good stuff!

 Try mixing in veggies including leafy greens- the sweetness of the fruit often compliments well with the vegetables, and its another great way to get a vegetable into a meal or snack you might otherwise have skipped it on.

Of course, don't forget, smoothies will be a sum of the calories and carbs you add to them. A large smoothie should be considered a meal. Adding in skim milk/ vegetables and water will help give you more volume while keeping down the total calories and carbs. A smoothie made with all fruit and juice can still add a hefty calorie toll toyour day, despite providing you with lots of antioxidants and vitamins. 

Smoothies are a great option for people having trouble getting in enough calories: have a child who is  picky eater? A sick member of the family? Elderly relative or friend struggling to get in enough calories? Try a smoothie! 

That being said, a small or watered down smoothie is great for anyone trying to boost nutrition including those trying to lose weight. Again, just add in more low cal foods (veggies) and be mindful of the total calories you are consuming :)

If the smoothie still isn't tasty enough for you, you can always add in a packet of sugar, honey or sugar substitute. Also try adding in your favorite spices like cinnamon and cayenne pepper for a kick!

Unfortunately, smoothies you get out at smoothie shops and other fast food joints aren't always healthy- featuring tons of added sugar, ice cream, and who know what else:
Check out this article for "health food frauds!"

Eating Healthy for the Busy Person

"If you need something done, give it to a busy person!"

Ah… how true it is. It does seem the more we have to do, the more we get done.

Of course, it's also easy to let certain things go when you are really busy, such as going to the gym and eating healthy.

So here's the key:

Plan

Prep

Do!

My professor always complains that people say they are either organized, or they are not. She states, "Organized people are organized because they take the time out of their day to get organized," which, in the end, saves time!

So:

- plan what kind of meals you want to make for the week.

- make a shopping list

- go to the grocery store

- at some point soon after going to the grocery store- take the time to prep any of the healthy food that requires effort that might later deter you from eating it.

If you set out to chop/ peel/ prep a bunch of stuff at once it takes much less time than going through the process each time you want to eat something. Plus, think of the time and energy you'll save on washing the knives, vegetable peeler, and cutting board.

I personally go through this process not only because I am busy, but because Jordan is lazy, and I know he will not bother to use vegetables if they are not ready to be used.

Last week at the grocery store I bought a 5 pound bag of carrots for $1.99! but of course, whole carrots require a bit more effort than baby carrots, so I took the time after I went shopping to peel and cut them up.

Along with a bag of green peppers, I cut up a few into strips to be used for whatever my heart desired at the moment. They can always be chopped smaller later on if desired.

It also seems we are more likely to go through fruit in our house if it is cut up and mixed together (in this case, apples, bananas, plums and nectarines are all pretty easy to eat anyway, but I do enjoy the variety. It works even better if there is something that required cutting up such as a melon.

Then finally- once I am all done prepping I stick it all in the fridge in tupperware for easy access and quick meal making throughout the week :)

Antioxidants

You know how antioxidants as super foods has been a hot topic now for quite a few years now? Well, do you really even know what an antioxidant is?

An antioxidant is a molecule that can prevents oxidation from occurring in your body. But, that sounds counterintuitive to some, since Oxygen is generally a good thing, why would we want ANTI-oxidants??

Oxidants are also known as “free radicals,” which are molecules with an unpaired electron... which means they are not happy, and they want to steal an electron from one of your happy complete cells! For the sake of it, lets call the electrons the ‘cells identity,’ so stealing an electron is like stealing someones social security card and ruining their credit. Free Radicals are basically like bullies that want to steal your cell’s identity! which would make your cells unhappy :( Also, once the your cell has its identity stolen - it becomes a free radical, and steals an identity from another cell- and the vicious cycle continues.

That is until an antioxidant steps in an saves the day! The antioxidant gives one of its own electrons to the new ‘free radical’ and stops the cycle, so no more cells have their identities stolen.

So why is all of this electron stealing so bad anyway?

Well obviously no one enjoys having their identity stolen, or their credit ruined. Likewise, your cells, and your body as a whole gets pretty angry about this, and it starts an immune reaction and creates inflammation in your body. In general, inflammation in the body is negative, and correlates with a lot of diseases.

For example, in heart disease your macrophages - which are kind of like your pac man cells that go around gobbling things up, are sent out to gobble up your identity-stolen-newly-free-radical cells. If you have a lot of cells that have been oxidized/ identity stolen, the macrophages have a lot to do. They eventually get filled up with confused identity stole cells, so they cannot gobble up any more, and they become a foam cell, and then become plaque in your arteries, which correlates with heart disease.

Thus, If you have antioxidants to STOP the reaction of identity stealing, your Macrophages will not get filled up excessively fast, and this process will not occur. Your cells can keep their own identities and live blissfully happy lives, with their own social security cards.

So, where do you get these antioxidants?? Mostly in your fruits, veggies, whole grains, and healthy sources of fat!

Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which is found in most fruits and many vegetables, such as oranges, strawberries, bell peppers, broccoli and cauliflower.

Vitamin E, another antioxidant, is basically Vitamin C’s compliment (they work as a tag-teaming pair of antioxidants) is found in nuts, peanuts, vegetable oil, spinach, and broccoli.

I am going to posting about a few of my favorite other sources of antioxidants soon- so check back and help protect your cells from identity theft!

Ghreylin would just like to remind you to keep living, and eating, abundantly.

Unfortunately for Ghrey, cork is not a good source of antioxidants.

Hi Ho Hi Ho off to work I go!

Yesterday, I actually had to work (7 to 6!). I surprisingly enjoyed my 4 days off despite complaining that I was going to be bored in lonely.

Work started with coffee. A lot of coffee. With skim milk and twin sugar.


Then I had some cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, and nonfat plain yogurt. I had let the frozen fruit defrost in the fridge over night with the yogurt so it was all runny and delicious, which sounds kind of gross- but its tasty I swear.

Lunch was a big old salad with mixed greens, frozen green beans, frozen mixed "ranchero" veggies, a tomato, raisins, sunflower seeds, and a packet of kraft light done right!
I love using frozen veggies in salads, one of my old roommates got me into it. It lets you have a much wider array of veggies in your salads since you can keep frozen vegetables for so much longer.

I was re-certified in CPR and the AED yesterday at work, but please, no one crash on me anyway!

After work, I was hungry! Again, I haven't been allowing myself to really go grocery shopping since I am trying to move out- so I decided to go to Subway. I usually do NOT eat out this much!

But I love Subway. I keep forgetting to take pictures....
I had a 6" on honey oat with every veggie except onions. I hate raw onions. Mostly because I have a bit of a tooth brushing compulsion and I can always taste the onion in my mouth for about ten days after I eat them. Ironically, for the condiment, I get the sweet onion sauce.


The rest of the evening will be in the post to come....

Blog Beginnings...

I first got into food blogs by accident.

I work as a research diet technician, and I have to analyze study participants food diaries. So, one day I was trying to find the nutrition info for some Trader Joe’s Product, and the first website that came up was the blog Carrotsncake http://carrotsncake.com/ which had done a review of the particular food I was looking for.

It didn’t help me analyze the food per say- but it did get me hooked on food blogs! My two faves are now carrotsncake.com and katheats.com. I don’t allow myself to look at too many- because I think I would become addicted- though I think by creating a blog I probably and allowing for the addiction to set in as well.
Any way- my favorite bloggers tend to say everything they eat in a day! So I decided to try it out because I finally got a new camera! Nathan and I had one, but it unfortunately was run over by a car…

I figured it wouldn’t be appropriate to snap photos in the middle of class or wherever I wind up eating, so I just took pictures of everything the night before when I pack out my days food. (Since Thursday are my unpleasant day of class 9 am- 9 pm.)

I started off with about 2 cups of mixed fruit, including: grapefruit, strawberries, pluot, apple, pear, grapes and cantaloupe. – The large variety is namely due to Shaw’s discounted produce mixed variety bags. Fruit is delicious, and when I eat two cups I feel so full from all of the water and fiber, but then in about an hour, I am always hungry again, since again it is mostly water, and carbohydrate. To give it more staying power I usually mix it with yogurt, but when you’re on the go its hard to get the most ideal meal (I already look like a crazy bag lady!)



Lunch was around 2 pm: I had a delicious Tofu Sandwich! Made of 2 slices trader joe’s whole wheat high fiber bread, 2 slices barbequed-baked tofu, and some roasted veggies- mostly carrots, and some extra bbq sauce on top.


For a snack I had a cherry vanilla light and fit yogurt with some Trader Joe’s high fiber cereal, and some carrots. Carrots have been on sale the last few weeks at Shaw’s, so consequently, I keep buying carrots. But I’m really sick of eating raw carrots- and they aren’t the most ideal snack for in class since there’s no real way to eat them quietly, so I stuck them in the microwave for about 3 minutes. It was a nice change.

The carrots were still a little steamy when I took the picture:

I unfortunately ate all of the food I brought with me before 5 pm, which would have made for an unpleasant night class so I picked up a Superfood Odwalla Bar. It may be green but its delicious!


After class (which I may or may not have dunked out of an hour early :/ ) I decided to have some left over lentils and rice with some more roasted veggies:

And finally for dessert: Some Special K Vanilla Almond Milk, with almond milk, chocolate and butterscotch chips and chocolate sauce: