Coffee or no coffee?

No matter what diet, health, or fitness topic you choose, I bet you can find someone out there who can argue for it and someone who can argue against it.  That is certainly the case when it comes to discussing coffee or just caffeine in general.

How do we really know if we should drink it or not? Well, I was just thinking about it one morning on my way to work this week.  I’m not sure why, but it came to mind.  And then, I had an email from www.precisionnutrition.com mentioning that they had posted an article about this very subject.  They must have heard my thoughts

You can read the article here.  It is very in depth and somewhat technical, but if coffee or caffeine is a part of your life, it is certainly worth it. I really enjoy Precision Nutrition’s message about nutrition and overall health.   I think you will have to sign up for the site to be able to view the article, but they have some great content, so go for it.

To your health,

Kimberly

Why you should cook with your children

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard about a website called www.mydaddycooks.com.  It is a very new site, but has gained a lot of popularity in its short life.

It is, in the simplest sense, a series of videos showing how you can make home cooked, healthy meals with your children.

The site’s founder, Nick, features in all of the videos with his 2 year old son, Archie. I watched one of the recent videos, and it was absolutely adorable.

Nick did a short interview on the radio and his story was really interesting.  He said that 2009 was a tough year financially for he and his family (I know he is not alone in that regard!)  But, instead of letting the pressures get to him, he decided to do something great for Archie.  I don’t remember his exact words, but he said something along the lines of “My wife and I reevaluated what was most important in our lives and decided that having happy parents was the most important thing for Archie.”

I thought that was a great comment – and amazing that he and his wife came to that conclusion when in reality many people can’t get past the financial/work/relationship stresses that we all deal with on a daily basis.   I’m not saying it’s easy to deal with all of those things.  But, what is most important for your loved ones?

Nick also said that he felt that Archie was learning to have a very healthy relationship with food (real food!), which is also an extremely important thing.  I’ve heard that 1 in 5 UK children are now already overweight when they start school.  Woah!  That is astounding.

Mydaddycooks.com looks like a great example of doing something positive for your family.  Why not do that yourself?  It is fun, inexpensive, and healthy!

To your health,

Kimberly

Why you should avoid Chemicals and other Toxins

We all know that there are chemicals present in most aspects of our lives.  Cleaning products in our homes, processed foods, and even fresh foods are all potential culprits for adding unnatural substances to our lives. Fresh foods might be a surprising one, but packaged salads/vegetables/produce are often washed in chlorinated water before being sold.

Here is some helpful information about why you should consider carefully what you decide to use on your body, on your furniture, and even what you’re ingesting.

The chemicals, toxins, metals, or other additives we find in day to day products and foods have supposedly been tested and approved as “safe” in certain quantities.  However, this should not give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.  How can anyone say what a safe level is for you?  Firstly, all of us are different.  Each person’s body copes with environmental factors in different ways.  So, the fact that a body of people has decided that x amount of y is okay for all us doesn’t necessarily mean it is safe.

Secondly, when substances are tested, they are tested individually.  Substance A is not tested in combination with substance B and substance C.  So, even if substance A is relatively harmless in low quantities, we don’t know how it reacts with a medley of other substances that we are exposed to on a regular basis.

Additionally, we can’t underestimate the strength of the food, pharmaceutical, and other big interested industries.  They are always involved in lobbying against or for certain government bills.  They have representatives liaising with government officials constantly.  And they’ve got money.   I’d like to say that money and political influence don’t impact the decisions that impact our health, but that just isn’t the case.

The bottom line is that there is no known safe level of chemicals, metals, or toxins.  Yet, all of these substances are constantly around us, whether we know it or not.

I could write a whole other book about what chemicals, metals, and other toxins do to you, but to keep it more succinct, here is a list of potential problems:

- Birth defects

- Breathing problems

- Cellular damage

- Colitis

- Constipation

- Digestive issues

- Eyesight problems

- Fatigue

- Hair Loss

- Liver damage

- Lung damage

- Neurological damage

- Tumors

And the list could go on.  Some of those are possibly not that important to you, but some of those problems are very severe and life changing (or life ending.)  Clearly exposure to unnatural substances can have a huge impact on your health.

So, please think carefully about what you’re buying and what you’re eating!  It isn’t possible to avoid chemicals completely, but you can certainly take little steps to remove some of them from your life.

To your health,

Kimberly

Are all chickens created equally?

River Cottage Treatment

I recently watched a television programme hosted by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  It was called River Cottage Treatment.  Now, I had never seen the show before, but it caught my eye.

Anyway, this particular episode had a group of 5 people brought in to stay with Hugh at his River Cottage for a week.  They were specifically looking at battery farm chickens versus free range and organic chickens.

The point of the whole week was to help the 5 visitors see exactly what the different kind of farms were like, compare prices of buying the different kind of chickens, compare the flavor of fresh cooking versus the flavor of microwave meals, and even witness a chicken being killed.  I think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s hope was that he could change each person’s mind to be more aware of the humane treatment of animals and make better decisions when buying food.

It was absolutely fascinating to me (although disturbing at times too.)   Just being able to see what the different kinds of farms looked like was enough to keep my attention.

Battery farmed chickens

I’m sure most people have heard that battery farmed chickens do not live good lives, but have you ever actually seen what the farms look like?  Well, the one viewed during River Cottage Treatment had 40,000+ chickens in it.  The structure they were kept in was not enough space for the chickens to move very much.  They don’t get to go outside.  Many of them looked injured, overweight, and deformed.  It was devastating to see.   These chickens were forced to grow to a “sellable” size in half the time of other chickens.

The men running the farm talked about how they have to grow the chickens as quickly as possible in order to make profits.  They said if they get 3p per chicken, they are happy with that.  Yes, 3p per chicken.  Can you believe that?  And what do the supermarkets charge for them?  Maybe £1 per chicken breast on average.   Of course the farmers have to squeeze those chickens out as fast as they can – even with 40,000 chickens, that is only £1,200 of income for the farmers.  And that is without taking out overhead costs.  Pretty crazy.

But, is that an excuse to treat chickens like that?  Is that humane?  I don’t think so.

Don’t Forget about the Chickens

This was quite a wake up call that made me think about what I’m eating even more than before.   It is easy to forget (for meat eaters anyway) that what you are eating was a living creature at one point.  But, don’t forget it!  It is so important to remember that and if you’ve got children, teach them where their food is coming from.

One of the women on the show really stood out.  I don’t remember her name but she took the longest of the 5 people to make a change in her way of thinking.  She really stood by her original attitude that the cheaper she could get things, the better.  She said that she couldn’t afford to feed her family if she bought organic.  But, it actually came out at one point in the show that she DID buy organic duck.  Why was that?  Because ducks are cute!!!  Okay, so she thought it was more important to buy well treated ducks because they are cute, but it was okay to support battery chickens because they aren’t very cute.

I’m pleased to say her mind was changed by the end of the week, but it took her watching a chicken be killed at River Cottage to finally show some kind of emotion for chickens.

So, what can we all do?  Be mindful of where your food products come from.  Yes, organic products are more expensive, but surely there are one or two things in your budget you could change to accommodate this.  Think of the chickens (or any other animal or animal product you choose to consume.)  It isn’t fair for animals to live such a terrible life, even if it’s just for a few weeks.   And buying organic, or even free-range, will help your family avoid ingesting antibiotics that may have been used when farming the animals.

To your health

Kimberly

How to Beat Afternoon Fatigue

The Afternoon Slump

Whether you work in an office, from home, at a construction site, out there on the roads everyday, or anywhere else, I think most of you will have experienced the afternoon slump.  This is something that seems to kick in somewhere between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, or if you have an early lunch, maybe sooner.  It makes you feel like curling up and going to sleep.

I can remember times when I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open in front of my computer.  It was the worst feeling and it was horrible thinking that someone might see me with my eyes closed, even if just for a second!

And since a midday kip normally isn’t possible, due to work commitments, location (I certainly don’t have a nap room at my office!), or any other reason, what do we end up doing?

This slump usually makes us reach for something to bring us back to life.  Some form of caffeine.  Maybe chocolate.  Maybe even just some fresh air or an ice cold glass of water.

How to Avoid It

Whatever it is that helps you get through this afternoon fatigue, you don’t have to deal with this feeling ever again.  What is it that has rid me of the PM slump and can help you do the same?

Nutrition.

What you eat (especially at lunch time) can help you avoid the afternoon tiredness.  Once I started cutting out high carb lunches, and/or sugary things right after my lunches, I noticed a huge change in my energy levels.

What exactly did I do?  I substituted bread heavy sandwiches (i.e. baguettes, baps, rolls) with whole grain sliced bread sandwiches.  Or I substituted any type of sandwich with a salad.  I also made sure I was getting wholesome vegetables in my meal.  Just to clarify, this doesn’t include iceberg lettuce and a couple of slices of cucumber.  I’m talking about hearty vegetables, like spinach, rocket, or other nutrient packed leafy greens.  Broccoli, green beans, carrots, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, zucchini, and sweet potato are good options (and there are plenty of others.)  You can steam some of these to have as a side dish with your salad/sandwich, or you can just have them raw, either on your salad or on the side.

One other thing I did was to make sure I was getting some healthy fats.  This includes putting some good quality olive oil on my salad, having some avocado, or adding seeds/nuts to my meal.  These all provide the “good” fats to your meal and help you stay full for longer.

Finally, I made sure to have some lean protein.  If you’re a meat eater, this can be turkey, chicken, or fish.  If you’re a vegetarian, this can be low-fat cheeses or tofu.  Just like fats, protein also helps you stay full longer.

Sweet Tooth

Now, regarding what I said about not having sweets, candy, cookies, etc right after eating, here is what I found.  If I really needed to have something sugary, I waited until a couple of hours after I had my lunch before I indulged.   By doing this, I was giving my lunch a chance to digest a bit and my blood sugar levels a chance to stabilize before feeding sugar into my body.

Now, I have to just say a quick piece here about sweets.  If you’re trying to follow a healthy eating plan to lose weight, just be a healthy person, or for any other reason, sugary things should not be a big part of your daily diet.  This includes sugary drinks…even fruit juice.

Blood Sugar Levels

Why does eating high carb (especially low quality carb) and sugary things make you tired?  The short answer to this is that these things all hit the blood stream really quickly and heavily, causing the blood sugar levels to increase rapidly.  This makes the body give out insulin to help control the blood sugar levels.  Because the blood sugar levels were sent so high, the amount of insulin given out is more than what is necessary to control it, and therefore, it brings the blood sugar levels down to an even lower level than they were at before you ate anything.

Where does that leave you?  Tired.  And probably wanting more food and/or caffeine to compensate for that.

This is not a healthy cycle to put your body through on a daily basis.

In Summary

The things I’ve talked about in this article should actually apply to all of your meals.  If you follow these principles, you will have more energy, feel happier, be healthier, and lose weight.  Even if you’re happy with your current weight, if you’re not eating like this now and you change your habits to follow these principles, you’ll probably lose a few pounds.

To your health,

Kimberly

How to be Happier in 2010!

Hi all,

I read a short, but interesting little article today about eating foods that can help you be a happier person.  This has nothing to do with weight loss (although this type of diet does usually lead to weight/fat loss), but rather it has to do with the nutrients in this food which helps people be happier.  It is a Mediterranean type diet and it is supposed to help prevent depression.  It has b vitamins, which are great for the nervous system, and healthy fats, which are good for just about everything in your body.  And the best part is that Mediterranean food is not only good for you, it is delicious.

Depending on where you live, winter can be a time when you feel more “blue” than other times.  Since you can’t change the weather, why not try something else to lift your spirits?  Exercise is always a good way, but clearly your food choices can also help.

Check out the article here.

To your health,

Kimberly

Scan of 250lb person vs 120lb person

Hi all,

This is going to be a very quick post, but I just came across this image on www.eatsmartagesmart.com and actually I can see now that it has been shared on a lot of sites recently.  I’m not sure where it originated, but it is fascinating!

It shows the scan of a 250lb person and a 120lb person.  Look at the difference in the two frames.  The shoulders, hips, neck, ankles, all look really strained.  The heavier frame looks so uncomfortable!  I think this is really great insight into what being overweight can do to your joints and your organs.  It is certainly not a sustainable way to live.  Maybe now is the time to make a change to be a healthier you?  Weight loss is worth it.

To your health,

Kimberly

Superfood recipe – super easy kale chips!

Believe it or not, I only tried kale for the first time about six months ago.  I had heard of it, but I guess I was so stuck in my ways of eating normal salad greens, cabbage, or spinach, that I never even thought about trying it.

However, it came as part of my weekly Abel and Cole organic vegetable box, so I had to figure out what to do with it.

In case you haven’t tried it before, kale is a leafy green (or purple) vegetable.  It is in the same family as cabbage, so it is similarly tough in consistency.  Due to its high nutrition content, it has been named a “super food” by some nutritionists.  It has beta carotene (an antioxidant), vitamin c, vitamin k, calcium, and many other nutrients.

In figuring out what to do with my kale, I came across many interesting recipes, but I thought one was particularly scrummy sounding!  It was Kale Chips.  Yep, chips.  But, healthy chips.

They are super easy to make and satisfy that desire for something crunchy and a bit salty.

All you need is some kale, olive oil, sea salt, and an oven.

Rinse the kale leaves, break off the stems, and tear the leaves into potato chip size pieces.  Dry the leaves on a paper towel, or use a salad spinner to dry them.  Drizzle some olive oil on the leaves.  Sprinkle some sea salt.  Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350F or so.   Then enjoy these crispy delights!

To your health,

Kimberly

What is your New Year’s Resolution?

We are well into the first week of 2010.  On my first day back at work I heard so many people (mostly women) talking about “being good” in the new year.  They were referring to their eating habits, in case it wasn’t obvious

I have to admit after my overly indulgent Christmas celebrations, I feel the same.  I think it is natural though, simply because you probably have been going to more social activities, getting less sleep, possibly stressing about buying presents or about travel plans, etc.  All of these things invite more lenient or excessive eating habits and more drinking.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with this – it is a really fun time of year for many people.  I certainly enjoyed it!  But, it can leave you feeling sluggish and unmotivated.

So, what is your New Year’s Resolution?  If it has to do with diet, nutrition, fitness, or just general health, you are certainly not alone.

I have made a commitment to get back into a more regular fitness program…despite the freezing weather.  I did a 10k back in October and then haven’t done much since then.  I mean I’ve done a bit of running, a few weight sessions, and had some gym time, but nothing very consistent.  Now is the time to get back into it.

If your resolution is not fitness or health related, that’s fine too.  There are lots of things that are good to commit to in the new year.  Whatever it is, stick with it!  Don’t be a statistic – one of the people who keeps their resolution for 2 or 3 weeks and then gives up.

And I would love to hear your resolutions if you’re willing to share!

To your health,

Kimberly

How can CLA help your weight loss?

CLA, which is conjugated linoleic acid, is something you may or may not have heard of before.  It is a slightly altered form of linoleic acid, which is an essential fatty acid.  CLA is naturally occurring in dairy products, beef, and eggs.

Why am I mentioning it?  CLA has been shown to help you lose a little bit more body fat that you would without it.    Here is an article from Prevention magazine talking about a study done on CLA.  I don’t like the fact that it refers to it as a “diet pill” because it isn’t, but the study is interesting.   Read here.

I have been a CLA user for a few years now.  I really recommend it because I’ve seen the results.  Alongside a healthy diet and some exercise, CLA did help me lose more body fat with it than without it.  It won’t be as much extra fat loss as you will get taking crazy heart racing diet pills, but this is actually something that is natural!  It just provides that extra help to keep you motivated and keep you fitting in those skinny jeans (or whatever the man equivalent might be.)

If you do decide to use it, be patient.  It will not make you lose weight in 2 weeks, but rather over a number of months.

To your health,

Kimberly

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