On the bottom of every nutritional facts label there is a foot note. The footnote tells us that diets based on 2000 & 2500 Calories should have "x" amount of Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Total Carbohydrates and Fiber respectively. That's great, but how do you know which one you should abide by? How many Calories do you need in a day? Three things influence how many calories you need in order to maintain your weight. Your Metabolism (aka: Basal Metabolic Rate – BMR) The amount of activity that you get on a daily basis (aka: Thermic Effect of Activity – TEA) How many Calories your body uses to process the foods that you eat (aka: Thermic Effect of Food – TEF) Your metabolism is responsible for using the bulk of your calories in a day – roughly 75%. A few things contribute to your metabolism: Genetics Age Weight Read More . . .
Yum-O!
I’ve finally added the Summer Wheatberry Salad to my website. It’s the perfect light summer salad. Make it as a side to complement grilled chicken or fish or even burgers. It’s a great potluck dish too because there’s no mayo or dairy ingredients. If you’re not familiar with the wheatberry, it is the whole wheat grain before it’s been milled into flour, wheat germ or bulgur. Once cooked, the finished product looks like a cross between barley & rice. Enjoy! Read More . . .
Healthy Eating: beyond poached fish and celery sticks
I love food. I love the flavor of it, texture & aroma. I love eating. I am a self-described foodie. Wikipedia defines a foodie as "A gourmet is a person with a discriminating palate and who is knowledgeable in fine food and drink. The word is a corruption of the French word gourmet, a valet in charge of the wines. It is often used as an adjective for meals of especially high quality, whose makers or preparers have used especial effort or art in presentation or cooking the meal, or for facilities equipped for preparing such meals, such as a restaurant." I don't know if I fall into the gourmet part of this explanation; I certainly don't waste my calories on "common foods" like candy bars or fast food. Although it has to be good, it doesn't have to be gourmet & I'm all about volume. Why do I tell Read More . . .
You are what you eat
For Christmas, Gary gave me a book written by Paul Chek, called How to Eat, Move & Be Healthy. First, Paul Check, for those of you who don’t know him, is a leader in the wellness & personal training industry. The man is brilliant in his approach. Last January, a member on another board suggested that I read the Metabolic Typing Diet. I started it, but never finished (I do that quite a bit). Then a couple of months ago, Gary bought Dr. Mercola‘s book: Total Health. Dr. Mercola also uses the Metabolic Typing Diet. Anyway, even though I didn’t finish it, it really made sense to me that everyone is different in how they metabolize food & therefore we each need different macros & food sources to become optimal in our health. The idea behind Metabolic Typing is that depending on where our heritage originated, the food sources that Read More . . .
The Supermarket Diet
I’ll admit that I’m a product of marketing in Magazines. Those headlines are really aluring: “Lose 20 lbs before Christmas” or “Sexy moves he wishes you knew”. And I’m old enough (and have bought enough) to know that the articles in these magazines NEVER live up to the hype. But this time I was intrigued. “The Supermarket Diet” I had to buy it. What could the basis of the Supermarket diet be about? Eating foods from the supermarket will allow you to lose weight as opposed to eating foods at restaurants? Is that only a big DUH to me? or is everyone else clued in on that too? To my surprise, the supermarket diet was more than just “don’t eat out”. It is a diet book written by Good Housekeeping. It has a 2 week initial phase where participants eat a total of 1200 calories spread across 4 “meals”, then Read More . . .
You don’t look like a body builder
For the first time in my life I feel like I can call myself an athlete. I competed in two figure body building competitions 1 week apart from one another at the beginning of November 2005. Did I win? No, but I got up there & did it, I am in the best shape of my life, and for that, I won something for myself – something that no one could give me. There are a couple of different reactions that I get from people when I tell them that I am a competitive body builder. First, they look me up & down & state: “You don’t look like a body builder.” I’m never quite sure how to take this comment. Is it a compliment? Or an insult? I assume that “You don’t look like a body builder.” means that I don’t look like a man, so I thank them Read More . . .