Month: June 2014

Fed Up! {Movie Review}

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Last week, RM and I went to see Fed Up, which is a movie/documentary that was created to show America how big of an issue obesity is and why “diet and exercise” are not going to cure it.

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Have you ever noticed how everything has a “low fat” version? Have you ever looked at the ingredients in those products or thought about why they could still taste good even though they are low fat? Added sugar. That’s how they do it. I mean, it makes sense, right? How else would you make something taste good if you take out all the fat?

The thing is, the high amounts of unnecessary sugar added to these foods is the culprit behind America’s overwhelming weight gain over the past 20-30 years. Our bodies don’t know how to handle it and have no where to store it and because of this, that sugar is stored as fat. Here are some disturbing facts from the movie site:

A 20-ounce bottle of soda contains the equivalent of approximately 17 teaspoons of sugar.

In the United States, it is estimated that 93 Million Americans are affected by obesity.

One soda a day increases a child’s chance of obesity by 60%.

Individuals who drink one to two sugar-sweetened beverages per day have a 26 percent higher risk for developing type II diabetes.

Kids watch an average of 4000 food-related ads every year (10/day).

98% of food related ads that children view (3920/year) are for products high in fat, sugar, sodium.

There is overwhelming evidence of the link between obesity and the consumption of sweetened beverages, such as soft drinks, energy drinks, sweet teas, and sports drinks.

More than 9 Million adolescents (children and teens 6-19 years old) are considered overweight.

It will take a 110-pound child 75 minutes of bike riding to burn off the calories in one 20-ounce bottle of soda.

Almost 45 percent of overweight or obese children ages 10 to 17 are poor.

Crazy statistics, right?! The thing that killed me in the movie was how much the kids wanted to change and didn’t want to be “fat” anymore. But, when they showed what they were eating, it’s no wonder why they are struggling even though they are exercising: Reduced Fat Cheese-It’s/Chips/Cookies, Special K Crisps, sugar-laden cereals (One mom said she is having her daughter replace meals with cereal since it’s low in calories- so much wrong with that statement!), frozen food meals, etc. . And, it’s not just what they are eating at home- the lunch options in school cafeteria’s was appalling! Pizza Hut? Taco Bell? McDonalds? What the heck are those fast food options doing in school lunches?!

It’s hard to blame the average family, though, because how do they know eating something that’s “low fat” is going to hurt them in the end? Media has been teaching us that those are the better options for 20-30 years, so unless you take an interest in health and nutrition and learn things about the “right” way  to eat on your own, it’s hard to know how bad some of the stuff that we are putting into our bodies is.

So, you may be wondering what to do to make things better. Something I’ve been trying to do more of lately (thanks to all the healthy living blogs that I follow!) is eat REAL FOOD and eliminate eating stuff because it’s only 100 calories or because it’s already packaged for me. This is still a work in progress for me, but I am trying. The movie said that not all calories are the same. For instance, a handful of almonds and a medium soda have about the same calorie count, however, the body knows how to process the almonds and doesn’t know how to process all of the extra sugar in the soda, which means it gets stored as fat.

Here are some REAL foods that I’m loving right now:

  • Kale– Warm kale salads, kale in meals, kale as a side dish, kale “chips”.. I just love it!
  • Spinach– I’ve replaced regular ol’ lettuce with spinach as it’s much more nutritious.
  • Salads with “stuff” in them– think: quinoa, goat cheese, avocado, baked veggies, etc. Basically, anything that makes a salad less “boring”.
  • Baked Veggies– I love baking up a big batch of veggies on Sunday night to eat with my meals and on my salads. I put them in a bowl and add in EVOO and bunch of herbs and seasonings and toss them in a 350* oven for about 40 minutes. Amazing!
  • Avocados– Such a yummy, healthy fat that tastes delicious in salads, in wraps, with eggs or on a sandwich.
  • Fruit– Bananas, apples, pears, berries- these are all naturally sweet and the body knows how to process those sugars.
  • Protein- Chicken is my go-to (sautéed, baked, shredded, etc.), but I’ve also been eating more lean red meat and eggs. Hard boiled eggs are an easy “grab and go” food options.
  • Nut butters– I’m loving almond butter right now, but peanut butter will always have a soft spot in my heart. Next time you buy either, check the ingredients label- I realized that so many brands have random added ingredients (including sugar) that are not necessary.
  • Smoothies– frozen berries, bananas, spinach, almond butter, protein powder… lots of super foods that keep me full for a while.
  • Seltzer water– I drink so much water, but I love spicing things up with seltzer water, too!

The great thing about a lot of these things is that you can “meal prep” on Sunday and have them handy throughout the week. Eating healthy may take a little more time, but if you prep ahead of time, it won’t take you long to make healthy choices during the week. I try to make one meal on Sunday nights that includes a lot of the foods I listed above so that I can have it handy to reheat throughout the week.

In conclusion, I think what I took away from the movie is to avoid “low fat” food options, read ingredient labels and limit unnecessary sugar intake found in processed foods. A lot of what I learned makes sense- what is this made from? Is there an option that is less processed? Does my body know how to process these ingredients? While I still think I have a lot to learn and a lot of changes to make to my diet, I think the movie opened my eyes up a lot. I don’t think I’ll ever give up sugar entirely, but my goal is to significantly cut back now that I know the true effects of it. I’m all about “everything in moderation”, so I won’t turn down a slice of birthday cake or an ice cream cone on a hot summer day, but knowing how my body processes those things is really interesting!

Questions for you: Have you heard of Fed Up? Do you have a sugar addiction? What’s a healthy thing you love to eat right now? Do you meal prep?

Wednesday Workout: The Great CrossFit Debate: is it “bad” for you?

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Last week I came across a few articles floating around Facebook revolving around CrossFit. One, in particular, caught my attention: Why I don’t do CrossFit. Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while (thank you!), it should be no surprise that I’m not a CrossFitter. But, that certainly doesn’t mean I don’t like it or think it’s a bad way to workout. I appreciate it for what it is and admire the strength avid CrossFitters get from the workouts, but it’s just not the type of workout I prefer to do. I’m not saying I wouldn’t like it if I tried it, but for right now, I love teaching group exercise.

In addition to the strength and fitness gains from CrossFit workouts, I think there’s a lot of other really beneficial aspects of it:

  • Working out in groups rather than solo
  • Motivates you to push yourself outside of your normal boundaries and limits
  • Teaches you new exercises and ways to workout
  • Can become a “friendly” atmosphere where you get to know other regulars in the class
  • You go to have someone tell you what to do, push and encourage you and answer questions

It’s funny, though, because I think those same benefits from CrossFit can be found in the group exercise setting, at November Project workouts, with running clubs, etc. Basically, I think that you can find benefits from whatever workout you choose to do, but at the end of the day, you should be doing workouts that make YOU happy and push YOU in a way you want to be pushed.

Not everyone wants to flip tires, climb ropes, power lift or do a million burpees, which you’d likely do in various Crossfit WODs (Workout of the Day), but at the same time, not everyone wants to dance for a workout or run umpteen miles or workout in the confines of a group exercise studio. And you know what? That’s totally OKAY! It’s good, actually, because it is what makes working out a “sport” that reaches out to so many people- there’s something for literally everyone and it’s up to each of us to find out what we enjoy doing the most.

The reason why I decided to write about this today is because I’m just tired of seeing people lash out at the CrossFit world. To me, if people enjoy those workouts and being part of the CrossFit family, so be it! What does that have to do with yourself or your workouts? We are all entitled to our own opinions about what is right or wrong, good or bad. And, for every article that bashes the CrossFit workouts, there is likely another one out there explaining the benefits of it. My friend, Brian, shared two with me:

When I read through these, I found myself agreeing with them more than the ones bashing the “sport”. To me, the people bashing the workouts in the CrossFit world are less scientific and more just looking to state things to cause an uproar. To see how people feel about the various CrossFit articles surfacing as of late, I brought the discussion to my Facebook page and a few people had some really good thoughts and comments in regards to the article that was posted.

CrossFit Convo

The comments went on, but that was the jist of what people were saying. I love when people are passionate about workouts and what they do and when they share their experiences doing various things (CrossFit, November Project, Running, Zumba, etc.).

So, after reading through a lot of articles last week, I still feel that at the end of the day, you should be doing workouts that you ENJOY and that make you HAPPY (maybe not happy while you’re doing them, but after!)- and if that is CrossFit or Zumba or Swimming or November Project or Running- it’s up to you to be mindful of your body and know your limits. Injuries can happen anywhere and although we trust that coaches and instructors are there to protect us by showing us good form, we are all responsible for ourselves. Too much of anything can be a bad thing and rest should be an integral part of our training regime (yes, I know I don’t always follow that, but I’m trying to be better!!).

I want to hear your thoughts, though. Are you a CrossFitter? What is your favorite part of the CrossFit workouts and experience? If you don’t like CrossFit, why not? Did you have a bad experience? What type of workout would you prefer to do? Do you find yourself agreeing more with the articles bashing CrossFit or the ones promoting it?

Weekending: “Ladies Night”, Zeke’s 1st Birthday and Local Supplier Meet & Greet at Whole Foods

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You guys! This past weekend was busy, busy, busy…. but with all fun things so I can’t complain! I got a massage on Friday, which was a great way to end my “vacation” week and to kick off the weekend! After my massage, my friend Jess picked me up and we headed north for dinner in New Hampshire at Tortilla Flat with some of our other St. Michael’s friends. It may seem weird that we traveled all the way up there for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, but there was a Tortilla Flat near St. Mike’s and both Kia and Lauren worked there, which meant we went there… a lot… so  we had to check it out!

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Skinny Marg and a Combo Plate- nothing about Mexican food photographs well…

I have to share the cutest story from our dinner. There were 6 of us and all of a sudden a waitress brings over this little (5 or 6 year old) boy. Here’s how the situation went down:

Boy: Are you out for a ladies night?

Us: Yes, we are.

Boy: Well, you’ve come to the right place!

Us: Oh yeah? Why’s that?

Boy: Because I’m the ladies man!

So cute! We died laughing.

Luckily, it was an early night, which was good because I knew Saturday was going to be a big day. I cannot believe little Zeke is already ONE!!! It’s so crazy. Sara put on the most wonderful celebration- from the decorations to the food to the drinks to the company- everything was perfect! We lucked out with the weather, too. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but it was such a great day celebrating a very loved little boy!

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I mean, can you get any cuter than little Zeke in his 1 year old shirt with a bow-tie?!?! Love! Also love my Shapleigh girls and getting to spend an afternoon with them 🙂

Danielle and I headed back to MA early on Sunday since I had a blogger event to attend at Whole Foods.

local supplier

I’m always excited for blogger events, but I was especially excited about this one because I’ve been big into buying locally and organic and wanting to know where my food comes from. It was a small event, but there were a number of vendors with samples ranging from fish to prepared salads to cheeses and butters to muesli, pickels, salsa, ice cream and iced coffee. It was so great to chat with all of them to see how their products are made, where they are located and what makes them different than other similar items sold in grocery stores.

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I’m a big fan of good swag bags 😉 Some of my favorite things I tried were:

  • Cheeses and Sea Salt & Maple Butter from Vermont Creamery– I put some of this on my dad’s homemade bread it and it was absolutely amazing!!
  • Muesli from TuTu Muesli– I anticipate early working hours, which means I’ll need to bring breakfast on the road with me so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes with the sample that I received from TuTu. I bought some Muesli from Bob’s Red Mills and will likely do “over night oats” with that.
  • Salsa from Nola’s Salsa– This stuff was absolutely delicious! There’s nothing better than fresh, homemade salsa and this totally fit the bill for that. The owner lived in Texas for a while and learned from the best. She only uses real ingredients and you can taste the difference. I can’t wait to open mine!
  • Ice cream from Tea-Rrific– Wow. This tea-based ice cream was SO good. They actually brew the tea when making the ice cream so you could taste the specific tea flavors in each one. My favorite was the Masala Chai and the Chamomile- Perfect little sweet treat!
  • Cold Brew coffee from Grady’s Cold Brew– I gave up coffee about a year ago, but when I heard the vendor explain how it’s made without brewing coffee. Grady’s Cold Brew has less caffeine, it’s less acidic (much easier to drink!) and is easier on digestion than regular coffee. There’s no added sugar and the ingredient list is short: water, coffee, chicory and spices. All he added was a little almond milk for me and it was perfect!

Big thanks to Jess and Whole Foods Charles River Plaza for hosting such a great event… and providing us with some amazing swag bags with the products we were able to learn about and try.

Questions for you: How often do you get together with your girlfriends? What was the best part of your weekend? Do you like to shop locally or buy organic products? Have you ever heard of the ones I listed above?

This Week: Workouts, New Job & Things I’m Looking Forward To {MIAMI!!!}

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Good morning! I’m about to head out for my first day of work at my new job- eek!! On top of starting a new job, this week is a little crazy since the boy- let’s refer to him as RM from now on since those are his initials- and I are heading out to Miami for a little long weekend getaway on Friday. Have any of you ever been there? Where should we eat? What should we do? We aren’t looking for a hectic vaca- we really just want to chill out and- gasp- relax! What a thought, right?! It’s not necessarily the most convenient time to be going away with starting a new job and all, but this was planned well before the job thing happened so I’m just going with it 🙂

But, since I have 4 days until I’m on vaca, let’s focus on workouts. My workouts last week were a little all over the place, and the same will probably be the case this week.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Since I ran on my planned rest day last week, Monday ended up being a rest day, more or less. My sister and I went for a nice, long hour long walk all around Eastie- it was awesome!
  • Tuesday- I was able to go to a 10 am class at a nearby BSC since I wasn’t working . I was looking forward to it because I’ve heard the instructor is really good, but sadly, I was not a fan. I didn’t like the class at all, actually- the instructor had weird music with vulgar language and kept yelling things like “BURN FAT!!! BURN CALORIES!!! DON’T THINK ABOUT QUITTING- PUSH YOURSELVES”… and I just wasn’t a fan!
  • Wednesday- I went to the East Boston YMCA and ran for 20 minutes on the treadmill (also ran there, which was .6 miles), walked for 10 minutes and completed 2 circuit workouts (see below). It was a good workout even though I wasn’t feeling good (stupid allergies!). I also taught my UXF Burn class and tried to not do much of the workout since I had dinner plans with my sister after.

Complete 3 sets of 10 reps in set 1 and then the same for set 2:

Set 1:

BOSU Push-Ups

Opposite Knee to Elbow Plank

Standing Weighted Side Dips

Upright Rows

Set 2:

BOSU Squats

Standing Oblique Twists on BOSU

Underhand Grip Rows

Triceps Kickbacks

Thursday- I taught my SHRED and Cardio Kickboxing classes. In SHRED we did a format I haven’t done in a while: 5 minutes lower body exercises, 5 minutes cardio, 5 minutes upper body exercises, 5 minutes cardio, 5 minutes combined exercises and 5 minutes core. It was good- perhaps I’ll post it for you!

  • Friday- Since I had not been feeling well all week, I decided to rest on Friday. I did walk a ton- probably 3 miles, but nothing else. I got a massage which was wonderful!
  • Saturday-I taught my cardio kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA and I think it was a good one! Sad I won’t be there for 2 weeks now 😦
  • Sunday- I ended up running 6 (!!!) miles… with an 8:13 min/mile pace!! I planned on doing 3 or 4, but felt great and the weather was perfect so I kept going. I haven’t run more than 5 miles since the fall of 2008. I also did a little circuit halfway through my run consisting of: 10 reps and 4 rounds of push-ups, tricep dips, plank with opposite knee to elbow crunch, in & outs and side planks with hip drops (right and left). Solid way to round out a run!

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- To start my first day of work out on the right foot, I will get up and workout in the morning. If I’m sore from my run yesterday, I’ll do some light cardio and then just lift.
  • Tuesday- I would love to workout in the morning again so that I can have the afternoon off to get stuff done for my upcoming trip: pedicure, packing, etc.
  • Wednesday- I’ll head to the gym after work to teach my UXF Burn class. Hoping I won’t have an issue with traffic.
  • Thursday- I will teach SHRED and Kickboxing- I’m stressing about the traffic situation, though. I think my hours will end up being 7:30-4:30, but I’m not sure an hour is enough time to get from Wakefield to Central Square that late in the day. I may have to do a 7-4 shift or something those days. I’m not sure what my first week will be like, but they do know my teaching schedule so hopefully it won’t be a problem!
  • Friday- I may get up and do a little core work/stretching/yoga before we head to the airport (9:15 flight), otherwise it will be a rest day.
  • Saturday/Sunday/Monday- Not sure! I’d love to get a workout in- either a run on the beach or a quickie workout in our hotel room or the gym, but I’m not going to stress about it. I’m really going to focus on relaxing and going with the flow and if a workout isn’t something I feel like doing, I’m not going to stress about it or force it!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

I’m not really sure if I’d say I’m looking forward to starting my new job (more nervous than anything!!), but I am looking forward to getting back on a schedule and seeing how things will be. Let’s face it, though, what I’m looking forward to the most is a little R&R weekend getaway to Miami! I’ve never been before and have heard mixed reviews (we chose Miami because it was the most affordable flight option), but for what we are looking to do: sun, beach, pool, drinks, dinners- it will probably be perfect!

Questions for you: Have you ever been to Miami? Any restaurant suggestions? How do you fit workouts in when you travel? What was the best workout you had last week? What are you looking forward to this week? I love to hear from you 🙂