Eating Healthy

So I've decided to write up another health-related post today. This time I'm sharing the foods I try to avoid, and the foods I eat on a regular basis. First of all, I have to mention that yesterday I saw an article posted by USA Today that listed the metro areas in the United States that are at the most risk for a heart attack. Our area, the Quad Cities, was ranked SECOND in the whole country for heart attack risk. (Read the full article here) Crazy! I know anyone can have a heart attack and a lot of it is genetics, but at the same time I really think poor diet and smoking is a big factor. Don't smoke, people! You're setting yourself up for health problems! :)

Anyway, diet is really important and I always try to stay conscious of it everyday. That's why today I am sharing the foods I eat most and what I stay away from. I have written a health-related post before - see it here - and I'll start out by saying I eat junk food from time to time like anyone else. I just try to make healthy choices whenever I can, and I'm a vegetarian, so avoiding red meats is probably a good thing, too. I do eat sweets (almost everyday), but the key is that I just eat them sparingly. I also avoid pop and fast food whenever I can. I can't stand the thought of putting a bunch of trash, or junk food, into my body.

1. Sorry for you McDonald's lovers out there, but fast food = bad. Enough said.

2. I love my potato chips like anyone else. I just try not to overeat them. As in eating a whole bag in one sitting, or eating them for every meal.

3. I haven't eaten meat in a very long time for my own personal reasons when I was a kid (the stuff was nasty to me, what can I say), but ruling out meat hasn't been too bad for me, since I feel pretty healthy. So I'd say it's a pretty good diet.

4. I used to drink energy drinks in college but have since stopped, because Lord knows what bad stuff is in these things...

5. I don't drink pop, like ever, anymore. It has no nutritional value, so why not drink water or tea instead?

So those are the foods I try to avoid. Basically, I'm not going to eat chips and cookies and pop all day. If I do, I am probably destined to be obese and have health problems. My goal everyday is just to get a good balance of nutrients and protein, instead of a bunch of junk and fat. I don't starve myself, either. If I am hungry, I eat!!

So, I'm going to say again, like I did in my last health post, that I really recommend tracking your food on a website like Livestrong.com.

I use it everyday and I like to see what foods I eat all the time and what my calorie count is everyday. I always keep it between 1000 and 1500. Usually around 1500 calories is my daily goal. Anything less than that and I am hungry! Anything more, and I usually feel like I've eaten a cow. Of course, I am not very active either, so when I do work out, I have to take in more calories than usual.

Like I said, one of my favorite things about this website is seeing what foods I eat the most of out of any others. The following are some my most eaten foods and drinks:

1. Water - This is my most tracked item on Livestrong.com. I drink water daily, throughout the day.
2. Cheerios - My breakfast cereal of choice. I never get tired of them.
3. Organic Valley 1% Milk. I switched to organic milk a little while back and haven't drank generic milk since. It tastes so much better.
4. Bananas - It's my go-to lunch food. I grab them to take in my lunch almost daily.
5. Almonds - I like Emerald Dry Roasted almonds, and Blue Diamond Honey Roasted.
6. Granola bars - I have a granola bar for breakfast almost every day and prefer Nature Valley, although many of them have a lot of sugar and aren't organic. A sacrifice you have to make for yumminess!

In addition to those foods above, I also like orange juice, green tea, and iced tea to drink, and I eat a lot of Greek yogurt for lunch as well. Usually my lunch is lighter in calories (about 300-350), and I have a larger dinner, with small snacks throughout the day.

So that's my typical diet! Thought I would share in case anyone is struggling to eat healthy out there. I don't do the best at working out, but I definitely try to stay healthy when it comes to my diet. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Healthy Snack Options

As some of you might know from This Post, I try to eat healthy whenever I can. Today I thought I'd share a few healthy food choices I've been eating lately. Just in case anyone is looking for some more options for lunch or snacks, or whatever!

So yesterday for a quick lunch, I whipped up this little concoction that was really nutritious and yummy! I think it would be great for a healthy snack, lunch, or breakfast.

I just cut up a small banana and a few strawberries in a bowl, poured some honey on top, and added a little peanut butter. It was, of course, delicious! If I were eating it for breakfast, I would probably drink a cup of orange juice with it just for some extra vitamins and nutrition.

I eat a lot of granola bars with my lunch, for breakfast, or for snacks. I usually try to make sure they're certified organic, because there are a lot of ingredients out there in packaged foods that contain GMOs (Genetically modified organisms), and when there's a USDA seal on the label, that guarantees that the product is GMO-free.

I really like the taste of the Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin-N-Spice granola bar. It's really yummy if you love the taste of pumpkin. It seems pretty healthy, too.

I made this sandwich for lunch today:


It consists of:

• Wheat bread
• Hummus
• Guacamole
• Mayonnaise
• Cucumber slices
• Tomato slices
• Butter lettuce

It was really yummy, and I felt good and energized afterward. Sometimes I might add a slice of Sargento 40 calorie swiss cheese, but we currently have no cheese slices left in our house. So it was a dairy-free veggie sandwich!

The hummus I used is Athenos Roasted Red pepper hummus:

I believe it's healthier than the Sabre brand, and it's really yummy on both sandwiches or wheat crackers.

Another healthy food option which I love both in my lunch and as a snack is almonds. The Blue Diamond brand is an especially healthy one, and I love this kind:

They have just enough flavor, and I don't feel like I'm stuffing my face when I eat them, because they're so low calorie and healthy. It's so much better of an option than chips or crackers.

I also really like the Emerald 100 Calorie Packs in the Dry Roasted almond flavor. I take these in my lunch all the time, and even stash them in my purse and eat them as an afternoon snack at work.

This is seriously the best flavor, and I never get tired of them!

One final healthy snack I'm going to share today is Healthy Choice Greek frozen yogurt:

This makes an awesome evening snack. It is only about 100 calories and it is SO yummy. I eat regular Greek yogurt all the time (Dannon Oikos is my favorite), but this frozen yogurt is great for when you might be craving something sweet. I mean, it's a lot healthier than ice cream, so you can't beat it!

Hope these give you some more healthy snack options. They're definitely some of my favorites!

How I Eat Healthy and Stay Fit

I thought I'd do something a little bit different on the blog today and write a health-related post. Most of my life people have asked me, "How are you so skinny?," to which I would reply, "Um...I have no idea!" It's not something I think about a lot. I've always been thin, and the only explanation I can think of, besides a healthy diet, is that either it's genetic, or it's just my natural build. I have a really tiny frame. I'm 5'4" and about 100 pounds. I'm not super athletic, I hardly make an effort to work out. I do think my diet plays a part in staying thin, though. And I will try to pinpoint some of the factors that I think may be the reason I stay fit.

1. I'm a vegetarian.  I've been a vegetarian since I was around 11 years old, which is another topic people seem to find interesting. And another topic I don't have a lot of explanation for. I'm not a vegan - I eat milk, cheese, eggs, etc. - I just don't eat sea food (fish) or meat. Why? Well, basically I was a picky eater as a kid, and it just got to a point where eating anything "weird" grossed me out. Like..what are those random hard pieces you find in hot dogs or chicken nuggets, or taco meat? I haven't eaten any kind of meat at all since age 11 or so, and I honestly haven't regretted it since.

I have learned along the way that being a vegetarian is not just about not including meat in your diet. It's also about getting the right nutrition you need to balance that lack of animal protein, and getting those minerals and vitamins that are the most essential to a vegetarian diet. I am not fussy about nutrition at all and don't apply pressure to myself to get every vitamin and mineral and protein amount that I need every day. But I have learned to make an effort to eat foods that are nutritious as opposed to foods that aren't, or what I like to call - junk. Which leads me to my next factor:

2. I avoid Junk food.  I used to love my chili cheese fritos, my cheddar-blasted goldfish crackers, and my cheddar cheese Combos. Now, I still love them of course, but I only eat them VERY sparingly. My philosophy is this: Why put junk into your body, when you can feed it with nutrients it needs to thrive and stay healthy? Of course like any other human being, I love candy (ahem, chocolate..) and have a major sweet tooth. But sugary sweets and potato chips and french fries do not make for a healthy diet. In fact, they have no nutritional value and no real benefit - they can only harm your body, not help it. The key is just to eat them every once in a while as a treat, not all the time.

I don't drink pop much anymore either. Water, organic milk, tea, and wine are the only beverages I drink regularly these days. Water is my daily beverage of choice - I always have a glass or bottle of water next to me. I will also drink milk with meals or in my cereal, and I drink Organic Valley 1%. I have drank soy and almond milk and like both, but I prefer dairy, just to get that dairy protein in my diet. I drink Gold Peak unsweetened tea, which has 0 calories and tastes good with pretty much everything. I also like Honest green tea on occasion. I'll have a glass of wine every now and then, and red wine is my favorite, but I drink white, too. 'Hafta be fair. ;)

Fast food is pretty much the worst food to eat on a daily basis, and I hate eating McDonald's fries, because they're so greasy and salty. Not good for you at all. But I think everyone already knows that! It's just getting into that frame of mind where you would just rather eat carrots over fries and a salad over a burrito.

3. I stay conscious about what I eat. This last factor is something I've come to realize over time, and I feel like it is one of the most important factors in eating and staying healthy. Have you ever heard of mindless eating? Like, when you're sitting in front of the TV watching The Bachelor while chowing down on a quart of chocolate ice cream, and next thing you know you're looking at the bottom of the carton? Ok, just me then? Thought so. Kidding...Mindless eating is bad! I've learned to consciously tell myself when I'm hungry and when I'm full, and purposely choose food throughout the day that I feel like my body needs. Example: If I've had string cheese in my lunch, and milk for dinner, I'm probably not going to eat another dairy product for a late night snack - instead I might choose a fruit or a vegetable. Really, it's all about conscious choices and balance.

One technique that has really helped me consciously see what I'm eating and balance my meals proportionately is tracking my meals online. I use the website Livestrong.com, which I discovered in 2007 and have been using it off and on ever since. The website has a feature which allows you to track everything you've eaten each day, as well as any exercise you've done. You can set a calorie goal to either gain weight, lose weight, or maintain weight, and it will chart how you are doing as far as the calories you've consumed, or the fat, protein, sodium intake, etc. you consume each day.

Here is an example of the food I tracked on one particular day:

(Click Here to view larger)

You can see that it shows you the percentage of daily intake you've consumed for calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, fiber, protein, and sugar.

To track a food item, you simply type in what you ate, and it will give you a list of matching foods in the database. You click on that food, enter the number of servings and when you consumed it. Then click "I Ate This", and it adds the food to Your Plate.

(Click Here to view larger)

There's even a "Food, Diet, and Fitness" Diary that shows you the foods and workouts you did everyday, and allows you to write your mood and a description that day. Here's mine for January 27th:

(Click Here to view larger)

I've been trying to utilize this feature everyday since about October of last year. I used to get in the habit and then stop for a while, but I've tracked my food everyday for the last several months now. Tracking what I eat has really allowed me to see both the bad and good foods I put into my body and gives me that motivation to keep tracking the good ones! I love it when I have a really healthy day with a balanced diet all the way through, and I hate tracking junk food. So I tend to stay away from it more. Because once I eat it, it's set in stone in my Food Diary. And it's probably already done the damage to my body, too.

So those are just a few of the factors I feel keep me healthy and allow me to stay as thin as I am. As for physical exercise, I do force myself to do crunches once or twice a week, and maybe some lunges or light weights. I used to love doing pilates and would love to take another class - I just don't have the time or motivation to do it on my own! If I feel the need to, I will, but right now I'm content with just staying light on the physical activity. Especially in the winter time in Illinois! Ugh, it's so much easier  to go on a walk or be active when the weather's nice. During the winter I tend to be a little more lazy. :)