Dec
22nd

cut liquid calories.

Say no to:

• Pop
• Shakes & Smoothies
• Fruity Juices
• Alcohol

Okay in moderation:

• Black Coffee
• Tea
• Red Wine

Drink LOTS of:

• Water

Nov
9th

If you didn’t know me well, you would think I was super unhealthy.

1. I don’t go a restaurant to eat a salad. Ordering a salad at a restaurant is seriously the biggest waste of money ever. I can make a cheaper, yummier and healthier salad at home in 5 minutes.
2. I can’t stand chicken breast… and white meat. I don’t care if it’s the #1 protein for most people, but I’d never force myself to eat something I don’t like.
3. I never hold back when I go out. What’s the fun in that? Poutine, duck confit, lobster grilled cheese, Grey Goose … keep it coming!!
4. Dessert? Yes, please.
5. I talk a lot about junk food online. But would you rather have me talk about salad? You don’t make friends with salad.

On the contrary, I eat clean and healthy 75% of the time, especially during the work week and when I’m home. Most of my meals and snacks consist of REAL foods that grew on trees or from the ground. I usually pack my own lunch, I eat tons of protein, good carbs and healthy fats and I somewhat watch my calorie intake. I do indulge in some processed foods during the week, but I watch my portions.

I eat A LOT though, and my boyfriend definitely knows! I’m constantly snacking on something or complaining that I’m craving for something really bad (and he better get it for me or someone is going to get hurt)… even “clean” foods mean calories but I workout hard enough during the week to keep the weight off (I rarely workout on weekends).  Some of my friends told me that they THOUGHT they worked out hard… until they worked out with me.

You know that saying, WORK HARD, PLAY HARDER? I apply it to all aspects of my life, including health and fitness. Stay disciplined during the week by eating fairly clean and pushing yourself SUPER hard at the gym and then have plenty guilt-free fun when you go out!

YOU? If you can’t commit to as much exercise as I do, eat less during the week and omit the fairly from the clean. If you want to give up, remind yourself how good it feels to be able to go out and indulge, guilt-free. You know how crappy I would feel if I’m eating a garden salad and drinking water, while all my friends are eating steaks and drinking Caesars? That would’ve resulted in me, ordering a steak for myself after 3 minutes of watching them eat theirs— even though I knew I didn’t push myself at the gym that week… and feel even worse, afterwards.

BUT what if you did have a little too much fun? Don’t beat yourself up over it! Just push yourself a little harder next time you go to the gym and stay committed! Or get fat.

It’s your choice. What do you want more?

Nov
7th

I remembering reading about this a couple years ago but the video just popped up on my Twitter feed again:

What do you think?

Can you imagine if this happened here and the chaos that would ensue?

Obesity rates in Japan: 5%
Obesity rates in US: 35%

“Illegal” is the wrong word and “fat” isn’t right either so I will use obese.

I think most people are taking this the wrong way because this is no way discriminating against fat people, but an attempt to tackle the obesity epidemic, and obesity means more medical problems, which also means higher medical bills, sometimes to the expense of tax-payers. Of course, there can be a better way to measure “how obese you are” because even fit people come in all shapes and sizes, especially in a multicultural country like ours, but a similar concept needs to be put in place.

Fat tax? More incentives for the healthy? It’s hard to say what it is, but something has to be done.

A survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found that the average waist size for Caucasian American men was 39 inches, a full inch lower than the 40-inch threshold established by the International Diabetes Federation. American women did not fare as well, with an average waist size of 36.5 inches, about two inches above their threshold of 34.6 inches. The differences in thresholds reflected variations in height and body type from Japanese men and women.

Being obese is no way to live— it’s disgusting, it’s unhealthy and the chances of medical conditions, like diabetes increase greatly. Wouldn’t that make you want to get healthy? Obese people with medical conditions already have that as an incentive to get healthy, but most of them are still eating fried chicken in front of their TV’s. WHY? Hey, guess what? There is NO EXCUSE. Fat people are just lazy.

Well, except for the small percentage of the population that has genetics and conditions that DO prevent them from losing and keeping weight off, but that percentage is small, and I bet you whiners aren’t in that percent. #OccupyFatTax

“Getting healthy” doesn’t mean spending hours in the gym everyday, or eating salads every meal. It means taking 20-freaking-minutes out of your day to do a quick and intense workout. It means cutting out processed foods and using the hundreds of fresh and REAL ingredients out there to make your meals instead.  It may mean eating less if you can’t fit in longer workouts (but by no means starving yourself).

How hard is it to avoid eating fast food for dinner every night, and just throw some ingredients in a slow cooker before you head out and have it ready to eat when you get home from work? Wow, you are making such a HUGE sacrifice. *insert eye roll here*

It is EASY and there are so many resources out there, so people just need to get off their lazy asses and educate themselves. 35″ waist for women? That’s an XL in pant sizes, which seems fair— XXL’s and XXXL’s should not even exist.

Do you want to feel better? Do you want to live longer? Do you want the possibility of seeing your grandson get married (and divorced)? Do you want to see your mom more than you see your doctor? MAKE THOSE SACRIFICES.

There is nothing we cannot live down, rise above, and overcome.

The only problem I see with this is:

What about the skinny?!

Just because you are skinny, with a small waistline, does NOT mean you’re healthy. Should we be taxing the skinny too? Let’s save that for another entry…

Oct
31st

I go through phases where I will crave for certain things EVERYDAY… for a long time.

CASE #1:

A couple of weeks ago, I was addicted to President’s Choice Ice Cream Shop flavors— I would literally go to Superstore everyday, grab a different flavor (or 2, since it was cheaper to buy in groups of 2) because it was SO GOOD and I CRAVED IT EVERYDAY.

After an entire summer of super intense workouts and super-indulgent eating, I decided to clean up my diet just a little bit, basically by cutting out 80% of the processed foods that I was eating too much of lately, and introducing more real foods into my meals. This meant cutting out PC ice cream too. I still ate the same amount of food, but it was just cleaner.

I think about 4-6 days passed, and dundundun…
CRAVINGS STOPPED. Like completely. For PC ice cream, dried mangoes, Caramilk bars… everything that I was eating too much of lately.

Verdict: To kill cravings, just stop and resist your cravings for a week, or slowly cut it out by eating less and less of it. Your taste buds will change and they won’t appeal to you as much as they did before. Same with other kinds of addiction, I think eating too much of something will get you addicted, so you have to slowly wean off of it.

CASE #2:

I have this super awesome and simple protein shake that I’ve been drinking a lot of… I don’t really need it, but it’s just so good that I can’t stop drinking it. I was craving for it really bad one afternoon so I decided to go downstairs to make one. I went to the washroom first, and accidentally brushed my teeth after washing my hands (habits!), and to my disappointment, I didn’t want the shake anymore.

Verdict: Brush your teeth. The minty flavor of my toothpaste just makes the thought of consuming anything, VERY unappetizing.

*note: These methods work for me but everyone is different. Experiment!

Aug
4th

If you stop fighting and accept something it loses its influence and power over your life… What I found was that if people accept craving for chocolate as human behaviour, just something that happens to them, then you take the fight out of it. It takes the pressure off

• Don’t eat anything that took more energy to ship than grow.
• We all know that old advice about shopping only the outer perimeters of the supermarket because that’s where all the fresh produce are. The center is filled with delicious and brightly-colored processed foods which you should be avoiding. And you know how they say “don’t go grocery shopping with an empty stomach?” They are so right.
• Never eat something that’s pretending to be something else (eg. “no chocolate” chocolate sauce, low-fat sour cream).
• Limiting foods in your diet leads to failure. If you can’t get that damn piece of chocolate out of your mind, just eat it! Don’t believe me? Read this article on the study.

• Lack of sleep can make you fat.
• It’s easier to stay in shape than get in shape.
• “Skinny girls only look good in expensive clothes, but strong girls look good in NOTHING.”

Chewing is the No. 1 tip I give to prevent bloating. Chew food until it is like applesauce in your mouth. Digestion begins in the mouth, and without proper chewing, food is not well-digested. Better-digested food means less gas and bloating.

—Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet