Sassy Sexy Shapely

 The National Center for Health and Statistics estimates 66 percent of American adults are either overweight or obese, and our jobs are a big reason why.

“Forty-five percent of workers have gained weight since starting their current jobs, a recent CareerBuilder.com survey finds. Twelve percent have experienced a weight gain of more than 20 pounds, while 26 percent have gained more than 10 pounds.”

So, what gives?  Why do our work environments hamper our efforts to maintain an appropriate weight?

• About 1/3 of us eat out at least twice during our work week.  That means we’re more likely to be tempted by less healthy items offered in excessive amounts.
• Many of us buy our lunches from vending machines, which typically stock the worst kind of food.  Nearly 2/3 of us buy at least one snack from a vending machine every day.
• In addition to eating larger quantities of bad food, we don’t usually exercise during the work week, so we’re not burning off those extra calories.

What can we do?

• Eat a protein-rich, fiber-packed breakfast.  Hopefully, that’ll quash the need to raid the vending machine.
• Drink plenty of water.  Thirst is often mistaken for hunger.
• Keep a food journal.  Writing down what you eat makes you mindful of your consumption.  Sometimes awareness is all it takes to keep you from downing that next mouthful.
• Move more.  Get up and walk around the office whenever you can appropriately do so.
• Chill out.  When we’re stressed, we often eat to soothe ourselves and calm down.  Instead, get more exercise, say a positive affirmation or do some deep breathing.

Americans love lists, especially when we’re trying to get healthy.  The best types of exercise, the best exercise equipment, the best ways to stay on track, the best foods to eat.  Lists give us that structure we crave.  Sometimes, though, the lists can be overwhelming, particularly if they direct us to stuff that’s hard to find or overly expensive.

Never fear!  The NY Times has our back on this one.  They asked Dr. Johnny Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth“.  Here’s his list of of 11 best foods we can easily pick up at the grocery store.  The article provides details as to why these are nutritional stars and even gives suggestions on how to prepare them.

• Beets
• Cabbage
• Swiss Chard
• Cinnamon
• Pomegranate Juice
• Dried Plums
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Sardines
• Turmeric
• Frozen Blueberries
• Canned Pumpkin

Regrettably, most of these are not in my shopping cart.  But, a couple are.

I almost always have canned pumpkin on hand because I use it to make Yum Yum Brownie Muffins, one of my BF’s faves.  I also have blueberries in the freezer in a mixed berry blend.  And, I have cinnamon, although not by itself.  It’s an ingredient in the Pumpkin Pie Spice I keep in the pantry.  I do, however, add cinnamon to my skinny latte at Starbucks. 

I have heard great things from Dr. Weill about Turmeric, who suggests drinking it in a tea, but I’ve never used it.  Pomegranate has gotten lots of terrific press recently, and I’ve just stared getting some in my diet through the Greens To Go powdered packets.

Looks like I need to make sure these items become regulars on my grocery list.

Fashion critics calling Karolina Kurkova fat have created quite an uproar.  People are outraged, as well they should be.  If the pictures shown as evidence of her “weight gain” are any indication, it’s a patently ridicious assertion.

In reading about it, I stumbled across a comforting little tidbit.

For the record, I’ve been to several of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows (of which Karolina is a star), and ya know what? Almost every girl has a bit of cellulite–some more than others. Why? Because most women, even (gasp!) models, have cellulite, that’s why.

How nice to know!  Most of us aware of the airbrushing that modifies nearly every image we see, but it’s still easy to forget and accept what’s presented to us as reality.  I am *very* relieved to find out that even the most beautiful among us have less than perfect skin.  Maybe I’m not as far off the beauty mark as I sometimes think.

Turns out, reading a fitness magazine while exercising can demotivate, rather than inspire, according to a new study authored by Ann Wertz Garvin, a health and physical education professor at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater. 

“The results suggest that negative effects of reading ultra-fit magazines may cancel out the mood-boosting effects of exercise, says Garvin. Exactly why is unclear, though she speculates that women may become depressed because they feel they’ll never look as good as the magazine models or that the women already look fit but have low self-esteem and seeing the images doesn’t help.”

I can relate to these results although I don’t read while I’m exercising.  (The workouts I do now don’t allow for reading, but even when I went to the gym, I listened to music or watched TV instead of reading.)  I suscribe to several fitness magazines, including Oxygen, which was used in the study, and I can confirm that thumbing through them is sometimes depressing.

The mags periodically bum me out because they set standards that seem impossible to achieve, at least for me.  I occasionally come away from reading them with the feeling that I’m not working hard enough.  Unfortunately, that feeling doesn’t inspire me to work harder; it just makes it harder for me to keep working out.

Thankfully, this isn’t a huge issue for me.  I’ve been extremely consistent with my exercise since I started my lifestyle change nearly six years ago, and I suspect I always will be.  The mags are more disheartening from a body image standpoint than anything else.  Of course, that’s an issue I have struggled with for a long time, so I certainly don’t fault the publications for it.  I have learned, though, to stop reading them during times when I’m feeling particularly negative about my appearance.  No need to add fuel to the fire during a difficult spell.  The mags will always be there when I am feeling more optimistic and can really benefit from the great ideas and advice they offer.

I’ve known for a long time that I eat when I’m sad.  Of course, I eat when I’m anxious, when I’m happy, when I’m bored… pretty much whenever.  For me, the urge to eat is a constant, but it gets stronger depending on my mood.  And, I’m not alone.

According to a study reported on Yahoo!’s Shine website, moviegoers who were sad while watching a dramatic movie ate more popcorn than those who didn’t respond as negatively to the film.  

“Moods have a powerful influence on our eating habits; they can cause us to seek out specific foods, and unconsciously eat more, and we’re more likely to eat comfort foods when happy than sad or depressed. It’s important to be aware your eating IS affected by your mood, so if you’re trying to lose that last 5 lbs, go to a happy movie — you’ll eat less popcorn!”

So if you want to drop a few pounds, try to stay in that “happy place” as much as possible.  J

Food critics have to work extra hard to do their jobs without packing on the pounds. Gee, that’s too bad.  Free gourmet meals are tough to take.  What a rough job, right?!  Well, actually it is

Granted, “…it’s one thing to get your calories from lobster tails poached in butter or a delicate chocolate soufflé and quite another to get them from sodas and fast-food burgers.”  But calories are still calories, and a critic can consume upwards of 4,000 of ‘em in one sitting if they eat everything they’re served.  Do that on a regular basis, and these critics are going to have trouble fitting through the doors of the next restaurant.

What do these intrepid gastronomic investigators do to keep themselves at a reasonable size and in shape?  For one thing, they eat very lightly when they’re not working.  They also exercise as much as possible.  Even more important, they don’t eat everything they’re given.  

One critic notes, “My saving grace in this profession is that you have to try everything, but you don’t have to finish it. Doggie bags are my lifesaver.”

Actually, that’s not a bad strategy for the rest of us.  Take a few bites and bring the rest home.  Thankfully, we don’t need to do the job to learn the tricks of the trade.

“If we grew thinner, exercised regularly, avoided diets rich in red meat (substituting poultry, fish or vegetable sources of protein) and ate diets rich in fruits and vegetables, and stopped using tobacco, we would prevent 70 percent of all cancers.”

Wow!  That’s one bold statement in the first paragraph of Newsweek’s Your Lifestyle, Your Genes and Cancer.  It’s the kind of statement that requires one to pause and absorb.  Seventy percent… think about that: preventing seventy percent of all cancers is a BIG deal.

Research just keeps confirming that the American lifestyle is harmful to our collective health - especially when you consider that healthy populations moving here and adopting our habits see their rates of illness increase to match ours.

The bottomline is that our dietary choices and lack of activity are killing us.  We’ve finally accepted that when it comes to tobacco, but we’re only just now recognizing it in relation to weight and exercise.

I’ve never quite understood how this works but apparently:

“Lifestyle influences a person’s risk for cancer by generating growth-promoting signals that affect cells primed to become cancerous, or that already are cancerous. What primes those cells to become cancerous in the first place are changes in their genes.”

“…most of us are born with good genes that succeed in flawlessly organizing our growth and development. After all, our genes have been optimized by more than 600 million years of evolution; they ought to work well. During the course of our lifetimes, though, genes are damaged in various cells throughout the body. It is these mutated genes that drive most cancers.”

The article explores the science of this thoroughly, beyond what I can comprehend, but much of it seems to come down to minimizing inflammation through a healthy diet and mitigating the by-products of inflammation by exercising.

I exercise regularly already (although I could always do more), so I feel pretty solid on that score.  But, my diet continues to need significant refinement.  I’ve been reasonably focused on clean eating, but I think it’s time to revist my Ultra Prevention and Ultrametabolism books.  These books focus intensively on inflammation and ways to avoid it.  The authors have also published a cookbook to help with recipe prep.  I was impressed when I first read Ultra Prevention, but I was also overwhelmed.  I’ve done much more cooking now and gone more in-depth into clean eating, so I think I might be better able to tackle it this time around.

While we all shared a good laugh over the faux, pay-by-the-pound, Derrie-Air luxury airline, the product of a phony ad campaign by innovative ad agency , it’s an ignominious idea that could have some teeth… someday anyway.

According to MSNBC’s “Weighty issues for air travelers“,

“…while exploring every nook and cranny for ways to save money, airlines might be serious about the idea of charging passengers by their poundage.”

The idea of charging fliers by the pound is not new, but it still has significant hurdles to overcome to be considered a viable option.  First of all, most people, even “skinny” ones, are loath to get on a scale in front of their spouses, never mind in front of a ticket agent or, worse, a long line of total strangers.

And, what sort of logistics or infrastructure would be involved with acquiring, maintaining, and staffing all those scale stations?  Would airlines use existing baggage scales?  Would private areas be set up so that passengers would feel more comfortable being weighed and told their fares?  Who would ensure the accuracy of the equipment?  How would disputes be handled?

There’s no doubt that a the challenges of meeting the bottomline are forcing airlines to become more imaginative in how they cut costs and boost revenue.  Every idea should be explored, but hopefully this one will be cast aside as quickly as it rose to the top.

“Why does it cost more to eat less?” After asking this question, Weetabix rails against the 100-calorie packs that are fast becoming ubiquitous. I agree with her assertion that our laziness is costing us millions of dollars a year. But, the title of her article, “The reason why healthy foods cost so much,” is misleading.

100-calorie packs are not made up of healthy food. They are nicely portioned packages of low-calorie food, but that doesn’t mean the food is healthy. The food is typically highly processed with little nutritional value. Only the pre-portioning keeps it from being off the charts in terms of sugar and salt.

Truly healthy food is still relatively cheap. Fresh produce, eggs, cans of beans, potatoes, and whole grain rice remain fairly inexpensive. Get ‘em at the warehouse store or a try a neighborhood farmers’ market. Even a roasted chicken can be picked up for fairly short money at your local grocery store. We pay for convenience for sure, but convenience isn’t always healthy.

So, don’t read Weetabix’s headline and bemoan the fact that your attempts to eat healthy are breaking the bank. Remember that healthy options are most definitely available on a budget if you’re willing to make a little effort, for example, as Weetabix suggests, using your own baggies to create homemade 100-calorie packs.

Need more tips on how to eat healthy on the cheap? Visit Healthy Hillbilly Housewife for recipes, tips on dieting on a budget, and other terrific information.

For all my love of food, I tend to focus on the here-and-now of consumption, rather than the evolution and traditions of my favorite meal. Other than tuna noodle casserole and cocktail hour at my grandpa’s, I didn’t grow up with any special grub or comestible conventions. Plus, I am generally not very curious about the historical origins of what I eat. Maybe I should develop some rituals related to food. Maybe I should be more inquisitive about what I’m eating. Perhaps exploring a food’s evolutionary path and heritage would give me a greater appreciation of it, encouraging me to savor it rather than toss it down my gullet carelessly.

This approach is new to me, so I’m starting small… with a Mental Floss article about that tasty Mexican staple: the burrito. According to Peter Fox, who – back in 1998 - traced the history of these portable meals for the Washington Post and NPR’s All Things Considered, the original burrito was rather small, only about 6 inches long and 1 ½ inches around. The meat was apparently more like jerky, dried and chewy.

Nowadays, Mexican burritos “…typically consist of refried beans, Spanish rice, or meat in a small tortilla, whereas in the United States fillings might include a combination of ingredients such as Spanish rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, meat, guacamole, cheese, and sour cream, and, like many things in American … is considerably large.”

Fox, who’s also the founder of Burrito Brothers, recommends the following steps for constructing a perfect burrito:

“Steam or grill a 12-inch flour tortilla for 30 seconds to soften it up. Then spoon about 1/4 cup salsa, 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 cup beans and 1/2 cup meat down the center of the burrito. Fold 2 to 3 inches of the right and left sides in. Flip the bottom up over the filling, tuck it in and roll up the burrito. Cheese, guacamole, hot sauce or sour cream may be added to the filling as desired.”

The Mental Floss article has lots of interesting tidbits like…

• how an extra large burrito was once mistaken for a weapon
• how burritos are being used to fight hunger in the homeless population via the Burrito Project
• how some folks have indulged their competitive sides with a Burrito-Eating Championship

It’s fascinating – and yummy! – reading.