To my friends who feel guilty - DON'T!!!

I haven't journaled for the last two and a half days, but I forced myself to get onto Vtrim this morning to enter my breakfast, and their tip of the day was:

Have you "fallen off the wagon" during the holidays? If so, you aren't alone. This time of year has many challenges for health behaviors. But as long as you pick yourself up, keep trying, learn something, and move on, you are succeeding!

Do not give up on yourselves. If you are still keeping up with ANY of the habits you used to lose the weight in the first place, you are doing better than you were before. For instance, even if you snack between meals, do you still pay attention to portion sizes when you're sitting down to eat? Do you still look for ways to walk a little more often. Things like that. (I have noticed that parking farther away in parking lots is a habit that's harder to maintain in the winter!!).


Anyway, journaling is important because it means you are being accountable to yourself. It's better to go over your limits - but still journal it - than to not do it at all. Whenever I skip my journal, it's like I'm giving myself free rein to eat whatever I please. So this is the one thing I'm getting back to really working on.

I hope everybody here in "Fit Pals" is having a good holiday season and is looking forward to a fresh new year (and decade!!).

5 New Fitness Trends to Try

Hi Everyone - Not sure if you guys are logging in anymore. If you are, apologies for not posting much in a while.

Here is an interesting article that mentions kettlebells, as Sue mentioned in a previous post. Click on the title to go the article. Fascinating stuff. Invented by the Russians in the 1700s and used by Russian secret forces and the US military. I didn't realize that you get a cardio workout from them as well. All I could envision was hurting myself worse than I normally do from working at a desk all day! Ha! I'd like to give these a try. Sue, did you end up buying some?

Why Doesn't Exercise Lead to Weight Loss? (NY Times)

Click on title to view article.

Food as addiction

From the Bitten blog on the side - interesting study on rats reported Oct 20 at Society for Neuroscience. Rats offered cheeseburgers and ho ho's ate more food and got fatter than rats eating rat chow. Well that's a surprise - I bet I'd lose weight too if I were limited to rat chow. And eating good tasting food (to a rat anyways) stimulated their brain pleasure center. Again, big whoop. But there WAS a surprise in the next two manipulations - the rats apparently developed tolerance to the pleasure provided by the food and ate increasing amounts of it to get the same pleasure stimulus and, unlike rats faced with ho ho's for the first time, the "addicted" rats were willing to tolerate foot shocks to keep eating it - in other words they did it even when they knew it would result in bad things happening to them. Tolerance and withdrawal are hallmarks of physical dependency (they didn't say if the rats had to go cold turkey on the ho ho's or had symptoms) and continuing a behavior even when you know it's bad for you is a part of psychological addiction. The question posed but NOT answered by the researchers is whether the experience caused permanent brain alteration. In other words if I stop eating sweet potato fries will they get less attractive?

DO we get addicted to certain foods or are we wired that way? (eg in an earlier age, high fat to avoid starvation, high sodium because it was hard to come by, sweet things both because breast milk is sweet and because we needed quick energy to get away from those marauding saber tooth tigers).

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Wow, this is my new favorite cookbook. I'm trying very hard to switch to a predominantly plant-based diet (like Lorrie; Mai, see the comment I left under your post) and I just bought this cookbook. It is fabulous! Can't wait to start trying some of the recipes.

Japanese Salad Dressing

Here is a recipe for that yummy carrot ginger dressing you get on your salad at Japanese restaurants. Click on the title to view the link at recipezaar.com. I made it for the first time tonight and it was awesome! Torn lettuce, tomato, this dressing - instant, tasty meal. You can get away with just chopping the carrots into chunks if using a food processor or turbo blender like Vita-Mix. If using a regular blender, grate the carrots first. I definitely had to add water to this recipe to thin it out to pourable consistency. I probably added 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of water. Still tastes great and fewer calories. This was so awesome. I've always loved those salads and always order them when I go to Japanese restaurants but could never find a good recipe for the dressing. Now I have. Enjoy!

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I started reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" this week. It's on Nicole's recommended reading list along the side here. Really very interesting so far! My husband and I carpool to work most days, and I've been reading it during the commute. I've found myself reading a lot of the passages out loud to him.

Making Habits Stick - Enjoy Yourself!

Here's my new blog entry (click above) and my new weekly topic, which is about enjoying your new behaviors. I really think it's the only way you can hope to sustain them.

Piano Stairs

I also posted this in my blog, but I thought it was too good not to share with you guys. It fits right in with what I was going to write about next. Which is if you want new habits to stick, you have to embrace and enjoy them. The Piano Stairs in Stockholm, Sweden are a perfect example of how fun helps people change! Click on the heading for a link with a video clip. It's really great.

19 Behaviors I've Changed This Year

My newest blog entry (click on the heading to get there). I'm sure some of you will recognize some of these behavioral changes in yourself. It's really amazing how MANY change I've made in what really is a fairly short amount of time.

And even if you get out of the habit of a few of them for a while, try to think of all the other ones that you still do. It might surprise you!

American Cancer Society's More Birthdays Cake Contest

Click on the title to go the site and click on the link below to download the ACS birthday kit, which contains several healthy recipes for party fare.

http://www.morebirthdays.com/morebirthdays/download_kit.asp

The Soy/Breast Cancer Conundrum

Click on title to view article.

Clock Turned Back on Aging Muscles, Researchers Claim

Click on title to view. 

Interesting article on how if you don't use it, you'll not only lose it - you may have difficulty gaining muscle tissue back altogether, with scar tissue developing rather than muscle in some older, inactive individuals following sudden bursts of activity. One more reason to keep active...

Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

From HungryGirl.com

Stuffed 'n Squashed Mushroom Foil Pack

PER SERVING (1 large stuffed mushroom): 92 calories, 2.75g fat, 447mg sodium, 11.5g carbs, 3.25g fiber, 4g sugars, 6.5g protein -- POINTS® value 1*

This is one of our favorite new recipes -- partly because of how insanely HUMUNGOUS these mushrooms are. WE LOVE HUGE FOOD! There, we said it.

 

Ingredients:
2 large portabella mushrooms
1 summer squash (yellow or green), ends removed, finely diced
2 wedges The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese, room temperature
1/2 tbsp. reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. dried minced onion
1/8 tsp. salt, or more to taste
Dash ground thyme, or more to taste
Olive oil nonstick spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, combine cheese wedges, garlic, onion, salt, and thyme. Mix until smooth. Set aside.

Remove mushroom stems and finely chop. Add chopped stems to the bowl, and set mushroom caps aside.

Add squash to the bowl and stir well, until veggies are coated in the cheese mixture. Lay a large piece of heavy-duty foil on a baking sheet. Lightly mist mushroom caps with olive oil nonstick spray, and place next to each other on the foil with the rounded sides down. Spoon veggie-cheese mixture into the mushroom caps -- there will be a lot, so pack it in! Sprinkle with Parm-style topping.

Place another large piece of foil over the caps. Fold together and seal all four edges of the two foil pieces, forming a well-sealed packet.

Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 23 - 25 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and tender.

Allow packet to cool for a few minutes, and then cut to release steam before opening it entirely. (Careful -- steam will be hot.) If you like, season to taste with additional salt and thyme. Enjoy!

MAKES 2 SERVINGS

Hungry GRILL Instructions! Preheat grill to medium heat. Assemble foil pack according to above directions. Place on grill and cook for 10 - 13 minutes. Follow regular cooling instructions.

All in the Mind: How to Lose Weight Without Thinking - Brian Wansink, PhD

Click on title to view article. Excerpt from his book "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think". Terrific book - an eye-opening, informative, entertaining read.

Office Yoga!

Click on the title for a good full-body stretch you can do right at your desk if you need a quick relaxation break during the day!

Visions of Fast Food

Click on the title to see a bizarre photo gallery of some popular fast food items, removed from their wrapping and displayed against a stark black background. Talk about unappetizing (although, based on the comments there, not to everybody!). As a recovering fast food addict, I found this depiction to be a great reminder of what my body is missing (or not missing!) these days.

Why You Should Eat With Fat Friends if You Want to Get Slim

Interesting article based on recent findings published in the Journal of Consumer Research. Click on title to view article.

6 Risks of Eating a Low-Fat Diet

How Low Can You Go? The Big Fat Truth about Low-Fat Diets

Click on title to view article.

What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter (NYTimes)

Click on title to view article.

The Egg Mug Classic

Hi, everyone!  I just discovered the most delicious, easy, low calorie breakfast (or anytime)!  It is called the Egg Mug Classic, and I found it on the site Hungrygirl.com:

Ingredients:

3 egg whites (or 1/2 cup egg beater, or 1 egg with two whites, whatever your preference).

One wedge Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss Cheese, cut into pieces.

Directions:

Put egg and cheese in mug and stir.  Microwave for about 1 minute.  Stir gently, and then microwave for another 30-45 seconds, until scramble is just set.  Stir and enjoy!

Per serving (entire mug):  95 calories, 2 g fat, 0 fiber, 14 g protein

Try it!  You will not be sorry!  

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Diana

How to Get "Home"

If you're reading through a blog entry that opens in another window and you want to get back to the main page (home), just click on the title Fit Pals at the top of the page and it will take you there. It doesn't take you anywhere when you're on the main page, it only returns you here when a truncated blog entry opens in full view in another window. To truncate a lengthy blog entry you're posting so that only a brief portion shows, insert your cursor at the point where you want to truncate it, then click on the 'after the jump' icon - it's the last icon on the far right of the Compose Page icon toolbar and looks like a piece of paper torn in half.

Fats - The Good & The Bad

Here is an interesting article from Consumer Reports Health on the good and bad about fats. For copyright reasons, I'm only listing the URL. You can click on the URL after the jump, or simply click on the Title above, which will take you directly to the article.