Posts filed under ‘Diet’
A “new” (to me) healthy snack
(Kale chips, Embracing Balance)
Why wait until the new year to kickstart your resolutions when you can start now?
OK…so this is actually one of the resolutions I made for 2011 – eat more veggies. And while I wouldn’t say I was successful, I did throughout the year add a few more salads and vegetable side dishes to my meals. But chatting this month with a fellow freelancer who is also on the eat-more-veggies track reminded me I still have a long way to go.
(After all, that incredible spinach gratin Chuck Hughes made in his recent Chuckmas Christmas special is not the kind of veggie dish I should have on the regular…although that’s the kind of veg dish I love, you know where the cheese and cream outweighs the vegetables)
Which also reminded me that I have yet to bake up some kale chips.
I love chips + I love kale = I am sure to love kale chips.
And kale’s high in antioxidants, omega 3s, fibre, etc. (ie. these chips will be way healthier than a bag of Ruffles)
I know. I’m a little late to the party (kale chips, so 2008…). Kale chips have actually been on my to-do list for several years now, but I again was reminded of this remaining to-do, this time thanks to the lovely blogger Jaime at Embracing Balance who was recently tweeting about her kale chip experiments, and so kale chipping I will do.
Wager on your weight
Looking to drop a few lbs in the new year? Placing a bet (even just on your own, or with a group of friends also trying to shed some weight) may help you be more successful, and there are a few sites and an upcoming app to help you manage the wager as per this post in the LA Times.
I tried a juice cleanse, and I (sorta) liked it
A few weeks ago, I tried the Total Cleanse for two days.
Yes, me. The one who adores food.
I was curious to see how it’d make me feel and to see if I had the resolve.
I chose the Energize version from Total Cleanse as the six juices a day offered the most variety (compared to their other two versions), so I knew it’d be easier for me as the idea of the same juice over and over makes me want to weep. Energize consists of one berry, one cashew milk, two lemonade-type drinks and two green drinks daily (you can find more info on each of the juices on the Total Cleanse site). Here’s a brief diary of my weekend juice cleanse:
Saturday
12:05PM: “I guess I should get up.” (I slept in as late as possible so I could have fewer hours in the day thinking obsessively about food).
12:06PM: Fed the cats. “At least you get to eat something, you lucky B@#*$.”
12:10PM: “OK, let’s give this scary green juice a try. Phew, it tastes OK! Mostly spinach and cucumber.”
12:33PM: “Time for some bacon. Oh. Wait. Right…”
12:45: “Some granola and yogurt would hit the spot. Oh, yes. Right. No food.”
2:14PM: “About time for juice #2, hooray!”
2:46PM: “How about some toast? Crapola. Juice cleanse.”
3:20PM: “You know what sucks? Not eating kinda sucks.”
And so on and so on. At about 6PM on Saturday, I broke down — I really missed the feeling of having something solid in my tummy — and I devoured a handful of almonds.
Other lessons I learned over my juice cleanse weekend:
- Planning to do a juice cleanse on a weekend so you can stay home and taking it easy all day long is not ideal: Why not? You have access to food that’s already paid for and readily available for you to eat. And having nothin’ to do just gives you more time to constantly think about the food you are not eating. I found Sunday easier to deal with the cleanse when I left the house and saw some friends in the afternoon and went to a movie in the evening.
- Walking and juice cleanses do not jive well. I walked several kilometres doing errands on both days. Walking when you’ve got that much liquid in you makes feel like you’ve gotta pee real fast and real often. Public washrooms (shudder) became musts.
- Six of these juices a day will fill you up. When I really thought about it, I never felt absolutely ravenous. I did really miss the sensation and flavours of eating and having solid food, though. Oh, I also drink rather slowly so while I was supposed to also drink water and herbal tea as well during the cleanse, I just couldn’t do it — the idea of even more fluid sloshing around in my belly added to the fact I didn’t really have a moment to have more beverages (by the time I finished one juice, it was almost time for the next juice!) was too much for me to handle.
- I think about food a helluva lot. So I surely eat a lot of things mindlessly. Gotta keep that in check.
Have you tried a juice cleanse? How did you like it?
Oh, I was also curious as to what a registered dietitian would have to say about this cleanse — check out what Nicole Yuen’s verdict is in my post on thekit.ca!
Introducing the Schick Quattro for Women Style Squad!
I know — you’ve been wondering how you can get more Health & Swellness into your life, right?
The blog, my tweets, my freelance articles on various outlets and my posts on thekit.ca just simply are not enough!
Well, then, you’re in luck!
I’m part of the brand spanking new, just launched today Schick Quattro for Women Style Squad! Along with Beautygeeks Janine Falcon and A Haute Mess Niki Blasina, we’re going to be all over the Schick Quattro for Women Canada Facebook page for the next several months, so you can get plenty more of the F-U-N and advice you’ve come to expect from the three of us right on Facebook!
So go on and ”like” the Schick Quattra for Women Canada Facebook page, will ya? And leave comments and such? Yes? Awesome sauce.
