Tail tucked

I have been dreadfully reticent in posting here lately, and for that I apologize. As I continue to slog through a very thankless job and contemplate near-future plans, most of my brain cells have been employed in getting caught up with profession-related literature and scheaming about how to inch my way towards newfound goals.

I was sick for the past couple of weeks. Mostly, my body was just flirting with illness, and then I spent two days in bed and was wrecked for a few days more after that. There wasn't much working out at that point. However, a dear friend of mine (who had the gall to move away because of "life" - pah!) would like me to put together a strength training routine for her to help with her running. This is a good thing, as it will get me researching weight training and coming up with fitness soloutions again.

Nutrition-wise, I've been both good and bad. Due to some unwise reading of bread bag labels, I've realized how horrendously our bread is packed with preservatives. the upshot of it is that I've started baking my own bread. 100% whole grainy goodness, fresh from the oven. I do it all by hand, no bread machine involved, as the end product is tastier and more attractive. Besides, kneading dough is both fun and cathartic. My condo smells like a bakery, and my husband is well pleased. Unfortunately, I've also succumbed to the delights of my freshly-baked bread and have been eating a little too much of it. After last night's batch, I packed back three good-sized slices slathered in honey with a bit of butter. It was heavenly. It was also a gigantic heap of carbs, which I didn't exactly need especially as I had just drunk two glasses of wine. I'm going to practice more self-restraint in the future. Happily, I've been getting accustomed to the bread baking, and slip-ups like this don't happen often.

That is all for now. I'm in a conference today, much to my delight, and only have a few more minutes before I need to dash to my Friday afternoon circuit training session (I missed the last two, thank-you-very-much worthless job) and then back to the conference.

Nutrition Trick: Measure Everything

With the exception of an occasional holiday – I stuffed myself (almost) shamelessly a couple of weekends ago due to it being the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend – I tend to be very conscious of portion sizes and nutritional intake. Caloric estimations are not too terribly difficult for me, as I often check calorie content and portion sizes. Every now and then I will use measuring cups to monitor all my servings so that I can refresh my memory as to what one cup of cooked pasta or tomato sauce looks like. Having a stash of scoop style measuring cups and spoons on hand is an extremely valuable tool. After all, do you actually know what one tablespoon of smooth peanut butter actually looks like well enough to estimate it when digging in the jar with your knife? Measure it each time for a few weeks and you’ll figure it out.

There are a number of foods that are very easy to overdo if you don’t know what a single serving consists of and what that serving looks like when you plate it. Topping my personal list of things-that-are-easy-to-eat-too-much-of are:

1) Juice. Good, healthy, high-in-calorie 100% juice. I love orange juice, but a single serving. Bolthouse Farms 100% orange juice is 110 calories per 8 ounce serving. Many people will down two cups of OJ in a single sitting, bringing in their energy consumption in at around 200 cals. Adding to the problem is that because juice lacks all of the meaty bits of the original fruit, we don’t feel nearly as full when we consume it. So we would drink more calories in fruit juice than we would consume eating the whole fruit in order to feel the same level of ‘fullness’. And of course, with juice you don’t benefit from the fibre content in the whole fruit nor from the huge amount of nutrition you get from many fruit peels (such as apple, grape, orange pith, etc).

2) Pasta. A serving of pasta is approximately on cup cooked. Restaurant portions are usually closer to two cups. Most people will pile on far more than one cup on their plate. Many will squawk that one cup would be way too little, without knowing what one cup of spaghetti looks like. I know that I used to think that before I started measuring anything. Yesterday, I measured out one cup of cooked spaghetti just to be sure that my portioning is still within guidelines, and I happily discovered that the measured cup of cooked spaghetti was actually more than I’ll often allow.

3) Cereal. This is a big one. When was the last time you actually read the nutritional content on the side of the box and looked at what is considered to be one serving? Do you know how much a serving of Cheerios is, compared to a serving of Raisin Bran, muesli, or granola cereal? Do you know the caloric differences between them? One serving of Honey Nut Cheerios is 3/4 cup and contains 110 calories, versus a serving of granola cereal like Harvest Crunch, which is 2/3 cup and contains 220 calories. Now how much cereal do you normally dump into your bowl? Many people will pour in as much as it would take to nearly fill the bowl, way overshooting the actual portion size as labelled on the box. Crack out those measuring cups and scoop your cereal out that way instead - you might find that you normally eat a bit more or a bit less than the recommended serving size, but with the measuring cups you can at least track what you are eating with some degree of accuracy.



As an extra note, yes I am fallible when it comes to eating. Earlier this week, I went out for lunch with a former professor of mine and made the mistake of not only scarfing down a considerable amount of food at the buffet, but also a full piece of pumpkin pie and slice of cheesecake. This is not normal for me, and my gut informed me of its ire via a bout of indigestion that lasted until the following morning.

Basically eating

The following food-oriented posts come courtesy of Canadian Thanksgiving, which was this past weekend. Viva the full turkey dinner! Viva mashed spuds and gravey! Viva the indigestion coming from my gut, which is unaccustomed to so much fat and starch at once and has been punishing me for the past few days!

I firmly believe that healthy eating is easy, quick, enjoyable, and creative. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy my junk food – I love baking and never blush at the caffeine or sugar content in my morning coffee. Overall I maintain a healthy, balanced diet; perhaps it is a little too low in calories and protein from time to time, but that is something I’ll be working on. In general, though, my diet is pretty darn clean. Healthy eating habits are easy, once you’ve got some basic guidelines and nutrition ideas to work with. Everyone knows that picking up an apple is a heck of a lot healthier than picking up a store-bought muffin, but having a more utilitarian understanding of basic nutrition does help us keep a more steady eye on our healthy eating targets. Happily, there are plenty of resources out there that can help people understand basic food and nutrition facts.

While not everyone likes government-issue food guides, the Canada Food Guide does a damn good job of hitting the basics. The website has information on what constitutes a portion size, general estimates for how many calories a day you should be aiming for (very general estimates, but still useful), tips on eating well and building good habits, and so on.

Recently, I’ve also become a fan of the Dietitians of Canada website as a source for solid, consumer-friendly nutrition info. Much of the information provided is very basic and sometimes even a little juvenile, but I believe that is a good thing. Considering the average person’s distorted ideas of the complexities of healthy eating, having a solid and reliable resource such as this one helps show how very, very easy it is to make healthy eating a normal and habitual event.

The UK's Food Standards Agency has a good healthy eating website called Eat Well. The site features an interesting Food For Sport section that has a fair selection of reasonable, clear-cut, non-complicated info about how to eat for an active lifestyle. I'd recommend plowing through the whole website, though, as there's plenty of info to be had here.

If you've come across some particularly good and straightforward resources on basic and healthy diets, please pass them on to me.