It's Not a Diet. It's a Lifestyle.

Let's talk about the word "diet". Uck, just saying/reading it sucks right? Everybody hates diets but they do them for the end result. Much like the average person who wakes up to the same, boring and mundane job every day. We often don't take pleasure in the pathways we take to get to our goals, which really is a shame. I've come to hate the word, "diet" for more reasons than I can count or express to you, so from now on every time I refer to that icky word, I'll use quotation marks so you can remember my spite...



Health is not always a reflection of your size.

I completely understand the insatiable want Americans have to be smaller in size. It's a huge part of our culture and we tend to equate thinness with healthiness. In reality, it would be much healthier for you per se, to be a little too chunky as opposed to being a little too skinny. People should want to weigh less for health reasons and not just to "look skinnier". My hope is for people to want to be healthier and if they truly want that, they will be happy with whatever size their body is meant to be.

This is Sofia Vergara, a Columbian model and one of the
stars of the television show, Modern Family. I love
that she's absolutely stunning... and average sized.

You want what you can't have... so, let yourself have it.

Being healthy is a lifestyle. Have you ever heard of the idea about eating 80/20? Eat healthy 80% of the time and unhealthy 20% of time. I love this concept because completely restricting yourself ultimately leads to failure. Have you ever craved, lets say, ice cream and forced yourself to turn it down? Days pass... and inevitably the craving gets stronger and stronger until you pull a container of ice cream out of the freezer and almost as suddenly as you realize what you're doing, you've downed half the container. We can avoid situations like that. Avoidance makes you want whatever that "thing" is more, especially when we're talking about food. It's human nature. So, don't avoid the ice cream. When you have a strong craving you should satisfy it, so you are better able to approach the food in moderation and avoid bingeing.

This is a HUGE topic that I hope to delve much deeper into. I hope to open up your mind to the importance of recognizing the difference between a "diet" and a lifestyle. A "diet" essentially only lasts a short amount of time and it will never, ever leave you satisfied. A lifestyle is set up to give you pleasure while you're on your pathway to your goal, and not just to give you a fleeting feeling of pleasure with your end result.

Eggvocating

I figured it'd be appropriate to make my next post about eggs considering I titled myself as the, "egg-vocate." Eggs are by FAR one of my favorite, most treasured foods and I also think that eggs have been severely misunderstood in our culture.

Mmm eggs.

Nearly every morning I poach an egg for breakfast. As a child, eggs were fundamental in my home. My mother was a single, working-mom who tried whenever she had the chance, to make me breakfast before school. Nearly every morning meal consisted of some type of egg dish and it wasn't until I started studying nutrition, I realized just how much that morning egg jump started my day. Eggs have massively contributed to my mood, energy, ability to think and even my metabolism. Eggs are filled with nutrients good for our cells, and they have fat which can be used for our daily energy expenditure. Without my morning egg, my functioning level is low.

Let the chickens run in the sun.

Not just any chicken egg can give you such tremendous health benefits. In order to reap the advantages that eggs have to offer, you have to commit to eating organic, free-range chicken eggs. Chickens that are allowed to pasture receive exercise and sunlight. Exercised chickens have twice as many omega-3 fatty acids in their eggs as compared to factory farmed eggs. Sun exposure lets chickens produce up to six times the amount of vitamin D in their eggs, compared to a chicken who never sees sunlight. All of the omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D in these eggs transfer to you when you eat them.



Eat the yolk.

Many people choose to eat only egg whites, believing it will protect them from elevated cholesterol levels. The truth is, food cholesterol doesn't really raise your blood cholesterol levels, saturated fat does, and organic free-range chicken eggs have 1/4 less saturated fat than a factory farmed egg does. The benefits of these eggs for your body substantially outweigh the costs of ingesting a little bit of saturated fat. Almost all of the nutrients and protein that are in eggs are inside the yolk and not the white, so don't be afraid to eat the entire egg.

I found this picture on a website called, Tasting Buds and it shows the difference between a factory-farmed egg and a farm-fresh egg.

http://thetastingbuds.com/2010/03/farm-fresh-eggs-vs-conventional-factory-farm-eggs-a-photographic-comparison/

Notice the egg on the top right which is a yellow-brown color. That's the farm-fresh egg. It's color indicates that it is filled with many more nutrients because of the chicken's diet and exercise routine. The egg on the bottom is a factory-farmed chicken egg and it is much lighter in color and not as solid in structure, indicating it's nutrient supply is lower. If you were to look at these two eggs eye-level, you'd find that the farm-fresh egg sticks up like this ( and the commercially produced egg is relatively flat like this |.



I love eggs and you should too. They carry an amazing supply of protein and nutrients and they have inevitably made my mornings better. If you're on a tight schedule, you might want to hard boil a batch of eggs at the beginning of the week and store them in the fridge. This way, you can have your daily egg without the time and trouble of cooking each morning.

How eggciting.

To Beef, or Not to Beef?

Beef. A few descriptors that come to my mind when i hear that word are; tender, juicy, delicious, flavorful. I can just picture myself on a warm, summer Seattle day: I'm marinating steaks for the evening dinner and letting them chill for hours, soaking in their juices, leaving the fridge with an aromatic scent of tamari, red wine and garlic. I fire up the grill and cook them to a perfect medium rare, serving them with a heap of caramelized onions and shitake mushrooms. 


Beef is perhaps one of my favorite nutrition topics to date, because it seems to be a meat discussed extensively in American culture. I often hear statements such as, "Well, you must not eat red meat since you're a nutrition major!" Or, "I've stayed away from red meat for years. It's just no good for your heart." When in fact, beef is one of the finest, most guilt-free proteins there is to enjoy. 


What are a few words that come to mind when you think of the quintessential American meat? If you're like many Americans, the thought of fresh, tender flavor doesn't outweigh the health considerations such as; "It's such an unhealthy meat", "I need to stay away from saturated fats" or (the ever so popular), "I'm afraid I'll have a heart attack!" We are constantly being bombarded with the idea that red meat: (a) is NOT good for you, and (b) WILL make you sick, so you should stay away from it. I've dedicated my first blog post to give you some reasons that prove beef... really isn't so bad.

Cows are meant to eat grass.    

Alright, I'm sure in some form or another you've heard the argument that grass-fed beef is better for you than grain-fed beef, but do you know why? There is a plethora of reasons why grass-fed beef can not only be just as tasty as its grain-fed counterpart, but better for your body and soul, and the animal itself. Cows are meant to eat grass. It keeps them from experiencing pain, disease and sickness and also, as I like to call it, it keeps them "happy cows". Grass-fed cows can have up to 80% less e-coli strains in their gut bacteria than grain fed cows, and the tiny amount of e-coli that does survive in their stomach is much more likely to be broken down in our own stomachs, making us more likely to be "happy people" after eating burger that has been cooked medium rare. 






Grass-fed beef doesn't make you sick. 


Okay, it doesn't make you sick... but is it really good for you? In fact, grass-fed beef can have as little as 1/3 the total amount of fat, saturated fat and calories then that of grain-fed beef. Grass-fed beef is also twice as lean as factory farmed chicken and it is shown to reduce your LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. Grass-fed beef is not only good for your thighs but holy cow, it's good for your heart!


                                                 












I love beef and you should too. Don't be afraid of beef. "Happy cows" are your friends. Throw out your misconceptions about red meat being associated with poor health, because they are not in harmony with one another. 




I plan to continue blogging about the benefits of grass-fed beef, as well as many other foods, but for now I'll say


...to beef continued.