10 Tips For You!

Time to get crazy! Here are 10 fast tips off the tip of my tongue.

1. Switch from 2% or 1% milk down to skim. Now you have a super beverage better than all the rest! High protein, vitamin D, calcium, and other vitamins/minerals. No fat!
2. Switch out your potato chips and crisps next round at the grocery store for nuts and seeds! Don't know what you like? Grab a mixture or trail mix and you can't lose!
3. Feeling too full? Grab a real tall glass and keep drinking water as much as you can! It will help with digestion and comfort. 
4. When looking at which bread to buy, look at the ingredient list and pick the one with the fewest there! It may not last as long, but it will be tastier and better for you!
5. Next time you buy chocolate, try a darker version! The darker the chocolate, the better antioxidant profile it has.
6. Limit yourself to one soda per day! Opt for tap water! You can save some money too. And remember, cold water will help in making you feel "full" remember this for those of you thinking of gaining/losing weight.
7. Always have a snack on hand no bigger than...your hand! Always! Examples include: a banana, individual sized trail mix/nuts & seeds/dried fruit, yogurt, half a sandwich, mozzarella stick, etc.
8. Want more energy in the morning? Eat a high carbohydrate snack with a bit of protein before bed! Your metabolism will slow down and store the energy you just ate. Go for a sandwich, crackers and low fat cheese, peanut butter, and honey roasted peanuts.
9. Only drink Gatorade in the time period before, during, and after your workout (one hour before and after). Gatorade is designed to work this way. Otherwise, you are drinking sugared water!
10. Eat for what you are doing for the day/what you have done in the day. Have lots of practice or a tournament? Get a big breakfast! Had a lazy Sunday? Maybe lighten up that dinner and skip the snack.

Hope you like this quick post! These next two weeks for me are going to be real busy as I will be all over the place in Europe! Expect a post on Spanish food when I'm back from my trip to Barcelona!

Happy eating!

Vegetarian Athletes

A lot of people look at this option as an impossibility. Well they are wrong! It is completely possible if not more beneficial than the traditional American diet. Let me explain why and how you can take advantage of this kind of diet if you so choose.

The vegetarian diet's rules are simple: no meat. Dairy is still fine, and some even go so far as eating just fish (pescatarian) or eating meat very rarely 1-2 meals per week (flexitarian). This diet forces the athlete or person to eat many low fat items like vegetables, fruits, pasta, rice, bread, etc. Because of this, this diet is high in fiber and phytochemicals (components in fruits/veggies that contribute to good health) and low in total fat and cholesterol. Choosing this diet can be very difficult, especially for athletes who are trying to get many calories each day. Also getting the required amounts of nutrients like protein and vitamin B12 can be a problem.

Here's some problems: a lot of vegetarians like this style of eating saying it helps them keep slim. What's not cool to do when vegetarian is to load up on the starches and the cheeses. French fries and cheese sandwiches are not the way to go everyday with this diet. This just adds tons of saturated fats and total fats. You'll actually find that the diet with meat can be healthier in this case. Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the protein sources in this diet are going to be lower in overall protein content than their meat counterpart. Tofu and other soy foods all have lower protein contents than meat.

Now, the way to go about this diet with athletes is watching your complementary proteins. All foods have proteins at some level in them. The problem is that these proteins are "incomplete" and need other proteins in other foods in order to be completely utilized by the body. Let me explain. Inside each food are amino acids, which is what proteins are made of. There are a total of 22 amino acids used in the body and only 13 of them can be made within the human body. Therefore the other 9 need to be supplied through your diet. A complete protein has all these essential amino acids (the 9 needed). Complementary proteins together have the 9! So when looking to have a protein packed vegetarian meal, keep in mind complementary proteins:

• grains plus beans or legumes: rice and beans, peanut butter sandwich, tofu and rice, cornbread and chili
• legumes plus seeds: hummus, tofu with sesame seeds, lima beans and slivered almonds
• adding dairy: side of milk, sprinkled low fat cheese, yogurt

Dairy is a big saver for vegetarians, but not for vegans. Vegans don't touch anything associated to the animal. They need to pay even closer attention to these kind of proteins and jam pack their diet with nuts, seeds, legumes, and soy in order to get their dietary needs. This group of people also need to look at zinc, iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and riboflavin because it is easily to lack these micronutrients. Vegetarians need to mostly look at zinc and iron as these are mostly in meats. Either search for foods high in these vitamins and minerals or find a supplement that is satisfactory!

A final note on all these veggie talk. Never remove a food from your diet. Always replace it. If you are going to try this vegetarian route, do not just omit meat. Replace that meat in your meal with any suggestion from above! Look online for replacements! Try something new!

Candy, it's...it's...Everywhere!

How'd everyone's Valentine's day go? Did my last post help anyone out? Let me know if it did! Love success stories.

So a big thing after Valentine's day is all the candy. It can be real tempting too, because it's usually of high quality and super chocolatey (my favorite). There are some ups and downs to this candy I speak of.

Let's go bad news first: candy for the most part is very sugary, fatty, and comes in large quantities. All not great things. Eating too much candy leads to stomach aches and stomach bulges. No one wants that. I'm not saying you should waste your candy. It's probably really tasty, so why not share it with your friends! This way you enjoy with someone and end up eating less automatically. Now if you have a TON of candy, just compose yourself and enjoy it over time! All at once you are not only hurting your body, but you are also having the same tastes and flavors over and over.

Now for the good! For the most part, athletes will burn straight through candy. It's simple sugars that get processed into instant energy for us because we are working out so often. Now if you are not working out all the time then these sugars transformed into energy don't get used and get transformed again into fats. These get stored as extra weight for yourself. No bueno. But! If we are working and not over-consuming, you shouldn't have much to worry about. To me, over consuming is more than one candy-bar-amount per day of the sweets.

And check this out! Chocolate has so many benefits. Research has shown that it can fight cancer with all its antioxidants. The darker the chocolate, the more packed with antioxidants it is. It has also been shown to be a good for your circulatory system and for brain function. Just don't go overboard, chocolate is known to be real high in saturated fats, depending on the chocolate.

So go eat some candy! Key word: some.

How to Impress on Valentine's Day

Just read a pretty cool article on the differences of the sexes when it comes to eating at restaurants or on dates or whatever. Here it is.

So check it out, if you know ahead of time how things can work on your date, things could go very swimmingly. For instance, sharing is caring. If she or he wants to share a plate and an appetizer, not only will this save money, but be a chance to bond and choose something together. You do want to bond, right? Keep in mind with this option that it is about both of you. Don't be selfish in choosing things. Have each of you pick one! And the article states that steamed vegetables and whole grain sides are always a plus because they say "hey, I'm trying to eat healthy even though we are dining out. I care about my body and yours."

Here's another big thing I took from the article: don't force dessert. Trying to eat more, especially high sugar/high fat foods after being full is not the greatest idea. It can lead to bad date feelings like food coma, nausea, stress, light-headedness, a headache, and more. Basically, stay away from the dessert or save it for waaaay later. For me, I would choose one of the two to go out for. Either dinner out or dessert out works for me. Last Valentine's I went out for a nice Asian dinner but then picked up some Ben and Jerry's right after at the local grocery to have at home later when we were hungry again. It was perfect.

Speaking of that last point...what's wrong with cooking for your special one!? Guys, listen to me, nothing can impress a girl more than knowing how to cook. Don't know how? Give mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/aunt/uncle/friend a call. They will tell you their favorite recipe and the tricks to use to make it perfect. You don't have to be a master chef to make a simple meal. Honest. And it will impress the ever-loving daylights out of your significant other.

Last thing, it is a weekday, so don't go too heavy on the alcohol. You might have training tomorrow morning! Go with the classic choice of wine today. Plus vino has some awesome attributes to it that make it a healthy choice for your body too. Just a couple glasses each is fun, healthy, and a perfect way to end the night. Enjoy!

Cheese Please

I'm in Italy! Let's talk about cheese!

I got a request to discuss cheese. He wants to know what kinds of cheese or nutritional beneficial and which ones to pack in sandwiches, as snacks, and on top of many foods.

Cheese an awesome nutritionally dense type of food. It's made from my favorite ingredient: milk. Cheese for the most part is just a concentrated form of milk, but usually has other cultures and flavors added. Cheese is usually high in calcium, vitamin D, protein, and saturated fat. The last one on that list is undesirable, so look for this stat on the nutritional label when buying cheese and pick the ones with low values. Unfortunately, low fat content usually makes the cheese not very tasty whatsoever, so another method you can use is only eating so much cheese at once or buying prepackaged cheeses like mozzarella sticks or portioned out cottage cheeses.

When cooking with cheese, it should always be the addition to the product. Let me give some examples: Parmesan on top of spaghetti, a slice of cheddar on your sandwich or burger, or crumbled feta on top of your salad. When cheese is thought of as an addition rather than the main ingredient, you are on the right track to adding beneficial protein and calcium to your diet! Watch out for foods that really focus on cheese being the main ingredient. Examples of this include pizza, macaroni and cheese, alfredo, queso dips, and some thick soups (broccoli cheddar). These are usually high in fat and can get greasy just because of this cheese factor.

Here are some cheese profiles to keep in mind when choosing your cheeses!

• American Cheese, 1 slice: 94 Cal, 4.3 g sat. fat, 5.6 g protein, 14% Calcium
• Cheddar, 1 oz slice: 113 Cal, 6 g sat. fat, 7 g protein, 20% Calcium
• 1% Cottage Cheese 4 oz (~1 cup): 81 Cal, <1 g sat. fat, 14 g protein, 7% Calcium
• Mozzarella string cheese (1 stick): 70 Cal, 4 g sat. fat, 8 g protein, 25% Calcium
• Parmesan Cheese (3 Tbsp): 66 Cal, 3 g sat. fat, 6 g protein, 6% Calcium
• Feta cheese (1.3 g, small wedge): 100 Cal, 5.7 g sat. fat, 5.4 g protein, 19% Calcium
• Swiss, 1 oz slice: 106 Cal, 5 g sat. fat, 7.5 g protein, 22% Calcium

So looking at this list, cottage cheese and string cheese can be real easy quick snacks for the athlete due to their high protein count and low fat content. If you can find some pre-packaged cottage cheese you like, try adding fruit to it as well to get an energy boost.

Writer's Block!

Help everyone! I have some writer's block and can't think of anything to write about...I have found some articles that I think you all will like though. Check them out, but throw some ideas my way so I can get back into the writing mood!

5 Weight Loss Boosters

http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/16695895/weight-loss-boosters-healthy-recipes-lunch-recipes

Avoid the Afternoon Stress-Eating Binge 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/08/health/healthy-eating-tips-stress/index.html

Food for a Better Mood

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/225601/food-better-mood.html


They are all good reads, huh? Ask me some questions, readers! I'm excited to help you all out!

Sweetener Benefits

Some people have some strange feelings about fake sweeteners. There are a couple of ways to look at it.

Sweeteners are fake sugars that are basically made to be not digested fully, therefore giving zero calories to your diet. Some just decrease the amount of calories absorbed. Understanding that these sugars are fake and not normally digested by the body is important. It's not natural, but from studies in labs the product is not harmful in normal and small quantities. Literally, you have to drink about 12 sodas a day with the stuff or just be shoveling in the powder. If this is you, you have many other problems to start worrying about like why are you drinking that much soda, and how can you be eating just sweet things. Come on.

For me, I like natural sugar because it gives me the calories. Plus the body is more comfortable with digesting it, in my opinion. I'm not the biggest fan of medicine or manufactured sugars. I like to put whole foods in my body as much as possible. So I use real stuff and keep the quantities low. I think it works well for me.

What these sugars can be good for is those in the process of losing weight and wanting to cut calories. There is no lie that it will help cut! You're comparing 120 calories, 200 calories, 50 calories to zero every time. So, this can be a good method to do what you can. Buy a big bag of Splenda to save money and use the Splenda when you bake too. Just remember not to overdo it.

Using fake sweeteners is not the answer to this problem. If you are only going to switch to fake sugars, you aren't doing enough. Plus, sometimes this kind of sugar will not help making you feel full leading you to eat more food in total. This is also a bad idea. Using the motto "Everything in Moderation" is the way to go, now add sweeteners to that mentality and you can shave a couple more calories per day out of your diet!

In the end, there's no reason to be scared of artificial sweeteners and they can be a part of a lower calorie diet full of flavor. Hope this helps!