No More Sugary Soda?

I recently began reading "Reshaping It All" by Candace Cameron Bure (you remember DJ from Full House?)

It's amazing. I knew it would be. I can relate to parts of her story, especially when she gets into her eating disorder.

One thing that stood out to me recently was this:

"One problem with our overweight society is that we've been trained to look at food as the problem rather than our approach to appetite. Food as become the focus of our culture with fast-food signs adorning every street corner. In hopes of fixing this obsession with food, we find diet plans that offer twice the binge at half the calories or we reach for pills that will quickly shed the pounds."

She put into words what I've been thinking for sometime now. After New York's Mayor decided to ban sugary drinks 16oz and larger I had mixed feelings.

Health is important to me. I want people to make healthy choice. Notice that sentence: I want people to make healthy choices. I did not say I want the government to make healthy choices for people.

BUT, some of you are yelling, what about people that just don't know any better?

Educate them.

It's kind of like school and children. If SchoolChild doesn't know how to do a skill and you do it for them without teaching them THEY WILL NEVER LEARN.

We should be teaching people how to make healthy choices, teaching them how to SHOP on a budget (I hear "healthy eating is too expensive" too much), teaching them how to prepare healthy meals with limited funds/resources, showing them how to get a good workout without a gym and trainer, etc... We should NOT be making choices FOR people.

We, as a society, need to learn moderation and self-control...not government babysitting.

Dear Americans, WAKE UP!!!

This article on toxins in our food made its way onto my Facebook newsfeed today. My favorite part has to be the leading paragraph:

Yesterday, in the face of a just-released report by the National Cancer Institute that showed a 9.4% increase in childhood cancer between 1992 and 2007, the FDA let moms and dads all across America down. Instead of making the long overdue move to do something serious about getting rid of toxic food dyes so ubiquitous in our food supply, they instead fell back on those two simple words so often used to stall, delay and deny: "more research."

There once was a time I thought my son had Sensory Processing Disorder. He fit the bill. We even had him in regular therapy to help all of us deal with his "sensory issues."

I don't remember exactly what happened, but he was improving and I decided to leave therapy. Having people over to my house frequently was more stressful than dealing with his possible SPD. And he was doing SO WELL and seemed to be getting better. However, there was one weekend I realized his behavior was going downhill and he was sensory seeking (touching everything, throwing himself around, etc) like CRAZY. As I sat and sobbed to my husband about how overwhelmed and helpless I felt we tried to figure out what had changed in the last week or so. We figured it out...

We'd introduced gummy fruit snacks into his diet.

I'd read the articles about high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes. I didn't go out of my way to avoid them but we did when we could find an alternative. I never questioned feeding my son bag after bag of these snacks.

We did a full purge and removed all HFCS and artificial dyes from the house. We read labels on our next shopping trip (it's shocking what has this CRAP in it! Food dye in jelly and jam. HFCS in CRACKERS)

A few weeks later a change happened. I realized I was cleaning his hands more frequently than ever. He seemed to be seeking out mess. This is the child that ate his 1st birthday cake with poise like the Queen of England. Now he was seeking out things to squish and get messy.

Right after cutting out HFCS and Dyes...

The sensory stuff was almost GONE. He wasn't spinning, he wasn't throwing himself on the floor (he still jumps but not like he was), he wasn't running his hands over every surface as he walked...and he was pleasant to be around.

When he had a single popsicle on vacation it all went back to how it had been before....the explosive anger, the sensory seeking...all because of ONE dose of that junk.


Have you cut anything from your diet or your family's diet? What changes did you notice?

P90X and Weight Gain

I was alerted (By Google) to an article that mentioned P90X recently. As I read more I came across the actual context for the comment...and it wasn't positive.

From the article:

2) If you're serious about seeing big changes you need to lift weights. 
-Correct your workout so you're working out specifically for weight loss and drastic change. 
-This doesn't mean you have to kill yourself or spend excessive amounts of time in the gym, but you do need to work out right. Programs like Zumba, Pilates and even intense systems like P90X can stop results dead in their tracks because they are so intense that you're ravenous after causing you to binge and that's always counterproductive. 
-You want a system with real results that's made for real people. You want the fastest results that you can actually maintain. 

I was with them until they mentioned P90X and LACK of results. I'm still scratching my head.

You know I've done the program. You also know that I didn't become an X Grad.

I couldn't help but comment on the article.

If you buy P90X from a LEGIT source (Team Beachbody Coach) you will get a meal plan. If you FOLLOW the meal plan you won't "get ravenous" and binge. The plan has you eating the proper amounts of carb/protein/fat at regular times to keep your metabolism fueled without starving yourself. Team Beachbody also offers a recovery drink designed specifically to go with the P90X program. Drinking it afterwards helps you refuel without over-doing it.
I had great results with P90X. Yes, my metabolism increased but I wasn't starving and binging.

The article does have *some* truth to it. If you buy/borrow P90X and don't follow the meal plan you won't get the same results. Diet is most of the battle.

This is just an example of why you should RESEARCH your decisions. I really hope no one reading their article is turned off of P90X because they think they can't handle it...

Have you ever not purchased something because of a negative comment about it? Tell me in the comments!

Pro-Ana (part one: Websites)

*Trigger Warning* I don't usually have to put one of these up BUT I know some of my readers are recovering from eating disorders and I don't want to trigger you. If that's you please LEAVE NOW!

This is hitting the news again (it cycles) so I feel the need to touch on the subject. If you are a parent please stick around for this series. It's quite serious.

For those that haven't heard the terms "Pro-Ana" or "Pro-Mia" or "Pro-ED" let me enlighten you...it's PRO eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, eating disorder...respectively).

Yes, I'm serious. These websites have been around for a LONG time. I've been using the internet for almost 15 years and it's been around for the entire time.

For me it started with AOL chat rooms. Then, when the internet became much much more than AOL, I discovered the pro-ana websites.

I truly don't remember what I searched in Yahoo! to bring up these pages. I just know that I searched *something* related to eating disorders and it brought up a pro-ana site. I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole into an entirely new world. (Like that cliche isn't over-used right? lol)

These sites, in my opinion, are more damaging to your household than pornography. They're also harder to block! Is your child on Facebook, Tumblr, Xanga, Pinterest, etc? It's there. And it's not blocked as often as scantily clad women.

What's found on these sites?

Prepare to be disturbed...

There are tips for things like staying full, losing weight, and HIDING your eating disorder.

There are photos (many photoshopped) of varying sizes. The incredibly skinny are "thinsperation" and the obese are "reverse thinspo."

Most have a Letter From Ana. (I put it in a Google Doc so I wouldn't risk linking directly to a site)

There are "Thin Commandments" that include things like "If you aren't thin, you aren't attractive" and "Being thin and not eating are signs of true will power and success."

There are diets, exercises, and links to other blogs.

All that nourishes me, destroys me.

Are you scared? You should be. These sites tend to fall under "free speech." It doesn't matter if they get removed. It's like cockroaches...as soon as one is gone a dozen come in to replace it.

What do you do?

Be aware. As a parent you may browse these sites to know the signs. Know your enemy. With the rise of teaching children that fat is bad and telling them they're obese we may be feeding this problem.


Please share your thoughts below! And please please share this post!!

Ban The Cell Phones?

The NYT (That's The New York Times...I'm trying to be cool and abbreviate things...is it working?) put out an article recently on gyms struggling to ban cellphone usage.

LIKE movie theaters and libraries, many fitness clubs have insisted for years that their workout areas should be cellphone-free. Their logic is as simple and straightforward as a push-up: they want to prevent people from yakking on their phones and annoying the fitness buffs who want to crank out reps and mileage in relative peace. Safety is another reason, because texting while running on a treadmill can be hazardous to your health.

It's not just annoying and unsafe...privacy is coming into the discussion. I know that I am NOT sexy when I work out. I'm also really self conscious about going to the gym. A lot of people struggle with the "I need to be in shape to go to the gym" mentality. If I thought that someone could be videotaping or photographing me I'd be even MORE nervous.

But should phones be banned?

My thought? Yes.

Hear me out...barring an emergency situation you should be focused on working out when you're at the gym.  For me, gym time is ME time. I want to be inside my own head and that's it. I use my phone as an mp3 player but I do not chat. I'll call my husband (because he's usually my ride) when I'm done and that's it. You'll survive 30mins without checking Facebook. If you want to walk and chat with your BFF go outside and walk on the track. Really, you should be focusing on YOU.

What about people chatting it up in person? They should stop too. I don't go to the gym to socialize. I know, I'm a loser like that. Again, it's ME time. Working out is when I, well, work things out mentally. I don't need to hear about your date from last night while I'm thinking about my business or focusing on my breathing during a sprint.


What do you think? Is it okay to socialize at the gym?

New Restaurant Trends 2012...Excited?

I read an article recently called Top 10 Restaurant Trends for 2012

In it the author states

... the predictions are from Baum+Whiteman, international food and restaurant consultants in New York. They say the coming year will be all about “into the wild” as chefs go foraging for new ingredients and customers abandon comfort food for intense mix-and-match global flavors.

It's interesting to say the least. There are a few things I'm going to hit on in this blog...

1. Whole world on a plate. Look for a multi-ethnic, multi-sensory dining experience where flavors clash on purpose. Now it’s all about multi culti. A zucchini pizza dabbed with hummus and topped with crunchy wasabi peas is from nowhere geographically because it’s from everywhere. Cooking is at a crossroads where everything collides.

This could be really neat. I've seen it done on a lot of cooking shows. It's called Fusion Cuisine. I've been known to do it in my kitchen; occasionally on purpose! You might take Mexican flavors and serve them with an Italian flair (Stuffed shells but with jack cheese and ground beef instead of ricotta). It's a great way to change up your menu!! Instead of having the same dish you can deconstruct it and present it a different way without sacrificing your favorite flavors.

4. Innards and odd parts. Tongue, gizzards and pigs ears are moving up from ethnic neighborhoods and onto menus of upscale restaurants.  In the year ahead, look for more “wobbly cuts,” such as tripe, chicken livers that are crunch-fried and beef heart (but not brains, yet), because customers are increasingly adventurous.

My husband will be more excited about that than I am...he goes for the "offal" parts. I've tried to eat them (my style of eating says they're good for you) but I just can't do it! I even tried doing half kidney and half ground beef in a spaghetti sauce. I tasted every single bite of kidney in the dish! It will be interested to see fancy places serving what was once lower class cuts!

6. Instead of bread. Look for sandwiches piled on things other than bread:  arepas, flattened tostones, bao, waffles, rice cakes.

I'm glad to see that the new "low carb" option is going to be something other than lettuce!! Sometimes I want a bit of the bread without a whole slice.

Buzzwords for 2012

Fresh sardines. Uni. Yuzu. Tamarind. Kalbi. Bao. Bibambap. Bulgogi. Huacatay. Bone Marrow. Ox tail. Duck. Flowers. Hibiscus. Arepas. Coconut oil. Goat meat. Shiso. Green papaya. Seaweed.  Ultra-long dry aging of meat.  Lamb ribs and belly. Hand-made ricotta and burrata. Micro-distilleries. Exotic bitters on the bar.

Coconut oil!! Yay! I hope that the bad rap it's been given starts to go away. I've seen nothing but good things from coconut oil. Seriously! It's good for you inside and out.

There are plenty more to read about in the actual article: Here


Which trend are you most excited about in the coming year? Is there one you're dreading? Tell us about it in the comments!!