Tag Archives: healthy-living

Zombie Life and Good Reads

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I apologize for not posting since Monday. You see, I was attacked my a horrible stomach virus at the beginning of this week, rendering me essentially a Zombie (minus the eating human flesh part). Even as I’ve recovered from said zombie-virus, I still feel a little bit undead. Not being able to eat anything but oatmeal for 3 days really threw me for a loop too. I think my brain was starting to starve from lack of nutrients, hence the lack of posting.

But like I said, I’m on the mend, and my brain is slowly starting to function again. So in all of the time I spent this week not eating or lifting, I had plenty of spare time to do some reading. Much of this time was spent on the book Wheat Belly, which you’ll remember was one of my May goals. I’ll write a full post on this book once I’m finished, but I do have to note at this point that I’m not sure if I’m learning or being brainwashed. I think it’s a little bit of both, but honestly I’m enjoying the book so that’s all that matters. Cult be damned. As I said, I’ll elaborate later, but I just wanted to let you guys know how I’m feeling about this book that everyone raves about, now that I’m about 2/3 of the way through it.

What else have I been reading this week? Check it out below. You should read them too.

Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction — And My Own - From Mika Brzezinski on  Huffington Post. Some very thought provoking ideas here, and as it’s just an excerpt from a new book by the author, I’m excited to read more!

What Does The Term “Real Women” Really Say? Truth. ’nuff said.

Do You Really Want That Cheat Day - A great piece by Neghar Fonooni from Girls Gone Strong. Strict dieting vs. just living and eating. You make the choice!

I Used To Have A Blog Dedicated To Lying About My Eating Disorder.  Humor, brutal honesty, and some serious balls. Love this so much.

Fitness: Putting To Rest the Controversies and Confusion – A post from Moon Fitness, regarding the confusion in the fitness world and why different things work for different people.

Should You Use Scale Weight As A Measure of Success?  - A great piece from Tony Gentilcore rehashing why the scale is not usually an accurate way to measure progress.

Also, this.

wolf

With that I’m off to have a hopefully un-zombie-like weekend. Enjoy the sun folks, happy Friday!

How Much Is Stress Affecting You?

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I have an extremely stressful job. Every day at work for me revolves around the health and well being of the student athletes that I work with. During our busy times (which this year, was basically the entire year) this can mean 10-11 hour days during the week, and at least one weekend day spent at work. All of these long hours and high pressure situations lead to… you guessed it, stress overload.

funny-stress-poster

Late spring and summer though is our quiet time, and the past week has been gloriously calm and stress free. I was talking with one of my coworkers about it yesterday, remarking about the awesome amount of energy that I’ve had the past few days, and how strange it felt to still feel energized, even by the end of the day for the last several days. It’s especially strange, because the past several days have been spent catching up on greuling paperwork, which is incredibly frustrating for someone who is not used to sitting at a desk/computer all day every day. (Other ATs out there know exactly what I’m talking about… am I right?)

My point is this: Nothing drastic has changed over the past week or so. My diet is the same. My sleep patterns are the same. My workouts are the same. The only thing that has changed is my stress level. I’ve gone from high-stress all day every day, to seriously mindless paperwork. Stress free. And despite the fact that I’m wasting away at my computer for hours per day, my energy has skyrocketed. The only thing I can attribute this to is my lack of stress. And not only is my energy better, but I’ve been in a generally better mood, I haven’t had headaches, and my focus has improved.

Seriously, who knew stress was such a life-suck? I mean, I did, but I guess I haven’t thought about it lately. Check out this table I found from the Mayo Clinic. Looking down this list of stress effects, I could check off probably about 75% of them over the past several months. No bueno!

Common effects of stress …
… On your body … On your mood … On your behavior
  • Headache
  • Muscle tension or pain
  • Chest pain
  • Fatigue
  • Change in sex drive
  • Stomach upset
  • Sleep problems
  • Anxiety
  • Restlessness
  • Lack of motivation or focus
  • Irritability or anger
  • Sadness or depression
  • Overeating or undereating
  • Angry outbursts
  • Drug or alcohol abuse
  • Tobacco use
  • Social withdrawal

Source: American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America” report, 2010

I knew that I was overly stressed and I knew that I had gotten extremely, chronically tired this year, but I never stopped to think about why. I knew that I had become often cranky and irritable, and that my mental focus was starting to waver, but again, I never stopped to think that it was probably something I can control.  Of course I can’t control the fact that I have stress at work, as that is just the nature of the career path I’ve chosen. (And to be honest, what job doesn’t have stress?), but what I can control is the way that I deal with the stress in what little down time I do have.

stressed out cat

I can’t always depend on downtime like I have now to de-stress, because quite honestly there is only a very limited part of the year that I can relax like this. What I can do is try some techniques now so that I can keep doing them towards the end of this summer once things get a little crazy at work again.

One of my goals for this summer is to start meditating regularly, hoping that improving my meditation skills will help me during high-stress times. I’m not very well versed in this yet though, so stay tuned for another post about my adventures as a beginner-meditator!  I also recently read this great article from Dr. Mark Hyman about ways to decrease stress. He’s got some great thoughts and suggestions here, and if you are an easily stressed person I suggest you click on over and take a few minutes to read it!  Deep breathing and changing the way I think are two of his tips that I might have to work on as well, as I often let my thoughts and worries spiral out of control, only leading to more stress. Decreasing this horrible cycle is a goal of mine, and something I definitely need to work on if I want to keep from getting burnt-out, which is an all too common problem in the AT world.

Do you have a stressful job or work in a high-stress office? How do you cope with work stress? Do you find that stress affects you physically? Do you meditate, and how often?

Health/Lifting Goals for May

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Well it’s a few days into May… can you believe it? Personally, the first half of this year has absolutely flown by, but I am so glad it is finally warm here in Boston. The past few days I’ve been able to ride my bike to work with no jacket, and it has been glorious.

Since my life got so stressful over the past couple of months, I haven’t had any time to really focus on my training or even on taking good care of myself for that matter. So in order to set that straight, I’ve decided to set some goals for myself this month, just to get everything back on track. I don’t usually do monthly goals, but I have a little extra time on my hands this month as work is quieting down, so now is the time to really focus on me!

Lifting Goals:

  • Bench 110. My original goal for this month was going to be to bench 100 lb, but wouldn’t you know I hit that goal on April 30th! Nothing like beating a goal before you’ve already set it.  As I’m moving up in the weights and try to get to that 110 though, I’m going to have to find myself a spotter. Random gym guy, hello!
  • Get my squats comfortable again. I have had a lot of left hip pain while at the deepest part of my squat lately, and it left me only able to do sets of 3 at 135 on Monday. (My previous squat session I was able to comfortably hit sets of 4 at 145). I think it’s all just soft tissue related because I have really been slacking on foam rolling/soft tissue work lately. My foam roller will have to be my best friend now, and I’m committing to using it every day!
  • Work out the kinks in my deadlift. I love to deadlift, in fact it’s my favorite lift, but I find myself much more comfortable with a sumo deadlift vs. traditional. I’m not sure why that is, but clearly I’ve got some ish I’ve got to work out with my conventional stance, because I don’t think I’m pulling up to my potential in that lift.

Reading Goals

  • Read Wheat Belly, by William Davis MD. I haven’t had time to read anything for myself lately, but I keep hearing about Wheat Belly, and although I’m not paleo, I find myself intrigued. Honestly I’ve hesitated to read it because it seems like everyone who reads that book becomes crazily obsessed with it, but I’ve decided to bite the bullet and just do it. Hopefully I don’t become one of those people ;)  

Health Goals 

  • Take my supplements regularly. Just as I’ve slacked on foam rolling/mobility work over the past month or so, I’ve completely stopped taking the few supplements that I used to take regularly: Biotin, Vitamin D, and Fish Oil. I’ll do a blog post about why I take these if people are interested, but first I need to get my butt back in gear and remember to take them every day! 
  • Stick to a strict 16/8 Fast at least 3 days per week. Since my CBL fiasco, I’ve been eating around a very loose version of the 16/8 IF, although most of my fasts have ended up at 14 or 15 hours because of various reasons. If I can commit to keeping a strict fast at least a few days per week, I know I’ll feel better in the long run. The paleo portion of my health experiment is coming soon… maybe…

So that’s it for now! What about you? What are your goals for May? Are you interested in a post about why I take the supplements I do? Have you read Wheat Belly (and did it make you obsessive)?

What the F is THAT?

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Although I feel like I’ve completely lost my blogging mojo, I figured the only way to get it back is to get on here and start typing away, right? I haven’t written a “typical” blog post since the Boston Marathon Bombings, and although Boston will never quite be the same, I figure it’s about time to pick myself up by the proverbial boot straps and carry on. Blog world, I’m back.

I was in the grocery store recently, and looked down at a shelf in front of me when something caught my eye. “Calorie Free Marshmallow Dip” it said. Wait, what? I thought I misread it. So I picked it up (almost embarrassed to be seen looking at such a monstrosity), and re-read the label. Yep, I was right the first time. Calorie Free Marshmallow Dip.

Walden-Farms-Calorie-Free-Marshmallow-Dip-072457323339First of all, who the hell eats marshmallow dip?

It was from a company called Walden Farms, which sounds innocent enough, no? It’s a farm! Farms produce delicious healthy real foods! Except for when the “farm” is really just a chemical plant churning out jars of calorie free crap. I went home and looked up this company online, which is where I found out the awful truth.

Walden Farms makes a whole slew of calorie free “foods”, including calorie free Peanut Butter, and calorie free “mayo”. WHAT THE F IS THAT?!?

peanut spread WF

Let’s explore this idea a little bit. Peanut butter is made from peanuts, which contain… ahem.. calories and fat. How on earth could a “peanut spread” be calorie free? Heck even PB2 (which I also hate) has calories for Christ sake, Which leads me to believe one thing: this is a lab creation, and is not even really food at all. Looking the nutritional information for this particular product confirmed my suspicions:

Screen shot 2013-04-30 at 9.04.15 PM

The first ingredient is water. WATER. YOU’RE BUYING WATER. Next comes some thickeners, and after that, “fresh roasted peanut flavor”. Read that again. Peanut flavor. Isn’t this a peanut spread? WHERE ARE THE PEANUTS???  The ingredient list is finished out with some sucralose (splenda) which many people’s guts are sensitive to.

Yum. Lab-created peanut flavor thrown into some water, thickeners, and artificial sweetener. Call me crazy, but I don’t call that food, in any sense of the word.

Their other products are just as bad, so don’t think it’s just the Peanut Spread.  The Mayo, for example, is made of water, some thickeners, and “egg flavor”. Barf.

The kicker comes from the description of their products though. As quoted directly from their website:

CLASSIC PEANUT SPREAD that’s smooth and creamy with Natural Fresh Roasted Peanut flavor…When making a PB&J switch from other brands of Peanut Butter loaded with sugar and almost 200 calories in just two level tablespoons to new Walden Farms Whipped Peanut Spreads and save over 600 calories when made with Walden Farms Calorie Free Fruit Spreads, “The Walden Way.”

Ok, so other peanut butters are loaded with sugar? False, if you’re buying good quality peanut butter.  And most importantly, other peanut butters are made with REAL PEANUTS, not chemically formed flavors! The sad thing is though, that some people see these products and think that because it says “calorie free” that means it’s healthy. Or that the company’s claims that you can “save 10,000 calories per month” by substituting your regular foods with their chemical-concoctions, never mind the fact that if you actually do that, you’ll end up malnourished. (And who knows if all of these chemicals cause cancer. I’m not saying they do, I’m just saying…).

The company’s tagline makes me sick too. “Eat Healthy, The Walden Way”. Please excuse me while I go dry heave in the corner. Healthy? HEALTHY? How dare they prey on uneducated consumers to believe that these products are truly healthy.

I didn’t mean for this to turn into an angry rant, but since it looks like it’s heading that way, I might as well stick with the theme. How’s this for an idea? How about we eat real foods, grown from the earth, not from a chemical company. How about we eat foods that contain nutrients that our bodies desperately need in order to remain healthy, fight off disease, and heal injuries? How about we stop supporting companies that process crap like this and get back to foods that contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals? (Novel idea, I know).  I honestly feel that companies like this should not be legally allowed to call this stuff “food”. It’s water and chemicals, and that’s it. Shame on Walden Farms for promoting this as health food, and shame on consumers who are educated yet still buy this stuff just because it’s calorie free.

Have you ever tried any Walden Farms products? Would you buy “food” with this type of nutritional label just to save a few calories? Do you think there’s any chance that PB spread actually tastes like peanuts?

 

My Name Is Stephanie, and I’m A Quitter

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Confession time!!!

Hi, my name is Stephanie, and I’m a quitter.

You see, I started a nutrition experiment, dabbling in intermittent fasting, carb back loading, and (eventually) paleo.  I made it through IF just fine, in fact, I enjoyed it.

Then CBL started. And I fell. Flat on my face.

I failed, and I quit, and here is my story:

I started CBL on a Monday. By Tuesday I was cranky, Wednesday I was miserable, and I literally spent all day Thursday at work daydreaming about animal crackers.

Snackimals

MOTHER EFFING ANIMAL CRACKERS

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got far too many important things going on at work (like, say, the health and wellbeing of 250 student athletes) to be wasting my time thinking about little sugary cookies shaped like zoo animals. But there I was, fixated on animal crackers, and how I couldn’t wait to get home and shove them down my face.

I had worked out on Wednesday morning, and then wasn’t training again until Friday morning, so in the CBL world that meant virtually no carbs between my post work-out meal on Wednesday until Thursday night when I could “carb up” (this is where those adorable animal crackers come into play). I know that doesn’t seem that bad, and when I write it out, it seems ridiculous to me that I failed so miserably. But I know exactly why it happened.

The whole thing was a mind game, a very restrictive, annoying mind game. You see, on CBL, the times when you can have carbs, you can essentially have whatever high-glycemic, junky carbs you want to (but for someone my size, I can’t even really have that much of it). But the rest of the time, it’s a no-carb world. This  meant none of my green smoothies (because those have bananas). This meant that I was technically off-plan when I had roasted chicken with spaghetti squash and marinera sauce (because of the sugar in the sauce). This meant that I couldn’t have raisins in my yogurt (because raisins are like nature’s jelly beans). And so on, and so on.

I found myself hating foods that I normally loved (like chicken), because I felt so extremely restricted from everything else. And it’s strange, because I eat a moderately low carb diet anyway, and I really don’t eat very many things with added sugars or processed carbs. I do like bananas, sweet potatoes and brown rice though, and those are huge CBL no-nos. Sometimes I like to put my eggs on an Ezekial sprouted grain english muffin. Again, basically a CBL crime against humanity.

Sometimes I like crappy carbs. And sometimes I want to eat them in the middle of the day without feeling like the sugar police are going to come after me. 

I know, I know, if I want a crazy lean, ripped body, I’m going to have to make some sacrifices and be uncomfortable every once in a while. But realistically, that’s not my goal. I just want to get stronger, and eventually lose 3-4% body fat. And to me, those goals are completely, 100% doable without making myself (and everyone around me) completely miserable.

So last Friday, I sat at my desk, about to cry (literally, how sad is that? That’s how much this messed with my brain), looking at my bowl of spaghetti squash, marinara sauce (BAD!), and roasted chicken. I ate about 3 bites, and then I wanted to vomit. Right then and there, I fell off the wagon, and landed flat on my face. I ate some carbs (gasp! In the middle of the day!), and you know what? I loved every sugar laden second of it.

eat_all_the_foods

Mental Breakdown Mode at work is not pretty. 

And that night, I had a very healthy and delicious meal from my favorite place, Life Alive Cafe, a meal that happened to be served over a bed of brown rice.  Carbs AGAIN?!? Yup.

And the funny thing is, since I decided that I didn’t care if I quit CBL, I haven’t hardly craved sugar at all. I have eaten some delicious meals filled with meats, fresh veggies, and wonderful flavors since then, and very few of them after Friday have included a large portion of carbs.  It was the mental aspect of the rules and the tight restrictions that was killing me, that I know. While I do plan on following a very loose version of this (cycling my carbs around training times, not eating carb heavy meals early in the day, etc), I’m going to forget the crazy restrictions. If I want a green smoothie in the middle of the day, I’m going to have it, damn it.  I had a smoothie yesterday afternoon, for example, and it was good. Real good.

Food restriction is unfortunately a part of my past, and it’s just not a road that I’m willing to wander down again. Never mind the fact that after I did eventually eat those animal crackers (did I mention they were doused in Nutella?), I felt like absolute crap. There’s nothing like pure sugar swimming around in your veins to make you shaky, jittery, and even more irritable.

So, for those of you who were counting on me to do a serious month of CBL, I apologize, and I hope you understand my reasoning. If you don’t, feel free to get in contact with any of my coworkers who witnessed my near mental breakdown at work last week. They’ll tell you this is all for the best.