A Weight Lifted

Holiday Survival Tips

Tip #5: Rethink Your New Years Resolution!

The only sensible resolution should include treating your body well so it can help you do the things in life you really want to do.

From body positive expert, Deb Burgard, PhD

"Be kind to your body this year, and give it nourishment, pleasure, movement, sex, medical help, comfortable clothes, respect, safety, rest. Try not to let it go too long being hungry or make it uncomfortably full. Protest the body-denigrating inner (and outer) talk. Don't wait to love your body to do loving things, because it is in the doing that you come to love it."

Happy New Year to all of you from all of us!

Tags: positive body image , mindful eating , new years resolutions .

celebration .

Written by CeBe

Holiday Survival Tips

Tip #4: Happytizer!

Don't stress out during the holidays.  If you have to entertain, make it easy on yourself with this tasty and colorful appetizer simply named One of Brian's Favorite Appetizers from Memento Moron.

1 baguette
1 wheel brie
1 jar sundried tomatoes
pesto

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Slice baguette into thin rounds about 1/4" thick. Cut brie into 1" square thin slices. Julienne the sundried tomatoes. Spoon a small amount of pesto onto each slice of baguette. Place a slice of brie on the pesto, top with several slices of sundried tomato. Place on a cookie sheet, set in oven and cook until the brie is melted and the bread is toasted.

Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this recipe, come and enjoy our complete collection of healthy eating recipes.

Tags: healthy recipes, healthy eating, recipes, recipes for living.

Holiday Survival Tips

Tip #3: Enough is Enough.

It’s Wednesday of Christmas week – that week after the big event that multitudes spent weeks, months, even the whole year shopping and planning for.  And this year, we have Hanukkah added to the mix! Next on the list is New Year’s Eve, then it’s finally back to our regular lives and regular healthy eating habits – or at least our efforts to instill them.

Because we believe in enjoying food and eating all the time, not just going for it when special events roll around, this post isn’t about how to go back to spartan menus that really don’t entice us.  But it is a note about putting closure on holiday eating.  If we’re normal healthy eaters, this just happens naturally.  We have our fill of richer holiday foods and then just stop eating them in any great amounts.  We grow tired of such foods, and our bodies guide us back to more of a balanced menu that makes us feel well.  If holiday foods are still sitting around, we may have another bite now and then, but for the most part, we aren’t that interested in much more at this time.

Those of us who are re-learning how to eat normally may not be at the point where we can confidently eat like that yet.  We’re still working on listening to our bodies, and trusting what they’re telling us.  Often we’re still working on learning how to eat certain foods in moderation (translated: foods that are usually forbidden on diets).  And that means we may find ourselves overly challenged by continuing to have such foods around in large quantities. 

One strategy that can help is to clear our pantry and refrigerator shelves of foods we don’t want to continue eating regularly.  Note that this is different than “putting the ‘bad’ foods out of sight so we won’t be tempted.”  That’s diet thinking.  Instead, we’re choosing to remove foods we don’t want to eat a lot of, so we won’t have to continually stop and think about whether we really want the foods or not.  But remember, if this idea leaves you feeling deprived even now when there’s still such food sitting on your shelves, then it may not be the strategy for you. 

So if you don’t run through all your holiday stash by New Year’s, think about giving it away.  I like to give party/holiday leftovers to a local teen shelter.  It may take a bit of work to find places to give your extra food, but in a very short session on Google, I found a San Francisco food help organization that’s a model for the type of place that may be able to help you discover where to share your bounty.  It’s worth the search because we can find ourselves in this situation plenty of times during the year, not just the holidays. 

Have a great New Year!

Green Mountain at Fox Run

Un centre d'amincissement exclusivement réservé aux femmes et respectueux de leur santé
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Tags: healthy eating , holiday survival , holiday eating , normal eating

Holiday Survival Tips

Tip #2 - Saying “No” Graciously

Women are notorious for never saying “no,” especially to those things that are the most detrimental to their own peace. I’m not talking about the “fellers” that Ado Annie in Oklahoma “Cain’t say no” to. I mean the teeth gritting “okay” that we’ve all handed out in the interest of “keeping the peace.”

This holiday don’t say “yes” when you feel like saying “no.” Family and friends won’t stop liking you because you enforce a boundary. So when Uncle Festus states, “you don’t mind if I light this up” as the struck match is on its way to the smelliest stogy imaginable, simply say, “yes, I do mind your lighting that up in the house – you can smoke in the garage or outside.” Smile and move on – don’t get caught up in righteous indignation – after all, you’ve just solved the problem!

Here’s an article that describes the power of saying “no” - it does take some practice to get it right!

Green Mountain at Fox Run

Un centre d'amincissement exclusivement réservé aux femmes et respectueux de leur santé
amincissement - maigrir - perdre du poids – santé - bien-être et respectueux de leur santé,rondeurs,surcharge perte pondérale,aigrir,estime de soi,remise en forme,être bien dans sa peau,maigrir sainement,cure pondérale (Contrex),vitalité,diminution de l'apport calorique,déficit énergétique,diète hypocalorique

Tags: Holiday Tips , Setting Boundaries , Saying No , Ado Annie .

Holiday Survival Tips

Tip #1: Give Yourself Some Slack

Enjoy the holiday season for what it really is – a special time when we celebrate the season with those ww love.  We all have the tendency to ‘over do’.  Whether that means over-indulgence in food or too much focus on getting your workouts in.  A couple missed workouts, a piece of pecan pie, or a toast made with champagne never made anyone fat!

For more tips, check out this article by Jennifer Schumm, Fitness Consultant for WomenOF.com

Tags: holiday celebration , over-indulgence , weight loss , fitness .

Green Mountain at Fox Run

Un centre d'amincissement exclusivement réservé aux femmes et respectueux de leur santé
amincissement - maigrir - perdre du poids – santé - bien-être et respectueux de leur santé,rondeurs,surcharge perte pondérale,aigrir,estime de soi,remise en forme,être bien dans sa peau,maigrir sainement,cure pondérale (Contrex),vitalité,diminution de l'apport calorique,déficit énergétique,diète hypocalorique

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Best of the season to all our loyal readers. We wish you the merriest of days and hope to see you back here very soon. 

We will be posting next week, offering you some of our favorite Holiday Survival Tips, so stop on by and say hello! 

Green Mountain at Fox Run

Un centre d'amincissement exclusivement réservé aux femmes et respectueux de leur santé
amincissement - maigrir - perdre du poids – santé - bien-être et respectueux de leur santé,rondeurs,surcharge perte pondérale,aigrir,estime de soi,remise en forme,être bien dans sa peau,maigrir sainement,cure pondérale (Contrex),vitalité,diminution de l'apport calorique,déficit énergétique,diète hypocalorique

Raspberry Cheesecake

If you enjoyed this recipe, come and enjoy our complete collection of healthy eating recipes.

Tags: healthy recipes, healthy eating, recipes, recipes for living.

It seems this time of year we are always too busy to do all the things we want to do. Here is an idea for an impressive dessert that doesn’t have to take much time. Start with a small frozen plain 8-inch cheese cake and add your own Raspberry Glaze. It will be beautiful and delicious. Or if you want to make the cheese cake too, check out our recipe for White Chocolate Raspberry Cheese Cake (a Green Mountain favorite) and instead of putting the raspberries on the bottom, put them on the top, adding the glaze.

Either way, these cheesecakes do not have any special lowfat ingredients—the key to healthy eating is in the portion size. They are so tasty you won’t need a very big piece to feel satisfied.

Raspberry Glazed Cheese Cake
(8-10 servings)
1 8-inch plain frozen cheese cake
Raspberry glaze (recipe below)

Raspberry Glaze
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
2 tablespoons Framboise (raspberry liquor)
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 (6 ounce) container fresh raspberries

In a small sauce pan combine pomegranate juice and Framboise. Sprinkle gelatin over cold mixture.

Bring mixture to a boil; remove from heat and and cool until syrupy. Arrange fresh raspberries on top of the cheesecake and spoon glaze over. Refrigerate until gelatin has set. Serve.

Intuitive Eating, Common Sense & New Year’s Resolutions

It’s not that I need any convincing that intuitive eating (otherwise known as mindful eating) is the only real answer to food struggles.  I figured that out a long time ago after countless diets and the accompanying eating disorder they triggered in me.  But I thought this recent study about the mistakes in medical research underscored the wisdom of listening to our bodies rather than the latest advice about how best to feed ourselves.  It seems that a recent medical study showed that one-third of medical studies are flawed and the resulting advice is obviously off-target.

Okay, the smart *@!# among us will ask whether this study is flawed!  Still, it bears consideration.  After all, how many of us have decried the seemingly constant changes in nutrition advice?  Because of such changes, I’ve always encouraged folks to stick with the healthy eating basics to develop a lasting and supportive eating style. 

So if anyone is starting to think about New Year’s Resolutions that involve changing what you eat, I’d encourage you to first consult your common sense.  We all probably know a lot more about what’s best for us than we give ourselves credit for.  And if we think we don’t know, then it’s time to slow down and start listening.  A little guidance, like the Plate Model for Healthy Eating, can be helpful if we’re really confused.  All it really does is help us feed ourselves in a way that supports the functioning of our internal guidance system for eating.  Once we get that down, and begin to manage emotional eating situations, we can find that we eat pretty well, and the vagaries of nutrition research don’t have that much of an effect on what we eat until they have a good track record for validity.  And even then, I’ve found that the advice that lasts doesn’t stray that far from the tried and true basics.

Tags: mindful eating , intuitive eating , healthy eating , New Years Resolutions

Green Mountain at Fox Run - un centre d'amincissement exclusivement réservé aux femmes et respectueux de leur santé
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The Food Time Machine

I started to think about food in an anthropological way -- through the ages, across the world, in every culture, after all - everybody eats.

From the Eskimo diet of meat, blubber and no vegetables or grains, to Maasai that eat mostly blood and milk, to the European emphasis on intense flavor, presentation, and slow food, it’s amazing to think how the backdrop of the cultural mentality of a people as well as their surroundings influence what is “good.”

I do note though that it seems impossible to imagine any of the cultures and peoples throughout time being as obsessed with food as present day Americans.

Here we are, obsessed with food while surrounded by it, consumed with the idea of the “right” foods that we’re almost afraid to eat, yet see and consume larger and larger portions (can you imagine your grandparents downing a 48 ounce soda?), utterly obsessed with “healthy eating” all while consuming the most processed, convenience, and food substitutes.

While I can offer no credentials as a PhD in “foodology” or the history of food, it does seem to me that the one difference between present day Americans and every other culture and time is the idea of dieting, accompanied by body dissatisfaction.

Here are some quotes about food and eating that I found thought provoking – as well as the diversity of those that have opinions about it.

Good holidays and blessings to one and all – like the instructions say on the Lean Cuisine, “Open and Enjoy!”

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.  ~Lewis Grizzard

It's bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children's health than the pediatrician.  ~Meryl Streep

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.  ~Edward Stanley

Where ever flaxseeds become a regular food item among the people, there will be better health.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

A nickel's worth of goulash beats a five dollar can of vitamines.  ~Martin H. Fischer

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.  ~Marcus Valerius Martial

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.  ~Paul Dudley White, Cardiologist (1886 -1973)

This special feeling towards fruit, its glory and abundance, is I would say universal.... We respond to strawberry fields or cherry orchards with a delight that a cabbage patch or even an elegant vegetable garden cannot provoke.  ~Jane Grigson

Soup and fish explain half the emotions of human life.  ~Sydney Smith

Every man is the builder of a Temple called his body, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead.  ~Henry David Thoreau

After dinner sit a while, and after supper walk a mile.  ~English Saying

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.  ~Voltaire

Positive health requires a knowledge of man's primary constitution and of the powers of various foods, both those natural to them and those resulting from human skill.  But eating alone is not enough for health.  There must also be exercise, of which the effects must likewise be known.  The combination of these two things makes regimen, when proper attention is given to the season of the year, the changes of the wind, the age of the individual, and the situation of his home.  If there is any deficiency in food or exercise, the body will fall sick.  ~Hippocrates

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.  ~Plato

A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs.  ~Joan Welsh

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Green Mountain at Fox Run - un centre d'amincissement exclusivement réservé aux femmes et respectueux de leur santé
amincissement - maigrir - perdre du poids – santé - bien-être et respectueux de leur santé
amincissement,maigrir,perdre du poids,santé,bien-être,surpoids,rondeurs,surcharge pondérale,amincissement,traitement de l'obésité,minceur,perte de poids ,perdre du poids

Food Labels in Canada Toughest of All

I posted a while back on the top of food labeling (October 26, 2005 - 'Will McDonald's Finally Beat The McWrap'?), and it now looks like Canada might be paving the way for even stricter food labeling requirements for all food companies. 

In fact, Canada now has the strictest labeling requirements in the world. December was the deadline for companies in Canada selling packaged food (whose earnings exceed $1 million dollars), to make the required changes on their labels.  Smaller companies have until ’07.  What they’ve said about low carb labeling I find particularly interesting – and insightful.  Apparently, Canadians aren’t buying this notion that carbs are bad - for lack of proof, and have put an immediate stop to this type of marketing.

Products won't be able to trumpet themselves as "low carb" or "no carb." Health Canada says there's no scientific evidence that carbohydrates are a dietary problem. "Statements about the presence or absence of carbohydrates, including the use of brand names and trademarks, are subject to these regulations," Health Canada warns in a letter to the food industry.

The lesson here, if there is one, might be thinking twice before we jump on board the next nutritional band wagon and there will be one.  The recent low carb epidemic serves to remind we should always bow to our own good sense.

Educating ourselves about nutrition, good eating and health is our responsibility.  Handing off our good judgment to a billion dollar marketing campaign, might be a mistake.  With just a little help from our government, we should be able to get reliable information about the food we’re eating - because don't we have a right to know what we’re buying and putting in out bodies?  Not to get crazy about it, but so we can educate ourselves and then relax and simply enjoy our food!

For more on Canadian labeling guidelines check out this article on CBC News In Depth’.

Tags: healthy eating , dieting , Health Canada , nutrition labeling .

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