The eating a variety of fruit and veggies challenge

My daughter mentioned that in a church lesson today the teacher inquired what everyone's favorite fruits were. She was surprised that the majority of ladies said strawberries. She wondered how many of them regularly tried the wide variety of delicious fruits. (BTW her and my favorite fruit is pomegranate) 

If you have ever read any of the blogs or books that tout various super foods you are aware of the power pack of nutrients contained in fruits and vegetables. Yet so many of us eat the same foods day in and day out. And in making these same food choices we also partake of the same nutrients. It's time to step outside our habits and take part in a wider variety of delicious fruits and vegetables. 

I have written before about a surprising experience I had when I prepared an evening snack for some teenagers that came to our home for a church meeting. The usual refreshments for these youth activities was store bought cake and cookies. But I wanted to serve them some healthier fare. I served warm artisan whole wheat bread with honey butter (bought at Costco I just re-heated), sliced oranges and assorted veggies served in a cup with hummus. I couldn’t believe my ears when one of the girls asked what a slice of raw red bell pepper was and another exclaimed she had never before seen a snow pea pod.

Yet in my own family I have a nephew that when we reunited after a year apart shared that the last salad he had eaten was when he saw me last. ARRGGHHH! 

I know that on this challenge you have been eating fresh fruits and vegetables. But are you in a rut of always eating romaine in your salads, and always eating apples or oranges for your fruit? 

In a recent study Georgia State University nutrition students challenged fellow students to a “nutrition fear factor” test to encourage them to try new foods.

Alexandra Friel, one of the organizers, said, “Everyone has seen the ‘Fear Factor’ television show, and we all tend to think we are a little braver than we really are. We wanted to put Georgia State students to the test.”

So, she headed to DeKalb Farmers Market (which BTW was my favorite place to shop when I lived in Atlanta) with fellow student Rebecca Sterns to select food for the taste test. They choose some that might be familiar, such as kiwi, fresh coconut and raw mushrooms, and some that many students had never seen, let alone tasted. Jackfruit, star fruit, pomegranate and durian were on the menu, as well as baba ghanouj — an eggplant dish.

The results? “Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience of tasting different foods that were interesting and healthy to eat,” said student Lauren Sieber. “The most interesting was the durian. It is by far the worst-smelling fruit in the world, but once you get past the smell, it tastes pretty good.”

Listed below are five foods that you may not have tried and they are just a small sampling of the wonderful variety we can choose from in our diet

• Plantains: A staple of Latin American cuisine, they look like large bananas, but are really a starch vegetable rich in potassium and vitamin C. Try the ripe ones (they will look almost black) for your test. Slice it, sauté with a little butter or margarine and a pinch of brown sugar and salt for side dish or dessert.

• Broccoli rabe: This vegetable, popular in Italy, is also called rapini and has slender stalks with broccoli-like flower buds. It can be bitter, so blanch it, toss with balsamic vinaigrette and serve it as a side dish. It is also good in salads or soups.

• Fresh or Dried figs: If you like Fig Newtons, try a dried fig instead: moist, chewy and flavorful, a perfect snack. There are many varieties. The Southern California Mission fig is one of the most popular. (Note this is one of my favorite snacks when I am craving sweets. Honestly the plain dried fig is as yummy as a fig newton. I buy them at Costco. I also use these to sweeten my green smoothies)

• Carambola: It’s used in Southeast Asia and is also called star fruit because when sliced each piece looks like a star. Choose a sweet variety, like Arkin. Look for one that is shiny and firm to the touch. Kids will like how it looks, and moms will like the extra fiber and vitamins A and C that it delivers.

• Eggplant: If you like hummus, try something new, like baba ghanouj served with pita wedges or flatbread. This Middle Eastern dish is used as a spread or a dip. My neighbor made it for me once and it was so delicious I literally licked the plate. 

YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK IS, EACH DAY EAT A FRUIT OR VEGETABLE THAT YOU DO NOT NORMALLY EAT (to figure out if you “normally eat it” all foods that you have eaten within the last month cannot be used for this challenge. So each day you should be trying a new fruit or vegetable that you have not eaten in the last month nor during this week of the challenge) For every day that you try a new fruit or vegetable this week you earn the 5 bonus points.

Here’s a recipe that might be fun to try and please feel free to share any recipes on the blog that you have found for our more unusual fruits and veggies!

Baba Ghanouj 
Makes 2 cups or 8 (1/4-cup) servings

Hands on: 30 minutes 
Total time: 90 minutes

2 pounds eggplant,
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice,
1 small garlic clove minced,
 2 tablespoons tahini paste (sesame seed paste),
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, 
2 teaspoons chopped parsley

Grill the eggplant over a hot fire or under the broiler until the skin darkens and wrinkles on all sides, about 15 to 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes. The eggplant should be uniformly soft when pressed with tongs. Transfer to a baking sheet and cool for 5 minutes.

Set a small colander over a bowl or in the sink. Trim the top and bottom off each eggplant. Slit the eggplants lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop the hot pulp from the skins and place the pulp in the colander. You should have about 2 cups of packed pulp. Discard the skins. Let the pulp drain for 3 minutes.

Transfer pulp to a food processor bowl and add lemon juice, garlic, tahini, 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Process until the mixture has a coarse, choppy texture, about 8 one-second pulses. Transfer to a serving dish, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until lightly chilled, about 45 to 60 minutes.

To serve, use a spoon to make a trough in the center of the dip and spoon in a teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with parsley.

— From “Perfect Vegetables From the Editors of Cook’s Illustrated” 

Per serving: 50 calories (percent of calories from fat, 72), 1 gram protein, 3 grams carbohydrates, 1 grams fiber, 4 grams fat (less than 1 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 2 milligrams sodium.

Nutritional bonus points: Don’t let the 72 percent of calories from fat scare you. This is a low-fat, low-calorie dip, and the small amount of fat comes from heart-healthy fats in the olive oil and tahini.

H20

Beautiful, sparkling, clean, water 

Hoorah got it figured out! We are going back to basics this week by focusing on drinking water. I realize that drinking 48 ounces of water is part of our regular required daily points. But I worry some of you are “guessing” you probably drank enough and perhaps not looking strictly at this requirement. 

There are plenty of reasons to drink water. (Most of the info for this challenge comes from Web MD) In fact, drinking water (either plain or in the form of other fluids or foods) is essential to your health.

"Think of water as a nutrient your body needs that is present in liquids, plain water, and foods. All of these are essential daily to replace the large amounts of water lost each day," says Joan Koelemay, RD, dietitian for the Beverage Institute, an industry group.

Nephrologist Steven Guest, MD, agrees: "Fluid losses occur continuously, from skin evaporation, breathing, urine, and stool, and these losses must be replaced daily for good health," he says.

When your water intake does not equal your output, you can become dehydrated. Fluid losses are accentuated in warmer and or dryer  climates, during strenuous exercise, in high altitudes, and in older adults, whose sense of thirst may not be as sharp.

Here are six reasons to make sure you're drinking enough water or other fluids every day:

1. Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids. Your body is composed of about 60% water. The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature. "Through the posterior pituitary gland, your braincommunicates with your kidneys and tells it how much water to excrete as urine or hold onto for reserves," says Guest, who is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Stanford University.

When you're low on fluids, the brain triggers the body's thirst mechanism. You should listen to those cues and get yourself a drink of water, juice, milk, coffee -- anything but alcohol.

3. Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that don't maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytesshrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. "When muscle cells don't have adequate fluids, they don't work as well and performance can suffer," says Guest. Drinking enough fluids is important when exercising. Follow the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for fluid intake before and during physical activity. These guidelines recommend that people drink about 17 ounces of fluid about two hours before exercise. During exercise, they recommend that people start drinking fluids early, and drink them at regular intervals to replace fluids lost by sweating.

4. Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good. Your skin contains plenty of water, and functions as a protective barrier to prevent excess fluid loss. But don't expect over-hydration to erase wrinkles or fine lines, says Atlanta dermatologist Kenneth Ellner, MD.

"Dehydration makes your skin look more dry and wrinkled, which can be improved with proper hydration," he says. "But once you are adequately hydrated, the kidneys take over and excrete excess fluids." You can also help "lock" moisture into your skin by using moisturizer, which creates a physical barrier to keep moisture in.

5. Water Helps Your Kidneys. Body fluids transport waste products in and out of cells. The main toxin in the body is blood urea nitrogen, a water-soluble waste that is able to pass through the kidneys to be excreted in the urine, explains Guest. "Your kidneys do an amazing job of cleansing and ridding your body of toxins as long as your intake of fluids is adequate," he says. When you're getting enough fluids, urine flows freely, is light in color and free of odor. When your body is not getting enough fluids, urine concentration, color, and odor increases because the kidneys trap extra fluid for bodily functions.

If you chronically drink too little, you may be at higher risk for kidney stones, especially in warm climates.

6. Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function. Adequate hydration keeps things flowing along your gastrointestinal tract and prevents constipation. When you don't get enough fluid, the colon pulls water from stools to maintain hydration -- and the result is constipation. Adequate fluid and fiber is the perfect combination, because the fluid pumps up the fiber and acts like a broom to keep your bowel functioning properly.”

5 Tips to Help You Drink More

If you think you need to be drinking more, here are some tips to increase your fluid intake and reap the benefits of water:

1.  Have a beverage with every snack and meal.

2.  Choose beverages you enjoy; you're likely to drink more liquids if you like the way they taste.

3.  Eat more fruits and vegetables. Their high water content will add to your hydration. About 20% of our fluid intake comes from foods.

4.  Keep a bottle of water with you in your car, at your desk, or in your bag.

So what is your challenge? Our regular water requirement on the healthy living challenge is 48 ounces per day. Many experts recommend ½ ounce for every pound of body weight. You choose a challenging amount of water to drink each day this week and plan a way to MEASURE YOUR WATER to make sure you meet your goal.

I recommend the Takeya water bottles on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071K1DMPW/ref=twister_B07PZ8RR8P?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 They will stay ice cold for hours and hours. In some areas Costco sells similar metal bottles that are amazing! Get in the habit of carrying water with you and flood your body with it’s goodness.

Stand tall like the lady you are

My youngest daughter had her first child last April. This is my same daughter that is a dietician and an amazingly healthy eater. Between her good habits and exclusively breast feeding all of her pre-pregnancy pounds have melted away. But while she is back to her ideal body weight she has been a little unhappy with her pouchy abdomen. 

As she researched her problem she found some advice that has been working amazingly well- "Try to use good posture ALL day". So every time she thinks of it she engages her core muscles, pulls her shoulders down and back and expands her chest. Then she tries to hold that as she goes about her day's chores. She especially focuses on keeping her core engaged. She shares that from the first day she began working on this she notices in bed at night that her abs ache like she has been to a work out class. All of this benefit just from engaging her core and performing her tasks with ideal posture. 

When I was a child I can remember hearing that princesses had beautiful posture. I spent more than one afternoon walking around trying to balance a book on my head so that I too could walk like a princess.

You may be thinking what does good posture have to do with healthy living.

Why Have A Good Posture?

There are 5 key benefits from maintaining a good posture.

1              Facilitates breathing: A good posture naturally enables you to breathe properly. This is why yoga, pilates and meditation exercises pay so much attention to getting your posture and positioning correct.

2            Increases concentration and thinking ability: When you are breathing properly, you increase your thinking ability too. Our brain requires 20% of oxygen to do its job properly. More air, more oxygen. More oxygen, more brain food. More brain food leads to better thoughts and ideas.

3            Improve your image: People with good posture look smarter, younger and more attractive. Have you ever seen someone with a bad posture and felt the person seemed unkempt, even though the person has not said or done anything yet? On the flip side, someone with a good posture naturally exudes an aura of assertiveness and appeal.

4            Feel even better about yourself:When you have a good posture, it helps to make you feel more self-confident, without even doing anything else different. Try sitting in a bad posture for 30 seconds. Now, switch to a good posture for 30 seconds as well. Is there any difference in how you felt?

5    Avoid health complications: Bad posture can result in several complications over time, such as increased risks of slipped disc, back aches, back pain, pressure inside your chest, poor blood circulation etc. 

How To Improve Your Posture

Here are some tips which can improve your posture and keep it that way. 

1 Identify your key motivation for having a good posture: Why do you want to improve your posture? Is it to improve your breathing? To boost others’ perception of you? To feel more confident about yourself? To avoid health problems? Be clear on your underlying desire so you can remind yourself of it whenever you feel lazy about your posture.

2            Pretend your body is held by a string: This is an analogy shared by my yoga teaching friend and I find it very helpful. It might sound weird, but it’s pretty effective. Pretend that your spine and head are held up by a string suspended from the ceiling. Make sure that your shoulders are relaxed and not hunched up. It can be tempting to tense other parts of your body when trying to keep correct posture. But imagining you are hanging from a string tends to help you focus on keeping your back properly aligned and loosening your other muscles.

3            Set a reminder to check in on your posture: Many of us may have the intention to keep a good posture, but we usually forget about it after 5 minutes! A reminder in the form of a post-it note, item in your calendar, alarm, etc. can definitely help. The frequency is up to you, from once a day to as frequent as every 15 minutes. With sufficient reminders, you will start kicking into a good posture naturally soon.

4            Eliminate bad habits that cultivate bad postures: This includes watching TV/reading while slumped down, working under dim light (which results in slouching), walking in a slouchy way with your stomach muscles slack. 

5    Get a good quality chair: A good chair will be one that has a sufficiently firm and dense cushion with back support.

6            Ground both your feet when standing or sitting. This means having both feet planted flat on the floor and not resting your weight on a particular foot, which is a very common habit. While sitting, try not to cross your legs. This helps to keep the upper part of our body straight.

7     Avoid carrying heavy items: Just the act of carrying heavy items can be bad for our shoulders and back.  Instead of straining your back by carrying in several sacks of groceries at once practice good posture and make an extra trip or two. The extra steps are a fitness bonus! 

8            Engage in exercises which strengthen your back: These include pilates, yoga, exercise balls and simple stretching. Strengthening your core includes your back muscles so add core exercises to your daily regime. 

9            Get a professional assessment: If you have an extremely bad posture and a history of back injuries or backaches, it will be good to visit a chiropractor or physical therapist for a professional assessment. He/she can advise you on how to better take care of your back.

You guessed it ladies to earn the 5 bonus points per day for a total of 35 for the week you must make a plan to work on your posture in some way every day! Good luck!

Mindful Eating

Weekly Challenge- EAT MINDFULLY 

Sometimes I pick the weekly challenge according to what I need and this is one of those weeks. I kid people that because my dad was a fireman and never knew when the alarm bell would ring I was raised to eat fast. Honestly I can count on one hand the times in my entire life when I wasn't the first one done eating. And I know that my rapid eating is a part of my overall problem with over eating. I was reading in the Harvard Health Letter this morning and much of what I will share comes from their essay on mindful eating. 

Imagine you're at your computer, facing a wall of e-mails. After composing a reply, you hit "send" and reach for the tuna wrap on your desk. After a few bites, chewing while glancing at the screen, you set the wrap down, grab a handful of chips, and open the next message. Before you know it, you've finished lunch without even noticing it.

A small yet growing body of research suggests that a slower, more thoughtful way of eating could help with weight problems and maybe steer some people away from processed food and other less-healthful choices.

This alternative approach has been dubbed "mindful eating." It's based on the concept of mindfulness, which involves being fully aware of what is happening within and around you at the moment. In other areas, mindfulness techniques have been proposed as a way to relieve stress and alleviate problems like high blood pressure and chronic gastrointestinal difficulties.

Applied to eating, mindfulness includes noticing the colors, smells, flavors, and textures of your food; chewing slowly; getting rid of distractions like TV or reading; and learning to cope with guilt and anxiety about food. 

The mind–gut connection

Digestion involves a complex series of hormonal signals between the gut and the nervous system, and it seems to take about 20 minutes for the brain to register satiety (fullness). If someone eats too quickly, satiety may occur after overeating instead of putting a stop to it.There's also reason to believe that eating while we're distracted by activities like driving or typing may slow down or stop digestion in a manner similar to how the "fight or flight" response does. And if we're not digesting well, we may be missing out on the full nutritive value of some of the food we're consuming.

My daughter (a clinical dietitian) highly recommends the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Worksby Evelyn Tribole. 

A starter kit Experts suggest starting gradually with mindful eating, eating one meal a day or week in a slower, more attentive manner.Here are some tips (and tricks) that may help you get started: 1. Sit at the table to eat your meal 2. Before you begin eating look at and smell your food2. Set the fork or spoon down between bites3. Close your eyes and savor4. Focus on fully tasting your food5. SLOW down (Set your kitchen timer for 20 minutes)6. Chew more (about 25 times)7. Abstain from screens or reading 8. Don't eat straight from the packaging. Use a pretty plate. 9. Eat with your non-dominant hand10. Eat silently for five minutes, thinking about what it took to produce that meal, from the sun's rays to the farmer to the grocer to the cook.  10. Listen to yourself Chew (read on!)  ·      According to a new study from researchers at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management, listening to yourself chew may be useful for losing weight. Based on the idea that we often overlook noise (an important sensory cue that researchers have dubbed "the forgotten food sense") when we eat, the researchers conducted a series of experiments to see how sound impacts what we consume.

In one trial, they had two groups of people snack on pretzels—one group wore headphones blasting loud music while the other listened to quiet music. They found that people ate more when music disguised the sounds of their chewing.

And the effects went even further in another experiment: When people were instructed to simply imagine chewing sounds while they ate, they consumed less overall. According to the researchers, paying attention to what you're chewing by actually listening to it clues you in to exactly how much you're eating. You eat less when you have this added layer of mindfulness that includes noise.

So what does this mean for mealtime? Take out the ear buds, turn down the cooking music, and stop noshing in front of the TV. When you cut out those outside auditory distractions, you allow yourself to pay attention to your meal—smacking lips and all.

So your challenge for the week is to choose one meal per day and take some steps to eat your meal with more focus and mindfulness. Enjoy your meals ladies!